Would you describe yourself as a neo-romantic? Why (not)?

A group of 13 composers associated with the term “neo-romanticism” ponder if that word accurately represents their music.

Written By

NewMusicBox Staff

Bruce Adolphe : Are you a tonal or atonal composer? Religious or Atheist? Cerebral or Emotional? Let’s face it, even asking are you male or female may not get a simple answer anymore, so how can a composer in this eclectic musical world of ours be expected to respond?	Beth Anderson: I used to call my work “romantic minimalism” but as it became more lyrical I changed the description to “new romantic” music, which is just another way of saying “neo-romantic”. But the creation of beauty is more important than whether the music is neo-romantic…	Nancy Bloomer Deussen: …My belief is that one must compose with complete honesty and from the heart regardless of what idiom may or may not be ‘in’…
Lawrence Dillon : While I am open to and intrigued by new things, I would prefer to come upon them in the pursuit of honesty, rather than making newness the object of my search. In this context, words like “neo-romanticism” or “neo-tonality” have little significance…	Nancy Galbraith: The label “neo-romantic” implies a return to the expression of feelings or emotions versus a more abstract art form. From that standpoint alone, I might be considered to be a neo-romanticist. However, my compositional technique is more removed from the technical style that is generally associated with neo-romanticism…	Jake Heggie: I have never considered myself a “new romantic” just because I tend to favor long lyrical lines and colors more rooted in traditional harmony…
Anthony Iannaccone: As a composer, I don’t reject the label “neo-romantic,” if neo-romantic suggests that my music can include tonality and atonality along with traditional and current techniques. However, “hardening of the categories” is an unhealthy condition and labels can constrain, overly reduce, and mislead while they purport to distinguish and clarify…	Lowell Liebermann: Neo-romantic? That label makes me wince. Unfortunately, it is a label that seems to have stuck…we live in a market-driven society: one that decides what or what not to buy based on brand names…	Thomas Pasatieri: Things have changed: critics are no longer suspect of a work which has great audience reaction and do not criticize on principle. Now a composer can write in whatever idiom suits him or her and the only important criteria is whether he or she communicates and speaks from the heart. Thank God…
Tobias Picker: Neo-romantic…has always implied that romanticism went away and then came back. That would be like some spell descending upon the world causing people to stop falling in love.	Kevin Puts: I think the “neo-romantic label” is rather limited…	Alex Shapiro: …My difficulty with the term neo-romantic, or neo-anything, for that matter, lies with the fact that such descriptions cheat music that’s new by insisting on labeling it as something that’s new-but-actually-old. It seems that each time we come across music which we can’t quite describe, we preface it with “neo” and tether it with a ball and chain to the past…
	Andrew Violette: Minimalism, neo-romanticism haven’t been cutting edge for thirty years…