source file: mills2.txt Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 12:04:12 -0700 Subject: Naming the major and minor demons.... From: gtaylor@heurikon.com (One Cointreau, on ice....) >From: Franck Jedrzejewski >The spectral composers work with spectral analysis of a sound. The >decomposition of a sound in partials are used by composers as a primary >material. They build algorithms to move from one spectre to another one. >In this calculation, they usually used approximation in quarter of tone. And in this regard, Franck brings up something that I was wondering about commenting on when I originally posted the brief listings of discographies for those of you interested in pursuing Spectralists as the raw material of contemplation (audition).... The thing that interests me about Brian's interest in our French brothers and sisters is that (at least going on the basis of my interactions with those of them I've met) they are, in some respects, solidly located in the stream of good old European High Modernism - the major difference being that the formalisms are located in spectral analysis rather than in 12T set theory formalisms. In some respects, I'd be inclined to see them as one of the streams which flows from the disruption of a single, monolithic concensus of what music as High Culture is about - the other ones being a: those who still remain committed to serial techniques (though they may be using those means to produce "tonal" results, in some cases - the formalisms remain) like, say, Lachenmann or Spahlinger, etc. b: those who began their lives in group a but hunt for a way out or through (a fair number of Dutch composers like the late Ton de Leeuw, the Danish composer Poul Ruders, Walter Zimmerman, etc. c:the minimalist/postminimalist composers (you know the drill on this lot....) Since we're graced with a number of readers and correspondents from the European Community and beyond, I'd be quite interested to know how they see *themselves* with regard to their own cultural traditions. I still remember being somewhat surprised at asking one of these younger European composers about nonET work (she's pretty spectral), only to get a rather straightforward "Oh, that really doesn't interest me. I don't think it's related very much to what I'm doing." With regards, Gregory P.S. Of course, our Dutch friends have the liberty of pointing with some well-deserved pride to Huygens and Fokker [cue a brief fanfare on the Teyler Museum organ....] - so they're off the hook! ______ >From: hyperpoodle@mail.sisna.com (Doren Garcia) >Hello Waveophiles & Professor Ludwig Plutonium, Actually, it's *Archimedes Plutonium* now, I believe. >I am unfamiliar with the aesthetic of the school of 'New Complexity'. Can >someone offer a synopsis of their ideas? They are the fount of all that is evil and crapulous in the Present Age. Aided by their foul ally Cage and his evil crew of cryptoZen omphalocentrics, they wage a never-ending war against all true.... :-) Actually, the term is usually used to refer to a number of younger composers (I understand the term as being used to refer predominantly to composers from the UK, although I'd be happy to be corrected on this matter) whose work could probably be said to exist in the train of the Darmstadt folks [didn't Ferneyhough teach at Darmstadt for a while?]. They write agressive and energetically spiky work which seems to either favor virtuousity or be impossible to play. It's the closest one comes in a European concert hall to high-vol, head-bangin' perceptual overload. As a personal matter, I don't care for 'em all that much - my interest in them tends toward *pieces* rather than a body of a given composer's work. The names you can look for are (this is just for starters. I welcome additions): Brian Ferneyhough Michael Finnissy James Dillon Chris Dench I think that the easiest way to fine their work for American listeners is through the recordings of Dillon and Ferneyhough's work for String Quartet done by the Arditti Quartet on the French label Auvidis/Disques du Montaigne. They've done discs of both Dillon and Ferneyhough's work, and Harmonia Mundi distributes 'em in the states - so you should be able to locate them. Caveat auditor, folks - I find them an acquired taste myself (although I did program some of Finnissy's work last Sunday evening). With regards, Gregory _ I would go to her, lay it all out, unedited. The plot was a simple one, paraphrasable by the most ingenuous of nets. The life we lead is our only maybe. The tale we tell is the must that we make by living it. [Richard Powers, "Galatea 2.2"] Gregory Taylor/Heurikon Corporation/Madison, WI Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 27 Jun 1996 22:26 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id NAA04997; Thu, 27 Jun 1996 13:26:00 -0700 Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 13:26:00 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu