Like many of you in music school, I read Who cares if you listen? by Milton Babbitt. Upon reading this article, (perhaps I was dissuaded by the title) I remember being incensed that a composer would have such a disregard for the audience at large. Why wouldn’t you want to reach as many as possible? What could possibly be gained by not only alienating a wider audience, but also writing an article that cemented that position for other academic composers?
Since that first reading, I have grown, matured, and begun to forge a career in the real-world, and after pondering this at length, I realized that Babbitt was more on point than I previously thought. However, he proposes a solution that I find to be slightly dated and limiting. His article was written over 60 years ago, a great deal has changed since then. Now, before we can address his solution, we must examine the problem.
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Babbitt asserts that academic composers have pushed into the realm of research; no longer writing to entertain, but to advance the state of the art. This advance is characterized by exploring new sonorities and structures outside the common point of reference, and unconventional instrumentation and performance practice. Babbitt equates this forward-looking music with the advances of science, and illuminates the challenges a layperson would encounter with this music.
This has had a direct impact on the performance of new music, especially in the States. In the past, almost all music performed in concert was new music. Today, the majority of top-tier orchestras perform music that is at least 100 years old, maybe programming one new work each season. Don’t believe me? Just look at the season schedule of your local orchestra! The majority of contemporary works are generally performed by smaller ensembles which are brave enough to risk the possibility that the concert hall won’t sell out, or the piece may not be well-received. This is a result of the nature of contemporary music. It no longer reaches the general listener, and thus is too great a risk for the already resource-deprived orchestras.
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Ok. We understand the problem. Now what of Babbitt’s solution? He proposes that composers no longer concern themselves with the public ear, rather continue to push the compositional bounds within the confines of academia.
There is a bit of truth here. As a composer, it is not only important to pursue your voice, but also to pursue where your voice is best received. For some, this solution is more than suitable, as academia is where their passion lies. Others, myself included, straddle the fence between the accessible and avant-garde, but are still burdened to advance the art of composition. What of a solution for us?
Therefore, rather than advance only the parameters of sound, structure, and performance to a point so far outside the reach of even the well-educated, perhaps it would behoove the contemporary composer to push the bounds of immersion, interactivity, and experience. I propose that we utilize the frontiers of game development and the ever-expanding realm of AR/VR to explore those facets of perception. This would effectively widen our audience instead of alienate them. Why turn eager ears away in the concert hall through the avoidance of traditional points of reference when we have a new virtual frontier with which completely new, previously unimagined points of reference can be realized? I for one am resolute in exploring this frontier and doing the “research” to advance my art.
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