Meeting in Music: Dallapiccola

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Following the guide below you will be able to create the ultimate HQ rip and upload for sharing here at the Meeting in Music Internet Community or on your own blog if you have one.

RIPPING A CD USING EXACT AUDIO COPY (EAC)

1. Start Exact Audio Copy and load the clean and scratchless CD into you drive.
2. Pressing ALT+G will pull track and album info from the FreeDB database if this feature is set up properly.
3. If no info is found the CD is not registered in the database and you will have to type in the info manually.
4. Adjust the Drive Settings according to the model of your drive and enable the ”Create Log-file” option.
5. Adjust the Compression Settings to rip in Flac format at 768 kBit/s. Alternatively rip in the Ape fomat.
6. Rip the CD by pressing Action -> Test & Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet -> Compressed...
7. Check the log-file to see if any ripping errors or AccurateRip inaccuracies were registered.

SCANNING THE COVERS OF THE ALBUM

1. Scans of the front and back covers should be included if available as should the booklet. 300dpi is standard.

COMPRESSING THE FOLDER USING WINRAR

1. Wrap the audio files and images in a folder marked the composer and album name etc.
2. Set Compression method to ”Store” and the volume size to 200000000. Add a 3% recovery record.
3. Compress the folder using a not-too-obvious filename.

UPLOADING TO A FILEHOST AND SHARING WITH THE WORLD

Now all you need to do is to upload the rar-files to a filehost of your choice. Mega.nz is the standard and most stable option but there are many others and some services even feature upload to multiple filehosts. Finally the download links are ready to be presented on your blog.

THE MEDIEVAL ERA (600 - 1450)

At around 500 AD, western civilization began to emerge from the period known as “The Dark Ages”, the time when invading hordes of Vandals, Huns and Visigoths overran Europe and brought an end to the Roman Empire. For the next ten centuries, the newly emerging Christian Church would dominate Europe, administering justice, instigating “Holy” Crusades against the East, establishing universities, and generally dictating the destiny of music, art and literature

During this time, Pope Gregory I is generally believed to have collected and codified the music known as Gregorian Chant, which was the approved music of the Church. Much later, the University at Notre Dame in Paris saw the creation of a new kind of music called organum.

Secular music was sung all over Europe by the troubadours and trouvères of France, and it was during the Middle Ages that western culture saw the arrival of the first great name in music, Guilliame de Machaut.

THE RENAISSANCE ERA (1450 - 1600)

Generally considered to be from c.1420 to 1600, the Renaissance (which literally means “rebirth”) was a time of great cultural awakening and a flowering of the arts, letters, and sciences throughout Europe.

With the rise of humanism, sacred music began for the first time to break free of the confines of the Church, and a school of composers trained in the Netherlands mastered the art of polyphony in their settings of sacred music. One of the early masters of the Flemish style was Josquin des Prez. These polyphonic traditions reached their culmination in the unsurpassed works of Giovanni da Palestrina.

The late Renaissance also saw in England the flourishing of the English madrigal, the best known of which were composed by such masters as John Dowland, William Byrd, Thomas Morley and others.

THE BAROQUE ERA (1600 - 1750)

Named after the popular ornate architectural style of the time, the Baroque period (c.1600 to 1750) saw composers beginning to rebel against the styles that were prevalent during the High Renaissance. Many monarchs employed composers at their courts, where they were little more than servants expected to churn out music for any desired occasions. The greatest composer of the period, Johann Sebastian Bach, was such a servant. Yet the best composers of the time were able to break new musical ground, and in so doing succeeded in creating an entirely new style of music.

The instrumental concerto became a staple of the Baroque era, and found its strongest exponent in the works of the Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi. Harpsichord music achieved new heights, due to the works of such masters as Domenico Scarlatti and others. But vocal and choral music still reigned supreme during this age, and culminated in the operas and oratorios of German-born composer George Frideric Handel.

THE CLASSICAL ERA (1750 - 1820)

From roughly 1750 to 1820, artists, architects, and musicians moved away from the heavily ornamented styles of the Baroque and the Rococo, and instead embraced a clean, uncluttered style they thought reminiscent of Classical Greece.

