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Goodbye Twentieth Century?
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 24 th and 25 th November ’05 Symposium SummaryTaking its name from the Sonic Youth genre-breaking album of ‘cover versions’ of works by John Cage, James Tenney, Pauline Oliveros, Christian Wolff and other experimental composers, the symposium aimed to explore the implications of blurring genres, crossing boundaries and multi-genre collaborative work for marketing, promoting, writing about, recording and making new music. Connecting with the audience: Promoters, venues and festivalsPaula Whitehouse, Sound Circuit’s Marketing Consultant, presented key findings from Sound Circuit’s research, including analysis of box office data for 20,000 attenders of new music and nearly 600 questionnaire returns, as well as case studies from audience development projects. Key findings include:
A full report will be available on-line later this year - please visit www.haferkornassociates.com Alison Atkinson, Marketing Manager of the London Sinfonietta, described how they had worked with a focus group of 13 attenders (‘Connectors’) of electronica and alternative rock to get feedback on their concerts and to generate promotional campaigns for programmes of Steve Reich / Michael Gordon and of Luigi Nono. These played to a full house and 90% capacity respectively, with a quarter to a third of the audience attracted by the Connectors’ campaigns. HCMF’s Sounding Board was introduced bySheralyn Bonner, Marketing Director. It is a group of 8 people who met before and after the Festival for discussion sessions, and who helped to create a Festival discount scheme for young people. The group also invited newcomers to events, to road-test the festival experience. Amsterdam Concertgebouw’s Entrée Board , established some 10 years ago, is a group of 7 young people who influence the programming and marketing of the venue’s young peoples’ programming. There is a regular turnover of members, and the group has energised the venue’s young audiences, revitalising attendances largely through discounting of targeted programming and the development of an online community. These audiences share some common characteristics. They include being:
Panel Discussion with Festival Directors and Promoters Guy set the scene by questioning whether there are a few audiences of many people or many audiences of a few people. He aims to reach the many relatively small audiences that connect with the programme in different ways. A key issue, then, for genre-crossing music is whether they risk alienating each audience. Discussion also focused on meeting the expectations of different audiences, including current and new attenders. For example, concert attenders may expect events to start on time while club-goers / gig attenders may think the event only starts properly an hour after the published time. Tamsin raised the question of stage presentation. The presentation of mixed-genre projects can lead to colliding worlds on stage – so why not bring in a stage producer to create the right approach. She is hoping to programme a sampler series with a day of short performances, 40-minute sets in multiple spaces where audiences can come and go. There were many comments about the London Sinfonietta’s collaborations with Warp Records, which was seen as a landmark event of its kind. This project combined arrangements of pieces by Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and others alongside pieces by Reich, Cage, Stockhausen, Nancarrow etc. Its success in attracting large curious (and young) audiences was noted; some people were anxious that it involved artistic compromises, though there was no consensus. Key points made included:
Post-rock, post-Classical, posteverything? Views from the record industry Chair: Chris Cutler (ReR) Hannah Vlcek described how conditions are different for NMC as it is a registered charity with no brief to make profit. Its ethos is to record British music that otherwise wouldn’t get the attention it deserves. Artistic policy is broadly contemporary classical, though there is funding pressure to go more mainstream. Whilst some NMC-represented composers border different audiences, such as Richard Barrett and Chris Dench (both of whom have featured in The Wire), many don’t and some are surprisingly dismissive of ‘pop’ and non-Classical music. This echoed Tony Morley’s observation that it’s particularly difficult for non-Classical musicians to break into contemporary music media and markets, with perhaps the exception of exposure through The Wire. Perhaps the only true example of a musician who’s been both accepted and successful in contemporary composition and alternative experimental music is Frank Zappa. Tony said that he has always chosen what to release in a commercial way - at least, he’s always intended that each release should make a profit if possible. Yet the most successful recordings are almost always the ones that he feels strongest about, rather than when he’s tried to second-guess the market. In his analysis record companies can no longer make money from recordings alone; they need to reach the public in broader ways, for example through advertising and film, as that’s where the money is.Chris Craker noted the different economic conditions that influence the market. NMC, as a charity, has much greater freedom from market forces. Independent labels, like Black Box (which he set up, releasing 70 CDs in five years) and Leaf rely on a handful of recordings that return a profit in order to continue to take risks with more experimental projects. (Tony Morley reckoned that only 1 in 10 releases actually makes money, but agreed that it’s these that keep the independent sector running.) At Sony BMG and the major labels A&R is driven by proven notions of what people will buy, whilst new formats such as downloads create opportunities to re-release back catalogue. Tony was optimistic about the potential of the web as a way forward. Leaf as an independent label wouldn’t exist without the internet, and internet radio such as Last FM and Audioscrobbler actively encourage listeners to try new music. He added that record shops focus on music that has media exposure, and so tends to follow the media in being stuck by genre. Coverage in The Wire isn’t enough on its own, but helps to raise profile - you also need internet coverage, blogs, and features in magazines like Mojo and Uncut. At the same time, word-of-mouth can still be powerful, particularly through online communities. Cathi Gibson described what has happened with The Clogs, a US ‘crossover’ group, two of whose players also feature in cult rock group The National. Despite very positive audience responses from their live UK performances and broadcasts, they haven’t been able to get UK distribution. For example, Warner Jazz and Warner Classical were both interested but thought the band belong in the other genre. The same musicians can be successful when recognised in one genre (with The National), but when crossing genres they’re considered too risky.Key points made included: The saturation of music product could be an evolutionary process - only the strongest music will survive. On the other hand, on-line access to music has exposed people to a much wider range of music, making them more aware.
