Random Shuffle 20: Incidendo/Fluido
Incidendo/Fluido, for piano and CD playback, Olga Neuwirth (2000)
(11:38)
Nicolas Hodges, Piano
A lot of this piece sounds about the same as music by any number of other European avant-garde composers - some of the de-tuned piano notes and sine-wave-like electronic sounds are hypnotizing, but the clustery, repetitious structure of the material sounds ( Read more... )
(11:38)
Nicolas Hodges, Piano
A lot of this piece sounds about the same as music by any number of other European avant-garde composers - some of the de-tuned piano notes and sine-wave-like electronic sounds are hypnotizing, but the clustery, repetitious structure of the material sounds ( Read more... )
Comments 2
(The comment has been removed)
Maybe we have a different set of composers in mind when we say "European avant-garde"? Since Stockhausen and Scelsi, it seems to me that trance-like repetition has been a recurring trope of the EAG. And much EAG music has a similar effect, whether it means to or not. For instance, the opaque complexities of Ferneyhough or Boulez often "gray out" into a mix that, in the end, I apprehend as homogenous.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Probably Ferneyhough wants his music to be understood the way you described it: as "an incredibly heterogeneous, instantaneous drama." So does Carter, I think. But these are super-intelligent composers who know their own music inside out, and I often suspect it's hard for them to be objective about it. There's inevitably a point where a high level of activity grays out into a static sound-mass -- it may not happen as quickly if your ear is trained, but there's still a limit. (Boulanger claimed to be able to follow contrapuntal lines independently up to eight voices.)
I think I can sense Neuwirth's relationship to Lachenmann and Sciarrino, etc. Wouldn't you consider Sciarrino's solo flute music an example EAG music using trance-like repetition?
Reply
Leave a comment