0:00:02 > 0:00:05MUSIC: "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1" by Sir Edward Elgar
0:00:09 > 0:00:11As the 20th century dawned over Europe,
0:00:11 > 0:00:16concert halls were a haven of tradition and emotional expression.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19The operas of Wagner and Puccini,
0:00:19 > 0:00:21the symphonies of Brahms and Beethoven
0:00:21 > 0:00:25and both the pomp AND circumstance of Elgar were delighting
0:00:25 > 0:00:29audiences who knew where they were with classical music.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32But all that was soon to change.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35SHRIEKING AND SCREAMING
0:00:35 > 0:00:37In a series of shocking advances,
0:00:37 > 0:00:40classical music was transformed beyond recognition,
0:00:40 > 0:00:43mirroring the violence of world events
0:00:43 > 0:00:47and innovation of the technological age.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54In this series, we will unlock the BBC archives to re-awaken
0:00:54 > 0:00:59the voices of some of the century's greatest composers.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01..Dah-dah dah-dah dah-dah!
0:01:01 > 0:01:03It should crackle with sharpness.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07Together, they give a first-hand account of a revolution in sound.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11Sorry, you're getting louder already. Do keep it quiet, please.
0:01:11 > 0:01:12Absolute hush.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15- Four o'clock in the- BLEEP- morning I was up doing this.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17Why don't you deliver these messages?
0:01:19 > 0:01:22In this episode, we hear from the generation of composers
0:01:22 > 0:01:27coming of age in Europe and America in the wake of the Second World War.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31Faced with the crisis of creating art in a post-war age,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34these composers took music to its very limits,
0:01:34 > 0:01:40before bringing it back into the mainstream again.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43Using all of these, we can build up any sound we can possibly imagine, almost.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47But not the sort of melody people would perhaps hum in the bath.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49There is a sort of inner humming.
0:01:49 > 0:01:54I don't think I can quite compete with the Beatles. They have a slightly larger public than I do.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56Classical music always means something that happened
0:01:56 > 0:01:59a long time ago, and this music's happening right now.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17Great Britain. 1945.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20With the country in ruins and a population forever changed
0:02:20 > 0:02:25by the horrors of war, a new cultural landscape was emerging.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33A month after VE day, Sadler's Wells Theatre in London
0:02:33 > 0:02:36opened its doors with a very British opera.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40It was a work that matched the desolate mood of the country,
0:02:40 > 0:02:45and it propelled its 31-year-old composer from the bright young thing
0:02:45 > 0:02:48of British music to a major figure on the world stage.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52Benjamin Britten is one of the most important British composers
0:02:52 > 0:02:56to have worked. In particular, his contribution to opera
0:02:56 > 0:02:58is absolutely vital.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02The scene - a fishing town at the end of the 19th century.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06The occasion - an important one for British music.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08London's famous Sadler's Wells Theatre is opening
0:03:08 > 0:03:11for the first time since the Blitz with a new work
0:03:11 > 0:03:15by the young British composer Benjamin Britten, his first opera.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31Peter Grimes is an intense psychological drama
0:03:31 > 0:03:34based on a poem by George Crabbe.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36Grimes is a gruff outsider,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40living in a claustrophobic Suffolk fishing village
0:03:40 > 0:03:44where the provincial locals torment him with false accusations of murder.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50# ..My sorrows dry
0:03:50 > 0:03:56# And the tide will turn
0:03:59 > 0:04:03# ALL: Grimes!
0:04:03 > 0:04:06# Peter Grimes...! #
0:04:06 > 0:04:09Peter Grimes was a watershed. The reception of it by the audience
0:04:09 > 0:04:13was immediate. It hit everyone in the solar plexus.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17There's no question that it turned Britten
0:04:17 > 0:04:20from being the promising young composer that he had been,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24into a world-class superstar.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33Though a relatively challenging work,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37Peter Grimes remained classical music as people understood it
0:04:37 > 0:04:42and offered reassurance that culture could continue in a post-war world.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47# Fond memory bring the light
0:04:47 > 0:04:51# Of other days around me... #
0:04:51 > 0:04:55Britten very rarely discussed his music on television.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58But he made an exception in 1968
0:04:58 > 0:05:02when he revealed that his composing career started precociously
0:05:02 > 0:05:06early, despite there being very little music at his school.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09There was no music at all.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13That's not quite true. At the end of each term, on the last evening,
0:05:13 > 0:05:15we sang some songs.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17- That was nice.- That was very nice.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19That was the limit of our music.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23How come when you were nine, you wrote an oratorio,
0:05:23 > 0:05:27- and I believe you wrote an aria for God in C Minor.- Yes, yes.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29I hoped it was a key He'd like!
0:05:36 > 0:05:38The social isolation felt by Peter Grimes
0:05:38 > 0:05:42had many parallels in Britten's own life.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47Britten was gay at a time when homosexual acts were illegal
0:05:47 > 0:05:51and spent the war in America as a conscientious objector.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54He was also culturally isolated, by opting to live
0:05:54 > 0:05:56outside the London scene,
0:05:56 > 0:06:01a choice he explained in a BBC radio interview.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Why do you choose to live in Aldeburgh rather than in London
0:06:04 > 0:06:09- or some other...? - I find big cities distracting.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11I find I like, I've always liked,
0:06:11 > 0:06:15the country life since I was a child, particularly the sea,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19and I have very deep roots in Suffolk,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23and I cannot work and live without roots.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30Benjamin Britten's a nice man. He do come on the beach in the wintertime
0:06:30 > 0:06:33if you're fishing and he'll stop and have a word with you.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36Ain't got nothing about Benjamin Britten, he's a very nice man.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39Bringing the mountain to Mohammad,
0:06:39 > 0:06:44Britten founded a music festival in his hometown in 1948.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47The Aldeburgh Festival, which is still going today,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50was thriving when BBC News visited Britten at home
0:06:50 > 0:06:53to hear more about his pet project.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57I think it expresses the tastes of two or three of us
0:06:57 > 0:07:00who have the pleasure and luck to live in Aldeburgh.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04Peter Pears and Imogen Holst and myself have rather strong,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08perhaps individual tastes in music, and the Aldeburgh Festival
0:07:08 > 0:07:14really comprises music and art of all kinds that we like.
0:07:14 > 0:07:19Luckily, after 12 years, we've built up a nice audience
0:07:19 > 0:07:23that likes the same kinds of things as we do.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27And if I may put it this way, everybody mucks in at Aldeburgh, do they?
