Not trying to be arrogant here, but who listens to this?

[krabapple]

Nonesuch was/is a wonderful label for finding both 'contemporary classical' and what used to be called 'world music'. In the latter category I own three that are justly famous:

Tibetan Buddhism: The Ritual Orchestra & Chants *​

Music from the Morning of the World: The Balinese Gamelan / Ketjak: The Ramayana Monkey Chant​

Shakuhachi - The Japanese Flute


*the colossal sound of massed dungchen aka 'Tibetan long horns' on this has to be heard to be believed

 

[Axo1989]

By listening attentively. The seminal event was a college music class in which we were asked to write a short essay on a piece which the vast majority of us had never heard before. This was back in the 1950s and it was a movement of a Schoenberg string quartet. It made little sense to me on the first hearing but, with the second, I already latched on to some of the motifs. By the the morning, I found myself humming it!

What I learned from that is that it can be impossible to grasp what is really happening in the first hearing of something quite strange and unfamiliar.

Yes, I've certainly had the experience where my impressions/memory of a piece after the first listen is not much better than those blind men figuring out the elephant.

 

[diddley]

Ry Cooder and many other great artist is on nonesuch records

 

[Axo1989]

Thanks, the thread is developing very stimulating and connoisseurs join.

Yesterday we were lucky with the icy weather and were able to attend the performance of Stockhausen's "Music in the Belly" with the ensemble "Percussion de Strasbourg". That was an absolute highlight for us at the beginning of the concert year. It will keep me busy for some time with research and notes. Having seen videos of previous performances, it was clear how modern this reinterpretation was developed while staying true to the original idea. We are absolutely thrilled!

The two teaser videos may give a small impression.

Glad you enjoyed it. And negotiated the winter weather. Fewer opportunities here (but I have manage to hear the Phillip Glass ensemble, also Sakamoto, Ikeda and Alva Noto at various local events—I'm more into avant-garde and electronic than classical, so there's likely been more going on).

 

[computer-audiophile]

Nonesuch was/is a wonderful label for finding both 'contemporary classical' and what used to be called 'world music'. In the latter category I own three that are justly famous:

Of course, world music is another interesting genre besides "Neue Musik" from the West, particularly from Europe.

But, great, I didn't mention anything about my love for Japan in particular, Japanese art, music, cuisine, etc. My wife sings in a German-Japanese choir and I have accompanied her to Japan several times for tours that took us all over the country. It was a good opportunity to make friends in Japan over the years. Besides I was also very interested in the Japanese audio scene and visited outstanding installations and personalities. I had a lot to talk about. Audio has been my passion since childhood.

Since I also like avantgarde electronic music, I have CDs by Alva Noto, Ryuichi Sakamoto, etc.

Unfortunately, due to the Corona pandemic, we haven't been able to travel there for a long time and are slowly losing contact. I am attaching a photo from 2018 of a performance of the choir together with Japanese singers at the Muza Kawasaki Concert Hall.

MUZA KAWASAKI SYMPHONY HALL

MUZA Kawasaki Symphony Hall opened on 1 July 2004 to symbolize the City of Kawasaki's concept as "The City of Music"

www.kawasaki-sym-hall.jp

 

[computer-audiophile]

Shakuhachi - The Japanese Flute

Keyword 'Shakuhachi'. One of my records where the focus is on Japanese flute.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Of course, world music is another interesting genre besides "Neue Musik" from the West, particularly from Europe.

But, great, I didn't mention anything about my love for Japan in particular, Japanese art, music, cuisine, etc. My wife sings in a German-Japanese choir and I have accompanied her to Japan several times for tours that took us all over the country. It was a good opportunity to make friends in Japan over the years. Besides I was also very interested in the Japanese audio scene and visited outstanding installations and personalities. I had a lot to talk about. Audio has been my passion since childhood.

Since I also like avantgarde electronic music, I have CDs by Alva Noto, Ryuichi Sakamoto, etc.

Unfortunately, due to the Corona pandemic, we haven't been able to travel there for a long time and are slowly losing contact. I am attaching a photo from 2018 of a performance of the choir together with Japanese singers at the Muza Kawasaki Concert Hall.

MUZA KAWASAKI SYMPHONY HALL

MUZA Kawasaki Symphony Hall opened on 1 July 2004 to symbolize the City of Kawasaki's concept as "The City of Music"

www.kawasaki-sym-hall.jp

View attachment 259253

So is that a single pair of microphones flown over the performance for recording?

 

[computer-audiophile]

So is that a single pair of microphones flown over the performance for recording?

I don't know, I wasn't paying attention. I don't know if there's a recording either. The equipment of this house is first class in every respect. Also the support in the background.

Over View|MUZA Kawasaki Symphony Hall

Over View.MUZA Kawasaki Symphony Hall opened on 1 July 2004 to symbolize the City of Kawasaki's concept as "The City of Music"

www.kawasaki-sym-hall.jp

 

[computer-audiophile]

Hi all,

I would like to see more reports or anecdotes from other countries about the contemporary classical scene there. I am aware that ASR is an international forum that spans the globe.

I know it well in Europe, have been to many performances and have direct contact with some of the protagonists, also a little in Japan.
For example, I don't have much insight into the USA. Unfortunately, I've never been to the USA myself, and it probably won't happen in this lifetime.

Johannes

 

[Multicore]

I find the topic very exciting, as you might notice, but at the same time I'm not sure if it's the right place for the topic contemporary music. Is there enough interest here, or is it even perceived as annoying in an audio science forum? I would be sorry!

ASR visitors don't need to read this topic while I don't read most of the ASR topics about music. I think different interests can coexist here.

