Forbidding titles

[jayne lee wilson]

A couple of cheerful titles from Jonathan Harvey - 'Death of Light/Light of Death' and 'Wheel of Emptiness'.

Yes, but JH's titles are very expressive and apt to the music..... to wit:

Madonna of Winter and Spring

Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco

Both marvellous - once heard never forgotten....

It is another fascination with later 20thC music, the developing tendency to try to find titles to give some idea of expressive and/or technical content...
Why was that?

One reason why a truly great symphonist like Robert Simpson can seem "out of time" with his plain numbering.....
... yet he still wrote Eppur si move and Volcano...

[Pulcinella]

Sallinen's piece Aspects of the Funeral March of Hintriki Peltoniemi doesn't exactly sound like it would be a barrel of laughs.

[Roslynmuse]

Elisabeth Lutyens' Excerpta tractus-logico philosophici is clearly a prime candidate for programming by Jorja or Celeste.

[french frank]

Mosolov, The Iron Foundry

[cloughie]

Depending on the avian species and location in the garden Toru Takemitsu’s ‘A flock descends into a Pentagonal Garden’ could be forbidding!

[Serial_Apologist]

Henze: Essay on Pigs

[Richard Barrett]

Henze: Essay on Pigs

Come on, S_A, you must know that Henze did much better than that with his The Tedious Way to the Place of Natascha Ungeheuer, that's enough to put anyone off (although it's anything but tedious actually).

On the subject of Jonathan Harvey I did once see a performance of a work of his for vocal ensemble simply entitled Come, which was something of an eyebrow-raiser. In Rosslyn Hill Chapel too, as I remember. Of course it is often a challenge for composers to invent titles if their work isn't written in traditional forms like symphonies and concertos. Although some such composers do make an exception for string quartets and are content just to number them (thinking here of Dillon and Ferneyhough, neither of whom would be caught dead writing a "symphony").

[LMcD]

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Three Screaming Popes ... I don't know, you wait ages for a screaming pope and then three turn up ....

[french frank]

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Three Screaming Popes ... I don't know, you wait ages for a screaming pope and then three turn up ....

It may be sort of intriguing, but I don't find Benjamin's Written on Skin very appealing as a title.

[LMcD]

I feel the same way about Birtwistle's 'For O, For O, The Hobby Horse Is Forgot' - or is it just that it reminds me of certain scenes in 'The Wicker Man'?
I guess it's no coincidence that many of the titles offered are those of works by modern composers, some of whose works challenge established forms and therefore require titles that reflect the new directions which these works take.

[Serial_Apologist]

Come on, S_A, you must know that Henze did much better than that with his The Tedious Way to the Place of Natascha Ungeheuer, that's enough to put anyone off (although it's anything but tedious actually).

I changed my mind! I have that LP with Stomu Yamash'ta performing on crumpled car. It also has my favourite brass ensemble music - staggering, in all senses!

[Bryn]

If you fancy a digitization, it's in the Henze Complete DG recordings box, where the title on the box itself simply reads "Natacha Ungeheuer". Not an easy set to find, these days, however. Maybe a PM might help. After all, you have already paid for the recording on vinyl.

[Roslynmuse]

I feel the same way about Birtwistle's 'For O, For O, The Hobby Horse Is Forgot' - or is it just that it reminds me of certain scenes in 'The Wicker Man'?
I guess it's no coincidence that many of the titles offered are those of works by modern composers, some of whose works challenge established forms and therefore require titles that reflect the new directions which these works take.

I love that title (Shakespeare), possibly - now you mention it - also subliminally because of Edward Woodward resonances!

[LMcD]

I love that title (Shakespeare), possibly - now you mention it - also subliminally because of Edward Woodward resonances!

It was reportedly Christopher Lee's favourite among his films - I loved the remark about the joy of meeting a straight (or was it honest?) copper.

[MickyD]

How about the macabre 'Tableau de l'Opération de la Taille' by Marais? A blow by blow account for viola da gamba of the operation for the removal of a gall-stone.

Listening to this, having just undergone surgery myself a couple of days ago, I feel distinctly thankful that I live in the 21st century.