classical music

P

Paul Hotflush

techno head
Don't think anyone's mentioned Chopin on here. One of my faves, certainly in the romantic period.

Also gotta love the opera... Puccini and Verdi all the way!! Fat bottomed girls they make...
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
of course there are current exciting things done in classical music. but as one would expect some of it's fairly high fallutin, heady stuff. I'm no expert but a friend has played me some pieces that plays with language and systems and is borderline conceptual art.

is there still some kind of cohesive academic drive or is serious music gone the way of art - in a messy state of pluralist scatter-brained stupor? if there was a singular movement I guess it would be... Post Spectralism? with artists like Saariaho and... who are those Frenchies... oh I forget. I will ask my friend who is all up to the minute in these parts.
 
F

foret

Guest
confucius said:
is there still some kind of cohesive academic drive or is serious music gone the way of art - in a messy state of pluralist scatter-brained stupor?
Click to expand...

i think this has been the case for about 40 years within the 'classical tradition'
 
S

shudder

Well-known member
There definitely is a lot going on in contemporary classical music, or "new music" as its often called (yeah yeah, but a label is needed, and it's not such a bad one). One place to look is the columns of Alex Ross in the New Yorker. He's a great supporter of young composers and new music, and writes probably more than half of his most recent classical music columns about new stuff. check out this piece on what it's like to be a young composer:
http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/05/student_compose.html
His blog has all kinds of interesting articles mostly from the new yorker...
http://www.therestisnoise.com
 
T

tate

Brown Sugar
shudder said:
There definitely is a lot going on in contemporary classical music, or "new music" as its often called (yeah yeah, but a label is needed, and it's not such a bad one). One place to look is the columns of Alex Ross in the New Yorker. He's a great supporter of young composers and new music, and writes probably more than half of his most recent classical music columns about new stuff. check out this piece on what it's like to be a young composer:
http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/05/student_compose.html
His blog has all kinds of interesting articles mostly from the new yorker...
http://www.therestisnoise.com
Click to expand...

Agreed, Alex Ross' blog is a nice point of entry for newcomers to classical blogging. And don't forget our own Rambler.

Two of the best blogs, however, for recent developments in classical are by (longtime composer and Village Voice critic) Kyle Gann, and (composer, critic, and professor) Greg Sandow. Both are excellent; the topic of Sandow's blog is none other than the future of classical music.

The sine qua non site for hardcore classical blog readers is probably blognoggle|new music. A pretty incredible resource.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
for the past 2 weeks or so have just been, a little hessitantly at first, for the first time really - with any kind of serious attention given to the investigation, dipping into the Spectralism jar.

wow. head blown clean off.

discovering Grisey and Dufourt et al. for the first time. listening to Les Espaces Acoustiques... seems like a logical progression from Nono, Ligetti and Scelsi, but more modern, ideas articulated with more clarity and fearlessly executed.

what other pieces are must-listen in this area?
 
S

shudder

Well-known member
I don't really know much about spectralism, but I went to a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert last November, where they played a piece that was decidedly proto-spectralist (or so my professor kept saying... he was amazed by it). Anyway, it's by Gunther Schuller, and it was composed in 1958 (!!!!), when most 'spectralist' composers were busy being kids. It was a striking performance, with the orchestra distributed in a strange way on stage, and with amazing textures produced by careful attention to the combinations of the sounds of the individual instruments. Check out the program notes from the show:

http://www.bso.org/images/symphony/programmemos/20051117.pdf

That piece was bookended by a so-so rendition of the Mozart Haffner symphony (just way too fast), and a sumptuous (if strangely without development) interpretation of Debussy's La Mer.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
I can just see the battles in the board of directors meeting:

"we can't possibly have a program full of... what did you say that was called? Specialism?"

"but this is what the symphony is about! exposing people to relevent, fresh ideas that need exposure!"

"OK tell you what, we'll put one of your crazy pieces in there, but we'll have to include some Mozart."
 
R

Rambler

Awanturnik
Zhao - just want to send a major thanks for your blog post of spectral music. Some stuff I'd not heard of in there (Redolfi, eg - wow), plus plenty I had heard of but didn't own. Cheers! :D
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
yeah man. glad you found them useful. the last frontiere... such amazing music no one outside of a select few gives a damn about...
 
M

muser

Well-known member
can anyone suggest some good 'haunting' classical music thats not too emotive in the typical sense like you would hear in films (I listened to bartok but I got this cliche feeling too much to really enjoy it) chello, oboe, clarinet kind of thing?
 
R

Rambler

Awanturnik
Muser - do you have any examples of the sort of thing you're thinking of?

I'm imagining maybe Gorecki - Goodnight, Messiaen - Quartet for the end of Time, or Feldman - Three Clarinets, Cello and Piano, but these may be way off the mark.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top