I'm listening to Philip Glass right now...(a very esoteric joke)

[edbermac]

I'm listening to Philip Glass right now...:woohoo:
I'm listening to Philip Glass right now...:woohoo:
I'm listening to Philip Glass right now...:woohoo:
I'm listening to Philip Glass right now...:woohoo:
I'm listening to Philip Glass right now...:woohoo:
I'm listening to Philip Glass right now...:woohoo:
I'm listening to Philip Glass right now...:woohoo:
I'm listening to Philip Glass right now...:woohoo:
I'm listening to Philip Glass right now...:woohoo:
I'm listening to Philip Glass right now...:woohoo:

[Moochy]

1. I'm listening to John Cage (4'33")

*cough*





*rustle papers*




*clear throat*

[Richardo]

8. You took my answer, Moochy.

I'm the master of the 4'33" reference.

Good job.

[Moochy]

12. I'm a Faux Snob

I dated a music composition major in college, one of her favorite composers was Shtockhausen!(sp?) :scared:

I can pretend to be a classical / avant garde music snob in conversation for about 30 seconds.

[MN ChimpH8R]

16. Karlheinz Stockhausen

but pronounced Shtokhausen. What little I have heard of his music sounded a lot like a bunch of drunk cats staggering through a pile of musical instruments.

[Richardo]

24. There's a Schoenberg Hall at UCLA

Named after the 12-tone series guy. That's some weird, wild stuff.

[MN ChimpH8R]

25. Can't stand most 12-tone music myself,

BUT, before he turned serial composer, Schoenberg wrote a staggeringly beautiful piece of music called "Transfigured Night" or, auf Deutsch, "Verklarte Nacht."

[edbermac]

9. Keep the volume down...

You don't want to disturb the neighbors...

[skypilot]

2. That joke was corny

That joke was corny.
That joke was corny.
That joke was corny.
That joke was corny.
So corny.
That joke was corny. :)

[Moochy]

3. mine was worse.

my copycat joke was worse, and esotericer. ;-)

[skypilot]

4. It was definitely "esotericer"

I have no idea whatsoever what it meant. :) :shrug:

[Moochy]

5. Prepare to be underwhelmed and unamused :)

John Cage wrote a 4 minute 33 second peice of silence. :)

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/4/4/433.htm

[skypilot]

6. Oh, wait a minute.

I think that I have heard about that. Is that the one where the audience noise pretty much becomes the piece?

On edit: If so, I definitely ain't clickin' on that link.

[Moochy]

7. yep

In the late 1940s, Cage visited the (A chamber having very little reverberation) anechoic chamber at (A university in Massachusetts) Harvard University. An anechoic chamber is a room designed in such a way that the walls, ceiling and floor will absorb all sounds made in the room, rather than bouncing them back as echoes. They are also generally soundproofed. Cage entered the chamber expecting to hear silence, but as he wrote later, he "heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation." Whatever the truth of these explanations, Cage had gone to a place where he expected there to be no sound, and yet there was some. "Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music." The realisation as he saw it of the impossibility of silence led to the composition of his most notorious piece, 4'33".

Another cited influence for this piece came from the field of the visual arts. Cage's friend and sometime colleague (Click link for more info and facts about Robert Rauschenberg) Robert Rauschenberg had produced a series of 'white' paintings, apparently 'blank' canvases that in fact change according to varying light conditions in the rooms in which they were hung, the shadows of people in the room and so on. This inspired Cage to use a similar idea, using the 'silence' of the piece as an 'aural blank canvas' to reflect the dynamic flux of ambient sounds surrounding each performance.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/4/4/433.htm

[wryter2000]

10. You can have him

You can have him
You can have him
Him you can have
You can have him
You can have him
You can have him
You can have him

I thought it would be fun to have the 1932 Dracula with his score. After 5 minutes, I was screaming for it to stop! I finally taped the original off the TV so I'd have a version I could watch.

[Moochy]

14. I saw Phillip Glass in concert 6 years ago

Conducting a symphonic orchestra to accompany the silent french film La Belle & La Bete (no special vowels for you francophiles!) and even though I tried to get into it, the repetition was like a lullaby.

I people-watched, and that was more interesting than the silent film being played and the accompaniment.

There was some really dramatic sounds, but others were getting alot more out of it than I! No accounting for taste!

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. I saw that one performed live with the Kronos Quartet!

Fuckin' BRILLIANT!

[LoZoccolo]

11. Here's a better one I heard on /Prarie Home Companion/.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Phillip Glass.

[SOteric]

13. Knock, knock...

Who's there?

Knock...Knock...Knock,
Knock-knock...Knock,
Who's, Who's, Who's, Who's, Who's, Who's
Knock-Knock,
Knock-Knock,
Knock-Knock,
Who's there? Who's, who's who's
Who's there?

That you Mr. Glass? - Come on in the door's open.

[DS1]

15. That joke is sooo much more enjoyable when you say it aloud

:hi:

[MN ChimpH8R]

17. Ever heard Glass' opera Akhnaten?

Incredibly, celestially beautiful. Parts of it are sung in ancient Egyptian.

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. Almost all of it is in ancient Egyptian

The only thing not in Egyptian are the narrator sections, which are done in whatever language is common in the venue the thing is being performed in.

One of my favorite pieces of music. It has some truly beautiful moments, esp. the hymn to Aten and the duet between Akhnaten and Nefirtiti.

[MN ChimpH8R]

20. The narrator on that CD

is incredible - a guy named David Warrilow. I believe he passed away a few years ago. Yup - it's mostly Egyptian, with some Akkadian and Hebrew, IIRC. The "present day" narration is about the only thing in English.

The last couple of movements - after Akhnaten's fall - are sad and beautiful beyond words.

[Rabrrrrrr]

21. Yes, beautiful indeed!

That opera got me interested in ancient Egypt again.

Not that I've really studied it or went on for a degree or anything, but it made me more interested.

I also like Satyagraha, but of the three, Einstein is my favorite.

[MN ChimpH8R]

22. Akhnaten got me

because I have been fascinated with Egypt, and that period in particular, since I was but a young whippersnapper. I've read extensively in the history of the 18th Dynasty and will pick up any decent fiction set in that time. If I could go back in time to one period, that would be my destination.

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. It would be a truly fascinating period to live in

It would also be on my A-list of time periods and places to go back to.