WEEK OF 080526 PLAYLIST: VOLCANO THE BEAR // ZELENKA // BEETHOVEN
Volcano the Bear: Amidst the Noise and Twigs
At the first few listens, I thought, "oh jolly! this falls immediately into my 'essential space folk' list!", but after a week of listens (and aggravation to my housemates), I noticed that it suffers from the same problems that the latest One Ensemble (an offshoot) albums are fouled by: dishonest weirdness and unattractive singing. There is a holiness to certain moments, as with the first two One Ensemble of Daniel Padden albums, but there aren't any songs that are so sublime that they would get placed on a mix, for they frequently fall into the realm of being annoying, from writhing, squawking, shrieking, etc.
Zelenka: Symphonia A-moll
This should have received its own weeklong study. It's very nice. Fans of Bach, check it out. It's interesting to hear early concepts of the symphony form, as I have otherwise exclusively been listening to things from Beethoven on. To me, the symphony is a cathartic experience of emotion and development and travel. This, on the contrary, was like eating a really good piece of dessert.
Beethoven: Op.44: Variations in Eb
Here I list the "record of the week" (often a few records), which I listen to repeatedly all week long while I work, letting the music seep deep into my mind, and painting my activities with a color that I will forever remember whenever I later recall each piece. I also post other thoughts on music here too.
2008-05-26
2008-05-19
2008-05-12
WEEK OF 080512 PLAYLIST: NIN // BEETHOVEN
Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts I, Ghosts II
Wow! This is the Trent Reznor that I've been waiting for!! I'd always suspected that he would have been making this sort of music, perhaps secretly under another name. I love the places where his piston-pumping factory imagery (particular to "industrial" music) coalesces with the sparse and beautiful Eno ambient soundscapes. I only wish the pieces were a bit more intricate, but I suppose he wants people to mix the tracks and add the intricacies in a collaborative sort of way. This album (so far, I'm taking it a little at a time) is just wonderful. I played it for my eldest housemate (who eschews all rock/post-rock music) while scraping glue off of used slats of oak flooring (for a new library we're constructing), and he actually liked it, even the hyena hissing/screaming in the background, which is more subdued than on the early NIN albums.
Beethoven: Woo.80, 32 Variations in C minor
Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts I, Ghosts II
Wow! This is the Trent Reznor that I've been waiting for!! I'd always suspected that he would have been making this sort of music, perhaps secretly under another name. I love the places where his piston-pumping factory imagery (particular to "industrial" music) coalesces with the sparse and beautiful Eno ambient soundscapes. I only wish the pieces were a bit more intricate, but I suppose he wants people to mix the tracks and add the intricacies in a collaborative sort of way. This album (so far, I'm taking it a little at a time) is just wonderful. I played it for my eldest housemate (who eschews all rock/post-rock music) while scraping glue off of used slats of oak flooring (for a new library we're constructing), and he actually liked it, even the hyena hissing/screaming in the background, which is more subdued than on the early NIN albums.
Beethoven: Woo.80, 32 Variations in C minor
2008-05-05
WEEK OF 080505 PLAYLIST: LISZT // ZELENKA // BACH
Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor (S.178)
I'm curious to hear more Liszt, since he was quite a frantic piano player. He tends to stab all over the keyboard, in an impressionistic way. Sometimes I wonder what his flourishes have to do with the general program of the pieces he plays; it's almost as though he becomes distracted by his own flamboyance. It's not my favorite type of music, but it is certainly idiosyncratic. Artists should always push the boundaries of what distinguishes them from all else.
Zelenka: Sonata No.2, Sonata No. 5
I recently went out to lunch with a Biochemist, Chikashi Toyoshima, the Hitchcock Lecturer last week, invited by my mentor. While walking back from the faculty club, I said to Toyoshima, "Sydney tells me that you enjoy going to the symphony. I know it's an unfair question to ask someone to narrow their favorites down to a single composer, so perhaps instead let me ask if you have anything you enjoy so much that you might recommend?" He chuckled and paused a bit, as we tarried amongst the oaks along the creek, and upon reaching the Campanile, said that he tends to enjoy the composers that haven't had as much publicity (oh, he's after my heart!), and thus wanted to recommend the composer, Zelenka, a contemporary of Bach, who is particularly cherished by oboe players. I later went to go look him up. Zelenka wrote a lot of music with vocals, which I simply cannot endure, but I found these sonatas to be quite splendid.
Bach: Flute Sonata in B minor (BWV1030)
I haven't listened to Bach much. I don't know why I selected this; I acquired a bunch of pieces randomly, and then selected this one out of them, for not being too fluffy. The lighthearted pre-Beethoven music annoys me with its splendor; it's largely a music for rich society. Beethoven was remarkable for his wagging the rich society that supported him with his desperation and melancholia, often imperceptibly placed amidst the same splendor of the Classical and Baroque period, although sometimes as spasms of violence, as if to be a gesture (like we moderns raise the "middle finger") of derision to his frivolous patrons. This Bach piece didn't move me much, and I found myself preferring the Zelenka.
Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor (S.178)
I'm curious to hear more Liszt, since he was quite a frantic piano player. He tends to stab all over the keyboard, in an impressionistic way. Sometimes I wonder what his flourishes have to do with the general program of the pieces he plays; it's almost as though he becomes distracted by his own flamboyance. It's not my favorite type of music, but it is certainly idiosyncratic. Artists should always push the boundaries of what distinguishes them from all else.
Zelenka: Sonata No.2, Sonata No. 5
I recently went out to lunch with a Biochemist, Chikashi Toyoshima, the Hitchcock Lecturer last week, invited by my mentor. While walking back from the faculty club, I said to Toyoshima, "Sydney tells me that you enjoy going to the symphony. I know it's an unfair question to ask someone to narrow their favorites down to a single composer, so perhaps instead let me ask if you have anything you enjoy so much that you might recommend?" He chuckled and paused a bit, as we tarried amongst the oaks along the creek, and upon reaching the Campanile, said that he tends to enjoy the composers that haven't had as much publicity (oh, he's after my heart!), and thus wanted to recommend the composer, Zelenka, a contemporary of Bach, who is particularly cherished by oboe players. I later went to go look him up. Zelenka wrote a lot of music with vocals, which I simply cannot endure, but I found these sonatas to be quite splendid.
Bach: Flute Sonata in B minor (BWV1030)
I haven't listened to Bach much. I don't know why I selected this; I acquired a bunch of pieces randomly, and then selected this one out of them, for not being too fluffy. The lighthearted pre-Beethoven music annoys me with its splendor; it's largely a music for rich society. Beethoven was remarkable for his wagging the rich society that supported him with his desperation and melancholia, often imperceptibly placed amidst the same splendor of the Classical and Baroque period, although sometimes as spasms of violence, as if to be a gesture (like we moderns raise the "middle finger") of derision to his frivolous patrons. This Bach piece didn't move me much, and I found myself preferring the Zelenka.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
