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

[theREALdotnet]

It looks to me as if you are deep in the matter of 'music'. Are you a musician yourself, or what is your relation to it?

No, not really. I sang in a choir when I was younger, but I’m no musician. I just like to listen to music, and I like music that reveals more and more each time I listen to it, and as I get to understand what’s going on. But I can listen to “bad” music, too, that’s not a problem for me. And sometimes, what seems like bad music at first can turn out to be interesting if I stick with it for a while.

 

[computer-audiophile]

No, not really. I sang in a choir when I was younger, but I’m no musician. I just like to listen to music, and I like music that reveals more and more each time I listen to it, and as I get to understand what’s going on. But I can listen to “bad” music, too, that’s not a problem for me. And sometimes, what seems like bad music at first can turn out to be interesting if I stick with it for a while.

Thank you, of course there are also very experienced music recipients and connoisseurs in the ASR, even if the focus of the forum is more of a technical nature. That's just the tool. IT's cool to read something from them.

 

[computer-audiophile]

I wanted to post something about yesterday's concerts. It was sensational again, you can't really experience the sound or the whole atmosphere at home. Live concerts of contemporary and classical music really take me out of my everyday life. If you ever have the chance...

In the evening, Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich was played by the Ensemble Modern, which is a world-famous group of self organized musicians, specialized in this genre. I've been listening to them on and off for decades, and when I'm so close to the members now and look in their faces, I'm a bit sad to see that we've all grown older. I feel connected to them in time.

The play lasts an hour. It's a percussion marathon. You fall into a trance. At the end I stayed seated for a few minutes, I was like in a daze.

You can find the piece on streaming services, or short sequences on YouTube. But it's not the same, it could be boring and monotone in full length, and the dynamics and attack of the marimbas are quite high at live performance levels. The piece has subtle changes of pitch and complex patterns that are easier to follow and understand when watching the musicians as they play.

 

[theREALdotnet]

Looks like it’s on Qobuz:

 

[computer-audiophile]

Looks like it’s on Qobuz:

View attachment 281289

Thanks, this is interesting!

As I can see, it is an older recording, from 25 years ago. The ensemble exists since 40 years now. I'd love to have this on vinyl for festive hearing at home on my retro sound system with turntable, tubes and horns.

Now I found this piece also on Deezer-Hifi and listen to it again for the next hour.

Music For 18 Musicians

Ensemble Modern - album - 1998 - 28 Songs

www.deezer.com

 

[computer-audiophile]

The concert day had much more to offer. At breakfast I met the totally likeable composer Annesley Black, she is Canadian but speaks perfect German.

Komponist:in zum Frühstück - hellerau

Black’s compositional output is characterized by a dialectical ...

www.hellerau.org

One moment, please...

hfm-wuerzburg.de

In the course of the concert with several pieces, her 'romantic vein' also became visible by using vintage analogue instruments, which are not so precisely controllable compared to today's composition software.

The first piece was played on a humble old synthesizer. I find that very difficult when played from sheet music!

 

[computer-audiophile]

I also like to listen to old music sometimes. The photos I show here are about 2 hours old. Earlier we went to a concert at a friend's house near here. She lives in a castle. Music from the baroque period was played on a Förster grand piano. This instrument is made by a piano manufacturer nearby. In the undamped hall the sound was too harsh to my ears, but still it was a nice concert afternoon.

 

[computer-audiophile]

Brahms Rhapsodie op.79/2 was also played yesterday in the castle. Not quite in the quality as in the following video, but nevertheless it was once again beautiful. My wife has resolved to rehearse this piece sometime, too.

 

[JaMaSt]

 

[JaMaSt]

This never resolves to the tonic. Unsettling yet beautiful, none the less.

 

[computer-audiophile]

This never resolves to the tonic. Unsettling yet beautiful, none the less.

Thank you for posting, I also observe these phenomena, find it interesting what is happening in Asia, but cannot connect with it intellectually or emotionally.

A few years ago I had nice contacts with young Korean musicians who studied at the music academy in my previous city. Basically, I am more friendly with Japan.

