So I looked and listened to modern piano music....

So I listened and followed along with this piano score. In the book it had today's top piano composers. I listened to every single one of those pieces and it all made no sense...no sense of rhythm or melody. IT WAS SERIOUSLY THE WORSE THING I'VE EVER HEARD. What really got me was the fact that the compositions were supposedly written by today's best composers...which is nonsense.

I hate this "music" that sounds like random bangin on a keyboard. I sat down on my piano bench and hit a bunch of random stuff...and what you do you know?!? IT SOUNDED JUST LIKE THE CD I JUST LISTENED TO!

which pieces and who were the composers.

I was about to call you an idiot :innocent: , but yes, who were the composers and which pieces?

I couldn't tell you. I returned the book back. Sorry.

I was listening to John Cage in the car on the way home from school today... forgot that was the CD I had in, and my girlfriend looked at me funny.

I couldn't tell you. I returned the book back. Sorry.

Exactly. I can almost promise you this story never happened. If he cannot even remember one composer or one piece. Hmm, what was the books name?

So I looked and listened to some classical piano music.

I listened and followed along with this piano score. In the book it had the day's top piano composers. I listened to every single one of those pieces and it all made no sense...no sense of innovation or originality. IT WAS SERIOUSLY THE WORSE THING I'VE EVER HEARD. What really got me was the fact that the compositions were supposedly written by the day's best composers...which is nonsense.

I hate this "music" that sounds like a conglomerate mess of scales and arppegios. I sat down on my piano bench and played a bunch of scales...and what you do you know?!? IT SOUNDED JUST LIKE THE CD I JUST LISTENED TO!

The exact same thing you said can be applied to your "common practice" music with just a few words rewritten. Of course, what I said above is completely unjustified and over simplifies an entire era of music and doesn't do it justice. Similarly, what you said about contemporary piano music doesn't do it justice and only shows that you are ignorant about the genre.

Very well put! :huh:

I suggest you start with Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich. This will help you listen to the music another way - differently than you would listen to Mozart or Beethoven (though Beethoven's Grand Fugue is just as dissonant as anything they wrote, in my opinion!). Then, try listening to some music by Schonberg, Berg, and Webern and see if it appeals to you any more than it did before. Don't be put off by the fact that the melodies are different from what you're accustomed to - this is how we learn about different types of music!

If you still don't like it, then that's your choice - but don't come running here to say that modern music is nothing but random noise. That's a blatant display of ignorance and a waste of your time and ours.

I don't understand why people start these rants in the first place. After all, if you want to be taken seriously, why would you write a post that makes you come across as an idiot?

Yay for Nach Bach!

It's a piece that is small quotations from Bach keyboard pieces, connected by other, new material. It's tempo- and meter-less, and it's awesome.

Alright....I found it. I now have the right to voice my opinion. Here is the music:

The Carnegie Hall Millennium Piano Book

About The Carnegie Hall Millennium Piano Book

Book/CD. By Various Composers. (Piano). Boosey and Hawkes Piano. Book & CD Package. Size 9x12 inches. 104 pages. Published by Boosey & Hawkes. (48002532)

Not only does this book contain music written for Carnegie Hall, it includes a biography on each of the composers and a CD of Ursula Oppens performing each selection. Contents: Two Diversions (Carter) * The Days Fly By (Rzewski) * On an Unwritten Letter (Harbison) * Ba Ban (Yi) * Zwiesprache (Rihm) * Image de Moreau (Andriessen) * The Old Order Changeth (Babbitt) * Dew-Fall-Drops (Dun) * Lament (Zwilich) * John Brown and Blue (Hannibal).

Contents:

Two Diversions (Carter)

The Days Fly by (Rzewski)

On an Unwritten Letter (Harbison)

Ba Ban (Yi)

Zwiesprache (Rihm)

Image De Moreau (Andriessen)

The Old Order Changeth (Babbitt)

Dew-Fall-Drops (Dun)

Lament (Zwilich)

John Brown and Blue (Hannibal)

Obviously, these are professional composers. I know that. I just was not impress by the music at all. It was all technical with very small

amounts if any of melodic material.

You can call me an idiot all you want.....but at listen to some of this.

Well, good job. Now you have not only made yourself seem somewhat stupid but you also proved that you lack the skills needed to anayize music. Most of these composers write in a somewhat tonal field with very easily seen motif and clear harmonic progressions. A few of them have succesfuly operas and pieces performed by the boston pops. In fact, they are not only enjoyed by a modern crowd but a lot of non music pricks like them too. What exactly made you say your first post? Is it that you couldn't, on your own, analyize the music? Perhaps if you learn more about music, you'll be able to see clearly that what you claim isn't there, is there.

I think what would have been a more apt statement is that you didn't like the modern piano music that you heard that day, as opposed to bashing all modern piano music.

Thank you Ravel's Radical Rivalry. That is exactly what I mean.

Bitterduck, I may not have observed the music as well as you thought I should have...but I disagree with the "clear harmonic progressions". Very few of the pieces have clear progressions....Accidentals everywhere and rythmns that make no sense. If this book is good for anything...probably sight reading. It could prove very useful for that.

You call me stupid, Bitterduck, but have you even looked at this music? Obviously you know some of the composers, but did it ever occur to you that each of these composers have music that is "terrible". I have music that is "terrible".

I do agree with a few good points you have made....but you really need to look at it yourself. Maybe I'm a little closed minded....I've never seen anything like this before.

The reason why I stated that you should analyize the music is because of your first post. It give the impression that you understood the music and understand modern theory.

Piano Player, I have looked at every single one of those pieces. They are not my favorite peices by those composers but I have looked at every single one of them. After all, i'm in 21st century theory right now.

RRR-I can accept you do not like the music. I don't really care if you like the music but I would perfer it if you stated your comments in a more reasonable way. You do not like modern music. It isn' that the composers are terrible but that they do not write in a style in which you pleasures your ears. In the same way, Haydn bores the hell out of me. Still, I do not call him a terrible composer. In fact, He is great but he dosn't write in style I like. It is as simple as that. Can we both live with those statements?

Now to comment on the second half of your statemnet. The reason I suggest he analyize the music is becuase he left the impress that he did. If he merely went based on what he heard, then he didn't take the time to see if his statements were true. He made his decision based on personal taste. I Can accept he doesn't like the music but he stated some false things. The rythm are not random and do have a pattern and motion. I was simply trying to explain that to him.

I agree some of them do have terrible music but I know people who like the terrible music. It is just opinion if you ask me. Mozart wrote some pretty scrafty stuff but that is just an opinion. Please refrain from stating an opinion as a fact. It makes things much easier on everyone.

Hehe Bitterduck, I was so angered reading that post earlier today and was wondering how to write a clear, conherent and not too furious answer. Thanks for doing it for me. :laugh:

So yes, RRR, please don't throw around petty insults like that. I write modern music. Tell me, is my music filth? I certainly employ techniques i've learned from greats like Bach, Beethoven and Grieg. (maybe i'm not the best example though, what about any of the other composers of modern music here?)

Maybe I'm a little closed minded....I've never seen anything like this before.

And herein lies the problem.

Experience with the type of music you refer to, understanding of it, leads to appreciation.

As a radical example:

My niece listens only to Brittney Speers .She has no experience at all with any classical music - of ANY sort.To her extremely untrained ears, Mozart is just boring. She can't identify the theme, the melody in it, at all. To her ears, Mozart's music has no rythme either. She doesn't hear the formal movement of thematic material, the interplay of tonalities, the cadences that prepare and resolve. The lack of exposure is what guides her appreciation (or rather lack thereof) of Mozart.

A less radical example:

Someone posted a piece on another website recently, stating that it was "as atonal as he ever gets". To my ears, his music was quite solidly tonally centered. It shifted, continuously, but it was far from "atonal". This was his first attempt at using dissonance and shifting harmony, and it threw him off completely. To his ears, the music WAS atonal. Yet in reality it was quite obviously tonal-centered.

I have to tell you that despite years of experience with dissonant, "modern" music, I don't necessarily LIKE it any better now than I did back when I was studying. However, I can understand it better, and have a certain appreciation for it now. There are even highly dissonant works for which I have a very deep affection.

[...]but Cage and Ives and Glass and so forth just need to go bang there heads against a wall to rearrange the brain cells.

Oh no you didn't. You didn't just compare Ives' and Glass' music to Cage's... Oh boy, what is the world coming to...