POLLERO!: ILM's Top 100 Notated Pieces of Music Since 1890

Das Lied ties for my favorite work by Mahler. Like the ninth, it has one of the most amazing opening passages in classical music -- the cackling main of the orchestra while those flutter tongued flutes smugly gloat in their nest like doves who cherish the certainty of death. And then later in that first song when the poet makes out a gibbering ape down there in the cemetery (eine Affe ist!!!) holy shit.

The closing number has been equaled but never surpassed as a composed simulation of improvisation IMO. Ewig... Ewig...

I want all the magma fans itt to listen to les noces real good.

― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, September 28, 2016 12:06 PM (two hours ago)

Oh yeah, I can totally get that! Coooool.

for "les noces", the recording i recommend is the pokrovsky. the backing is midi, but it doesn't even matter because the singing is sooooo great.

There are a bunch of great choices for Les noces but I went with Gergiev for sheer oomph

One of the only really shitty ones is Stravinsky's unfortunately. It was sung awkwardly in English and while it was a cool idea to have all the piano parts taken by prominent American composer-pianists, it just sounds flaccid.

I believe this is the second film score to appear in the countdown:

69 Jerry Goldsmith - Alien, film score Points: 388 Votes: 3 #1s: 0

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VbTnNmjmEWQ/maxresdefault.jpg

Stone cold masterpiece. This was a top 10 vote for me. In some ways Goldsmith's definitive achievement (many would say planet of the apes). The use of blown conches and echoplex are so perfect. Have you ever wanted to hear a cross between Bartok and Tago Mago?

Several years ago, Intrada released a definitive 2CD edition of this which is still in print and would make a fantastic first purchase for someone wanting to start exploring the world of creative film scoring. Spotify doesn't have the Intrada edition but the comparatively brief OST is also superb.

<3 <3 <3

Catching up on some of the symphonies that has been listed so far. Sibelius' 4th was very good, Dvorak was ok I guess :) Not really my thing, but definitely a classic of it's kind. Wondering if there's more Mahler to come, would think the 5th and 9th might be the most popular. I only voted for 2nd. Began a study of all his symphonies last spring, but only made it through the first two. Listening and reading about number 3, so far I miss the, as people say, irony of the first two? It's much more straight in it's nature worship, where the first two, through the use of Frere Jacques and Antonios Fishsermon has a pointed sarcasm to them.

Up next, what I like to think is the most programmed orchestral work in Denmark:)

68 John Luther Adams - Become Ocean Points: 395 Votes: 4 #1s: 0

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3393696861_10.jpg

Ms. Swift, one of today’s most popular and powerful pop stars, praised the recording of Mr. Adams’s large-scale, hypnotic, environmentally aware “Become Ocean” in a letter she wrote to the orchestra’s music director, Ludovic Morlot.

“I was thrilled to hear that Taylor was moved by ‘Become Ocean,’ like all of us at the Seattle Symphony,” Mr. Morlot said in a statement. “This is a powerful piece with a unique soundscape. We’re especially thankful that she wishes to support our musicians, and that she shares our belief that all people should be able to experience symphonic music.”

Ms. Swift’s gift to the orchestra will be used to support an educational program called “Link Up: Seattle Symphony” that works with elementary school students, and to bolster the musicians’ pension fund. In her letter to Mr. Morlot, the orchestra said, she reminisced fondly about attending orchestral concerts with her grandmother.

From: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/taylor-swift-gives-50000-to-seattle-symphony/

stravinsky was a pretty terrible conductor for somebody who was so picky about how his pieces should be conducted. anyway the english version is pretty awful but it at least inspired dominique leone's version, which is exactly the performance that version needs. :)

Xpost I think that's pretty much accurate! It's the least ironic symphony in the front half of his career.

I was conservative with Become Ocean and decided I need it to age a little more before I can throw it a high vote. But I sure do like it and really hope I can see it live at some point.

It was near the bottom of my ballot but I like it. I listen to Inuksuit much more.

Also, become ocean is one of those rare recordings where 320 kbps MP3 was audibly not cutting it for me and I had to have it lossless on my lil player.

