Hobo Jungle

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Learning to play a concert flute?
Tuning a piano?
Cello, what was the cello guy doing?
Why were they all wearing masks? The description below the video gave away their names!

Thank you Rufus, but I think I will go back to "Concert at the Railway Station."

Read more at your fav info source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_Balaenae

George Crumb's music is "challenging"; Vox Balenae is one of the more accessible works. That flute technique is interesting. I still have most of my copies of his works on vinyl; watching them being performed is better.

[webenda]

Chisel on piano strings! Not on my piano!!!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Chisel on piano strings! Not on my piano!!!

Sand on aluminum foil over the strings......and other fun techniques,

[rogruth]

IMHO Ms. Lisista proves once again that a master performer can make any instrument sound great.
So what if the piano was out of tune? If I was in that audeience I would always remember it.
Fantastic!
I'm surprised the piano was still standing at the end.

[rogruth]

Rufus,

I do strongly agree that music of the Crumb, and others, type is much more interesting if the performance is seen.

[webenda]

Are you familiar with Maroney? I avoid clicking any Youtube video that has the name, "Denman Maroney" in the title. This guy does not play the piano, he plays with the piano.=> http://youtu.be/buOioRzG1_I

Sand on aluminum foil does not work well with an upright, but hanging a newspaper between the strings and hammers does. A newspaper produces a honky-tonk sound without putting tacks in the hammers.

[rogruth]

Wayne,

The first I heard of stuff like that, it being was written by Henry Cowell starting in the late 1930s.
His stuff became better known in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Lots of interesting music out there.
I love Beethoven, and many others, but I don't like to hear two hours of Beethoven symphonies.
Some new or experimental music now and then is good but not hours at one time.

After seventy years of involvement in music I am now listening mostly to old favorites.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Henry Cowell

Not heard that name for a while, but I'm passingly familiar with his work. Used to listen to Ives, Stockhausen, Berio, Cage, Crumb, Riley, and Glass quite a bit. Berg and Webern...... Sometimes hard to listen to and challenging, but not boring either.

My children grew up listening to Glass' "Einstein on the Beach"....... Never got to see it performed and it's a long one... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YU3XIAgn9o

Also have a copy of Adams' "Nixon in China" - used to have a copy of the premier performance on reel to reel tape.....



Then again, I can also enjoy these performances:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-DgIU4E9Mo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w05YIk0Hu2Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVqFJswb1iM

[rogruth]

Rufus,

You have named a lot of my old "friends" that I have not heard for a while.
I never listened to one of their pieces just one time, always at least twice.
For some reason that I cannot explain, Glass and Adams usually do not excite me at all.
That might be from my background.

[2railjon]

Thank you Rufus, but I think I will go back to "Concert at the Railway Station."
http://youtu.be/1NZpPg_9N90
In the above, Valentina Lisitsa, after finding an out-of-tune piano at St Pancras Station, London, gives the piano a heart attack playing Totentanz - The Raging Dance of Death by Liszt on it. May the dead whales rest in peace.

Wayne, she killed the crap out of that poor whale.
:lol:

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Rufus,

You have named a lot of my old "friends" that I have not heard for a while.
I never listened to one of their pieces just one time, always at least twice.
For some reason that I cannot explain, Glass and Adams usually do not excite me at all.
That might be from my background.

I have not re-visited them for a while either but the Vox Balenae piece provoked memories of when I was very interested in experimental music and was looking for the notes in between the notes. I had built a synthesizer from a kit as an undergrad and still had the time available to be involved in some music before heading off to grad school........and listening is what I do now. I learned to be able to listen to just about anything at least once to understand it.

Had some challenges with the organ compositions of Olivier Messiaen when I was an undergrad, but I found that only I and 1 of the music dept. professors listened to it -- 12-tone organ...... I spent a week listening to it. He didn't care for it either,

[webenda]

Let's have a listen to Olivier Messiaen => http://youtu.be/SY7g0ULVl2I

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Let's have a listen to Olivier Messiaen => http://youtu.be/SY7g0ULVl2I

Nice! A good break from listening to Paul Haslinger & Peter Baumann...

[rogruth]

Messiaens ogran music is more enjoyable to me than other works.

[webenda]

I agree with Roger, nevertheless, I am going back to the railroad station where even little kids play better than Messiaen.

http://youtu.be/f8xmSlMb1dg
Commenters can't seem to figure out who the "dude" is playing. The dude is none other than Henri Herbert.

Little kid example:=> http://youtu.be/vgPK519c6yo

No, the kid is not trying to imitate Messiaen--it sounds that way because the piano needs tuning badly. It might be hard to keep the pianos in tune due to no climate control in St Pancras Station. (Notice everyone is wearing their outdoor clothes inside.)