Bridging contemporary music in global arena

Franki Raden ,  Contributor ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 06/13/2009 1:17 PM  |  Lifestyle

For several decades, the world of contemporary music has been associated only with the West. The genre has been viewed as a continuation of European classical music in the 20TH century.

The tradition was strictly rooted in Western academic pursuit of music. From this practice, there emerged famous pioneer composers along with their most popular compositions, such as "Modes de valuers et d'intensit*s" by Olivier Messiaen, "Ionisation" by Edgard Varese, "Gesang der Junglinge" by Karlheinz Stockhausen, and "Le Marteau sans Maitre" by Pierre Boulez.

These works demonstrated a complete breakthrough with the tonal music system established in Europe for 400 years. By the same token, it also showed the composers' superb command, sensitivity and vision in dealing with compositional materials such as sound, melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, dynamics, texture and electronic devices from the non-tonal perspective of modern music.

Hence in the 1950s they became icons of European 20TH century music. The great musical accomplishment of these composers almost gave no room for others, especially the younger generation, to create something beyond their aesthetic paradigm.

However, in the 1960s, there emerged a generation of young American composers who insisted on abandoning the canon of this European academic musical tradition. Many of them succeeded in doing it by drawing on various musical traditions from Asia. These young composers happened to live on the West Coast, which indeed made them closer to the Asian continent rather than to Europe itself.

Among these new pioneer composers we can include Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Riley's composition drew on gamelan and Middle Eastern music; La Monte Young and Philip Glass drew on Indian music; and Steve Reich drew on Balinese gamelan and African music.

From their hands came new icons of 20th century music, such as "In C" by Terry Riley, "Theater of Eternal Music" by La Monte Young, "Drumming" by Steve Reich, and "Einstein on the Beach" by Philip Glass. As it turns out, the genesis of these works opened a new musical horizon for a new generation of composers from across the globe.

The issue is not necessarily that these works were able to provide new directions in compositions, although many composers of various musical genres (rock, jazz, etc) tried to literally copy their musical styles. Among them are Mike Oldfield (rock) and Pat Metheny (jazz). The more important aspect of this whole issue is that many composers in Asia, Africa and beyond got the message. They realized their musical traditions could also provide a strong aesthetic ground for 20TH century music.

As it turned out, from the 1970s up to present there have been many Asian and African composers and music groups who have gained international renown by drawing on their indigenous musical traditions.

By the same token, the emergence of these non-Western composers and music groups has created a new dynamic in the global arena of contemporary music. One of the most crucial aspects of this dynamic is the opportunity for generating direct interactions between musical worlds in the Eastern and Western hemispheres on the platform of creativity.

In the past, this interaction mostly happened in the form of borrowing from each others' traditions. For instance, Western classical music can be practiced in the East and Eastern musical tradition can be found in the West.

Today, composers and performers from both hemispheres can collaborate to create new music together. Hence this is the beginning of the new era in the 21ST century.

Among the most active in working on this issue on the global level is the American group Kronos String Quartet. Kronos was founded by David Harrington in 1973 in San Francisco, the West Coast area associated with the birth of the aforementioned new generation of American composers. Since its inception, the group has already strived to look for an alternative way to deal with the string quartet repertoire.

In due course, Kronos reached a high standard of performance of 20TH century music for string quartets has rewarded them with popularity in the international world. Their visual appearance in the media always gives the message that this music by any chance is also the music for the younger generation, despite their association with compositional academic style.

Kronos not only played standard 20TH century music repertoire, but also requested many prominent new generations of Western composers to write music specifically for them. As a result, of these commissioned works Kronos created a mass of alternative repertoire for the string quartet. This is by far one of Kronos' most crucial roles in the history of 20TH century Western music.

As the tradition continued, several years ago Kronos began approaching composers from Africa, South America, native Canada and the Asia Pacific to commission new works. The problem was that many musical traditions from those regions do not consider composing music as different from performing music. Therefore, the term "composer" has never been particularly important or even existed within these traditions.

In this context, Kronos' commissions for these musicians necessarily involved themselves as creators of the music. Their position is also no longer that of mere performers, but co-composers as well. As a result, the collaboration turns into a highly dynamic simultaneous process of composing and performing music for both parties.

At this stage, Kronos entered a new musical paradigm unknown to the general practice of 20TH century Western music. Often, the collaboration between Kronos and the musicians from Africa, South America, Asia Pacific or the First Nation areas of Canada brought them into a whole new realm of aesthetics.

Due to the nature of the collaboration, many of these commissioned works succeeded in creating musical styles and forms completely new to both parties and, of course, to the music listeners as well. For instance, I never expected to hear contemporary music repertoire of string quartet consisting of Bollywood Hindi film music, as in Rahul Dev Burman's work "Aaj Ki Raat" (Tonight is the Night) or Kayhan Kalhor's Iranian musical composition style "Gallop of a Thousand Horses", found in the most recent Kronos Caravan album.

As a consequence, one also needs a whole new aesthetic paradigm to appreciate these new commissioned works. These types of works certainly can no longer be viewed from the perspective of 20TH century Western music. Yet they have also moved beyond the aesthetics of the respective local musical traditions.

At this point, Kronos has challenged the contemporary musical world to come up with a new musical sensibility to understand and appreciate their works. This is by far a new paradigm of postmodern music within a global context.

By the same token, Kronos has also succeeded in empowering 21ST century non-Western composers to alleviate the skewed musical practice of the 20TH century that had been dominated by Western composers.

As it turned out, this musical challenge is also valid for Kronos and the respective indigenous musicians. Since neither party was trained as composers, some of their collaborations fail to produce a new interesting work. For instance, Kronos' collaboration with Tanya Tagag, an Inuit throat singer from Canada, produced a rather superficial theatrical work.

In June 2009, Kronos will come to Indonesia and collaborate with Rahayu Supanggah, a renowned gamelan musician from Surakarta, Central Java. Again, gamelan and Western academic musical tradition have a quite different nature. As a consequence, this collaboration will be very challenging for both parties. If they succeed, the 21ST century music scene will witness a new intriguing dynamic of global creativity.

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