Booming post, ogmor! I used to fully share your reservations about Messiaen's ornithological piano music, but they've subsided over time, partly thanks to videos such as this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryx-b52V7g4
I've got a soft spot for the villa-lobos guitar concerto
So do I, yet I somehow conjured up an internal narrative according to which I'd forgotten to poll it in the 1940s, even as (I now realize) it was composed in… 1951. Mea culpa, once again. I've listened to Julian Bream's recording of it (with André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra) more times than I can remember.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Tuesday, 24 March 2020 16:08 (four years ago) link
There is no music I hate more in the world than musicals
me too man, me too
Not me. (Well, if we're talking musicals of the last 40 years or so, then yes, me too.)
― coronoshebettadontvirus (Eric H.), Tuesday, 24 March 2020 16:19 (four years ago) link
I grew up on marx bros (but that's not really the same thing) and I do have some fondness for gene kelly but in general I cannot abide that sort of glitzy theatricality, even if westside story isn't a particularly egregious example
― ogmor, Tuesday, 24 March 2020 16:38 (four years ago) link
I've no choice but to agree with that, musicals are vile.
Ogmor's proper post makes me really want to dive into this decade and reflect. A chance I will get in my corona deserted office tomorrow!
― Le Bateau Ivre, Tuesday, 24 March 2020 16:39 (four years ago) link
have all of you musical-haters stopped to consider that
THE RUM-TUM-TUGGER IS A CURIOUS CAT?!?!
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 24 March 2020 16:52 (four years ago) link
What a list! I went for Agon but I barely know 5% of this.
― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 24 March 2020 17:20 (four years ago) link
xp the Rum Tum Tugger is a terrible bore
― ogmor, Tuesday, 24 March 2020 17:22 (four years ago) link
Also managed to miss all of the C20th polls... I'd have broken Metamorphosen's duck in the '40s poll, I think.
― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 24 March 2020 17:37 (four years ago) link
I've no bone to pick with the Rum Tum Tugger as long as he remains silent and under (paper) house arrest, i.e. in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Tuesday, 24 March 2020 18:24 (four years ago) link
I haven't figured this out yet. I'll never figure this out.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Monday, 30 March 2020 14:40 (four years ago) link
Btw don't forget to request 1960s titles if you suspect I may forget them (not an ill-founded hunch tbh). As always, I'll do my best to include as many as possible.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Monday, 30 March 2020 16:24 (four years ago) link
don't envy you the job of whittling it down to fifty - this is why I suggested five year polls :) I am sitting in a room is probably one of the lucier pieces least likely to qualify for inclusion but it's so beautiful & fragile & unique & perfect, and there aren't many occasions to talk about it so I will at least mention it here
― ogmor, Monday, 30 March 2020 17:22 (four years ago) link
It's a wonderful piece, but I think it would be a better fit for our upcoming electroacoustic/musique concrète/sound art poll (at least I hope it's upcoming – who would be best suited to such a task?).
― coco vide (pomenitul), Monday, 30 March 2020 17:53 (four years ago) link
Does being in lockdown speed up time? Thought I still had ages to decide on a pick here!
― Hey, let me drunkenly animate yr boats in about 25 to 60 days! (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 30 March 2020 18:44 (four years ago) link
xp that poll should def happen! Won't do it alone but would help out tbh.
― Hey, let me drunkenly animate yr boats in about 25 to 60 days! (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 30 March 2020 18:45 (four years ago) link
Heh, I guess it does.
xp my knowledge of the stuff is severely lacking so someone else would definitely have to take over.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Monday, 30 March 2020 18:46 (four years ago) link
Obvious chestnuts:Berio - SinfoniaStockhausen - StimmungRiley - In CGlass - Music in Similar MotionLigeti - AtmospheresPenderecki - Threnody...
Guitar music:Britten - Nocturnal after John Dowland, op. 70 (Bream recording recommended again)Stephen Dodgson - PartitaMaurice Ohana - Si le jour parait ...
― Sund4r, Tuesday, 31 March 2020 02:47 (four years ago) link
As far as the actual 50s poll, it probably comes down to Le marteau vs Brindle. I realize the former is the more important and greater work but the personal connection with the latter is strong.
― Sund4r, Tuesday, 31 March 2020 02:48 (four years ago) link
I could check the other thread, but I'm guessing it may have been you that lobbied for inclusion of the Brindle, Sund4r? If so, thanks! Enjoyed it, and there's a fair chance I wouldn't ever know about it otherwise. :)
― anatol_merklich, Tuesday, 31 March 2020 19:00 (four years ago) link
Yes, glad you liked it.
― Sund4r, Tuesday, 31 March 2020 19:02 (four years ago) link
I may just switch to 5 years for the remaining polls per ogmor's suggestion because my current longlist for the 60s is as excruciating as you'd expect.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Tuesday, 31 March 2020 21:05 (four years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 00:01 (four years ago) link
Fuck it, I'm voting Scelsi.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 00:47 (four years ago) link
Anyone want to rep for Galina Ustvolskaya? Three pieces here and I've heard none before.
