Rolling Classical 2020

i'd be into a dedicated xenakis thread — perhaps as a precursor to a ballot poll ?

Excellent idea! Any other prospective participants?

Ha, thought so.

In other news, John Luther Adams's Lines Made by Walking and untouched, played by the ever-reliable JACK Quartet, both sound like unabashed Pärt riffs, and I'm totally cool with that.

Oh I'd be up for it!

Well, ok, untouched less so due to the microtonal inflections, but still.

xp excellent, so I guess that makes… six of us?

Iannis Xenasix, Metastasix, The Dämmerschein Six. The possibilities are endless!

John Luther Adams/JACK Quartet and three compositions inspired by slowly trudging across vast landscapes. I'm up for some of that!

Speaking of JLA and vast landscapes, Become River, Become Ocean and Become Desert have just been re-released as a trilogy.

For some reason, I just don't find myself going back to his works very much, although I own four of his albums and listened to all of them in the years of release. Not sure what it is.

I think of him as an ambient composer.

I'd be up for whatever kind of dedicated listening thread, Xenakis or et al., you all devise (I'm certainly not knowledgeable enough to participate in a poll though) provided it doesn't start until next week.

On that note, in the free time I'm about to finally have, I was idly thinking about listening through pom's classical polls: each top 3 or something...I haven't thought about the logistics at all, just been wanting to do a more dedicated listen to classical than I ever have. This project might be slightly more likely to actually happen if someone joins me—I could start a thread if anyone thinks they'd be into commenting/playing along/making fun of my taste?

Rolling classical threads don't see much action anyway, so feel free to keep us posted here, if you prefer.

Starting with the top 3 results of each decade poll up until, say, 1940, is not a bad way to do it – thanks for the vote of confidence! I wouldn't approach it too systematically, though, so if I were you I'd give myself some wiggle room to periodically put those polls on the back-burner and just keep exploring whichever composer and/or compositional genre you jive with the most along the way.

I have no musical training to speak of and can't tell an A apart from a C, so I just got into classical because I liked what I heard (Shostakovich's 8th String Quartet was the catalyst). There's some theoretical stuff I amateurishly picked up along the way just by listening (and reading, although that doesn't extend to actual sheet music), but simply paying attention and being moved by certain pieces is what did it for me – as with all other types of music, really, although classical does perhaps require you to focus a bit more before it opens up, which is part of what I like about it tbh, especially now that I'm finding it increasingly more difficult not to be scatterbrained as digital electronics, with their infinite potential for multi-tasking (aka distraction), encroach on my listening habits to an unsettling degree.

Thanks for the encouragement, pom! Excited for this, it's really going to improve my pretentious, ivory-tower-dwelling elitist snob game :)

I've just started listening and since the first piece is a total obscurity called Beethoven's 'Pastoral' (two thumbs up), I have a question: do any of you have a go-to source/guide for deciding which recording to listen to?

I'm currently listening to Karl Böhm and the Wiener Philharmoniker as it was the first one that came up when I searched. I don't have any complaints...it might be a little soft? It's called Pastoral though so that seems appropriate. [ok, I just got to the storm section...never mind, this is properly dynamic]

I know "Pastoral" fairly well actually, though not to the level of having any kind of perspective on the interpretative work Böhm might be doing. But an anxiety I always have with big canon classical is that I'm not listening to the "best" recording--I know the answer is probably: just listen to it and if you like it try some others, but I'm wondering if there's a relatively trustworthy guide I'm not aware of. Even just searching for this music on streaming services is a nightmare--instant nostalgia for the CD racks at my public library growing up (which I largely ignored on my way to the sci-fi section lol).

Other than a recording guide, I'd be curious if anyone has any book recommendations? Not quite sure what I have in mind, but, for example, I have an unread copy of Alex Ross's The Rest Is Noise that I plan to at least dip into when I get to the 20th c.

Also, thank you to the poll voters, "Pastoral" was a rather pleasant way to start the project and my morning.

