We got 18 ballots, which I was happy to see for a daunting list of music that is usually not a primary focus at ILM. The results are definitely diverse, with a wide range of aesthetics in evidence. In fact, only one composer got two #1 votes, for different pieces. (I was looking at unweighted ballots when I said there were two.) Several pieces got #1 votes but didn't make the top 100, interestingly.
A reminder that the voting thread was here: Dedication to Polls and Voters: Notated Music Since 1890 - Voting and Discussion Threadand nominations were here: http://pastebin.com/bapmkdm0
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 12:01 (eight years ago) link
And starting out with #100:100 Gérard Grisey - Les espaces acoustiques Score: 318 Votes: 2 #1 Votes: 0http://www.livescience.com/images/i/000/059/796/original/visible-spectrum.jpg?interpolation=lanczos-none&fit=around%7C300:200&crop=300:200;*,*
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 12:04 (eight years ago) link
Les espaces acoustiques [occupied] him for 11 years (1974–85) and lasts over an hour and a half in performance: the forces of the component pieces range from the solo viola of the opening Prologue (1976) to the large orchestra of Transitoires (1980) and the concluding Epilogue (1985), and each save the last can be played separately or along with any adjacent work in the cycle (the ending of the first piece, for instance, forms the beginning of the second). The entire cycle is based on a pattern of inhalation–exhalation–rest. The moments of rest are marked by regular, periodic patterns and a part of a harmonic spectrum on E (41.2 Hz); the inhalations develop these repetitive figures, pushing them into a state of maximum disorder and instability; the exhalations proceed from the resulting disorder back to a new state of rest on E. Especially characteristic is the blurring of the distinction between harmony and timbre to which Grisey gave the name ‘instrumental synthesis’. The low E in the trombone at the opening of Partiels (1975) is followed by a chord which imitates the timbre of the trombone, modelled after a sonogram analysis of its sound. Long stretches of the same work employ harmonic transformations that simulate with purely instrumental forces the electro-acoustic technique of ring-modulation.
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 12:05 (eight years ago) link
I didn't know this one before, to be honest, but I am enjoying it so far.
The Spotify playlist will be posted at the end of the day.
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 12:06 (eight years ago) link
567 compositions received at least one vote. There are a number of popular or scholarly 'hits' that didn't make it to our final countdown.
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 12:20 (eight years ago) link
didn't feel knowledgeable enough to vote but i'm eagerly anticipating the rollout and strongly approve of the results so far
― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Sunday, 25 September 2016 12:32 (eight years ago) link
Same here, though I didn't know the Grisey before and have not got all that far into listening, it seems really interesting.
― emil.y, Sunday, 25 September 2016 12:38 (eight years ago) link
4 and a half minutes into "Partiels", I can definitely see why it is so well-regarded.
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 13:01 (eight years ago) link
And now, as they say, for something completely different.
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 13:33 (eight years ago) link
99 Benjamin Britten - The Turn of the Screw, opera after Henry James Points: 320 Votes: 2 #1 Votes: 0
http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2003/Oct03/Turn_Screw_ME.jpg
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 13:34 (eight years ago) link
Dunno if I'll keep up the blurbs throughout but:
With its tightly-controlled response to James’s tale, Britten’s opera runs the risk of seeming to shirk depth of expression as decisively as it shuns technical elaboration. Yet there is a spontaneity and naturalness in the musical ideas, and a compact solidity in the form schemes of each scene, which give the lie to arguments that Britten’s response was thin or inhibited. Above all, the music reveals its absolute rightness in the way it brings to convincing life the extraordinary Jamesian blend of starchy social conventions and turbulent emotional forces which those conventions promote, while seeking their suppression. Britten gives substance to Jame’s psychological insights without in any way distorting them. The Turn of the Screw marked a decisive change in Britten’s development. After it, chamber opera would be his main concern, and the chromatic intensity obtainable from the acknowledgment of some aspects of 12-note principles a central technique. What did not change, in essence, was the type of subject Britten favoured in his dramatic works.
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 13:36 (eight years ago) link
Another one I hadn't really listened to before, owing to my opera blinders. (I did vote for Peter Grimes, though!) I always enjoy Britten a lot when I hear him; yet it somehow rarely occurs to me to put him on. And I'm definitely liking this, or at least Act 1, so far. (I never knew there were 12-note rows in this.) Is there such a thing as an English opera fan? Because Dido and Aeneas is probably my favourite CPE opera.
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 13:39 (eight years ago) link
Oh cool, it's started. I voted for Les Espaces Acoustiques.
