Modern Mozart

[roryk]

In Squarepusher's wikipedia entry he says that he thinks that classical composers were restrained by their instruments and that computers have allowed modern composers musical freedom from that restraint. His point is excellent, and it has to logically be true. There are only so many sounds a violin can make, only so many sounds a tuba or a cello

Comments

But electonic music is so new, and genius is rare.

[anonymous]

It's certainly true that electronic music is much less restrained than classical music. And I don't doubt that the freedom changes the way that supreme beauty is achieved within the medium. Still, two points came to mind when I read your post:

1) Electronic music is very new. Classical music was worked on for hundreds of years (I'm not a classical music expert or an historian -- but it wasn't a 20 or 30 year enterprise, that's for sure). Kingdoms and countries put a lot of effort into perfecting the art of music within that general style with their set of instruments. It took time to create the beauty that you enjoy.

2) There's only been one Mozart and one Beethoven. They're rare gems. They're on the level of Da Vinci or any of the other small number of mega-geniuses we've seen in history. It's like asking if chess is dead because nobody plays like Fischer. Fischer was one of a kind. No one will ever play the game like he did, ever. So maybe electronic music hasn't had its virtuoso yet. Sure, I like Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. But maybe they're just geniuses. Not super, once-in-a-1000-years geniuses.

So maybe, within the next 200 years, somebody will lay down some beats and blips and whirls on their electro-composition device that will make you stop in your tracks and reach for the kleenex.