Classical/Traditional Music

[Lateralus14]

I love Schoenberg's first chamber symphony.

 

[Lateralus14]

Wow, I've never listened to Gustav Holst before now...this is totally proto-John Williams.

 

[Baroque]

Yeah Holst is pretty badass.

 

[Onder]

So I was listening to some Honegger during past weeks and it gradually grew on me. Mainly first and fourth symphony - those are my favorites so far. Pacific 321 is ok I guess. The fourth one is kinda more rural than the others, but it still keeps that strange feeling of uncertainty that I considered quite typical for him after listening to more of his stuff. Very full-sounding chords, it takes some time to get used to.

I was listening to some microtonal shit today and yesterday and I have a question. Some Alois Hába works are in a quarter-tone system which I understand. The half-tones are divided into quarter-tones. However, he also has works in fifth-tone and sixth-tone systems and I'm not sure how to interpret that. Does sixth-tone system mean dividing half-tones into three sixth-tones, or is it just a scale (like dividing an octave in 6 tones instead of 12, i.e. is a fifth-tone system something like pentatonic?). I would probably understand this in czech straight away, but I couldn't find any additional info.

Thanks in advance.

 

[viewerfromnihil]

I'm glad you like Honegger! The first and the fourth are my favorites as well. I love the fuller chords. Ravel and Debussy's influence is apparent.

I'm thinking that by sixth-tone, it means that he's using the whole tone scale (dividing octaves into 6 equally divisible notes), and by the fifth-tone, a pentatonic scale. Splitting notes beyond a quarter-tone becomes pretty hard to discern, unless you doing a glissando, like how Xenakis loves to do.

 

[Onder]

I'm glad you like Honegger! The first and the fourth are my favorites as well. I love the fuller chords. Ravel and Debussy's influence is apparent.

I'm thinking that by sixth-tone, it means that he's using the whole tone scale (dividing octaves into 6 equally divisible notes), and by the fifth-tone, a pentatonic scale. Splitting notes beyond a quarter-tone becomes pretty hard to discern, unless you doing a glissando, like how Xenakis loves to do.

Or Sofia Gubaidulina comes to mind. Loads of glissandos in her quartets for example. BTW you must be right about the scales, thx.

Never quite got into Ligeti or Part.

EDIT: I liked Part's 4th symphony as far as I remember. Three slow movements but he didn't overdo this whole minimalist bullshit in that one. Sometimes it's just nonsense, unfortunately.

 

[Onder]

I love Suk's first symphony. Another czech work to check out, peoples.

 

[Lateralus14]

What do y'all think of Messiaen? I tried some of his organ works today, not sure if I really like or not right now.

 

[viewerfromnihil]

I love Messiaen's chamber and symphonic works. Hell, I've had the Turangalila Symphony stuck in my head for a couple of days now. His bird catalogue piano works are superb as well. As for the organ works, I haven't listen to them. I know that he was an organist for some huge church for a large portion of his life, so I would imagine that his "holy" compositions aren't too ear catching.

I love Suk's first symphony. Another czech work to check out, peoples.

I haven't heard him or Part. I'll have to check them both out.

 

[Onder]

What do y'all think of Messiaen? I tried some of his organ works today, not sure if I really like or not right now.

Quartet for the End of Time.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Saw Mahler's 2nd performed by Tilson Thomas and the LA Symphony last night. A very powerful performance. Thomas did a good job of drawing out the light in the dark passages and the darkness in the light passages. The soloist for the 4th movement, Sash Cooke was extraordinary. Seriously almost brought everyone around me to tears.

The downside was the performance was outside which is problematic for a symphony in LA. A chopper went over at one point (a quieter point) and wiped out the music. Also, the etiquette is too lax at these summer concerts. People were eating cookies out of bags, popping wine bottles and doing other noisy shit. It's just annoying. They're acoustic instruments. They can only create so much sound and people need to be aware of how easy it is to interrupt that.

 

[viewerfromnihil]

Tilson is a great conductor. Anybody who can tackle Ives's Fourth Symphony is a maestro in my book. Crowd noise, even just coughing, can be infuriating at a concert. I would have been pretty annoyed.

The CD player in my car jammed a few weeks ago, so I've had to resort to radio. I'm usually happy with C-Span, but I get terrible reception where I live. The classical station here blows too.

 

[Lateralus14]

Not really classical but drawing from it, I've been loving The Caretaker's last album. All the samples are taken from Schubert's Winterreise.

 

[Onder]

Anybody who can tackle Ives's Fourth Symphony is a maestro in my book.

I listened to the fourth on my way back to Prague recently because you mention Ives all the time and it's really something. The modern middle section and then the final return of the chorus that you've completely forgotten about because all of the other shit happening. So far I don't really consider it a piece to like, but it's very interesting to focus on it and to try comprehend its complexity. [/ives noob opinion]

 

[viewerfromnihil]

The Fourth really is something. Ives's standout features, compared to his modern contemporaries, is that he wasn't so much atonal as he was polytonal. There's one section, for example, in the second movement in which Yankee Doodle is played in 6 different keys and rhythms throughout the entire orchestra. He also used quarter-tones frequently, which is also incorporated into his Fourth. The piano down-tuned a quarter-tone is an optional instrument in the score, though, so not every performance has it. Dohnanyi's, Tilman's, and Ozawa's contains it, but Stekowski's, arguably the best performance, does not. The third movement really sticks out because it's tonal and extremely conservative, other than one brief section. It's actually a slightly modified orchestral setting of his first string quartet, From the Salvation Army, his first serious composition written when he attended Yale.

Your review was actually very positive for a first listen. It took a while for Ives's music to really stick to me. I wasn't much of a fan of his Fourth Symphony for, probably, my first six listenings or so. After that, I became addicted to the piece and listened to it and the Concord Sonata everyday for three months straight

 

[Lateralus14]

http://theelectricdoomsynthesis.blogspot.com/

I wrote this last article after a frustrating and rewarding journey through Mendelssohn's violin concerto.

 

[viewerfromnihil]

I'm familiar with that composition and have to agree. The first few minutes of the piece were the highlights for me and the rest was rather meh. You said something in your article that caught my eye. You referred to the opening motif in Beethoven's Fifth as "motive X." I'm curious as to where you heard it referred to as this. I've always called it, with reference to numerous music text books and biographies, the "fate motif." i.e. Beethoven's acknowledgement of fate "knocking on his door."

 

[Onder]

Haha, I know people who can't stand Mendelssohn's violin concerto because they've heard it too many times. This hasn't yet happened to me. Also, I should probably listen to that Caretaker album, you made me interested.

 

[Lateralus14]

Just listened to a couple of movements of Suk's 2nd. I like the Czechs quite a bit but I haven't made up my mind on this one just yet.

 

[Onder]

Just listened to a couple of movements of Suk's 2nd. I like the Czechs quite a bit but I haven't made up my mind on this one just yet.

The Azrael one is way more serious. His wife died while he was writing it and so on. I personally prefer the first one but it's a thing of mood really. I don't listen to those "tragic" classical works often. Do you know Janáček or Fibich?