0:07:27 > 0:07:31I'd like to emphasise that fact. It's not by any means
0:07:31 > 0:07:34just our festival, the few who select the programmes,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37everyone in the whole town -
0:07:37 > 0:07:40everyone is perhaps too great a word -
0:07:40 > 0:07:43but most people are involved with the festival in some way or other.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47The amount of work that is done by the ordinary man and woman
0:07:47 > 0:07:50in the street is incredible.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54I cater for my local trade. I don't even stop to think about
0:07:54 > 0:07:55what visitors might want.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58If I haven't got what they want, that's just too bad.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02In any case, they come in and their attitude is, "Have you got so-and-so?"
0:08:02 > 0:08:05You'd think it was Fortnum & Mason, not the village shop.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11Someone unlikely to pop in for a pint of milk was the Queen,
0:08:11 > 0:08:16who visited in 1967 to open a new building for the burgeoning festival.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22I have much pleasure in declaring open
0:08:22 > 0:08:25the Maltings Concert Hall And Opera House.
0:08:25 > 0:08:31# God Save the Queen. #
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Britten was quite guarded in television interviews,
0:08:34 > 0:08:36but a few months after the Queen's visit,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39the BBC went behind the scenes of the Aldeburgh Festival
0:08:39 > 0:08:42and captured a candid portrait of Britten
0:08:42 > 0:08:46as he rehearsed his new work, The Building Of The House.
0:08:46 > 0:08:47Same place, please.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Quite a new mood.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19Shh. No, no...
0:09:19 > 0:09:23Sorry, you're getting louder already. Do keep it quiet, please.
0:09:23 > 0:09:24Absolute hush.
0:09:24 > 0:09:32Chorus, your first entry may seem in this very lively acoustic to be rather confusing.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35Keep going at the same speed that we've been going on.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39# Accept the Lord the... #
0:09:39 > 0:09:43You see? At figure five, "What men do build,"
0:09:43 > 0:09:46it's just a natural warmth as you go up. Don't let it
0:09:46 > 0:09:52flower into a sort of Tosca-like sound. Keep it quite hushed.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56If people can't hear what I say, can you complain? I'll try and support
0:09:56 > 0:10:01my voice. Straight in at four, please - "Accept."
0:10:09 > 0:10:11That's good!
0:10:11 > 0:10:16I've heard a lot of composers being rather rude about Britten, actually.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19He's not a composer that every other composer admires,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22in the way that, let's say, everyone admires Stravinsky.
0:10:22 > 0:10:28I think that's partly because his music is almost deliberately non-intellectual,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31and he does some very, very simple things,
0:10:31 > 0:10:34which work when he does them, and I think possibly other composers
0:10:34 > 0:10:38are a little sniffy about it, because it's the kind of simple trick
0:10:38 > 0:10:41that you can't really get away with unless you're Britten.
0:10:41 > 0:10:47I have a particular inclination as a composer to want to write music that is useful.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50And if someone asks me to do something,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53my inclination is to want to please them.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07While the austerity of Britten's music provided a fitting soundtrack
0:11:07 > 0:11:11to post-war Britain, across the Atlantic, it was party time.
0:11:18 > 0:11:23America was triumphant, brash and full of optimism.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28The musical accompaniment to these buoyant times
0:11:28 > 0:11:31was some of the best show tunes ever written,
0:11:31 > 0:11:34courtesy of the most successful American composer
0:11:34 > 0:11:38and conductor of the 20th century, Leonard Bernstein.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40# New York, New York
0:11:40 > 0:11:43# It's a hell of a town...! #
0:11:43 > 0:11:46The son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Bernstein made his name
0:11:46 > 0:11:52in the '40s with the musical On The Town and the ballet Fancy Free.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58But his craving for respect as a concert composer tormented him
0:11:58 > 0:12:00throughout his life.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04Leonard Bernstein's reputation has changed completely since he died.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07Bernstein was then primarily a showbiz composer,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11and people sort of, "Yes, yes, he's also written symphonies
0:12:11 > 0:12:15"but that's not in the same field," but now people are realising
0:12:15 > 0:12:18that his symphonies are in fact also important music,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21and his piano concerto, otherwise known as The Age Of Anxiety,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25these are pieces admired and enjoyed by audiences all round the world.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41Bernstein talked to Humphrey Burton about The Age Of Anxiety
0:12:41 > 0:12:44on the BBC arts programme Workshop.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48Based on a poem by WH Auden,
0:12:48 > 0:12:51the piece is a symphony for piano and orchestra,
0:12:51 > 0:12:55but Bernstein couldn't resist the show tunes that made him
0:12:55 > 0:12:57beloved of Broadway audiences.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04I can't play it, it's very difficult. My God!
0:13:04 > 0:13:11It's terribly difficult and some of our best pianists can't play it, so why should I?
0:13:11 > 0:13:15- Anyway, this is the scherzo, this is the party.- It has a pop song in it.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20Well, it was a song I'd written originally for my first musical,
0:13:20 > 0:13:24which was called On The Town, and the song was to have been called -
0:13:24 > 0:13:27it was never used - but it was to have been called
0:13:27 > 0:13:28Ain't Got No Tears Left.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31You won't believe that, but that was really the title.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33It went sort of like this.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Anyway, it did finally appear in the Age Of Anxiety in the scherzo,
0:13:47 > 0:13:49this way.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01My left hand won't work right.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06Anyway, that becomes a rather major part of the scherzo,
0:14:06 > 0:14:10as does this odd section.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16The Age Of Anxiety is one of several symphonies
0:14:16 > 0:14:20Bernstein wrote in a career that spanned nearly 50 years.
0:14:20 > 0:14:21I'm rather fond of that.
0:14:21 > 0:14:28He also wrote operas, choral works, concertos and chamber pieces.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32But what he's most famous for is the score to West Side Story,
0:14:32 > 0:14:37the 1957 Broadway musical that became a multi-Oscar winning film.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41It's just a shame they spelt his name wrong on the poster.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43# I like to be in America
0:14:43 > 0:14:45# OK by me in America
0:14:45 > 0:14:47# Everything free in America
0:14:47 > 0:14:50# For a small fee in America. #
0:14:50 > 0:14:53Bernstein's most remarkable appearance on our screens
0:14:53 > 0:14:56came in 1985, when BBC cameras captured a dark side
0:14:56 > 0:14:59of the genial composer as he conducted a recording
0:14:59 > 0:15:02of West Side Story with superstar singers Jose Carreras
0:15:02 > 0:15:06and Kiri Te Kanawa.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10Bernstein is, probably at some points in that documentary,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13at one of his lowest ebbs that I've ever seen.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18I think a lot's been spoken about why is he so angry with the singers,
0:15:18 > 0:15:22and I think what's being played out is the anguish within himself,
0:15:22 > 0:15:26and perhaps this sense that by hiring the top operatic singers
0:15:26 > 0:15:29to sing West Side Story, he will finally prove to the world
0:15:29 > 0:15:31that it's a serious piece of music.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33# ..With a shock
0:15:33 > 0:15:35# Phone'll jingle... #
0:15:35 > 0:15:36No.