― ultros ultros-ghali, Sunday, 25 September 2016 14:03 (eight years ago) link
People who listen to a lot of opera (or musicals for that matter): do you find that you can listen to the music of an opera front-to-back (e.g. on a recording) without following and focusing on the narrative? Because, already, by Scene 3, I feel like I've got just the audio from a sung movie (that I haven't watched) playing in the background while I'm trying to do other things. If you're not actually watching a performance, do you prefer to just listen to the major arias, the way that people will listen to compilations of hits from Broadway shows?
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 14:07 (eight years ago) link
xp
I don't listen to a ton of opera, but I usually will follow along in the translation of the libretto a little, maybe not line for line but just to get an idea of the action of each scene. It's never occurred to me to skip around in the arias, and I don't really like Broadway hits comps for the same reason I don't really like Greatest Hits albums-- you never know what great deep cuts you might be missing.
― Tom Violence, Sunday, 25 September 2016 14:43 (eight years ago) link
I definitely listen to opera that way. I read a plot synopsis at some point before listening but then I just play it while doing my day job like any other classical music. Usually in halves (like disc 1 then disc 2 a few days later).
I voted Turn of the Screw pretty high in my ballot. Act 1 scenes 7 and 8 (The Lake - At Night) give me the chills of the uncanny.
I am partially influenced by seeing it performed in Seattle in the 90s... The production had some really cool ideas, most memorably during Miles' number about his feeling of being 'bad', miles was sitting on the floor in the middle of an empty room with an open window at the back. The whole floor of the room is covered by a sheet. During the course of Miles' number, Peter Quint appears at the window behind him, reaches into the room, and begins to VERY SLOWLY PULL THE SHEET, WITH MILES ON IT ABSORBED IN HIS ARIA, TOWARDS THE WINDOW.
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 25 September 2016 14:44 (eight years ago) link
Kicking off a string of pieces that I am very familiar with and love:
98 Iannis Xenakis - Metastasis Points: 322 Votes: 4 #1 Votes: 0
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/1200x675/p00tcy3k.jpg
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 15:46 (eight years ago) link
Metastasis, 1953-54Piece written for 61 orchestral players (46 strings), with eachplaying a different part.Uses multiple glissandi (straight lines) in the music for string andhorn parts. These indicate for the player to begin at a certain pitchand slide through all the frequencies on the way to a different pitch(could be higher or lower).Xenakis realizes that drawing the glissandi in the score can createa special surface of straight lines, called a ruled surface. This wasthe inspiration for his design of the Philips Pavilion.He thought of the glissandi as graphs of straight lines (time on thehorizontal axis, pitch on the vertical), where different slopescorrespond to different “sound spaces.”
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 15:52 (eight years ago) link
One of the pieces that smeared my brain when I took late 20th century music history at 19.
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 16:02 (eight years ago) link
Listening now to the Grisey. Probably a dumb question, but there's no way this is standard western temperament, right?
― Tom Violence, Sunday, 25 September 2016 17:45 (eight years ago) link
That's not dumb and you're right: it's not. I think that in pretty much any 'spectral' music, the pitches are based on specific frequencies derived from spectrographic analysis of acoustic phenomena. So, e.g., in "Partiels", you start out with a low E on trombone. Then you get an orchestrated chord where all of the pitches are determined by the prominent frequencies that Grisey found when he did a spectral analysis of a trombone playing that low E.
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 17:54 (eight years ago) link
Slow roll out would make sense here, Sund4r, to allow listening time and a bit of reaction before the next tranche (not that I'm going to even attempt complete operas).
10 per day?
― Jeff W, Sunday, 25 September 2016 17:56 (eight years ago) link
What do other people think?
My arguments: We're in the bottom reaches of the top 100 now. I could maybe slow it down a bit for the top 10 but the countdown would take nearly two months if I were to go e.g. 2 a day through the top 100, and nearly three weeks even for 5 a day. Metal poll countdowns go through 20-40 albums per day, for comparison. Yes, some operas are a lot longer than the average metal album but e.g. "Metastasis" is about 8 minutes long. Even Turn of the Screw is just under 2h and fits on 2 CDs like plenty of double albums.
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 18:09 (eight years ago) link
I wasn't planning on giving everything a complete listen during the rollout, just sampling stuff and bookmarking what I liked for later. I think 10 a day is fine, gives plenty of time for discussion and doesn't drag out the process for too long.
― Tom Violence, Sunday, 25 September 2016 18:15 (eight years ago) link
I'm working the same way. I don't give every album a complete listen during metal polls or EOY polls either. I am going to listen to Metastasis again in its entirety before moving on, though!
