busy"Closing the Score"
Every year the music guild waits
for the Council to announce
new setlists of licensed songs
and, too, scores that must be closed.
There is always an argument
between the students of music
and the students of propaganda.
Music is about what
people need to feel.
Propaganda is about what
the Empire needs people to believe.
One side says they have the facts:
studies have shown that music influences mood,
and if people are allowed to play disturbing songs,
then unrest is likely to follow.
The other side says they have the truth:
studies have shown that music expresses emotions,
and people find ways of showing what they feel,
so better through music than through mayhem.
On the first of Balimev,
the classic song "Anomalous Notes,"
long popular for its whimsical sound,
is banned because of its possible allusion
to the frightening Anomalies in the news.
On the following tenend,
they learn that both sides are right.
* * *
Notes:
The title comes from musical vocabulary where "closed" means "muted" or "muffled," such as:
chiuso: closed; i.e., muted by hand (for a horn, or similar instrument; but see also bocca chiusa, which uses the feminine form, in this list)
Read an article on "Prescriptive Music in the Empire."
