Contemporary sheet music

[franceslievens]

This Christmas we'll all gather around the tree and sing from the ol' Beck Hansen songbook! Beck, widely known from nineties hit Loser, won't record his latest album, but will make it available as sheet music. The couple of previews on publisher McSweeney's show a beautifully designed book filled with folksy songs. Looking at the sheet music for Do we? We do! it has the rhythm of a trudging horse, demanding nothing more than some ukulele and piano accompanying the singer. Or maybe something else. One could rewrite the song for a choir. With the best versions of the songs being featured on Beck's website, everyone will try to make them special and earn his or her fifteen minutes of internet fame. And those who can't read sheet music, will have to go hunt for recordings to hear what the songs sound like. They might even learn to read sheet music.
Beck isn't bringing anything new, but instead returns to the days before there were recordings. To make music known with a wider audience, you had to write it down. Some folk songs were passed on through generations, but other music was written down for others to study, make their own and perform. The big difference is, we can all record those songs with the millions of electronic devices we all have, making the audience wider than just the street you happen to live on.