Classical Listening

[Babbalanja]

Roger Sessions won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for his last major work, the Concerto for Orchestra. Considering he had already composed nine symphonies, perhaps the title was a concession to symphonic superstition.

Sessions: Concerto for Orchestra pt. I
Sessions: Concerto for Orchestra pt. II

Regards,

Istvan

[Emil Miller]

I have often thought that playing the lottery is the triumph of hope over experience.

I up only playing on those rare occasions when the lottery reaches some ungodly amount. Just last week it reached some $250 Million US+. I end up going in for maybe $5 with a couple of my studio mates. It merely becomes an excuse for fantasizing about what we would do if we were to suddenly find ourselves in the possession of a great deal of money. It always seems that the thing is won by some 85-year old or somebody without the least notion of how to spend the money. They usually announce that they'll pay off the 85 Buick... perhaps take a holiday excursion to Vegas... etc...

As you may have gathered, I don't play the lottery. A few years ago a friend told me that if he won the lottery he would buy me the apartment in Paris that I have always wanted: I'm still waiting.
You are right about the kind of people who tend to win. A woman in the UK well into her eighties won it and refused to claim it because: "I am frightened of having so much money at my age. What would I do with it anyway?"
On the other hand, a 56-year-old security guard who won it made the sage remark: "My days of slavery are over." If ever a man deserved to win it, he did.

[yanni]

If you had started off with the right foot, you would have concluded by now, your "eek" (funny face) placed at the end of you post, "covering" Forkel's 1802 "german national hero"* JSBach-Koch as well!

We have to start somewhere. Why not the music industry itself ?




*Forkel was JSBach's first biographer in 1802. The same year H.C.Koch published his music lexicon. As "Beethoven's Kochs puzzle" concluded, Forkel and H.C.Koch were the same person and JS"Bach" was a Koch himself.

[Musicology]

No, Yanni, Forkel was NOT the first biographer of J.S. Bach. (I've already said this twice).

As for your certain statement that ''J.S. Bach was a Koch himself'', we still wait for some evidence of this. The marriage and birth records of the very large musical Bach family in Germany (over many decades) strongly suggest otherwise. For a start. Take a decade or so. But DO tell us - please !

As far as the ubiquitous 'music industry' is concerned they seem to have been amazingly ignorant and disinterested in J.S. Bach until the 19th century. And even then it never features prominently. Care to give us an example of a single Bach concert in Vienna ('city of music') before the 19th century ? Or one in Vienna prior to, say, 1830 ? Or even a concert in which one (even one) of his works was on the concert programme !! Ah, yes, of course, 'Vienna, city of music', yes ?

And when did the music industry arrive ? Let's say around 1800 (with the arrival of the symphony orchestra, music copyright, the arrival of touring conductors, new techniques that would allow rapid commercial publishing of music, the founding of various music journals, the first 'history of music' and various other, increasingly international musical developments). The end of handwritten copies etc. So, by this reckoning, Bach should surely have been firmly on the musical menu by the early 19th century. In places such as Vienna.

And, suprise, surprise ! He is still not there ! Decades pass. And so it goes on. J.N. Forkel 'pulls his hair out'. And is ignored. And meanwhile arrives for the adoration of millions the ghouly trinity (Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven). Now presiding over the 'history of music' as gods of the musical pantheon and a music industry determined to ignore the history of music in Vienna itself (!) during the late 18th century. You really have to laugh at this.

The world loves its own, for sure !!

In the meantime -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyev_...eature=related

If you had started off with the right foot, you would have concluded by now, your "eek" (funny face) placed at the end of you post, "covering" Forkel's 1802 "german national hero"* JSBach-Koch as well!

We have to start somewhere. Why not the music industry itself ?




*Forkel was JSBach's first biographer in 1802. The same year H.C.Koch published his music lexicon. As "Beethoven's Kochs puzzle" concluded, Forkel and H.C.Koch were the same person and JS"Bach" was a Koch himself.

[Virgil]

While I am away for a whole month, I'm going to embark on listening and learning Beethoven's string quartets, performed by the Alexander String Quartet.



This is not the Alexander String Quartet. They weren't on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awOFHfun3BQ

[stlukesguild]

While I am currently engaged in a deeper exploration of Baroque music, I still have the "schizophrenic" need every now and then to explore something really different. Currently I am listening to two very unique composers: Tristan Murail and Harry Partsch.

