Electronics, Experiments and Full Speed Towards the Future

By Thomas Erma Møller (Translated from Norwegian by Sarah Osa) 

Do you like to listen to previously unheard music and experience the unexpected? If you do, music composed after 1950 might be just the thing for you. Since 1950, composers have written music where everything is controlled (Boulez) and where everything is random (Cage), where a huge number of things occur (Shostakovich and Bernstein) and where very few things occur (Reich and Glass), music using both acoustic and electronic sound (Nordheim and Stockhausen) and music based on silence (Cage), deeply serious mysticism (Messiaen and Pärt) and absurd incidents (Berio). If we are to recommend anything, it would be to step into completely unexplored territory — into music hot off the press by Saariaho, Gubaidulina or Wallin.

After 1950, there were two extremes in musical thinking — total control over the musical parameters on the one hand, and complete randomness on the other. When exposed to this kind of music for the first time, it’s not easy to tell whether it is one thing or the other, yet the ideas behind it are diametrically opposed. The foremost pioneer of those who sought extreme control — otherwise known as the Serialists — was French composer Pierre Boulez. Of among those who wrote random music — or aleatoric music — the American composer John Cage is the best known. His composition 4’33 lasts for precisely 4 minutes and 33 seconds. The musicians deliberately refrain from playing their instruments, and the piece consists only of the sounds created by the immediate environment in the course of this period of time. The sounds are, in other words, random.

Another counter-reaction to the complexity of Serialism was Minimalism, pushed forward by American composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass in the 1960’s. The Minimalists experimented with playing two tapes on the same loop in just slightly different tempos. The result was that the tapes gradually grew more and more out of sync before they gradually found one another again. The musical substance is minimal, but the effect on the listener can be a powerful one. When such minute musical changes occur, one grows even more attentive to them. One might also fall into a meditative state. This phenomenon was later further developed and transferred to acoustic music, such as in Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians and in Glass’ Violin Concerto.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, many composers were writing grand and content-rich music for big ensembles. In the Soviet Union, Shostakovich continued to write symphonies in the tradition of Gustav Mahler, which also contained distinct political messages. Some composers chose to create great masses or plains of sound such as in György Ligeti’s Atmospheres or Krzysztof Penderecki’s Lament for the Victims of Hiroshima. Others took religious visions or mysticism as their starting point for compositions rich in symbolism and content, but which were also meditative —among them composers Olivier Messiaen and Arvo Pärt.

Another expansion of the orchestra’s sound and expression which started with experiments in the 1950’s and 1960’s was made by combining acoustic sound with electronic music. Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luigi Nono and Arne Nordheim were some of the pioneers in this field, the former’s Gesang der Jünglige being a notable example. This has later been developed in many different directions right up until the advanced juxtaposition of acoustic and electronic sound in the latest contemporary music by Kaija Saariaho and Rolf Wallin, among others.

Classical music was combined with other genres such as jazz and musicals through composers such as Leonard Bernstein. This often resulted in powerful orchestra music with fast rhythms, catchy melodies and a complex soundscape, such as can be heard in his music to West Side Story or the overwhelming and extremely demanding Chichester Psalms.

This was also the time when symphonic film music grew so grandiose, advanced and popular that it was often performed also in the concert hall. Music to series of films such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Caribbean all have the same epic proportions and mighty soundscapes as the symphonies written at the end of the 1800’s. John Williams, Hans Zimmer and Howard Shore count among the best-known film composers. A related genre is the music composed for computer games. The music to Super Mario, Final Fantasy, Age of Conan and other games can be found in many different orchestra versions and have become a popular part of the orchestral repertoire.

There are currently no limits for what composers may invent — which genres they choose to break out of, which sounds they choose to use, the sorts of expressions they wish to create or what kind of messages they seek to express. It’s precisely this which makes contemporary music some of the most exciting music there is

In the 2017-2018 season The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra will perform the followng works from this period:

Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Powerful orchestra music with “jazzy” colours and classic melodies such as Maria and Somewhere.

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 12 “The Year 1917” The composer makes a tribute to Lenin with a raw expressivity and revolutionary songs in this magnificent symphony. 

Mikalsen: Piano Concerto No. 1. Well-known Norwegian composer Jan Erik Mikalsen’s brand new piano concerto will receive its world premiere at Sentralen. 

Sønstevold: Festive Overture. A jubilant work for orchestra written by the Norwegian-Swedish composer Maj Sønstevold, a leading figure in the Composers’ Union. 

