Krzysztof Penderecki..."A Portrait"

while notably bereft of his larger works such as the "de natura sonoris no.2" and "threnody for the victims of hiroshima," this collection offers a further glimpse into penderecki's inimitable oeuvre. with ligeti, varese, satie and bartok - penderecki is among the higher echelons of composers with whom i share a tremendous amount of time. though i'm preferential to the "matrix 5" collection, along with penderecki's collaboration with don cherry (which approaches a new form of music entirely -- free jazz and avant-garde classical music...wow), this is a more than adequate way to negotiate the interminable hours ahead.

download penderecki "a portrait"

http://depositfiles.com/en/files/98bilp2pl

HARRY PARTCH..."THE WORLD OF HARRY PARTCH"

harry partch is one of my most beloved composers, and his levity and humor are only superseded by his spirit of invention and originality. partch's music shares several percussive affinities with traditional gamelan music, also using microtonal scales that have scant presence in traditional western music. though bartok, penderecki, varese, lamonte young and terry riley have explored similar realms through the use of quatertones or intonations, employing what is often referred to as "avant-garde" tuning to extend sound intervals through octaves, no one raised it to the heights of partch. he not only patented a 43 tone scale but wrote music almost expressly for his own created instruments - everything from marimbas that were meant to emulate a bass and xylophones forged from disused hubcaps and bottles. though some of it is expectedly atonal and dissonant (as is much if not all avant-garde music), there is a great deal of partch's compositions that are diffuse and dream-like, some of it bordering on absolute joy.

personally, there's so much partch music out there - and the majority of it is all so damned good - that any starting place seems ideal if you haven't heard much. "the world of harry partch" adequately conveys his musical personality, and is much more tersely assembled than some of the the more comprehensive, unassailably-massive boxsets and collections out there.


download "the world of harry partch"

http://www.mediafire.com/?tmizflzhjdt

GYORGY LIGETI..."CONTINUUM"

gyorgy ligeti, along with kryzstof penderecki, owes a great debt to stanley kubrick, a debt so large that almost no one could indemnify. avant-garde classical composers could be likened to the minority of a minority, and the extent of renown available to these pugilistic, divisive artists seems limited to john cage or stockhausen, though wider knowledge of the latter could be debatable. tony conrad, steve reich, harry partch, edgard varese, rzewski, etc...none of them have really had the mass exposure that has been granted to both ligeti and penderecki, and though perhaps their names fail to resound, it is indubitable that their music has been heard in a larger context (penderecki especially, as his music has been unanimously usurped by the horror film community). ligeti's work is largely textural, and his compositions gravitate towards mood pieces and a kind of sustained, atmospheric experience.

this collection has - apparently - the only available version of "glissandi," an early work utilizing tape. it also features "atmospheres," which was used in kubrick's "2001 space odyssey."



download "continuum"

http://www.mediafire.com/?yd423m3s9ud

EDGARD VARESE

edgard varese is one of my favorite composers (edged out slightly by ligeti, penderecki and satie), and his pervasive influence and persuasion resonates wildly despite his relative dearth of available material. not many composers can hold stake to informing or inspiring such a diverse parade of musicians, but varese's ideas have infected everyone from henry miller, stockhausen, frank zappa, kryzstof penderecki and the keyboard player from chicago (yeah...try not to go into convulsive shock). the ghost of literature haunted a number of his works, as he appropriated texts from anais nin, paul verlaine and kenneth patchen (whose "journal of albion moonlight" is a book of vertiginous beauty and dynamism). he had drinking binges with the incomparable francis picabia, and his wife louise was responsible for my favorite rimbaud translations (both "season in hell" and "illuminations"). there is also something of the pataphysician in varese's music, and i find his music to be a perfect audible companion to the literature of alfred jarry (particularly "dr. faustroll"). lamentably, collaborations with henry miller, antonin artaud and robert desnos uniformly failed to materialize. all of this, yes, is unassailable and delectable, but it is ultimately ephemera and white noise, having only a minor bearing on the foresight and prescience of his vision. varese was borne of a spirit and conviction that placed him amongst the highest echelons of what can only be termed modernism, a spirit that has long since departed the lexicon and breath of contemporary art (though the vibrations of modernism can be felt in the work of scott walker, most self-described artists and musicians - less than half walker's age - are incurious and lack those boundless impulses). regardless, the depth and exploratory nature of varese's music is self-evident, and here is presented his complete works (or more precisely, the works he completed).




complete works of edgard varese (thanks to ferocity of practical life):

http://lix.in/-7840fc
(do not click on "download" when the screen comes up --- click on "continue")