1950 to 2000

[Karl Henning]

That does look cool!

[torut]

The second "Box" (just 1 disc) is a recording of John Cage's lecture in 1958, with performances of works by Wolff, Nilsson and Cage interleaved. I am not sure if I will want to buy it.

According to Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, digitization of the IMD archives started in 2010.

Since the project start more than 12,000 document sheets have been scanned and tagged and approximately 2,500 audio files were digitized by the DRA.

I hope Neos will release sequels.

[torut]

Dave Tudor - Rainforest IV (1973)
NO-ENSEMBLE - Factorev june 2013
http://www.youtube.com/v/D6ry8BcxIAE

Last year, New World Records released 7-CD album The Art Of David Tudor 1963–1992. I have Disc 5. Hearing Rainforest IV is like being in a strange jungle. I was hearing it during work, and it helped me focusing on what I was doing. Webwork is a sequence of minimal, sparse sounds, also very good.  Are there discs you particularly recommend?

[asin]B00BXKAOKW[/asin]

Disc 1
1. John Cage : Variations II
2. Christian Wolff: For 1, 2, or 3 People
3. David Tudor: Bandoneon ! (A Combine)

Disc 2
1. Anima Pepsi
2. Pepsibird
3. Pepscillator

Disc 3
John Cage/David Tudor: Mesostics re Merce Cunningham/Untitled

Disc 4
1. Weatherings
2. Phonemes

Disc 5
1. Rainforest IV
2. Webwork

Disc 6
1. Rainforest IV
2. Virtual Focus

Disc 7
Neural Network Plus

[torut]

Mel Powell - String Quartet (1982)
http://www.youtube.com/v/7aDo6MF7HCw http://www.youtube.com/v/awFiWh33ph8

I didn't know his career and I anticipated jazzy music, but it is not at all. Atonal and very abstract.

Mel Powell was a jazz pianist and composer. After giving up a career as a performance artist due to muscular dystrophy, he devoted himself to composition. He studied under Hindemith at Yale University from 1948 to 1952. His work Duplicates: A Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1989) won him the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1990.

Husa: String Quartet No. 4; Laderman: String Quartet No. 7; Powell: String Quartet 1982
Colorado Quartet
[asin]B0000049RE[/asin]

[amw]

The intimate spiritual and artistic relationship between the two composers resembles that of Schoenberg and Webern.

Lol.

Shostakovich was infatuated with Ustvolskaya and seems to have made a number of advances towards her including a proposal of marriage after the death of his first wife. She appears to have been thoroughly creeped out by him, and subsequently distanced herself from him as much as possible to the point of publishing lots of negative comments about his music, personality and politics (some of which are still up on her website). Broken-hearted, he flounced off and married the next woman who looked in his direction, only to divorce her two years later. Musically speaking any influences seem to have been entirely one-directional, from Ustvolskaya upon Shostakovich; perhaps there's some Mitya in the menial functional works she did to make a living in the early years but those are almost all withdrawn now so we're unlikely to hear them.

I do not think Schoenberg and Webern had a relationship remotely close to that outside my as-yet-unfinished alternate history slash fic You Can't Serialize My Love.

[Karl Henning]

Lol.

Shostakovich was infatuated with Ustvolskaya and seems to have made a number of advances towards her including a proposal of marriage after the death of his first wife. She appears to have been thoroughly creeped out by him, and subsequently distanced herself from him as much as possible to the point of publishing lots of negative comments about his music, personality and politics (some of which are still up on her website). Broken-hearted, he flounced off and married the next woman who looked in his direction, only to divorce her two years later.

Well, if that scornful caricature is your opinion on the matter, you are entitled to it, of course. I must say it strikes me as stunningly disregardful of (in brief) context.

[amw]

Yes, that was the tv guide/soap opera version—there is of course a lot of context I'm ignoring*, and Galina Ivanovna liked him much better at first. What led to her rejection of him and later denunciations we have no idea about. But I think claiming they had an intimate spiritual and artistic relationship is a bit too much exaggeration in the opposite direction.

