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Ian Pace
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« on: 23:56:36, 08-02-2007 » |
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Following roslynmuse's apt comments on John Adams' 'On the Transmigration of Souls', I thought I'd start a list of what I call 'ambulance-chasing works', specifically works that seek to cash in on the emotional capital generated by some death, disaster, or the like, in order to create some sort of 'lament':
Penderecki - Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
James MacMillan - Tuireadh (after the Piper Alpha disaster)
Frederick Stocken - Lament for Bosnia
Keith Burstein - Requiem for the Young (after the Marchioness disaster)
Keith Burstein - A Live Flame (in memoriam John Smith MP)
Keith Burstein - The Year's Midnight - a Mediation on the Holocaust
Those are just a few off the top of my head (9/11 works are too numerous to mention). Other suggestions?
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« Last Edit: 00:05:24, 09-02-2007 by Ian Pace »
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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Bryn
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« Reply #1 on: 00:00:42, 09-02-2007 » |
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Berg - Violin Concerto?
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« Last Edit: 09:47:29, 09-02-2007 by Michael »
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #2 on: 00:04:08, 09-02-2007 » |
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Berg - Violin Concerto?
I'd make an exception for genuinely heartfelt works written in memory of someone the composer was close to. |
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« Last Edit: 09:47:57, 09-02-2007 by Michael »
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #3 on: 00:05:07, 09-02-2007 » |
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Is there a way of correcting a typo in the thread title, Michael?
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« Last Edit: 09:48:14, 09-02-2007 by Michael »
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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John W
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« Reply #4 on: 00:47:44, 09-02-2007 » |
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Ian,
Top right hand of YOUR messages you'll see a few buttons, one says Modify. Click that, make your corrections and Submit. Sorted, (and later a little tiny line bottom of the message will say when it was modified)
Cool.
John W
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Bryn
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« Reply #5 on: 01:14:53, 09-02-2007 » |
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Fine for the message content, John, but Ian was asking about the thread title. That is not covered by the editing facilities of the "Modify" window. I would think that only the Host might have access to editing facilities for the title. (That's not a statement in favour. Just my guess based on the way other message boards work).
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« Last Edit: 09:26:31, 09-02-2007 by Bryn »
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John W
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« Reply #6 on: 09:17:11, 09-02-2007 » |
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Sorry Ian, Bryn. I was up too late last night  Yes I'm sure the administrator(s) can sort that.  John W |
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IgnorantRockFan
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« Reply #7 on: 10:33:58, 09-02-2007 » |
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All the pieces Ian listed seemed very recent. Is this a "selective" list, or is this type of work really just a modern phenomenon? And does that tell us something about modern ways of thought?
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Allegro, ma non tanto
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #8 on: 12:25:21, 09-02-2007 » |
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Bach, Trauer-Ode.  |
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mahlerei
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« Reply #9 on: 16:43:47, 09-02-2007 » |
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Composers have been responding to public and private tragedies from the year dot, so I'd suggest Ian's list has been selected with his own preconceptions in mind. Personally I found Transmigration of Souls a very awkward piece in terms of its style and content.
Ambulance chasing (as I understand it) implies that the pursuer chases the subject purely for financial gain. You're the composer, Ian. What would you have done, say, if you'd been moved by the events of Aberfan in 1966 and wrote a lament? An honest response to a public tragedy or a self-serving gesture?
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roslynmuse
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« Reply #10 on: 16:52:53, 09-02-2007 » |
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Here's a thought - a composer is of course free to write a piece which is a personal response to any tragedy, either public or personal, but the sensitive composer doesn't plaster the details of the tragedy all over it. Call a piece Threnody or Lament and it places the listener in a frame of mind to receive it; call it Aberfan 66 and you are loading the listener with emotional baggage which (for me at least) takes a lot of effort to efface.
For an alternative definition of an "ambulance-chasing" work, see my message in the Schoenberg thread!
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mahlerei
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« Reply #11 on: 17:42:30, 09-02-2007 » |
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roslynmuse
IIRC Penderecki didn't call it Threnody etc at the outset but only applied the tag much later. Other posters will be able to put me right on this.
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #12 on: 22:04:26, 09-02-2007 » |
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I think all requiems will qualify to be under the heading. What about German requiem by Brahms?
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #13 on: 22:30:33, 09-02-2007 » |
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A little googling reveals 8'37" as the original title of the Penderecki. Threnody was suggested by the publisher.
Imagine if Cage's 4'33" had been called Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima...
On second thoughts, perhaps don't.
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reiner_torheit
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« Reply #14 on: 22:37:48, 09-02-2007 » |
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What about instances where the composer was specifically approached for such a work? I am thinking in particular of Howells's "Take Him Earth For Cherishing", for example?
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They say travel broadens the mind - but in many cases travel has made the mind not exactly broader, but thicker.
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