Sunday, November 13, 2011

Music for Six Guitars

I was reading Alex Ross today and he mentioned that Ben Frost's Music for Six Guitars was going to be played in New York. Now I'm a big fan of music for multiple guitars, having written often for that kind of ensemble, so I had a look on YouTube. Here's one version:




Here's another version with a look at the performers:




I was going to just say "whaddayathink"? But I can't resist: this sounds like Steve Reich got mugged in an alley by Iron Butterfly with just a touch of gamelan.

Nope...
at

2 comments:

  1. RickardAugust 25, 2013 at 3:13 PM

    Wow, that sounds terrible. They're just smashing the same thing over and over for the most part and there's almost no variation in how the electric guitars interact. It's so noisey one could almost think it's composed by John Cage. But on the other hand it's far from as random as John Cage, it's more like Steve Reich (like you said) in that regard. So maybe John Cage mugged by Steve Reich or vice versa.

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  2. Bryan TownsendAugust 26, 2013 at 9:29 AM

    Heh.

    I am always perplexed when people with a big following, like Alex Ross, promote music that, while it may be 'new' or fashionable, is aesthetically such a horror-show. Do they not think it is a horror show? Do they think that they should not make aesthetic judgements? What?

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