* Also we don't really know why he married Margarita, that was just a silly and unprovable hypothesis of mine

[Karl Henning]

Yes, that was the tv guide/soap opera version—there is of course a lot of context I'm ignoring*, and Galina Ivanovna liked him much better at first. What led to her rejection of him and later denunciations we have no idea about. But I think claiming they had an intimate spiritual and artistic relationship is a bit too much exaggeration in the opposite direction.

Beg pardon for my having missed that thread in the weft;  offhand, I should think we are in substantial agreement there.

[Karl Henning]

Well, it was something of an embarrassment to both sides.  Shostakovich was at a great loss emotionally:  a wife of so many years, the mother of their children, of course, but in the Soviet Union when (generally) every apartment block had a KGB mole so that the stability of home was one's center, and Shostakovich's periodic buffets from Moscow (in particular), his first wife was a friend, an intimate, a confidante, and a pillar of support, who was suddenly gone.  His second marriage was ill-considered, but it is cruel to dismiss it as an older composer philandering with an attractive young student.

[Philo]

That was originally posted here. Is Philoctetes Philo? I appreciate the post.
Sonia Bo studied with Azio Corghi and Renato Dionisi at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, then completed her postgraduate studies in composition with Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome in 1988. Franco Donatoni is a composer I am interested in, because I saw high praises of him in GMG forum. I am listening to this now. It is very good. Maria Grazia Bellocchio is the pianist of Donatoni/Gorli album on Stradivarius which was highly recommended in Donatoni thread.

Franco Donatoni - Françoise Variationen (1983-1996)
played by Maria Grazia Bellocchio
performed in Milan at the Museo del Novecento on January 19, 2014
http://www.youtube.com/v/EUzrJ36XP2E

One and the same. 

[torut]

One and the same. 

Thank you again. That is another great thread I sometimes return to.

[torut]

Andrzej Krzanowski (1951 - 1990) - Toccata for accordion trio (1974-80)

https://www.youtube.com/v/kQJuIlPf9MM

Krzanowski studied compositions with Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and accordion with Joachim Pichura. He composed 2 symphonies (No. 2 was commissioned by Penderecki), 7 string quartets (No. 1 (2 versions), No. 2, No. 3, Programme VI with soprano, Reminiscenza [version II], Relief IX (Scottish) with tape) and a lot of works for accordion. Relief IX (Scottish) for string quartet and tape, included in the following album, is very good. Contemplative and otherworldly.

[amw]

Someone mentioned Crumb's Black Angels in another thread as an example of a work they found unpleasant to listen to (presumably due to its use of shrill high-pitched sounds)

I thought I'd just leave here another experimental string quartet that uses such sounds—and is by no means easier to listen to—but is actually good. If you can last out the first few minutes it is worth listening to this piece all the way to the end:

https://www.youtube.com/v/11N7ViO__1Q

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

https://www.youtube.com/v/r3RldiCOtBc

https://www.youtube.com/v/vnPT1XOWRTE

[torut]

Someone mentioned Crumb's Black Angels in another thread as an example of a work they found unpleasant to listen to (presumably due to its use of shrill high-pitched sounds)

I thought I'd just leave here another experimental string quartet that uses such sounds—and is by no means easier to listen to—but is actually good. If you can last out the first few minutes it is worth listening to this piece all the way to the end:

The words "shrill high-pitched sounds" reminds me of Sciarrino, but his music is quiet and sparse, not harsh to the ear. I tried but couldn't think of music that is unpleasant to listen to.
Thank you for the clips of Holliger's string quartet. It is wilder, and is very good, I agree.

This is not intended to show another harsh music. Actually, George Perle's music is nice to the ear, although it does not use simple tonal technique. It's sensitive and colorful, never too dry. He is well known to have used his own technique called "twelve-tone tonality," which is different from Schoenberg's twelve-tone theory.