Tristan Murail is a contemporary French composer (b. 1947). He studied economics and Arabic at the Ecole d'Hautes Etudes before entering the Paris Conservatoire to attend Messiaen's composition class (1967–72). Stimulated by Messiaen's research into resonance and his refinement of instrumental timbre, Murail and his contemporary, the composer, Grisey both used acoustics and the study of the perception of sound as the starting point for a new musical aesthetic which has since become known as "Spectral" music... which involved the use of the fundamental properties of sound as a basis for harmony, as well as the use of spectral analysis, FM, RM, and AM synthesis as a method of deriving polyphony. All of this is highly theoretical... and surely impossible for someone who cannot even read music to understand. Essentially, Murail's music is based upon sound and not upon any extraneous/non-musical considerations such as narrative, representation or suggestion of nature, emotional expression, etc... In spite of this theory... the resulting music is very evocative of nature... to a degree that places it firmly in the tradition of Impressionism and such Post-Impressionist composers as Messiaen. Like Impressionist composers such as Debussy... and especially Ravel, Murail is a master of orchestration. His choice of instruments are all highly evocative of color and mood.

This beautiful, sumptuous and gloriously colourful piece has finally made it onto YouTube:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utQAX...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdROh...eature=related

Gondwana is a short orchestral work and one of Murail's finest pieces. Gondwana is the name given to a southern precursor-supercontinent...



The music abounds in wave-like patterns of rise and fall, such as crescendo-decrescendo, acceleration-deceleration and tension-relaxation. If these waves of sound recall the legendary, sunken Gondwana, the geological Gondwana's turbulent history is vividly evoked in the music's more dramatic moments, especially in the volcanic "eruption" near the end of the work.

Harry Partsch is an even more unique character. Partsch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales. Microtonal music uses intervals of less than an equally spaced semitone. Microtonal music can also refer to music which uses intervals not found in the Western system of 12 equal intervals to the octave... music which contains intervals smaller than the conventional contemporary Western semitone. The term implies music containing very small intervals but can include any tuning that differs from the western 12-tone equal temperament. Microtonal music can be found especially in Asian and Middle-Eastern music... but may also be found in jazz, blues, and rock music where musicians may "bend" notes... between one not and the next on the traditional Western scale.

As a child, Partsch learned to play the clarinet, harmonium, viola, piano, and guitar. He began to compose at an early age, using the equal-tempered chromatic scale, the tuning system most common in Western music. However, Partch grew frustrated with what he felt were imperfections of the standard system of musical tuning, believing that this system was unsuitable for his ends. Partsch... who was largely self-taught... composed much of his music for custom-made instruments...





... often using found materials such as metal bowls, artillery shell casings, bamboo, liquor bottles, and hubcaps... that he built himself and tuned in unorthodox ways... to as many as 43 tones in a scale. He invented and constructed instruments that could underscore the intoning voice.

Partch secured a grant that allowed him to go to London to study the history of tuning systems and text-setting. While there, he met the poet, William Butler Yeats, with the intention of gaining Yeats' permission to write an opera based on the poet's translation of Sophocles' Oedipus the King. However, after his grant money ran out, he was forced to return to the U.S., at the height of the Depression. There, he lived as a hobo, traveling around on trains and taking casual work where he could find it. He continued in this way for ten years, chronicling his experiences in a journal named Bitter Music, parts of which he later set to music. In 1943, after receiving a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation, Partch was able to dedicate more time to music. Partch created and maintained his own record label, "Gate 5", to release recordings of his works and generate income. Towards the end of his life, Columbia Records made recordings of some of his works, including Delusion of the Fury, which helped increase public attention to his work. He remains a somewhat obscure figure, but is well known to experimental musicians (especially those interested in microtonality) and instrument-builders.

One might explore some of Partsch' work here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6buNHKzS-Nc

I'm especially interested in his settings of the poems of Li Po which I have on order. Further examination of Harry Partch can be found in this BBC documentary (6 parts):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cKnTj2cyNQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFtOK...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OH0W...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfCjW...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZV3z...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNqHH...eature=related

[yanni]

Twice already?

Quoting from the New York Times:

First Chapter
‘Johann Sebastian Bach’
By MARTIN GECK
Published: December 3, 2006
Johann Nikolaus Forkel publishes the first book on Johann Sebastian Bach in 1802, an eighty-two-page work entitled On Johann Sebastian Bach's Life, Art, and Work: For Patriotic Admirers of True Musical Art. The author was born in 1749, while Bach was still alive, in a village near Coburg, and in 1779 became Göttingen University's director of music. For years he maintained lively contact with Bach's sons and benefited from their direct, though far from complete, knowledge of their father. On one occasion, Forkel sends Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, presumably his most generous informant, several mettwursts to show his gratitude for notes the younger Bach turned over to him. Yet his sketch of Bach's life is supplemented with all sorts of anecdotal material. Although Forkel made a name for himself with a General History of Music, he seems less interested in determining Bach's place in music history than in paying tribute to him as a national hero.

Concerning the rest of your questions I suggest you either start with "Two Works by Poe decoded" OR try to explain Forkel's and HCKoch's parallel lifes and similarities in -their-early (1802 perhaps?) music "establishment" that seems to trouble you so!

