WHERE ARE WE NOW?

Tempo ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (285) ◽  
pp. 70-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Shlomowitz
Keyword(s):  
New Music ◽  
Concert Hall ◽  
The Past ◽  
Critical Composition ◽  
Physical Action

AbstractThis article offers generalised reflections on current aesthetic interests and values within the field of new music. Critical composition and postmodernism are considered for the relevance these historic positions might hold today. Then two important trends of the past decade are presented: first, music that draws attention toward the sounding shape and act of listening, reflecting the recent surge of interest in materialism across academic and artistic disciplines; and second, pieces that include aspects such as physical action, lighting and theatrical approaches to expand the possibilities of concert hall work beyond the purely sonic.

scholarly journals Women, New Music and the Composition of Becomings

1970 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Macarthur
Keyword(s):  
Women Composers ◽  
New Music ◽  
Concert Hall ◽  
Music Practice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Music Centre

This article argues that ‘new’ music continues to replicate itself by being based on a set of outdated, inflexible practices which foster the centrality of the male, entrepreneurial, composing subject. Aesthetic distinctiveness has been muzzled because too many composers are competing for the same recognition and the same small ‘pot of money’, giving rise to musical mediocrity. The article notes that while the number of women composers studying music has increased in tertiary music institutions and points out that their representation by the Australian Music Centre has improved significantly over the past decade, these statistics are not reflected in the concert hall where women continue to be side-lined. It argues that the entrepreneurial performer is focused on the products created out of the already known and out of its masculinity and explores what would happen if music were composed out of its femininity and the unknown. It draws on Deleuze’s concept of ‘becoming’ to disturb the old ways of thinking, and to imagine a transformation of music practice which would make viable that music which has been traditionally silenced.

After Beethoven

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-168
Author(s):  
Mark Evan Bonds
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music ◽  
New Music ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Concert Hall ◽  
Public Nature

Beethoven’s style, composers and critics agreed, could not be imitated. But his subjectivity—or, more precisely, his perceived attitude of subjectivity—could be emulated quite readily, and it became the new norm soon after his death. Critics, moreover, heard compositional subjectivity not only in new music but also in selected works of the pre-Beethovenian past. In the meantime, the increasingly public nature of musical life created a growing demand for journals, miniature scores, and composer biographies that could help listeners comprehend an instrumental repertoire that was becoming stylistically ever more diverse and technically difficult. Composer biographies, a rarity before 1800, had become commonplace by mid-century. Concert-hall audiences now assumed that the instrumental music they were hearing came from deep within the soul of the composer.

Darmstadt 2016: the ‘Universal Mouth’

Tempo ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 71 (279) ◽  
pp. 86-87
Author(s):  
Stephanie Jones
Keyword(s):  
New Music ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Artistic Director

In the preface to the 2016 International Summer Course for New Music programme booklet, the festival's artistic director, Thomas Schäfer, repeated a question that Irvine Arditti had put to him when they were discussing the Arditti Quartet's concerts: ‘shall we attack the future or dig up the past?’. This question, posed in order to establish some form of discursive framework for the course, became a subliminal trace throughout the festival. The participants' bags, for instance, were imprinted with the slogan, ‘attack the future’ and Schäfer ended his preface by stating, ‘let me call out to everyone involved, and to our audience: let's attack the future!’. The air of the festival itself, however, seemed slightly more reserved throughout its lengthy 17-day span. There were, of course, moments of theatrical flamboyance, such as Fantasises of Downfall (2015) by Johannes Kreidler, metalized void (2015/16) by Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, The Lichtenberg Figures (2014/15) by Eva Reiter, Sideshow (2009/15) by Steven Kazuo Takasugi, EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT (2015/16) by Jennifer Walshe, and Living Instruments (2015) by Serge Vuille. Yet, overall the atmosphere of the festival seemed to be one of quiet vigilance as events unfolded.

Los Angeles: the Walt Disney Concert Hall and New Music

Tempo ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (229) ◽  
pp. 78-79
Author(s):  
Gil French
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
New Music ◽  
Concert Hall ◽  
Walt Disney

What better event to proclaim the potential of Los Angeles's new Walt Disney Concert Hall than a bicentennial celebration of the birth of Berlioz with Simon McBurney's Theatre de Complicité of London and Esa-Pekka Salonen's Los Angeles Philharmonic?

scholarly journals Past music, future music: Technology and music institutions in the 20th century

New Sound ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
Marija Maglov
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Music Technology ◽  
New Music ◽  
Music Practice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Pierre Boulez ◽  
The Future ◽  
Progressive Technology ◽  
Point Of Departure

