John (not so) Caged

Perhaps they'd produced a piece called the "prepared orchestra", where every instrument adds materials to drastically change the original timbre.



This second is better sounding to me. Why? The timbre produced by the individual notes are clearer (perhaps more carefully prepared), hence giving a certain idea which the performer seems to want to drive at. Compared with the first, which was too "random" for my taste, this recording is more telling.

And there!

Leaving the creation of the piece to the audience!

On Ligeti

There we are, a short clip of Berliner Philharmonic on Ligeti's Atmospheres.

It is quite amazing how the clusters don't sound out of tune actually. In some way, the vibration caused by the clusters creates the "atmosphere".

Which brings forth the thoughts about tuning properly according to the pythagorean ratio. Is it relevant here?

Much of the music involves the timbre produced by the cluster of notes played by a group of instruments together(the different families), with plenty of extreme crescendos and decrescendos, i.e. from almost silence to very much "in your face" loud.

I wonder if we take the first instance the music starts, could we find every single chromatic note? That would make it a 12-note pitch set? and complement of it is.... erm... silence?

Atmospheres - John Golland

While listening to some of the prescribed pieces for 20C music, I was reminded of the test piece of WMC 2009, Atmospheres by John Golland.

Starting on a hexachord built on 2 augmented triads, F A C# and G B D# (In fact it was written Cb, Db and Eb on my vibraphone part.) Enharmonic equivalence invoked I guess.

The 2 augmented chords actually form a whole tone scale on F. The equal spacing of the 6 notes in the hexachord produces a lack of a tonal center(absence of leading note), hence giving the 1st movement its essence - Mysterious.

The forte name of the hexachord is 6-35, [0,2,4,6,8,10]. It is self-complementing and interestingly, the IcV is only able to produce either one tone, 2 tone or tritone intervals.

Atmospheres-Gyorgy Ligeti

Soundscapes?

Princess Shostakovich

Uncanny resemblance on the opening melodic line.

To? one of the tracks in Princess Mononoke(Joe Hisaishi)

more work to be done....

Symphony No. 5 Mvt 1 - Shostakovich

On the Schonberg

I would have never imagined myself listening to this on any normal day.
But it's starting to become more palatable and in a very tiny way, appealing.

Analysis to be done only the following trichords and tetrachord:
[0,1,3]
[0,2,3]
[0,1,4,6]

Coming soon...

Suite for Piano Op. 25, Gavotte

Ravel - Piano Concerto in G Major, 1st movement

Some thoughts after listening:

1. Development: There's intensive weaving of the 1st and 2nd themes, more interplay and connection from theme to theme, not as clearly spaced as before.  

2. Where is the Recapitulation? If there is one, does it happen at about 4' into the piece? Kind of early right? With the harp solo, horn solo following on, I don't really think the recap is there. 

All I hear are short reprises of the 3 themes.

3 Just before the french horn solo with woodwind section accompaniment, there's a very nice presentation of the Petruskha theme on the Harp, with glissandos and the melody placed on harmonics. In this Harp section, there's an inclusion on a concluding cadence(only root and fifth note?) by the strings. Perhaps Ravel thought it'll be rather interesting to place a conclusion, to surprise I suppose?

4 In the 2nd part of the Harp solo, the orchestra join in on the theme 2, with the string sections doing glissando/portamento - imitation of the previous piano glissando at the opening of the movement. In the high horn solo section, the woodwinds has runs that imitates the glissando feel.

5. I really liked the low piano passages before the trumpets return with Theme 1 to start the last section of the piece. What really caught my attention is the last scale of the piece. 

The written notes (G F Eb D C Bb Ab G), not diatonic major!

A phrygian twist?

I considered some of the possibilities of ending: 

i. G F Eb D C Bb Ab G - Phrygian

ii. G F# E D C Bb Ab G - harmonic minor + phrygian

iii. G F Eb D C Bb A G - natural minor (Aeolian mode?)

All three sounded interesting to me!

6. I also feel that there are elements of Debussy inside the piece. e.g. 3 bar of Number 5 on the score. The angular chords on the left hand reminds me of Golliwog's cakewalk... some specks of impressionism...

7. The percussion instrument that starts together with the Whip/Slapstick, is a snare drum! Tamburo means drum.  I happen to chance upon a clearer recording, and could distinctively make out the drum roll.

Berg, "Schliesse mir die Augen beide"

Youtube has the 1925 setting.

Rhythm + Form:

The first 4 bars though in 5-4, form the usual short-short-long structure(is that called a sentence?)

From Bar 5, the vocal part is then phrased in groups of 8 quavers(3 sets), with the last set serving as an overlap(ending phrase + reprise).

Ending 2 phrases are re-extended to the 5-4 meter, perhaps to serve as closure?

Is there any asymmetrical effect for the piano right hand to break away from the 8 quaver groupings? Only leaving the left hand in the same hypermeter as the vocals?