Admit it, you're as bored as I am

The Guardian ^ | Wednesday July 9, 2008 | Joe Queenan

[Borges]

After 40 years and 1,500 concerts, Joe Queenan is finally ready to say the unsayable: new classical music is absolute torture - and its fans have no reason to be so smug.

During a radio interview between acts at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, a famous singer recently said she could not understand why audiences were so reluctant to listen to new music, given that they were more than ready to attend sporting events whose outcome was uncertain. It was a daft analogy. Having spent most of the last century writing music few people were expected to understand, much less enjoy, the high priests of music were now portrayed as innocent victims of the public's lack of imagination. If they don't know in advance whether Nadal or Federer is going to win, but still love Wimbledon, why don't they enjoy it when an enraged percussionist plays a series of brutal, fragmented chords on his electric marimba? What's wrong with them?

The reason the sports analogy fails is because when Spain plays Germany, everyone knows that the game will be played with one ball, not eight; and that the final score will be 1-0 or 3-2 or even 8-1 - but definitely not 1,600,758 to Arf-Arf the Chalet Ate My Banana. The public may not know in advance what the score will be, but it at least understands the rules of the game. There is no denying that the people filling the great concert halls of the world are conservative, and in many cases reactionary: reluctant to take a flyer on music that wasn't recorded at least once by Toscanini. They know what they like and what they like is Mozart.

[Borges]

Copland syurpy? He was bascially a classicist, using very little means to achieve his ends. And the pre Americana stuff like the Variations for Piano are very stringent and hard to absorb (along with the post Americana stuff).

[Clemenza]

Getting captivated by modern music leads to Stockhausen Syndrome.

LOL!

Stockhausen, to say nothing of trying to get out of his record contract, inspired Lou Reed to compose this classic:

[Borges]

One music critic said that he once called the record company which originally put out the long out-of-print ‘Metal Machine Music’ to see if they would be releasing a digitally enhanced version anytime soon. He heard a giggle and the record co. exec hung up. When he heard the dial tone he thought they were playing him a newly enhanced version of ‘Metal Machine Music’.

[TAdams8591]

Actually, I liked a lot of the pop music in the 60's and 70's and even some in the 80's. I also like pop music from the 40's and 50's.

Today's pop music is either not music at all, or too bland to remember.

[TAdams8591]

Actually, I liked a lot of the pop music in the 60's and 70's and even some in the 80's. I also like pop music from the 40's and 50's.

Today's pop music is either not music at all, or too bland to remember.

[uglybiker]

And the music you like is what percentage of what was out at the time?

[TAdams8591]

I liked most of it so I would think it was a pretty large percentage at the time. Also, because there were so few marketing outlets, the music of that era was enjoyed by a good majority of the population, and it was unifying.

The situation today is vastly different.

[ADemocratNoMore]

I actually have a copy of this disk, (in CD-4 Quadradisk no less), and...

Caution, spoiler ahead...

Metal Machine Music is nothing but electric guitars feeding back through multiple amps, played back at double speed.

Personally, I like experimental electronic music, I make it myself, but there is a time and a place for it.

I agree with several of the posters about film music being the “true” form of modern classical, (or perhaps “a” true form), I think you can also look at the huge influx of new composers who are no longer dependent on access to an orchestra, thanks to modern sampling software and the ubiquity of the personal computer as a cheap but very powerful musical workstation. To hear work by some very talented amateurs, you can go to http://www.garritan.com/audio/index.html

I might also recommend Mike Oldfield's new album, Music of the Spheres, his first work written exclusively for orchestra, as well as the track “Mont St. Michel” on the album “Voyager”.

[jammer]

He was the most radical composer of his time.

Was he? Is "radical" the correct term, if it connotes making change and pushing the boundaries?

My thinking has been that Mozart represented the perfection--and I don't use that term lightly--of the classical period. Sure, radical is correct in the sense of developing within the parameters of the period. But I don't think we can really call anyone's music of the 18th and early 19th century "radical" in a larger sense until the Eroica.

[Borges]

I did say ‘of his time’. His music was considered overspiced and hard to follow. Some of his piano music anticipates Chopin. The 4th mvt. of the 40th symphony has an outright Schoenbergian tone row.

[jammer]

Fair enough. Uncareful reading on my part.

[aristotleman]

Harmonic language/counterpoint/thematic development/
-perfection of a style, yes. Radical at the same time, within the framework of the classical style. Beethoven was an early Romantic, radical in a different, new sense.

Contemporary music works just the same. I have an ear for it, and let me tell you it sounds no different to me than any other music. I just don’t understand people......

[jammer]

I think your first paragraph restates what I said.

I'm glad you have an ear for contemporary music. A lot of folks I respect greatly do, also. A lot of folks I respect greatly do not. I guess, no matter how hard I've tried for 40 years, I'm missing a lot, which I regret.

[aristotleman]

I like your perspective. I think, having an ear for contemporary music is like having the palate for bitters, or peaty scotch, or strong Thai food. It either comes naturally, and then you cultivate it, or it doesn’t, and in that case you will never be able to find it palatable.