Quiz: Mystery scores

Started by Sean, August 27, 2007, 06:49:47 AM

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lukeottevanger

#620
Quote from: Larry Rinkel on September 08, 2007, 05:23:59 AM
Dutch, then. So I need a deceased Dutch composer who was also a graphic designer. I have no idea!

Sorry - needlessly sent you down a blind alley. My father has lived in Britain since he was 9

Maciek

I've been looking through Enescu scores available on-line for the past 20 minutes or so (therefore missing out on the discussion a bit) and it seems that the only vocal piece he's ever written to a Romanian text was "Eu ma duc, codrul ramane"...?

Maciek

#622
RE the graphic score: Cornelius Cardew ??? ???

Throwing in a guess at the title: Treatise?

lukeottevanger

#623
Re the Enescu - Seems, perhaps, but isn't. That one isn't that song. However, he set the text in a Romanian translation (by Emanoil Ciomac) of a poem by (French poet) Fernand Gregh. I have no idea if this is a give-away clue or not. If it isn't, I'd follow the Dumitrescu line of investigation instead. I've just found the score again myself by following links...

Re the other - yes, Cardew is right, so the piece is.........

Maciek

Enescu has got to be one of the Quatre Mélodies op.19? I'll try to narrow it down to one song... ::)

Cardew title - I've added my guess above.

lukeottevanger

Quote from: Maciek on September 08, 2007, 05:40:09 AM
Enescu has got to be one of the Quatre Mélodies op.19? I'll try to narrow it down to one song... ::)

I don't know - the score doesn't say so. You are three or four clicks away if you plump Dumitrescu into Google.

Quote from: Maciek on September 08, 2007, 05:40:09 AMCardew title - I've added my guess above.

I already had the list updated ready to post - I knew it wouldn't be hard once you had the name!

lukeottevanger


Maciek

I'm guessing it's De la flûte au cor.

Larry Rinkel

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 05:26:38 AM
Sorry - needlessly sent you down a blind alley. My father has lived in Britain since he was 9

That does make a difference!  :D

More clues for mine:
One is by a composer whose work was admired by Stravinsky, who was close friends in his youth with a famous American composer-conductor who recorded this piece at the start of his career, and who gradually gave up on his composing because he was unwilling to adopt a 12-tone idiom.

The other is by a composer who is a year younger than I, who was a freshman composition major at the same midwestern American conservatory where I was a sophomore. I, however, gave up on composition while he became a fairly well-known name.

lukeottevanger

#629
Quote from: Maciek on September 08, 2007, 05:50:22 AM
I'm guessing it's De la flûte au cor.

No. You were right before ( I had to check in Noel Malcolm's book for clarification) - I think this is from op 19, in translation, though it's hard to be sure. You just have to guess which one of the three (not four - De la flute au cor got into the modern edition by mistake apparently) it is. Or to know the answer, obviously.... ;)

Maciek

It was included into op. 19 10 years after the composers death but the Enescu Society lists that as a completely legitimate edition.

Here's another shot (your internet search clues don't seem to be working for me, and this is apparently a very rare score ::)):
Le Silence musicien?

lukeottevanger

Quote from: Maciek on September 08, 2007, 10:57:34 AM
It was included into op. 19 10 years after the composers death but the Enescu Society lists that as a completely legitimate edition.

Apparently it was composed 13/14 years earlier than the other 3; Malcolm calls its inclusion in the 1965 and 67 editions a mistake, and the work's title Trois Melodies sur Poemes de Fernand Gregh had to be altered to Quatre Melodies.... It sounds as if the edition itself is legitimate - these are four songs setting Gregh's words - but the inclusion of an earlier one under an opus number set aside for later ones isn't authentic, because if Enescu had wanted it included he could have done so. In addition, according to Malcolm the style of of the three later songs is something new for the composer, and for this reason too the earlier one does not belong.

Quote from: Maciek on September 08, 2007, 10:57:34 AMHere's another shot (your internet search clues don't seem to be working for me, and this is apparently a very rare score ::)):
Le Silence musicien?

I think so, yes. The site I downloaded it from (here is the score) translates the title as Quiet Song; the Romanian title is Cînt Tăcut. These look close enough for me to assume you have the right answer, though there is no opus number on the score.

Maciek

Thanks for the link - can't imagine how you found it. ;D

The title of the page is "Quiet Song" (in English), so I guess that could very well be (a pretty rough) French to Romanian to English translation of "Le Silence musicien". We could ask Florestan to tell us the details - but I'm not sure if understanding the text will help (since it seems Gregh's French poems are nowhere to be found on-line)... And I for one am not that curious about this. ;D

lukeottevanger

Nor am I! - you now know as much as I do about the song, and I suppose that is all we could ask for the purposes of the quiz!

lukeottevanger

#634
I get the feeling I ought to chip in with a few more clues to my remaining questions

37 - this is not, in itself, AFAIK, a composition, though it looks like one and could function as one. It contains three long and complex musical lines which form the basis for a much larger set of compositions. This method of composing is typical of this composer.

