# How to DEEPLY UNDERSTAND a composer's music (a parody!)



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

You might think its owning all their works on recordings. You might think its reading about them or watching documentaries about their lives and music. You might even think its going to the house they lived, or their museum or 'shrine.' Or do a seance and raise one's spirits. Or even just meeting a living composer.

Well if you answered those, you are WRONG!

This is the only way to DEEPLY UNDERSTAND the psyche (or psychobabble? psychobiography?) behind a composer's masterpieces. Or to build cults (which yours truly loves doing, absolutely!). That was sarcasm btw. I am guilty of that as well as being extremely biased.

To understand Beethoven fully you need to be deaf.

To understand Liszt fully you need to prove you shagged at least two dozen women in your whole life (that's one a week...or something...go on, you do that maths!).

To understand Mussorgsky fully you need to be an alcoholic (and maybe even die of cirrhosis of the liver).

To understand Delius fully you need to be blind.

To understand Tchaikovsky, Britten and (most likely) Handel fully you need to be homosexual.

...come and give your own examples. There's plenty where that came from.

But you can only give them if you are these things yourself... and thus have FULL EMPATHY with a composer's life...thats just SOOOO DEEP...well not really, but anyway. . .


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## Toddlertoddy (Sep 17, 2011)

To understand Berlioz, you must be an opium addict
To understand Shostakovich, you must have polio/OCD or be oppressed by a government
To understand Stravinsky, you must be stingy/an alcoholic
To understand Schumann, you must be socially awkward (to say the least).


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

To understand Bach, one has to be a Protestant. To understand Richard Wagner, one has to be anti-semitic. To understand Rossini, one has to be passionate about food. To understand Bruckner, one has to be a necrophilia (not sure how to spell that word properly). To understand Cage, one has to be what - a looneey?!

Handel's sexual orientation is open to question. I have read and discussed this before (not here) and is an interesting topic. There is no conclusive evidence that he was homosexual nor heterosexual. Maybe he was a Baroque metrosexual.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

To understand Mozart you need to be a scatologist (someone had to mention it... :lol 
To understand Vivaldi, I'm not sure, run a girls' school, maybe? (Shock horrors) 
To understand Bach you need to be God.


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

So I guess you all just found out something about me!


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

To understand Zappa or Ives, you need to be a badass.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> To understand Cage, one has to be what - a looneey?!


No. One has to be a Buddhist. Or gay. It pays to actually know something about the person you're making a joke about X3


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

To understand Palestrina, well you really should have been there.

To understand Tartini is best with a martini.

To understand Pavel Haas you have to know what Pavel Doos.

To understand Schubert's symphony in B minor you need

You won't understand the whole of Arvo Pärt‎.

Are you man enough to understand Rachmaninov?

Whether you can understand John Cage is undetermined.

To understand Philip Glass you should reread this.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

To understand Wagner, you must have good taste in music.


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## Toddlertoddy (Sep 17, 2011)

radical.


be a



must





you




,





Webern understand 




To....


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> ... To understand Rossini, one has to be passionate about food.....


If I was at his place, I'd rather he cook for me rather than talk music or play piano or something. But of course I don't think it takes much for an Italian to throw a dish together. Its as natural to them as...singing _O sole mio_? Something like that.



MaestroViolinist said:


> ...
> To understand Vivaldi, I'm not sure, run a girls' school, maybe? (Shock horrors)
> ....


& also be a priest but live in the same house as two young women and get the Venetian tongues wagging in full force? Now that might be just as virtuoso as his concertos. Its like 
"Hey Giovanni, you know what that Red Priest is doing?"
"Dunno, what?"
"Giving...ahem... full-time lessons to two young live-in female students."

Maybe the Italians are the greatest cooks...and the greatest lovers.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> To understand Mozart you need to be a scatologist (someone had to mention it... :lol


No wonder I love Mozart's music.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

To understand Xenakis, you need ears of steel.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Lisztian said:


> So I guess you all just found out something about me!


Yeah and its all to 'your' advantage:
- shagadelic
- a bit of gypsy blood (they say all Hungarians have a bit of that, but don't let that spoil it)
- a bit of the devil in his music (eg. 'Totentanz,' 'Mephisto Waltz,' that movement of the 'Faust Symphony')

That's 3 things and they all make him look so very SEXY...


