title, what title?

Milton Babbit would have been a perfect hate figure for the Tee Party supporters in USA, had he published his famous essay "Who cares if you listen?" today. He was arguing that the lack of laymen listeners appreciation of advanced music which was -quoting Babbitt- "made by/for/to specialists," something inevitable, even welcome. He refuted the populistic call for truce between popular and specialist music "There is no such thing as 'serious' and 'popular' music." There is only 'good' and 'bad' music." with this: As a public service, let me offer those who still patiently await the revelation of the criteria of Absolute Good an alternative criterion which possesses, at least, the virtue of immediate and irrefutable applicability: "There is no such thing as 'serious' and 'popular' music. There is only music whose title begins with the letter 'X,' and music whose title does not." He wa...

One of the most prominent members of the post WW2 avantgarde classical music scene, Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) passed away on Friday . He was the composer that got me interested in the exciting world of non-traditional classical music. I would like to pay my tributes to this visionary with one of his most influential compositions, the Helicopter Stringquartet, with the hope that it will inspire others, like it inspired me. Those interested might try spotting him on one of the most well-known album covers of all time:

Avant Garde Project brings many great 20th Century Avant Garde Music that are out of print in flac format for followers of this great "genre" which is much too creative to be categorized into a genre. Direct downloads as well as torrent downloads are possible. For beginners there is a good section of editors picks . For opening flac (and almost all the audio) files I recommend Media Monkey . There is a also a large collection of Turkish Electronic Avant Garde Music Pioneer Ilhan Mimaroglu .

Conceptual artist Johnaton Keats has released a cell-phone ring tone cover of the legendary 4' 33'' by John Cage . 4' 33'' consists of three movements, which are actually the conductor turning the pages, and 273 seconds of silence, a reference to -273 degrees - Absolute Zero . The idea is that the audience are actually both creating the piece by making sounds, and are listening to the piece, so that each performance is unique. Cage was influenced by a series of blank paintings by Robert Rauschenberg , where different light conditions and the shadow of the observer created unique paintings for each observer. Here is an interesting symphonic version of 4' 33'' from BBC. Note how the audience tries to be silent, but fails to do so when the conductor turns the pages.