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 18:21 (eight years ago) link
There's like eight different recordings of The Turn of the Screw on Spotify alone; does anyone have a favorite recording of this, or should I just put on the Decca one?
― Tom Violence, Sunday, 25 September 2016 18:21 (eight years ago) link
I imagine Jon can help you here, although I have a feeling he likes the 2004 Naxos recording.
Now we finally come to a notated composition that was released as a proper album per se, and a beautiful one.
97 Meredith Monk - Dolmen Music Points: 323 Votes: 4 #1 Votes: 0
https://ecmreviews.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/dolmen-music1.jpg
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 18:56 (eight years ago) link
I knew of Meredith Monk (vaguely) from a class I took fifteen years ago, but I hadn't heard any of her work-- Soulseek was always a little spotty for contemporary art music. I really like her approach to the voice, and I don't always like vocal chamber music.
― Tom Violence, Sunday, 25 September 2016 19:19 (eight years ago) link
^ Would have voted for that if I had voted.
― emil.y, Sunday, 25 September 2016 19:24 (eight years ago) link
Turn Of The Screw was my no.8. The Glyndebourne DVD with Toby Spence is exceptionally good.
The Decca CD with Helen Donath is good but I think I listen to the Erato one just as much.
― On a Raqqa tip (ShariVari), Sunday, 25 September 2016 19:36 (eight years ago) link
Yeah my turn of the screw fave is the naxos (originally recorded for Collins classics) conducted by britten's right hand man steuart bedford.
Warning: the Spotify playlist (sund4r will link it later this eve) includes only a remix of the monk piece, bc the original is not on Spotify. All other works have been on there so far. Presuming we have some Phil glass coming up though, that is also a fallow area on Spotify.
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 25 September 2016 20:15 (eight years ago) link
I found the Monk piece on Youtube, it was 23 minutes (hopefully the right one). https://youtu.be/7su7d76LhWg (oh please don't embed)
― Tom Violence, Sunday, 25 September 2016 20:25 (eight years ago) link
Yes, that's it. It's side B of the LP but we were voting for compositions, not albums, so, yep, that's the whole thing. If you can find the ECM LP on vinyl, you won't regret it.
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 20:41 (eight years ago) link
A apologize for not voting in this but I would have had to apologize even more for voting in it. (Way too unfamiliar with classical music, which isn't all that's covered, but an important part of it.) Probably would have voted for Dolman Music.
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 25 September 2016 21:05 (eight years ago) link
I didn't vote in this, because I don't know very much about this stuff, but I'm super-excited about the rollout! I'm sure I'll find all kinds of great pieces I've never heard of.
― sacral intercourse conducive to vegetal luxuriance (askance johnson), Sunday, 25 September 2016 21:19 (eight years ago) link
same
― I look forward to hearing from you shortly, (Karl Malone), Sunday, 25 September 2016 21:20 (eight years ago) link
Wow, Meredith Monk is cool. Anyone having any experience with performing her music?
― Frederik B, Sunday, 25 September 2016 21:23 (eight years ago) link
10 a day seems fine to me.
I voted, and when the results are done and everybody is posting their ballots, I hope mine prompts a lot of "ugh, I could have done better than that" and boosts turnout in future polls.
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Sunday, 25 September 2016 21:37 (eight years ago) link
Meredith Monk receiving a 2014 National Medal of the Arts and Humanities
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 21:43 (eight years ago) link
Uf, I'm having a hard time with all of these. I already knew serialism, spectralism, opera and some, I guess spiritual?, types of minimalism are not for me. The chants on Dolmen Music just sound really cheesy to me. As opposed to something like Music for 18 Musicians which is crazy beautiful. Will give a shot to all 100 tho.
― simmel, Sunday, 25 September 2016 21:44 (eight years ago) link
^^ that
I don't know a lot about this stuff, but I can think of 10 pieces listed in the noms sheet that I like more than others. Hopefully nobody on this board is going to go "ugh, you voted for Mahler? Really?" but even if they do, who gives a shit, really?
― Tom Violence, Sunday, 25 September 2016 21:45 (eight years ago) link
(that was an xpost to WilliamC obv)
Spiritual hat minimalism.
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 25 September 2016 21:51 (eight years ago) link
I voted for Mahler, lol...
― Frederik B, Sunday, 25 September 2016 21:53 (eight years ago) link
Simmel, what kinds of notated music do you like (other than Reich obv)?
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 21:55 (eight years ago) link
I had at least three maybe four Mahlers on my ballot, I unashamedly profess the Debussy Mahler Sibelius axis as the king shit
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 25 September 2016 22:05 (eight years ago) link
We're staying in America, and among my personal favourites, for the next one.
