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The Music of the Future

futuresymphony.org

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Re: The Music of the Future

#61

Post by ejlo »

21 wrote: post #14
sublimeloge wrote: post #12

I expect that this article's title will give some Hacker News readers an incorrect impression of what it's about. As the article mentions, this talk was given at the Donaueschingen Festival, so the audience almost certainly consisted mostly of fans of avant-garde contemporary classical music. If the author only mentions jazz or rock, or electronics only in passing, it's because he's primarily talking about the future…

This article could use some youtube links. For example this one, to the 12-note piece mentioned towards the start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sylplEFxXo and the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8K9gkuHpMo

Here is a page with a lot of good examples of more accessible modern classical music:

http://lukemuehlhauser.com/how-to-fall-in-love-with-modern-c...

Re: The Music of the Future

#62

Post by ssalazar »

iammyIP wrote: post #54
hellofunk wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think John Cage was the most profound revolution in 20th century classical music?

Do you really think any civilisation could exist in this universe without having discovered the musical piece of 'play nothing and listen'?

Yawn.. people who only know about 4'33" should not attempt lazy critiques of John Cage.

Re: The Music of the Future

#63

Post by ssalazar »

jerf wrote: post #23
beat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope I'm not coming off as dismissive of electronic music in general... just the idea that "computers and synthesizers and sequencers" represent the future of music. They are, at best, merely instruments. If anything, they're pretty strongly wedded to some very narrow musical conventions, such as 12 tone equal temperament and basic time signatures like 4/4 and 3/4. Getting past those limitations is doable, but diff…

"If anything, they're pretty strongly wedded to some very narrow musical conventions, such as 12 tone equal temperament and basic time signatures like 4/4 and 3/4. Getting past those limitations is doable, but difficult." It depends on what you're using. You can get anything from a system that can't be pulled off of 12 tone equal temperament and some conventional time signature all the way up to systems that offer co…

> When I was going to school and minoring in electric music there was a guy playing with "granular synthesis"; his result sounded like telemetry.

I actually have no idea what telemetry is supposed to sound like but I think this guy was just making bad music, with granular synthesis. Granular synthesis can actually be quite beautiful and tonal if thats what you're looking for, see examples [1] and [2] just to dig up some quick examples. Ableton's built-in time stretching uses granular synthesis. One guy's bad granular music isn't really indicative of anything.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6BU18mP3A

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ8zaGuaeBk

Re: The Music of the Future

#64

Post by icebraining »

bcheung wrote: post #56
sublimeloge wrote: post #12

I expect that this article's title will give some Hacker News readers an incorrect impression of what it's about. As the article mentions, this talk was given at the Donaueschingen Festival, so the audience almost certainly consisted mostly of fans of avant-garde contemporary classical music. If the author only mentions jazz or rock, or electronics only in passing, it's because he's primarily talking about the future…

From reading it, I almost got the impression there are 2 different worlds of music and they are completely isolated. That led me to wonder if there should be more cross pollination between the two. When speaking of, and indeed when many modern electronic music composers write music they don't think in terms of phrases, chords, cadences, etc. The tools they use to write music don't have notes on a staff, they are just…

http://pitchfork.com/features/article/8778-indie-classical/

Re: The Music of the Future

#65

Post by dublinben »

bcheung wrote: post #56
sublimeloge wrote: post #12

I expect that this article's title will give some Hacker News readers an incorrect impression of what it's about. As the article mentions, this talk was given at the Donaueschingen Festival, so the audience almost certainly consisted mostly of fans of avant-garde contemporary classical music. If the author only mentions jazz or rock, or electronics only in passing, it's because he's primarily talking about the future…

From reading it, I almost got the impression there are 2 different worlds of music and they are completely isolated. That led me to wonder if there should be more cross pollination between the two. When speaking of, and indeed when many modern electronic music composers write music they don't think in terms of phrases, chords, cadences, etc. The tools they use to write music don't have notes on a staff, they are just…

There are (at least) two separate worlds of music according the field of musicology. The two worlds represented here are art music and popular music. The other major category of music is traditional or folk music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_music

Re: The Music of the Future

#66

Post by ssalazar »

iammyIP wrote: post #40
beat wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disco isn't just 4/4... it's a particular 16th note hi-hat groove, conventions around the use of string synths, etc. It's a stylistic period piece, and the underlying rhythms aren't widely heard these days. I don't know why you think hip hop has been "culturally annihilated". I hear it as an incredibly dynamic and forward-looking genre.