0:15:38 > 0:15:44You're ahead of me. Pepe, watch me, not the music.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46And if you make a mistake, we'll go back.
0:15:46 > 0:15:51You know this. When you look at the music, you sing wrong words.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53Just look at me.
0:15:57 > 0:16:04Jose? Coming. Coming.
0:16:04 > 0:16:05Say it, "Coming."
0:16:05 > 0:16:09John! Please don't do this!
0:16:09 > 0:16:12Don't give elocution lessons over the microphone, OK?
0:16:18 > 0:16:20Maddening.
0:16:20 > 0:16:2232.
0:16:25 > 0:16:2832. Come on. Call it.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34- Something's coming.- Take 130.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38I don't have numbers, Maestro, I'm sorry about that.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40I'll sing it for you.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42# Comin' to me. #
0:16:44 > 0:16:45131.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49# Comin' to me. #
0:16:52 > 0:16:54# Could it be? Yes, it could
0:16:54 > 0:16:57# Something's coming, something good
0:16:57 > 0:17:00# If I can wait
0:17:00 > 0:17:02# Something coming... #
0:17:05 > 0:17:09You went to G Major instead of F Major.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11Also, "If I can wait", you're not waiting.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15You're ahead.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17Maybe we should break and listen to it?
0:17:19 > 0:17:21Why not? Why not?
0:17:23 > 0:17:25- Take a break.- Take 10.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27Carreras was very generous and said
0:17:27 > 0:17:29he didn't mind being pilloried for a moment
0:17:29 > 0:17:33because at least the public saw what the sweat and tears was
0:17:33 > 0:17:36that went into making a record like this. What would one give
0:17:36 > 0:17:39to have Richard Wagner rehearsing the Ring back in 1876,
0:17:39 > 0:17:42to have heard what he said, or heard Brahms,
0:17:42 > 0:17:46so we are lucky television has archived, as it were,
0:17:46 > 0:17:50Leonard Bernstein in a way that very few composers have been archived.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57By clinging to conventional sounds and making classical music
0:17:57 > 0:18:01accessible to millions, Bernstein and Britten gave the impression that
0:18:01 > 0:18:05music in the post-war world would be the same as it had ever been.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13But a new generation of artistic rebels had very different plans.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21Determined to find new sounds to match a rapidly changing world,
0:18:21 > 0:18:25they threw out not only the baby with the bath water...
0:18:27 > 0:18:29..but got rid of the bath itself.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33Every convention of music was called into question,
0:18:33 > 0:18:37as contemporary classical music became less at home in concert halls
0:18:37 > 0:18:40and more a form of performance art.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49The godfather of this experimental age worked in the same
0:18:49 > 0:18:541950s New York as Bernstein, but to very different ends.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00As a student, John Cage was taught composition by the firebrand
0:19:00 > 0:19:03of early 20th century music, Arnold Schoenberg.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06The two ultimately fell out. Cage was convinced
0:19:06 > 0:19:11that music could be more than a system of strict rules.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14He freed himself from pesky constraints like melody,
0:19:14 > 0:19:20instruments and, in one infamous case, sound itself.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25John Cage is, of course, incredibly fascinating as an artist,
0:19:25 > 0:19:27as a thinker and as a composer.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35It is fitting that this radical pioneer was the son of an inventor.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37In his late 20s,
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Cage was asked to write the music for a dance called the Bacchanale.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44When playing by the rules failed to produce the percussive
0:19:44 > 0:19:49African sound he needed, Cage turned to his tool box for a solution
0:19:49 > 0:19:53and created what he called the prepared piano.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57I thought what was wrong was not me but the piano.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02So I went into the kitchen and I got a pie plate and I put it on
0:20:02 > 0:20:05the strings, and I saw I was going in the right direction,
0:20:05 > 0:20:08but the pie plate bounced around, so then I got
0:20:08 > 0:20:12a wood screw, with grooves on it.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15Then I put nuts that were larger than the screws themselves
0:20:15 > 0:20:18so they would rattle.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29For some reason, I knew that it was better
0:20:29 > 0:20:32not to have a collection that was entirely beautiful,
0:20:32 > 0:20:36but that it was nice to have some things in the collection
0:20:36 > 0:20:40that were distinctively not as beautiful as the others.
0:20:40 > 0:20:45That gave a kind of breadth.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47Under the influence of Eastern philosophies,
0:20:47 > 0:20:52Cage increasingly removed human control from classical music,
0:20:52 > 0:20:55resisting the romantic 19th century view of the artist
0:20:55 > 0:20:58as an almost divine vessel of inspiration.
0:20:58 > 0:21:04I came to the intention of making my work non-intentional,
0:21:04 > 0:21:12because I had no desire to express my ideas or my feelings.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16I wanted rather to open my mind
0:21:16 > 0:21:18to what was outside of my mind.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24And so I had to become free of my...
0:21:24 > 0:21:27likes and dislikes.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33Instead, he put his composition in the hands of chance.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37He would decide each note using Zen Buddhism,
0:21:37 > 0:21:39the ancient Chinese book of i-Ching,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42and even the toss of a coin.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46Or, in the case of this piece from 1957 - a wind-up toy.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50PIANO "RESPONDS" TO TOY'S MOVEMENTS
0:21:52 > 0:21:54I found he was lovely.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56Very easy-going, of course. That's the thing.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59You try to find out what he wanted and he'd say,
0:21:59 > 0:22:01"Whatever makes you feel happy." You know!
0:22:01 > 0:22:03And you think, well, no, I really wanted to know,
0:22:03 > 0:22:05but he won't say!
0:22:05 > 0:22:07But the only thing he did want to be really exact about
0:22:07 > 0:22:11were the timings on the stopwatch. Those were important things.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18When the BBC's Omnibus programme conducted an audiology experiment
0:22:18 > 0:22:21on a range of British celebrities in 1972,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25Cage's music produced extreme reactions.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29This is Japanese Macbeth music, I would say.
0:22:29 > 0:22:30Very spooky!
0:22:32 > 0:22:34Yes, well, this music goes with being strapped into a chair
0:22:34 > 0:22:37with things tied to your heart.
0:22:37 > 0:22:39And lights shining in your eyes.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41Ouch.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44In limiting his control as a composer,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47and giving sounds a life of their own,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51Cage produced works that strained the definition of music.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59His most famous piece is also the one he considered
0:22:59 > 0:23:01his most significant.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04But to some, it is an audacious act of musical fraud.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10Four Minutes, Thirty Three Seconds was composed in 1952,
0:23:10 > 0:23:12when Cage was 40 years old.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16It instructs the performers not to play their instrument
0:23:16 > 0:23:19for the entirety of the piece's three movements.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24And it sounds like, literally, nothing on earth.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35The piece sparked a revolution in experimental music,
0:23:35 > 0:23:38but two years before his death in 1992,
0:23:38 > 0:23:41Cage was still being forced to explain his work.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44What's the thinking behind 4'33"?
