For decades now, modern classical music has been losing the elements of what many have considered the need to be included when you mention the term ‘classical.’
Many composers and artists have entered the field, including elements of other ‘large’ and ‘not so large’ genres from jazz to rock and so many others in between. That prompted the use of terms such as post-modern classical and others.
The borders have been blurred, and re-interpreting the works of ‘standard’ classical composers from other musical perspectives has become a sort of a staple, it just depends on how imaginative and how much quality can be found in those works.
Taking that route is Aaron Wyanski, a composer, pianist, and musicologist based in Maine, who took on the task of exploring and re-imagine the works of the great classical the great composer Arnold Schöenberg, this time around with a new trio of works called SCHOENBERG: Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11. This is Wyanski’s third in a series of deep dives into the concept via the medium of jazz.
Schöenberg himself is best known in the world of music for his theory of atonality, which in effect, had quite an influence on the development of modern jazz as such.
Through the three compositions here, Wyanski tries to go deeper into this connection, trying to cover the lines of unison, both those audible and inaudible, creating music that is certainly challenging, but at the same time inspiring and thought-provoking making connections not only with original Schönberg works but those that exist between seemingly disparate artists like Frank Zappa and Philip Glass, confirming that long-standing saying that ‘the devil is in detail.’
