Quiz: Mystery scores

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

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Larry Rinkel

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 02:58:01 PM
Larry, is one of yours (I forget which number, the one which leads up to the double bar) Christopher Rouse, Phaethon?

Right composer.

Larry Rinkel

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 03:07:18 PM
This is great - they're falling thick and fast now! Only five left. Funny how 40 and 41 remain - I am genuinely confused.  ???

You're not the only one.

Larry Rinkel

If I could think of someone who uses diatonic quasi-baroque writing for harpsichord followed by unison outbursts for the rest of the ensemble, with Russian footnotes, I'd nail it. Ultskovskaya (sp?)

If I could think of a sort of what could be a violin concerto using a Theremin, I'd nail the other.

lukeottevanger

Well, you describe the Russian one pretty well, I can't really add to it. Ustvolskaya is wrong (the pieces I know of her are much starker and less referential) but not wildly so.

The other one is a chamber piece. At least you've seen the theremin, though. There aren't that many chamber pieces by major composers which include it (and this is one)

not edward

Oh, lord. It's not Part's Collage sur BACH is it?
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

lukeottevanger

No, it's not. But you know it. You've talked about it (or the series it belongs to) pretty recently.

Larry - is the Rouse Gorgon? The orchestra seems right....I was trying to be clever before, following what I thought was a clue with your 'blazing' (hence Phaethon)

not edward

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 03:27:06 PM
No, it's not. But you know it. You've talked about it (or the series it belongs to) pretty recently.

Larry - is the Rouse Gorgon? The orchestra seems right....I was trying to be clever before, following what I thought was a clue with your 'blazing' (hence Phaethon)
Oh, duh. It's Kancheli's 5th symphony, right?
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

lukeottevanger

Yes it is. Obvious now, isn't it!

not edward

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 03:30:24 PM
Yes it is. Obvious now, isn't it!
Yeah, I did initially think of Kancheli, but couldn't remember anything of his that began with a harpsichord passage. Brain fart there, I think!
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

Larry Rinkel

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 03:24:18 PM
Well, you describe the Russian one pretty well, I can't really add to it. Ustvolskaya is wrong

I thought so, but I can't think of anything else.

not edward

41 is Martinu's Fantasie for theremin, oboe, piano and str4tet.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

lukeottevanger

Again, obvious in retrospect, isn't it? Works for oboe, theremin, piano and quartet are a fairly limited category.

Larry Rinkel

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 03:30:24 PM
Yes it is. Obvious now, isn't it!

I don't know Kancheli's work. The Rouse piece is Gorgon. I thought of quoting the passage where he has 3 Mahler-style hammers slamming the downbeat all at once, but the ending is extreme enough (that poor timpanist gets a workout). Rouse was a freshman at Oberlin while I was a sophomore.

I'm genuinely surprised me other piece isn't getting identified. I thought it would be easy, especially with my excellent clues.

lukeottevanger

Quote from: Larry Rinkel on September 08, 2007, 03:38:39 PM
I don't know Kancheli's work. The Rouse piece is Gorgon. I thought of quoting the passage where he has 3 Mahler-style hammers slamming the downbeat all at once, but the ending is extreme enough (that poor timpanist gets a workout). Rouse was a freshman at Oberlin while I was a sophomore.

That's how I got it... I was sitting here, and suddenly the word Oberlin popped into my head!

Quote from: Larry Rinkel on September 08, 2007, 03:38:39 PM
I'm genuinely surprised me other piece isn't getting identified. I thought it would be easy, especially with my excellent clues.

I thought I knew it, or something like it...but it isn't what I thought it was, not at all. I'm sure I'll groan when it is revealed!

not edward

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 03:38:18 PM
Again, obvious in retrospect, isn't it? Works for oboe, theremin, piano and quartet are a fairly limited category.
Yeah, I didn't spot the theremin initially, though my once-over of the score made me think Martinu (his style is pretty darn distinctive).

I really don't have much of a clue over the rest: though the scoring in #48 looks very Rihmian, I don't recognize the handwriting.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

lukeottevanger

Quote from: edward on September 08, 2007, 03:44:52 PM
Yeah, I didn't spot the theremin initially, though my once-over of the score made me think Martinu (his style is pretty darn distinctive).

I really don't have much of a clue over the rest: though the scoring in #48 looks very Rihmian, I don't recognize the handwriting.

I can't let that go, if you don't recognise the handwriting and still think it is Rihm from the scoring, I am deeply impressed.  :o   It is Rihm...one of his better known pieces. Try to call that solo to mind.

not edward

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 03:47:16 PM
I can't let that go, if you don't recognise the handwriting and still think it is Rihm from the scoring, I am deeply impressed.  :o   It is Rihm...one of his better known pieces. Try to call that solo to mind.
I'll play stab in the dark, since you say better known, I'll guess Jagden und Formen?

I always think of this sort of harp-against-trumpet-and-trombone writing as very typical of the composer.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

lukeottevanger


Larry Rinkel

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 03:42:31 PM
That's how I got it... I was sitting here, and suddenly the word Oberlin popped into my head!

I thought I knew it, or something like it...but it isn't what I thought it was, not at all. I'm sure I'll groan when it is revealed!

Maybe it would help it you heard some of it (and then think of what will happen if it's what you thought originally). The audio excerpt doesn't match the score print 100%; it starts a couple of bars in and goes on for another few measures past my score print.

It is an excerpt from one of my very favorite pieces of American music, a work that was truly celebrated for a while but is largely forgotten today.

lukeottevanger

#679
I'm beginning to think (on the basis of the clues) that Larry's remaining one is David Diamond. I'm assuming one of the Symphonies....could be no 4.....or, no, hang on - Music for Romeo and Juliet (Juliet and her Nurse)? Something like that.

edit - now let me go and listen to that sample I've just seen!

second edit - OK, it isn't one of those, but it still might be Diamond. I really don't know what at the moment.