"Dancing about architecture": talking about music in the media Chair: Tom Service (Artistic Director, hcmf; The Guardian) Andy Hamilton began by suggesting genre labels are necessary for conceptualising music. Labels like ‘New Complexity’ can help act as a commonly understood shorthand for describing what the music sounds like. The problem is really that many critics are part-time, don’t understand the music’s history and are lax in the way they use genre terms. It’s difficult to be a specialist in many areas, so critics often find cross genre music harder to discuss. Maija Handover said that it can be difficult for arts editors to decide which critic to send. Ben Watson said that he was interested in critics who'd taught themselves music by listening to records (like himself), but he couldn't stand the new kind of 'objective' criticism where reviewers describe the music but fail to voice an opinion. He thought this may well be the result of alienation from musical productivity. Tom asked if music journalism can change the way genre labels are used and music is understood; Ben said the mass media is the only terrain of battle for anyone interested in post-industrial culture. He added that he'd lost this battle at The Wire, where a bowdlerised and depoliticised version of the twentieth-century avantgarde is being sold to ignorant consumers. He now focuses on self-publishing on the internet. He added that genre labels are created by marketing after the events - most ‘serious’ musicians reject being labelled, listening to a broad range of music. Tom also noted that in newspapers and especially magazines like The Wire different genres are discussed next to each other on the page, which helps break down barriers; Andrew Kurowski said that, judging from letters, listeners don’t like putting even different types of jazz next to each other. Andrew described how the parameters of each R3 programme gets redefined by other programming on the schedule. Mixing It was brought in 15 years ago to fill a gap between the BBC stations, with Peter Gabriel and Meredith Monk on the first programmes. Then Late Junction came on stream and redefined what Mixing It did. It’s too narrow to talk just about R3 - you need to think across the network’s programming, from Asia Channel, BBC on-line, Radio 6, etc. And of course this redefines the role for Radio 3. There was a longer discussion about cross-genre music. Andy felt that it was too often an attempt to get more audience and lacked integrity; Maija agreed that these projects have to be genuine otherwise they fall flat and don’t live up to their hype. Anne Parry (CMN) added that these projects should be artist led. Andrew agreed - creativity can cross genres successfully. Maija was upbeat on coverage of non-mainstream music, listing features in that day’s newspapers on Ashkenazy conducting Shostakovich 7 th Symphony alongside a remix by I am the mighty jungulator, and a piece on Russian contemporary and folk music crossover. Journalists will write about things as long as they’re interesting. Key points made included:
What's next? Musicians in their own words Chair: Ed McKeon (Sound Circuit; London Sinfonietta) Ed began by asking each of the panellists to talk about their work across genres. Robin described how he liked to take risks and go for unconventional projects, whilst Chris explained that many musicians in his generation learned to play from listening to records and radio, taking on different genres from the start. For Anna and Sam it’s part of a rejection of being pigeon-holed and finding common musical ground with others. This way of working also helps artists be both independent and more in control of their own work. Anna described how she set up the Camberwell Composers Collective (C3) with a group of like-minded composers. C3 events are informal and work like club events, with the music beginning 45 minutes after the doors open, having a bar open, and with an atmosphere where it’s easy to socialise - not a self-indulgent exercise for the composers. Sam’s group [rout], combining amplified instruments, live electronics and visuals also works outside concert halls - he’d prefer more neutral venues, ones that don’t come with the same baggage of expectations. The difficulty can be finding the right performance space (and promoter) for the music. Robin agreed - he’d been commissioned to create music based on Bach, but had been disappointed when the promoter presented this in the bar area. It was the same for the Shostakovich project with ‘I am the Mighty Jungulator’ in Bristol a few nights before, and this marginalises the music. Collaboration was a common theme. Robin talked about his work with Italian ensemble Alter Ego on live remixes of music by Sciarrino, as well as making new material with Ensemble Musique Nouvelles; he has found the musicians he’s worked with to be very open minded. Likewise Sam was amazed by the skill of Steamboat Switzerland, the improv / rock group, and Anna was excited about her forthcoming work with Horses Brawl. Chris mentioned his previous experience of working with an orchestra. The players had a very cavalier attitude, bordering on incompetence in some cases as they couldn’t play in time. They argued that they didn’t need to make an effort because they ‘only had to play it once’. All members of the panel emphasised the integrity of what they do, that they believe in what they’re creating, though they were also aware that they had to make a living which means they sometimes find themselves responding to opportunities that emerge. Anna and Sam both talked about balancing notation with improvisation, working with the grain of how the performers work rather than fixing everything in advance. From the other side, Robin described his plans to work with a composer, Iannis Kyriakides, to create music using notation but also finds his work with recordings liberating because it makes expressing ideas easier and is also more performance-based. Key points made included:
Links The London Sinfonietta Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival / Sheralyn Bonner Brighton Dome & Corn Exchange The Sage Gateshead Jongpubliek, Amsterdam Maerzmusik, Berlin RER Megacorp / Chris Cutler Chris Craker NMC Recordings The Leaf Label Rough Trade BBC Radio 3 The Wire Ben Watson www.militantesthetix.co.uk/mehome1.htm Maija Handover Scanner Anna Meredith http://www.bmic.co.uk/Composers/cv_details.asp?ComposerID=1008
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