On Monday at Westminster, we have the final concert for the composition class. While we’ve studied a number of pieces this semester, I’d like to give the students a list of suggested further listening. What would you recommend as a list of 10-20 pieces for a student composer – to provoke, inspire, and enrich their knowledge of the repertory?
Kitty with 'table from openphoto.net
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1. Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta
2. Barber: Knoxville Summer 1915
3. Shostakovich: Symphony #10
4. Bernstein: West Side Story
5. Berio: Sinfonia
6. Britten: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
7. Walton: Symphony #1
8. Fussell: Specimen Days
9: Myron: Violin Concerto #2
10: Matthews: 4th Sonata for Orchestra
Feldman: String Quartet #2
Shapey: Fromm Variations
Wolpe: Piece in Two Parts for Six Players
Glass: Music in Changing Parts
Reich: Drumming
Riley: In C
Cage: Four
Eastman: Gay Guerrilla
Monk: Dolmen Music
Beyer: String Quartet #1
Andriessen: Worker’s Union
Dallapicolla: Quaderno Musicale di Annalibera
Earle Brown: String Quartet
Ligeti: Three Pieces for Two Pianos
Messiaen: Cantéyodjayâ
Michael Denhoff: Hauptweg und Nebenwege
Nancarrow: Study No. 25
Otte: Das Buch Der Klänge
Kline: Zippo Songs
Scelsi: Quartet #3
Tenney: Chromatic Canon
Xenakis: Ergma
Young: Trio for Strings
Stockhausen: Stimmung
Gordon: Yo Shakespeare
Chatham: Guitar Trio
Foss: String Quartet No. 3
Giteck: OmShanti
Grady: Beyond the Windows Perhaps Among the Podcorn
Spiegel: Drums
Toch: Geographical Fugue
Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time
Ligeti: Music Ricercata
Britten: Cello Suite No. 1
Reich: Piano Phase
Johnson: Narayana’s Cows
Andriessen: Hoketus
Crumb: Black Angels
Lang: Cheating, Lying, Stealing
Bettison: O Death
As a non-composer, I would find it really valuable to also include a word or two of *why*. What interesting lesson has a recommender picked up from studying a given piece?
I picked my list (and it was hard to pare down) based on what I considered to be pretty significant and diverse works from the past 50 years or so. There is no objective rationale for my list-it’s admittedly totally subjective and your mileage will vary.
i picked each of mine to show young composers some tool or method of thinking i find valuable (like a way of dealing with speech in the toch, or excessive constraint in pitch material in the ligeti, or mathematical process in the johnson, hocketing in the andriessen, etc..). it is a very personal list, though — it’s by no means a thorough, unbiased survey of the century.
Charles Mingus – Self Portrait in Three Colors, Haitian Fight Song, and Open Letter To Duke.
Diamanda Galas – Wild Women With Steak Knives, The Divine Punishment, You Must Be Certain Of The Devil
John Zorn – Cobra, Speedfreaks, Forbidden Fruit
Mingus for counterpoint, harmonic and rhythmic invention, and melodic development. His compositions sort of look backwards and forwards simultaneously. It’s amazing to me that one composer wrote all three of those pieces – but open up and study the Mingus Fakebook and your mind will be completely blown.
Zorn for his groundbreaking use of improvisation in a composed context. Cobra is an incredibly ground breaking piece for improvisers – as important as “In C” in IMHO. In much of Zorn’s early work, music is pushed to a point of being near noise but only just so. Speedfreaks for how it is paced, its overall compositional arc (not sure how else to say it), and again how it sits on the razor’s edge of profundity and hilarity (noise/music).
Galas is an vital composer/performer that more students should be aware of. Her music is crucial and uncompromising and still (IMHO) misunderstood in much of the U.S. The scope of her vocal and compositional technique is very inspiring.