IN THE (NEW MUSIC) GHETTO

The Australian’s music critic Matthew Westwood writes about new music and the many opportunities that audience will have to hear it in the next few weeks. Few art forms are as divisive as contemporary music – as evidenced by the letters that we get after a performance. It’s true that not all new music is easy to love. But then, plenty of other contemporary art works are just as difficult. It’s always struck me as odd that plenty of people flock to see difficult movies, read challenging novels or visit art galleries but seem to be afraid that listening to a new piece of music is going to be such an intensely disturbing experience that they’ll never be the same again. Maybe that’s a good thing though. Why bother to experience something if it’s not going to affect you in some way?

Westwood points out that the ‘most visible purveyors of classical music’ are programming new music mini-festivals. But I wonder if this is of any value to new music. The MSO’s Metropolis Series and the Sydney Symphony’s 20th century music festival [‘A Celebration of the Colour of Time’] with David Robertson – as excellent as the programming is – continue to ‘ghettoise’ new music. By placing it in a separate series, often in a different venue, they send a message to their mainstage audience which says ‘you probably won’t like this so we won’t inflict it upon you.’ Instead of giving their audiences to opportunity to discover something new, they continue to feed them the same diet of warhorses, and then market their contemporary concerts to the same small group of listeners. A group which will continue to stay small until orchestras commit to growing it by exposing their entire audience to the best of what’s new.

Matthew Hindson’s new work – like several of the new Australian pieces that the SSO commissioned for 2008 – has been safely tucked away in their Meet the Music series, a set of concerts aimed at secondary school students. Happily, kids seem to be much more open to new sounds than adults so these works will fall on appreciative ears.

And what about new music from countries other than Australia? If you want an immersion in the latest music from around the world you can check out the MSO’s Metropolis series or (subtle plug) come to our Audacious tour in July.

Robert Murray

RT TALKS

Tognetti joins KPBS-FM's Maureen Cavanaugh for a lively and wide-ranging discussion of his career and musical philosophy. Series: "La Jolla (California) Music Society: SummerFest"

VISIT THE ARCHIVE

To view Richard Tognetti's previous posts, please visit the ACO Blog Part One.

Please note, future posts will appear on this blog. Check back soon for more.

WELCOME

This is a forum for members of the ACO to place thoughts in a modern agora that encourages debate and response. The attraction of the Internet is that it is interactive, so we hope you will join our forum by offering us your thoughts in return.

The ACO travels some 100 days in a year. Although our stay in a destination is often as brief as good lingerie, our reactions, whether specific or general are strong. Hence, I thought it would be of interest to cyberise these thoughts by starting a cave of behind the scenes activity beneath our slick and bright website.

It is, however, not just our physical travels that will be documented, any ideas may be placed here. The interest of the Web lies in vox populi criticism and discourse. So long as you are passionate and sincere, you are welcome.

These days, Blogs garner as much credibility as paper journals. Popular and passionate views intersect with informed opinion, transforming the way we read and digest news and form opinion. Unlike in a media baron’s paper journal, one can “opinion hop”; traversing a universe of views ranging from diatribe to sycophancy that in the paper world would destroy a forest of trees. It is also the forum for modern revolution where opinions inflate or deflate attitudes in this barrier-free society. Not that we expect this site to become a forum for Basque separatists, but on the Web crackpots and global authorities exist side-by-side without the intervention of media owners.

Three attractions of the internet are: immediacy, multi-media activity, and interactivity. Often we do a concert and don’t receive a review for days, if not weeks afterwards; all we take home is the sound of hands clapping or coughing. Maybe the reviewer is a half-baked, prejudice- ridden crank on crack, (most aren’t we can be sure of that) but because he or she is associated with a reputed paper journal, the opinion “counts” (and usually should!), but what the Web offers is to discount exclusive opinion by offering diversity and immediacy.

Also in this ACOcave, we offer you downloads of our music, visual clips and insights into our music and travelling experiences and links to sight-and-site-seeing that invoke our interest.

It won’t necessarily run as a diary because that would require too much structure, rather we will begin as a free for all; indeed as a microcosm of the World Wide Web. Please use the search tools to find your own structure. We look forward to seeing how it grows and unfolds.

So welcome, enjoy and participate.

