The New in Art.
The Freedom for the new Ageless
Nikolaus Schapfl
On the whole there are three different styles of music today:
A serious music which claims the role of the high culture for itself and remains, besides, only a separated special area, a ghetto meeting a vanishing low interest in the whole music life -- briefly: music the people are not living with.
Secondly the light music, mostly a culture of the banal, the belly -- even if not always, because who would deny that there are some deeper-mining, impressive pop songs with artistic statement and force.
And thirdly an area of tonal and experimental soundtrack for movies which emits, indeed, often much elevating aesthetics, but -- by definition -- has its centre outside of itself, acting as a background on the threshold of consciousness, even if there are pieces -- seemingly more and more less -- which have successfully made their way onto the concert stage.
The question rises in a striking way: Where is, actually, that new music by which the people’s longings for beauty, for an elevating general view, for the experience of the heights and depths of human life, for the union of emotion and intellect, are expressed?
Which structures and forces are dominating this Status Quo and how can young composers force themselves to the freedom to create greater art?
