21st century classical music

Started by James, May 25, 2012, 04:30:28 PM

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Mandryka

#1400
I spent some time today just randomly browsing tracks on recent Donauesingen Musiktage recordings - 2019, 2018 . . .And it is oh so depressing, I mean I've heard it all before so many times, nothing fresh. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, comes a composer I've never even heard of with a voice of his own - Eivind Buene. Not on YouTube but streaming on the usual platforms, this is interesting music, no doubt about it.


Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

mabuse

Quote from: Mandryka on May 05, 2021, 01:25:23 PM
I spent some time today just randomly browsing tracks on recent Donauesingen Musiktage recordings - 2019, 2018 . . .And it is oh so depressing, I mean I've heard it all before so many times, nothing fresh.

Do you know Matthew Shlomowitz ?

At the Donaueschingen Musiktage 2019, his work for keyboards and orchestra was absolutely crazy !   ???

Glücklich Glücklich Freude Freude (2019 - 20 minutes)
SWR Symphony Orchestra (soloist: Mark Knoop, conductor: Emilio Pomarico)
Donaueschinger Musiktage, Germany - 18 October 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHne0aVjzRQ&t=560s

mabuse

Quote from: Old San Antone on May 05, 2021, 12:16:38 AM
Aaron Cassidy: Second String Quartet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd6B5zLaHiU

The JACK Quartet performs the West Coast premiere of Aaron Cassidy's Second String Quartet for the Monday Evening Concerts series on February 14, 2011 at Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School.

:)

I am rarely disappointed with the JACK Quartet... They are great.

steve ridgway

Quote from: Mandryka on May 05, 2021, 01:25:23 PM
I spent some time today just randomly browsing tracks on recent Donauesingen Musiktage recordings - 2019, 2018 . . .And it is oh so depressing, I mean I've heard it all before so many times, nothing fresh.

Are a lot of them doing "Avant-Garde" things that had already been done fifty years ago?

Mandryka

Quote from: steve ridgway on May 06, 2021, 01:48:47 AM
Are a lot of them doing "Avant-Garde" things that had already been done fifty years ago?

Well this is the 50th anniversary of Stockhausen's Mantra - no-one's doing anything remotely like that at Donaueschinger at least!
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Quote from: mabuse on May 05, 2021, 02:15:30 PM
Do you know Matthew Shlomowitz ?

At the Donaueschingen Musiktage 2019, his work for keyboards and orchestra was absolutely crazy !   ???

Glücklich Glücklich Freude Freude (2019 - 20 minutes)
SWR Symphony Orchestra (soloist: Mark Knoop, conductor: Emilio Pomarico)
Donaueschinger Musiktage, Germany - 18 October 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHne0aVjzRQ&t=560s

Listening to Mark Knoop's CD recording (with music by Peter Ablinger) now - will check the YouTube later, thanks.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Quote from: Mandryka on May 05, 2021, 01:25:23 PM
I spent some time today just randomly browsing tracks on recent Donauesingen Musiktage recordings - 2019, 2018 . . .And it is oh so depressing, I mean I've heard it all before so many times, nothing fresh. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, comes a composer I've never even heard of with a voice of his own - Eivind Buene. Not on YouTube but streaming on the usual platforms, this is interesting music, no doubt about it.




Back to this this morning, this guy's the real deal.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

mabuse

Quote from: Mandryka on May 06, 2021, 03:11:53 AM
Listening to Mark Knoop's CD recording (with music by Peter Ablinger) now - will check the YouTube later, thanks.

When at the end Matthew Shlomowitz get up on the stage under the boos, it's a real moment of glory  :laugh:

I especially like this record of him on All That Dust record label and also with Mark Knoop... 
:P

Cato

An article by Ted Gioia in The Atlantic on the backward-looking Music "industry": it is not specifically about classical music, but says it suffers from the same bias toward "safe" investment in the past...rather than the future.

Quote

....A lot of musicians around the world—especially in Los Angeles and London—are conducting a bold dialogue between jazz and other contemporary styles. They are even bringing jazz back as dance music. But the songs they release sound dangerously different from older jazz, and are thus excluded from many radio stations for that same reason. The very boldness with which they embrace the future becomes the reason they get rejected by the gatekeepers.

A country record needs to sound a certain way to get played on most country radio stations or playlists, and the sound those DJs and algorithms are looking for dates back to the prior century. And don't even get me started on the classical-music industry, which works hard to avoid showcasing the creativity of the current generation. We are living in an amazing era of classical composition, with one tiny problem: The institutions controlling the genre don't want you to hear it.

The problem isn't a lack of good new music. It's an institutional failure to discover and nurture it.
...



My emphasis above.


Certainly we at GMG know of amazing contemporary classical composers who are being ignored!

See:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/old-music-killing-new-music/621339/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Cato

#1410
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 25, 2022, 05:28:51 PM

Institutional failure. Amen.


