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The New Complexity is a British movement of avant garde classical music dating from the 1970s. Though often atonal, highly abstract, and dissonant in sound, the "New Complexity" is most readily characterized by the use of extremely complex musical notation. This includes extended techniques, microtonality, odd tunings, highly disjunct melodic contour, innovative timbres, complex polyrhythms, strange meters like 2/10 and 7/12, unconventional instrumentations, quick changes in loudness and intensity, and so on. The density and difficulty of a "New Complexity" score presents enormous challenges for performers. Though some of the reasons for composing extreme complexity has been subject to much critical debate, many composers are considered to be writing beyond the simple desire to compose a determinate sound world that can be anticipated or imagined by the composer beforehand. While most composers attributed to the "New Complexity" can be said to experiment with asymmetrical and experimental musical form, at least one composer, Michael Finnissy has referred to his scores as "action forms" or "obstacle courses" where the notation, though highly specific, practically speaking, is often a kind of choreography of physical gestures, not really governing the sound produced by the performer. Other works, like Brian Ferneyhough's Time and Motion Study No. 2 amplify and electronically process subtle sounds of the performer's body in the process of attempting to execute the notation. The resultant effect (of hearing the detailed sounds of a performer struggle through a performance) can be said to critique the politics of classical music performance, where traditionally, performer's interpretations are subordinate to the demands of the composer. Likewise, many performers of "new complexity" find the extremely difficult requirements of "New Complexity" scores to be liberating in their very difficulty and abstraction, or simply a nihilistic critique of classical music performance practice. Others have suggested, more radically, that the demands of "New Complexity" scores celebrate the relationship between composer and performer as fully sado-masochistic; the composer is sadist, the performer, masochist. Some believe that New Complexity is a postmodern rebellion from the cold and sterile performance practice that evolved around the "old complexity"; the difficulty of the music would force performers to give serious thought and interpretation to the music.
Origins and Influences Like many of the movements in the world of the musical avant garde, the impact of "new complexity" has extended beyond its British origin, impacting the work of composers and performers throughout Europe, the U.S., and the Far East. Among the influences often cited are the Second Viennese School, Charles Ives, Serialism, Sylvano Busotti, Sorabji, Liszt, Luciano Berio, Iannis Xenakis, British punk, heavy metal, spectral music, and free improvisation. Most music of the "New Complexity" works under support from academic and cultural institutions, where composers are employed as professors, performers are employed in-residence, and commissions are supported by foundations. This is opposed to genres like free improvisation and noise which operate relatively independently in subcultures and in club scenes. Associated "members" of this school have included: Non-UK: Few of these composers wholly approve of the term. New Complexity composers tend also to have very clear musical handwriting; their published scores are often facsimiles of the composer's manuscript. | ||||||||
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