I'll be happy to see this conversation renewed. I am not quite in teh same
boat as Wystan, as I kept listening to jazz, & am happily going back to the
old stuff via CDs, but I also begam listening to the fairly well-known 20th
century composers. And I agree with Wystan that there seemed to be
something 'other' going on with rhythm in early Glass & Reich. Although I
never followed them into the really long pieces. It was certainly not
something like the South American polyrhythms that one can hear in that
kind of jazz, but it was able to catch & hold my attention. I'm intrigued
also by some of the pieces written for Kronos, on their albums dedicated to
African etc composers, where no percussion is used yet the rhythmic
intensity can be very high.
But I listen to a lot of music, of so many different kinds, which includes
the Mahler, or, say, the Schostakovich, or, or. Or Ives, yes.
Eclecticism isn't always 'bad' I hope...
Doug
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
You may allow me moments
not monuments, I being
content. It is little,
but it is little enough.
John Newlove
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