Saw a request for this on the Steve Reich thread and thought I might as well get the ball rolling. Some of my favorites:

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Mikrophonie I&II
Yes, he did some serial stuff. But this is not cold or mechanical. Boring? Depends on your taste, really. If anything, it's goofy. I got to look at the score and it instructs performers to make impressions of German butchers, Italian fishwives, crones and funny stuff like that. and it's all run through a blender of ring modulators. If you listen for the humor, it's a trip.

OHM - the Early Gurus of Electronic Music
A 3 disc sampler of various awesome electronic/tape/whatever composers. Compiled by Brian Eno. Features Sonic Youth's performance of Steve Reich's 'Pendulum Music,' along with a excerpt of the gorgeous Rolf Dammers/Holger Czukay Canaxis track 'Boat-Woman-Song.' Tons of great stuff on here.

Moondog - so-called proto-minimalist, self-proclaimed classicist. He was a blind musician who dressed up like a Viking in NYC for a while and gave away copies of his records to anybody who would take them. "Philip Glass and Steve Reich hailed him as the originator of the concept of minimalism." (from Moondog's Corner). He favors odd time signatures with 5s and 7s, but it sounds completely natural. Great stuff. His '56 and '69 self titled albums are both well worth investigation, along with a fairly recent reissue of his 2nd and 3rd albums, More Moondog and Story of Moondog. For somebody looking for an introductory comp, Viking of 6th Avenue should do nicely. Charlie Parker once expressed interest in making an album with Moondog, but sadly died before it could come about. If only...

But any fans of (good) minimalism should also check out gamelan music of Java and Bali. youtube gamelan. Claude Debussy saw a Javanese gamelan ensemble play at the 1889 World Exposition in Paris, and since then various composers of all different walks (Steve Reich, Olivier Messiaen, Bela Bartok, Lou Harrison, and Philip Glass among others) have been intrigued.

Meredith Monk - Turtle Dreams
She's a siren island on a creepy organ sea. 'Nuff Said. The mood of this stuff is impossible to describe.

There also a lot of stellar, song-ish stuff on a collaboration she did with John Cage (btw, if you've already written him off I suggest you read some of his writings and maybe just enjoy that instead). Looks like amazon only has a used copy for $50 (?!), but I found it on soulseek...

Harry Partch - For some reason I never noticed the microtones on his stuff at first. It's that nice on the ears. Harry Partch makes his own instruments - giant idiophone contraptions, scratchy string things, all kinds of stuff. The man's friggin brilliant and amazingly, all kinds of fun.Check out his piece Barstow, based on eight grafitti he saw along the railway in the California town.

Pierre Henry - Variations pour une porte et un soupir (Variations on a door and a sigh)
Drew Daniel of Matmos and the Soft Pink Truth once wrote a great list of musique concrete stuff for pitchfork some time ago. This was one of several great picks from that. Lots of beautiful sounds are wrenched from the samples.

Luc Ferrari - Presque Rien (Nearly Nothing) A pastoral scene constructed aurally with field recordings. Very peaceful, but also not tonal. I think this stuff holds a kindred spirit to the best of John Cage's work. Also one of the picks from the Drew Daniel article.

Other good ones (more info available upon request): La Monte Young ( the Well Tuned Piano ), Cornelius Cardew ( the Great Learning ), George Crumb , William Basinski, Henryk Gorecki, Krzysztof Penderecki, Morton Feldman.

Happy Hunting!

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Holy cow! This looks awesome, I'll check some of this stuff out. Thanks.

Great list, thanks. Moondog and Meredith Monk in particular sound pretty interesting, and I hadn't heard of them before.

Basically, my problem with Cage - and I didn't mean to suggest I'd written him off entirely, I haven't heard anywhere near a plurality of his work - is that the whole aleatoric shtick just sounds like, well, a shtick to me. It may be intellectually interesting to make music based on the I Ching or chess moves or whatever else it was that he did, but that doesn't make it actually engaging as music. I suppose I'm a traditionalist in that regard - I want my music to be music first, modern art second, if at all. But I'm definitely open to pieces that he actually composed.

