Young People, Taste, and Formation
Give Attention to the Inputs
A project I’ve been enjoying in my listening this week has been working through the different movements of early Jazz music.
I’ve started with some very important pieces from the 1920s in the New Orleans Jazz scene, which set the stage for the various movements of jazz to come. Here are some of those pieces from the playlist I’ve created.
Heebie Jeebies: Louis Armstrong & the Hot Fives
Potato Head Blues: Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven
I Found A New Baby: Sidney Bechet
Dippermouth Blues: King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band
Livery Stably Blues: The Original Dixieland Jazz Band
Stock Yards Strut: Freddie Keppard
And the stunner below, Louis Armstrong with “West End Blues.”
Before we get to a few records, below is a short piece I wrote this week for Theopolis Institute.
"Ours is the first age in history which has asked the child what he would tolerate learning." - Flannery O'Connor
In Total Effect and the Eighth Grade, Flannery O'Connor uses controversies in Georgia schools on the propriety of eighth grade reading material as a starting point to discuss a shift occurring in the instruction of young people.
Schools were moving away from robust literature, especially works containing provocative or violent moments, to those immediately accessible. The tastes of the students were being consulted, rather than led by wise guides.
The Bible calls this impulse into question.
The proverbs were delivered to give prudence to the naive, and to the youth knowledge and discretion (Proverbs 1:4). Indeed, we can say that the entire Bible is given for this purpose, and chiefly to teach us of Christ, our Lord. Naïve, lacking knowledge, needing discretion, these are not insults, but rather an acknowledgement of the youthful frame by God. Yahweh sees young people, loves them, and instructs them.
The trend O’Connor witnessed has come home to roost today with modern youth. If a tech-addicted young person doesn’t want to see what’s on their screen, it’s a swipe away to the next hit of dopamine. We then want all of life to work this way.
Questions abound:
What do I want to read?
What do I want to listen to?
Which movie do I want to watch.
Do I want to be seeing this Tik Tok? No? Swipe.
Life is driven by preferences, impulses, and our fleeting and potentially immature tastes. (Ok, maybe this applies to adults as well.)
O’Connor continues:
“The high school English teacher will be fulfilling his responsibility if he furnishes the student a guided opportunity, through the best writing of the past, to come, in time, to an understanding of the best writing of the present. He will teach literature…And if the student finds that this is not to his taste? Well, that is regrettable. Most regrettable. His taste should not be consulted; it is being formed.”
Formation is a gift. The environment of biblical, liturgical, and cultural reception from wise parents, teachers, and guides is one of gift-giving, not burden-bearing. Our students' tastes, then, should not immediately be consulted, for they are being formed. The Bible doesn't ask about our preferences or textual taste, it shapes them.
Our youth would do well to be trained in a posture of reception. When life and learning are then received as gifts from the Lord, young people will mature and be able to sing with the psalmist:
O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
Psalm 71:17
Records of the Week
Artist: The Tallis Scholars & Peter Phillips
Album: Josquin: Missa Pange lingua & Missa La sol fa re mi
Date of Release: 1986
Genre: Classical & Renaissance Vocal Music
Score: 10/10
Notes:
Josquin des Prez was a Renaissance composer (one of the greatest in history), and a master of polyphonic vocal music. This album is a collection of two vocal masses: Missa Pange Lingua and Missa La sol fa re mi. The Pange Lingua is based on the famous hymn by Thomas Aquinas. Both follow the mass format of:
Kyrie
Gloria
Credo
Sanctus
Benedictus
Agnus Dei
Listening Note: notice how the vocal lines are not merely following one another in parallel 3rds or 5ths. Instead, each vocal part has it’s own unique melody, which sung together makes the pieces swirl and dance together in harmony.
This recording by the Tallis Scholars is spellbinding, doing glorious justice to Josquin’s intricate and inspired polyphony. If you’re not listening to the Tallis Scholars, this is a great one to start with. Trust me, this group will be coming up here at AD over and over again. For me, this recording is so nuanced, careful, beautiful and other-worldly that it’s nearly painful. As my friend Dr. John Ahern likes to say, “this music will unmake and remake your whole world.”
There are many weeks out of the year where Josquin is all I want. This was one of those weeks.
For Parents:Clean
Listen:
Apple Music | Spotify
Artist: Vampire Weekend
Album: Only God Was Above Us
Date of Release: April 5, 2024
Genre: Rock, Pop, Baroque Pop, Alternative
Score: 8.5/10
Notes:
Ezra and the boys are back with another album (their fifth), which is filled to the brim with quirky, fun, and lovely tunes that are hard to ignore.
Cranked guitars, squawking saxophones, dreamy and dancing piano passages, Ezra’s boyish and lovely voice, punchy drums. It’s all here, and it’s great.
Two things to notice:
First - the band layers in musical jokes in several of these tunes. Specifically, they reference their older material in brief moments of musical nostalgia.
An example: Listen to the brief introduction to the drums in the first 20 seconds of “Connect.” Then, go listen to the first 30 seconds of the song “Mansard Roof,” the first song on their debut record from 2008. See what they did there? Musical winks like that appear all over this thing.
Second - something new the band is playing with on this project. There’s something “off” in every single track, adding grit and a general feeling of “what are they going to do next?” A guitar that’s a little too abrasive, a melodic line slightly out of tune, a saxophone that falls apart. For a band like Vampire Weekend, these moves are intentional and add to the unhinged and often playful feeling of the record.
Ezra and the boys keep crafting songs that stay in my head for days on end.
For Parents:
”F*ck” is said twice on the opening track. Skip it when with the youngins.
Otherwise, this record is kid friendly as the lyrical content is slightly cryptic. My young teen loves it.Listen:
Apple Music | Spotify
Artist: Bill Ryder-Jones
Album: Iechyd Da
Date of Release: January 12, 2024
Genre: Singer-Songwriter
Score: 8/10
Notes:
Bill has gifted us a downtrodden, delicate, yet hopeful look at his inner life on his fifth solo record. This project moves between homespun bedroom folk, to massive choral crescendos, to classical instrumental passages effortlessly, which is a sight to behold. If you need a sad-boy album, this is one of the best of 2024.
For Parents:
A couple of profanities (“shit” on track 4 and f*ck on track 6). But, in general, I would consider this adult-only listening as it’s quite introspective, somber, and broken-hearted.Listen:
Apple Music | Spotify
Artist: Floating Points
Album: Cascade
Date of Release: September 13, 2024
Genre: Electronic
Score: 6-7/10
Notes:
Samuel Shepherd (Floating Points) is an electronic music producer from the UK. His 2021 collaboration with Pharoah Sanders was epic, so I was looking forward to seeing what he put together on his latest project.
At first glance, this is a fairly straightforward electronic record. Track after track flows in 4/4 time. But there are details in these layers that keep the project interesting and, at times, thrilling.
Listening Note: This is not an album I would casually throw on and give my full attention to. It would work great in a dance class or during a workout. I intend to give this a few listens while running, as the driving beats work great in that context. I could also see this working while programming or doing certain forms of “deep work” (photo editing, etc).
For Parents:
Clean (instrumental)
From what I can tell, the sole vocal on the 1st track, Vocoder, sounds like a woman saying the phrase “one night stand,” but it’s hard to make out.Listen:
Apple Music | Spotify
