Simon Barber – Composer

Work

Go to the latest work, inserted 30.12.2011.

All contents of this website, in particular scores, audiofiles and texts, are listed under this Creative-Commons-License. This means that the non-commercial use of unaltered works or workparts is principally free. In all other cases please contact me.

Remarks

little kingfisher suite (#135)

Towards the end of 1997 Simon Reade and myself managed to form an ensemble, which we called ibidem, comprised of musicians interested in performing new music. We were then fortunate enough to be in the situation of having people ready and willing to perfom works written primarily by ourselves although in our idealism we hoped that other composers would contribute to the life of the ensemble and some did, notably Don Kay and Nigel Farley.

ibidem performed often during its short life. The little kingfisher suite written for oboe, clarinet, violin and cello has a special place in my heart due to its lyricism, romanticism and the fond memories of its being performed brilliantly many times by the members of the ibidem ensemble.

written: 2007

Wackernheim, Frühling 2000/Chagall Windows (Mainz) (#189)

Wackernheim is a village near Mainz, Germany. In February 2000 Wackernheim was experiencing an early spring, signified by the tempo modulation in the first piece.

While in Mainz I visited the St. Stephan’s Church to see the stained glass windows designed by Marc Chagall. The atmosphere created by the overwhelming presence of blue glass punctuated with strong primary colours suggested the possibility of making a piece of music with a similar atmosphere of colour and spaciousness.

The tempo for Chagall Windows is very slow and would probably sound best in a stone church to give resonance to sustained pitches.

written: 2007

Machtspiel (#197)

This short piece for flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello is initially dominated by the piano. The other instruments gradually capitulate to its will, being charmed with its subtlety as well as coerced into submission.

A third of the way through the piece the cello throws out a challenge to the domination of the piano and creates an opportunity for the other instruments to develop their individuality. The piano is allowed to re-enter once the other instruments are certain of their individual identity and ability to resist bullying.

The piano participates as part of a democracy up until the very end when it cheekily tests the resolve of the other instruments with a forte chord on the third beat of the last bar. The other instruments, however, immediately put a stop to this "Machtspiel” with a quick response; demonstrating their ability to act as a unified whole within the context of their individuality.

written: July, 2001

Klaviertrio (#210)

This piece began as a response to the coming of spring: the awakening of nature, new growth and birdsong – particularly that of the blackbird. The beauty of the blackbird’s song and the energy of spring create an optimistic mood: intensified through the colour, sounds and scents of nature.

Alongside this sensuality a sense of mystery appears, suggesting a reality beyond the everyday. The interplay between sensuality and mystery is the impetus behind the four movements.

This work was written between March and October 2003 and is dedicated to Antje.

written: 2003

This work marked a compositional breakthrough and is probably my first "mature” work. An intuitive approach to counterpoint, the writing of lines separately and then bringing them together, appears for the first time in the fourth movement.

written: 2007

Sappho (#211)

This work originally for soprano and soprano saxophone comprises a setting of three Sonnets and two fragments from Sappho, the Greek poetess born sometime between 630 and 612BC.

The work is through-composed beginning with Sonnet IV, Fragment (a), Sonnet XIV, Sonnet XXVII and finishing with Fragment (b).

Sonnet IV expresses the passion Sappho experiences in being in love.
Fragment (a) describes the atmosphere of a festive gathering.
Sonnet XIV evokes the soothing effects of the aeolian harp.
Sonnet XXVII describes love, this time philosophically.
Fragment (b) expresses the conclusion of a day.

Thank you to the University of Virginia Library for permission to use the Sonnets and to Elisabeth Wilson for the translations of the two fragments.

Performance Note: unless otherwise indicated through fermatas or commas neither do key changes nor does the end of a text indicate a pause. The piece should be, with due attention to the written fermatas and commas, performed straight through without breaks. Silences that do occur should be the result of the interpretation of fermatas and commas.

Sonnett IV

Why, when I gaze on Phaon's beauteous eyes,
Why does each thought in wild disorder stray?
Why does each fainting faculty decay,
And my chill'd breast in throbbing tumults rise?
Mute, on the ground my Lyre neglected lies,
The Muse forgot, and lost the melting ray;
My down-cast looks, my faultering lips betray,
That stung by hopeless passion, -- Sappho dies!
Now, on a bank of Cypress let me rest;
Come, tuneful maids, ye pupils of my care,
Come, with your dulcet numbers soothe my breast;
And, as the soft vibrations float on air,
Let pity waft my spirit to the blest,
To mock the barb'rous triumphs of despair!

