Stevemc90

Another great more modern example would be Jacob Druckman (although deceased in 1996), Prisms and Brangle are incredible. Recently I've had the chance to attend workshops and concerts by Michael Colgrass, who recently was in residence at my school. His tone poem "Winds Of Nagual" is the some of the most ingenius and charismatic orchestration Ive come across, being for wind ensemble which I've never been to big on in the first place.

I never bothered checking out Gesualdo (or much else Renaissance), and I've got to say I am impressed, even shocked to a degree by his chromaticism. Definitely eager to look into his work now.

Berg is the man, let's bump this thread. Does anyone here prefer Lulu to Wozzeck? Wozzeck has seemed to get more spotlight, perhaps because the 'completed' Lulu was premiered long after Berg's death. Lulu's got more of an overall clarity than Wozzeck I think; maybe it could be attributed to the strict adherence to forms and his use of the twelve tone system. Funny that given the nature of the system that (in my opinion) Lulu turned out more tonal than Wozzeck

I almost bought a recording of Bernstein's Mass today, opted instead for his symphonies

Could you try to word your question better? When you say 16 notes, do you mean that number, 16 notes to a bow (if so, what kind of notes are they, quarter, eigth, etc.)? Or do you mean you want 16th notes under one bow (if so, how many 16ths). If you're looking to have a run of notes under one slur and wanting to accent one single note (which note, the 1st, 6th, 13th, etc.?), it would be possible, shouldn't be difficult. The violinist would just pull the bow extra or add some bow weight to the note. Ease may depend on what kind of notes they are; the faster they are the more difficult but not ridiculously so.

For a pianist, guitarist, someone who plays multiple notes on the instrument at once, there is a familiarity with large harmonies and they would have easier time grasping Piston's triads and four part harmony. The book basically gets right into that at the get go. But for smoeone who plays violin, clarinet, trumpet, etc. the aural familiarity may not be there as much, so to work with one line at a time could be easier.

YouTube - Rufus Wainwright - Tulsa (With Lyrics) by the way he working on a commission for the NY Met Opera

either or I guess, homophony is multiple parts moving together to form harmony right?

If you play piano, guitar, any fully 'homophonic' instrument, start with Harmony. If you play a monophonic instrument try Counterpoint.

find and keyboard and transcribe the chords yourself, it's good for developing your ear too

Neat story Fredrik, I understand your enthusiasm now. Just remember that no single belongs to anyone. I recommended you some classical composers/works with jazz similarities, check your private messages. By the way, Inner Mounting Flame is a favorite of mine, Cobham is a monster!

Let me first say that I think it's great Wagner has put such a spell on you and has gone as far as to influence your work (or not?) in another genre. But your argument is a bit of a sprawling fantasy epic. Just about everyone knows Wagner turned the musical world upside down, but to pin down nearly every half-diminished chord or unresolved cadence as his direct or even indirect influence is a stretch. If someone were really to point to Wagner as the instigator for jazz, you'd have to point to so many others. You'd have to attribute Faure's pioneering use of major 7 chords to the invention of jazz, and that anybody that uses the chord is giving him the nod. Even if, in terms of harmony, everything in jazz had been done before, credit doesn't go to the wig wearing guys for the inspiration behind the creation of jazz as a new medium. When someone goes to write, not every time will they let a familiar ear guide them through the brain's "life catalogue of listened-to sonorities" for a result. There's a degree of experimentation or delving into the personally unfamiliar, despite whether your discovery has been done before or not. For example, but at the same time adressing your jazz/Wagner philsophy: It's more likely some blues guitarist landed on a sharp-5 by mistake and liked the way it sounded, and then made a hit out of it, turning other blues guitarists onto the chord.

yeah i was looking for the site too, maybe it's belongs to another organization now?

began watching...

I'm just curious to see when you guys are writing, if you set down a melody or harmony as first and let the one generate the other, so to speak. It's inevitable that we all keep in mind both to some degree, but have you ever found that isolating one produced better results for you, or resulted in more ease? Myself, I use an early 20th century harmonic language so I find it a little easier to generate small blocks of harmony first and then work the melody on top. Downside is I feel like my melodies are overshadowed and don't stand on their own as well as the harmony. Tips, thoughts, stories, etc?