Quiz: Mystery scores

[listener]

Oops, fell for my own trick there, only looked at the general shapes, not the details. 

The 'Brahms' one and the 'Scarlatti' one are by the same composer, you say? So could it be from a book of pastiches, a kind of 'a la maniere de...' like the Ravel/Casella one?

Yes. and similarly the other set which is by someone else.   Each is a set of variations,  'Brahms and Chopin' by someone and 'Scarlatti  and Wagner' by another. 

[Maciek]

It's a Requiem setting (or a partial one?) for three choirs and two (or more?) groups of plinky instruments. That may ring a bell for someone else. Also it's probably Polish because I think both of your string quartet pieces were Polish, though I also don't recognise the second one.

Not a full requiem setting, no. Yes, three choirs (three "sets of voices" would be more precise, I guess) and two (identical) sets of instruments. Yes, it's Polish. I think I might add another page later.

(Gorecki or something? It looks influenced by Ligeti's Metamorphoses nocturnes, so I suppose it could also be Hungarian/Romanian, but I don't think that piece was premiered until after Ligeti'd become a fixture of Warsaw Autumn)

Are you asking about the quartet or the choirs+instruments piece?

[Luke]

Quick one to be going on with....

[Luke]

and two more which share a very close relationship...

[Luke]

Yes. and similarly the other set which is by someone else.   Each is a set of variations,  'Brahms and Chopin' by someone and 'Scarlatti  and Wagner' by another.

GOt one of them - the Scarlatti/Wagner is Busoni, Five Variations on Kommt ein Vogel geflogen, which was his appendix to the Siegfried Ochs piece, hence your reference to Ochs, I guess. Haven't tracked down the other one yet...

[Luke]

I hadn't even realised the 'Wagner' one was part of this particular teaser, but then I saw it in the same set as the 'Scarlatti' one - a bonus!

[(poco) Sforzando]

Quick one to be going on with....

The words here are by the poet Wendy Cope, a poem called Reading Scheme in the intricate form of a vilanelle. But I have no idea who set the music.

Here is Peter. Here is Jane. They like fun.
Jane has a big doll. Peter has a ball.
Look, Jane, look! Look at the dog! See him run!

Here is mummy. She has baked a bun.
Here is the milkman. He has come to call.
Here is Peter. Here is Jane. They like fun.

Go Peter! Go Jane! Come, milkman, come!
The milkman likes mummy. The milkman likes them all.
Look, Jane, look! Look at the dog! See him run!

Here are the curtains. They shut out the sun.
Let us peep! On tiptoe Jane! You are small!
Here is Peter. Here is Jane. They like fun.

I hear a car, Jane. The milkman looks glum.
Here is Daddy in his car. Daddy is tall.
Look, Jane, look! Look at the dog! See him run!

Daddy looks very cross. Has he a gun?
Up milkman! Up milkman! Over the wall!
Here is Peter. Here is Jane. They like fun.
Look, Jane, look! Look at the dog! See him run!

[(poco) Sforzando]

and two more which share a very close relationship...

John Cage?

[Luke]

No, but the Wendy Cope poem is indeed the one. Do the Peter and Jane books ever get used in the US? They are a very British phenomenon, I would imagine. I just had a quick search for them and found this spoof...very funny!

[listener]

GOt one of them - the Scarlatti/Wagner is Busoni, Five Variations on Kommt ein Vogel geflogen, which was his appendix to the Siegfried Ochs piece, hence your reference to Ochs, I guess. Haven't tracked down the other one yet...

DONE!!
that is on record by Witoschynskyj, Ira Maria on Capriccio 49 476 (4-cds)

The other one is more Mephistophelian.
  I have it on file,  28 pages 1.5Mb if you want it and can handle the file size

[amw]

Are you asking about the quartet or the choirs+instruments piece?

String quartet. It looks 'minimal' and 'brutal' enough to be Gorecki but he may be too obvious for this kind of game

[Maciek]

Oh, OK. Your references to Ligeti confused me. To me, this is a folk inspired work + the extended quotations from another piece + perhaps a slight reference to Szymanowski (well, I think it's there, but maybe I could be persuaded; I don't remember whether Thomas mentions it).

Anyway, it is Gorecki. And what I'm adding below will be a clue, quite blatant I'm afraid, as to the specific work. This new one is actually transposed by a third, not an original edition (which, oddly enough, I'm unable to find online, and I won't be around a library until Monday so). (UPDATE: Replaced by a proper transcription, though still not an original edition...)

[Luke]

On a whim, as a little sideshow to the main event, I just knocked up a single image containing a number of single moments, or at least single notes/chords/events. Very famous, all of them (one or two maybe slightly less so, but not much), and I chose them because they are all single instants which are characteristic enough to identify the whole work. Just for fun, this one, I won't keep a score of them...

[Luke]

(some of these have been on this thread before, btw)

[EigenUser]

l- Stockhausen Klavierstuck IX
v- Ligeti cello concerto
j- Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms
b- Elgar cello concerto, I think
k- Beethoven's 3rd symphony never mind
o- Berg Sonata Op. 1
c- Looks like Messiaen -- one of the Vingt Regards, I think.
n- Stockhausen Gruppen, I think
r- Stravinsky Rite of Spring, augers
t- Looked ridiculous at first (how the hell can I tell from that?! ), but now I'm almost positive it is Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, "Le Gibet"
w- and this would be the same, but "Scarbo"

[Luke]

all bar one - k is not Beethoven. Le Gibet is right...now look at the others for some more devilry....

[Luke]

....I see you realised about the Beethoven.

[Luke]

...and the Ravel: yes, there's Scarbo here too. How amazing, to come up with ideas so very simple and yet so very potent and full of personality that one moment is enough to identify them, and the thing with Gaspard is that practically every note is this characterful - I could have quoted from anywhere in the whole thing.

[Luke]

I started doing this because I was just idly driving along listening to Stravinsky and thinking about single chords that have real importance in music history - like r, the infamous chord from The Rite, and j, that fabulous chord from the Symphony of Psalms - both chords which show how Stravinsky came up with chords at the piano, how he could make something new from the most basic materials. As a hint, there are a few other VIC (Very Important Chords) in here - at least two or three, depending on how you assess these things.

[Maciek]

I'll take a look at those in a minute, first let me post the ones I brought over.

So, I've realized the page I chose for my 163 was perhaps not the best guessing material, and I have now replaced it with a different one (different page from the same score, that is). And just to lead you in the right direction (though I'm not sure if the clue is going to be enough to guess the piece) I am now going to post three other pieces, all of which share something with my no. 163. (In fact, the situation with these pieces is in a way similar to that with my 162 and 164, I think).