Sadly neither The Penguin guides nor the gramophone guides are still printed they have their limitations of course (bias towards British performers) but used ones could help you start exploring. With Spotify it’s so easy to compare performances and see which one moves you the most. Then you can go down the rabbit hole of “traditional” vs. “historically informed performance”, etc. Bohm would represent the former, for example. Huge orchestra, 20th century instruments.

Right now for Beethoven I’m enjoying Frans Brüggen and the Orchestra of the 18th Century for a “ historically informed” approach. It’s quite delightful!

an anxiety I always have with big canon classical is that I'm not listening to the "best" recording

I can certainly relate to this. Starting out, there were certain canonical works I couldn't get into at all until I found the right recording, so the stakes are high and therefore stressful! Honestly, I'd say it's a process of trial and error: if you feel like Böhm's take on the Pastoral is too leisurely (and it really is), you can check out a swifter, more youthful version such as Claudio Abbado's live recording with the Berlin Philharmonic (that's probably my go-to Beethoven Symphonies cycle btw, although it tells an ineluctably partial tale and could never suffice on its own). But yeah, I'd say it helps to read online reviews and get a sense of which interpretation best matches your view of the work and/or the composer's aesthetic, and that takes time. But it's also a lot of fun, and the realization that you only disliked/failed to get important composition x because subpar recording(s) y or z had misled you is one of my favourite things about exploring classical music. You'll also start to get a better feel for who your favourite performers are, and they can usually guide you through other composers' oeuvres as well.

As for The Rest Is Noise, I think it's a good read, but its narrative is extremely US-centric, which may or may not appeal to you. I personally found that aspect of it quite insufferable, especially when he suggests that while fascism may have threatened to destroy European music, the US heroically swooped in to save the day, expanding the modernist idiom beyond what was previously thought possible (which is true), as though aesthetic breakthroughs had just ceased in the so-called Old World (which is bullshit). If you look past that borderline jingoistic reading of history, however, and supplement it with, say, Paul Griffiths's Modern Music and After for the postwar period, it's definitely worth your while because it does help make up for the unsurprisingly Eurocentric approaches that thrive on the other side of the pond (I mind those way less, but that's my own personal bias showing).

Oh, and I almost forgot about the guides. I just just saw that the latest entry in The Guardian's 'Know the Score' series was added this morning – on Schubert, incidentally – and it occurs to me that it's not a bad place to start, even though I don't really care for Andrew Clements's list of great Beethoven performers. Not that it matters in the end – you're bound to feel differently from both me and Clements after listening to different recordings, and that's precisely the beauty of it:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/series/know-the-score

xp to B,M: Brüggen is good! I really enjoy his Mozart too, and I usually don't like Mozart all that much.

Haha, the Griffiths was the textbook when I took late 20th c music history in undergrad (not sure why tbh since the prof was far from being a Boulez-obsessed Europhile) - Ross's take is almost a breath of fresh air in comparison, but yeah, the two have opposite biases. I find the Griffiths a little dry and rarefied, though - I wouldn't even assign it to undergrad music students myself.

What I did assign is Joseph Auner and Walter Frisch - Music in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries, which involves a little more notation and technical musical info than Ross but certainly no more than Griffiths. I think it's very good, thorough, and up-to-date; American but not as slanted in its coverage as Ross; touches on the relationships between these movements and popular styles as well.

I was hoping you’d chime in! The Auer sounds like an excellent recommendation indeed. Ex-ILXor Tim Rutherford-Johnson’s Music After the Fall also seems like a great read if you’re interested in contemporary (post-1989) music, but I’ve yet to read it myself.

*Auner, sorry.

Ha, I didn't know he was an ilxor!

wow these are such helpful responses, thank you! I'll try to respond more fully at some point but I really appreciate the guidance

Alex Bougie doing a concert of contemporary guitar music here rn: https://www.twitch.tv/concertsfortheendoftime . Should be archived. I'll pass on the link.

