Historical Necessity Doesn’t Exist - Robin Holloway

[@Berliozboy]

Holloway was a new composer for me. I absolutely loved this interview. Relaxed, honest, and with charm throughout. Thanks!

[@samuel_andreyev]

Thanks for watching!

[@dhackj]

Note frayed composer's jumper. Elbows on desk into the small hours. Intense concentration. What a wonderful and relaxed interview in beautiful surrounds. Thank you!

[@oti6294]

I’m enjoying these interviews with composers a lot. Your channel is a valuable contribution to the music community Samuel, thank you!

[@samuel_andreyev]

So happy to hear that. Thanks for watching!

[@xXDimistreoXx]

1:17 a true composer always separates his "uh"s by a major second

[@jacksonelmore6227]

Interview more composers, you’re the exact man to do this, your artistic and educational work is highly appreciated, you have given, and now you shall receive

[@samuel_andreyev]

Thanks, I have more on the way. I have a video that is ready to be released on YT, I just need to finish the subtitles (it's in French).

[@johnericsson749]

I have not listened to the interview yet, but I must say that the setting in which it took place looks absolutely stunning. I see now that you begin by talking about his beautiful home. Thank you for your work, Samuel!

[@samuel_andreyev]

you will love the interview:)

[@LesterBrunt]

I would love to see an interview with a non-western music composer. It can be so insightful to see how completely different cultures have different perspectives on the same thing. Dewa Alit would be an amazing composer to interview, but I don’t know if he speaks English.

[@nathangale7702]

I agree, I would also suggest Jose Maceda, Jonas Baes, Alejandro Iglesias Rossi, and Cergio Prudencio. Not sure if any of them speak English either.

[@nathangale7702]

I really like Shostakovich (and I love his disciple Schnittke), but I've learned that there really is no arguing with personal taste as long as you are able to recognize genius. I had a similar conversation with a friend trying to explain why I don't care for Kendrick Lamar's music even though I totally agree that he deserved the Pulitzer and more rappers should be given literary awards. Tantacrul has my favorite video on what makes Shotakovich great.

[@n.d.688]

Rap will never measure up with the music of the German masters, who wrote objectively better music.

[@marcossidoruk8033]

​@@n.d.688Rap is more about rhythmically enhanced poetry than what is conventionally understood as music, its just a completely different conception of music and thus hard to compare.

[@zemlidrakona2915]

@@n.d.688 Define "objectively better"

[@johnpcomposer]

Love this interview He has a healthy attitude toward the past and the idea of having a totally unique voice...we have more than at any time such an accumulation of musical styles that we can't possibly have a self-contained voice or style.

[@danb2622]

Holloway’s answer to the question about the notion of “historical necessity” is the answer to the question of why British composers are less inhibited than continental composers: culturally the British are more individualistic and thus individual composers have greater creative license to find their own paths.

[@georgeholloway3981]

I agree!

[@marc_onofrio]

Only get to watch the first few minutes, but my goodness what a gorgeous space to be in. Shots look amazing and I'm sure it's gonna be a fascinating interview. How far you've come!

[@samuel_andreyev]

Thanks, I'm just getting warm tho

[@robkeeleycomposer]

Thank you so much for this. Robin and I have been friends since 1977, although I was never student of his, and you really did him proud.

[@sarsedacn]

"I'm the willing victim of involuntary memory" Robin Holloway

[@danb2622]

Yes, I jotted that line down in my notes as well. Great remark!

[@bc4315]

Yes, 100% true.

[@luciancrosby6331]

huge fan of holloway, and this was a wonderfully enlightening discussion!

[@samuel_andreyev]

What are your favourite pieces by him?

[@luciancrosby6331]

@@samuel_andreyev @samuel_andreyev the second concerto for orchestra is absolutely stunning, among my favourite post-war orchestral works - "scenes from schumann" and "sea-surface full of clouds" are other fantastic works. among his more recent music, ive particularly enjoyed the horn quintet.

[@danielalvarado542]

Very interesting interview ! I didn't know Robin Holloway's music. Thanks Samuel

[@nickeliope]

Great interview! Thanks Samuel for all your excellent content.

[@Atezian]

I was so pulled into this conversation you two were having that when it got to 37:38 I checked how far through the video and was expecting it to be halfway. Great interview. Admittedly I've not heard any of Robin's music. I will listen after the video ends.

[@samuel_andreyev]

So glad you enjoyed it!

