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May 30, 2022 3:24 AM Subscribe
Extremes of Conventional Music Notation, a fascinating list of wild demands on musicians found in "conventional Western music" by Donald Byrd of Indiana University Bloomington [via the always-entertaining Threatening Music Notation Twitter account]
Previous discussion (but always worth a re-visit.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:46 AM on May 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:46 AM on May 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
Conlon Nancarrow has entered the chat
posted by escape from the potato planet at 5:27 AM on May 30, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by escape from the potato planet at 5:27 AM on May 30, 2022 [7 favorites]
The obvious next step is to create an album with all these pieces.
posted by Whale Oil at 6:04 AM on May 30, 2022
posted by Whale Oil at 6:04 AM on May 30, 2022
Oh wow a site still with frames!
I would argue this is a topic that could really have benefitted with pictures of the scores.
posted by Theta States at 6:27 AM on May 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
I would argue this is a topic that could really have benefitted with pictures of the scores.
posted by Theta States at 6:27 AM on May 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
Xenakis wrote crazy scores. The Twitter account above has a perplexing one a few posts down.
posted by kozad at 7:14 AM on May 30, 2022
posted by kozad at 7:14 AM on May 30, 2022
The linked “previous discussion” includes an image gallery.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 7:15 AM on May 30, 2022
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 7:15 AM on May 30, 2022
Ctrl-f Ferneyhough ... yep, checks out. Loving the old school web design, and the efficient summary of the info :)
If you can find it in a nearby library, Compendium of Modern Instrumental Techniques is another valiant effort at cataloguing and making sense of all this stuff, with examples. At uni, I'd sometimes enjoy just sitting and browsing through it, and related treats in the modern classical collection - a lot of these more 'extreme' scores are amazing works of graphic art in themselves, as well as recipes for fun sounds. I should really get a copy sometime, but like any good hefty, niche reference book, it ain't cheap!
posted by threecheesetrees at 8:05 AM on May 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
If you can find it in a nearby library, Compendium of Modern Instrumental Techniques is another valiant effort at cataloguing and making sense of all this stuff, with examples. At uni, I'd sometimes enjoy just sitting and browsing through it, and related treats in the modern classical collection - a lot of these more 'extreme' scores are amazing works of graphic art in themselves, as well as recipes for fun sounds. I should really get a copy sometime, but like any good hefty, niche reference book, it ain't cheap!
posted by threecheesetrees at 8:05 AM on May 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
Xenakis wrote crazy scores.
Yeah they're kinda nuts (and beautiful). As I understand it, that's more a (slightly rough) visualisation of a music generative algorithm than a score per se, in this case based on thermodynamics in fluids?? Weirdly those last few words I typed make sense when you hear it. This blog post has a pretty good discussion.
posted by threecheesetrees at 8:14 AM on May 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yeah they're kinda nuts (and beautiful). As I understand it, that's more a (slightly rough) visualisation of a music generative algorithm than a score per se, in this case based on thermodynamics in fluids?? Weirdly those last few words I typed make sense when you hear it. This blog post has a pretty good discussion.
posted by threecheesetrees at 8:14 AM on May 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
Will have to dive into this!
The late George Crumb had some wild scores.
As far as more classical "common practice period" wild scorings, there's the transition to the final movement in Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata opus 106 (Largo)... Lots of changes of tempo and key signature, very long measures...
posted by Schmucko at 12:12 PM on May 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
The late George Crumb had some wild scores.
As far as more classical "common practice period" wild scorings, there's the transition to the final movement in Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata opus 106 (Largo)... Lots of changes of tempo and key signature, very long measures...
posted by Schmucko at 12:12 PM on May 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
Byrd also has a Gallery of Interesting Music Notation, including extremes in pieces that aren't especially avant-garde otherwise.
posted by pmdboi at 1:26 PM on May 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by pmdboi at 1:26 PM on May 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
Extreme musical notation? Meet Parker Meek. It turns out that if you require the drummer to hit the snare more than 100 times per second you get an effect similar to playing music on dot matrix printers. Sometimes things should be in 71/64 time. I'm not sure why some of the notation is in Greek or how to follow the instruction "break all four drum heads."
EZ Elementary school warm up is a good entry point.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 1:39 PM on May 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
EZ Elementary school warm up is a good entry point.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 1:39 PM on May 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by solarion at 4:43 AM on May 30, 2022 [4 favorites]