Mindscape 288 | Max Richter on the Meaning of Classical Music Today

It wasn't that long ago, historically speaking, that you might put on your tuxedo or floor-length evening gown to go out and hear a live opera or symphony. But today's world is faster, more technologically connected, and casual. Is there still a place for classical music in the contemporary environment? Max Richter, whose new album In a Landscape releases soon, proves that there is. We talk about what goes into making modern classical music, how musical styles evolve, and why every note should count.

Max Richter trained in composition and piano at Edinburgh University, at the Royal Academy of Music, and with Luciano Berio in Florence. He was a co-founder of the ensemble Piano Circus. His first solo album, "Memoryhouse," was released in 2002. He has since released numerous solo albums, as well as extensive work on soundtracks for film and television, ballet, opera, and collaborations with visual artists.

#podcast #ideas #science #philosophy #culture

[pastorastafari]

Thank you Sean Carroll and Matt Richter.

[Dechral]

When two of my favorite worlds collide!

[gtziavelis]

Rossz Csillag Alatt Született - a 2005 double album of vibrant, intricate, careful, crisp, headphone-friendly classical music, digitally programmed, at times beyond sublime and nostalgic, with the added twist of modern syncopated percussion playing a primary rhythmic role too, for danceability purposes. Mathematical friends and classical-music friends all find things they love here. Can't recommend enough...

[d-]

Great episode. Gonna check out his new album for sure.

[fburton]

I do love his _Flowers Of Herself_ official music video. It started playing in a yt ad spot and I thought “what on earth is this advertising? a London florist company?”. The music captivated and moved me.

[ClayFarrisNaff]

As a lifelong music lover and a student of human nature, I’m grateful to Max Richter for candidly summing up where classical music went wrong. (I'm glad he escaped the academic strictures he was trained in.) Once classical composers shifted from aristocratic sponsorship to the academy, they won esteem through formalism and esoterica rather than musical beauty. It’s almost as if the culinary arts had shifted from combinations of palatable foods to a formal food-chain concept, starting at the bottom with bacteria, fungal mycorrhizae, and soil. If an understanding of human nature prevailed in the academy, it would be obvious to even the most recondite university music department that we are evolved to be nourished by only a limited range of foods and musical rhythms and sounds. We cannot stomach gravel or atonal formalisms. Those who warmly applaud at the end of hideous, screechy performances are, I strongly suspect, virtue signaling.

[denisvoronin]

Sean, "Arrival" soundtrack is written by now deceased Johann Johannsson.

[mitchkahle]

The future of 12-tone equal-tempered music is in the math, which intelligent machines can understand and use far beyond the capacity of humans. I believe this, even as a lifelong jazz musician and music educator.

[janbam]

i studied contemporary composition in germany (folkwang) and only years after i wonderd why did i mostly feel worse after concerts than before?

[HANECart]

Too bad that Richter didn't craft a little "classical" version of the Mindscape intro music haha

[stoneman]

I think he said Kraftwerk Autobahn (if anyone wants to take a listen)

[HANECart]

24:35 "It goes too far"?? That's subjective not objective Sean. I LOVE atonal music..I am so glad we have it. I also love Mozart, Glass, Beatles, etc. Not sure if "too far" is the right way to put it. Seems a put down? Or "they shouldn't have done it" ?? of course i realize that musicians and audiences recoiled from it. But they also did to some extent to Captain Beefheart?

[Hecarim]

Classic Coolmuch 💚👀ツ
==>
Rock/Metal till the end
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[raginaldmars]

as a German Biologist - Classical Music was my best companion during the exhausting studies of Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry - I prepared my final exams with Rachmaninow Piano Concerto Nr 2 - knowing each Note by heart - a sort of “amphetamine for the Soul to hold out this GULAG Torture...We call it “Classic” as it is perfect in each note of composition and the highest level of disciplined performance. As a Scientist my view is, it is Cosmic Music - not to be conceived by any Mind... Voce Dei...

[LieingCostsYourSoulTellElders]

Provide food for the homeless and never lie. reverse all lies ever told very important for the soul. Tell elder's to provide food for the poor and be a food servant and do this in person  .lieing costs our soul. Tell nursing home elders