tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post1982085000898126773..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: A Glance at Spectral MusicBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-57417998966121248512014-07-10T02:34:25.483-05:002014-07-10T02:34:25.483-05:00Well, the piece was more listenable than many othe...Well, the piece was more listenable than many other extreme-modernist pieces. However, just like with most extreme-modernism, it lacks good aesthetic expression.Rickardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08084578675339015204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-25018947917372676152014-07-07T16:51:31.597-05:002014-07-07T16:51:31.597-05:00For some inexplicable reason, Blogger is refusing ...For some inexplicable reason, Blogger is refusing to post a comment left on this post, but which I received in my email. So I will put it below, along with my response.<br /><br />from Christopher Culver:<br />"It’s a real pity that you came across these references to "Fourier transforms" and so forth, and that this made you form a preconception that spectral music is "mathematical". While spectralists have often used advanced technology, it’s to save work in realizing a sort of sound that they wanted to achieve from the start. Spectralism after all goes back to the late 1960s before anyone of these computers could tinker with computers. Indeed, founding father Gérard Grisey saw his work as standing very much in opposition to "mathematical" serialist and post-serialist trends of the time:<br /><br />"We are musicians and our model is sound not literature, sound not mathematics, sound not theatre, visual arts, quantum physics, geology, astrology or acupuncture".<br /><br />Grisey saw spectralism as an aesthetic concerned with one's perception of time. His pieces often speed up or slow down sounds to reveal a sort of inner life. Take, for example, his "Vortex Temporum" which kaleidoscopically presents a quotation from Ravel in innumerable guises (fast, slow, sine wave, square wave, with this or that formant louder than the others), or "Partiels" that assigns the same sound as a trombone timbre to various instruments of an orchestra but vastly slower.<br /><br />Murail, on the other hand, is a more conventionally "France" composer very much working in the vein of Debussy, Ravel, and Messiaen ("Gondwana" quotes Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony). He is concerned with mood and atmosphere instead of Romantic pathos. Why you would expect everyone to sound like Petersson, who represented only one particular scene within classical music -- the Germanic/Nordic symphonic tradition -- is beyond me."<br /><br />Christopher, usually your comments are very fair and informative, but this one seems not to meet that standard. First of all I "came across" those references to Fourier transforms because they formed the core of the discussion of spectralism in the Wikipedia article. You make it sound as if I dug it up somewhere obscure. Second, as was perfectly clear in the post, my sense of how these folks work was derived from an acquaintance in Montreal who used these methods. Not a "preconception" but a simple observation.<br /><br />Why I chose the counter-example of Pettersson was also make perfectly clear in the post: it was the most radically different approach to composition I could think of at the time. I certainly don't expect everyone to sound like Pettersson--in fact, I don't expect anyone to. Really, has the internet caused everyone to lose sight of how to further a discussion? If you want to attack straw men, do so elsewhere!Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-15166614884180739422014-07-07T16:28:18.414-05:002014-07-07T16:28:18.414-05:00It’s a real pity that you came across these refere...It’s a real pity that you came across these references to "Fourier transforms" and so forth, and that this made you form a preconception that spectral music is "mathematical". While spectralists have often used advanced technology, it’s to save work in realizing a sort of sound that they wanted to achieve from the start. Spectralism after all goes back to the late 1960s before anyone of these computers could tinker with computers. Indeed, founding father Gérard Grisey saw his work as standing very much in opposition to "mathematical" serialist and post-serialist trends of the time:<br /><br />"We are musicians and our model is sound not literature, sound not mathematics, sound not theatre, visual arts, quantum physics, geology, astrology or acupuncture".<br /><br />Grisey saw spectralism as an aesthetic concerned with one's perception of time. His pieces often speed up or slow down sounds to reveal a sort of inner life. Take, for example, his "Vortex Temporum" which kaleidoscopically presents a quotation from Ravel in innumerable guises (fast, slow, sine wave, square wave, with this or that formant louder than the others), or "Partiels" that assigns the same sound as a trombone timbre to various instruments of an orchestra but vastly slower.<br /><br />Murail, on the other hand, is a more conventionally "France" composer very much working in the vein of Debussy, Ravel, and Messiaen ("Gondwana" quotes Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony). He is concerned with mood and atmosphere instead of Romantic pathos. Why you would expect everyone to sound like Petersson, who represented only one particular scene within classical music -- the Germanic/Nordic symphonic tradition -- is beyond me.Christopher Culverhttp://www.christopherculver.comnoreply@blogger.com