At this time the Austrian capital of Vienna became the musical centre of Europe, and works of the period are often referred to as being in the Viennese style. Composers came from all over Europe to train in and around Vienna, and gradually they developed and formalized the standard musical forms that were to dominate European musical culture for the next several decades. The Classical period reached its majestic culmination with the masterful symphonies, sonatas, and string quartets by the three great composers of the Viennese school: Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

During the same period, the first voice of the burgeoning Romantic musical ethic can be found in the music of Viennese composer Franz Schubert.

THE ROMANTIC ERA (1820 - 1910)

The earliest Romantic composers were all born within a few years of each other in the early years of the nineteenth century. These include the great German masters Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann; the Polish poet of the piano Frédéric Chopin; the French genius Hector Berlioz; and the greatest pianistic showman in history, the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. The field of Italian opera was dominated by Giuseppe Verdi, while German opera was virtually monopolized by Richard Wagner.

Composers like Antonin Dvorak began looking for ways in which they could express the musical soul of their homelands. Legends were therefore used as plots for operas, and folk melodies and dance rhythms were frequently used as inspiration for symphonies and instrumental music.

With the continued enhancement of instruments, plus the invention of new ones, the late Romantic composers of the second half of the nineteenth-century created richer and ever larger symphonies, ballets, and concertos. Two of the giants of this period are the German-born Johannes Brahms and the great Russian melodist Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY ERA (1910 - 1960)

In the early part of the twentieth century music became either outwardly expressive (as in the early symphonic poems of Richard Strauss, the huge symphonies of Gustav Mahler, or the operas of Giacomo Puccini), or more introverted (as in the so-called “impressionist” music of Claude Debussy). The previous century’s tide of Nationalism found a twentieth century advocate in the Hungarian Béla Bartók.

In a time of deepening psychological awareness, the expressionistic music of Arnold Schoenberg and his disciples germinated and flourished for a time.

Twentieth-century music has seen a great coming and going of various movements, among them post-romanticism, serialism and neo-classicism in the earlier years of the century, all of which were practiced at one time or another by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.

Many of the greatest and best-known composers of the century, including Russian composers Sergei Rachmaninov, Sergei Prokofiev, and Dmitri Shostakovich along with British composers William Walton and Benjamin Britten were those who wrote music directly descended from the approved models of the past, while investing these forms with a style and modernistic tone of their own.

THE LATE 20TH CENTURY ERA (1940 - 2000)

Composers of this era sought to free music from its rigidity, placing the performance above the composition. Similarly, many composers sought to break from traditional performance rituals by incorporating theatre and multimedia into their compositions, going beyond sound itself to achieve their artistic goals. In some cases the line is difficult to draw between genres. Composers were quick to adopt developing electronic technology. As early as the 1940s, composers such as Olivier Messiaen incorporated electronic instruments into live performance. Recording technology was used to produce art music, as well.

The musique concrète of the late 1940s and ’50s was produced by editing together natural and industrial sounds. Steve Reich created music by manipulating tape recordings of people speaking, and later went on to compose process music for traditional instruments based on such recordings. Other notable pioneers of electronic music include Edgard Varèse, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luigi Nono, and Krzysztof Penderecki.

As more electronic technology matured, so did the music. In the 1950s aleatoric music was first championed by American composer John Cage. Early minimalist compositions of the 1960s such as those by Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass stemmed from aleatoric and electronic music.

THE CONTEMPORARY ERA (from 1975)

In the broadest sense, contemporary music is any music being written in the present day. In the context of classical music the term has been applied to music written in the last quarter century or so, particularly works post-1975. Minimalism was practiced heavily throughout the latter half of the century and has carried over into the 21st century, with composers like Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki and John Tavener working in the more popular “mystic minimalism” variant.

Recently there has been increasing stylistic variety, with far too many schools of composition to name or label. However, in general, there are three broad trends. The first is the continuation of modern avant-garde traditions, including musical experimentalism. The second are schools which sought to revitalize a tonal style based on previous common practice. The third focuses on non-functional triadic harmony, exemplified by composers working in the minimalist and related traditions.

