Do you know contemporary music?March 6th, 2007
Lutoslawski, Xenakis, Britten, Carter, Penderecki, Kurtág, Lindberg, Dutilleux, Ligeti, Murail, don’t all these names say anything to you? You surely don’t listen to music known as “contemporary”. “Contemporary” even if it’s quite obvious that any music was one day contemporary. But when one speaks about contemporary music, it’s especially about the music written since the second world war.
The contemporary music is too little known, sometimes even ignored by some listeners, or worse by musicians themselves which don’t understand it and get rid of it before having made an effort of comprehension. Because this is where the problem lies. Our ear, little accustomed to this type of music has grown up with popular musical forms and classical music, and has completely assimilated the music known as tonal, without really realizing it (by means of cinema, advertising…). This said, the deficiencies of our ear towards today’s music can be filled. By listening to contemporary music, one discovers unknown soundscapes, often of a very large variety; this involves to listen actively and do a small personal research.
To penetrate the world of contemporary music, it is to agree to enter the field of the “unexpected”. The listener can sometimes be diverted by the lack of melody, but it’s actually this classical structure of melody/accompaniment which is questioned by some composers. I would say that the contemporary music is a research on the language. If this seems inefficient or non-aesthetic to you, then question first the way you listen, and remember that at a certain time the sharps and flats did not exist, the increased quart was seen as a “diabolus in musica” and all the elements we now find in classical and popular music were perceived as noise, as an atrocious cacophony. In his time, Wagner wrote noise, so Mozart did.
Many works composed for more than fifty years by musicians of classical education could reach a larger audience than the current one. The keys which would make possible to appreciate them lack, and so the listener doesn’t manage to enter this “unusual” world, but more importantly, by ignoring this world he threatens its existence. Ask yourself the question about the composers, whether the law of supply and demand must manage the musical researches, therefore, whether the composer must write the music the public wishes to listen, or if the composer is free to transcend the “law” to reveal his genius.