Ha, he's playing a progressive metal-inspired piece by Bredeson rn that was introduced with "time to djent". A lot of palm-muted downstrokes.

lol

https://www.therestisnoise.com/2020/10/julian-anderson-on-the-rest-is-noise.html

I've bitched about Ross before but if there's one thing you can't say about The Rest Is Noise, it's that it doesn't give Sibelius his much-deserved due. I mean, it's one of the book's most memorable aspects, and I read it more than a decade ago. Nielsen does get a bit shortchanged, though.

In other news, I'm happy to see Ross rep for Bára Gísladóttir.

Ha, I think Ross's adoration of Sibelius was the first thing I commented on after reading that book.

Ha, I think Ross's adoration of Sibelius was the first thing I commented on after reading that book.

The only Adornian musical challop I vaguely agree with is that Stravinsky is overrated. He was utterly wrong about Sibelius, though, and even wronger about jazz, although I have read some spirited defences of his disdain for the latter, the argument being that he disliked not so much the 'artsier' jazz that was still to come (a debatable claim to begin with), and that he never deigned explore anyway, but rather the swingy and commercial big bands of the 1930s and 1940s, which to him were just the noise made by American capitalism.

Anyway, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe had a good piece about the ambiguity of Entkunstung (dis-artification? Lacoue-Labarthe gives a punny translation in the original French: désart), a concept Adorno utilized to deny jazz the mantle of 'art' and that paradoxically plays an essential role in Adorno's own understanding of modern art as deliberately turning on itself and running the risk of self-destruction, which perhaps implies that jazz is, in fact, the most modernist art of all according to Adorno. But I digress…

he disliked not so much the 'artsier' jazz that was still to come (a debatable claim to begin with), and that he never deigned explore anyway, but rather the swingy and commercial big bands of the 1930s and 1940s, which to him were just the noise made by American capitalism

Isn't this true? I always thought he was writing about the pop music of the 30s and 40s, essentially - big bands and crooners, mainly. The tunes he refers to by name are "Deep Purple" and "Sunrise Serenade".

I mean, I don't think he was a fan of bebop or free jazz either but I doubt it would have been for the same reasons?

He seemed unwilling to engage with jazz beyond those commercial acts, so I think it's fair to take him to task for a stubborn shortsightedness that he never really made up for even later in life. He 'figured it out' in the 1930s and never departed from that assessment.

Actually, I just came across this quote of Adorno's (from 1953) where he explicitly rejects the distinction between commercial jazz and its other:

The real conflict is about the distinction between 'authentic' and 'commercial' Jazz, which is, according to Berndt, 'foundational for any study of jazz'. He thinks that this discussion is not known to me, but my essay attacked it and therefore cannot accept its demand.

Oops, forgot to block quote it.

Ah, OK, I haven't read that 1953 piece.

Fuck adorno tbh

wrong

anyway ... xenakis listening thread ?

I’m still up for it.

List of works from Oxford Music Online (somehow I didn't know or remember that Kraanerg was written for the opening of the NAC and was premiered here!):