0:23:44 > 0:23:50It's the making a situation where one generally listens,
0:23:50 > 0:23:51to make it silent,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54so that you can hear that there are sounds all the time.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57Would you describe it as music?
0:23:57 > 0:23:59Yes, because there are sounds to hear.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03And to hear the ambient sounds as music,
0:24:03 > 0:24:08opens the possibility to having music around you all the time.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11Some people say that the music of Cage is less interesting
0:24:11 > 0:24:15than his thoughts and writings about it.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17And, of course, this can be argued.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22But definitely he was a necessary counterpart
0:24:22 > 0:24:25to all these extremely rigid discussions
0:24:25 > 0:24:29of styles and aesthetics of the time.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32He was almost like a clown in a court
0:24:32 > 0:24:35saying things that you're not supposed to say.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41Cage inspired a whole era of experimentation
0:24:41 > 0:24:44in which every element of music was transformed.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49The French leader of this avant-garde age
0:24:49 > 0:24:52was Cage's erstwhile friend, Pierre Boulez.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56However, where Cage sought to free music,
0:24:56 > 0:24:58Boulez wanted to control it.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06It's hard to imagine the world without Pierre Boulez.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09As a composer, his music made an absolutely seismic impact
0:25:09 > 0:25:11in the 1950s and '60s.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16His way of thinking about music has been just unimaginably important.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21In 1942, at the age of 17, Boulez was studying mathematics,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24when he decided to pursue music instead, and moved to Paris.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Boulez was a purist in search of a new musical language,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32and his early works were fiercely intellectual pieces,
0:25:32 > 0:25:34governed by complex structures.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36His music speaks a different language altogether.
0:25:36 > 0:25:41And, at its best, it is an iridescent, poetic, erm...
0:25:41 > 0:25:44strange and beautiful world that he invents in his works.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58In one of the earliest of Boulez's many appearances on the BBC,
0:25:58 > 0:26:01he visited the Workshop studio to conduct part of his piece
0:26:01 > 0:26:03called Pli Selon Pli.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12As a young firebrand, Boulez was an enigma,
0:26:12 > 0:26:14both musically and personally,
0:26:14 > 0:26:18so his television interviews afforded a valuable insight
0:26:18 > 0:26:20into what made him tick.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Your music has been described, I think,
0:26:23 > 0:26:26as mathematical, erm, computer music.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28Well, that is very exaggerated. I mean...
0:26:28 > 0:26:31I think it IS exaggerated, but these words have been used.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33Now, the point I really...
0:26:33 > 0:26:37Because people are...are...not aware how complex are the computers,
0:26:37 > 0:26:38- I guess.- Yes!
0:26:38 > 0:26:44I am against this cliche that emotion and intellectual
0:26:44 > 0:26:47cannot, er, be together.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49When I first heard about Boulez,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53it had a lot of the mystique of the impenetrable about it.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56And he is an arch modernist,
0:26:56 > 0:26:58and there is great complexity
0:26:58 > 0:27:01and great intellectualism in his music,
0:27:01 > 0:27:03but it's also incredibly sensual.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17I am just wondering if there were a couple of hints you can
0:27:17 > 0:27:20give us to understanding the language that you use.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22Is there one final comment that you could make to help us
0:27:22 > 0:27:25understand your musical language here?
0:27:25 > 0:27:29Just forget all about explanation and just hear what you want,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33and maybe you will find your way and when you don't find your way today,
0:27:33 > 0:27:35maybe it will be tomorrow.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38Two years later,
0:27:38 > 0:27:40the BBC profiled Pierre Boulez
0:27:40 > 0:27:43as he rehearsed and performed his eight-minute piece, Eclat.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46May I hear that once?
0:27:46 > 0:27:49PIANO / UPPER REGISTER
0:27:49 > 0:27:51You see, that is too indistinct. Can you...?
0:27:51 > 0:27:53PIANIST PLAYS AGAIN
0:27:55 > 0:27:59Yes... begin, er, not too loud... but equal.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01PLAYS AGAIN
0:28:01 > 0:28:03No, there is no accelerando.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07PLAYS AGAIN
0:28:07 > 0:28:08Yes.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22When I am hearing the combination of tones which sounds good,
0:28:22 > 0:28:24I can just let the sound die.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27I can appreciate the sound until the last moment.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30One is not in a hurry to hear the music,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33but one can just wait its own pleasure.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37The same programme captured a peek into the solitary private life
0:28:37 > 0:28:39Boulez led at his home in Baden Baden.
0:28:41 > 0:28:42Have you been married?
0:28:42 > 0:28:44No. No. No.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47- Engaged?- No. Also not.
0:28:47 > 0:28:49Are you interested in the family life?
0:28:49 > 0:28:55No, not at all. I must say, no, I am really, er...one person.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57I cannot live, really, with family.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00I cannot... I could not consider it.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10While Boulez was using traditional instruments
0:29:10 > 0:29:12for his musical experiments,
0:29:12 > 0:29:15his German counterpart started afresh
0:29:15 > 0:29:18with a very different raw material - electricity.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22HUMS OF DIFFERENT TONES
0:29:25 > 0:29:27I find it just a marvellous that nowadays
0:29:27 > 0:29:30we can make sounds that we have no names for.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34It means that all the magic that had been lost comes back.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38LOW TONE
0:29:40 > 0:29:45Like Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen studied with French composer
0:29:45 > 0:29:47Olivier Messiaen.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50Stockhausen was a musical visionary
0:29:50 > 0:29:52and pioneer of electronic music
0:29:52 > 0:29:55scarred by a disturbing childhood.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58His mother was murdered by the Nazis because she was mentally ill.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00His father went to the Eastern front
0:30:00 > 0:30:02and never came back.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05He, himself, was a stretcher-bearer behind the lines,
0:30:05 > 0:30:08seeing horrific, terrible things,
0:30:08 > 0:30:10all before his 18th birthday.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14So when he emerged from all of that,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18he was absolutely driven to be an artist,
0:30:18 > 0:30:21to make the world a better place through his art.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25And also not to wipe the slate clean.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28He said that he couldn't write music which was four beats in the bar
0:30:28 > 0:30:31because it made him think of jackboots.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34He couldn't have traditional kinds of harmonies
0:30:34 > 0:30:37because that had all that German history,
0:30:37 > 0:30:39the weight of all that on its back.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47In 1953, the 24-year-old Stockhausen
0:30:47 > 0:30:50moved to the newly-established
0:30:50 > 0:30:53Electronic Music Studio in Cologne.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57He was determined to emancipate music from the prison of tradition.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00The new sounds Stockhausen was creating
0:31:00 > 0:31:03could not be represented by crotchets and quavers,
0:31:03 > 0:31:07and his graphic scores looked more like visual art than music.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11INTERWEAVING ELECTRONIC SOUNDS
0:31:11 > 0:31:14INTERWEAVING VOICES
0:31:19 > 0:31:22In a work like his 1968 piece Stimmung,
0:31:22 > 0:31:24it was the human voice
0:31:24 > 0:31:26that Stockhausen transformed,
0:31:26 > 0:31:28changing the way it was used in Western music.
