Zubin Kanga,An interview with Composer Alexander Schubert

In a recent blog post for Borealis Festival, later published by MusikTexte, Jennifer Walshe defined
an approach common to many European composers which she calls the New Discipline.
Composers of the New Discipline draw on dance, theatre, film, video, visual art, installation,
literature, stand-up comedy and which invoke the extra-musical, which stimulate the non-
cochlear (Walshe, 2016, p. 1). She lists the com- posers, James Saunders, Matthew Shlomowitz,
Neele Hlcker, Franois Sarhan, Jessie Marino, Steven Takasugi, Natacha Diels, and herself,
alongside Alexander Schubert as key figures of this movement. Although previous generations have
had similar interdis- ciplinary movements such as Fluxus, Dada and the music-theatre developed
by Kagel, Walshe claims that the new generation exists in a different cultural landscape, post-MTV
and post-YouTube, in which digital documentations can have a supremacy over live per- formances,
and in which all music is now music-theatre (Walshe, 2016, p. 1).

As we will see below, Schubert considers himself related to, but not a core part of the movement
defined by Walshe, but is sceptical of the usefulness of such a category that encompasses a wide
variety of practices, as well as being suspicious of the ease with which such schools or
collectives can be used for marketing and promotional pur- poses. In addition, he traces a different
lineage, not through Kagel and the tradition of music-theatre but through his experience as a stage
performer in rock, electronic, and improvising groups, and in his experiences in editing video.
Nevertheless, he is one of the most successful young composers to combine music, theatre,
technology, and film, creating work that is comedic, horrific, immersive, and thrilling, putting him
at the forefront of the trend Walshe has identified. Matthew Shlomowitzs assessment of Schuberts
place in this scene is very apt, both within it and distinct from it.

The remit of New Music has moved on and broadened out in the twenty-first century. Composers
such as Joanna Bailie, Michael Beil, Johannes Kreidler and Jen- nifer Walshe have created work
that: engages popular and everyday culture; develops historical ideas from the visual arts (e.g.
conceptualism); utilises technology to create new musical instruments; combines field recordings
with music to form new relationships between music and the world; and, establishes a music-led
interdisci- plinary practice with multimedia and theatricalised works. Whilst evidently con- nected
to each of these trends, Alexander Schuberts work is a distinctive voice within this milieu.
(Shlomowitz, 2015)

Alexander Schubert about the New Discipline:

AS: Ive read that article. I dont mind if somebody wants to group us together like that. I dont
really see this myself. There are groups of composers who actively work in a school or a composers
groupI dont really do this so much. I think it can be helpful or convenient to label in this way but
its also problematic when these labels are used to advertise or justify a composers work.