So I have a confession to make - I can really only stand modern music up to Stravinsky and then I become askew.
Bernstein is good,* my ex-husband was great, but otherwise, if I see the words :
IRCAM,
Dynamic spectra,
Efficient antialiasing oscillator algorithms using low-order fractional delay filters,
Smog Musicians (Yes - Smog Musicians. As I know one of them I will attempt to be kind and therefore will refer you to an explanation from their interview on wired.com: "We’re trying to take the rich set of patterns you find in music and apply that to air-pollution data so they become audible,” says G_____ of the University of California at Berkeley’s Center for New Media. G_____and Stanford University electronic music composer C____ take air-quality data sampled in locations then turn the measurements into herky-jerky free jazz that streams for registered users on their
or even this (which makes no sense even when translated):
“Tout dispositif qui permet d'obtenir une collection variée d'objets sonores—ou des objets sonores variés—toute en maintenant à l'esprit la permanence d'une cause, est un instrument de musique, au sens traditionnel d'une éxperience commune à toutes les civilisations.
Free translation: Any device that allows us to obtain a varied collection of sound objects—or varied sound objects—while keeping at heart the permanence of a cause is a musical instrument, in the traditional sense of an experience common to all civilizations.
Maybe a PAID translation might illuminate -
If I see any of these things - I do not suddenly start to hum, or whistle a happy tune or stand rapt with tears flowing down my cheeks. Well hold it - there are, often, tears slushing down my cheeks during concerts that involve rubber tubing attached to a trumpet and toilet plungers used as triangles, but they are either tears of helpless giggles or barely suppressed rage.
Heard two pieces by Stravinsky this weekend. One was 4 folk tunes sung in a festival of modern female choruses - it was pretty awful, the piece. What was extraordinary was the number of pieces that have been composed in the last 50 years for women's voices. And for women's voices in such close harmony. And although I found myself really quite impressed, by the end of the day, I felt as though I had just been anointed grand pooh-bah of the world-wide Tinnitus Association.
SNBF** said, ' We need to be open to all sorts of music'
I replied, 'Why'
He said, 'Good point, buckaroo!' Well he didn't actually say buckaroo, but you get the point.
Luckily I didn't have to end the weekend on such a one note - make that 7 or 8 notes that should be one note - performance.
The previous evening heard the (and here I endorse) the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra http://www.sfchamberorchestra.org and their innovative Incredible Shrinking Orchestra Project, featuring the new chamber orchestration of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.
A 14 piece orchestra playing what one would normally assume just had to be played with great bombastic clarity by a full symphony orchestra. It was a perfect performance. I don't think I have heard anything as innovative since I had to modify my youngest daughter's language for our tri-annual visit to Des Moines (you try to get a 3 year-old not to say 'Jesus H. Christ' in front of right-wing evangelical grandparents).
I am now convinced that Stravinsky ought to be played by cafe bands. In cafes. In Paris.
A bravo to all modern music that can end with some sort of intact chordal progression.
Otherwise get thee all to a nunnery and stay there. In silence. And no visitors allowed. Just grow your herbs and be subject to plagal cadences and V-I harmonic progressions while your days stretch into years and you repent your dyspeptic early careers as academic composers.
Good Day Sirs.
* Bernstein is DOUBLE GREAT but scans better as good
**SNBF does not stand for the SuperNatural Bodybuilding and Fitness Assoc. but is cutesy-pie designation for boyfriend
