People often ask what it
means to be a "goth". In this day and age it can mean almost anything
to anyone. It seems like the only constant in the myriad of definitions is some
connection to black clothing. But the root of the meaning comes from the
Germanic tribes, the Goths, who used to wonder across Europe hundreds of years
ago. Thus the term originally evolved from a means of qualifying something as
barbaric or uncultured. People often use the term to describe architecture, in
connection with the dark, oft cited "crude" buildings that were
scorned by the Rennaissance set. This is in direct opposition to what many of
us feel the real essence of being "gothic" is. For most it suggests a
deep love of powerful, often dark emotions that are easily expressed through
art. It seems to be apparent that souls that gravitate towards the gothic
lifestyle have a deeper feeling for emotion than the average person, a kind of
hyper-sensitivity. Often these feelings stem from a perceptio! n of being an
outsider, someone who doesn't fit in, someone who is misundertood, someone that
is different on the inside than they are on the outside, someone who is
intricately complex yet quietly withdrawn and socially mute. There pervades a
sense of sadness, a sense of depression in the gothic psyche and the therapy
that is undertaken in the name of self-exploration and understanding often
produces stunningly beautiful results. The clothing, paintings, music and
writings of gothic experience are, despite being considered dark and morbid,
infallibly flamboyant and wonderfully creative. It is this penchant for the
extreme, the bizarre and the beautiful that fuels the minds of individuals that
purvey gothic art.
When we search for an explanation to our emotions, we are often greeted by
examples of others undergoing the same inner struggle. Misery loves company and
it is true that we feel much better when we can identify our powerful
sensitivities with others. When we find something that speaks to us, something
that helps us make sense of our own confused world, we immediately latch onto
it and identify with it as our own. Some of the most lasting and relevant of
these emotional anchors are melodies. We all know how a certain song or melody
can bring back stomach churning feelings from a time in our past. Many of us
have songs that we can't bare to listen to because we so fully identify it with
an experience and time period. Sound may be the single most powerful stimulus
for the most repressed depths of our brain. Advertisers know this. The most
common ad gimmick is the jingle, that catchy melody that identifies a product.
By Menen. It's three notes and we all know them perfectly. But advertisers also
know that there are certain melodies that have existed for hundreds of years,
that are so powerful that they are a mainstay in the global culture as a whole.
We hear them everyday. Ba-ba-ba-baaaa. Beethoven's fifth. There possibly isn't
a person alive in the Western world today above the age of three that doesn't
know that melody. Go out on the street for a few hours and try to find someone
who has never heard it, it will be quite amazing how almost impossible it is
(plus it's fun running around Yonge St. going "Hey what's this:
Ba-ba-ba-baaaa!").
This kind of music, music that has lasted the test of time and weathered not
only decades, but centuries, is so powerfully emotional and so perfectly
expresses a feeling that it refuses to go away. Some classical music can
absolutely tear at the soul. Even if you have no knowledge of Tchaikovsky, and
you really aren't into classical music, give his Sixth Symphony a chance. Have
a listen. It's hard not to be moved. It is the cry of a tortured soul. If you
really shut everything else out and feel the music you will peer into the life
of a man that suffered in anguish. He was a homosexual in19th century Russia
where being gay was a crime punishable by death. He lived most of his life in
financial turmoil, relying on the handouts of benefactors. He never loved, he
was denied the opportunity to be with the kind of person he wanted, although he
had so much passion and love in his soul. He was the quintessential outsider,
the misunderstood genius; he personified the idea of the dark, troubled artist
whose emotions fuel his massive talent. His music is so heart-wrenching, so
achingly tragic that it is used as the background to almost every love scene on
television and in the movies that we see. You know that music they always play?