Richard Tognetti, Artistic Director ACO

This welcome note originally appeared on the ACO Blog MK I which can be found here. The new ACO Blogs will continue to allow you to hear from, and interact with, the ACO.

MORE MUSICA SURFICA

MusicaSurfica Emerging Artists tour is now complete for 2007. 4 public concerts+ 3 private including one for our sponsors APN – big thanks for making it all possible, 2 schools and the luck of surfing 4 nice point breaks: Crescent Head, Scotts Head, Broken Head and Noosa Heads. We followed the swell and after each concert, the hardcore surfers in the band drove some 3-4 hours each night to be there for the dawn surf, led by Derek Hynd. It’s rare to get surf in this part of the world in October and so we were blessed, especially at Noosa Heads where the swell must wrap around a long way to break. We arrived at film maker Jack McCoy’s Scott’s Head house after 1 am and were awoken by Derek Hynd at 5am with the words “ the nightmare has begun”. His words couldn’t be further from the reality. More like a wonderful dream to be on the far northern NSW coast to surf these perfect point breaks. The waves weren’t as big as we were hoping for at first and the wind was ill, but we waited until 7 am and the wind backed off, the dolphins came out and the swell picked up.

Perhaps the best vibe I’ve experienced in the water, we the finless crew were joined by a motley assortment of varied surf craft including a one legged surfer who managed to STAND on his surf ski balancing with his prosthetic leg and oar. I hope Jack McCoy filmed it. Mate – whoever you are, you are a legend. We also had Warren riding his inflatable mat and the pure elfin spirit of Sage Joske surfing on the finless ancient Alaia. Missing were the usual slash and burn assholes aggressively claiming their right to rule.

We are dreaming that we are recapturing the soul of surfing with the free spirit of finless. Surfing in the day, playing concerts in the night (joining the ACO were Tim Freedman and Shark Island charger Terpapai Richmond on drums, Joseph Tawadros on Oud and our emerging artists), couldn’t be better.

We’ve been playing our arrangement of Shine on you crazy diamond and Paganini’s 24th caprice live to Mick Sowry’s surfing cut from his under construction doco.

It was great to see two colossal Jacks in the audience: Thompson and McCoy.

After the Bellingen school concert one young bloke told me that he was going to take the fins out of his board and asked me where you can learn to play the viola. That’s thinking out of the square.

Let’s conclude with the words of Derek Hynd:
To surf free friction, or fin free, primarily forces the surfer back to the core. It is an act of homage to thousands of years of wave riding. It’s a return to an unpredictable wild side in a sea of conservatism. It is a test of composure in delivering the upper hand to nature. Most of all though it’s just a frontier feeling of being untethered and unguided that brings fun to the fore. And fun IS the key.

LAST TOUR FOR 2007

In Melbourne for our final subscription tour of the year with the glorious song bird Genevieve Lacey on recorder. Although Genevieve hasn’t written the works herself, she has worked closely with Erkki Sven Tuur and James Ledger to bring two fresh off the press works to our series. Both of whom are touring with us.

This concludes our year of the composer/performer - or as close as we can get to achieving this goal.

BTW for those asking, we’re concluding these concerts with 4 short encores which are:

Salut d’amour by Elgar (arr. Goto)
Vivaldi Largo from his dminor violin concerto
Paganini Caprice no. 24 (arr. Tognetti)
Antin Mikko (trad. Finland arr. Pekka)

The last tour with Leunig generated much strong opinion about Anthony Pateras’s own piece Autophagy and his interludes, including some rather vociferous letters of protest. Anthony’s music is a heady and forceful mix of sound that serves to repel some listeners. I think it’s unfortunate that we can’t find a place for him here in Australia – he’s going to relocate himself to Berlin where his style of music may find a greater depth of acceptance. Mmm…

ASA by CHRISTIAN LINDBERG

Christian Lindberg is a phenomenon. This is our year of the composer/performer with Olli Mustonen, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Christian and next Anthony Pateras writing and performing for and with the ACO. There aren’t many electric violin concertos on the planet let alone one for trombone and harpsichord. Christian’s piece ASA (see previous posting for notes) for this combination and strings is an uniquely twisted textured explosive journey that pushes us into sound territories - definitely a world first.