Description
Book SynopsisWhat does it mean to talk about musical coherence at the end of a century characterised by fragmentation and discontinuity? How can the diverse influences which stand behind the works of many late twentieth-century composers be reconciled with the singular immediacy of the experiences that they can create? How might an awareness of the distinctive ways in which these experiences are generated and controlled affect the way we listen to, reflect upon and write about this music? Mark Hutchinson outlines a novel concept of coherence within Western art music from the 1980s to the turn of the millennium as a means of understanding the work of a number of contemporary composers, including Thomas AdÃs, Kaija Saariaho, TÅru Takemitsu and GyÃrgy KurtÃg, whose music cannot be fitted easily into a particular compositional school or analytical framework. Coherence is understood as a multi-layered phenomenon experienced, above all, in the act of listening, but reliant upon a variety of other aspe
Table of Contents
1 Introduction: beyond the delta?
2 ‘A here that is gone, or is going’: Adès’s Arcadiana3 Connections 1: interaction, analysis, energy
4 Pulling inwards, pushing onwards: Saariaho’s Solar5 Connections 2: shape, continuity, development
6 Strolling through a formal garden: Takemitsu’s How slow the Wind7 Connections 3: expression, moment, meaning
8 Ruined artefacts: Kurtág’s ΣΤΗΛΗ
9 Conclusions: three statements, three questions
