Composers Forum is a daily web log that allows invited contemporary composers to share their thoughts and ideas on any topic that interests them--from the ethereal, like how new music gets created, music history, theory, performance, other composers, alive or dead, to the mundane, like getting works played and recorded and the joys of teaching. If you're a professional composer and would like to participate, send us an e-mail.
Composer Blogs@
Sequenza21.com
Lawrence Dillon
Elodie Lauten
Judith Lang Zaimont
Everette Minchew
Tom Myron
|
Latest Posts
thoughts on influence
Rodney Lister
influence
Lawrence Dillon
The (Non-)Anxiety of Influence
Tom Myron
The Ethics of an (Autocratic?) Education
Corey Dargel
Well, since you asked...
Rodney Lister
Words, Music, and Performance
Corey Dargel
what works have most influenced my music
Beth Anderson
Name That Tune
Jerry Bowles
Posted by [Dysfunctional]
Corey Dargel
Start Reading This Blog
Galen H. Brown
|
|
Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for review. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019
|
Archives
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Monday, January 03, 2005
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Friday, January 07, 2005
Monday, January 10, 2005
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Friday, January 14, 2005
Monday, January 17, 2005
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Friday, January 21, 2005
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Monday, January 24, 2005
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Friday, January 28, 2005
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Friday, February 04, 2005
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Monday, February 14, 2005
Friday, February 18, 2005
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Monday, February 21, 2005
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Friday, February 25, 2005
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Monday, February 28, 2005
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Friday, March 04, 2005
Monday, March 07, 2005
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Friday, March 11, 2005
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Friday, March 18, 2005
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Monday, March 21, 2005
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Friday, March 25, 2005
Monday, March 28, 2005
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Monday, April 04, 2005
|
|
Friday, March 25, 2005
Apparently, On Sequenza21 You Can Have It Both Ways
With regard to Corey and Judith’s recent exchange: it’s wonderful to have a forum in which the same situation can be viewed so differently. I agree 100% with Corey’s assessment, especially the last two paragraphs, and especially the comment that “These composers are hardly ever embraced by panels, foundations, musical institutions, or academic institutions, not to mention the Pulitzer people.” If I’m not mistaken (and someone correct me if I’m wrong), one of the reasons a composer “goes downtown” -- physically or metaphorically -- is because s/he is rejecting -- artistically, philosophically and/or socially -- the perceived ossification of the uptown scene. Isn’t that true?
Corey’s conclusion, that Downtowners need a strong sense of community in order to offset their alienation from uptown institutions, is right on target, and makes much more sense than complaints that Uptown ensembles don’t play enough (or any, depending on who you talk to) Downtown music. After all, there are practical problems in playing much Downtown music that Downtown composers have solved in their own ways, problems that make it very difficult to perform both Uptown and Downtown music well under a single umbrella. Corey speaks of “alternative production values,” a locution I haven’t heard before, and one that I think sums up one of the issues very well: if an Uptown ensemble performs Downtown music with Uptown production values, what is the result?
I suppose an answer could be found in the last twenty years of Philip Glass.
In any case, Downtowners need to create their own support base, as Corey says. Kyle Gann has done amazing work to get this started, even though he has at times expressed a sense of hopelessness in his mission. For my part, I think he has had and continues to have much more of an impact than he realizes. And I’ve told him so. As far as I can tell, one of his main complaints is that non-Downtowners are sometimes labeled Downtown when they are only Downtown-influenced.
At the same time, I agree with Judith 100% -- there is no need for her, in her creative life, to make a distinction between Downtown and Uptown. She has developed a personal voice from her own balance of internal and external influences. That doesn’t make her anyone’s enemy. Any rift there may be between compositional camps is not really her responsibility or concern.
Does anyone else see a surprising cosmic shift in all of this? A generation ago, Uptown was all about ideology, and Downtown was all about Anything Goes. Now Corey is laying out a Downtown ideology, and Judith is calling these distinctions a “non-issue” -- Anything Goes.
(And my apologies, Judith, but I said I wouldn’t comment on the importance of 12-tone music, not the Uptown/Downtown issue.)
posted by Lawrence Dillon
8:01 PM
morton feldman writings
I became interested in Feldman's music early in 2004, having only heard a performance of Vertical Thoughts 4 while a student at the U of Chicago in the 80's. I used to look at a lot of his scores in the library there, but no more than I did anyone else's. Feldman's music really made an impression on me starting last year, and I've managed to cram about 3 GB of it all on my iPod, with most of his late music particularly well-represented (the really long pieces).
To be honest, I haven't felt this strongly about anyone's music since I got involved in minimalism in the late 70's, which had a major impact on my own music. Part of why I think I respond so much to Feldman's music is that there is an appreciation for sound, sparse textures, contemplation and also repetition (particularly in the later pieces). Some of his music is incredibly beautiful, but admittedly is an acquired taste (my wife derisively refers to it as "whale music" after I had For Christian Wolff playing in our kitchen one day).
Feldman was a very smart man, and wrote a lot about music. I recently obtained a copy of his collection of writings Give My Regards to Eighth Street for all of $7 on eBay and plowed through it pretty quickly. There is a great section where Feldman encounters several major conductors, all of whom praise his music, yet all of them will never perform Feldman's music themselves.
