Passion piece for me, on my favorite film. For more context, images and gifs, read on TheTwinGeeks.com
Under the Skin is an expression of humanity shown through an alien lens. Jonathan Glazer’s masterpiece is the filmic expression of what people mean when they say, “show, don’t tell.” It is an ethereal and tonally alien piece of work, delving into the psychology of how we gender and sexualize women. Scarlett Johansson has the avant-garde role of a lifetime, as an alien sent to harvest the meat from humans, who finds empathy and love instead, and is punished. The entire production hinges on a vast, cosmic score by Mica Levi that will haunt your dreams forever.
The story is loosely inspired by the literature of the same name by Michel Faber. In the book, an alien is sent to our planet to harvest unsuspecting hitchhikers for their meat, a delicacy back on their home world. It’s a big metaphysical experiment with different goals and hooks than the film. Where the book goes deep into the alien’s relation to consumerism and the human experience, the film tragically showcases the alien’s experience as a woman, and is more singular in its goal to convey this experience. Moving the story from the Scottish countryside to Glasgow reflects a different urban feeling. Our narrator has also gone from the named Isserley to an unnamed character – we’ll refer to her as Scarlett Johansson from here. The literary character is more tangentially related to a dog-like alien, with the whimsical wonder of a child about her world, while Scarlett is reserved and clinical about her hunt. What they both excel at is showing us exactly what they mean through imagery, without ever having to tell us that’s what they mean.
Under the Skin could have a wordless script and work as a silent film but it is designed to be an audiovisual masterpiece instead. It has one of the most affecting, experimental scores by classically trained musician Mica Levi (of abstract-pop band Micachu and the Shapes). From writing for string quartets to warping strip club music into haunting tomes of sexual dread, she proves to be absolutely masterful. The music here is intensely layered on an audiovisual level. When Scarlet drags men back to the void, she teases and provokes in some of the most sexual sequences put to film. These imply sex beyond penetration, the textures and feeling of sex but also abstracted, made alien and grotesque, while still beautiful and burning with passion. Levi conveys this sense in an interview with The Guardian: “Some parts are intended to be quite difficult. If your lifeforce is being distilled by an alien, it’s not necessarily going to sound very nice. It’s supposed to be physical, alarming, hot.”
Where most sound designers will cut loud humanistic sounds, they have been amplified here. Crunches and crackles cut through the porous absence of the void. People speak in their brisk Scottish tongue. Every line and sound is a stylistic enhancement of this romantic style. Levi has concocted a love potion of a soundtrack. The sounds have their own tender moisture, they ooze sexuality, they sound like the fractured orgasms of the Damned. Levi wrote the songs using a viola, influenced by the arrangements of Iannis Xenakis’ “Tetras”, pulling together sweeping strings and aleatoric improvisations. Together, the brutalist sound design and maximalist sound mix achieve a perfect sensuality.
Take Levi’s “Lipstick to Void“. This is one of the most haunting tracks recorded for film. Try listening to this without shifting uncomfortably to the darkest recesses of the mind. It’s a song that sits languidly in the sandbox of primal desire and wants to dump the sand over your head. A nightmare of love eating itself. Or try “Love“, the musical expression of what Kubrick achieved in the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey. That is, to catalog the entire human experience. The song unwinds in discordant symphonies, the unbound pleasure of flesh, and the transcendence of giving your love to someone else. The entire soundtrack deserves placement in a damn museum, it’s truly too beautiful to live.
Glazer works within rigid restrictions that pay dividends. Under the Skin is shot with the objectivity of a documentary. That is to say, the human and real parts, left on the cutting room floor in other movies, are what gets included here. Short of casting additions, Scarlett Johansson drove around Scotland picking up men who were unaware they were being filmed. Many of the characters in the film are not actors at all. Many of the conversations are genuine and about discovering other people. Exactly like Isserley of the book, the casting process became the same as the alien hunting process, manipulating men into cooperating for the project’s goals. During its sweetest moments, she picks up a disfigured man and they have a heart to heart, where her character has some kind of experiential shift and begins to understand human feelings. Adam Pearson, our brave disfigured subject, said of his scene, in The Guardian piece about how they’ve changed the stigma for disfigured actors, “For me, the film is about what the world looks like without knowledge and without prejudice. It’s about seeing the world through alien eyes, I guess.” His is my favorite performance, affecting, true, something legitimately never captured before.
From the beginning, we’re given cues of her otherness. She arrives by spaceship, which parks itself into an adjoining dilapidated home. This is where she’ll bring the men to harvest. She meets a man on a motorcycle, an elite alien (going by the book), who’s packed the body of the woman she’s replacing into his truck. The film expands into endless white space, as Scarlett Johansson takes the expired aliens clothes and dresses herself, trying on someone’s skin for the first time. The dead alien has a tear rolling down her cheek and we understand, she must have felt too much. Then it’s off to the streets of Glasgow. The city life is always filmed in an observational objective style, which allows human interaction to unfold in naturalistic ways. At first she’s an observer, stalking the malls and taking in what human culture looks like, and not completely horrified by the experience of our consumerism, she becomes a participant.
When Scarlett lures the men back to her craft, the tone shifts dramatically. As they enter the doorway, perplexed by the odd derelict building and the idea that this woman would live in a place like this, the camera closes in tight to the door, framing their final, claustrophobic contact with Earth. The environment gives way to black, leaving only her and the men. It becomes the most erotic challenge of predator and prey, as the music teases her clothes off. The men follow. They strip too and peruse her into the darkness, slowly seeping into the floor as they walk. Their bodies harden, begin to constrict inside the black liquid. They are consumed completely by sex, consumed in the endless refractory period of their deaths. They stay inside, occasionally screaming out to new men sinking into the floor before constricting into formless meat particles, their remains shipped down a conveyor belt to be sold to the aliens. These scenes have carried a great influence for horror to follow, such as the excellent Sunken Place sequences of Get Out. They are both the most sexual and terrifying thing Scarlett Johansson – or perhaps any actress – has ever filmed.
Under the Skin also deals with a more human sexuality. It does feature full-frontal nudity for Scarlett handled in a mature and artistic way. She admires her human skin in the mirror. This moment in the film signifies her understanding of humanity and the beauty of all women. Much more than the book, this is a celebration of feminism. It’s a tragedy of the female experience. It’s about a gender binary alien coming to our planet and trying on the female form. Based on her treatment by men, she grows to understand her own external beauty and sex, and men in turn tear her apart for her internal differences. The film works as a great philosophical work about the nature of gendering and sexualization of women in our culture. This is the experience of all women.
The objective gaze of the camera elevates the horror. It treats sex, and death, and terrified abandoned babies left by the ocean all the same. Only Scarlett receives special attention. During her radical feminization, we see the evolution, her trying on the makeup from the mall, going through the process every woman does, to hide what’s underneath and expose a different beauty. What’s remarkable is that she doesn’t have to speak. She has lines but they don’t say nearly as much as what she does with her movement. The actress uses her eyes to convey emotion, thought, power, weakness, whatever the moment calls for. We’re powerfully changed by her performance and all she does is move, and it moves us to our core. This atypical performance is especially interesting when you consider her other signature act in Her, a film that exclusively uses her voice to emote. She is an actor of immense range whom utilizes every part of herself to tell a story.
There’s a weird turn in Under the Skin’s third act. It inevitably settles down into a more human rhythm. Scarlett begins to synch with emotions, after allowing the disfigured man to escape. She tries eating some cake and becomes frustrated she can’t experience the decadence of whatever pleasure it withholds. This upsets her greatly and while taking a train, she bonds with a man who wants to take her home and comfort her. She enjoys comedy television for the first time, taps her hands in rhythm to some music, is humanized by the moment. She’s found herself and come to understand her female beauty and is able to share in it with him. When it comes to actually having sex, she has a complete breakdown – having just found her sense of womanhood, the first thing a man can do is violate and penetrate her.
This is one of the film’s most interesting tricks. We’ve spent the entire time watching her scout and decimate unsuspecting men and now there is a play for our sympathy. She could’ve saved that orphaned baby on the beach! She’s selling men for meat parts! Because the film slows down and provides human depth and experience behind her interactions – freeing the disfigured man and discovering womanhood – it works as designed. It’s important to note, her usefulness to the aliens has also expired, and now that she’s no longer on the hunt, she’s become the prey. Existing as a hunter was never the most resilient aspect of her character, it was essentially her enslavement, a replaceable alien wearing a feminine husk that grew too close to their prey, and have ensured their own obsolescence. There is a meta commentary about gender politics wrapped inside all of this. Our Elite Alien, cloaked in male skin, checks on Scarlett throughout for signs of emotion and humanity, ensuring she stays objective for her job. This plays out as a parable for the way women are repressed by men the moment they find a means of independent expression.
Frightened by the man’s sexual proposition, she runs into the woods. There’s nowhere to hide in public now, with the aliens after her. A man working in the forest takes advantage and tries to rape her. As a general warning, this film exists within these themes and could be devastating if you find that difficult. It will probably be devastating anyway. After a struggle, a smattering of alien material rubs off on the man, and he backs away terrified. The final reveal is shot with a frigid distance, every shot cold and detached. The alien removes Scarlett’s torn skin, revealing its smoothed black features underneath, and holding the skin suit in her hands, it looks back at her and blinks. The man returns and pours gasoline over her, lighting her on fire. The hunter has become the hunted and the aliens have come for her corpse.
Under the Skin entrances us. This is dangerous art. Jonathon Glazer operates under a Kubrickian school of thought, that there are completely new ideas left in cinema and that technical perfection can be accomplished with restraint. I recommend experiencing it like Acid, in a safe environment with people you trust. Never before has the grotesque been so beautiful. This is a film that haunts your thoughts, begging for closer and closer examination until it swallows you whole. Experience Under the Skin with an open mind and find its essential newness. It has so much to reveal to you.
Originally posted on The Twin Geeks

