Hear & Now; Sat 16/4/14, 10:00pm

[Beef Oven!]

I tried AboveEarth's Shadow but after three minutes of scurrying scraping sounds gave up .

What a bigot. Why don't you open your mind to other possibilities in music, beyond those "wonderful Rossini Overtures" that you so love? More tolerance, less bigotry.

[Richard Barrett]

after three minutes of scurrying scraping sounds gave up .

Why didn't you stop buttering your toast and listen to the music?

[MrGongGong]

beyond those "wonderful Rossini Overtures" .

Never heard of him
actually I tell a lie, there is a dim distant memory of some music about a cowboy on a silver horse but apart from that?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I tried AboveEarth's Shadow but after three minutes of scurrying scraping sounds gave up .

Well - thanks for giving it a go, Barbi; but what a shame you gave up so soon! As I described in my "spoiler", the scurrying sounds at the start are just a part of the whole*. It would have been interesting, seeing how you responded to the Cage/Hildegard extracts yesterday, to see what you thought of the violin melody that emerges from about 4mins 30" in and takes up about half of the work.

*(I love the "scraping scurrying sounds", of course!)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Daniel - many thanks for your comments in #8 I do have that CD, but bought it at a time when I didn't have the time to give it the attention it needs and deserves. A good time now to rectify my omission. I also have a DVD "Evolution & Collaboration: the composition, rehearsal & performance of Finnissy's Second String Quartet", which I've similarly neglected and then forgotten about. It contains interviews with the composer and players, extracts from rehearsals and (IIRC) a complete performance of the work - worth seeking out.

I'm looking forward to exploring the work of this great man (whom I have always admired) this year.

[Beef Oven!]

Well - thanks for giving it a go, Barbi; but what a shame you gave up so soon! As I described in my "spoiler", the scurrying sounds at the start are just a part of the whole*. It would have been interesting, seeing how you responded to the Cage/Hildegard extracts yesterday, to see what you thought of the violin melody that emerges from about 4mins 30" in and takes up about half of the work.

*(I love the "scraping scurrying sounds", of course!)

I think the point that you miss (or I'm missing your polite irony), is that he didn't give it a go, and ridiculed the music with a sneering comment.

What I find so frustrating, is that within all the music genre and circles that I interact with, so many classical music fans (often those that mainly concern themselves with classical to romantic) are bigoted. I'd rather stick needles in my eyeballs than listen to Brahms' piano concertos*, but I don't try to ridicule that music, or the people who enjoy it.

*I've tried for 25 years (B's piano concertos, not the needles bit)

[MickyD]

I think the point that you miss (or I'm missing your polite irony), is that he didn't give it a go, and ridiculed the music with a sneering comment.

What I find so frustrating, is that within all the music genre and circles that I interact with, so many classical music fans (often those that mainly concern themselves with classical to romantic) are bigoted. I'd rather stick needles in my eyeballs than listen to Brahms' piano concertos*, but I don't try to ridicule that music, or the people who enjoy it.

*I've tried for 25 years (B's piano concertos, not the needles bit)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think the point that you miss (or I'm missing your polite irony), is that he didn't give it a go, and ridiculed the music with a sneering comment.

Well, Barbi didn't get very far beyond the "Go" square, but at the very least he got there; and compared with some of the ridiculing language he's used when commenting on other pieces, "scurrying scraping" was positively restrained - and (like "shrieking fanfare" for the dissonant bit at the start of the Finale of Beethoven's Ninth) not too "sneering". I do wish he'd listen to the whole work, though.

[ahinton]

I think the point that you miss (or I'm missing your polite irony), is that he didn't give it a go, and ridiculed the music with a sneering comment.

What I find so frustrating, is that within all the music genre and circles that I interact with, so many classical music fans (often those that mainly concern themselves with classical to romantic) are bigoted. I'd rather stick needles in my eyeballs than listen to Brahms' piano concertos*, but I don't try to ridicule that music, or the people who enjoy it.

*I've tried for 25 years (B's piano concertos, not the needles bit)

Don't tell Jonathan Powell about your long established response to those concertos! (OK, he's only played the latter so far, but...)

