Minimalism started out all too formless, limited, repetitive, long and boring. However, it was good for getting more out of the traditional keys and showed that playing in the Major/minor/modal system wasn't dead yet. Minimalism has matured recently often having the flexible form I'm thinking about and not just a bunch of copy cats arriving too late to be respected minimalists.
Like minimalists, contemporary composers could also be working with limited pitch sets such as different forms of the pentatonic and diatonic tetrachords in the range of a perfect fifth. This serves two purposes. This eliminates some of the directionality and linearity of the western traditions and allows a composer to slowly reveal the scale as is done in India's classical music so as not to blow all their cookies too soon in the longer form we could be working in.
The one good thing about ambient music, which isn't much distinguished from minimalism by the lay populace, is bringing back composition for a specific purpose. The church provided this function before but its really a lost cause now. Music for airports fits the bill nicely much better than Muzak.
The minimalists have this down better. Music can be wallpaper until you pay attention to it and then discover its nuances. The way to do that is not through simultaneous keys or atonality which, though somewhat interesting for the musicians, alienates the audience.
The minimalists have this down better. Music can be wallpaper until you pay attention to it and then discover its nuances. The way to do that is not through simultaneous keys or atonality which, though somewhat interesting for the musicians, alienates the audience.
The music can be challenging to musicians through simultaneous tempos and rhythms while saving the melody for the audience. The minimalists also broke out of the 31/2 minute radio format along with some rock bands like Yes and Pink Floyd. In fact, we can include the audience without pandering to the junior high school, Britney Spears, lowest common denominator.
Modal jazz artists like Miles Davis and John Coltrane among others had mastered playing over changes and were looking to move toward what they considered to be more spiritual in India's and Africa's music. They utilized a slower harmonic rhythm staying on the same chord for a longer period of time in order to prevent the harmony from controlling the melodic direction and to be given enough time to develop the melody similar to the Indian because India's (and the Middle East's) melodic sensibilities are far superior to the western.
However, the Modal Jazz school (and the New Age movement) are mistaken about Indian music's spiritual purity.
Be that as it may, modal jazz was abandoned because it had been done and it was time to move on because of the contemporary demand for originality and newness which is sometimes a mistake.
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