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

To understand Schobert's music you must first go find some mushrooms.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Toddlertoddy said:


> radical.
> 
> be a
> 
> ...


Looks like someone got the point-ilism X3


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Some 'mundane' and 'common' ones (eg. doable by all of us 'mere mortals' with 'ordinary' lives)

- To understand Mendelssohn, you need to be a workaholic
- To understand Brahms, you need to brew your own coffee each morning (but it has to be a strong black!)
- To understand Wagner, you need to constantly be in debt
- To understand Vaughan Williams, you've got to love cats:


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## Guest (Sep 19, 2012)

To ToTo ToToTo To ToTo ToToTo 
ToTo
ToToTo
To
ToTo
ToToTo
To
ToTo
ToToTo
UnderUnderUnderUnderUnderUnderUnderUnderUnderUnderUnderUnderUnderUnderUnder

(Steve Reich)


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

Music is music. Music must be understood musically. Understanding is not the same thing as appreciation. Understanding and appreciation go hand in hand, but are not inextricably bound. Understanding is not the same as origination. Music can only be understood in terms of other pieces of music musically. The association of music and emotions is not understanding, it is usage. I know which songs to produce which emotions in which people which time, but it has nothing to do with understanding music but it is merely a sophisticated mug's game.


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

To understand a genius composer you must be a genius?


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Ramako said:


> To understand a genius composer you must be a genius?


My IQ (125-130) is a bit higher than Joseph Haydn, that's why I understand his works perfectly


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

To understand Mozart you don't need to have any special attribute.
To understand Bartok, you must be a little angry.
To understand Sibelius you must be not from West Europe.
To understand Bruckner you have to be a patient monk.


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

Arsakes said:


> My IQ (125-130) is a bit higher than Joseph Haydn, that's why I understand his works perfectly


Ah yes, the application of a questionable scientific system to a person dead 200 years  :lol:

I expect great things from you Arsakes!


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> To understand Bruckner, one has to be a necrophilia


Say what?!?! This is a new one to me. :O


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## hocket (Feb 21, 2010)

BurningDesire said:


> To understand Zappa or Ives, you need to be a badass.


Nah, Lou Reed's a badass, Zappa's a ponce.















See?

Do you have have had electro-shock treatment, been addicted to heroin, been gay for a bit, be obsessed with macro-biotic diets and suffer extreme paranoia resulting in aggressively defensive behaviour to understand The Velvet Underground?

Let's hope not. Did it occur to you that this could have a fairy unpleasant overlap with your Yuck Factor thread Sid?


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

If you want to understand Sibelius you have to smoke cigars, like he did.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

To understand Glass, you need to keep repeating yourself, yourself.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

TO understand Mozart you have to be into Scatology.
( sorry i didn't notice MV's post)


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

To understand Salieri, you have to be a hipster and make the false assumption that he is better than Mozart.


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

Couchie said:


> To understand Wagner, you must have good taste in music.


NO, you have to hate jews :lol:


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

MaestroViolinist said:


> To understand Mozart you need to be a scatologist (someone had to mention it... :lol
> To understand Vivaldi, I'm not sure, run a girls' school, maybe? (Shock horrors)
> To understand Bach you need to be God.





Sid James said:


> Some 'mundane' and 'common' ones (eg. doable by all of us 'mere mortals' with 'ordinary' lives)
> 
> - To understand Mendelssohn, you need to be a workaholic
> - To understand Brahms, you need to brew your own coffee each morning (but it has to be a strong black!)
> ...


Ahh, ALMOST understand Brahms. I brew my own strong coffee in the morning, but I like to add cream and sugar. I prefer that to ordering cofee elsewhere, cheaper and I get precisely what I want.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

To understand Ives' music, you must invent new life insurance plans.


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

In order to understand Gesualdo you need to have murdered your wife...?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Hoping the OP is all just a joke and that it is only because I am missing a humor cell about the type of humor it is which leads me to think all the other entries following along its drift are insane.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

PetrB said:


> Hoping the OP is all just a joke and that it is only because I am missing a humor cell about the type of humor it is which leads me to think all the other entries following along its drift are insane.


