Jaw Dropping

[redragon]

When I first heard Chopin's "Fantasie impromptu," I was in awe. What are some pieces that you've listened to that just makes your jaw drop?

[iroveashe]

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

[go12_3]

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

[furtwaengler]

I agree about Mahler...the 9th Symphony, I think.  =P

Ah, Go, I've not been following this thread, but if you love Mahler's 9th, than I love you!

[furtwaengler]

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.... )

 

[iroveashe]

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.... )

 

I'm listening to it now, it's scary.

[gyzzzmo]

Rach's second, or Boelman's toccata. Theyre massive.

[go12_3]

Ah, Go, I've not been following this thread, but if you love Mahler's 9th, than I love you!

Aww, how sweet of you to love me!   

[ghchopin]

Uhh, Nothing that made my jaw drop, but maybe Liszt/Volodos Hungarian Rhapsody 2, or Chopin's Heroic Polonaise.

[john11inc]

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".

[thalbergmad]

God knows why, but i actually liked that.

[thalbergmad]

[/youtube]

New complexity 1996

[john11inc]

[/youtube]

New complexity 1996

New Complexity indeed; you can so easily tell how the composer completely disregarded the audience when writing this!

[thalbergmad]

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.

Thal

[ahinton]

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".

Well, it doesn't sound particularly "new complexity school" to me; I do take your point about the dymanics, but there are surely far too many tonal references to allow the composer to be so pigeon-holed. "Hard to classify" (as you suggest) seems indeed rather nearer the mark.

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

He almost completely disregarded the tune as well, but this is the price we must pay to progress.

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"!

I would feel more at ease with the New Complexity School if they wrote for banjos.

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

[john11inc]

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

Really?  I always considered Hespos Avant-Garde.  Is there something I don't know?  D:

[pianowolfi]

  Is there something I don't know?  D:

Noooo of course not!!! 

[mikey6]

tchaik 6 first time I heard it left quite an impression.
Still does - the ending gives the the feeling that there is no hope for anybody! EVER!

[highcrappile]

Well before I heard about Kissin, and before I ever heard La campanella, I saw on public tv Kissin playing La Campanella. That very much dropped my Jaw.