Interview with Composer Marcus Paus Conducted for ICONI by Edward Green

Abstract

We learn in this interview with the leading Norwegian composer of his generation, Marcus Paus (b. 1979), how critical he is of the “academic tradition” which, in his view, has hurt a good deal of contemporary music over the last several decades: a certain snobbish adherence to non-tonal, non-melodic “abstract modernism.” Paus, on the contrary, asserts the living freshness of traditional values. His own music is grounded in tradition, is steeped in the value of careful craftsmanship, and yet, at the same time, is passionate, surprising, original, deeply lyrical, and fervently humanist in its social and political orientation. We learn, too, of his great esteem for the American composer John Williams, best known for his cinematic scores. Paus sees Williams as a model of nobility: both musically, and as a human being. In this interview there is also substantial discussion of the value of the philosophy of Aesthetic Realism, founded by the great American philosopher Eli Siegel, and his profound ideas concerning Art and Life. During this wide-ranging conversation, Paus speaks likewise of world music, pop music, and his abiding interest in literature and painting. There is also an extended passage where he keenly and generously comments on the composers of his own generation, and points to several of their most outstanding works.