I just went to see a free concert at the Kennedy Center. Part of the venue's Conservatory Program, it featured several talented musicians from the Curtis Institute. Unfortunately, it also featured avant garde pieces by Rochberg and Crumb, which involved the players whispering and whistling while playing, knocking on the piano, playing violins like guitars, flipping bows backwards on string instruments, and just generally creating an unpleasant cacophony of notes that frequently sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard. Perhaps I'm missing some sort of ingenious innovation in these pieces but, honestly, after 14 years of classical training, I don't think so. In fact, I feel quite comfortable saying: "The emperor has no clothes!" Just because this type of composition is markedly different than past pieces, that doesn't automatically make it good. On the contrary, I would argue that music that is physically unpleasant to listen to the entire way through is pretty problematic.
Yuck. I believe my concert companion put it best: "I am just... bewildered! [...] I feel like I need a musical exorcism right now."
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