Quotation for Mid-April

Reginald Smith Brindle (right) talking to Danish guitarist Erling Moldrup, image courtesy of Moldrup's site.

Summing up in the general musical scene, it would seem that the major period of avant-gardism is past, and the most radical upheaval in musical history is over. For a while it seemed that genius could only be expressed through the greatest complexity and erudition, but in the end, it would seem rather that true genius lies where the profoundest thoughts are expressed with the greatest directness and lucidity. But while it seems certain that the sound jungles of Répons lead to non-communication, it is enigmatic as to what simple musical language can become a vehicle for our deepest feelings. Perhaps that is the next musical revolution. Nevertheless the avant-garde period has revealed a vitality in music which by comparion, makes the other arts seem in decline.

Reginald Smith Brindle; The New Music ('Conclusions -1986'.)

Quote Of The Day (25/03/08)

'Perhaps mistakenly, the ancient Greeks attributed to the association of music and numbers a predominant place in the philosophy of of the cosmos. Perhaps equally mistakenly, some composers of the Forties and Fifties tried to build music entirely by numbers. But regardless of the rights and wrongs of such beliefs, there are incontrovertible mathematical facts which must be outlined, however briefly.

Other numerical data less closely associated with musical reality, but forming a basis for modern composition, are also worth a mention, even though they only demonstrate man`s subconcious awareness that there is beauty in numbers, and that they in turn can make beauty of out chaos.'

Introduction to chapter 6; 'Numbers' of The New Music: The Avant Garde since 1945 by Reginald Smith Brindle.