Fragment (a)

Come hither to me from Crete to this holy temple,
Where your delightful grove of apples is,
Where the altars are burning with frankincense;

Herein cold water ripples through the boughs
Of an apple tree, all the place with roses
Is shaded, from shimmering leaves a deep trance descends;

There the meadow where horses graze is blossoming with spring flowers,
The winds breathe softly …

Hither indeed you, O Kupris, bringing
In golden cups gracefully pour nectar that is mingled for our festivities

Sonnet XIV

COME, soft Aeolian harp, while zephyr plays
Along the meek vibration of thy strings
As twilight's hand her modest mantle brings,
Blending with sober grey, the western blaze!
O! prompt my Phaon's dreams with tend'rest ways,
Ere night o'er shade thee with its humid wings,
While the lorn Philomel his sorrow sings
In leafy cradle, red with party rays!
Slow let thy dulcet tones on ether glide,
So steals the murmur of the am'rous dove;
The mazy legions swarm on ev'ry side,
To lulling sounds the sunny people move!
Let not the wise their little world deride,
The smallest sting can wound the breast of Love.

Sonnet XXVII

O! ye bright Stars! That on the Ebon fields
Of Heav'ns empire, trembling seem to stand;
'Till rosy morn unlocks her portal bland,
Where the proud Sun his fiery banner wields!
To flames, less fierce than mine, your lustre yields,
And pow'rs more strong my countless tears command;
Love strikes the feeling heart with ruthless hand,
And only spares the breast which dullness shields!
Since, then, capricious nature but bestows
The fine affections of the soul, to prove
A keener sense of desolating woes,
Far, far frome me the empty boast remove;
If bliss from coldness, pain from passion flows,
Ah! who would wish to feel, or learn to love?

Fragment (b)

Evening star
bringing back all things which the light bearing dawn scattered,
You bring the sheep,
You bring the goat,
and you bring back the child to its mother

written: 2003/10

Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet & Windband (#212)

This piece was commissioned by Simon Reade for the Hobart City Concert Band with soloists, Renée Badcock (oboe) and Derek Grice (clarinet).

The work is in two movements.

The first movement begins extroverted in character, becoming increasingly introverted and abstract as the movement progresses. The level of abstraction reached at the end of the first movement – where the soloists and ensemble are improvising – finds a new context at the beginning of the second movement in the form of birdsong (played by piccolos and flutes) which provides the setting for an oboe solo.

The clarinet introduces new birdsong and the piece once again takes on an extroverted character in terms of tempo and the clarinet solo but retains a sense of abstraction in the accompaniment until the conclusion where the soloists quote motifs from the beginning of the first movement by way of contrast and reflection on the territory covered.

written: April, 2004

Melodic Variations (#218)

After the successful premiere of the Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet & Windband, Simon Reade suggested I write a "symphony” for windband. The resulting Melodic Variations were so named after reading through extracts of a conversation with Goffredo Petrassi. A few statements found particular resonance with me which I reproduce here:

"[During the period after the second world war] there was a moment in which the need for melody went underground, but, like karstic rivers, every now and again it re-emerges, and today it is still a problem. It is part of being a certain kind of composer: some have a melodic gift […] but this doesn’t mean that things are necessarily good when it’s there and bad when it isn’t. […] The act of composing is separate from the question of melody. It’s a problem which one resolves almost by chance, as it arises.”

"[Postmodernism] is a term which irritates me, since it doesn’t mean anything – like so many other theoretical expressions, which must then be verified in the works themselves. And this verification, alas, is not always brilliant. In order to remain faithful to the concept of communication, one ends up divesting oneself of one’s intellect, of the need to create. […] The postmoderns turn to other, cheaper, more expendable traditions; and this, in art, is always reprehensible.”

I haven’t written a symphony, simply a piece moving from introverted beginnings towards more familiar forms then into less familiar correspondences. These melodic variations are dedicated to Simon Reade and the players in the Hobart City Band.

written: June, 2005

In the course of learning more about how to orchestrate effectively for a windband Simon Reade suggested re-orchestrating this piece to suit the capacity of the Hobart City Wind Symphony. We had been working together on orchestrating two works of Don Kay when Simon suggested doing a "bandstration" of this piece from 2005, which was completed in the middle of August this year.

written: November, 2011

OUT (#220)

The only way I found I could break free of the tyranny of traditional functional harmony whilst still wanting to make use of equal-tempered sounds was to first write fragments for both instruments (guitar and marimba) and then, from these disparate fragments, form the piece.

