Polyphony & Complexity

out of print, no new edition

The emergence of “complex music” is undoubtedly one of the most significant developments in contemporary music since the 1980s. Several commentators have described this phenomenon as the beginning of a “second modernism” or a “deconstructive turn” in recent music history. In view of the lack of detailed and well-founded discourse on this music to date, it is time for an "interim report" that is internationally oriented, provides aesthetic and compositional explanations, and gives the composers themselves a voice.

Polyphony & Complexity does not understand "complexity" as a phenomenon limited to new music, but links it to central aspects of Western music: polyphony and the problems it raises. The contributions deal with a wide range of compositional and aesthetic issues, such as morphology, deconstruction, live electronics, extended playing techniques, the concept of the work, understanding of material, multidimensional rhythms, and fragmentation.

The volume is divided into two main sections: a theoretical section and a more practice-oriented section in which composers provide insights into their work. The theoretical part includes an analysis of a classic work of complex music—Elliott Carter's Concerto for Orchestra —a conceptual clarification of the phenomenon of "complex music," a theory of polyphony, and reflections on the performance practice of complex works.

In the second part, younger composers from Germany, the US, Switzerland, France, Italy, the UK, and Austria have their say.

With contributions from: Mark André, Bernd Asmus, Aaron Cassidy, Frank Cox, Gerald Eckert, James Erber, Walter Feldmann, Mario Garuti, Wieland Hoban, Klaus K. Hübler, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Simeon Pironkoff, Larson Powell, Wolfram Schurig, Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Richard Toop, and Ian Willcock.

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