Klarinet Archive - Posting 000863.txt from 1998/01

From: "Benjamin A. Maas" <bmaas@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Music: Modern vs. 'Old'
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 00:08:57 -0500

After looking at this thread, I finally feel compelled to throw in my two
cents.

As the executive director (and clarinetist) of a contemporary music
ensemble, I have some rather strong feelings about the place of contemporary
music in our repertoire.

First of all, I don't consider everything written in the 20th century
"modern" music. don't like generalizations, but I would consider something
written in the past 15-20 years (tops) to be contemporary. I don't consider
Copland, Nielsen, Hindemith or Bartok to be modern. They are 20th century,
but certainly not current. Rouse, Daugherty, Schwantner, Crocket, Adams,
etc.... They are "modern" "contemporary" composers.

The general problem with the acceptance of contemporary music is much of it
leading into the 60's was written by serialists and people who didn't really
care if it alienated the audience. Because of composers like Babbit,
Martino, (and early Germans like Berg, Webern and Schoenberg) and others,
contemporary music got a really bad rap. Babbit wrote an essay that
basically can be summarized to the phrase "Who cares if you listen?"

Today, many composers have taken a turn to writing music that is much more
accessible to the audience. They are taking a look back and incorporating
much of what has happened over the past several hundred years and
re-interpreting it through new eyes. Tonality is re-emerging in some cases.

Another thing: There are some really great "modern" works in the
repertoire. There are also some really bad works in the rep. The
difference is with the old, there has been a filter to weed out the bad. It
is called time. If there is a premiere of a bad piece, it might not be
remembered 20 years from now, but that is time's filter. It, however, is
heard by people and it reinforces this notion of contemporary music being
this big evil thing.

Oh well, I could spout on for pages, but I will save the bandwith. I am
sure I have hit a few nerves on this list. Reply On!!!! I like this kind
of discussion.

--Ben

Benjamin Maas
Clarinetist and Digital Recording Engineer
Student, University of Southern California
Executive Director, Digital Renaissance Consort
bmaas@-----.net
bmaas@-----.edu

   
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