Max Richter

bracing slash terrifying slash confusing slash interesting it's kind of all of those things and you get uh one of the ways that people try to organize music in the absence of a tonal center so you know we don't have our familiar chords anymore how do we organize those sounds so one of the ways of organizing it was a thing called serialism which schoenberg comes up with um

bracing slash terrifying slash confusing slash interesting it's kind of all of those things and you get uh one of the ways that people try to organize music in the absence of a tonal center so you know we don't have our familiar chords anymore how do we organize those sounds so one of the ways of organizing it was a thing called serialism which schoenberg comes up with um

around 1908 910 around there and um uh actually slightly later sorry more like 12 13 15. um and he um and this is to do with like putting tones in a predetermined order and building sort of geometrical structures out of tones. It sounds very abstract, and that's because it is. It's actually nothing to do with like the sensation and feeling of music. From the head, not the heart.

around 1908 910 around there and um uh actually slightly later sorry more like 12 13 15. um and he um and this is to do with like putting tones in a predetermined order and building sort of geometrical structures out of tones. It sounds very abstract, and that's because it is. It's actually nothing to do with like the sensation and feeling of music. From the head, not the heart.

It's like taking music and turning it into this kind of abstract system.

It's like taking music and turning it into this kind of abstract system.

Basically, that's the 20th century. It gets more and more of that. Yeah.

Basically, that's the 20th century. It gets more and more of that. Yeah.

schoenberg starts off uh making series of pitches and then you get duration and rhythm and and dynamics and all kinds of things so everything's like systematized and it becomes this really weird sort of arms race of uh abstraction so that's what i was supposed to be writing when i was a kid um and i was like i did do that for a while very complex very abstract sort of music

schoenberg starts off uh making series of pitches and then you get duration and rhythm and and dynamics and all kinds of things so everything's like systematized and it becomes this really weird sort of arms race of uh abstraction so that's what i was supposed to be writing when i was a kid um and i was like i did do that for a while very complex very abstract sort of music

you know, very hard to understand or love. And then I just, I'd got to study with Berio and I showed him this piano piece of mine, which is in the tradition of like student composers, piano pieces, which are impossible to play really hard, you know, just so dead, so difficult, you know, and he looked at it and he was just like, is this actually what you want to be doing really with your time?

you know, very hard to understand or love. And then I just, I'd got to study with Berio and I showed him this piano piece of mine, which is in the tradition of like student composers, piano pieces, which are impossible to play really hard, you know, just so dead, so difficult, you know, and he looked at it and he was just like, is this actually what you want to be doing really with your time?

What is music for? Why are you doing this? You know, asking sort of really profound questions, really sick, you know, basic fundamental questions about what music was. And so that kind of in a way, unsettled me. And then around the same time, we were starting to hear the music of the kind of new tonal music coming out of the Baltic states. So this is and these sorts of composers.

What is music for? Why are you doing this? You know, asking sort of really profound questions, really sick, you know, basic fundamental questions about what music was. And so that kind of in a way, unsettled me. And then around the same time, we were starting to hear the music of the kind of new tonal music coming out of the Baltic states. So this is and these sorts of composers.

Plus, I had been playing loads of minimal music as part of a six piano group. So we played, you know, Steve Reich's pianos, the early Philip Glass things, lots of kind of pulse-y sort of minimal music. And all these things kind of piled up on me, really. And so I just kind of thought, hang on a minute. Why am I doing this other stuff when here's an alternative? Here's a potential alternative.

Plus, I had been playing loads of minimal music as part of a six piano group. So we played, you know, Steve Reich's pianos, the early Philip Glass things, lots of kind of pulse-y sort of minimal music. And all these things kind of piled up on me, really. And so I just kind of thought, hang on a minute. Why am I doing this other stuff when here's an alternative? Here's a potential alternative.

new language for me, new language, which can, where I can be very direct about what I'm trying to say. And that to me ultimately made much more sense.

new language for me, new language, which can, where I can be very direct about what I'm trying to say. And that to me ultimately made much more sense.

Yeah, I think that happens a lot in culture, right?

Yeah, I think that happens a lot in culture, right?