Sharkissimo 1,973 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Could some kind person here introduce me to the wondrous world of "totalism"? I read about it in on Wikipedia the other day, and it dawned on me: I'm not familiar with most of these artists or works, and dammit I want to be! I heard JLA's Become Ocean... but that's it. Quote Totalism is a style of art music that arose in the 1980s and 1990s as a developing response to minimalism—parallel to postminimalism, but generally among a slightly younger generation, born in the 1950s.[1] In the early 1980s, many young composers began writing music within the static confines of minimalism, but using greater rhythmic complexity, often with two or more tempos (or implied tempos) audible at once.[2] The style acquired a name around 1990, when it became evident to composers working in New York City that a number of them—John Luther Adams, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Kyle Gann, Michael Gordon, Arthur Jarvinen, Diana Meckley, Ben Neill, Larry Polansky, Mikel Rouse, Evan Ziporyn, among others—were employing similar types of global tempo structures in their music.[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalism Enlighten me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quintus 5,399 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 I don't know, but music wise it sounds much more interesting to me than minimalism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wojo 2,453 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 I totally don't recognize any of those names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnome in Plaid 219 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 I only recognize John Luther Adams, who I'd consider a minimalist, and Rhys Chatham, and the only piece of his I know is the one for a ridiculous number of guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightscape94 965 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 1 hour ago, Sharky said: I heard JLA's Become Ocean... but that's it. Pretty good piece of music too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KK 3,307 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Only familiar with Michael Gordon (by his collaborative efforts with Julia Wolfe) and JLA; the later being a very textural composer. If you liked Becoming Ocean, here are some other fine examples of that evocative sound. He likes to take concepts and focus pieces on a singular sound. Some might find some his works a bit monochromatic, but I think they're rather beautiful. Sharkissimo and Dixon Hill 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkissimo 1,973 Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 That was... far out. In The White Silence appealed to me more than the others--It has that distant, meditative quality I associate with Williams at his most Williamsian. Dixon Hill and KK 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karelm 2,913 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 10 minutes ago, Sharky said: That was... far out. In The White Silence appealed to me more than the others--It has that distant, meditative quality I associate with Williams at his most Williamsian. That was very Williamsy. You might also like Julia Wolfe. I forgot the name of the piece so let me look it up. Edit: I can't find it on YouTube but you can hear the whole work on her website here: http://juliawolfemusic.com/music/my-beautiful-scream Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,234 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Godron, Wolfe, and Lang are excellent, but I feel like Gordon is the only one who sort of fits into this category. Anyway, "totalism" seems like just another unnecessary label... I reckon it's just a subset of minimalism, diatonic or modal micropolyphony/quasi-serialism, that kind of thing? That's the impression I get. John Luther Adams purveys some wonderful soundscapes, and he really compliments the other Adams' more motoric complex stuff. One can get quite a good sense of much of contemporary classical music just from those two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KK 3,307 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 The term totalism seems rather useless to me. And yeah, "The White Silence" definitely strikes Williams, especially shades of A.I. Julia Wolfe is absolutely fantastic! One of the first pieces that got me into her work: Dixon Hill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,234 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Isn't this a great time for classical music? What a marvelous diversity there is in what people are doing. Laughable, the people who constantly declare the "death" of classical music or lament that no one writes anything worthwhile anymore, that there are no more "greats." But they're all around. I don't think I'd choose to live in any historical musical period over the one we're in right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Sounds like the musical equivalent of the hipster movement. Fashionable nonsense... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KK 3,307 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Curious Steef, you ever tried your hand at some of the stuff we talk about here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 I experimented with minimalism in my teen years, like many confused young men. It wasn't for me.... Gnome in Plaid 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brónach 1,302 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 This sounds nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KK 3,307 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 4 minutes ago, Stefancos said: I experimented with minimalism in my teen years, like many confused young men. It wasn't for me.... Interested in what you listened to Steef. But like Grey said, it's not just minimalism that's out there. The current field just has such a variety in style and technique. Even minimalism comes in so many differently rich shades, ranging from the dynamism of John Adams to the intentional monotony of Reich. With so much of today's modernist music, I find these musical "labels" rarely accurately represent the music they are attached to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 My teens, unlike yours, are some 20 years ago now. Who knows what I listened to? Glass certainly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkissimo 1,973 Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 45 minutes ago, TheGreyPilgrim said: Godron, Wolfe, and Lang are excellent, but I feel like Gordon is the only one who sort of fits into this category. Anyway, "totalism" seems like just another unnecessary label... I reckon it's just a subset of minimalism, diatonic or modal micropolyphony/quasi-serialism, that kind of thing? That's the impression I get. Any Gordon pieces to recommend? I like what I've heard of Wolfe--Fuel I & II and Arsenal of Democracy. On another point, do you know of any scholarly books on micropolophony, non-equal tempered music etc.