The Way In

Looking for something outside the box of classical music? Bored with recycled soothing background music? Want to find out what's hip and happening in today's progressive music world?  Start here.

Contemporary music can be considered as music composed post World War II, that is, from the end of the 1940s on. This covers a period which could be described as a time of permanent revolution in music and includes such extremes as total serialism (Boulez), experimental (Cage), abstract expressionism (Feldman), minimalism (Glass), tintinnabuli (Part), uncomfortable (Crumb, Ligeti), mystical (Tavener), ambient (Eno), landscape (Luther Adams). There is so much, it's difficult to know where to start but rest assured there will be music that you will hate and much that you will love.

In the UK, we are blessed with some great modern composers and their works. One is Howard Skempton, expert at the miniature, given particular mention here because his work is disarmingly undemanding, despite his somewhat unorthodox personal musical history going back via Cornelius Cardew and the Scratch Orchestra. Another is the recently deceased Jonathan Harvey who has left a legacy of great contemporary music, particularly his larger scale works. The UK is also the proud possessor of BBC Radio 3 with its contemporary music programming ('Here and Now') and the annual Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music, spearheading live events.

At this point, check out my Timeline of 20th century composers and events to start building a picture of how rich and diverse contemporary music is.Here are ten suggestions for you to listen to. It's not a 'top ten' in any sense, but a play-list cross-section of styles, so you'll get a feel for the diversity of contemporary music and maybe find something you really respond to. You can stream these pieces from Soundcloud or Grooveshark.

Morton Feldman, Rothko Chapel
Terry Riley, In C
George Crumb, Black Angels
John Luther Adams, Become Ocean
Howard Skempton, Lento
Jonathan Harvey, Speakings
John Coolidge Adams, Shaker Loops
Krzysztof Penderecki, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
Michael Nyman, Chasing Sheep is Best Left to Shepherds
Toru Takemitsu, How Slow the Wind

Like to explore more? I've recently converted my website into amagazine format and it's all about contemporary music. It has a new address, too, and is the Contemporary Music Project.

A Musical Month

Whenever I sit down to write these Musical Notes, I think to myself, what on earth am I going to write about this time? A minute later and I've realised how much there is to say about what's been going on in my local, Newent, musical life and it becomes more a case of how to cut this information down to manageable proportions. It's been said before - there is something in Newent's air that makes it a focal point for music making.

Last night I took part in the Newent Community School concert in Gloucester Cathedral with hundreds of people, children and adults either performing or listening in the audience. Listening and performing are dependent on musical education, whether a formal process, or simply 'self-taught' and the successful results of all those ingredients were there in full view. It's the fact of relationships, of a coming-together, between the many facets of making music that brings it all to life.

This month I was introduced to a project applying itself to relationships in music making that could well have a significant influence on local music and beyond. 'Soundscape', the brain child of David Sass, has the aim, like our orchestra, of promoting music, encouraging musical participation, education and relationships between musicians and the public. Unlike the orchestra, it is coming from the direction of rock and popular culture rather than classical. This I like. There is much potential for mutual support and some interesting projects that could involve our players. Time will tell, but watch this space.

Our Music Appreciation Group (NOMAG) meets again shortly and, thinking above about popular culture, there is something that bothers several of its members that I hope to help with. This is the relationship of digital technology and listening to classical music. For anyone not at home with a tablet, laptop or smartphone, the words 'streaming', 'podcast' and 'download' can be pretty alien creatures. Streaming, for example, and 'the cloud' have confusing visual associations with rivers and the sky that are quite alarming. Come along to the next meeting for a simple clarification if you will.

Oh, yes, and just in case you were wondering about the picture at the beginning of this newsletter, it's a bit of that alarming but in this case beautiful technology: 'cymatics' is the art of making music visible; the picture is a typical cymatic image made from acoustic vibrations and is remarkably similar to the image of the 'mandala', a pictorial representation of psychological wholeness and healing. Mandalas were created in the religious art of many different cultures as inspiring objects for meditation. Happy musical meditating!

Ends and Beginnings

I completed the Offa's Dyke Path and what a great experience that was. The last section was through the beautiful and spectacular Clwydian mountains, atmospherically misty then bright sunshine for the conclusion in Prestatyn. Travelling light and without a companion to chat to, I ended up talking to myself and making a short audio diary for the last two stretches: What Will Music Be? and The Spirit of Music. These are edited and on the appropriate Ramblings website pages for you to listen to.

A delight at the end of the walk was to find a silver sculpture gleaming against the sea and sky. Called 'Ends and Beginnings', it represents the rising sun in the east for dyke walkers just setting off, or the setting sun in the west for finishers such as myself.

The first draft of the first ten chapters  is written and web-published. The next few weeks will be necessary to complete the final five of Ramblings About Music. After that - any interested publishers out there?

What's Occurring?

I've just posted a couple of CD reviews on the Reviews Page. These are of symphonies, one by Erno Dohnanyi, the 'last of the great romantic symphonists' and Ernest Bloch, whose music I now rate highly having heard and loved his E Flat major Symphony. Check them out.

    On a personal note, I've been enjoying learning about the benefits of music making for the elderly and particularly for those with dementia and other associated conditions. Our knowledge about the effect that music has on the brain by providing positive stimulation is increasing, particularly in the realm of recall and memory.  More than this, its effect on the whole integrity of brain function and self-awareness is remarkable and significant. I've been witnessing the results in a small way and want to pursue this path further with my own music making.

    I've also been preoccupied with my musical 'Ramblings' along Offa's Dyke. When I set off at the beginning of this project, I really wondered what on earth I was doing!  Now, having completed three of the fifteen walks, I know. The pleasure and stimulation that they have brought was quite unpredicted. To chat about music at some length while rambling through some of our most beautiful countryside is a combination that works superbly.

    On the most recent, the subject was 'harmony'. The walk was along a ridge running the length of the Black Mountains from Pandy to Hay-on-Wye. All the way we were accompanied by skylarks singing at full voice. I don't just mean the odd one or two here and there, but dozens of them all the way along an eleven-mile stretch. Sometimes we could hear three or four at a time, but always as we left the territory of one, another would take over and pour its glorious song down over our heads. If that wasn't a remarkable lesson in the art and practice of harmony and melody, I don't know what is.

Pics of the walks which will continue over the summer, info. about them and the musical topics are at 'Ramblings About Music'.