From their website: "Recently, the group has focused on music "in the gap" between Pop/Rock and Art Music."
At some point, the trend of combining Classical idioms with pop songs is going to be so pervasive, that it will cease to be a trend and earn a label unto itself. For the fusions on the more Classical side, there's alt-classical, lead by "
overrated" posterchild Nico Muhly. Somewhere maybe further towards the pop song side of the spectrum are people like Corey Dargel and--from what I can tell from the
music on their website--the Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles, featured recently on
Sequenza21.
[I'm going to start calling this High Pop--or maybe
Pop Art Music.]
They are playing tonight downtown for a suggested donation of $10--a program of all new works by mostly local composers. I expect the program to be far easier on the ears than your typical "New Music" concert, but there's only one way to be sure:
Thurs, May 20, 7:30
Curtiss Hall, Fine Arts Building
410 S. Michigan 10th floor
"Old soldiers don't die, they just fade away."
Yesterday's
post still needs contextualization, as in my definitions of terms and my background. When I say "Classical music is dead" (and irrelevant) I mean, in both cases, the
language--the style of writing music most common from 1750 to 1900 that used harmonic motion to create drama through periods of tension and release.
Unlike pop music, which seeks to be as timely and contemporary as possible (and then fades from popularity minutes later), Classical music has proven its timelessness--hence the label. But what does Classical music mean today? Is it still relevant? Can we even call it Classical music?
Such questions are interesting for we bloggers to entertain but have more immediacy for
eighth blackbird, a Chicago new music ensemble on the front lines of the debate. Recently, they were called "the biggest missed opportunity" by a prominent Classical music scholar and thinker (whose own relevance is open to discussion). A heated debate ensued on 8bb's
blog, to which I posted the following reply:
Wikipedia defines a dilemma as: "problem offering at least two solutions or possibilities, of which none are practically acceptable." [I foresee a day when Valedictorians cite Wikipedia instead of Websters.]
The dilemma this Sunday (April 25) is: Palomar or MAVerick?
Gallery sneak peek (15 images):
View the gallery...
I found this grave in a cemetery over the weekend.
I was lured to the Chicago Symphony Thursday to see Mason Bates' "Music from Underground Spaces". The rest of the program was filled up--that is not to say "rounded out"--by pieces from the 1910s by Ravel and De Falla, making the program neither homogenous nor heterogenous. The odd program was reflected in the audience; not part of a regular subscription, the concert attracted a younger and more diverse crowd, bringing a different, more relaxed atmosphere to the evening.
Whenever I introduce myself as a "composer", there are only a few logical follow-up questions. "What kind of music do you write?" OR "How does that work exactly? How do you make money?" Despite the difficulty of self-definition (and limitation), I much prefer the former question. That is, however, until I realize that most people have no point of reference to contemporary music.
In an ideal world, this is how I would go about describing my "style":
The next composer in residence at the Chicago Symphony moonlights as a DJ. We'll get a preview of Mason Bates' particular fusion of symphonic and electronic music this weekend as the CSO plays his "Music from Underground Spaces" alongside dance from Hubbard Street Dance company. Kyle Gann describes Bates thusly: ""Eventually, someone was bound to grow up so
immersed in genre-mixing that they would get both sides of the equation right."
Gallery sneak peek (11 images):
View the gallery...
