21st century classical music

[kishnevi]

Actually, it is helpful, to some degree, to point to specific pieces of music and some indications of your own reaction.  Once I know how well another listener's tastes compare to mine,  it helps me decide if a particular piece they were impressed by or left unimpressed by would be of interest to me.   Your subjective opinion has a predictive value, in other words.

For instance,  I've learned that I can safely avoid anything James likes, since his preferences seem to contrast rather starkly with mine, and what he is enthusiastic  about leaves me, at best, cold. 

[some guy]

You're lucky.

Most of what James likes, I like too.

Music, that is.

But I like a lot of other things, too. Things that James doesn't even think qualify as music.

I could limit myself to talking about the things James and I like in common. But that would be just to duplicate James. I think that secretly, deep down inside, that's exactly what James wants.

Too bad!

[San Antone]

Shut up n' give us some actual music 'some fraud'. If you're that passionate about it - it shouldn't be that hard at all. In fact, you should be eager to do so.

It is telling that you complain about someguy not posting music right after a post in which he does offer a piece of music.  You would do yourself a favor to spend more time reading and comprehending his posts and not be so eager to pull the trigger on your next insulting comment.

[kishnevi]

I did look at the little 2 and a half minute YouTube thing .. hardly him eagerly spreading the news regarding a set of strong pieces (in his estimation) from that HUGE 'most representative' list. I don't understand what is so difficult about providing something more in-depth & specific on his end. Again, most folks who are passionate and knowledgable about something like this are normally eager to share.

But when he does share, it's something more than cut and pasted pundritry found via a Google search.

[San Antone]

Bill Alves

https://www.youtube.com/v/hPFelIa3wkI

Aleph (2002)

DESCRIPTION FROM THE COMPOSER: Aleph was inspired largely by the geometric patterns of Islamic art, an art derived from the same proportions and numerical symbolism as the tuning systems of the ancient Greeks and Byzantines. In this music I have adopted similar just intonation systems, as well as intricate and slowly transforming patterns of pitches and timbres. Writers such as Keith Critchlow have connected the arithmetic symbolism of this art to the Arabic language and alphabet, the first letter of which, aleph, is a single vertical stroke. This stroke represents the descent of light, the "creative ray which initiates existence." From this simple division follows the expansion into creation, and the connection of all people to the cosmological rhythms of number and pattern.

[some guy]

Not sure why I'm doing this. Probably will stop after this post.

...a set of strong pieces (in his estimation)

See, thing is, James, what you want is a set of strong pieces in your estimation, not mine. Well, OK then. Why don't you just do that yourself instead of breaking balls? (Well, trying to, anyway. Mine have too much iron in them.)

...from that HUGE 'most representative' list.

It's not a huge list. No one, especially me, ever claimed it was huge. As for "representative," that's already been explained, clearly, as "includes more of the different kinds of things being done now" than the Kairos list does. Period.

I don't understand what is so difficult about providing something more in-depth & specific on his end. Again, most folks who are passionate and knowledgable about something like this are normally eager to share.[/font]

Didn't you get the memo about you going first? Yeah. Your list, cut-and-paste though it was, was first. So you first. And your words, too, not some huge (!) cut-and-paste from the Stockhausen site. You. What do YOU think of all those people on that Kairos list you provided for us? In detail. Your details.

And, just by the way, I am not at all eager to share anything with you, James. No. Not even a little bit. I am so not eager, that I'm even willing to not share anything with anyone else here, either, even people I like a lot.

But you don't want me to share any of my passions, anyway. Not really. You're just being your sweet little disingenuous self.

All you want are targets.

Nope.

[San Antone]

And, just by the way, I am not at all eager to share anything with you, James. No. Not even a little bit. I am so not eager, that I'm even willing to not share anything with anyone else here, either, even people I like a lot.

Unfortunate.  I for one would suggest that you ignore James and share more.

[amw]

Your clip did not appear on my computer.  When I tried to copy and paste the link into my browser I got a 403 forbidden error.  However, here it is   performed by Ensemble Studio6.  Wonderful piece.

https://www.youtube.com/v/04q6N24CAWk

I too prefer music posts, but occasionally a good conversation will erupt. 

EDIT: Interesting, I can now see the clip player, but it does not play anything.  There must be something amiss  with a plugin on my machine, maybe I am missing an update to java or something.

Apparently I'm not very good at figuring out how to embed audio from soundcloud. Let me do some tests.

edit: Nope. Seems like the only way to get to soundcloud is to link it. Oh well.

Have some Canadians - https://soundcloud.com/quatuor-bozzini/j-rg-frey-streichquartett-ii

[some guy]

I for one would suggest that you ignore James and share more.

You are, of course, correct.

And I realized that in effect I just spent the last several days validating James.

OUCH!!!

Sorry. I apologize and promise to be more enlightened in the future.

[some guy]

Here's a track from Emmanuelle Gibello's first album.

https://soundcloud.com/bruitclairrecords/emmanuelle-gibello-pour-faire-peur-aux-enfants-dans-le-noir

Soundcloud is a great resource. As is Bandcamp.

Here's a favorite of mine from Doug Theriault:

http://vicmoddougtheriault.bandcamp.com/

I think, too, amw, that posting links is fine. Sometimes the embedded youtube links take forever to load and thus slow scrolling through a thread to a halt.

Big fan of Canadian composers, just by the way.

[San Antone]

I agree about soundcloud - I regularly find interesting new composers there.  I've not used bandcamp, but will look there as well.  Also, I did not realize that YT clips caused the page to load slowly for some people.  I enjoy the way YT clips appear embedded but will consider just posting links if it means more people will access the music from this thread.

