Dinner with Stockhausen... help!

[abbot lau]

An interesting footnote to this whole episode:


I was in a playground toilet the other day trying to have a piss while holding my 1 year old daughter when my 3 year old son helpfully turned all the lights off. In between the sound of piss hitting the water and some random whoops and grunts the 1 year old daughter was making in the pitch darkness I was reminded of the Stockhausen gig and even managed to visualise the sounds as they echoed around the walls.

Whether I am developing an enhanced consciousness of sound or just taking one step closer to the ranks of stoners, nutters and freaks remains to be seen.

[Gazeuse]

I'm not saying anything.

[splattermac]

Go on, I can't read between the lines on that one.

[Sam]

Go on, I can't read between the lines on that one.

Gazeuse is less than enthusiastic about atonal/avant-garde classical music.  See any other threads on modern classical music on here.

[Gazeuse]

That just about sums it up, although I'd argue that the British Experimentalists were the true avant garde rther than the xtremely retro garde modern serialists/electro composers.

Oops...I said something!!!

[butnut]

Ah but the British experimental thing only came into being after the 50s European Avant-Garde met Americans like Cage and Feldman (as far as I'm aware anyway). Unless you're including Percy Grainger as one of the 'British Experimentalists' - which knowing you, you probably are!

[Gazeuse]

You know me too well!!!

While I wouldn't actually include Grainger as one of them himself, the experimentalists cite influences such as Grainger, Satie, and Berners.

[Johnny Yesno]

Stockhausen was interviewed on The Culture Show yesterday. Annoyingly, I only discovered this when I happened to turn the telly over to BBC2 not long before the end so I didn't catch the whole interview. There's a repeat on Saturday but, according to my telly guide, it's a repeat of the one featuring Banksy.

Good job I taped this repeat because it was the one with Stockhausen. How can anyone list a programme with Stockhausen in as "Featuring Banksy" even if it has indeed got Banksy in? Banksy's not even from space, FFS.

[Ambient Sheep]

Whether I am developing an enhanced consciousness of sound or just taking one step closer to the ranks of stoners, nutters and freaks remains to be seen.

It's called a "flashback", isn't it? :-D  Must have been good stuff...

[abbot lau]

It's called a "flashback", isn't it? :-D  Must have been good stuff...

Hey, I 'burned one', not 'dropped one'!   Then again it could be a flashback to the ones I've dropped in the past.

Hmmm.. Stockhausen on acid...   I'd say it would be either the biggest mindfuck ever or else they would just cancel eachother out and you'd not experience anything at all. Unlikely, though.

[splattermac]

What I know about these composers you could write on the back of a very small thing that composers use but I don't know the name of. Maybe one of those tiny pins they use to keep the notes on the page so they don't fly off at the first wave of the baton.

Stockhausen got a mention tonight in the Culture Show piece about Pierre Boulez and at the end of the show it mentioned promised more tomorrow.

Boulez at the BBC
The work of composer and conductor Pierre Boulez comes under the spotlight, as BBC FOUR looks back at a career spanning four decades. What drove him to become a pioneering campaigner for 'new music'?         
Fri 11 Nov, 19:30-20:00  30mins  Stereo  Widescreen  

Thirty minutes though, is his work really that thin or challenging?

[Sam]

I also saw that bit on The Culture Show about Boulez. It was nice that they managed to interview him and he came across as quite pleasant. I'll definitely be watching the programme tomorrow. I think the announcer also said there was a broadcast on Saturday night on BBC 4 as well. There was a programme on radio 3 a while back which was quite long and comprehensive and summed up a lot about his life, works, ideas and influence. It had interviews with Geroge Benjamin, Roger Scruton and others.

I find Boulez fascinating, mostly for his conducting and his ideas and writings (See "Stocktakings: From an Apprenticship" and "Orientations") as opposed to his composed work. I do like several of his pieces (Repons, Messagequisse, the Second Sonata, La Marteau sans la Maitre) but some of his stuff leaves me cold (probably cos I don't understand it). I definitely think he deserves his repuation (the good and the bad parts) and it's no exaggeration to call him one of the most important musicians of the 20th century, certainly the most important of the post-war avant-garde and one of the finest conductors in the world. His ear and attention to detail is astonishing. Listening to his interpretations of Debussy and Ravel is a marvel.

I think every serious music fan should engage with him, even if they don't like atonal music. I certainly understand why people are opposed to him and his music and I can sympathise with his detractors, but to write him off completely is I think unfair.