Klarinet Archive - Posting 000692.txt from 2001/09

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Silence is Golden - for Bill W.
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 14:03:21 -0400

On Thu, 20 Sep 2001 10:22:27 -0700 (PDT), Bilwright@-----.net said:

> The Concerto for 100 Metronomes...

"Poeme Symphonique", it was rather misleadingly entitled.

> ...on the other hand, clearly promises something unusual and is not
> guilty of breaking its promise.

Not what many of the audience, particularly the commissioning body,
thought at the time.

"In September 1963, the Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti created in
Hilversum (Netherland) his "Poeme Symphonique", for 100 metronomes. The
audience did not know what they were going to listen to, and at the end
of the concert, the scandal was so intense that the TV film of the event
was not broadcast as it should have been, and its later broadcasting was
forbidden...

"The idea is simple: take 100 metronomes, wind them to a different
level, set them to different speeds, and unleash all of them at the same
time. The initial chaos slowly gets more organized, as more and more
metronomes stop, until there is only one that finally stops. The full
process lasts about 20 minutes. If you want to get an idea of what it
sounds like, Sony Classical recently published a recording of this piece
in their 5th part of Ligeti's complete works (ref. SK 62310)."

Tony
--
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