Swiss Rooftop Q&A Marathon
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- čas přidán 23. 07. 2024
- Samuel Andreyev, composer of contemporary music, answers questions from viewers, from a rooftop in Switzerland.
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"How do you describe your personal style?"
"I dunno, urban chic?"
lmao
When Samuel turned his head, surveyed the horizon and said, "Here I am in Switzerland... It's a beautiful day..." The pleasure I felt wasn't vicarious, because I became Samuel.
Thanks for this comment. I happened upon it right as Samuel was turning and looking at the horizon. Pure synchronicity!
Thank you so much for answering my question. I admire your point of view.
Great content as always.
Thank you for sharing.
great video always so many good insights into music
I was just thinking when you were gonna upload again! Beautiful background
No question, just a hello and a thank you. I'm learning a lot about music which I already happen to like (and some things I've never heard before) from your videos. Thank you so much for all your fine analysis, which is accessible, informative and enjoyable for someone like me who tries to listen attentively but who did not study formally.
Also ! Just feel the need to say that Rock Bottom. is one of my personal favorite albums. That synthesizer in Sea Song is so peculiar. It seems like you've heard it all, but if you don't know Juana Molina's song "Martin Fierro" I would recommend it. The synthesizer work is very unique, though I'm not sure if it's digital or analog. It sounds analog to me and incidentally reminds me of Wyatt.
Thank you for this, fantastic points. Thank you for answering my question. And btw, I like your videos format very much, it is like watching a lecture, very well thought and put together and presented.
Thanks for the poetry recommendations, I figured you probably already had enough to do, so I'll certainly look into the resources you mentioned. As always, your high quality videos are greatly appreciated!
How did I not discover your channel earlier? There is so much wisdom and depth in your discussions that helps someone learning such as myself.
Thank you, that's good to hear!
Thanks for answering my question! I too have been devouring Glass' Einstein on the Beach, and found that the first of the two dance pieces, as well as the early piece "train" both originally came from a series of compositions Glass did called "Another Look at Harmony." They were parts 1 and 2 of that series, and although part 3 isn't officially published part 4 stands on its own as a great piece of music for organ and choir. His early music like "Contrary Motion" or "Music with Changing Parts" seem very centered thematically on rhythm, and it is in part 4 of this series that he reaches a culmination in his style which would usher in his more melodic, harmonically colorful music like in Koyaanisqatsi or Mishima. Pardon the largeness of the question. I thought it would be a stretch to ask about both Arvo part and Philip Glass in one go, but I figured I'd try since your take on so many composers rings so salient and insightful. Thanks for the great work. I've particularly liked your video on Charles Ives, an influential piece of music for contemporary composer Max Richter as well. Oh and good work on "Music with No Edges".
26:17 was an interesting answer - I find that taking on new information tends to feel more productive than trying to force out notes at my desk if I have a drought of ideas. If I transcribe and/or analyse music without the goal of using it to write something myself, I absorb new information from it anyway, and find myself thinking in a way I might not have otherwise (the same goes with journal articles too - just reading Steven Schick's article about his approach to playing Bone Alphabet gave me quite a few ideas about how to approach rhythm in some current stuff I'm doing, and how I might expect a performer to engage with it). Without engaging with new material in this way, trying hard to write can actually be just frustrating, because the actual act of composition feels like it's the product of a set of more basic activities.
Thank you Andrew for answering my question (29:36) ! This was VERY helpful. All of your videos are helpful, actually.
Although this question is already a year old I couldn't resist to comment since I struggled with Takemitsu myself for quite a while.
"The music of Toru Takemitsu" by Peter Burt goes (ore shall I say "trys to go") into some detail on Takemitsus music including Twill by Twighlight (which is a truly awesome piece!). My advice would be to fool around with some of the modes he used (Messiaen Mode I to III) at the piano yourself and try if you can recreate the Takemitsu-sound by ear, because thats probably how he got it himself. Since Takemitsu had no academic training he wasn't too interested in composing, what he concidered, academically correct music.
Regarding the Yoshimatsu Threnody: I only know the recording and haven't seen the score yet but my guess is he used serial techniques to produce some of these "birdy" textures. But since the piece also realies heavily on diatonic scales as its pitch-source it sounds relativly un-serial.
@@yango8778thank you for your commentary. I own and have read Peter burtwell’s book and it reinforces that takemitsu’s music defies conventional analysis. I have been teaching myself Japanese for 3 years now and just got yoshimatsu’s theory book, written in Japanese.
