Pretty much anything by Mahler, no other composer leaves me so impressed from the first time I listen to a work of his. Besides that, if I can mention a particular interpretation rather than a piece, Zimerman's version of Totentanz.Before you get other people overreacting, you should change the term songs with pieces btw =P
I agree about Mahler...the 9th Symphony, I think. =P
This is a short thread...I did not realize. I should look up and read. Xenakis is jaw dropping. Mind blowing is more apt. The first piece that I got, that led me to the others was the piece for violin and piano, Dikhthas. Wow, what a piece! And then really any of the large orchestral works...Tracées is probably the longest, most spellbinding, jaw dropping, mind blowing 6 minutes in the history of music. It's the one piece I'd love to conduct more than any other, if I was a conductor...just to start a subscription concert out with Tracées, no explanations and no apologies...to have people trapped in the room with that massive, unrelenting, unbelievable sound for six minutes. It is an actual dream of mine! And then there's the impossible trombone piece, Troorkh Xenakis is without a doubt the most jaw dropping composer there is. (...a 60 note chord in the strings.... )
Ah, Go, I've not been following this thread, but if you love Mahler's 9th, than I love you!
[/youtube]New complexity 1996
I'm more of an, "oh man" kind of guy than a jaw dropping one. The most recent piece to elicit an "oh man" would be Joel-Francois Durand's (a composer who typically uses Spectral compositional techniques with dynamic choices that usually belong to the New Complexity school, so he's hard to classify) "Athanor".
He almost completely disregarded the tune as well, but this is the price we must pay to progress.
I would feel more at ease with the New Complexity School if they wrote for banjos.
Rubbish! It was a lot of fun and certainly not in any sense "new complexicist"; virtuosic, to be sure and some of the most engaging banjoliering I've yet encountered but hardly "new complexity"!Then why don't you commission some of "new complexity"'s luminaries to write works for solo banjo or banjo ensemble? It could produce some interesting results. Banjo Contra Naturam? Alabamy Country Banjotunes? (sorry, John!). Knospend-Gesbanjoltener? Champeng at the bit? (go look up https://www.hespos.info/index.php?navi=content&id_area=1&level=2&npoint=113,187,0,0,0,0 for the reference thereto). Just a few idle thoughts...Best,Alistair
Is there something I don't know? D: