The Gathering Note

If you are anything like me, new music, whether using the moniker of modern or contemporary, isn’t your cup of tea. Given the centuries of music to choose from, it becomes all too easy to just rely on the tried and true and leave music being created today for others to sort through. The test of time truly leaves you with just the best, instead of having to endure endless misses at the concert hall. It makes it even less likely when you consider what you have to pay to get to see one of those musical failures. Proponents of modern music realize this and are branching out into new venues and trying new formats for exposure. One of the areas that doesn’t seem to be used very effectively however is the world wide web. If one gets past the idea of non-harmonic, grating music as a turn-off, the other equally likely reason for not taking a chance on new music is money. The web can solve that problem by making available mp3’s of new music, and even better, webcasts of modern music performances. That way, you can be exposed to the music, be captured by the visuals of a live performance, but don’t have to shell out the bucks.

Fortunately, there are those who are realizing this new capability and are making efforts to exploit the technological benefits of the web. One such group is Psappha, “the leading new music and music-theatre ensemble in the North of England.” Here’s a description of how the band came together:

Psappha was formed in 1991 by its Artistic Director (and percussionist) Tim Williams, who named it after a colourful percussion piece by Iannis Xenakis. With Nicholas Kok newly appointed as its Principal Conductor, Psappha has a repertoire of over 300 works and a reputation for technical assurance and interpretative flair. Its eight-strong regular membership encourages a refreshing diversity in the instrumentation of its repertoire, but its performances all bear the hallmark of sophisticated ensemble playing, marked by a high degree of communication and empathy among the players.

This season, the ensemble will be collaborating with Lancaster University and the BBC Singers to bring some of the new music they perform to a much wider audience. Three concerts will be filmed and recorded during February and March of this year, and then will be put on the group’s website as well as a special website created by Lancaster University highlighting the titled Lancaster International Concert Series. This may very well be one of the first times that a new music group will use technology to bring modern music to as wide and diverse an audience as possible.

The first concert is already available, and features György Kurtág’s Scenes from a Novel, Op.19 and Signs, Games and Messages, György Ligeti’s Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures, as well as a performance of Larry Groves’, 2007 piece Four Letter Words. Groves is Professor of Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music, and wrote the work for Psappha. The website even provides you with program notes. The second concert is even more interesting as it presents to the world the music of French-Canadian composer Claude Vivier, who was murdered by a trick he picked up earlier in the day. Vivier was 35 when he died. You can learn more about him and the concert here. You can learn about his works and the works on all three concerts through their webcast brochure which is available for download. Tackle the pieces all together or one at a time. Listen to them once, listen to them a hundred times. It’s up to you. The point is that approaching new music may not be as scary or costly as it could be.