Three cheers for Ted Gioia for splashing cold water on this whole "re-branding" idiocy. I've expressed a lot of skepticism myself in the past, but he really does a good job of showing just what is wrong with the idea: Can We Stop Talking About "Rebranding" Classical Music?
Here’s the bottom line: Classical music faces many problems—but constant talk of rebranding is itself one of the problems.
The real need is to revitalize the repertoire; celebrate our traditions but also create fun and exciting new ones; make the performance situations less stuffy; reach into the community (and especially the schools); transform the entire experience of concertizing into something more thrilling and engaging; above all, inspire and change lives.
And the only way to do this is by focusing on the music.
As a reviewer who devotes hours each day to listening to recently released recordings, I know how much fantastic new classical music is out there right now—and it’s genuinely mind-expanding and enjoyable too, something that couldn’t always be claimed for the entrenched academic composition trends of the not-so-distant past. Yet I’m also painfully aware that almost nobody knows about this music, and the very institutions that should be showcasing it are caught up in other, lesser priorities.
I think he has it exactly right. Focus on the music. That's why we are here.
12 comments:
Because I happen to live less than 30 minutes from the Yale campus, I've had the pleasure of taking my son to literally dozens of their "New Music New Haven" concerts. These concerts feature the compositions of YSM students and faculty and alumni. ALWAYS a stimulating experience, and almost always some pieces I like and some pieces I don't, and occasionally something I love! When live on the stage, even music I don't like provides a fascination by having it introduced by the composer with some thoughts, and witnessing the skilled renditions from the players. And of course the experience of liking some and not others gives me the reassurance that because I don't like everything, therefore I must be a man of discrimination and taste.
But such stimulations and satisfactions are less abundant when I buy random CDs of new music, much of which I end up not liking. Part of that might be my aging ears hear noise when the music seems busy or pointless, perhaps my gravitation towards early music has made me less tolerant of new and exciting or dissonant music, especially when it lacks good old fashioned melody and, well, if not harmony, at least consonance. Then there is the winnowing process of time which all art and literature pass through, meaning as the generations before us render their judgements, the "best" is preserved in the repertoire and the less-liked falls into obscurity. That in itself is an imperfect filter, as so many wonderful "re-discoveries" have proven. There is something about the "spirit of the times" that might at first be apparent in the types of textures or melodies and harmonies, but which critics and historians and listeners might also want to attribute to the historical circumstances that result in particular emotional or spiritual or even intellectual trends that are somehow conveyed by the music. I'm babbling now, and doubt I can discern such connections myself, since I feel such a calm and reassurance in 17th century music when the history books of the time are full of plagues and wars and treachery of every sort. But somehow modern music almost never brings me the same comfort of that old violin music or madrigals or consorts.
That said, I WANT to find new music that I like, and maybe should just go on a buying spree of CDs of contemporary music for orchestra or chamber ensembles and just enjoy discriminating and confirming that I am still a man of discriminating taste....
Will,
Please cite the new music that you heard and loved. My own experience is that the best new works are short. Longer works for ensembles require harmonic movement with some kind of development as both you and Bryan have noted. But using regular tonal harmony doesn't inspire composers or audiences in new works. BTW your point about Early Music could be amplified by the observation that the greatest composers of that era used L'Homme Arme, the Medieval equivalent of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love to base Mass music on.
The oddity with the Gioia article is that he says he hears great new music but then puts his 21 great new albums behind a paywall. I could see putting all kinds of articles behind a paywall as I'm not trying to starve poor Ted. However if you write an article bemoaning the sad state of classical music and mention that great new music is being created right now it seems rather self defeating to hide the list that would revitalize classical music.
Actually Ted admits that the real problem lies with the classical music gatekeepers who are like obtuse corporate or government execs obsessed with lazy magic i.e. incantations to hide their endless round of meetings and socializing. This is the strength of popular music in that even people who can't read music can create a new popular style and fans somehow don't need mass media campaigns to find them. The issue of the classical music gatekeepers is a crux here because symphonic music usually requires a symphony orchestra and a symphony hall, both rather expensive. It is hard to see how classical music could be revitalized by chamber music given it has never had the popularity of symphonic works or even opera. The classical gatekeepers are beyond redemption at this point.
This is why I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that new classical music has to stand on popular music shoulders for the immediate future. Waiting for the Whole Lotta Love Variations.
Stumbling across a really good piece of new music is a special thrill that older masterpieces don't really have. But you do have to kiss a lot of frogs to find the princes!