8/13/2017

Non-operatic music in Italy: # 1

FOUR COMPOSERS AND THEIR PREDECESSORS
In a previous post on the Italian Renaissance a CD gave the opportunity to listen to the original "Ancient Airs and Dances for Lute": here we have Respighi's transcription instead. (His grand orchestration is exemplified also in the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor already posted →post).
Bruno Maderna, interested in the music of the past like his teacher Malipiero, made something similar with the anthology "Harmonice Musices Odhecaton", published in Venice in 1501, and with some other works of the 17th century. Luigi Dallapiccola reworked baroque music more freely in his two Tartinianas.
A hundred years earlier Giovanni Bottesini paid homage to the then dominant world of the opera with his instrumental output, quite various but still not far from that world (a new starting point was set at a later time by the most European of the Italian Romantics →# 2).
Other works of these composers are given in the CDs pictured on the left side of this post.

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Antiche danze e arie per liuto. Libera trascrizione per orchestra
Ancient Airs and Dances for Lute. Free Transcription for Orchestra

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Seiji Ozawa
Deutsche Grammophon 419 886-2 (1988). Recorded 1979
[flac, cue, log, scans]

READ MORE...

6/23/2017

Ferruccio Busoni: the Operas

Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)
Die Brautwahl

Siegfried Vogel, Carola Höhn, Graham Clark, Vinson Cole, Pär Lindskog, Roman Trekel, Günter von Kannen
Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin
Staatskapelle Berlin
Daniel Barenboim
Teldec 3984-25250-2 (1999). Recorded 1993
[flac, cue, log, scans]

READ MORE...

1/30/2014

Ecstatic Visions of the Soul: the World of Messiaen

The great Master from Avignon was a sweet man. I remember having a brief chat with him back in 1986, and how touched I was by his unpretentious, demure attitude. After all, there I was in front of one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century, one who had begun his musical training under such distinguished figures like Dukas and Widor at the end of WWI, surrounded by the vibrant Parisian musical milieu, just bereft of Debussy’s genius, after his untimely departure.
And I must have spent countless nights caught up in the rapture of some most enchanting pages like the heady "Jardin du sommeil d'amour", or the ravishing "Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus" - so here's my thankful tribute.

Today's offering features some classic recordings of Messiaen’s masterpieces.

From the exquisite Préludes for piano and the luscious L’Ascension, still reminiscent of Debussy’s lesson (the magnificent “Chant d’exstase dans un paysage triste”), to the great wartime milestones (Quatuor pour la fin du temps, Trois petites liturgies and Turangalîla-Symphonie), to include the colourful and complex piano compendium by Messiaen the ornithologist (Catalogue d’oiseaux), and the extraordinary creations of Messiaen the devout organist.

Olivier Messiaen
Catalogue d'oiseaux
La Fauvette des jardins

Anatol Ugorski, Piano
DGG 439 214-2 (1994)

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4/07/2013

Once upon a Time in Darmstadt # 2 - The Venetians

Although the Darmstadt masters came from all over the world and the whole movement's intention was to go beyond the limits of the so called National schools, it is a fact that two of its key figures were coming from a very special place - already hometown of great musicians and playwrights in the past centuries. Venice, a dream place rather than a city, where life through the calli and across the canals, the diaphanous colours, the still and dense air, the muted and eerie soundscape make for an everyday experience which is like nowhere else.
In this unique and uncanny environment, the gifted musical minds of Bruno Maderna, Luigi Nono, Franco Donatoni (born in nearby Verona) and Giuseppe Sinopoli learned to develop their unordinary listening attitude, to explore the inner voices between silence and musical thinking.

