Satoshi Akima wrote:

>Although I am one those who have been blacklisted as being a nasty avant
>gardedist I agree with the praise that David gives to Stirling.  I would
>strongly encourage others to listen as well.
>
>There was a BRIEF period when I too was a militant avant gardedist.  I
>used to regard all contemporary tonal composition with contempt.  I loved
>the hard hitting rhetoric but now it all seems rather old fashioned.  This
>was the sort of thing people came up with in the 1950's and 60's.  I still
>tend to regard Boulez in particular as the most important of all post-war
>composers, but passionate disagreement is welcome.

I think by now it has been established that I was using irony to make a
point - that extremism begets extremism.  We have come to accept extreme
viewpoints in defense of the status quo rather too easily, vice begets
vice.

But more importantly, those who make up the classical music audience need
to be aware of who the outside world sees as their spokesmen.  And right
now, the quality is, unfortunately, pretty dismal.  Are we well served by
classical radio which implies that JC Bach was the most important member
of his family? Are we well served by books which, alternately, imply that
triads are wicked - or that Berg's violin concerto is distant from the
center of classical music? Are we well served by articles which neglect
the fertile and important relationship between jazz and classical music -
or which, worse, belittle jazz as "folk music"? By critics that call for
contemporary at any cost - or demand that "what the audience wants to hear
is the past"? Are we well served by articles like Griffiths which ignores
most of what has gone on in music - or Teachout's which claim that tonality
and only tonality is important.

I thought this might be because of lack of anyone who could do any better,
but looking through many of the more obscure corners of the printed world
and the internet should convince anyone that this is not the case.  What
is needed is a passionate defense of ideas, rather than a partisan one.
It would have been easy enough to write an article praising Boulez'
accomplishments - as conductor, composer and administrator - and making the
case for his work, without making stupid claims or implying that the world
revolves of new music revolves around him.

- - -

What is ironic - to me anyway - is that my music isn't tonal in the strict
sense.  A quick Schenkeran diagram will show that most of the movements
don't have an Background line based around what Schenker would have called
"tonal" construction.  Saltzer openly said that there were works - such as
the Sonatas of Hindemith - where the "contrapunctal structural" elements
overwhelmed the tonal.

To take a more explicit statement - there is no functional cadence which
the work is an expansion of.  Instead most of the music that is on my page
at mp3 is modal - that is it is centered around the question of creating a
pitch class, and identifying a fundemental tone which is heard as the "goal
tone" of the melody.

At the end of the 19th century there was a perception that the "tonal"
system had broken down.  In fact, it had not, Busoni put his finger on
it - it was that the modal system of major and minor had broken down.  No
longer could everything be fit into the "Major-Minor scale system".  Which
is part of the reason that there was an active search for new scale systems
- the whole tone scale, the magic scale and others.

In itself this is nothing revolutionary - after the end of World War II
Schoenberg identified "modal" influences in composers - and theorists such
as Volek spent their lives dealing with the innovations of composers such
as Janaceck.

What is different here from many other composers who have sought solace
in modality - including the minimalists - is the relationship between
fragments and the harmonic tension.  The works are capable of shifting
modes because of this relationship.  Because the fragments are based on
shapes, rather than chords, any note can be heard as the inflection for
another.  Perhaps the most extreme demonstration of this is something that
sits in my private archives - a rock improvisation on "In Heavan towards
Anacreon" known to American listeners as the tune for the "Star Spangled
Banner".

stirling s newberry
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http://www.mp3.com/ssn