Comments on: The current state of classical music http://www.markbuller.com/2008/06/classical-today/ composer Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:48:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Mark Buller http://www.markbuller.com/2008/06/classical-today/#comment-9 Mark Buller Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:40:50 +0000 http://www.markbuller.com/?p=15#comment-9 Music that is unfamiliar is often unwelcome; music critic Tim Page used to host a weekly hour-long program for a radio station in New York. The program was dedicated to airing modern, unfamiliar works (so desperately needed on classical radio!), but one day Page decided to play works by 12th-century French composer Perotin. Perotin's music often features parallel (and relentless!) fourths, so it sounds somewhat 'ugly' to our ears. Page soon recieved a call from a listener who berated him for playing all that terribly modern music, ending with the declaration that Page had ruined his entire day! Another thing that strikes me as very interesting is perusal of critical acclaim for works now in the general repertoire; for instance, critics of Monteverdi's day attacked "L'Orfeo" for grating on the ears, and critics in Chopin's day berated his relentless use of dissonance in the Mazurkas. Even Beethoven had to put up with naysayers, who had a heyday with his third symphony! Now, I doubt that in 300 years Joe from off the street will listen to Boulez in all of his totally-serialized glory and revel in the experience as we do listening to Rachmaninoff or even some Whitacre (Sleep, Lux), but I sincerely believe that listeners of the future will love Adams, Corigliano, Reich, Kernis... Music that is unfamiliar is often unwelcome; music critic Tim Page used to host a weekly hour-long program for a radio station in New York. The program was dedicated to airing modern, unfamiliar works (so desperately needed on classical radio!), but one day Page decided to play works by 12th-century French composer Perotin. Perotin’s music often features parallel (and relentless!) fourths, so it sounds somewhat ‘ugly’ to our ears. Page soon recieved a call from a listener who berated him for playing all that terribly modern music, ending with the declaration that Page had ruined his entire day!

Another thing that strikes me as very interesting is perusal of critical acclaim for works now in the general repertoire; for instance, critics of Monteverdi’s day attacked “L’Orfeo” for grating on the ears, and critics in Chopin’s day berated his relentless use of dissonance in the Mazurkas. Even Beethoven had to put up with naysayers, who had a heyday with his third symphony! Now, I doubt that in 300 years Joe from off the street will listen to Boulez in all of his totally-serialized glory and revel in the experience as we do listening to Rachmaninoff or even some Whitacre (Sleep, Lux), but I sincerely believe that listeners of the future will love Adams, Corigliano, Reich, Kernis…

]]> By: Dustin Battles http://www.markbuller.com/2008/06/classical-today/#comment-8 Dustin Battles Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:48:06 +0000 http://www.markbuller.com/?p=15#comment-8 To be honest, I am not familiar with most of the composers you wrote about, but I know the concepts of which you are speaking. I am glad composers like Whitacre and Lauridsen use both dissonance and consonance. Some of which a normal, untrained audience could listen to. Other songs of the aforementioned composers an untrained audience would call "weird." I will never forget when my mother went with me to a Chorale concert a few years ago. It was the "Alleluia" concert, which I thought was a very strong concert, both performance-wise and repertoire-wise. I turned my my mom with a big grin on my face and asked her, "What did you think?!?" She looks at me with a confused look and said, "Umm...it was...interesting. I guess I am just not used to it." My mom is a musician who plays organ and sings a solid alto, but the Chorale sound was not pleasing to her ears. I think when it comes down to it, some music, no matter how well performed or written, will always be foreign and unpleasant to a normal person's ears. It is, in my opinion, the duty of the composer to write music that brings a person up (i.e. increases his learning and comfortableness), but does not leave them in the dust culturally either. This is why Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach continue to be popular. If you ask a person on the street to name a classical music composer, I would imagine these three names would be at the top of the list. They wrote stuff that was a musical foundation for years to come, while still being incredibly complex, and easy to listen to. But that's just my two cents worth :) To be honest, I am not familiar with most of the composers you wrote about, but I know the concepts of which you are speaking.

I am glad composers like Whitacre and Lauridsen use both dissonance and consonance. Some of which a normal, untrained audience could listen to. Other songs of the aforementioned composers an untrained audience would call “weird.”

I will never forget when my mother went with me to a Chorale concert a few years ago. It was the “Alleluia” concert, which I thought was a very strong concert, both performance-wise and repertoire-wise. I turned my my mom with a big grin on my face and asked her, “What did you think?!?” She looks at me with a confused look and said, “Umm…it was…interesting. I guess I am just not used to it.”

My mom is a musician who plays organ and sings a solid alto, but the Chorale sound was not pleasing to her ears. I think when it comes down to it, some music, no matter how well performed or written, will always be foreign and unpleasant to a normal person’s ears. It is, in my opinion, the duty of the composer to write music that brings a person up (i.e. increases his learning and comfortableness), but does not leave them in the dust culturally either.

This is why Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach continue to be popular. If you ask a person on the street to name a classical music composer, I would imagine these three names would be at the top of the list. They wrote stuff that was a musical foundation for years to come, while still being incredibly complex, and easy to listen to.

But that’s just my two cents worth :)

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