Ferneyhough's Plough

[lescamil]

We just need to hear it from the man himself!

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

It is FerneyHO. I've studied with two of his former students and they have verified this when I asked.

Oh that's a relief then!

[Mandryka]

I am sure that Ferneyhough is pronounce Ferneyhyou.

[snyprrr]

even his name is Complex!!!!

[snyprrr]

It's HUFF.

I'm finding these posts interesting, because Ferneyhough is a composer I've heard very little of. What little I've heard, plus what I've read about "New Complexity," didn't make me want to go much further.

But if you're saying there's a "way into" F's work via Carter, that made me perk up my ears a bit. I liked Carter's notorious 3rd Quartet right off the bat, "what with all the oodles of pizz and the various states of being" (as you put it).

What's a good first couple of pieces to get to know the Newly Complex Mr. F?

Sonatas for String Quartet (early)

Funerailles 1-2

Kurze Schatten (guitar)

String Quartet 6 ...... also 'Dum Trans....'

some flute pieces...

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

even his name is Complex!!!!

Indeed. To modify Mandryka's translation above: "So the name 'Ferneyhough' is never completely exhaustible, it is always overflowing [debordant, going beyond any limits our perception imposes in it - the metaphor is a river overflowing its banks] and its perception can be constantly remade afresh, without the pronunciation of the name ever ceasing to be greater than what is perceived."

[Karl Henning]

Ferneyhough's Puff

[North Star]

Ferneyhough's Puff

Or perhaps Ferneyhough's Bluff

[Karl Henning]

Much better!

[Mandryka]

Ferneyhough's stuff
Ferneyhough in the buff
Ferneyhough licks muff

[Crudblud]

Ferneyhough in the buff
Ferneyhough licks muff

Ferneyhough says "no," for this is not his cup of joe. Indeed, Ferneyhough thinks that all this gossip has got to go. He may never play a sold out show, but Ferneyhough is nonetheless in the know, and apropos of the lengths to which the slanderer will go to assassinate the character of that fair and friendly Ferneyhough, he once more reiterates "no," and bids you adi- oh! One more thing, Ferneyhough's lawyer, Moe, says if you so much as have another go, you'll owe him a Starbucks frappuccino (which, as it turns out, is his cup of joe).

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Ferneyhough says "no," for this is not his cup of joe. Indeed, Ferneyhough thinks that all this gossip has got to go. He may never play a sold out show, but Ferneyhough is nonetheless in the know, and apropos of the lengths to which the slanderer will go to assassinate the character of that fair and friendly Ferneyhough, he once more reiterates "no," and bids you adi- oh! One more thing, Ferneyhough's lawyer, Moe, says if you so much as have another go, you'll owe him a Starbucks frappuccino (which, as it turns out, is his cup of joe).

I want to set this to music for soprano and string quartet pls

[Crudblud]

I want to set this to music for soprano and string quartet pls

Please do.

[SeptimalTritone]

If you can read French you may enjoy the rather passionate posts on Ferneyhough by Lucien here

http://classik.forumactif.com/t3685-brian-ferneyhough-1943?highlight=ferneyhough

Re complexity he says the following, which is interesting though it would be nice to have some references to where Ferneyhough discusses these ideas

Those are good posts! I had to read them in broken google translate English, but still nice find.

Ferneyhough seems to combine melodic/harmonic writing with sonic/soundsapce writing to create extremely complex, constructive, and developmental music that straddles the edge between these opposites. And by complex, as that guy Lucien said, it is complexity in the relations and development of the material, not just immediate complexity of the sound.

What I like about his music is that even if one cannot, and probably should not, follow most of the syntactical relations at even a gut level, one can still pick up on his living, breathing musical organisms at various sorts of angles. There's so much subtlety going on, and one cannot follow even most of it, but one can still experience the organism, even in one's individual way.

His music is primal and outdoorsy, even evocative of images of ghosts, wind wisps, tribal rites. It is not existential. It is cerebrally personal while not emotionally personal. In short,while I have no idea how it works, and one probably would need extensive study to figure out how it does, anyone can pick up on and follow the waves of his music, so complex in structure but perceived by the listener as an organic wave. And perceived differently by each listener.

[snyprrr]

Those are good posts! I had to read them in broken google translate English, but still nice find.

