Quiz: Mystery scores

[lukeottevanger]

       

Before I get on to them, though, I've just discovered the answer to Steve's remaining one. But I feel completely embarrased about it. Not only was this one of the first pieces I thought of after he'd given a particular clue, but I even listened to some of it (surely including this bit) to check it out. Worse still, I actually have this very score downloaded from IMSLP, though on my wife's laptop, not my home PC where most of my downloaded scores are kept. I'm on my wife's machine at the moment, which is how I've just discovered it. The answer, btw, is Falla, The Three-Cornered Hat, Dance of the Corregidor, in a piano arrangement. I'm feeling pretty thick....

   

[lukeottevanger]

So Maciek 29 seems to be a Prelude in F from Kabalevsky's set of 24 - looks right stylistically, too.

[lukeottevanger]

30 - 6 Preludes, Roman Statkowski


your clues are more generous than usual, at least so far! I don't think I'd have got that in a million years without help!

[bwv 1080]

      

Before I get on to them, though, I've just discovered the answer to Steve's remaining one. But I feel completely embarrased about it. Not only was this one of the first pieces I thought of after he'd given a particular clue, but I even listened to some of it (surely including this bit) to check it out. Worse still, I actually have this very score downloaded from IMSLP, though on my wife's laptop, not my home PC where most of my downloaded scores are kept. I'm on my wife's machine at the moment, which is how I've just discovered it. The answer, btw, is Falla, The Three-Cornered Hat, Dance of the Corregidor, in a piano arrangement. I'm feeling pretty thick....

   

Yes thats it

[Maciek]

Luke, nos 29 and 30 - correct!

(See, the other clues aren't all that good, I had less time... )

About the De Falla: darn, I thought it could be him but all I have is Ritual Fire Dance (not even a recording or full score but the piano reduction) - so I checked that (just to make sure ) and gave up on it (I think IMSLP was already down).

[lukeottevanger]

OK, I know what happened now - I didn't actually have a recording of the Three-Cornered Hat at the time of checking, so I listened to some samples at Amazon to remind me of the various dances in the ballet, which I hadn't listened since I was a boy, when my dad had an LP of it (coupled with Larrocha's Nights in the Gardens of Spain, IIRC). I found a page which had clips of all tracks on the two disc set - this is a complete recording, so I thought I'd be sure to find it if it was here. Unfortunately, being a complete recording, the risk was that some of the dances wouldn't start as they do in discs of highlights, and that turns out to have been the case with the Dance of the Corregidor. By the time I got to this clip I'd have listened to something like 46 clips from this disc alone, and I must have been getting tired - the beginning of this track is a bassoon solo, so I must have quickly moved on to the next track, but if I'd listened on for a while I would have heard Steve's page begin.

The upside - listening to all that Falla got me to buy a couple of discs, including the Three Cornered Hat. But I hadn't listened to that one yet - when I checked it this morning, yes, there was Steve's page, clear as day! 

[lukeottevanger]

Somehow this thread had slipped to the back of my mind for a few days. But is Maciek 57 from Szymanowski's sketch for Agawe?

[Maciek]

Yes it is, Luke!



These 25 have been waiting on my disc for almost a week now. It's high time I finally posted them (this is still far from the end ).

I'll post them as 5 sets of 5 - there are lots of "hits" in these, so you'll quickly notice a pattern emerging between the sets...

MM 66 - guessed by Luke
The beginning of a set of variations (sort of...).


MM 67 - guesssed by Luke
Polish female composer. The most famous of them all. Best known as a neoclassicist but this piece is from a later period.


MM 68 - guessed by Guido
I'm amazed this hasn't been guessed right away! I always thought it is one of the most strikingly beautiful openings of a piece ever written. And despite poring over this part of the score for hours I still don't understand what is it exactly that makes it so special (to me at least). The title of this pieces suggests that it is not really complete, that it is something unfinished - or perhaps not begun...


MM 69 - guessed by Luke
I think those frullati over the short glissandi sound quite striking - this is from an orchestral piece (a symphonic poem of sorts) inspired by a very short quote from the Old Testament.


MM 70 - guessed by Luke
This is probably so simple that it's actually a bit banal but I still think it sounds very beautiful. Polish female composer (alive today). This comes from a sort of symphony. I've recently uploaded a piece by this composer and made it available on GMG.

[Maciek]

Whew! It took me 15 minutes to force the forum software to pick up that post!!!

[Maciek]

MM 71 - guessed by Luke
Polish contemporary composer, very popular. I always say all he does is immitate (and not very well) the style of a much better (and slightly older) Polish contemporary - this piece is another proof of that IMO.


MM 72 - guessed by Luke
Setting of a very famous medieval religious poem. Incorporated into a much, much, much larger work. The larger work represents a religious genre not entirely popular among composers these days - and even less so when this was composed.


MM 73 - guessed by Luke
The composer of this piece does not come straight to mind when you think of aggressive, ferocious music - but this piece (which has a "psychological" title) starts of pretty darn loudly and keeps it up for a while - this page comes from very early on in it.


