Quiz: Mystery scores

[lukeottevanger]

Cellos?

[lukeottevanger]

I'm sorry that the instrument name here is not clear - I didn't intend that - but it is possible to work out what it is from its position in the score - that is to say, it is above something else - and you can make out some of the name further down the page. Also the type of music it is playing, and the notes themselves, suggest a particular instrument, though one aspect of the articulation is not common practice for this instrument. It's worth pointing out at this juncture that, whilst he was composing this piece, the composer was also engaged as a copyist working on, among other things, the most strikingly innovative parts of one of the two large orchestral works of the composer of my no 25. Got that? 

Once you've determined what's going on here, surely the answer will come in seconds.

[Guido]

Neither are masterpieces, and not the composers best work (although I like one very much in deed), but I think that the composers are gettable from the scores, and as I say, once that has been got, there's only a limited number of pieces that each could be.

[Maciek]

May I just add, for those who keep getting lost in this thread as I do, that Luke's unsolved pics are on page 18 (Reply #352). The regularly updated list of answers is in Reply #355 (same page).

Guido's unsolved pics are on page 20 (Reply #391).

[Larry Rinkel]

Cellos?

No, not cellos. I assumed there were double basses below the staff with the arpeggiated G+ chord, and I carelessly didn't notice the two unpitched staves at the very bottom of some of the systems. Since one does not normally expect that at the bottom of a score, maybe these are percussion instruments. But I cannot make out any instrument names at all except one Trb.; all I can see are I-II-III-IV. It's cropped too tight at the left and too blurry to get any more.

Now let me think who was a copyist for Varèse when he was writing Amériques or Arcana, and frankly I don't know....

[greg]

He does have that effect  . . . . 

lol

[lukeottevanger]

No, not cellos. I assumed there were double basses below the staff with the arpeggiated G+ chord, and I carelessly didn't notice the two unpitched staves at the very bottom of some of the systems. Since one does not normally expect that at the bottom of a score, maybe these are percussion instruments. But I cannot make out any instrument names at all except one Trb.; all I can see are I-II-III-IV. It's cropped too tight at the left and too blurry to get any more.

Now let me think who was a copyist for Varèse when he was writing Amériques or Arcana, and frankly I don't know....

Let me give a further hint - how many different pitches are each of I, II, III and IV - and V and VI - playing? What does this suggest, instrumentally?

And what does this conclusion suggest, in terms of what work this must be?

[lukeottevanger]

...oh, and it was Ameriques, btw, just fyi!

[Larry Rinkel]

Let me give a further hint - how many different pitches are each of I, II, III and IV - and V and VI - playing? What does this suggest, instrumentally?

And what does this conclusion suggest, in terms of what work this must be?

The pitches suggest a whole lot of timpani - but the legato phrasing suggests otherwise.

I am wondering if this could be Colin McPhee, who studied with Varèse and was noted for his interest in gamelan. Maybe his supposedly best-known work, Tabuh-Tabuhan. But I've never heard it and would never get it from the score. (Of course, maybe if I saw the instrument designations ....  )

[lukeottevanger]

That's what I meant when I said one aspect of the articulation notation was unusual. This composer tends to do things unconventionally, as the 18 timpani (and that mammoth brass section) suggest....

[Larry Rinkel]

That's what I meant when I said one aspect of the articulation notation was unusual. This composer tends to do things unconventionally, as the 18 timpani (and that mammoth brass section) suggest....

Check my edited post.

[Larry Rinkel]

That's what I meant when I said one aspect of the articulation notation was unusual. This composer tends to do things unconventionally, as the 18 timpani (and that mammoth brass section) suggest....

It can't be Berlioz!

[lukeottevanger]

No, it isn't, but this piece is in part indebted to the Berlioz Requiem, for the reasons you imply, and to Berlioz in general, for other reasons. It is also, however, indebted to many other composers, without ever being less than an entirely personal work.

Think big, Larry [or anyone else], very big.

and think of pieces you've not been fulsome in your praise of in the past.... (though I'm pleased that on the evidence of the score you judge it 'not as simple-minded as Glass' - that's something, at least!  )

[Larry Rinkel]

No, it isn't, but this piece is in part indebted to the Berlioz Requiem, for the reasons you imply, and to Berlioz in general, for other reasons. It is also, however, indebted to many other composers, without ever being less than an entirely personal work.

Think big, Larry [or anyone else], very big.

and think of pieces you've not been fulsome in your praise of in the past.... (though I'm pleased that on the evidence of the score you judge it 'not as simple-minded as Glass' - that's something, at least!  )

AH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Larry Rinkel]

AH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You actually bought a score to that thing? 

[lukeottevanger]

Yes I did. Well, it was a present, actually, when I was a teenager....

But I'm proud of it!

(Of course, maybe if I saw the instrument designations ....  )

as far as that goes, all you need[ed] to know is that there's masses of everything. On this page, in addition to the six sets of three timps, there are 2 cornets, 12 trumpets, 11 trombones, 10 tubas....and two bass drums. That scale is reflected in the rest of the orchestra and in the piece's length.

[karlhenning]

Not H.B., Luke?

[Larry Rinkel]

Yes I did. Well, it was a present, actually, when I was a teenager....

But I'm proud of it!

as far as that goes, all you need[ed] to know is that there's masses of everything. On this page, in addition to the six sets of three timps, there are 2 cornets, 12 trumpets, 11 trombones, 10 tubas....and two bass drums. That scale is reflected in the rest of the orchestra and in the piece's length.

Well, I've been thinking of trading my Marco Polo CDs for the reissue on Naxos, just to save bloat room. But I can't bear the idea of coughing up $12 when I've already spent $25 on that gothic monstrosity . . . 

[Maciek]

Not H.B., Luke?

I don't think he could have copied Ameriques - unless some paranormal element was involved...

[Larry Rinkel]

Yes I did. Well, it was a present, actually, when I was a teenager....

But I'm proud of it!

as far as that goes, all you need[ed] to know is that there's masses of everything. On this page, in addition to the six sets of three timps, there are 2 cornets, 12 trumpets, 11 trombones, 10 tubas....and two bass drums. That scale is reflected in the rest of the orchestra and in the piece's length.

How many staves does he need to write it? 200?