96 John Cage - First Construction in Metal Points: 327 Votes: 3 #1 Votes: 0
http://www.bellperc.com//media/images/hire/thunder.jpg
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 22:06 (eight years ago) link
... Cage moves away from the traditional Western absorption in pitch, to a point where "pure" (i.e. nonpitched) timbre and rhythmic structure dominate his thinking. The First Construction is scored for an ensemble of six percussionists, who perform on such instruments as brake drums, oxen bells, large 'thundersheets' of metal, gongs, Turkish cymbals, and a 'string piano' (that is, the strings of a grand piano struck directly). The entire work is based on units - rhythmic and formal - of sixteen; for eample, there are sixteen sections, each consisting of sixteen measures. These units, at every level, subdivide into the proportions 4-3-2-3-4.
RIYL: rhythmic electronic music
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 22:09 (eight years ago) link
I really like this version.
― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Sunday, 25 September 2016 22:10 (eight years ago) link
same from another angle with sonic youth's goodbye 20th century, as gateway drugs go i chose my teen alt-rock faves well
― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 13:38 (eight years ago) link
Jonny Greenwood didn't help me find any composers -- but Stanley Kubrick certainly did.
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 13:39 (eight years ago) link
Great poll, and no quibbles with the #1. Still haven't got beyond Grisey on the playlist, but have been enjoying that a lot. Thanks, sund4r!
― Jeff W, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 17:23 (eight years ago) link
Yeah thanks Sund4r this has been a fun enterprise
― don't even see how this was a duck (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 17:51 (eight years ago) link
Haha I was mentally preparing a hypothetical ballot for this about a week ago (I cant front: Id have prob included some Swearingen!) and both Symphony in Blue and The Planets were both locks. Crazy!
― same as it e'er was (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 19:13 (eight years ago) link
I just thought it was interesting to see two Messiaen pieces in the top 5. He has always been well-regarded but I'm not sure you would have seen that on many lists 20 years ago.
It was also noteworthy to me how poorly the Second Viennese School did. I believe only one Schoenberg piece made it, and only to #50; Berg was represented by one opera at #35; and I think Webern was shut out altogether. Maybe that's more of a thing for theory/comp obsessives?
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 19:52 (eight years ago) link
No, it was definitely surprising. And are Wozzeck and Pierrot Lunaire even serialism? Was there any serialism on the list? I'd have guessed Moses und Aaron and some Webern would have made it at the very least.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:07 (eight years ago) link
It was surprising -- but I guess down to the polling audience again. I know I didn't have much of those guys on my ballot, for the chief reason I simply don't listen to them as much as other stuff. And like Shostakovich, I think if you were polling academics or all classical musicians/composers, they'd have fared much better.
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:11 (eight years ago) link
Pierrot is atonal and not serial
(atonal period before he went serial is my favorite schoenberg period)
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:12 (eight years ago) link
Wozzeck is serial enough to be called serial iirc
same for Stravinsky's Agon
spectralism is the new serialism
― a confederacy of lampreys (rushomancy), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:13 (eight years ago) link
Agon is an amazing piece -- Stravinsky so good at serialism, he made it sound almost tonal.
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:14 (eight years ago) link
But I know Messiaen worked in serialism too -- it didn't always sound like Schoenberg and Webern.
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:15 (eight years ago) link
yeah it got my highest stravinsky vote, bits from it get stuck in my head all the time.
xpost
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:15 (eight years ago) link
messiaen liked game-type systems, he had this weird musical alphabet thing going for awhile
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:16 (eight years ago) link
someone asked him if he really thought it was communicable to listeners and he said "c'est un jeu"
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:17 (eight years ago) link
Messiaennnnnnnn
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:21 (eight years ago) link
liked birds iircand jesus
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:23 (eight years ago) link
can i just take a moment, for anyone who is diligently making to-listen lists from all this, if you start getting into Messiaen please check out the 20 minute solo piano piece La Roussarolle Effarvette (The Reed Warbler). It's from his massive cycle of ornithological piano works Catalogue D'Oiseaux, and in this piece he 'depicts' an entire 24 hour cycle in the life of a French marsh, it is music to live by.
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:25 (eight years ago) link
i didn't nominate it only because it seemed excessive to nominate the entire Catalogue
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:26 (eight years ago) link
Not much of a fan of Messiaen myself. That Alex Ross book has probably had some influence?