Classical and popular music have very different ideas of refinement/artistic greatness. What may sound classy to a classical musician would be seen as a failure to a pop fan.

To begin with, I am not bashing either classical music (Common Practice Period onward) or popular music (rock/metal, pop/K-pop, R&B/soul, hip hop, reggae/reggaeton, country/Appalachian, or house/techno). I'm just doing a "What's classy if you're rich, but trashy if you're poor?" style of comparison that I think might clear up some misconceptions between one and the other. (I'm also generally avoiding jazz as it can be in either; many classical composers have included jazz segments, but there are also undoubtedly popular forms of jazz as well, although I'll acknowledge that pre-WWII jazz is popular music)
Composition
In classical music (some electronic and minimalist classical music are arguable exceptions), there's no real expectation that a composer will perform their own music, and it's not really an artistic accomplishment to compose all your own performances. In contrast, many popular genres expect (hip-hop) or strongly reward (pop-folk and folk-rock) musicians that play a great role in the composition of their own work (lyrics and instrumentation). All but the most manufactured rappers write their own lyrics, and singer-songwriters are very influential and prestigious in folk-oriented popular music as well as soft rock. Someone who entirely performs other people's music is seen as highly manufactured and artificial in many pop genres, but completely mainstream in classical music.
Algorithmic and structured composition
There is a strong trend in modern and contemporary classical music to rely upon factors other than the creative will of the composeperformer in generating music. These include aleatoric music (in which portions of a given work are generated randomly with no creative input), the twelve-tone technique (in which rigid mathematical and statistical structures play a role in determining what note appears when), and even algorithmic music (composed by a computer). Although these are all to some degree avant-garde, I've never encountered them outside of classical music and I'd imagine that they'd be considered uncreative or "manufactured" by the pop establishment.
Song structure
Most popular music follows song-like patterns, even if they are instrumentals. An hour-long piece of rock, metal, or EDM will generally still be tracked out into songs of 2-5 minutes, even if those songs have no words to them. In contrast, an hour-long work of classical music will often be a single consistent piece, and while it might have parts that are recognizable as "songs" they aren't acknowledged as such. There are some portions of this great opera - Carmen - that have achieved fame as songs and are quite catchy (Habanera and the Toreador Song) but they're embedded in a single, more-or-less continuous, two-plus hour work of classical music. In addition, this piece repeats the same theme (Toreador - used everywhere from Tom and Jerry to Five Nights at Freddy's to Nokia ringtones) four times with slight variations (around 0:00:00, 0:02:00, 1:02:50, 2:22:05). If this was used in a pop album someone would say that Nokia paid for it to be there! There is an entire tradition in classical music ("theme and variations") that consists of such repetitive themes. Obviously there are some popular albums that use reprises and remix tracks, but a "quadruple Freddy" (using the same iconic jingle four times in one 'album') would be jaw-droppingly uncreative, as would repeating variants of the same jingle over and over again, and using single long tracks would be seen as pretentious and/or unlistenable.
Lyrics
Lyrical creativity is not expected in many (most?) forms of classical music. A lot of it is either instrumental or reuses classic texts (Handel's Messiah uses the King James Bible for almost all of its words). In contrast, lyrics can be very complex in hip-hop and some forms of country/folk. Lyrical difficulty has increased greatly in pop since the Sixties, driven largely by rappers (T.I., as ghetto as his subject matter might be, uses a greater variety of words than most other popular musicians).
Singing style
In many popular genres (certain forms of metal as well as Autotune-heavy R&B being exceptions), clean, natural, and euphonious singing is prized and other forms of song are seen as indicative of a lack of talent. In contrast, there is a distinctive style of song associated with opera, for instance. To an untrained ear, virtuoso opera singing sounds just like really bad pop singing.
Influences
There are snobs on both sides of the aisle, but both popular and classical music have been open to influences from each other, although I'll concede popular music may be worse because many rock fans in particular aren't well exposed to classical music and so dismiss it out of hand, while many classical fans recognize the classical influence in popular music - as can be seen in studies of listening habits. Many classical composers and performers do incorporate rock and pop influences, and many also trained in or grew up with jazz at a time when it was still transitioning from popular music (Bo Nilsson, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, La Monte Young). Synth music was essentially a joint endeavor between the rock world (The Monkees were quite important here, as was the kosmische Musik of Germany that split off from psychedelic and hippie rock) and the classical world (Wendy Carlos and Isao Tomita). So the stereotype of classical music fans being elitist isn't really accurate.
Complexity
Both popular and classical music can be all over the place in terms of complexity levels, although I'll admit that the extremes tend to be associated with classical music (Ferneyhough and Nancarrow as extreme examples of complex music, and John Cage - assuming he's not just a troll - being the most extreme possible example of simple music with 4'33"). Popular music tends to be in the middle, although there are some very complex genres and subgenres (some metal songs have over 100 time signature changes, for instance, and the video-game inspired "black MIDI" phenomenon can include over 1,000,000 notes).
TL;DR - I don't hate classical at all, but judged by pop standards a lot of classical music is The Shaggs-level garbage. Don't judge popular music as if it's classical or vice versa.

