Rihm's Wolf Gang

[snyprrr]

ok, WHO got that Tutuguri VI cd on Ebay?

How do you rate Tutuguri? I'm intrigued.

[UB]

If you like drums and more drums and more drums you will love Tutuguri...I found that it was not for me. However Schwarzer und Roter Tanz which is a section of Tutuguri and is about 18 minutes long is one of my favorite Rihm pieces.

[Al Moritz]

ok, WHO got that Tutuguri VI cd on Ebay?

How do you rate Tutuguri? I'm intrigued.

Highly.

Here is my article on the work:

http://home.earthlink.net/~almoritz/rihm_articles.htm

[not edward]

That's a handy collection; most of the works are early ones but only some have been recorded, often floating around in multi-composer collections.

[Al Moritz]

Hey Al .. anymore Stockhausen essays in the works? Enjoy reading them ,,

Hi James,

yes, I am currently working on Luzifer's Abschied (from Samstag). It is in the last editorial stages (Jerome Kohl is my editor), and I have already uploaded the auxiliary material (formula excerpts). I am glad you enjoy my essays.

In terms of listening though, I am now totally into the incredible genius of Haydn's piano sonatas. The apparent ease and quality of invention, as well as the fluidity of structures, are just phenomenal. After my session this evening I was like: Holy sh*t!

But then I was listening to Piano Piece XIII (from Samstag) by Stockhausen from the 3-CD set of piano pieces (Stockhausen Verlag 56), which is musically worlds apart, and I was also like: Holy sh*t!

[UB]

Hi James,

yes, I am currently working on Luzifer's Abschied (from Samstag). It is in the last editorial stages (Jerome Kohl is my editor), and I have already uploaded the auxiliary material (formula excerpts). I am glad you enjoy my essays.

In terms of listening though, I am now totally into the incredible genius of Haydn's piano sonatas. The apparent ease and quality of invention, as well as the fluidity of structures, are just phenomenal. After my session this evening I was like: Holy sh*t!

But then I was listening to Piano Piece XIII (from Samstag) by Stockhausen from the 3-CD set of piano pieces (Stockhausen Verlag 56), which is musically worlds apart, and I was also like: Holy sh*t!

Al I am smiling because I can remember when you thought music ended with Mahler!

Who's playing Haydn's sonatas?

[Al Moritz]

Al I am smiling because I can remember when you thought music ended with Mahler!

Hehe, Bill, well it wasn't that bad. I thought after Bartok and Hindemith the only great thing was Schnittke (still a fan though, enormously).

Who's playing Haydn's sonatas?

John McCabe (a composer himself) on Decca. Great playing of the entire collection on 12 CDs for just 65 bucks. Can't go wrong with that.

[snyprrr]

We now return you to your normally scheduled Thread.

[petrarch]

Hanssler's New Rihm Edition!!:

[asin]B006ZV6XB8[/asin]

http://www.amazon.com/Uber-die-Linie-II-CollArco/dp/B006ZV6XB8/ref=sr_1_37?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1332729669&sr=1-37

The Widmanns playing yet MORE concertos for clarinet and violin! What's that?,... 'Fifth Music'? for Violin & Orchestra?,haha.

Quite listenable, though not a pair of works I would imagine myself listening to very often.

[snyprrr]

Quite listenable, though not a pair of works I would imagine myself listening to very often.

If I'm assuming you own all 5 Rihm VCs... wait, only four are recorded right?...what do you think of each? I haven't heard a word about Dritte Musik.

[petrarch]

If I'm assuming you own all 5 Rihm VCs... wait, only four are recorded right?...what do you think of each? I haven't heard a word about Dritte Musik.

Which one is the fifth? 1. Lichtzwang, 2. Gesungene Zeit, 3. Dritte Musik, 4. Coll'Arco, 5... Lichtes Spiel? All of these were recorded.

