And what, I ask you, is wrong with naïve music?

These big-name musicians don’t seem to have any actual knowledge or understanding of the history of aesthetic criticism. If they did, they’d recognize that the original use of the term “naïve” in the arts contrasted with the “sentimental” artist — and that the critic whose first made use of the term naïve, in his 1795 essay “Naïve and Sentimental Poetry,” used the term not as a pejorative, but to identify two distinctive types of creative personalities. Schiller characterized poets like Goethe as naïve and poets like himself as sentimental, but he did not use either term in a derogatory sense.

On the contrary: Schiller’s essay examines the unique virtues of both the naïve and the sentimental artist. Goethe, the model of a naïve artist, abounds with natural instinctive genius: he is naïve because he is close to nature and produces masterworks effortlessly, with unstudied ease. Schiller contrasts this creative personality with the more intellectual creator who uses rationality and system to create complex works which are more fragile because they require more cultural immersion to fully appreciate.

Schiller’s essay also offers an early model of aesthetic history. He contrasts the Greek culture, which he saw as close to nature but lacking in the technology that makes us distinctively modern, with the contemporary poet, who grapples with a self-consciousness of ourselves and our society which distances us from nature.

Why are any of these meanings of the term “naïve” unseemly?

I’d really like some prestigious critic or well-known contemporary musician to explain to me why being a naïve composer is a bad thing. If by that we mean someone who is close to nature and who produces masterworks with ease, why is that a bad thing? Why is that something to be avoided?

It sounds to me as though the term “naïve” in contemporary music is being used as a placeholder for “nasty stuff” that conveniently can’t be defined, in the same way that the catch-all term “authenticity” gets used in pop music. It’s lazy and it’s unprofessional and worst of all, it’s muddleheaded.

I won’t even discuss the issue of whether Ives’ first symphony actually is naïve, because at this point I’m not inclined to take Slatkin’s judgment seriously. If he doesn’t know the aesthetic history of the terms he slings around, why should we pay attention to his characterization of a piece of classic American music?

KG replies: Hadn’t heard that, Bob. Interesting.

KG replies: Hey, Bill, and thanks for the heads-up. But I may stay home and listen to my Michael Tilson Thomas recordings.

Greetings from Brisbane (remember us? a decade ago now) where my ENCOUNTERS:INDIA festival creaks into action on Monday. In the past two days, I have just collected Rohan de Saram, Patricia Rozario and Rajesh Mehta from the airport. Hope I survive the week!
Bests to you from Nora and me here!

KG replies: Hey, Vincent. I adore the Second, especially the 5th movement’s long, long climax. I just received a private recording of James Sinclair conducting it in London, the most exciting reading I’ve ever heard it given. I just wish *someone* would record it with Ives’s original ending, rather than the nasty 12-note chord he added to the end to make fun of it.
And hell, I’m nostalgic for Brisbane all the time, just described the place to someone the other night. Give my love to Nora.

KG replies: Thanks, Steven. Could I ask your source? I’ve been looking for a good G&S history.

KG replies: Well, yeah.

KG replies: But after six minutes of E-flat the curtain opens to reveal the Rhine maidens singing in A-flat, so it is heard in retrospect as a dominant. I wonder if perhaps that’s the only thing Wagner could imagine doing with a triad held for that long. A true minimalist wouldn’t have felt a need to resolve it.

I also believe that the big band riff tunes were a precedent, such as those by Jimmy Mundy. Not only were phrases repeated as the chords change but under soloists the brass would often play more or less the same chord with just the inner notes changing as needed.
There is also the unchanging single notes riffs, played by the tenor and baritone saxophones, in rock and roll. Lionel Hampton’s recording of flying Home uses minimalist techniques.
I wonder if minimalist techniques are related to drones which were used in early European music?

KG replies: For additive process, there’s also the “Twelve Days of Christmas,” and I imagine there’s probably a whole genre of similar folk songs. There are many forerunners – it’s the purported ones in classical European music that I tend to find specious.