George Perle - Transcendental Modulations (1993)
https://www.youtube.com/v/lKn0Tojau5E

The work's title, a musical twisting of Transcendental Meditation, suggests that its main business might be moving from key to key. That is an element, certainly: themes introduced at the start of the 25-minute piece return transposed, both in new keys and for different instrumental combinations. But the score's metamorphosis runs deeper than that. Using a mildly astringent language reminiscent of late Stravinsky, but with heart, Mr. Perle presents a stream of subtle contrasts: assertive solo lines against sumptuous ensemble work; intricate wind figures against lush string scoring; fleeting moments of lightheartedness against a pervasively melancholy introspectiveness. Throughout, Mr. Perle speaks with an almost Neo-classical restraint. — Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, November 26, 1996

[EigenUser]

Someone mentioned Crumb's Black Angels in another thread as an example of a work they found unpleasant to listen to (presumably due to its use of shrill high-pitched sounds)

I thought I'd just leave here another experimental string quartet that uses such sounds—and is by no means easier to listen to—but is actually good. If you can last out the first few minutes it is worth listening to this piece all the way to the end:

https://www.youtube.com/v/11N7ViO__1Q

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

https://www.youtube.com/v/r3RldiCOtBc

https://www.youtube.com/v/vnPT1XOWRTE

I'll admit that I had trouble with that one, but I'm glad that I heard it nevertheless.

There is this one quartet by Princeton-based composer Steven Mackey (haven't seen anything on him here yet) called "Ars Moriendi: Nine Tableaux on the Art of Dying Well" that really moved me, emotionally-speaking. I first heard it live at a local concert given by the Borromeo String Quartet in 2007. It was such a sad piece of music and a lot of people really didn't like it at all. They played it just before intermission and I remember just feeling -- pale inside -- after hearing it, during intermission. After the last note faded away, I looked at my parents. They looked confused -- my mom had this blank look on her face (she hated it!). When music has the power to do this, it is incredible.

It's basically a personal diary of the composer's father's death. It is based off of "Danny Boy" (his father's favorite tune) and contains the sounds of labored breathing, a heartbeat, fibrillation, and childhood memories. I haven't heard it in a long partly because it is so emotionally draining for me. Even thinking about it right now makes me uneasy.

[asin]B0017N8X3K[/asin]
The composer's fairly detailed description is here: http://share.boomdesigngroup.com/stevenMackey/ProgramNotes/ArsMoriendi.doc

Unfortunately, I've never heard anything else by Mackey that I've liked at all. However, that piece is very special to me.

[torut]

Gérard Zinsstag ~ Innanzi (1978) for double-bass and orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/v/RQHgR8fbvm0

That is so cool. The characteristic sonority of double bass creates unique effects, and the orchestra part is wonderful. I want to check his other works. I'll make a link to this post in contrabass thread. (I hope it is ok.  )

[petrarch]

Gérard Zinsstag ~ Innanzi (1978) for double-bass and orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/v/RQHgR8fbvm0

That is so cool. The characteristic sonority of double bass creates unique effects, and the orchestra part is wonderful. I want to check his other works. I'll make a link to this post in contrabass thread. (I hope it is ok.  )

It is good. Thanks for posting.

[petrarch]

Someone mentioned Crumb's Black Angels in another thread as an example of a work they found unpleasant to listen to (presumably due to its use of shrill high-pitched sounds)

I thought I'd just leave here another experimental string quartet that uses such sounds—and is by no means easier to listen to—but is actually good. If you can last out the first few minutes it is worth listening to this piece all the way to the end:

https://www.youtube.com/v/11N7ViO__1Q

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

https://www.youtube.com/v/r3RldiCOtBc

https://www.youtube.com/v/vnPT1XOWRTE

Good stuff; couldn't resist and ordered the CD. His Scardanelli-Zyklus is a favorite of mine.

[torut]

Good stuff; couldn't resist and ordered the CD. His Scardanelli-Zyklus is a favorite of mine.

Did you order Wergo disc containing Streichquartett, Die Jahreszeiten, and Chaconne? It is unavailable at amazon.com. 

[petrarch]

Did you order Wergo disc containing Streichquartett, Die Jahreszeiten, and Chaconne? It is unavailable at amazon.com. 

Ordered the last copy from the marketplace. But I see another one has popped up at a higher price from a different seller (sorry, that one is the LP). It is also available at a seller at amazon.de, but that one doesn't ship to the US (I tried) .