Composers, since the nineteenth century, have felt free to make use of any conceivable combination of pitches.

 

"Buy my music because ________________________________________________________"
Seriously, knowing the context might help.
It seems it is a statement about social & political constraints regarding use of pitch, and that composers since 1800 have found either the social and political constraints to not be a problem.
Did people begin to like microtonal music? Did governments allow it? Did composers just realize they were composing music that contained all combinations of pitches because every acoustic instrument produces all combinations of pitches?
I come again to needing to know the context of the statement.
Is it sociopolitical or technical? It seems books could be written (probably HAVE been) about both aspects.
Who made the statement?

 

It means that prior to the nineteenth century the harmonies of tonal music were limited. For the most part to tertian triads and 7th chords. Thereafter,tertian chords, have been subjected to new variations such as added notes, split chord members. open 5ths.

Materials and Techniques of Post-Tonal Music
By Stefan Kostka, Matthew Santa

 

Could also mean they've made use of atonal pitches. ie in the movie Dunkirk a lot of the score was not very melodic however quite effective.

 

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2018

foster thinks he's a composer,mind you

 

Doesn't mean anything to me.

 

Yeah it's clearly a reference to atonal music (eg Schönberg), maybe also serialism....All in all how music has evolved during the XXth century, walking away from a certain classicism in its use of the theory. Every genres have been more or less impacted by those evolutions.

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2018

total fiction....sry...offtopic..

 

Released from the shackles of the hegemony and dictates of The Church and the prior monopoly of ideals in regard to art and expression, composers since the 19 century were then free to express more their heart as well as their politic into their creations. They could now voice literally their compositions more so true with their own ideas of beauty, grace and sorrow.

 

Foster's best stuff were atonal glitch pieces, was also the longest if my memory serves correct

 

What's the best way to Cockfosters?



Drink it warm, mate.

 

'before (the ninteenth century) music peeps were careful about what notes they put with other notes, but then (since the ninteenth century), music peeps decided to put any old notes together on purpose.'

or, depending on context,

'concerning pitch, music folk have been happier to defy convention since the 19th century than formerly'.

or

'rules? feck 'em.'

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2018

Who is Foster?

 

a philosopher
a misunderstood one...

 

If any combination of pitches can be used so what does the music theory mean? Music theory's rules have been ordained mostly for forbidding those combinations.

and

If you can break those rules (been theorized by our ancestors based on facts, tastes or whatever) one by one knowingly or unknowingly, so what are those mentioned rules for?

 

The new collections of pitches that contemporary music brought to us aren't just arbitrary collections of pitches. They are just new. They are definetly in the realm of music theory since music theory has evolved to incorporate them.
New rules you can choose from, which don't exclude de facto the "old" ones. They just are complementary new ones, you can play by those, by the old ones, or heck invent new ones if you feel like it.
Theory isn't stone of laws, it's an evolving living thing, it evolves accordingly to what new practices bring upfront.

 

The diatonic scale was, in its day, misunderstood and often consumed with gin and herring. This caused Debussy to whirl like a dervish until his fillings flew out of his mouth. Later that afternoon the first ballet in 13/5 time was performed and a half woman half Swan attempted to fly up into the cheap seats at the back of the theatre. Sadly the half woman was left behind and died. On the bright side, half coffins were at bargain prices. Ballet became light opera, then with the discovery of helium, light opera became air born. Nobody could hear it and for that we are all grateful.

Now, somebody tell me what this simple story means.

 

Thanks for showing me those videos Baxter. The second video is brilliant.