Orchestral:
Anastenaria: le sacrifice, orch (51 insts), 1953, sketch
Metastaseis, 1953–4; SWF SO, cond. H. Rosbaud, Donaueschingen, 16 Oct 1955
Pithoprakta, 1955–6; Bavarian RSO, cond. H. Scherchen, Munich, 8 March 1957
Achorripsis, 21 insts, 1956–7; Colón cond. Scherchen, Buenos Aires, 20 July 1958
Duel, 2 small orchs, 1959; Radio Hilversum PO, cond. D. Masson and F. Terby, Hilversum, 18 Oct 1971
Syrmos, 12 vn, 3 vc, 3 db, 1959; Ensemble Instrumental de Musique Contemporaine, cond. Simonović, Paris, 20 May 1969
Stratégie, 2 small orchs, 1959–62; Venice Festival Orchestra, cond. B. Maderna and C. Simonović, 25 April 1963
ST/48, 48 insts, 1959–62; Orchestre Philharmonique de l’ORTF, cond. L. Foss, Paris, 21 Oct 1968
Akrata, 16 wind, 1964–5; cond. Simonović, Paris, 1965
Terretektorh, 1966; Orchestre Philharmonique de l’ORTF, cond. Scherchen, Royan, 3 April 1966
Polytope, 4 orch groups, 1967; Ensemble Instrumental de Musique Contemporaine, cond. Simonović, Montreal, Expo 67, 1967
Nomos gamma, 1967–8; Orchestre Philharmonique de l’ORTF, cond. C. Bruck, Royan, 4 April 1969
Kraanerg (ballet), orch, tape, 1968; Ottawa, June 1969
Synaphaï, pf, orch, 1969; Pludermacher, cond. M. Tabachnik, Royan, 6 April 1971
Antikhthon (ballet), 1971; cond. Tabachnik, Bonn, Festival Xenakis, 21 Sept 1974
Eridanos, 8 brass, str orch, 1973; Ensemble Européen de Musique Contemporaine cond. Tabachnik, La Rochelle, 13 April 1973
Erikhthon, pf, orch, 1974; C. Helffer, Orchestre de l’ORTF, cond. Tabachnik, Paris, 21 May 1974
Noomena, 1974; Orchestre de Paris, cond. G. Solti, Paris, 16 Oct 1974
Empreintes, 1975; Netherlands Radio PO, cond. Tabachnik, La Rochelle, 29 June 1975
Jonchaies, 1977; Orchestre National de France, cond. Tabachnik, Paris, 21 Dec 1977
Aïs, amp Bar, perc, orch, 1980; S. Sakkas, Gualda, Bavarian RSO, cond. Tabachnik, Munich, 13 Feb 1981
Pour les baleines, str, 1982; Orchestre Colonne, cond. D. Masson, Orléans, 2 Dec 1983
Lichens, 1983; Liège PO, cond. Bartholomée, Liège 16 April 1984
Shaar, str, 1983; Jerusalem Sinfonietta, cond. J.- P. Izquierdo, Tel Aviv, 3 Feb 1983
Alax, 3 ens of 10 insts (fl, cl, 2 hn, trbn, hp, perc, vn, 2 vc), 1985; Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Köln, Gruppe Neue Musik Hanns Eisler, cond. E. Bour, Cologne, 15 Sept 1985
Horos, 1986; Japan PO, cond. H. Iwaki, Tokyo, 24 Oct 1986
Keqrops, pf, orch, 1986; R. Woodward, New York PO, cond. Z. Mehta, New York, 13 Nov 1986
Ata, 1987; SWF SO, cond. M. Gielen, Baden-Baden, 3 May 1988
Tracées, 1987; Orchestre National de Lille, cond. J.-C. Casadeus, Paris, 17 Sept 1987
Kyania, 1990; Montpellier PO, cond. Z. Peskó, Montpellier, 7 Dec 1990
Tuorakemsu, 1990; Shinsei Nippon Orchestra, cond. H. Iwaki, Tokyo, 9 Oct 1990
Dox-Orkh, vn, orch, 1991; Arditti, BBC SO, London, cond. A. Tamayo, Strasbourg, 6 Oct 1991
Krinòïdi, 1991; Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Emilia-Romagna ‘Arturo Toscanini’, cond. R. Encinar, Parma, May 1991
Roáï, 1991; Berlin RSO, cond. O. Henzold, Berlin, 24 March 1992
Troorkh, trbn, orch, 1991; C. Lindberg, Swedish RSO, cond. E.-P. Salonen, Stockholm, 26 March 1993
Mosaïques, 1993; Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée, cond. Tabachnik, Marseilles, 23 July 1993
Dämmerschein, 1993–4; Cologne RSO, cond. Peskó, Lisbon, 9 June 1994
Koïranoï 1994; NDR SO, cond. Peskó, Hamburg, 1 March 1996
Ioolkos, 1995; SWF SO, cond. K. Ryan, Donaueschingen, 20 Oct 1996
Voile, str, 1995; Munich Chamber Orchestra, cond. C. Poppen, Munich, 16 Nov 1995
Sea-Change, 1997; BBC SO, cond. A. Davis, London, 23 July 1997
O-Mega, perc solo, chbr orch, 1997; E. Glennie, London Sinfonietta, cond. M. Stenz, Huddersfield, 30 Nov 1997

