dbratman
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response 84 of 88:
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Mar 16 18:50 UTC 2001 |
keesan: Limiting your question to composers writing currently (though
not necessarily to their work of the last ten years: I don't always
keep that au courant), I would endorse md's suggestion of Adams
(probably the greatest living American composer), Maxwell Davies
(possibly the greatest living British one - when looking for his stuff,
be aware that he's filed under both M and D in different places), and
Corigliano. Not so sure about Rorem, but I haven't heard any of his
post-1970 work. And to them I would add the Michael Gang, consisting
of the two living American composers I consider the most fun - Michael
Torke and Michael Daugherty - and the unpredictable Brit Michael Nyman.
However, be warned: first, none of these composers are really great
tunesmiths, and some of them are not really melody-oriented at all
(Maxwell Davies, Corigliano, and Nyman are the most melodic). Adams,
for instance, writes soundscape music. When I heard his Harmonielehre
live, I felt enveloped by the overtones, something I've never been able
to feel in a recording, burdened by a mere mortal stereo system.
Second, many of them run the gamut in style. Maxwell Davies and
Corigliano, in particular, have written very harsh and difficult music
as well as the more "enjoyable" stuff. Avoid their symphonies! For
Maxwell Davies, I'd most recommend a CD titled "In Celebration of
Scotland" (from Unicorn, but I haven't checked to see if it's still in
print).
I agree with md's explanation of program music. Some works, like
Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice and Richard Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel,
don't even make sense musically if you don't know the program (though
Strauss would be very hurt to be told that). Program music is music
that _tells_ a story in music alone, not music that _accompanies_ a
story also told in words or pictures. Thus the St Matthew Passion is
no more program music than an opera or ballet is.
Re "cartoon music", that's an ex post facto term applied to the kind of
older music that got borrowed for early cartoons. (Besides "cartoon
music" there is also "monster movie music", a term often applied to
Bartok. The music the puppets danced to at the start of "Being John
Malkovich" - that was Bartok.) Three pieces of classical music I first
heard in cartoons, and which would probably be recognized by lots of
people who have no idea what they are, are Mendelssohn's Spring Song
[to underscore giddy drunken happiness], Chopin's Funeral March [to
underscore impending Doom], and the pastoral theme (not the Lone Ranger
galop) from Rossini's William Tell Overture [to underscore a peaceful
country scene]. All early 19C, interestingly enough.
md: Before I try to recommend any Glass, you'd better tell me what you
think the boundary between his minimalist and post-minimalist works
are. This has been a subject of much terminological confusion. Glass
himself defines minimalism as what he ceased writing about 1975, when
he let more traditional concepts of harmony and melody into what had
previously been highly austere music. By this definition, Music in 12
Parts, say, is minimalist, and Einstein on the Beach is on the cusp,
but everything since then is post-minimalist. Both Satyagraha and
Akhnaten contain passages of great beauty by traditional operatic
standards, whatever may be said of them as wholes.
I didn't say that complexity was an issue for you, but for Glass's
critics. Thus, when they say his non-minimalist music fails, it's
because they're judging it by inappropriate standards. Some of which
may be Glass's fault: when he writes a work he calls a symphony, that
sets up expectations which Glass does not meet - but neither do half
the 20C works called symphonies, including several of Shostakovich's,
so it's not just Glass's failure. I am a Glass fan who does consider
many of his recent works to be unsuccessful, but the critics apply
their comments to the entire range of his works, so they're using
different standards from mine. Also, many (not all!) of the criticisms
of Glass are for doing things not remotely unique to him, and which
much-loved composers have done. When Schubert's Great C Major Symphony
was first discovered, its backers had a terrible time getting it
performed. "Violinists won't stand for playing the same figuration for
90 bars in a row," they were told. Sound familiar? Of course there
was a tune (in other instruments) on top of that figure, but there is
in post-minimalist Glass too.
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dbratman
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response 86 of 88:
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Mar 18 07:27 UTC 2001 |
md: I haven't heard Glass's 5th Symphony yet, but I have all the other
four. I consider them all fine works, but not his best. I'd certainly
not suggest this apparently premium package to a person very unsure of
whether he'd like it.
If you're disinclined to tell me what works by Glass you've heard and
disliked, I'll tentatively suggest two albums: "Songs from the
Trilogy", a selection of vocal highlights from the three
operas "Einstein on the Beach", "Akhnaten", and "Satyagraha"; and a new
Glass album in Naxos's American Classics series. Tower (at least)
shelves their Naxos albums separately from all others. This contains
the finest performance on record that I know of his Violin Concerto, a
good rendition of the string orchestra work Company, and two rather
badly selected and rendered orchestral excerpts from Akhnaten.
Which album you should go for depends on your tastes of vocal vs.
orchestral music, and also your budget: Naxos is cheap.
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