Quiz: Mystery scores

[greg]

I don't know what you're complaining about - you can actually get the listening over with much quicker this way. But if you really insist on listening at normal, slooow speed, simply click on the "Download" button (the one on the right, with the sort of "calculator" icon)...

oh, duh! didn't think of that

BTW, I'm surprised no one has even guessed the composer of MM 24. It's somebody extremely famous (and so is the piece I'm alluding to in my clue)!

my first guess is Sorabji, but you said extremely famous so probably not.....

[Maciek]

No, not Sorabji. I'll add another clue: this is the one American composer mentioned in my earlier clues.

[greg]

ok, i'm 100% sure I know who the composer of MM24 is. But there's too many possibilities of what it could be, and i've never heard any of his solo piano music before. So probably someone else will be able to get it instead.

[Guido]

The Roslavets and Milhaud - generic title just piano sonata?

William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony

[lukeottevanger]

The Roslavets and Milhaud - generic title just piano sonata?

Yes. With the Roslavets, technically, I ought to make you specify which, but that would be silly. It's no 1, btw.

William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony

Bingo

[Maciek]

Slow week...

Do you need any more clues? 0:)

[Maciek]

I mean, do you really need more clues? 0:)

[lukeottevanger]

I guess me saying

1) General clue: one of my pieces is The Whale by John Tavener

and

2) Piece-specific clue: this is the one I identified earlier

isn't enough of a clue. 

Or maybe (more likely, I hope) no one is trying any more. 

[Maciek]

I think the chipmunks scared everyone away...

[lukeottevanger]

Yes, that is the only logical explanation

[Maciek]

Here are some more clues for mine:

We've already established they come from 3 different countries. MM24 is by a very famous American composer - Greg has probably guessed him already. This composer has written an extremely famous and very "dark" piece for string quartet, and it is in that piece that he employs the numbers 7 and 13.

MM11, 12, 13, 15 all come from a country that, a very long time ago, used to be one of the largest in Europe. However, it certainly was not a military nor a political empire, therefore in the 14th century it was forced into a federation with a much smaller country, forming a very powerful union which was to finally fall apart only in 1795. This federation did undergo quite a few changes on the way, the most radical one in 1569 (arguably, this was the moment when the smaller country really enforced itself on the bigger one). Happens to be the last European country to have been christened.

MM18 is from the smaller country.

MM11 is based on the Adagio from Schubert's Quintet in C Major op. 163 (or at least that is what the liner notes claim).

MM12. From the CD liner notes with a few cuts: "...was scored for choir, organ and horns. Its main idea and form is based on the ritualistic. The opening horn fanfare is followed by four sections which give a pagan view of the world. (...) If we remember the crucial change of world view that Christianity brought to (...) (the scared oak woods survived indeed till much later), then this oratorio qualifies as programme music. (...) Symbolism and ritual are amplified, strengthened by something which seems to arise so naturally from the music - the choir's moving round the audience. The performers are a mobile source of sound which seems to frame the listeners within a sacred space and almost makes them participants themselves" (this, if you ask me, is all a load of trash but it does contain a few clues)

MM13. Liner notes, again, this time by the composer: "This work continues the calendar of my musical touches (...). These touches are not as light as might appear. The interesting and tempting play is always followed by a painful reflection and inevitably lead to Heracleitus' 'river' bank. As one watches the changing flow, imitation seems fruitless, juxtaposition senseless, while the distant autumn (...) does not seem to request for any markedly ironic dissociation. I try to model my own musical plasticity which is nevertheless based on [X]'s details in melody, rhythm, harmony, texture and determined by his spiritual suggestions."

MM18. The text is by Iwaszkiewicz.

[lukeottevanger]

I feel like I ought to go on strike, but - I presume no 24 is George Crumb, even though it looks little like a Crumb score. The most obvious guess would be Makrokosmos, though I don't think that's right. I can say for sure it isn't one of the Five Pieces (because that was one of my ones!)

[Maciek]

Right composer, wrong work. And I was actually going to post something from Five Pieces but I liked this page better for some reason (don't ask what exactly, I just don't know)!

I'll add more clues:

The big country is now one of the smallest countries in Europe - and it has a miniscule population density. The smaller country is nowadays actually the bigger of the two.

MM11 - male composer. I had actually mentioned him before on the old GMG - and I wasn't the only one to do so (though I believe I was the one who brought his name up ). His Requiem was also mentioned over there. He's never appeared on our new forum though. (Not yet, because for the time being I'm putting off starting his thread until this thing gets guessed... )

MM12 - male. Code word: P A G A N.

MM13 - female! Finlandia has released quite a few discs of her music, including some symphonies... (But this is not a symphony... )

MM15 - female. The author of the text is called Grajauskas.

MM18 - male. Dead. Text by Iwaszkiewicz. Last piece completed by this composer. Put the facts together. Need more? This piece has been released on an Olympia CD. Another song with orchestra by this composer has appeared here recently (after I posted MM18).

MM14 - there's a clue in there somewhere concerning MM11-MM15...

[lukeottevanger]

Your weird score - is it no 12? - is Last Pagan Rites by Bronius Kutavičius (third movement, of course). FWIW I was there before I saw your PAGAN clue. Funnily enough I had been exploring these composers earlier when studying these scores of yours, but hadn't come up with the goods.

[lukeottevanger]

I'm getting very confused with numbers and clues now, Maciek, but I've actually found one of your score online - not sure now which of yours it is (no 11?), but the piece, by Vidmantas Bartulis, appears to be called 'I Like F.Schubert. Quintetto C Maj op.163 Adagio' or something of the sort. And he wrote a Requiem, which fits your clue...

I thought your Schubert one was the piano quartet one.....must be reading the clues wrong! 

[greg]

ok, i'll guess the Crumb work one post at a time. Whoever ends up with the right guess wins (and there's only one guess allowed each time, but only a following guess can be made after Maciek says "no" first.

my first guess is the Piano Sonata

[Maciek]

Both guesses correct. It's very likely that I mixed up the clues somewhere along the way. Anyway, just to set it straight: the Bartulis does not feature a piano, and the Kutavicius is the "odd" one.

I have to add I really think Last Pagan Rites is one of the least interesting pieces by Kutavicius. I think From the Jatvingian Stone and The Tree of Earth surpass it by far. Not mention The Gates of Jerusalem - a cycle that I think is this composer's real masterpiece (even if the last "gate" is a bit weaker than the first three).

Off I go to start a Kutavicius and a Bartulis thread...

ok, i'll guess the Crumb work one post at a time. Whoever ends up with the right guess wins (and there's only one guess allowed each time, but only a following guess can be made after Maciek says "no" first.

my first guess is the Piano Sonata

No. Do continue.

[greg]

Prelude and Toccata?

[Maciek]

No.

Here's another clue: the piece is sort of dedicated to a "G. Kalish".

[greg]

A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979?
i don't know, that clue didn't really help, i know nothing about Crumb's piano music