What is New Music? Our forthcoming class with the O'Keeffe Museum helps you answer for yourself!

SFNM and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Announce Six-Part Lecture Series: "Beyond the Noise: Listening to Modern Music"

Course Begins October 16, 2008 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM. Series runs Thursdays, October 16 and 30, November 6, 13, 20, and December 4.

A six-part lecture series presented by Santa Fe New Music and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Led by composer/conductor John Kennedy, one of the U.S. leading advocates of new music, and Artistic Director of Santa Fe New Music.

The course is inspired in part by 2008 MacArthur “Genius” Award-laureate Alex Ross’ recent book: The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.

Using Ross’ book as a point of departure, Kennedy will carry the exploration of 20th-century music into its current-day framework, providing insights into the historical innovations and social contexts of modern music, including biographical information about the composers. For those who have asked the question “What is New Music?” this course is an excellent opportunity to begin forging your own answer.

Course takes place at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Education Annex, 123 Grant Avenue. $10 per class, $50 for the series; Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Members $8 per class, $45 for the series. Reservations required at: 505.946.1039.

Course Outline:

1) Thursday, October 16, 6:00 p.m.
The Rest is Noise, Part One.
A consideration of Part One of The Rest is Noise: the primary aesthetic streams of early 20th Century music - Strauss, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky – and their legacy into the present.

2) Thursday, October 30, 6:00 p.m.
The Rest is Noise, Part Two.
A consideration of Part Two of The Rest is Noise: with a focus on the birth of a new avant-garde through American experimentalism – Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, Johanna Beyer, and Lou Harrison – and their effect on Europe.

3) Thursday, November 6, 6:00 p.m.
John Cage and the Post-War Aesthetic Revolution.
This session will examine the work of John Cage and the “liberation of sound.” We will consider both the playful and theoretical aspects of Cage’s work and delve into his influence on European composers including the Darmstadt circle (Boulez, Stockhausen) as well as the New York and Pacific Rim Schools.

4) Thursday, November 13, 6:00 p.m.
The Sixties and Seventies.
We will look at the high-water mark for stylistic pluralism, freewheeling experimentalism, and the collision of primitivism and high complexity. Primary currents in the music of George Crumb, Gyorgi Ligeti, Harry Partch, James Tenney, Iannis Xenakis – as well as in the birth of pulse-driven tonal minimalism.

5) Thursday, November 20, 6:00 p.m.
The Eighties and Nineties.
This session discusses a different fin de siècle, with stylistic degeneration in a realm of exhausted ideas and dead ends – with attempts at new aesthetics playing out in a commodified marketplace of ideas. Primary trends in the music of John Adams, Glass and Reich, Henryk Górecki, Arvo Part, John Zorn, and others.

6) Thursday, December 6, 6:00 p.m.
A New Millennium.
The final session will discuss music of the past 10 years — looking at the perspective of both the digital renegade as well as the globalized corporate composer. Primary trends in the music of Thomas Ades, William Duckworth, Pascal Dusapin, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Kaija Saariaho, Tan Dun, and others.

Class participants will be encouraged to discuss the lectures, and ask and answer questions by utilizing this very blog. Links to soundfiles and other resources will be posted at our website.

Class space is limited! Sign up today at 505-946-1039.