0:31:28 > 0:31:33SINGER VOCALISES
0:31:33 > 0:31:36The piece, which means Tuning,
0:31:36 > 0:31:38is based on just one note,
0:31:38 > 0:31:41and lasts over an hour.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45Unsurprisingly, there were many who had difficulty embracing
0:31:45 > 0:31:49Stockhausen's radical approach to music.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52But the charismatic composer was not deterred.
0:31:52 > 0:31:53Everything is melody.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56If we try to integrate all the sound material.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59But not the sort of melody people would perhaps hum in the bath.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04There is a sort of inner humming.
0:32:04 > 0:32:06It doesn't...
0:32:06 > 0:32:09It can't be...materialised with the vocal cords.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12But even the vocal cords can do a lot of things.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14Why not? Certainly, I can make...
0:32:14 > 0:32:16VOCALISES "NON-MELODICALLY"
0:32:16 > 0:32:19Et cetera. You're doing it with noises.
0:32:19 > 0:32:24And even if it would escape completely my physical possibilities,
0:32:24 > 0:32:28it creates certain total impressions in our...
0:32:28 > 0:32:31in our...
0:32:31 > 0:32:33electric system...
0:32:33 > 0:32:35and it begins to work.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37I don't think, of an evening,
0:32:37 > 0:32:40I would ever sit down and listen
0:32:40 > 0:32:41to a piece by Stockhausen,
0:32:41 > 0:32:43as opposed to anything else.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45That's not because I don't think his music is great,
0:32:45 > 0:32:48because I think it really is. It's simply because...
0:32:48 > 0:32:50It's music of spectacle.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54And Stockhausen is particularly interesting
0:32:54 > 0:32:56because of what he dares to do.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00He does the un-doable. He sends string quartets up in helicopters,
0:33:00 > 0:33:02and that is just the start of it.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13The old guard of composers was less than impressed
0:33:13 > 0:33:15by the new era of avant-garde music.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17What do you feel about the scene, then?
0:33:17 > 0:33:21Do you feel the receding of the tide has left desert sands behind?
0:33:21 > 0:33:26I think the receding tide will leave a lot of dead fish, myself!
0:33:27 > 0:33:29And not very large fish.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31Name a few fish.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34I have to think people like Stockhausen, probably,
0:33:34 > 0:33:36will be left gasping for breath.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38I hope so, anyhow.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43In spite of sceptics overseas,
0:33:43 > 0:33:46Stockhausen was chosen to represent West Germany
0:33:46 > 0:33:49at the 1970 World Fair in Japan.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53His music was performed for five hours a day
0:33:53 > 0:33:55in a spherical pavilion.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57The Japanese would come in...
0:33:57 > 0:34:00You see? They are very polite! LAUGHTER
0:34:02 > 0:34:05It's true! ..and sit down.
0:34:05 > 0:34:07And then it would start, the lights would go off.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11It would start, and you saw in the hall -
0:34:11 > 0:34:13I could always see it from the control desk...
0:34:13 > 0:34:16LAUGHTER
0:34:18 > 0:34:21LAUGHTER REDOUBLES
0:34:23 > 0:34:25They would go like this!
0:34:30 > 0:34:32Et cetera.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36So even if they had never heard new music, it was exotic stuff.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39As their music is exotic stuff to us.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42Nevertheless, new music, old music - little importance.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45What is important is, when they went out, they went out...
0:34:47 > 0:34:50LAUGHTER
0:34:51 > 0:34:53And I was very happy.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55He did have a kind of guru-type status.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57He became very important for musicians
0:34:57 > 0:34:59across all sorts of disciplines.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04People talk about him from all sides of the artistic spectrum.
0:35:04 > 0:35:09So he really was a kind of a prophet in his own time.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13SPARSE WOODWIND
0:35:18 > 0:35:21Across all the arts,
0:35:21 > 0:35:25Britain was slow to embrace the continental avant-garde.
0:35:25 > 0:35:28But Boulez and Stockhausen's influence did cross the Channel
0:35:28 > 0:35:31to two very different audiences.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37Boulez found admirers among the music students of 1950s Manchester,
0:35:37 > 0:35:41including Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45They shared his rigorous, intellectual approach to new music.
0:35:45 > 0:35:47What Harrison Birtwistle
0:35:47 > 0:35:50and Peter Maxwell Davies were doing in Manchester was they were
0:35:50 > 0:35:53basically the first generation of composers who were
0:35:53 > 0:35:57quite consciously wanting to create an avant-garde in Britain.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01Both Birtwistle and Maxwell Davies are now knights of the realm
0:36:01 > 0:36:05and among Britain's most celebrated composers.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08However, Peter Maxwell Davies started his career
0:36:08 > 0:36:10as something of a musical rebel
0:36:10 > 0:36:15and his early work frequently shocked audiences and critics.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18CACOPHONOUS PERCUSSION
0:36:23 > 0:36:25RESONANT CYMBAL
0:36:26 > 0:36:28When the BBC's Monitor programme
0:36:28 > 0:36:31profiled a 27-year old Maxwell Davies,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35he had an uncompromising attitude towards his style of new music.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39DRIVING TYMPANI
0:36:42 > 0:36:45A lot of people have criticised me
0:36:45 > 0:36:48for writing music in which they find no meaning.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54I take for granted that what I write has got a meaning.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59I think a composer should be able to take that for granted,
0:36:59 > 0:37:02otherwise he should not be in the business at all.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07What does keep me awake at night is the method of expression,
0:37:07 > 0:37:10the technique of composition.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13This I think, is the composer's first concern.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21For the most part, these modern sounds remained
0:37:21 > 0:37:24the preserve of a niche and adventurous audience.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28But that was all to change, as the British musical avant-garde
0:37:28 > 0:37:33broke through into the mainstream from a most unexpected quarter.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35Do you think that sounds like a robot, Dave?
