What's the most mind-blowingly bizarre piece of modern "classical" music?

[Rabrrrrrr]

I'm thinking music that would be performed in a regular concert hall, and in the tradition of trained schooled composers in the "classical" style using those forms, though of course totlly updated for the modern age.

I'm thinking stuff that you might play for a teenager who thinks "classical" music is boring as hell because they've had brahms and bach forced down their throats by boring curches and music teachers in school. The kind of music that would fold their ears back and go "Holy crud! You can do that?!"

I'd suggest the following, though I'm sure there are others, but I think this sampling should give you a feel for what I'm looking for:

Crumb - Black Angels
Glass - Einstein on the Beach
Partch - pretty much anything by him
Penderecki - Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
Stockhausen - Helicopter Quartet
Tan Dun - Water Passion
Varese - Ionisation
Meredith Monk - Turtle Dreams

I look forward to your responses, so I can go "D'Oh!!" for the obvious ones I couldn't think of, and for hopefully some stuff I've never heard of.

(I bought Black Angels for my 15 year old nephew last Christmas, and both he and his older sister were TOTALLY blown away by it! "Electric Insects" indeed! They turned it WAY loud. Drove my sister up a wall)

[Screaming Lord Byron]

1. Wasn't it Berg's Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima?

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. No, it was Penderecki

[Screaming Lord Byron]

7. OK. Well, I've been carrying that false info around for years.

Thanks, Rabrrrrr.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. No problemo!

And six "r"s on Rabrrrrrr. :spank:

have you ever heard Penderecki's Polish requiem? Amazing vocal stuff in that one. Wow!!

[Canuckistanian]

2. Mo 'n Herb's Vacation

By Frank Zappa. Or Sad Jane.

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. I like Mo and Herb's vacation

and it probably is just wild enough to be of interest to the kiddies. But not quite as wildly bizarre and different as the ones I mentioned in the post.

What's that awesome song from Yellow Shark with the spoken parts, supposed to America in a mindless consumerist future? Can't think of it, and haven't heard it in a year or two. That would perhaps fit as well. :-)

[Zomby Woof]

19. Welcome To The United States

Fucking brilliant!

Titties and beer.

[Rabrrrrrr]

20. That's it! Thanks!

Can't tell you how many times I've wished that Frank and Bill Hicks were still around to offer their commentary on this evil administration.

[Zomby Woof]

22. oooo!

Oh yeah. Hicks was one of the greats.

[htuttle]

4. I've always thought Sun Ra was pretty weird, but that's more like Jazz...

For classical music 15 yr old nephews might like, try Chronos String Quartet, especially the Hendrix and Led Zepplin covers they do.

Another cool album in this (classical covers) vein is Sabbatum by Rondellus. It's Black Sabbath covers done by a 14th century-style madrigal group with all the lyrics sung in Latin.

"Verres Militares" is chilling!

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. No, I'm looking ONLY for "classical" style stuff

Good suggestions, but not looking for orchestral or string versions of rock music, but "classical" music (such as I mentioned). The kind of musics that ARE played in traditional halls (albeit far too infrequently) and composed by "serious" composers.

I love Sun Ra, too! But he doesn't fit this bill.

I've not heard the Sabbath album but I bet it's bloody awesome. Also a Sabbath fan, AND a fan of renaissance polyphony, and I would imagine that Sabbath's music would translate very well. Especially sung in Latin.

[leyton]

5. Gorecki's Third Symphony blew me away,

but it's not going to bring in anyone who doesn't already go for classical music. It is anything but "Holy Crud, what is that?"

[shoopnyc123]

10. "The Chairman Dances" by ...oh no I forgot!

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Adams did that one

Fun music. I used to like Adams, but then after I had more than a few albums, I realized that I didn't really need any more, since he's really stuck in a rut.

Sad, really, since he showed so much promise.

oh, well. He'll always have kudos for Nixon in China

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. I agree about his music, but

he'd make an excellent successor to Leonard Bernstein as a popularizer of classical music. I saw him conduct the Oregon Symphony a few years ago, and he had great personal charm and an ability to make difficult topics understandable.

