Thomas Adès Piano Quintet (part 1 of 2)

[JSweec]

for a second there I thought it finally started to make sense then I'm lost again

[Epitomedrums03]

this has a very dark and almost insane quality to it, not only from all the seemingly random tonal plucking but the outrageously spacey timing of the parts. I can see how it would be offsetting to someone who is used to traditional 4/4 music.

[AndycKV]

@caekface

So what your saying is its rarely used and when it is it can be a approximated by more conventional time signatures...therefore its a pedantic and pointless process. The whole point of music notation is to remove the mystique not add to it, therefore those time signatures are an academic division, irrelevant to actual music listening or performance.

[AndycKV]

@caekface

So what your saying is its rarely used and when it is it can be a pproximated by more conventional time signatures...therefore its a pedantic and pointless process. The whole point of music notation is to remove the mystique not add to it, therefore those time signatures are an academic division, irrelevant to actual music listening or performance.

[AndycKV]

@caekface

Feel free to explain to me what a 6th note is or a 7th note? I would be particularly interested in your explanation.

[standingoneawall]

Yeah thats what i thought aswell dude, i looked this up on wiki so your your more them welcome to look, if you work it out let me know lol

[standingoneawall]

Any other drummers end up here after trying to research time ?

He uses 2/6, 9/14 and 5/24, if anyone has any ideas what that means let me know :p

Great piece of music

[mystabyers]

@standingoneawall I was equally confused at first. It really makes you think about what a time signature means.. number of beats on top and duration of note on the bottom. 6/8 has 6 eighth notes. So what is 2/7 or 1/13?

I realized that an eighth note is one eighth of a whole note. So by the same logic, a seventh note is one seventh of a whole note, and a 13th note is one 13th. So by knowing the speed of a whole note, you can calculate how fast any other division is.

[AndycKV]

@standingoneawall

2/6, 9/14 and 5/24 are not time signatures i am afraid. the denominator has to be divisions of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 as those are the note values per bar, the numerator can be any number as that just signifies how many of the crotchets, minims etc there are per bar.

[supadorf24]

I don't feel like arguing with anyone about taste; I just don't like this piece.

[donprudenzio]

This "Tristan chord" already had its roots in compositions by composers like Mozart, Gesualdo, etc. What made it "new" was the way in which this chord took a new place within a tonal structure. The chord came on the foreground on its own, its function became less significant than its sound so to speak. Maybe we can listen to tonal music in modern compositions with this context in mind, instead of directly dismiss it as 'traditional' or 'a step back'.

[donprudenzio]

It's shame that some people think modern music, despite the fact that this term alone is already too generalized, is and has to be or dissonant, or serial, or atonal and so on. The fact that Adès, especially is his 'later' music, turns to tonal writing, seems to me the indication that for him in a particular way that is the obvious means to express himself. People have to remind themselves that what seems new and modern is not always new. Look at the famous "Tristan chord" of Wagner.

[TheFinlandnator]

@robinfoote I have always laughed at them! People fighting about matters of taste... totally pointless. :D

[robinfoote]

Reading youtube comments always depresses me :(

[mariusfelix]

@robinfoote Dude, you are so right!

[Isarsi93]

Hey guys, keep posting!

[riggyriiah]

i dont know how to feel... a little too innovative. i feel like it is missing a story (melody) that carries the piece through

[origamimadness]

@riggyriiah Um. You don't listen to much new music do you? This uses harmonic ideas that were established more than 100 years ago. It's NOT THAT EXPERIMENTAL. Get with the program. This is downright conventional compared to the stuff Ligeti, Cage, Stockhausen et al were doing in the 1960s and 70s.

[saxodarap]

What is the hallmark of good music in a period where harmonic, melodic and structural integrity are challenged and often abhorred? Efficacy perhaps? But this music is neither memorable nor effective. So what argument can all the Ades fans throw my way to defend its absurdly overrated existence?

[chrismuscaroler]

@saxodarap sound, beauty, inventiveness of writing, emotion, maybe rhythmic power are the hallmarks of great music today. this, i feel, is a true work of art, and if you dont agree, thats fine. but trying to convince someone who likes the piece for these hallmarks not to like it is impossible and a waste of time and energy.

