21st century classical music

[North Star]

Something different.

I hear beats when I tune two guitar strings to the same harmonic and they're not the same pitch yet. The beating goes away when they're in tune. (one example)

A summation tone is created when pitch 1 + pitch b creates a third pitch (pitch c).

How are these situations different?

[chadfeldheimer]

How are these situations different?

At first I thought so too, but now I think the situations are different. After rereading the Wikipedia-article I think a beat is not a real third tone, but something like an amplitude modulation of the tone with the smaller frequency, with the beat-frequency being the difference of the frequencies of both tones. If you look at the spectrum however there should just be 2 peaks.
Combination tones are referred to two phenomenons:
1. If both tones make a just fifth, the superimposed spectrum corresponds to the overtone spectrum of another tone which has half the frequency of the lower of both original tones. In this case your your brain ads the "missing" fundamental tone, though acoustically it is not there.
2. Nonlinearities in your ear add combination tones. I think this would mostly appear when the tones are rather loud.

[milk]

Coincidentally, I was reading Gann's book and just found this.

Regarding Mary Jane Leach, "These pieces, including 4B.C. (1984) for four bass clarinets (three on tape) and Feu de Joie for eight bassoons (1992), take advantage of carefully calculated psychoacoustic phenomena of beats, difference tones, and combination tones, employing pitches not exactly in tune." (American Music in the Twentieth Century, Kyle Gann)

"MARY JANE LEACH is a composer/performer whose work reveals a fascination with the physicality of sound, its acoustic properties and how they interact with space. In many of her works Leach creates an other-worldly sound environment using difference, combination, and interference tones; these are tones not actually sounded by the performers, but acoustic phenomena arising from her deft manipulation of intonation and timbral qualities. The result is striking music which has a powerful effect on listeners." (http://www.mjleach.com/)

https://www.youtube.com/v/UTtIal6Fh9Y
4BC (1984) is for four bass clarinets playing in a small range (a fifth) emphasizing the third partial. It is written for the partials as well as the fundamentals, creating combination and difference tones.

Also this one for thread duty.
Dowland's Tears (2011) for 10 flutes
https://www.youtube.com/v/mIXJLadUv_c

The flute one seems especially listenable. I might need to get into the mood for the other. I've swung to another extreme now. I stopped buying music for a while and now I don't know what I want to do. I'm always looking here and at the microtonality thread. Yet I can decide on anything. After getting into minimalism and then Grisey and even J.L. Adams I've not found enough enthusiasm from listening to samples to plunge into anything else. I've got lots of stuff on wish lists...like, Cold Blue stuff. I suppose some kind of thread is around here somewhere for like, "what are you really loving from contemporary music at the moment"? Lots of stuff sounds pretty cool. But I want my sox knocked off.

[torut]

The flute one seems especially listenable. I might need to get into the mood for the other.

I also feel that Leach's works in recent years (90s ~ 21st c.) are more accessible. The chorus works in 90s (in the album Ariadne's Lament) are reminiscent of Medieval music, and Bruckstück (1989, revised 2002, in Celestial Fires) is celestial indeed. I tend to like contemporary works inspired by or based on early music (chorus, JI, etc.) which are sometimes quite beautiful or otherworldly.

Song of Sorrows (1995) for chorus (SSAATB) a cappella
https://soundcloud.com/mjleach/mary-jane-leach-song-of

Bach's Set (2007) for Solo cello and 8 taped cellos
https://www.youtube.com/v/IQZ8QNyN9r0

Ariadne's Lament
[asin]B0000063CD[/asin]

Celestial Fire
[asin]B00005AAL4[/asin]

I've swung to another extreme now. I stopped buying music for a while and now I don't know what I want to do. I'm always looking here and at the microtonality thread. Yet I can decide on anything. After getting into minimalism and then Grisey and even J.L. Adams I've not found enough enthusiasm from listening to samples to plunge into anything else. I've got lots of stuff on wish lists...like, Cold Blue stuff. I suppose some kind of thread is around here somewhere for like, "what are you really loving from contemporary music at the moment"? Lots of stuff sounds pretty cool. But I want my sox knocked off.

I am very interested in knowing that.

[milk]

I also feel that Leach's works in recent years (90s ~ 21st c.) are more accessible. The chorus works in 90s (in the album Ariadne's Lament) are reminiscent of Medieval music, and Bruckstück (1989, revised 2002, in Celestial Fires) is celestial indeed. I tend to like contemporary works inspired by or based on early music (chorus, JI, etc.) which are sometimes quite beautiful or otherworldly.

Song of Sorrows (1995) for chorus (SSAATB) a cappella
https://soundcloud.com/mjleach/mary-jane-leach-song-of

Bach's Set (2007) for Solo cello and 8 taped cellos
https://www.youtube.com/v/IQZ8QNyN9r0

Ariadne's Lament
[asin]B0000063CD[/asin]

Celestial Fire
[asin]B00005AAL4[/asin]
I am very interested in knowing that.

Wow!!! That's astonishingly beautiful. Very inspiring. Thanks for posting that! Unfortunately, I don't see this piece anywhere for purchase.

[torut]

Wow!!! That's astonishingly beautiful. Very inspiring. Thanks for posting that! Unfortunately, I don't see this piece anywhere for purchase.

Bach's Set is not recorded in any album. Those two are the only albums dedicated to her compositions, and some other works are recorded in compilation albums. (I have 25 Years of New York New Music Innova 233, but her piece is just 2 min in the 5-disc set!) I wish most of her 21st century works will be recorded.