In his text Technology and the Composer Pierre Boulez writes about new technologies that emerged in the 20th century, primarily created for the purposes of music recording and reproduction, but also established as a means of innovation in electronic and electro-acoustic music practice. Boulez points to two directions where technology and music are in question: conservative historicism and progressive technology, enabling the development of new music material and innovation. By using Boulez's text(s) as a point of departure, the author considers the roles those new technologies had in the development of some musical institutions and questions how institutionalized discourse molds ideas on the roles music technology should have. The aim of the paper is to discuss how the music of the past was 'conserved' and how the music of the future was created in particular types of music institutions thanks to new technological possibilities.

scholarly journals Bruno Maderna’s Serial Arrays

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Neidhöfer
Keyword(s):  
New Music ◽  
Musical Expression ◽  
Twelve Tone ◽  
Pitch Class ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Rhythmic Language

A central figure at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music in the 1950s, Bruno Maderna (1920–73) pioneered a type of serialism that was as deeply rooted in the contrapuntal tradition of the past, as it was committed to the exploration of new avenues in musical expression. This article investigates the serial arrays that lie at the core of his works written between 1951 and 1956. The constructive principles behind Maderna’s tone rows are explained, as are the ways in which he subjected them to order permutations that he represented graphically in matrices, tabulating order positions and pitch-class space. The article further examines how Maderna’s matrices served as the source for his rhythmic language. With evidence from the sketch materials and other sources, the analyses show how Maderna designed his serial arrays in response to what he considered to have been the shortcomings of the twelve-tone technique.

The News: a video-opera by Jacob ter Veldhuis; Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, two singers and film UrWald: new music-theatre by Arnoud Noordegraaf; Niewe Amsterdams Peil Ensemble, actor and film Muziekgebow aan 't IJ, Amsterdam (October 2013)

Tempo ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 68 (268) ◽  
pp. 89-91
Author(s):  
Sarah Jeffery
Keyword(s):  
Classical Music ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Petri Dish ◽  
New Music ◽  
First Century ◽  
Concert Hall ◽  
Very Old ◽  
Music Scene ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Piano Playing

The Amsterdam contemporary music scene has long been known for its open-mindedness and willingness to explore, and any given evening can be a toss-up between electronic clog dance (served with soup) or piano-playing dogs. A petri dish of creativity, this is given a podium and a voice by the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. This edifice of concrete and glass, moored like an industrial spaceship on the banks of the river IJ, is branded in English as the ‘Concert Hall of the twenty-first century’, and indeed their flavourful mix of programming celebrates the more unusual sides of classical music, from the very old to the very new, from Gesualdo consorts to dirty electronics.

New Music Biennial, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Tempo ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (271) ◽  
pp. 79-81
Author(s):  
David Lee
Keyword(s):  
New Music ◽  
Concert Hall ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Concert Halls ◽  
New City ◽  
Commonwealth Games ◽  
Selection Of

Amidst the wide range of events staged as part of Glasgow's 2014 Cultural Programme in celebration of the Commonwealth Games, the New Music Biennial Showcase occupied the closing weekend of the Games. Hosted at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 1 and 2 August, it made use of three separate performances spaces: the main hall, the newly redeveloped Strathclyde Suite and the more intimate brand new City of Music Studio. As at its London partner event, which took place between 4 and 6 July at the Southbank Centre, audiences were provided with an opportunity to hear 20 new commissions from a diverse selection of composers from across Britain, each of which had already been performed across the country in a variety of locations, ranging from skate parks to concert halls.

PERENNIAL QUESTIONS

Tempo ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 57 (223) ◽  
pp. 42-45
Author(s):  
Julian Silverman
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Contemporary Problem ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
New Music ◽  
Definitive Answer ◽  
The Past ◽  
Single Author ◽  
Musical Activity ◽  
Good Point

(Editor's Note: in the late 1960s Tempo featured a regular column written by the late Hans Keller entitled ‘The Contemporary Problem’ – an attempt, in the author's inimitable fashion, to probe behind current musical events and put them in perspective. Partly through the nature of that perspective the feature generated lively correspondence. It is our hope to provide a similar service for the 21st century with a new, occasional series of articles by different hands. Rather than suggest that contemporary music has (or is) a problem, or for a single author to encompass it about with obiter dicta, the idea is for writers to sound off about the broader issues of performance, asthetics, comprehension and silent assumption that happen to concern them and which underlie much contemporary musical activity and composition – to ask questions which have been around as long as music has, which rarely get asked and which perhaps have no definitive answer. (They are perhaps all aspects of the largest question of all: ‘What is new music FOR?’)The editor will gladly consider topics, proposals, or answers to these PQs from all quarters. Meanwhile the following essay by Julian Silverman, sparked off by reading the letter from the Scottish composer David Johnson in Tempo 222 (October 2002) – itself prompted by features in two previous issues – seems a good point at which to launch this occasional series. Nothing is more perennial, especially in this age of maximum availability of recorded repertoire, than the question of what do about the past, which is always with us.)

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document