Quiz: Mystery scores

[Larry Rinkel]

Nah, Larry, I just had to go out!

To confirm - Mr Rinkel is right - it is the HB Gothic

and Mr Rinkel is wrong - he underrates The Gothic terribly.  

BTW, Larry,  - I'm not at all upset, as from my first posting of this example I was aware of your possible reaction!  But, if you'll indulge me, and speaking purely musically, I've always been genuinely interested to know your criticisms of this piece - which is certainly very far from above criticism - because as you ought ot know by now, I value your insights. I suspect it is merely a matter of standards, and that mine are set rather lower than yours...

Nonsense! I have no standards at all.  

Unfortunately, I haven't heard it in several years, and like a bad dinner, it's a taste I'm trying to delete from my mouth permanently. Which means to answer you, I'd have to hear it all again, and if I were to hear it all again, I'd get the Naxos, and so you see my problem.

(But if anyone wants my copy of the Marco Polo, PM me.)

I'll look at more of the clues tonight.

[Larry Rinkel]

Would Resurrection (by Peter Maxwell Davies) be a legitimate guess?

Wagner? Tchaikovsky? (just joking.)

[Maciek]

 

Maciek, what is the Polish for "you are da man!"? 

Can't think of an adequate translation! Everything that comes to mind is either too plain or doesn't convey the same meaning... I'll think about it.

BTW, Luke, Nyman's Greenaway soundtracks are by far my favorites and I feel I know them pretty well but for some reason my mind was a blank on this one for very, very long...

[lukeottevanger]

Could this be the post you mean?

Yes, it could indeed. We are getting somewhere now...

[lukeottevanger]

Would Resurrection (by Peter Maxwell Davies) be a legitimate guess?

You are on fire! 

I take it my clues are a help, then...

[not edward]

I should pay more attention to this thread, but have been busy of late.

Luke, is your #9 Kurtag's Grabstein fur Stephan?

[lukeottevanger]

Woohoo! Yes it is! Nice work.

Seeing as the list is getting completed nice and quickly now, here's an updated version to make things easier.


Set by Sean:
1 - Bach - D minor Cello Suite - (Larry)
2 - Bach - E flat Cello Suite - (Larry)
3 - Bach - C minor Cello Suite - (Larry)
4 - Messiaen - Excerpt from Vingt Regards - (Larry)
5 - Messiaen - Excerpt from Vingt Regards - (Larry)
6 - Messiaen - Excerpt from Vingt Regards - (Larry)
7 - Messiaen - Excerpt from Vingt Regards - (Larry)


