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

[Multicore]

Update: it features a quartet within the orchestra tuned down a quarter tone. And yet it kinda works.

A competent composer can make that work. There's a lot of possibilities with micro-tones but it can be very tricky to get these designs working right in performance.

Ken Ueno wrote a lovely piece for guitar that includes quarter step tuning. The noise effects at the beginning give way to a melody on a simple pulse rapid enough to let you listen to it as a flowing natural process. Dan Lippel, the guitarist in this recording, adds a lyricism that makes it all the sweeter. Of course, one guitar is a much simpler composition and performance problem than an orchestra and quartet off my a quarter tone.

Ken Ueno: Ghost Flower, by Dan Lippel

from the album Bach: Aufs Lautenwerk (Bandcamp exclusive edition w/ Bonus single of new Ken Ueno solo works)

danlippelguitar.bandcamp.com

Ken is a friend and a very good composer. Back in the day he was vocalist in Blood Money in which I also composed and played.

 

[ahofer]

A competent composer can make that work. T

I notice the thematic material mostly moves in octaves or semitones, and I suspect that's related.

 

[Multicore]

I notice the thematic material mostly moves in octaves or semitones, and I suspect that's related.

In the Gubaidulina, you mean?

 

[ahofer]

In the Gubaidulina, you mean?

yes

Concerto for Viola and Orchestra | Sofia Gubaidulina

Concerto for Viola and Orchestra by Sofia Gubaidulina, published by Schirmer Russian Music

www.wisemusicclassical.com

 

[EJ3]

Not something I would have chosen to listen to but actually playing some of it reminds me of very early Tangerine Dream and kosmiche krautrock and impressionist music.

I have liked Tangerine Dream since I first saw the video
Canyon Dreams

(VHS, Album, NTSC)

Miramar

MPV 8403

US

1987

(VHS, Stereo, PAL)

Miramar

MPV 8403

Germany

1987

on a VCR & a great 2 channel system (mine). I even obtained a copy but I eventually gifted it to someone. I am happy that they liked it very much but I wish that I still had it.
I was working for the Porsche Factory at the time (from 1984-1989). The best job that I ever quit to go to the one of the 3 worst companies I ever worked for.

Here (Charleston, SC USA) I like going to see our local Charleston Symphony, headed by

Yuriy Bekker – Concertmaster & Artistic Director​

They did a great, outdoor, Memorial Day concert this past Monday that I took my mother to.

 

[Multicore]

In the Gubaidulina, you mean?

yes

In our podcast ep on the Naked Lunch soundtrack album, Gav tells a story about when his dad was playing in performances of Ornette Coleman's wind quintet and, hoping to gain a better understanding of the work, asked Coleman about it. He got a very interesting answer. I don't have the quote in front of me but it was something like, when you play small intervals you play quickly but when you play large ones you take your time.

 

[Multicore]

I have liked Tangerine Dream since I first saw the video
Canyon Dreams

Thanks.

I cite TD as one of the early influences that got me on the road to weird music. A friend had a copy of Rubycon that he didn't like much and we traded it, I don't recall fro what. I still have it. That would have been about 1977-8 and I was nearly or recently a teen.

 

[EJ3]

Thanks.

I cite TD as one of the early influences that got me on the road to weird music. A friend had a copy of Rubycon that he didn't like much and we traded it, I don't recall fro what. I still have it. That would have been about 1977-8 and I was nearly or recently a teen.

I never considered TD weird.
Captain Beefheart, on the other hand...not my cup of tea.

 

[Verig]

Just back from the local orchestra. They played this concerto:

Despite its atonality it was listenable, and the performance of both soloist and orchestra was incredible. They created sounds I've never heard before - one of the reasons I like to listen to contemporary classical music.

This is nice. There's a fine line between listenable and just too complex noise. This one has very good structure. I'd almost call it "a pop song" as far as this stuff goes.

 

[Multicore]

I never considered TD weird.

Context is all. I was 12 and the weirdest thing I'd encountered by then on Top of the Pops was probably Sparks This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us. Rubycon is mostly static chords and filter sweeps and doesn't get the teens dancing.

Captain Beefheart, on the other hand...not my cup of tea.

You made me put on Ashtray Heart.

 

[Robin L]

You made me put on Ashtray Heart.

I feel like a glass shrimp in a pink panty
With a saccharine chaperone

 

[theREALdotnet]

I found this interactive timeline of classical music interesting. Worthwhile taking a look, especially for people new to classical music and struggling to put composers into historical context.

https://time.graphics/line/487

The timeline stops after John Williams. Would it be fair to say he killed classical music?

 

[Robin L]

I found this interactive timeline of classical music interesting. Worthwhile taking a look, especially for people new to classical music and struggling to put composers into historical context.

https://time.graphics/line/487

The timeline stops after John Williams. Would it be fair to say he killed classical music?

John Mauceri's "The War on Music" claims otherwise, stating that John William's recycling of late romantic "Classical" music saved classical music. Can't say as I agree, but John Mauceri is a solid champion of 20th century music as a conductor.

 

[danadam]

The timeline stops after John Williams. Would it be fair to say he killed classical music?

Philip Glass's bar extends until "now"

 

[Multicore]

https://time.graphics/line/487

I've seen this kinds of graphic more artfully done in the past.

It might be more interesting to represent the years a given composer was active than the years they were alive.

What's Babbitt doing here? Who listens to Babbitt? Where's Karlheinz?

 

[Multicore]

John Mauceri's "The War on Music" claims otherwise, stating that John William's recycling of late romantic "Classical" music saved classical music. Can't say as I agree, but John Mauceri is a solid champion of 20th century music as a conductor.

What do you think of the book?

 

[Robin L]

What do you think of the book?

I think he was essentially wrong. I think of John Williams as something of a skilled hack for hire, and that the roads classical music has taken that are not derived from the Late Romantic school are much more interesting and evolved than the roads taken by those composers looking backward. I notice that John Mauceri has conducted/collaborated with a lot of the more adventurous 20th/21st century music projects and more power to him for that. But the music that came from the Korngolds and Newmans and their ilk didn't have the importance that John Mauceri ascribes - the music for Star Wars and Indiana Jones works in part because it sounds like an old-fashioned throwback. Philip Glass and the minimalists works because it doesn't, or at least it didn't when it first appeared.

As I recall, Mauceri wrote something along the lines of atonal and serial music being a communist plot, which struck me as crackpot. But you'll have to read the book for yourself. I might have misread that part and don't intend to re-read the book.

 

[Robin L]

Philip Glass's bar extends until "now"

I was recording the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and Woman's Philharmonic (for radio rebroadcast, with a little bit of work as assistant engineer for some sessions for CDs) in the 1990s and can attest that there are many more new composers after Glass/Reich/Reily.

 

[Multicore]

As I recall, Mauceri wrote something along the lines of atonal and serial music being a communist plot, which struck me as crackpot

That does sound odd. I'd assumed the Darmstädter Ferienkurse was a CIA project.

 

[Robin L]

That does sound odd. I'd assumed the Darmstädter Ferienkurse was a CIA project.

Like I said, I might have misconstrued that line of argument. In any case, artists gonna do what artists gonna do.