What is also very interesting is his opinions on academic music. He had some scorn for Boulez and Babbitt, and seemed to feel a bit left out by many mainstream musical organizations. His opinions are similar to mine, and in one essay I think he pretty much sums up my distaste for academic music and institutions in general:
"Art is a crucial, dangerous operation we perform on ourselves. Unless we take a chance, we die in art. It becomes increasingly obvious that to these fellows [academic composers who teach], music is not an art. It is a process of teaching teachers to teach teachers. In this process it is only natural that the music of the teacher will be no different from that of the teacher he's teaching. Academic freedom seems to be the comfort of knowing one is free to be academic."...
"Have you ever looked into the eyes of a survivor from the composition department of Princeton or Yale? He is on his way to tenure, but he's a drop-out in art. All the same, he continues...He writes a piece occasionally. It is played occasionally. There is always the possibility of a performance on the Gunther Schuller series. His pieces are well made., He is not without talent. The reviews aren't bad. A few awards–a Guggenheim,. and Arts and Letters, a Fulbright–this is the official musical life of America."
I think Feldman says it better than I could. It's a great collection of writings, and even if you dislike Feldman's music, is worth reading for his insight into composition, notation and painting. And then there are his comments about rugs in Crippled Symmetry...
posted by David Toub
1:33 PM
You Can't Have It All
Friends or Enemies? 
Zaimont’s piece won this competition in 1990, fifteen years ago. Friends and Enemies of New Music is certainly a worthy ensemble, but their performance history hardly bends toward downtown music. Here's a list of performed composers from their ensemble bio: Alla Borzova, Artur Kampela, Elliott Carter, David Del Tredici, Charles Dodge, Leon Kirchner, Thea Musgrave, Shulamit Ran, and Ned Rorem. Daniel Bernard Roumain is on the list as well, and he's the only one who might even remotely be considered downtown, but that's a whole other discussion...
Zaimont's anecdote is exemplary of what true members of the downtown music community are so tired of: People from outside the community trying to impose their outsider definition onto the community. For me, these discussions are not about whether one style is better or worse than the other, but rather more about appropriation. Just because someone is influenced by downtown music doesn’t automatically make them a “downtown” composer. Zaimont is a great composer, but I seriously doubt that her music’s proposed uptown/downtown duality would be confirmed by a “panel” of genuine downtown composers/performers. I think it should go without saying that panels and composer competitions are pretty foreign to the downtown music scene, and I would be curious to know who was on the so-called downtown judging panel.
Certainly, in the 70s the downtown scene was extremely and uniformly different from the uptown scene, and the distinctions were much easier to make. Presently, the influence of early downtown music can sometimes be heard in uptown circles. That may be what tends to make the distinctions undesirable or irrelevant for some people.
However, there are still composers who, without incorporating uptown ideals, espouse and evolve a hardcore downtown musical aesthetic -- amplified instruments and vocals, ambient music, extreme repitition, genuine experimentation, disinterest in western ideas about classical form/drama, writing in a genuinely pop-influenced style rather than making concert music that “refers” to popular music, etc. -- and who operate with a downtown philosophy -- alternative production values and audience-building techniques, idiosyncratic performance-practice, venues, and other extra-musical qualities.
These composers are hardly ever embraced by panels, foundations, musical institutions, or academic institutions, not to mention the Pulitzer people… It is, therefore, important for them to have an identity and community where they can find support. This is a big reason why, for me, the downtown/uptown distinction is (still) important and legitimate.
posted by Corey Dargel
12:06 PM
Up/Down/Aroundtown
For me this is a non-issue. Following is one anecdote, and a final observation on the subject.
Anecdote: In 1990 I entered a piece in the Friends and Enemies of New Music composer competition ( a trio, DANCE/INNER DANCE). When I got the call to say it had won, I was also told wryly that my piece posed a problem for the competition administrators:
Two judging panels had been set up, one for Uptown composers, the other for Downtown folks -- and it was assumed that each would pick a piece according to preferred stylistic orientation, and that two winning works would duke it out at the concert.
But both sets of judges picked my trio -- so no resultant 'wrestling match'.
Observation:
What counts in music ultimately is the 'stuff' of it, not how it's said. Excellence in content, shapely realization, and fitting its chosen time-frame well are paramount. The style/manner has to gibe with the intent -- but it's the CONtent that counts.
Like Lawrence Dillon, I'll now say no more on this subject.
posted by Judith Lang Zaimont
10:29 AM
Church Music
Since this is Good Friday and music and religion have a long and distinguished common history, I thought a good topic might be music that has a religious basis. The church and synagogue have long been a source of inspiration for both composers and painters and many of the most respected modern composers--Messiaen, Part, Tavener, for example--write almost exclusively music inspired by their personal faith. Have any of our worthy composers ever written religious pieces? What are some of your favorite pieces?
(You don't have to be religious to play. I believe Verdi wrote his Requiem for a fee and for a man he didn't even know.)
posted by Jerry Bowles
9:38 AM
|
|
