Highly informative posts

[Henk]

This thread will contain links to informative posts, which are too valuable to get loose in the mass of information. Let's deepen up those posts!

Chaszz on Beethoven being classical or romantic:
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,18479.msg512934.html#msg512934

Henk

[Szykneij]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rqJEpNWbL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

[The Diner]

[CD]

search "Lethe"

[Brian]

search "Lethe"

All I found were 4chan jokes. 







(  )

[karlhenning]

Here's one.

[Mirror Image]

I have a highly informative post to make: tongue twisters for kids!

1. Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said "this butter's bitter! But a bit of better butter will but make my butter better" So she bought some better
butter, better than the bitter butter, and it made her butter better so 'twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter!

2. I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish, but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I won't wish the wish you wish to wish.

3. A big bug bit the little beetle but the little beetle bit the big bug back.

4. If one doctor doctors another doctor does the doctor who doctors the doctor doctor the doctor the way the doctor he is doctoring doctors? Or does the doctor doctor the way the doctor who doctors doctors?

5. How many cans can a canner can, if a canner can can cans? A canner can can as many cans as a canner can, if a canner can can cans.

6. Betty bought butter but the butter was bitter, so Betty bought better butter to make the bitter butter better.

[Sid]

I found Lethe's discussion of Holmboe below to be interesting & informative. Although I haven't listened to anything by this composer, her opinions and description kind of piques my interest.

.
That is a shame - mature Holmboe does seem to be a quite ascetic experience, and your comparison with Simpson (often criticised as dry) is enlightening as it makes me realise that if I didn't connect to certain key elements of Holmboe's tonality* I would perhaps feel the same way. As much as Simpson avoids explicit pictorial programmes in his music, the energy more than makes up for this and creates something dynamic and engaging - not entirely as his reputation would suggest. Cosier symphonists like RVW will always remain closest to my heart, though.

*I find his metamorphosing method a great solution to the problems of the difficulties of writing such large statements, but it's mostly his superb writing for individual instruments and their elemental interactions. His slightly pungent brass - almost mimicking chorales in a pointillist manner at times - and woodwinds in particular are wonderful stamps of personality on his works regardless of mood, and often lend his pieces a curious nobility.

I would be interested in whether you and MI respond at all to his 10th chamber concerto (I uploaded it in flac here), which I found wonderfully dynamic, if not propulsive. I can just sense Holmboe feeling tempted to write a storming tune in the 8th movement, then instead deconstructing it into what we have presented here. It's a valid way of doing things and the whole "dissected scherzo" effect is cute.

[Lethevich]

Jezetha's reply is most helpful, I think, as he sums up the composer's manner much more concisely than I have managed:

It is spare, but not dessicated. Masterly music, with some beautiful woodwind writing.

An intriguing thing about Holmboe is how on message boards he has tended to be lumped in with every other northern European symphonist when recommended to enthusiasts of this type of music. This is with the tacit implication that his style is much the same as Tubin, Englund and other rather more traditionally "tune-based" composers. As a result I didn't really enjoy his music at first listen, because I was expecting something more familiar, a less strongly aesthetically-considered style.

I suppose this is what makes him a difficult composer to suggest to someone, as with my experience of Havergal Brian, is that his music will often find a way to disappoint the listener upon first listen - either from it being too radical, or not radical enough. His style is just as indebted to Sibelius as many northern composers, so he seems to fit the profile, but I also find similarities in concentration on a certain technique beyond relatively conventional sonata and harmonic form with most of the more noteworthy 20th century symphonists (Shostakovich, RVW) tend to adhere to, which may make him somewhat comparable to Frankel, Searle and the like. It's a tough middle ground to occupy alone

I'll stfu about this composer eventually, but it's fun to find a major discovery amongst the things you had already discarded.