By Sosthenie P. Ampelian

The canon of Khemaru serious music has been closed for the more than two hundred years that the National Conservatory has existed on New Earth. In fact, the idea of creating new pieces for this Canon has been consistently rejected by the elders of the Conservatory. The directors maintain that the Canon contains so many wonderful pieces, many of them almost unknown, that any new work would only distract from the unfolding of our traditional cultural heritage in the New World. The excellent musicians of the National Kanounic Orchestra as well as their chamber music subgroups are happy to play the pieces from what is considered the "golden age" of music. That was that felicitous time back in the Old Empire when Khemaru society was as harmonious as its music, guided by the enlightened intellectual class.

It has taken us two hundred years after the brutal disruptions of the Crossing, the years of misguided Socialist rule, and the re-establishment of our order, but Khemaru society, as our monitors agree, is now worthy of moving forward to reclaim our heritage as a cultural leader in the New World. This will, of course, include music. The question remains, though: how is that to be done? There are some impressive developments in the last twenty years, such as the establishment of the Paleomusical Orchestra in Surakosai, as well as the revival of the Enharmonic Intonation of the great composer Tirunesh. The National Conservatory in our own capital city Masri, responding to the challenge, has made what some consider a bold move. They have relaxed some of their repertoire restrictions and have declared that there is room for newly composed music in the Canon of playable works.

We are not naive enough to think that no new music has been composed without the sanctions of the Conservatory over the last two centuries. It may even be that some of these works are worthy of inclusion. But the vast majority of them are done by mediocre and ill-trained imitators, often as soundtracks to cinema or other popular entertainments. There may be hundreds, or even thousands of these would-be composers. How can one find the rare jewels in the sonic rubble? The Conservatory has attempted to draw them out by its new "Call for Entries," a musical contest for new composers and new pieces. The winners of this contest will have their works played by the Orchestra or its subgroups. There is a monetary prize of 32,768 Piasters, which is quite a lot for any musician struggling to build or keep a career. (Translator's note: the exchange rate is currently 6.5 Piasters to one U.S. Dollar.)

The judges will be the Elders of the Conservatory, and the rules are quite strict. Here is a sample of some of the qualifications:

"The National Conservatory of Khemi offers these criteria for musical entries:
1. The music must follow a historically known and relevant paradigm, and be in agreement with the greatness of past masters though without actually imitating them.
2. Compositions must be balanced, refined, elegant, and mathematically sound, in keeping with our Khemaru ideal of rationality and order.
3. Entries must be in a classical, restrained style, untouched by the savage pounding and vulgar filth of popular mind-infection.
4. Music should be aesthetically beautiful, graceful and perfectly proportioned. We would prefer that it err (if that should be the case) in being too brief rather than being too lengthy.
5. The artist should remember that art is a serious matter, and any piece that is chosen will be placed in the Canon, a work for the ages. Therefore a composer must offer something that could live for millennia, rather than a trivial following of the moment's trends, fads, or fashions."

As a critic, I am always in favor of the Canon and its axiomatic principles, but I wonder just how restrictive this contest's rules can be if the Conservatory wishes to find something that is both new and of value. Innovation, as we well know, is not intrinsically good, yet there must be some motivation to bring it about in a constructive way. With criteria like these, one wonders whether they will get enough entries to make the judgement worthwhile.

Sosthenie Phaeris Ampelian is a correspondent for the Khemaru Cultural Review.

Posted at 4:26 am | link

---

Archives:

October 2011 (1)
September 2011 (1)
September 2010 (1)
July 2010 (2)
June 2010 (1)
May 2010 (2)
April 2010 (14)
March 2010 (3)
June 2009 (1)
May 2009 (1)
April 2009 (3)
March 2009 (2)
February 2009 (4)
January 2009 (4)
August 2008 (1)
April 2008 (2)
March 2008 (2)
February 2008 (4)