Elegy On The Death Of Pluto by Brian Kehlenbach

http://www.briankehlenbach.com/mysite/Musical%20Downloads_files/Elegy%20on%20the%20Death%20of%20Pluto.mp3

This is one of my favorite pieces.

Hey, I like it!

Hey, I like it!

yeah alot of people just look at it as nasty sounds, but I love this kind of music, I compose stuff for brass quintet like this

"nasty sounds", really?

I suspect unless ALL you listen to is Mozart, it would be unusual for anyone to find this "nasty". It's about as tonal and consonant as it gets.

the only thing I found "nasty" about it was the mediocre intonation of the players.

"nasty sounds", really?

I suspect unless ALL you listen to is Mozart, it would be unusual for anyone to find this "nasty". It's about as tonal and consonant as it gets.

the only thing I found "nasty" about it was the mediocre intonation of the players.

I showed my music theory class, and they were like gross, and I told them I love this music.

Considering most of the people in your theory class are probably in love with the Star Wars soundtrack, what they didn't like about this was probably the instrumentation and the performance quality. Honestly, Star Wars is probably more modern than this.

So I wouldn't jump to generalizations like "a lot of people just look at it as nasty sounds".

Considering most of the people in your theory class are probably in love with the Star Wars soundtrack, what they didn't like about this was probably the instrumentation and the performance quality. Honestly, Star Wars is probably more modern than this.

So I wouldn't jump to generalizations like "a lot of people just look at it as nasty sounds".

Let's hope so - but one thing I have learned about reception of music is that you can never underestimate people's conservatism. I heard from a relative that several players in the amateur orchestra she was part of actually complained at being made to play the Shostakovich Festive Overture, on the grounds that it was 'too modern'. Even in my university orchestra a violinist refused to play in the Berg Violin Concerto, writing to the conductor '...I hate this music - if it is music'. These are true stories. On this very forum I replied to somebody complaining that 'modern choral music is getting more and more dissonant' by directing him to such works as A Survivor From Warsaw and Pendereki's St Luke Passion. This Elegy could easily have been written 100 years ago - in fact several moments had a hint of Holst (probably intentional) and Vaughan Williams about them. QcCowboy quite rightly wonders what people have been hearing that they find this 'gross' (and I'm sure you're quite aware that there is a far greater universe of sophistication and skill in Mozart than simply writing chords that sound good). My advice to your music theory class is to get rid of the notion that music has to sound 'nice' or 'tonal' to be any good and to open their ears to expressive possibilities. I've been fortunate enough to have a composition teacher who set assignments that forced us to leave our comfort zones, and and I think it's something all good pedagogues should practice. This could involve exercises such as writing for speech choir to focus on rhythmic parameters, or asking students to devise their own scales and modes from which to compose, etc, but the aim should always be to open minds.

And yes, the band in this recording need to work on their tuning.

This piece is magnificient!

Reminds me of how most of my orchestra class balked at playing Hindemith's Trauermusik...

Reminds me of how most of my orchestra class balked at playing Hindemith's Trauermusik...

Well force-feed them some more! Hindemith is a disgracefully underrated and underperformed composer.

I know, it's almost criminal! Hindemith is one of the greatest composers of the last century, and one of the most performed, but few people really appreciate him.

Actually, the reason Hindemith was on the program was because of one of my friends, a fellow violist. I did get us to play Hovhaness, though, and I'm going for Dello Joio and Cowell next year. :D

Yeah, it's funny how musically conservative some people are...

Brian Kehlenbach, who composed this piece has been e-mailing me, and he said he will look at some of my music and tell me what he thinks

I can't understand why anyone would hate this. I particularly enjoyed the beginning.