Choral:
Zyia (folk), S, male vv (10 minimum), fl, pf, 1952; cond. R. Safir, Evreux, 5 April 1994
Anastenaria: procession aux eaux claires, SATB (30vv), male choir (15vv), orch (62 insts), 1953, sketch
Polla ta dhina (Sophocles: Antigone), children’s vv, wind, perc, 1962; cond. Scherchen, Stuttgart, 25 Oct 1962
Hiketides: les suppliates d’Eschyle, 50 female vv, 10 insts/orch, 1964; cond. Simonović, Paris, 1968
Oresteïa (incid music/concert work, Aeschylus), chorus, 12 insts, 1965–6; cond. Simonović, Ypsilanti, MI, 14 June 1966
Medea (incid music, Seneca), male vv, orch, 1967; cond. Masson, Paris, 29 March 1967
Nuits, 3 S, 3 A, 3 T, 3 B, 1967–8; cond. M. Couraud, Royan, 7 April 1968
Cendrées, chorus, orch, 1973–4; cond. Tabachnik, Lisbon, 20 June 1974
A Colone (Sophocles), male/female vv (20 minimum), 5 hn, 3 trbn, 6 vc, 4 db, 1977; Metz, 19 Nov 1977
A Hélène, Mez, female vv, 2 cl, 1977; Epidavros, July 1977
Anemoessa (phonemic text), SATB (42 minimum), orch, 1979; cond. R. Dufallo, Amsterdam, 21 June 1979
Nekuïa (phonemes and text from J.-P. Richter: Siebenkäs and Xenakis: Ecoute), SATB (54 minimum), orch, 1981; cond. Tabachnik, Cologne, 26 March 1982
Pour la Paix (Xenakis), SATB, 2 female spkrs, 2 male spkrs, tape (UPIC), 1981, version for SATB (32 minimum); cond. M. Tranchant, Paris, 23 April 1982
Serment-Orkos (Hippocrates), SATB (32 minimum), 1981; Greek Radio Choir, Athens, 1981
Chant des Soleils (Xenakis, after P. du Mans), SATB, children’s choir, 18 brass 6 (hn, 6 tpt, 6 trbn) or multiple, perc, 1983; Nord-Pas-de-Calais [simultaneous performance in several towns of the region], 21 June 1983
Idmen A/Idmen B (phonemes from Hesiod: Theogony), SATB (64 minimum), 4/6 perc, 1985; Antifona de Cluj, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, 24 July 1985
Knephas (phonemes by Xenakis), SATB (32 minimum), 1990; cond. J. Wood, London, 24 June 1990
Pu wijnuej we fyp (A. Rimbaud), children’s choir, 1992; cond. D. Dupays, Paris, 5 Dec 1992
Vakchai Evripidou (Les Bacchantes d' Euripide), Bar, female vv (also playing maracas), pic, ob, dbn, hn, tpt, trbn, 3 perc, 1993; J. Dixon, cond. N. Kok, London, 1 Sept 1993
Sea-Nymphs (phonemes from W. Shakespeare: The Tempest), SATB (24 minimum), 1994; cond. S. Joly, London, 16 Sept 1994