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,234 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Try this on for size, for one. The endurance of these players is ridiculous. As for the book question, I've asked that myself. I haven't looked for theses or things like that, and one might have more luck with that. But actual literature on those subjects seems rare if not non-existent. Still too "new?" That Gordon piece, and this sort of music in general, is the stuff that evokes that strange feeling I've always been fascinated by in art. I've talked about it before, like a memory that you can't quite focus in on and that you're not even sure belongs to you, a sense of awe and wonder about something you can't place, something just on the periphery of your mind... hard to describe. What a wonderful, sublime feeling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkissimo 1,973 Posted August 5, 2016 Author Share Posted August 5, 2016 Been reading through Kyle Gann's fascinating blog and came across this post, titled "Metametrics." It's on the subject of rhythmic ratios which apparently is a major facet of totalism. Gann talks about his teacher Ben Johnston and his early application of these ratios typically used for intervals. Quote For Ben, as for Cowell in New Musical Resources, the methods of extending rhythm flowed by analogy from traditional ways of handling pitch, which was one of the core meanings of the word totalism in the first place. In fact, Ben (who was my postgraduate composition teacher) could be taken as one of the leading and underacknowledged pre-totalist composers, perhaps even the most influential one. It was he, after all, who, in 1967, translated a 12-tone song in pure tuning into analogous rhythmic ratios, and those ratios into a rhythm-only piece of conceptual theater that was to be beaten on the outside of a piano with any available mallet-like objects. Titled Knocking Piece, the work was played all over the Midwest in the ‘70s, and was an obligatory virtuoso showpiece for young percussionists. It always had two tempos going at once, in ever-changing ratios determined by the 12-tone row the song had been based on: The equal signs between measures indicate that the same pulse continues across the barline at that point. (No recording I know of available, unfortunately. If you know something about tuning, you can figure out the original pitches from these rhythms: taking the first as C, it continues G, E, B, D#, A#, F#…) Ben’s reputation never took off on the East Coast to nearly the same extent. But insofar as some of the totalists had been educated in the Midwest, Knocking Piece may well have been a seed that quietly (or rather, noisily) blossomed in the music of 1980s New York. http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/2006/01/metametrics_origins_2.html Reading that score extract, I'm wondering why in measures 2 and 3, Johnson doesn't simply write "3:2" and "5:4" instead of "8:2" and "8:4" which seems counter-intuitive. 3:2 and 5:4 spell out C:G and C:E which presumably corresponds to the series he's translating. Why 8? Is it just to keep a common pulse in the top line? I'm also getting different pitches. In bar 4 and 6, 4:3 = F. Bar 5, 5:4 = E. Bar 7, 8:5 = G#. Bar 8, 6:5 = D#. What's he doing that I'm not? I really need to get that Henry Cowell book... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkissimo 1,973 Posted August 6, 2016 Author Share Posted August 6, 2016 Looking at this extract from Michael Gordon's Four Kings Fight Five. What's the oboe playing here? It looks like 2:6, but two whats in the space of 6? The logical answer would be 6 16th notes corresponding to a dotted quarter, but yet there's 4 16th notes in the bracket, not 2! Infuriating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilal 569 Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 Two eight notes in the place of six dotted sixteenth notes, @Sharkus Malarkus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkissimo 1,973 Posted August 6, 2016 Author Share Posted August 6, 2016 Thanks @Jilal. I'll blame it on tiredness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilal 569 Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 3 minutes ago, Sharkus Malarkus said: Thanks @Jilal. I'll blame it on tiredness. It's 3 AM here. When in doubt, think crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkissimo 1,973 Posted August 6, 2016 Author Share Posted August 6, 2016 Just found the score for Gordon's Rushes online, @TheWhiteRider https://issuu.com/redpoppymusic/docs/rushes_-_full_score-watermark This is such a suggestive, elegant piece. No elaborate formulations, just an ebb and flow of sound. Dixon Hill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koray Savas 2,251 Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 On February 9, 2016 at 5:51 PM, Stefancos said: My teens, unlike yours, are some 20 years ago now. Who knows what I listened to? Glass certainly. Isn't this the definition of ignorance? I didn't like this genre 20 years ago so it must still be shit now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,234 Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 17 minutes ago, Sharkus Malarkus said: Just found the score for Gordon's Rushes online, @TheWhiteRider https://issuu.com/redpoppymusic/docs/rushes_-_full_score-watermark This is such a suggestive, elegant piece. No elaborate formulations, just an ebb and flow of sound. Do we have seven bassoonists here, to put together a Virtual Bassoon Ensemble? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkissimo 1,973 Posted August 6, 2016 Author Share Posted August 6, 2016 Just now, TheWhiteRider said: Do we have seven bassoonists here, to put together a Virtual Bassoon Ensemble? Do we even have one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkissimo 1,973 Posted August 7, 2016 Author Share Posted August 7, 2016 Came across a paper on JLA's In the White Silence and Górecki's Miserere. Plenty of score extracts to pour over. https://baylor-ir.tdl.org/baylor-ir/bitstream/handle/2104/8417/grant_cooper_masters.pdf?sequence=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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