# music with a "geometric" feel



## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

I guess it's difficult to explain what I mean.
It's something that I hear in the music of Webern or in a piece like the beautiful Harp sonata of Hindemith, and I'd like to hear some more like that. It's strange because there's not much else that I can think of, and I'm not sure how to describe the sensation of... geometricity; maybe it's the use of space, angular melodies, I don't know. certainly no romantic music, but also is something that I don't find in Boulez or Elliott Carter or Ligeti. If I should make some more example I would mention certain pieces of the post-rock band Tortoise like "In a glass museum" or "the suspension bridge at iguazu falls".
So, considering this confused introduction, any idea?


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Some of Stockhausen's earlier works, such as Schlagtrio, Bird of Passage, etc., come to mind. Lots of Webern and Schoenberg, of course. Birtwistle, maybe. Possibly a lot of Xenakis. Feldman.


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

Yes, I think I know what you mean. The opposite of impressionism, the fluididy or vapour-like quality of melodies and colours and so on. I like it too. Haydn, Mozart also have this angular feel for me. Jagged outlines, rhythmic sharpness, things like that. Also in neo-classicism, like Honegger, Roussel, Stravinsky. For me, this music has a great sense of leanness, stability, and energy.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

The Art of the Fugue?

Also, Shostakovich's preludes and fugues.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Simeon Ten Holt


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Ernest Bloch's Concerto Grossos?


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## Saintbert (Mar 12, 2015)

There's the risk of romanticism here, but I'm thinking, maybe Einojuhani Rautavaara? From Symphony No. 6, "Vincentiana", on... backwards.


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

Try the math rock of Battles, maybe


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

Try the music of Spanish composer Ramon Lazkano. I get a kind of geometric feel from his music.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Takemitsu - November Steps:


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

norman bates said:


> I guess it's difficult to explain what I mean.
> It's something that I hear in the music of Webern or in a piece like the beautiful Harp sonata of Hindemith, and I'd like to hear some more like that. It's strange because there's not much else that I can think of, and I'm not sure how to describe the sensation of... geometricity; maybe it's the use of space, angular melodies, I don't know. certainly no romantic music, but also is something that I don't find in Boulez or Elliott Carter or Ligeti. If I should make some more example I would mention certain pieces of the post-rock band Tortoise like "In a glass museum" or "the suspension bridge at iguazu falls".
> So, considering this confused introduction, any idea?


La Sonnerie de Sainte-Geneviève du Mont de Paris by Marin Marais.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Stavrogin said:


> Try the math rock of Battles, maybe


I know them (not a fan, but I quite liked Don Caballero) but I'm looking for classical music


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

MarkW said:


> Ernest Bloch's Concerto Grossos?


I don't know, I like Bloch but this strikes me as very romantic music, while probably one of the characteristic that I associate to that feel I'm looking for is a detachment (that is probably the link between Webern and that piece of Hindemith I've mentioned) that is the opposite of the romantic turmoil.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Luciano Berio wrote a piece called "Circles"









and the lesser known William Mayer has a piano concerto titled "Octagon", recorded on a Turnabout disc QTV-S 34564:







.

Of course, there's always Edgar Varese for geometrical feeling, sounding music.










And Xenakis.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Bach's fugues, especially when played on the harpsichord have the geometric/symmetric feel. I like it.


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## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

Schnee by Hans Abrahamsen has something of that feel. Most works by Stravinsky, too, and Lera Auerbach.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Adam Weber said:


> Most works by Stravinsky, too, and Lera Auerbach.


Stravinsky's music often has a mathematical feel, in large part because of his obsessive play with small- and large-scale symmetrical patterns.

Canticum Sacrum is an extreme example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canticum_Sacrum


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## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

Stravinsky was brilliant at that sort of thing. You could accidentally cut yourself on his rhythms, they're so sharp. I especially enjoy his three orchestral "symphonies."


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Adam Weber said:


> Stravinsky was brilliant at that sort of thing. You could accidentally cut yourself on his rhythms, they're so sharp. I especially enjoy his three orchestral "symphonies."


Well said. I know what you mean. I feel that way when I listen to the Violin Concerto, a work that unfortunately leaves me cold.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Square dancing?


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## Ishi (May 11, 2015)

Sviatoslav Richter's interpretation of J.S.Bach - The Well Tempered Clavier (Book II) Prelude and Fugue No.9 in E Major : 
I found it symmetrical....to find such deep mathematics in such a religious composer's music was new to me.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Ishi said:


> Sviatoslav Richter's interpretation of J.S.Bach - The Well Tempered Clavier (Book II) Prelude and Fugue No.9 in E Major :
> I found it symmetrical....to find such deep mathematics in such a religious composer's music was new to me.


Welcome to the forum, Ishi.

That E major fugue is one of my favorite keyboard works, and I agree that Richter's performance is magical.

Gould was no slouch either (except literally). In addition to at least a couple of great performances of this piece, he offers a very interesting discussion of its construction:






I love it when Bach introduces that scale in the coda--talk about cutting to the chase.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Square dancing?


Round dancing and Circle dancing, too.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Haydn's Piano Sonata No. 32 in G minor comes to mind.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Prokofiev 2nd symphony?

Moreover, some romantic music does have a great sense of a multi-faceted space (not just wanderers in a sea of fog...), although I know this feeling is not quite the angular geometry the OP was after. But some Bruckner symphonies and some orchestral works of Liszt have that "gothic cathedral" feeling, not just because of the pious association but rather in that sense of an organic, living musical architecture that nonetheless develops towards an inescapable end point high up in the spire.


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## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

hpowders said:


> Well said. I know what you mean. I feel that way when I listen to the Violin Concerto, a work that unfortunately leaves me cold.


I happen to love the Violin Concerto, but I absolutely know what you mean. I feel cold to about half of all Stravinsky. I can't point out anything wrong with the pieces, but... The Violin Concerto is different probably just because I like the themes and melodies.

If I didn't...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Adam Weber said:


> I happen to love the Violin Concerto, but I absolutely know what you mean. I feel cold to about half of all Stravinsky. I can't point out anything wrong with the pieces, but... The Violin Concerto is different probably just because I like the themes and melodies.
> 
> If I didn't...


I think this is a good case of the personality of the composer being in synch with his music.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Stravinsky's _Scenes de Ballet_ which inspired Frederick Ashton's very geometric choreography.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

From Jerome Robbins' modern ballet, "Jewels", the part called "Rubies" is devoted to Stravinsky's angular music.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

hpowders said:


> From Jerome Robbins' modern ballet, "Jewels", the part called "Rubies" is devoted to Stravinsky's angular music.


_Jewels_ is George Balanchine


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Becca said:


> _Jewels_ is George Balanchine


Yes, you are correct. I've been away from the NYC Arts scene too long.


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

Allan Pettersson: Symphony 12 - The Dead on the Square.


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