Lewis Coenen-Rowe (KCL) - 2015-16 Students
lewis.cr@hotmail.com

Realism in Contemporary Classical Music

As a composer I am interested in the issue of how music can relate to a broader socio-cultural context as a route to expression and meaning. It is my belief that music can and should engage with the important issues of our world. I describe this as the realist, or culturalist, approach to composition in contrast to the abstract or formalist approach that I perceive as being more prevalent in contemporary classical music. With this in mind, I will be exploring a number of interconnected areas: 1) issues of musical communication and cognition from a psychological and phenomenological standpoint 2) issues of how meaning exists in music using theory from semiotics and hermeneutics 3) using multi-media theory to understand how music can work in tandem with other art forms but also how it can forge connections to the wider world in general.