― (SNIFFING AND INDISTINCT SOBBING) (Tom D.), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 20:41 (eight years ago) link
I wanted to call out a few specific pieces of British choral music that ppl should check out:
https://play.spotify.com/album/42PjwoPOw3UzyXkIvvQQ5bFrank Martin: Mass for Double Chorus (particularly the "Agnus Dei")
https://play.spotify.com/track/7GJzibotlvYkUM8AP1fau1Herbert Howells: Take him, Earth, for cherishing (written on the occasion of JFK's assassination)
https://play.spotify.com/track/1VJx0lbD8564c7U3qlrh09Benjamin Britten: Hymn to St Cecilia (really check all of Britten's choral music, dude was a master)
https://play.spotify.com/track/0LYnJH42w6itoek1vtv5iACharles Ives: Psalm 67 (notable mostly because the women are singing in C-major and the men are singing in G-minor)
https://play.spotify.com/album/1MEil2WMsiotndFOFHgqYU (start at track 6)Herbert Howells: Requiem (this dude is an unsung hero of British choral music in my opinion)
https://play.spotify.com/track/5xndSoWdGIrwcnRHBmt16Phttps://play.spotify.com/track/4ltqbRA0cTpY8DkdKNwJmvhttps://play.spotify.com/track/2GRTpVUSY5iz4HrQwBDRTfRalph Vaughn Williams: Three Shakespeare Songs
― ¶ (DJP), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 21:49 (eight years ago) link
Serialism is just a method of organizing pitch and it can sound like a lot of things (including Bill Evans or Blood, Sweat, and Tears). I do think the Second Viennese School had a common aesthetic that is central to some people's conceptions of 20th century music, though. As serialism goes, aside from the pieces that were mentioned, Kreuzspiel is not just serialism but integral serialism: even the accents in the percussion part follow a 12-number pattern. I'm not totally sure about Kontakte: I wanted to say that at least the acoustic parts were written with serial methods but I can find no proof of this and I'm not doing an analysis right now.
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 22:00 (eight years ago) link
Some excellent stuff in this thread, some of which I've heard but quite a fair bit that I haven't. Thanks for this, Sund4r!
― pen pineapple apple pen (Turrican), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 22:00 (eight years ago) link
(Ives was [fiercely] American btw.)
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 22:01 (eight years ago) link
DJP probably meant to say English language choral music
Speaking which DJP what do you think of the (chorus + orchestra) Five Tudor Portraits by Vaughan Williams? An oddball masterpiece IMO
And I'm gonna check out all your choral tips that I don't know.
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 22:23 (eight years ago) link
Oh yeah, that makes sense.
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 22:24 (eight years ago) link
I still have nothing significant to contribute to this most excellent thread, just came to say
― Berberian Begins at Home (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 6 October 2016 00:28 (eight years ago) link
Thanks for the choral music recs btw! Will def look into those, esp Britten.
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Thursday, 6 October 2016 09:53 (eight years ago) link
We're doing Hymn to St Cecilia this november :) It's good, though perhaps not my favorite Britten. In a way, it was just better singing Britten as a little boy, he was perhaps the best at writing music for children ever? His Spring Symphony, A Boy Was Born, Hymn to the Virgin.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 6 October 2016 13:25 (eight years ago) link
And Noye's Fludde, now semi-famous thanks to Wes Anderson!
I think Spring Symphony is my favorite of his works with choir.
― look at the morning people (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 6 October 2016 13:57 (eight years ago) link
Moonrise Kingdom is the best Wes Anderson by far, btw, and it's 90% because of the interplay with Britten-music. Young Persons Guide in the opening and on the credits! So good.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 6 October 2016 14:39 (eight years ago) link
and desplat's brief britten-inspired original score
― look at the morning people (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 6 October 2016 14:40 (eight years ago) link
lol I forgot I put Ives in there
― ¶ (DJP), Thursday, 6 October 2016 14:50 (eight years ago) link
just wanted to drop in and say great poll as well, special thanks for all of the choral recommendations, I am always a sucker for a choral piece above all else
― kruezer2, Thursday, 6 October 2016 19:32 (eight years ago) link
Don't miss out on Maurice Ohana's spine tinglingworks with choir - he did a fair amount of it. Also lutoslawski's Trois Poemes de Henri Michaux has very unusual choral writing.
― look at the morning people (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 6 October 2016 20:08 (eight years ago) link
I must reiterate I am very happy to have this playlist to work from. I might go back to the nominations list as well and pick up some of those very familiar names whose music is pretty much a blank to me at this point. So far I am gravitating toward Bartok, Sibelius, and Messiaen.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 8 October 2016 16:28 (eight years ago) link
If sund4r wants to publish the 101-200 placements, I'll make a second playlist for those.
― look at the morning people (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 8 October 2016 17:14 (eight years ago) link
(Meant Debussy not Sibelius.)
