I keep bumping into debates about the difference between art music and pop. In theory, there’s a chasm between the two — or, at the very least, much room for argument. In practice — on stage, in live performance — this chasm can be reduced to a small crack.
As a case in point, here is Kingston, Ont.-based composer Marjan Mozetich‘s Dance to Earth (premiered at the Guelph Spring Festival in 1999), performed last season by Sinfonia Toronto, led by Nurhan Arman.
The composer’s intention is to create art music. It is performed by an excellent classical ensemble. But the piece is filled with harmonic progressions and musical figures that would be equally comfortable in the pop world.
(Apologies for a bad cut at the end of the video.)
