Conceptual music

There must have been hundreds and hundreds of concepts that the Ensemble Neue Horizonte Bern has performed and tested over the decades, scores that often only consist of verbal playing instructions that leave great scope for the imagination, but which nevertheless need to be interpreted precisely. This is how experience is formed, and everyone has to (re)gain it for themselves from the pieces. As interest in conceptual music has risen sharply in recent years, it is only fitting that Urs Peter Schneider, one of the musicians of Horizons, has now compiled a compendium from his wealth of experience: The volume published by Aart-Verlag Conceptual music iis on the one hand an anthology, by no means complete, as a list of further conceptual pieces points out, and on the other an incredibly rich reader. The big names are there, Fluxus, Cage, Wolff, but also a lot of Helvetic and some things that have already been forgotten.

The book, which was created as a research project at the Bern University of the Arts, admittedly offers no history of conceptual music, no definitions and delimitations (not even of current trends) and therefore no theory, but nevertheless classifies the printed concepts according to a simple letter system. On LaMonte Young's famous piece Draw a straight line and follow it about: A2 (everyday actions), H1 (postures), K6 (continuity), M5 (minimalism), N2 (nuances), N3 (sobriety), R2 (space), R5 (recipe), S2 (writing), S9 (stillness), T1 (dance), U3 (unicum) - and this gives us an idea of a typical Schneiderian order, a kind of theory, or at least of what is important and characteristic of concepts. Thirdly, a commentary section classifies at least some of the concept pieces, explains, considers, reports on performances and makes it clear that this is a very practice-oriented selection. From then on, this anthology is an absolute must for performance teaching.

Urs Peter Schneider: Conceptual Music. An annotated anthology, ed. by Thomas Gartmann and Marc Kilchenmann, 370 p., Fr. 35.00, Aart-Verlag, Bern 2016, ISBN 978-3-9524749-0-7

Book launch and concert
Sat. October 21, 2017, 7 p.m.
Bern University of the Arts, Great Concert Hall,
Papiermühlestrasse 13d, 3014 Berne
Students of the HKB, Ensemble Neue Horizonte Bern
Management Urs Peter Schneider