 

[OldenEars]

Topic for attention

One of the main reasons I got into Roon was music discovery. Both genres I listen to already, but also new genres/artists. I fell over this music (on the radio but still) one day, and I’m presumable just not smart or sophisticated enough to understand the music. It sounds like some random guy sitting down just hammering aimless away on the piano

Are any of you listening to this kind of music (what (sub)genre is it?), and what exactly are you enjoying in the music? I’m serious and don’t want to put anyone down, I’m just very curious, as I don’t understand it and want to learn how and why other people listen to this kind of music.

Thanks!

Direct link to YouTube video

Tom Waits did some good stuff that sounds like hammering

Not certain what best practice is for mic choice and positioning for recording hammers

 

[Owl]

I watched the video and I'm not sure which one is more distracting, the music or the video. The girls are certainly cute, but the music to me comes across as struggling to join to many bits and pieces together.

 

[computer-audiophile]

I watched the video and I'm not sure which one is more distracting, the music or the video. The girls are certainly cute, but the music to me comes across as struggling to join to many bits and pieces together.

Since we do not have children, we are not directly exposed to such cheap music fads. It can also be called "new music", but it is not this complex contemporary composition that this thread is mainly about and in which there is usually a high artistic talent.

 

[computer-audiophile]

Somehow I still had the concert with Steve Reich material in my ear, when listening to France Musique yesterday I came across another minimalist who seems interesting to me with his piece Shaker Loops for example. It's John Adams. He is portrayed very symphatically in a Youtube video from Berlin. The video is mostly in English, only the beginning is briefly in German.

 

[Multicore]

This new release on col legno is good. The 2nd and 3rd tracks sound like if Messiaen were trying to write link J S Bach.

 

[computer-audiophile]

This new release on col legno is good. The 2nd and 3rd tracks sound like if Messiaen were trying to write link J S Bach.

View attachment 286544

Nice to read from you again in this thread.

The album reminds of pieces I know by Wolfgang Rihm. (The first two tracks)
Then I thougt of Mussorgski...
I need to listen more now, I'm not all the way through yet.

Not bad! By the way, one of my favorite organists is Dominik Sustek, who plays a lot of very interesting modern material.

Organo/Logics

Wolfgang Kogert - album - 2023 - 10 Songs

www.deezer.com

 

[Multicore]

Glenn Gould has become my spirit guide. Or so my podcast partner Gavin said not long ago.

It happened in the course of making a program about Der Untergeher (The Loser), a book by Thomas Bernhard. Gould was my parent's generation and his significance kinda passed me by but I learned that Gould was 1) central in the transition of piano recital style from flamboyant, improvisation and conversational to very serious and 2) a hilarious genius of broadcasting.

We uncovered a very interesting Australian podcast in which a UC Berkey musicologist used Gould and Liberace to describe the piano recital style change. Links on the page below...

Der Untergeher (The Loser) - Thomas Bernhard

Listen now (121 mins) | Tom and Gav examine Bernhard's masterpiece from 1983 and attempt to discern its message in terms of mental health, dealing with fame and how artistic endeavor gets turned into a business.

gasgiants.substack.com

 

[Axo1989]

Speaking of organists, I caught up with the incident last week when one of Kali Malone's performances was blocked by a Catholic fundamentalist group in France (reminded me of earlier pages in this thread, very slightly). Apparently one of her tracks being called Sacer Profanare was enough to set them off (what must they think of Dante?) along with the heresy of playing "electro" in a church (she does electronic also).

With such a recommendation, I thought I'd listen to her stuff, and enjoyed it. The 2023 album with current collaborators is a collection of long-form drone pieces:

She is also known for this 2019 (relatively) short-form (post-)minimalist album:

I'm familiar with some obvious precursors, but not this artist before now. Has anyone seen her performance? Or has any thoughts about her tuning and/or compositional strategies?

Edit: my browser is having some weird loading issues today, in case you can't see them the first album is Does Spring Hide Its Joy and the second is The Sacrificial Code ... of course as soon as I post that it works again.

 

[computer-audiophile]

Hi Axo, I'm playing it right now, it does go on quite long, sound floats, kind of minimal music, not bad.
This cancel culture, which one encounters everywhere today, I find quite terrible. And I also find intolerant art philistines quite terrible. I am very dissatisfied with the development of the zeitgeist.

Does Spring Hide Its Joy

Kali Malone - album - 2023 - 9 Songs

www.deezer.com