In Tom Huizenga’s article, “Who Says Classical Music Can’t Be Sexy?” on NPR, the journalist poses a very good question.  As we started to discuss in class last week, there have always been ongoing debates about what musical genre holds more value – instrumental or vocal works.  Part of that debate is the quantity of meaning that an instrumental versus a vocal work can possess.  If there are no lyrics attached to a piece of music, who’s to say what the piece is really trying to capture or what the composer is looking for the listener to take.  Then again, even when words are attached to a piece of music or by themselves for that matter, as in poetry, what one individual gathers from the work may be completely different from what another individual interprets.

Huizenga argues that instrumental music can indeed possess meaning and quite a bit of sexual meaning at that.  He cites two works within the brief article and then goes on to list five other works which he provides musical excerpts from and descriptions.  Chopin and Wagner make Huizenga’s list, as well Palestrina, Strauss, Scriabin, Schulhoff and Ades.

I chose to take a closer listen to the Scriabin piece, “Le Poème de l’extase” or, Poem of Ecstasy.  While Alexander Scriabin was a composer of music, he was also a composer of words.  Huizenga tells us that this 20-minute piece is actually “based on one of Scriabin’s own poems, which speaks of a ‘thirst for life’ and surrendering to the ‘bliss of love.’”  This initially reminded of when the poet and playwright, Gerstenberg added text from Hamlet’s “To Be or Not to Be” monologue to CPE Bach’s Fantasy, written in 1753.  However, this is different in a couple of ways.  First off, the music was written in response to the Poem of Ecstasy, whereas the words came after with Gerstenberg and Bach.  Also, in the case of Scriabin, both the words and the music belong to him so it can be argued that there is more truth or accurate meaning behind the sexual nature of the music.

For the greatest impact, Huizenga decided to present the readers with a six-and-a-half minute excerpt from the 20-minute piece, that he argues displays “the very act of lovemaking, cresting in a blazing climax of eight horns, pipe organ, bells, harp and trills high up in the winds.”  The word “climax” was certainly chosen consciously and while I can hear that interpretation quite easily after I read the author’s description, I’m not sure if that’s the first image or act that to which I would have related it.  Since Classical scores are used so frequently in films, I often find myself imagining movie scenes when I hear orchestras playing momentous music such as this Scriabin example.  The first thing that came to mind was some sort of suspense involved with witchcraft (kind of weird) which isn’t enough to go off of to choose characters and pick a set design but that’s what popped into my head.  However if I try to listen with the ears of Huizenga, an old black-and-white film comes to mind first.

For reference, here is Tom Huizenga’s article: http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/02/10/146687324/who-says-classical-music-cant-be-sexy