Let’s Make a List

1. “A floresta é jovem e chega de vida”,nono
   “stimmung”,stockhausen
   ” Quaderno di strada”Salvatore Sciarrino

   and just my favorite voice work!!!maybe just only a few

2. well then, the big person in that category is annea lockwood, whose ‘sound map of the danube’ will be out in april-ish. it’s a sequel of sorts to ‘sound map of the hudson river,’ which is very available now.

3. oops, I guess I misunderstood the intent of the post and blew it. How about Parade by Satie or Sinfonia Antarctica by Vaughn Williams? Both used acoustic means to generate everyday sounds and mood, rather than electronics.

4. Your point is a good one, Tom. Musical representation of natural sounds is closer to what I was thinking. I love When Crows Gather (I think I discovered it through Frank Oteri). I grew up on a hillside farm and it evokes in me a strong sense of long summer afternoons in the fields with my dad, the darkening clouds and the coming thunderstorm, the rail fence and the oak tree. The gathering of crows.

5. Doh! Well, I was 1/3 on the mark; Quatuor pour la fin du temps has all those bird calls in the first movement.

   “Music not as abstraction but music that mirrors what the ear hears”

   That’s an interesting thought. It occurs to me that by putting something extra-musical in a piece, whether pre-recorded, or an actual musical representation of natural sounds, you automatically abstract it (be it fog horns or birds) because in that context it becomes a symbol.

   I’m sorry. I know you’re just trying to make a simple list…

6. “Mourning Madrid” – Carey

   Hi Jerry. Wouldn’t normally suggest my own music for a list, but your posting reminded me of my last orchestra commission. I had a piece played out in the Hamptons in ’04 that incorporated an LIRR locomotive.

   Written to commemorate the Madrid train bombings, the pitch material for the work was based on pitches from the train’s horn; the passing train interacted with the brass. Sadly, the tape didn’t turn out; it hasn’t been easy to find another train company willing to collaborate with an orchestra!

7. Okay, I can see that we are all taking this assignment seriously. Actually, what I was going for here was a list of works that use naturalistic \”found\” sounds to define place and mood. Music not as abstraction but music that mirrors what the ear hears. Ivesian, you might say.

   Fog Tropes will be performed next Tuesday night at Zankel Hall by Ensemble ACJW which is the product of a joint program by Carnegie Hall, Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute. They\’re also doing Reich\’s City Life. Alan Pierson, the brilliant young man behind Alarm Will Sound, will conduct.

8. I’m just warming up.

   Concerto Grosso for Pig Pen and Pipa — Right Shang
   (cow)aBUNGa — Jean Cage
   Parrotting, Parrotting — Glilip Plass
   Polar Bears, eh Dude? — David Rakowski
   Elephant Poop (based on speeches by Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice) — Downtown Collective
   flee selon flee — Peter Boulez
   Hypervortex temporum animaux aquatique — Gerard Greasy

9. Schneehundstrauerfeiergesang null — Karlheinz Stockhousin

10. Ah, “Fog Tropes”, what a cool piece

    “Stele” Op.33_Gyorgy Kurtag

    “Spell”_ Per Norgard

    “Quatuor pour la fin du temps”_Messiaen

11. h, anything in particular, Jerry? Stream of consciousness perhaps?

    Here’s some stuff from my recent playlist:

    Le Réveil des oiseaux (Messiaen)
    Quartet for violin, clarinet, tenor sax and piano, op.22 (Webern)
    ushabti (dbt)

    Actually, tons of stuff by Messiaen, Webern and even (gasp) Boulez have crossed my tympanic membrane lately. Maybe that’s what happens when you get older; you start listening to stuff from your younger years.

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