Can Music Harmonize Chaos and Order?
The Apollonian and Dionysian in Modern Music, An Introduction
⬆️ Some musical accompaniment for the journey ahead 🎵
Why do we even like music? Or creative arts in general, outside of directly practical and productive purposes?
These questions touch on core aspects of the human experience that artists and philosophers have debated for ages. Nietzsche suggested a duality lies at the heart of this mystery, between the Apollonian and Dionysian aspects of our nature, terms which have come to signify the balance between order and chaos, reason and emotion, structure and anarchy.
The intricate balance between these two forces can be felt and heard in much of today’s modern music, where there is a dance between tension and harmony, both in how the music is composed and how it is perceived and enjoyed by the audience. This synthesis of opposing elements can also reflect the existential struggles of the human condition, where our reason and logic seek to bring structure to our more primal and emotional natures. With this in mind, it is easy to see how music became such a powerful and popular medium for exploring and expressing these struggles, offering both intellectual stimulation and emotional transcendence.
The Apollonian and Dionysian Dyad - Origins in The Birth of Tragedy
The Apollonian and Dionysian are terms that have come to symbolize a certain duality of the human experience in philosophy and art. They are derived from the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus, and Nietzsche was far from the first person to draw attention to their juxtaposition. However, his book The Birth of Tragedy did cause quite a stir in the thriving intellectual community of late 19th century European philologists (I know, be jealous…) and has reinvigorated discussion around the topic ever since.
Though heavily critiqued by the author himself in later years1, The Birth of Tragedy remains a popular philosophical read due the vibrance and immediacy with which Nietzsche presents his ideas. As the title suggests, his main exploration centers on the topic of Greek dramatic tragedy, epitomized by the playwrights Aeschylus and Sophocles.2 What was it about Greek culture that allowed them to reach such artistic heights, and why has it been so hard for writers to attain, let alone surpass, these heights ever since?
Significantly, Nietzsche notes that we cannot truly appreciate the cultural accomplishments of the Greeks (their Apollonian creations) without truly understanding the base natural impulses they had to tame (their Dionysian nature) in order to bring these works into existence, everything from the dramatic arts to the Parthenon.
For Nietzsche, it was the Greek’s unique comfort with both the Apollonian and Dionysian aspects of their culture that allowed them to so profoundly express themselves, and dramatic tragedy was uniquely well-suited for this task. Tragedy, as a genre, is defined by man’s struggle against unknowable forces - “the tragic hero of the drama, the main protagonist, struggles to make (Apollonian) order of his unjust and chaotic (Dionysian) fate, and often dies unfulfilled.”
An artist’s kunsttriebe (“artistic impulse”) comes from both the Apollonian and Dionysian aspects of their psyche, and it is the fusion of these impulses that leads to great artistic accomplishments. Thomas Ragia perhaps summarizes Nietzsche well when he says:
“The existential forces of the Dionysian and the Apollonian demonstrate the limitation of human corporality, i.e. the primordial impetus that man has, and at the same time his tendency to sculpt the tragedy of his journey from life to death, through artistic creation.”
Dionysian impulses allow us to tap into raw, ecstatic wisdom while Apollonian elements allow us to structure and refine these ideas, so that these primal forces can be appreciated and understood. The Dionysian risks being incoherent on its own while the Apollonian can lack the passion and vitality needed to imbue an artistic creation with life. The “fragile balance” between these forces is why dramatic Tragedy, at its highest execution, can feel so life affirming and cathartic.3
To truly delve in and unpack these two terms would be a book in and of itself (and many do exist) but it is very important to note that the Greeks did not think one was “better” than the other and it would be entirely incorrect to suggest the gods Apollo and Dionysius were “rivals.” They simply represented different forces of nature, both of which needed to be understood and accepted, in order to truly make sense of life. Many, many authors and thinkers from fields4 of all kinds have put their own spin on these terms but the key similarity is that there are 2 abstract forces that must be brought into balance and harmony in order for things to function at their best.
Ok, so about the music part…
As an example of the many ways music (and art) come to imitate and inform our experience of Life, let’s explore electronic music as an art form that integrates these ideas very well. Here I’ll be using “electronic music” rather broadly to include most modern music that is produced on a computer, with well known genres like EDM, etc. just being hyperized versions of these ideals. The tension between Dionysian and Apollonian aesthetics has been playing out in Western art and music history since the days of the ancient Greeks, and electronic music has inherited and reinterpreted this relationship for a 21st century audience, awash in our (dystopian?) technological landscape.
