variation and development

At the time when I first started trying to compose, classical music had lost its way. The audience had been alienated – they were unable to empathise with this 'new music' or relate it to the music they loved. It was difficult to hear any connection between simple popular music and the complex sounds favoured by many composers. It was an ‘either/or’ situation, and faced with a choice between vibrant tonal music (such as Beethoven and the Beatles) and the avant-garde of the 1960’s, the audience were only ever going to vote one way…

Things have improved since then - composers have allowed simple ideas back into new music. But is there a real integration of style?

There seem to be two main approaches:

Firstly, quotation (the start of the much remarked upon ‘post-modern’ era). This approach is still with us today through sampling, and conceptually it lies behind much of the remix culture surrounding us, whether it is the appropriation of ‘world’ music or Moby re-sampling the blues.

Secondly, the concentration on repetition of simple ideas (originally deriving from the repeated patterns of Glass, Reich and Riley). At first most audiences would have found this too simple when taken purely on a harmonic and melodic level. But it has crossed over successfully into trance and other new styles of dance.

I like both of these developments – they are healthy. There have been some very imaginative composers exploring these styles. But conceptually they are not that profound. One ‘borrows’ existing music, and the other repeats original ideas in an exclusive context as a way of generating longer structures. And eventually that may become tiresome because it is so easily achieved on computers.

Developmental music with variation of simple popular song and dance forms (the kind that typified the best classical music of the past) has been less common of late and it may be that we’re forgetting how to write it.

It requires the ability to connect a varied range of material, and to combine simple and complex ideas on a structural level. This used to be the real achievement of Classical music. Bach and Beethoven were masters at this.

I'm not advocating a 'return' to their styles. The world has moved on since then. There are so many exciting possibilities available now, especially in terms of rhythm and sound, and simply in terms of having the means of production. I'm sure they would have loved to be around now...

But I think it would be healthy to start revealing genuine connections between styles - instead of either giving way to this 'cultural melting pot', or alternatively 'sticking our heads in the sand' and excluding most of it.

Maybe we don't have the span of attention any more, so we don't want development and variation.

Or is it we just don't know how to join all this new musical vocabulary together into an integrated whole?

© Jonathan Parry 2004

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