Elliott Carter, 1908-2012

[Joe Barron]

It's all good. 8)

Awww, crap.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

This just arrived, and I've been listening today:



They say Night Fantasies is one of Carter's most difficult scores, but as a person who has frequently suffered from insomnia, it made perfect sense to me 

[Joe Barron]

This just arrived, and I've been listening today:



They say Night Fantasies is one of Carter's most difficult scores, but as a person who has frequently suffered from insomnia, it made perfect sense to me 

The Oppens is a terrific recording, very different from Aimard's performance of the same piece. His is lighter --- ore French, of you'll forgive the cliche. Hers is more muscular and conveys a clearer sense of the music's overall structure.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Hers is more muscular and conveys a clearer sense of the music's overall structure.

Which is just what I need, since the piece is brand new to me. The whole disc looks like it's packed with goodies - I think I'll tackle the Piano Sonata next 

[Joe Barron]

Which is just what I need, since the piece is brand new to me. The whole disc looks like it's packed with goodies - I think I'll tackle the Piano Sonata next  

Wonderful work, sort of a waterhed. What I like to do is play all the little pieces back to back. Together, they make up a kind of 25-minute suite -- as subtantial a work, really, as the two "major" pieces on the disk.

[bwv 1080]

The Oppens is a terrific recording, very different from Aimard's performance of the same piece. His is lighter --- ore French, of you'll forgive the cliche. Hers is more muscular and conveys a clearer sense of the music's overall structure.

I would also say, without any real research to back it up, that Oppens rhythms are more accurate.  I get the impression that Oppens can actually feel a 216:175 polyrhythm

[Joe Barron]

I get the impression that Oppens can actually feel a 216:175 polyrhythm.

It's her Lithuanian blood. Those people are incredible dancers.

[bwv 1080]

It's her Lithuanian blood. Those people are incredible dancers.

Yes, structural polyrhythms and tempo modulations are common in Lithuanian folk music.  Traditional Verkavimai sung at weddings are also based collections of all-interval tetrachords with different intervals partitioned to the male and female singers

[Joe Barron]

Sick?

[bwv 1080]

Sick?

Its what the kids use nowdays to say "nifty" or "swell"

[Joe Barron]

its a term that musicians have used for decades

I'll have to add it too my list of synonyms for "good" --- cool, boss, bad, down, fly, wicked, rad, gear, nifty, groovy and so on. I once wrote a column about how every generation thinks of new ways to say it likes something. "This is good" and "I like this" never seem to be enough.

[Joe Barron]

its been around for along time though, surprised you haven't heard it. im 58 and became aware of it in the 60s.

No, never. I have never heard it used as a term of approval --- only to describe a gross and mean kind of humor or an insufferable opinion, as in "Man, you are sick."

But I agree, the Carter Piano Sonata is, like, awesome.

[Joe Barron]

have you heard his flute concerto ?

No.

[karlhenning]

its a term that musicians have used for decades

Come off it, James; it is hardly a standard musical term.

[DavidW]

Sick was en vogue for like ten minutes in the 90s and quickly everyone agreed to stop using it because it was just dumb.  Even among people that love to make everything sound either ironic or sarcastic, it's a bit much!

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

The Piano Sonata is sick, my favorite piece of his.

It'll have to wait. I've decided to make Night Fantasies my Piece of the Week. I listened again last night, after fruitlessly tossing and turning for another couple of hours. Those loud insistent chords near the end spoke to me. Now I have to figure out what they were saying 

its been around for along time though, surprised you haven't heard it. im 58 and became aware of it in the 60s.

I'm 44 and became aware of it only around 2000 or so. It annoys me. I had a friend whose highest praise for anything was, "that's sick sh!t."

[karlhenning]

not in an academic sense..

Come off it, James; it is not a standard musical term in any sense, academic or otherwise.

It's just argot.

[Guido]

For me, Night Fantasies is the most inpenetrable and unyielding Carter there is - I don't know how many times I've listened to it, but I just cant latch onto anything in it. Even the piano concerto has taken less time to get to know and assimilate (and love!)

[Joe Barron]

For me, Night Fantasies is the most in penetrable and unyielding Carter there is - I don't know how many times I've listened to it, but I just cant latch onto anything in it. Even the piano concerto has taken less time to get to know and assimilate (and love!)

It took me a while to get into Night Fantasies, too. It's pure, distilled Carter: all idea, with none of the glittering color that distinguishes his music for orchestra and chamber ensembles. It was the last great work of his middle period, the high water mark, if you will. After that he entered his so-called late phase, writing music of greater transparency and focusing more on his smaller pieces. It didn't click for me, really, until I found Stephen Drury's version, which can be heard for free at artofthestates.org. There was something about it that made the music come alive: elegant, yet forceful; forceful, yet without insistence. Of course, if you've heard Oppens or Aimard, you've heard it played as well as it can be played. (I heard Oppens play it live once at the Curtis Institute, and I was jazzed for the rest of the afternoon.) It could be that you just don't like the music. It's been known to happen.

I'm glad you love the Piano Concerto, though. There aren't enough superlatives for it as far as I'm concerned. Written at the height of Beatlemania, too.


Onward!

[Joe Barron]

A performance of Carter's Tintinnabulation, for six percussionists, may be viewed here.

A fun piece. I like the way the textures fill out as it goes along. Comparisons to Varese's Ionisation are inevitable, I suppose, but the Carter has a very different feel. Lighter, more playful.

Of course, there's no evidence that Mr. Carter actually wrote the piece (Can you prove it? Huh? Can you?), and since his teacher, Nadia Boulanger, was not a great composer herself, we may reasonably doubt her ability to teach composition.