periods of compositional
conservatism like the rather extreme one we're experiencing, ....
Dennis
Hardly. In a period of extreme conservatism, one would expect that
compositions created at any given time would be stylistically
indistinguishable from those created many decades or even centuries
earlier. That is certainly--and obviously--not the case today. A
typical piece written today by a composer born 1930 or later might be
taken back in a time machine to, say, 1980 and get away with it--maybe;
take it back much further and it would meet increasing levels of
incomprehension and hostility the further back you took it. That's not
my idea of "extreme conservatism." (For a notion of what an "extremely
conservative" artistic climate looks like, consider the painting and
decorative arts of ancient Egypt (3000 years!) or of pre-revolutionary
China. The dating of work from either of these cultures is strictly the
province of experts, and based more on medium than style. For China,
all this applies to the music as well.)
What we have now is, for the first time in 100 years so yes it feels
funny--*normal.* It is *normal*, thru the long course of music history,
for composers not to be two generations ahead of their audience. It is
*normal* for styles to change rather slowly. Welcome to normality. Me,
I'm happy here.
Andrew Stiller
Kallisti Music Press
http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/
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