If Music Be The Food Of Love, Play On: The Music Thread: What Are You Listening To?

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Earlier on today it was Metallica "And Justice for all", this afternoon I had the late great Leonard Cohen "Live in London" and tonight I'll have Thomas Tallis "Spem in allium" (Hope in any other) to lull me to sleep.
 

SuperMatt

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Earlier on today it was Metallica "And Justice for all", this afternoon I had the late great Leonard Cohen "Live in London" and tonight I'll have Thomas Tallis "Spem in allium" (Hope in any other) to lull me to sleep.
Spem in alium is a very difficult piece to pull off. Between 5-10 years ago, I was contacted about performing a part in it. It has 40 separate voice parts. Most choral music has 4 parts, and sometimes up to 6, and very seldom 8. 40 is crazy. The fact Tallis was able to write it is unbelievable. We gathered in a large cathedral and broke into 8 groups of 5, I believe it was. We were very spread out, and the conductor was in the middle and we all just tried our best to keep it together. The idea of the performance was to let the audience move around and experience it from any spot in the cathedral. They took out all the chairs from the cathedral to make it happen. It was quite an experience to perform it at all, and having audience members basically milling about during it was something else.

My favorite Tallis piece to perform, however, is the Lamentations of Jeremiah.
 
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User.191

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Spem in alium is a very difficult piece to pull off. Between 5-10 years ago, I was contacted about performing a part in it. It has 40 separate voice parts. Most choral music has 4 parts, and sometimes up to 6, and very seldom 8. 40 is crazy. The fact Tallis was able to write it is unbelievable. We gathered in a large cathedral and broke into 8 groups of 5, I believe it was. We were very spread out, and the conductor was in the middle and we all just tried our best to keep it together. The idea of the performance was to let the audience move around and experience it from any spot in the cathedral. They took out all the chairs from the cathedral to make it happen. It was quite an experience to perform it at all, and having audience members basically milling about during it was something else.

My favorite Tallis piece to perform, however, is the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

I'd never listened to any Tallis before I caught the piece on BBC Radio 3 one Sunday morning in the early 1990s on my way to my grandparents house.

I was so transfixed by it I just had to sit in the driveway listening - not knowing how long it was but also not wanting to tear myself away.

Years later one if the guys I worked with told me he and his Eton school friends always called it "Spam and Aluminium" - mainly to annoy their choirmaster...
 
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Ah.

Philip Glass.

Music that calls for - or evokes - a certain mood; agreed.

And yes, very moving.
He attended the University of Chicago at age 15 to study philosophy and mathematics. One of the very few regrets in life is that I didn't start appreciating mathematics until my late 20s. In fact I chose a degree that (I thought) relied the least on advanced math. Then you start observing and realize how all those patterns in biological systems make a lot of mathematical sense. Glass's music is pure math in a sense, this is why it's so impressive how it still conveys emotions.
 

Scepticalscribe

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He attended the University of Chicago at age 15 to study philosophy and mathematics. One of the very few regrets in life is that I didn't start appreciating mathematics until my late 20s. In fact I chose a degree that (I thought) relied the least on advanced math. Then you start observing and realize how all those patterns in biological systems make a lot of mathematical sense. Glass's music is pure math in a sense, this is why it's so impressive how it still conveys emotions.

It conveys emotions but through the medium which is a fusion of music and maths.

There is no contradiction in mastery of such a medium.
 

lizkat

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Today, after being outdoors and experiencing a brief episode of what meterologists call "Graupel" -- a mix of snow and hail-- I came back inside in total disgust and fished out an old summer playlist from 2012 to get back what had been my good mood. Jesus Christ. It's mid-May and still doing winter, Anyway, this is part of the playlist. It's still cold outside but in here it's a lazy summer afternoon. :)

part of 50-song list from 2012.jpg

 

lizkat

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And, the man

Keeping it SFW ✊


Heh, speaking of safe for work, in a Charlie Rose interview of Alicia Keys after her second album came out, he referred during their conversation to the fact that Alicia's mom had come along with her and was right out there in the green room, and wondered why... and Keys just smiled and said something along the line of yeah well because of you Charlie. Tiger mom sure got that right.

 
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