Earlier, I supported this project... "I don't normally do this but I think it is significant enough project to put my backing behind it. Dan Goren, formally of the BMIC, is creating a magazine for contemporary music with the curious title, "Sounds Like Now"(What does the word 'like' mean?). The intention, I believe, is to showcase, educate and promote the best of British contemporary music. At the moment, he is close to reaching his goal of £18,000 to get the project running. He needs your support. His project can be found here: sounds-like-now " It reached its goal of £18,000 and should have been completed. But can anyone tell me what is happening now? Update...I have spotted them. They are here: https://www.soundslikenow.net/my-listening-xenia-pestova/ I was wondering...How are they going to get more subscribers if they don't allow new viewers full access to their articles?
Posts
As the US elections approach, let's reflect on a curious proposal from one of the 2016 presidential candidates, Ted Cruz. In an unusual stance, he suggested banning the tritone due to its alleged satanic association. This idea may strike some as reminiscent of medieval thinking, considering the tritone's historical association with the "devil in music." While such views might seem outdated in modern times, it serves as a reminder that diverse perspectives and beliefs can influence even political discourse. As we navigate the upcoming elections, let's cherish the open exchange of ideas while keeping an eye on progress and inclusivity in our society. “A pair of tones separated by three consecutive whole steps may at first seem perfectly harmless,” Cruz said, “but when played together or in melodic succession they pose a direct threat to the moral fabric of our great nation.” For more information please read this article.
"Empfindsamkeit" started off as a commission from Christopher Redgate. His idea was to write a piece for his Oboe Quintet to appear on an upcoming CD. Unfortunately, it wasn't finished in time for the recording. However, in the extra time that I was permitted, a situation occurred that unwittingly contributed to changing my ideas about my music. Unlike much of the music that I composed around that time, this work was written without much prior organisation. Usually, my work is planned meticulously. Weeks, sometimes months are spent, organising pitch elements and rhythms. No such undertaking for this work. What I heard was virtually what was written down. No more, no less. Instead, I concentrated on the sonorities of the music. I moved my focus from pitch and rhythm to timbre and colour. I also had not written for such a conventional group of instruments. Had it not been for Christopher Redgate, I would not have entertained this particu...
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...
Michael Price is a composer of television and film music and the chair of the New Media Executive Committee of the British Academy of Songwriters . He is unhappy about the changes made by media companies in the way that composers are being paid for their music. (The Independent) Price said he was a supporter of licensed streaming services, but called for a new era of “transparency” in which tech giants and record companies disclose explicit details of the deals which set the rates on how much artists and songwriters receive. His comments follow the recent launches of the Amazon Prime Music and Apple Music streaming services, and come in the wake of claims by US musician David Byrne that record companies are siphoning off revenues from streaming and not paying royalties to artists and writers. Price claimed that many of their employees didn’t recognise the value of music. “People working in these tech companies are often of a generation that h...
Female-composers-new-complexity This is a controversial one. I am reposting a discussion that Tim Rutherford-Johnson had with some of twitter followers about the lack of Female New Complexity composers. As far as I am concerned, there are two major issues here: One is the lack of published female composers. The other is the terminology "New Complexity" - what does it refer to and what does it mean?
H elmut Lachen mann is relatively unknown outside of Germany. Nevertheless , h e is a figure wh o is growing in significan ce in modern music circles. Despite his wide experience, h is lack of broad appeal is, in my opinion, largely d ue to the individuality o f his music. He is not easy to categori se in an era which is dominated by trends and cliches. A simple way of describing his music is... *"musique concrète instrumentale". The notion is the creation of a subtlety of transformation of timbre, a manipulation of a continuum from sound to noise, from pitched notes to pitchless textural exploration, and all that in the sphere of (mostly) purely instrumental music. That means that in Lachenmann's music, there's a world of sound that rivals and even surpasses what electronic and electro-acoustic composers can achieve. -Guardian. Essentially , he is a acoustic composer writing electronic sounding music. He is somewhere...