Varèse - Density 21.5 (Laura Pou, flute)

[elephant3ist]

you are amazing !!!! congratulations !!! and you are so...

[devlincolleen]

Gorgeous. This is a difficult piece to make interesting. And Pou does that, and makes it beautiful as well. Wow.

[defdeezy]

@devlincolleen i disagree that this is a difficult piece to make interesting, but i suppose varese is an acquired taste. i always had a soft spot for this piece particularly, b/c it elucidated varese's ideas for me in a vivid way. anyway, this is definitely a masterful interpretation and performance.

[lumimoni]

married me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lumimoni]

POR DIOSSSSSSS, QUÉ HERMOSA MUJER!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lumimoni]

So beautiful: the music and the fluter, bellísima!

[therealroxy1717]

Gorgeous. Gave me chills! I love that piece, and I still can't believe someone said it was meaningless. It made me think, and feel

[AfroDeezeeYak]

Talented and beautiful!

[Javomarquez]

@breathcatcher666 This isn't nonsense: there is a recurrent motif, so, there is coherence.

If you heard someone reciting poetry in the Ainu language, would you call it nonsense? Hopefully not - it's just that you don't understand it.

There is a different between nonsense and something that doesn't make sense to YOU.

:-)

[AngelOFfallenSTAR]

What a beautiful interpretation!! And what a disquiet / anxiety in hearing this ..

[TheBrozart]

Holy cow. I need to marry this girl.

[CINEMAN8]

@TheBrozart Join the club

[Sexican]

@breathcatcher666

It's only meaningless if you're retarded.

[GiantPetRat]

@Sexican Ah, but what if it's ALL meaningless??

[Sexican]

@GiantPetRat

Don't get all philosophical on me man!

[teichiboy]

Its becaustiful but as a flutist I would never play this piece without the proper flute as this piece was written in honor of the first platnium flute and in fact 21.5 is the density of platnium hehe but absolutely marvelous interpretation.

[Zappafan1980]

This music kind of reminds me on japanese flute music

Only this piece here is easier execable to me and more beautiful

Of course thats only my taste in music

[pyrioni]

simply brilliantly played.

[Welavish]

What a beautyfull piece, and flutist of course !

[drmplaya34]

The playful smirk she does at 1:49 is sexy as hell. Also, very good playing!

[Tripoodo]

her eyebrow makes her look like shes thinking ''wtf am I playing!?''

[piccoloxxkatie]

i'm not trying to be a jerk... why do you assume i am? the song was beautiful, but being a flute player, myself, i'm anal about posture. it's how it goes. i'm sorry if i offended you in anyway.

[articsebas]

Molt bona aquesta interpretació de Density. M'agrada molt aquesta peça de Varèse perquè reflexa la ciència i l'art junts i fent una melodia.

Petons des de Mèxic.

[nanaflute4ever]

WOW she is brilliant! bravo !!

[polabellan]

genial! m'agrada moltíssim! moltes felicitats laura!

[piccoloxxkatie]

her sound is very good for playing with her head down most of the time. unless she is trying to make herself more flat on purpose, i don't approve of her posture.

[zachkritzer]

@piccoloxxkatie you're an asshole

[wahoo2929]

@piccoloxxkatie no one asked if you approved of her posture......... i bet she can play better than you can!

[pyrioni]

I'm learning this piece, very very nice playing!

[Kwanelauda]

You're right, Naturegirl, Sorry for that comment. Well let's comment about the strong sound and vibrato. :)

[89naturegirl]

THIS IS MUSIC, PEOPLE!!!!!!!

[BoldRevelation]

She is a very good flutist, playing some difficult interpretation and technique.

To respond to DerangedRanger and hippie down there....

Its kind of a shame to Music as an identification if anything "you think music is" becomes music. That means I could classify my lawnmower with the genius of Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Holst, and today's Film Scorers, as well as, Elvis, Bob Dylan, Kansas, Songwriters of the modern pop era, whatever.

