Christopher Adler....thank you Kyle

Christopher Adler, another name to add to my repertoire of American composers and another unique composer.

Scanning through his website the first thing to grab my attention, besides his exotic compositional contributions, was the courses that he teaches at the University of San Diego. Introduction to Sound Art, Digital Audio Composition, and Art and the Soundscape. The course description for Intro to Sound art
“examine a wide variety of cultural and artistic practices involving the making and experiencing of sounds, including acoustic ecology, deep listening, experimental music and sound art/sound sculpture, electronic and computer music, the artistic application of recording studio technology, invented and modified musical instruments, interactive music on the internet, algorithmic compositions, improvised music, DJ culture, noise music and glitch…”

Wow, what a mouth full but what an incredible course. Gone are the days where you can categorize music into performance, education, theory, or history. And gone are the days where you sit in class with only a textbook, blackboard, and a stuffy old professor. One can only imagine the forms of technology required to successfully teach this course. I think it is extraordinary how so many young musicians have created an entirely new niche for them selves, marketed it, and thrown it out to the world. And even more extraordinary is how receptive we seem to be to the changes in music today (Mike’s presentation was just a snippet of this). You almost have to sympathize with past innovators like Varese because of the limitations they were confronted with both mechanically and audience-wise. I can’t help but think of the fabulous contributions Varese could have made if he had the equipment and support that composers such as Adler have today.

I know I probably sound like a star struck teenager when I continuously say this but I sincerely am in awe of the opportunities available in the USA. I could delve into so many areas on this topic but ‘American innovators’ specifically, there is SO MUCH to be a part of. The recitals, the lectures, the interactive learning environment….so much to see….so little time. But back to my original thoughts on Adler and innovation.

I think one of the most captivating elements of the experience yesterday was Adler’s participation in the performance and learning process of his cross cultural compositions. I am not familiar with the history of why he chose the Thai and Korean tradition but I can only imagine the immense study and emersment that would have had to occur in order to create this cross cultural collaboration. I appreciated his obvious knowledge of the various musical traditions and his respect to maintain these elements in his compositions (I can’t help wondering how different music would be today if all composers offered this same level of respect to music of other cultures).

The whole experience only served to further tweak my interest in ethnomusicology and because Adler has provided a framework for western music and music of the orients to co-exist, it certainly makes these ancient musical traditions more accessible.