The repetition of various fragments in the instrumental parts illustrates some kind of a return however the juxtaposition between the parts shows the changed context and, as a consequence, the repeated material doesn’t carry the same meaning as before.

The subsequent total expression that emerges includes alienation, absurdity, farce as well as moments of tragic realisation and beauty.

written: May, 2005

Gitarrenkonzert (#224)

As a boy trying to learn classical guitar I was continuously distracted by "wrong” notes and harmonies that didn’t belong to the pieces I was supposed to be practising. These harmonies appeared to be demanding their own context which wasn’t able to be found within that of functional harmony.

It seemed to me, too, that functional harmony excluded many interesting and enticing sounds.

Although I felt that functional harmony wasn’t my "home” I tried, particularly during my study period, to make it my own and fell in love with the system that had served composers from previous centuries.

In the course of time I was once again distracted by "illegal” harmonies. It became clear that I had to get to know the logic of the sounds and the feelings they produced in me in order to work with them properly. Such sounds didn’t and don’t fit in with the principles of functional harmony. Accordingly, it became necessary to discover and partly invent other approaches which are related to the sounds themselves, the feelings attached to the sounds and the logic of the sounds. At the same time it was important to resist the temptation to invent a new system (like the 12-tone system or an equivalent to the underlying dynamic of tonal music).

Gitarrenkonzert represents my latest attempt to write music as I feel it without the interference of a system censoring and alienating the original intention.

written: August, 2005

Concerto for Soprano Saxophone & Orchestra (#227)

I wrote the following in response to an email on 6th of May, 2006:

Been thinking long and deep about how to continue with composition. Basically came to the conclusion that I can only write the sounds I feel and nothing more: no superfluous development, no rigorous presentation and – no threads!

To be perfectly honest with you having had an idea I should not develop it or try to. I should simply let it be and move onto the next one. The beginnings of this are in the final movement of the sax concerto which is the main reason it works.

This obligation to display "crafting” skills, identifiable development of motifs – god, what a lot of irrelevant stuff I’ve swallowed and believed without understanding the true nature of myself or (my) music.

There isn’t logic running through life, there are spontaneous events existing in some sort of temporary context in relation to one another. Logic? An invention. Doesn’t reveal anything. A clever discussion around a topic one doesn’t understand or grasp.

To express the chaotic spontaneity of life is exactly the sense of it. Logic doesn’t make the sense. The introduction of theme, development, recapitulation expresses logic – but not sense. I’m not going to stop things recurring if they do but I’m certainly not looking for it these days.

written: May, 2006

Aufgelöste Ketten (#256)

Prof. Klaus-Jürgen Schneider asked if I would write an encore piece for his children who are professional musicians in Germany and Switzerland. Aufgelöste Ketten (dissolved/(hysterical) chains) didn’t intend to carry any particular left-wing political message – as has been interpreted into the title. I was rather focusing on how structures form then disintegrate to reform other structures, similar to what happens with DNA.

written: 2007

Amphitheater (#257)

Writing for the combination of balalaika, vihuela, lute, guitar and bass balalaika sparked in my imagination the presence of past ages. My conception of an amphitheater was to turn it inside out having the audience sitting in the middle of the performers and hearing the different instruments in "surround sound”. I conceived the piece as an intimate experience perhaps only suited to an audience of 1–3 live and perhaps best suited to listening on headphones.

Mosaic reflects the way I went about composing the three movements. I wrote music for the different instruments separately, fragments and longer phrases, then cut them up and went about assembling the composition (most of the finished, context related ideas were then sacrificed in the course of reassembly). This isn’t an isolated experiment with chance operations in music but rather another step in my contrapuntal development concerning coincidence and intention. This is a subtle but important distinction as I’m concerned less with the removal of the ego and more with its effective representation.

Phosphoreszenz is intended to evoke the light given off by flowers in the evening.

written: 2007

CUT (#292)

I have been interested in the sound world of quarter tones and multiphonics for some time. As a consequence of concentrating more on sounds and less on harmonic systems, coupled with developing my intuitive counterpoint concerned with coincidence and intention, I have slowly been able to stumble closer towards the kind of music I have felt possible to write but for which there is no prescribed method of doing so.