As for Stockhausen, my criticism there is aimed at Tierkreis, which is possibly the dullest piece of music ever written - Philip Glass sounds like Slayer in comparison. I don't know if I'm more angry at Stockhausen for having "composed" it or at myself for having listened to it. But - he did live for a long time, so maybe there's another period of his music I might like more, I don't know.

This really sums up Stockhausen for me:

quote:

In November of 1995, "The Wire" wrote an article entitled "Advice to Clever Children".

A package of tapes containing music from several artists, including Aphex Twin, was sent to the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Stockhausen commented:
"I heard the piece Aphex Twin of Richard James carefully: I think it would be very helpful if he listens to my work Song Of The Youth, which is electronic music, and a young boy's voice singing with himself. Because he would then immediately stop with all these post-African repetitions, and he would look for changing tempi and changing rhythms, and he would not allow to repeat any rhythm if it were varied to some extent and if it did not have a direction in its sequence of variations."

God, what a prick.

What's ironic is that in the years since the importance and influence of Richard D. James has become exceedingly clear.

But I don't mean to sound bitter. Not at all.

I know, I should separate a man and his music. But it ain't easy, and I fully admit that there are nonmusical reasons why I have a hard time giving Stockhausen (and Wagner, and Strauss) a fair shake.

quote:

Originally posted by odysseyandoracle:
This really sums up Stockhausen for me:

quote:

In November of 1995, "The Wire" wrote an article entitled "Advice to Clever Children".

A package of tapes containing music from several artists, including Aphex Twin, was sent to the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Stockhausen commented:
"I heard the piece Aphex Twin of Richard James carefully: I think it would be very helpful if he listens to my work Song Of The Youth, which is electronic music, and a young boy's voice singing with himself. Because he would then immediately stop with all these post-African repetitions, and he would look for changing tempi and changing rhythms, and he would not allow to repeat any rhythm if it were varied to some extent and if it did not have a direction in its sequence of variations."

God, what a prick.

What's ironic is that in the years since the importance and influence of Richard D. James has become exceedingly clear.

But I don't mean to sound bitter. Not at all.

I know, I should separate a man and his music. But it ain't easy, and I fully admit that there are nonmusical reasons why I have a hard time giving Stockhausen (and Wagner, and Strauss) a fair shake.

I definitely understand - I think the man went a bit senile in his later years (Did you see his comment on 9/11? I doubt he had a very good grip on reality even at that point...

quote:

September 11, 2001 statement controversy

In a press conference in Hamburg on September 16, 2001, Stockhausen was asked by a journalist whether the characters in Licht were for him "merely some figures out of a common cultural history" or rather "material appearances". The composer replied "I pray daily to Michael, but not to Lucifer. I have renounced him. But he is very much present, like in New York recently". A journalist then asked how the recent September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks affected him, and how he viewed these reports in connection with the harmony of humanity represented in Hymnen.

Well, what happened there is, of course — now all of you must adjust your brains — the biggest work of art there has ever been. The fact that spirits achieve with one act something which we in music could never dream of, that people practise ten years madly, fanatically for a concert. And then die. [Hesitantly.] And that is the greatest work of art that exists for the whole Cosmos. Just imagine what happened there. There are people who are so concentrated on this single performance, and then five thousand people are driven to Resurrection. In one moment. I couldn't do that. Compared to that, we are nothing, as composers. [...] It is a crime, you know of course, because the people did not agree to it. They did not come to the "concert". That is obvious. And nobody had told them: "You could be killed in the process." (Stockhausen 2002, 75–76.)

).
Wagner was just a bigoted, Teutonic prick. I don't know a whole lot about Strauss. But for some reason or another that piece gets to me. And I like how it's tracked out, kinda like a stuffed shirt noise opera happening in in a parallel universe with Tim Hecker or John Wiese. I think this would be a good pick for the guys who post in the Avant-Garde forum, maybe not such a good one for those who prefer really sunny stuff like Music for 18 Musicians.