Well you know, "parody" is in the title.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

To understand Tekla Badarczewska you have to be a young woman.

To understand Bjork you need to actually listen to her music and not just go off of stupid, uninformed stereotypes of her and her work. (that one is serious)


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Crudblud said:


> Well you know, "parody" is in the title.


But maybe its a double bluff parody! A parody of parodies that parodies by being totally genuine! GENIUS!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Let's see. To understand Rosenmuller and Gombert you have to love - wait, that involves young boys. I'll start over. To understand Machaut, you have to be an old man attracted to a teenage girl - wait; that's yucky also. Never mind.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

BurningDesire said:


> But maybe its a double bluff parody! A parody of parodies that parodies by being totally genuine! GENIUS!


Okay, now I can't tell who's parodying who.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

To understand the work of Ned Rorem, you need to have at least slept with every major American composer/musician in your day.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

To understand George Antheil, you have to hang around female movie stars and talk about endocrinology.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

To understand Milton Babbitt , you need to have an IQ of at least 180 and to be a member of MENSA .
Ditto Elliott Carter .

To undrestand Schoenberg, you need to have Triskaidecaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th ).


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

hocket said:


> ...
> Let's hope not. Did it occur to you that this could have a fairy unpleasant overlap with your Yuck Factor thread Sid?


Well I'm an enthusiast of composer's biographies, but this is a light hearted thread and I like it how people have done their own things. It doesn't have to be about biography/personality etc. of a composer.



violadude said:


> To understand Xenakis, you need ears of steel.


To understand Harry Partch, you need ten sets of ears (or ten heads) to fully take in those complex layers of his music.



Crudblud said:


> Well you know, "parody" is in the title.


Well a parody of myself, re my 'focus' in music a lot of the times. Similar as to what I said to hocket. I want to steer clear of more 'distressing' or controversial things - eg. what was on the 'yuck factor' thread. A bit hard to do that sometimes though.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

TO understand Beethoven you must be a republican


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

To understand Medtner you need to steal your brother's wife and be coddled by her for the rest of your life. You also need to write elaborate prose on the abomination that is modern music, and be an absolute craftsmen who only other composers, pianists, and highly prolific classical music fans can appreciate. Then you can be a *Medtnerd*. I should change my user name one of these days...


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

jani said:


> TO understand Beethoven you must be a republican


Wuuuut o3o Beethoven was a liberal


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

BurningDesire said:


> Wuuuut o3o Beethoven was a liberal


Republicans back then were the group that was opposed to the Aristocracy. So you're both right.


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

violadude said:


> Republicans back then were the group that was opposed to the Aristocracy. So you're both right.


How times have changed, eh? I would suggest a distinction between republican and Republican. Looking into the history of the Republican party, they weren't even founded until 1854, long after the national rejection of a monarchy. They were also founded specifically to oppose slavery. This is, to me, very ironic!

EDIT: Even more confusing is the fact that the Democratic party used to be called the Democratic Republican Party and usually just referred to as Republicans!


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

To understand Bruckner, you need to be able to construct musical boa-constrictors (Hanslick's joke).

To understand Tchaikovsky, you need to be able to compose 'music that stinks in the ear' (another golden one by Hanslick).

To understand Carl Orff, you need to be able to compose music that sounds as if its been written by a cave-man (Stravinsky's quip at Carl - bet he wasn't laughing). . .

& to understand classical music, you need to be a no good son of a b**** critical and insensitive a***hole. . .*

*Still being 'whimsical,' I am not angry or venting (this time!).


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

To truly understand both Brahms and Wagner, you need to have the 'qualities' of the Antichrist(aka, Schoenberg).


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

To understand Schubert, you must have a stocky build, 5'1 in height, myopic and infected with syphilis..You must be bad in managing money, too.


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

To understand Ives, you have to hate women and be deeply insecure with your masculinity.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

To understand Scriabin you have to.....well...no wait, no there's no understanding Scriabin  unless you want to fry your brain with drugs and proclaim you and your music to be magical.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)




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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

trazom said:


> To understand Ives, you have to hate women and be deeply insecure with your masculinity.


