Trends, styles, genres today

Preliminary questions: in Europe or in the World?

In general, the narrative aspect of music is certainly being rediscovered. Thus, musicians like Part, after great extremes, are returning to an almost "spiritual" mode.

Japanese musicians and some Americans, who are doing very interesting things, should not be underestimated.

... the music of the last 30 years will surely be progressively abandoned

What did you have in mind?

thallo wrote:

The question is simple: are we able to provide a summary of what the major trends currently present in the world of contemporary music are? I would like to refrain for a moment, I won't hide from you that it is a very selfish question to quickly understand if I am missing something.... then I will tell you what lies beneath, I swear

Too generic, and "contemporary music" from my point of view doesn't say much.

Scope?

As Xenakis rightly reminds us, geographical location?... or are you thinking of a process of globalization? (plausible)

By trends, do you mean mainstream?

New complexity?

Post-spectralism?

Algorithmic composition, no-input, saturation

who knows

thallo wrote:

The question is simple: are we able to provide a summary of what the major trends currently present in the world of contemporary music are?

Off the top of my head, I wouldn't be able to

The first things that come to mind, in terms of "trends" (often intersecting with one another): saturationism, derivations of spectralism, CAO (CAC), transformation codes, gesturality, theater, electronics, various contaminations...

Perhaps a list of interesting composers would be more indicative!

Computer music

Forgive my ignorance, could you spend a few words on :

RedScharlach wrote:

saturism, derivations of spectralism, CAO (CAC), transformation codes, gestures, theater, electronics, various contaminations...

saturism, CAO and transformation codes?

Trade1 wrote:

Forgive my ignorance, would you spend a couple of words on saturationism, CAO, and transformation codes?

I'll limit myself to two words!

Saturationism... actually, micamahler was more accurate, who wrote 'saturation'! The most common Italian translation is *saturazionismo*. The most famous exponents are Franck Bedrossian and Raphaël Cendo, though I have heard that many followers can be found in France, Germany, and Austria. Harmonic saturation, acidic, distorted, and aggressive sound.

CAO Composition Assistée par Ordinateur (computer-aided composition) with software like Open Music to integrate the techniques of creation-management-transformation of material. IRCAM is, once again, the point of reference.

Transformation codes. I didn't know how to classify "Donatoni-style" techniques. Perhaps I could have spoken about figure. It is always a matter of somewhat coarse classifications!

I would add to my previous post the important "trend" that refers back to Lachenmann: he defines it as instrumental musique concrète.

From my point of view, technically speaking, I share those who cite computer music; certainly assisted composition will have and is having a great deal of space.

As for Lachenmann's experiments regarding the defunctionalization of timbre, for me they are amply superseded by the sampling and synthesis possibilities inherent to electronic music, where sound is composed even in real-time, thus with the flair of performance. I will return to this point later.

And in reality, I notice that Lachenmann is known very much for this aspect, but he also writes other things and his music is effective regardless of the experiments he used to do, which show a different tendency.

Donatoni and his techniques are now well and truly historicized... even taught in some academies, and experience teaches that when something becomes catechized... it is already outdated. Enough with the 'Donatoninis'.

In effect, the Japanese and Americans are doing very interesting things and certainly the classic counterparts—avant-gardists/traditionalists—are rebalancing.

In the last 30 years, a lot of children of postmodernism were going around... bit by bit, once the gloss of experimentation had worn off, many die-hards are rediscovering a taste for modernity within tradition, and music for images helps with this. I read the word “post” too much in posts... not without reason, in my opinion.

If we really want to talk about trends, we can say that the world is now one; Westerners take from the East, Easterners take from the West. The economic world has a new equilibrium (compared to the 1980s) played out between American ingenuity and Chinese manufacturing.

As we know, means (including musical ones) go where the money is... and not by chance it was the phonology studios that allowed for the development of electroacoustic music.

If we add that in such a cohesive social context (which includes everyone and not just professionals) art music would be out of context... I leave due reflections also regarding the fact that for quite some time composers have depended on performers, and in ever-increasing numbers they prefer tradition. As always, the relationship between composer and performer is fundamental; see Paganini, Liszt, Berio with his wife, all those who relied on the Arditti, etc.

Cyclically, it happens that the virtuosity of the performer becomes a driver, but then there is always a settling phase.

We are in this phase, in my opinion... they don't commission avant-garde pieces to me, they ask for musical pieces that are interesting, enjoyable, and not extreme from an executive standpoint (in short, human). The classic phrase is: “Maestro, don't put 7 notes in my right hand, 5 in my left, a broom up my... and a dust cloth in my mouth.”

Turning back to Lachenmann—and I say this to myself first: there is no point beating around the bush, we make instruments do the worst things: there are those who break them, those who saw their strings, those who theatrically make them sound without strings leaving only the gestural aspect, and the list is infinite. But the new sound is the electronic one, so those interested in hearing/playing traditional instruments want to hear them for what they are and what they do best, and I dare say that besides being right, perhaps it is better not to limit oneself and to complete one's training by arriving at the field of computer music.

Example: if I want to hear a flute... a flute is enough, not a cello playing like a flute. Lachenmann's idea is interesting, just as happened with sound with Webern (... who cares about him today? Interesting, but it has become extinct in its aphoristic nature... one wants to "eat" the meat and not just the bones, the skeleton) or Cage conversely, silence interrupted by sound... today does music or philosophy count?

Anyway, all this doesn't prevent me from indulging my whims... precisely.

