Ruth Katz, the author of A Language of Its Own: Sense and Meaning in the Making of Western Art Music, touches on key turning points in the formation of Western music. By the time she gets to the twentieth century, yes the century of Arnold Schoenberg!, she tells a tale of the primacy of self expression for the creative genius/composer, the dissolution of traditional musical unity (via triadic tonality) and, most importantly, the fissure between the composer and the audience. In other words, by the end of the nineteenth century, composers had became so obsessed with originality, creativity and self-expression ("But art belongs to the unconscious! One must express oneself! Express oneself directly!" Schoenberg in a letter to Kandinsky) that audiences just didn't get what was going on. Concert goers began to disconnect and stop attending performances of "new music."
As I was contemplating this, I was reminded of an interview with Steve Reich (contemporary American composer) that I had heard a number of years ago on Terry Gross's "Fresh Air." It is a delightful interview with Reich explaining his various compositions and thoughts about the various techniques that his uses. Along the way he tells a number of funny anecdotes, highlighting both the difficulty of performing and listening to his music.
My favorite story is about a performance in 1973 of Reich's Four Organs. This was not the premier of the work but, instead, a more mainstream performance at Carnegie Hall in NYC. This simply meant that the audience was more conservative--preferring Mozart or Beethoven--and did not know what they were getting into. Evidently, there were three distinct moments when concert goers attempted to stop the performance. At one point a woman walked down the center aisle, banged her head repeatedly on the stage and wailed, "Stop, stop! I confess!" Ah, twentieth century music. Who says audiences don't get into this music? I would call that extreme audience participation. When is the last time you felt motivated to run down to the front of the stage at a classical music concert (no, I don't include the last U2 concert you attended!).
Anyway, for anyone who is interested, I thought that I would include a link to Terry Gross's interview with Steve Reich. It is well worth the 40 minutes of your life, even if you dislike Reich's music. However, you may be surprised!
Oh, and look for my book review in Book & Culture sometime in the future.
Enjoy!
-Chelle
