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An observation about "Modern" classical music.

As I sat in my car, waiting for my wife as usual, I listened to a local classical music station which happened to be playing some "modern" music. I don't like it, being an old fart who likes Mozart and his ilk. But, as I had nothing else to do, I tried to appreciate what I heard. No luck, but I did notice something I have experienced before but never thought about. At the end, there was a dead silence of 3 to 5 seconds before audience applause. This never happens with, for example, Mozart where the final notes never get a chance to decay before the applause and Bravos. Obviously (IMHO) the music was so hard to "follow" that the audience were not sure it was over until nothing happened for a while.

I know that some guys like this music, but haven't you noticed this dead time? How do you explain it?
eldartford
eldartford OP
4,262 posts
 
Brownsfan...Following "quit after Peter and the Wolf" I ought to have put a :-). An exaggeration of course, but you get my drift.

Seurat...Yes, those four notes, by themselves, are strongly rhythmic, but they do have tone, and are answered, in matching rhythm, by four more notes of different tone, leading into a development. Taken as a whole there is a melody.

I guess I have stirred up enough discussion for a while. I will probably be hearing modern music each week at the same time while I wait in the car for my wife to teach her Yoga class. The classical music station seems to reserve this particular time slot for modern music.

When I was a kid my mother told me to eat my peas. "Just try a few" she said. "You will learn to like them".

I still hate peas!
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robm321
932 posts
 
Eldartford,

It's because you don't understand the peas ;)

Lousyreed1,

You’re right I was really referring to dissonance when talking about Beethoven and Bach since they both centered around a tonal home key. Don’t we all like to go home at the end of the day though? I like to resolve at the end of a movie or composition.

George Crumbe “Hummingbird something” - I’m not sure but it was screeching violins and random noises “seemingly not organized” although I’m sure it was.

Seurat,

I love Alfred Brendel too - never flashy, never overplays a piece.
eldartford OP
4,262 posts
 
Today's local newspaper reports that the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and particularly their summer festival, Tanglewood, in Western Massachusetts is in dire financial straits. The new musical director, James Levine, has redirected the program towards more contemporary music, and we are seeing the result. One concert, Schoenberg's "intense and difficult" Gurrelieder saw 300 musicians playing to a mostly empty house. Things are so bad that the volunteers who staff the Tanglewood concerts are being required to "contribute" $75.

Nothing that a little Mozart couldn't cure!
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marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Once in BAM I and my other 2 friends had 2 tickets extra to sell for the concert & video show of Phillip Glass "Koyanisquatsi".
We sold these 2 tickets with enough profit to be on this great concert for free...
Couldn't book myself for Michael Nyman concert and tickets on the outside were upto 4x original price.

Yep, Tanglewood is certainly different from New York.
eldartford OP
4,262 posts
 
Marakanetz...Interestingly most of the Tanglewood audience seems to be from NYC and adjacent NJ.
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