0:37:35 > 0:37:37- Probably a bit less of this.- Maybe.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41I think we ought to have more top because we're losing intelligibility.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was created to supply
0:37:45 > 0:37:48soundtracks for radio and television programmes.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52Orchestral music simply wasn't right for the increasingly popular
0:37:52 > 0:37:55psychological dramas and science fiction.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58So the Radiophonic Workshop turned to technology
0:37:58 > 0:38:02and non-instrumental sounds for their atmospheric scores.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05Their most famous piece has been striking fear
0:38:05 > 0:38:08into the hearts of millions for years.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13MUSIC: Doctor Who Theme
0:38:25 > 0:38:28The genius of the Radiophonic Workshop is that
0:38:28 > 0:38:31in terms of avant-garde sound design
0:38:31 > 0:38:34or thinking about electro-acoustic possibility,
0:38:34 > 0:38:37what they are doing is absolutely as sophisticated as anything else
0:38:37 > 0:38:39that's happening anywhere in the world,
0:38:39 > 0:38:41it's just millions of people are hearing them.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43Anyone who's old enough to have heard
0:38:43 > 0:38:45the roots of the Radiophonic Workshop directly
0:38:45 > 0:38:47were exposed to radical electro-acoustic composition
0:38:47 > 0:38:51as part of our daily lives and nobody thought twice about it.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55ELECTRONIC BEEPING
0:38:55 > 0:38:59In a 1969 programme about modern music, composer Daphne Oram
0:38:59 > 0:39:03explained how her stealthy experiments in electronica
0:39:03 > 0:39:07contributed to the creation of the Radiophonic Workshop.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11In 1957, I was asked to do some incidental music
0:39:11 > 0:39:14for a television play.
0:39:14 > 0:39:18And I did this in Broadcasting House by getting together,
0:39:18 > 0:39:20in the middle of the night,
0:39:20 > 0:39:23all the tape recorders that I could find in the studios,
0:39:23 > 0:39:26collecting them together in one studio and working until they
0:39:26 > 0:39:28had to be put back next morning,
0:39:28 > 0:39:32sleeping a little bit and then coming back in
0:39:32 > 0:39:34to do my normal chamber music work.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37So, then it grew from that.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43In an edition of Tomorrow's World from 1965,
0:39:43 > 0:39:46Delia Derbyshire, a co-creator of the Doctor Who theme,
0:39:46 > 0:39:49explained how the Radiophonic Workshop
0:39:49 > 0:39:51created their radical sounds.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57In doing so, Derbyshire inadvertently revealed
0:39:57 > 0:40:01that British techno music has its roots in the bowels of the BBC.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05Using these, we can build up any sound we can imagine, almost.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08We spend quite a lot of time trying to invent new sounds
0:40:08 > 0:40:11that don't exist already, that can't be produced by musical instruments.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14But we don't always go to electronic sound generators
0:40:14 > 0:40:16for our basic sources of sound.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20If the sound we want exists already in real life, say,
0:40:20 > 0:40:22we can go and record it.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25The sound I want for the rhythm of this piece is a short, dry,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28hollow, wooden sound I can get from this.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30HOLLOW TAP
0:40:30 > 0:40:33And then the sound for the punctuating chords,
0:40:33 > 0:40:36I want the sound of a short wire string being plucked.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39HIGH PITCHED TWANG
0:40:42 > 0:40:44That's the speed we record it in the studio.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48So we get the lower sounds from the rhythm by slowing down the tape.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53DEEP BONG
0:40:53 > 0:40:55And the higher sounds by speeding up the tape.
0:40:55 > 0:40:57HIGH PITCHED TAPPING
0:40:57 > 0:41:01These particular pitches we can record on this machine here.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04And then all we have to do is cut the notes the right length.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07We can join them together on a loop and listen to them.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11RHYTHMIC MELODY
0:41:11 > 0:41:14And then with the higher notes as a rhythm.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16Again, we join them together on a loop
0:41:16 > 0:41:19and play it in synchronisation with the first tape.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25RHYTHMIC TAPPING
0:41:25 > 0:41:28And over this we can play the sound of the plucked string,
0:41:28 > 0:41:32which can be either in the form of the loop, like this...
0:41:32 > 0:41:35CONTINUOUS NOTE
0:41:37 > 0:41:40That's in synchronisation.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43Or in the form of a band.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46SERIES OF CHORDS
0:41:49 > 0:41:52What the Radiophonic Workshop is really about is about a way
0:41:52 > 0:41:54of hearing the world.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58It's about a way of viewing all sound as pregnant
0:41:58 > 0:42:00with musical expressive possibility.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03And then having the technology or developing the technology
0:42:03 > 0:42:06- they developed so much of that technology themselves -
0:42:06 > 0:42:10to then realise the things they wanted to do with sound.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13That's exactly what the early studios in Cologne or America
0:42:13 > 0:42:15were doing the same thing.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25# You've got to get me to the world on time
0:42:27 > 0:42:29# You've got to get me to the world on time... #
0:42:29 > 0:42:34The pop culture explosion of the 1960s saw the Beatles and Beach Boys
0:42:34 > 0:42:39replace Brahms and Beethoven on turntables throughout the land.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43One classical composer managed to straddle both worlds
0:42:43 > 0:42:45with a little help from his friends.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50John Tavener was a musical prodigy.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53He was 22 years old when he wrote The Whale,
0:42:53 > 0:42:57the piece that made his name when it debuted in 1968.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08Where John Tavener begins is at a crucial intersection.
0:43:08 > 0:43:13He's at Highgate School at the same time that school choir
0:43:13 > 0:43:16is recorded singing the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten.
0:43:16 > 0:43:22A few years later he signed to the Beatles' Apple Records
0:43:22 > 0:43:25for his very wonderful and crazy work, The Whale,
0:43:25 > 0:43:27and it's a sensation.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31DRAMATIC CHORAL MUSIC
0:43:36 > 0:43:39DISCORDANT BRASS
0:43:40 > 0:43:46And you realise that he is that bridge in those few years
0:43:46 > 0:43:50from the old world of British music to the new.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54And it's a time where the boundaries are much looser
0:43:54 > 0:43:58between concert and pop music.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00JANGLING PERCUSSION
0:44:00 > 0:44:03He became a sort of trendy figure before, you know,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06composers were used to doing that sort of thing. They just didn't.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08So he was someone rather unusual.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13At the age of 27, Tavener allowed cameras to follow him
0:44:13 > 0:44:17for an episode of the BBC's One Man's Week.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21The programme reveals being a classical pop star is a tough life,
0:44:21 > 0:44:23involving lounging in the garden
0:44:23 > 0:44:26and cruising around in a luxury car for inspiration.
0:44:28 > 0:44:32A great deal of my summer is spent lying on my back in the garden.
0:44:35 > 0:44:41I find that I need a great deal of time to sit,
0:44:41 > 0:44:43not necessarily to think,
0:44:43 > 0:44:48but things tend to grow at the subconscious
0:44:48 > 0:44:55and I work only in very short spurts for very short periods of time,
0:44:55 > 0:45:01very intense periods of time but a great deal of the year is spent
0:45:01 > 0:45:06- in the summer months, anyway - lying on my back in this garden.
