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

TOO LOW

In its way, a mindbending work of art that changed the way I understood what art could be when I first encountered it.

gann's book is v good yes, as enjoyable and readable a solid scholarly introduction you're going to find on just about anything

My #1. I have had a 30+ year debate with my wife about this piece and how to think about art, what even qualifies as art.

Previous ILM discussion:
John Cage's 4'33"
Please stop referencing 4'33" by John Cage

Duchamp had the same idea 30+ years earlier i think, but it's still a great and important piece which is precisely why idiots crack wise about it

in a bizarre bit of happenstance this cartoon from 1932 is by someone called hy cage

http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/images/cartoon10.gif

I think the cartoonist misunderstood either time signatures or rests.

Duchamp had the same idea 30+ years earlier i think, but it's still a great and important piece which is precisely why idiots crack wise about it

Did Duchamp do this in a musical context?

27 Duke Ellington - The Far East Suite Points: 598 Votes: 5 #1 Votes: 0

https://alanbumstead.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/img_0796.jpg

I was going to say that Ellington is a serious contender for the greatest American composer of the early 20th century imo, and I still hold that view, but this is from 1967! I listen to Ellington all the time, and voted for two pieces by him (from 1935 and 1940) but I don't know this one at all tbh.

It's the best thing by Ellington that I've ever heard, so I rated it high in my ballot. Just the way his arrangements manage to evoke that whole diversity of moods he wants to come across in this piece is nothing short of brilliant.

Did Duchamp do this in a musical context?

not to my knowledge but i was thinking of the "anaesthetic" found pieces exemplified by "Fountain" - imo Duchamp focuses on a particular way of apprehending as being the aesthetic quality rather than something innate to that which is apprehended. so for Duchamp visual art becomes a way of looking, as in 4'33" music becomes a way of listening

and this still creates a role for the artist as a selecter or delimiter - Duchamp still in some way - indifference or otherwise - chooses his found objects, and Cage specifies a particular span of time as constituting the piece - except when he doesn't

Right, and I think Cage was quite aware of the precedents in the visual arts, and gave credit to these. It's the application of that idea to musical composition that was significant with 4'33".

Far East suite (one of several late Ellington masterpieces) is not available in full on Spotify anymore so I had to settle for three pieces picked from Ellington comps

(Sund4r see also Afro Eurasian Eclipse)

cage's '26 statements re duchamp' is nice https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dXJyDIuHuEUC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=26+Statements+Re+Duchamp+year+from+monday&source=bl&ots=uCNDG0w-S5&sig=IS7Ct3KN_MroJLtXiBrMI35i9KY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjigOGG2LzPAhWoBsAKHbDyAzIQ6AEIPzAD#v=onepage&q=26%20Statements%20Re%20Duchamp%20year%20from%20monday&f=false

excellent, i've never come across that before but i wondered if something like it existed

My ballot was unranked, but Sinfonia might well have been my #1 if I'd attempted a ranked one. By the way, Jon, while I heartily approve of your selecting the premiere recording for the playlist, given that a fifth movement was added shortly after, you might add a recording of that movement for completeness (this new one isn't bad)

26 Gustav Mahler - Symphony no. 6 Points: 625 Votes: 5 #1 Votes: 0

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8f/7b/64/8f7b641f31b98a7f6016b0e41a68a23a.jpg

Lol, perfect picture!

Good God there's a lot of recordings of this on Spotify. I have the Tilson Thomas/SFSO recording on mp3 and voted based off of that, but is there a 'best' recording of the 6th?

An ultra-populist double-header coming up.

Clair de Lune? Or as my dad calls it 'Clear the Room'. I'm sure none of you had ever heard that one before...

Gorecki's 3rd b/w The Planets?

25 Leonard Bernstein et al - West Side Story Points: 627 Votes: 4 #1s: 0

http://images1.villagevoice.com/imager/u/original/8226956/nyv_zoe_20160203_sharks_courtesy_photofest.jpg

I don't think "Suite bergamasque" was even nominated?

(xpost)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Alternating_time_signatures2.gif/400px-Alternating_time_signatures2.gif

Tom v, Bernstein (60s NYPO) is my favorite 6th but there are a lot of others that run it close. Boulez is fantastic, Abbado's last live recording, the MTT you have is very good. Barbirolli is a highly unusual one with a slow grim tempo for the first mvmt. Others I'm forgetting about.

Puerto Rican gang has former bodyguards to listen in (6)
^Graun cryptic sword clue yesterday

Bernstein (60s NYPO) is my favorite 6th

This is the one I'm listening to. Sounds great.

Lol that west side story was posted as I was typing my recommendation of bernstein's Mahler

The 60s Bernstein Mahler cycle was a little subpar in terms of sound until the round of remastering they gave it about 5 or 6 years ago. Now it sounds fantastic. (I think it was on its 3rd or 4th digital remastering by then...!)

Tom was half OTM:

24 Gustav Holst - The Planets Points: 632 Votes: 7 #1s: 0

http://nineplanets.org/images/solar-system-439046_640.jpg

Just listened to Planets the other day, it's still terrifically thrilling in all its pomposity. Clearly the Rosetta Stone for many adventure film composers (not just John Williams).

I wish more film composers would lift the other movements besides Mars! (Well, Leonard Rosenman did do a nice Jupiter inspired bit for the bakshi lord of the rings)

The Planets mightily deserves its popularity. It also deserves to be recognized as a masterpiece of Ravellian meticulousness. And its misterioso movements deserve as much love as its assertive ones.

(Holst also no one hit wonder. Egdon Heath, the Choral Symphony and the Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda all fantastic. Dude made his own translations from Sanskrit. Respect.)

Btw I added the fifth movement of the Berio Sinfonia from a recent recording, thanks for the tip

I voted for two other Holst pieces in this very poll owing to my time spent in high school concert bands, though neither as high as my vote for the Planets.

Yeah his band music too! He did a lot of things, none of which are much like the planets.

23 Claude Debussy - Prélude a l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) 636 5 0
https://media1.britannica.com/eb-media/62/135762-004-D84B6E66.jpg

My #11

If you haven't seen the segment from Allegro non Troppo that is set to this, it's a must-see.

I chickened out of showing it to my class when I taught music appreciation some years back.

confession: i still think this piece is about a deer, no matter how often others attempt to disabuse me of the notion.

The quiet revolution

had i thought about it i would have expected this to come in very high, makes me wonder if it's all massive hits from this point on

By 'hits' are you including stuff that ILX would love but maybe isn't a big-selling recording? I think Feldman's Rothko Chapel is probably top 10 but I can't imagine finding it at a Goodwill.

Hm, that's an interesting pick. (I also wondered about "hits".)

There's one major 20th century composer, for a fair number of people the greatest 20th century composer, and definitely one of the most programmed in the concert hall at this point, who hasn't shown up at all yet. Which is interesting.

22 Arvo Pärt - Fratres Points: 648 Votes: 5 #1 Votes: 0
http://s3.amazonaws.com/ink_prod/photos/0291/2215/photo_large.JPG

Oh, do you mean Rachmaninov, Jon?