[otavioandradas]

i know yt is full of Ades's fans...sorry guys.

this music is not creative at all. he has better works...i mean, somewhat better...

[MrLindenson]

Great stuff! Quit squabbling down there arrogant bastards!

[Industriebrot]

I recind my negative statements. Not because of a change of heart but because i was too eager to jump on a negativity bandwagon that's marching through the net. I don't want to reinforce any negative stereotypes that damage the already bad reputation of lovers of contemporary art music.

[baiyingxiong]

trite

[jakobandfriends]

@Industriebrot This MUSIC is far beyond NEW, its what NEW will be in a hundred years! Its as evocative as volcanoes in Iceland, and as Romantic as Henry the 8th!

[Industriebrot]

@jakobandfriends

Props to you if you like it. Recommend me some more music. I want to make a picture of your musical taste. No hostility, just curiosity. Thanks.

[ybravura]

@jakobandfriends No, quite the opposite. This music is old hat, dated, obsolete, trite. The 20th century's been over for a while now, and the composers who are doing something new and original are no longer falling over themselves to see how dissonant and incoherent they can write.

30 seconds after this video ends, will you be able to hum or otherwise recall anything they played? Other than BOINK, screeeeech, wheeze, PLUCK, &c?

[Rufusdos]

@ybravura "Catchy" is your criterion then? Haha!

[tempodimarcia]

@ybravura The piece grows more through motives, not themes. I can remember these just fine; it says more about you than anyone else that you can't.

As a side note, this piece isn't particularly "dissonant" compared to other contemporary works by other U.K. composers like Birtwistle or Finnissy. The goal of composers during the 20th century was not to "see how dissonant and incoherent they could write," either. All you show with that comment is ignorance.

[mariusfelix]

@ybravura Funny, in Germany this music would possibly be criticized as the opposite of "BOINK, screeeeech, wheeze, PLUCK, &c". By the way, who are, in your oppinion, the "composers who are doing something new and original"? I listened to some of Adès orchestral music, and it sounded very "tonal" to me, if you want to call it like this...

[jaynogg]

this is dreadful! This hasnt got Xenakis' integrity, or Stockhausen's imagination, or Nono's sincerity! Its about as useful as an Islamic hotdog stand!

[jakobandfriends]

@jaynogg Adès SHITS on Stockhausen, face it you moron!

[muslit]

what a bore

[lovesGenet]

Ades is a fine composer.Has written much for many instr and he is a fine orchestrator..Youtube is a resource to inform not needed as a bastion of worthless criticism good or bad.Noone cres wht we think until it amounts to thousands and one can tell if so and so has made a dent in consciousness.

[greenethump3]

Daniel Powers is rather underrated, IMO. Yet then again, so am I. Composers aren't all hot shot happy go lucky kinda people, we write music usually because we can't deal with the stresses of everyday life, I mean for me at least, simple things seem to bother me more than most. Not much more one can do other than buck up, I suppose.

[Varese52]

Given the present state of classical music in the West (it seems to be doing rather better in the East), I find it refreshing to have a first-rate compositional talent receive accolades. Meanwhile, comparing him with masters who've already completed their life's work strikes me as pretty absurd. Give the man a break; hopefully, he still has a long life ahead of him to produce his best work.

[tommyk77]

Asyla is his best so far, in my opinion

[arvidtom]

Based on what I've heard by Adès (including In Seven Days, Tevot and the Tempest) I feel he is way overhyped. Sure the guy has huge talent (as both a composer and a performer) but IMHO it is quite exaggerated to hail him as the Mozartian genius the critics want to make us believe he is.

[jre58591]

How the hell can you compare him to any of those composers? It is far too soon to compare him to any of those guys, who have stood the test of time. Adès is just a young guy. Give him some time. He is a great composer, though.

[morvensky]

I meant he is not as great them *yet* I was not comparing.

[chazums1898]

you shouldn't compare them at all really. maybe you could compare thier harmonies, melodies, style, something like that, but dont expect anyone to get credit if they write music like Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Debussy et al

[morvensky]

I was not saying that. Someone said that reviewers make him out to be a Mozartian genius, my point was that he is great, but no as good as the mentioned composers.

[skenne8]

Awesome! With this and In Seven Days, Thomas Adès is really on top of his game. Good thing he's not even 40 years old.