I think your style comes from relentlessly writing music. The more you write the deeper your resolution becomes. And with more resolution your creativity seeps through more aspects of the work. At the basic levels of resolution you are concerned with the right notes and form of a single bar. At the deeper levels you are concerned with the overall form of a 60 minute work. When you reached the latter your style will sound more defined because your creativity is directed at a much deeper surface.
8:05 Thank you, that's exactly what I think :)
Love your channel. Your interest in contemporary classical and popular composers run very close to my own. (Was stunned to discover someone how admired BOTH Morton Feldman and Jandek, as I do.) So I have two questions regarding the popular music world. Would you consider analyzing a piece by Christian Vander's Magma, or a piece by Scott Walker?
IMHO an applied, non-dogmatic "Schenker inspired" method of analyzing harmony works in many contexts. Due to psychoacoustics we perceive pitches in a certain way, which can explain how music is understood in terms of harmony.
Hey Sam, I love your channel. Would you do some music theory lessons? Of concepts you find useful or if people posted specific questions?
Sure, ask away. Best to send me an email (www.samuelandreyev.com)
Question: Whats your opinion on early electronic instruments like the Theremin or Ondes Martenot. Have you considered composing for these instruments and what do you think of their repertoire? (Messiaens Turanglila Symphony, Jolivets Martenot Concerto etc.)
As a electronic composer I can relate to your concerns with electronic music. As it is now electronic music is glorified piano roll music made for speakers. The computer is the piano roll and the speaker is the instrument. As easy as it is to compose it is incredibly hard to perform, it becomes very convoluted very quickly. I have done live performances with computers and I hated it. Acoustic instruments don’t need power, they don’t need software, they don’t need sound interfaces, they can’t crash, they don’t have bugs, they don’t randomly stop working.
There is also something really sterile about electronic music. Even in the hands of a virtuoso a sawtooth sounds dead compared to a violin. I think it is a combination of the lack of articulation and the sound source. Acoustic instruments produce soundwaves, synthesizers produce voltage. If a Moog synthesizer had an acoustic body and produced the sound from something else than a generic speaker I think it would bring much needed life to electronic instruments.
@Samuel Andreyev Where can I find the Grisey writing you mention around 29:00?
edit: I see a couple of seconds later you touched on that too, sorry for being too impatient. :D Anyways I'll keep this here
As a part of your answer to the "Do you think music can be objectively good? If music is perceived so subjectively, how can we judge it by objective standards?" question, you said "You have to look at it in terms of: Does it do what it's setting out to do? Does it do what it's setting out to do optimally? Is it doing it in such a way that is powerful, rich and complex?"
I agree with the notion that it's better to evaluate a music based on what it is trying to accomplish if we're trying to evaluate it subjectively. But I don't agree with that being powerful, rich or complex matters for every possible circle of music.
Pop music, for example, doesn't have to be rich and complex at all. It is better for it to be catchy and easily consumable. In that circle of music, what the artist is after is as popular as possible (mostly), which is why they have amazing songwriters that write songs like engineer designing the best car.
Whereas in the European art music originality is important, in my country's folk music the musicians that play exactly like a past legend of that instrument are appreciated too much. Because they're not trying to have something like art music, they just want to remember the old days and feel the same spirit they used to get from the old master.
;) thanks for your considered and interesting comments!
What are your thoughts on the last two talk talk albums?
Analyze Allen Parsons or Tina S (she's a fantastic guitarist)
Do you think your bi-linguality affects your composition, and is there perhaps a difference between your compositions with french, and with english names?
The name of the Scandinavian composer @6:43?
Leif Segerstam (also, I seriously underestimated how many symphonies he's written: he's currently up to number 327).
Alifib/Alifie analysis?
Must say that for me this is probably the least interesting/stimulating part of that album (while Sea Song, as over-covered and over-played as it is, stays fresh somehow, but it's one I'd rather try to convince 12tone to analyse).
WhyCan'tIRemainAnonymous?! Wow. I love Sea Song, of course, I love the whole album, but Alifib and, especially Alifie border on immense. Every time I listen to them I wonder just how can any music be so intensely emotional.
Egg heads are sexy in their way
I think the pronunciation of Steve Reich's last name is raɪʃ. It's an anglicisation and it was apparently common for Jews with that last name to modify the pronunciation when arriving to America. :)
Where do you even get the time? Are you like 1000 years old or just mad geniusy?
PS. What about that Ocarina and that totally annoying penny whistle? Just kidding, the Violin is the most incredible instrument ever made!!! Right?