Wait what? Ives was sexist? D:


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Couchie said:


>


?????????????????


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

violadude said:


> unless you want to fry your brain with drugs and proclaim you and your music to be magical.


Though I think a lot of people did that in the 60s and 70s and still do today, and I doubt they deeply understand Scriabin or remotely approach the glory that is Scriabin.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> Though I think a lot of people did that in the 60s and 70s and still do today, and I doubt they deeply understand Scriabin or remotely approach the glory that is Scriabin.


I'm sure he's not the first or the last person who's brain was fried to think "Ya know what would be awesome....if the world just had like...one final multi-artistic orgasm and...then just....went away....woah man..."


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Some ABSOLUTIST ones - - ->

To understand Vivaldi, you need to listen to ALL his 300 concertos (or however many he did).

To understand Satie, you need to be a pianist at a cabaret AND listen to THE WHOLE of _Vexations_ (up to 22 hours. . .far out).

To understand Sorabji, you should never set eyes on a television until you are into your eighties (which was apparently his experience), and listen to ALL his music (even though it hasn't been all recorded and performances are rare).

To understand J. P. Sousa, you need to listen to ALL his marches AND watch ALL episodes of_ Monty Python's Flying Circus_ which had_ The LIberty Bell March _as its theme song.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

violadude said:


> I'm sure he's not the first or the last person who's brain was fried to think "Ya know what would be awesome....if the world just had like...one final multi-artistic orgasm and...then just....went away....woah man..."


But as far as I know, he was the greatest of all those in terms of his compositional craftsmanship.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> But as far as I know, he was the greatest of all those in terms of his compositional craftsmanship.


True, I'm not sure any of the other ones had compositional craftsmanship.


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

To understand Messiaen, you must be a bird.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

To understand how to parody you must first write an overly long sentence with no punctuation several times altering for context where applicable and generally using really blocky language that doesn't work good and stuff and makes you sound like a five year old and then just keep going with it which is the thing that you are doing and that is what this is.

To understand how to parody you must first write an overly long sentence with no punctuation several times altering for context where applicable and generally using really blocky language that doesn't work good and stuff and makes you sound like a five year old and then just keep going with it which is the thing that you are doing and that is what this is.

To understand how to parody you must first write an overly long sentence with no punctuation several times altering for context where applicable and generally using really blocky language that doesn't work good and stuff and makes you sound like a five year old and then just keep going with it which is the thing that you are doing and that is what this is.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

Must have not been applicable


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Crudblud said:


> To understand how to parody you must first write an overly long sentence with no punctuation several times altering for context where applicable and generally using really blocky language that doesn't work good and stuff and makes you sound like a five year old and then just keep going with it which is the thing that you are doing and that is what this is....


You found me out! :lol:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

To understand Cazazza Dan you must become a member of an Internet forum called Talk Classical under the name of Crudblud. Lucky thing I know his password.


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## ErinD (Sep 20, 2012)

To understand Steve Reich, you have to be a marimba.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

To understand most Russians 
1) you must be an alcoholic 
2) slightly debauched, but that varies 
3) have at least one of the following quirky features:
- High anxiety and other undiagnosed mental disorder(s) (Arensky)
- Be a mystic (Scriabin)
- Be a Christian Scientist (Prokofiev) 
- Be chronically depressed (i.e. all the alcoholic Russians)
- Be hypnotized (Rachmaninoff)
- Have ADD (Liadov)
- Have pet fish (Glazunov)
- Be a chain smoker (Shostakovich)


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

If you're not a birder, Messiaen is out of the question.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

To understand Penderecki, you need to go to a bar with a tuba player, get drunk and write a capriccio for solo tuba on a bunch of napkins before waking up the next morning with a hangover.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> To understand Penderecki, you need to go to a bar with a tuba player, get drunk and write a capriccio for solo tuba on a bunch of napkins before waking up the next morning with a hangover.


That Capriccio is actually pretty good, although I've only heard it played on bass trombone.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Crudblud said:


> That Capriccio is actually pretty good, although I've only heard it played on bass trombone.


One of my friends at school played it on the tuba for me. It is awesome!


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

CarterJohnsonPiano said:


> To understand Messiaen, you must be a bird.


