Invisible Sticks
New member
Posts: 4
|
 |
« on: August 07, 2009, 02:43:35 PM » |
|
As we all may know, there is a pretty lively (albeit rather small, compared to other parts of the cultural world) scene out there for contemporary music. As far as I can see, though, there isn't too much going on when it comes to keeping that scene somewhat colorful. With the exception of (composing) individuals like Theo Loevendie, Willem Breuker, Jacob ter Veldhuis or Florian Maier, I have this itchy feeling that (too?) many composers, performers, concert promotors and so forth stick to the more or less traditional sounds/techniques, instruments, and even concert locations.
My personal/ambitious/naïve opinion is that more composers should look for new angles to approach (their) music - which, of course, was the whole reason why the 'contemporary' scene was born, after all. Whether these composers start putting their energy in either finding new combinations of instruments, drawing inspiration from multiple music genres, setting up a multidisciplinairy performance to be performed on an old railway station, or writing a piece for solo light switch - accompanied by a jammed turntable and imaginary jazz band - really doesn't matter... as long as they do it. One might say "hey, but we've had these weird experiments in the 60s and 70s, and it just didn't work out; there was no audience for it, and so forth". Yes, I know. It didn't work out, and we left it for dead. But some 30 years have passed since those days, and we've acquired an awful lot of new knowledge since then. So why not revive it and use it as one of the 'building blocks' to create something fresh?
An example: in an attempt to actually bring some life into the scene, I am currently setting up a project with a good friend of mine, who is a professional accordion player. Weird? Nah. First of all, there is an awful lack of (contemporary) repertoire for accordion - when compared to piano or violin, but also when compared to less common classical instruments such as saxophone. Then: with me being a percussionist, we have an unusual combination of instruments, but with many unexpected (and generally unexplored) possibilities.
Incorporating other artforms (video? dance?) is something that we're considering now - as long as they are woven tightly around the score, instead of being build loosely upon it. The latter is something many artists or choreographers do, and often it makes the final product less powerful than it could have been.
For our concerts - a different aspect of the project - we'll focus on known concert locations, but also on museums, music schools and conservatories, theatres, and retirement homes, in the Netherlands as well as in Germany, France, Greece, Denmark...
And another choice - which was based on both an artistic point of view and a 'joined forces' philosophy - is that a big part of the music will be written by relatively young composers who, according to us, stand out from the regular contemporary (contradictio in terminis?) music scene, and who share our ideas of spicing up the scene.
Please be aware of the fact that this is just about 'spicing things up a bit', and not about reinventing the whole music scene. Anyway: I hope that my point is clear enough, and that you understand what, to my opinion, should happen more often than it does now. Call it experimenting, call it provoking, or call me a pot smoker - but it's how I feel anyway. Any comments? Please? Anybody? Meow?
|
Author