20th Century Music Recommendation Needed

[MishaK]

This is insane! 

[The new erato]

This is insane! 

No, brilliant. But the borderline between genius and insanity is very narrow.

[karlhenning]

I dig it.

[some guy]

jowcol is my new hero.

That was brilliant!

[Grazioso]

You know that 500 years from now, anthropologists and religious scholars are going to discover that post and get into vicious debates about the theological tenets of the Jamesian sect:

"The newly discovered Jowcol Exegesis clearly calls into question the existing paradigm of the Immaculate Record Collection and definitively undermines Boulezian hermeneutics..."
(Angry outbursts from the 11th Annual St. James Conference attendees:)
"You're out of your depth on this I'm afraid, and it's quite transparent!"
"Your words are meaningless to me, just to let you know!"
"Whatever dood!"
"Pfff!"
(Dead silence and then horrified shouts from the audience as the magnitude of what just happened sinks in:)
"He uttered the Sacred Syllable! Stone him!"
"Stone him, stone him!"

[jochanaan]

When was the last time you have gotten laid? I'm assuming NEVER
Get a job.

A word to the wise: Part of the highest wisdom is being able to laugh at yourself. And if you don't get that, I challenge you to think deeply about it.

[Lethevich]

tldr

[jowcol]

A word to the wise: Part of the highest wisdom is being able to laugh at yourself. And if you don't get that, I challenge you to think deeply about it.

Jochanaan-- there is not need to worry about James' sense of humor and ability not to take things too seriously.  He is the epitome of good natured-ness, and always lightens his lessons with self-deprecating humour.   We have that documented by  the highest possible authority....

Look at Mr. Serious. LIGHTEN UP!!!

hahaha whatever....

That was a joke stupid. Lighten up...

i was just bustin' yer balls a bit, jokingly ...

It's not exclusive to 'Jamesland'. lol

The canon is filled liberally sprinkled with lol's and hahaha's.   He truly understands that laughter is the best medicine.

[jowcol]

When was the last time you have gotten laid? I'm assuming NEVER
Get a job.

Excerpts from The Essential James, Revised Edition, (Stockhausen Press, 37 Zawinul Street, Utopia)


Chapter 37: Through a Brown Mirror Darkly-- The Scatalogical Imagery of James.



Editor's notes:  For those of you with weaker constitutions, you may wish to skip this chapter.  Nonetheless, it addresses fundamental aspects of life, and represents a significant portion of his body of work.

One of the hallmarks of a great artist is their ability to communicate a wide variety of ideas with a limited palette, and their mastery of the monochromatic scale.  Unlike Gershwin, however, James does not provide use with a Rhapsody in Blue.  Instead, he offers a Rhapsody in Brown, referring, of course to the endlessly inventive contexts in which he deploys scatological Imagery. Just as Ravel's insistent repetition of the drone note provides the narrative skeleton for Le Gibet, so do the endlessly fascinating variations on the theme the blossom from James's keyboard.

People:

One of his favorite devices is to characterize his readers using scatalogoical imagery.

I don't think so... I think you're full of crap.

You're completely full of crap basically

It is important to know that the author here addresses it at the metaphorical level.  Each of , in the course of our lives, accumulated mental  waste products-- subconscious biases, unsubstantiated assumptions, etc.  But the point James is trying to make is that the condition is not irreversible-- that we are merely a spiritual enema away from living authentic existence.

Communications:
In today's media-saturated environment, communication is becoming overloaded and redundant, where more channels does not mean more content, but we paradoxically live in a time where we are saturated with words and starved for meaningful ideas.  With the precision scalpel of his wit, James uses Scatology to perform a compelling autopsy of today's media.

er, lots of bullshit floating around in this thread

man, you shovel lots of poop that's for sure...none of it really amounting to anything intelligent or insightful.

sorry you dont make much sense, and it doesnt apply at all. same goes for the shit floating in this thread that i addressed a few posts up. it's the sort-of of cluelessness not even worth wasting the time on actually, if it weren't for the finger exercise. 

man, you spend wayyyyy too much time shoveling shit...

You know, lots of shit is mentioned in "books" Doesn't make it scripture/gospel, right?

Hot air. You can't tell the difference between Ives, Bartók etc and the utter low level kiddie poop you have been posting, that's clear.

Amazing? you have got to be fucking kidding... they're pure bullshit. They sound like something a retarded chimp would have done.

another meaningless googled turd ... 

Taken together, this a moving threnody bemoaning the death of meaningful communications in today's media age-- all the more haunting by the deliberately restricted vocabulary.

Ideas and the Intellect:
James facile use of these images is not merely limited to the concrete, since they also form a springboard to the realm of ideas.  In this context, excrement takes on the nature of intellectual defilements that prevent the reader from truly experiencing reality.

More horseshit mythology. Sad how folks rather focus on that stuff, as opposed to dealing with his music on it's own terms.

Sad. Does anyone around here have a thought of their own? Or is it all just cross-referenced tidbit shit they've read elsewhere?

be careful not to contradict yourself with bullshit now ...

...this is just some myth type shit you've formulated in your own brain i'm afraid...

In other cases, it can capture a direct experience, completely divorced from any context,  that can  barely be captured in words.

that's bs of course...

Poop.

In its most profound applications, excrement is used to capture uncontrollable forces of nature, and even the mysteries of creation.

Nah ... it's just random bullshit.

Holy shit buddy, u just can't let go ...

Freudian Analysis
It is important to remember that excrement in James' posts is not an end in itself, but symbolic of the journey and discovery that he wishes impart to his fellow man.  The brown hued lens through which he views our intellectual landscape it not an end-state, but rather a call to liberation.  He rails against the anal-compulsive/anal-sadistic zeitgeist in which the rest of us are trapped:

No need to get uber-anal here

Hey ... this is an asshole remark.

James frequently reaches out to those who may be trapped in the Freudian Anal Retentive stage, exorting them to take their libidos to the  next step.  His personal concern in the emotional and physical development of fellow forum members is often under appreciated.

When was the last time you have gotten laid? I'm assuming NEVER

Do us all a favour? Get a woman and get laid.

Dude, I've been reading your comments lately ... do you ever get laid?

You definitely need to get laid, get a job and get a life. What do you do all day, i wonder.

Clearly, even though James is willing to take us  the gutter to enlighten us, his ultimate goal is no less that mature adult human consciousness.  Portnoy, however, has posed a thesis that the frequent, urgent, insistent  exhortations to "get a grip" may be referring to some midpoint between the childhood  and the full sexual union consummated in adulthood.   The details are left to the reader's imagination.

please get a grip.

Get a grip please.

Whoaa careful with that loose talk, get a grip please.

get a grip.

er..right. get a grip.

The Metaphor Behind the Metaphor
James's mastery of the scatological metaphor and imagery is unparalleled.  Still, his choice to employ this  material has engendered some controversy in the community.  Some have expressed that this focus is not consistent with high standards and great art-- but it must also be granted that Dante and Chaucer were not coy about using execrement to further their artistic goals.

Graziosos' thesis was that the consistent use of this material was a metaphor for our mass-produced consumer culture, where each faddish pseudo-composer would be served up to a brainwashed populace with the same sterile packaging and slick marketing campaigns as a cholesterol-laden sandwich from McDonalds, and will be soon be consumed, excreted, and left on the rubbish heap of history with little fanfare.   This IS the Ephemera that he bravely assails in his posts.

One could also see this as an extension of the Yeatsian metaphor in Byzantium, where lasting artworks of changeless metal are juxtaposed against the "mire and complexity of human veins".-- since clearly, no edifice built from excrement will last.

However, the most likely explanation can be found in one of the perennial Jamesian themes of the ongoing search for liberation and enlightenment.  Selection of a scatological metaphor will provide something that even the lowest common denominator can identify with.  In addition, he is asking for everyone to identify with the artist within, since the act of defecation is a creative act we ALL share, but too many of us are willing to pull the flush lever without taking time to look and revel in the mysteries of creation.

[Sid]

...OP wants to hear and learn about 20th-century music...

NOTICE:

THE OP HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!

& in his/her absence, this thread has morphed into something completely different from what s/he probably expected ...

[Philoctetes]

These ramblings are proof that the internet is the new crack cocaine for nerds & losers everywhere.

