october 20, 2024 05:32pm
Welcome to the Mirrortone Studios blog!
If you've found this blog, then chances are you've seen our website and know a little bit about what we do here. Mirrortone is a recording studio and full-service music company in Midtown West headed by Jay Rothman and Roman Dunn. We will be using this space to share some of the music we're listening to in the studio, in the concert hall, on Spotify, iTunes, or even [cough cough] the radio. Maybe we'll write a little something about our favorite new toys, or just use the space as a cathartic way to blow off some steam. Hopefully this will turn into a good place for discussion about music and making music. There are probably over a billion blogs out there and maybe 1% actually pull off creating a space for enjoyable, intelligent discussion, so... fingers crossed.
I've gone to a few shows this week. The first one was a modern classical show at Columbia University which was part of Sonic Festival, a music festival for composers under 35 held at different venues all over the city. I chose the specific show I went to see because Jonny Greenwood's piece for chamber ensemble featuring 2 Ondes Martenots was programmed that night. I've seen all 3 of the New York premieres of his work.
Popcorn Superhet Receiver was played at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle near Columbus Circle, Doghouse premiered at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, and now Smear made its debut at the Miller Theatre at Columbia. Smear was a great piece and to hear 2 Ondes Martenot players really take advantage of all the expressiveness of the instrument was a treat. But the thing that I came away thinking after the show was, “What the hell was all that crap I had to listen to for 45 minutes before the Jonny Greenwood piece?"
The first piece was a string quartet that didn't play an actual note for 10 minutes. There was a lot of bow scratching, there were a lot of shrieking artificial harmonics, slapping the instruments, there was plenty of noise making and everyone seemed to be doing their own thing. The completely serious concentration and focus of the performers let me know that the sounds they were making weren't arbitrary, but extremely planned out and their exacting execution of each bow bash and string squeak was its own critical part of the piece. Finally it was over. Or so I thought. Whether it was someone striking the keys of a piano with his fist, a woman vocalizing nonsensical syllables into 2 microphones, or someone hitting a gong for 20 minutes, the whole thing up until Smear was an exercise in how to be polite at the end of a terrible piece of music.
The people who make their money on bringing people to see classical music are scared because the people that come to see Brahms, Schumann, and Verdi have, for the most part, been collecting Social Security for fifteen years already. Younger classical fans are willing to go out and search for new sounds and hope they get a return on their investment. Rumor has it that this kind of thing gets programmed because that's what professors at music conservatories like. It's academic music for other academics, not for a non-academic audience. At least the last piece redeemed the evening.
“Who cares if you listen"
- Milton Babbit
“Sorry. What?"
Posted By: mirrortone