A displaced Californian composer writes about music made for the long while & the world around that music. ~
The avant-garde is flexibility of mind. — John Cage ~
...composition is only a very small thing, taken as a part of music as a whole, and it really shouldn't be separated from music making in general. — Douglas Leedy ~
My God, what has sound got to do with music! — Charles Ives
Friday, June 27, 2008
Okay, it's your turn...
Heard anything good lately? Anything out there challenging, if not changing, the way you listen? What and to whom should we being paying attention?
You probably already know it, but Per Nørgård's 3rd symphony is definitely my favorite piece written in the last half-century, and one of my all-time favorite pieces. I just love the way it seems to tie together all the disparate stylistic threads of 20th century music (serialism, minimalism, collage, etc.) into an organic whole, feeling all-encompassing and at the same time intimate and personal. It seems to exhibit an ecstatic quality that had been missing from music since the death of the Romantic, and yet manages to avoid the pitfall of neo-Romanticism.
P.S. I apologize for writing in such a vague way. I'm not a musician and can't really speak of music in a way more precise than analogous comparisons and descriptive language.
I had the opportunity to hear three pieces by Helmut Lachenmann at New England Conservatory's SICPP program last week: Serynade, Allegro Sostenuto, and temA. His music on record had never made much of an impression, but they were truly astounding live. So much expressive effort put into such small sounds.
Hearing Lachenmann's music reinforces how important live music making is, and perhaps this is one reason why classical music is taking a back seat to music that survives recording better.
I've been really into chiptunes lately. This is music made with 8bit equipment, like old nintendos or c64 sid stations or comparably old-school digital tech. some of it sounds like dance-y, hyperactive video game music. I especially enjoy the belgian group lo-bat.
Wait, did you mean serious music? There's a lot of traffic recently on the c sound podcast. What's up with that?
Um, also, I like w00t by Bob Ostertag, which is new, even though he's not a new name.
I don't game, but I do like game sound design.
Unrelatedly, Tom Crean's podcast has been really good the last few months.
I really like Benjamin Dale's music, particularly his viola music, as recorded by violist Roger Chase and Michiko Otaki on Dutton Digital. Dale is a compatriot and contemporary of York Bowen and Frank Bridge, and is relatively unknown, even to violists!
4 comments:
You probably already know it, but Per Nørgård's 3rd symphony is definitely my favorite piece written in the last half-century, and one of my all-time favorite pieces. I just love the way it seems to tie together all the disparate stylistic threads of 20th century music (serialism, minimalism, collage, etc.) into an organic whole, feeling all-encompassing and at the same time intimate and personal. It seems to exhibit an ecstatic quality that had been missing from music since the death of the Romantic, and yet manages to avoid the pitfall of neo-Romanticism.
P.S. I apologize for writing in such a vague way. I'm not a musician and can't really speak of music in a way more precise than analogous comparisons and descriptive language.
I had the opportunity to hear three pieces by Helmut Lachenmann at New England Conservatory's SICPP program last week: Serynade, Allegro Sostenuto, and temA. His music on record had never made much of an impression, but they were truly astounding live. So much expressive effort put into such small sounds.
Hearing Lachenmann's music reinforces how important live music making is, and perhaps this is one reason why classical music is taking a back seat to music that survives recording better.
I've been really into chiptunes lately. This is music made with 8bit equipment, like old nintendos or c64 sid stations or comparably old-school digital tech. some of it sounds like dance-y, hyperactive video game music. I especially enjoy the belgian group lo-bat.
Wait, did you mean serious music? There's a lot of traffic recently on the c sound podcast. What's up with that?
Um, also, I like w00t by Bob Ostertag, which is new, even though he's not a new name.
I don't game, but I do like game sound design.
Unrelatedly, Tom Crean's podcast has been really good the last few months.
I really like Benjamin Dale's music, particularly his viola music, as recorded by violist Roger Chase and Michiko Otaki on Dutton Digital. Dale is a compatriot and contemporary of York Bowen and Frank Bridge, and is relatively unknown, even to violists!
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