# a little recent listening



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

There it is.

I still haven't uploaded very much of my music yet, and I've been sticking to the most famous of it for now, so I'm not going astray yet.

I'm not sure what to make of _Music for 18 Musicians_, but I like to listen to it. The first time I listened to it, for about five minutes I was wondering if it was a joke. Then I was in some kind of trance. Now, familiar with it, it gives me a really good feeling as soon as I hear the opening notes.

Still, I think I understand why it's not more universally loved. As Ravel said of _Bolero_, there's no music in it. Plunk plunk plunk plunk plunk plunk plunk plunk whoo do whoo do whoo do - but I enjoy it.

BTW, not something I've listened to for a few weeks, but if you like _Music for 18 Musicians_, you might try Glass's _Aguas de Amazonia_. Similar atmosphere.










Old school.

So anytime I listen to anything Beethoven or earlier, I feel the sting of the period music movement scolding me. I know I'm supposed to like Gardiner, or something more obscure (would Harnoncourt be good enough?), and I do, I absolutely do, but I still like the old way too.

If I could have it my way, I think I'd like to keep most of the period music characteristics - especially the singing style - but still use the slower tempos of the old romantic way. If only Gardiner and Celibidache had collaborated on a recording.

As for the music - the _Mass in B minor_ is a work that had to grow on me. If I hadn't been aware that many people of much greater culture consider it a masterpiece, I wouldn't have given it many listens. For a time, the only part I could really appreciate was the initial Kyrie (which really ought to impress anybody). Then it grew on me more and more.

Ironically perhaps, losing my faith has probably helped. I once knew a devout agnostic who claimed that Bach and Stravinsky were the only things that made him want to go to church. (I'm not sure what church sings Stravinsky's music, but I would like to go to it too!)

When I was religious, I had my own idea of what worship should be, and Bach's music was rather too rich and majestic, more like opera than liturgy. But as I've spent hundreds of hours listening to Bach's sacred music (mostly by Gardiner and Richter), my image of church has changed. I have come to envy the burghers of Leipzig--though of course they never heard the Mass, it would have been a great pleasure to take a few hours away from the stresses of early modern commerce to worship with Bach.

I don't think I get the full effect in my living room, so, unforgivably trite though it may be, I hope someday to visit the Thomas Church in Leipzig, and hear a little of it there. Maybe I will just retire there....

Writing this has put me in the mood to hear more Bach!

Unfortunately I've been both sick and busy for the last couple of days, and this is all the close listening I've been able to do. When I'm not able to concentrate on the music, I usually listen to pop music or jazz. I passively listened to the _Breakfast at Tiffany's_ soundtrack the other day, and Harry Belafonte's _Calypso_. The former is a favorite of the wife's, and it's ok, but I'm not very enthusiastic about it. The latter is great.


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

re reich, i like his stuff too, but i haven't heard that piece/album yet.

i went to a concert earlier in the year where this piece for 13 musicians, on flutes & piccolos, was played. either new york or vermont counterpoint, can't remember which - i have both on the same disc, i always confuse the two, one is for flutes/piccolos, the other for clarinets. interesting to see it actually done "live" because it's sometimes done with one soloist playing with taped parts for the rest of the contrapuntal lines.

reich has also done some things more recently speaking to influences of hip-hop and west african drumming/tribal musics. heard it on air a while back & it was intruiging.

there was also a piece called "from the white edge of phrygia" by stephen montague played at that concert. this is in the "post-minimalist" style/stream. kind of sounded like minimalism, but the pulse or beat was not as repetitive/regular, it changed a lot, but there was still a kind of rhythmic "focus." i might get this disc, it would be interesting to hear his other music. what's on youtube is not that good, imo (& beware, there are at least two other musicians of this name on there, doing totally different things).

as for j.s.bach, i'm not a huge fan, but it's important to understand at least the main aspects of his music to better appreciate what came after (eg. i don't doubt reich would have studied bach's "take" on counterpoint)...


----------