[@Atezian]

@@samuel_andreyev The violin concerto is fantastic so far. Thanks for linking to it in descr

[@ejb7969]

Looking at Holloway's work list, it's heartbreaking how few commercial recordings there are of his music. And he's almost completely unplayed by US orchestras other than SF under MTT. Thankfully we do have NMC to thank for recording the 2nd Concerto for Orchestra, which is a screaming superhuman masterpiece.

[@robkeeleycomposer]

it's crazy, isn't it? Toccata Classics have just done a CD of his transcriptions, but they could fill several CDs worth of original chamber pieces and small (and big) orchestral works. The Symphony and the 4th concerto for orchestra cry out for good recordings. And there's a well-filled CD to be made of his numerous piano works, which Booseys are hopeless at promoting.

[@samuel_andreyev]

Agreed, but To be fair, it has hecome extraordinarily complicated to finance CD recording projects -- to which I can well attest.

[@ejb7969]

@@samuel_andreyev I understand! But ... he's ROBIN HOLLOWAY! With all due respect, you're a young'un still working your way up.

[@robkeeleycomposer]

Robin’s recent Cello Concerto was commissioned (I think) by the Oregon Symphony. And NMC also put out the 3rd Concerto.

[@ejb7969]

@@robkeeleycomposer Agreed about the 3rd Concerto. But clearly he's had plenty of commissions; let's get more of them recorded. I think the 4th Concerto for Orchestra was only partially premiered. The 5th is on KZbin, but mp3 sound won't hold it. And he wants to do a sixth, and he sounds ambitious! We need a commissionIng group who will also fund a recording.

[@LeoMarinoz]

You are doing an amazing and inestimable job with your channel, dear Samuel! I found this interview really interesting and I actually want to discover more about Holloway's music. Thank you!

[@samuel_andreyev]

Good to hear from you, Leo. Thanks for watching!

[@christophedevos3760]

Interesting interview. About Stockhausen and Boulez and their motivic development, yes, but they studied both with Messiaen. And the formel principle of KHS is very reminiscent of what Messiaen proposed in Technique de mon language musical (and came from his study of isorhytmic motet, which is of course typical french) and maybe from d'Indy, which had also this notion of musical 'germ cells' so to speak.

[@SamuelJFord]

Great interview! What a home.

[@sarsedacn]

such a humble person. Lovely discussion

[@diseasefreeforall]

I'd like to request a video on Jani Christou (no relation). He had such a unique approach and style and was very contemporary to his time while still tapping into the ancient and mystical, all with an overwhelming intensity. I've never come across another composer who thought about music like he did. There's a good book on him by Anna Martine Lucciano. It's sad that he died at the height of his powers but the work he left us is truly amazing.

[@p.r.h.7283]

Me too. I want to watch that documentary on him but it’s only in greek

[@jackburgess8579]

Enlightening and very enjoyable.

[@Cleekschrey]

Thank you. I enjoyed this. I might suggest an interview with Walter Zimmerman

[@christophedevos3760]

Thank you for pointing this composer out btw. I've just listened to his symphony (1st symphony?) and I think it ties in with some other British composers like Nicolas Maw and the later works of late Peter Maxwell Davies. It is a kind of 'tradionalist modernism' (by want of a better word) I think with certainly an impressive handling of the orchestra.

[@samuel_andreyev]

Thanks for listening!

[@christophedevos3760]

@@samuel_andreyev My pleasure.

[@christophedevos3760]

@@samuel_andreyev... And I've just noticed that Thomas Adès and George Benjamin studied with him. Very intriguing.

[@yairgomez96]

in minute 25:00: who is the composer you are talking about? And the work that boulez criticized? thank you for this conversation!

[@samuel_andreyev]

Alexander (Sandy) Goehr, whom I have also interviewed for my podcast. The work was the Little Symphony.

[@yairgomez96]

@@samuel_andreyev thank you! I will take this chance to salute you and say that your content is amazing, we, here in Chile, aprecciate very much your interviews and shorts videos with advices in the composition field. Also, here, I copy a link to the scorefollower of a classical guitar piece of mine, maybe it will be of your interest. kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGrJY62gpdabbrM&ab_channel=MartinSanhueza keep the good work! and thank you again!

[@samuel_andreyev]

Thanks! Hey do you know my old friend, Chilean composer Tomàs Koljatic?

[@yairgomez96]

@@samuel_andreyev yes! a few months ago I listen to his Taschensymphonie, in a festival of contemporary music, it was a great experience.

