Verschlagwortet: New Music

 von Moritz Eggert

Die aktuellen Neue Musik – Trends 2017!!!

Ihr wollt Stipendien bekommen, Preise gewinnen, oder einfach nur cool sein und vor euren Kollegen angeben können? Dann zieht euch folgende Liste rein, look and learn, be succesful, baby! Denn nur wer diese aktuellen Trends kennt, hat eine Chance auf der international stage of New Music, kann die begehrten Preise abräumen oder die Jurys beeindrucken.

 von Moritz Eggert

Preparing Atopy. A lecture in 6 parts. Part two: The Big Sleep

(This is the English translation of a 6 part lecture that I gave in Mainz about the possibilities of what I call „atopical“ music)

THE BIG SLEEP

I am often asked at parties what kind of music I write. This is a horribly difficult question to answer. Because “music” is of course a near endless term. “Music” can be St. John’s Passion or the music of the „Beatles“, both is „music“. I also think it is reasonable that both of it can be called “music”. Because in all kinds of music – be it popular music, dance music, Jazz music, improvised music, ethnical music, experimental music, film music – the chances to encounter horribly bad music are absolutely equal. This is the common trait of all music. But in each of these “genres” we can of course also find works of genius. For me there is no quality difference between the music of the Beatles and the music of Stockhausen. I actually also know which of these two I absolutely prefer!

I am reading „The Classical Revolution“ by John Borstlap and think about it (5)

 von Moritz Eggert

I am reading „The Classical Revolution“ by John Borstlap and think about it (5)

This is Borstlap’s most controversial chapter so far. In German we would say “he pulls his pants down”, meaning that he is revealing his pet hatreds for certain composers (especially Boulez, who he constantly criticizes for being extremely shallow and simple while hiding it under a layer of clever wordplay). These are the most important concepts of this chapter in a nutshell:

I am reading John Borstlap’s „The Classical Revolution“ and think about it (4)

 von Moritz Eggert

I am reading John Borstlap’s „The Classical Revolution“ and think about it (4)

Oh my, what should I make of this long and rambling chapter?

In it Borstlap goes on and on about his most beloved insights, while the sheer repetition of his mantras “modernism is bad” and “tonality is good” slowly grate on the reader’s nerves because the feeling arises that matters of personal taste are falsely sold as “objective” golden rules for good music.

I’m reading John Borstlap’s „The Classical Revolution“ and think about it (2)

 von Moritz Eggert

I’m reading John Borstlap’s „The Classical Revolution“ and think about it (2)

I was astonished how much international resonance my last blog entry – the beginning of a commented reading of Borstlap’s much maligned book chapter by chapter – has created. Even though most comments I read condemned Borstlap’s critique of the “New Music Establishment” as laughable there seemed to be a hint at a bigger and perhaps even necessary discussion of the way arts and especially music are funded. Because I am interested in a more international opinion and perhaps even consensus on this I have decided to continue this series in English (perhaps as a little step towards an international edition of the Bad Blog Of Musick, which is something I always want to do but never get around doing sadly).