Yes, that 70's disco sound. That's gone; Like a snake 'Disco' has shed its skin. My point is that the essence of disco is pretty much alive. Take that to the contrast that the innovative essence of hiphop is resampling - that's pretty dead. Can you name any currently successful hip hop band that does radical resampling over all genres? It's not possible because of music industry lobbying.

> Take that to the contrast that the innovative essence of hiphop is resampling

Resampling isn't particularly innovative as Im sure you aware of musique concrete and tape music. Hip-hop is essentially defined by the combination of rapping, sociopolitical subtexts, and, yes, specific music production techniques that include sampling but also certain types of rhythms and beats. Those are roughly in order of importance; notice how few people openly lament the death of sampling but the prominence of a white rapper will prompt endless critical and popular commentary.

> that's pretty dead.

Anyone who can listen to To Pimp a Butterfly and believe that hip hop is dead does not know what hip hop is.

> Can you name any currently successful hip hop band that does radical resampling over all genres?

When has this been the criterion for what makes a hip hop band?

Re: The Music of the Future

#67

Post by theoh »

cousin_it wrote: post #2

I think a lot of art is about charming people with your point of view. A big part of it is moving on from points of view that were charming once, but aren't anymore. A century ago, avant-garde art's point of view was new and exciting, and deserved its time in the sun. But now we know that all those manifestos didn't bear as much fruit as everyone hoped, and the time has come full circle. I don't know what a new and c…

There's a UK-based duo called Autechre who've been making interesting but not theoretical electronic music since the early 90s. I think they might be a model for popular, intelligent future music. They are not unaware of classical developments--for example, one classical composer who influenced them is Bernard Parmegiani.

Roger Scruton, author of the article posted, is a controversial figure. He's not someone you'd go to for tips on the latest digital deconstructivist architecture, and probably not for actually cutting-edge music either. More about him here: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/04/21/enemies-of-roger-...

Re: The Music of the Future

#68

Post by dublinben »

steamer25 wrote: post #49
beat wrote: post #7

Not really to the article's point at all, but when I think of "the music of the future", I think of the extended funk experiments of the 1970s. 40 years ago, Miles Davis' band sounded like music from 40 years in the future. It still sounds like music from 40 years in the future. And he wasn't alone... Parliament/Funkadelic, Fela Kuti, and others were working with these deep, deep funk grooves that ran forever and sou…

Here's a pretty recent piece... The first time I heard it, my exact thought was that it's future music. It's unorthodox but still quite approachable and tasteful : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rHO7NW-zH8

That piece sounds exactly like every other prog/power metal song written in the last twenty years. What makes you think it is either unorthodox or futuristic?

Re: The Music of the Future

#70

Post by 3131s »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #10
roymurdock wrote: post #8

Interesting ideas wrapped up in painfully obfuscated academic references (obviously not intended for this audience). THE FOURTH DEVELOPMENT [of new music], which is in many ways the most interesting, [is] namely the replacement of tones by sounds, and musical by acoustical hearing. Varèse, Pierre Schaeffer and their immediate successors awoke composers and audiences to the many new sounds, some of them produced elect…

Yeah. They've got their very sophisticated musical theory that's tied to their very sophisticated philosophy, and it produces music that is absolute garbage.

So you've heard Hindemith, Ligeti, Messiaen, and Xenakis? And all the other composers on this list?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaueschingen_Festival#List_o...

So it's all garbage right? Metal is noise too I suppose, and Charles Mingus should have just played lounge music eh?

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