There is a certain dogmatism, which has greatly diminished human life for some time, that notably expresses itself in the form of fixed oppositions, such as the ones that are seen as existing between profane and sacred, human and divine, and popular culture and high art. Generally speaking these oppositions have been–for those born after 1980 or so–now largely dissolved, whereas many older people, especially those born in, say, the 30s or 40s, still have a view of reality to which precisely these oppositions are indispensable. This does create a generational divide, but strictly speaking it has to do primarily with outlook rather than age (there are plenty of people on both sides of it in chronological terms who look at things in the way I’d associate with the other side).

Let me share a story. In 1978 Herbert Howells was still writing music (and in fact he wrote some of his best works in that year). I remember playing the Willcocks/King’s College recording of Howells’ ravishingly beautiful Prudentius setting “Take Him Earth, for Cherishing” to a young student of composition. He just couldn’t “get” the piece at all. One might have thought that its rather angular idom (and at that time fairly recent date–it was written in 1964) might have made it seem acceptably contemporary to my friend, but no. He just could not get his mind around the idea that a piece of church music might have anything to say to or teach him. The parameters of his musical universe were fixed and VERY narrow. Ever since I’ve regarded this as among the most striking instances of mindlessness I’ve ever encountered. But attitudes of this sort were in the ascendant for decades and deviation from the established view were likely to provoke fury, scorn, and punishment.

I’m guessing that this is what Nico is looking to distance himself from. “Crossover music”, the mindless antipathy of sacred and secular, music as a kind of mathematical exercise: these things belong to the one side of the divide, and Nico (I think) wants to make it clear that that’s not the side he’s on. I’m glad it isn’t.

I have to say it feels odd to be telling the Howells story now that it’s clear that the composer I was seeking had not at that time even been born.

Perhaps what Nico is suggesting is that his generation is vexed and stirred by a different, more complicated religious impulse that uses texts — or at least words — to hide and reveal meaning simultaneously. And since this seems to be what Nico does in some of his most moving compositions, I begin to sense what he may find brave in the work of his contemporaries in the rock genre.

I hope you will continue writing pieces like this, and thanks for publishing it here. But I beg you to rethink the generational motif that appears often (too often) in your posts. We elderly white people are also capable of connecting the prose and the passion that both might be exalted.