CUT emerged out of a desire to contribute to repertoire for bass clarinet and has attracted the attention of players such as Harry Sparnaay, Henri Bok and Derek Grice; the latter suggesting the addition of slur markings for clearer interpretation.

written: 2007

Nietzschelieder (#293)

The idea of setting poems of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) came to me in the course of reading his work, an interest which began half way through 2006. Not knowing exactly how to begin I looked through an anthology of 20th century German verse and came across four poems from Nietzsche right at the beginning. I immediately went about writing the music for the poems in the order they appeared in the book.

These songs represent not only my desire to pay homage to Nietzsche but mark a welcome and long overdue return to working directly with musicians – an experience I have missed more or less completely since my study time up to now. My warm thanks go to Antje Barber (voice) and Oliver Grünwoldt (piano) for their work in bringing the pieces to life as well as Lothar Samide, who achieved high quality recordings of these songs.

We would like to premiere these songs in the context of a literary gathering in the near future.

written: 2007

Killing the Intelligence (#294)

I had long had the notion of writing a string quartet as it seemed to be something that every serious composer did. However, I could never find good enough reason for doing so just for its own sake. Nevertheless the desire remained to write an ensemble piece for strings and take advantage of the immense agility of the instruments without regard for hierarchy in terms of 1st and 2nd violins.

Elliott Carter would have been an obvious example to follow in terms of contemporary quartet writing, but it slowly dawned on me that other composers, notably Webern, Hindemith, Schnittke and Ferneyhough have been concerned with the character of the string trio. Partly for this reason and partly because the string trio seemed more relevant than a quartet I decided for this form.

The piece combines two approaches: writing for voices simultaneously (i.e. in a traditional manner) punctuated by episodes where the voices are developed independently from one another, re-emerging into a new context, with new struggles and outcomes.

written: 2007

5 Divertimenti für Altflöte & Harfe (#296)

These pieces came about as a kind of distraction – a distraction from composition itself and some of the associated difficulties that were arising both musically and aesthetically at the time. What emerged is something of a mixture of old and new – traditional, folkloristic and modern which to my mind achieves, unintentionally, a character of timelessness.

"The tone which occurs through vibrations of the monochord is called the fundamental tone or keynote. All tones seek resolution in the fundamental, something that was known to composers of classical music who lead their listeners through a series of chords which ultimately returned to the fundamental […] modern composers, however, seek new ways of listening and break with traditional harmonies leaving the listener to find the resolution.”

- from Music and Sound in the Healing Arts by John Beaulieu

written: 2007

At the Limits of Entropy (#308)

Antje: What does "entropy” mean?

Simon: Don’t know, I’m an artist not a scientist.

Antje: You’re just too lazy to explain it to me – admit it!

Simon: Yes, that’s right!

My inability to explain the concept of entropy in this moment, although it is cognitively clear to me, represents in some way entropy from every day life … however, I’ll now translate two excerpts from Ernst Peter Fischer’s forward to Erwin Schrödinger’s originally in 1944 published book "What is Life?"

"Karl Popper once suggested that the reason for [Ludwig] Boltzmann’s suicide had something to do with a physics problem he couldn’t solve (Popper 1979). It had to do with the second law of thermodynamics which can be described with the help of a function called ‘entropy’ […] which says something about the missing order in a system. The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy always increases. This is familiar to us in every day life; ultimately, chaos increases in every physical system left to itself. From order arises disorder. However, with respect to life forms, the second law doesn’t seem to apply. […] Boltzmann, who celebrated Darwin’s insights concerning evolution as being the most important discovery of his time, predicted here difficult (but solvable) problems for his science. He knew that his description of the fight for survival as being that of a struggle around entropy […] only illustrated the surface of the difficulties (Boltzmann 1979).”

"The problem of order has now been made understandable due to a very general approach. Life doesn’t stand in conflict with physical laws. Thanks to the work of Ilya Prigogine and his group, we now know that life is only possible a long way from a thermodynamic balance. When under these conditions the production of entropy becomes minimal – which Prigogine could demonstrate – order then arises and ‘dissipative structures’ form (Prigogine and Stengers, 1980).”