The stuff that is in the background when the two lovers run towards each other
across the fields? That's the theme from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet. It
works without fail. Hollywood knows this. It's just way too effective. Some
classical music is so dark and powerful that it is amongst the most disturbing
sound ever committed to paper. So, we think that C-tec or download is pretty
dark and chaotic? Try listening to some of the more far out stuff by Bela
Bartok, Sergei Prokofiev or Arnold Schoenberg. It's so scary that Marilyn
Manson has to put a nite-lite on while listening to it. It's the soundtrack to
Horror movies. In fact, the music to the final scene in Carl Maria Von Weber's
Opera Die Frieschultz, was so devilish and creepy that it inspired the term
"Gothic Horror". People fainted, riots broke out, Fred Durst had
nothing to do with any of it, not even the arson. If we want to hear something
morbid, that probes the depths of the most dark disturbed souls, we should seek
out some of this stuff. It may make you reassess how evil you really are.
It is true that the great composers may be considered amongst the greatest
goths of all time, too. Most of them were extremely misunderstood. They lived
in torment, slaves to their passion and sensibilities. Their depth of emotion
gripped them and urged them to create, to seek their own therapy and exorcise
some of the demons that lay within them. This is what we hear in their music.
Mozart's final, unfinished composition is his Requiem- a death mass. Mozart was
a radical, flamboyant, out-of-control rebel that loathed the shackles clasped
onto him by society. If he was alive today he would probably be yelling at
police from a street car, clad in pvc pants and leather gauntlets. He was
obsessed with his music and had little respect for anything else. His
relentless drive for creation ultimately drove him to his death and, in his
requiem, we can hear the sounds of a man dying in his bed, racing to finish his
opus. Beethoven's final compositions suggest a man half insane with the premise
that he is losing his livelihood, his gift is eroding, his only true love in
life is rotting away. Beethoven also was a very misunderstood man. He was
difficult to get along with. He was fiery and prone to mood swings. He was
often cripplingly depressed and frustrated with the world. He was like a lot of
people along Queen St. W. He wore tons of black lipstick and nail polish (ok,
so this is speculation, but they may have had cosmetics like that in 18th
Century Vienna). Aesthetically, the classical period (and later) lent itself to
a very gothic atmosphere. Everybody was riding around in carriages wearing
clothing that strikingly resembled the front window of Siren and Heretic.
Absinthe was the drink of the 19th century aristocratic artist. Long, flowing
coats and corsetted dresses were the mainstream fashion. People went to
masquerade balls in castles and palaces. The musicians were right in the centre
of all this fashion and extravagance. It molded their images. It made them
mysterious and dark. In fact, it is probably from this time period that the
myth of musicians selling their souls to the devil propagated. Possibly this
was attributable to the church, who were of the opinion that music be used only
to praise God and that improvisation, flamboyance and embellishment were
self-righteous and sinful. They were probably just bitter about guys throwing
thirds into their nice perfect harmonic intervals of fourths and fifths, but
that's for! the theory guys to ponder. It is true, however, that Niccolo
Paganini was generally accepted as being in league with the devil, what with
his long dark hair, flamboyant clothes, virtuostic playing and the fact that
women screamed and fainted at his performances. Evil, dark guys like him used
to hang out at the Sanctuary. They used to smoke cloves. Coincidentally, Clove
cigarettes were being imported by the Dutch East India company from Thailand
for smoking by the trendy, theatre going set. At the exact same time Mozart was
writing his death mass (can we get more gothic?), the Marquis de Sade was
dreaming up stories that would delight the populace of the Reverb on the third
Saturday of the month. Paris was ablaze with stories that Trent Reznor
revisited in his broken videos. Excess and debauchery were everywhere. It was a
fun time (and the girls looked great). This idea of the classical composer as
ultimate goth is shared today by some of the most revered figures in the 21st
century gothic community. Our Black Princes and Dark Queens pay homage to the
men and women that poured out so much of their souls over the past 300 years.
Trent Reznor began as a classical pianist and his song structure and
arrangements follow the formula of some of the greatest classical pieces. He
himself cites many of the great composers as his biggest source of inspiration
(along with Skinny Puppy and Front 242, of course). Ian Curtis loved Chopin.
Ian Astbury has a passion for Opera. The list goes on and on.