That said, the kind of bigotry that you rightly deplore is all too prevalent in such circles which ought to be the last places where one might expect to have to encounter it; we all have music to which we love to listen, some that we find acceptable, some to which we're indifferent and some that we loathe, but we all know that no two people share identical likes/dislikes and there's nothing worse than that kind of bigotry in fostering the kind of divisiveness, intolerance and side-taking that can be most dangerously unpleasant in other contexts.

[Beef Oven!]

Well, Barbi didn't get very far beyond the "Go" square, but at the very least he got there; and compared with some of the ridiculing language he's used when commenting on other pieces, "scurrying scraping" was positively restrained - and (like "shrieking fanfare" for the dissonant bit at the start of the Finale of Beethoven's Ninth) not too "sneering". I do wish he'd listen to the whole work, though.

I think it's irrelevant if people are using their normal ridiculing language or or a having a better day. And to get past any 'Go' square, you need to approach it without prejudice.

[Beef Oven!]

Don't tell Jonathan Powell about your long established response to those concertos! (OK, he's only played the latter so far, but...)

That said, the kind of bigotry that you rightly deplore is all too prevalent in such circles which ought to be the last places where one might expect to have to encounter it; we all have music to which we love to listen, some that we find acceptable, some to which we're indifferent and some that we loathe, but we all know that no two people share identical likes/dislikes and there's nothing worse than that kind of bigotry in fostering the kind of divisiveness, intolerance and side-taking that can be most dangerously unpleasant in other contexts.

I wouldn't want to say anything that might rile Jonathan Powell - that look and associated body language he gave that poor page-turner at Oxford University a few years ago scared me, and I was only in the audience!

That said, yes, such circles are the last place you'd expect such bigotry.

[ahinton]

I wouldn't want to say anything that might rile Jonathan Powell - that look and associated body language he gave that poor page-turner at Oxford University a few years ago scared me, and I was only in the audience!

That said, yes, such circles are the last place you'd expect such bigotry.

I must confess that I'd not care to turn pages for anyone!

But yes - why such bigotry in musical circles? Shameful, methinks...

[Quarky]

Michael Finnissy's 70th birthday is celebrated at this year's Proms by ... err, nothing, actually, not even a replay of his pretty damn impressive orchestral piece Red Earth. So this performance of Above Earth's Shadow will have to do for now.

I've had difficulties with Finnissy's Music in the past: unreserved enthusiasm for English Country Tunes, but much else I find elusive - in the (non)sense that whilst I think I get what he's doing, there often seems to be a veil between what I feel I ought to be experiencing and what I actually feel from the Music itself. But enough of my problems - Above Earth's Shadow is a fine and impressive piece, which interested Forumistas so inclined might wish to "prepare" themselves for from this earlier broadcast performance (as I assume from Robert Warby's concluding remarks) from Ensemble Exposé (whose appearance at this year's Proms I shall miss on the grounds that they aren't appearing) conducted by Roger Redgate with Mieko Kanno the superb violin solo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC1yN8oIumM

It's a 20minute piece, scored for a septet of solo violin, flute(/piccolo), clarinet, violin, viola, 'cello and Double Bass, with which Finnissy frequently creates the illusion of a much larger ensemble. I don't have access to a score, so the following comments are based just upon listening a couple of times to the youTube recording.

The work seems to contrast "still" material with that which is more active and unsettled. This is reflected even in the contrast between sustained notes and notes equally long in duration, but given "movement" by tremolandos and trills. Most of the work lies in a high register (the 'cello and Bass often using harmonics), and there is more quiet Music than loud - but Finnissy balances the "predictability" of these features with rare but perfectly timed moments of contrast.

0:00 - 0:50 - a burst of sounds starts (in both senses of the word) the piece. A piccolo presents a sort of "cantus firmus" of sustained pitches, around which the three higher strings of the ensemble "buzz" in harmonics and sul ponticello tremolandi.