Hovland: Viola Concerto. This concerto is both musically fascinating and a controversial political protest against abortion bearing the subtitle “A Song for the Unborn Child”. 

The Golden Age of Hollywood: A tribute to some of the classics of film music, from Eric Korngold’s Robin Hood to John Williams’ Star Wars. 

Berio: Ritirata Notturno di Madrid. The night brigade closes off the streets in this festive and unpredictable version of a work from the 1700’s by Boccherini. 

Vaughan Williams: Sinfonia Antartica. Join in on an icy race to the South Pole in this multimedial concert where Roald Amundsen plays a leading role. 

Rehnqvist: “Att bryta isen” from Arktis Arktis! Witness the intense drama which occurs when the ice breaks and the enormous glacial landscape reveals itself on the horizon. 

Golijov: Night of the Flying Horses. A Yiddish lullaby meets gypsy tones and a Romanian folk song in this highly unusual blend of different styles. 

Åm: Study of a Psalm from Luster. A religious folk song blends seamlessly with Magnar Åm’s musical language in this highly atmospheric work. 

Bernstein: Chichester Psalms. A spectacular massive work for choir and orchestra combining Hebrew texts with some of Bernstein’s most powerful music. 

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15. In his last symphony we meet Shostakovich at his most humourous as circus and fun meets seriousness and reflection. 

Tilson Thomas: Street Song. This stylish work for brass leaps from place to place in the America of the 1900’s — from east to west, with references from folk songs to jazz. 

Buene: Standing Stones. Buene meets Brahms when brand new tones enter into a dialogue with more than 80 years of recording history featuring Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2. 

Buene: (New Work) Eivind Buene explores the relationship between text and music in this brand new work. 

Listening tips

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10. A mighty monument of a symphony. The second movement features grotesque and terrifying music while the third movement is provocatively playful. Shostakovich was only completely free after Stalin’s death. 

Bernstein: West Side Story. Violent street fights and pulsating love drives this groovy orchestra music forwards with incredible rhythms and unforgettable melodies.

Britten: War Requiem. A strong and unique memorial to the atrocities of war. A Latin Mass blends with poetry by Wilfred Owen.

Gorecki: Symphony No. 3. It is particularly the otherworldly and gripping second movement which has made this “symphony of sorrowful songs” so famous and well-loved.

Pärt: Fratres. Enter into Arvo Pärt’s minimalistic and meditative world where you can forget time and space as you join the flow of the musical stream.

Reich: Music for 18 Musicians. Empty your head and follow Steve Reich into a minimalistc, pulsating and fascinating world where minute changes are everything.

Ligeti: Atmospheres. Ligeti’s mighty sound world is overwhelming, and transports you on a journey into the galaxy’s outermost spheres where music becomes weightless.

Lutoslawski: Jeux venitiens. Some of the details are left to chance in this intense, unpredictable, impactful orchestra work, which is replete with contrasts.

Messiaen: Éclairs sur l’au-delà… Messiaen adhered to his colourful and mystical sound world and in his final beautiful masterpiece he stretches himself towards the infinite.

Williams: Music from Star Wars. Experience the sound of star battles, power struggles and awe-inspiring horizons in the legendary opening theme and in the threatening “Imperial March”

Nordheim: Epitaffio. Arne Nordheim showcases his most colourful and innovative sound world in this work for orchestra and tape.

Saariaho: Laterna Magica. Saariaho was inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s autobiography when she wrote this inventive and colourful orchestra piece — one of her best-known works.

Gubaidulina: Offertorium. Gubaidulina’s mysterious music originates from a sound world which is not to be missed. In this piece it springs straight out of a meeting with Bach’s music from centuries past.

Wallin: Act. Listen to Rolf Wallin’s fascinating tribute to joy and activity, and not least the pleasures of acting on something together in this energetic orchestra piece.

Selected composers:

Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

György Ligeti (1923-2006)

Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994)

Krzysztof Penderecki (f. 1933)

John Cage (1912-1992)

Steve Reich (f. 1936)

Philip Glass (f. 1937)

Arvo Pärt (f. 1935)

Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Arne Nordheim (1931-2010)

John Williams (f. 1941)

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Elliott Carter (1908-2012)

Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016)

Hans Zimmer (f. 1957)

Howard Shore (f. 1946)

Samuel Barber (1910-1981)

Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)

Carl Orff (1895-1982)

John Adams (f. 1947)

Helmut Lachenmann (f. 1935)

Sofia Gubaidulina (f. 1931)

Kaija Saariaho (f. 1952)

Rolf Wallin (f. 1957)