I am a bird! I spend 2-3 hours everyday perfecting my bird-call capabilities.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> One of my friends at school played it on the tuba for me. It is awesome!


Might actually be my favourite Penderecki work, I got bored with much of his other stuff really quickly.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Vaneyes said:


> If you're not a birder, Messiaen is out of the question.


You CANNOT use 'birder.' How lowbrow. You have to use the correct terminiology: _Ornithologist_.

& you have to listen to Charlie Parker's Ornithology to understand Messiaen. I don't have a clue how they're linked, BUT THIS IS COMPULSORY.

Semantics is VERY important on this forum, dontcha know? . . .


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

To understand John Cage you must be a "mushroomer" to use a lowbrow term.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

LSD might help as well.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> To understand John Cage you must be a "mushroomer" to use a lowbrow term.


MYCOLOGIST!

You can diss Mr. Cage's 4'33" all you like, but you CANNOT USE INCORRECT TERMININOLOGY TO DESCRIBE HIS OTHER MAIN (non musical!) PASSION. Now that is absolute heresy. & you call yourself avant-garde! Well to do that you have to use the correct words. Knowing all the varieties of fungus is also highly desirable to be called a 'ultra' Cage fan. Read that wikipedia article as a start then get back to me next week. I will make you sit a test on mycology.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I don't have time to sit the test later today, so here are my answers in advance:

Mushrooms are a kind of fungal reproductive structure
Mycology (from the Greek μύκης, mukēs, meaning "fungus") is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans as a source for tinder, medicinals (e.g., penicillin), food (e.g., beer, wine, cheese, edible mushrooms) and entheogens, as well as their dangers, such as poisoning or infection.
From mycology arose the field of phytopathology, the study of plant diseases, and the two disciplines remain closely related because the vast majority of "plant" pathogens are fungi. A biologist who studies mycology is called a mycologist.
Historically, mycology was a branch of botany because, although fungi are evolutionarily more closely related to animals than to plants, this was not recognized until a few decades ago. Pioneer mycologists included Elias Magnus Fries, Christian Hendrik Persoon, Anton de Bary and Lewis David von Schweinitz.
Many fungi produce toxins, antibiotics and other secondary metabolites. For example the cosmopolitan (worldwide) genus Fusarium and their toxins associated with fatal outbreaks of alimentary toxic aleukia in humans were extensively studied by Abraham Joffe.
Fungi are fundamental for life on earth in their roles as symbionts, e.g. in the form of mycorrhizae, insect symbionts and lichens. Many fungi are able to break down complex organic biomolecules such as lignin, the more durable component of wood, and pollutants such as xenobiotics, petroleum, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. By decomposing these molecules, fungi play a critical role in the global carbon cycle.
Fungi and other organisms traditionally recognized as fungi, such as oomycetes and myxomycetes (slime molds), often are economically and socially important as some cause diseases of animals (such as histoplasmosis) as well as plants (such as Dutch elm disease and Rice blast).
Field meetings to find interesting species of fungi are known as 'forays', after the first such meeting organized by the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club in 1868 and entitled "a foray among the fungi."
Some fungi can cause disease in humans or other organisms. The study of pathogenic fungi is referred to as medical mycology.[1]
Contents *[hide]*
1 History
2 Medicinal mycology
3 See also
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
[edit]History

Humans probably started collecting mushrooms as food in Prehistoric times. Mushrooms were first written about in the works of Euripides (480-406 B.C.). The Greek philosopher Theophrastos of Eressos (371-288 B.C.) was perhaps the first to try to systematically classify plants; mushrooms were considered to be plants that were missing certain organs. It was later Pliny the elder (23-79 A.D.), who wrote about truffles in his encyclopedia Naturalis historia.
The Middle Ages saw little advancement in the body of knowledge about fungi. Rather, the invention of the printing press allowed some authors to disseminate superstitions and misconceptions about the fungi that had been perpetuated by the classical authors.[2]
"	Fungi and truffles are neither herbs, nor roots, nor flowers, nor seeds, but merely the superfluous moisture or earth, of trees, or rotten wood, and of other rotting things. This is plain from the fact that all fungi and truffles, especially those that are used for eating, grow most commonly in thundery and wet weather.	"
-Jerome Bock (Hieronymus Tragus), 1552[3]
The start of the modern age of mycology begins with Pier Antonio Micheli's 1737 publication of Nova plantarum genera.[4] Published in Florence, this seminal work laid the foundations for the systematic classification of grasses, mosses and fungi. The term mycology and the complementary mycologist were first used in 1836 by M.J. Berkeley.[5]
[edit]Medicinal mycology

