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

[Multicore]

It should also be remembered that much of this mid-century electronic/conrète work was state funded. The technology to make this stuff was damn expensive: Stockhausen at the WDR Studio for Electronic Music in Cologne, Pierre Schaeffer at RTF in Paris (which in turn spawned the GRM with Iannis Xenakis, Francois Bayle, Bernard Parmeggiani etc.), Luciano Berio in Studio di Fonologia Musicale RAI in Milan. Not to mention the Radiophonic Workshop at the BBC.

There was a really time where the state invested in experimantal music as a public good. How naïve!

The BBC wasn't an example of that. RW was poorly funded, under equipped, rather clapped out and their job was to furnish sounds for radio and TV shows to the director/producer's specs, so they didn't get to make music for its own sake and they didn't get composer or performer credits. The dismal situation drove Delia Derbyshire to drink and distraction. Despite all this she managed to make some stunning stuff.

On the other hand, the French state's largesse towards IRCAM was not, how shall we say, as stunningly fruitful. Funding on its own isn't enough.

 

[wadude]

It should also be remembered that much of this mid-century electronic/conrète work was state funded. The technology to make this stuff was damn expensive: Stockhausen at the WDR Studio for Electronic Music in Cologne, Pierre Schaeffer at RTF in Paris (which in turn spawned the GRM with Iannis Xenakis, Francois Bayle, Bernard Parmeggiani etc.), Luciano Berio in Studio di Fonologia Musicale RAI in Milan. Not to mention the Radiophonic Workshop at the BBC.

There was a really time where the state invested in experimantal music as a public good. How naïve!

It’s the same as investing in any other type of academic or scientific exploration. A lot of widgets have been developed to emulate the sounds produced in those types of programs.

 

[Multicore]

Imagine of all the work it must have taken to find, cut and splice all of those tape loops!

I literally can't. I have often tried to imagine and I can't. Even Silver Apples of the Moon that used a Buchla synth, I can't imagine making.

 

[wadude]

Johnny was a great blues player, too bad you missed him.

My faves are a collection of his pre-fame stuff, Johnny Winter And…Live, and one he produced for Muddy Waters. His cameo on Roadwork really shines!

There’s a great bio on him, named after the album, Raisin’ Cain.

EDIT: 2nd Winter, too!

 

[bluefuzz]

RW was poorly funded, under equipped, rather clapped out

Wasn't everything at the BBC? It is still remarkable the RW was there at all.

The dismal situation drove Delia Derbyshire to drink

It's a shame any mention of The Radiophonic Workshop always has to focus on poor old Delia's status as tragic heroine. From what I gather her life was neither as tragic nor as unproductive (post BBC) as some have made out. DD was undoubtedly a talented and interesting individual who was certainly underappreciated in her time, but she was only one of several talents working at the RW who never seem to get a mention nowadays. Her elevation to virtual sainthood in some circles is perhaps a teensy bit over the top ...

 

[Multicore]

Her elevation to virtual sainthood in some circles is perhaps a teensy bit over the top ...

Cosey Fanni Tutti's book Re-Sisters was more than a teensy bit OTT as hagiography. Kinda embarrassing.

Daphne Oram is quite mysterious to me.

 

[bluefuzz]

Cosey Fanni Tutti's book Re-Sisters was more than a teensy bit OTT

I haven't read it. Caroline Catz's Delia docudrama for which Cosey did the soundtrack is actually OK though. It's as much about Catz' fantasies as it is about Delia which is probably a good thing ...

Daphne Oram is quite mysterious to me.

Yes, she basically set up the Radiophonic Workshop and then left to develop her 'Oramics' music painting machine thingy.

 

[Multicore]

I haven't read it.

I wouldn't recommend it. It was subject of one of our pod eps.

Caroline Catz's Delia docudrama for which Cosey did the soundtrack is actually OK though. It's as much about Catz' fantasies as it is about Delia which is probably a good thing ...

Yes, I've seen it. Most of the information in it that's not standard fare appears to have been gleaned from a telephone interview Delia did for radio many years later.

 

[Multicore]

It is still remarkable the RW was there at all.

Yes. And it's very interesting to consider the emergent aesthetic it exhibited through into the 1970s and how come. I like to imagine one of the factors involved was Swinging London!

