nlundberg

All music that makes you feel comfortable. Yanni is therefore OK.

I just listened and read the scores for Ligeti's Études, book 1, 2 and 3. I can hardly find words for how amazing I think this music is. He create these wonderful pieces, often with just two set of notes, one in the left hand and one in the right (often bitonal)! And listening to the versions for player piano is a great experience too. I think it is extremely humorous, but I do not mean to be demeaning. Not as fun as Stockhausen, but crazy enough. Anyway, if anyone has something to say about these pieces, or Ligeti in general, I would be very interested.

Maybe one should ask oneself how your view of talent affects yourself? How will your view benefit yourself? If you decide that (this somewhat diffuse concept of) talent exists and is a factor you better decide that you are madly talented, gods gift to whatever you do. No need to check with reality. If you think you lack in talent still you will probably continue doing what you like to do, as in this case write music. But that attitude might eventually make you perform worse and worse, or at least make things go slow, and thus prove to yourself that you lack talent. Of course there are differences in how easily we grasp things, but my opinion is that very many can become great at what they decide to do, and for a few it will be difficult. By great I mean create great things, not become an icon remembered for hundreds of years. Once a field is chosen time is important. If you start at the age of three you will have a lot of experience when it is time to become professional. Then you need to surround yourself with the right environment so you get inspired and so you eventually give chance a possibility to make you very successful. Since the phenomena music a cultural product and not something genetical, all science proves that, there can not be something as "genetic talent tagged for music". If I would give "talent that matters" a definition it would be ability to relax and believe in yourself and the ability to dedicate yourself to a task. If you can do this, you can perform great in your chosen area, save if you happen to have real difficulties for this area. :)

I have contacted the publisher, but I am worried about what this will cost. Maybe I could use my money better by buying a book with analyses of Boulez.

All I have found is some short articles and program notes from performances. They are not detailed enough for me to be able to experiment. I do not know how to get my hands on the score, if it is even possible. Actually it struck my mind that the unique harmonizing that I experience maybe is not all due to intervals, but also due to the seamlessly integrated electronics of the piece.

Interesting. I read somewhere that he use (his earlier) serial technique but more freely. Also quasi-minimalsim was mentioned. A wild guess would be that his repetitions of phrases would be the minimalism elements. You say sets or pitch collections, is that set theory (Allen Forte)?

I really like Boulez later compositions, such as Répons (it would be nice to hear it in surround sound, as it should be). One of the things that strikes me is the way he "harmonize" the phrases, especially the ones in woodwind. I can not figure out how he do it, and I do not have the score. It sounds totally unique. Does anyone know anything about how he created this piece?

I like it a lot, the majestic and at the same time merciless quarter note drive. The chromatic descend in 62-64 is nice too.

This is really good music, thanks for letting me hear it! I like the start and stop feel of the rhythm, the way you work with the dotted notes.