Uploaded April 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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🎶 Support the channel: patreon.com/classicalnerd
Visit Dr. Carl's web site at robertcarlcomposer.com

0:00 Introduction
0:54 Why Xenakis isn’t postmodern
3:15 Postmodernism as movement vs. stance
4:18 How Xenakis “blew [Carl’s] mind”
5:18 Postmodernism as restructuring
7:29 Having “outsiders” as teachers
11:30 Betsy Jolas and French “cultural self-awareness”
13:02 Spectralism and serialism in 1980s Paris
15:04 How studying history impacted Carl’s music
18:46 Non-teleological music (Zimmermann, Stockhausen, Oliveros)
21:15 Carl’s harmonic approach
23:44 Overtones as a structural device
25:21 Cowell’s “unified field theory”
27:00 “From the Ground Up” (2002)
30:18 When overtones meet equal temperament
31:31 “Changing My Spots” (2005)
37:12 Choosing an intonation system
39:08 “Night Garden” (2012–13)
41:58 The “harmonic ladder”
46:05 Modulation between harmonic series
47:46 Fixed and frozen register
48:30 Composers should be theorists, too
51:00 Transcendentalism vs. humanism
54:25 Young composers’ diverse inspiration
55:53 How artificial intelligence will impact music industry
58:06 Concert music’s appeal
59:52 Values in popular music
1:01:07 Recent work
1:02:21 Quasi-improvised “Infinity Avenue” (2017)
1:03:19 Symphony No. 7 “Infinity Avenue” (2020)
1:04:09 “Infinity Avenue” as a continuing project
1:05:16 Only writing what’s necessary
1:05:39 Conclusion

📚 Sources/further reading:
"Music Composition in the 21st Century: A Practical Guide for the New Common Practice" by Robert Carl (Bloomsbury, 2020)
"Temporal and Harmonic Concerns in the Music of Robert Carl" by Daniel Morel (MM thesis, UMKC, 2018): https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/64180

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Music:

Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Stille und Umkehr (1970), performed by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony conducted by Hans Zender: youtube.com/watch?v=UeteD0zHMqo
Robert Carl: From the Ground Up (2002), performed by John McDonald: youtube.com/watch?v=Zpe2w8pd8jo
Robert Carl: Changing My Spots (2005), premiere recording
Robert Carl: Night Garden (2012–13)
Robert Carl: Infinity Avenue, quasi-improvised version (2017), performed by Henry Birdsey, Adam Buffington, Robert Carl, Zach Rowden, Trevor Saint, and Matt Sargent: youtube.com/watch?v=HXw-InMYbKA
Robert Carl: Symphony No. 7 "Infinity Avenue" (2020), performed by Foot in the Door conducted by Edward Cumming: youtube.com/watch?v=1X2eX2z5r5U
Robert Carl: White Heron (2012), performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project conducted by Gil Rose: youtube.com/watch?v=NoDfLsfaiAA

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