Transport [music]
May. 31st, 2018 04:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterFolklife got me thinking about marimbas again. Someone else's blog post commenting on a classical music performance reminded me of my general interest in contemporary classical music, and a long-term search for a certain piano piece I heard performed during college*. That, in turn, led me to a top 10 list of contemporary classical music composers from 2012.
If you don't have much experience with contemporary classical music, well. I will just say that the classical music station in Phoenix drives me completely batty because it plays the same 10 symphonic pieces over and over and over again. I think it does this to appease the older retirees who very quickly forget what they just listened to. That, or people who are looking for something very specific and nostalgic when they refer to "classical music."
The reality is that there are a lot of people writing and performing some amazing contemporary classical music, and it might just expand your horizons in new ways.
Anyway, I looked up the first composer who is listed on YouTube, and stumbled into a trove of incredible marimba pieces, such as this one:
https://youtu.be/hy1amTQZj8M
Listening to this stuff makes me feel as though I've been transported to a different plane of existence. Ahh, what a wonderful feeling. And no lyrics, so I can listen while I work.
*Best description that I can work out: It was structured such that every time the pianist played a key, that note was then echoed twice, one octave then two octaves above the note that was played. The guy who performed the piece (performance at Tufts; member of the music department there) joked that it was challenging to practice because every time he made a mistake the mistake was echoed twice. Anyway, the composer may have been a South American contemporary composer, but that's all that I remember of the piece so I've never been able to find it or anything else quite like it. I am still cursing myself for recycling the program from that performance.
If you don't have much experience with contemporary classical music, well. I will just say that the classical music station in Phoenix drives me completely batty because it plays the same 10 symphonic pieces over and over and over again. I think it does this to appease the older retirees who very quickly forget what they just listened to. That, or people who are looking for something very specific and nostalgic when they refer to "classical music."
The reality is that there are a lot of people writing and performing some amazing contemporary classical music, and it might just expand your horizons in new ways.
Anyway, I looked up the first composer who is listed on YouTube, and stumbled into a trove of incredible marimba pieces, such as this one:
https://youtu.be/hy1amTQZj8M
Listening to this stuff makes me feel as though I've been transported to a different plane of existence. Ahh, what a wonderful feeling. And no lyrics, so I can listen while I work.
*Best description that I can work out: It was structured such that every time the pianist played a key, that note was then echoed twice, one octave then two octaves above the note that was played. The guy who performed the piece (performance at Tufts; member of the music department there) joked that it was challenging to practice because every time he made a mistake the mistake was echoed twice. Anyway, the composer may have been a South American contemporary composer, but that's all that I remember of the piece so I've never been able to find it or anything else quite like it. I am still cursing myself for recycling the program from that performance.