Reddit Writes Music (X-Post from WeAreThemMusicMakers)

Subreddit Stats: LetsTalkMusic top posts from 2018-04-06 to 2019-04-05 22:49 PDT

Period: 364.41 days

	Submissions	Comments
Total	999	61421
Rate (per day)	2.74	166.90
Unique Redditors	570	8748
Combined Score	65055	400624

Top Submitters' Top Submissions

2347 points, 43 submissions: Zhanteimi
1. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (172 points, 48 comments)
2. We're halfway through 2018, so what great album so far this year is one most people haven't heard? And why is it so great? (143 points, 99 comments)
3. Zappa on music videos and music as product (141 points, 31 comments)
4. January 10th, 2019: the third anniversary of David Bowie's death (138 points, 22 comments)
5. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories (133 points, 120 comments)
6. Anti-records (127 points, 59 comments)
7. Music that got you through rough times (107 points, 124 comments)
8. The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume 1 (94 points, 23 comments)
9. Nirvana - Nevermind (87 points, 80 comments)
10. Which decade dominates your music collection, and why? (85 points, 112 comments)
1687 points, 34 submissions: 19djafoij02
1. Waves, chills, and lofi beats: The resurgence of easy listening (139 points, 29 comments)
2. Andrea Bocelli just debuted at #1 on Billboard. (117 points, 37 comments)
3. Let's talk: Eminem, Kamikaze, and the generation gap in rap (102 points, 132 comments)
4. "Old genres don't die, they just get sampled." Hip-hop production and how rock (and jazz and classical) can remain relevant (85 points, 46 comments)
5. Let's talk - "Un-popular" music. (80 points, 138 comments)
6. What are some -genres- that you think don't get enough attention? (79 points, 129 comments)
7. Let’s Talk...Kids See Ghosts (Cudi/Kanye) (78 points, 24 comments)
8. Let's talk: "Darkness" in music (73 points, 17 comments)
9. The ballad of John [Cage] and Yoko: "Downtown music" and its lasting impact on jazz, classical, and popular music (72 points, 13 comments)
10. Which rock subgenres are and are not "metal?" (67 points, 135 comments)
1309 points, 12 submissions: JesusWasWayCool
1. 25 years ago today, Nirvana recorded their "MTV Unplugged in New York" live album. (296 points, 66 comments)
2. I f***ing love the use of field recordings in music. (217 points, 67 comments)
3. Greatest example of wasted potential in music? (195 points, 499 comments)
4. What makes good ambient music? (156 points, 53 comments)
5. Things that musicians (who you otherwise enjoy) do that really bother you? (126 points, 206 comments)
6. What's made the most challenging but rewarding listening experience for you so far? (84 points, 71 comments)
7. How accurate is it to say Black Sabbath "invented" heavy metal? (78 points, 141 comments)
8. Is Queens of the Stone Age the only band that successfully made the cross over from 90s rock/grunge to 2000s rock/stoner rock without falling into numetal, post-grunge, or pop rock territory? (52 points, 25 comments)
9. The Books ... general discussion thread (31 points, 11 comments)
10. Why is it "cool" for modern day bands to record on tape rather than digital? (29 points, 21 comments)
925 points, 10 submissions: cdr4321
1. The Buddy Holly Test: How would Legendary Artists Be Remembered if They Died at 23 (172 points, 190 comments)
2. Albums with Both Great Openers and Closers (167 points, 183 comments)
3. Bands with the Longest Classic Period (116 points, 332 comments)
4. Albums that took you a long time to understand (109 points, 101 comments)
5. Extremely Famous Songs That Change within the Context of an Album (106 points, 92 comments)
6. Prince as a Lyricisit (106 points, 57 comments)
7. Songs with Narrator Changes (66 points, 83 comments)
8. Favorite Thematic Albums (43 points, 33 comments)
9. Great Artists whose Career Lasted Fewer than Four Albums (20 points, 40 comments)
10. Song Sequels that are Better than the Original (20 points, 28 comments)
874 points, 13 submissions: dabigpersian
1. What even was XXXTentacion? (222 points, 76 comments)
2. Everybody's got that weird ass music they vibe to alone. What's yours? (116 points, 219 comments)
3. How does everyone feel about music that's lost it's shock value (82 points, 63 comments)
4. In your opinion, what was the defining musical expression (song, sound, genre, album, etc) of 2018 for you? and why? (80 points, 62 comments)
5. What's your favorite genre's golden age? What makes an era a golden age? (80 points, 146 comments)
6. Let's Talk: Motley Crue and The Dirt (73 points, 69 comments)
7. What albums are more relevant today then when they were originally released (57 points, 50 comments)
8. Let's talk: Great music and god awful lyrics (47 points, 97 comments)
9. Which genre or artist will reign supreme in 2019 and why? (41 points, 49 comments)
10. Comparisons: Which band or musician is great but suffers by being juxtaposed to someone you think is great? (21 points, 36 comments)
868 points, 11 submissions: wildistherewind
1. RIP Aretha Franklin (198 points, 25 comments)
2. What albums are great despite their bad album art? (140 points, 268 comments)
3. Let's Talk: Are reissues of modern albums really necessary in the age of streaming? (120 points, 92 comments)
4. Let's Talk: Myspace Music, their 53 million song disappearing trick, and why almost no one noticed (117 points, 20 comments)
5. Drugs, Death, & SoundCloud Rap (89 points, 37 comments)
6. In Defense Of Downloads (62 points, 51 comments)
7. Let's Talk: Frank Zappa, Subversion, and Comedy (58 points, 27 comments)
8. Let's Talk: Springsteen and the power of interpretation (26 points, 9 comments)
9. Let's Talk: Phil Elverum & when good things happen to sad people (23 points, 16 comments)
10. Let's Talk: Now famous acts you saw as openers (18 points, 54 comments)
835 points, 12 submissions: zimplezample
1. What are some interviews with musicians that you think everyone should see? (182 points, 92 comments)
2. Let’s Talk: If I start to get the feeling that an entire genre sucks, I immediately try to remember that it’s far more likely that I’m just being close-minded. (172 points, 72 comments)
3. Let’s Talk: Albums which have a special/unique tone or production quality. (100 points, 93 comments)
4. What’s the oldest piece of music that you love? (76 points, 77 comments)
5. Let's Talk: Emotional skills such as listening and curation have as much musical value as technical skills. (63 points, 62 comments)
6. Let's Talk: What are some of your favorite albums or pieces of music made from samples? (61 points, 101 comments)
7. When you hear an amazing new album with a fresh inventive sound, do you ever think “I can’t wait till other artists start taking this sound and making their own music with it!” (60 points, 22 comments)
8. Let’s Talk: Film scores that work as standalone albums. (33 points, 29 comments)
9. What apps/websites/services are doing the coolest things to connect musicians and music lovers today? (26 points, 3 comments)
10. Let’s Talk: How would you describe your headspace when you’re intensely listening to incredible music? (22 points, 11 comments)
820 points, 9 submissions: ausernameofaperson
1. What band or artist do you have mixed feelings on? (160 points, 321 comments)
2. What a band or artist that it's "cool to hate" that you like? (139 points, 471 comments)
3. Problems you have with bands or artists you like? (132 points, 367 comments)
4. Describe what you love about some of your favorite bands and artists. (127 points, 94 comments)
5. Is AM by Arctic Monkeys an overhated album? (123 points, 47 comments)
6. Popular artists from the past decade you actually like? (59 points, 113 comments)
7. Bands or artists you prefer when "selling out"? (45 points, 62 comments)
8. Name one "classic" album you think lives up to the hype and one you think doesn't, with reasons why for each. (20 points, 80 comments)
9. Is not writing your own music an underrated concept? (15 points, 17 comments)
766 points, 8 submissions: DungeonessSpit
1. We often hear about bands selling out, but what're some bands that stepped away from the mainstream and became better as a result? (192 points, 144 comments)
2. Albums you were obsessed with when you were younger that you no longer get anything out of (170 points, 194 comments)
3. Double albums that actually justify being double albums (163 points, 238 comments)
4. Does anyone else feel slightly disconnected from the music if the person singing isn't the one who wrote the lyrics? (81 points, 86 comments)
5. Joy Division and New Order's "Substance" singles compilation (68 points, 25 comments)
6. Roxy Music's "Avalon" (43 points, 10 comments)
7. Critically acclaimed albums you don't like by artists you love (31 points, 148 comments)
8. Anyone else go through different phases with how much music you listen to? (18 points, 6 comments)
703 points, 6 submissions: blinkclyro
1. Biggest fall from grace? (Artists who dipped in quality the biggest) (174 points, 416 comments)
2. Music from your adolescence that have only gotten better (144 points, 110 comments)
3. Albums you like from artists that you don't? (135 points, 212 comments)
4. Important songs about mental health? (90 points, 95 comments)
5. On Your Local Live Scene (82 points, 83 comments)
6. Let's Talk: Your Favourite Album Artwork (78 points, 89 comments)

