If you saw an announcement for a concert of contemporary classical music and wondered what to expect, what is the difference compared to a regular classical concert, the answer is - almost everything!

Some of the first associations of a classical music concert are mostly austerity, a formal performance of people dressed in black formal suits and dresses and listening silently to the music they perform without any conversation between songs. Such a concept of a concert was created a long time ago, just like the pieces that musicians play or sing on stage.

However, if the repertoire includes compositions that were created today or a few decades earlier, there is a high probability that the musicians' discipline will be completely absent, because that is what is required of them by the works they are performing.

Why is the concert of contemporary classical music not banned?

How restrained could you call someone who riots she taps her foot on the floor while playing the violin, or someone mumbling something or he shouts while playing the harp? I think you would use a completely different term.

The same is true for a pianist who stands while playing and actually touches the strings of his instrument more than the frets, or for a clarinetist who little by little he takes out his phone and plays some sounds from it. Yes, from the phone. And it is not rare that sounds created electronically are equal participants in the creation of contemporary classical music, so in addition to acoustic music, at the concert you can also hear electronic, that is, electro-acoustic music.

 

As always, art moves with time (or ahead of it) and uses or alludes to everything that surrounds us. He tells a story with his language or just encourages us to create our own and evokes emotions and states in us, which will be as different as we are as individuals.

What else is different?

Contemporary composers often explore the possibilities of sound and experiment in various ways - whether by combining seemingly incompatible instruments and their colors (for example, the ensemble consists of a block flute, trumpet, harp and harmonica) or by devising some new playing techniques (which include the aforementioned kicking, shouting, but also many other things) and introducing different ones sounds from everyday life (the sound of a traffic jam, a melody from video games or mobile applications).

It is not rare that they are also represented video projections or poetic/dramatic parts, which makes the contemporary music concert a multimedia event that expands the focus from only the auditory to the visual aspect. And yes, it happens the audience participates in the creation of the work, using technology (apps) or by producing your own sounds.

 

The topics that the authors deal with are diverse, from the everyday and experienced by everyone to the very abstract, and sometimes sound itself, that is, music, is the only "topic".

At a contemporary music concert, the performers, and often the composers (when present) present the piece to the audience before performing it. Rather, they introduce listeners to what they are about to hear, tell us something about that composition how would we easier to connect with her and learned something about the very process of creation of that work from different angles.

Where can I attend a concert of contemporary classical music?

Recently, I was at one such event in Novi Sad, in the organization Interdisciplinary Center for Contemporary Music Contact.

Vesna Mitar, flautist and founder the only one of the association dedicated to the promotion of classical contemporary music in our country, believes that this is precisely the case approaching the audience through conversation about her and her relations with other spheres of art and society is the right way to become closer to the listeners.

Vesna Mitar

"Our goal is to direct the listeners towards new sound practices and the discovery of contemporary repertoire, which is very little represented in our country. I think that contemporary composers have a lot to offer the music scene and that we should listen to what they are telling us, because there are, among us, we live in the same time and space", explains Vesna.

Indeed, the emotions and thoughts that the concert at which they performed incited in me members Center Kontakt, they are completely different from those that appear when I visit an event where musicians perform, for example. compositions Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff.

Except completely surprising sound effects, ways of playing different instruments and in general atmosphere at a concert, which is a completely new and great experience for me, the music of contemporary composers makes you feel more present in that piece, like participant and important factor in its creation. One of the compositions that did just that:

 

Vesna says that Kontakt is preparing more concerts in Novi Sad. Look at theirs the program and treat yourself to a new musical experience, completely free.