The Rise and Fall of “Indie Classical”: Tracing a Controversial Term in Twenty-First Century New Music

WILLIAM ROBIN

doi:10.1017/S1752196317000529

The Rise and Fall of “Indie Classical”: Tracing a Controversial Term in Twenty-First Century New Music

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2018

WILLIAM ROBIN

Article contents

Abstract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Abstract

In its inaugural 2007 press release, New York–based New Amsterdam Records announced its mission to “foster a sense of connection among musicians and fans in this ‘indie classical’ scene.” New Amsterdam's publicity apparatus brought “indie classical” into widespread media circulation, but by 2013 the label had ceased using the term. In the intervening years, the meaning of indie classical had been hotly contested by the community of musicians it was meant to champion. Drawing on more than fifty interviews, archival research, and reception history from traditional publications and new online sources, I recreate the rise and fall of indie classical as it transpired over a decade. Tracing the background of the composers and performers who first labeled themselves as indie classical, unveiling the origins of the term and how it was disseminated, and examining the debates that surrounded it and its subsequent decline reveals how the aesthetic discourse of new music is constructed in the twenty-first century.

Type: Research Article
Information: Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 55 - 88

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1752196317000529 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society for American Music 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bang on a Can. Private collections, physical and digital.Google Scholar

New Amsterdam Records. Private collection, digital.Google Scholar

Oral History of American Music (OHAM). Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Sterling Memorial Library. Yale University, New Haven, CT.Google Scholar

Unless otherwise noted, interviews were conducted in person.Google Scholar

Andres, Timo. Interview with author, January 9, 2015.Google Scholar

Aomori, Hideaki. Interview with author, November 16, 2014.Google Scholar

Argue, Darcy James. Interview with author, October 9, 2015.Google Scholar

Bresnick, Martin. Interview with author, December 18, 2015.Google Scholar

Brittelle, William. Interview with author, September 5, 2014.Google Scholar

Burhans, Caleb. Interview with author, April 18, 2015.Google Scholar

Burke, Patrick. Interview with author, September 29, 2014.Google Scholar

Cabezas, Gabriel. Interview with author, April 23, 2015.Google Scholar

Camerieri, C. J. Interview with author, November 16, 2014.Google Scholar

Daugherty, Michael. Phone interview with author, November 25, 2015.Google Scholar

Gordon, Michael. Interview with author, January 21, 2016.Google Scholar

Greene, Jayson. Interview with author, November 2, 2015.Google Scholar

Greenstein, Judd. Interview with author, April 26, 2015.Google Scholar

Hammond, Michael. Interview with author, August 14, 2014.Google Scholar

Hammond, Michael. Interview with author, March 5, 2015.Google Scholar

Hearne, Ted. Interview with author, October 15, 2015.Google Scholar

Jensen, Clarice. Interview with author, April 18, 2015.Google Scholar

Kahane, Gabriel. Interview with author, March 23, 2015.Google Scholar

Kozinn, Allan. Interview with author, November 11, 2014.Google Scholar

Lang, David. Interview with author, January 19, 2016.Google Scholar

Laplante, Travis. Interview with author, January 26, 2015.Google Scholar

Lee, Andrea. Interview with author, November 16, 2014.Google Scholar

Little, David T. Interview with author, December 7, 2015.Google Scholar

Marks, Matt. Interview with author, September 21, 2015.Google Scholar

Mazzoli, Missy. Interview with author, November 10, 2015.Google Scholar

McBane, Matt. Interview with author, September 19, 2015.Google Scholar

Mizrahi, Michael. Interview with author, November 6, 2015.Google Scholar

Moore, Lisa. Interview with author, December 18, 2015.Google Scholar

Morgan, Gayle. Interview with author, December 22, 2015.Google Scholar

Nordstrum, Kate. Interview with author, January 18, 2016.Google Scholar

Nova [formerly Worden], Shara. Phone interview with author, March 7, 2014.Google Scholar

