Ornstein - Poems of 1917 (Nos. 1, 2, 3)

[Dihelson]

BEGIN THE BEGUINE....looks like, ajaja

[scottlum]

@Hexameron--is this you playing these interesting pieces? These seem difficult--no apparent or obvious melody or pattern.....how does one learn how to play these??

[saschamuecke]

No. 1 sounds rather bitonal but completely atonal I'd say..

[intervalkid]

@saschamuecke

The whole piece is transtonal/bitonal. Using diatonic and nondiatonic scales and chromatic sequences followed by a third over chord changes from keys/scale sets continously progressing. It isn't atonal at all though.

[Foobitz]

This music is only unpleasant if you listen for conventional chord progressions and harmonies. Instead of looking for what's not there, try savoring the emotions being expressed. I hear beauty when I listen to this.

[dalecampbl5]

horrible music, do not approve

[mahler151]

@dalecampbl5 Horrible post, do not approve.

[dalecampbl5]

@mahler151 lol, we can't just worship everything that people compose just because they appear "important" you know...i mean come on, I could've wrote this stuff...20th century got no gift for melodic inventions...with the exception of Bartok/Prokofiev/Shostakovich and Stravinsky, every other dissonant-core composer fails

[mahler151]

@dalecampbl5 you basicly just said to me "Because I can't appreciate it and am ignorant to the difficulty of it I will now say how much I hate it."

Give me a break.

[dalecampbl5]

Korngold, Rachmaninoff tried to make beautiful sounding works within 20th century advancements...but man, this stuff, is really just not pretty...if you say you hear something else in it, I'll give it to you, but if you say this is beautiful!?!? no. I don't approve.

[mahler151]

@dalecampbl5 Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I find many modern compositions to be more beautiful than ones that would generally be called beautiful.

Give me Schoenberg's chamber symphony before making me hear Mozart's piano concerto no.21!

[dalecampbl5]

no, it's not "beauty". I think you admire it for being different and harsh...but it's not melodic and tuneful. but hey whatever makes you happy.

[mahler151]

@dalecampbl5 "Melodic and Tuneful" does not make something musical.

Melodic and tuneful is an outdated way of writing music, that peeked with the late Romantic era.

[dalecampbl5]

i agree...in fact I'm a big fan of Bartok and Prokofiev, not one's source of melodic divine inspiration...but those guy still wrote music that had a "melody" to it. But guys like Alban Berg are just ridiculous...I don't mean to be insulting, but when do we make a stand and say "noise" is not music or do we say "noise" is music...that's all, do we just accept everything some guy with a famous last name composed? Because if that's the case, pop music is also great art...but we know it ain't

[mahler151]

@dalecampbl5 I find it incredible that of all the modern "noise-makers" you find Berg to be ridiculous.

I'd hardly consider Berg or any of the other Second Viennese School to be writing "noise"; it's still very musical, it's just the means of bringing music about that have changed. They were trying to do something different.

Sure, I'll agree with you that I fall asleep listening to Stockhausen's much overrated Klavierstucke or anything by Pierre Boulez, but BERG?!

[dalecampbl5]

@mahler151 i listen to some Berg too, his two operas mainly, I hear what he's doing...the obvious is is in the chord progressions, the less obvious are in the structures of his opera, but the truth is, his music is harsh...people say it's beautiful, but it isn't man..it's different, it's a new way...but you can't say it's beautiful, most of the time it isnt even "that" enjoyable..

[AntiProUltra]

There are some very Debussy moments in those pieces.

[phatmusic]

Atonality and the 12 tone system...nice!

[MichaelSel]

it is not the 12 note system but i agree it is nice

[thphaca]

I really enjoy this style when the composer relies primarily on the whole tone scale. That way, they focus more on the form and texture, which gives a more raw and incidental feeling. Sure, it lacks standard harmonic tonality, but that doesn't take away from the effect. if anything, it strengthens it. For those who don't understand it, it's because they're looking for diatonic melodies and harmonies, rather than the other demensions of music.

[ekhomeboy]

Is "no mans land" reffering to the no mans land between the trenches of WWI? because this reminds me of Ravel's later pieces(during his growing senility) that express the horrors of war, and the fact that it is called poems of 1917 hints at it a little bit

[Hexameron]

Yes, all of these poems are inspired by WWI

[luishomeroremohsiul]

beautiful : ) thank you so much

[Nesoja]

thats what you call shredding the piano

[broizan]

Really a pleasure to hear this, what would these guys do without youtube ? Thanks for posting this.

[kassurin]

it's superb! could anyone send me the score by e-mail? would love to play it!

[rvn10rvn17]

i never like beethoven and mozart but after hearing this, i start to appreciate their music..

i don;t say that this music is horrible, this is just not my type

[Luephis]

True appreciation lies in understanding the music, and I'd imagine that if you're more accustomed to music like that of Beethoven and Mozart, music like this might take a little while to get warmed up to.

Honestly, I hadn't discovered Ornstein until today and haven't really heard music like this before, but in my humble opinion, it's absolutely brilliant.

[pmberns]

I agree with you totally! I hadn't listened to him until today, but I had heard quite a bit about him. And this is just amazing. All the weird modern harmonies from that time, but still with beautifully coherent melodies to cling to. It makes the music more accesible, but doesn't weaken the effect at all.

[Angerboda18]

I sense Scriabin.

[Starwalker6978]

I never heard Ornstein. Great talent indeed! This is a music I like, I sense some influences of both Debussy and Bartok (I may be wrong), yet it is a style on itself.