ChrisNewman
Inl
Darmstadt
(meant to be) Itis not that we are
continually covering new ground, but
rather that the old ground io constantly
disappearingbehind us our very eyes
where we are, (facing backwards),Apart
from the gteen of the ground holding
(keeping it off with its greenness)up the
Iow-hanginggrey of the sl6r,meant to be
thinking about Darmstadt,(the
greennessradiating upwardsis
preventing the heavy low-hanginggrey
cloudswith preventing them from
touching the ground) the fact that I was
meant to write my personalview of the
Darmstadt Summer Coursefor New
Music,writing aboutsomethingother
than about that is cheap,just chickening
out, or is a genuine artlstic approachor is
hoth ? t'is hnrh '\
evwLL.
).
The countrysideis wild & outside& we
are inside (the train) is like a town & yet
the train is outsidein the countryside&
we are inside in the outside;Trains run
(as if) by chance:It's no[ the ffain's fault
that these houseswere built. The main
artistic concerns of a great piece of music
have nothing to do with the superficial
historical style of the piece for the
composerat the time it is written, & yet
it is this superficial historical style which
has becomethe substance,the "concern",
of the international English non-descript
sryle composerof contemporarymusic; in
other words, the work of this composer
has no substanceno heart is all
emptiness.That which makesit all the
more disturbing is this: that is, that the
basic historical sryle which helshe has
pickedup, that is, Expressionism(Alban
Berg), where style is a direct
representationof highly personal
emotion, this sfyle has become
institutionalised, the representationof
somebod;ielse'Bemotion has become
10 6
institutionalised,& masqueradesnow as a Aus
Roc
representationof the personal emotion of 5-
a non-descriptcomposer,& thus all is PO
totally false & never felt. This "non- q
descript' music consistsof empty reafu- 02i
made gestures(to fit the false emotions), Frat
which deprive those composersof Aus
expressingany real artistic concern(s) Har
(even if they could), everything has been 222
sacrificedfor the sakeof the gestures Drl
(which B,reempuy);& these empuy
gestures,thie music, can never be Bel
Rue
imbued with any substanceby the non- 02:
descriptcomposerbecausethe n.-d. Anr
composerwrltes his/her work as if it were
alreadywritten, from the point of view of Car
Cha
the finishedarticle, & so when he,/she 5
writes it, helshe writes all the music rV
away [hat he,/shestarted with (into 4to
emptiness),& we're-(they're)-left with Sim
nothing. (As the work itself is nothing,
Col
the soundsleft over are totally Call
redundant.)Thus it (the finished article) 57t
is unable to transcend what it started Mar
with, its own m&terial, be more than its
Cze
own material, transcend itself onto a Bes
higher spiritual level, & thus it cannot be 021
a work of art. (The instrumentation of Dr.
such piecesis a side-ehowof effects&
"good ide&s",which remain only effects& Der
"good ideas' as such things only can, & Vim
have nothing to do with the work. It 01
remains "insrument&tion" which is Knt
separatefrom music, which adds to the
redundant nature of the work.) This has Fra
cDl
becomethe way to write, what music is, G
has nothing to do with art, has become c
a,neasy& acceptedway for so many to 01 .
.makea career,with each new genera.tion Ma,
feeding off the previousgeneration &
Fin
thuB becoming even more limited & stale Rur
tha,n the previous;(the differences
betweenthe composerswho write this 040
kind of music are irrelevant). Mai