Sigma Alpha Iota

P A N P I P E S Winter 2021 13 13 MUSIC & LAW may not see resolution. Individual participation in law or music is both necessary and insufficient. To give the best performance possible, a choral singer must focus on several areas at once: his or her own notes, the other singers' notes, their harmonization under the careful eye of a conductor, and their impact on the audience. A choral piece will fail if individual singers are not acutely aware of their own responsibilities. No one wants a choir of singers who don't know their music. So too, however, will a piece fail if individual singers are only focused on their own responsibilities. If singers have tunnel vision, they will miss the space le by other parts' breathing or the voice leading in other sections that subtly but gracefully provides an on-ramp to their part's correct starting note. And beyond understanding what to expect the other parts will do, a singer must keep tabs on what the other parts actually do — all while keeping the ultimate goal and audience in mind. Now consider the deposition process. An attorney taking a deposition is acutely aware of his or her strategy and the questions planned to get at the case's material issues. e goal is to not lose sight of those goals during the deposition: to employ that strategy, make a record of the deponent's testimony, and eventually put that testimony in harmony with an overarching theory of the case. At the same time, a deposition is an evolving situation with multiple other actors involved. Witnesses may stonewall or provide unexpected information. Opposing counsel may betray part of their case strategy through objections or the places where they look up with sudden interest. A strong deposition taker thus needs the dexterity to keep forward momentum with a planned strategy while studying, balancing, and responding to the opponents in the room — the same dexterity choral singers use to maintain both individual focus and responsive collaboration. ese are just some of the shared complexities between law and music on an individual level. e similarities on a broader level are striking as well. For instance, silence is as important as sound. Rests in music slow down tumultuous passages, allow for breaths and page turns, and give space to ponder unresolved harmonic tension. Open legal issues that remain for a later day because of ripeness issues, briefing strategies, or judicial restraint allow for the development of facts, the consideration of additional arguments, and the measured growth of jurisprudence. As Justice Ginsburg once described, "Doctrinal limbs too swily shaped, experience teaches, may prove unstable." 4 Both law and music originate and culminate as art, but both have a healthy dose of science in the middle. Advanced music theory resembles calculus more than Chopin, with frequencies, intervals, and scale degrees. is infrastructure generally isn't at the forefront of a song, but it supports compositions and brings order that turns noise into sound. Civil procedure resembles algebra more than Atticus, with statutes of limitation, burdens of proof, and joinder issues. is infrastructure is similarly unglamorous but essential, as it safeguards due process and brings order that turns trial by combat into adjudication. Perhaps the cleverest combination of law and music is the brilliant comic opera Scalia/ Ginsburg. Composer music and law professor Derrick Wang explained that as he read Scalia dissents for con law class in law school, he heard music. For him, opinions and opera intersected as "passionate, virtuosic [compositions] rooted in traditions of the 18 th century." 5 He went on to write his own combination of law and music, "inspired by the opinions of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia and by the 'operatic precedent' of Händel, Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Verdi, Offenbach, Bizet, Sullivan, Puccini, Strauss, et al." 6 e combination is epic. When the character of Justice Ginsburg sings of her living Constitution theory, the music evolves from opera to jazz to gospel pop, while Justice Scalia's lively dissenting is scored as an "originalist rage aria." ese pairings provide an approachable and vivid introduction to constitutional jurisprudence while they simultaneously provide commentary on the interconnectedness of society, government, and media. is interconnectedness can be seen in one final, overarching similarity for law and music: both are at once vaulted and mundane. Law, especially headline-making cases, oen has an almost legendary or untouchable sense. Music, especially choral or orchestral music, oen carries the connotation of luxury and inaccessibility. But while only a small percentage of America's population has walked the marble hallways of a federal appellate courthouse, almost everyone has stopped at a stoplight. And while only a small percentage of America's population has attended a [choose your own fancy philharmonic] concert, almost everyone has sung the happy birthday song. Certainly, there is room for improvement in accessibility to courts and concerts. But law and music fundamentally? ey surround us, from the driver's licenses in our wallets to the songs stuck in our heads. 1 Soundwaves may well be their own sort of forum. See Hope Forsyth, Forum, in Digital Keywords: A Vocabulary of Information Society and Culture 132 (Benjamin Peters ed., Princeton University Press 2016). 2 See Juries, Eastman School of Music, www.esm.rochester.edu/facultystaff/ handbook/juries (last visited July 7, 2020). 3 Hope Forsyth, Mutually Assured Protection: Dmitri Shostakovich and Russian Influence on American Copyright Law, 53 Tulsa L. Rev. 559 (2018). 4 Ruth Bader Ginsburg, My Own Words 239 (2016). 5 TEDxTalks, Scalia and Ginsburg on Broadway | Derrick Wang | TEDxBroadway, YouTube (Apr. 14, 2016), youtu.be/opEVvTiuStU. 6 Scalia/Ginsburg: the opera, Derrick Wang, www.derrickwang.com/scalia-ginsburg (last visited July 7, 2020). An early version of the opera's libretto was published in the Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, formatted and footnoted in quintessential law review style. Derrick Wang, Scalia/Ginsburg: A (Gentle) Parody of Operatic Proportions, 38(2) Colum. J. of L. & the Arts 239 (2015). e libretto was updated aer Justice Scalia's death, and the revised version's publication is forthcoming. Hope Forsyth, an initiate of Sigma Gamma Chapter at the University of Tulsa, is an attorney and author in Tulsa, OK. Both law and music Both law and music originate and originate and culminate as art, culminate as art, but both have but both have a healthy dose a healthy dose of science in of science in the middle. the middle.

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