Favorite name for a musical work

[EigenUser]

At the risk of sounding like a totally uncritical Ligetian, I will say that Ligeti was a master of names. "San Francisco Polyphony", "Clocks and Clouds", "Lontano", "Atmospheres", "Ramifications", "Apparitions"... and not to mention the individual names of the piano etudes (in English, "Blocked Keys", "Autumn in Warsaw", "Metal", the untranslatable "Galomb Barong").

Messiaen fares well in this category, too. I love the word "Turangalîla". The title "Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum" ("...and we wait for the dead to rise") always makes me think of the much-hyped zombie apocalypse.

Feldman's works entitled with their instrumentation really do a surprisingly nice job of representing his music. Simple, yet enigmatic.

And we can't forget Adams' "Gnarly Buttons" or "Short Ride in a Fast Machine".

[Ken B]

Let me put in a kind word for Debussy and truth in advertising. La Mer properly indicates how watered-down the musical substance is.



In general I like "something number X". If the music needs a name, it needs more than a name.

[EigenUser]

Let me put in a kind word for Debussy and truth in advertising. La Mer properly indicates how watered-down the musical substance is.



In general I like "something number X". If the music needs a name, it needs more than a name.

I don't think that great art must speak for itself. I mean, it can, but I don't think it is any kind of measure of greatness. If a name helps me enjoy music, why should said music be considered lesser? Sorry for my mini-rant, but I feel strongly about this.

"La Mer" is watered-down. I think it's supposed to be, and I don't think that this is a bad quality. I was thinking the other day that much French impressionist music isn't substantial like Brahms or Bartok is. It's more like Jupiter or Saturn as opposed to Mars or Venus -- an organized cloud of gas that gets thicker and thicker as you get closer -- until it is a solid.

Even though I love "La Mer", I find the following remark made by a critic at the premiere very amusing. Enjoy!

The audience expected the ocean. Something big, something colossal, but there were served instead with some agitated water in a saucer.

[not edward]

Sciarrino has some good titles. I'll suggest his Nono memorial piece for piano, Perduto in una città d'acque (the title refers to Venice).

[Ken B]

At the risk of sounding like a totally uncritical Ligetian, I will say that Ligeti was a master of names. "San Francisco Polyphony", "Clocks and Clouds", "Lontano", "Atmospheres", "Ramifications", "Apparitions"... and not to mention the individual names of the piano etudes (in English, "Blocked Keys", "Autumn in Warsaw", "Metal", the untranslatable "Galomb Barong").

Messiaen fares well in this category, too. I love the word "Turangalîla". The title "Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum" ("...and we wait for the dead to rise") always makes me think of the much-hyped zombie apocalypse.

Feldman's works entitled with their instrumentation really do a surprisingly nice job of representing his music. Simple, yet enigmatic.

Agreed! Ligeti was a master of extra-musical crutches, and Feldman more careful to not use them.
but also 

[Jay F]

Symphony No. 6

[Brian]

Quite a few Zappa titles suit this thread....

And Charles Mingus, too.

"Reincarnation of a Love Bird"
"Better Git It in Your Soul"
"The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife are Some Jive Ass Slippers"
"The Chill of Death"
"Monk, Bunk, and Vice Versa (Osmotin')"
"Please Don't Come Back from the Moon"
"If Charlie Parker Were a Gunslinger There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats"

[Wanderer]

Symphony No. 6

A winner! 


Alkan: L'incendie au village voisin (Fire in the Neighboring Village)

[North Star]

Symphony No. 6

A pathetic answer.

[Moonfish]

A pathetic answer.

North Star, you need to be a bit more pastoral!

[North Star]

North Star, you need to be a bit more pastoral!

Or tragic.

[petrarch]

Sciarrino has some good titles. I'll suggest his Nono memorial piece for piano, Perduto in una città d'acque (the title refers to Venice).

+1.

[Mirror Image]

Janacek always had some cool names for his works, especially the operas. RVW had some cool titles for many of his works as well.

[Ken B]

Janacek always had some cool names for his works, especially the operas. RVW had some cool titles for many of his works as well.

Like Symphony No. 6

[Jay F]

North Star, you need to be a bit more pastoral!

Actually, Moonfish, you need to be a bit more tragic.

[Mirror Image]

Like Symphony No. 6

No, like The Lark Ascending, In the Fen Country, Flos Campi, Job: A Masque for Dancing, The Running Set, The Pilgrim's Progress, The Poisoned Kiss, etc.

[Moonfish]

"Pigs on the Wing"

[listener]

an early opera by SPOHR, live the title, don't know if I could sit through it though
'Alruna, die Eulenkönigin'   (Alruna, Queen of the Owls')

[jochanaan]

I'm surprised I'm the first to bring P.D.Q. Bach into this thread!  "Iphigenia in Brooklyn", "Concerto for Horn and Hardart", "The Art of the Ground Round", "Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion", and my personal favorite (just discovered on Wikipedia): "Lip My Reeds"! (S. 32')

On a more serious note, I'm rather partial to "The Poem of Ecstasy."

[johnshade]

Beim Schlafengehen (my favorite of The Four Last Songs)