Luke Nickel - From Rautavaara to Hendrix to Throat-Singing

The term ‘new music’ is pretty loaded. When someone asks me what I listen to, and I reply ‘new music’, it can conjure up anything from new age soundscapes to the latest top ten release in HMV. Sometimes I want to push up my imaginary glasses and say, ‘no, no, I mean contemporary classical avant-garde new music’. But when it comes down to it, this isn’t what I mean at all. When I say I listen to “new music” I mean that I am listening to things being created, recorded, and released as we speak.

In the symphonic world, ‘new music’ can mean anything from Henry Cowell, of early 1900 fame, to the present. There seems to be a notion or predilection that if something has remotely harsh or grating sounds, or is non-traditional in form, it should be considered ‘new music’. It is naïve to think that performances of things such as Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” will still shock audiences when the sounds of it are echoed in the pop music of our daily activities. While it may be true that certain people have grown up understanding classical music as consonant chords and sweet sounding harmonies, the reality is that many people have also grown up with the harsh sounds of heavy metal, grinding electronica, and edgy pop music.

For the first time in history, we as an audience are at a place when we have a choice to listen to whatever we want, whenever we want. If we want to steep ourselves in only Mozart, forever, we are welcome to do so, and can choose from a bevy of international performers, orchestras, and record labels. Unlike pre-radio and TV eras, we do not need to read about a new performance in a newspaper - we can watch it first hand on sites like Youtube. Unfortunately, certain listeners are rejoicing in this as an opportunity to stagnate, to indulge only in things they are comfortable with, rather than using it as a tool to reach out and experience what the world is creating and putting forward.

If someone took a look at my downloaded songs, CDs, webcasts, programs, ticket stubs, and youtube history, they’d find everything from Rautavaara to Rhianna. At first, I might be a little embarassed, explaining that the pop music present is just ‘guilty pleasure’ music, and that they should probably just look at my CD collection to see how serious about ‘New Music’ I am. Lately I’m learning that this is dead wrong.

In today’s internet-centric, grab-all culture, we can choose to listen to whatever we want, whenever we want to, and in the privacy of our own headphones; sans embarrassment, sans judgment, and sans friends/parents/neighbours shouting ‘turn it down!’. This privacy leads to some pretty interesting things. It means that I’m not afraid to put on rap or hip-hop, or listen to baroque harpsichord concertos all day. This diversity has done nothing but improve my appreciation of music in general. It is impossible to be aware of the boundaries between “contemporary classical” and “pop music” without listening to both ends of the spectrum and then exploring the wealth of interesting things in between.

This lack of embarrassment and increased freedom has greatly affected which concerts I attend in the Winnipeg new music scene. In addition to Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra concerts, I also attend various concerts at pubs, clubs, bars and other venues. Perhaps one of the most important fixtures in my concert-going year is the Winnipeg New Music Festival.

I am an avid New Music Festival junky, having attended since 2004. I vividly remembermy first experience with Schnittke’s “Faust” cantata, probably the first large ‘new music’ piece I had ever heard. Interestingly enough, this piece blurred the lines between traditional concert music and a much more visceral experience. It included electric bass, and a singer dressed entirely in sequins singing as she stood about 5 feet away from me in a devilish tango. It was enough to create a very lasting impression. In further years, the inclusion of works by young luminaries like Nicole Lizee, Trevor Grahl, and many more was enough to continually restore my faith in the “new music” tradition on the classical end of things.

The circuit of “new music” in Winnipeg is at once teaming with life and alarmingly bare. I could attend a concert by a local band every night of the week, and could probably see a different DJ thursday-sunday of every week. Unfortunately, it is not as easy to see a new composer every night, or a new chamber group, or even the orchestra playing a new work. Winnipeg has excellent fixtures - the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Winnipeg New Music Festival, Groundswell, Send and Receive - but I think there is room for more.

Audiences, which are made up of increasing amounts of young people are more willing than ever to view or listen to something that they have not seen before. My generation is used to logging onto youtube daily to search for new experiences. Once finding something, they immediately text their friends, post to twitter and facebook, and integrate it into daily conversation. They are ready and hungry for new sound, art and culture, and willing to share their finds with the world.

A city that is as culturally known as ours demands more new music. The fixtures we have are wonderful, and truly a credit to the scene, both locally and internationally; however, a city with our breadth and cultural scope has the space, performers, and audience for many more such fixtures. With a growing spectrum of listeners whose ipods don’t simply contain one category of music, and who are unashamed of this, it is necessary that we begin to cater to their need for new content. The Winnipeg New Music Festival is doing a great job - but it is going to take even more to satiate hungry new listeners. Moreover, we should be unafraid of offending delicate aural palates; in a world where you can hear Metallica blasting at the same time as 50 cent and Beethoven in a mall, people are more open than ever to interesting, and sometimes ugly, new sounds.

When it really comes down to it, New Music is as broad as the term implies, and we should be okay with that. When someone asks me what I’m interested in, the answer could change daily. Today, it might be Lady Gaga’s new culturally twisted music video. Tomorrow, it could be the new and shocking sounds of Canadian composer Giorgio Magnanensi. Let us rejoice in a society when our personal music devices don’t simply contain one narrow category of music, and let us aim to reflect that in concert programming of the highest integrity, providing people with new sounds, concepts, and content.