Set by Larry:
1 - Bach - B minor Mass 'Quoniam' - (Novitiate)
2 - Nielsen - Sixth Symphony - (Mark)
3 - Beethoven - Quartet op 95 - (CS)
4 - Schumann - Carnaval 'Chopin' - (Mark)
5 - Elgar - Cello Concerto - (Novitiate)
6 - Falla - Harpsichord Concerto - (Mark)
7 - Rzewski - The People United... - (Luke)
8 - Brahms - G major Sextet - (Luke)
9 - Berg - Wozzeck Act II interlude - (Luke)
10 - Mahler - Ninth Symphony - (Maciek)
11- Boulez - Le Marteau sans Maitre - (Luke)
12 - Petterssen - 7th Symphony - (M Forever)
13 - Carter - SQ 1 - (Luke)
14 - Shostakovich - Symphony 15 - (Luke)
15 - Monteverdi - Orfeo - (Novitiate)
16 - Elgar - String Quartet - (Luke)
17 - Gorecki - Symphony 3 - (Luke)
18 - Bizet - Carmen - (Luke)
19 - Ligeti - Etude 'L'escalier....' - (Luke)
20 - Weber - Sonata 2 - (Luke, but I refused to say because I Googled it; Guido was first to identify it)
21 - Stockhausen - Klavierstucke IX - (Luke)
22 - Handel - Orlando - (Luke)
23 - aka 1a - Verdi - Requiem - (Luke)
24 - aka 2a - Wagner - Götterdämmerung - (Mark)
25 - aka 3a - Holst - Jupiter - (Mark)
26 - aka 4a - Haydn - F minor Variations - (Luke)
27 - aka 5a Liszt - Petrarch Sonnet - (Mark)
28 - aka 6a Schoenberg - Pierrot - (Mark)
29 - aka 6 - six samples plus 'what is the link'
    Bach - Double Violin Concerto (Luke)
    Schumann - Davidsbundlertanze - (Luke)
     Mendelssohn - Scottish Symphony - (Luke)
    Tchakovsky - Serenade for Strings - (Luke)
    Webern - Symphony - (Luke)
    Ravel - Tzigane - (Luke)
    Link = all used by Balanchine - (Luke)
30 aka 21 - Wolf - String Quartet - (Luke)
31 aka 22 - Delius - Irmelin Prelude - (Luke)
32 aka 23 Wolf - Der Corregidor - (Luke)
33 aka 24  - Crawford Seeger - String Quartet - (Luke)
34 aka 25 - Lutoslawski - Third Symphony - (Luke)
35 aka 26 - Goldmark - Rustic Wedding Symphony - (Luke)
36 aka 27 - Orff - Antigone - (Luke)
37 aka 'Last'! - Bolcom - Songs of Experience - (Luke)

Set by Luke:
1 - Martinu - Symphony 6 - (Larry)
2 - Tavener - In Alium - (Larry)
3 - Feldman - Why Patterns (Mark)
4 - Khachaturian - Piano Concerto - (Mark)
5 - Ferneyhough - Sieben Sterne - (Larry)
6 - Schoenberg - Jakobsleiter - (Larry)
7 - Part - If Bach had been a beekeeper - (Karl)
8 - Scelsi - Anahit - (Maciek)
9 - Kurtag - Grabstein fur Stephan - (Edward)
10 - Havergal Brian - Gothic Symphony - (Larry 1st by exclamation; Karl 1st by use of English language)
11 - Cage - Concerto for Prepared Piano - (Maciek)
12 - Xenakis - Oresteia - (Greg)
13 - Adams - Harmonielehre - (Maciek)
14 - Ives - The Housatonic at Stockbridge - (Larry)
15 - Nancarrow - Player piano study (37) - (Mark)
16 - Tippett - 3rd Symphony - (Mark)
17 - Villa-Lobos - Bachainas Brasileras 2 (the train one...) - (Larry)
18 - Boulez - Le soleil des eaux (Maciek)
19 - Liszt - Dante Symphony - (Larry)
20 - Ligeti - Violin Concerto (Larry)
21 - Nyman - Drowning by NUmbers - (Maciek)
22 - Vaughan Williams - Symphony 9 - (Larry)
23 - Dvorak - Violin Concerto - (Guido)
24 - Finnissy - Red Earth - (Maciek)
25 - Varese - Nocturnal - (Larry)
26 - Dvorak - String Quartet op 9 - (Larry)
27 - Martin - Mass for double choir - (Maciek)
28 - Respighi - Feste Romane - (Maciek)
29 - Balakirev - 1st Symphony - (Maciek)
30 - Janacek - Suite for Strings - (Edward)
31 - Schnittke - String Trio - (Guido)
32 - Reger - Mozart Variations - (Larry)
33 - Bernstein - Chichester Psalms - (Larry)
34 - Maxwell Davies - Ressurection - (Maciek)

Set by Greg:
1 - Corigliano - Symphony 1 - (revealed by Greg)
2 - Takemitsu - Distance - (Maciek)
3 - Reich - Piano Phase - (Larry)
4 - Ligeti - Viola Sonata - (Edward)
5 - Adams - Phrygian Gates - (Guido)
6 - Kagel - String Sextet - (revealed by Greg)
7 - Prokofiev - PC 1 - (Luke)
8 - Xenakis - Jonchaies - (revealed by Greg)
9 - Debussy - La Mer - (Larry)
10 - Norgard - Symphony 6 -(revealed by Greg)