Other vocal:
Tripli zyia, 1v, pf, 1952, unpubd
Trois poèmes (F. Villon: Aiés pitié de moy, V. Mayakovsky: Ce soir je donne mon concert d’adieux, Ritsos: Earini Symphonia [Spring Symphony]), 1v, pf, 1952, unpubd
La colombe de la paix, A, 4vv (SATB), 1953, unpubd
Stamatis Katotakis (table song), 1v, male vv, 1953, unpubd
N’shima, 2 Mez/A, 2 hn, 2 trbn, vc, 1975; cond. J.-P. Izquierdo, Jerusalem, Feb 1976
Pour Maurice, Bar, pf, 1982; S. Sakkas, C. Helffer, Brussels, 18 Oct 1982
Kassandra (Aeschylus), Bar + 20str psalterion, perc, 1987; Sakkas, Gualda, Gibellina, 21 Aug 1987 [second part of Oresteïa: see CHORAL]
La déesse Athéna (Aeschylus), Bar, pic, ob, E♭ cl, db cl, dbn, hn, pic tpt, trbn, tuba, perc, vc, 1992; Sakkas, cond. Tabachnik, Athens, 3 May 1992 [scene from Oresteïa: see CHORAL]

Chamber:
Dipli Zyia, vn, vc, 1951, unpubd
ST/4, str qt, 1956–62; Bernède Quartet, Paris, 1962
ST/10, cl, b cl, 2 hn, hp, perc, str qt, 1956–62 cond. Simonović, Paris, May 1962
Morsima-Amorsima, pf, vn, vc, db, 1956–62; cond. Foss, Athens, 16 Dec 1962
Analogique A, 9 str, 1958 [must be performed with tape work Analogique B]; cond. Scherchen, Gravesano, summer 1959
Amorsima-Morsima, cl, b cl, 2 hn, hp, perc, str qt; cond. Foss, Athens, 1962
Atrées, fl, cl, b cl, hn, tpt, trbn, 2 perc, vn, vc, 1962; cond. Simonović, Paris, 1962
Eonta, 2 tpt, 3 trbn, pf, 1963–4; cond. P. Boulez, Paris, 16 Dec 1964
Anaktoria, cl, bn, hn, str qt, db, 1969; Octuor de Paris, Avignon, 3 July 1969
Persephassa, 6 perc, 1969; Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Persepolis, 9 Sept 1969
Aroura, 12 str, 1971; cond. Tabachnik, Lucerne, 24 Aug 1971
Charisma, cl, vc, 1971; Royan, 6 April 1971
Linaia-Agon, hn, trbn, tuba, 1972; cond. Tabachnik, London, 26 April 1972
Phlegra, 11 insts, 1975; cond. Tabachnik, London, 28 Jan 1976
Epeï, eng hn, cl, tpt, 2 trbn, db, 1976; cond. S. Garant, Montréal, 9 Dec 1976
Retours-Windungen, 12 vc, 1976; Berlin PO, Bonn, 20 Feb 1976
Dmaathen, ob, perc, 1976; N. Post, J. Williams, New York, May 1977
Akanthos, 9 insts, 1977; Ensemble Studio 111, Strasburg, 17 June 1977
Ikhoor, str trio, 1978; Trio à Cordes Français, Paris, 2 April 1978
Dikhthas, vn, pf, 1979; S. Accardo, B. Canino, Bonn, 4 June 1980
Palimpsest, eng hn, b cl, bn, hn, perc, pf, str qnt, 1979; cond. S. Gorli, Aquila, 3 March 1979
Pléïades, 6 perc, 1979; Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, 17 May 1979
Komboï, amp hpd, perc, 1981; Chojnacka, Gualda, Metz, 22 Nov 1981
Khal Perr, brass qnt, 2 perc, 1983; Quintette Arban, Alsace Percussions, Beaune, 15 July 1983
Tetras, str qt, 1983; Arditti String Quartet, Lisbon, 8 June 1983
Thalleïn, pic, ob, cl, bn, hn, pic tpt, trbn, perc, pf, str qnt, 1984; cond. E. Howarth, London, 14 Feb 1984
Nyûyô [Setting Sun], shakuhachi, sangen, 2 koto; 1985; Angers, Ensemble Yonin-No Kai (Tokyo), 30 June 1985
Akea, pf, str qt, 1986; Helffer, Arditti String Quartet, Paris, 15 Dec 1986
A l’Ile de Gorée, amp hpd, pic, ob, cl, bn, hn, tpt, str qnt, 1986; cond. Kerstens, Amsterdam, 4 July 1986
Jalons, pic, ob, b cl, db cl, dbn, hn, tpt, trbn, tuba, hp, str qnt, 1986; cond. Boulez, Paris, 26 Jan 1987
XAS, sax qt, 1987; Raschèr Quartet, Lille, 17 Nov 1987
Waarg, pic, ob, cl, bn, hn, tpt, trbn, tuba, str qnt, 1988; cond. Howarth, London, 6 May 1988
Echange, solo b cl, fl, ob, cl, bn, hn, tpt, trbn, tuba, str qnt, 1989; H. Sparnaay, cond. Porcelijn, Amsterdam, 26 April 1989
Epcycle, solo vc, fl, ob, cl, hn, tpt, trbn, tuba, 2 vn, va, db, 1989; R. de Saram, Spectrum Ensemble, cond. G. Protheroe, London, 18 May 1989
Okho, 3 djembés, tall African drum, 1989; Trio Le Cercle, Paris, 20 Oct 1989
Ophaa, hpd, perc, 1989; Chojnacka, Gualda, Warsaw, 17 Sep 1989
Tetora, str qt, 1990; Arditti String Quartet, Witten, 27 Apr 1991
Paille in the wind, vc, pf, 1992; J. Scalfi, Woodward, Milan, 14 Dec 1992
Plektó, fl, cl, perc, pf, vn, vc, 1993; cond. R. Platz, Witten, 24 April 1994
Ergma, str qt, 1994; Mondrian String Quartet, The Hague, 17 Dec 1994
Mnamas Xapin Witoldowi Lutoslavskiemu [In Memory of Witold Lutosławski], 2 hn, 2 tpt, 1994; cond. W. Michniewki, Warsaw, 21 Sept 1994
Kaï, fl, cl, bn, tpt, trbn, vn, va, vc, db, 1995; cond. D. Coleman, Oldenburg, 12 Nov 1995
Kuïlenn, fl, 2 ob, 2 cl, 2 bn, 2 hn, 1995; Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Amsterdam, 10 June 1996
Hunem-Iduhey, vn, vc, 1996; E. Michell, O. Akahoshi, New York, 9 Aug 1996
Ittidra, str sextet, 1996; Arditti String Quartet, T. Kakuska (va), V. Erben (vc), Frankfurt, 4 Oct 1996
Roscobeck, vc, db, 1996; R. de Saram, S. Scordanibbio, Cologne, 6 Dec 1996
Zythos, trbn, 6 perc, 1996; Lindberg, Kroumata Ensemble, Birmingham, 10 April 1997