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 8 October 2016 22:30 (eight years ago) link
(Although much of Preludes for Piano is to Romantic for me.)
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 8 October 2016 22:31 (eight years ago) link
There was a tie at 199 so here's 1-199. The bottom five or so received one vote each:
1 Igor Stravinsky - Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) 1502 12 12 Olivier Messiaen - Turangalîla-Symphonie 1458 11 13 Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians 1234 10 04 Olivier Messiaen - Quatuor pour le fin de temps 1225 10 05 Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima 1060 8 06 Henryk Gorecki - Symphony No. 3 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs' 970 8 07 Maurice Ravel - Boléro 949 8 08 Igor Stravinsky - Firebird 940 7 09 Terry Riley - In C 881 8 010 George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue 826 8 011 Bela Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta 816 6 012 Igor Stravinsky - Petrushka 788 6 013 Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel 780 7 014 Karlheinz Stockhausen - Kontakte 754 6 015 Steve Reich - Drumming 741 6 016 Philip Glass - Einstein on the Beach 694 5 017 Gyorgy Ligeti - Atmosphères 692 5 018 Arvo Pärt - Tabula Rasa 682 5 019 Jean Sibelius - Tapiola 668 4 020 Steve Reich - Different Trains 667 6 021 Claude Debussy - Preludes (Books 1 and 2) 663 5 122 Arvo Pärt - Fratres 648 5 023 Claude Debussy - Prélude a l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) 636 5 024 Gustav Holst - The Planets 632 7 025 Leonard Bernstein et al - West Side Story 627 4 026 Gustav Mahler - Symphony no. 6 625 5 027 Duke Ellington - The Far East Suite 598 5 028 John Cage - 4'33' 594 5 129 Philip Glass - Music in 12 Parts 594 4 130 Olivier Messiaen - L'Ascension 575 5 031 Karlheinz Stockhausen - Stimmung 566 6 032 Glenn Branca - Symphony no. 3 555 6 033 Igor Stravinsky - Agon 539 4 034 Luciano Berio - Sinfonia 533 6 035 Alban Berg - Wozzeck 522 4 035 Gyorgy Ligeti - Requiem 522 4 037 Gyorgy Ligeti - Lux Aeterna 517 4 038 Gabriel Fauré - Requiem in D minor 516 4 039 Claude Debussy - Nocturnes 515 4 040 Claude Debussy - La mer 514 3 041 Bela Bartok - Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion 511 4 042 Arvo Pärt - Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten 507 4 043 John Cage - Sonatas and Interludes for the Prepared Piano 489 5 144 Steve Reich - Tehillim 483 4 045 Claude Debussy - Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp 483 3 046 Jean Sibelius - Symphony no. 6 480 3 047 Ennio Morricone - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 477 4 048 Alfred Schnittke - Concerto for Choir 475 4 049 Gavin Bryars - Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet 473 3 050 Arnold Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire 471 3 051 edgard varèse - Ionisation 467 5 052 Benjamin Britten - Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings 461 3 053 Philip Glass - Music in Similar Motion 453 3 054 Bela Bartok - Mikrokosmos 452 4 055 John Zorn - Cobra 449 4 056 Bela Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra 446 3 057 Karlheinz Stockhausen - Kreuzspiel 442 4 058 Edgard Varese - Density 21.5 439 5 059 Louis Andriessen - De Staat 433 4 060 Maurice Ravel - Rapsodie espagnole 433 3 061 Yamashiro Shoji (with Geinoh Yamashirogumi) - Akira (Original Soundtrack) 429 3 062 Bela Bartok - String Quartet no. 4 427 3 063 Maurice Ravel - String Quartet in F 412 4 064 Benjamin Britten - War Requiem 409 3 065 Steve Reich - Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ 404 4 066 Pierre Boulez - le marteau sans maître 399 3 067 Brian Eno - Discreet Music 396 3 068 John Luther Adams - Become Ocean 395 4 069 Jerry Goldsmith - Alien, film score 388 3 070 Gustav Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde 388 2 071 Igor Stravinsky - Les Noces 381 3 072 Claude Debussy - String Quartet in G Minor 380 3 073 Gustav Mahler - Symphony no. 9 380 2 174 Gavin Bryars - The Sinking of the Titanic 375 3 075 Antonin Dvořák - Symphony no. 9 ('New World') 