Personally this piece represents for me a heartfelt questioning, a collision and collusion of various energies neither seeking an easy way out nor contriving simple solutions for making sense of experience: musically simple means to complex ends in terms of the individual strands making up – at least as far as my ears are concerned – a coherent musical whole.

written: February, 2009

Streichquartett (#302, , #321.1 now #325.1)

Interestingly Antje commented that the string quartet – after she’d listened to the playback twice – was "almost as elegant as Elliott Carter”. Yeah, she’s right. Almost. She commented too that my piece was more dense. Yep, right again. I thought it was perhaps too dense – a self criticism Yun made about himself early on too.

But there’s nothing I can do about it; I have to let it develop of its own accord. I’ve often felt that my music was too dense – but that, paradoxically, was because I was restraining it too much, holding in the reins. The energy expended to hold in the reins tended to nullify the flow of expression which resulted in a compromise. In the last pieces – up until Killing the Intelligence I was still censoring using my synchronicity approach, but in the end it was a game I lost interest in.

I didn’t want the technique to determine the outcome and I’d been experimenting with "anti-technique” since 2003 with interesting, sometimes exciting, results. But there wasn’t a deep sense of lasting satisfaction. I needed the six month break, retrospectively, to let the dust of the last few years settle and basically become that which I’d aspired to. So, yes, there are still shadows of other influences. J.S. Bach thought Antonio Vivaldi was pretty cool even as a mature composer. So I don’t think of this piece of being an extension of an interminable apprenticeship.

written: August, 2008

After completing the first movement (formerly work 302, 321.1 now work 325.1), it became clear that I wanted to write a second movement which would emphasise the solo voices within the quartet. The second movement (work 325.2) begins with a continuation of the cello voice from the first movement.

It was to last almost a year until the second movement was completed. In the meantime I wrote other pieces and recorded a lot of other music – including rock music with my beloved Stratocaster – and for a while I forgot about the second movement. Everytime I encountered it by coincidence I doubted that I would ever finish it.

After writing two pieces for Simon Reade within a short period of time – Brass Quartet und interaction – the direction of my musical language once again became clear to me. Therefore I was able to turn to the second movement and finish it. I feel that a third will follow.

written: August, 2009

The third movement had been developing between appointments, receiving its last spurt over the Christmas break. I feel satisfied in having concluded the work as well as with the conclusions/new openings that the work reached. Happier too in moulding sounds rather than being primarily focused on problem solving.

written: January, 2010

Brass Quartet (#319)

This piece is about challenges.

The changing meters and changing tempi reflect the need for flexibility and adaptability within the context of an intricate contrapuntal texture. The piece transforms rapidly although there are sections of recovery and quiet reflection – characteristics of metropolitan life.

Part of the aesthetic motivations derive from reading Michio Kaku's "Physics of the Impossible" to do with, among other things, past, present and future conceptions of what is possible.

The piece was completed while I was on holiday in Pottenstein, Franken in the south of Germany at the end of June, 2009.

written: 2nd of November, 2009

interaction (#320)

Simon Reade visited me for a week in Berlin in June 2009. On the 4th of June we went to a concert where Pierre Boulez conducted orchestrations of his Notations. We sat directly behind the percussion. My ears responded immediately to the flowering harmonies. In the course of his visit Simon suggested I write something short for wind band – a kind of "calling card" piece. interaction resulted out of Simon's visit, our conversations and having heard (and seen) Boulez conducting his Notations.

written: 2nd of November, 2009

ICARUS, once upon a paradox (#86, now #322)

In 1995, my first year as a composition student, I asked Shayn McCallum, a friend I made while attempting an arts degree some years earlier, if he’d be interested in writing some songs together. He had nothing against it so every week or two I’d write some music on the guitar and head over to his place to play him what I’d done and give him a recording to write words to. This collaboration lasted about two years in which we wrote 36 songs together.

This piece was arranged soon after its composition in 1995 for choir – an arrangement I’d more or less forgotten about until today. A few weeks ago Simon Reade asked me to get something together in time for a choir concert, but I had trouble finding poetry to inspire me. Having looked at some German poetry yesterday evening dealing with Sysiphus, some other Greek archetypes went quickly through my head while jogging early this morning. Then I remembered Shayn’s words. I spent today slightly reworking my older arrangement of the song we wrote together 14 years ago.

written: 30th of August, 2009

seven sketches for choir (#327)

the texts begin humorously and lightly, becoming increasingly humorous and cynical.

the music retains a detached, almost blithely relaxed stance throughout.

someone said the texts i wrote were "dada".

someone said they were "rubbish".