Ferneyhough seems to combine melodic/harmonic writing with sonic/soundsapce writing to create extremely complex, constructive, and developmental music that straddles the edge between these opposites. And by complex, as that guy Lucien said, it is complexity in the relations and development of the material, not just immediate complexity of the sound.

What I like about his music is that even if one cannot, and probably should not, follow most of the syntactical relations at even a gut level, one can still pick up on his living, breathing musical organisms at various sorts of angles. There's so much subtlety going on, and one cannot follow even most of it, but one can still experience the organism, even in one's individual way.

His music is primal and outdoorsy, even evocative of images of ghosts, wind wisps, tribal rites. It is not existential. It is cerebrally personal while not emotionally personal. In short,while I have no idea how it works, and one probably would need extensive study to figure out how it does, anyone can pick up on and follow the waves of his music, so complex in structure but perceived by the listener as an organic wave. And perceived differently by each listener.

Thanks for raising the bar here... but... but... HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE HIS NAME??!!?? That's what's really important!!


No, a very enjoyable Post... I do find Dillon MORE primal and outdoorsy... I imagine that "he who has a more psycho-spiritual bent will make ever more 'fantastical' music"... I don't know Ferney's "religion", but, I imagine that a strict atheist would not be able to come up with out-of-the-box solutions...imaginations... uhh... yet I don't know what "Christian" AvantGarde music would sound like...hmmm... lots of trumpets? no strings???

oy- not firing on cylinders this morn, lol

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I agree re Dillon.

[Mandryka]

Those are good posts! I had to read them in broken google translate English, but still nice find.

Ferneyhough seems to combine melodic/harmonic writing with sonic/soundsapce writing to create extremely complex, constructive, and developmental music that straddles the edge between these opposites. And by complex, as that guy Lucien said, it is complexity in the relations and development of the material, not just immediate complexity of the sound.

What I like about his music is that even if one cannot, and probably should not, follow most of the syntactical relations at even a gut level, one can still pick up on his living, breathing musical organisms at various sorts of angles. There's so much subtlety going on, and one cannot follow even most of it, but one can still experience the organism, even in one's individual way.

His music is primal and outdoorsy, even evocative of images of ghosts, wind wisps, tribal rites. It is not existential. It is cerebrally personal while not emotionally personal. In short,while I have no idea how it works, and one probably would need extensive study to figure out how it does, anyone can pick up on and follow the waves of his music, so complex in structure but perceived by the listener as an organic wave. And perceived differently by each listener.

I note that Lucien has now made another epic post which prompted me to listen to Inconjunctions  this morning, with great pleasure. I do wonder though if Ferneyhough's selling out, becoming simpler, more melodic . . . I can't even say it . . . the word sticks in my throat . . .

romantic

[bwv 1080]

If you ever wondered just how accurate the rhythms in noted recordings compare to the score, this piece does a computer analysis:

http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/807043/8/8.%20Chapter%205%20.pdf

Using a John Williams recording of a Bach Bouree as a control, JW 4 seconds into the piece is early by .335 seconds, but on most of the notes is within hundreths of a second vs. the computer's perfect time (p.19)

Geoffery Morris's recording of Kurze Schatten II gets off by as much as 2.5 seconds (p 7)

Incredibly, percussionist Vanessa   Tomlinson   is about as accurate in her Bone Alphabet recording as JW is playing Bach

[millionrainbows]

The score reminds me of John Cage's Freeman Etudes:


Paul Zukofsky thought the score was humanly unplayable, but Irvine Arditti tackled it and proved him wrong. Some accommodations were made, such as "as fast as possible" and other things. Cage was actually inspired by this experience to finish the composition (originally written for Zukovsky), after Zukovsky had abandoned it.

It seems that problems like this, of complexity, are one of the things that are being grappled with and being dealt with in modern notation & performance practices. I've heard the same thing about Stockhausen's scores, like "too many dynamic markings, impossible to play, etc."

[Mandryka]

I like performances in which the accumulated psychic and physical momentum of successively confronting lengthy spans of material lends the interpretation an unearthly radiance -- the performers themselves are changing before our very eyes . . . there are times when I have been prepared to accept the relative imprecision of a live performance as a means to ensuring its presence. . . I have always rejected the idea of notation being a lifeless tool for getting down sounds on paper. It's a much more complex and active relationship than that.

In the latter part he's referring to pitch indeterminacy in Transit.