Music: Two Sleepers

[Mark Heide]

Ray,

That's an easy problem to take care of. Just kill it and let me know when you want me over for dinner.

Mark

[Ray Zee]

mark, i like the turkey but next time a skunk comes by i will take your suggestion.

[Mark Heide]

Ray,

Looking forward to having dinner. [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]

Mark

[John Feeney]

The samples sound very nice, Mark. You do realize though that when I said "sleepers" I just meant "unnoticed." [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

I only listen to a bit of classical, but did by a best of Copeland CD not long ago. I think the only problem with classical is that it doesn't use enough steel guitar. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Mark Heide]

John,

Actually, this music fits both categories. Most of the composers on that CD are now either university professors or retired. The only person on that CD that is well known is Ron Nelson for his concert band music for high schools and the military. So, the piece on that CD by him is out of character for what he usually does.

If you want something with electric guitars, try Seth Josel's Long Distance on CRI. He does a piece by James Tenney called Water On The Mountain...Fire In Heaven for six electric guitars. The rest of the CD is classical guitar music by modern composers. The company that made this CD, CRI (Composers Recordings, Inc.) went out of business this year due to lack of funding. The whole CRI catalog is being liquidated by www.qualiton.com for $3.50 each title.

Good Luck

Mark

[Cyrus]

"I do listen to a lot of noisy and experimental modern classical like John Cage, Pierre Boulez, Henry Cowell, Wolfgang Rihm, etc."

You realize, of course, where that puts you in terms of poker ability, according to my list.

[John Cole]

Mark,

For relaxation, I often turn to Reich's Drumming turned up loud on headphones. I feel like I'm having an MRI done--a not unpleasant experience.

John

[John Cole]

Cyrus,

One performer who "played" 3'33'' called it the most intense performance of his life.

John

[Mark Heide]

Cyrus

The correct title is 4'33" for that composition. Cage wrote that composition to emphasize that silence was just as important as sound. When that piece is performed, it requires that a piece of sounding music is performed before and after. By placing a long silence between pieces, it emphasizes the drama between the ending of the first piece and the beginning of the second. You should notice that this frequently happens in good movie soundtracks. Where there is dead silence, especially in a thriller, and then the music starts to play. Lastly, Cage wrote an exact time for performance, to require the performer and audience to notice the silence, and that it was not just any silence, but his.

I'm surprised that you equate a composer like Stockhausen with the term Atonal. Stockhausen was part of the Avant-Guard movement of the 1950's and his compostion Gruppen for 2 orchestras actually contains music with a tonal center, but not in the traditional sense of say Brahms. Most people I know equate Atonal with the 12-tone-row music of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern from the early 20th century. I would think that mathematically inclined people would like the concept behind 12-tone-row music since it required solving matricies for variation of the row, so I would put this type of music at the top of your list for Sklansky type poker players.

The music of todays composers is not publicized in the United States as has been previously done prior to the 1980s. Most of the PBS television and radio stations do not play music by todays composers. But, I can tell you that you can probably refer to it as post-avant-guard or post-moderism and even more global in nature. Take Steve Riech's Drumming which is a combination of utilizing the serial techniques of Schoenberg and African drumming. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The music of todays composers is usually based on a combination of styles that occurred mainly in the 20th century, but combining them in different ways.

Mark

[Mark Heide]

John,

I like listening to Steve Riech's music when driving on road trips. It's loud enough not to get drowned out with road noise, plus it seems to hypnotize me and makes the time fly by.

Mark