I forgot to mention that Moondog also invented his own drum called a trimba and a harp-like instrument he called an oo. They're both triangular! These make up the backbone of some of his pieces, but others are arranged for what sounds like small to medium size string and horn ensembles. He also adds the occasional spoken word bit. once in a while he sprinkles in a nature noise (see "Frog Bog")or a street recording.

quote:

Originally posted by odysseyandoracle:
Basically, my problem with Cage - and I didn't mean to suggest I'd written him off entirely, I haven't heard anywhere near a plurality of his work - is that the whole aleatoric shtick just sounds like, well, a shtick to me. It may be intellectually interesting to make music based on the I Ching or chess moves or whatever else it was that he did, but that doesn't make it actually engaging as music. I suppose I'm a traditionalist in that regard - I want my music to be music first, modern art second, if at all. But I'm definitely open to pieces that he actually composed.

It sounds like a schtick because I don't think Cage ever meant for his (aleatoric) music to be recorded. If you can hear it in the flesh I think it might be better. but maybe not. The schtick is similar to the Zen schtick of reaching satori - getting you to take what reaches your ears without placing it in a confining universe - letting sound make its own rules and speak itself naturally through the outlet chosen by the "decision maker." He wanted to merge life and art so that those two may be experienced together as beautiful.

That said, it may be helpful to think of Cage as an anti-composer of sorts. After all, Schoenberg called him "an inventor of genius" rather than any kind of composer...In any case, Cage's been good to my ears (He seems to be a kind of Magic-Eye composer) - the problem is that it's hard to tell exactly where the ear ends and the ideas begin. But I certainly won't be offended by anyone who thinks he's full of it. And that goes for all my recommendations.

quote:

Moondog - so-called proto-minimalist, self-proclaimed classicist. He was a blind musician who dressed up like a Viking in NYC for a while and gave away copies of his records to anybody who would take them. "Philip Glass and Steve Reich hailed him as the originator of the concept of minimalism." (from Moondog's Corner). He favors odd time signatures with 5s and 7s, but it sounds completely natural. Great stuff. His '56 and '69 self titled albums are both well worth investigation, along with a fairly recent reissue of his 2nd and 3rd albums, More Moondog and Story of Moondog. For somebody looking for an introductory comp, Viking of 6th Avenue should do nicely. Charlie Parker once expressed interest in making an album with Moondog, but sadly died before it could come about. If only...

I really love the Viking of 6th Avenue comp. It was especially a fun listen on the walkman headphones at work during lunch. I need to pick up the other reissues.

quote:

OHM - the Early Gurus of Electronic Music
A 3 disc sampler of various awesome electronic/tape/whatever composers. Compiled by Brian Eno. Features Sonic Youth's performance of Steve Reich's 'Pendulum Music,' along with a excerpt of the gorgeous Rolf Dammers/Holger Czukay Canaxis track 'Boat-Woman-Song.' Tons of great stuff on here.

This looks really interesting and just got added to my want/hunt-for list. I do love great and different samplers.

quote:

Originally posted by crazed:
This looks really interesting and just got added to my want/hunt-for list. I do love great and different samplers.

For what it's worth, the OHM compilation is on a certain Swedish website, something about pirates. Not that I know anything about that.

Of course, I'm sure you could find all of this stuff on slsk.

Another website I've found that would be of interest to people reading this is the Avant Garde Project.

Amazon says it was released by a certain Ellipsis Arts. My university music library had a copy.

nice, this should keep me busy for a while. thanks.

The 1969 Moondog album is extraordinary - catchy and concise while still being utterly unique and modern. I was expecting something a little novelty-like, but this is as mature as anything I've heard from more celebrated composers. The most surprising thing to me is how rich everything is - did he do his own orchestrations too?

A Charlie Parker album with Moondog would have been incredible - I'm guessing "Bird's Lament" is a tribute to him.

