Composer Predicts Fusion Of Jazz, Classical Music

"Ten to twenty years from now there will no longer be the split between jazz and classical music" that now exists, Gunther Schuller told a Lowell House audience yesterday afternoon.

The composer claimed that it is already possible to write something that would be recognizable as jazz but which would be suitable for a symphony orchestra. He hastened to point out, however, that the fusion of jazz and classical music into a "third stream" must not be a haphazard affair.

Jazz and classical music, he emphasized, must themselves continue unchanged. The gap between them will have to be filled by a style of music that draws from both traditions, but which is essentially something new.

A teacher of composition at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Schuller has composed a large number of jazz pieces, but has recently shifted his attention to the as yet undefined third stream.

Speaking on the new departures in contemporary music, Schuller said that the recent move into atonality is unprecedented in the 800-900 year history of European music.

"This move is a revolution because all the other elements that were the foundation of 8th and 19th Century music have been so completely reevaluated, in terms of rhythm, structure, lyrics, and dynamics, that this can be considered a new form of music."

Since modern composers use all elements "intensely and unpredictably," Schuller explained, "the rate of change of these elements has been extremely fast.

"In Schubert, when a clarinet begins, we can be sure that it will stay for four measures, at least. This is no longer true."

Moving to the subject of electronic music, Schuller said that the "synthesizer" which is used in this form, will enable composers to make use of far more "subtle and infinitesimal relationships" between sounds than is now possible.