Author: rgames
Date: 2010-12-30 18:51
New music - a contentious topic, to be sure...
There is, in fact, a lot *more* new music now than ever before. I'd be willing to bet that half of the music on iTunes was created after 1960. So the discussion is not really about *new* music, it's about *new concert* music.
The trouble in the concert music world is that composers have been struggling to find the next great movement. We're in a period of concert music doldrums, so to speak: the concert music ship is drifting in a sea of attempts but nothing in the last 30 - 40 years has really filled the sails and pushed it in a new direction (i.e. one that audiences embrace).
The problem is not for lack of trying (there are also more composers now than ever before). However, audiences have not found anything that excites them about concert music. As stated above, much new concert music is extremely academic, so it doesn't resonate with audiences.
In my opinion, it is precisely that academic focus that is driving concertgoers away from the concert halls. Music isn't about the brain; it's about the heart. True masterpieces touch both, but it needs to start with emotion. Concertgoers don't listen while thinking about harmony and counterpoint - they think about the overall impact. And if the overall impact is non-existent or negative, well, they won't think about it for very long.
Over the last 50 years, concert halls have emptied while music shool halls have filled. Coincidence? Unless composers and musicians once again begin to embrace emotion as the basis of music, my belief is that the decline will continue.
Music will never go away. However, maybe concert music is a style that peaked and is now in decline. Perhaps we can never do better than the pinnacle we reached in the first half of the 20th century. I hope not, but it is a possibility.
One thing that the concert music audiences need to do is accept the role of technology in music. I have often encountered "classical music lovers" who dismiss anything with elements of modern music production (e.g. electronic instruments). Brass instruments now have valves. Woodwind instruments now have additional keys. Both of those changes were due to technological advances and most composers embraced them (Brahms is a notable exception, but how many current horn players pull out the natural horn to play his symphonies?).
Technology has always worked its way into music. It should be embraced as a new means for artistic expression.
rgames
____________________________
Richard G. Ames
Composer - Arranger - Producer
www.rgamesmusic.com
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