0:45:06 > 0:45:13I insist that I must leave time for me to be able to live well,
0:45:13 > 0:45:16which perhaps my puritanical forefathers
0:45:16 > 0:45:18might have disapproved of.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27I doubt whether they would have approved of my taste in cars.
0:45:27 > 0:45:29I've driven this one for nine months
0:45:29 > 0:45:33and I use it often as a place to think about my work,
0:45:33 > 0:45:35driving up and down the motorway.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39There's something about the largesse of the car which allows
0:45:39 > 0:45:42my mind to expand more freely than it would in a Mini.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45I've no time for the romantic attitude that the artist
0:45:45 > 0:45:47has to go out and starve.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50That, for me, is worse than a castration threat.
0:45:52 > 0:45:57I would like to see performances of music in country homes,
0:45:57 > 0:46:01in churches, in caves.
0:46:01 > 0:46:06In fact, anywhere but concert halls.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10Pop festivals, for instance, they have a certain atmosphere
0:46:10 > 0:46:14which one doesn't get in these rather dreary concert halls.
0:46:14 > 0:46:19Tavener even allowed cameras into his social life,
0:46:19 > 0:46:21which was a heady cocktail of dinner parties,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24falsetto singing and drunken badminton.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30I've known everybody seated at this table
0:46:30 > 0:46:33since I was a student at the academy and although we all know
0:46:33 > 0:46:37a considerable amount about music, we never talk about it.
0:46:37 > 0:46:41I think we're usually far too drunk to discuss anything sensibly anyway.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44HE SINGS IN FALSETTO
0:46:56 > 0:46:59HE LAUGHS
0:47:02 > 0:47:04- Try again! - THEY LAUGH
0:47:14 > 0:47:18At the same time as Tavener was hob-nobbing with rock royalty,
0:47:18 > 0:47:22the minimalism movement of 1970s America was doing its own bit
0:47:22 > 0:47:26to bring modern music back from the outer reaches of experimentation
0:47:26 > 0:47:31and alienation, attracting larger, more populist audiences.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38Minimalism symbolises so much about why 20th century composition doesn't
0:47:38 > 0:47:42really exist within the categories of classical pop or whatever.
0:47:42 > 0:47:48Two of the masterminds of minimalism were Steve Reich and Philip Glass.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51Theirs was a simple, repetitive musical language.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55The opposite of the complexity of Boulez and Stockhausen.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01Unlike most composers,
0:48:01 > 0:48:05neither Reich nor Glass wrote music within the world of academia.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08They became two of the most successful composers
0:48:08 > 0:48:12of the late 20th century while funding their composing work
0:48:12 > 0:48:15with a variety of odd jobs around New York.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18Reich worked for the post office and a removals firm
0:48:18 > 0:48:22while Glass spent time as a plumber and taxi driver.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25I think making one's living outside of royalty
0:48:25 > 0:48:28and commissioned income was probably very healthy
0:48:28 > 0:48:32and there's something very important in the jobs they did - taxi driving
0:48:32 > 0:48:35and furniture removals - they are urban jobs.
0:48:35 > 0:48:37He had music that spoke of the city.
0:48:37 > 0:48:39It spoke of the difficulties of the city.
0:48:39 > 0:48:43There were huge discussions all over America about race issues
0:48:43 > 0:48:48and this was a music that spoke to that directly from the streets.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55Steve Reich has won a Pulitzer Prize for his music
0:48:55 > 0:48:58and has been described by the New York Times
0:48:58 > 0:49:01as America's greatest living composer.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05And it all began with a tape loop of just once sentence,
0:49:05 > 0:49:09spoken during the Harlem Riots of 1964.
0:49:09 > 0:49:11# I had to, like, open the bruise up
0:49:11 > 0:49:13# And let some of the bruise blood come out to show them
0:49:13 > 0:49:15# Come out to show them
0:49:15 > 0:49:17SENTENCE REPEATS
0:49:17 > 0:49:19It's a tape piece.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22It uses the voice of a black kid who was arrested for murder.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25# Come out to show them... #
0:49:25 > 0:49:27SENTENCE REPEATS
0:49:30 > 0:49:33I was approached by a man of the name of Truman Nelson,
0:49:33 > 0:49:35who said he understood I did something with tape
0:49:35 > 0:49:38and would I be willing to edit this pile of tapes that he
0:49:38 > 0:49:42had of boys, police, mothers and so on and so forth, for a benefit.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45And out of this stack of audio tape lasting maybe ten hours,
0:49:45 > 0:49:47I heard this one phrase, "come out to show them"
0:49:47 > 0:49:49- dee dum ba-duh dum -
0:49:49 > 0:49:52which sort of grabbed my ear and said, "That's the one."
0:49:52 > 0:49:53# Come out to show them... #
0:49:53 > 0:49:56Following his early experiments with tape loops,
0:49:56 > 0:49:59Reich investigated whether the phasing effect created
0:49:59 > 0:50:04with tapes was possible with live performers.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09In 1967, in desperation, the desperation of, say,
0:50:09 > 0:50:12a mad scientist trapped in a laboratory,
0:50:12 > 0:50:14I felt this tape thing can't be done by people.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17Somebody can't get in unison with another repeating pattern
0:50:17 > 0:50:20and gradually increase his speed until he's one beat ahead of it.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24That's indigenous to tape recorders. People can't do that.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27But on the other hand I felt this was a fantastic process.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29This is a very interesting way to make music.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31THEY CLAP IN UNISON
0:50:36 > 0:50:39One man's minimalism is another man's monotony,
0:50:39 > 0:50:43but Reich explained to the BBC's Saturday Review programme
0:50:43 > 0:50:47why his music is harder to create than you might think.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50If something is repetitious, as my music obviously is,
0:50:50 > 0:50:55if the pattern itself is flat footed - oom pa-pa, oom pa-pa -
0:50:55 > 0:50:58you are going to get bored and all the criticisms
0:50:58 > 0:51:01that are made of this kind of music suddenly become valid.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04To keep it alive, to keep it so that your ear is engaged,
0:51:04 > 0:51:06you've got to make it for the listener and yourself
0:51:06 > 0:51:09that it isn't clear where the beginning of the phrase is
0:51:09 > 0:51:12and where the end of the phrase is and where the downbeat is.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15In rehearsal, the rhythmic problem that we do have is where's one?
0:51:15 > 0:51:17Where's the first beat in the measure?
