ILM Listening Chamber 18

i don't get it. sorry. but for me music is as simple as this: it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.

Sounds very Steve Reich-ish. But I know absolutely Jack about this sort of stuff, so...

Maybe the soundtrack to some Bros. Quay or Jan Svankmajer short film.

Not my cup of coffe neither. Some modern "classical" music. Don't think it is Steve Reich, more in the direction of Stockhausen or John Cage. But I am totally ignorant here too. The piano is quite repetitive at the end nevertheless. No melody of course.

The piano seems quite well played but the percussionist gets in the way a bit. Oh, and a bit of slightly obtrussive ring modulation at the end - totally out of place.

Right. Well, I'm not going to say what it is yet. But I would like to comment on the above responses and say why I chose it.

First of all, do I like it? Well no, not very much. But I do like other things by the same composer a lot. I was deliberately stacking up the odds against this piece - for one thing it's just a four minute excerpt from something that is 70 minutes long. I don't think I've ever managed to get through the whole 70 minutes of it in one sitting, either. Secondly, this, the most recent recording, is probably the least good of the 3 (I think) recordings of the piece that have been issued.

All that said, I don't really understand these "I don't know anything about this sort of thing" cop outs. I don't know anything about the J-Pop, Brazilian music or Japanese metal bands, and very little about country music, but I commented none the less on those mp3s and I believe my opinions were valid.

This all ties in rather nicely with today's thread on thinking about music intellectually and emotionally. There I argued in favour of the intellectual approach, and I could try to explain the modus operandi of this piece if it would help. But ultimately, as I also said, if it doesn't do anything for you emotionally - and this piece (and the extract in this mp3) only does so for me at odd moments - it is valid to say "it's not good". My point is, though, that had the same music been performed by guitars, bass and drums, I wonder if the responses so far would have been the same.

By the way, that is a ring modulator you heard at the end, Phil. In fact it's present throughout this extract, albeit rather quiet. The piece is actually scored for two pianos, each with a microphone, filter, ring modulator and sine wave generator wired up to it, with the pianists also playing the percussion instruments. I told you it was a naff recording!

It was Stockhausen. An excerpt from "Mantra" (1970).

The recording was this one and I think it was track 8 that I chose.

Other reasons for choosing it - Stocky was in the news at the time, (as was AFX, not that anyone made the - to me, obvious - connection).

I wish I'd gone with the Helicopter String Quartet now, which if nothing else is at least hugely entertaining.

But ultimately, as I also said, if it doesn't do anything for you emotionally - and this piece (and the extract in this mp3) only does so for me at odd moments - it is valid to say "it's not good".

I disagree. Why do you have to say if it's good or not, why can't you think of more interesting things to say about it? This "good or not" game gets really old, and it closes so many doors.

Agree 100% Clarke. I was just expressing my frustration that hardly anyone was prepared to say anything at all. Pay me no mind. ;-) I'd just rather someone said "this is shit because of X" than "I know nothing about this sort of thing" is all. The former at least invites a discussion.

the first time round it did nothing for me at all, and i found it irritating. playing it again now, it is more enjoyable. the first thing that really sticks out is what Phil said, the percussion is intrusive, would be better without it (esp the woodblock sound). i couldn't but help think of peter and the wolf, to be honest.