Thoughts and Discoveries

http://achangeoftune.blogspot.com

Since my 20th century music history class during the fall of my senior year of undergrad I've been following The New Yorker's music critic, Alex Ross' blog, "The Rest is Noise." It's the namesake of Ross' breakthrough book on the music of the 20th century in it's cultural context. Its frequent that I encounter posts that in some form or fashion align with my own studies. This time its from a post about Lincoln Center's White Light Festival in October. The opening night features a free art installation by Janet Cardiff. The exhibit is multidisciplinary. The visual concept focuses on the arrangement of 40 speakers (you might realize where I'm going with this) in a room, each playing something different to invoke the idea of spacial meditation. Each speaker plays one of the voices of the motet Spem in alium (1573) by Thomas Tallis. Read about The Forty-Part Motet exhibit here http://new.lincolncenter.org/live/index.php/white-light-2010-the-forty-part-motet

I find that I repeat some ideas a lot in my research. This one in particular keeps poking its problematic little head up. That is the concept this, new music has an uncanny ability to sound and function a lot like early music.
That being said, though early music is more popularly performed now because of an increased interest in musicology and historically informed performance. Perhaps accidentally or perhaps with a real influence or connection, choral music in particular sounds a lot like early music. Arvo Pärt and Eric Whitacre are easy examples of this. Pärt's "Magnificat" is unmetered, with the stress and rhythm dictated by the natural rise and fall of the text. Whitacre specializes in unaccompanied works for choirs with close harmonies that require non-vibrato tone color.