Set by Guido:
1 - presumably Sorabji - ? Guido doesn't know which - (Luke)
2 - Schumann - E flat Variations - (Luke)
3 - Ives - first of 114 Songs - (Luke)
4 - Stravinsky - for the five fingers - (Luke)
5 - Barber - Piano Sonata - (Larry)
6 - Previn - Cello Sonata - (Maciek)
7 - Finzi - Cello Concerto - (Luke)
8 - Piazzolla - Libertango - (Maciek)
9 - Bernstein Clarinet Sonata - (Mark)
10 - Poulenc - Cello Sonata - (Larry)
11 - Stravinsky - Requiem Canticles - (Mark)
12 - Kodaly - Solo Cello Sonata- (Larry)
13 'buggered up'
14 - Carter - Cello Concerto - (Luke)
15 - Holst - Invocation - (Luke)
16 - Dietrich - 1st mvt of FAE Sonata - (Luke)
17 - Bloch - Suite for Viola arr. Cello - (Luke)
Couldn't find no. 18...
19 - Ives - Fourth Symphony - (Larry)
20 - really not worth putting up, Guido! This is a little fragment from a larger set by me, this bit in particular called 'A cage went in search of a bird' (from Kafka)


Set by Manuel:
1 - Prokofiev - PC 2 - (Maciek)

Set by Maciek:
1 - Szymanski - Piano Concerto - (Luke)
2- Kilar - Piano Concerto (Luke)
3 - Lutoslawski - Paganini Variations - (Mark)
4 - Szymanowski - 4th Symphony - (Luke)
5 - Serocki - Fort e piano - (Luke)

[lukeottevanger]

Unfortunately, I haven't heard it in several years, and like a bad dinner, it's a taste I'm trying to delete from my mouth permanently. Which means to answer you, I'd have to hear it all again, and if I were to hear it all again, I'd get the Naxos, and so you see my problem.

I'm half tempted to put up a short sample of the end of the piece (including the page in my sample) just to refresh your memory! This is the part which I find uniquely impressive - the music, in these last minutes, starts to whirl out of control, oscillating ever more wildly between extremes of violent convulsion and passionate supplication, before the summatory final cadence (which encapsulates the tonal trajectory of the piece, enveloping a D major triad within an E major one before the later fades out alone). It has such conviction and so little artifice, it really strikes me as one of the most awesome moments in music.

Not sure if I'm allowed to do so, however...

[not edward]

I think #30 is Janacek's Suite for Strings.

[lukeottevanger]

I think it is too.

[Larry Rinkel]

I'm half tempted to put up a short sample of the end of the piece (including the page in my sample) just to refresh your memory! This is the part which I find uniquely impressive - the music, in these last minutes, starts to whirl out of control, oscillating ever more wildly between extremes of violent convulsion and passionate supplication, before the summatory final cadence (which encapsulates the tonal trajectory of the piece, enveloping a D major triad within an E major one before the later fades out alone). It has such conviction and so little artifice, it really strikes me as one of the most awesome moments in music.

Not sure if I'm allowed to do so, however...

Sure, why not. Beats having to hear the whole thing.

[Maciek]

no 25 - this is the one which is an attempt to conjure up a landscape/culture. Just look down the list of instruments and you'll find it. The composer does not come from that country, but he did work there for a while. He writes complex music, as you ought not need to be told.

Surely, you must mean no 24? The one with 2 didjeridoos. The hint doesn't work on me though - can't think of a single non-Australian's piece dedicated to Australian landscape...

[Maciek]

no 29 - this piece, as Larry determined, is by Balakirev or Borodin. Surely you don't need more than that!

Balakirev 1st Symphony, mvt 3 - Andante

Thank God I decided to start with Balakirev and this happened to be the 3rd track of the 1st disc I listened to - I could have been up all night doing this!

