Classical Music Thread
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If you read the name Lejaren Hiller in music literature, it is almost always in association with ILLIAC suite for string quartet (1957). This, the first composition created through a computer algorithm, has somehow typecast Hiller as a "computer composer". Although Hiller has held several academic posts, his music seems not to have gained much attention, and his interest was considerably wider than electronic and computer music. His ethos was to try out everything in "a total matrix of possibilities". He wrote tonal music when it was regarded as "reactionary", was a strong advocate of aleatorics, and, like Charles Ives before him, was very attuned and interested in everyday sounds.
Hiller's String Quartet No. 6 was inspired by everyday sounds. For each of the Quartet's three movements, Hiller first collected and transcribed one sort of sounds: "sounds that provoke aggravation and exasperation in the commercial and industrial areas" for the first movement; "sounds from placid and peaceful situations" for the second; and mundane yet somewhat cheerful sounds (such as kids watching cartoons downstairs) for the third. Then he organized the sound using various means, attempting to achieve a sonic narrative.
Perhaps you'll agree with me that the first movement is most effective.
Speaking of environmental sounds brings me to the Canadian composer/sound theorist R. Murray Schafer. Likewise, if you read his name in books, it would be about about his pioneering research of soundscapes, rather than his concert music. Schafer nevertheless left behind a wealth of compositions. I can say with no exaggeration that his 13 string quartets, most of which written for his favorite ensemble Quatuor Molinari, form the most important cycle in the late 20th-early 21st century.
Schafer's inspirations are likewise varied: String Quartet No. 5 "Parting Wild Horse's Mane" was inspired by the moves of Chinese Tai-Chi. Here I bring up String Quartet No. 2, begotton through Schafer's research into the acoustics of ocean waves in the Canadian Atlantic and Pacific. The wave pattern gave the quartet its rhythms, and the dynamics represent the rise and fall of water sounds.
Hiller's String Quartet No. 6 was inspired by everyday sounds. For each of the Quartet's three movements, Hiller first collected and transcribed one sort of sounds: "sounds that provoke aggravation and exasperation in the commercial and industrial areas" for the first movement; "sounds from placid and peaceful situations" for the second; and mundane yet somewhat cheerful sounds (such as kids watching cartoons downstairs) for the third. Then he organized the sound using various means, attempting to achieve a sonic narrative.
Perhaps you'll agree with me that the first movement is most effective.
Speaking of environmental sounds brings me to the Canadian composer/sound theorist R. Murray Schafer. Likewise, if you read his name in books, it would be about about his pioneering research of soundscapes, rather than his concert music. Schafer nevertheless left behind a wealth of compositions. I can say with no exaggeration that his 13 string quartets, most of which written for his favorite ensemble Quatuor Molinari, form the most important cycle in the late 20th-early 21st century.
Schafer's inspirations are likewise varied: String Quartet No. 5 "Parting Wild Horse's Mane" was inspired by the moves of Chinese Tai-Chi. Here I bring up String Quartet No. 2, begotton through Schafer's research into the acoustics of ocean waves in the Canadian Atlantic and Pacific. The wave pattern gave the quartet its rhythms, and the dynamics represent the rise and fall of water sounds.
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Bonesjones
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My favorite classical is Gas.