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Guide to the Cello Concerto, Part VI: Thanks, Slava!

Part I: Warhorses

Part II: Fin de siècle and beyond

Part III: Un-certos

Part IV: Alive and Kickin'

Part V: With A Little Help From My Friends

Part VI: Thanks, Slava!

Known as "Slava" to his friends, Mstislav Rostropovich was a real life superhero: he memorized Shostakovich's first concerto in four days, and Hindemith's of 1940 overnight! An unparalleled musical prodigy- cellist, pianist, composer, conductor- and unwavering humanitarian, he leveraged his musical talents and political visibility against one another to the betterment of both music and the people. His otherworldly talent as a cellist and proclivity for commissioning new works attracted many important composers, and Rostropovich's name is all over the repertoire of the 20th century; during his life, he premiered nearly 120 works. His efforts expanded the repertoire for cello more than any person before or since, and the cello's current popularity with composers is undoubtedly a result of the "Rostropovich explosion". This list is just a small sampling of works written for or inspired by Slava, played by the man himself, and in some cases, conducted by the composers of the pieces. For a larger list (and to see just how many great composers he worked with or inspired), visit this cello.org page.

Sergei Prokofiev - Sinfonia-Concertante, Op. 125 (1951)

I. Andante II. Allegro Giusto III. Andante con moto

Mstislav Rostropovich, cello Seiji Ozawa, conductor London Symphony Orchestra

Originally known as the Concerto in E minor, Op. 58, Prokofiev's masterpiece for the cello is a collaborative rewrite with a heavy hand on the part of Rostropovich. He only claims to have touched one passage, but much of the solo writing throughout is flashier and more brilliant though not necessarily more difficult. His knowledge of the cello meant that even his most adventurous edits still have an idiomatic nature unavailable to the non-cello-playing Prokofiev.
A sprawling 40 minute expanse of music very deserving of its symphonic moniker, the development of themes here is very thorough and it is easy to hear where Shostakovich may have gotten some inspiration from both composer and soloist for his first concerto nine years later. The form here moves the slow movement to the beginning, combines the traditional first movement and scherzo in the massive middle movement and concludes with a set of variations on a pompous, buoyant theme that culminates in blazing arpeggios and a solid THWACK! from our soloist, timpani, low brass and strings.

