# The end of the "Heroic Age of Composition"



## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

> *The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration* was an era which began at the end of the 19th century, and ended after the First World War; the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition of 1921-22 is often cited by historians as the dividing line between the "Heroic" and "Mechanical" ages.
> 
> The common factor in these expeditions was the limited nature of the resources available to them before advances in transport and communication technologies revolutionized the work of exploration. This meant that each expedition became a feat of endurance that tested, and sometimes exceeded its personnel's physical and mental limits. The "heroic" label, bestowed later, recognized the adversities which had to be overcome by these pioneers".---Wikipedia


In the field of classical music an equivalent would mean [if we compare to the present]: much more limited access to recorded music (or no at all), no online musical libraries, no software, little to no mechanical devices, and as a result:

the necessity to primarily use pencils, paper, and one's own musical talent / and an instrument to compose.

My question is: if we establish a musicological construct such as this, whose death would you say put (or will put?) and end to it? Is the last composer of *The Heroic Age of Composition* already dead, or would you say there is someone still around?


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

Getting the technology to do what you want takes some doing, unless you have the very best of equipment and a team of engineers. Someone like Hans Zimmer has a dozen people behind him; the process is lengthy.

Perhaps as technology improves writing on paper will indeed go out the window, but for now it's still useful.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

1996D said:


> Getting the technology to do what you want takes some doing, unless you have the very best of equipment and a team of engineers. Someone like Hans Zimmer has a dozen people behind him; the process is lengthy.
> 
> Perhaps as technology improves writing on paper will indeed go out the window, but for now it's still useful.


I write without any software as well, lol. But both you and I can access more recordings than learned men of their time like Glazunov, Rimsky, Reger have ever heard. We can watch three hundred videos about orchestration on Youtube, whereas Beethoven had to walk door-to-door in Vienna to visit knowledgeable people. This is the difference between a mechanical and a heroic age. There is a ton of playback software available as well, as your own published music proves. People back in the day did not have that. They only heard their music once they were fortunate enough to have several dozen professionals in front of them.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I don't know if I had to guess it would probably be Prokofiev's generation, maybe a little earlier.


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

Fabulin said:


> I write without any software as well, lol. But both you and I can access more recordings than learned men of their time like Glazunov, Rimsky, Reger have ever heard. We can watch three hundred videos about orchestration on Youtube, whereas Beethoven had to walk door-to-door in Vienna to visit knowledgeable people. This is the difference between a mechanical and a heroic age. There is a ton of playback software available as well, as your own published music proves. People back in the day did not have that. They only heard their music once they were fortunate enough to have several dozen professionals in front of them.


Yes, but we have different hardships now, today it's a purely a spiritual battle whereas in the past it was more of a physical one. We might not need to move an inch but the spirit suffers nonetheless.

It's like doing hard labour versus having to deal with moral corruption. Both are equally hard.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

1996D said:


> Yes, but we have different hardships now, today it's a purely a spiritual battle whereas in the past it was more of a physical one. We might not need to move an inch but the spirit suffers nonetheless.
> 
> It's like doing hard labour versus having to deal with moral corruption. Both are equally hard.


What moral corruption?


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

Fabulin said:


> What moral corruption?


Any hardship that's not physical. You can argue that it's the world that brings it or that it's yourself, depending on how you view things.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

1996D said:


> Any hardship that's not physical. You can argue that it's the world that brings it or that it's yourself, depending on how you view things.


You implied that in the past it was less a spiritual battle, and more a physical one. But in the past life was harder, and people were doing much more "immoral" things to survive. Nowadays morality is much easier, in a global version of that quote from the recent film _Parasite_: "She is nice _because _she is rich".

Humanity is richer and nicer now than it ever was, composers included.

So the battle used to be both more physical and more spiritual.


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

Fabulin said:


> You implied that in the past it was less a spiritual battle, and more a physical one. But in the past life was harder, and people were doing much more "immoral" things to survive. Nowadays morality is much easier, in a global version of that quote from the recent film _Parasite_: "She is nice _because _she is rich".
> 
> Humanity is richer and nicer now than it ever was, composers included.
> 
> So the battle used to be both more physical and more spiritual.


It depends on the person, but the rich suffer too. Sometimes having it easy can make life hard - it makes you weak and incapable of doing anything. The path of virtue and purpose is the only one to take; having it easy leaves the path of decadence wide open and it's very hard to refuse.

You can have anything you want at any given time, and it's a curse; it's a life of emptiness.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

1996D said:


> It depends on the person, but the rich suffer too. Sometimes having it easy can make life hard - it makes you weak and incapable of doing anything. The path of virtue and purpose is the only one to take; having it easy leaves the path of decadence wide open and it's very hard to refuse.
> 
> You can have anything you want at any given time, and it's a curse; it's a life of emptiness.


I would gladly purchase such weakness and curse, thank you very much.


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

Fabulin said:


> I would gladly purchase such weakness and curse, thank you very much.


Well, we all want what we don't have in terms of life experience but the grass is not greener. No matter what we do or who we are everything has a downside.

The only solution is to follow virtue.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Fabulin said:


> In the field of classical music an equivalent would mean [if we compare to the present]: much more limited access to recorded music (or no at all), no online musical libraries, no software, little to no mechanical devices, and as a result:
> 
> the necessity to primarily use pencils, paper, and one's own musical talent / and an instrument to compose.
> 
> My question is: if we establish a musicological construct such as this, whose death would you say put (or will put?) and end to it? Is the last composer of *The Heroic Age of Composition* already dead, or would you say there is someone still around?


The key word in your example quote is "Antarctic" - it wasn't "the golden age of exploration" but of "Antarctic exploration". That age was followed by other glorious exploration ages ... of other places - the sky, the oceans, space. So your attempt to arrive at an equivalent for composition needs something more from you. It is not enough to say it must be done by pen and pencil and performed live. You have to say what area of music your golden age applies to. Just as exploration will not stop - there will always be a new frontier and, as the technology arrives to explore it, we will do so - so I want to ask why would composition stop? The arrival of new technology may allow us to go places with composition that the musicians and audiences of the 19th century could not have dreamed of.


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