New website for new music: Scorefollower.com

[bhodges]

On YouTube there are many classical recordings available that are synched with the score so you can follow along as you listen. Now comes this invaluable new site, www.scorefollower.com, which is dedicated to music roughly from the last 60 years. The director of the project is Dan Tramte, a teaching assistant at Harvard, and he and his excellent-looking team have done an impressive job so far, uploading videos of unusual, complex music.

The site just acquired nonprofit 501(c)(3) status, which of course means they are soliciting contributions, but it also indicates the commitment to this venture. Again, the site is relatively new, but so far, what I've seen uploaded is very impressive.

--Bruce

[North Star]

Excellent!

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

[Karl Henning]

That is great.

Separately, I almost want that to be "www.scoreflower.com" . . . .

[(poco) Sforzando]

I've been aware of this for some time, but got to the videos via YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/incipitsify/videos

There's a lot of interesting and inventive work here, all with both audio files and scores, and it's being constantly updated. Actually I've viewed quite a number of the YouTubes but I can't keep up, it's being updated so often. Opportunity for you, Karl?

[Daverz]

No bouncing ball?

[some guy]

Great idea, and I applaud it.

But I do so while deprecating the whole score/music idea.

That is, quite a lot of new music does not use scores. Quite a lot of new music uses graphic scores. Quite a lot of music is electroacoustic, and so any "scores" that exist of it are images, after the fact.

I suppose this site could present two out of the three categories I mentioned, but looking at pictures is not quite the same as following a score. And graphics scores aren't things to "follow," anyway.

So yeah. Good job!

And, yeah, what about the other things?

[Karl Henning]

Dude, next you'll be finding fault with bottle-openers because they cannot be used with cans 

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Great idea, and I applaud it.

But I do so while deprecating the whole score/music idea.

That is, quite a lot of new music does not use scores. Quite a lot of new music uses graphic scores. Quite a lot of music is electroacoustic, and so any "scores" that exist of it are images, after the fact.

I suppose this site could present two out of the three categories I mentioned, but looking at pictures is not quite the same as following a score. And graphics scores aren't things to "follow," anyway.

So yeah. Good job!

And, yeah, what about the other things?

I suppose graphic scores are interesting in their own right, sometimes they show a lot of insight into the composer's own working mind without the need to hear the piece....but then again that's the same with any score really. Mycenae Alpha by Xenakis is extremely interesting to learn about as a graphic score, however.

[bhodges]

Oh I like following graphic scores - even if I am not able to grasp everything that the musicians might gain from say, working directly with the composer. But what I like about following scores in general - traditionally notated or not - is seeing the composer do his/her best to communicate what he/she wants, and how that is interpreted by the players. (As an aside, I believe that today's musicians - especially those involved in new music - are able to handle just about anything thrown at them, which is a tribute to the high quality of musicians emerging from schools.)

And Xenakis's scores are works of art on their own. A gallery here had some of them on display a few years ago - a revelation.

--Bruce

[(poco) Sforzando]

Great idea, and I applaud it.

But I do so while deprecating the whole score/music idea.

That is, quite a lot of new music does not use scores. Quite a lot of new music uses graphic scores. Quite a lot of music is electroacoustic, and so any "scores" that exist of it are images, after the fact.

I suppose this site could present two out of the three categories I mentioned, but looking at pictures is not quite the same as following a score. And graphics scores aren't things to "follow," anyway.

So yeah. Good job!

And, yeah, what about the other things?

Why don't you look at some of the YouTubes before arriving at this conclusion?

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Oh I like following graphic scores - even if I am not able to grasp everything that the musicians might gain from say, working directly with the composer. But what I like about following scores in general - traditionally notated or not - is seeing the composer do his/her best to communicate what he/she wants, and how that is interpreted by the players. (As an aside, I believe that today's musicians - especially those involved in new music - are able to handle just about anything thrown at them, which is a tribute to the high quality of musicians emerging from schools.)

And Xenakis's scores are works of art on their own. A gallery here had some of them on display a few years ago - a revelation.

--Bruce

Oh that's wonderful! I wish I could have seen them on display!

[bhodges]

Oh that's wonderful! I wish I could have seen them on display!

Just found the remnants of the exhibition, including the 154-page catalog, still online. I'll post it in the Xenakis thread. 

--Bruce

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Just found the remnants of the exhibition, including the 154-page catalog, still online. I'll post it in the Xenakis thread. 

--Bruce

Oooooo looking forward to it!

[some guy]

Dude, next you'll be finding fault with bottle-openers because they cannot be used with cans 

Never!

(That is, I don't like canned food. I can't even remember the last time I had food out of a can. But I do like all varieties of new music, including the ones that don't use scores. And don't want any of that kind of new music to be excluded from a "new music" endeavor.

However, as (poco) has suggested, I should shut up until I've spent some time on the site. And that is true.

So I withdraw both the unambiguous praise and the very extremely mild and tentative sort of not praise.)

[Edit: I just went to the site. Both the unambiguous praise and the very extremely mild and tentative sort of not praise are hereby re-instated.]