Benjamin Britten - Cello Symphony, Op. 68 (1963)

I. Allegro Maestoso II. Presto Inquieto III. Adagio - Cadenza ad lib IV. Passacaglia

Mstislav Rostropovich, cello Benjamin Britten, conductor Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra

Rostropovich considered Britten to be his best friend in the world. In addition to the Cello Symphony, Britten wrote his sonata and the three solo suites for Rostropovich, contributed to the SACHER project, and was a chamber music partner with him. This is his most ambitious cello undertaking, and the name refers to the roughly equal matching of soloist and ensemble throughout and the melded product of the two traditional forms. We have the four movements typical of a symphony, but the soloist doesn't wait for an introduction before launching into the lyrical opening. Britten's music here can be both intensely dissonant and hauntingly beautiful, but never off-putting. A striking cadenza for the soloist links the two closing movements, and the finale is a multi-faceted set of variations over a repeated bass that range from bombastic to tranquil to athletic to grandiose.

Aram Khachaturian - Concerto-Rhapsody (1963)

See the man in action!

Mstislav Rostropovich, cello Aram Khachaturian, conductor State Orchestra of the USSR

One of a trio of Concerto-Rhapsodies- the others, one each for violin and piano- this is a strange work. It opens with a short orchestral introduction that dumps us straight into a titanic cadenza for our soloist, who then spends three minutes espousing all of our themes, including that "need another theme but don't want to write one" favorite of composers everywhere: the Dies Irae (first 10 seconds heard here). After the cadenza, things start to fall unfortunately flat. Khachaturian was not an especially great composer, and though he had a few hits, his tendency to wring his material dry and end pieces long after the music was over shows up here. The work is all one single arc that, for all its faults, does have a barnburner finale.

Dmitri Shostakovich - Cello Concerto No. 2, Op. 126 (1992)

I. Largo II. Allegretto III. Allegretto

Mstislav Rostropovich, cello Yevgeny Svetlanov, conductor State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the USSR

Like so many composers, Shostakovich sought to explore a completely different affect with his second concerto. While the first was brash and bombastic, here we have music of a more introverted, cerebral nature. Opening with the soloist developing the themes, a bass drum joins the party and comments on the action. The second and third movements are stitched together, and the primary theme is an old Odessa (Russia, not Texas) street song, Bubliki, kupite bubliki (Ru. Pretzels, buy my pretzels!). Though there are plenty of quintessential Shostakovich outbursts, here we end with more whimper than bang.

Witold Lutosławski - Cello Concerto (1970)

I. Introduction II. Four Episodes III. Cantilena IV. Finale

Mstislav Rostropovich, cello Witold Lutosławski, conductor Orchestre De Paris

A radical masterpiece, here we have a composer who has managed to tame randomness. Through a process Lutosławski called "limited aleatorism" (aleatoric refers to "music by chance"), he was able to specify very specific musical directions for the players, but only loosely define when they would play these passages. In this way, he can still control harmony, texture, form and other large-scale aspects of the music while allowing the finer surface details to evolve organically.
It opens with an extended cello solo that includes instructions such as indifferent or a little silly but with elegance. It winds on for a while before trumpets stab at the cello out of nowhere. This juxtaposition of "oppressive mob vs scrappy individual" is at the heart of the concerto: over and over, the orchestra threatens to overwhelm and destroy the cellist, but here our soloist ultimately wins out. A Pyrrhic victory? The yawp of a champion or the final gasps of a dying hero? You decide.

Henri Dutilleux - Tout un monde lointain… (1970)

I. Énigme II. Regard III. Houles IV. Miroirs V. Hymne

Mstislav Rostropovich, cello Serge Baudo, conductor Orchestre de Paris

Alongside the Lutosławski, Dutilleux's contribution to cello concerti is the repertoire's highlight of the 20th century. Tout un monde lointain… (Fr. A whole distant world) is a dreamy, ethereal work inspired by the poetry of Charles Baudelaire. In the score, each movement bears an inscription from Les fleurs du mal, a set of Baudelaire poems that inspires the movement's character. For instance, the fourth movement (Mirrors) features phrases played forward and backward and the finale, which recalls music from previous movements, bears the inscription "Keep your dreams: wise men do not have as beautiful ones as fools!" The five movements are played without pause, and while generally atonal, Dutilleux's handling of harmony is expert, as several moments of radiance will remind you.

Leonard Bernstein - Three Meditations from "Mass" (1977)

I. Lento assai, molto sostenuto II. Andante sostenuto. Variations I-IV III. Presto. Fast and primitive

Mstislav Rostropovich, cello Leonard Bernstein, conductor Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

Bernstein's Mass has been mired in controversy since its premiere. Nixon avoided the occasion due to reports of "coded messages" in the music, and a weird combination of jazz, rock and classical influences make it hard to describe exactly what it even is. Though it has been met with warmer reception in recent years, the oratorio-cum-revue-cum-rock-show Mass is still an unpopular work potentially deserving of a wider audience. The good news for us, though, is that Bernstein excised and re-worked several portions of the work in the form we have here. Two of the three movements are sourced from music with the same title, but the third is an amalgam of several sections stitched together, and despite the title, only a fraction of the music here is truly meditative.

Alfred Schnittke - Concerto No. 2 "To M. Rostropovich" (1990)

I. Moderato II. Allegro III. Lento IV. Allegretto vivo V. Grave

Mstislav Rostropovich, cello Seiji Ozawa, conductor London Symphony Orchestra

Schnittke's second concerto is larger, heavier, and darker than its predecessor. Opening with a declamation from the cello in the singing middle register, it quickly climbs and evaporates into a dark mist before continuing from the depths of the instrument. This darkness is pervasive throughout, and steals from us the resolute destination one would hope for after trudging through forty minutes of desolation. Our opening is short, and after just a few minutes, the orchestra enters full force to establish the Allegro. The third movement picks its way through the rubble left after the cacophony of the second, and a harpsichord sits at the edge of the texture, almost mocking the cello as it searches for a way forward. Finally getting its legs, the fourth movement is a brief last pleading from the cello before the massive finale begins its offensive: a passacaglia, or repeating bassline over which there is continuous development. While the cello spends some time soul-searching, the orchestra slowly steps away from the soloist, eventually leaving them abandoned, cold, dark and alone.

