New Music Fight Club

It was composer pitted against composer: uptown vs. downtown, tonal vs. atonal, left brain vs right brain, and these musicians were NOT pulling any punches. Composers were antagonizing each other, questioning each other's validity, and bad-mouthing one another; it was like the second half of the 20th century was when Western Music went through middle school, and it was brutal! “If you weren't being a constructivist composer, if the music wasn't indeed about its own structure, and its own structure wasn't complicated, then you were a pariah, you were rejected. You didn’t get tenure. You didn’t get a job.” That’s Robert Sirota - Nadia’s Dad - one of many composers who came of age in the midst of this feud and struggled - for years - to find a voice. On this episode of Meet the Composer, we unravel one of the most contentious periods in classical music’s history. How did this fight begin? How did it play out? Who were the contenders?  We hear from composers on both sides of this battle, and discover how, on all ends of the aesthetic spectrum, we can find value in differences.   Heard a piece of music you loved? Discover it here! 0:00—The Yorks: Love Without Reason, written by Barry Flicker2:14—Robert Sirota: Pange Lingua Sonata | Buy 3:30—Robert Sirota: Pange Lingua Sonata | Buy 5:23—Philip Glass: Music in Twelve Parts | Listen 6:31—Ruth Crawford Seeger: Study in Mixed Accents | Listen 7:08—David Lang: orpheus over and under | Listen 8:53—Richard Wagner: Overture from Tristan und Isolde | Listen 9:36—Julia Ward Howe: Battle Hymn of the Republic | Watch 11:27—Arnold Schoenberg: Klavierstüke, Op. 33 | Listen12:04—Pierre Boulez: Piano Sonata No. 2 | Listen  13:05—Pierre Boulez: Sur Incises | Listen 13:47—Lewis Nielsen: Oerknal! "...the crisis of conscience..." | Listen 14:50—Charles Wuorinen: Two Part Symphony | Listen 15:57—David Lang: the so-called laws of nature: part III | Listen 17:59—Jr. Walker and the All-Stars: Shotgun | Listen 18:47—Bob Dylan: Maggie's Farm | Buy 19:09—Elliott Carter: String Quartet No. 2 | Listen 19:45—Steve Reich: Violin Phase | Listen 21:05—Elliott Carter: String Quartet No. 2 | Listen 21:16—Charles Wuorinen: Second Piano Quintet | Listen 22:10—John Adams: Phrygian Gates | Listen 23:31—John Adams: Death of Klinghoffer | Listen 24:08—David Lang: child, II. sweet air | Listen 25:21—David Lang: almost all the time | Listen 28:53—Brian Ferneyhough: La chute d'Icare | Listen 30:58—Brian Ferneyhough: no time (at all) | Listen 32:09—Brian Ferneyhough: Superscriptio | Listen 33:36—J.S. Bach: Invention No. 15 in B minor | Listen 34:26—J.S. Bach: Mass in B minor, "Crucifixus" | Listen 38:49—David Lang: breathless | Listen