Some bullet points from the article above:

Quote

The best-selling physical format in music is the vinyl LP, which is more than 70 years old. I've seen no signs that the record labels are investing in a newer, better alternative—because, here too, old is viewed as superior to new.

In fact, record labels—once a source of innovation in consumer products—don't spend any money on research and development to revitalize their business, although every other industry looks to innovation for growth and consumer excitement.

Record stores are caught up in the same time warp. In an earlier era, they aggressively marketed new music, but now they make more money from vinyl reissues and used LPs.

Radio stations are contributing to the stagnation, putting fewer new songs into their rotation, or—judging by the offerings on my satellite-radio lineup—completely ignoring new music in favor of old hits.


That last part is valid for most U.S. classical music stations, which are usually somehow connected to a university or to the FedGov or both, and have increasingly gone to playing snippets of "old works" or very short ones.  The amount of time given to classical music on such stations has also been eaten away by news shows from "National Public Radio."

There are exceptions: the classical music station in Dayton has some of the most adventurous programming I have heard!  I cannot always receive their signal, but one day I almost wrecked the car when they announced an entire hour dedicated to playing and discussing the music of Pierre Boulez!

To be sure..his works are hardly "contemporary" in 2022!  Still...
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

bhodges

Quote from: Cato on January 26, 2022, 06:18:49 AM
Some bullet points from the article above:

That last part is valid for most U.S. classical music stations, which are usually somehow connected to a university or to the FedGov or both, and have increasingly gone to playing snippets of "old works" or very short ones.  The amount of time given to classical music on such stations has also been eaten away by news shows from "National Public Radio."

There are exceptions: the classical music station in Dayton has some of the most adventurous programming I have heard!  I cannot always receive their signal, but one day I almost wrecked the car when they announced an entire hour dedicated to playing and discussing the music of Pierre Boulez!

To be sure..his works are hardly "contemporary" in 2022!  Still...

Thanks for posting that article. (I like Gioia in general.) He makes some excellent points.

Further (perhaps), there is a lot of competition for people's attention, between listening to music (of any kind), watching a movie, reading a book, or other activities, and now we add "checking social media" to that list. It can be exhausting.

And good for that Dayton station! Sometimes the "smaller" stations have more flexibility to go a little further afield (maybe).

--Bruce

Karl Henning

Quote from: Cato on January 26, 2022, 06:18:49 AM
Some bullet points from the article above:

That last part is valid for most U.S. classical music stations, which are usually somehow connected to a university or to the FedGov or both, and have increasingly gone to playing snippets of "old works" or very short ones.  The amount of time given to classical music on such stations has also been eaten away by news shows from "National Public Radio."

There are exceptions: the classical music station in Dayton has some of the most adventurous programming I have heard!  I cannot always receive their signal, but one day I almost wrecked the car when they announced an entire hour dedicated to playing and discussing the music of Pierre Boulez!

To be sure..his works are hardly "contemporary" in 2022!  Still...

Not simply playing the Boulez, but ... discussion! Rad! What are the frequency and call letters of the Dayton station? Wonder if I might tune in, somehow.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Karl Henning

Quote from: Brewski on January 26, 2022, 06:45:29 AM
Further (perhaps), there is a lot of competition for people's attention, between listening to music (of any kind), watching a movie, reading a book, or other activities, and now we add "checking social media" to that list. It can be exhausting.

That's sure true, Bruce, and reinforces the dictum: Them what already gots, is who gets more.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Karl Henning

Well, time to write some more 21st-century music which no one will have any opportunity to hear!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

foxandpeng

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 26, 2022, 07:57:00 AM
Well, time to write some more 21st-century music which no one will have any opportunity to hear!

Doubtless, just what Havergal Brian said.

'Where are you off to, love?'
'Off to finish that symphony'
'ANOTHER one? No-one will ever hear them, you know?'
'Well, you never know...'

Keep writing, sir
"A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people ... then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbour — such is my idea of happiness"

Tolstoy

Karl Henning

Quote from: foxandpeng on January 26, 2022, 08:23:26 AM
Doubtless, just what Havergal Brian said.

'Where are you off to, love?'
'Off to finish that symphony'
'ANOTHER one? No-one will ever hear them, you know?'
'Well, you never know...'

Keep writing, sir

I wish I remembered this story accurately, but I paraphrase: Roy Harris told a fellow composer, "I've just finished my sixth symphony. Can you tell me why?"
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

foxandpeng

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 26, 2022, 10:07:17 AM
I wish I remembered this story accurately, but I paraphrase: Roy Harris told a fellow composer, "I've just finished my sixth symphony. Can you tell me why?"

'Because it is there'
E. L. Mallory

$:)
"A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people ... then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbour — such is my idea of happiness"

Tolstoy

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot