carnes@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Richard Carnes) (02/13/85)
(First, an addendum to my previous comments about stretto fugues: I forgot to mention the C-sharp major fugue in Book II of the WTC. The *exposition* of this fugue is a stretto, and the third voice is inverted! So much for the textbooks. Also, check out the E-flat major, E major, and b-flat minor fugues in Book II for splendid examples of stretto fugues.) I. What are the all-time great recordings? This makes more sense than asking what single recording you would take to a desert island. II. What musical masterpieces are underappreciated or underperformed, in your opinion? Of course, we can start by listing whole categories, such as chamber music, Renaissance music, contemporary music, and contemporary Renaissance music, but I am more interested in individual works or composers. III. Careers in music: Am I the only person on the net who is currently studying for a career in music? (I'm a pianist.) Are there professional musicians on the net? Is anyone considering a musical career? Has anyone tried it and given it up? Am I the only one who thinks I'm crazy? Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes
lipp@ccvaxa.UUCP (02/15/85)
[] (pro forma first line brackets) Reply to carnes@gargoyle follows: >II. What musical masterpieces are underappreciated or underperformed, in >your opinion? Of course, we can start by listing whole categories, such as >chamber music, Renaissance music, contemporary music, and contemporary >Renaissance music, but I am more interested in individual works or composers. Leaving the term "masterpiece" in the lexicon of music fans, perhaps the curious will find these composers interesting: Hans Eisler--songs for voice and piano H. E. Apostel--string quartets, some of the piano music, some of the wind music, orchestra variations on a haydn theme Kurt Weill--concerto for violin and wind ensemble These composers are not often recorded on the big labels. You'll have to get the scores from a library and see for yourself if there's any worth in them...just like in the days before greatness was measured by Schwann record catalog entries. >III. Careers in music: Am I the only person on the net who is currently >studying for a career in music? I hold a doctoral degree in music composition, studied in Poland on a Fulbright, have been a university faculty member (in music) for five years,...and still study music. >Are there professional musicians on the net? I work for Gould CSD, Inc.-Urbana, IL (it's a UNIX development house in the Gould Electronics corporation) so nearly all my income is *not* from music making. I have a publisher's contract for a book on music-- deadline starting to close in--and perform or have my pieces performed a few times a year. The tax man doesn't consider me a "professional" but I'm pretty serious about music nonetheless. >Is anyone considering a musical career? You can see it *was* a consideration and worked on with some vigor too. Now the consideration is an interesting profession and interesting music making. If they are one in the same--great; if they're two different pursuits--less leisure. >Has anyone tried it and given it up? I gave up the dull job of teaching dull kids. Even the "interesting" teaching posts are cluttered with non-creative academic peripherals that sap musical energy. Also, during a two years in Las Vagas, I found the "entertainment industry" to be another set of factory jobs with the usual twist that the best workers are well paid for expertly playing dull music.
lipp@ccvaxa.UUCP (02/16/85)
[reply to carnes@gargoyle] >(First, an addendum to my previous comments about stretto fugues: I forgot >to mention the C-sharp major fugue in Book II of the WTC. The *exposition* >of this fugue is a stretto, and the third voice is inverted! Sorry to be a pest, but it would be a paradox to have stretto in a fugal exposition... Two ideas to unravelling this paradox. First, the end of the subject is defined by a fresh entry of the subject in a new voice. (This entry is technically called the "answer".) The procedure looks (sounds) like this: voice1 SSSScscs voice2 SSSS time---> The continuation of voice1 after voice2 enters is called the "counter subject"(cs in the figure.) Second, stretto is the entire subject placed in juxtaposition with another occurance of the subject. Another figure: voice1 SSSS voice2 SSSS time---> At the beginning of a fugue the material is presented; stretto is the dynamic *use* of material. The two can't happen together. Now by this definition of a subject, the fugue under discussion has a four note subject (pretty slim some might say). The subject and the countersubject can't be grouped together to give a "properly" long subject because the subject-countersubject pair only appear a few times and only in the first half of the piece. Fugue subjects need to pop up as entire things throughout the work. The subject, small as it is, does appear throughout the piece, many times in inversion, and also in stretto. Bar four (if I remember correctly) is the first case, and this is after the cadence that marks the end of the exposition section. Admittedly, this piece is far from an easy or "correct" fugal composition. In fact, it's more of a fugal fantasy because of the florid passage work in the second half and the enlargement of the texture to four and five voices at the final cadence. You've got it right that Bach's the most interesting when he's farthest from a textbook example. Charles Lipp, Gould, CSD--Urbana.....stop in for a beer
ckk@cmu-cs-g.ARPA (Chris Koenigsberg) (02/17/85)
>I. What are the all-time great recordings? This makes more sense than >asking what single recording you would take to a desert island. I tend to listen to more music than just the classical category, and I'm fairly new to the old traditions (Beethoven is "new music" to me while the Mahavishnu Orchestra is an "ancient classic" from my childhood), so I'd rather listen to what other people list here rather than give my own uneducated opinions. I do like "HPSCHD" by Cage and Hiller, as well as Charles Wuorinen's "Time's Encomium" and Morton Subotnick's "The Wild Bull" (all electronic recordings). Some of Karlheinz Stockhausen's recordings (Stimmung, Sternklang, Zyklus) also give me the chills and inspiration too. > >II. What musical masterpieces are underappreciated or underperformed, in >your opinion? Of course, we can start by listing whole categories, such as >chamber music, Renaissance music, contemporary music, and contemporary >Renaissance music, but I am more interested in individual works or composers. My number one hero is turning out to be Stockhausen. Doesn't perform often, doesn't travel to the US much either. I have enjoyed immensely works by David Stock, a Pittsburgh composer who also conducts the Pgh. New Music Ensemble. He has albums on the Grenadilla and CRI labels. Another favorite is John Harbison, who was composer-in-residence with the Pgh. Symphony last year. There's a good CRI album with both Stock and Harbison on opposing sides. Alban Berg is a phenomenally exciting composer whose work is widely ignored. The Pgh. Symphony just did his "Three Pieces for Orchestra" and all the old ladies were complaining in the lobby at intermission. I loved it though. You might notice that I favor contemporary composers. Again, though, my fave raves drive others from the room screaming. Recently I had a wonderful Japanese recording of a woman wailing on the stereo at a party, and someone offered the host $2 to take the music OFF! (they were collecting beer money at the time) > >III. Careers in music: Am I the only person on the net who is currently >studying for a career in music? (I'm a pianist.) Are there professional >musicians on the net? Is anyone considering a musical career? Has anyone >tried it and given it up? Am I the only one who thinks I'm crazy? I started playing classical guitar at age five. I played electric bass for five years with a rock band and I'm studying double bass with a member of the Pgh. Symphony bass section now. Hopefully, I can eventually reach some sort of stability between software hacking, producing works in the cmu computer music studio, playing bass in a local orchestra, and also playing in a contemporary ensemble. I expect to support myself with my computing skills, and spend my money on my music. I like to play stuff that most people hate, so I can't expect to make a career as a professional musician. For fun I play with the Morphic Resonance Trio, including a bassoon, saxophone, and acoustic bass. We improvise squeaky noises, sounding like a mass escape from the zoo, and we even have a percussion instrument called the Kitchen Orchestra. Any other avant garde groups want to exchange performances with us? I think you're crazy too but I like crazy people the best and include myself in that category! Chris Koenigsberg tektronix!hplabs!hao!seismo!rochester!cmu-cs-pt!cmu-cs-g!ckk ckk@cmu-cs-g.arpa 1025 MurrayHill Ave. Pittsburgh, Pa. 15217 (412)362-6422 "The creative person looks upon everything in the world as a predator" -Pierre Boulez
larsen@utah-gr.UUCP (Mark Larsen) (02/17/85)
Well, as to pieces that are mostly ignored (unjustifiably), I
nominate Tchaikovsky's 7th symphony. There is only one recording
of it by Ormandy and the Philadelphia in 1963 or thereabouts.
True, Tchaikovsky didn't actually finish it as he died shortly
after the 6th was first played. However, I think the Russian
who actually finished it did an outstanding job. I was bitterly
disappointed when the Utah Symphony cancelled a planned performance
of this work last spring.
Actually, I also feel that the first three symphonies by Tchaikovsky
are mostly ignored although not to the extreme degree as the 7th.
(So you guessed that I love P.I.T.)
cheers,
--
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Ma faut! Comment cela? L. Mark Larsen
UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|hplabs|seismo}!utah-cs!larsen
ARPA: oper.larsen@utah-20
USnail: 4602 So. 600 E. Salt Lake City, UT 84107