For this blog I uncovered an article on NPR’s classical music blog “Deceptive Cadence” titled “Jonathan Biss Uncovers a Brahms Blind Spot.” The post, written by Jonathan Biss, covers the concept of “musical blind spots,” or pieces of music we should know but haven’t discovered for ourselves yet. He further talks about the phenomenon of scores and scores of music by various composers in existence, and yet only a few titles make it to the mainstream or what he refers to as “the hit parade.”

The example Biss uses is Brahms vocal Duets, Op. 20, which he had previously never heard and upon hearing, was “blown away.”  So I wanted to compare this relatively unknown piece with one of Brahms more popular pieces, op.49 No.4 “Wiegenlied,” or more famously known as “Brahm’s Lullaby.” My first clue that Biss wasn’t the only one who’s never heard the duets? It took me one Youtube search to find the lullaby. On the other hand, after searching the terms “Brahms vocal Duets, Op. 20,” “brahms vocal duets,” “3 vocal duets, Op. 20”, and not getting a single result, I gave up and went into the Naxos library to find the individual titles of the 3 duets: “Weg der Liebe I and II” and “Die Meere.” I was able to finally find Youtube links for the duets after searching by their individual names – but I think my difficulty in finding these pieces on the most popular video site on the internet is a definite testament to what Biss is saying. To further elaborate my point, the video I found for Brahms Lullaby has over 2.8 million views, and the 2 videos for the duets have a combined 32, 509 views.

Anyway, I digress. I listened to each piece a few times, and I have to say – they are each beautiful in their own way. The only immediately observable difference between them is that the lullaby is purely instrumental and the duets feature piano and vocal accompaniment.

Brahms Lullaby: http://youtu.be/t894eGoymio

Vocal Duets:

• “Weg Der Liebe I & II”: http://youtu.be/ynwHOaOmuM
• “Die Meere”: http://youtu.be/U4111JlyMaE

I know a few things about Brahms. I know that he was a perfectionist and would refuse to publish a piece unless he was completely satisfied with it. So in Brahm’s eyes, both the Lullaby and the vocal duets were satisfactory to his standards, and yet only one made it to “the hit parade.” What I also know about Brahms is that during his time he had a reputation for composing complex musical pieces that usually lasted for more than a few minutes. However, looking back it seems that his most beloved pieces, including the lullaby, are on a much smaller scale in both duration and complexity. So my assumption before hearing the duets were that they weren’t similar to the lullaby in that way – I was expecting a 20-minute harmonically and melodically complicated piece that would chew my ear off by the time I was done. What I got instead were three relatively short and simple duets, with an easy to follow melody and uncomplicated homophonic structure. Additionally, the blend between the piano accompaniment and vocal in the duets is nearly flawless and all three duets move at a pace that makes listening to them incredibly enjoyable. Overall; audience-friendly music.

So I’m with Biss. How does this happen? This is also a topic that has come up in our class conversations over the semester. Both Professor Wilson and Biss bring up Haydn and how our retrieval set of his works is exponentially smaller than what is in his entire repertoire as a composer. Or, consider today’s class on character pieces where we learned that Liszt not only composed for a virtuosic audience but also for an amateur audience. Is it because these composers create a type of brand or trademark for themselves that their most famous works end up being representative of that (ie. Liszt being such an incredible virtuoso)? Or is it more decided by their audiences and the time period during which the piece is published?

This concept doesn’t only apply to centuries old classical music. Think about the contemporary music world. An artist releases a 10 or 12-track album and only 2 or 3 become singles that make it to radio. Unless you’re an avid fan of that artist, the only music you’re exposed to by that artist is what’s been chosen for the mainstream. From my own experience, I’ve bought albums where the majority of the tracks that didn’t make it as singles are my personal favorites. Is a radio station that plays only the Top 40 really that different from textbooks that force-feed us the classical music we “should” be aware of?
To conclude, I don’t think there is a final conclusion on this topic. I believe that this concept is an inescapable aspect of all types and genres of music – there’s always going to be something someone has never heard. However, it does raise the question of whether or not our musical blind spots are causing us to miss out on hidden gems. However, I’m glad Biss brings up the silver lining, that “it’s a nice reminder that there will always be more wonderful music to discover.”