Nothing parochial about recommending recordings on Ondine records. Finnish orchestras are some of the best in the world and they seem to have produced a never ending supply of great conductors to lead them. I almost picked that version of turangalila just based on the people involved.
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 11:09 (seven years ago) link
I have that same recording. It's fantastic. Maybe I'd be parochial for recommending an Angela Hewitt recording?
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 12:47 (seven years ago) link
Missed the last few slots, but thoroughly enjoyed this poll! Think it's the first time I've ever actually matched a #1 on my own ballot. Thanks Sund4r for running!!!
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 13:06 (seven years ago) link
yes thanks v much sund4r, this has been a lot of fun. looking forward to plundering all yr individual lists now...
― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 13:19 (seven years ago) link
No prob, everyone. Glad you enjoyed it.
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 13:21 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, big thanks Sund4r!
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 13:28 (seven years ago) link
I wonder how much both Messiaen and Penderecki have benefited recently from Jonny Greenwood's advocacy. Not that I think most of the voters in this poll are Radiohead stans.
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 13:31 (seven years ago) link
Didn't take part, it would probably have killed me, but fascinating stuff.
― (SNIFFING AND INDISTINCT SOBBING) (Tom D.), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 13:32 (seven years ago) link
Pop star advocacy actively turns me off this sstuff
― don't even see how this was a duck (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 13:34 (seven years ago) link
i think jonny greenwood talking about messiaen and penderecki ~15 years ago piqued my interest in them and maybe in modern classical more generally, nice of him to act as a gateway drug for me
― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 13:37 (seven years ago) link
same from another angle with sonic youth's goodbye 20th century, as gateway drugs go i chose my teen alt-rock faves well
― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 13:38 (seven years ago) link
Jonny Greenwood didn't help me find any composers -- but Stanley Kubrick certainly did.
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 13:39 (seven years ago) link
Great poll, and no quibbles with the #1. Still haven't got beyond Grisey on the playlist, but have been enjoying that a lot. Thanks, sund4r!
― Jeff W, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 17:23 (seven years ago) link
Yeah thanks Sund4r this has been a fun enterprise
― don't even see how this was a duck (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 17:51 (seven years ago) link
Haha I was mentally preparing a hypothetical ballot for this about a week ago (I cant front: Id have prob included some Swearingen!) and both Symphony in Blue and The Planets were both locks. Crazy!
― same as it e'er was (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 19:13 (seven years ago) link
I just thought it was interesting to see two Messiaen pieces in the top 5. He has always been well-regarded but I'm not sure you would have seen that on many lists 20 years ago.
It was also noteworthy to me how poorly the Second Viennese School did. I believe only one Schoenberg piece made it, and only to #50; Berg was represented by one opera at #35; and I think Webern was shut out altogether. Maybe that's more of a thing for theory/comp obsessives?
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 19:52 (seven years ago) link
No, it was definitely surprising. And are Wozzeck and Pierrot Lunaire even serialism? Was there any serialism on the list? I'd have guessed Moses und Aaron and some Webern would have made it at the very least.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:07 (seven years ago) link
It was surprising -- but I guess down to the polling audience again. I know I didn't have much of those guys on my ballot, for the chief reason I simply don't listen to them as much as other stuff. And like Shostakovich, I think if you were polling academics or all classical musicians/composers, they'd have fared much better.
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:11 (seven years ago) link
Pierrot is atonal and not serial
(atonal period before he went serial is my favorite schoenberg period)
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:12 (seven years ago) link
Wozzeck is serial enough to be called serial iirc
same for Stravinsky's Agon
spectralism is the new serialism
― a confederacy of lampreys (rushomancy), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:13 (seven years ago) link
Agon is an amazing piece -- Stravinsky so good at serialism, he made it sound almost tonal.
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:14 (seven years ago) link
But I know Messiaen worked in serialism too -- it didn't always sound like Schoenberg and Webern.
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:15 (seven years ago) link
yeah it got my highest stravinsky vote, bits from it get stuck in my head all the time.
xpost
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:15 (seven years ago) link
messiaen liked game-type systems, he had this weird musical alphabet thing going for awhile
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:16 (seven years ago) link
someone asked him if he really thought it was communicable to listeners and he said "c'est un jeu"
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:17 (seven years ago) link
Messiaennnnnnnn
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:21 (seven years ago) link
liked birds iircand jesus
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:23 (seven years ago) link
can i just take a moment, for anyone who is diligently making to-listen lists from all this, if you start getting into Messiaen please check out the 20 minute solo piano piece La Roussarolle Effarvette (The Reed Warbler). It's from his massive cycle of ornithological piano works Catalogue D'Oiseaux, and in this piece he 'depicts' an entire 24 hour cycle in the life of a French marsh, it is music to live by.
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:25 (seven years ago) link
i didn't nominate it only because it seemed excessive to nominate the entire Catalogue
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:26 (seven years ago) link
Not much of a fan of Messiaen myself. That Alex Ross book has probably had some influence?
