Classical Music to accompany Ligotti reading

[matt cardin]

Quote Originally Posted by Sticherbeast

I'd also add to the list the works of Elliot Goldenthal. He's primarily a modernist film composer (and also the life partner of Julie Taymor), and some of his best works include his scores for Alien^3, Titus, In Dreams, and Cobb.

Goldenthal earned my eternal and passionate gratitude in 1994 with his score for the film adaptation of Interview with the Vampire. The agonized sense of metaphysical yearning, entwined with and countered at every step by a nihilistic despair, that's embodied in that musical score flat-out marked me and contributed a great deal to my experience of life at the time.

[Malone]

If anyone's looking for what I believe to be a wonderful example of cosmic,completely non-human music,I strongly recommend a CD entitled 'The Emfire Collection' by Sasha,the british DJ and dance producer.Tracks 1,3,and 5 on the second disk are truly sublime,particularly track 5,entitled 'New Emissions of Light and Sound' a 40 minute journey into the cosmos....

[rresmini]

Ades - asyla, Peter Ablinger: der regen, das glas, das lachen, works by Harrison Birtwistle: for o, for o, the hobby-horse is forgot, The Triumph of Time, works by Gloria Coates, Gerd Kuhr: revue instrumentale et electronique, Per Norgard: symphonies no 4 and 5, works by Wolfgang Rihm, symphonies by Avet Terterian 3 and 4 come to mind, Iannis Xenakis: kraanerg.

Releases on the Kairos label: Helmut Lachenmann, Olga Neuwirth, Luigi Nono, Hanspeter Kyburz, Johannes Maria Staud, Matthias Pintscher...

The usual suspects of Ligeti, Penderecki, Berg, Schoenberg, Webern.

[Nemonymous]

Quote Originally Posted by rresmini

Ades - asyla, [...]The usual suspects of Ligeti, Penderecki, Berg, Schoenberg, Webern.

Great stuff. I'm obsessed by Webern music. I don't know why. If it's not in my earphones, I feel depleted.

Re the Ades, Asyla is plural of Asylum, as you probably know.

[rresmini]

Quote Originally Posted by Nemonymous

Quote Originally Posted by rresmini Ades - asyla, [...]The usual suspects of Ligeti, Penderecki, Berg, Schoenberg, Webern. Great stuff. I'm obsessed by Webern music. I don't know why. If it's not in my earphones, I feel depleted. Re the Ades, Asyla is plural of Asylum, as you probably know.

I'm a sucker for the 12 tone composers.

As well as the contemporary composers that are pushing into more abstract sound.

[Daisy]

For a few moments there was only silence, a purer silence than Tressor had ever known, like the silence of a dark, lifeless world. Then sound began to enter the silence, but so inconspicuously that Tressor could not tell when the absolute silence had ended and an embellished silence had begun. Sound became music, slow and muffled music in the soft darkness, somewhat muted as it passed through the intervening door. At first there seemed to be only a single note wavering alone in a universe of darkness and silence, coaxing its hearers to an understanding of its subtle voice, to sense its secrets and perhaps to hear the unheard. The single note then burst into a shower of tones, proliferating harmonies, and at that exact moment a second note began to follow the same course; then another note, and another. There was now more music than could possibly be contained by that earlier silence, expansive as it may have seemed. Soon there was no space remaining for silence, or perhaps music and silence became confused, indistinguishable from each other, as colors may merge into whiteness. And, at last, for Tressor, that interminable sequence of wakeful nights, each a mirror to the one before it and the one to follow, was finally broken.

—From “The Music of the Moon” (pub. 1987), by Thomas Ligotti

Inspired by this particular passage, I’d like to recommend the spectral music of Salvatore Sciarrino (b. 1947):

YouTube- Salvatore Sciarrino : Lo spazio inverso (1985)

YouTube- Sciarrino- L'Addio a Trachis

[rresmini]

The spectral school of thought has produced a number of outstanding composers.

As soon as you mentioned Sciarrino some of the works of Gerard Grisey, Tristan Murail, Saariaho and Scelsi immediately spring to mind.

YouTube- Grisey: "Vortex Temporum" 1/4

YouTube- Robert Ambrose Conducts Tristan Murail (part 1)

[Daisy]

John Zorn's recent classical compositions -- such as "Necronomicon for String Quartet" (2004) -- rise from the shadow, the darkness:

YouTube- John Zorn & Crowley Quartet - Conjurations

YouTube- John Zorn & Crowley Quartet - The Magus

YouTube- John Zorn & Crowley Quartet - Asmodeus

[Nemonymous]

I've often thought all modern (20th and 21st century) String Quartets have been, by their intrinsic nature, if not intentionally, Horror-based.
The above is overtly and intentionally so.

[rresmini]

How I forgot about this is beyond me... I must have 4 versions of this piece, George Crumb's black angels.

YouTube- black angels part 1 by George Crumb

YouTube- black angels part 2 by George Crumb

YouTube- black angels part 3 by George Crumb

Also, by chance have any of you read Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century ? I'm in the middle of it now. A lot of the composers we've mentioned here are accounted for. Particular attention given to Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Wagner and Cage.