GMG Listening Group — Stravinsky's Agon :: 22 May - 4 June 2011

[karlhenning]

All in all, nothing I'd want to hear again.

Well, you gave it a good shot.

[DavidW]

Palmetto, is this your first exposure to atonal music?

[Palmetto]

Palmetto, is this your first exposure to atonal music?

I assume so; if I've heard other atonal music I didn't recognize it as such.  Perhaps in some of the works suggested in earlier discussions; Mirror Image linked to a choral work I refused to confirm or deny having heard.  Does pop or rock have atonal equivalents?  I don't know the technical difference between tonal and atonal yet.  I haven't grasped 'being in a key' or having a 'tonic' as even intellectual concepts yet, much less having practical auditory recognition of such, so I don't comprehend what it means to lack one.  I'm becoming convinced that while playing an instrument isn't crucial to comprehending art music, the lack of that experience is a major hindrance.

I think it was more the disjointed, apparently unrelated movements.  I couldn't find much to tie it all together.  It also felt like a 'concept car, 'concrete canoe' or other experimental engineering project; let's push the bounds, but very little of what we create will have practical use or enter production.

Just one idjit's opinions.  It won't keep me from Ludwig's 6th next week.

[Palmetto]

Sonic Youth or The Pixies might be the pop/rock equivalents to atonal honking.

I've never heard either group, although I've at least heard OF Sonic Youth.

[karlhenning]

You scarcely find any atonality in pop music . . . it is certainly at odds with the intuitive ways of playing guitar or electric bass, and most pop musicians are slaves to eay technique ; )

Offhand, the first truly atonal music on a pop release that comes to mind, is the title track of Weasels Ripped My Flesh.

[Palmetto]

There is a form of rock, Noise Rock or Noise Punk, of which Sonic Youth is an example (moreso earlier in their career than now) - in which atonality is definitely a part of the style.

The words 'noise' and 'punk' aren't exactly encouraging to my middle-of-the-road ears.  I think I'll stick with the plateful I've loaded up at this buffet, and leave those genres for another time (much further down the road) 

[Mirror Image]

There is a form of rock, Noise Rock or Noise Punk, of which Sonic Youth is an example (moreso earlier in their career than now) - in which atonality is definitely a part of the style.

I like Sonic Youth. I especially admired Daydream Nation. There are some great songs on that album.

[karlhenning]

Thanks to all who took part!