Complexism
The Komplexismus is a current within the new music . The British composer Brian Ferneyhough is considered the founder and most important representative . The representative in Germany is the Ferneyhough student Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf .
history
The origin of the term complexism (English: New Complexity ) is unknown; Most likely the term was coined primarily by the composer Nigel Osborne , the Belgian musicologist Harry Halbreich and the British-Australian musicologist Richard Toop , who brought the term into circulation with his article "Four Facets of the New Complexity" (1988).
Despite the strong British influence, especially through the intensive teaching activities of Brian Ferneyhough , whose pupil Mahnkopf has been professor of composition at the University of Music and Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig , as well as Michael Finnissy , the complexism in music became originally initiated by continental European artists and representatives of new music, especially at the Darmstadt Summer Courses between 1982 and 1996, where Ferneyhough also worked as a composition teacher.
Stylistic features
Complexism gets its name from the extremely complex forms of notation that this music requires. Complexist music is atonal and dissonant and is characterized in particular by the use of extended playing techniques , such as multi-phonics techniques on the oboe, glottic strokes for the vocal part and key-clicking on the flute. The complexity is also expressed in the numerous irregular rhythms in unusual proportions, which are superimposed in several layers. Rapid changes, sometimes from note to note, take place in tempo, dynamics and articulation.
Complexist music is extremely difficult to study and perform , especially because of the differentiation of the pitches in the microtonal range (often quarter tones tuned to the same level ).
Important works
- Superscriptio for Solo Piccolo (1981)
- Carceri d'Invenzione I for Ensemble (1982)
- Carceri d'Invenzione IIb for Solo Flute (1984)
- Carceri d'Invenzione II for Flute and Orchestra (1985)
- Carceri d'Invenzione III for Ensemble (1986)
- Liber Scintillarum (2012)
literature
- Matthias Handschick: Music as a "medium of self-experiencing perception": Possibilities of conveying new music under the aspect of the dissolution and reflection of gestalt. Hildesheim 2015.
- Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf: Critique of the new music. Design of music for the 21st century. Kassel 1998.
- Ulrich Tadday (Ed.): Music Concepts 140.Brian Ferneyhough , edition text + kritik, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88377-918-8 .
- Jean-Noel von der Weid: The music of the 20th century . Frankfurt am Main & Leipzig 2001, pp. 581-598. ISBN 3-458-17068-5 .
- Ferdinand Zehentreiter: The music of Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf. Hofheim 2012.