Quiz: Mystery scores

[rappy]

I don't have at the moment, I think I know some of the themes but I can't name them 
What I don't like I don't know enough to remember the themes 

[Mark G. Simon]

Curious about the 'twist', though!

You take the first notes of each excerpt and put them together and it turns out to be "Let's Twist Again" with Chubby Checkers.

[lukeottevanger]

Going to have a look at your 'B flat major' piece in a minute, Rappy. Reminds me of a projected piece by Gavin Bryars, which was to be made up of of a sequence of cadences in F major taken from other composers' work.

As far as I can see the only one of Sfz's which I haven't got, and which has been got by someone else, is 4. This one does look very familiar. Re your question about 1, 6, 9 and 12, Sfz - 'are these pieces more "famous," or merely easier to guess based on the limited information supplied?' - I'd say the latter. To me 2, 3, 8, 13, 15 and 19 came equally quickly, if not more so, and I'd think at least some of these are pieces known by all here.

BTW, I have a twist of my own in mind, though I haven't started preparing samples yet - interesting to see if it turns out to be similar to Sfz's!

[lukeottevanger]

What was the decision on your 'B flat' piece, Rappy? Do we PM you the answers or state them here? I have 5 so far...

Sorry, wasn't paying attention. I just saw the answer up there ^

PM-ing you my first few, but I haven't finished looking yet....

[(poco) Sforzando]

You take the first notes of each excerpt and put them together and it turns out to be "Let's Twist Again" with Chubby Checkers.

Drat! he guessed it!

[lukeottevanger]

Going to have a look at your 'B flat major' piece in a minute, Rappy. Reminds me of a projected piece by Gavin Bryars, which was to be made up of of a sequence of cadences in F major taken from other composers' work.

...also of Kyle Gann's Petty Larceny (part of which was my mystery score no 73). That piece is entirely made up of fragments of all the Beethoven piano sonatas. It appears complex, rhythmically, and is physically unplayable, but the complexity is only to the end that all the different pieces can coexist at their 'proper' speed (whatever that is). It's one of Gann's Disklavier studies (the updated version of Nancarrow's player piano studies) and you can get the score at Gann's wonderful website (the finest composer site on the net in my experience). The piece itself, with all that implies about man-and-machine, is actually remarkably effective, even moving in a very strange way.

edit - find the score to Petty Larceny, and all Gann's other Disklavier studies, and loads of other pieces, here: http://www.kylegann.com/Gannscores.html

[rappy]

The Bb flat Quiz: List of the identified themes

1. -
2. -
3. Luke
4. -
5. Luke, Sforzando
6. -
7. -
8. -
9. -
10. -
11. Luke, Sforzando
12. Luke, Sforzando
13. -
14. Luke
15. Luke, Sforzando
16. -

[(poco) Sforzando]

Drat! he guessed it!

THE TWIST

The twist on the game is that now you will get the same 20 pieces in different formats. For some of the pieces, you will get a more complete score. For some, a recording. For yet others, both. I've left two as is, both pieces most of you got without any problem. It will be interesting to see how much more familiar the excerpts will be once they're put into more complete contexts.

Pieces have been uploaded at random, mainly because of the 500K limit.

Let the games begin!

[(poco) Sforzando]

Next batch:

[(poco) Sforzando]

Batch 3:

[(poco) Sforzando]

And the last:

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thanks, Sfz. This is a twist to remember (and no Chubby Checker in sight...).

[lukeottevanger]

That has helped a lot! Only one that I can't place now (I can't get the file to play)

[(poco) Sforzando]

Is anyone else besides Luke having trouble playing #4?

Very interesting results. Look what has happened:

Luke: all but #4 = 19
Jezetha: 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20 = 10
Rappy: 1, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19 = 8

No updated list from Mark so far. (It's only 6:30 in the morning here in the Eastern US as I type!)

We'll give this a day and see if anyone else wants to play. Then tonight, while Europe sleeps, I'll add the next twist to the game. 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Is anyone else besides Luke having trouble playing #4?

No.

[rappy]

#4 works fine here.

[(poco) Sforzando]

#4 works fine here.

But neither of you has identified it . . .

I am uploading 4 again in case that helps Luke open it.

[lukeottevanger]

Thanks, I tried. No luck - but as I said in my PM, it's not the file, the problem's at my end.

[lukeottevanger]

However, I think I know the answer...sort of.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

However, I think I know the answer...sort of.

I know the composer, but not the work (he doesn't belong to my personal canon, though he squarely does to the Western...)