Introducing contemporary music to a different audience
- 23 October, 2007
- 4 Comments
Naxos recently released Sonic Rebellion (Naxos 8570760), a collection of new music designed for an audience which normally doesn’t listen to new music. Ach, I can hear the collective groans out there…
But Soundcheck just listed it as one of its “CDs of the Week,” despite a couple of reservations on the part of Brian Wise who didn’t like the cover and took issue with “questionable edits” in Terry Riley’s In C.
I guess this is where the groans start again?
In C is such an important piece, how can one excerpt it, or should one? No composer wants a work taken out of context, but for a sampler designed to give a different audience a sense of an important work, maybe there is a case to be made? We want audiences to come hear our music, yet we often still expect them to swallow it whole. Sometimes, that isn’t always possible. (Just FYI: there was no “fade-up” in this track as Wise suggested, although I’m not sure that will make any difference to those who object.)
That said, all in all, it was a great write-up for a disc which includes music of composers such as Cage, Glass, Henze, Ligeti, Nancarrow, Scelsi, Plaetner, Gubaidulina and Rautavaara, among others. And, for anyone interested, all the other works on Sonic Rebellion are either complete pieces (Penderecki’s Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, for example), or complete movements, which have been taken from a larger work (Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto No. 1, second movement, Andante). Finally, the liner notes list the CD title and number so listeners who want to explore an entire work, can do so as well.
I’m not sure the new music community will applaud this kind of effort. But I listened to the disc, as skeptical as anyone, and was surprised how well it held together. Personally, I think there is a place for intelligent samplers.
Discuss? Please no hate mail.
Copyright © 2013
The problem is that aficionados (of which I am one) are so focussed on the nuances and differences between samples and generally have such depth of knowledge in their pet area that the very idea of choosing something representative is counterintuitive. In short, everything is important in its own way. Is Beethoven 9 representative of the Classical era? Romantic? The Symphony? Is there anything else like it?
In purely practical terms, trying to capture 50 years of music in 70 minutes is impossible without judicious use of the delete button. Another editor, given the same source material, would make different selections based his own experiences and preferences. Neither product is inherently better than the other.
That being said, there is a great need for intelligent samplers compiled from well-thought out source material. ClassicFM radio and its compatriots are prime examples of what happens when the lowest common denominator is catered to. Discs like the 100 Greatest Adagios are nothing but a compilation of the 100 Adagios. Without the outer movements, the Adagios are devoid of the context that makes them sublime.
Yes, I largely agree with you and I come from the same perspective. However, when you think about it we are all at the mercy of editors—whether they come in the form of our teachers, friends, another professional—and dare I say ourselves?
When I was in conservatory, my professors decided what performances and works to play in my theory, orchestration, counterpoint, and music history courses. Oftentimes—and for the sake of time—there was only enough time to hear a snip or a movement of a work. Of course, this is different than someone making a “choice” for you and putting it on a CD for sale.
As a general rule I too take a dim view of “samplers.” But I am a serious collector and it is unlikely I would be going for that kind of introduction to music–at least for not classical or contemporary concert music.
However, everyone has to start somewhere. And in certain areas of music, where, for example, I have no background a sampler might be the way to go. Who knows. We all have our areas of expertise and in my case a heavy metal sampler might be perfect introduction?
100 Famous Adagios, well, what can one say? I couldn’t possibly disagree with you there.
I, for one, strongly applaud the effort of your Naxos sampler, which I listened to, in full, twice last week (and cited, briefly, on my blog). Somehow, while listening I focused more on your title ‘Alternative Classics’, than on ‘Sonic Rebellion’ (though I was well aware of Varese’s, Nancarrow’s, and Penderecki’s roles as sonic rebels and also the title’s remembrances of the Sonic Youth band — included by Mr Ross in his book for their experiments with tuning and probably much else).
I found the CD very well produced and annotated. (I ‘respected’ more than ‘loved’ the pink and black lacey, cover art;, but cover art is not my specialty, and I thought it nice that Naxos was promoting the work of a living artist/designer by prominently including her website.)
Yes, I too found the Riley ‘In C’ extract a little bit jarring; but no more so than on other such samplers. It should be mentioned for readers here that the ‘In C’ version that you included was the superb vocal, instrumental, and fairly improvisational version released by ARS NOVA and Paul Hilliard on a companion label. (After my second listen to your sampler, I found my first Bang on a Can Cantalope sampler and listened twice to the selection from Reich’s ‘Tellihim’ by Alarm Will Sound — the two superb recordings made nice companions).
I was very excited by the range of the contemporary catalogue you highlighted. I thought that it began well with the brooding (and slightly ambient) Glass Sym #4, and ended well with the very well performed (Hungarian Orchestra) Arvo Part ‘Fratres’ (with the powerful, long, lush Rautavaara movement just before that — from the piano concerto, which I now think is probably finer than his violin concerto, which I know better).
I was thrilled by the superbly produced excerpt from Varese’s ‘Deserts’, as well as the important Scelsi and especially the George Crumb ‘Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death’ (which I thought might have been a bit longer).
The Varese sent me back to me Boulez Sony Varese, which I listened to in full and then listened again to your powerful ‘Deserts’ largely electronic sample.
The Danish Plaetner electronic piece was a very interesting inclusion. I did not know this composer.
The Cage, Henze, Ligeti, Nancarrow, and Gubaidulina excerpts were a little less powerful, in my opinion, though you were correct to include them; and all of the notes were excellent. (I own your Ligeti and Gubaidulina CDs and find them highly satisfactory.)
The full Penderecki was a fantastic gift to the contemporary music world; though I perhaps would have put it closer to the middle of the compilation rather than second. (But you all on the experts on these things.)
All in all, a wonderful and powerful sampler; and one which I would have thought would have been talked about more and earlier here at Sequenza21.
Thanks for promoting Contemporary Music, as well as American Classical Music, and 21st Century Music.
I’m going to go out and buy the Naxos Crumb album which contains the full and highly important “Songs, Drones & Refrains Of Death”; which I’m not sure whether I have listened to since I heard it performed, live, freshman year. I’ll pick with the Varese “Deserts” shortly after that.
I don’t have a problem with it. Yeah, from our long and intimate involvement with these pieces and all their corollary, we tend to say “but what about?…”, or “you can’t just play that section without also giving them…”. But then , it’s *not* for us; or rather, it *is* for us, but the “us” that we were at 14 or 18, poking around for we knew not what. Great as they are, it’s the 21st century and time to have a sampler that goes beyond Stravinsky’s “Rite”, Bartok’s “Concerto for Orchestra”, et al… That a person’s first exposure to “modern music” will be Scelsi, Ligeti and Riley instead of Stravinsky, Bartok and Copland, *has* to change their perspective and development. I myself cringe a bit hearing the excerpting and “greatest hits” of the “OHM” sampler discs of electronic music. But they’ve been incredibly popular *and* effective, at introducing a bunch of pop-beat-laptop kids to a related wider world that’s been all around them the whole time.