One more observation. I listened to the performer about the other 2 pieces that I had found insufficiently interesting in their openings to listen to all the way through. Both of these pieces of music were composed with a very strong conceptual basis, rather than a musical or sound basis. I have found in my own composing that music generated from concept is really never as good as music which springs forth from my mind as sound first. The piece called "Double Play" was written in tablature, as if tablature was an interesting, abstract map of something. The performer then is instructed to play each movement on 2 different lute instruments, in this case 10 C Ren lute and theorbo, which results in rather different weird sounds. The concept behind "l'amour et la mort" is the use of an historical piece of music "within a uniquely Australian contemporary context". So if you like concept pieces, those 2 are for you. If you prefer musical sounds themselves as the basis, the the others. My 2 cents.
Suzanne -------------- Original message from "Suzanne and Wayne" <angevin...@att.net>: -------------- > I listened to the videos of the performer talking about the 2 pieces > I mentioned below and learned some interesting things. The piece > "RunSten....and Varin said", by Michael Atherton, was set into tablature > by the composer, because the composer PLAYs the lute. I think this makes > a difference and is probably a reason I thought these pieces effective. > > In the video about "Bakers Dozen", the performer talked about making > decisions about where to play notes on the theorbo, so as to either > have, or not have, overlapping sounds, etc. He implied that he in fact > did the intabulation for these pieces. So this composer wrote the music > in staff notation, and left those decisions to the intabulator/performer. > > Suzanne > -------------- Original message from "Suzanne and Wayne" : > -------------- > > > > This is interesting. I'm heartened, in light of our recent discussion > > that seemed to show the near lack of women composers in the past, that > > 2 of the 4 composers selected for this project were women. > > I'm not really a fan of "contemporary" music, but I found 2 of the > > compositions worthy of the time to listen to. While all 4 used the > > "modern" way of making sounds using "extended techniques" on the > > instrument, I found "RunSten....and Varin said" and "Bakers Dozen" to > > have melodic and harmonic interest. Perhaps its true that some of this > > could be thought of as similar to modern guitar music, but then > > considering that there aren't many models of modern lute music, that > > seems like a reasonable place to start for a composer who doesn't play > > lute. > > Thanks for posting this link. I found it very interesting to explore. > > Suzanne > > > > -------------- Original message from Peter Martin > > : -------------- > > > Hey, you hordes of contemporary lute music fans. Have a look at > > The > > > Lute Project at [1]http://www.abc.net.au/classic/lute/default.htm > > > > > > > > > > > > The Australian ABC broadcasting company commissioned four > > composers to > > > write works for lute or theorbo, which were performed live by > > Tommie > > > Andersson at last year's Aurora Festival. The site has videos of > > the > > > concert plus interviews with the composers. Well worth a look. > > > > > > > > > > > > P > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > References > > > > > > 1. http://www.abc.net.au/classic/lute/default.htm > > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > -- > > > >
