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Naming the major and minor demons....

🔗gtaylor@heurikon.com (One Cointreau, on ice....)

6/27/1996 12:04:12 PM
>From: Franck Jedrzejewski

>The spectral composers work with spectral analysis of a sound. The
>decomposition of a sound in partials are used by composers as a primary
>material. They build algorithms to move from one spectre to another one.
>In this calculation, they usually used approximation in quarter of tone.

And in this regard, Franck brings up something that I was wondering
about commenting on when I originally posted the brief listings of
discographies for those of you interested in pursuing Spectralists
as the raw material of contemplation (audition)....

The thing that interests me about Brian's interest in our French
brothers and sisters is that (at least going on the basis of my
interactions with those of them I've met) they are, in some
respects, solidly located in the stream of good old European
High Modernism - the major difference being that the formalisms
are located in spectral analysis rather than in 12T set theory
formalisms. In some respects, I'd be inclined to see them as one of
the streams which flows from the disruption of a single, monolithic
concensus of what music as High Culture is about - the other ones
being

a: those who still remain committed to serial techniques (though
they may be using those means to produce "tonal" results, in some
cases - the formalisms remain) like, say, Lachenmann or Spahlinger, etc.

b: those who began their lives in group a but hunt for a way out or
through (a fair number of Dutch composers like the late Ton de Leeuw,
the Danish composer Poul Ruders, Walter Zimmerman, etc.

c:the minimalist/postminimalist composers (you know the drill
on this lot....)

Since we're graced with a number of readers and correspondents
from the European Community and beyond, I'd be quite interested
to know how they see *themselves* with regard to their own
cultural traditions. I still remember being somewhat surprised
at asking one of these younger European composers about nonET
work (she's pretty spectral), only to get a rather straightforward
"Oh, that really doesn't interest me. I don't think it's related very
much to what I'm doing."

With regards,
Gregory

P.S. Of course, our Dutch friends have the liberty of pointing with
some well-deserved pride to Huygens and Fokker [cue a brief fanfare
on the Teyler Museum organ....] - so they're off the hook!
______
>From: hyperpoodle@mail.sisna.com (Doren Garcia)

>Hello Waveophiles & Professor Ludwig Plutonium,

Actually, it's *Archimedes Plutonium* now, I believe.

>I am unfamiliar with the aesthetic of the school of 'New Complexity'. Can
>someone offer a synopsis of their ideas?

They are the fount of all that is evil and crapulous in the Present
Age. Aided by their foul ally Cage and his evil crew of cryptoZen
omphalocentrics, they wage a never-ending war against all true....

:-)

Actually, the term is usually used to refer to a number of younger
composers (I understand the term as being used to refer predominantly
to composers from the UK, although I'd be happy to be corrected on
this matter) whose work could probably be said to exist in the train
of the Darmstadt folks [didn't Ferneyhough teach at Darmstadt for a
while?]. They write agressive and energetically spiky work which
seems to either favor virtuousity or be impossible to play. It's the
closest one comes in a European concert hall to high-vol, head-bangin'
perceptual overload. As a personal matter, I don't care for 'em all
that much - my interest in them tends toward *pieces* rather than
a body of a given composer's work. The names you can look for are
(this is just for starters. I welcome additions):

Brian Ferneyhough
Michael Finnissy
James Dillon
Chris Dench

I think that the easiest way to fine their work for American listeners
is through the recordings of Dillon and Ferneyhough's work for String
Quartet done by the Arditti Quartet on the French label Auvidis/Disques
du Montaigne. They've done discs of both Dillon and Ferneyhough's work,
and Harmonia Mundi distributes 'em in the states - so you should be
able to locate them. Caveat auditor, folks - I find them an acquired
taste myself (although I did program some of Finnissy's work last Sunday
evening).

With regards,
Gregory




_
I would go to her, lay it all out, unedited. The plot was a simple one,
paraphrasable by the most ingenuous of nets. The life we lead is our only
maybe. The tale we tell is the must that we make by living it. [Richard
Powers, "Galatea 2.2"] Gregory Taylor/Heurikon Corporation/Madison, WI



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