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Who could ever forget the wonderfully different sounds that came from the bass as only Stefano Scodanibbio could bring to life.

News from Cuernavaca, Mexico– The world renowned Italian bass player and gifted composer, Stefano Scodanibbio passed away Sunday, January 8, 2012 in Cuernavaca, Mexico after his long struggle with  ALS. He decided to spend his last days in Mexico, a place he loved very much. We will have more on his life and music in coming posts. He was a friend to all in the music world and will be greatly missed!

Take a look at this list of what I call, “Honored Composers” and maybe you will find an
undiscovered treasure that you had been unaware of before now. Try listening to
something new in 2011.  Happy New Year!!!

Photo by Donald Scavarda. Ann Arbor, MI. 1960 All Rights Reserved

In the 1960’s the world was struck with a sudden creative force in music that 50 years later we would still be celebrating! At the time of its origin, a small band of students from the campus of University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, without much financial support, or for that matter, much encouragement to pursue their new ways of composing, went on to create an event that would rock the music world! The students planned the event to last over a period of several days featuring various areas of the arts, film, theater and music but after its huge success it became an annual staple of experimental music for several years thereafter. It became such an exciting creative source of new ideas and sounds that it spurred other groups around the country to form and hold similar festivals.

Names that are much more familiar to us now were part of this radical group of artists. The music of Roger Reynolds, Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley, Donald Scavarda, Bruce Wise, George Cacioppo, David Behrman, Philip Krumm, George Crevoshay, Robert Sheff and Pauline Oliveros presented marvelously new and exciting soundscapes that became a part of our history during the tumultuous times of the 60’s.

These composers were a unique group from various disciplines that created sounds that would forever be a part of our history. I am thrilled to be able to announce an opportunity to re-live this fascinating world of experimental avant garde music ONCE MORE in Ann Arbor, Michigan November 2 -6, 2010. There will be concerts featuring the music from the 60’s as well as several more current compositional fare from these talented composers, 8:00 p.m. in Rackham Auditorium Nov 2 and 4. Then on November 3, 2010 there will be an all day symposium featuring some of the country’s foremost scholars and experts on the ONCE Festivals as well as some of the original composers from that historic event. The symposium is in collaboration with the U of M Institute of Humanities and U of M School of Music, Theater & Dance.

Come and join us make history ONCE MORE!

Buy the Collectors item of music from the ONCE Festivals

Link for more details

ONCE Program

Cage’s Lecture  on Weather

The Future of Modern Music

Do you know what Icelandic composer wrote a powerful piece about a volcano?

Do you know in what piece Arnold Schoenberg explores glowing embers and sparkling chards?

Have you heard of a Greek composer who wrote 36 Greek dances?

Do you know in what sense Bela Bartok wrote dance music?

The Future of Modern Music presents a synopsis of 125 of the most important composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. It also provides the philosophy behind all of this great music.

Here are some great reviews …..

The Future of Modern Music looks at dramatic recent changes in composition through biographical snapshots of composers such as Iannis Xenakis, Luigi Nono, Julio Estrada and many more, each portrayal examines the new musical ideas that shaped the composer’s works. Many of the composers studied have never been scrutinized before in a single, concise text… Midwest Book Review

“….James McHard does a good job of putting the avant-garde in perspective, and    giving the novice or curious listener an excellent framework for exploring musical territory that deserves serious consideration from all who value new and original means of musical expression”.  Jack Goggin, Radio Host, Classical Music America.com

In the course of his exploration he shines new light on some names whose contributions have been grossly underestimated….. Dr. Douglas Henderson, Chair, Dept. of Sonic Arts, School of the Museum of fine Arts, Boston

Hope this gives you an overview of this valuable resource for those who love or are interested to find out more about modern music.

You can purchase a copy at Amazon.com

Today’s practitioners of what we once called “modern” music are finding themselves to be suddenly alone. A bewildering backlash is set against any music making that requires the disciplines and tools of research for its genesis. Stories now circulate that amplify and magnify this troublesome trend. It once was that one could not even approach a major music school in the US unless well prepared to bear the commandments and tenets of serialism. When one hears now of professors shamelessly studying scores of Respighi in order to extract the magic of their mass audience appeal, we know there’s a crisis. This crisis exists in the perceptions of even the most educated musicians. Composers today seem to be hiding from certain difficult truths regarding the creative process. They have abandoned their search for the tools that will help them create really striking and challenging listening experiences. I believe that is because they are confused about many notions in modern music making!

First, let’s examine the attitudes that are needed, but that have been abandoned, for the development of special disciplines in the creation of a lasting modern music. This music that we can and must create provides a crucible in which the magic within our souls is brewed, and it is this that frames the templates that guide our very evolution in creative thought. It is this generative process that had its flowering in the early 1950s. By the 1960s, many emerging musicians had become enamored of the wonders of the fresh and exciting new world of Stockhausen’s integral serialism that was then the rage. There seemed limitless excitement, then. It seemed there would be no bounds to the creative impulse; composers could do anything, or so it seemed. At the time, most composers hadn’t really examined serialism carefully for its inherent limitations. But it seemed so fresh. However, it soon became apparent that it was Stockhausen’s exciting musical approach that was fresh, and not so much the serialism itself, to which he was then married. It became clear, later, that the methods he used were born of two special considerations that ultimately transcend serial devices: crossing tempi and metrical patterns; and, especially, the concept that treats pitch and timbre as special cases of rhythm. (Stockhausen referred to the crossovers as “contacts”, and he even entitled one of his compositions that explored this realm Kontakte.) These gestures, it turns out, are really independent from serialism in that they can be explored from different approaches.

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Recent books have compiled condensed ‘story-life’ surveys of the “great” composers, usually numbering under one hundred. Among such books one may cite “Classical Music” (Eyewitness Companions) Ed. John Burrows. DK Publishing Company; 2005, and “The Encyclopedia of Music” Instruments of the Orchestra and the Great Composers. Eds. Wade-Matthews & Thompson. Hermes House/Annes Publishing Company. 2002.” Included in these texts is the normal list of suspects. Beyond this, though, these books attempt to enhance the focus from the usual small list of greatest masters extolled in previous publications (e.g. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, et al, – plus the major lesser masters Schumann, Mendelssohn, Rimsky-Korsakov, and others) by including a variety of less commonly honored composers, mostly selected from the local countries of the publishers and editors. Ostensibly this establishes a new, wider field of greats to give recognition to the growth of the field of music inherent in today’s growing population. While the aim here is laudable enough, such books as those above shoot themselves in the foot, continuing to overlook the greatest originality and volume of contribution by extolling the relatively mediocre parochials. [1]

We are left with an ongoing outrage in the neglect of extremely gifted and original composers just waiting to be heard. Would they receive print media attention, their value would become immediately honored.

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Welcome to The Future of Modern Music. We have changed our format to make it more available for you to share your comments and thoughts regarding all matters concerning classical, experimental and avant-garde music. We trust you will enjoy the upcoming topics and information. If you find that there is a topic you would like for us to explore, please let us know.

I look forward to this journey and hope that you will join me as we share the love of music!

Jim McHard