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Newent Orchestral
Society Bill's Musical Notes, December, 2009 New Age Music My shop has been selling New Age or "ambient" music for about eighteen years now, so I've been listening to it for almost every working day for a long time. Some of the CDs we sell have been in print for almost as long as the shop has been open, the point being, I suppose, that they do the job they are intended for, which is simply to provide relaxing, soothing, non-intrusive background music. With most other popular music, when you've heard it a few times, you tend to get bored with it and want something different but that doesn't apply to this genre because you don't actually listen to it if it's doing its job properly! This form of music has been and is much more popular in the States and on the continent. There are different categories, too, such as ambient music with natural sounds, for example, sounds of the sea or gentle rainfall, these bringing the music even closer to white noise. There are New Age composers who put a lot into the music, creating atmospheric, mystical sounds. Remember Mike Oldfield of Tubular Bells fame? His brother, Terry (lived in Stroud, I believe), created one of the all-time best selling New Age music CDs many years ago now, called, "Spirit of the Rainforest", which included South American pan pipes as well as bird calls and forest rain. It was a great piece of music. There are other composers in this genre worth exploring, such as Med Goodall and his Arthurian, Celtic inspired music ("Merlin" and "Medicine Woman" were best sellers). There is music specially "designed" for playing during meditation, or reiki healing, much of it beautifully created to make just the right atmosphere. New Age composers have refined the art of creating atmosphere
with music and their art will, I guess, creep into the classical field. There are
signs of this happening with a CD that came my way this month, called a "Dartmoor
Symphony" by flautist and composer Nigel Shaw. The music is a collaboration
between Nigel and the the strings of the Ten Tors Orchestra. Nigel makes his own
wooden flutes and is known in New Age circles for beautiful creations, such as, "The
River" and "Seven Stones". The inspiration is Dartmoor, a wild and
woolly place, bleak and beautiful. I must say I was really looking forward to
listening to this piece and as ambient music it excels. But it could have done so
much more. The tone is soothing and melancholy throughout and that is the nuclear
core of ambient music: the mood has to be consistent and non-intrusive, whereas crossover
into the classical world will then demand highs and lows. A drifting style of music is OK
if you don't want to listen to it, otherwise emersion in the music is required and there
then have to be more musical landscape features on which to focus. If not, the music
simply becomes derivative, uninspired, boring. This doesn't at all mean that
creating atmosphere need take second place - think of, for example, Barber's "Adagio
for Strings", but I do look forward to much better attempts at making new music for
our modern age. You can receive the Newent Orchestra's monthly email newsletter, including these "Musical Notes". Just ask to be added to our mailing list by emailing your request to info@newentorchestra.org Previous "Musical
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Bill Anderton, December, 2009