05-14-2016, 07:52 PM
Originally Posted by Roadbldr '59 ![[Image: viewpost-right.png]](http://www.fourthturning.com/forum/images/buttons/viewpost-right.png)
Maybe. It could be that the sonata form that dominated classical music since the time of Joseph Haydn isn't so dominant as it used to be. It could be that cleaving to classical forms is a poor way to get quick recognition and fame as a composer. Most of the serious composition seems dedicated now to background for movie and TV efforts; form is now subordinate to "action" and scripts. Likewise, rock and its variants seem to have been drawing the mass attention for nearly 60 years.
Structured music for its own sake, a reality from the time of at least Henry Purcell, looks like a dying activity. John Williams doesn't write his film scores to exist outside the cinema; Mozart's operas obliged the stage activity to fit the music. I can say this of John Williams; sometimes I hear snippets of Sergei Prokofiev and some times I hear snippets of Carl Nielsen (Williams' film scores are highly derivative), but I never find structure suitable for a performance without cinema.
It could be that we just don't know what is out there. There are far more music schools and far more music lovers than there used to be. It could be that while writing and performing a popular hit is good for fame and fortune, writing a piano sonata or a cello concerto isn't. The standards are as high as ever, and there is still Schubert. I suspect that much of the activity of composition for its own sake has gone to East and South Asia, and anything really good coming from China, India, Korea, or Japan will take its time to get recognition in countries in which musical norms are very different. Western ears accustomed to the Austrian miracle that began with Haydn and ended with Schoenberg will need to make adjustments.
Addendum:
I am tempted to use the term "structured music" for music that uses formal structure. This of course includes music from Monteverdi to at least Górecki. People are still composing in the ritornello form of the baroque and the sonata form that has dominated long works other than opera since Haydn. People will still find sophisticated counterpoint enjoyable because such is the character of many people.
Quote:Am I the only one who believes the term "contemporary classical music" is an oxymoron???
Maybe. It could be that the sonata form that dominated classical music since the time of Joseph Haydn isn't so dominant as it used to be. It could be that cleaving to classical forms is a poor way to get quick recognition and fame as a composer. Most of the serious composition seems dedicated now to background for movie and TV efforts; form is now subordinate to "action" and scripts. Likewise, rock and its variants seem to have been drawing the mass attention for nearly 60 years.
Structured music for its own sake, a reality from the time of at least Henry Purcell, looks like a dying activity. John Williams doesn't write his film scores to exist outside the cinema; Mozart's operas obliged the stage activity to fit the music. I can say this of John Williams; sometimes I hear snippets of Sergei Prokofiev and some times I hear snippets of Carl Nielsen (Williams' film scores are highly derivative), but I never find structure suitable for a performance without cinema.
It could be that we just don't know what is out there. There are far more music schools and far more music lovers than there used to be. It could be that while writing and performing a popular hit is good for fame and fortune, writing a piano sonata or a cello concerto isn't. The standards are as high as ever, and there is still Schubert. I suspect that much of the activity of composition for its own sake has gone to East and South Asia, and anything really good coming from China, India, Korea, or Japan will take its time to get recognition in countries in which musical norms are very different. Western ears accustomed to the Austrian miracle that began with Haydn and ended with Schoenberg will need to make adjustments.
Quote:Last edited by pbrower2a; 11-13-2010 at 01:52 PM.
Addendum:
I am tempted to use the term "structured music" for music that uses formal structure. This of course includes music from Monteverdi to at least Górecki. People are still composing in the ritornello form of the baroque and the sonata form that has dominated long works other than opera since Haydn. People will still find sophisticated counterpoint enjoyable because such is the character of many people.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.