if it is "dada" my intention is to discover rather than employing a technique to provoke for the sake of making money or creating notoriety.

if it is "rubbish" then in the sense that one might consider "surrealism" or "psychedelia" rubbish. here we're talking about taste and strong, perhaps even dogmatic ideas governing aesthetic receptivity.

i'm receptive to a broad band of sense and nonsense in the world.

and the more i hear the more nonsensical and discredited much of it becomes.

naturally i include my own efforts here.

seven sketches for choir contains experiences. many experiences one wouldn't choose to have but one witnesses them anyhow. they then provide content. and i didn't want to censor. someone else will do that.

written: 7th of February, 2010

homogen (#331)

homogen is for six guitars. The ensemble may consist of either classical, acoustic steel string or electric guitars but not a combination thereof.

The piece is marked p and should be played accordingly throughout. Exceptions to p are found in bars 33 (mf), 82-83 (mf), 109 (ff), 110 (mf) as well as the crescendi in bars 36-37 and 80.

String markings should be observed for timbral and resonance purposes.

The duration of the piece is 6 minutes.

written: 13th May 2010

string quartet 2 (#338)

Description

This string quartet, in one continuous movement of approximately 14 minutes duration, is divided into eight sections.

It attempts to illustrate evolution of life and consciousness on Earth from the beginning (sections 1-4) to the present (section 5) and to speculate on evolution into the future (sections 6-8).

Performance Notes

The tempo change in bar six (from quarter note = 72 in bar five to quarter note = 79 in bar six) occurs as a result of the relationship of two notes in bar five: the first in violin 1, the second in violin 2.

The tempo change in bar 21 (from quarter note = 79 in bar 20 to half note = 47 in bar 21) occurs as a result of the relationship between two notes in bar 20: the pizzicato in the viola, the last pizzicato in the cello. These two notes initiate the 16th note pulse in bar 21 (initially divided into 32nd notes) played by the second violin and viola.

Neither of these tempo changes is intended to operate metrically but, rather, impulsively. Thereafter throughout the piece all tempo changes operate metrically.

written: 18th November 2010

Concordia (#344)

0146 & 0137 are 'all interval tetrachords' which the American composer, Elliott Carter, discovered in the process of writing his first string quartet in the late 1940s. As the name implies all intervals can be derived from these four pitches. Unsatisfied with the conventions of tonal music as well as unconvinced by the treatment of harmony in serial music I was compelled to look further for ways to organise harmony in a manner which would allow me expressive flexibility in accordance with a consistent syntax. In these conservative times it might be easy to interpret unfamiliar sounds as some kind of threat to the 'new tonal order' which currently reigns in the commerical musical world. My interest, though, is aesthetic and not political. When one considers the development of harmony over centuries (in Western European music) and its particularly rapid development in the 20th century one recognises quality of expression in all epochs, in all idioms. It is nothing more (or less) than quality of expression which I am aiming for in working with these chords.

Unlike tonal music, which is pitch-based in terms of providing orientation, non-tonal music is (primarily) interval based. This means that when one inverts an 0146 chord different pitches result:

Prime (P0) - C, C#, E, F#

Inverted (I0) - C, B, G#, F#

When one inverts a C major triad the result is a re-arrangement of the pitches in the triad (C-E-G). This is because the identity of a C major chord is built on pitch content. When inverting a chord in tonal music pitches remain the same while intervalic content changes; in non-tonal music pitches alter while intervalic content remains the same.

One might ask: why use a system at all? The answer to that is actually quite clear. Our brains are conditioned to hearing a system: a system of tonal relationships. This enables people calling themselves composers to pander to uncritical audiences thus earning a living (or at least receiving arts funding) by plundering the past - or the post-post modern present - at the click of a mouse button. For me that isn't honest work even if it is makes for flavour-of-the-month style popularity and easy media "acceptance". While I value tonal music in its historical context, today there is, in aesthetic if not economic terms, nothing new to be discovered in it - and hasn't been for over 100 years. Having written enough tonal music myself I consciously decided to change my own programming in order to move on. One real gift to a composer today is having musicians and instruments which can reliably produce desired pitches.

 

written: 10th July 2011

lilith (#347)

"mmm... I don't think it's one of your best pieces... it doesn't flow, it sounds juxtaposed, it only begins at 2:30... then this theme comes back and you think, OK, c'mon... it's contrived... a really long introduction, then these different bits stuck together."

written: 30th December 2011