Quiz: Mystery scores

[Maciek]

Very good! (on both counts)

The (Cage) print comes from a Russian anthology - as did the Ives and Cowell.

[lukeottevanger]

Very good! (on both counts)

The (Cage) print comes from a Russian anthology - as did the Ives and Cowell.

That would explain it, yes!

[Maciek]

Would this be a good moment to add some additional clues?

[lukeottevanger]

I certainly need them! - don't know if anyone else is trying to solve them though...

BTW, I have more ready to roll if anyone is interested. Maybe my old ones should be solved first, though.

[Maciek]

OK. First of all, as a reminder, here are the numbers my unguessed ones: 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 24.

Here are some clues:

2 of the composers are women. The names of both female composer start with the same letter!

These composers come from 3 different countries. One of the composers is American, all the rest are Europeans.

All of the composers are contemporary.

Except for one, all of the composers can safely be called famous - meaning that they are considered to be among the very best contemporary composers of their respective countries. If very hard pressed I would unwillingly cross out one more - but the remaining 6 really are among the strictly selected creme de la creme.

Except for one, all of the composers are alive today.

Two of the composers have already had their scores featured here, and the name of one more has appeared in the (incorrect) guesses.

Three of the composers have threads dedicated to them on GMG.

OK, I know these clues are vague but we have to start with something... If there's any need for that , I'll become more specific later. Also, note that there are clues right next to the scores as well! (This might be a good time to admit that at least one of those is so highly subjective, it might even be misleading. )

Luke, go ahead and post some more - they're always welcome. I might try giving your old ones another go tomorrow too, BTW.

[lukeottevanger]

OK, some more. I've got loads, actually - Maciek said I'd nearly done 100, and I hadn't, but I may get that far today! Let's see how far I manage to get....

No 77 - a very famous composer we've already had on this thread. He's often somewhat maligned on this board, but in this, one of his finest works, and actually a really visionary work, we see that he was capable of great things.

[lukeottevanger]

No 78 - remember those two of mine -  59 and 60 - which I said were, for good reason, closely related in style to an older and better known composer? No one's got them yet, which surprises me. Anyway, the composer of this no 78 too is often said to resemble that same older composer (quite an influential figure!), but in this case the younger composer reached maturity and was able to carve out his own stylistic world.

Edit - in post 1000 Greg guessed this one to be Scriabin; it isn't, but as I said in post 1001, he is that elusive model I've talked about. Which, as I've said, relates back to numbers 59 and 60 too. A big clue, in fact.

Back to this one - if you look closely (bottom line), you will see a notational rarity which I personally have only seen in the music of this composer and in the theoretical writings of Riemann, though it probably exists elsewhere too.

The composer's name is the point here, rather than the piece's title, which is generic.

[lukeottevanger]

No 79 - a tricky one, I think. Clues on request, but put it this way - Maciek ought to get it first.

[Maciek]

Based on your description of 77 (without even looking at the score): could it by any chance be Elgar?

79: well, it's certainly a Polish composer, and a PWM score. Could it be Baird?

[lukeottevanger]

No 80 - another hard one. The fastidious handwriting is typical of this school of composers; this particular composer posts (or did) on the Radio 3 board sometimes.

[lukeottevanger]

No 81 - I've discussed this composer and the group of pieces this is drawn from in the last few days. And, given that I haven't posted much these last few days, that is a big clue.

[lukeottevanger]

No 82 - no clues yet, I think there is enough in the substance of the music.

[lukeottevanger]

No 83 - a piece I have invariably mentioned when the thread 'most mournful/depressing etc. piece of music' comes round as it inevitably does. I've never heard anything like this piece for bleakness - my brother-in-law, quite a seasoned explorer of weird music, was taken aback by this piece ('like sticking your head in a wind tunnel' was his description), but this final movement is something of a consolation.

[lukeottevanger]

No 84 - I could have chosen dozens of pages from this sparkling score, one of the finest works of the last thirty years that I know of IMO - the page where the music seems to compete with itself for ever quieter nuances*; the magical duet for low piccolo and high double bass harmonics, playing in melodic homophony.... The page I have chosen reveals the piece's link to spectralism; the composer is not a spectralist but has worked in that domain at times.

* ping-pong ball dropped in glass; newspaper ripped at varying dynamics.....

[lukeottevanger]

Based on your description of 77 (without even looking at the score): could it by any chance be Elgar?

No, but that's fairly close

79: well, it's certainly a Polish composer, and a PWM score. Could it be Baird?

You're a bloody genius. Or do you remember my posting history.....?

No 85 - no clues just yet, let's see if anyone recognises it.

[lukeottevanger]

No 86 - comes from a set of pieces I have problems assessing. I adore them, but possibly because I played them a lot as a child. They seem very special to me, but are probably not. Another one for Maciek, I'd have thought - but that clue opens it up to all!  Yes, it is Polish!!!

[lukeottevanger]

No 87 - the only composer out of this bunch that I have met. Does that help? This piece is an ultra-lyrical, nostalgic concerto which makes extensive and very beautiful use of quotation from various pieces (Monteverdi to Wagner and points between). Ideas of love, distance, memory, wind and sea lie behind the piece. The piece falls into sections, each based around a particular quoted piece; each section is linked by a recurrent quotation. Towards the bottom of this page you can see both quite clearly.

[Maciek]

You're a bloody genius. Or do you remember my posting history.....?

Perhaps I shouldn't be revealing my technique but here goes:
1) The print style looks exactly the same as a couple of PWM Baird scores that I own. I mean exactly.
2) There's the Polish word "oddech" (breath).
3) It was a bit of a shot in the dark since this is only a page - but the texture reminds me of Baird too. (Except for that strange thing happening in the piano - but the asterisk could mean anything...)

And now that you've confirmed that it's Baird, I'm assuming it has to be Erotyki. I know most of Baird's song cycles pretty well. His only other soprano and orchestra cycle is Lyrical Suite, and it can't be that - that is a tonal cycle using folk (or folk-like) material, a bit like some of Lutoslawski's early songs. And yes, I do remember you mentioning you owned that score, so now I'm pretty sure.

[lukeottevanger]

Well, you're spot on!

Except that the 'strange thing' is not in the piano part - that's the timp part!    Which of course makes it all the weirder....  [edit] on second thoughts, it is the piano part you mean - but it is the timp part which really amazes me here!


The problems continue, btw: every time I try to upload an image I get an error message 'the upload folder is full' - is this as ominous as it sounds? have we (well, mostly me) overworked the system? does this mean we need to delete some earlier images in order to have room for new ones?  OTOH, the board hasn't been functioning normally recently, so perhaps there's something going on I don't know about.

....a pity: we're one short of the 1000 post mark, too!

[greg]

77- the notes are in English, so is this an American or British composer?

78- the rhythm looks like Scriabin, just a wild guess

80- handwriting looks like Ferneyhough, but that seems a little too obvious. It could possibly Birtwistle, too