Bruno Maderna
Hyperion

Penelope Walmsley-Clark, Soprano; Jacques Zoon, Flute;
Bruno Ganz, Speaker
Les Jeunes Solistes
Asko Ensemble
Peter Eötvös

Montaigne/WDR 782014 (1993)

3/24/2013

Once upon a Time in Darmstadt # 1 - Berio's Masterworks

At the end of World War II, a new centre of gravity for contemporary music was created in the town of Darmstadt, thanks to the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik. During the 50s, these summer courses were not only attracting all of the most important figures in modern music, but also serving as propulsive energy through the opportunities that such high level meetings, lessons and exchange would put in place. Darmstadt soon became some sort of breeding ground for the generation of the 20s, represented by Masters like Boulez, Nono, Stockhausen, Feldman, Maderna and Ligeti, who were able to envisage new structural developments for serialism starting from its more advanced webernian philosophy.
Darmstadt courses meant Modern music was ready to thrive beyond the so called National schools, and a whole new musical genre - conceived by creators belonging to very different musical scenes - was ready to flourish.
Interestingly enough for a Country that had given very few meaningful contributions to instrumental music over the last two centuries, many of the most peculiar personalities in Darmstadt were Italian. Among these young composers, Luciano Berio's figure stood out thanks to his extraordinary skills and masterly technique, always driven by a compelling yet natural leaning towards experimentation.

Without hesitation, I consider Berio the most pivotal Master in my Country's musical history since Monteverdi, and - like with the great cremonese - his music will live on for ages.
We are glad to present here a few celebrated recordings of his mastepieces. The amazing Sinfonia, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in 1969 is a classic: with its magic muted chorus at the very beginning, and the celebrated 3rd movement, where glimpses of the milestones of music history - from Beethoven's Eroica to Debussy's La mer - float on the unremitting tempo of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony's Scherzo, or the heavenly 4th movement, where an otherworldy chorus reminds us of Ligeti's most atmospheric language.
The magnificent Folk Songs are of course Berio's most popular work along with his stunning solo works known as Sequenzas; yet another classic of sheer beauty is to be found in Rendering, Berio's reworking of Schubert's sketches to his 10th Symphony, in which the genius from Imperia implements an astonishing new technique by "filling the gaps" between the fragments with his musical sensitivity, rather than artificially joining them together. The result is just sublime and will have you in bewilderment, particularly when Schubert's classic shapes give in to Berio's unmistakable modern language in a continuum of intoxicating musical beauty.
To complete today's post, a few masterpieces by one of Berio's Masters, Luigi Dallapiccola, including his operatic masterpiece Il Prigioniero, and his poignant classic Canti di Prigionia.

Luciano Berio
Concerto II "Echoing Curves"
Rendering (on Fragments of Franz Schubert's Symphony D936a)
4 versioni originali della "Ritirata notturna di Madrid (from Luigi Boccherini)

Andrea Lucchesini, Piano
London Symphony Orchestra
Luciano Berio
RCA 09026 68894 2 (1997)

9/19/2012

Second Viennese School Essentials # 6 - Webern: Lieder & String Quartets

Anton Webern
Lieder

Christiane Oelze & Eric Schneider
DGG 447 103-2 - (1995)

Webern's work is extremely concentrated (the entire output composed by the Austrian genius can be played in less than 4 hours). Among the many gems to be found in this very focused repertoire, his Lieder production certainly stands out as a most important key to unlock the treasures of his aesthetics, starting from the poems the Viennese master chose to set to music, mainly by the great German poet Stefan George and by Webern's earnest admirer - Austrian poet Hildegard Jone. One of the most intelligent singers of her generation, the German soprano delivers all of the magic these songs are imbued with, keeping both her vocal style and interpretation slightly on the Romantic side.
READ MORE...

4/17/2012

Dallapiccola: Il prigioniero - Dorati (1975)

Luigi Dallapiccola

Il prigioniero

Maurizio Mazzieri,

Giulia Barrera, Romano Emili

Gabor Carelli, Ray Harrell.

University of Maryland Chorus

National Symphony Orchestra

Antal Dorati

Decca Headline Ed. - Head 10

"La libertà!"

Il prigioniero was composed between 1944 and 1948 and is about the psychological torture of an inmate, perpetrated by the Spanish Inquisition. The mental torture the prisoner experiences — that of false hope — is represented musically by a three-note motive known as "fratello" (brother).