Rodion Shchedrin - Cello Concerto "Sotto Voce" (1994)

I. Sostenuto II. Allegretto moderato III. Scherzo. Cadenza IV. Finale (Sostenuto - Allegro)

Mstislav Rostropovich, cello Seiji Ozawa, conductor London Symphony Orchestra

An appropriate finale for this entry, and the guide as a whole, Sotto Voce is something of a culmination: it has- and is- everything that embodied Rostropovich. For me, it feels very much like a musical portrait: ferocious cello writing, intimations of Soviet folksong, and moments of absolutely coruscating luminescence- owing to Slava's personality, of course. At the same time, however, it is still a portrait painted by a friend, and Shchedrin's touch is felt throughout, particularly in the conscious lyricism of the solo line. It frequently moves in long, broad strokes punctuated by the orchestra. Here, like Shostakovich's first concerto, the third movement is the exclusive purview of the cellist, who ascends to the heavens to signal the pesante finale. Near the end of the fourth movement is a particularly tender moment where the cello weaves an obligato line on harmonics around a pair of recorders, though clouds eventually creep into view, and as the music fades we're left to wonder whether or not it was an impending storm.
Thank you for reading. I hope this series has been informative, entertaining, and illuminating; it has be a pleasure to share some of my favorite music with you.

A depressing realization caused by Gone Girl and Nightcrawler about the theater experience and my responsibility as a movie-goer, or: "Nervous Laughter, the Darmstadt School, and My Dating Life"

NO SPOILERS, I PROMISE
I have to finally admit that I was fooling myself for the sake of convenience. I always heard filmmakers talk about the necessity of the theater experience. They cited distractedness. That's fine for me, I turn my phone off and guarantee myself free time everytime I watch a film in my room. They cited the magnificence of seeing and hearing everything in amazing quality. That's fine for me, I have good quality speakers and my monitor is very HQ. They cited the magnificence of seeing your heroes on a big screen, larger than semi-trucks. Alright, so I can't do that, but my monitor is still pretty huge. So I have that going for me.
The point is that I saw the appeal of going to a theater, but it was small compared the appeal of being able to stream movies for pocket change if I watched them often enough, the appeal of watching from my own home, the appeal of choosing the time I watch my film, the appeal of choosing the people I'm watching with.
There was a theater at my university that solved the problems of the price and the distance of going to movies, so I watched some films there. They only really showed more "hi-falutin" films like Blue is the Warmest Color and Io e Te. I didn't see the theater experience as being necessary then, so that further solidified my opinion that these directors were just lovingly looking back on their child-hood memories of Gregory Peck's towering face in Duel in the Sun or Star Wars's opening crawl, and overemphasizing the importance of that theater experience. Some more recent films have been given the same treatment, such as Avatar or Gravity.
Well then I decided to end my hiatus from dating after a nasty breakup and a hurt and mistrustful heart. But sorry ladies of TrueFilm, very soon after my heart mended, I got a girlfriend. Well, when you get a girlfriend, you gotta get a bus pass to see her. So my radius of acceptable travel opened up anyway, and in this damned city, the only fun thing to do on a night out, sober, is see a movie.
My first theater experiences with Sarah came. First Snowpiercer. Then Boyhood and Guardians of the Galaxy. My world remained unshaken after each of these. But then my she and I decided to see Gone Girl. She had never seen a Fincher film and I had never seen Ben Affleck's penis, so it looked like a night of adventure for us both. Little did I know that I'd have my opinions challenged that night.
Gone Girl was a wonderful film, up there with Zodiac as one of Fincher's best works. I'm sure I would have come to that same conclusion if I had watched it in my room, alone... but a new element was introduced to me that night. We all know and joke about the contagiousness of yawning in groups of people who aren't even tired. We know of how panic can spread in crowds even when there's nothing to be scared of. It turns out there is something equally contagious: nervous laughter.
There were funny moments in Gone Girl. I'm sure I would have laughed at those even if I had watched the film in my room; maybe I would have even groaned happily at the corny "that's marriage" line. But when we 100+ strangers were watching some of the completely serious and, for lack of a better word, "fucked up" scenes of the movie, we all did something I didn't expect: we laughed. Not only did I not expect it, for a FACT I know I wouldn't have felt that same thing in the theaters. And we didn't laugh because anything was funny, or because the movie was bad and we were mocking it. We all laughed nervously, like scared cavemen letting everyone else know not to worry about the saber toothed tiger.
I took an uneasy feeling home that night and I've been considering it on and off. Tonight I finally watched Nightcrawler and the same thing happened. Yeah, Jakey said some funny lines, but there we all were, laughing at some of the most horrible shit imaginable. This laughing, it was something I specifically could not get without the theater experience. There it was: an emotional and artistic quality of this film that I could have potentially missed out on. I let out an exasperated sigh before writing this. "Sigh. I guess they were right. The theater experience can make a difference."
When Scorsese sheds a soulful tear thinking about his connection to the big screen, and when Star Wars nerds kissed the ground in front of the Phantom Menace, I knew those were just special examples. But this nervous laughter was something that would've changed it for everyone.
I think this disappoints me because there's no such thing as rubato in film. There is a little bit of lee-way here or there, but it's pretty obvious that there's no way that a film can allow for alteration of the experience during a performance and have that alteration be just as much a part of the artform, in context. A musician may hold a note for longer, a stage actor may change his inflection for a certain line, a video game level may be experienced in totally different ways by completionists versus speed-runners. And all those differences in experience would be a part of the artform itself.
In the 20th century, the world of art music had a bit of inner debate about a subject similar to this: aleatoric music vs. total serialism. Aleatoric music, or chance music, allows, encourages, and explores the implications of the indeterminate aspects of a performance of music. A great example of this is John Cage's "Imaginary Landscape No. 4", which was a piece of music where the only instruments were radios instructed to change to certain frequencies at a certain time. Chance music accepted the factors that affect differences between performances as part of the art itself. While total serialism is a very hard thing to explain, all you need to know is that it was formed as a sort of dogmatic idealogy from a group of musicians who attended The Darmstadt School at some point, and its many composition properties led to a style of composition that exerted total control over every aspect of music. Every note had to played at a certain volume, for a certain length, with a certain articulation. There was no room for change.
FIlms to me always seemed to me something that could not be aleatory, by their very nature. Sure maybe Andy Warhol did something or another... I guess... look I don't really wanna know more about Andy Warhol, but pretty much everyone has a conception of film as having its artistic qualities completely predetermined. Some directors like Kubrick, Lynch, and Tarantino would actually make sure theaters used projectors and speaker systems to THEIR specifications. And considering the nature of film, they had a point.
Unlike chance music, unlike video games, and unlike stage plays, I don't feel that the external factors that affect my experience with film are "elements" of the artform itself. It's just not what film is.
I've always known this about film. It disappointed me that the only time I've watched Nosferatu, I watched it with such bad music that I couldn't enjoy the experience. Or, a better example:
When I first watched Pulp Fiction, I was a kid, and the movie was on a damaged VHS tape. Now, I immediately recognized the interesting narrative and the skillfully crafted dialogue of the film, but it wasn't until revisiting the film later- as an adult, in undamaged HD quality- that I realized the quality and craft of the imaged as well. Can you imagine? I actually went my entire childhood and adolescence thinking of Pulp Fiction as the film with "a great narrative, but 'meh' visuals", obviously unaware of the film's extraordinary visuals. This failure in artistic communication was certainly not Tarantino's fault, any more than it was Philip Pullman's fault that my school library only carried a damaged, stained, and muddy copy of His Dark Materials. The differences in my experiences in both cases are just not elements of that artform.
That's how, when I conceded tonight that I could have been missing something from Gone Girl or Nightcrawler, I came to a depressing realization. It wasn't just a few isolated examples of movies seen wrong... I may have been seeing some movies wrong my entire life. Sure, not all films would be that affected by the experience. Films not particularly intended for the theater experience, like films with DVD sales in mind or films made for TV, are obviously unaffected. Also, certain films just don't have qualities where theaters are that necessary. I just saw Io e Te in a theater surrounded by strangers; I doubt my experience would've been much different if I saw it at home alone.
But what about that nervous laughter from Gone Girl and Nightcrawler? What films could have elicited things like that, films where the "more correct" way to view them was surrounded by strangers to play your emotions off of? It hit me: Psycho. Sure, I've always thought the film was pretty well made, even interesting... I guess. I even mentally noted to myself, "boy oh boy, this Bates guy sure is creepy." But how much of that film was I missing by seeing it at home alone, with no nervous laughter to overwhelm me like a yawn, none of those biological, psychological, primal elements that were just as much a part of Hitchcock's design of the film as Herman's score or the legendary iris shot? And yet I always thought the film was "pretty good" and maybe a little overrated.
Shit, I could have watched Pyscho in a better way. How many films could I have watched in that better way? How many films will I not watch in that better way from now on? It's not like I can watch every film like that. Not every film is available to play in theaters. I don't have enough money. I don't have enough energy. I don't have enough time goddamnit, I have a girlfriend.
So unlike attending a Black Keys concert, unlike sitting through a high-school performance of Death of a Salesman, and unlike playing GTA V, sometimes the responsibility lays with me if I'm not grabbed by a film. And- because I now admit that the theater experience is indeed a factor of this responsibility- I am a bit bummed.
Shit, I shoulda stayed single.

Reddit Writes Music

Resources/Advice about Generative Formal Structures in Music

Mount St. Mary -- Early(est) Zappa Compositions [WLS #55]

What the hell is this you may ask? Well, from the man himself the Mount S. Mary concert was the first time Frank had any 'serious' compositions of his performed.
FZ on an interview from the 1992 Zappa! tribute magazine (Keyboard and Guitar Player):

Actually, the first time I had any of it ["serious" music] performed was at Mount St. Mary's College in 1962. I spent $300 and got together a college orchestra, and I put on this little concert. Maybe less than a hundred people showed up for it, but the thing was actually taped and broadcast by KPFK. (...) By the time I graduated from high school in '58, I still hadn't written any rock and roll songs, although I had a little rock and roll band in my senior year. I didn't write any rock and roll stuff until I was in my 20s. All the music writing that I was doing was either chamber music or orchestral, and none of it ever got played until this concert at Mount St. Mary's. Rip Rense on the liner notes of The Lost Episodes:
It took place in 1963 at, of all pastoral places, lovely Mount St. Mary's College, a private Catholic institution perched in the lush Santa Monica Mountains above West Los Angeles. (...) The program included a piece called "Opus 5," aleatoric works that required some improvisation, a piece for orchestra and taped electronic music, with accompanying visuals in the form of FZ's own experimental 8mm films (Motorhead Sherwood described one such film depicting the Los Angeles County Fair carnival, double exposed with passing telephone poles).

Program
I. Variables II for Orchestra II. Variables I for Any Five Instruments
Intermission
III. Opus 5, for Four Orchestras IV. Rehearsalism V. Three Pieces of Visual Music with Jazz Group
Definitely one of the oldest existing recordings of Frank's work it - this is a very unique slice of FZ history. Certain influences of his shine through here and even in 1963 Frank was experimenting heavily (remind anyone of Approximate?)...

“The next piece that we’re going to play . . . Maybe I should tell you what we were doing . . . The, the signals that we were giving, I’ll explain to you very simply: This means ‘free improvisation’ and the finger signals told the performers which of the fragments they were to uh, play at any given moment. Anyway, the next piece that we’re going to play is in standard notation, and it’s actually pretty tame compared to the “Opus 5.” It’s called “The Collage Two,” and it was written last Thursday.”—Frank Zappa

And with electronic tones as well (Varese anyone?),...

The sounds that you will hear are produced by actual musical instruments. The only thing that makes this different than any other kind of music you'll hear, is the fact that the instruments that are being played, are being played by people who don't know how to play those instruments. For instance, you will hear a clarinet on this tape recording which is played by my wife, who does not play a clarinet. And you will also hear banjo music played by another fellow who doesn't know how to play a banjo. These things were then subjected to electronic alterations. For instance, they were pumped through echo chambers. They are reverberated. They are run through a tremolo device, which sends a tone of low cycle which modulates the rest of what's happening on the tape. After all these modifications were completed to the original musical sounds, the tape was then cut up in random order, we just chopped it up, and stuck it back together again any way that the pieces happened to fall together

Further the show ends with some fascinating Q&A on Frank's work!
Enjoy!
Youtube Mega

[Discussion] improvisation

Where do I begin? Part 4: Post-War and Minimalism

Where do I begin?

All the works listed here can be found in this spotify playlist.

This guide is designed to provide a number of accessible entry points into classical music. The term “classical music” covers a thousand years of musical history and a range of genres and styles, so to make things clearer, this list is divided by era, but there’s no need to work through it in chronological order. This list provides samples of different styles and composers, as well as some definitions and background information. Once you’ve discovered something that you like, you can explore further by looking at some of our longer lists.

Post-War (c.1945 onwards)

The post-war era saw a greater emphasis on the avant-garde, as well as further questioning of traditional forms, tonality and even the very notion of music itself. Music could now include everything from background noise to recordings of everyday sound. Instruments were pushed beyond their usual boundaries with extended techniques. Film music grew in importance. Music technology advanced, affecting the way music was created, distributed and received. Many new techniques and systems for creating music were devised to replace traditional sonata form, while traditional notation was often replaced with graphic notation.

Boulez – ...explosante-fixe...
This work combines electronic and acoustic instruments, has a prominent flute part, and is a good example of Boulez’s dense, almost cluttered style. Boulez was heavily influenced by serialism, a complex compositional system developed by Arnold Schoenberg.

Cage – Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
John Cage was as much a theorist as he was a composer, and his works are incredibly diverse as a result. These pieces demonstrate just one of his many techniques – the prepared piano, where the the strings of the instrument were attached to various objects, altering their timbre.