Hello Maury, I happened to be present for the premiere of Reena Esmail's "This Love Between Us," which I found thrilling and moving. It is scored for choir, baroque orchestra, sitar and tabla. Truly wonderful! The performance was in Saint Mary's Church in New Haven. I see that on her website she is selling a of the recording of that performance, which is called "New England Choirworks" and also includes other works performed by the Yale Schola Cantorum. I just tried to buy it but it is not offered on CD, only for mp3 download --which I don't do....
reenaesmail.com
I have heard other compositions by this same composer in smaller ensembles performing at Yale's Sprague Hall, and always I noticed and liked whatever was hers on the very mixed programs. I see at Amazon she has other works available on CDs, for example 2 of her works are included on a CD "Project W" by the Chicago Sinfonietta. Also she has a piece on another CD called "The Singing Guitar." It was only to type this comment that I researched her works on CD so I haven't yet bought these or heard these particular works, but I heartily recommend her as a composer.
Will
Thank you very much. I will check her out. I will also see what I can find for the Yale New Music concerts.
Will,
I listened to a variety of Esmail's shorter and moderate length works. I agree with you that she is an interesting composer. Her music is mostly what I would call light classical without being derivative pop or derivative the other way with prior classical composers. There is a lack of what I would call dynamism in her music so much of it seems gentle. I didn't see a score but her music sounds like a blend of neoclassical tonal mixed with modalism probably based on Indian classical forms. Her piano trio was particularly nice. I heard a movement from her cantata you cited and that seemed pleasant as well. She does seem able to string together music into moderate length movements so I would be curious exactly how she is doing ir although it is likely along the lines I suggested above.
Maury, I'm glad you liked what you heard of Reesa Esmail's music. You've already sampled some pieces I haven't heard. I only know what I heard live in a few concerts here in New Haven. Now that I see she is on some real CDs, at some point when I decide to revisit her I will buy some, particularly the cantata "The Love Between Us" for baroque orchestra, sitar and table, since when I heard the premier performance I was thrilled! I haven't heard it since. By coincidence, just today I read an article that discusses her in 2021, maybe this will be of interest:
violinist.com/blog/laurie/20217/28844/
Another young composer who made a great impression on me at the Yale New Music New Haven concerts was Andy Akiho. On 2 different nights I heard 2 different iterations of his Concerto for Steel Pans and Orchestra. The first time I was able to approach him afterwards and told him how GREAT his music is. Since then I've acquired one of his CDs, "No One to Know One." He is a percussionist but writes for many instruments. Another composer I recommend to anyone interested in new music.
I have a vague recognition of Akiho's name. Looking up some vids, he is a very competent composer. The one issue I have is that a lot of it sounds at least to me rather close to Frank Zappa's scored music from Uncle Meat forward, much of which feature marimbas and other tuned percussion. Some of that was later recorded by Boulez. But it is very clever music. Esmail is a more traditional composer in terms of affect.
If you like Akiho, I would recommend an old album by Max Roach titled M'Boom. It is entirely tuned and untuned percussion but very clever and sometimes moving. It came out in 1980 on CBS now Sony.
Hello again to Maury [and Bryan], I have another living composer to recommend: Daniel Elder. Just a few days ago I bought a CD of his choral music entitled "The Heart's Reflection." It is supremely gorgeous, mostly chorus but with some piano and percussion in a few of the pieces. He was born in 1986 and is in Nashville, but his music so far as I've listened has zero of what music we associate with Nashville (and I do have some country albums I love) but rather sacred choral music of the greatest refinement. Unlike this blog's illustrious author and most of his expert commentors, I have only a layman's lexicon and cannot render technical analysis. But I've been a serious [and active --alluding you a more recent blog article here] listener for almost 4 decades now and I am confident in my inarticulate judgement that you will find his music very fine.
And Maury I appreciated your comparison of Andy Akiho to some of Frank Zappa's orchestral music, a likeness that I also noticed. I am a great fan of Zappa, with many dozens of his CDs, including many bootlegs. Isn't it funny how the orchestral music in Burnt Weenie Sandwich defies categorization just as does his Uncle Meat? And why the carnivorous titles? For all his musical sophistication, he was emotionally quite "immature." I still love him but what a GOD he was to me at the age of 18!
Will,
Someone helpfully posted the score of Heart's Reflection. Just after a quick look, I saw quite a bit of dissonance between the parts although generally it was spaced apart rather than adjacent. Sometimes it approximated bi-tonality other times I saw regular triads with an added tone; for example a B major triad with a E added in the soprano. I liked it and thought it flowed well. Just for me I like a bit more push to the lines even in reflective choral music but that's a personal preference. I have said earlier that choral music has been the consistently most innovative genre of classical music in the past 100 years.
Well Maury, that's about exactly what I would have said --if only I could! Except the part about liking more push. If I read you right, I like the contemplative quality in that lovely piece and wouldn't want it to feel like it was trying to get somewhere.
He's accepting commissions so when I hit a number I'm adding him to my list, the one Bryan is on.
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