Creating music or art is, in and of itself, a Dionysian act, calling forth some feeling or idea the creator feels passionate enough about to want to share with or express to others. However, successfully conveying this idea requires subjugating it to certain Apollonian tendencies for order and structure. For example, you may have written the most incredible, powerful story ever, but if you present all your sentences as half-baked fragments in a random order, it's not likely to make sense to anyone else.
The combination of Apollonian beauty and Dionysian intensity reflects the existential struggle of the human condition, and it is a desire to express this struggle in some meaningful way that is the impetus of many works of art. This is not to say that all art is about or inspired by struggle, so much as Art is a bulwark against our existential fear that life may be meaningless and our struggles may have no greater meaning.
Electronic music, in its many varied forms, embodies a spectrum between Dionysian ecstasy and Apollonian order. A thought out structure, sometimes rigidly so, is used to build transcendental experiences that trigger our emotions, while simple rhythms and a constant tempo encourage people to “let loose” and have fun.
On a technical level, the modern composer must become adept at using both new software and complex hardware in order to achieve these aims. While there’s plenty of experimentation, these tools, on some level, have to be used a certain way or they won’t work, often creating an immediate Apollonian barrier to an artist in the throes of Dionysian inspiration.
Personally, I recall “back in the day” (maybe 10-12 years ago?) when Dubstep was first becoming a thing, I was amazed to see the intense editing and automation of various filters and parameters required in order to create what seemed like wildly expressive and chaotic synth parts. Many tools have since come along to streamline this process but this remains a visceral memory for me of this dichotomy in action.5
Music theory itself is a rigid construct with its basis in mathematics, and a songwriter must learn to use this “system” to create songs that are meant to inspire any number of raw, intense, authentic emotions in a way that feels effortless and free of artifice. Like cinema, a songwriter might spends hours writing a few seconds worth of music, showing that the creator must both detach from a linear relationship with time while still being aware of how intensely an emotion can be experienced in a single moment.
All these rules and structures are used to build euphoric climaxes that people will revel in while experiencing them live at music festivals. This highlights that the Apollonian and Dionysian duality exists not just within the music and the creative process of it’s creation, but also in the relationship between creator and audience. One some level, the creator/performer must formalize their ideas into something they can record and/or repeat, while the crowd is free to simply enjoy this creation.
Pulse: Music as a Dionysian Force
It is widely known and accepted that the ancient Greeks were a deeply religious society, with classical Athens celebrating over 120 festival days a year. Some of the most important, and most mysterious, of these festivals were the ones dedicated to the ecstatic rituals of Dionysius, where rhythms and music were used to create trance-like states among participants. Our modern concept of Bacchanalia originates here (or more specifically, this is what inspired the Romans) and Nietzsche was not grasping at straws when he connected Dionysius with the birth of Tragedy. In Athens, the most prestigious award a playwright could win was to be honored at the Dionysia, and the Greeks saw the dramatic arts in general as the domain of Dionysius.
Music and rhythm, often via the Aulos and Tympanon, were essential parts of ancient Greek festivals (and honestly, most festivals ever since) and the idea is that rhythmic drumming and simple, repetitive melodies helped to synchronize movements and emotions among participants, leading to a more profound collective experience.6
“Dancing” might be another way to describe coordinated movement synchronized to music, and while it’s mainly seen as a “fun” or artistic activity these days, it has carried many connotations over the ages. While researching this article, I was particularly intrigued to learn of the “Dancing Plague of 1518” where a number of people in what is now modern-day France seemed to suddenly, inexplicably, dance uncontrollably for days on end, leading to their exhaustion and death. A number of similar events occurred between the 14th and 17th century and the eventual cause was deemed “mass hysteria” though more modern theories speculate ergot poisoning, a mold that grows on damp rye and can cause hallucinations.
Elsewhere in medieval Europe, dance was sometimes used as social protest and rebellion against authority, where dance was used in times of revolt as a way to unify people and express collective dissent.7 All this to say that dance, from erratic physicality to socially organized movement, has a long history of representing the more thumotic (“spirited”) elements of human nature.
This spirit is echoed in music by early 20th century composers like Stravinsky, whose ballet “The Rite of Spring” used dissonance and complex rhythms to evoke primal energy, and thus flew in the face of centuries of tradition and provoked a riot. Along with the rise of Jazz and the Blues, this ushered in a new age of “emotionally charged” music that was more performative, as opposed to “composed.” (One is not better than the other, but up to this point “professional” music was performed by symphonies which, for obvious reasons, needed to rehearse pieces before performing them and had to execute each piece with precision; a cellist did not take it upon themselves to improvise and “jam” in the middle of Beethoven’s 5th.)
Echoes of this hostile reaction to new ways of expressing one’s self through music can be seen ever since, from the birth of rock and roll to Dylan going electric to rap music to dubstep to whatever it is that people are self-assuredly convinced is awful today. This is likely why the most popular modern genres all carry with them an element of rebelliousness8 and electronic music is no different. It’s ecstatic nature is a perfect fit for Dionysian themes like chaos and emotional frenzy, where a listener can lose themselves in an experience and become engrossed by the way it makes them feel.
Nietzsche, in a later work9, would define the Dionysian as that which represents:
“an ecstatic affirmation of the total character of life as that which remains the same, just as powerful, just as blissful, through all change; the great pantheistic sharing of joy and sorrow that sanctifies and calls good even the most terrible and questionable qualities of life; the eternal will to procreation, to fruitfulness, to recurrence; the feeling of the necessary unity of creation and destruction."
That’s not too far off from how one might describe the feeling of being fully in the moment at a large music festival. These are “sublime” experiences that overwhelm the senses and entice you to move with an almost mystical power of persuasion, and these Dionysian elements can be most easily seen in genres like Techno, Trance, Big Room, Drum and Bass, Psytrance and many others where loud driving rhythms lead to euphoric climaxes.
Order - Music as an Apollonian Construct
The ancient Greeks knew themselves well and one of their most important superstitions was “Nothing in excess” (Μηδὲν ἄγαν.) While they fully enjoyed many of the carnal aspects of life, they were also obsessed with order and proportion, both in physical art and moral character. One need only look at the Parthenon or read about Pythagoras to see this principle in practice. Apollo was the god of this more cerebral element of the creative process and helped to ensure we do not get too “lost in the process.” Centuries of philosophy have debated whether Apollonian order is needed to “civilize” our more destructive Dionysian tendencies or whether Dionysian celebrations are needed to “cure” us from becoming machines.
While music almost certainly existed long before civilization, its list of uses throughout history is long and varied. On some level there have always been folk and “street” musicians crafting songs of all kinds, most of which have never been recorded or noted by historians in any meaningful way so it's hard to say what this music was like. Generally speaking, though, the development of Western music has shown a clear preference for structure and composition10. The development of the Sonata form during the Classical period11 (c. 1750-1820) is a perfect example of this.
Composers like Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven often sought to reflect Enlightenment ideals of order and rationality in their music, and this pursuit of balance and formalized structure in music mirrored broader societal trends as well during this time. The fugue would be another example of a musical form invented to express intellectual ideas in a certain way.
In more modern times, Minimalism is a music genre with strong Apollonian tendencies, with its heavy reliance on limited, repeated structures, as heard from composers like Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass. Reich and Riley were both early adopters of using technology to make music as well and they brought a cerebral quality to composition, exploring more meditative themes like time and space.
Like the classical music examples, electronic music also has certain frameworks it often needs to work within. It may seek to create ecstatic emotions, but structure, order and discipline must be utilized in it’s creation. A song that changes meter and tempo at random every few seconds is not likely to be enjoyed by most people, and the “best” music strikes a balance between the excitement of unexpected twists and the satisfaction of telegraphed payoffs.
Sound design (i.e. creating unique and interesting sounds on your synths and other instruments) also plays a huge role in modern electronic music. The sounds may evoke Dionysian urges, but creating them requires knowledge of specific technical processes. You might get a cool sound by pushing buttons on your synth and turning knobs at random but, more likely, you’ll be happier with the results once you understand how each button is affecting the sound. Entire genres12 these days are defined by specific sound design elements (I won’t embarrass myself by attempting to know what they all are) and classic examples of this might be the plucks of Tropical House or the previously mentioned Dubstep bass wobbles.
While music doesn’t have “rules” there are plenty of well-known and accepted “guidelines” for writing electronic music, especially music that will eventually be played in a live setting. An argument could be made that purely Dionysian forces must concede to Apollonian frameworks in order for their ideas to survive and be transmitted at all, since most of these “rules” exist to help create predictable structures13 that DJs can rely on during the more chaotic moments of a live show.
Examples of this are things like:
The “drop” or climax usually hitting around the 90 second mark, as this helps maintain energy and keep crowds engaged. Many songs follow an ‘8-bar phrase’ technique, where something about the structure is tweaked or a new element is added every 8 bars, again for the sake of holding interest
Once the climax is reached, the songwriter must make clever use of tension between elements already presented in the composition to keep the experience interesting
Intros and outros that are typically 16-32 bars long and mostly drums and percussion, so a DJ can easily mix into and out of the song
There are sophisticated cataloging systems for energy levels and mood that many DJs use to help pace and guide the emotional experience throughout the night
No one would describe these as secrets and there are thousands of examples of these rules being broken but chances are, if you’re not a music creator yourself, you may not have even noticed these were commonalities in many popular songs. On the flip side, if you’re a creator who is often told your work is too “busy” or “unfocused” - what people are likely actually responding to is a lack of some kind of clear Apollonian structure.
Beyond these composition based rules, there’s an entire discussion to be had about the technology being used to do all this in the first place. “Intuitive” is not a word I often hear when I teach someone how to use their DAW for the first time and training or instruction of some kind is usually needed before a composer feels this technology is an aid to their creativity rather than a road block.
This Apollonian approach to music is perhaps well summarized in the thinking of Heinrich Schenker, who believed that every element of a composition needed to have a purpose for being there and needed to tie into the underlying compositional structure. In fact, music that utilized elements not tied to the greater theme were “dishonest and manipulative” since they provoked false stimulation through the use of spectacle. It is reasonable to think that this is the type of dishonesty that Plato feared artists would bring into his “Beautiful City” when he argued the dramatic arts should be banned. It is too easy to seduce people and manipulate their emotions unnaturally through music, safeguards were needed.
We most often see a strong focus on the Apollonian in more Avant Garde music styles; anything that focuses on more intricate sound design or more complex harmonic structure, often accompanied by more “high concept” or cerebral approaches to how it is all being put together.
Bringing it all together
Balancing Apollonian and Dionysian impulses is a feature by no means unique to electronic music, or any of the other styles mentioned here so far. On some level, all Art that “works” is successfully straddling this line in some way. A specific focus on highlighting this balance, however, might be said to have arisen during the Romantic era, when composers like Richard Wagner attempted to merge grand story structures with emotionally resonant motifs and themes. The use of themes or motifs in a larger musical piece, especially those composed for modern cinema today, is itself a nice example of this balance - a musical idea is presented and then altered in various ways as the story progresses, requiring creativity within a very structured environment.
Celebrating this merger became commonplace over the course of the 20th century, with the rise of genres like jazz fusion and progressive rock, where complex musical theory was blended with freewheelin’ improvisation. More contemporary electronic examples might be an artist like Aphex Twin, who blends intricate structures and a minimal aesthetic with emotionally intense and unpredictable sounds, engaging many listeners on a visceral level. Daft Punk would be another well known example, combining perfectly polished productions, simple melodic hooks, and a high concept story with highly danceable grooves, positively hedonistic lyrics, and an awe-inspiring live show. I even came across this amazing two part song (Part 1, Part 2) by Rush that more or less states all these themes explicitly and turns them into an allegorical myth in a far off galaxy.
Even if we don’t know we are engaging with them, these forces are at work whenever we are listening to music we enjoy. Music is processed in our minds (Apollonian) while also moving our spirit (Dionysian) and there seems to be something about this dual stimulation that is uniquely pleasing to us humans. Returning to Nietzsche, this interplay is also what makes the human condition so ripe for tragic storytelling; we like the reassurance that chaos and the unknown can be kept at bay by Reason and Logic while still chafing under the tyranny of what adherence to these terms requires of us, and longing to be free of responsibilities and care. As mentioned but worth repeating, the Creative Process requires both a Dionysian urge and an Apollonian guide to successfully execute an idea or vision at the highest level, a melding of instinct and intellect.14
I’ve spoken a lot about songwriters so far but this is all relevant to song-listeners as well. There is an inherently Apollonian/Dionysian relationship between the Artist and the Listener, in which the former must on some level retain enough control over themselves to play the music correctly while the audience can give in to pure feeling. These two perspectives become synced through rhythmic movement and arrive at a shared experience during live performances.
