Contemporary Music and Virtual Reality

I am an absolute believer that contemporary music needs to be at our forefront of our promotion of high art music to new audience. I am often shocked at how unwilling to embrace and oftentimes in total unacceptance some proponents of Classical music.

Fortunately in Second Life, I feel a great embrace of contemporary music as a part of the world of Classical music. It is quite exhilarating to see new music being performed and shared all around.

I personally perform a lot of my original freestyle piano improv. It took me a long time to be even comfortable towards accepting this aspect of my musical output as a legitimate form of music. I felt that the traditional institutions of music at which I have studied at oftentimes neglect such different genre of Classical and Art music. For me these original freestyle piano improv can take on any form it wants. I let out whatever it is that comes to my mind, but when I perform for the general audience in Second Life, I tend to gear myself more towards a musical language that is much more accessible then some of my other works. In this sense I do feel that I am starting to develop two different sides to my musical language. But I am starting to push the boundaries so that I can bridge the two worlds closer and closer.

Of course there is always a limit to what a general audience may be willing to embrace at any time. Early on in my performance of piano improv in Second Life, I gave a concert using all extended techniques on the piano. It was definitely a much more mixed acceptance in the reception of the concert. A few people enjoyed it and stayed till the end while many left. It was experimental on my part, and I have learned a bit about audience tolerance towards music that they are completely unknown.

Aside from my works, it is wonderful to see other musicians and composers enter Second Life and promoting contemporary music alongside Classical Music. I am extremely grateful to Kate Miranda who is an avid promoter of Classical Music in Second Life that she is willing to promote Contemporary New Music artists alongside great artists of standard repetoire.

I believe in order to reach out to more audience and grow the art of Classical Music, it is important that we fully promote the newest contemporary music has to offer. Often times we can bring people who are interested in popular music that pushes the limits of audience tolerance gradually towards contemporary classical music. As a result they will be more willing to explore the traditional heritage such new music stemmed from and thus grow the audience to classical music.

Classical Music has often been called a dying art. But if we allow it to be reborn in new worlds, we can bring back the entire realm of Classical Music to a much greater audience size.

Article by Enniv Zarf RL Paul Kwo - homepage, blog, myspace, music