CHRIS NEINER
  • About
  • Music
    • Chamber >
      • 2-4 Performers >
        • Afterlove
        • Aurora Fanfare & Dance
        • Burlesquing
        • Elegy
        • Groove Passing
        • Music with Oliver
        • Playtime
        • Quadraphonics
        • Ripple Cycles
        • Suite
        • To Rose
        • Toy Chest
      • 5-8 Performers >
        • Big Ideas!
        • Brevity is the Soul of Wit
        • Infinite Spinning
        • Liquidus
        • Red Riding Pictures Proudly Presents
        • Serenade for the Ghosts
        • Time Machine Hyperboles
    • Piano >
      • Petite Suite
      • Spiral Suite
    • Solo >
      • Mes Amis
      • Mikroczellos
      • Rhapsodie
      • Shades of Green
    • Band/Wind Ensemble >
      • Rocky River Counterpoint
      • The Hinz Waltz
      • The Hinz Waltz 2
    • Orchestral >
      • Jest
      • Many Universes
    • Solo and Ensemble >
      • Loneliness and Imaginations
      • Morceau pour Sill
    • Vocal/Choral >
      • All You Need
      • Lacquer Prints
      • To See a World
      • Untitled Meditation
    • Electronic >
      • Artificial Rainstorm
      • Gasp Grids
      • Requiem
  • Performances
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2012-2014
  • Blog
  • Services
    • Arranging
    • Commissions
    • Engraving
    • Performing
    • Teaching
  • Contact

New Music and New Sound

11/6/2016

0 Comments

 
I hear of composers being criticized for not being “new” enough, but what does that actually mean?
​
      A piece of new music, as I am concerned, is a composition composed no more than fifty years ago that has not developed a documented history/tradition or performance practice analogous to pieces of the Western Musical Canon (Brahms, Beethoven, Bach, Bartok, etc.)  By that standard, any piece composed since 1966 is, to me, automatically new music.

       So what is this “new” enough critique?

       I don’t think it pertains so closely to music, but to sound. There is an expectation that newly composed pieces should incorporate new sounds, or sounds that are not exactly new, but have been neglected over time and gradually gained prominence into contemporary composers’ sonic vocabularies (i.e. sul ponticello, flutter tongue, inside-piano techniques, extreme instrumental registers, minor ninths, tone cluster, etc.) It seems dangerous to make new sound a mandatory requirement for music composed today. Making music pass a checklist for new sound would cause damage to artistic freedom, make new music less diverse, and encourage style favoritism.  It might even make listening to new music boring; if each new piece must have prerequisite sounds for validity, we might have pieces that sound more and more alike.
       Now are these sounds alone a problem? No! I love these sounds! They’re just as unique as any other sound that Brahms or Bach could have used. Each sound has its own identity. If past composers were required to feature enough new sounds (new for their time) in compositions, much of Mozart and Brahms could have been discarded (save their taste for dissonances.) An entire tradition of sound would be lost.
       I think a composer should be more at fault than their sounds. With the unlimited possibilities of music, an original voice can be developed without requiring persistent new sound. I’d suggest criticizing a composer’s handling of material and not the material itself. Still, don’t think it’s wrong to encourage young composers to experiment with new sound. It is s a part of being well rounded in this century, to be knowledgeable of the diversity of sounds ready for you.  

       Above all, sound has no motivation but to express vibrations.
​
"Leave sound alone!"
 - Chris Crocker/Morton Feldman


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2023
    November 2022
    January 2022
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    July 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015

ABOUT

MUSIC

​Performances

BLOG

Services

CONTACT

  • About
  • Music
    • Chamber >
      • 2-4 Performers >
        • Afterlove
        • Aurora Fanfare & Dance
        • Burlesquing
        • Elegy
        • Groove Passing
        • Music with Oliver
        • Playtime
        • Quadraphonics
        • Ripple Cycles
        • Suite
        • To Rose
        • Toy Chest
      • 5-8 Performers >
        • Big Ideas!
        • Brevity is the Soul of Wit
        • Infinite Spinning
        • Liquidus
        • Red Riding Pictures Proudly Presents
        • Serenade for the Ghosts
        • Time Machine Hyperboles
    • Piano >
      • Petite Suite
      • Spiral Suite
    • Solo >
      • Mes Amis
      • Mikroczellos
      • Rhapsodie
      • Shades of Green
    • Band/Wind Ensemble >
      • Rocky River Counterpoint
      • The Hinz Waltz
      • The Hinz Waltz 2
    • Orchestral >
      • Jest
      • Many Universes
    • Solo and Ensemble >
      • Loneliness and Imaginations
      • Morceau pour Sill
    • Vocal/Choral >
      • All You Need
      • Lacquer Prints
      • To See a World
      • Untitled Meditation
    • Electronic >
      • Artificial Rainstorm
      • Gasp Grids
      • Requiem
  • Performances
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2012-2014
  • Blog
  • Services
    • Arranging
    • Commissions
    • Engraving
    • Performing
    • Teaching
  • Contact