Hello

Started by steve ridgway, August 29, 2018, 05:55:01 AM

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steve ridgway

Hello all, I'm very glad to see the forum's mended and I can finally sign up :P.

I haven't been a great fan of Classical Music as presented by TV and radio, which could be in part due to their rather limited repertoire - e.g. Holst's The Planet Mars, Vivaldi's One Season and The Star Wars Theme ::). I've mostly been listening to the more experimental types of rock, but in 2016 while looking into the rock music of 50 years previously and finding very little of interest, I started wondering what else would have been available at the time and actually went as far as to check out a couple of composers claimed as influences by rock groups - Stockhausen and Ligeti - which led to a pair of very enlightening compilation CDs. To my great surprise I discovered a lot of the sounds and techniques I enjoyed had been used by classical composers back into at least the 1950s, and also realised that "Classical Music" is not a particular sound but rather anything produced by composers trained in classical music. Since then I've been exploring a bit further and my favourites so far have been two large box sets of Pierre Henry, a couple of CDs of Ligeti, a few of Xenakis' electronically processed works and a complete works of (the not very prolific) Varese. Within the last month I've stumbled across The Avant Garde Project - a large collection of free downloads on archive.org - and have so far been listening to several compilations of 1950s-70s electronic music, a bit more Stockhausen and Xenakis, and am just starting to work through it all from the beginning. I had to give Varese a few listens but I now quite like nearly all the orchestral and operatic works, not just the electronic productions, so am feeling quite hopeful that a whole overlooked world of music could be out there waiting for me to wander through at leisure 8).

bhodges

Hello, 2dogs, and welcome. You have a great adventure ahead of you!

(Not to mention -- as you have already discovered -- an abundant supply of Stockhausen and Xenakis.)

--Bruce

vandermolen

Welcome from me too. You're way ahead of me in your musical explorations!
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

aligreto

Cheers and welcome. You may need deep pockets  ;D

Alek Hidell

Hello from me too, 2dogs. Do you in fact have two dogs? (Reminds me of the Monty Python "Two-Sheds Jackson" sketch. :D)

Always nice to see a fan of "modern" classical added to the collective. As aligreto warns, your wallet should abandon all hope now that it has entered here.
"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist." - Hélder Pessoa Câmara

Que

After our little adventure, it is good to see some reinforcements coming in...

Welcome!  :)

Q

mc ukrneal

Welcome and enjoy yourself!
Be kind to your fellow posters!!

steve ridgway

#7
Thanks everyone for the kind welcomes :).

"2dogs" is a reference to the Tarot card "the Moon" as I have been very interested in both subjects. We did have two dogs at the time but are now up to three, recently gaining a migrant from Romania.

I'm hoping to keep the spending within limits - the half dozen free downloads I've tried so far have been top quailty album transcriptions and very absorbing listening. It seems I may have come to this particular music just late enough for the recordings to have dropped out of copyright :P.

SymphonicAddict

Curious anecdote, 2dogs

Welcome!

steve ridgway

Thank you :). There is certainly a great deal of knowledge and enthusiasm on this site and I've already found some discussion of the few composers I've stumbled upon. My plan at the moment is to work through the Avant Garde Project downloads ( https://archive.org/details/iaagp ) in sequence - so far up to number 5 and have greatly enjoyed at least some of Josef Anton Riedl, Mauricio Kagel, Jacob Druckman and Philippe Mion; I will be returning to these 8). I wasn't so taken by Robert Erickson, it didn't absorb me at the first listen, but will give it another chance. Morton Subotnick is next up and I'm looking forward to seeing how different "The Double Life of Amphibians" is from "The Silver Apples of the Moon" and "The Wild Bull" from a decade earlier.

steve ridgway

Very nice amphibians they were too, recognisable instruments and voices with only a moderate amount of electronic enhancement :).

Karl Henning

Welcome to GMG, amphibians and all!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

steve ridgway

Thanks Karl :). Composing must be very satisfying but do you run into much difficulity in trying to avoid what's been done before?

EddieRUKiddingVarese

So your not related to Pugg in anyway?
"Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes"
and I need the knits, the double knits!

steve ridgway


EddieRUKiddingVarese

"Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes"
and I need the knits, the double knits!

Karl Henning

Quote from: 2dogs on September 04, 2018, 09:03:54 PM
Thanks Karl :). Composing must be very satisfying but do you run into much difficulity in trying to avoid what's been done before?

If it's in my own voice, it has not been done before  8)
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Mirror Image

Welcome aboard! I don't post as much as I used to, but it's great seeing new blood around here.

Sydney Nova Scotia

Welcome good to see other newies here too
Sydney is my name and games is my game