smokerblog

January 05, 2004

A Modern Music Sampler

In today's Rochester Democrat and Chronicle there is an article listing ten examples of the best in modern music, compiled by staff music critic John Pitcher.

We're not talking about Britney Spears here; we're talking about modern "classical" music composed since 1945. If you can't tell from the quotation marks, I treat musical labels with suspicion in most cases. Indeed, to most people, these pieces will sound like classical music only to the extent that they generally use the same instruments one is accustomed to hearing in performances of Beethoven, Mozart or Bach. Some of the composers in the list have little use for musical conventions such as, say..., melody. Other composers echew musical instruments altogether, as in the Ligeti prelude for tuned car horns--that is, unless you consider a car horn to be an "instrument" (quotes again!).

But still, these pieces are not uninteresting or unapproachable (at least from what I can tell from the mp3 excerpts handily provided by Mr. Pitcher in the online article). I don't own any of these cds yet, although I own some other pieces by Adams, Barber, Boulez, and Ligeti. I am adding many of these cds to my wish list and I hope that there might be some new music here that interests you too.

If you're interested, Philip Magnuson, a professor at the University of Dayton, has put together a pretty cool outline of 20th Century Music, complete with links to composer biographies.

Posted by ksmoker | permalink

Comments

I studied a lot of that music as an undergraduate, and a lot of it doesn't speak to me. It fails the test of simplicity: I can't remember a melody from any of them. Not like I can from Stravinsky, say.

Modern music seems to be fragmented and schizoid, much like modern culture. As perhaps it should be, but it doesn't seem to go into my body very well.

I DO like any of Morton Feldman's String Quartets. And any of Carl Stone's sampler pieces, especially the ones you can find on Four Pieces.

Kevin

PS I like the poltical chart of wallace-l members; graphic representations of data are always useful, it's why I can read music.

Posted by: Kevin Brunkhorst at January 12, 2004 11:42 AM

The immediate experience I have while listening to something is as important to me as a melody that I can sing in the shower. (Although my wife wishes I would learn to sing something in the shower besides "Psycho Killer")

And I know what you mean about some music not getting into your body. Some of the more atonal stuff is that way, but I like the experience of trying to wrap my head around it (even though I often end up simply banging my head).

I'm intrigued by the Reich and Crumb cds, though. And John Adams: I like everything I've ever heard from him.* There's much less "dissonance" in his work, or at least what sounds like dissonance just works for me, i.e., seems to fit. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Adams is to classical what Monk is to jazz, but that may be the best way I have to describe it.

Thanks for the Morton Feldman and Carl Stone rec's. I'll check them out. And thanks for the comments. I think i still have the original political quiz files. if you were to take the quiz, i could add you to the chart.

-ken

* - IYI, Century Rolls, John's Book Of Alleged Dances/Gnarly Buttons, Naive and Sentimental Music. all orchestral or chamber music, i haven't listened to any of his operas yet.

Posted by: ken at January 12, 2004 02:48 PM

...mostly self-indulgent blather

January 05, 2004

A Modern Music Sampler