But if you want to talk about state funding of culture then the BBC as a whole through that era, and to some extent continuing to the present, is quite something. Patrician but effective and sometimes progressive. I'd say the Proms are a better specific example of activist arts patronage at the BBC then RW.

 

[bluefuzz]

I'd say the Proms are a better specific example of activist arts patronage at the BBC then RW.

Yes, perhaps. The RW was obviously very small part of Auntie Beeb. There are probably many people now who only think of the Proms as a bunch of toffs waving Union Jacks on the last night, but yes the Proms were and perhaps still are an important 'public good'. My mum was an avid attendee of the Proms in the 40s and 50s under the auspices of Adrian Boult and Malcolm Sargent. She has said it was life changing to be able to hear lots of great music performed for very little money.

 

[Multicore]

My mum was an avid attendee of the Proms in the 40s and 50s under the auspices of Adrian Boult and Malcolm Sargent. She has said it was life changing to be able to hear lots of great music performed for very little money.

That's great. And I am sure it is common story across generations. I put Earth Dances at the proms 1986 as the single most prominent monument in my musical experience. Cheap seats and stands were really cheap but still good for listening, as far as RAH goes. I went to several in the mid 80s as I had summer jobs near London in my student days. Xenakis Aïs with baritone soloist Spyros Sakkas was memorable too, I think he used a hand-held mic.

The live Radio 3 broadcasts of the Proms were also a big deal. I made lots of recordings to cassette from them.

Xenakis - Aïs​

Iiuc, by the time this recording was made, Sakkas had been doing Aïs for 20 years. Seems the voice is clipped in places. There are other recordings. Percussion solo is Béatrice Daudin in this recording.

 

[EJ3]

Definitely NOT my cup of tea. I gave it a good try (5 minutes straight, then skipped around) but not for me.

 

[EJ3]

Etude was very early. I think Stockhausen was very successful at getting good and interesting music out of electronics in the period before the transition to commercial music synths that largely put to rest the era of ad hoc and custom equipment.

One of the great composers that I especially admire working in that area who doesn't get so much attention is İlhan Mimaroğlu. Here is Agony, composed May 1965 at Columbia-Princeton Electronic Musc Center.

Some cool sounds, composition wasn't there yet, I do not think.
Sort of like a sound effects LP.
More in my lane (perhaps because to original composition was pretty good to begin with):

 

[ahofer]

Well, this is guaranteed to be controversial. I made many indignant exclamations as I scrolled through it.

https://www.classical-music.com/features/composers/50-greatest-composers-all-time

 

[Sal1950]

Well, this is guaranteed to be controversial. I made many indignant exclamations as I scrolled through it.

I love "indignant exclamations", they usually answer the questions best. LOL

 

[Multicore]

Also he (my dad I mean) had a copy of Treatise (I mean the graphical score) which I looked for a while back but couldn't find. Hope it's not lost.

Any luck with that in the mean time?

 

[Multicore]

Infinity of Lists by Ken Ueno​

I've mentioned Ken, friend and former band mate, here before several times. Last week his Infinity of Lists was premiered by Sound Icon at Tufts, just north of Boston. Unfortunately I didn't go but there's this video of it with rather good sound. The video has plenty of detailed information so I'll not add more except: I like it a lot.

 

[Multicore]

Well, this is guaranteed to be controversial. I made many indignant exclamations as I scrolled through it.

https://www.classical-music.com/features/composers/50-greatest-composers-all-time

It includes another shout-out for Panic! Nice.

Ligeti in the top 10! Their choice of the horn trio is good, I listened to it yesterday morning.

It didn't seem all that controversial to me.

 

[ahofer]

Ligeti in the top 10! Their choice of the horn trio is good, I listened to it yesterday morning.

It didn't seem all that controversial to me.

Self explanatory

My wife and I were displeased with the Brahms placement, among others, but chacun à son goût.

 

[Multicore]

My wife and I were displeased with the Brahms placement, among others, but chacun à son goût.

"We asked 174 composers ..." Yeah. Depends who you ask. And as a BBC we, ...

If Debussy and Stravinsky are Top 5, and that's reasonable depending on your frame, then I think Ligeti in Top 10 is correct.

But Ravel at 9 with Schumann at 49? This calls the whole 174 into question.