Nova [formerly Worden], Shara. Interview with author, April 25, 2015.Google Scholar

Phillips, Joseph C. Jr. Interview with author, December 1, 2015.Google Scholar

Reynolds, Todd. Phone interview with author, January 25, 2017.Google Scholar

Rockwell, John. Interview with author, March 5, 2015.Google Scholar

Ross, Alex. Interview with author, December 16, 2015.Google Scholar

Ryan, Norman. Interview with author, November 2, 2015.Google Scholar

Sadigursky, Sam. Interview with author, November 9, 2015.Google Scholar

Savelson, Kenny. Interview with author, December 8, 2015.Google Scholar

Schaefer, John. Interview with author, December 2, 2015.Google Scholar

Schick, Steve. Phone interview with author, December 21, 2015.Google Scholar

Sirota, Nadia. Interview with author, November 17, 2014.Google Scholar

Snider, Sarah Kirkland. Phone interview with author, March 22, 2014.Google Scholar

Snider, Sarah Kirkland. Interview with author, April 26, 2015.Google Scholar

Sopp, Alex. Interview with author, November 18, 2014.Google Scholar

Supko, John. Interview with author, September 3, 2014.Google Scholar

Swartz, Steven. Interview with author, March 6, 2015.Google Scholar

Swed, Mark. Interview with author, October 22, 2015.Google Scholar

Wolfe, Julia. Interview with author, February 28, 2016.Google Scholar

Young, Jeffrey. Interview with author, November 22, 2014.Google Scholar

Ziporyn, Evan. Interview with author, January 5, 2016.Google Scholar

Billboard Google Scholar

Boston Globe Google Scholar

The Guardian Google Scholar

I Care If You Listen Google Scholar

Los Angeles Times Google Scholar

NewMusicBox Google Scholar

New York Magazine Google Scholar

New Yorker Google Scholar

New York Times Google Scholar

Pitchfork Google Scholar

Q2 Music Google Scholar

Time Out New York Google Scholar

Village Voice Google Scholar

Washington Post Google Scholar

WQXR Google Scholar

Ameer, Amanda. http://www.artsjournal.com/lifesapitch.Google Scholar

Andres, Timo. http://andres.com.Google Scholar

Argue, Darcy James. http://secretsocietymusic.org.Google Scholar

Bird, Anne-Carolyn. http://theconcert.blogspot.com.Google Scholar

Brittelle, William. http://williambrittelle.typepad.com/.Google Scholar

Gann, Kyle. http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/.Google Scholar

Greenstein, Judd. http://juddgreenstein.com. No longer available; archived through Wayback Machine.Google Scholar

Hearne, Ted. http://teddyboy.tumblr.com/.Google Scholar

Hughes, Mellissa. http://mellissahughes.com/.Google Scholar

Stephen, Johnson, Daniel. http://www.danielstephenjohnson.com.Google Scholar

Lafferty, Maura. http://mauralafferty.com. No longer available; archived through Wayback Machine.Google Scholar

Marks, Matt. http://mattmarksmusic.com.Google Scholar

Matthews, Peter. http://www.feastofmusic.com/.Google Scholar

Muhly, Nico. http://nicomuhly.com.Google Scholar

Phillips, Joseph C. Jr. http://numinousmusic.blogspot.com.Google Scholar

Ross, Alex. http://therestisnoise.com.Google Scholar

Sandow, Greg. http://www.artsjournal.com/sandow.Google Scholar

Sequenza21. http://www.sequenza21.com.Google Scholar

Sheridan, Molly. http://www.artsjournal.com/gap/.Google Scholar

Smith, Steve. http://nightafternight.com.Google Scholar

Snider, Sarah Kirkland. http://sarahkirklandsnider.com/news/.Google Scholar

Bernard, Jonathan. “The Minimalist Aesthetic in the Plastic Arts and in Music.” Perspectives of New Music 31, no. 1 (Winter 1993): 86–132.Google Scholar

