Notes on Listening Survey Steven Backer MUS220C, Spring 2005 Ligeti: "Continuum": -discrete plucks on the harpsichord -very dense. as I continued listening to the piece, a massive glissando emerged, which I began to perceive as very smooth. No longer a series of plucks, but rather one sound. Reminds me of how a DAC creates a sound wave in computer and electronic environments. "Ramifications": -for 12 strings; microtimbre. also quite dense, but doesn't incorporate attack to the degree of "Continuum" - more... "Etudes for Piano": SOON! Tristan Murail, "Territoires de l'oubli": Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Mantra": -working on this one; picked up Stockhausen's "Introduction to Mantra" as well. Webern, "Variationen" (op. 27): -score: lots of notes and markings! squiggles for quick tempo/dynamic decrease quite intriguing. Some seem so "pronounced" in the performance I listened to that you can barely make out some of the notes. -dodecaphonic, 3 movements. -stresses pairs of high and low pitched notes? -need more time on this one! -In general, to what extent was the 12-tone method applied to timbre? Did practitioners of integral serialism always address the issue of timbre (it would seem unavoidable for totality)? As difficult as it is to follow serialist aspects applied to rhythm and other aspects apart from pitch, to what degree is it even realizable (in terms of performance) to call for serial timbre outside of electronic synthesis? Can the Empp be applied to this - possibly only applying such technique to the sequence of overtones used from each string? John Zorn, "Carny": -confusion->lounge jazz->hints of baroque ornaments->better than lounge jazz (bassy)->ostinato alternating bassline snippets, humorous->all over the place. High notes, resonate, sound like glass breaking->major cadence out of nowhere->seperation. Dissonant repetitions into quiter yet still unresolved sections. Beethoven's 5th->major cadence->variation's on 5th theme interspersed with more playful, blithe sections->massive resonances in low register with mp figure->quiet dissonant repetitions->shaking exit. -Unresolved as a whole, yet never fully stated to begin with. -roller-coaster ride; in and out of tonal/atonal; popular and recognizable to hurricane of notes. -if this contains variations/references to Beethoven's 5th, how can one be sure that these are references to Beethoven, and not possibly Ives' Concord Sonata or others? There is so little frame of reference to musical period! -wide range both sylistically (quite postmodern), and just at keyboard. Unidentifiable. Dynamic. John Cage "Sonatas and Interludes": -revistiting this work due to everlasting relevance.