In Blackbox I usually talk about contemporary music. However recently I have been receiving questions about how it all began. So I decided to prepare a few episodes about the beginnings of modern music, and about some of the pieces that are pivotal in showing a new musical direction.
For many of us, contemporary music is defined by its extensive use of dissonances: intervals that -when played simultaneously- sound clashing, and not really in harmony, for some ears even disturbing. But there is something very important here to keep in mind: dissonance as such is not necessarily something unpleasant or unnatural. Composers like Bach, Mozart, Chopin, all used dissonances. With one important point however, when these composers used dissonances, and created tension they always resolved it.
Today I would like to bring three examples for the different uses of dissonance by Mozart, Chopin and Wagner, and show you how these composers handled dissonance and paved the way for the future composers.
In this episode of Blackbox I would like to talk about a piece that caused a very interesting discussion on my YouTube Channel: “Ein Kinderspiel” (A Child’s Play) by Helmut Lachenmann. I am hoping that this episode will help you to develop a new listening strategy for this very interesting piece while also clarifying its context a little bit.
As always please don’t hesitate to contact me with questions or comments. Enjoy!
The Turkish composer Tolga Tüzün speaks about the compositional process that underlies his new piano piece “Permanence,” a piece he composed for the “Listening to Istanbul” Project and dedicated to me. I can’t wait to play this composition for the Listening to Istanbul project.
By the way, if you haven’t signed up to my mailing list yet, please do so. I’ll send around a notice once the recording is ready. And hopefully you will be able to come to one of the many concerts that we are planning as well!
Those who are familiar with the Blackbox series will remember the composer Hans Tutschku. Today I would like to dedicate another episode to Hans and his work. Actually to two of his works: one of them is a compositional achievement: a piano, percussion, and live-electronics work Winternacht (Winter Night), which I will perform together with the percussionist Sam Solomon on Friday.
The other one is an extraordinary contribution to the electro-acoustic music scene in North America: Hydra. Hydra is a so to speak loudspeaker orchestra specially designed for the performance of electro-acoustic music.
The concerts will take place at Paine Hall at Harvard University, on December 10 and 11 starting at 8pm, there will also be a late night concert on December 10 at 10.30pm with a large scale electro-acoustic work by Francois Bayle.
Our performance will take place during the Friday concert. Hope to see many of you there!
As you all know in this podcast series I usually talk about contemporary music, but this time I would like to focus on music that is new not in the sense that it was composed recently, but that is new because it is still undiscovered for the wider public: the piano sonata op. 88 in g-minor by Robert Fuchs.
Fuchs was a contemporary of Brahms and in today’s episode I compare two pieces by these two composers.
Please leave me a comment if you like the podcast!
How it all began Part 1: Reinventing Dissonance and its Resolution [8:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Get updates and anouncements
Get Seda's Newsletter
Follow Seda on Twitter
Seda on Facebook
