I‘ve really enjoyed the music of Coates that you have been exploring on the blog even though some pieces (I’ve explored since) have ranked amongst the most difficult of listens. Coates’ uncompromising, austere, sometimes almost ritualistic oddness is a very effective antidote to much of the flashy blandness that characterises a lot of contemporary orchestral writing.
Thanks for this Tom, i’m glad you’ve enjoyed some of the music. i agree with what you say about “flashy blandness”; with Coates you’re always aware of the fact there’s an idea, a process, a direction – even though it’s not always apparent exactly how it’s working or why it’s doing it. i prefer to be engaging with something that’s making me ask questions and thinking about what’s happening and why, rather than a superficial surface designed to make me go “ooh” (and inevitably failing).
[…] 5:4 Lent Series on contemporary symphonies, where i explored three of hers (No. 1, No. 7 and No. 11), all of which had been performed at the 2018 Tectonics festival. It was while i was writing those […]
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I‘ve really enjoyed the music of Coates that you have been exploring on the blog even though some pieces (I’ve explored since) have ranked amongst the most difficult of listens. Coates’ uncompromising, austere, sometimes almost ritualistic oddness is a very effective antidote to much of the flashy blandness that characterises a lot of contemporary orchestral writing.
Thanks for this Tom, i’m glad you’ve enjoyed some of the music. i agree with what you say about “flashy blandness”; with Coates you’re always aware of the fact there’s an idea, a process, a direction – even though it’s not always apparent exactly how it’s working or why it’s doing it. i prefer to be engaging with something that’s making me ask questions and thinking about what’s happening and why, rather than a superficial surface designed to make me go “ooh” (and inevitably failing).
[…] 5:4 Lent Series on contemporary symphonies, where i explored three of hers (No. 1, No. 7 and No. 11), all of which had been performed at the 2018 Tectonics festival. It was while i was writing those […]