Whoa, I only just realised that I never bought Become Ocean! I've only streamed it and so haven't heard it in good-quality audio. I have Inuksuit and Light That Fills the World.

I bought it for money in 320 on emusic and then rationalized going off and pirating the flac

Btw songbirdsongs while much earlier Adams is amazing
(NB it is way up my alley though)

He's my favourite John Adams, although I admittedly don't know that much about the second US president.

agreed

had no idea about the t-swift thing, hope we hear some of this influence on her next album

67 Brian Eno - Discreet Music Points: 396 Votes: 3 #1s: 0

http://www.trustmeimascientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/enoloopdiagram.jpg

It's a great record but I wouldn't have placed him above any Mahler

Up next, the "Beethoven of the 20th century", in the words of my PhD advisor.

66 Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau Sans Maître Points: 399 Votes: 3 #1s: 0

http://www.omifacsimiles.com/brochures/images/8588.jpg

I love this piece. But lololol.

Btw for the playlist, it is understood that the piece discreet music is just side a of the original album, right?

I'll defer to the man himself when it comes to quotes for this one. My #20. Ostensibly difficult listening that I find paradoxically satisfying; just scratches the right itch in all its culturally imperialist hyper-modern French glory. The list of mentions for this one piece in the index of the '95 ed. of Griffiths' Modern Music and After is longer than that for most composers.

xp Yes re: Discreet Music. We voted for compositions, not albums/recordings.

The thing I love about le Marteau is the way it plays almost like a perturbed form of exotica (a form which was coming into its first flourish at about the same time)

Totally. I also always think of Pierrot as demented cabaret music.

With his third appearance on the countdown so far (and I don't even need to change the disc in my CD player):

65 Steve Reich - Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ Points: 404 Votes: 4 #1s: 0

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fzkIvg3azsQ/maxresdefault.jpg

The video of Alarm Will Sound's performance is worth watching.

The second Requiem setting coming up:

64 Benjamin Britten - War Requiem Points: 409 Votes: 3 #1s: 0
https://www.carolinaperformingarts.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/bombed_coventry_custom-8346d7bdf6c602ff51da4a88ed4ba6ac2aae74c3-s40-c85-287x219.jpg

The War Requiem was not meant to be a pro-British piece or a glorification of British soldiers, but a public statement of Britten's anti-war convictions. It was a denunciation of the wickedness of war, not of other men. The fact that Britten wrote the piece for three specific soloists -- a German baritone (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau), a Russian soprano (Galina Vishnevskaya), and a British tenor (Peter Pears) -- demonstrated that he had more than the losses of his own country in mind, and symbolized the importance of reconciliation. (Unfortunately Vishnevskaya was not available for the first performance, and had to be replaced by Heather Harper). The piece was also meant to be a warning to future generations of the senselessness of taking up arms against fellow men.

It was dedicated to four of Britten's friends who were killed during World War I:
Roger Burney, Sub-Lieutenant, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Piers Dunkerley, Captain, Royal Marines
David Gill, Ordinary Seaman, Royal Navy
Michael Halliday, Lieutenant, Royal New Zealand Volunteer Reserve
The first London performance was on 6 Dec 1942, in Westminster Abbey. The Decca recording that we have used was recorded in 1963. The work received immediate critical acclaim and was hailed as a masterpiece. It was widely performed both in Britain and abroad. Perhaps the combination of English poetry with the familiar text of the Latin mass made the Requiem accessible to such a range of listeners and caused it to be so well received.

- from http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~tan/Britten/britwar.html

I'm glad the Hovis music made it in the poll yesterday

The first of a pair of string quartets:

63 Maurice Ravel - String Quartet in F Points: 412 Votes: 4 #1s: 0

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Maurice_Ravel_1925.jpg

I haven't really read this thread yet, and don't know (where or) when to post this, so I am posting this now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4f8fej9Sqo

I thought this one might place higher but he did write a lot:

62 Bela Bartok - String Quartet no. 4 Points: 427 Votes: 3 #1s: 0

http://www.classicalarchives.com/images/artists_cma/wp/2144.jpg

The String Quartet No. 4, one of Bartók’s greatest masterpieces, is imbued with elements from Hungarian, Romanian, and Bulgarian music. It was written a year after String Quartet No. 3, and the two quartets can be viewed as a pair. Both works are in Bartók’s most abstract style, and display a highly coloristic approach to string sonority. However, the Fourth Quartet departs from the Third in its structure, which is an “arch” form: A-B-C-B-A. The first and final movements are linked, as are the second and fourth movements. The fourth movement was a later addition to the Quartet; Bartók did not originally conceive of the work in the symmetrical five movements. The third movement, the only slow one of the Quartet, stands alone. Bartok called it the “kernel” of the work, around which the other movements are arranged.