I think the difference is Order

[BoldRevelation]

and that is what seperates it from noise. This piece has an order, and the score indicates that the rhythmic notations should be followed precisely. Rhythm doesn't HAVE to be there either. Some melodic or harmonic progression that is purposely crafted by the composer. Some of it is hard to listen to for the average pop culture person, but it is still music. Times Square isn't music, its chaos and noise.

[abasstrombonist]

I thought that the phrasing was clear and logical and the performance engaging. This video was very helpful for me to watch as I'm analysing the piece for my atonal theory class. Thanks for posting!

[eldiagrama]

y is she spitting?

[asdF45qwE]

dont like!

[lucasgrosso1977]

Actually is very ridiculous these people who says like the music, just because her (like"o you are a good looking girl").

The Interpretation I don't know how should be, this version is great.

[SorgenkindDesLebens]

Fantastic interpretation... Who cares what Varèse thought - Laura Pou makes it sound like music, finally.

[Ullprutt]

I think it is a lovely piece, and while the performance may not be exactly to the specifications of the composer, it is still very, very good. I think she does a very good job of delivering this music to the listener.

[hippie6996]

man, i dont see how everybody can say this is music. i hear it in the first 3 notes, but after that it just becomes something that could be written by a 3 yr old. and for anybody who wants to say im not a musician, i am. im listening to this for my contemporary techniques in writing. but i think all this a-tonal crap is a step backwards in music. waaayyyy back. we come from rachmaninoff, and saint saens, to this? how can it be? the playing was good i wont deny that, but a-tonal music blows ass.

[HerrWozzeck]

@hippie6996 Um, atonal is typically written as one word, minus the hyphen. And it seems you've never heard of Mahler or pre-atonal Schoenberg or how their music really pushed just how much could be done with tonal music such that eliminating key signatures altogether was the only logical step for Schoenberg to take. To be perfectly fair, this takes a considerable amount of taste; try coming back after getting yourself used to the beginnings of atonality, and it might sound different.

[hippie6996]

@HerrWozzeck im trying to listen to the music, im about to start the atonal classes at berklee, and for one i have to analyze this.... thats why im listening, i cant even analyze it. it just doesn't sound like music to me. it sounds like pitch moving through time, thus not music. music is pitch moving through time, using harmony and melody. this has no harmony, and the melody doesn't sound right. i have heard the schoenberg, and mahler stuff, but that wasn't like this, this doesn't soundlikethat

[HerrWozzeck]

@hippie6996 Ah, I see. In all honesty, this probably isn't the best introduction to Varese, especially for analyzation purposes. One thing I suggest? Try listening to other Varese works and try to listen for tendencies you find in there. That might help a bit with this when you know how Varese tends to work. (I suggest Ameriques or Arcana: they're definitive Varese in addition to being some of his easier works to listen to.)

[DerangedRanger1]

@hippie6996 It sounds like music to me. It is sound that expresses something.

As far as analyzing it, you might start by figuring out what the phrases are, then noting what goes on in each one of them in terms of ALL the musical parameters (i.e., not just pitch and rhythm).

Also, there are several analyses of this piece already, and maybe you could start with Jean-Jacques Nattiez's found in Music Analysis 1:3 (Oct 1982). From there you will find others.

[DerangedRanger1]

@hippie6996 Also, because you seem to have a limited imagination when it comes to what music is or could be, you might also look at Nattiez, "Music as Discourse," Chapter 2 - especially the discussion about "music" and "noise". By enlarging your concept of what music is or could be, you will no doubt mature as an artist.

[hippie6996]

@DerangedRanger1 well, thanks but.... i have listened to some of this kind of stuff, from analysis of contemporary music, i really dont care for it. i know every musician should be open to everything, but the more i listen the more i dont like it, so ive just stopped. even after some things from debussy, which i thought i loved, the more i listen to other things he did.... i dont like him as much. i love clair de lune, and more tonal music but not the less tonal stuff. rachmaninoff is my fav.

[DerangedRanger1]

@hippie6996 i got sick of music mainly because of the people that listen to it...like when you play in an orchestra you wind up playing the same "greatest hits of the 19th century" to the same people who think that is the best music ever...and jazz people are like that...and rock people are like that...it gets old...sometimes i wish the music existed away from these elitists...

