“Music of the future”: What will this music sound like in 100 years? – Culture

Mushroom music and the crunching of glaciers: Suisa’s “Future Music” project preserves 40 compositions in a time capsule that will not be published until 2123. Sounds fantastic? It is.

You should look for mushrooms and singing dogs to make music. The exchange and communication then takes place via telepathy. The instructions from singer Joy Frempong and composer Marcel Blatti sound like something from a script for a sci-fi opera. In fact, they are aimed at real people – those who will be alive in 100 years.

Birthday present on paper

The “Zukunftsmusik” project is a gift for last year’s 100th birthday of the Swiss music cooperative SUISA. Have for that 40 Swiss musicians composed pieces, which are stored in a time capsule. They are scheduled to sound for the first time in 2123.

Included are compositions by contemporary artists who work with electronics and pop, but also folk music and noises have made it into the time capsule. Because no one knows what technology and data carriers will be used in 100 years, no finished sound products were stored, but rather compositions on paper.

Wording battles

All participants had exactly two DIN A4 pages available, although the space was used very differently. Some filled their pages with very small font, others printed scores.

Many made sketches, drawings and instructions, explains ethnologist, curator and initiator of the project Johannes Rühl. “The pages are a picture of struggles, how you try to make people understand in 100 years what you would like them to do.”

In fact, it’s hard to imagine how people in the year 2123 would implement a piece of music. Because: Will people even have the same instruments in the future? Or will the way of making music have fundamentally changed?

Sounding egg slicers

Erika Stucky added a hair to her song composition in case you wanted to bring it to life as a hologram. In addition, egg cutters will be distributed among the audience during the performance, which people can then pluck along on. The only question that arises is whether people will still eat eggs in 100 years and know what egg cutters are.

Simon Felber and Adrian Würsch would like their song sketch to only be made accessible to two people in 100 years. These people should learn the song and pass it on to others from memory. As soon as enough people know the song, they should independently write arrangements for it.

Crunching glacier DNA

Ludwig Berger wants to preserve sounds from the core of the Morteratsch glacier. In order to preserve these sounds in the long term for the future, they would be stored in the form of DNA. In 100 years the file should be read and played on site. The project leaves behind a sonic monument to climate change.

Legend:

Fossil genetic data: DNA preserved in amber for posterity.

SRF/European Parliament

“Music of the Future” is not just a musical project, but also a deeply philosophical one, says initiator Johannes Rühl. “Success doesn’t matter because the musicians who take part will be dead in 100 years and will never know how people react to their music in 2123.”

Nevertheless, none of the 40 people we asked declined. Apparently one expects some kind of effect in or from the future.