American Classics

[Beef Oven!]

Charles Wuorinen - Percussion Quartet
New Jersey Percussion Ensemble.

(I have, down the years, underestimated the quality of American avant garde/modernist music)

[ahinton]

(I have, down the years, underestimated the quality of American avant garde/modernist music)

Not quite sure what worlks and composers you'd put into that category but if ever there was a generally underestimated and woefully underrepresented American composer who conceded to no one yet at the same time wrote works largely couched within well established European traditions without ever compromising his Americanness it was Roger Sessions.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not quite sure what worlks and composers you'd put into that category but if ever there was a generally underestimated and woefully underrepresented American composer who conceded to no one yet at the same time wrote works largely couched within well established European traditions without ever compromising his Americanness it was Roger Sessions.

Indeed - and I'm hoping, too, that Milton Babbitt's Music features on R3 some time during this, his centenary year.

Maybe even at The Proms

[Beef Oven!]

Thanks ahinton & fernie, I need to investigate Roger Babbitt.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks ahinton & fernie, I need to investigate Roger Babbitt.

Bob Hoskins could help you there!

[Beef Oven!]

Bob Hoskins could help you there!

[ahinton]

Thanks ahinton & fernie, I need to investigate Roger Babbitt.

!!!

Babbitt is perhaps even more misunderstood than Sessions, perhaps not least because of the rubbish about "who cares if you listen?" which of course he never said or wrote; a challenging composer, undoubtedly, but one who also enjoyed playing easy listening jazz and, rather like Richard Rodney Bennett, he seemed never to have a problem about pursuing what some people might think to be preternaturally incompatible musical activities.

[Beef Oven!]

!!!

See fernie's #485

Babbitt is perhaps even more misunderstood than Sessions, perhaps not least because of the rubbish about "who cares if you listen?" which of course he never said or wrote; a challenging composer, undoubtedly, but one who also enjoyed playing easy listening jazz and, rather like Richard Rodney Bennett, he seemed never to have a problem about pursuing what some people might think to be preternaturally incompatible musical activities.

I have listened to precious little Babbitt or Sessions and I have almost none of their music in my CD collection (despite being aware of both composers and their music for about 30 years).

[ahinton]

See fernie's #485



I have listened to precious little Babbitt or Sessions and I have almost none of their music in my CD collection (despite being aware of both composers and their music for about 30 years).

Then you have much of value to which to look forward!

[Beef Oven!]

Then you have much of value to which to look forward!

Yes, indeed. I often envy people who have never heard the music of X or Y composer. They have so much ahead of them.

But I don't know what preternaturally incompatible musical activities are.

[ahinton]

Yes, indeed. I often envy people who have never heard the music of X or Y composer. They have so much ahead of them.

But I don't know what preternaturally incompatible musical activities are.

Then bear in mind that I prefaced this phrase with "what some people might think to be" before seeking to draw attention to the kinds of contrasting musical activity that some people would not obviously expect to witness being carried out by one and the same person; in fact, the distrust of some musicians who have had feet in several camps continues to exist today - I call it the Busoni syndrome and it was something from which Rachmaninoff perhaps largely escaped by reason of pursuing his careers as pianist, conductor and composer more or less separately although, in the case of Richard Rodney Bennett, André Previn and, to a far lesser extent Milton Babbitt, it was more about the pursuits of quite different musics than the pursuit of different musical activities per se.

[Beef Oven!]

Then bear in mind that I prefaced this phrase with "what some people might think to be" before seeking to draw attention to the kinds of contrasting musical activity that some people would not obviousloy expect to witness being carried out by one and the same person; in fact, the distrust of some musicians who have had feet in several camps continues to exist today - I call it the Busoni syndrome and it was something from which Rachmaninoff perhaps largely escaped by reason of pursuing his careers as pianist, conductor and composer more or less separately although, in the case of Richard Rodney Bennett, André Previn and, to a far lesser extent Milton Babbitt, it was more about the pursuits of quite different musics than the pursuit of different musical activities per se.

Ah, I geddit. Thanks.

[ahinton]

Ah, I geddit. Thanks.

OK. You're welcome!

[Beef Oven!]

I'm curious about Peter Mennin. Is anyone ken on his music, here?

[teamsaint]

I'm curious about Peter Mennin. Is anyone ken on his music, here?

Suffy covered them on his Journey.

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?7547-Suffolkcoastal-s-Symphonic-Journey&p=289485&highlight=mennin#post289485