Sharing Less Well Known Music

[Flannel Jesus]

animal collective is great. brothersport is probably my favorite track of all time, ever ever ever
must be heard immediately after no more runnin:

[_________]

With a great message to boot.

[Flannel Jesus]

they've got messages in spades...and probably drugs too

[Flannel Jesus]

I posted this in the music thread, thought you might like it mr.Mathy.
PS don't watch the video, look at something else please

[_________]

I posted this in the music thread, thought you might like it mr.Mathy.
PS don't watch the video, look at something else please

Oh, now you know I'm going to watch it.

P.s., anyone is free and encouraged to contribute to this thread. I don't think I previously stated that, so throw a "I hereby declare..." somewhere in there.

Good stuff. What's wrong with the video, other than it my give epileptic people seizures?

[Flannel Jesus]

it's just not aesthetically pleasing and it's so distracting. demands too much attention, takes it away from the music.

[_________]

[Flannel Jesus]

[_________]

You've probably heard clair de lune and prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune, they're well known enough. His preludes may not have bombarded you.

[Silhouette]

Skryabin is a formidable modern composer, in some ways more of a painter than a musician. At the risk of sounding pretentious, the music I know by him consistently comes across as a four dimensional landscape painting - by which I simply mean it sounds either like bursts of colour swirling madly all around the place, over time, or carefully placed, fine delicate strokes of a pianistic brush - depending on the mood. But then, I heard he literally saw colours when he played. He seems to be a master of the "dis"chord. I like a couple of his preludes in particular, but that's largely down to the fact that I can actually play them - unlike much of his other stuff, such as the posted sonata...

When I sit down at my piano, more often than not I just like to hash out some notes in whatever shape my hand wants to take, in whatever range of the piano that expresses my mood best. And yet to my former housemate, a piano teacher with a second level diploma in piano, remarks that it clearly sounds like I know what I'm doing despite all the notes being un-thought-out as I play them. Point being, it somewhat resembles Skryabin, upon reflection. I feel like he really plays what he feels. Sadly a rare trait.

Debussy I find somewhat sickly. His sound is so fragile and delicate, even in his more abrupt "modern sounding" pieces such as the one linked above. Things like his Arabesque are all very "lovely", but Beethoven far surpasses him in that respect yet he also comes across as a lot more strong and healthy. Maybe it's just his German-ness.

As far as modern French composers go, I much prefer Satie. His music is often very silly, which is funny but I usually don't bother with those pieces. It's his more serious stuff like his Gnossiennes and his Pieces Froides - and obviously his Gymnopedies - that seem really descriptive and emotive to me (despite obvious simplicity). But, again, this means I can actually play them. Grade 7 sounds fancy, but you don't even start piano until Grade 8.

[_________]

(To clarify, the following regards piano alone and is entirely my opinion, excepting where I specifically note otherwise.)

Scriabin seems to me to be evolved from the foundation Debussy laid. If you go throughout Debussy's preludes you'll find yourself noticing many similarities, specifically the gratuitous servings of dissonant notes and an ever-present reference to the whole tone and pentatonic scales (Scriabin's twelve twelve tone is a modification of this), though you may chalk it up to sharing almost the exact same influences.

I feel Debussy is one of the most underrated composers for piano out there, especially by elitists and virtuosos thinking everything needs to be Liszt or Beethoven. Debussy claimed not to be composing music, but to be enacting an effect on/of reality. Also, of his Nocturnes: "an experiment in the different combinations that can be obtained from one color – what a study in grey would be in painting." If you listen to Ravel's transposition of Debussy's Nocturnes and Iberia for two pianos, you find he was simply not a strong orchestral composer.

This all depends, however, on what you feel music should be. If you think it should merely be a piano roll or played safe as far as theory is concerned, pick up some Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart. If, however, you think music should be organic, more than simply playing the notes at the notated dynamics and a relatively constant tempo, you may want to pick up Debussy or Scriabin. This puts the challenge on the performer to bring out the essence, to see past the paper. Not to mention the man essentially created modern Jazz.

As for "fragile and delicate," should one employ Beethoven to paint fragile, delicate things? Is music confined to strength? If so, drop Beethoven and pick up Wagner or something Russian.

I've only been playing half a year or so, but I'm happy to hear the opinion of another pianist, whether it disagrees with mine or not.

[Flannel Jesus]

one of the songs i've been diggin lately

[Flannel Jesus]

Speaking of sharing music, I've been invited to be a featured mixer on 8tracks.

[_________]

Congrats. My staple is classical, but I enjoy the selections you've made.