'the new normal' by William Dougherty, performed by Asko|Schönberg

Описание: 'the new normal' by William Dougherty, performed by Asko|Schönberg. Recorded live during Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2018 in TivoliVredenburg on 5 September 2018.

Watch all the concert videos of the Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2018 here:    • ‘While We Are Both’ by Lawrence Dunn, perf...  

In 'the new normal' (2016) the American composer William Dougherty employs rising and falling lines. These are often slowly sliding glissandi which, in terms of sound, have their roots in both the American experimental tradition à la Alvin Lucier or Phill Niblock, and the European spectral music of Gérard Grisey. This is a sound world characteristic of Dougherty but this piece also reveals another side to him. While he doesn’t consider himself a political composer, this composition engages actively with social issues: “I wrote this piece in the summer of 2016. It was this building moment; Trump was winning, Brexit had just happened, and all these rightwing parties throughout Europe were rising because of the influx of immigrants from Syria. Philando Castille, this young black guy, was driving in Minnesota, got pulled over and was shot by a police officer - on Facebook Live. I thought: I could write another piece that offers a different world of sound that encourages people to listen differently and be self-reflective, or I could say something more direct that engaged more concretely with these issues. How am I supposed to write another piece of esoteric sound when this is going on?”

Nonetheless, there are many more layers to this piece than merely political engagement. Not only because of the message Dougherty evokes, but above all because of the broad spectrum of references and musical quotes he uses. His sound world includes the serenity of Renaissance music paired with the violent music of the Japanese noise artist Merzbow, plus samples of black prisoners singing Old Alabama while working on railroad tracks. On the one hand Dougherty literally disrupts his own esoteric sound world with such vehement quotations. On the other hand the piece can be perceived as a codex of the twenty-first century listening experience, where one switches easily between all those very different kinds of music without judging them differently. Maybe that is the strongest statement of this piece: appreciating differences while treating and accepting them equally.

For more information visit https://gaudeamus.nl/en/

Subscribe at    / gaudeamusnl  
Facebook:   / gaudeamusnl  
Twitter:   / gaudeamusnl  
Instagram:   / gaudeamusnl