Conclusion
Electronic music, and music in general, provides us with a unique lens through which to explore these enduring philosophical concepts. It has the ability to engage both our mind and body, creating intense feelings that can be shared as a collective experience across an enormous amount of people through rhythmic and melodic entrainment. To create these euphoric experiences, precise production techniques are deployed through emotionally charged sounds and built into intricate structures. What is created is both transitory and eternal.
Popular music has always had a certain philosophical relevance to the era that produced it, serving as a lens through which to take the pulse of society at that time. What ideas and values are they celebrating and how are they communicating them? The invention of new technologies has led to new sub-genres and new emotions to express and I’m curious how this may continue to evolve in ways we have yet to imagine.
I would love to know what modern artists and songs you’ve found that embody these ideas, please do share them with me below. I encourage you to review this month’s song too as I really sought to highlight the themes discussed here, depicting a calm and orderly growth into a moment of explosive ecstasy, then merging these elements into a see-sawing balance for the remainder of the ride. I also created this Spotify playlist featuring the artists mentioned here and several others.
Nietzsche would eventually re-release the book with a new preface “An Attempt at Self-Criticism” in an effort to clarify his thinking around the topic, or lack there of.
The fact the works of these 2 playwrights have been in continuous production, continually staged and re-interpreted, for over 2,000 years is surely testament that Nietzsche was not wrong in his assessment here.
As his translator Walter Kaufman notes, Nietzsche’s own conceptualization of the “Dionysian” evolved over the course of his lifetime. Nietzsche would also go on to answer his own question, citing the arrival of “Socratic rationality” as the cause of artistic decline, as we attempt to use science and empirical evidence to rationalize away the more instinctual Dionysian understanding of life. A loaded idea and a probably-not-entirely-wrong observation that we’ll have to table for discussion in a future piece. 🙂
Wikipedia gives this nice insight from Albert Szent-Gyorgyi into how these terms play out in a field like science: “In science the Apollonian tends to develop established lines to perfection, while the Dionysian rather relies on intuition and is more likely to open new, unexpected alleys for research...The future of mankind depends on the progress of science, and the progress of science depends on the support it can find. Support mostly takes the form of grants, and the present methods of distributing grants unduly favor the Apollonian.
For anyone curious, I was specifically trying to explore dubstep remixes of indie pop bands like MGMT using Propellerhead’s Reason software, such a 2010s thing to do…
Let’s not ignore the fact that one of the largest sub-genres of modern electronic music is called “Trance.”
Maybe this is where Disney got the idea…
And I’d argue this rebelliousness is essential, since once a genre becomes dominant it then eventually becomes ‘the establishment’ and loses its charm, as could be argued is happening to rock and roll over the last few decades.
WTP 1050 (March-June 1888)
A very reasonable argument can be made that elitist European values played an overly-large role in its development as well, but that is yet another topic for another day. Adam Neely makes some interesting points about it here and I really appreciate this piece by Tantacrul here that expands the argument into the modern age.
And not to be confused with the Greek Classical era of roughly 510 BCE to 323 BCE. Ironically, the identical terminology is not a coincidence as many of the intellectuals of the latter age looked to the Greek Classical period for inspiration, though they were highly selective on the sources of such inspiration, focusing almost entirely on Apollonian ideals and ignoring the more messy Dionysian.
To a degree, the entire concept of “genre” is Apollonian in nature - a general category which things can be placed into and, within the bounds of which, an artist is encouraged to be as wild and creative as possible.
Here I am now reminded a bit of the Homeric epithet, which many scholars believe was invented, in part, as a way for bards and poets to remember commonly used building blocks of a story in specific meter, leading to easier memorization and performance.
Loosely borrowing this idea from Henri Bergson’s “Creative Evolution”