Jump to content

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'picture studies'.

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • Board
    • Announcements and Technical Problems
  • Upload Your Compositions for Analysis or Feedback
    • Works with Few Reviews
    • Opt-In Works for Youtube
    • Orchestral and Large Ensemble
    • Chamber Music
    • Choral, Vocal
    • Piano Music, Solo Keyboard
    • Incidental Music and Soundtracks
    • Jazz, Band, Pop, Rock
    • Electronic
    • Incomplete Works; Writer's Block and Suggestions
  • Community
    • Masterclasses
    • Music Appreciation: Suggest Works or Articles
    • Composers' Headquarters
    • Repertoire
    • Performance
    • Advice and Techniques
  • Competitions and Collaboration
    • Competition Hall of Fame
    • Monthly Competitions
    • Collaborative Works
    • Challenges
    • External Competitions
  • Technological
    • Music Jotter
    • Music Notation Software Help and Discussion
    • Sound Libraries
  • Rite of Spring analysis Club's Part 1: Introduction
  • Rite of Spring analysis Club's Part 1: Ritual of Abduction
  • Rite of Spring analysis Club's Part 1: Spring Rounds
  • Rite of Spring analysis Club's Part 1: Ritual of the Rival Tribes
  • Rite of Spring analysis Club's Part 1: Procession of the Oldest and Wisest One
  • Rite of Spring analysis Club's Part 1: The Dancing Out of the Earth
  • Rite of Spring analysis Club's Part 1: Augurs of Spring
  • Play this Passage's WHO PLAYS WHICH INSTRUMENT(S)
  • Play this Passage's HOW IT WORKS
  • Music and Media's Discuss and Collaborate on a Project
  • Young Composers Preludes and Fugues Project's Rules and Guidelines
  • Young Composers Preludes and Fugues Project's Submit a piece

Calendars

  • Community Calendar

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


MSN


Skype


Jabber


Yahoo


ICQ


Website URL


AIM


Biography


Location


Occupation


Interests


Favorite Composers


My Compositional Styles


Notation Software/Sequencers


Instruments Played

Found 1 result

  1. I have rambled quite extensively about my love of what is going on in music these days. I have several favorite new composers. At the very top of that list is Adam Schoenberg. I love his style. He fits the mold of these new composers that have returned to a sense of melody and tonality. However, his music has such an unbridled optimism. When a lot of music for a long time has been so introspective and so mathematical or contrived and mechanic it is very refreshing to hear someone composing for the sake of optimism, positivity and beauty. His music is just flat exciting and beautiful in the simplest of ways. That is the thing that draws me to his music the most. That being said the other thing that draws me to his music is his style of layering rhythms. It is like a 3D jigsaw puzzle of sounds that fit together so perfectly and give so much complexity to a sound that even though there are so many parts that add up to what you end up hearing the sound has a singular clarity to it. You hear melody. You don't hear incongruent noise. The structure of what is underneath that top layer is so awesome. To me it is like the next level of what Steven Reich created in his style of minimalism. It is like next level John Adams. It is those subtle shifts in rhythm or pitches that progress the piece along or direct the melodies that you hear. He composes in segments within segments within segments. There is always a pulse that carries and links the whole thing through. The way in which he is different is that he uses that Steven Reich sort of rhythmic base as a base, but while Steve just leaves the melody and the harmonic progression and other things such as the contrapuntal development at its most minimal, Adam really brings it alive. It is like Steven Reich and Phillip Glass turned inside out and stapled together and layered up and a incredible melody either put on top of it or woven within the mass of sounds. I love his atmosphere. I love his optimism. He is really writing some thrilling and soul stirringly gorgeous music. One of the best pieces to describe his style and to showcase that layering of rhythms is his 1st (American) Symphony especially the first movement and again especially towards the end of it. You get 8 layers of things going on that all add up to a perfect synthesis of sounds and it produces an unbelievably exciting line of pure melody. However, that is not the piece that I want to showcase this time. I want to talk about his Picture Studies. His Picture Studies was written in 2012 for the Kansas City Symphony. It is written to be a modern version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. It has 10 movements. Each movement is representative of a piece of art that he chose upon a trip to our local Nelson-Atkins Museum. He chose sculpture, painting, and photography. I believe it is one of his best works to date. I actually got to be at the world premiere of this piece. It was breath taking. It is a very complete work that tells a full story. It is like a very well thought out pop album where each song progresses perfectly to the next and each plays its role in the larger collection. Fortunately they have posted the recordings on youtube for free. This is the most recent recording of the Kansas City Symphony. It is a recording of strictly Adam Schoenberg piece. Starts with one of his first which is Finding Rothko, then his American symphony and ends with one of his most recent which is his Picture Studies. A great example of what I refer to when discussing his style is movement four of the Picture Studies. It shows the segments of rhythms that are strung together to create something bigger and more complete than the individual parts. It shows those shifts that progress those segments along seamlessly. And it is GORGEOUS! The Kandinsky movement literally blew me out of my seat in Helzberg Hall. The most shockingly ingenious thing I had ever heard performed live. Plus, cannot get enough of the incredibly uplifting and inspiring last movement with the photograph of the pigeons. You absolutely need to buy this recording. Not only is the music incredible, but the recording is top notch. Play it through a good surround sound set up. It will jazz you up - hopefully. https://www.amazon.com/American-Symphony-Finding-Picture-Studies/dp/B01NCOCYWZ These are the program notes for the piece: http://adamschoenberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Adam-Schoenberg-Picture-Studies.pdf
×
×
  • Create New...