[hippie6996]

@DerangedRanger1 i had several professors tell me, music isn't only to hat you think... its basically sound through time. but i dont like that way of looking at it, to me thts like saying sitting in time square is listening to music, which to me isn't. not even the woods or anything, im not that "deep" in music. rachmaninoff, dream theater, benny goodman, and hippie 60's stuff and metal, is what i have found to be what i like.... im very picky

[hippie6996]

@DerangedRanger1 i honestly do try to listen to lots of things but once i heard it, and dont like it...... ill give it more and more chances, but most of the time i still dont like it..... dream theater is the only band that didn't happen to, i hated them at first and grew to love more than ever..... nothing else has done that for me. im the same with movies, dont care too much for them but i find those few good ones i love and thats that. but i do always give everything a shot, several times.

[DerangedRanger1]

@hippie6996 interesting...i can listen to the sounds in a city that everyone thinks is noise and turn it into music in my head...that is what music is, its just whatever you think is...

[89naturegirl]

@DerangedRanger1 Same here man. There's music in nature, very complex rhythms and musical songs. Same with the city, in fact, same with ANYTHING. I hear endless rhythm in my girlfriend's washing machine and the fan in her bathroom. I'm posting on her YouTube name, by the way.

[DerangedRanger1]

@89naturegirl It took me some time to get there, so if you are so young and doing it that is great. :) You will enjoy your life. It was easy to do it in the forest, but it took time for me to understand city sounds. I think Bjork helped me.

[89naturegirl]

@hippie6996 Yea right....this is definitely music. Open up your ears more. This is very musical.  It doesn't have to have a continuous rhythm to be music.

[hippie6996]

@89naturegirl yeah this is music, but its atonal music.... to me it doesn't sound like music.... maybe to you it does. to me tonal music is where its at.

[DerangedRanger1]

@hippie6996 To me, tonality is merely one method of organizing one particular component of music: pitch. Do you not hear timbres, rhythms, and textures? None of these components are related to tonality. Furthermore, are you willing to argue that a drum beat is not music? I am not quite grasping these limits you put on yourself to understand something as music. Maybe you could enlighten me. Thanks.

[amusicianinparis]

@DerangedRanger1 You're really right. Tonality is just a method of organizing melody and harmony in a relative way (according to cultural patterns) but timbres, rytmhs and textures are differents things to have on mind when composing (in fact the tonality can be avoided by some composition techiques and styles like dodecafonism, but no the timbre or the rythm).

[Asherov1]

Let me bow. Heart warming.

[solnegrolunaroja]

The original is much more "mechanical". She is trying to "sing it" and did it very well, sounds a lot more human. This would be a good test to detect a T-1000 trying to pass for human!

[aislinn26]

good expression, but really too often out of time, i think it`s asked to play much stricter what`s in the notes

[Scylla99]

Que bien toca!! esta pieza es complicadísima de interpretar. Felicitaciones un bravo enorme!!

Además, de carisma, es muy linda ;)

[claudinemovsessian]

wonderful:cheers

happy new year

[Atael]

Beautiful... the interpretation and she...

[flautistafallito]

@Atael and her, not and she

[jayriggzy]

Is it the style of the piece to make the flute screech so much at about 3:00?

[Calley07]

No, What you hear before is just the first and second octave. After 3:00 she starts using the third octave but playing aggressively and that makes you hear the difference. If she would have played the third octave softer you wouldn't really have noticed it so much. The blowing technique is basicly just playing louder and harder.

[jmtennapel]

It's a D4 (fourth octave for the flute) that Varese indicates as 'fff'. It should not be played softer, it should blow your ears out. So, yes, it should screech.

[89naturegirl]

@jayriggzy Yes.

[Stunt2one]

Por qué los mejores siempre estáis en Catalunya?

:)

[musicizmylife27]

Fantastic, I love this song.

[89naturegirl]

@Kwanelauda That's creepy.

[jacoclaypool666]

That was gorgeous!!! Just beautiful pharasing!!!!