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Subjectivism

What is Subjectivism?

 The world as you experience it, through your own thoughts and feelings, is more important than anything else.

Popular posts from this blog

What is Stockhausen's legacy?

Karlheinz Stockhausen is one of the most important composers of the post war era. He is partially responsible for the creation of the post war modernist music.   But what is his true legacy? Was he the leading composer in his field? Did he invent the 'timbralist' idea of generating music from a single sound? Well, he did accomplish that concept with  "Stimmung'' (Voice) which is completely designed around the single chord of a B flat ninth . But he wasn't the first.  Giacinto Scelsi wrote "Quatro pezzi per orchestre" which is based a single note per movement and that work was written in 1959. Quatro pezzi per orchestre - Scelsi I seriously doubt whether Stockhausen knew about Scelsi's achievement when he wrote Stimmung in 1977. Perhaps one of his greatest works  is " Gruppen'' (Groups) composed for three orchestras. Did it change the way we use the orchestra?  He was a pioneer, especially in the early stages of hi...
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Schonberg - Josef Hauer

In your blog post on "the shadow lurking behind every genius," I delved into the influences behind great composers' output, but you might have omitted a few noteworthy figures. While Arnold Schoenberg is widely recognized as the inventor of the series system in the early 1920s, it's essential to question whether he was truly the only one to devise chromatic methodology. Have you ever heard of Josef Hauer? Interestingly, Josef Hauer was a composer who also explored the concept of twelve-tone composition around the same time as Schoenberg. In fact, the last movement of Arnold Schönberg's Fünf Klavierstücke, Opus 23 (1923) marked the first instance of his 'Method of Composing with Twelve Tones which are related only with one another.' This method, known as serialism or dodecaphonic music, is significantly different from previous compositions because it exclusively employs a set of twelve different tones, avoiding repetition within the series and encompassing ...
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In the shadow of a genius.

Recently, I have discovered a fascinating revelation about the composers we admire so much.  That behind many geniuses, there usually is a predecessor lurking in the background.  It reminds of that often quoted phrase by Picasso A  good  artist borrows and  great  artist steals Now, I am not suggesting that the composers who I mention are stealing peoples' ideas - there is no evidence to support that fact.  However, I am suggesting that the idea of a genius who came from nowhere may not be accurate.  Let's take the case of Ernest Fanelli.  Who? You might ask.  He is a significant but unknown person in the development of impressionism.  He is an Italian born composer living in Paris.  He composed a good deal of 'new' music at the end of the nineteenth century.  His ideas were quite radical; his instrumentation included harmonics, sul pont., he used wordless choruses.  Unfortunately, he wasn't as talen...
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