These are all things that can provoke reflection... free thoughts.

There are so many things to say about it that I don't even know where to start!

micamahler wrote:

There are so many things to say about it that I don't even know where to start!

... in fact, it is only a tenth of the things that came to mind.

Frank wrote:

As far as Lachenmann's experiments regarding the defunctionalization of timbre are concerned, for me they are amply superseded by the sampling and synthesis possibilities inherent to electronic music, where sound is composed even in real-time, thus with the flair of performance.

[...]

Donatoni and his techniques are now well and truly historicized... even taught in some academies, and experience teaches that when something becomes catechized... it is already outdated. Enough with the little Donatonis.

To tell the truth, if we are talking about trends, I am reminded of composers [men and women] in their twenties, thirties, or forties, coming from Germany, Spain, USA, Argentina, Ireland, Poland, in whom Lachenmann's sound is recognizable and constitutes a determining element: I am not speaking, however, of clones of Lachenmann, or of pure epigones, but of composers with well-defined paths and with a thought process that cannot be reduced sic et simpliciter to the formula of instrumental musique concrète.

An analogous discussion applies to Donatoni: as of today, obviously one no longer hears his typical sound (which feels very "eighties"), but his compositional techniques—revisited, adapted, and perhaps distorted or contaminated—are an unavoidable component of the artisanal toolkit of many composers. One must be clear about what is meant by "outdated": in itself, a combination of transformation codes and spectralism is neither plausible nor implausible today: the result is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

For these reasons, I find the discussion on current trends very difficult (and equally stimulating), which will then be the subject of future musicology.

PS another addition to the previous posts: a composer who is "very much felt" today is Fausto Romitelli (he would feel a bit cramped within the vein of "various contaminations" that I was talking about).

unfortunately, however, he is not a living composer and in my opinion he is truly inimitable

RedScharlach wrote:

For these reasons I find the discussion on current trends very difficult (and equally stimulating), which will then be the subject of the musicology of the future.

... it's a pity that musicology does not produce music, composers make the music. For this reason, am I missing the link between musicology and trend?

Ideas?

Understood, I missed a "then"

RedScharlach wrote:

coming from Germany, Spain, USA, Argentina, Ireland, Poland

Any names or links to listen to something?

RedScharlach wrote:

today: the result is evaluated, case by case.

Clear and I agree, but a trend cannot be made case by case, composer by composer... By trend, I think a more general orientation is meant. At this point, either Thallo says something ... or we won't get anywhere.

I reveal the mystery to you, which qualifies this discussion as deeply selfish...

I am in that period of the year when I think about a PhD. Last year I tried, and in the end I even won, but without a scholarship, so I gave up.

I could resubmit last year's project, but I don't like it anymore, so I am developing another one. I have the idea but I would like to immediately test it against the repertoire. And since for more than a year I have felt very far from the contemporary world, I wanted some spontaneous answers from you.

The fact that in recent posts there has been talk of instrumental musique concrète and computer music has comforted me.

From here, I start with the delirium of the PhD project... I would like to tackle a theme that has distressed me for years: that of the trained voice (voce impostata). The question should be: given the diminished need to perform vocal music "unplugged", what role does the "trained voice" object play? Is it a purely timbral role? Is it a taboo that is difficult to question? Is it an indispensable element due to the fact that the community of "trained singers", at least in Europe, is composed almost exclusively of opera singers? My preliminary answer (as things stand) is that the trained voice is for many a sort of fetish, beautiful without function, i.e., kitsch. Or even more so, camp: hyper-expressive and almost ridiculous, especially to "those in the know". There are repertoires where this is easily noticeable. Neo-tonal works and post-minimalist works, or the entire galaxy of operatic pop. Despite most of them being conceived as recording products, the nature of the lyrical vocal setting remains unchanged; in fact, often even the vocal "types" remain unchanged: light sopranos, lyric baritones, lyric tenors, etc.

The problems begin when that question is applied to... everything else. A similar research theme cannot claim to describe the entire world of contemporary music, but it gains strength if it can be applied to a discrete number of examples. And in reality, there are few contemporary composers who take the trouble to oppose a new type of vocalism to the "classical" one. And they are mostly singers themselves, composer-performers. I don't know how much vocal music there might be within computer music; it is a field I lack. There was talk of spectralists and post-[spectralists], and from what I know (Saariaho and Romitelli), even there the setting is not questioned much. Although, my gut tells me this is a field full of possible reflections: the timbral entity of the trained voice here HAS a function, and one much richer than in tradition, because it is virtually formalizing. While questioning many things, Sciarrino (in the Lachenmann galaxy) does not discuss the setting; on the contrary, he limits its intrinsic potential. And if I have to think of an example of a voice-object-fetish, Donatoni's "Alfred! Alfred!" fits perfectly :-)

Interesting ... but I don't know if I agree with this statement:

thallo wrote:

While questioning many things, Sciarrino (within the Lachenmann galaxy) does not dispute the approach; on the contrary, he limits its intrinsic potential.

In reality, Sciarrino seems to me one of the few composers capable of proposing a truly idiomatic and unmistakable vocal style: Sciarrino's vocalism is a brand that can be identified infallibly. How often, instead, one listens to a contemporary vocalism that sounds like a Puccini with the wrong notes!

I do not know Lachenmann's vocalism, however... I think I'll have to listen to La piccola fiammiferaia!

Good luck with the project!

By the way, I recently heard Sciarrino's madrigals performed live by the Neue Vocalisten.....what amazing singers!