― Hey, let me drunkenly animate yr boats in about 25 to 60 days! (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 07:12 (four years ago) link
They represent a bleaker, starker, less consolatory late Shostakovich avant la lettre (he reportedly told her that she influenced him, not the other way around). For the Grand Duet, try Mstislav Rostropovich and Igor Uriash. The Violin Sonata is well served by Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Markus Hinterhäuser (on an excellent ECM disc). As for the 4th Piano Sonata, I like Ivan Sokolov's take, among many others.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 12:36 (four years ago) link
fwiw (nothing as i don't vote in polls lol) a vote for anything also counts as a vote for 4'33", you just assume it's being performed somewhere poorly soundproofed with e.g. zimmerman's canto di sperenza bleeding thru the walls, to be officially part of the cage performance ("noises of your body" etc)
this is canon
― mark s, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 12:44 (four years ago) link
nothing as i don't vote in polls lol
C'mon mark, don't be such a hipster.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 12:46 (four years ago) link
mark not voting is canon too iirc
― Hey, let me drunkenly animate yr boats in about 25 to 60 days! (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 12:48 (four years ago) link
Anyway Pom, huge thanks - again - for the recommendations!
Btw are you familiar with this book? Performing Pain: Music and Trauma in Eastern Europe Looks rad!
― Hey, let me drunkenly animate yr boats in about 25 to 60 days! (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 12:49 (four years ago) link
Agon Possibly my most listened-to Stravinsky piece
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 14:39 (four years ago) link
I've got reservations about Stravinsky but Agon is classic af.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 14:43 (four years ago) link
It does indeed. Thanks for the tip.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 14:58 (four years ago) link
why scelsi pom? I assume it's one of the things would especially benefit from a live hearing
I am no closer to working out what to vote for
― ogmor, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 21:34 (four years ago) link
Rundel's live recording on Mode is quite good, incidentally!
I'm a spectralist stan and hence sympathetic to proto-spectralism. I also worry that no one else will vote for it.
That said, at least ten other works could have won out depending on ineffable fluctuations.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 21:40 (four years ago) link
My hopeless anglophilia doesn't always extend to this type of music so Lachrymae and those RVW symphonies are fresh to my ears. (Didn't even realise RVW was still composing this late!) It's all quite... luvly.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Wednesday, 1 April 2020 22:05 (four years ago) link
I spent an inordinate amount of time with RVW's symphonies in February and have finally come to appreciate their worth, thanks to Haitink's cycle in particular. They're much less stereotypically 'English' than I used to believe, that is to say less reactionary – somewhat in line with Sibelius's own complicated position within 20th century music. I've always loved Britten's Lachrymae, however, especially his later arrangement for viola and string orchestra. Theme and variations in reverse, wherein the borrowed melody is revealed at the very end of the piece, is in fact one of my favourite structural tropes in classical music.
― coco vide (pomenitul), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 22:13 (four years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:01 (four years ago) link
Huh, I thought Shosty's 10th was going to walk this.
― Publius Covidius Naso (pomenitul), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:02 (four years ago) link
Omg sorry Boulez
― Sund4r, Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:12 (four years ago) link
:(
I had no idea he'd need my help.
― Publius Covidius Naso (pomenitul), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:13 (four years ago) link
D'oh, a long phone call prevented a last minute vote. Maybe imagine that Le Marteau sans maître or Quatre Études de rythm has a "1" against it rather than no votes.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:21 (four years ago) link
Who voted for the Dallapiccola btw? I'm pleasantly surprised – I almost didn't include because I assumed no one would care.
― Publius Covidius Naso (pomenitul), Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:24 (four years ago) link
^Teacher and major influence on Brindle (who got my vote in the end).
― Sund4r, Thursday, 2 April 2020 03:44 (four years ago) link
D'oh, forgot to vote! Would've gone with Junglinge in the end...
― Hey, let me drunkenly animate yr boats in about 25 to 60 days! (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 2 April 2020 10:14 (four years ago) link
If anyone's interested, I wrote this about the Brindle piece some years ago, when I still wrote words outside message boards.
― Sund4r, Thursday, 2 April 2020 12:56 (four years ago) link
Only thing I ever published
Thanks, and bookmarked.
― Publius Covidius Naso (pomenitul), Thursday, 2 April 2020 13:10 (four years ago) link
An embarrassment of riches, split in twain:
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Classical Compositions of… the 1960s – Part I (1960-1964)
― Publius Covidius Naso (pomenitul), Thursday, 2 April 2020 13:45 (four years ago) link
today i learned RVW was working on an opera on Thomas the Rhymer at the time of his death
feel pretty robbed tbh!
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 2 April 2020 13:58 (four years ago) link
Really really should have remembered to vote. For Marteau sans maitre.
― ascai, Thursday, 2 April 2020 14:49 (four years ago) link