tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post2440512178890122904..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Retro Record Review # 6: Masterworks of the 20th CenturyBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-33409363488713186982015-09-15T09:27:27.646-05:002015-09-15T09:27:27.646-05:00I suppose that someone at Sony just thought, oh we...I suppose that someone at Sony just thought, oh well, we have this stack of recordings from forty years ago, why not release them and make a buck? But they may not have realized what a revealing time capsule it was going to be.<br /><br />Ken, you are so right! It is simply astonishing how few masterpieces are in this collection of "masterpieces". These were a significant cross-section of the big names at the time. What important composers are missing? Messiaen, certainly. But who else? Stravinsky was certainly a master, but I don't think Agon is a masterpiece. Even though I am not a big Ives fan, I suppose that the Concord Sonata is a masterpiece. What else? Zyklus, perhaps? Maayyybbeee Le marteau sans maître, though not in my book. The rest? NOT!<br /><br />What this collection demonstrates is the poverty of high modernism.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-41662153097763049052015-09-15T08:19:19.057-05:002015-09-15T08:19:19.057-05:00What a collection of curiosities! and some of them...What a collection of curiosities! and some of them musical.Marc in Eugenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04331547981498637474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-26709123260574909612015-09-15T07:32:24.066-05:002015-09-15T07:32:24.066-05:00It has often been pointed out that for all the wor...It has often been pointed out that for all the works a generation creates, only a few will be considered classics 50 years later. However, it is unfortunate for my father's generation of composers that his generation (he was a cop, not a composer, so he's off the hook) composed the least number of classics of any age since the mid 18th century.<br /><br />As for extended technique, is that what a composer does when (s)he runs out of ideas? Was it Bartalozzi who wrote that book on extended flute technique with all the chord charts that the flutists I knew could never actually play? I've never heard a Bach chorale played on a solo flute (not sure I want to!).<br /><br />Annea Lockwood - now there's a fun one. Burning pianos, buried pianos, and Annea in a studio plugged into a Moog synthesizer having an orgasm (really - it's on the web, I can find it for anyone who's interested) - perhaps that's a Moogasm?Ken F.https://www.blogger.com/profile/08296737421194767997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-34537464730031704052015-09-15T07:05:00.392-05:002015-09-15T07:05:00.392-05:00Exaggerate? Moi?Exaggerate? Moi?Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-29621539220933251332015-09-14T16:20:56.024-05:002015-09-14T16:20:56.024-05:00Ha. No. (Well, yes, actually, because I started as...Ha. No. (Well, yes, actually, because I started as many of them the YT videos as I could and had them all going at once.)<br /><br />Haven't listened to Xenakis or Partch but probably will at some point because they seem to be chief exemplars of 'wayward looniness'. <br /><br />But the poor Milton Babbitts and Haubenstock-Ramatis and Oliveroses... I wonder if at the end of their careers they looked back with any regrets. <br /><br />A work I do like is Michael Gordon's Decasia. Discovered just now that his music is considered to be 'post-minimalist' and 'totalist'. Hmm-- Decasia <i>is</i> very minimalist in the sense that there's an awful lot of repetition but there are topographical variations, inclines, and a summit or two. <br /><br />And that he is one of the Bang on a Can people. "Among Bang on a Can's early events were performances by John Cage, premieres of Glenn Branca’s epic symphonies for massed electric guitars, and fully staged operas by Harry Partch, featuring the composer's original instruments." Ha, ha. Massed electric guitars, epic! And here I suspected you were exaggerating Harry Partch's nonsense....Marc in Eugenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04331547981498637474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-84760691677050723312015-09-14T08:34:08.488-05:002015-09-14T08:34:08.488-05:00Exactly!
and welcome to the Music Salon, John.Exactly!<br /><br />and welcome to the Music Salon, John.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-64357726437116344562015-09-14T04:27:21.491-05:002015-09-14T04:27:21.491-05:00So, were you entertained?
Short Answer: No
The p...So, were you entertained?<br /><br />Short Answer: No<br /><br />The passage of time certainly gives a perspective of QUALITY in music & elsewhere.<br /><br />JohnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com