the composer’s statement
As white composers of so-called art music in South Africa, we start from a very level playing field - a position of total irrelevance. We are a minority, we are marginal, we write music that few people care about or listen to. If we are able to make a point at all, we can probably consider ourselves successful. And if we work in an intuitive way (Adorno’s ‘musique informelle’), then we’re probably a minority within the minority.
While many so-called successful composers continue to re-cycle the traditional forms (sonatas, rondos, minuets, etc) of so-called Western art music – admirable as an environmentally sound pursuit, tedious as an artistic pursuit – I have always found it more productive to lean against those structures rather than (re-)inhabiting them. By virtue of that strategy my collaborators choose themselves, and then we both lean…
MB
HB, 17/9/09
michael blake will be appearing at stellenbosch university on 21 september at a colloquium hosted by stephanus muller presenting collaborative works made with aryan kaganof
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