harsh sounding music

[liszmaninopin]

Just curious, but how many people here enjoy very harsh music, like parts of Ives' Concord Sonata, Violette Sonata 5, some Sorabji?

[comme_le_vent]

yeah i do, also include antheil and ornstein in that list.
by the sound of the pieces you mention, the music is violent and dissonant, and mostly very loud too. some people think music is only good if it is pretty. i, for one, enjoy 'harsh' music just as much pretty music. and there is as much of an art in creating harsh music as there is in pretty music. some music is just harsh rubbish, but pieces like ornstein's wild mens dance are very expressive and musically exciting and rewarding BECAUSE of the artful use of harsh sounds and rhythms.
i posted a similar message about ornstein that noone as of yet has replied to - outlining a similar interest.
lets hope this board isnt full of loads of scaredy cats.  

[liszmaninopin]

I generally enjoy harsh music, but I do have my limits.  Where is this post about Ornstein?  I've never heard of him before, and always like learning about new composers.

[comme_le_vent]

'Ornstein - BRUTAL Piano Music' was the name of my post, scroll down to see it. Hamelin recently recorded a cd of his works, and its amazing, even if you dont like the music. even if you dont like it, just listen to it to hear what the piano is capable of. Antheil is the other composer i mentioned that you didnt,  some hardcore piano music by him (with evocative titles like Airplane Sonata, Jazz Sonata, Sonata Sauvage, Mechanisms, and Death of Machines), his most famous work is ballet mechanique for orchestra and helicopter(sounds like it),  
im a lazy typer so here is something i copied from 'all classical music guide'-

If we are to overlook George Antheil's notable talent for self-mythologizing (he audaciously wrote an autobiography at the age of 35, entitled Bad Boy of Music) and take him at his word, the following anecdote sheds considerable light on Antheil's style as a pianist and, consequently, his early compositions for piano. As the story goes, Antheil had heard that a well-connected music agent was looking for a fiery new pianist to replace keyboard maverick Leo Ornstein. A month before auditioning for the agent, Antheil bought two fishbowls, filled them with water, and sat between them on the piano bench. During the next several weeks, Antheil practiced for up to 20 hours a day, alternately soaking one swollen, bloody hand in the water while practicing with the other.
In fact, it was precisely during this time that Antheil wrote some of his most infamously difficult works, some of which find few rivals for uninhibited physicality and relentless gesture; listening to their thick blocks of sound and crashing rhythms, one is inclined to accept the fishbowl story as accurate. It is certainly the sort of visual image summoned by his Sonata Sauvage, from 1923. The opening and closing movements of the piece juxtapose brief, tranquil, Debussyesque pastiche with noisy, ham-fisted hammerings so thick in their scoring as to obscure any sense of melody or harmonic trajectory; indeed, the last few bars of the first movement consist of nothing but furious pounding at the extremes of the keyboard.

Thats what i call some HARDCORE practicing.  

Ornstein composed similarly abrasive music, so check them both out. And keep an ear out for other lesser known composers, cos the rewards of it are immense.