Beware folks, you don't want to become like this.

While it is a clear cut case of trolling; it's pretty funny.

[Grazioso]

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[mjwal]

I WANT a POISONOUS GREEN bracelet. Will it help me to access INSTANT expellant vitriol? I NEED this post-modern shamanistic jujube bracelet to raise my fallen consciousness and dispel anally fixated spirits of sub-musical criticism! *
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Anybody else secretly love Mantovani? (NOT Bruno)

What's this all about? Why am I here? Help, I think I may be addicted to INTERNET BS! (As in BodditSalivation)

[some guy]

I'm surprised no one has asked James yet when was the last time he was laid.

Or asked him why he doesn't get a job.

Fair's fair.

(I can't imagine him saying, "Whatever, shaddup" to a girl and getting laid for it. Or saying "what on earth are you blabbing on about" in a job interview and getting the job. But then, I've never dated the kind of girl who would go for that kind of abuse. Or tried out for a job with that kind of company....)

((And, just to make this post legit (!), I recommend the Source three CD set. A fine collection of different stuff from a fine time in American new music.))

(((Warning, some members of GMG may not approve of this recommendation.)))

[jowcol]

dispel anally fixated spirits of sub-musical criticism! *

ROTFLMAO!!


Very well put.  Although the word "purge" may fit even better than dispel, "sub-musical criticism" definitely hit's the bulls eye.  If not "sub-sub-musical criticism".


The essays were heavily inspired by the postmodernism generator
http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/


and also the psuedospeak of the CS Computer Paper generator, which has pioneered the concept of a "content-free grammar", and managed to get a generated paper of gobbledygook into a conference.

http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/

[jowcol]

I'm surprised no one has asked XXXX  yet when was the last time he was laid.

Or asked him why he doesn't get a job.

Whoa dude.  I don't think it was meant in that context, and I'd like to speak up in his  defense.  Although I've been on this forum for a couple years now and have met a lot of kind and bright people, this was the first time that anyone ever expressed a personal interest in my sex life and my financial well being, and I was deeply touched.   

A good Samaritan often goes unnoticed in a crowd.    The hand that appears before you may not be a clenched fist but rather a helping hand instead.

[Mirror Image]

Here are 20 works I think would be good introductions to 20th Century music (in no particular order):

1. Stravinsky: Petrushka
2. Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
3. Janacek: Sinfonietta
4. Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin
5. Berg: Violin Concerto
6. Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5
7. Ligeti: Atmospheres
8. Sibelius: Symphony No. 7
9. Schoenberg: Variations for Orchestra
10. Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 3
11. Prokofiev: Scythian Suite
12. Debussy: Images for Orchestra
13. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10
14. Falla: Three-Corned Hat
15. Varese: Ameriques
16. Dutilleux: Metaboles
17. Nielsen: Symphony No. 5
18. Revueltas: Sensemaya
19. Ives: Symphony No. 3 "The Camp Meeting"
20. Part: Cantus in Memoriam of Benjamin Britten

Some of these choices may seem a bit of stretch for a newcomer to the 20th Century as some of the works have a high amount of dissonance, but I think if the newcomer has an open-mind than he/she will find much to enjoy about the music. The 20th Century is my favorite era for classical music because there's so much variety to the music from the 12-tone works of the Second Viennese School to the Impressionism of Debussy and Ravel to the Neoclassicism of Stravinsky and Hindemith to the total serialism of Boulez, and so on. There's so much to explore, but, as I said, a person needs to keep an open-mind about a lot of this music as it's so far removed from the sounds that came from the previous centuries.

[Grazioso]

I WANT a POISONOUS GREEN bracelet. Will it help me to access INSTANT expellant vitriol? I NEED this post-modern shamanistic jujube bracelet to raise my fallen consciousness and dispel anally fixated spirits of sub-musical criticism! *

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Pff Productions

Congratulations, I had cardiac arrest due to explosive laugh attack. Now I'm dead, but it was totally worth it.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Here are 20 works I think would be good introductions to 20th Century music (in no particular order):

[excellent list snipped]

Seconded. That's an excellent list. If Mr. Weekly is still around, I hope he sees it and writes it down.