0:50 - 1:40 - the "cantus firmus" is joined/taken over by the Clarinet, playing fluttertongue to connect the sustained notes of the piccolo with the tremolando of the strings. The 'cello (I think - it may be the Bass) presents the first low sounds, and commences a rising scale (trem and sul pont) in a "straight line". The ensemble strings continue their opening material, but now pianissimo and very much in the background.

1:40 - 3:25 - the prominent "foreground" clarinet is suddenly receded, as the solo violin first (?I think - I don't think it's been playing so far, and certainly not in a "soloistic" manner) appears, continuing the sustained notes of the "cantus firmus" in tremolandi, the clarinet now "shadowing" the solo violin. The mood is calmer than at the opening, with the strings now playing a microtonal harmonization of the sustained notes, quasi-Chorlae-like(ish). [A curious use of the clarinet and flute - ?again, I think? - occurs around 3:25; the way Finnissy mingles these with the other instruments; I would have sworn if I hadn't known the instrumentation that some muted brass had been used at this point.]

3:25 - 4:35 - Sudden loud (in context, probably mf in reality) pizzicati attempt to interrupt the flow of the Music - this becomes more assertive for a while, whilst the solo violin and Flute and Clarinet (who often work as a timbral trio in the work) continue the soft, sustained note "cantus firmus".

4:35 - 6:45 - the texture/instrumentation is reduced simply to a melody presented by the solo violin, "accompanied" by sustained note trills from the Clarinet. At 5:25, the violin melody introduces a "Scotch snap"-like rhythm that is featured throughout the rest of the piece, creating more dance-like idea to complement the song-like mood that has been such a predominant feature hitherto.

6:45 - 9:25 - the violin solo continues, and the ensemble strings join the clarinet with another microtonal "chorale" harmonization of the sustained notes. The "mood" here is beguiling - I've written "serene? Eerie 'relaxed anxiety'" . The woodwinds are blended into the timbral texture from 8:15.

9:25 - a brief, "impatient" burst (lasting about 20 seconds) interrupts the mood: solo piccolo reminds us of the very start of the piece, even if the material it plays now is very different from then - Finnissy using specific instrumental timbre as a structural "marker", and with the pizzicato strings at this point (and the "scratch" bowing from the low 'cello recollecting the "straight line" ascending scale from earlier. Then this "burst" vanishes and the "melody and chorale" material continues.

11:45 - 12:30 - the 'cello's recollection of the scale isn't lost; it now returns to this material, pppp but now "matured" by what's happened since - the rising line (no longer a simple straight line) played sul pont and shared with the Bass.

12:30 - 14:15 - a general diminuendo, piccolo and clarinet share a sustained note descending "scale" to complement and answer the lower strings' ascending. The solo violin melody (which has been played for the past eight minutes or so) is now fragmented into stutterings of three or four notes, separated by long gaps, during which the other instrumental lines are heard, gradually ignoring what the violin is trying to continue; they have moved away from the violin solo material, the violin tries to preserve its predominance.

14:15 - 15:50 - a general crescendo in response to the preceding diminuendo. The matr=erial has its origins in the string material of the very opening, but here it is less "antsy" and aggressive.

15:50 - the strings reach their mid-register, sounding "low" in the context of how they are used throughout most of the rest of the piece. At 17:00, the "rising/descending" scale have evolved into cascades of rapidly rising and quickly falling "fountains" of sound

17:30 - by this point, the Music has split into three strands; the solo violin has dance-like figurations, the woodwind pair play with the sustained note scalic idea, and the ensemble strings are using the tremolandi and trill material.

19:30 - a final (?"cadential"?) flourish to conclude the work with a reference to its opening.


It'll be fascinating to hear an alternative performance tomorrow night.

Much obliged for that Ferney. It enabled me to make some sense of the piece.

As regards "scurrying scraping sounds ", don't we hear similar sounds in Vivaldi's music?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

As regards "scurrying scraping sounds ", don't we hear similar sounds in Vivaldi's music?

[Beef Oven!]

As regards "scurrying scraping sounds ", don't we hear similar sounds in Vivaldi's music?

Only in the good performances!