Music Composers Unite!
Who is an Avant garde composer/musician for You ?
I have been forced to bed for some time now and have been thinking : what IS "Avant garde" music ? Who is an Avant garde composer/musician nowdays for you ? It would be interessting to hear different opinions ! For me every century has got several Avant garde composers , for ex. Beethoven in his time . Schoenberg , Webern , Stockhausen , Xenakis , Feldman , Cage ,Partch , Grisey , Murail , Radulescu , Dumitrescu ,in their time . This is the ones who had made the deepest impression on me . Who is it for You ? Who is "Avant garde" just now ? , no matter what "style" . Caj Ilotuuli .
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sylvester Wager on -
That's a really fine question. The answer is complex, as usual for these opinion Qs.
"Avant garde" today would be the real question, since it no longer matters that Beethoven was innovative, his work having been nit-picked for centuries. Does it exist?
I think the term itself is dated, and time-limited. The composers that came out of post-Mahler Wien are natural forerunners, but not to the assumed avant garde of today. For me, Messiaen was a revelation - he wrote his own language, and once studied, quite easy to accept.
In the way that I think of avant garde, pre-1970, even pre-1980 composers should not qualify. We have our own issues. They are not promoted in the same way. Composers get one play (World Premiere), maybe two/three by contract. And with the neo-romantic movement, which is not avant, I'm pressed for an opinion - in classical music proper. Classical music may be akin to Latin or Ancient Greek. Still used, but mostly to name things in the (musical) sciences.
If we extend music into the wide-open area of chamber music, we can add all sorts of women and men. Those that take part in the Bang on a Can Festival, here in New York might be the closest to avant garde in my mind - that is in a popular, organized way. WNYC plays these composers less, but still, late at night.
In all honesty, I think the idea of novelty and forefront is in danger of hitting a dissonant, pallid brick wall. Each of us on the Internet can be as avant garde as our own digital samples and unique notations can take us. Percussive still overtakes melodic, and harmonic direction is out-of-fashion, but still enjoys most of the world's support.
What would really surprise me is this: if the Entertainment Industry convinced composers that writing music that had immediate surface appeal was the true forefront of the music world. I'm tired of feeling lost and a little disappointed with the new (not not so new) commissions I hear at the NY Philharmonic. Lindberg, Ades. Not avant garde.
Philosophically, asking about avant garde is hinting that it is perhaps desirable to be esoteric and elitist, as in the hot context of 20th Century music. After all, we are not going to include Sibelius and Bernstein on this list, even if West Side Story was really new when written. Is it a boon or a curse to be assigned avant garde for too long a period?
When will Xenakis sound (relatively easy) like Beethoven? I remain with the opinion that Avant Garde has to do with the 20th Century, not today.
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Permalink Reply by Tyler Hughes on -
to me Avant Garde is music that is that, cutting edge. So what ever is cutting edge and is new is Avant Garde. Right now from my knowledge the most cutting edge music is that of Murail and the other specturalist composers. Im sure there are others out there that are creating a newer sound but I haven't found them just quiet yet. Thats just one example I could think of right off the top of my head.
I'm sure you can find tons more at the World Music Days.
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Permalink Reply by Fredrick zinos on
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Giacinto Scelsi.
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Permalink Reply by Caj Ilotuuli on -
Yes I think the spectral music is very interresting with their focus at sound and going back to non tempered thinking . Grisey, Dumitrescu and Radulescu has made the deepest impression on me . Grisey could make the orchestra to sound in a way I never heard before for ex. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqjKX9k4HaQ Transitoires . Dumitrescu : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKuCxRjT1uI&feature=related Cogito . Scelsi is also an adventure to hear
Tyler Hughes said:to me Avant Garde is music that is that, cutting edge. So what ever is cutting edge and is new is Avant Garde. Right now from my knowledge the most cutting edge music is that of Murail and the other specturalist composers. Im sure there are others out there that are creating a newer sound but I haven't found them just quiet yet. Thats just one example I could think of right off the top of my head.
I'm sure you can find tons more at the World Music Days.
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