[@samuel_andreyev]

wow great! yeah he's a very good musician

[@Jose-gq9bt]

Could you make a video about Openmusic?

[@n7275]

This is a wonderful interview and video. I love the aspect ratio too. If you upload at the original resolution (without the black bars at the top and bottom) I could watch it at full resolution on my ultrawide monitor.

[@johnpcomposer]

Not every bar he wrote says, Mahler...there are clear indications of Bruckner...and the harmonic world of Rott's forgotten symphony surely pointed him in a certain harmonic direction.

[@trinitarian100]

The rooms are marvellous. Perhaps too marvellous?The Rite of Spring was written in a room the size of a shoebox. This interview gets funny when H begins to describe (5.30)the place (the enchanted spot in the centre of the magic garden?) where he really composes. It only has an upright piano. But it is, after all, an imperfect world. I say this mainly because it brings to the fore my problem with his music. It is never much in argument with anything. And perhaps this bespeaks a composer tragically deprived of vexation and worry and annoyance and impediment. Allow for a measure of envy here also, of course.

[@tylers9006]

Hey I am wondering if you could do a score analysis of Ive’s Fourth Symphony. I really love your analysis videos- they really help me as a young composer to appreciate less-accessible contemporary music, learn from the creative ways that previous composers pushed boundaries in music, and to widen my familiarity and knowledge of contemporary music composition. Ive’s Fourth Symphony has been a piece I have been obsessed with for the past year- to think it was composed around the Rite of Spring is insane. I have been able to analyze some of the passages in that symphony, but I still feel lost in other parts. It would be a huge help to me if you could look at some sections in the Second or Fourth movement.

[@Whatismusic123]

you won't learn anything from Ives, unless you're trying to not become a music composer. Doing so will only make you an incompetent bum who's a stain on society, especially music society.

[@dariocaporuscio8701]

Some editing trick at 32:13? That Ye-yes repeated sounds always the same, like it was sampled and added later

[@dariocaporuscio8701]

Great video anyway, I really appreciate these interviews, especially when I get to discover interesting composers

[@samuel_andreyev]

Thanks -- it's not an edit though :)

[@dariocaporuscio8701]

@@samuel_andreyev ahah then he must have a very stable intonation in his yes :)

[@cyberprimate]

Robin Holloway? In Paris there isn't a single CD available in any of the 57 public libraries. English and 'historically impossible' I guess his music had no chance here... In comparison Ferneyhough gets 34. Andreyev you're lucky to have 2. That's how I miraculously found out about your music and your channel, long before your presence in the Grand prix des lycéens.

[@samuel_andreyev]

Paris is so behind the times!

[@cyberprimate]

@@samuel_andreyev Things will change now that Pierrot is dead.

[@samuel_andreyev]

So far they've gotten worse, but your optimism is encouraging!

[@christophedevos3760]

​@@samuel_andreyev There is a big intellectual/cultural crisis in Europe in general I think.

[@FIRSTLAST-mh4sx]

Schnittke would give him an aneurysm

[@arrowfitzgibbon7775]

[@johnpcomposer]

You know listening to Shostakovich I felt something similar recently that he is too stuck in his textures and gestures...and how empty some of the works are. NO. 6 and 8 come to mind.

[@stephanversmissen3953]

He (Robin Holloway) should buy an new sweater. This one's to shreds.

[@samuel_andreyev]

But it fits him so well

[@FALCOY]

You'd think he could at least put on a decent pullover.....

[@xXDimistreoXx]

spam 0 for ASMR goodness

[@ulfgj]

oh man. not a good review of shosta's string quartets. a lot of his compositions deserves some amount of bashing, but certainly not the quartets, ffs.... 🤣

[@bc4315]

It indicates this individual is tasteless. Listening to his music verifies this.

[@FIRSTLAST-mh4sx]

Like other Russian composers of the time, they sometimes had to make music due to government pressure and also had to tailor it due to that. So yeah, I can see why not all of it was up to standard

[@ulfgj]

@@FIRSTLAST-mh4sx i can feel that about the movie music he made

[@dariocaporuscio8701]

Historical necessity… Such an ugly concept, it makes me think of a communist regime, not of art. Ironic that the kind of music that was forbidden in such regimes was considered “historically necessary” in Europe

[@robkeeleycomposer]

Yes. Pierre Boulez, for all his good points, was a disaster for contemporary music by insisting that there was only one way.