What with it's evil, dark characters; its deeply emotive and powerfully
expressive composers; the melodies that have lasted centuries; the agony,
torment and sadness of generations of misunderstood and its testament to the
greatest goth artists of today, classical music stands as one of the most
gothic of all artforms. So, next time you want to go out on the town for an
inextricably "gothic experience" dress in your best velvet shirt and
darkest vinyl pants, wear your corset, take your lover to a dark, moody
restaurant, order lots of red wine, then stagger over to a TSO performance of
something by one of these time tested goth composers- you'll be glad you did,
and you may even have an experience and enjoy emotions that you can revisit
whenever you want, just by dropping a disc into the stereo and pressing
"Play".
Note: send your comments to
the author and tg staff using the form below and they will be posted here. If
you would like to comment only to the author, click on his name above to
email.
an anon person writes:
Classical music expresses music from a wide and varied emotional perspective.
Many classical pianists were infact manic-depressives, which is a horrible
illness, and in no way 'evil', as you call it.
Listening to Pachelbel's Kanon makes your soul want to burst out in tears of
joy and compassion, while Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor instills a morbid
sense of gothic transcendance but at the same time the rigid complexities of
the piece still manage to bring out a nearly overpowering sense of joy.
Thats all it is, is pure genuis. Gothic? What is Gothic, it is defined by you.
The great gothic cathederals themselves are infact no evil and scary, even with
there fine gargoyals, because evil is what you choose to define it as.
They are the most beautiful structures, dedicated to the glory of God, who we
really have no idea about. And is God something gothic people are supposed to
be turned off to, as well? Why is this? Because Christianiy has given God a bad
name, and made many atheists out of well intentioned folk.
No my friends, there could be no God who would let these things go on. Yet the
suffering in this human world, is not caused by God, it is caused by not
accepting God, rather they are creations of the human ego....
Some great sprititual teachers say that was it comical about the atheist saying
he doesn't believe in God, is that it is the God within that lets the atheist
say that.
Anyways, what is Gothic? What is the point in trying to be evil... I like what
you said about emotions though, but it is not something soley owned by a few
individuals. However, it is true I do think that such powerful emotions
riveting through one, of compassion, empathy, or at the other end of the
spectrum, agony and seperation, are truly experienced directly, by few
individuals.
Hopefully through compassion for one another we can aspire to forgive each
other for whatever judgements we hold, because in truth, all judgements are
really self judgements... and with that said, the healing process begins.
Beautiful..(July 3 02)
matt writes: fuck you i just want gothic music!!! i am your consumer!!!
and ill never join anything. (September 11 02)
hag thorn writes: Enjoyed
your article and you must check out Rachmaninoff. (09/04/01)
Elzaryd writes: Hey- Good
article. I liked the development. I see nowhere in there where you claim that
the classical period was sufferring from "Victorian Morals", it seems
to me you made it clear it was pretty loose. Plus, Beethoven was NOT a Romantic
Composer- he was Classical (and who bickers over capitalization anymore?) Plus,
saying Rebel's music is more emotional than Mozart's is pretty bold, seeing as
how subjective emotion is. Anon got more wrong than you did in his criticism,
so don't worry about it, bro! Keep writing- I like your style :) (09/04/01)
Lady Sun writes: Hi Ian, I
haven't even read anon's diatribe in full yet; however, I would like to say or
remind that although it appears the feedback wasn't positive - it does let you
know that your article "inspired" a response and as writer's and
artist's - this is a high achievement. Also, if there is any truth to his
words, no matter how distasteful the delivery of their message already appears
to me, take some time to look at it as a growth opportunity.
I stand my ground and again thank you for the article, even if it wasn't
"technically proficient" (if that was even the case) and I hope to
read more of your words in the future.
Warm regards,
Lady Sun.
(08/31/01)
anon writes: I have no idea where you got your information on Mozart
(probably from watching Amadeus too many times!) The 18th century was NOT a
time of stiffling social conventions. It would only appear such to one who is
not familiar with the era, its literature, its art and its daily life. It was
not until the 1850's that the social climate became crystalized into well
established (more narrow) and constricted modes and social norms of behavior.
