I have been away, and not reading my forums, so I didn't know that this one had disappeared, however briefly. I've been doing some reconnecting and rejoined yesterday. I thought I would post something for you. I recently completed my fourth symphony, and thought I would post an excerpt. I may post a link to the whole thing at some point later (it's 36 minutes), after I've done the final clean-up on the score.
The symphony has 3 main movements separated by interludes. This is a scrolling score video of the first of these interludes. Let me know what you think.
For those of you who (like me) who obsess on software, this was created in Sibelius and realized using NotePerformer and Spitfire Audio's BBCSO Core. I have since switched to BBCSO Pro, but the only instruments that effects in this excerpt are English Horn, Bass Clarinet, and Contrabassoon, which are the normal NotePerformer sounds. (You won't really notice them.) If anyone wants to discuss using the BBCSO sounds, I am willing to discuss. I had loads of problems getting it to work properly, the PRO version at least - it required a major upgrade of my already hi-end computer.
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I had been in touch will Wallender and found some ways to get Pro to work (better), the big trick is to make sure you optimize the sample. Still, my 6-core processor wasn't enough to play in real time. I'm now using a 24-core processer, and am having no problems, after I optimized. Everything seems fine now.
The piece is relatively complete, but it is 36 minutes long. I didn't want to presume that anyone would spend that much time with it without hearing anything of mine first. I may post sooner, rather than later.
Not got around to the symphony just yet but had a spare 10 mins just now in between programming and listened to your 5th 4tet. I was curious to hear it having just finished one myself and I thought it was really great. I especially loved the idiomacy, the language, the timbral writing and the lively counterpoints. From a brief read of your processes, I think we have a lot in common although I haven't concentrated so much on total atonality apart from a few pieces. I too have incorporated tonal practices into a vastly expanded language, I do this rather than go with serial procedures to keep a grip on the 12 notes and create parameters.
Thanks. Out of the 20 miniatures, only one is strict-ish 12 tone. The rest are a rather free usage of my set-based system (because they are so short). These are from my postcards, all composed during the first pandemic lockdown. There is a little overlap between this and Shadows of Innocence (t sax or trbn and string quartet), which treats the postcards as sketches, rather than distinct movements. I wrote 51 postcards during the summer of 2020. 20 went into the string quartet, about 28 went into Shadows - probably about 4 from the quartet - and Summer 2020 had 22 of them (again, some overlap with both the other pieces). A handfull of them weren't used in anything, aside from being posted on my Facebook page. They just didn't fit with anything else. The quartet won a competition, but because it was during the height of the pandemic, they never performed it. I'm still waiting to find out if they ever will.
I don't know about being artistically successful, but certainly to be popularly successful, it has to connect with the sentiments of the listener. I think a work can be artistically successful, while at the same time being an anathema to the wider audience. If a single person connects with it artistically, then it is successful, although the composer might wish for more. I can think of several important works that weren't successful but were important to the canon. Per Nørgård's A Voyage to the Golden Screen is a piece that is very influential, and important to his output, yet it isn't as popular as his second symphony, which employs the same Infinity Row technique.
I think there are a variety of definitions of success, and which one we find important as composers colors how we compose.
to say Nørgård's 2nd is popular is a bit of a stretch as your average concert-goer outside Denmark will never have even heard of the composer. Still, Backtracks does list one performance in the world this season which is more than for any other of his works. Myself I do find it a curiously compelling piece -- certainly a highly original sound world at any rate. And that without knowing anything about (or having any real interest in) his compositional techniques.
Well, it is popular relative to Voyage, although Voyage is possibly performed more since it is shorter. (There are two performances of Sym. No. 2 in February, by the San Francisco Symphony.) Nørgård is probably the most important living composer in Europe, and is performed regularly. At 90, he was having difficulty concentrating on what he was writing, so he stopped. A protege had to finish - or construct - his final piece 3 Nocturnal Movements, which is basically Remembering Child with the solo viola part split between violin and cello, with a movement of new material inserted between the 2 original movements. That middle material was supposed to be in the new piece, a double concerto. (My engraving of Remembering Child [vers. for small orchestra] was used to create the score.)
His most "popular" music is the soundtrack for Babette's Feast, which is ironically one of his least important pieces. I just took a look at the Edition Wilhelm Hansen website, and his (rental) music had 39 performances in 2023, with Wie ein Kind (1980) and Whirl's World (1970), and the Suite from Babette's Feast being most performed, mostly in Denmark, of course, but not all. That doesn't include recordings played on the radio or CD sales. He is much more popular in Europe than in the US, where he is almost unknown.
until I checked yesterday, I had no idea Nørgård was even still alive -- clearly he's no longer able to compose, though. Had forgotten he wrote the music to Babette's Feast.To say he's the most important composer living in Europe is obviously subjective -- even among Danes Abrahamsen's "Let me Tell you" was ranked by the Guardian as the most important work of the 21st century. The most performed, on the other hand, seems to be John Williams which tells you all you need to know....
I think that Hans would agree with me, actually. (I know him.) I set the parts for Let Me Tell You, and did some cleanup work on the score for him. It's a great piece His opera The Snow Queen is, I think, even better. LMTY could be the most important work of the 21st century so far. I've also worked on some pieces of his that weren't as good. I think over the length of their careers, Nørgård's music was more innovative. But as you say, that's my opinion, and I'll own it.
And, yes, your comment about John Williams is noted, and I would probably add Arvo Pärt in there, too.
Pärt won the previous year, I believe.
Pärt could be the topic of another discussion entirely.
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