The Quartet demands great technical ability from the players. It is the first time we hear the famous “Bartók” pizzicato – where the player plucks the string hard enough to make it “snap” against the instrument. The Quartet also asks for a plethora of other extended techniques, along with rhythmic szforzandos, particularly in the outer movements. In the second movement, all four instruments play with mutes on the strings, and the matching fourth movement is entirely pizzicato.

- from: http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/string-quartet-no-4-bela-bartok

https://youtu.be/nz8uzuJxufo?t=13s

I have a weird pet peeve about people describing music as "abstract" because it is avant-garde or unconventional. Other than musique concrète, all instrumental music is abstract.

Our last one for the night, another film score:

61 Yamashiro Shoji (with Geinoh Yamashirogumi) - Akira (Original Soundtrack) Points: 429 Votes: 3 #1s: 0

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/1433866018/akira2_0.jpg

Recap:

61 Yamashiro Shoji (with Geinoh Yamashirogumi) - Akira (Original Soundtrack)
62 Bela Bartok - String Quartet no. 4
63 Maurice Ravel - String Quartet in F
64 Benjamin Britten - War Requiem
65 Steve Reich - Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ
66 Pierre Boulez - le marteau sans maître
67 Brian Eno - Discreet Music
68 John Luther Adams - Become Ocean
69 Jerry Goldsmith - Alien, film score
70 Gustav Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde
71 Igor Stravinsky - Les Noces
72 Claude Debussy - String Quartet in G Minor
73 Gustav Mahler - Symphony no. 9
74 Gavin Bryars - The Sinking of the Titanic
75 Antonin Dvořák - Symphony no. 9 ('New World')
76 Iannis Xenakis - Pithoprakta
76 Steve Reich - Sextet
78 Charles Ives - The Unanswered Question
79 Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 4
80 Gustav Mahler - Symphony no. 5
81 Philip Glass - Akhnaten
82 George Gershwin - An American In Paris
83 Antonin Dvořák - Rusalka
84 Steve Reich - Piano Phase
85 Giacomo Puccini - Manon Lescaut
86 Claude Debussy - Etudes
87 Scott Joplin - The Entertainer
88 luciano berio - Sequenza III (for female voice)
89 Igor Stravinsky - Symphonies of Wind Instruments
90 Ennio Morricone - For A Few Dollars More, film score
90 Les Baxter - Quiet Village
92 Glenn Branca - Symphony no. 13 ('Hallucination City')
93 Maurice Duruflé - Requiem
94 Arvo Pärt - Magnificat
95 Gustav Mahler - Symphony no. 3
96 John Cage - First Construction in Metal
97 Meredith Monk - Dolmen Music
98 Iannis Xenakis - Metastasis
99 Benjamin Britten - The Turn of the Screw, opera after Henry James
100 Gérard Grisey - Les espaces acoustiques

Hoo boy, pretty much striking out completely on Spotify when it comes to the score of Akira. I found one solitary rerecording of one theme on a comp of anime music.

I haven't seen this movie in 20 years. Pieces from the soundtrack are sounding pretty cool now.

The Akira soundtrack is still amazing, the sound and arrangements are so unique! All those weird & dramatic vocalisations, busy urban marimbas, and so on... Apparently Geinoh Yamashirogumi consists of mostly amateur musicians, and Shoji Yamashiro himself is a scientist as his main occupation.

Btw, if you want to get the soundtrack on CD, remember to get the Symphonic Suite Akira version. I have the 1988 Japanese CD, and it sounds amazing, especially considering how inconsistent CD mastering was on many Western albums in the '80s. There's another version of the soundtrack that adds dialogue and sound effects from the movie on top of the music, you don't want that!