The Istanbul Manifesto (work in progress)

In December 2011, I got together with some fellow composers, who I had already met online, in Istanbul, Turkey. While I was there, I was going to write a sort of "manifesto" of my musical ideas and plans, but I didn't have time.

Two and a half years later, while still working on my vast musical projects, I've decided to form my own circle of composers, like the Russian Five (Могучая кучка) or France's Les Six. However, my group would be international, and not limited to a such a small number of composers.

While having a great deal of diversity, we would be united by these concepts:

• The innovations and revolutionary ideas of the 20th and early 21st century masters would be continued, with serialism, minimalism et cetera being used not as genres unto themselves as much as techniques. At the same time, the music would be rooted in the music of the common practice era (Baroque, Classical, Romantic) as well as early-music era, while still progressive in outlook. (It would take Liszt and Wagner's side in the "War of the Romantics".)

• In the spirit of the ancient city which straddles the natural border between Europe and the Middle East (the Bosphorus), non-Western musical styles will be explored, with their melodic complexity that often uses pitches outside the conventional twelve-tone scale, and complex rhythms in both additive and divisive meters. Also, it would be important to treat these "world music" styles with respect and not misrepresent them as Ersatz. Appreciate, don't appropriate.

• For reasons stated above, and in the spirit of experimentalism/the avant-garde, tuning systems not based on the twelve-tone equal tempered scale should be greatly employed. I personally will be using 72 equal divisions of the octave, but other tunings--19, 22, 31, 41, 53 and other equal temperaments, Harry Partch's 43-tone just scale, historical meantones and well-temperaments--should also be explored.

• These ideas should be implemented not only in "high" art music, but in popular styles in a spirit of populism, while not "selling out" or "dumbing down". Progressive rock and metal in particular is fertile ground for such ideas. Another related concept is Gebrauchsmusik, that music should often have a useful purpose (including in theater, film, video games and the like), though it should always stand on its own merits.

• The relationship between music and other arts, and also literature and philosophy, should also be emphasized, as these disciplines are ultimately inseparable. Again, the emphasis will be on modern and postmodern schools of thought.

My invitation will be rather open, to any like-minded composer, musician and music lover. I want it to be an egalitarian, democratic organization, not anything with a dictatorial "leader".

More ideas to be added as they come to me.