Dritte Musik is wonderful, in my opinion the best of his settings for violin and orchestra. The captivating interplay with percussion, the spare and sparse writing all come out quite well. Reminds me of a fragmented Jagden und Formen.

[petrarch]

what do you think of each?

As I said, Dritte Musik is my favorite.

Listening to Coll'Arco again, I find it long-winded and the vibrato is very annoying. It didn't do anything for me this time.

Gesungene Zeit is like a long meditation for violin, where the instrument's tone is the main focus. Very very good.

Lichtzwang is typical 1970s Rihm, need to listen to it more since I seem to remember I liked it more 5 years ago when that CD came out.

[snyprrr]

As I said, Dritte Musik is my favorite.

Listening to Coll'Arco again, I find it long-winded and the vibrato is very annoying. It didn't do anything for me this time.

Gesungene Zeit is like a long meditation for violin, where the instrument's tone is the main focus. Very very good.

Lichtzwang is typical 1970s Rihm, need to listen to it more since I seem to remember I liked it more 5 years ago when that CD came out.

Hey, thanks.

Perhaps I was confused. I thought there was a 'VC 1' (unrecorded) from the '70s?? But, that would make 'six'... huh?, what was I thinking?

Well, my 'Morphonie' disc either got lost in the mail... sooooo, I'm back where I started, which is actually a good thing. I had totally tripped a CDCDCD wire with this Rihm discography,... I was going to go on a Rihm-O-Thon I surely couldn't afford.

[petrarch]

Here's one just removed from the pile of CDs waiting to be listened to:

[asin]B007F46EUE[/asin]

Still only on track 2, Fantasie (1968), and after the opening track Bann, Nachtschwärmerei (1980), I am utterly mesmerized. I wasn't prepared for this; like what I said about Rihm's writing for accordion on Fetzen, this is most assuredly how Rihm would sound if he wrote electronic or computer music.

Edit: Track 3, the first of three Fantasien for organ he wrote when he was 15, is a refreshing change, the melody eliciting images of a medieval band discordantly playing their dance tunes.

[snyprrr]

Here's one just removed from the pile of CDs waiting to be listened to:

[asin]B007F46EUE[/asin]

Still only on track 2, Fantasie (1968), and after the opening track Bann, Nachtschwärmerei (1980), I am utterly mesmerized. I wasn't prepared for this; like what I said about Rihm's writing for accordion on Fetzen, this is most assuredly how Rihm would sound if he wrote electronic or computer music.

Edit: Track 3, the first of three Fantasien for organ he wrote when he was 15, is a refreshing change, the melody eliciting images of a medieval band discordantly playing their dance tunes.

You've had it since April??

I could have sworn there was a newish Rihm cd that I neglected to mention, and no one has yet mentioned? Hold on...

I guess not.

It's been too summery for me to listen to Rihm right now, not that I have any 'Summer Music' by Rihm.

[petrarch]

[asin]B007F46EUE[/asin]

Sinfoniae I (1971) is certainly broader in scope than the earlier works in this CD, and after the bombastic opening we are treated to the typical assortment of clusters, loud outbursts and quieter, introspective passages. The parallels with electronic and computer music continue, with bits that sound uncannily like tape loops, random sample & hold filtered tones, metallic and percussive FM timbres. All in all quite nice treat for the ears.

The early Contemplatio (1967) is probably the least interesting work in here, mostly consisting of single notes in step-wise motion against sustained chords. Like the opening work, it sounds somewhat procedurally generated, but here the rigidity of the time grid, coupled with a narrower timbral range, makes this work monotonous. Still the 3 minutes it lasts makes it a sort of intermission between two big works on this CD: the foregoing Sinfoniae I and Siebengestalt, a duo for organ and tamtam.

