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paganinio 
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Joined: November 07 2008
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 Topic: Is it true that composers thought they...
Posted: May 01 2015 at 08:05 |
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Is it true that composers thought they "ran out of tunes", at some point in history, and therefore had to go in radical new directions such as modern classical, twelve-tone technique, minimalism, serialism, and just those kinds of headaches in genreal?
Cos I read/heard somewhere that the reason modern classical was born was because "all the beautiful melodies have already been written". Well I don't know about you but we're still hearing new tunes in 2015. So, could they really have written new melodies (in the old style) in the early 20th century, if they really wanted to?
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darkshade
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Posted: May 01 2015 at 13:27 |
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People say that about music now, that all the best stuff has been made already. I usually don't take other opinions of theirs very seriously either.
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Cailyn
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Posted: May 04 2015 at 19:42 |
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No, it is not true, although a few composers are known to have quit later in life because they felt they had nothing else to say.
For the most part, composers moved in new directions to speak in a new language, to sound different, to purposefully explore new ground. They weren't interested in emulating the music of their elders, even if they respected those elders as masters of the craft. No young new composer would have gone very far writing symphonies in the style of Beethoven even is the work was brilliant. On the other hand, some composers returned to earlier music and wrote similar music with their own ideas and theories added to the mix. Stravinsky and his neo-classical period is a good example.
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http://www.cailynmusic.com
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Rick Robson
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Joined: September 03 2013
Location: Rio de Janeiro
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Posted: May 10 2015 at 19:26 |
 paganinio wrote:
Is it true that composers thought they "ran out of tunes", at some point in history, and therefore had to go in radical new directions such as modern classical, twelve-tone technique, minimalism, serialism, and just those kinds of headaches in genreal?
Cos I read/heard somewhere that the reason modern classical was born was because "all the beautiful melodies have already been written". Well I don't know about you but we're still hearing new tunes in 2015. So, could they really have written new melodies (in the old style) in the early 20th century, if they really wanted to?
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Pure originality is impossible man.. , but fortunately it is NOT an essential requisite for a good composition. As far as I'm concerned, true composers never thought they "ran out of tunes", at no point in their lives as well as in history. Timeless compositions can never be repeated but transformed, improved or even reinvented in genuinely original forms and contents, "old or new style" is a completely subjective issue for that matter. So, it is natural when a composer writes something inspired in the music of someone he feels strongly identified with, but never emulating, not even his style - this is not a task for a true composer.
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 "Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." LvB
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HackettFan
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Joined: June 20 2012
Location: Oklahoma
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Posted: May 10 2015 at 19:56 |
darkshade wrote:
People say that about music now, that all the best stuff has been made already. I usually don't take other opinions of theirs very seriously either.
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Polymorphia
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Joined: November 06 2012
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Points: 8856
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Posted: May 10 2015 at 20:17 |
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I think they were just feeling that the classical music around them was growing stale and felt uninspired at the piano writing tonal music, sometimes atonal music in the case of some minimalists, perhaps stating their dissatisfaction a tad hyperbolically. The melodies being written around them and the ones they wrote did not seem to them beautiful. They needed a different musical philosophy than melody and counterpoint. Skip ahead to today's music and beautiful melodies are still being written, but approached differently, having decades of musical experimentation behind them.
And I don't consider serialism, minimalism, polytonality, stochasticism, aleatory, post-minimalism, and the like "headaches," any more than I consider Romanticism a "headache."
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Rick Robson
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 03 2013
Location: Rio de Janeiro
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Points: 1607
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Posted: May 10 2015 at 20:52 |
darkshade wrote:
People say that about music now, that all the best stuff has been made already. I usually don't take other opinions of theirs very seriously either.
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No wonder that the "best" or "worst" stuff is always and ever to be made, but fortunately for me so far my only "headaches" music wise have been the late Funk and Rap made in my country.
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"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." LvB
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Kati
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 10 2010
Location: Earth
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Points: 6253
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Posted: May 10 2015 at 22:45 |
paganinio wrote:
Is it true that composers thought they "ran out of tunes", at some point in history, and therefore had to go in radical new directions such as modern classical, twelve-tone technique, minimalism, serialism, and just those kinds of headaches in genreal?
Cos I read/heard somewhere that the reason modern classical was born was because "all the beautiful melodies have already been written". Well I don't know about you but we're still hearing new tunes in 2015. So, could they really have written new melodies (in the old style) in the early 20th century, if they really wanted to?
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I believe that is true, all musical notes already have been discovered. What we have now are not new notes, it's more like different concepts of existing music notes. This is also why some brilliant minds can compose a music piece and write it down even without playing or hearing any instrumental at first. They can hear every single note in their minds. xxxxxx
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Is it true that composers thought they...