Solo instrumental:
Seven piano pieces without title, Menuet, Air populaire, Allegro molto, Mélodie, Andante, pf, 1949–50, unpubd
Suite, pf, 1950–51, unpubd
Thème et conséquences, pf, 1951, unpubd
Herma, pf, 1960–61
Nomos alpha, vc, 1965–6; S. Palm, Bremen, 5 May 1966
Mikka, vn, 1971; I. Gitlis, Paris, 27 Oct 1972
Evryali, pf, 1973; C. Helffer, Paris, 1974
Gmeeoorh, org, 1974; C. Holloway, U. of Hartford, CT, 1974
Psappha, perc, 1975; S. Gualda London, 2 May 1976
Theraps, db, 1975–6; F. Grillo, 26 March 1976
Khoaï, hpd, 1976; E. Chojnacka, Cologne, 5 May 1976
Mikka ‘S’, vn, 1976; R. Pasquier, Orléans, 11 March 1976
Kottos, vc, 1977; M. Rostropovich, La Rochelle, 28 June 1977
Embellie, va, 1981; G. Renon-McLaughlin, Paris, 1981
Mists, pf, 1981; Woodward, Edinburgh, 1981
Naama, amp hpd, 1984; Chojnacka, Luxembourg, 20 May 1984
Keren, trbn, 1986; B. Sluchin, Strasbourg, 19 Sept 1986
A r. (Hommage à Ravel), pf, 1987; H. Austbö, Montpellier, 2 Aug 1987
Rebonds, perc, 1988; Gualda, Rome, 1 July 1988