 

[Multicore]

Eight percussionists produce a staggered, precisely notated score with an extensive sound apparatus of almost one hundred instruments. In six passes, the original phase duration time unit is shortened to a final value of one second. In doing so, they systematically push the actions of the instrumentalists to the limits of technical playability and range, until finally an extreme, almost panicky state of hecticness arises.

I will have to make time to listen to that. But on reading this, it does seem to confirm the anarchists' critique of the high-art music scene as essentially tyrannical ;>

 

[Multicore]

Let me ask you a question: How did you come to love contemporary classical music, if that's the case?

It was on the radio when I was a kid and I thought some of it sounded interesting. There was more in the record library. In other libraries I found books and scores. That's how. If you want to know why, that's another matter.

 

[Multicore]

So is that a single pair of microphones flown over the performance for recording?

Looks like it. A lot of concert halls have mics hanging around like that. Static installations, like the lights. Whether or not they get used for anything in a given situation is often hard to know.

For example, and this is interesting from the audiophile perspective too, of all the recordings and videos of Leo Brouwer's Nuevos estudios sencillos - X. Omaggio a Stravinsky, this one by Cecilio Perera is my favorite. There's a mic in the picture pointing at the guitar. Is there a recording from that mic? I tried to contact him to ask but got no response. It looks like the mic was set up to record him but who knows if anyone did. If someone did, I want it!

The audiophile thought is of course that despite the crummy audio quality on this youtube, the music survives (as @Floyd Toole puts it). This is still better than all the other youtubes of the work I've seen. Cecilio Perera adds a good deal of his own invention and swagger to the work, doesn't play too fast, makes it exciting. So I choose this one over all the quality and probably audiophile recordings.

If you look hard enough you'll find my youtubes of the same two Brower Études, a Szymanovsky and a Stravinsky. Speaking of my music on youtube, at the weekend I uploaded a drone improvisation I recorded about 20 years ago.

 

[computer-audiophile]

Hi Tom,

These are very nice pieces, I found good recordings of them on Deezer. I better not remember my attempts to play Spanish guitar when I was young. It's not necessarily my great talent, and expensive instruments didn't make it better.

 

[computer-audiophile]

If we're talking about classical concert guitar now, Evgeni Finkelstein definitely comes to mind. He has made a lasting impression on me. Once I heard him at the Künstlerhaus Edenkoben https://www.kuenstlerhaus-edenkoben.de another time at Hambach Castle http://www.hambacher-schloss.de/

 

[computer-audiophile]

Actually, I had hoped that the provocative initial question would lead to a lively participation and more people would report on their experiences, backgrounds and anecdotes with contemporary classic music.

However, here where I live nowadays, in the very east of Germany, the interest is also quite low. People are rather conservative or not at all affine to this culture form. There are not a few events, but it is often the case that we sit in a very small circle of insiders at concerts.

 

[Multicore]

This album is very unusual. The collaboration between composer and electric music creator İlhan Mimaroğlu and one of the most accomplished jazz musicians of the 20th c. Freddie Hubbard. A bold and dramatic anti-war statement from 1971 that fuses free jazz with avant-garde strings, choir, synthetic sounds and poetry recitation. It's a really stand-out unique creation.

Freddie Hubbard / İlhan Mimaroğlu – Sing Me A Song Of Songmy​

It's also the subject of today's new episode of Gas Giants Podcast which, owing to a failure at Substack, didn't get pushed out to the podcast apps. Maybe it will show up then Substack fixes the problem. But you can listen on the web here.

 

[Multicore]

These are very nice pieces, I found good recordings of them on Deezer.

Leo Brouwer's compositions for guitar are in a class of their own. I'm not sure about his other works since I haven't given them enough time.

I know the recording you found on Deezer but I found it a bit disappointing after having heard the live one that I linked from Youtube. The album version is very clean, correct and by the book. It's excellent. But in the live recording Cecilio Perera adds a lot of his own ideas, varying the tempi, adding swing time, repeating certain phrases, using palm mute, in other words, he's having fun with it while remaining perfectly in control.

When working on our episode on Der Untergeher (The Loser) by Thomas Bernhard we found this marvelous conversation in which an academic musicologist explains how piano recitals changed in the 20th c., transitioning from the style of Liberace (which is in the style tradition of e.g. Mozart and Liszt) to the very serious, frowning, chin-scratching style of Glenn Gould. Cecilio Perera recital style seems quite free while his recording style is more Gouldian.

Gould and Liberace - ABC listen

Their piano schtick had more in common than you'd think.

www.abc.net.au

 

[computer-audiophile]

Thanks Tom,

I had signed up for your mailing list and listened to the podcast right away.

Nice to see you have a friend overseas in Porto and both of you have the same vinyl record and can talk knowledgeably about it. I listened to the recording on Deezer and got my thoughts on it. On the one hand, I hear old-fashioned jazz punctuated by a babble of voices, noise, a poem... Tape music...

I understand it better when I read the poem itself. I don't know if I can be satisfied with the artistic level of the composition. I can receive it, but it doesn't come close to me. Although I really like obscure tape music* (Sorry, my English is very simplified, my critics may seem too rough).

*One of my favorite Examples: (Prof. Hiroaki Minami I have visited one time in Japan and he gave me some of his records as a gift)

Hiroaki Minami – Obscure Tape Music of Japan, Vol. 19: Kumo no Ito (The Spider's Thread) – Soundohm

"Kumo no Ito" (trans. "The Spider's Thread): "In 1977 I started the project of a musical piece for a female narrator and 4-channel electronic sounds using the text of the well-known Akutagawa novel.…

www.soundohm.com

 

[Sal1950]

Who listens to this?

Direct link to YouTube video

Ah, never mind.