Wednesday, November 6, 2013

¡No Pasaran!

There is a lot to write about today--well, every day, really. I was thinking about doing an update on Tom Service's journey through the symphony as he has three new installments up on Peter Maxwell Davies' Symphony No. 1, Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 2 and Luciano Berio's Sinfonia, but I don't have time to plumb those depths this morning!

Apparently, even in today's Russia, a musician that offends the wrong people can still get shipped to Siberia...

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of the group "Pussy Riot"
I hope to post something more substantial later on today, but in the meantime, why don't you leave a comment telling me what you would like to read about? Music theory? Classical musicians? Instruments? Pop music? Lady Gaga's fashion sense? (Ok, maybe not that one.) Hexachordal combinatoriality? Middle-period Willie Nelson's harmonic practice? Heh!

¡No Pasaran!

Now let me see, what music would be suitable? Something by Cornelius Cardew perhaps, who once wrote an essay entitled "Stockhausen Serves Imperialism"?


5 comments:

Rickard said...

A few suggestions:

- You wrote a post about cadential formulas last month and you said you would write how 20th century composers dealt with the problem of cadences. Still waiting.
- A while ago I linked a playlist with some video game music that you were interested in listening to, did you do that (or intend to do that) and if so, any thoughts about video game music in general?
- A post about classical music composed for instruments not typically used in classical music (accordions, banjos, harmonicas, you name it).
- Your thoughts about modal music, can it hold up against the major/minor system if updated (with stronger focus on harmony and all sorts of things such as modulations, that weren't developed in the modal system as the major/minor system took over).
- Since you've been writing alot about Haydn, how about some Mozart, maybe some sort of comparison.

Bryan Townsend said...

Thanks, Rickard, those are all great suggestions! That first one is a pretty big challenge, I am realizing. Kind of a doctoral dissertation kind of topic. But I will see what I can do.

Unknown said...

Rickard,

http://web.archive.org/web/20071009225419/http://www.allairefictamusic.com/

You might find this interesting.

Regards,
Nathaniel

Shantanu said...

Thanks for asking!

Maybe something about opera? Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, (not Wagner)...

About classical music venues and performing practices, about acoustics... there's a whole world.

Somehow I feel you can manage all of it.

Bryan Townsend said...

I'm certainly interested in most aspects of music, but, like most people I have strengths and weaknesses! Opera is probably the area that I feel most unsure of! But I will take a stab at it... I've done some work on Wagner in graduate school, but I would rather look at Mozart, Verdi and Puccini!