New World Records is the greatest thing that has happened to American composition in the 20th century or ever. Their staff of only 8 people consistently probe the depths of obscurity to release interesting, challenging, and incredible new releases that are unavailable anywhere else. Every cd in their catalogue is a true diamond in the rough. Read about them here.
Today we listen to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, who has one of the most interesting backstories of any composer! Stalin says listen!
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Not all Christian music is written by those guys who want you to come to their Bible study on the quad Tuesday afternoons. Actually, I bet they haven’t even heard of these great pieces by Messiaen and Penderecki, both very devout Catholics.
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Today we listen to the music of John Adams, who is lumped into the category of minimalism, although not entirely rightfully. We listen to pieces that show why he should be considered minimalist as well as talk about why he shouldn’t.
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As an antidote to the huge joke that is the Oscars, we listen to some really cool and interesting film soundtracks, including Mishima, Eraserhead, Holy Mountain, and more! Fuck you John Williams!
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Today we listen to two awesome and crazy Eastern European composers – Krzysztof Penderecki and Gyorgi Ligeti. Tune in to find out exactly what a cluster chord is and to hear a chord with 56 string players – none of whom are playing the same note! Everybody loves dissonance, right??
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Today we listen to works by one of my new favorite composers! This is some really intense stuff, so get excited!
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The composer of the Rite of Spring has a ton of other awesome stuff!! Here we listen to a selection of the wide panorama of his output.
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And finds some awesome stuff that I didn’t know about!!
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The show on 20th century modern comp begins, logically, with what is widely regarded as the beginning of the genre. Schoenberg and his students Alban Berg and Anton Webern rejected traditional tonality, eschewed a bourgeois audience, and ushered in a new era of composition.
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