January 2025 M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Subscribe to Blog via Email
Join 296 other subscribers
Category: Music
What are your five favourite operas?
I… don’t actually like opera, with the following exceptions. So my answers are (a) not representative, and (b) damn good, if they got past my “I don’t like opera” filter. John Adams, Nixon in China. Alban Berg, Wozzeck. Wolfgang Mozart, Don Giovanni. Richard Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier. Need a fifth, OK: Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes. Thirty […]
What are the best minimalist pieces to listen to for those new to the minimalist style?
Some good answers here. There are two answers to the question. The wrong answer (though the one I prefer) is: what are some not very minimalist pieces, which I will enjoy listening to as someone unfamiliar with the style? The answer to that includes some of my favourite 20th century pieces: Most things John Adams […]
Classical Music: Does everyone play the same notes in the orchestra while playing a symphony, or do composers write different notes for each instrument in the orchestra while creating their music?
Almost always different notes. Even Unison passages mean that different instruments play the same note in different octaves. Exceptions are so rare that this is the only one I can think of (though there are bound to be others). In Berg’s opera Wozzeck, right after Wozzeck kills Marie, Berg has an “Invention on a Single […]
Does Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor sound better in other transcriptions than the original composition on violin?
IMO no. Part of the emotional point of the Chaconne for me is that it sounds hard to play. Keyboard versions in particular don’t register with me. (No, I haven’t heard the Busoni yet.) I’m a bit more ok with Lute/Guitar versions, they sound more idiomatic. Answered 2016-02-20 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/Does-Bachs-Chaconne-in-D-Minor-sound-better-in-other-transcriptions-than-the-original-composition-on-violin/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
What is your favorite composition by John Adams?
It’s still Nixon in China for me. I have a soft spot for Short Ride In A Fast Machine, even if it is all flash. Harmonilehre, as a third pressing of Mahler. Grand Pianola Music, for the sheer impudence of it. (Lolapalooza does that too.) Answered 2016-01-10 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-is-your-favorite-composition-by-John-Adams/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
Vamvakaris: The flood
In the previous post, I wrote about the 1933 recording A raid on the hashish den, a comedy sketch with music, featuring one of the earliest recordings of Markos Vamvakaris. In the process, I got the bug for GoAnimate, and so I created an animated music video for the song. (Now with subtitles.) My second […]
A raid on the hashish den
Among Markos Vamvakaris’ 1933 recordings—among his very earliest, that is—is Έφοδος στον τεκέ, “A raid on the hashish den”. This was a musical revue number by Giannis Kamvysis and Petros Kyriakos. Kyriakos was a musical theatre actor, and the underworld that gave rise to rebetiko music was part of what he documented in song. With […]
Markos Vamvakaris: Είσαι μελαχρινό και νόστιμο
Rebetiko music was a fusion of styles, and the fusion can be seen in progress through the ’30s. The antecedents of rebetiko are murky, but the most visible antecedent is Smyrneika, the music of Anatolian cafés, which came with the Anatolian refugees to Greece in the ’20s, and was taken up as the emblem of […]
Solage: Le basile
Le basile, like Pluseurs gens voy, counts as Ars Nova rather than Ars Subtilior, and there aren’t the rhythmic games hallowed in Subtilior. The rhythms are still wackier than Pluseurs gens: there is enough syncopation across barlines to justify the Mensurstich notation, and there is confusion about whether voices are off by half a bar […]
Solage: Pluseurs gens voy
With Pluseurs gens voy, we’re backing away from the crazy of Ars Subtilior, going back to what the Ars Subtilior was a mutant offshoot of: the Ars Nova of Machaut. Accordingly, there is less weirdness about the notation in this ballade; the one exception is in the middle section, where the Cantus, and possibly the […]