Recent Discussion
A model of how to write about a composer's music
Andrew Ford // 29.06.08 // In response to Nigel Butterley and the Problem that Wasn’t
What an excellent article - generous, perceptive and highly illuminating. I had been planning an article of my own on Butterley, but EG has left me nothing to say.
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Inherit the wind.....
Mundo Jedi // 23.06.08 // In response to Adelaide Contemporary Music Festival
A few years back in the mid 90s, when I was still teaching, I was playing Ligeti to year 3 students who would draw what they heard on huge pieces of butchers paper, then describe what they'd heard and...
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Starting Young?
Richard Toop // 16.06.08 // In response to Adelaide Contemporary Music Festival
Let’s not underestimate even super-young audiences! Years ago, Mauricio Kagel suggested that I come to a performance in Bonn of his ‘Zwei-Mann Orchester” – a 50-minute piece that is musically very austere, but visually fascinating: just two performers manipulating a huge array of ‘sound sources’, often pulling strings, like puppeteers....
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"Now" not just about the music
Nicole Canham // 15.06.08 // In response to Adelaide Contemporary Music Festival
How does a festival qualify as being “contemporary” John Davis asks? For me the definition comes not only from the music being programmed and the spaces and places where we find it performed but also in considering who a contemporary music festival might be for....
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You want fries with that?
Ford Prefect // 12.06.08 // In response to Adelaide Contemporary Music Festival
Festivals and their Flavour.....'we don't have artistic furhers telling us what we can or cannot do. Thank heavens for that'
Holy Gumboly, where are you from....
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Festivals and their flavour
Matthew Hindson // 12.06.08 // In response to Adelaide Contemporary Music Festival
Everyone is polite in Australia, in general. In contrast to Europe where you can get booed (and I have been), if Aussies don't like something, they just won't say much at all, or say that it's "interesting', or whatever.
Which may be why reviews are still held by some to be important....
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Reply to comments
Tristan Louth-Robins // 12.06.08 // In response to Adelaide Contemporary Music Festival
Firstly, I'd like to thankyou for the comments made so far - they've certainly given me plenty to think about over the past couple of days since checking this out online.
With the benefit of hindsight, I can admit that my review was perhaps a little heavy handed at the time of writing, and certain parts of it - specifically my definition of 'conservatism' (avec/sans quotation marks) - may require some clarification.
I agree with Andrew that the term 'conservatism' can be interpreted in many different ways....
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Confused
Andrew Ford // 09.06.08 // In response to Adelaide Contemporary Music Festival
Yes, John, what an interesting review! I think any good festival reflects the tastes of its artistic director - "committee festivals" are always lacking in flavour - so my hat's off to Gabriella. But what, I wonder, did this reviewer want that he didn't get? He was obviously disappointed, but when he accuses the festival of "conservatism" what is he objecting to? Too much minimalism? Too much atonality? Not enough aleatoricism? Too much? In the context of contemporary music, the word "conservatism" is open to a lot of different interpretations....
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What makes a contemporary music festival?
John Davis // 31.05.08 // In response to Adelaide Contemporary Music Festival
Hi Tristan
I am interested in your description of the festival as being "conservative", and this prompts me to ponder on what elements might be necessary for a contemporary music festival to qualify as being "contemporary".
In the contemporary Australian context where there is such diversity across what might be considered as "contemporary music", of genre and style, of personalities and musical tastes, I would have thought that "contemporary" meant "now"?
Looking across the recent festivals of "contemporary music" in recent months - in Western Sydney, in Melbourne, and in Canberra, for example - each of these festivals reflect the musical interests of the artistic director, the people and organisations involved, and also the performers participating....
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In the beginning
Howard Davidson // 28.05.08 // In response to Tristram Cary
I first met Tristram Cary when I arrived at College in 1967 – by a fortuitous coincidence the very year he set up the Electronic Music Studio,
in a room to the left of the concert hall. Looking back now it was all a bit primitive and basic but in those days it was pure science fiction with excellent boys toys.
Tristram was a very charismatic character....
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A legacy
Amanda Wojtowicz // 23.05.08 // In response to Tristram Cary
Thank you Jim for your elegant reminder of the humility and generosity of Tristram Cary. Andrew Ford's program also beautifully demonstrated the uncomplicated approach that he had to sounds and the impact of his work....
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Tristram Carey
Michael Barkl // 30.04.08 // In response to Tristram Cary
Thank you, Jim, for your article. Tristram was, and is, an inspiring figure for a generation or two [or three] of us, who we will never forget....
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Another response to the PAMC
Jennifer Fowler // 30.04.08 // In response to Performing Australian Music Competition
I was in the audience of the PAMC in London, and endorse John Davis's remarks about the high standard of performance that all the finalists displayed. It was great to hear Oz music so well performed to an enthusiastic audience....
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defeating the Daleks
Martin Wesley-Smith // 30.04.08 // In response to Tristram Cary
Thanks, Jim, for this lovely tribute to Tristram. I too picked up his feeling that he'd been a little hard done by in comparison to some of his composer colleagues. It was, I believe, his "wonderful eclecticism" that was responsible for most of this: such expansive talent, especially its pioneering work in electronic music, was a threat to the established order, and it was easier to ignore rather than embrace the works and and deal with their technical demands....
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Re: Vienna Revisited
Daniel Salecich // 25.04.08 // In response to Don Banks: Revisited and Revitalised
You're entirely right, Richard. Those were much of my thoughts when I wrote my comment about the Viennese scene.
Through the help of most of the german-speaking continent, Haas, Furrer and Neuwirth have all secured their place in the international scene....
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