Oddly it is this Victorian image of hyper-propriety that comes to the popular
mind when trying to fathom times before c.1920. This is what happens when you
filter history through Goth club denizens.
18th century society allowed for far more liberal and individualistic modes of
self-expression then the Victorian era allowed. What "shackles" was
Mozart supposed rebelling against? The 18th century was extremly loose moraled
even by todays standards. The image of Mozarty as enfant terrible may appeal
but it is without substance. In short you have confused and transposed your
historical perceptions and layered on your desired image onto the template of
history.
The system of patronage that was the bread and butter of any endeavour
undertaken in those days would have been familliar and "normal" to a
person in Mozart's time. It made possible artistic freedom and experimentation
far more then it curtailed it. Also, Mozart, while his audiences for his operas
were from all the classes (this was a time when fist fights would break out
while waiting for tickets) he required "sponsorship" from the
nobility. That he got money from his patrons was less a result of his musical
ability (which was not hyped to its current level unilt more recent times) for
even Mozart had his fair share of "flops" (that are now considered
"masterpieces") but from his ability to move in the circles of the
upper classes. In a city the size of 18th century Vienna, anything along the
lines of "punk rock" behavior (shouting from street cars, etc.) would
have jepordized Mozart's cash flow. Any cheeky behaviour that Mozart may or may
not have got up too was no worse or better then what his betters did. Indeed it
was the upper classes' indiscretions and decadence that Mozart and any other
would-be ladder climber would emulate. The nobility's bad behaviour set the
tone, everbody else followed suit as best they could afford.
Mozart's music is only emotionaly driven (and the product of an
"out-of-control-mind) to a modern ear. The Classical (note the capitol
"C") musical era was the peak refinement of what had started in the
Baroque period (before 1750), where the single overwhelming characterisitc is
ORDER. LOGICAL, COOL, CALCULATED, RATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC, ORDER. Mozart is
renowned because he could make music that fit said mold and do it better then
most of his contemporaries. In the 1720's J.F. Rebel composed a collection of
pieces that told the story of Creation from Chaos to God making the seas and
land and whatnot. It plays far more "emotionaly" then any catchy
little ditty Mozart wrote. Indeed the pieces are arguably decades ahead of
their time. At first listen they seem to not be from the Baroque age of Vivaldi
and Bach at all but from Beethoven's Romantic mold (Beethoven is a Romantic
composer, not a Classical one) What did audiences think? THEY HATED IT!! 18th
century audiences were not receptive to emotional music, it simply wasn't
"in" then. Mozarts music is fine for the Looney Toons and commercial
jingles, but it remains complex, ordered, neat and tidy. Not that pristeen
order can't stir the soul, it is simply not the intent.
Listen to Classical music. Listen to Romantic music. Listen to Baroque music if
you've got the breeding for it but for God's sake don't twist or make up a
historical revision to suit your modern sentiments. And do your bloody
homework! (08/27/01)
darkayngel writes: As much
as I love the last few decades' creations... listening to Chopin, Mozart or a
million other composers i cant spell or pronounce or remember their names... :)
(08/18/01)
Lady Sun writes: Wonderful
article. Riveting. I felt at home, accepted, understood and approved. :)
Classical music & the 19 century has always been a big interest and
influence of mine. I'm trying to understand my goth self better and this helped
me!
Keep writing. I love the way you lead the reader to your goal. (08/16/01)
Sekhmet writes: Wow! I loved
this article. Music, specifically classical, is something that i have dedicated
my life too and it is so wonderful to see someone writing about what i have
always felt.. that classical music is the quintessential goth experience.. its
pure emotion. I would also suggest that anyone into early music check out John
Dowland..i have a feeling he spent much of his time clad in black doublets. :)
(08/06/01)
Morgan writes: Kick ass
article. And I thought I was the only one who thought classical music was
freakier than Manson's stuff. (03/10/02)
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