Carter – String Quartet No.2
Carter’s began as a neo-Classicist, but later moved towards writing dissonant, chaotic music full of complex rhythms and manipulations of tempo. In this work, each member of the quartet plays in a different style to the others, taking the idea of chamber music as a conversation amongst friends to a new extreme.

Ligeti – Atmosphères
This work is a good example of one particular post-war trend – the movement away from traditional notions of rhythm and melody towards a greater focus on pure timbre and texture.

Lutoslawski – Symphony 3
One of the best examples of Lutoslawski’s combination of traditional elements with aleatoric techniques. Parts of the piece are highly organised, while others are left to chance – individual musicians are often free to choose how and when to execute their parts.

Messiaen - Turangalîla Symphonie
A piece which demonstrates that modern music can be deeply serious without being dull. One of the most popular orchestral works of the post-war period, Turangalîla is huge, exuberant and wonderfully over-the-top.

Penderecki – Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima
A bloodcurdling scream for string orchestra - quite simply one of the most terrifying pieces of music ever written. Like Ligeti, Penderecki’s frequently created huge abstract blocks of musical texture.

Stockhausen - Kontakte
One of the best-known pieces by one of the giants of electronic and tape music. This piece consists of a dazzling barrage of drones, noises, burbling electronics and warped, unidentifiable sounds. This piece also shows Stockhausen's sensitivity to musical space - sounds hit you from every direction.

Minimalism (c.1965 onwards):

Minimalism is one of the most significant developments of recent years. Minimalism generally uses short repeated phrases, and places an emphasis on rhythm rather than melody.

Glass – Glassworks
Glassworks is an album of short, crisp and punchy pieces which give a good overview of the composer’s style. They are played with a combination of electronic and acoustic instruments.

Pärt – Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten
A piece written for string orchestra and bell which was influenced by religious chants and Part’s discovery of Britten’s music. It revolves around a single, elegiac theme, evoking a sense of purity.

Reich – Music for 18 Musicians
One of the most famous and popular of all minimalist works. This piece was written for voices, strings, piano, maracas, clarinets, marimbas and xylophones. It features continuous pulsing rhythms and has a warm, organic quality which contrasts strongly with Glass’s machine-like precision.

Suggestions for additions to this section are welcome.

how to write aleatoric music video

Aleatoric Music Aleatoric music gives more creative responsibility to the composer. Aleatoric music allows the performer to control certain aspects of a composition. The composer will decide ahead of time which elements are aleatoric. The elements left to chance can include one or all of the following elements: medium, expression, duration, pitch or form. Medium Instruments may be left to the performer to decide in chance music. Aleatoric Music or Aleatoric Composition is music where some element of the composition is left to chance. The term was devised by the French composer Pierre Boulez to describe works where the performer was given certain liberties with regard to the order and repetition of parts of a musical work. Aleatoric music is a cool way of saying “chance” music. It’s a type of music where some parts of the music are left up to, well…chance! There are many different waysthat a piece of music could contain elements of chance. For example, maybe the composer, (the person who wrote the music), will allow the performer to decide how long to play a certain note. Or, maybe the composer will Aleatoric Music Of The 20th Century Music Essay compositional and instrumental methods utilized by John Cage. The biographical background... A music in which the composer leaves certain element of the composition up to chance is called aleatoric music. This is the reason why aleatoric music is referred to as chance music sometimes. If you want to be able to compose aleatoric music, rest assured that the task is fairly simple. As a matter of fact, composing aleatoric music does not require you to be a professional music composer aleatoric music in a sentence - Use "aleatoric music" in a sentence 1. As the worms move, they generate aleatoric music. 2. She then studied improvised and aleatoric music with John Cage and David Tudor. click for more sentences of aleatoric music... Music that supplies only the pitches while directing the players to improvise the rhythms freely is a common (partly) aleatoric device which gives the composer a desired degree of control over the tonality, while retaining temporal freedom.. The notation is typically indicated by surrounding a series of specific pitches with a square or rectangular box, along with a box extender line to Below are a collection of techniques useful for creating aleatoric music in Sibelius. Some are less commonly used Sibelius features, while others are hacks to stretch Sibelius beyond its originally intended use. Barlines Hiding/changing barline for an entire system. Unlike many Sibelius elements which can be hidden using Home > Hide or Show > Hide or Show (Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-H), barlines are Aleatoric Music. STUDY. Flashcards. Learn. Write. Spell. Test. PLAY. Match. Gravity. Created by. roorahrah. Terms in this set (4) aleatoric music. a music style based on chance and influenced by gamelan. extended techniques. any technique that isn't normal for that instrument. prepared piano. an aleatoric technique where things are attached to the strings of a grand piano Aleatoric music, stochastic music or random music leaves some aspect of its creation to chance, or to be determined by its performer(s). Although the term aleatoric music was first used in the 1950s, Charles Ives and Henry Cowell were using these techniques much earlier, and in fact Mozart was interested in music created using dice (or alea , in Latin), creating a dice game to create fragments

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How to Write Sheet Music with Musescore (Tutorial) - YouTube

Aleatoric Music: Live Looping & Chance - From Lutosławski to Video Game Music - Duration: 12 ... How Did Frank Zappa Write Melodies? (Rollo Interior & RDNZL Analysis) - Duration: 26:41. Samuel R ... Following the old style of writing, 聲 [koe] refers to voice as well as song and music, as opposed to the more simplified and modern 声 which only refers to the voice. Using these old kanji is ... Serialism and Serial Music explained, with an insight into serialism composition rules and techniques. Always wanted to understand Serialism or Twelve note t... Musescore has been my favorite music notation software since a while for so many reasons. It is a free tool that has the ability to create sheet music the sa... Atonal music. Piano and Violin (Finale Program) and black and white slide show. Both Music and Pictures by Peter Edward Burg copyright 2013. Limitless chord progressions - Aleatoric music - Duration: 11:12. Joseph Lilore 826 views. 11:12 . Music Dice Games With Adam Neely - Duration: 15:04. Aimee Nolte Music Recommended for you. 15:04 ... How to notate sub ponticello in Sibelius 7.5 and advanced score set up. Extract of Penderecki.If you find this helpful and would like to donate to me please ... Learn music theory in half an hour. - Duration: 31:36. ... How to Write Music - Keeping It Simple ... Aleatoric Music: Live Looping & Chance - From Lutosławski to Video Game Music - Duration: 12 ...

aleatoric music in a sentence - how to use "aleatoric

how to write aleatoric music

how to write aleatoric music - win

Highest Isolated Pitches

Composition methodology/influences

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