Melding Old and New

Hello all!

I was listening to a random playlist on Spotify yesterday and I ran into something I absolutely adored. Jherek Bischoff made an album named 'Composed' and what is remarkable about this album is his seamless blending of modern songwriting techniques as well as 20th century orchestration and classical techniques.

I find it so interesting how more and more artists of today are continuing the exploration of traditional instruments while making the sounds more accessible to modern audiences. That in itself seems like an incredibly important part of the whole 21CM idea. When you look at what is generally popular in the music scene currently, all you really see is things like Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, and T-Swifty (don't get me wrong though, I enjoy them sometimes as well). However, those artists definitely rely more on the presence of the media and their massive team of songwriters/designers to give their image a boost, which can mean the music has little individualistic effort behind it. You all can argue with me if you'd like on that point but that's just how I see it. What their advantage is in making their music more simple and general is that they can portray their music as more relatable and therefore more accessible. Accessibility isn't just about easy attainability, it is also about efficiency and presence: If something has a louder presence, appeals to a wide variety of audiences, and is short and to the point, it is without a doubt more accessible. I do think modern composers can make the mistake of making pieces too long for the fast paced world we live in, even though I think everyone needs to listen to the Ring Cycle at least once in their life. I digress. I do think that adopting some of the strategies used to appeal to a larger audience (like shortening length and simplifying some structural elements) can help open more doors to push a career forward in some respects. It definitely does depend on what route one hopes to go in the music scene.

Also if you love Stravinsky's Rite of Spring as much as I do, in Bischoff's 'The Secret of the Machines', there is a snippet of the opening theme of the introduction later in the song. He also uses some very interesting rhythmic disruption as a tool to end the song. Its a relatively short piece so you all should go check it out!

Jackson