[lukeottevanger]

Correct on the Balakirev. Nice piece, though, isn't it, if you like that sort of thing....?

Surely, you must mean no 24? The one with 2 didjeridoos. The hint doesn't work on me though - can't think of a single non-Australian's piece dedicated to Australian landscape...

Oh, did I get the number wrong - sorry! Yes, the didj one, of course. Remember, as I've said, the composer writes complex music - and composers generally associated with the style I am trying heavy-handedly to imply are for the most part from a particular country not to far from where I am sitting now. Indeed, directly underneath me. One of them has written quite a few Australian-themed works, including this one for orchestra.

[Maciek]

(A shot in the dark:) Red Earth by Michael Finnissy?

Correct on the Balakirev. Nice piece, though, isn't it, if you like that sort of thing....?

Well, I generally like Balakirev, so I couldn't say "no"...

[lukeottevanger]

Sure, why not. Beats having to hear the whole thing.

OK, here we are. Three files, ripped at very low rate to keep them small, to follow on from each other.

The Gothic, as you know, is in two parts of three movements each, the second part being a setting of the Te Deum for massed choirs and an expanded orchestra. I mention this simply because, in my own mind, I hear another set of divisions on top of this one. Specifically, in the last movement, I sense a point where the music seems to ascend to another level of experience, as if it has pushed through a barrier by dint of sheer effort and courage ('Whoever strives with all his might, that man can we save' as the Symphony's Goethe motto has it) and attained a bizarre vision. This section, in my ears, starts with the peculiar march for massed clarinet-family, through the carefree diatonic material sung to 'la' (which includes the only place where practically everything is playing and the passionately, gravely beautiful bass solo. The whole section as I see it is rounded off by

mp3 1 - an unaccompanied double fugue for chorus in E minor - In te Domine speravi - whose opening contours (EGEB) echo those of the opening subject of the whole symphony (DFDA). This expression of faith, to my mind, closes off this level of the symphony, and opens on to another, the last one of all

mp3 2 - the 'faith' is assailed on all sides by massed brass and timps (my score example) - though even here the timps' material is based on EGEB. There are two waves of timps, the second more rigid and relentless than the first. After each wave the choir is reduced to a desparate rising 'non confundar'

mp3 3 - Several last climaxes put the seal on the symphony. In between come reminiscences of the timp EGEB, a hauntingly expressive cello cantilena which shares the augmented triad implications of so many melodies in the symphony's second part, a lone oboe.... finally, the choirs, alone, whisper 'non confundar in aeternum', their harmony summing up the symphonies main tonal dichotomy simply and beautifully - E major; E major+D major; E major.

[lukeottevanger]

(third Gothic file)

[lukeottevanger]

(A shot in the dark:) Red Earth by Michael Finnissy?

Bullseye! Only two to go, now, I think.

And they ought to be relatively simple, I think. One is very well known indeed - I suspect most members here have heard it; the other will be known by all who are interested in contemporary music, I am sure.

[Maciek]

Now that you've posted them - they are already hosted (on GMG). So this should work, let me try:

Luke's 'Gothic' sample no. 1
[mp3=200,20,0,left]http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3125.0;attach=4095[/mp3]

no. 2
[mp3=200,20,0,left]http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3125.0;attach=4096[/mp3]

no. 3
[mp3=200,20,0,left]http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3125.0;attach=4097[/mp3]

Just don't delete the attachments from your post above, and these should work.

Oops! Something is definitely wrong with the speed here...

(Just downloaded one of the files and checked that they are fine. Anyone have an idea what is going on here?)

[lukeottevanger]

A couple of caveats -

1) the recording itself is far from ideal, although it's tough to be picky when there's only this one to choose from. But compare what you hear with what you see in the sample I gave, and you'll get a measure of this.

2) my resampling at such a low rate has done it no favours, either!

Remember that the three files are supposed to follow one after the other.