His later music seems to be harder to find..do you happen to know if he ever wrote anything for guitar, or if anyone did any arrangements of his music for guitar? Also, have any of his writings been published?

I found a used copy of the OHM compilation at amazon for an amazing low price and hopefully it will be here this week. The dvd looks interesting. Anyone who's seen it- is it in documentary style?

I was dismayed to read that odysseyandoracle, who has my sympathy for using the name of that splendid Zombies-album, abhors Philip Glass.

To be fair he admits only knowing the -qatsi soundtracks. I started liking Philip Glass some 20 years ago because of the music to Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi. I saw these movies many times in the cinema, because I had to drag all my friends there. The attraction was the visuals, but I started liking the music as well.

Nowadays these two soundtracks are not my pick if I put on Glass' music. I do listen to Naqoyqatsi (with Yo-Yo Ma playing the Cello) though. The emphasis in Glass' later work is less on the repetitive structures that defined 'minimalism'. He still uses them, but they have become more just a part his compositions that to me have become much more engaging.

For people who know and like Bowie and/or Eno I think a good introduction to the music of Philip Glass would be to listen to his 1st and 4th Symphonies, that were inspired by themes of 'Low' and 'Heroes' respectively.

And then my favorite Glass-cd: 'Passages', his collaboration with Ravi Shankar. I've never been able to really get into purely Indian music, but this blend does it for me. I also play it when I receive guests. Always on the background without demanding a comment (I prefer to push my music nonobtrusively) but it got the approving ear of many of them.

By the way: Terry Riley, another great modern composer, also made a great Indian-inspired album called 'No Man's Land'. He did it before Glass, but I discovered it only this year.

quote:

Originally posted by odysseyandoracle:
Another website I've found that would be of interest to people reading this is the Avant Garde Project.

YES!! The AGP is absolutely intriguing... and it's all FLAC (which is essential when it comes to vinyl rips).

Also, I'd have to say Glassworks and Einstein on the Beach (my intro) are my favorite albums by Glass.

is anyone here into charles curtis?

i heard one of his pieces for the first time at a friend of mine's house (the name escapes me) and my mind has been thoroughly blown. it is meant to be played on four separate stereos, but the four tracks can be played at any point (meaning they do not have to synced up) allowing for an infinite amount of compositions from these four tracks. what makes this so impressive is that they fit together perfectly no matter what order, or sequence you play them (one alone works, any two or three or all of them together work and can be played at any point in any of the tracks). i would characterize the sound as droney yet dynamic, free jazz.

quote:

Originally posted by V:

But any fans of (good) minimalism should also check out gamelan music of Java and Bali. youtube gamelan. Claude Debussy saw a Javanese gamelan ensemble play at the 1889 World Exposition in Paris, and since then various composers of all different walks (Steve Reich, Olivier Messiaen, Bela Bartok, Lou Harrison, and Philip Glass among others) have been intrigued.

the gamelan stuff is incredible. do you know of any compilations featuring this kind of music?

Your local university might have some recordings. If you keep your eye out at the record store sometimes you can find good stuff in the world music section...

"The Jasmine Isle," from Nonesuch. They have that one in stock at Insound (Insound has a pretty healthy selection). Aquarius also has some good stuff too. Just search for "gamelan" at either of those sites. Honestly I haven't heard anything bad called gamelan yet, but you might want to listen to sample beforehand of course. In my limited experience Balinese stuff is a little more clangy and noisy, while Javanese is more soothing. For starters I recommend picking up stuff played by natives and once you get a feel for the 'real deal' you might want to branch out and listen to the more 'gamelan inspired' stuff.

Night Recordings from Bali This is from Sublime Frequencies. A friend of mine once brought it to my attention that in their Radio releases sometimes they don't document their sources too well. I'm not exactly sure what to think of it, except that I would give them the benefit of the doubt - I would like to think that if they could give credit to all of the performers they would. Anyway, I would recommend this if you're into the rawer end of field recording type of thing.

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