Blake, David. “Bildung Culture: Elite Popular Music and the American University, 1960–2010.” PhD diss., Stony Brook University, 2014.Google Scholar

Blake, David. “Musicological Omnivory in the Neoliberal University.” Journal of Musicology 34, no. 3 (Summer 2017): 319–53.Google Scholar

Bonds, Mark Evan. Absolute Music: The History of an Idea. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar

Carter, Tim. “Artusi, Monteverdi, and the Poetics of Modern Music.” In Musical Humanism and Its Legacy: Essays in Honor of Claude V. Palisca, edited by Kovaleff Baker, Nancy and Russano Hanning, Barbara, 171–94. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1993.Google Scholar

Dessen, Michael. “Decolonizing Art Music: Scenes from the Late Twentieth-Century United States.” PhD diss., University of California at San Diego, 2003.Google Scholar

Drott, Eric. “The End(s) of Genre.” Journal of Music Theory 57, no. 1 (2013): 1–45.Google Scholar

Drott, Eric. “Spectralism, Politics, and the Post-Industrial Imagination.” In The Modernist Legacy: Essays on New Music, edited by Heile, Björn, 39–60. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009.Google Scholar

Hesmondhalgh, David. “Indie: The Institutional Politics and Aesthetics of a Popular Music Genre.” Cultural Studies 13, no. 1 (1999): 34–61.Google Scholar

James, Robin. “Is the Post- in Post-Identity the Post- in Post-Genre?” Popular Music 36, no. 1 (January 2017): 21–32.Google Scholar

Johnson, Timothy A. “Minimalism: Aesthetic, Style, or Technique?” Musical Quarterly 78, no. 4 (Winter 1994): 741–73.Google Scholar

Levy, Janet. “Covert and Casual Values in Recent Writings about Music.” Journal of Musicology 5, no. 1 (Winter 1987): 3–27.Google Scholar

Lewis, George. A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.Google Scholar

George, Lewis. “Improvised Music after 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives.” Black Music Research Journal 16, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 92–122.Google Scholar

Moore, Andrea. “Neoliberalism and the Musical Entrepreneur.” Journal of the Society for American Music 10, no. 1 (2016): 33–53.Google Scholar

Palisca, Claude V. “The Artusi–Monteverdi Controversy.” In The Monteverdi Companion, edited by Arnold, Denis and Fortune, Nigel, 127–58. London: Faber, 1985.Google Scholar

Phillips, Joseph C. Jr., “The Music Composition ‘Miscēre,’ the History of Mixed Music and New Amsterdam Records in the Contemporary New York City Mixed Music Scene.” MM thesis, Stephen F. Austin State University, 2011.Google Scholar

Piekut, Benjamin. “Actor-Networks in Music History: Clarifications and Critiques.” Twentieth-Century Music 11, no. 2 (Spring 2014): 191–215.Google Scholar

Piekut, Benjamin. Experimentalism Otherwise: The New York Avant-Garde and Its Limits. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.Google Scholar

Potter, Keith, Gann, Kyle, and ap Siôn, Pwyll, eds. The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music. Farnham, Surrey, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2013.Google Scholar

Robin, William. “A Scene Without a Name: Indie Classical and American New Music in the Twenty-First Century.” PhD diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2016.Google Scholar

Ross, Alex. Listen to This. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010.Google Scholar

Schaefer, John. New Sounds: A Listener's Guide to New Music. New York: Harper and Row, 1987.Google Scholar

Whitesell, Lloyd. “White Noise: Race and Erasure in the Cultural Avant-Garde.” American Music 19, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 168–89.Google Scholar

Wolfe, Julia. “Embracing the Clash.” PhD diss., Princeton University, 2012.Google Scholar

Taylor, Stephen S. The End of New Music. Brooklyn, NY: American Beat Films, 2007. DVD.Google Scholar