Tape
some works exist in one or more revised realizations

Diamorphoses, 2-track, 1957–8; Brussels, 5 Oct 1958
Concret PH, 2-track, 1958; Brussels, Philips Pavilion, 1958
Analogique B, 2-track, 1958–9 [must be performed with chbr work Analogique A]; cond. Scherchen, Gravesano, summer 1959
Orient-Occident, 2-track, 1960; Cannes, May 1960
The Thessaloniki World Fair (film score), 1-track, 1961
Bohor, 4-track, 1962; Paris, 15 Dec 1962
Hibiki Hana Ma, 12-track, 1969–70; Osaka, Expo 70, 1970
Persépolis, 8-track, 1971; Persepolis, 26 Aug 1971
Polytope de Cluny, 8-track, lighting, 1972; Paris, 17 Oct 1972
Polytope II, tape, lighting, 1974; Paris, 1974
La legénde d'Eer (Diatope), 4- or 8-track, 1977; Paris, 11 Feb 1978
Mycenae alpha, 2-track, UPIC, 1978; Mycenae, 2 Aug 1978
Taurhiphanie, 2-track, UPIC, 1987; Arles, 13 July 1988
Voyage absolu des Unari vers Andromède, 2-track, UPIC; Osaka, 1 April 1989
GENDY3, 2-track, Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis, 1991; Metz, 17 Nov 1991
S 709, 2-track Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis, 1994; Paris, 2 Dec 1994

That's... a lot of music.

I'm totally up for doing it but how do you think we should we tackle it? Should we limit ourselves to orchestral music maybe?

Heh, no kidding.

I honestly think we should do it wholesale, even if it takes a full year. I’ve been getting into a more patient listening groove lately...

Maybe pick about 45m-1h of music from all genres a week, going chronologically?

Sounds like a plan.

works for me

"Drawn Into the Flight Path of the Sounds": Xenakis Listening Thread

enjoyed Philip Corner's Chord Gong! (with Carles Santos), four-hand versions of Corner’s “Chord” and “Gong!”: https://unseenworlds.bandcamp.com/album/chord-gong-with-carles-santos

actually, I've liked everything Unseen Worlds has released this year

This might be the dumbest woke classical music take yet (by a UMass Amherst theorist): https://slate.com/culture/2020/10/fullname-famous-composers-racism-sexism.html

Collaborative Arts Chicago streaming a concert of art song by modern women composers tonight: https://www.caichicago.org/broadcast.html

Programme: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xF2RFfp5Wg3rhCH4NEzDwFY7-7BRlTuO/view

On that fullname thing, I thought someone who was as universally known as Beethoven or Mozart was referred to by last name only because of their fame? I can see a case for Schumann, since there are two of close to equal standing. But if I said Bach, would you assume I meant CPE, or Johann Sebastian? Price is almost known enough to be referred to by surname, but really, why try that when she's still a forgotten composer? New composers aren't known yet, why would you say "the Blanchard" if I'm not going to know what that is?

Yes. It's true that white men dominate the European art music canon but the fairly obvious reasons for that precede their 'last-naming'. People do say "Ellington" or "Oliveros". Demanding that people say "Ludwig van Beethoven" every time will not help women or minorities and if anything just seems even more alienating and exclusionary to a general audience. As a nonwhite composer, this is certainly not something that has ever concerned me, nor does the white male author cite any women or minorities who have expressed concern about this. If you want to do something, do more to promote performances of contemporary composers so more diverse names become well-known enough to recognize.

I don't think even my undergrad music and gender prof would argue that Clara Schumann was as important a composer as Robert btw.