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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #120 on: 20:28:58, 19-11-2007 » |
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We think we should be told.
How right Mr Grew is here! Composers should stick to works with generic titles in established forms. They should on no account attempt any kind of multimedia weeklong performance in the Foothills of the Himalayas involving contemporary dance, aromatherapy, music, painting, or projections from the "colour-organ". Nor should they try naming such hippy-style "happenings" with titles like "Mysterium". Such ventures clearly indicate foolhardiness, a diseased mind, or possibly both. |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Ena
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« Reply #121 on: 21:26:58, 19-11-2007 » |
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We think we should be told.
...Composers should stick to works with generic titles in established forms. They should on no account attempt any kind of multimedia weeklong performance in the Foothills of the Himalayas involving contemporary dance, aromatherapy, music, painting, or projections from the "colour-organ". Nor should they try naming such hippy-style "happenings" with titles like "Mysterium". Such ventures clearly indicate foolhardiness, a diseased mind, or possibly both. Perish the thought Mr Reiner! P.S. What is meant by the word "aromatherapy", and why have you put the word "contemporary" in front of dance? We never heard such things int' Rovers (at least not in my days). |
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martle
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« Reply #122 on: 21:51:57, 19-11-2007 » |
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Reiner, I am as we speak planning a new work (called, with maximum ironic intent) 'String Quartet no. 13', which involves the Brodsky 4tet, up a mountain, sheep's chorus, wide-screen projections of Ken Russell movies in the background (I'm thinking 'Song of Norway' in particular), nun extras delivering blankets and hot toddies to the audience, a brass band mounted in multiple police helicopters and, as a grand finale, Baroness Thatcher delivering selected quotes from her timeless speeches whilst in office.
I trust I qualify as 'serious', thereby. Especially as I've already written a string quartet called 'String Quartet', plus a piano sonata called 'Piano Sonata', and a wind quintet not called 'Wind Quintet'.
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Green. Always green.
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time_is_now
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« Reply #123 on: 22:07:10, 19-11-2007 » |
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martle, if Mr Grew kinew what your wind quintet was called, or your string quintet for that matter, he might well have you down as the silliest of the lot! involves the Brodsky 4tet I knew it! You've been listening to Elvis Costello again, haven't you! PS 'Kinew' was a typo, but I like it. So it's atsying! |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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martle
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« Reply #124 on: 22:11:28, 19-11-2007 » |
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I knew it! You've been listening to Elvis Costello again, haven't you!
tinners, I'm taking the word 'Alison' as my primary source of pitch and rhythmic material. PM me if you need details of the devious permutations thus required.  |
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Green. Always green.
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ahinton
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« Reply #125 on: 22:14:46, 19-11-2007 » |
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For the record, by the way, I wrote - years ago - a piece called String Quintet which has attracted criticism from sone quarters for its overly prosaic and accordingly misleading title; may I therefore apologise to Member Grew with all due humility for this oversight, even though it appears to go in the wrong direction for him?
Best,
Alistair
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Antheil
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« Reply #126 on: 22:16:48, 19-11-2007 » |
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quote
Reiner, I am as we speak planning a new work (called, with maximum ironic intent) 'String Quartet no. 13', sheep's chorus
[/quote]
Martle, how very odd, I have also compsed the Sheep's Chorus, to be performed outside of Asda, Mynyddislwyn, in the Carpark if wet if dry in the Village Hall.. But, to be doubly ironic, I have entitled it, Four Welsh Ewes and a Cross Bred Charollais! There's cutting sarcasm! And, oh blimey, Yes! Charlotte Church! Featuring as - herself!
Oh these quotes!
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« Last Edit: 22:21:23, 19-11-2007 by Antheil the Termite Lover »
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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roslynmuse
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« Reply #127 on: 22:27:21, 19-11-2007 » |
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It reminds me of a Messiah rehearsal when the conductor wearily said "In 'All we like sheep' 'we' is not a verb..."
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Ena
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« Reply #128 on: 22:38:32, 19-11-2007 » |
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Well folks - methinks 't must be about time for Compline. Ready?
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Antheil
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« Reply #129 on: 22:42:07, 19-11-2007 » |
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Ena,
Indeed, who does Compline these days?
