In the western music of the late 20th century that has been pursuing ceaseless conflict and harmony with tradition, unlike the symphony and opera that their conflict between maintain and extinction has become radical, traditionalism composers as well ...
In the western music of the late 20th century that has been pursuing ceaseless conflict and harmony with tradition, unlike the symphony and opera that their conflict between maintain and extinction has become radical, traditionalism composers as well as progressive composers in the concertos have constantly re-interpreted the tradition of the genre and experimentally attempted to change the function and meaning the genre while maintaining the traditional form of a combination of solo instruments and orchestra. The notable of these approaches is composing concertos with attempt to cross the boundaries of genre without merely rest on the instrumental music. This composing direction can be described as the concept of dramatization of the music that has been shown on the concerto. The core of this study is a search for this concept. This study has selected two concertos, which organized the clarinet as a solo instrument, Domaines(1968)by Boulez, the leader of the progressive and Le miracle de la rose(1982) by Henze, the representative traditionalism composer as the specific examples and has discussed music philosophy and actual composing of these two composers who had different aesthetics point of view. Through this, I have planned to study dramatization of the concertos, which has been variously deployed while maintaining the traditional form of 'combination of solo instruments and orchestra.’
From a formality perspective, both works maintain the traditional form that focuses on confrontation and harmony of the clarinet and orchestra (the six instruments group in the Domaines and the 13 musicians group in the Le miracle de la rose). While the solo instrument, clarinet, is leading the music, it brings the tension and harmony through musical interaction with instruments group together. However, method of the dramatization which is shown from the music had obvious differences. In the Domaines, sound itself does not have contents but it is creating a dramatic music by visualizing method of musical performance, utilizing stage, and the movement of the musician. Meanwhile, in the Le miracle de la rose, sound contains the story based on a novel of the same title written by Genet and creating an invisible virtual stage by granting the role of the characters on musical instruments. Therefore, the audience can feel the drama only through the performance. These two works departed from pure instrumental music and suggested that the concerto to be changed as a new form which is mixed with elements of instrumental music and drama to expand its diversity.
As a result, throughout the dramatization of the music on the concerto appeared in the latter half of the 20th century, this study has found that composers do not completely rule out the tradition but still want to use it as a formal basis. Although, two works are highlighted as a feature of individual attempt rather than unified way under the concept of dramatization. However, the common ground that two works are using the dramatic element means that the drama takes a special place as a new material in the era that traditional genre is changing. This is evidently different from the 'Instrumentales Theater' by Kagel which has dramatically visualized the creation of music in the 1960s regardless of the tradition. In other words, the dramatization of the concerto based on the traditional genre history can be said as a new composition trend that expands the meaning of concerto in the western music history.