Marcos Balter (1974-Present)

Introduction
Balter is a Brazilian contemporary classical composer. He was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1974. Balter was inspired by Postminimalism ideologies.

Work Analysis
I chose to analyze Wicker Park by Balter. Balter uses intervals at the beginning that begin to diminish in size as the piece progresses. He repeats cycles and creates a really cool reverb effect. The piece is extremely wet sounding. The notation on the score is not exactly what is being played, but it is close to what the actual piece sounds like. There is also breathing in the piece which gives it a really cool feel.

Comparisons
It sounds extremely ambient. It reminds me of electronic music in general. We can take the sounds of nature and everything around us and just observe what we hear. It can be quite breathtaking. It almost reminds me of something Stockhausen would have tried to do. I feel like he is taking the emotional aspect out of music and just doing music for what it is, a beautiful thing.

Observations
I am quite a fan of the ambient qualities of this piece. I never really listened to ambient music until I came to school here. The one thing I like about this piece is that I have had a different feeling and experience each time I have listened to it because the internal feeling for the piece can change depending on anything that we can or cannot control in our lives.