374 4 176 Iannis Xenakis - Pithoprakta 370 4 076 Steve Reich - Sextet 370 4 078 Charles Ives - The Unanswered Question 368 3 079 Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 4 366 4 080 Gustav Mahler - Symphony no. 5 365 4 081 Philip Glass - Akhnaten 363 3 082 George Gershwin - An American In Paris 361 4 083 Antonin Dvořák - Rusalka 356 2 084 Steve Reich - Piano Phase 354 4 085 Giacomo Puccini - Manon Lescaut 350 2 086 Claude Debussy - Etudes 346 2 087 Scott Joplin - The Entertainer 345 4 088 luciano berio - Sequenza III (for female voice) 342 5 089 Igor Stravinsky - Symphonies of Wind Instruments 340 3 090 Ennio Morricone - For A Few Dollars More, film score 335 4 090 Les Baxter - Quiet Village 335 4 092 Glenn Branca - Symphony no. 13 ('Hallucination City') 333 3 093 Maurice Duruflé - Requiem 332 2 094 Arvo Pärt - Magnificat 329 3 095 Gustav Mahler - Symphony no. 3 328 3 096 John Cage - First Construction in Metal 327 3 097 Meredith Monk - Dolmen Music 323 4 098 Iannis Xenakis - Metastasis 322 4 099 Benjamin Britten - The Turn of the Screw, opera after Henry James 320 2 0100 Gérard Grisey - Les espaces acoustiques 318 2 0101 Maurice Ravel - Gaspard de la nuit 316 3 0102 Maurice Ravel - Daphnis et Chloe 314 2 0102 Maurice Ravel - La valse 314 2 0104 Jean Sibelius - The Tempest, incidental music for the play 310 3 0105 Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring 310 2 0106 Erik Satie - Trois Gnossienes 306 5 0107 Steve Reich - Four Organs 304 3 0108 Olivier Messiaen - Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine 300 3 0109 Scott Joplin - The Maple Leaf Rag 299 3 0110 Giacomo Puccini - Tosca 299 2 0110 Percy Grainger - A Lincolnshire Posy 299 2 0112 Witold Lutoslawski - Symphony no. 3 297 3 0113 Alban Berg - Lulu 295 3 0113 Glenn Branca - Symphony no. 6 295 3 0113 Kurt Weill (with Bertolt Brecht) - Threepenny Opera 295 3 0116 Per Norgard - Symphony no. 2 294 3 0117 John Cage - In a Landscape 293 2 0118 Maurice Ravel - Valses nobles et sentimentales 292 2 0119 Bela Bartok - Out of Doors (Szabadban), Sz. 81 288 2 0120 John Tavener - The Protecting Veil 285 3 0121 Claude Debussy - Pelléas et Mélisande 284 2 0122 Sergei Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky 283 3 0123 Giacomo Puccini - La Boheme 283 2 0124 Steve Reich - violin phase 282 3 0125 John Cage - Williams Mix 281 2 0126 Gabriel Fauré - Piano Trio 279 3 0127 Henryk Gorecki - Miserere 279 2 0128 Alfred Schnittke - Concerto Grosso No.1 278 2 0129 Alice Coltrane - Galaxy in Satchidananda 277 2 0130 John Adams - Nixon in China 275 3 0131 Iannis Xenakis - Pléïades 275 2 0132 Bernard Herrmann - Vertigo, film score 273 4 0133 Gustav Holst - First Suite in E-flat for Military Band 273 3 0134 Henry Cowell - The Banshee 265 3 0135 Harrison Birtwistle - Punch and Judy 265 2 0135 witold lutosławski - string quartet 265 2 0137 Owen Pallett - Heartland 264 2 0138 Howard Shore - The Fellowship of the Ring, film score 263 3 0139 Gyorgy Ligeti - Violin Concerto 262 2 0139 John Adams - A Short Ride in a Fast Machine 262 2 0141 Igor Stravinsky - The Rakes Progress 261 3 0142 Claude Debussy - Children's Corner 260 2 0143 Dmitry Shostakovich - Symphony no. 14 (song cycle for two singers and orchestra) 258 2 0144 Per Norgard - Symphony no. 3 256 2 0145 Charles Koechlin - The Jungle Book 254 3 0146 Astor Piazzolla - Libertango 253 2 0146 John Adams - Harmonium 253 2 0148 U Totem - One Nail Draws Another 252 2 0149 Krzysztof Penderecki - Symphony No.1 248 3 0150 Gil Evans - Sunken Treasure 248 2 0150 Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 7 248 2 0150 Olivier Messiaen - Des canyons aux étoiles 248 2 0153 Sergei Rachmaninoff - Piano Concertos 1-4 245 2 0154 Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis 242 4 0155 Elliott Carter - String Quartet No. 1 241 2 0156 Maurice Ravel - Miroirs 240 2 0157 Claude Vivier - Lonely Child 236 2 0157 Gustav Mahler - Symphony no. 7 236 2 0157 Scott Joplin - Solace 236 2 0160 Ottorino Respighi - Pines of Rome 235 2 0161 Olivier Messiaen - Vingt Regards sur L'enfant-Jesus 233 2 0162 Bernard Herrmann - Psycho, film