Main article: Medicinal mushrooms
For centuries, certain mushrooms have been documented as a folk medicine in China, Japan, and Russia.[6] Although the use of mushrooms in folk medicine is largely centered on the Asian continent, people in other parts of the world like the Middle East, Poland and Belarus have been documented using mushrooms for medicinal purposes.[7][8] Certain mushrooms, especially polypores like Reishi were thought to be able to benefit a wide variety of health ailments. Medicinal mushroom research in the United States is currently active, with studies taking place at City of Hope National Medical Center,[9][10] as well as the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.[11]
Current research focuses on mushrooms that may have hypoglycemic activity, anti-cancer activity, anti-pathogenic activity, and immune system enhancing activity. Recent research has found that the oyster mushroom naturally contains the cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin,[12] mushrooms produce large amounts of vitamin D when exposed to UV light,[13] and that certain fungi may be a future source of taxol.[14] To date, penicillin, lovastatin, ciclosporin, griseofulvin, cephalosporin, ergometrine, and statins are the most famous pharmaceuticals which have been isolated from the fungi kingdom.
[edit]See also

Fungi portal
Mycotoxicology
List of mycologists
List of mycology journals
Pathogenic fungi
Fungal Biochemical Tests
Protistology
Medicinal mushrooms
Mushroom hunting
[edit]Notes

^ San-Blas G; Calderone RA (editors). (2008). Pathogenic Fungi. Caister Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-904455-32-5 .
^ Ainsworth, p. 13.
^ De stirpium maxime earum quae in Germania nostra nascuntur, usitatis nomenclaturis. Strasbourg. In Ainsworth, p. 13, quoting Buller, AHR. (1915). Micheli and the discovery of reproduction in fungi. Transactions of the royal Society of Canada, series 3 9: 1-25.
^ Ainsworth, p. 4.
^ Ainsworth, p. 2.
^ Smith JE, Rowan NJ, Sullivan R (May 2002). "Medicinal Mushrooms: Their therapeutic properties and current medical usage with special emphasis on cancer treatments". Cancer Research UK. p.*5.
^ Sarfaraz Khan Marwat, Mir Ajab Khan, Muhammad Aslam Khan, Mushtaq Ahmad, Muhammad Zafar, Fazal-ur-Rehman and Shazia Sultana (2009). "Vegetables mentioned in the Holy Qura'n and Ahadith and their ethnomedicinal studies in Dera Ismail Khan, N.W.F.P., Pakistan". Pakistan Journal of Nutrition 8 (5): 530-538. Sahih Muslim, Book 23, Chapter 27, Hadiths
^ Shashkina MIa, Shashkin PN, Sergeev AV (October 2006). "[Chemical and medicobiological properties of Chaga (review)]". Farmatsevtychnyĭ zhurnal 40 (10). doi:10.1007/s11094-006-0194-4.
^ Di Rado, Alicia (July 2008). "A salad fixin' with medical benefits?". EHope (City of Hope National Medical Center) 7 (7).
^ Di Rado, Alicia (November 2008). "Can a mushroom help fight lung cancer?". EHope (City of Hope National Medical Center) 7 (11).
^ Deng G, Lin H, Seidman A (September 2009). "A phase I/II trial of a polysaccharide extract from Grifola frondosa (Maitake mushroom) in breast cancer patients: immunological effects". Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology 135 (9): 1215-21. doi:10.1007/s00432-009-0562-z. PMID*19253021.
^ Gunde-Cimerman N, Cimerman A. (Mar 1995), "Pleurotus fruiting bodies contain the inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase-lovastatin.", Exp Mycol. 19 (1): 1-6, doi:10.1006/emyc.1995.1001, ISSN*0147-5975, PMID*7614366
^ Bowerman, Susan (March 31, 2008), "If mushrooms see the light", The Los Angeles Times
^ Ji, Y; Bi; Yan; Zhu (Jan 2006), "Taxol-producing fungi: a new approach to industrial production of taxol" (Free full text), Sheng wu gong cheng xue bao = Chinese journal of biotechnology 22 (1): 1-6, ISSN*1000-3061, PMID*16572833
[edit]References

