Day 058: New music in 2007
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
58 — New music in 2007
29-September-1971
(Wed.)
TRANSCRIPT
• Typical day again.
• No music at night, though.
• Studied for composition exam.
REFLECTIONS
Nothing to write about in 1971. No music.
2007.
2007 is
another story. Today is a Saturday. Spent part of a
beautiful fall day at the beach reading. Went to a
Ukrainian folk festival to eat pirogies and stuffed
cabbage. Ended the day with a new music concert
featuring compositions by Edgar Varèse and Harry
Partch. A good day.
Montclair
State University 2007. It so
happened that the new music concert was held at a new
concert hall at Montclair State. Remember, I
graduated Montclair in 1971 and I have not been to
Montclair in a while. I may as well have landed on
the moon. I was there in the evening, parked a
bazillion miles away from anything, and almost didn’t
recognize anything about the campus. Ok, I recognized
the bell tower. But everything else? An amazing
difference. The campus (in the dark) is new, big, and
has many new buildings. That’s great for the
students.
New
music concert. I went to
the new music concert to hear a colleague of mine,
Charles C., a composer and MSU graduate, perform in
Newband, an internationally renowned ensemble
dedicated to performing contemporary music. Their
performance was great, especially the Partch, which
was performed on original Harry Partch instruments—a
very impressive performance. It’s nice to hear
live
music of
all types. I need to do it more often.
Partch
and Varèse. Both
Varèse and Partch are what you would term
20th-century composers. Their music is often called
“contemporary”—melodies and harmonies are not tonal,
sound textures are often dissonant, new sound sources
are important, traditional instruments are used in
new ways, and microtonal music is on the scene. I
find this music fascinating. Many people might not
understand it. Many people may not like it. Give it a
try. Listening to many different styles of
both classical
and pop
music will expand your horizons. I enjoy all styles
of music.
Keep
a journal. During
intermission, I briefly spoke with a young and very
pretty girl sitting near me. She was a new graduate
student to Montclair; she was from a different
country (Brazil); she came to study piano. Do you see
a similar theme here? Guess what advice I gave her?
Keep a journal, don’t worry, do your best, and don’t
give up when following what you want to do. She spoke
excellent English, not like my German.
Maybe she’ll even read a page or two of this blog. I
enjoy speaking to young people, they wake you up.
Take care.
John
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