Avant garde songs

Started by Mandryka, November 20, 2020, 04:32:39 AM

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Mandryka

https://www.youtube.com/v/fhgHqhdoGc0&ab_channel=You%27veprobablyneverheardofit.

Phillipe Manoury, En Echo. It's a song sequence, this is the first. It sounds like he's made a line for the singer which is a bit like Berlioz, well that's not fair but it's got a bit of truth in it, and then he's given her a funky space age  avant garde accompaniment with electronics. How lame is that?
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

I may be pushing the concept of song again, but I think Florian Hecker's A Script for Machine Synthesis is not totally without interest.


https://www.youtube.com/v/eCZXRzaDDIo
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#43
Quote from: Mandryka on December 01, 2020, 12:40:13 AM
https://www.youtube.com/v/KzitgQrp8J8

John Croft wrote a pair of songs for soprano and flute called méditions d'une furie. Cora Schmeiser has a most distinctive voice, it has a fragility which I think is attractive. These are worth hearing, they're a bit special.

And Croft has a song cycle, for soprano and electronics, it's so sensual it must be bad for you.



Well, if this music is representative of what composers are up to now, postmodernism is dead. Some of this is as decadent and unctuous as Richard Strauss, some of it as magico-spirituo-mystico-whatever as Jonathan Harvey.

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/52/000139125.pdf

http://john-croft.uk/
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

mabuse

Quote from: Mandryka on March 23, 2021, 06:31:08 AM
What am I supposed to do with this?

Getting more !

I suggest Matthew Shlomowitz's Letter Piece #5 "Northern Cities" (2009) by Chiara Saccone & Chiara Percivati:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4TQRC18ix0
https://youtu.be/l4TQRC18ix0

mabuse

A recent publication :

« Resonant Bodies »
New Focus Recordings (2021)
https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/resonant-bodies

"The Resonant Bodies festival, founded and directed by mezzo-soprano Lucy Dhegrae, ran for three nights of performances in a row at downtown Brooklyn's Roulette Intermedium each year from 2013-19. The broad mission of Resonant Bodies was to highlight adventurous vocalists in programs of their choosing. The collection of live performances from the festival features performances by several prominent vocal performers across the spectrum of diverse practice including Julia Bullock, Tony Arnold, Pamela Z, Charmaine Lee, Lucy Shelton, Caroline Shaw, and Sofia Jernberg."

Very varied works which offer a quite stimulating program in my opinion...  :)


Mandryka

Quote from: mabuse on March 24, 2021, 06:34:16 PM
A recent publication :

« Resonant Bodies »
New Focus Recordings (2021)
https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/resonant-bodies

"The Resonant Bodies festival, founded and directed by mezzo-soprano Lucy Dhegrae, ran for three nights of performances in a row at downtown Brooklyn's Roulette Intermedium each year from 2013-19. The broad mission of Resonant Bodies was to highlight adventurous vocalists in programs of their choosing. The collection of live performances from the festival features performances by several prominent vocal performers across the spectrum of diverse practice including Julia Bullock, Tony Arnold, Pamela Z, Charmaine Lee, Lucy Shelton, Caroline Shaw, and Sofia Jernberg."

Very varied works which offer a quite stimulating program in my opinion...  :)

Thanks, listening now.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#48


These are late pieces principally for up to four voices written for Electric Phoenix. As with the songs in the Song Books, each performer is instructed to be unaware of the others are doing. In this case, they recorded their contribution in a studio and the results were later assembled.  It's not clear to me how much "artfulness" was involved in that assembly - whether this is the result of an auteur's decisions.

Each of the six pieces are quite long, and have more or less distinct characters. So far 93 has really caught my imagination - I like the singer's northern English accent! There is some instrumental sound and I don't know how it got there. There is, of course, silence - well judged IMO. This is something to explore, potentially impressive I think.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka





Thomas Larcher's  A Padmore Cycle, for tenor and piano, is just really well made and attractive music. Clearly part of the lieder tradition, and clearly modern. Larcher was going to be composer in residence at The Wigmore Hall, it was a good choice, the audiences there would love this cycle I'm absolutely sure of it - they would feel comfortably at home with the music and stimulated by the challenge of some new sounds, new harmonies. Recommended to people who like Mahler songs, for example, and would like see what composers are doing today with that type of music.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Quote from: Mandryka on November 26, 2020, 10:05:28 AM


Well, we've all heard of songs without words, many of these are songs without melodies. They are certainly boundary pushing and I'm not sure how to listen to them. I believe the booklet explains in some length what Christopher Fox was trying to achieve, what tradition he felt part of. If anyone can find said booklet online, please let me know.