Ainsworth, G. C. (1976). Introduction to the History of Mycology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN*0-521-21013-5.
[edit]External links

Professional organizations
BMS: British Mycological Society (United Kingdom)
MSA: Mycological Society of America (North America)
Amateur organizations
Mycological Society of San Francisco
North American Mycological Association (list of amateur organizations in North America)
Puget Sound Mycological Society
Oregon Mycological Society
Miscellaneous links
Online lectures in mycology University of South Carolina
The WWW Virtual Library: Mycology
MykoWeb links page
Mycological Glossary at the Illinois Mycological Association
FUNGI Magazine for professionals and amateurs - largest circulating U.S. publication concerning all things mycological]
Fungal Cell Biology Group at University of Edinburgh, UK.
Mycological Marvels Cornell University, Mann Library
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Branches of Biology
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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^Good, you have passed the test. Plagiarism ALWAYS works. Now you have to sit in a quiet room for 4 minutes 33 seconds and contemplate mushrooms. That's it. Excellent work. Your mark is A+.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Sid James said:


> ^^Good, you have passed the test. Plagiarism ALWAYS works. Now you have to sit in a quiet room for 4 minutes 33 seconds and contemplate mushrooms. That's it. Excellent work. Your mark is A+.


I actually performed 4'33" to an audience of about twenty-five a week and a half ago. And I did think about mushrooms in the third movement.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I actually performed 4'33" to an audience of about twenty-five a week and a half ago. And I did think about mushrooms in the third movement.


I've performed 4' 33" too! Mushrooms didn't cross my mind...


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I've performed 4' 33" too! Mushrooms didn't cross my mind...


One person's mushrooms is another person's hippo riding a bicycle across the sky in a tutu with a rainbow umbrella singing a Britney Spears song.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

violadude said:


> One person's mushrooms is another person's hippo riding a bicycle across the sky in a tutu with a rainbow umbrella singing a Britney Spears song.


And that's what I though of when performing the second movement.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^With all that - the mentions of LSD & hallucinations - your 'homework' is to listen to The Beatles' _Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. _We learnt to sing that in school. Only much later of course did I realise why there are such wierd images in the lyrics.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Sid James said:


> ^^With all that - the mentions of LSD & hallucinations - your 'homework' is to listen to The Beatles' _Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. _We learnt to sing that in school. Only much later of course did I realise why there are such wierd images in the lyrics.


When can I submit this?


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> When can I submit this?


Well, anytime you like. But you've got to (re?)listen to Ligeti's _Hungarian Rock _ as well - I don't know why. The Beatles where influenced by Stockhausen...who was a classical composer...and so was Gyorgy...so THEY ARE CONNECTED! EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED!

My theory is ROCK solid.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Sid James said:


> Well, anytime you like. But you've got to (re?)listen to Ligeti's _Hungarian Rock _ as well - I don't know why. The Beatles where influenced by Stockhausen...who was a classical composer...and so was Gyorgy...so THEY ARE CONNECTED! EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED!
> 
> My theory is ROCK solid.


It seems awfully biased towards The Beatles.


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## Carolingian (Sep 24, 2012)

To understand Lully, you must be versed in toe-tapping.

To understand Lully, you must never be able to cut it out.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

To understand J.S. Bach one must have a fully functioning human brain.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

To understand Bach well, you have to be able to make up and solve crossword puzzles, believe they reflect the intent of 'the deity' and that they have a spiritual significance.


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## mud (May 17, 2012)

How to DEEPLY UNDERSTAND a composer's music? 

Listen to it while scuba diving.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Not an option for many, actually, but really playing through the music as a participant performer will often do the trick... actually making the trip vs. watching the video, as it were.

Nothing more creditable than wearing the road dust vs. saying, "I saw that road trip movie."


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