after reading anne midgette’s washington post article Roll Over Beethoven about her new “alt-classical” genre i have a few bones to pick with with her description and logic.*
besides mixing up the alt.classical genre with the alt.classical transcription bandwagon. (Alarm Will Sound’s Aphex Twin transcriptions and Christopher O’Riley’s Radiohead piano music) she tries then label group like the Absolute Ensemble, 8th Blackbird, and A Time for Three being alternative.
as alternative to what? the Kronos Quartet (aren’t they the same, but with mouthpieces), the Philip Glass Ensemble (maybe a step backwards) Terry Riley (now come on!!!)
to cut her a little slack i can agree with that performing outside the concert hall is alternative when she states it:
“represents an attempt to break down the traditional concert format, which can seem stiff and off-putting to the younger crowd whom all musicians these days would like to attract.”
anything to get rid of the old dogma… but in the next paragraph her description of these groups betrays her fundamental argument that these ensembles:
“are increasingly featured on mainstream, traditional concert series and orchestra programs. The Library of Congress series, committed to new music since its inception, has presented Alarm Will Sound and the Absolute Ensemble, both “bigger groups that are at home in so many worlds,” says Ann McLean, one of the library’s three senior producers for concerts and special projects. Young musicians today, she says, “go back and forth with more ease than you would have heard five years ago.”
anybody knows just because you can say you played at CBGB’s “back in the day” doesn’t make you punk and just because you happen to play a few record company showcases in a hip urban nightclub doesn’t change that you are selling old wine in new bottles.
but when it comes to groups like AWS, Absolute, and 8thBB what is so alternative about their ensembles and the music they play other than a “rebranding” of older”hits” from the academy. not only is most of this music funded through commissions (which are funded by grants, which is really just an updated version of the traditional patronage system), but in essence what is being celebrated is publicly funded chamber music in that is repackaged and commidfied as something edgy, hip, and dangerous.
my main gripe is that at the heart of these”alt-classical” ensembles is a patronage system made supports the institutions of the state (academy and and the government) i’m not saying the music they make is a bad thing, but supporting a system in which the composer in effect has to in effect ask for permission and approval to have his/her music performed is no innovation. the academics can bitch about popular music all they want, but pop music gave us the greatest innovation of all. a garage band in which a group of kids with no musical training a some crappy guitars could make music just because they wanted to.
along those lines i also think she totally missed the point in her description of the Great Noise Ensemble as a garage band
“Like most garage bands, alt-classical groups have to make the most of limited resources. “A lot of the vibe we’ve developed,” says Bayolo of the Great Noise Ensemble, “is that we’ve been forced to work in a tough economy with very little money, as what I call guerrilla music makers.” The ensemble’s musicians are still working without pay, though the question of performance space has been solved since the group took up residency at Catholic University” (for pay?)
of course the alt-classical genre isn’t really that new and just describes an older tradition (lloyd rodgers, robert ashley and all the other “downtown composers” and at least back to erik satie to name a few) of making DIY art music that is self funded, free market, and communal and libertarian. all are invited and I’d like to think genres are less important than the act of creating music for yourself and your musicians first and not based on what your ‘funding’ sources are interested in paying for.
i can only assume that as these “alt-classical” groups become more “successful” others will jump on this marketing bandwagon. so what happens when everybody is alt-classical? then its just as meaningful as those cheap von dutch™ trucker hats or an ed hardy ™ signature hoodies. i wonder what robert williams thinks about the appropriation of his aesthetic to sell such hollow crap.
as jeff harrington pointed out earlier today:
“There is no influencing the spectacle. The winners are already decided.”
*this is a slightly rewritten version of a post i made yesterday on NetNewMusic titled “Are 8th Blackbird and Alarm Will Sound “alt-classical” and takes a few good ideas from the participants (Jeff Harrington, Paul H. Muller, Antonio Celaya and Steve Moshier) and weaves them into a updated and more fleshed out opinion
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