Quiz: Mystery scores

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

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not edward

Luke, are #37 the melodic formulas for Stockhausen's Licht cycle?
"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

You're too good at this! How did you get it?

Guido

Where is Takahashi's website? googling has produced no results.
Geologist.

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

Larry Rinkel

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 08, 2007, 04:05:53 PM
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.

The piece is truly a gem, but it's not by Diamond.

not edward

Something was bugging me about it--I was pretty sure I'd seen the handwriting before, and then I looked at the date at the bottom of the score. BAM! Early in the writing of Licht, and then it fell into place: the nature of the melodic lines was exactly right and the exceptional level of specified detail in the score was typical of Stockhausen (and of course there are three melodic formulae, one each for Eve, Michael and Lucifer).
"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

#685
Edward - impressive stuff. You are right about the peculiar detail in these formulas, and how important even the smallest thing becomes when magnified up. I'm still utterly bowled over by Inori, one of the classic examples of this formula technique, years after Al kindly introduced lots of us to it.

Larry - OK, I'll rethink. A pity - he seemed to fit your clues so well!

Guido, I will have to look for the Takahashi site - IIRC it was hard to find the second time I wanted it. In the meantime, the link that leads to the Enescu song also leads to this page, which may be up your alley.

lukeottevanger

#686
Guido - much easier to refind than I thought (or maybe my searching techniques have improved). Here's the page of Takahashi scores; there may be other useful pages linked from here, I can't remember.

Ooh, some new things since I looked last - yummy!

Larry Rinkel

Quote from: Larry Rinkel on September 08, 2007, 04:05:15 PM
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.

I should modify this to say the piece was also championed by another well-known composer-conductor who especially (as I do) admired this slow movement. Copland also admired this composer.

Guido

Thanks Luke. I havent heard of that Bartok before - it looks very interesting.

(I adore the First Rhapsody arranged for cello and piano and naturally think it sounds much better than the violin/piano version. actually I have an extraordinary recording of it for cello and orchestra played by Arto Noras, who I think is really one of the cello giants, but is oddly unknown outised of Scandinavia. Some of the most startlingly beautiful and virtuosic playing I've ever heard, even although the piece is far from the most difficult cello piece.)

Massive digression aside, that Bartok is some of the weirdest typesetting I have ever seen. It looks like its been done on paint!

I'll check out the Takahashi link.
Geologist.

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

Guido

#689
I know it! Harold Shapero Symphony for Classical orchestra!

I'll have to listen again - It never really grabbed me, despite the praise that Previn heaped on it ('the most beautiful slow movement of any American symphony') - always seemed a little conventional to me. I wonder if my ears have changed in the last 12 months! (I would hope that they had!)
Geologist.

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

not edward

Quote from: Guido on September 08, 2007, 04:27:04 PM
Arto Noras, who I think is really one of the cello giants, but is oddly unknown outised of Scandinavia.
I'm glad to see I'm not alone in thinking this guy greatly underrated.

I'm officially giving up on #44. My knowledge of organ music isn't that good, though it looks French.
"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

Guido, these pieces aren't Bartok, but folksongs from his collection, arranged (much as he would have done) by Ana-Maria Avram, a Romanian composer of some pretty extraordinary works. I have quite a few pieces of her - she tends to share discs with Dumitrescu - and they are nothing like this. The notation here is odd-looking, I agree, but I think some of that might be deliberate. Certainly in other ways she seems to be trying to capture the flexibility of these songs, and it's possible that the peculiar notation is in part expressive of that.

lukeottevanger

Nice one on the Shapero, if you are right (I'm sure you are). I'd never have got that one!

lukeottevanger

Quote from: edward on September 08, 2007, 04:31:39 PM
I'm glad to see I'm not alone in thinking this guy greatly underrated.

I'm officially giving up on #44. My knowledge of organ music isn't that good, though it looks French.

Yes, it is. One of the great French organ composers.

not edward

Just to go off-topic a bit, anyone interested in weird things being done with folksongs from Bartok's collection might enjoy Horatiu Radulescu's piano concerto The Quest, possibly available cheaply from cpo. I think it's a fascinating piece.
"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

Guido

#695
***Completely off topic***

Quote from: edward on September 08, 2007, 04:31:39 PM
I'm glad to see I'm not alone in thinking this guy greatly underrated.

I would go so far as to say that I think his playing is touched with genius. He's commissioned many magnificent Scandinavian concertos (most importantly the Sallinen IMO). Another one is Erling Blondal-Bengtsson - an astonishing player (Koppel cello concerto - one of the most amazing recordings I own, and also it's one of those pieces where one is staggered that it is not in the standard repertoire - though I suspect it is the very high level of difficulty of the solo part.)
Geologist.

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

lukeottevanger

#696
Quote from: edward on September 08, 2007, 04:38:45 PM
Just to go off-topic a bit, anyone interested in weird things being done with folksongs from Bartok's collection might enjoy Horatiu Radulescu's piano concerto The Quest, possibly available cheaply from cpo. I think it's a fascinating piece.

Coincidence - was listening to that, and to the CPO disc of Radulescu piano sonatas 2, 3 and 4 (similar and related pieces), just yesterday. And to my mind, there is a common thread between these pieces and that Stockhausen masterpiece Inori that I mentioned a few posts up!

Funnily enough, certain things in the music I am writing at the moment remind me, in their insignificant way, of aspects of Inori, and of Radulescu, and of Takahashi, amongst others. But that says more about the direction my music is taking than anything else, I think.

Larry Rinkel

Quote from: Guido on September 08, 2007, 04:28:07 PM
I know it! Harold Shapero Symphony for Classical orchestra!

I'll have to listen again - It never really grabbed me, despite the praise that Previn heaped on it ('the most beautiful slow movement of any American symphony') - always seemed a little conventional to me. I wonder if my ears have changed in the last 12 months! (I would hope that they had!)

That's it. The composer-conductors I referred to were, of course, Bernstein and Previn.

m_gigena

Quote from: lukeottevanger on September 06, 2007, 12:49:16 PM
Manuel hasn't confirmed this one yet, but I'm fairly sure, so I'll leave it like this for now...


It is.

greg

anyone wanna guess some more of my scores now? (wherever they are)