30th
I have a fantasy that future people will look at “Rhubarb” and think of it as a high watermark of twentieth century classicalAphex Twin - FingerbibThank you, catprism.
I’m confident that R. James will be remembered by future generations as one of the leading composers of this era. Many of his tracks appear to me as classics, especially re. Coetzee’s notion of a classic, i.e. that which will endure via performance and reinterpretation by masters of the art.
Possibly my favorite work of James, and performance, is this minimal, acoustic guitar version of Rhubarb.
I think the interaction between Stockhausen and James as reported in The Wire captures the essense of the divide between the abyss that formal 20th century classical music drove itself into vs. music that people give a flying fuck about.
KS: I heard the piece Aphex Twin of Richard James carefully: I think it would be very helpful if he listens to my work Song Of The Youth, which is electronic music, and a young boy‘s voice singing with himself. Because he would then immediately stop with all these post-African repetitions …
[…]
The response(s) on page 3 are hilarious, e.g.:
RJ: I thought he should listen to couple of tracks of mine: Didgeridoo, then he’d stop making abstract, random patterns you can’t dance to. Do you reckon he can dance?
My take is that we needed Stockhausen, Boulez et al to annihilate classical music, so that new music may grow from its dust — an unfortunate but necessary role.
at the very least, that exchange is a high-water mark of 20th century music journalism.
i like this admonition from stockhausen:
I know that he wants to have a special effect in dancing bars, or wherever it is, on the public who like to dream away with such repetitions, but he should be very careful, because this public will sell him out immediately for something else, if a new kind of musical drug is on the market.