If I wanted to introduce someone to contemporary classical music, I'd take them to a Kronos Quartet concert, or at the very least, give them the Pieces of Africa CD.

[shoopnyc123]

12. SORRY; JOHN ADAMS!

[mobuto]

13. That's easy! John Cage's 4'33"

Four minutes and thirty-three seconds of pure, unadulterated silence.

Remember, its not the notes that are played, its the notes that aren't played.

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. I had considered including that one in the list

or perhaps even one of his prepared piano pieces.

I think Frank Zappa might be the only one to have recorded a version of it. Unless Cage did, but I don't remember seeing it (though I've also not seen all of Cage's recordings).

[mobuto]

16. We can compare recordings!

I understand the BBC broadcast a live performance back in January, but I missed it.

[jpgray]

15. Who was that American guy who wrote for player piano? (nt)

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. That was Conlon Nancarrow

http://www.artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=10

Wow - he studied with Walter Piston. Not bad!

[Zomby Woof]

18. Titties and Beer!

Well, it is a favorite in GD.

[Rabrrrrrr]

21. flop floppin'

all around the world!

[Zomby Woof]

25. misogynisty!

You bad bad evildoin' misogynistesque dingrod! :D

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. I'm not into misoginsim

I'm into homosexualism and family-values-hatingism

Sorry, don't have the time for misognistism.

And I'm not a dingrod, so stop saying that, and besides, I had a note from Mrs. Cooper at the laundromat and no it wasn't because my manhood got caught in the dryer exhaust tube so stop saying that!

[Zomby Woof]

27. oh! that visual!!!

Can I have the lint?

[Rabrrrrrr]

29. Sorry, sold it to a freeper already,

though he asked for anonynimity, of course.

God forbid the bastards should be honest about their sin.

"God hates fags, but when my friends at the club and I have sex, that's not homosexuality because we're all married, it's just guys being guys, you know? Right?"

[ironflange]

23. Here's a few

Elliott Carter's String Quartets

Ligeti - I like the Requiem; good movie music :)

Crumb - Makrokosmos I & II, really really well done piano music. Great to see performed, fun to noodle around with at home.

Lutoslawski - pretty well anything. Many years ago, in university, Mrs. Ironflange and her friend performed the Paganini Variations for Two Pianos. What an absolutely knockout piece, turns the Caprice uside down and shakes it.

About the same time, I was in a small chorus that did two particularly striking works:

William Schuman's Carols of Death - Whitman never sounded better.

Berio's Magnificat - early work, his reaction to the destruction of WWII.

[Rabrrrrrr]

24. Yes, I was thinking Legiti, but didn't feel like editing it

That's an amazing piece.

Makrokosmos I was tempted to add, along with Ancient Voices of Children, but I felt that Black Angels was far more "heavy metal noise-filled-ish" than the rest of Crumb's stuff, so just left it at that. But you are right - Makrokosmos is PHENOMENAL.

I am not familiar with the Schuman or the Berio, so I will check them out! Thanks for some new leads. I can only imagine that the Berio must be BRILLIANT. I am, oddly enough, all goose-bumped just thinking that a Berio Magnificat exists.

[ironflange]

30. Berio's Magnificat

Seldom performed, strange to say because it uses small forces (2 pianos, winds, percussion, if memory serves), is not all that difficult, and is easily accessible. Fun piece to do, very colorful. It's perfect for a smaller university music department. I don't know if there's a recording, somehohw I doubt it.

Schuman's Carols of Death is, I think, on CD. It's a set of three a capella pieces to words of Whitman: The Last Invocation, The Unknown Region, and To All, To Each. Not gloomy, more wistful. It's been nearly 25 years since I sang them, but I still carry them within.

[Rabrrrrrr]

31. They sound beautiful!

And I promise that I will look them up.

Thanks for the descriptors!