Speaker: Composers made music their own way

By Melissa Eslinger

When many people think of music, they think of patterns such as pitch, tempo or melody. Composers of the New York School beg to differ.

During his lecture for the 15th annual Breathitt Lecture Series Thursday, piano performance senior Clinton R. Davis said the scores and notations of the New York School composers are a way to rethink music and create sounds never heard before. These sounds are about “creating music you don’t know,” Davis said.

He said the point of this music is to completely abandon preconceived notions of what is considered traditional. Instead, these composers and musicians are to follow set instructions when reading music that merely tells whether the pitch should be high, low or in the middle, but not exactly where the pitch is.

Nowhere do these notations show tempo or melody, either.

“No two pieces will sound the same,” Davis said during a question-and-answer session after the lecture.

Instead of trying to find the meaning behind the music, Davis hopes that people will understand that there is “nothing to ‘get’ and not to utilize what you are familiar with.”

Political science senior Corinne Keel said the New York School is an interesting way to look at music she hadn’t heard about before.

“I would be more willing to look at music the same as I look at modern art,” she said.

On the other hand, psychology junior James Crouch said he did not find the sound appealing, although he enjoyed the lecture.

“I wouldn’t expect to hear more about appealing sounds, but more about the idea of breaking tradition,” he said.

Davis will be performing a deconstructed piece as well as more traditional pieces Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the Singletary Center’s Recital Hall.