# Looking for Suggestions for Late 20th Century Cacophony



## zurls (Mar 25, 2019)

I am working on sections of music that will run in the background of a play - mostly mid-to-late 20th century composers (Penerecki, Xenakis, Scelsi) but there is a specific something I am having a hard time finding. It is musical cacophony, utterly alien chaos. While I can find pieces that are exactly what I need, it also needs to be sustained (in the script the section is 1 minute 40 seconds, and while I can potentially double the music, it would still need to be at least 1 minute of chaos). Threnody for Hiroshima has great sections, but no part is remotely long enough. Same with Ligetti's Requiem, any number of Stockhausen pieces. I was hoping the brain trust here could start lobbing suggestions my way. Thanks in advance.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)




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## Iota (Jun 20, 2018)

You could try about 4.45' into Xenakis' Jonchaies here e.g -


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## Kilgore Trout (Feb 26, 2014)

By Xenakis, you can also try "Erikhthon". The last 1'30 are pretty much a big cacophony.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Parts of Lutosławski’s Jeux vénitiens may fit the bill. Also the second half of Ives’ Central Park in the Dark.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

The Miraculous Mandarin has some fairly cacophonous parts but I think you are looking for something more contemporary? How about _*Nono*_? His "Como Una Ola De Fuerza Y Luz" is a wonderful piece and ends up in quite a noisy place. Or _*Lachenmann*_? Many of his pieces have quite noisy parts. Or _*Birtwistle's *_Panic lives up to its name. Or _*Murail *_- for example, Désintegrations.

There is a lot of _*Xenakis *_that fits your description - like Jonchaies or maybe Pléiades (not so noisy but fairly alien!) - and quite a lot of _*Finnissy *_ (such as Mars + Venus). Or you could explore the earlier works of _*Erkki-Sven Tüür*_ - parts of his Requiem belong in a similar world to Ligeti's Requiem and works like Crystallisatio might also give you what you want.

The difficulty might be finding a piece that stays in the same noisy and disorienting vein for long enough for your purposes. Is 5 minutes OK? The last movement of _*Lutoslawski's *_Cello Concerto is fairly full-on.


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