[milk]

Bach's Set is not recorded in any album. Those two are the only albums dedicated to her compositions, and some other works are recorded in compilation albums. (I have 25 Years of New York New Music Innova 233, but her piece is just 2 min in the 5-disc set!) I wish most of her 21st century works will be recorded.

As I posted before, I'm having trouble pulling the trigger lately. I think it's because I haven't fell in love with any purchase in a while. Maybe I'll try celestial fires.

[torut]

Anna Clyne - Tea Leaves (2009) for two violins, Josh Dorman animation
https://www.youtube.com/v/mzksliCis9A

The fifth piece of Anna Clyne's Violin, a collection of 7 beautiful works for violins.

http://visionintoart.com/works/the-violin/
https://visionintoartrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-violin

Violin is totally different from her previous, much experimental album Blue Moth, which is also very good.
[asin]B006UFHCIW[/asin]
STEELWORKS (2006) - flute/piccolo, bass clarinet, percussion, tape and optional film
https://www.youtube.com/v/sfdxg4mHJC0

[torut]

Two amazing compositions by the CSO composer-in-residence, Mason Bates. The first is an electronic-percussion work and the second is a string quartet. Both demonstrate his keen sense of rhythm and the strong influence of 21st century popular musical forms. Makes for a very fun listening experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19l0cALiaxo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FfCuJGx5jM

Very enjoyable, thank you. Sounds like totalism? The only work of Bates I heard is a short encore piece for Hilary Hahn included in In 27 Pieces, which is nice, sort of folkish. I got interested in a Muti/CSO album Riccardo Muti Conducts Mason Bates and Anna Clyne because of Clyne's work, but I have not heard it yet.

[milk]

I'm starting to enjoy it!

[7/4]

I'm starting to enjoy it!

I've heard it streaming at least a half a dozen times. I think it's great.

[milk]

I've heard it streaming at least a half a dozen times. I think it's great.

Listened to it once to and once from work today. Yes, me too. I would so love to hear this live.

[torut]

I am also listening to Become Ocean repeatedly these days. It's a continuous 42-min piece and there is no apparent development, but it doesn't feel lengthy. It has a quality of timelessness.

The title is taken from John Cage's mesostic for Lou Harrison. (The upper letters read "LOU HARRISON.") It's beautiful, too.

first the quaLity
             Of
           yoUr music
            tHen
       its quAntity
       and vaRiety
     make it Resemble
          a rIver in delta
           liStening to it
       we becOme
         oceaN

[torut]

John Lely (b. 1976)

Doubles (2012) for string quartet - Quatuor Bozzini
https://soundcloud.com/john-lely/doubles-quatuor-bozzini-2012

All About the Piano (2006) - Philip Thomas (piano), James Saunders (dictaphones)
https://soundcloud.com/john-lely/all-about-the-piano-2006

http://johnlely.co.uk/
John Lely studied with Roger Redgate, Dave Smith, and John Tilbury. His music is quiet and subtle, influenced by Wandelweiser composers and experimentalists: Antoine Beuger, Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff, Michael Parsons, Tom Johnson, Manfred Werder, Taylan Susam and Laurence Crane.

[torut]

The wonderful work of Elodie Lauten (who sadly passed June of this year):

Revelation (1983)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bX8hRyrjps

Transform (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-oQkRNO4YM

I found Lauten's music only recently, after learning her passing. I like the album Transform very much. She is described as a microtonalist. I want to check out what she were doing.

[milk]

I found Lauten's music only recently, after learning her passing. I like the album Transform very much. She is described as a microtonalist. I want to check out what she were doing.

The samples sound pretty far out. I might have to purchase something of hers. "Spiral" sounds interesting too.

[torut]

Akiko Yamane

Dots Collection No.06 (2010) for orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/v/ANRu88hoaXA

The repeating sounds suggestive of waves washing the shore reminded me of Dufourt or Spectralism. I like it very much.

[milk]

Interesting throttling given to Become Ocean on Musicweb. I know the reviewer is contributor to forums here, though I forget their user name. Anyway, I didn't post to criticize the review. I kind of agree with some of it while still enjoying Become Ocean. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. However, I won't say it's the most challenging or original contemporary work I've ever heard. I enjoy Adams and would love to check out a performance of Become Ocean. I think I'd get more out of that. I think Adams makes very approachable music. At the same time, I can understand the reviewers reaction.

[milk]

Seems to me the whole of that overlong review could be compressed into four words: I don't get it.  Which is a legitimate listener reaction but not much use as a review.  Perhaps would have been better to pass the disc to someone who does.

I am just starting to get into JLA's music at the moment and so far generally liking it a lot.  It does seem best to approach it from an "ambient-listening" direction i.e. if you're inclined to look for sonata form in your music then you'll likely be disappointed.

I think I like "Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing" the best so far. That it's the most Feldman-like one is maybe no coincidence. I do enjoy Become Ocean.
Yeah, the reviewer admits he'd already expressed, in a previous review, being underwhelmed by an earlier composition. That's fine. But maybe someone else could have taken the task. Anyway, I'd like to hear an Adams work in concert some day. This would be a good one. It has power in it.   

[milk]

I was really impressed by this. I bought this last night and listened on the train today. I'm new to this composer. There's a lot happening here and I need to listen again. I wish I had a chance to see something like this live.