"Modern Music"
Yesterday I attended a lecture-recital on the piano music of Haydn given by Andras Schiff at the Wigmore Hall. He played quite a lot of the music (an early Capriccio in C major, F minor Fantasie, the last Sonata (E flat major)) and talked us through the harmonic movement, pointing out what harmonies were a surprise and in what way. It was very gentle and quite amusing for a typical Wigmore audience which is of course very music-loving and intelligent as well as, it has to be admitted, rather conservative.
I was disappointed by one of his comments, which was directed against "modern music". He was expounding the virtues of the wonderful way Haydn returns to the home key after all his excursions and surprise moves in the wrong direction, and said that's the thing that bothers him about contemporary music - that it never arrives home after it has begun. It wasn't a terrible comment, but I wasn't too impressed by it, and certainly not by the way he knew he could say that to this audience and be sure they would go along with him, and even find it amusing.
Do you think one day we will be able to have music in concert halls?
Yes, just music - sounds that mean things. Not "our music not yours" or "of course this music is some of the greatest ever composed (because it has existed for hundreds of years and hasn't hurt anybody since then)".
It's an interesting point that the very conservative repertoire often is some of the greatest music ever composed (it seems to me) but there are certainly plenty of gaps where other great music has been omitted, and where living composers do not have any comfortable place. Or at least the ones with the comfortable place are just lying around in comfort, not writing anything of any note.
England is unusual because it has a very conservative part which, while it inhibits change, succeeds in preserving (conserving) some things that, if we didn't have them, we would be much the poorer for that. So even though I don't like these remarks about "Listen to all the wrong notes! How silly it sounds" and so on, I don't actually mind too much. But one day they will appreciate that you can see in all directions out of the windows of your house, not only the directions you already know about.
There is great music now, and has been since the last officially great music was written (when was that, 1910 or 20? And even a lot of that is sometimes considered a bit modern, such as Ravel). I don't mind at all that we are taking it slow with the new repertoire choices. We could have a fast-moving all-changing society and it might not be long before we lose the good parts.
Yes, at the Wigmore hall you, like Volvic mineral water, must be filtered through volcanic sand for 15 years until you reach the required level of purity. Except it's more than 15 years.
But if we can stand the test of time, then we can wait a few years for the music-lovers.
Don't be scared, audience! It's just that we have some more things you can love.
I was disappointed by one of his comments, which was directed against "modern music". He was expounding the virtues of the wonderful way Haydn returns to the home key after all his excursions and surprise moves in the wrong direction, and said that's the thing that bothers him about contemporary music - that it never arrives home after it has begun. It wasn't a terrible comment, but I wasn't too impressed by it, and certainly not by the way he knew he could say that to this audience and be sure they would go along with him, and even find it amusing.
Do you think one day we will be able to have music in concert halls?
Yes, just music - sounds that mean things. Not "our music not yours" or "of course this music is some of the greatest ever composed (because it has existed for hundreds of years and hasn't hurt anybody since then)".
It's an interesting point that the very conservative repertoire often is some of the greatest music ever composed (it seems to me) but there are certainly plenty of gaps where other great music has been omitted, and where living composers do not have any comfortable place. Or at least the ones with the comfortable place are just lying around in comfort, not writing anything of any note.
England is unusual because it has a very conservative part which, while it inhibits change, succeeds in preserving (conserving) some things that, if we didn't have them, we would be much the poorer for that. So even though I don't like these remarks about "Listen to all the wrong notes! How silly it sounds" and so on, I don't actually mind too much. But one day they will appreciate that you can see in all directions out of the windows of your house, not only the directions you already know about.
There is great music now, and has been since the last officially great music was written (when was that, 1910 or 20? And even a lot of that is sometimes considered a bit modern, such as Ravel). I don't mind at all that we are taking it slow with the new repertoire choices. We could have a fast-moving all-changing society and it might not be long before we lose the good parts.
Yes, at the Wigmore hall you, like Volvic mineral water, must be filtered through volcanic sand for 15 years until you reach the required level of purity. Except it's more than 15 years.
But if we can stand the test of time, then we can wait a few years for the music-lovers.
Don't be scared, audience! It's just that we have some more things you can love.
Labels: concerts, kings and things, learning, patience
posted by Philip Howard at 9:49 AM
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