A Couple of YouTube Playlists

A couple of YouTube playlists worth mentioning, both from 'Iamnogaucha.'

Playlist: Contemporary Classical Music I
Description: Here are some fine performances for your pleasure. I have included several late 19th century works that influenced subsequent musical developments. Composers are organized alphabetically by last name. Individual works are arranged in like manner. Duplicated works are organized by performer(s). This playlist will be updated and expanded from time to time. Enjoy. All credit goes to the original posters of these videos. Thanx.

Playlist: Contemporary Classical Music II
Description: Here are some composer interviews and documentaries for your pleasure. This playlist will be updated and expanded from time to time. Enjoy. All credit goes to the original posters of these videos. Thanx.

Some (of my) highlights from playlist one...

Charles Ives (Quarter-Tone pieces)
Pablo Sáinz Villegas - 1 Sequenza XI - Berio (Classical Guitar)
Messiaen - Oiseaux Exotiques - Robertson, Huebner, part 1
Varèse - Ionisation - Boulez, Ensemble InterContemporain
Eonta (part 1 of 3) [1963 - 64] by Iannis Xenakis [1922-01]

From playlist two..

A documentary on Berio from the NY Phil`s YouTube channel, here is part 1.

Don`t forget that these clips can be taken down/removed without warning, if you want to keep any of them try downloading them to your PC with a free service like Vixy.net

Quote Of The Day (31/03/08)

'He treats dissonance as a tonal language, complete and satisfying in itself, owing no allegiance, or even lip-service to consonance, either at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the work. It is amazing how far we can already go with him, how strangely beautiful and moving much of this music is, that, judged by the eye alone, is mere jumble of discordant parts. But it is frankly impossible for the most advanced musician to see a coherent idea running through a great deal of this music. I do not say the coherent idea is not there, but simply that at present its coherence and its veracity are not always evident. Time alone can show whether it is our harmonic sense that thinks too slowly, or Schoenberg`s harmonic sense that thinks a little too rapidly for the rest of the world.'

Earnest Newman; 'A Review [of Schoenberg`s Five Orchestral Pieces], 1914' : Birmingham Daily Post.

printed in the Dover Miniature Score of Five Orchestral Pieces.

Quote Of The Day (30/03/08)

'Shallow ideas can be assimilated; ideas that require people to reorganise their picture of the world provoke hostility. A physicist at the Georgia Institute of Technology started quoting Tolstoy: "I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread into the fabric of their lives.'

From 'Chaos: Making A New Science' by James Gleick.

Bulgarian Music Documentary

Ever found yourself listening to Bulgarian folk music and thinking 'Hmm, I would like to know more about this, I wonder if there are any English language documentaries available?', well, I know I have.

Thanks to the interweb this desire for more information can now be satisfied on demand, here is a British made documentary about Bulgarian music, part of a series entitled 'Rhythms of the World'.

Includes the Bulgarian supergroup, Trio Bulgarka.

Quote Of The Day (29/03/08)

'..Painting in those days was something to be talked about; at any rate, aesthetics, philosophy, reflection, taste - and politics, as I recall - felt they had a right to say something about the matter, and they applied themselves to it as if it were a duty: Piero della Francesca, Venice, Cezanne, or Braque. Silence protected music, however, preserving its insolence.'

Michel Foucault: 'Pierre Boulez, passing through the screen'; Aesthetics Vol 2, Essential works of Foucault 1954-1984.

The Pierre Boulez Project

Yes, it`s here, generously put together by someone called Josh Ronsen.

Piece Of The Week (beg:24/03/08)

Anton Webern: Symphony Op21.

I wont go on about this as the piece has been analysed and discussed a great deal by people far more qualified than me.

I will say that it is one of my favourite pieces of music. Before I got the score and started looking at the piece properly I didn`t realise that the first movement contained repeats, I thought I was hearing the row come round again (which is true, but I didn`t think it was a literal repeat, interesting effect, at least for me).

The way the pitches revolve and pass between instruments is engaging, and peaceful (in the first movement at least), it has something of the kaleidoscope about it. While it may lend itself to formal analysis it is also, more importantly, a beautiful piece of music.

The version I have is performed by the LSO, conducted by Boulez, from this boxed set.