Hear and Now 27 October 2012

[Guest]

Did anyone here listen to it?

The fairly predictable stuff from Lindberg, Saariaho and André IMO served to put the originality and concision of Gérard Grisey's 1975 piece Partiels into sharp relief. Somehow that piece seems to encapsulate the conception, realisation and exhaustion of French-style "spectral music" all in twenty minutes; shame there are so many composers still rewriting it...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Haven't yet heard the programme, but what you say corresponds with what I've been thinking about Grisey and the later "Spectralists". I think Saariaho has written stuff that's much more than merely derivative, but her more recent work (from L'Amour du Loin) covers much the same ground that she tilled with greater success earlier.

[heliocentric]

I think Saariaho has written stuff that's much more than merely derivative, but her more recent work (from L'Amour du Loin) covers much the same ground that she tilled with greater success earlier.

I did quite like the clarinet concerto she wrote for Kari Kriikku which was premiered a year or two ago, but in general her work leaves me underwhelmed. Both she and Lindberg wrote a few really fascinating and original things back in the 1980s and subsequently seemed to become increasingly pale copies of themselves. Grisey on the other hand never became a prisoner of his own system.

[Serial_Apologist]

Gorgeously orchestrated pieces by Lindberg and Saariaho. I did enjoy the first of those two, but harmonically it was a retreat back to Debussy territory, upon which so much of what has been built since the death of the French genius seems nowadays to be ignored. At least the same could not be said of the Saariaho, but oh, that wobbly soprano almost wrecked it for me!

I'm still not convinced that Spectralism has added anything of significance to musical form, and am reserving judgement on the Marc Andre piece, which did have the merit of originality. A second listen and maybe more, methinks...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Grisey on the other hand never became a prisoner of his own system.

A tragedy that he died at the height of his considerable powers.

[heliocentric]

I'm still not convinced that Spectralism has added anything of significance to musical form

Neither am I, the problem being that it's an essentially static way of looking at musical material, and the idea of analysing sounds and resynthesising them using orchestral instruments instead of partials is in the end a bit limiting. There are a few pieces which IMO develop their material from a contemplation of harmonic spectra in a really interesting way: Stockhausen's Stimmung, Grisey's Partiels and Périodes, Murail's Mémoire-Erosion, some things of Radulescu and Vivier and maybe Dufourt, but not much more that I can think of.

Interesting that you say that about the André piece. I haven't heard anything of his that I thought particularly original and so I'm afraid I didn't listen to it. Time to do so later this evening.

[Beresford]

Spectralism is new to me. Sounds interesting. Why did it never catch on in UK (no IRCAM?).
I found the Mark Andre piece irritating first time through. But second time it drew me in much more, in a quiet intense way, like the conductor said.
I am very taken with the music of Raphael Cendo, particularly the Introduction aux Tenebres, very loud and scary. Is he a spectralist?

[MrGongGong]

Jonathan Harvey's Speakings?
wonderful stuff (ok he did work on it at IRCAM)
I can think of lots of music that uses the ideas of manipulating sonic spectra etc
most of it electroacoustic

Stimmung to my ears hasn't worn well (listen to the Hunn Huur Tu track i linked to on the WM thread )

[Serial_Apologist]

Stimmung to my ears hasn't worn well (listen to the Hunn Huur Tu track i linked to on the WM thread )

It never did it for me, tbh GG - whereas Hymnen has to a much greater degree. But Telemusik remains THE Stockhausen tape piece from that period: compact, rigorously structured, replenished with a Japanese spirituality that is very appealing.