38 - I'm sure I've said all that needs to be said about this one: the instruments, the character of what they play, and their juxtapositions are completely characteristic of this composer and of no-one else that I can think of offhand

41 - ditto this one. I am reluctant to give more clues than the one I have: look carefully at the instruments

44 - instrument; country; character of melodic lines; possible composers reduce to a very small number

45 - we've had compositions by this composer posted already on this thread, though nothing like this piece. The name of the work is included in the text on this page.

46 - this is quite a hard one

47 - this one is almost impossible, I freely admit, so here are lots of clues. The composer is my old fugue teacher; he used to turn up to supervisions looking bedraggled in suspiciously stained concert-clothes from the previous night; he became a member of GMG's last incarnation for one post; he is an exceptional pianist specialising in the complex end of the contemporary repertoire (Ferneyhough, Finnissy, DIllon etc. etc.); he is also a Sorabji specialist who has performed Opus Clavicembalisticum five times (according to his Wiki page); he is an expert on Russian futurist composers of the Mosolov/Roslavetz type.  This piece is a song which I downloaded from the BMIC, and though I don't think the score is still there, I imagine the piece is still catalogued on their web site.

48 - an extraordinary piece, I could have chosen dozens more instantly recognisable, visually impressive pages. However, this page includes one of the most unbelievable sections of the score, in the exposed music written for the highlighted soloist at this point - solo starts at number 420, and is written at pitch! :o If you've heard this piece, you will probably remember this bit.

49 - written (obviously) by a Japanese composer (also an exceptional pianist). In the 60s he lived and worked in Europe, taking a very active and important part in the Western contemporary music scene. Among other things he was the dedicatee and first performer of Xenakis's first great piece for solo piano. However, he returned to Japan with the wish to make his music more relevant to his own culture; though not always superficially Japanese sounding (as e.g Takemitsu), his music is profoundly Japanese in spirit. Many of his scores are downloadable at his website, where you can find this piece.

Maciek

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 01:24:58 PM
46 - this is quite a hard one
Well, with a clue like that, you bet it is! :P

Quote
47 - this one is almost impossible, I freely admit, so here are lots of clues. The composer is my old fugue teacher; he used to turn up to supervisions looking bedraggled in suspiciously stained concert-clothes from the previous night; he became a member of GMG's last incarnation for one post; he is an exceptional pianist specialising in the complex end of the contemporary repertoire (Ferneyhough, Finnissy, DIllon etc. etc.); he is also a Sorabji specialist who has performed Opus Clavicembalisticum five times (according to his Wiki page); he is an expert on Russian futurist composers of the Mosolov/Roslavetz type.  This piece is a song which I downloaded from the BMIC, and though I don't think the score is still there, I imagine the piece is still catalogued on their web site.

Do you really think we need all those clues for an easy one like that? :P The answer is glaringly obvious. This is page one of Serebryaniy vek (The Silver Age), a composition for soprano and piano from 1996 by Jonathan Powell.

lukeottevanger

Quote from: Maciek on September 08, 2007, 01:41:37 PM
Well, with a clue like that, you bet it is! :P

What, you want more? Greedy so-and-so. OK. You have mentioned the composer's name in this thread. But he isn't Polish!

Quote from: Maciek on September 08, 2007, 01:41:37 PMDo you really think we need all those clues for an easy one like that? :P The answer is glaringly obvious. This is page one of Serebryaniy vek (The Silver Age), a composition for soprano and piano from 1996 by Jonathan Powell.

;D  ;D  Not everyone knows their stuff like you, though, Maciek. We have to give them a chance too.

Maciek

49 - I liked the clues for this one. Plain and simple. Thanks for pointing out the title which I of course missed (the picture really pulls too much of one's attention). The answer is: Yuji Takahashi - Sa

Maciek

#638
Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 01:51:59 PM
;D  ;D  Not everyone knows their stuff like you, though, Maciek. We have to give them a chance too.

I just have my Highlights of the History of GMG memorized. ;D

lukeottevanger

Quote from: Maciek on September 08, 2007, 01:55:36 PM
49 - I liked the clues for this one. Plain and simple. Thanks for pointing out the title which I of course missed (the picture really pulls too much of one's attention). The answer is: Yuji Takahashi - Sa

That's OK - I didn't think the title on its own was much help, so I left it in. Those clues made it pretty easy, didn't they!? I think at this point my contributions to this thread are just going to turn into links to downloadable scores! Takahashi's page has some gems, as does the BMIC one which you know.

Quote from: Maciek on September 08, 2007, 01:57:33 PM
I just have my 'Highlights' of the History of GMG memorized. ;D

Just checking you've been paying attention.

(Not sure I like your ironic ' 's there!  ;D )