500 words | Jonathan Bailey Holland | social relevancy in music and performance.

As composers, the concept of social relevancy in our music comes up often. For film composers, we are often asked to underscore films that carry social commentary. It seems that art must be created to raise awareness for some social issue, always. at least to me, that is how it feels. Because of these art projects based in social change, often, people like to associate creators with the social extremes of the world. but what does this have to do with Jonathan Bailey Holland? I feel Mr Holland is an eloquent, and beautiful story teller, taking advantage of the music world to make his social commentaries the most effective. 

This takes me to the piece “Synchrony.” While he never labeled it as a social commentary, the subject matter, performance, and mixture of live and recorded audio tells a different story. Sadly, in today’s world many people fear being labeled an “activist” as it is a heavily stigmatized word. Even I, if labeled an activist, would probably push back just a little. Synchrony, as Holland puts it, reflects on his experiences, stating, “I, as an African-American composer of classical music, live this duality every day.” This type of reflection while not aggressively marching outside of a building nor carrying sign and chanting does reach a special crowd. Being labeled as art and performed in concert halls allow his message of duality in race relations, class, morality and emotion to spread to a normally pacifist crowd.

To end the social commentary… commentary, I do feel that as composers we have a special opportunity to raise awareness through mediums that can speak to multiple types of people. His work was a great example of shedding light on important social issues, while giving the consumer space to fully digest the material, and possibly, come away with new perspectives on life.

What I also appreciated from his visit, was learning about his approach to composing tonally. Not all his pieces relied on modal harmony, many of them presented a mix of atonality and tonality that played with the ears. I do not try to hide my slight distaste for atonality, and similarly, many in our class did not try to hide their disrespect for tonal composers. After he finished someone turned to me and said, “well that was the worst speaker yet.” I think my jaw actually hit the floor. Mr Holland was one of my favorite speakers from the last two semesters, and the fact that someone did not appreciate his work was foreign to me. I have to ask myself, is it because he used “uncool tonality” in his writing? Was it because the listener did not agree with his social commentary? Or did they just not like his demeanor?

In conclusion, social activism through art and music is an incredibly powerful tool in the game of influencing social change. We should not be ashamed of our activism. And discovering ways to combine multiple styles of composition opens new worlds of music.  Dallin Burns