A British Composer Poll

[Elgarian]

I have a recording of the his Introduction and Alter Ego for Strings by Various Artists, is that the one you have?  Can say enough about it.

Yes it is, and he would be one of my favourite alternative conductors, if I had any. Sir Various Artists really knows how to bring out the essentially lukewarm, 'not quite present'  character of Other's music, don't you think?

[knight66]

Strange how his music is always performed in the room next door, never in the room you occupy.

Shy guy.

Mike

[Franco]

Yes it is, and he would be one of my favourite alternative conductors, if I had any. Sir Various Artists really knows how to bring out the essentially lukewarm, 'not quite present'  character of Other's music, don't you think?

Lukewarm may be a tad too strong, IMO, but I can understand why you'd say that.  I may be confusing them with a different group, but I think there is The Other Quartet, formed to play his chamber string works.

[knight66]

Somebody said they felt sorry for Dunstable. I don't see why.

Mike

[Elgarian]

Strange how his music is always performed in the room next door, never in the room you occupy.

You're right, Mike. It's what makes Other the genius he might not have been if he'd been Somebody Else: I love the way he writes music to be played in the background in such a way as to force the listener to almost ignore it, so that it's near-absence becomes effectively a not-quite-presence. In performance terms, only Sir Various Artists really understands this, I feel.

[Elgarian]

Somebody said they felt sorry for Dunstable. I don't see why.

But that just makes it worse.

[Franco]

Really good background music is very hard to find, or write for that matter.  I can't help but feel that Other is generally underrated, and that's who I voted for.

[Elgarian]

I think there is The Other Quartet, formed to play his chamber string works.

Yes, though my understanding is that they've had little success so far, being unable to discover exactly how the string should be fastened to the chamber in order to play the works. Even though no one has ever heard them, his eighty-three Concertos for Chamber String would have been vaguely definitive, if it had been possible to play them properly. The usual substitution of a Bongo drum for the single chamber string has not generally been successful in my view.

[Sergeant Rock]

Really good background music is very hard to find, or write for that matter.  I can't help but feel that Other is generally underrated, and that's who I voted for.

I voted for Other also even though I own not a bit of his music, and am fairly certain I've never heard any (although reading about his style in the last few posts it's possible I've heard him subliminally at cocktail parties, perhaps wedged in between movements of the Four Seasons).

Sarge

[knight66]

Wedged in between floors in a stuck lift perhaps.

Mike

[Elgarian]

I can't help but feel that Other is generally underrated, and that's who I voted for.

Indeed. What else could you have done, given the lack of alternatives?

[Elgarian]

it's possible I've heard him subliminally at cocktail parties, perhaps wedged in between movements of the Four Seasons.

Exactly. The fiendishly clever aspect of his work is that you thought you were really listening to the Four Seasons.

[Elgarian]

This is the best poll ever, by the way.

[Sergeant Rock]

Exactly. The fiendishly clever aspect of his work is that you thought you were really listening to the Four Seasons.

Perhaps I'm listening to him now! --even though I don't hear any music playing. Is Other that subtle?

Sarge

[Franco]

Perhaps I'm listening to him now! --even though I don't hear any music playing. Is Other that subtle?

Sarge

I would say so, OTOH, I am listening right now to Pierre Boulez and there is no Other there.

[karlhenning]

I would say so, OTOH . . . .

OT Other H, eh?

[Elgarian]

Perhaps I'm listening to him now! --even though I don't hear any music playing. Is Other that subtle?

Would you believe that there are some denigrators of Other's genius who believe that those pregnant lukewarm silences you hear are merely the result of having the CD player switched off? Ha!

[knight66]

Cage learned so much from him. There was going to be publication of a book of the correspondence between them; but it has never emerged.

Mike

[karlhenning]

Cage wrote to Others all the time.

[knight66]

I gather that as you would expect it was laugh out loud stuff; but seemingly lost to us.



Mike