# Remembering John Tavener



## timothyjuddviolin (Nov 1, 2011)

A couple of amazing choral pieces by the late English composer John Tavener. Listen to the way he layers the voices on top of each other:

Remembering John Tavener


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

What sad news! Thank you for posting this.


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## Dedalus (Jun 27, 2014)

Heard a piece by him today at work. I thought it was neat. I believe it was called "eternal memory with great peace and serenity" according to shazaam. I just find it interesting to hear these more or less contemporary classical pieces on the radio. Always late at night of course, and the moonlight Sonata directly preceded it, which I found to be an interesting pivot.

Anyway, I wonder what others think of John Tavener.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

I've always admired him since I first heard him but at the same time his music is still something which I haven't quite grasped but which I'm searching for. It's not always easy listening and I'm not always in the mood for it.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

As I remarked in some other thread recently, Tavener's _The Protecting Veil_ (new at the time) was one of the first pieces of contemporary classical music I heard, which in hindsight was a great gift because it planted the notion that new music could be enjoyable despite an extensive amount of subsequent evidence to the contrary!


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## Hildadam Bingor (May 7, 2016)

timothyjuddviolin said:


> Listen to the way he layers the voices on top of each other:


I wonder if anybody ever thought of doing that before.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I'm into sacred music and appreciate what is called holy minimalism, but somehow his music never clicked with me.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

He's never held my attention for long. I'm not sure whether his ethereal sounds are holy minimalism or minimal holiness, but somehow they go well with the publicity photos of him looking like something between Yogananda and the Church Lady. I find his music thin gruel.

P.S. When Boulez died and I said some unflattering things about him I got beat up. But I know Tavenerites are obligated to be non-violent and forgiving. :angel:


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> P.S. When Boulez died and I said some unflattering things about him I got beat up. But I know Tavenerites are obligated to be non-violent and forgiving. :angel:


Yeah, you were mean to Arvo Pärt the other day too, and you went unsavaged. My own complaint then about "attacks on contemporary music" was really a tongue-in-cheek observation of the apparent fact that it's only wrong to hate contemporary music if it's _the right kind of contemporary music_.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Nereffid said:


> Yeah, you were mean to Arvo Pärt the other day too, and you went unsavaged. My own complaint then about "attacks on contemporary music" was really a tongue-in-cheek observation of the apparent fact that it's only wrong to hate contemporary music if it's _the right kind of contemporary music_.


Yes, because clearly there are no relevant differences in reacting to someone expressing dislike for a composer's music as opposed to reacting to someone attacking a composer's *person* less than two days after his death as well as the admirers of that composer for mourning him.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

I don't really get this idea that a person should be immune to criticism for a while after his death....


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Dim7 said:


> I don't really get this idea that a person should be immune to criticism for a while after his death....


But it wasn't so much any new criticism so much as using the death and the ensuing reaction as a springboard for rehashing the same old nonsense and gleefully poking at those who actually cared.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Mahlerian said:


> Yes, because clearly there are no relevant differences in reacting to someone expressing dislike for a composer's music as opposed to reacting to someone attacking a composer's *person* less than two days after his death as well as the admirers of that composer for mourning him.


Well, if you want to focus on one specific incident, go ahead, but that's not what I was talking about.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Nereffid said:


> Well, if you want to focus on one specific incident, go ahead, but that's not what I was talking about.


Then what was the connection between the post you wrote and the post you quoted?


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Mahlerian said:


> Then what was the connection between the post you wrote and the post you quoted?


The connection was the "attacks" (my joking reference) on Arvo Pärt. Woodduck's reference to Boulez _and more relevantly Tavener_, was a jumping-off point for my comment, which was (a) a specific reference, aimed at Woodduck, to something Woodduck said about Pärt (not Boulez), and (b) a general comment, aimed at the ether, on reactions on TC to "attacks" on contemporary music. I didn't say anything at all about Woodduck's comments about Boulez.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Nereffid said:


> The connection was the "attacks" (my joking reference) on Arvo Pärt. Woodduck's reference to Boulez _and more relevantly Tavener_, was a jumping-off point for my comment, which was (a) a specific reference, aimed at Woodduck, to something Woodduck said about Pärt (not Boulez), and (b) a general comment, aimed at the ether, on reactions on TC to "attacks" on contemporary music. I didn't say anything at all about Woodduck's comments about Boulez.


So in actuality it has nothing to do with the question of whether or not people will take down others for their "attacks" on Boulez's music? Because I don't usually see many people reacting all that strongly to attacks on any contemporary music, unless they leave the realm of opinion for factual error. Perhaps his music isn't the "right kind" either.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

John Tavener - Eternity's Sunrise

This is very nice.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Mahlerian said:


> So in actuality it has nothing to do with the question of whether or not people will take down others for their "attacks" on Boulez's music? Because I don't usually see many people reacting all that strongly to attacks on any contemporary music, unless they leave the realm of opinion for factual error. Perhaps his music isn't the "right kind" either.


Excuse me for butting in, but since you are referring to my comments on Boulez, wouldn't it be proper to say so, rather than sneak personal grudges into the discussion in the form of veiled references and generalities? Maybe that's a problem with the rules here: we can get away with "chiding" etc. if we just avoid mentioning names.

I happen not to agree that criticism of an artist's (or any public figure's) work, statements, attitudes and actions are inappropriate soon after his death. The thread in question was "Is Boulez a great composer?" I happen to think he's an overrated composer, an uneven conductor, and a prime spokesman for modernist fallacies and pretensions, and in response to the thread I said so. But regardless of whether you found my comments on him agreeable, or my timing appropriate, I don't see in what way your continuing to harp on it serves any purpose here. My own reference was merely to set up a joke about the presumed responses of pious folk to a criticism of Tavener.

I was just hoping for a chuckle. A comic hates to have to explain his jokes.


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