My favorite contemporary composer has passed away... Rautavaara

I knew neither the author nor all these symphonies, listening to them is very delightful !! R I P

Does anyone know more about this composer's "movement"? His thought, his best works.. I listened carefully to the symphony no. 7 and I liked it a lot, too bad I don't have the Petrucci score!

Although he wrote the seventh symphony in 1994, it seemed particularly romantic to me, why?

pianothor wrote:

Although he wrote the seventh symphony in 1994, it seemed particularly romantic to me, why?

...perhaps because he will be a NEO-romantic

.. and why is it rather unknown? (among conservatory students and perhaps even among teachers)

pianothor wrote:

.. and why is it rather unknown? (among conservatory students and perhaps even among teachers)

Do you know how many good musicians there are in the world? An infinity ... sometimes it is difficult to become aware of them. Often they are closer than we believe, and we go looking for those who know where or for the most renowned names.

pianothor wrote:

Does anyone know more about this composer's "style"?

Even if approximate, a wiki never hurts

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einojuhani_Rautavaara

After the first response, I went to read both the Italian and English Wikipedia, and that is precisely why I wondered why he is so unknown.. as AbateFaria says, there are many talented musicians in the world, but not all of them are published by Boosey... The problem with unknown authors is, in my opinion, the usual story where someone tries to propose a piece by the author in a concert or competition and then risks appearing as if they are not up to the task of tackling the standard solo repertoire... Which is paradoxical: someone knows more music than someone else and is "punished" for it..

... and to say that Rautavaara is not exactly one of the unknown ones. There is something worse, and it is always a bit of a terror for those in the industry: ignoring entire schools just because they lack widespread distribution.

And this would also be a great topic for discussion: what are the places of contemporary music? Are there specialized magazines that give you a taste of the latest trends? Are there still international festivals that address the problem of explaining techniques and aesthetic issues? Are there "current" schools and styles that have points of reference, masters, institutions, universities, conservatories?

Bravo Thallo. The fact is that man is inclined to conform, so the "usual suspects" are better

thallo wrote:

And this would also be a beautiful topic for discussion: what are the places of contemporary music? Are there specialized magazines that give you a taste of the latest trends? Are there still international festivals that pose the problem of explaining techniques and aesthetic issues? Are there schools and styles "currently in action" that have points of reference, masters, institutions, universities, conservatories? 

Just tomorrow, the forty-eighth Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt will close. It might be a cliché – in every sense – but it remains a point of reference.

http://www.internationales-musikinstitut.de/en/program2016

In the small town, just below Frankfurt, hundreds of composers and instrumentalists arrive from all over the world every two years. I wasn't there this year (at least not in person), but in 2014 there were many musicians from Southeast Asia, many Chinese, many South Americans, in addition to Europeans and Americans. A lot of music was heard, too much music, of very diverse origins (perhaps "Lachenmann-style" and "Steen-Andersen-style" prevailed more than others). Every now and then, something interesting was heard. Many lessons, seminars, meetings. I was struck by the emphasis on spectacularity, the deployment of productive forces. In short, you meet people, groups are formed (Italians with Italians, or Italians with Spaniards, or Italians who studied in France with the French, etc...), you happen to go out for a drink with established musicians after concerts, or before concerts, or instead of concerts. Not everyone, however: only some among these established musicians (in the field of contemporary music) go out for a drink; others keep more to themselves. If you have good ideas, or ideas that you truly believe in, it can be a good place to propose them – but there is a concrete risk that these ideas will be attacked, so they must be truly good, or one must truly believe in them.

Other festivals: Manifeste in Paris is well-curated, but more selective, and therefore it lacks the impact of a large collective event; Impuls in Graz has a structure that quite reminds one of Darmstadt but is smaller and more intimate (and also more welcoming).

Thanks Red for sharing

RedScharlach wrote:

but there is a concrete risk that these ideas will be attacked, so they must be truly good,

I continue to smell esteto-phobia, in effect as witnesses

> perhaps more than others the "alla Lachenmann" and the "alla Steen-Andersen" prevailed

Rather than good ideas (or strong as you said in the other topic), they seem "paracule" (meaning very weak) to me

Here I like you more

>or one must truly believe in them

and in my opinion, those are the ones that count

Dear VideoClip, I find it important that there are places where one can compare themselves with other musicians (and from all over the world). Fortunately, they exist.

