For people, who have begun to have some doubts to whether established avantgarde music can live-up to the standards of excellence, expression and intelligence of music in general – as an art form, in the widest possible sense – it is recommended to follow-up the following links which will provide some enlightenment on the matter.
It should not be forgotten that conventional wisdom has it that Western art music, with its hesitating beginnings with Gregorian chant, over the line of history which spans Monteverdi, Bach, Beethoven, Mahler, Cage and Xenakis, today finally and after long and sustained struggle, overcame totalitarian and bourgeois limitations put in place by reactionairy, traditional elites who hated individual freedom. The greatness of contemporary music, liberated from these restrictions, finds in this example its most convincing and satisfying apotheosis:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwlCD2y2tBA
The special handling of violins (which eventually resulted in the theatrical destruction of some 65 instruments) took place at the Darmstadt Summer Course 2014 – where else?
Also it should be mentioned that this kind of performances are subsidized by the community, so that the performers are given the opportunity to share their musical vision and the results of their philosophical explorations.
In this context an interesting and groundbreaking initiative of the German Violin Makers Union and the German Composers Guild is also to be wholeheartedly applauded: the united violin factories will make available, for the famous Darmstadt Summer Courses and the Donaueschingen New Music Festival, commissions for new works by concept composers who specialize in the instrumental treatment as demonstrated in this video, which is expected to boost the market of new violins considerably:
© John Borstlap / 2014