The singers from Exaudi are excellent and their commitment to the project is palpable. I can assure you that when you're in the right frame of mind this is very satisfying music.

https://divineartrecords.com/recording/fox-catalogue-irraisone/

An example

https://www.youtube.com/v/uLBCLsr44xk

And yet another antecedent maybe, Aperghis's recitations. I'm listening to this one now



Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

T. D.

#51
Quote from: Mandryka on June 17, 2021, 11:21:28 AM
And yet another antecedent maybe, Aperghis's recitations. I'm listening to this one now



Not familiar with the Fox, but I mentioned the Aperghis Recitations in "reply #4" of the thread. Rather a good composer IMO, have enjoyed all the Aperghis pieces I've heard.
For instance this (5 vocalists + cello, might as well post here...)

Mandryka

#52


Harry Partch, like Guillaume Machaut, is perennially and eternally at the avant of all gardes. His settings of Li Po are early, there's a recording of the composer performing them, but his voice isn't top tier and the sound is not so good. I was very pleased to find the above modern performance this morning. I like Stephen Kalm's rich and refined tenor voice, Ted Mook's viola is maybe not earthy enough. 

By the way, the original is on this CD



On it I found an amazing, mind blowing, cycle, called Bitter Music.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#53
Quote from: Mandryka on November 23, 2020, 10:16:01 AM
The problem I have is that they all seem to be part of a romantic expressionist tradition, possibly extending that tradition but as far as I can hear they're not experimental. Even Dusapin is more cutting edge vanguard avant garde sounding (slightly) that Rihm, when it comes to songs. There's something about the piano and voice combo which leads to composers getting their wings clipped maybe.

When I wrote that I hadn't discovered the Hölderin fragments here, which this evening seem amazing to me - lieder, yes, avant garde yes.



Same for the gedichte aus atemwender.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Well it was avant garde in it's day and I'm enjoying it very much 

Betsy Jolas Quatuor II for soprano, violin, viola & cello with Mady Mesplé.

https://www.youtube.com/v/W7u5jf5S0zk
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Minimal, simple, spacious, Renaud Gagneux is clearly influenced by Satie, and what he does here is a pleasure for me to hear.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#56
Eureka. I have found the missing link which connects Rihm's songs to the earlier German lieder tradition. That link is Wilhelm Killmayer - who happened to be one of the young Rihm's teachers. Listening to this is what made the penny drop.


Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#57



Well, my ear really pricked up when she sang a pair of songs by Alberto Colla - a composer whom I'd never heard of before, some details here

https://www.ricordi.com/en-US/Composers/C/Colla-Alberto.aspx

And then again in a number by Giacomo Manzoni. I guess, not surprisingly, Italians know about singing!

The singer's my cup of tea, Tiziana Scandaletti. I have my work cut out for me exploring these composers and this singer now.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka



I first discovered Vitor Rua when I came across John Tilbury's recording of solo piano music. It is charming and relaxing while being imaginative and experimental. Same can be said for these songs! Lovely music really, and as far as I can see, like nothing else. I wonder what they're singing about - could be anything really.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

MusicTurner

#59
Quote from: Mandryka on April 28, 2022, 12:01:28 PM
Well it was avant garde in it's day and I'm enjoying it very much 

Betsy Jolas Quatuor II for soprano, violin, viola & cello with Mady Mesplé.

https://www.youtube.com/v/W7u5jf5S0zk

Rochberg's freshly serialist 2nd String Quartet (1959-61) also features a soprano, with passages from Rilke's Duineser Elegien No. IX, and it is included in this interesting twofer, currently on sale at JPC for only 4.99 Euros. Listening to it for the first time, and enjoying it, as expected. Well played & good sound.

The set also includes Crumb's Madrigals, Books I-IV as probably the most well-known piece, etc. The booklet is quite informative too.

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/20th-Century-Voices-in-America/hnum/8409535