MM 74 - guessed by Luke
The composer of this was, as a young man, a pianist - though later he turned to composing only (conducting his pieces now and then). This is one of his very few pieces for piano solo (collected, they fill one thin volume), an extremely short one (though none of them are really long), and IMO his best for the instrument (his studies, for example, I don't care for at all). The genre is one popular in the baroque era (Bach wrote a whole series of these).


MM 75 - guessed by Luke
Polish female composer. This is piece is much better known in another incarnation (a violin piece, probably from 1951, popular as an encore - a version for orchestra also exists). NOT from Children's Suite, NOT from Four Preludes.

[Maciek]

MM 76 - guessed by Greg
A striking section of a terrifying piece. The words the choir recites here rhythmically are: cor-po-ra par-vu-lo-rum. (sorry for the typo here )
A recording of this has been just released or will be released very soon by Naxos.


MM 77 - guessed by Luke
Not Penderecki, Meyer or Lutoslawski. Also: these are the last few bars of an opera score... The composer is not notorious for his use of clusters. His use of woodwinds here may be characteristic...


MM 78 - guessed by Luke
Composer was excellent violinist and pianist. But probably better (virtuoso) violinist...


MM 79 - guessed by Luke
One of my favorite choral works ever. If that is not a clue... Well, how about this: the text is not exactly the most meaningful to be ever set to music. It contains sequences such as "E U O U A E A E U", "A NE NE NE A NE", "NA NA HA GHI A HA GHI A NE A GHI E". These sequences of syllables are actually an immitation of a certain type of religious chant (the piece itself has a religious nature, as is evidenced by its dedication) - the title of the whole composition is the same as the name of that type of melismatic singing. The text does contain a few snippets of words, including the Latin phrase "Deum de Deo, Lumen de Lumine" and something which could pass as the composer's transcription of Old Church Slavonic words: "pokazujete Christa sołnieca" (though the composer only admits to putting in the Latin phrase).


MM 80 - guessed by Luke
A certain very famous 20th century composer's furtherst venture into the alleatoric world of the avantgarde. NOT Penderecki.

[lukeottevanger]

hmmm, do I detect a Polish thing going on here?

[Maciek]

MM 81 - composer guessed by Luke, piece guessed by Greg
One of Lutoslawski's larger scores. And a piece that didn't exactly impress Sean when he listened to it fairly recently...


MM 82 - guessed by Greg
The most famous section from an extremely large score - often performed separately. What the voice is singing here is actually a sort of melody so I think this should be not very difficult to identify. How about you, Greg?


MM 83 - guessed by Luke
A Goethe setting.


MM 84 - guessed by Greg
Not Lutoslawski!


MM 85 - guessed by Luke
NOT 2nd Sonata. Something simpler than a sonata!

[Maciek]

MM 86 - guessed by Luke
Not Beethoven and not Schubert. I always thought this was the most famous piece by its composer so I'm a bit surprised no one got it yet. The composer in question is not exactly obscure... At least I don't think so...
A neoclassical classic. If anything in that phrase can pass as a pun, then it is intended...


MM 87 - guessed by Luke


MM 88 - composer guessed by Luke, piece guessed by Greg
A staple piece. No, really - how many of them end in a traditional tonal chord? (If, of course, a single "C Major" chord can be called tonal...)
The piece has been used to great effect in the opening sequence of one of Peter Weir's movies. That sequence is stunning in every other respect as well, BTW. (Of course, this might be less of a clue than I think, since Weir is a fan of Polish contemporary music in general... ).
This one has no percussion in it, and it is not Threnody!


MM 89 - guessed by Luke
Since the composer hadn't written a violin concerto per se, this piece, along with another one, is sometimes considered to be a sort of violin concerto replacement... The title of the piece is generic and Bach (J.S.) is among the composers who wrote quite a lot in this genre (there seems to be some sort of Bach-pattern emerging in these recent ones).


MM 90 - guessed by Luke
A double concerto, in case you haven't noticed. Not by Meyer.

[Maciek]

hmmm, do I detect a Polish thing going on here?

What? Where??

[Maciek]

I'm still waiting for guesses on my Bach, Beethoven and Brahms samples from earlier on...!

[Maciek]

Oh, and good night! 0:)

[lukeottevanger]

Well, I have no clue on any of these. But no 66 looks vaguely like Baird, so that's a first tentative guess.

And I too, am still waiting for mine to be finished. Let's say it blatantly, there's a [master]piece by Brahms amongst them, and I'm saddened no one knows it!

[Maciek]

OK, I just had to take another peek before I turned off the computer... 0:)

Luke, 66 is Baird! And I'm 100% sure you know some of these pieces!!!

Would your Brahms be the one with the double canon?? I'm ashamed to ask but I've got to try... 0:)

[lukeottevanger]

Yes, I might know some of these - I have some ideas, but I won't check tonight.

Yes, the Brahms is the double canon one. One of my favourite Brahms pieces.