Regarding "esteto-phobia," I think it would be enough to be oneself to write unique music, but perhaps if one does not believe in oneself, one prefers to imitate someone else.

Videoclip wrote:

I continue to smell esteto-phobia

I didn't understand what you mean by esteto-phobia, and to tell the truth, I didn't even understand it in the previous post...

gamble: does estheto-phobia mean fear of the beautiful?

In Cremona, years ago, I asked a professor if, in her opinion, Stockhausen dealt with the problem of making beautiful music, a problem that in my view was also present even in Cage's most absurd compositions. I said that for me Stockhausen was interesting, while Cage was beautiful. She replied to me, truth be told, annoyed, that my question made no sense.

To this day, I often ask myself this question, although I am less radical in dividing interesting composers from beautiful composers, but my passion for post-minimalism is closely linked to this dilemma.

I add, with self-critical sadness, that the days when I listened to new things every day are over :-) nowadays I am a lazy fat man; I sing a lot and listen little.

I mean jokingly with the phobia of aesthetics ....adding...of others.

As is known, beauty is subjective and clearly aesthetics is closely linked to this aspect (to one's own sense of beauty, I repeat) and has nothing to do with the strength of ideas, which serves to poorly conceal a matter of personal taste. The result of certain ways of thinking is that those who want to share their music anyway, to be accepted by a "community", in an important event like the one that is rightly proposed without being "attacked" for who they are, especially if they are weak, are implicitly forced to "bend" to have a moment of glory and be able to say: "I was there" (a bit like an old Internet subscription advertisement). The result? Most participants write À la manière de.

And those who perhaps have different but good ideas are attacked... and they must also

>really believe in it

or rather double the effort: being original and resisting the "attackers". What is missing today in the music world is precisely openness (which, without meaning to, existed in the '80s). In a world that is now completely open source, there are those who continue to manufacture closed systems.

Perhaps the vision of this film can better explicate my thought

http://www.mymovies.it/film/1999/ilgustodeglialtri/

The fact remains that I don't mind at all that there are composers in the world who, like Red, Frank, present their music in these events, but it always remains a place, a date, a niche. Outside of there, one remembers "only" (so to speak) Lachenmann and Steen-Andersen.

So much so that Rautavaara may be little known, but he has his own identity, his own world regardless of places, albeit glittering ones, like Darmstadt.

I had understood the term "esteto-fobia" that I put in quotes differently; regardless, the contents of my post remain valid nonetheless.

I don't think I understood the explanation well...

Small correction: regarding the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt 2014, I said that the "Lachenmann-style" and "Steen-Andersen-style" prevailed. Recalling my memory, I confirm without a doubt that there were those "Lachenmann-style" (moreover, he was present – to say important things, as usual); however, it is a bit too much to say that there were those "Steen-Andersen-style" (moreover, he was also present, with a workshop; but he doesn't exactly form a school, not yet at least, or not on massive levels).

There was instead, certainly, a theme that often surfaced: conceptual music (or conceptualism in music, I don't remember exactly). Representing it, among others, was such Johannes Kreidler (http://www.kreidler-net.de/english/index.html), himself holder of the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis (the Darmstadt prize), substantially unknown in Italy – but I would say we aren't missing much (as a side note, I was just reflecting on the fact that in Germany it is necessary to have a concept behind the music – sometimes even regardless of the music – whereas in other places it is possible to write that certain note "because it sounded good to me" – or rather we can take "because it sounded good to me" as a good justification – provided there is a need to justify something).

Dimenticavo: among the important festivals/academies in Europe, one must certainly mention the Gaudeamus Muziekweek in Utrecht, active since 1957.

http://muziekweek.nl/en/

Its main characteristic is the young age of the participants. The declared goal is to scout budding talents (in 1976 it awarded Fabio Vacchi, and allowed many others to have excellent performances). If you want to get an idea of current aesthetic orientations (or aestheticophobia?) you can see here

http://muziekweek.nl/en/2016/06/14/meet-the-2016-nominees/

Still regarding aestheticophobia, I would have something more to say, but perhaps another time.

thallo wrote:

I don't think I understood the explanation well...

Which part of my post is not clear to you?