Comments for Ryan Manchester

Comment on The Alt-Classical Debate by ray

ray — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 06:41:57 +0000

I’ve listened to some of this “alt classical” music on the internet, and really, its NOT CLASSICAL MUSIC - not the way a Haydn symphony or a Beethoven sonata/symphony/string quartet is classical music! What I heard is something that takes little or no musicianship or musical technique to create - no compositional craftsmanship at all, just improvisatory noises seemingly created at random, with “rock beats” put under it - as far as it having influence on classical music, it wont! People who like classical music want real classical music, not this! This will be a marginal “movement” just as “new classical music” in general has been, something appealing only to a small number of enthusiasts, but not the larger classical audience. Its understandable for composers to want to find a way out of overintellectual new music few people understand, but like minimalism, this isnt much of a way out!
The traditional classical repertoire is still being played, and as long as it is, “alt” substitutes arent going to cut it!

Comment on Thoughts on Aesthetics by a case against working for the king – paulbailey.us (beta)

a case against working for the king – paulbailey.us (beta) — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:24:04 +0000

[...] via ryan manchester Like Unlike [...]

Comment on The Alt-Classical Debate by Matt Marks

Matt Marks — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:38:16 +0000

@adminFunny that you use From Colors to Lines as an example.. HERE is a related example of calling out performances we think are bullshit, though I was a bit more (perhaps unnecessarily) harsh in my review.

Comment on The Alt-Classical Debate by admin

admin — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:03:24 +0000

Hi Matt! Thanks for the kind words. Taking what you and Jonathan D. said into account, I have to agree that we should be more explicit when dealing with music and separate our feelings about the person creating the music from the music itself. That being said, the most recent example I can think of was at the Syzygy New Music Collective concert on April 23 at the Nabi Gallery. Now don’t get me wrong, there were some nice pieces on the program especially the du Bois sentimental The Speaking Tide, but there were some bad pieces there as well. One piece that lacked in adequate orchestration and a cohesive form was Sextet by Scott Ordway. Given, the piece was supposed to be symphonic in scope, but I found the dense sections to easily get out of control due to the orchestration.
From Colors to Lines by Ricardo Romaniero started out very strong by fusing cleverly orchestrated acoustic passages with real-time sequenced electronics, but then the electronics gave way to some dancey, club beat. That section wanted to be Aphex Twin so bad, but lacked Richard D. James’s ingenuity. That was disappointing because the piece had a lot of potential and had some great moments, but I felt it was trying too hard after a while.
Final observations about the program in general was most of the pieces were too conceptual, meaning it relied too heavily on program notes rather than musical material. Sonar was one of those pieces that didn’t fall in line with anything mentioned in the notes, but was a good piece on it’s own. Whereas program notes are helpful in some instances, the old “experimental” trend seems to still be alive in trying to relate music to a multitude of concepts, when the music could easily stand apart from the concepts mentioned.
In regards to what I mentioned earlier about separating feelings, I had a chance to meet all of the composers, and they are all pleasant, friendly individuals, but some of the music wasn’t my taste, so this is a criticism on music alone.

Comment on The Alt-Classical Debate by Matt Marks

Matt Marks — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 15:17:16 +0000

I agree with Jonathan D that we all need to be less afraid to call out pieces we think are bullshit. I actually dig Branca’s music, but can see why folks wouldn’t. I left out a major dig at Thomas Ades in my post, whom Gabriel Kahane praised it, I guess out of fear that my post would seem too reactionary. IMO the third movement of Asyla makes me embarrassed to be a classical musician. It’s well-written, but it is to trance music what Lawrence Welk is to jazz.

It’s going to be hard to clarify what we think is good and what we think is shit if we’re not willing to put our asses on the line a bit.

Good post btw.

Comment on The Alt-Classical Debate by admin

admin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:36:26 +0000

I would suggest starting with familiarizing yourself with the pieces mentioned in the post as an introduction of “alt-classical” done well. I’m not talking about aesthetics anywhere in the post, but basic technique in orchestration and making a cohesive piece of music in general. Since I’m making a generalization about music being composed mostly in NYC by emerging composers, after listening to these pieces, go further with the music of these composers on the websites of groups such as Syzygy New Music, Red Light New Music, Newspeak, etc. and see which pieces stand or crumble.

Comment on The Alt-Classical Debate by Jonathan D

Jonathan D — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:31:28 +0000

Stop being polite. Give us examples of pieces and composers that you think aren’t up to snuff - and why. Those of us (like me) not familiar with this sub genre are interested in hearing the scope of what composers are doing and evaluating with our own ears, and comparing against your criticism.

I’ll go out on a limb and say that one unfavorable experience I had was in my first exposure to Glenn Branca’s music, via “Hallucination City - Symphony of 100 Electric Guitars”. The piece more of less lived up to its orchestration… but had little to offer besides a few varying textures - rapid or rhythmic strumming, carried on at excruciating volumes, for an hour plus.

Comment on NCP Listening Party by Helgi Rafn

Helgi Rafn — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 10:59:57 +0000

i wont make it, but good luck !

Comment on Competitions and Prizes by peter thoegersen

peter thoegersen — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:51:31 +0000

You are absolutely correct. Look at today’s Guggenheim winners. Pure crap. It is more about marketing than pushing boundaries. It’s the corporatization of university music. Frank Zappa said it best: it’s all about teaching cost-effectiveness.

Comment on Columbia University by Chaz Underriner

Chaz Underriner — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:30:42 +0000

Congratulations on getting to go to Columbia! What an amazing opportunity. Your latest violin piece with the professional recording sounds amazing by the way, an excellent composition.