score 232 2 0163 Olivier Messiaen - Chronochromie 231 2 0164 Olivier Messiaen - La Nativité du Seigneur 229 2 0165 Howard Shore - Crash, film score 228 2 0166 John Luther Adams - Inuksuit 227 3 0167 Arnold Schoenberg - Verklarte Nacht 226 4 0168 Louis Andriessen - Hoketus 226 2 0169 Gyorgy Ligeti - Lontano 225 3 0170 Leoš Janáček - Capriccio for Piano (left hand) and Wind Instruments 224 2 0171 Bela Bartok - String Quartet no. 5 217 2 0172 Edward Elgar - Cello Concerto 216 3 0173 Steve Reich - City Life 215 2 0174 John Cage - credo in us 212 3 0175 Charles Koechlin - Les Heures Persanes 212 2 0176 Dmitry Shostakovich - 24 Preludes and Fugues (op. 87) 210 2 0176 Pauline Oliveros - Six for New Time 210 2 0178 Bela Bartok - String Quartet no. 3 207 2 0179 Milton Babbitt - Philomel 206 2 0180 Edgard Varese - Arcana 202 3 0181 Ennio Morricone - Once Upon A Time In America, film score 202 2 0181 Kurt Schwitters - Ursonate 202 2 0181 Morton Subotnick - Silver Apples of the Moon 202 2 0181 Peter Warlock - The Curlew 202 2 0181 Wendy Carlos - Timesteps 202 2 0181 harrison birtwistle - triumph of time 202 2 0181 luciano berio - laborintus 2 202 2 0188 Bela Bartok - Piano Concerto No.2 201 2 0189 Karlheinz Stockhausen - Mikrophonie II 200 2 0189 Karlheinz Stockhausen - Prozession 200 2 0189 Ornette Coleman - Skies of America 200 2 0189 Steve Reich - phase patterns 200 2 0189 henryk gorecki - harpsichord concerto 200 2 0189 ornette coleman - dedication to poets and writers 200 2 0195 Giuseppe Verdi - Falstaff 200 1 1195 Jean Sibelius - Finlandia 200 1 1195 Sofia Gubaidulina - The Canticle of the Sun 200 1 1198 George Lewis - Homage to Charles Parker 198 1 0199 Lili Boulanger - Clairières dans le ciel 196 1 0199 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh 196 1 0
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Sunday, 9 October 2016 00:47 (eight years ago) link
Just to nitpick, Frank Martin was a francophone Swiss who also lived in Italy, France and the Netherlands.
― anatol_merklich, Monday, 10 October 2016 09:03 (eight years ago) link
195 Sofia Gubaidulina - The Canticle of the Sun 200 1 1199 Lili Boulanger - Clairières dans le ciel 196 1 0
Wow, kinda sad I was the only one to vote for these, didn't expect that... I expected there to be more love for Gubaidulina especially, she's pretty prominent and well recorded.
― Tuomas, Monday, 10 October 2016 10:25 (eight years ago) link
had a listen to that george lewis piece and nice v v nice
― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Thursday, 13 October 2016 23:08 (eight years ago) link
is there a spotify link to this anywhere?
― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Friday, 18 November 2016 11:51 (eight years ago) link
got it, never mind
― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Friday, 18 November 2016 11:52 (eight years ago) link
I haven't gotten around to doing the 101-200 playlist yet btw. Maybe during the holiday lull.
― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon), Friday, 18 November 2016 13:19 (eight years ago) link
I'm not sure why I was AWOL for this! I remember nominating stuff, The Unanswered Question for one.
I'm never quite sure how popular Messiaen is, but that's a pleasing result on that front.
It looks like, if I'd be paying attention, Daphnis et Chloe, Alexander Nevsky and some Lutoslawski and Koechlin might have just snuck into the 100. :)
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Thursday, 5 December 2019 08:16 (five years ago) link
I just want to say thank you for this thread to all who participated. I've been making my way through this list and have found so many amazing pieces. Today's discovery: Arvo Part's Fratres, Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, and Tabula Rasa.
― Indexed, Wednesday, 7 February 2024 21:45 (ten months ago) link
This Sunday's NYT piece on the straightjacketing effect of Rhapsody in Blue over the course of the last 100 years annoyed me but also had some truth to it
― badpee pooper (Eric H.), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 21:53 (ten months ago) link