Bless you. Father Bernadette would be pleased
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #130 on: 22:43:22, 19-11-2007 » |
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sheep's chorus
Named Yan, Tan, Tethera, Methera, etc, I most sincerely hope, Martle?  They will be pleased for the work, I'm sure... even with "Bastien & Bastienne" their diary was looking a bit thin. Methera really needs the gigs, her fees really dropped when it turned-out hers wasn't a "title role", and some impresarios have even tried economising by using a cloned sheep  The idea of brass bands in helicopters is an eloquent hommage... I'm sure Stockhausen will be pleased  I miss, though, any element of aromatherapy in the piece? Perhaps it is not yet too late to introduce something? Electronically-fired pods that release Oil of Myrtleberry on all occurences of the F# at the top of the treble stave? Sulphurous odours released by the Eb off the bottom of the bass clef? Now that would be a Mysterium worthy of the name, eh? |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #131 on: 22:48:28, 19-11-2007 » |
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It's a shame that this thread is well on the way to being derailed, because there were some excellent points made today which looked as if they might revive it; this in particular invites a new perspective: So, I seldom, if ever, find myself being surprised by the unexpected - because I fully expect it! At the same time, however, I sometimes wonder whether the composers have spent a little too much effort in putting together pieces that in the event make only a slight impact. I am sometimes worried that some Contemporary Music is, if anything, a little too easy to listen to - perhaps presenting to the listener only a marginal challenge (compared with, say, the music of Beethoven or other earlier giants). This worries me a little.
Perhaps in the cold light of day someone might care to consider this further.... |
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ahinton
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« Reply #132 on: 22:52:27, 19-11-2007 » |
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Reiner, I am as we speak planning a new work (called, with maximum ironic intent) 'String Quartet no. 13', sheep's chorus
Martle, how very odd, I have also composed the Sheep's Chorus, Like lambs to the slaughter, presumably... to be performed outside of Asda,
Might that risk giving the impression that it has some connection, however tenuous, with capitalist commodificationist consumerist something-or-others?... Mynyddislwyn,
The method of composing with 12 letters (albeit some of them repeated) without more than one genuine vowel is surely Welsh enough to raise the question of whether serialism began life in Wales; any thoughts on that Richard III?... in the Carpark if wet if dry in the Village Hall.. But, to be doubly ironic, I have entitled it, Four Welsh Ewes and a Cross Bred Charollais! There's cutting sarcasm!
Cutting? Then the piece must be featured in the BMIC's Edge series. Charolais has only one "l", unlike so many Welsh names. And, oh blimey, Yes! Charlotte Church! Featuring as - herself!
So this Mynyddislwyn has a car park, a village hall AND a church (featuring as itself)? It must be uncharacteristically wealthy for a Welsh hamlet, then. I am therefore given to wonder if Richard III would recognise it at all... Best, Alistair |
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« Last Edit: 23:00:10, 19-11-2007 by ahinton »
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #133 on: 23:08:49, 19-11-2007 » |
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It's a shame that this thread is well on the way to being derailed,
Although made flippantly, my reference to Scriabin's Mysterium (whose performance never came to fruition - in the Himalayas or even in St Petersburg) was entirely serious in intent Scriabin did indeed view the entire work (which was scheduled to take a week to perform) as a religious experience (viz his interests in Blavatsky, theosophy etc). And I think there are very few who are acquainted with Blavatsky who would not call his followers some kind of cult? Ditto for Roerich and his circle, who were another influence on Scriabin (if you go to the Roerich "Museum" today in Moscow you're asked to maintain a respectful silence as you pass through the room which has a golden statue of the man...), and it was more likely Roerich's strange explorations in the Himalayas (in search of Shangri-La, which he believed was an actual place you could map-reference) that gave Scriabin the idea for Mysterium. The purpose of Mysterium, according to Scriabin scholars, was to operate as a kind of "Doomsday" process which would (when performed at Roerich's map-coordinates) activate a state of worldwide Nirvana for mankind. |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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C Dish
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« Reply #134 on: 23:15:08, 19-11-2007 » |
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It reminds me of a Messiah rehearsal when the conductor wearily said "In 'All we like sheep' 'we' is not a verb..."
and 'like' isn't a verb either! |
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inert fig here
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