Topic: Avant garde flutes and reeds

[Mandryka]

The flute has really come of age over the past 50 years, I think partly because composers have been keen to exploit the possibilities of interesting harmonies caused by overblowing.


Anyway, here’s a thread to record special recordings of recent flute music.

I’ll kick it off with this lovely thing by Chaya Czernowin called Ina, for live flute and tape. There’s a commercial recording by Sylvie Lacroix, but here’s a nice one on YouTube.


<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/cn5l7tPBwZw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/cn5l7tPBwZw</a>

[springrite]

Now, the first name that comes to mind for me is Fenneyhough...

[Mandryka]

Now, the first name that comes to mind for me is Fenneyhough...

Yes well he is a flute player. From his flute pieces, I love Unity Capsule, and indeed Cassandra’s Dream Song. And there’s clarinet music too - Time and Motion Study iii (I think iii)

 This CD, which has Unity Capsule, is well worth exploring I think

[david johnson]

Mandryka, that was a fun listen 

[Artem]

There're some good pieces on that disk

[amw]

Yes well he is a flute player. From his flute pieces, I love Unity Capsule, and indeed Cassandra’s Dream Song. And there’s clarinet music too - Time and Motion Study iii (I think iii)

 This CD, which has Unity Capsule, is well worth exploring I think

This one is more or less the continuation of that CD and if you liked one, you'll like the other:

[Mandryka]

Mandryka, that was a fun listen 

Which one, the Chaya Czernowin or the Richard Craig?

[Mandryka]

There're some good pieces on that disk

This is not a composer I have explored before, but I was keen to do so when I saw your post because it was through listening to Nohkan players that I started to become more interested in flute -- I like the effect of overblowing. So thanks for this.

[Artem]

Hosokawa is an interesting composer to me. I am very curious about discovering his work, even though a lot of his chamber and orchestral compositions sound kind of the same to my ears. A slow build up of a mass of sound, followed by an eruption and then it slowly fades away. However, the pieces from that Naxos disk feel rather distinct from his other work.

Morton Feldman's 4 hours long piece For Philip Guston has a very beautiful flute part. His compositions for clarinet are also good.

Oh, and I almost forgot about this one, specifically the pieces dedicated to Boulez and Kurtag:

[DaveF]

I'm not quite how avant-garde these would be thought to be (1977 and 1983, respectively), but I like Gubaidulina's Quartet for Flutes:



and Birtwistle's Duets for Storab:

[Mandryka]

Kolbein Bjarnasson, the Hosokawa flautist above, has done a gorgeous recording of Klaus Huber’s Ein Hauch von Unzeit, on this CD

[Mandryka]

There are four versions of Trasfigured Wind by Roger Reynolds, all from the mid 1980s I think.

Transfigured Wind I is for solo flute, as far as I know there are no commercial recordings, but there is this excellent one on YouTube

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/_TVXkKaHnUs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/_TVXkKaHnUs</a>

Transfigured Wind II is for computer and tape, it seems to take on the form of a large scale piece, concerto like at times, you can hear it on this CD, Harvey Sollberger playing



I haven’t been able to hear Transfigured Wind III

Transfigured Wind IV is for flute with a subtle electronics, it feels like a chamber piece, much longer than Transfigured Wind I - it’s on this CD. Harvey Sollberger again.

[Mandryka]

An outstanding, expressive and well recorded, performance of James Dillon’s Sgothan here. There are others, including a commercial one from Cécile Daroux, and one on soundcloud from Richard Craig, but this is the one which makes it into the most interesting music for me, today.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/1uT9MLqs8LY" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/1uT9MLqs8LY</a>

[Mandryka]

Hans Joachim Hespos, Duma for flute, and rather nice too.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/W2qJMn0pfcw&amp;ab_channel=TrentonHoppe" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/W2qJMn0pfcw&amp;ab_channel=TrentonHoppe</a>

[Mandryka]

Doctorate on Finnissy's flute pieces here

https://escholarship.org/content/qt4sc6x6h2/qt4sc6x6h2.pdf?t=o9qi3w&v=lg

[Mandryka]

David Toop is, amongst other things, a flute player. These recordings are free improvisations made with percussionist Paul Burrell. The music really does inspire the imagination, it has the sort of magic which the Shaman singers have in the recordings Toop made and released on this CD, which is also highly recommendable - as is Burwell’s obituary in The Independent, which I’ve linked.



https://web.archive.org/web/20070507030128/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2251315.ece

[Selig]

Manuel Zurria plays some interesting music by minimalists and avant-gardists on this CD:



my favourite piece being Luc Ferrari's Madame de Shanghai which combines music for flute trio with field recordings & excerpts from Orson Welles' Lady from Shanghai

[T. D.]

I once owned a copy of this interesting CD:

Dizzy Divinity I (Turin 1985) for flute alone
Byzantine Prayer (1988) for 40 flutists with 72 flutes
Frenetico Il Longing Di Amare (1984/87) for bass voice, octobass or double-bass flute and sound icon
Capricorn's Nostalgic Crickets II (1980)

I recall having high hopes for the "flute orchestra" piece Byzantine Prayer, but I don't believe the recording was able to capture what it must sound like live.

I think Mandryka's posted elsewhere on Radulescu's Inner Time and Inner Time II (solo clarinet and 7 clarinets resp.).

[Mandryka]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/vdCRu8TJRpg&amp;ab_channel=EberhardBlum-Topic" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/vdCRu8TJRpg&amp;ab_channel=EberhardBlum-Topic</a>

Ernstalbrecht Stiebler's Three in One for bass flute and taped flutes was inspired by Ad Reinhardt's black paintings -- I think it's gorgeous

[Mandryka]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/DwrBbMBcD7Y&amp;ab_channel=elizabethjigalin" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/DwrBbMBcD7Y&amp;ab_channel=elizabethjigalin</a>

Sciarrino's Il cerchio tagliato dei suoni is for 4 solo flutes and a 100 strong flute band who walk around the auditorium, good to have this video.