0:51:17 > 0:51:19And that's a good problem to have.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24CONTINUOUS NOTE
0:51:28 > 0:51:30REPEATED PIANO MELODY
0:51:31 > 0:51:35It's not about writing very complex scores but thinking about
0:51:35 > 0:51:38very complex ways of interacting with one another.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41Rhythmic patterns that shift very subtly.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43And that are incredibly difficult to coordinate
0:51:43 > 0:51:47but whose effect is sensuous and marvellous to listen to.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53I would hate to be involved with any of these groups
0:51:53 > 0:51:56that do nothing but minimalism. It would drive me absolutely nuts.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59I mean, there's no sort of input for creative imagination.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03You're just, sort of, a motor, like a mechanical instrument.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05You might as well be one.
0:52:05 > 0:52:07Not everybody is going to like what I do
0:52:07 > 0:52:09and it isn't one of my ambitions
0:52:09 > 0:52:12that I'm going to satisfy everyone in the world.
0:52:12 > 0:52:14It would be a foolish ambition to have.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22Steve Reich's continuing importance is to show how porous
0:52:22 > 0:52:24the divisions are between different kinds of music.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27The things he's doing with repetitive beat based music
0:52:27 > 0:52:31have had a profound influence on jazz musicians, on pop musicians,
0:52:31 > 0:52:34on electronic artists for the last 30 or 40 years.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38# Crazy, crazy, crazy... #
0:52:38 > 0:52:41PHRASE REPEATS
0:52:41 > 0:52:45Somehow, from Reich's obscure beginnings with tape loops
0:52:45 > 0:52:48came a musical sound that struck a chord with the mainstream.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56Harvard graduate John Adams had no interest in engaging
0:52:56 > 0:53:00with the complicated musical language of the 20th century.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03He wanted to write accessible, popular classical music.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09Minimalism offered him the perfect tool for this enterprise.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11Adams took minimalism to the max.
0:53:11 > 0:53:15What Steve Reich started with small groups of musicians,
0:53:15 > 0:53:19Adams continued on a larger scale, with full orchestras.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22There's vibrancy to his music that I love. I love hearing it.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26I love feeling, when you hear his symphonic works in particular,
0:53:26 > 0:53:29that it's an organism on stage, that it's just absolutely moving
0:53:29 > 0:53:33and sheer physical movement of the players.
0:53:33 > 0:53:35You look at people playing John Adams, they're smiling.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39And there's something exciting about that to me, as a composer.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50Like Copland and Bernstein before him,
0:53:50 > 0:53:54Adams wanted his work to capture the spirit of America
0:53:54 > 0:53:57and appeal to the biggest possible audience.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04I felt there were the tremendously powerful roots of feeling,
0:54:04 > 0:54:08enjoyment and meaning in American music
0:54:08 > 0:54:11and that the problem was that serious composers were simply unable
0:54:11 > 0:54:14to utilise that because it was verboten.
0:54:17 > 0:54:22When his major work, Grand Pianola Music premiered in 1982,
0:54:22 > 0:54:26it was met with boos from those who thought the bombastic piece
0:54:26 > 0:54:30was vulgar and sticking two fingers up at more challenging music.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33I used to apologise for the piece every time I did it,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36saying I really should take this piece behind the barn and shoot it.
0:54:36 > 0:54:42But I no longer apologise for it. I revel in it. I enjoy it.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46I think it expresses me, it expresses my experience as an American...
0:54:46 > 0:54:50as an American musician and I think it's a lot of fun as well.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09But the minimalist who has most successfully straddled
0:55:09 > 0:55:14the worlds of classical music and mainstream pop is Philip Glass.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17He rejects the idea that there is such a thing as contemporary
0:55:17 > 0:55:20classical music at all.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23I never think of it as being any kind of music, this or that, anyway.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26I think it really is concert music.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28I think that's a better way to describe it
0:55:28 > 0:55:30because classical music means something that happened
0:55:30 > 0:55:33a long time ago and this music is happening right now.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40Glass has written operas, symphonies,
0:55:40 > 0:55:43concertos and BAFTA-winning film soundtracks,
0:55:43 > 0:55:46as well as collaborating with artists
0:55:46 > 0:55:48from Doris Lessing to Ravi Shankar.
0:55:51 > 0:55:56A particularly genre-defying collaboration came in 1989,
0:55:56 > 0:56:00and gave an indication of just how far contemporary classical
0:56:00 > 0:56:06composers had come since the days of Britten and Bernstein.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09That was the top ten single, Hey Music Lover
0:56:09 > 0:56:11by Mark Moore and his healthy-looking S'Express.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14If you buy his latest single, you might be as surprised, as I was,
0:56:14 > 0:56:17to find the B-side is a remix of the A-side
0:56:17 > 0:56:19by the contemporary American composer, Philip Glass.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23Philip, were you surprised to find yourself working with S'Express?
0:56:23 > 0:56:26I think I actually said, "What is a remix?" Then I said, "What do I do?
0:56:26 > 0:56:29"What do I get to do? What are the rules?"
0:56:29 > 0:56:32It turned out to be pretty open, pretty freeform in that way.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35We're going to hear what you did to Hey Music Lover.
0:56:35 > 0:56:37# I feel, I feel
0:56:37 > 0:56:39# Yeah
0:56:46 > 0:56:49# I feel, I feel
0:56:49 > 0:56:51# Yeah. #
0:56:51 > 0:56:54My music has never been in a simple song form.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56Like an ABA song with a bridge and all that.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00In the way that when I heard Mark's music I recognised right away
0:57:00 > 0:57:03that this was a kind of non-narrative song music.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07So, it's very much the way I was thinking about music for a long time.
0:57:07 > 0:57:12So, I had... There's an aesthetic sympathy to it I felt right away.
0:57:12 > 0:57:16One of the things that's the most interesting, I think,
0:57:16 > 0:57:21for the composer is this is the way composers pay homage to each other.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24Thank you, Phillip Glass and Mark Moore. I hope it goes on forever.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29While remixing S'Xpress is not the pinnacle of Glass's musical
0:57:29 > 0:57:34achievement, the collaboration remains the logical culmination
0:57:34 > 0:57:38of a century defined by a continual and restless
0:57:38 > 0:57:43questioning of where, if at all, the boundaries of classical music lie.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47The thing that's different in the 20th century is that composers
0:57:47 > 0:57:49seem more fearless to break through these boundaries
0:57:49 > 0:57:52or think what was previously unthinkable.
0:57:52 > 0:57:54Historically that tends to be some of the most extreme music
0:57:54 > 0:57:56but that's not always true.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59There are composers like Britten who are rethinking things
0:57:59 > 0:58:02in a different way that works within the institutions they were set up.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05But the extremes of what the avant-garde in Europe and America
0:58:05 > 0:58:07were doing or the minimalists,
0:58:07 > 0:58:10I mean, they were thinking musical unthinkables.
0:58:10 > 0:58:14And that becomes a defining trait of some of the music we value the most.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17And from where we are now, the beginning of the 21st century,
0:58:17 > 0:58:20everything has changed but everything is still changing.