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Posted by Dominy Clements on November 20, 2007, 4:42 pm, in reply to "Classical Music"
194.171.57.1
This is indeed true for certain elements in contemporary music, but by no means all. Manheim points to the 'futurist' attitude of certain composers, who deliberately make attempts to go beyond traditional structures, harmonies and instrumentation. If you want to look at this in a positive light then it can be seen as research, not all of whose experiments are successful, but not all of which should necessarily be tarred with the same brush. There are plenty of examples in jazz and rock which are every bit as awful as some contemporary classical music. One has to be careful, but in general all of these (including classical) can be identified by cloying pretension, intellectual posturing, the heaping of style, artificial symbolism and technique(s) over content, and an unassailable air of self-importance. There may be other features, and I agree than the turning of one's back on any kind of communication with an audience is, more often than not, one of them. Pushing the boundaries of tradition, and the discoveries of renewal and originality need not however result in aversion-therapy concert programming. Following the lines drawn through folk music via Beethoven, as mentioned, brings us to composers such as Ligeti, and even Reich (if you accept African music as folk). Looking at jazz related work we can point to Tuur, Nancarrow, Reich (again) and loads of others. The lines running from the church traditions bring us to Part, Messiaen etc. I don't have my reference books to hand otherwise I could go on ad nauseum. There are so many examples whose ancestry and traditions CAN be traced, that it seems a shame to throw up a shield against modern music just because there is a minority whose work and and motives passeth all understanding.
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