Unfortunately, despite the inclusion of a tamtam, I didn't find Siebengestalt (1974) to be as deeply interesting as the other pieces. For my ears, the quietest, sparse moments are the best, particularly the recurring figure that opens the work and frames denser, loud-tamtam-crash-announced sections. There is a clear succession of arcs as the work evolves, with a long, organic-like growth in the middle of the work, that ends with a series of massive chords before a long silence; the final section is then announced by way of another loud, massive chord, with a simultaneous tamtam crash, and abruptly the quieter opening figure returns once more, this time in a more minimalistic fashion. In any case, it is still a worthwhile listen; perhaps it will grow on me after some more listening.

[petrarch]

Another one from the pile:

[asin]B006OGSS0S[/asin]

I am not a big fan of choral music, especially that for unaccompanied choir. Therefore it should not be surprising that Sieben Passions-Texte, written between 2001 and 2006 (i.e. from the latter, calmer, more sedately romantic Rihm) is not high on my list of favored works. The slow movement and smoother transitions between harmonies doesn't pique my interest enough to overcome the difficulty I have with vocal works. An aspect that I found interesting was that at times it felt like I was listening to medieval and renaissance music refracted through a contemporary language prism; very often, it was really like early music, but it ultimately ended up veering off in the "wrong" direction and sounding not quite satisfactory.

Astralis, from 2001, is a slightly different matter. The addition of a violoncello, just punctuating the lines very softly every now and then, adds quite a bit of interest to the otherwise static vocal textures. It reminded me of Vigilia, the exception to the rule that I generally don't care for vocal music, especially from the later Rihm. The contemplative nature of Astralis makes it much more appealing to me than the Passions-Texte.

Fragmenta passionis, from 1968, is more angular and more diverse than the other two works on this CD. It extends the timbral palette with whispering, glissandi, interjections and other rhythmic effects that remind me of--though certainly not as extreme as--Ligeti's Aventures or Nouvelles Aventures of half a decade earlier. Quite a worthwhile work, and certainly a great achievement of a 16-year-old composer.

[petrarch]

And another one:

[asin]B000023ZA4[/asin]

This is probably the only work in which Rihm used electronic sounds, prerecorded on tape and gathered from processed instrumental and vocal material.

I first heard it live sometime in the late 90s in tape-only form, along a video projection, when it was called Séraphin-Spuren. I didn't like it at all then; the sound projection was abysmal and utterly unpleasant.

I am happy to report that this recording is quite good, and it is interesting to see how Rihm meshes the electronic sounds on tape with the instrumental sounds of the ensemble. This is a work full of menace, it is dark and mysterious. It has the requisite contrasts between quieter, suspenseful passages--accomplished by floating sonorities from the harps, double basses and percussion accompanied by atmospherics from the tape, generally made up of sounds processed beyond recognition and low brass sounds transposed to the extreme lower regions of the spectrum--and louder, incisive ones, made up of outbursts and pressing notes from the trombones, with the ensemble joining in and out, and two extensive elaborations for the whole ensemble--one starting halfway through, with a fantastic play between marimba, harps and double basses, finished off by a long crescendo on cymbals; the other immediately following it, culminating in a frenzy of percussion playing, backed by the vocal sound material on tape.

The liner notes offer a diagram with the structure of the work, in which the interplay between the instruments and the tape is clear: the work is structured in two layers, one with the ensemble, the other with the tape; the instruments play a sequence of five 'strophes', aside from brief opening and closing sections; the tape layer is divided into a sequence of five 'sections'. There is no alignment between the instrumental strophes and the tape sections, nor are they played contiguously--there are portions with no overlap at all between the layers, leading to tape-only or ensemble-only 'solos'. There are also four 'interjections', which are in essence inserts that consist of 'solos' (three tape-, one ensemble-) over which the opposing layer interjects material.

I have heard this CD three times today, and it is quite a worthwhile listen.

[CRCulver]

There's a new Rihm disc out on Naxos: Violin and Piano Works. Most (or all) of the pieces have already been recorded, however.

[petrarch]

There's a new Rihm disc out on Naxos: Violin and Piano Works. Most (or all) of the pieces have already been recorded, however.

Looks like that CD contains the only recording of Über die Linie VII... The rest is available elsewhere.