Your point being?

Good, at least you admit it.

That is a bit clearer now that you've edited your previous message.

Still, I don't think any of us are really trying to be obtuse. Nor was I deliberately talking gibberish to annoy you - I thought my little poem (it wasn't an 'incantation', by the way: your generic identification's a bit off there) was beautiful and maybe a little witty, but then, I've always had an odd sense of humour. Maybe I have an odd taste in art too, but while there are a few of us around who are prepared to find meaning/beauty/interest/whatever in a work by Bussotti, it's inevitably going to look a little closed-minded (which, of course, is completely your prerogative) if you don't share that inclination.

Peace, man. And music(ology). And all that jazz.

My "generic identification"?

 

That phrase, like the rest of your message, is unfortunately less effective for my being unable to hear the necessary donnish falsetto that should accompany it.

Really like "Nympheo". Thought it should be mentioned.

Thanks, xyzzzz___. About time we got back to the music. I've just downloaded all the AGP stuff I didn't already have. I remember Il Nudo being a beautiful piece too. And something I'd really like to hear on CD, having heard it once live (in London, even) is Due voci, for soprano, ondes martenot and orchestra (with 12 percussionists!).

Teleplasm, you may think t_i_n's post qualifies for Pseud's Corner, but I would say you're at least as strong a contender with
for "Great Bores of Today".

He wouldn't be alone on this. Almost every single book I've read that mentions Bussotti (and please give me suggestions to correct this) talks little about the music but just shows one of the examples that Syd posted above. Bussotti has been presented as an artist instead of a composer (and I'm a bit at a loss to understand how you can not see those scores as extremely aesthetically striking, quite apart from any musical content that you may or not find therein) and perhaps as a bit of a charlatan in much of the history that's told about the last century's music.

Actually looking at some of his music (and I was poring over Fragmentations for a harpist while I was waiting for my greens to steam tonight) I've been amazed at how much conventional notation there actually is. When I was an undergraduate, I tried to find some more scores by Bussotti in my own university library, in York, in Reading, but could only find one score in Durham and two in York (one of which was the same one as in Durham). I can't remember having seen any in Huddersfield and I'm sure I looked.

I wondered then, and I still wonder now, if it has anything to do with his sexuality, or rather the way in which he expressed it through his music. I don't think it can be down to the quality of his music, because the small sample that I've heard strikes me as being quite strong - stronger than a lot of contemporaneous stuff from the UK that is still played now from time to time.

The word 'charlatan' is interesting because it implies that the composer has something to gain by the fraud that (s)he is committing. Just a casual look at those examples by Bussotti posted above suggests that there a rather staggering commitment of time and energy has gone into the production that score - probably just as much, if not more, than would have gone into producing as much conventional notation. Listening to some of the conventionally notated music, it's quite clear that Bussotti isn't exactly at fault in his ability to compose, so I think that, at worse, you can accuse him of trying to be 'trendy'.