25 for 25: Sounds of the Century

[Serial_Apologist]

They’re playing that Birds Of Paradise piece every morning now . A listenable enough pice but that constantly repeated 6 note figure C - D-E -F -D-E is really starting to irritate.,
Any one else struck by the thought that these pieces supposedly marking the first 25 years of the 21st Century appear to ignore all the musical developments of the 20th and could pretty much have been written in 1925?

Similar then to what happened to jazz (and the jazz congnoscenti's opinions about it) with the arrival of Wynton Marsalis in the early 80s, except in his case the criticism/condemnations reflected his views on jazz between about 1965 and... himself. Revisionism. Didn't someone once say that a civilization's decline is reflected in that of its arts and culture?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Similar then to what happened to jazz (and the jazz congnoscenti's opinions about it) with the arrival of Wynton Marsalis in the early 80s, except in his case the criticism/condemnations reflected his views on jazz between about 1965 and... himself. Revisionism. Didn't someone once say that a civilization's decline is reflected in that of its arts and culture?

Ooh I quite like his early albums.

[Serial_Apologist]

Ooh I quite like his early albums.

Yes, me too - he was picking up where Miles had left off, somewhere around 1967 - and doing it with the right people. But Miles, in the current jargon, had "moved on" - rather in ways similar to how Stravinsky had after Le sacre, which younger contemporaries such as Milhaud, Honegger and Varese subsequently used to launch from their own staging posts. All that said, those early releases with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams and brother Branford do sound a bit too clipped and clever-clogs to my ears today.

[esmondo]

The mention of the Bill Evans style put me in mind of a wonderful piano score which I have, and which might interest some of the pianists among us:

https://www.musicroom.com/bill-evans-bill-evans-time-remembered-piano-solo-hl00121885?srsltid=AfmBOoosdXPhLqbWzAQthsO14iml8beOdHX7UqiRbCzLnhQiQpbL0ib_

It's 14 of his solos nicely transcribed for piano, all reasonably playable. Playing through them I can get the lovely feeling that I'm improvising just like the man himself.

[Ein Heldenleben]

The mention of the Bill Evans style put me in mind of a wonderful piano score which I have, and which might interest some of the pianists among us:

https://www.musicroom.com/bill-evans-bill-evans-time-remembered-piano-solo-hl00121885?srsltid=AfmBOoosdXPhLqbWzAQthsO14iml8be OdHX7UqiRbCzLnhQiQpbL0ib_

It's 14 of his solos nicely transcribed for piano, all reasonably playable. Playing through them I can get the lovely feeling that I'm improvising just like the man himself.

I reckon I have most of the Bill transcription albums with the first bought in 1984.” Reasonably playable “ ? Yes if you’re a genius. I’ve even got oddities like Sibelius transcriptions done myself of his recordings complete with ridiculous ledger lines and over complex notation of jazz swing rhythms. Even went to the trouble of copying off YouTube the transcription of ‘People ‘ and putting in a Bflat key sig to make it readable. I hunted his version of Haunted Heart for years and one day it turned up on YouTube . Playing along with a crawling YouTube transcription takes some doing. Hats off to the people who’ve spent hours doing them.

No point playing the solos …do your own . They won’t be as good as Bills but nor will anyone else’s . But by playing the transcriptions you learn an Incalculable amount about harmony , harmonic progression and voicing.

He was the greatest.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Yes, me too - he was picking up where Miles had left off, somewhere around 1967 - and doing it with the right people. But Miles, in the current jargon, had "moved on" - rather in ways similar to how Stravinsky had after Le sacre, which younger contemporaries such as Milhaud, Honegger and Varese subsequently used to launch from their own staging posts. All that said, those early releases with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams and brother Branford do sound a bit too clipped and clever-clogs to my ears today.

Wynton never found his Gil Evans …

[esmondo]

Small blow of my trumpet: any Sibelius-using pianists who are appalled at the ridiculous way that Flexi-Time input notates your playing might like to have a go at post-processing the notation with the Renotate Performance plugin I wrote for them (SIbelius 6 and before, use Plugins > Simplify Notation > Renotate Performance, after that has its own sweeping brush icon). This can correct the gross errors in quantization and voicing, though would still have a hard time with irregular rhythms. Someday I intend to getting around to improving it...

[Ein Heldenleben]

Small blow of my trumpet: any Sibelius-using pianists who are appalled at the ridiculous way that Flexi-Time input notates your playing might like to have a go at post-processing the notation with the Renotate Performance plugin I wrote for them (SIbelius 6 and before, use Plugins > Simplify Notation > Renotate Performance, after that has its own sweeping brush icon). This can correct the gross errors in quantization and voicing, though would still have a hard time with irregular rhythms. Someday I intend to getting around to improving it...

It’s the ledger lines and lack of correct left and right hand distribution I can’t stand,
Impressed with your coding skills …

[Serial_Apologist]

The mention of the Bill Evans style put me in mind of a wonderful piano score which I have, and which might interest some of the pianists among us:

https://www.musicroom.com/bill-evans-bill-evans-time-remembered-piano-solo-hl00121885?srsltid=AfmBOoosdXPhLqbWzAQthsO14iml8beOdHX7UqiRbCzLnhQiQpbL0ib_

It's 14 of his solos nicely transcribed for piano, all reasonably playable. Playing through them I can get the lovely feeling that I'm improvising just like the man himself.

We all have to start somewhere!

[smittims]

I keep listening to the latest offerings in this series, hoping it will turn up something worth hearing. Buy today's piece ('In a world of war, peace is what we're fighting for') was especially disappointing . Apart from being a very feeble, trite composition, there was , for me, nothing in it to suggest the title; it might have been a piece aboiut someone turning over in bed, or walking the streets of Balham on a wet Sunday afternoon.

It made me think again: just who are these composers and how did the BBC select them? I thinkm we should be told,

[Ein Heldenleben]

I keep listening to the latest offerings in this series, hoping it will turn up something worth hearing. Buy today's piece ('In a world of war, peace is what we're fighting for') was especially disappointing . Apart from being a very feeble, trite composition, there was , for me, nothing in it to suggest the title; it might have been a piece aboiut someone turning over in bed, or walking the streets of Balham on a wet Sunday afternoon.

It made me think again: just who are these composers and how did the BBC select them? I thinkm we should be told,

It’s a damning indictment of the apparent state of British music composition and the especially the critical faculties and quality of those handling out commissions. I know there’s better stuff out there.