― (SNIFFING AND INDISTINCT SOBBING) (Tom D.), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:41 (seven years ago) link
I wanted to call out a few specific pieces of British choral music that ppl should check out:
https://play.spotify.com/album/42PjwoPOw3UzyXkIvvQQ5bFrank Martin: Mass for Double Chorus (particularly the "Agnus Dei")
https://play.spotify.com/track/7GJzibotlvYkUM8AP1fau1Herbert Howells: Take him, Earth, for cherishing (written on the occasion of JFK's assassination)
https://play.spotify.com/track/1VJx0lbD8564c7U3qlrh09Benjamin Britten: Hymn to St Cecilia (really check all of Britten's choral music, dude was a master)
https://play.spotify.com/track/0LYnJH42w6itoek1vtv5iACharles Ives: Psalm 67 (notable mostly because the women are singing in C-major and the men are singing in G-minor)
https://play.spotify.com/album/1MEil2WMsiotndFOFHgqYU (start at track 6)Herbert Howells: Requiem (this dude is an unsung hero of British choral music in my opinion)
https://play.spotify.com/track/5xndSoWdGIrwcnRHBmt16Phttps://play.spotify.com/track/4ltqbRA0cTpY8DkdKNwJmvhttps://play.spotify.com/track/2GRTpVUSY5iz4HrQwBDRTfRalph Vaughn Williams: Three Shakespeare Songs
― ¶ (DJP), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 21:49 (seven years ago) link
Serialism is just a method of organizing pitch and it can sound like a lot of things (including Bill Evans or Blood, Sweat, and Tears). I do think the Second Viennese School had a common aesthetic that is central to some people's conceptions of 20th century music, though. As serialism goes, aside from the pieces that were mentioned, Kreuzspiel is not just serialism but integral serialism: even the accents in the percussion part follow a 12-number pattern. I'm not totally sure about Kontakte: I wanted to say that at least the acoustic parts were written with serial methods but I can find no proof of this and I'm not doing an analysis right now.
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 22:00 (seven years ago) link
Some excellent stuff in this thread, some of which I've heard but quite a fair bit that I haven't. Thanks for this, Sund4r!
― pen pineapple apple pen (Turrican), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 22:00 (seven years ago) link
(Ives was [fiercely] American btw.)
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 22:01 (seven years ago) link
DJP probably meant to say English language choral music
Speaking which DJP what do you think of the (chorus + orchestra) Five Tudor Portraits by Vaughan Williams? An oddball masterpiece IMO
And I'm gonna check out all your choral tips that I don't know.
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 22:23 (seven years ago) link
Oh yeah, that makes sense.
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 22:24 (seven years ago) link
I still have nothing significant to contribute to this most excellent thread, just came to say
― Berberian Begins at Home (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 6 October 2016 00:28 (seven years ago) link
Thanks for the choral music recs btw! Will def look into those, esp Britten.
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Thursday, 6 October 2016 09:53 (seven years ago) link
We're doing Hymn to St Cecilia this november :) It's good, though perhaps not my favorite Britten. In a way, it was just better singing Britten as a little boy, he was perhaps the best at writing music for children ever? His Spring Symphony, A Boy Was Born, Hymn to the Virgin.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 6 October 2016 13:25 (seven years ago) link
And Noye's Fludde, now semi-famous thanks to Wes Anderson!
I think Spring Symphony is my favorite of his works with choir.
― look at the morning people (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 6 October 2016 13:57 (seven years ago) link
Moonrise Kingdom is the best Wes Anderson by far, btw, and it's 90% because of the interplay with Britten-music. Young Persons Guide in the opening and on the credits! So good.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 6 October 2016 14:39 (seven years ago) link
and desplat's brief britten-inspired original score
― look at the morning people (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 6 October 2016 14:40 (seven years ago) link
lol I forgot I put Ives in there
― ¶ (DJP), Thursday, 6 October 2016 14:50 (seven years ago) link
just wanted to drop in and say great poll as well, special thanks for all of the choral recommendations, I am always a sucker for a choral piece above all else
― kruezer2, Thursday, 6 October 2016 19:32 (seven years ago) link
Don't miss out on Maurice Ohana's spine tinglingworks with choir - he did a fair amount of it. Also lutoslawski's Trois Poemes de Henri Michaux has very unusual choral writing.
― look at the morning people (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 6 October 2016 20:08 (seven years ago) link
I must reiterate I am very happy to have this playlist to work from. I might go back to the nominations list as well and pick up some of those very familiar names whose music is pretty much a blank to me at this point. So far I am gravitating toward Bartok, Sibelius, and Messiaen.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 8 October 2016 16:28 (seven years ago) link
If sund4r wants to publish the 101-200 placements, I'll make a second playlist for those.
― look at the morning people (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 8 October 2016 17:14 (seven years ago) link
(Meant Debussy not Sibelius.)
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 8 October 2016 22:30 (seven years ago) link
(Although much of Preludes for Piano is to Romantic for me.)
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 8 October 2016 22:31 (seven years ago) link