[Cato]

I posted the following under Opera News:

For those looking for the greatest opera of 2013.... well, don't look here:

A "weird" and "tedious" opera put together by three composers:

A successful memoir depends on the synergy of compelling raw material and the artistry of the teller, but Robert Wilson's "The Life and Death of Marina Abramović," a traveling production that opened last week at the Park Avenue Armory, brings out the worst aspects of both. The combination of Ms. Abramović, a performance artist known for long duration pieces (in "The Artist Is Present" at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010, she sat motionless for hours), and Mr. Wilson, a pioneer of cryptic, image-based, slow-motion theater (" Einstein on the Beach" lasts 41/2 hours), is weird and finally tedious. The content is repellent, and the artistry doesn't amaze...

The music is so amplified and mixed that although there are four live players in the pit, the instrumentals all feel electronic. Three musical genres overlap. The compositions of William Basinski, which repeat brief melodic figures in endless loops (like Philip Glass, another Wilson collaborator, but without the rhythmic drive), segue into the ululations of Svetlana Spajić and her four-voice ensemble. Their Serbian folk-inflected, straight-tone numbers, no doubt intended to evoke the heritage of Ms. Abramović, who was born in Belgrade, have more grit. Then there is Antony, a transgender singer and composer, who also wears a long black gown and sings croony, moony songs with few notes and little textual or textural variety.

As reviewed by Heidi Waleson:

See:  http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304858104579262263065673006?cb=logged0.1296555924572511

[kishnevi]

Bill Alves

https://www.youtube.com/v/hPFelIa3wkI

Aleph (2002)

DESCRIPTION FROM THE COMPOSER: Aleph was inspired largely by the geometric patterns of Islamic art, an art derived from the same proportions and numerical symbolism as the tuning systems of the ancient Greeks and Byzantines. In this music I have adopted similar just intonation systems, as well as intricate and slowly transforming patterns of pitches and timbres. Writers such as Keith Critchlow have connected the arithmetic symbolism of this art to the Arabic language and alphabet, the first letter of which, aleph, is a single vertical stroke. This stroke represents the descent of light, the "creative ray which initiates existence." From this simple division follows the expansion into creation, and the connection of all people to the cosmological rhythms of number and pattern.

Interesting that he used the usual transliteration of the equivalent Hebrew letter, and not the usual transliteration of the Arabic letter, which is alif or 'alif. 

Regarding YT links:
A few months back, there was a scare running around, the gravamen of which was that java plug-ins were being used as vehicles for malware, and the best solution was to disable them in whichever browser one uses.  My usual browser (Opera, on Windows XP) has an option which disables plug ins unless one specifically clicks on it to allow the plug in to play.   After selecting that, I found that pages using YouTube (or other similar plug ins) loaded much quicker, so I suggest those that have that option or a similar one on their browser choose it.  Don't know  if it will actually deflect any malware, but the benefit in less wait time will be immediate.

[San Antone]

Lente marche (soundcloud)

by Bruno Capelle

Minimal electronic work - very recent. 

[jochanaan]

...https://soundcloud.com/bruitclairrecords/emmanuelle-gibello-pour-faire-peur-aux-enfants-dans-le-noir...

Kind of minimalist electronic.  Not as fond of it as I might be--yet.  If anyone needs a translation better than Bing or Google, the title might be rendered "To Make Children Afraid in the Dark."

[some guy]

I just noticed on my Antimatter: Reset CD that that album is dedicated to the memory of Maryanne Amacher and J.G. Ballard.

I was just going to mention it as a good thing to listen to, but then saw the note about Amacher.

Antimatter has done a couple of albums with Zbigniew Karkowski, too. Along with Francisco Lopez (who is on the Kairos list--they put out a five CD set of his works, a couple of them rereleases of otherwise unavailable things), Karkowski is one of the more consistently good new music guys.

I couldn't find any clips, though. There have to be some somewhere.

In fact, there are quite a number of things that have not made it onto the interwebs for one reason or another.

My favorite Christmas music, by the way, which is Francoise Barriere's Musique pour le temps de Noel.

Again, no sound files anywhere for that, either.

Sigh.

[San Antone]

I just noticed on my Antimatter: Reset CD that that album is dedicated to the memory of Maryanne Amacher and J.G. Ballard.

I was just going to mention it as a good thing to listen to, but then saw the note about Amacher.

Antimatter has done a couple of albums with Zbigniew Karkowski, too. Along with Francisco Lopez (who is on the Kairos list--they put out a five CD set of his works, a couple of them rereleases of otherwise unavailable things), Karkowski is one of the more consistently good new music guys.

I couldn't find any clips, though. There have to be some somewhere.

In fact, there are quite a number of things that have not made it onto the interwebs for one reason or another.

My favorite Christmas music, by the way, which is Francoise Barriere's Musique pour le temps de Noel.

Again, no sound files anywhere for that, either.

Sigh.

When I saw Amacher's name on your list I did not say anything but had known of her passing in 2009. 

Zbigniew Karkowski has a MySpace page, https://myspace.com/zbigniewkarkowski - with about 45 minutes of music.

[some guy]

sanantonio, when I clicked on the Karkowski link, it sent me to a page with a little over six minutes of music. And no amount of clicking around got me to any more than those three short clips.

[San Antone]

sanantonio, when I clicked on the Karkowski link, it sent me to a page with a little over six minutes of music. And no amount of clicking around got me to any more than those three short clips.

Oh, you're right.   It was early for me this morning when I posted that.

[some guy]

Shit.

This is one of those times when I very much wanted to be wrong!

Well, I still have my 15 albums and soundcloud and bandcamp.

https://soundcloud.com/experimedia/zbigniew-karkowski-nerve

http://danielmenche.bandcamp.com/album/unleash

I used to live about sixteen blocks from Menche.