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blog...e-musical.html

No, Yanni, Forkel was NOT the first biographer of J.S. Bach. (I've already said this twice).

As for your certain statement that ''J.S. Bach was a Koch himself'', we still wait for some evidence of this. The marriage and birth records of the very large musical Bach family in Germany (over many decades) strongly suggest otherwise. For a start. Take a decade or so. But DO tell us - please !

As far as the ubiquitous 'music industry' is concerned they seem to have been amazingly ignorant and disinterested in J.S. Bach until the 19th century. And even then it never features prominently. Care to give us an example of a single Bach concert in Vienna ('city of music') before the 19th century ? Or one in Vienna prior to, say, 1830 ? Or even a concert in which one (even one) of his works was on the concert programme !! Ah, yes, of course, 'Vienna, city of music', yes ?

And when did the music industry arrive ? Let's say around 1800 (with the arrival of the symphony orchestra, music copyright, the arrival of touring conductors, new techniques that would allow rapid commercial publishing of music, the founding of various music journals, the first 'history of music' and various other, increasingly international musical developments). The end of handwritten copies etc. So, by this reckoning, Bach should surely have been firmly on the musical menu by the early 19th century. In places such as Vienna.

And, suprise, surprise ! He is still not there ! Decades pass. And so it goes on. J.N. Forkel 'pulls his hair out'. And is ignored. And meanwhile arrives for the adoration of millions the ghouly trinity (Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven). Now presiding over the 'history of music' as gods of the musical pantheon and a music industry determined to ignore the history of music in Vienna itself (!) during the late 18th century. You really have to laugh at this.

The world loves its own, for sure !!

In the meantime -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyev_...eature=related

[Musicology]

Yanni,

Since this thread is on 'Classical Listening' you may wish to present some evidence to support your view on Bach. It has often been asked for. But so far you have produced none. Do so on another thread please. I promise to reply.

Here is the majesty of something far greater - far above the clouds, in fact. This is music from God. Not of this world but of a better one. I am sure of it.

Cantata 54
1st Movement


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SDpI...eature=related

[Scheherazade]

Since this thread is on 'Classical Listening' you may wish to present some evidence to support your view on Bach. It has often been asked for already. Because so far you have produced none. Do so on another thread please. I promise to reply.

I think it is a good opportunity at this point to remind everyone the OP of this thread:

So anyway... what are you listening to... what do you think of it... and why?

If you would like to discuss other elements of classic music, please do so in a separate thread.

[Sebas. Melmoth]

There is a new film about Glenn Gould:

http://glenngouldmovie.com/

To be aired in America on PBS' American Masters programme later this year.

[yanni]

Well, Schecherazade, Musicology has repeatedly declared himself a fan of Bach's music and I thought it appropriate to introduce him to Forkel, Bach's first biographer, so that he may then reply to questions like stlukes: .. what do you think of it... and why?, that's all!

[stlukesguild]

A Glenn Gould movie... Now there's something I need to see. There was a marvelous film some years back entitled 32 Short Films on Glenn Gould which was absolutely splendid. The focus was predominantly upon the music and visuals. The film is constructed of a series of 32 brief vignettes that paint a portrait of the brilliant yet troubled musician. Among my favorites I would include:

45 Seconds and a Chair:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5f25kL9Gio

The L.A. Concert:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omqUjAcE6P4

CD318:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFAEJsBym5E&feature=fvw

Pills:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJoIvk-xeyU

This film unfortunately deals with Gould's use and abuse of prescribed medications.

The entire 32 films can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaJbP...x=0&playnext=1

[Musicology]

Thanks StLukesGuild,

Glenn Gould ! There's a great subject, for sure ! Individualism in harmony with others.

Concerto
BWV 1053

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyOf_...eature=related

Partita
Gigue
BWV 825

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv_K0...eature=related

Very interesting ! Thanks for this Sebas. Melmouth

There is a new film about Glenn Gould:

http://glenngouldmovie.com/

To be aired in America on PBS' American Masters programme later this year.

Johann Sebastian Bach
From
Cantata 131

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80-OC...eature=related

[Sebas. Melmoth]

Auditing Brahms' Liebeslieder Walzer (Op. 52) for vocal quartet and piano four-hands.

This is a real Victorian type of home entertainment.

This recording is with the 'dream team' of Edith Mathis, Brigitte Fassbaender, Peter Schreier, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

http://www.amazon.com/Brahms-Liebesl...4025751&sr=1-2

[Musicology]

Aria
Sanfte soll mein Todeskummer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO2tuSSisRA

Sanctus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0NhW...eature=related

French Suite 4
BWV 815/1
Allemande

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaumZNDlMOM

French Suite 5
BWV 816/1
Allemande

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdLDL...eature=related

Prelude in D Minor
BWV 875

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZRB-...next=1&index=3