"The listening sessions really opened up my ears!"
"A huge part of the camp experience was hearing other music that is being composed today."
"The selections were quite eclectic and the discussions they provoked were always interesting."
"Another favorite part of the YCP for me. There's so much interesting music out there and while I thought I was pretty well-versed in modern music before I got to the YCP, ...I realize there's still a whole world out there for me to hear."
"While at first I greatly disliked the listening sessions, as the week progressed I actually began to look forward to them. I don't think I ever would have heard music like that...and I'm grateful."
"The atmosphere of the listening sessions has helped me to sharpen my personal listening experiences."
"I began the week disliking the listening sessions simply because the music didn't make any sense to me,
but as the week progressed and I learned more about theory and the stories behind the music I began to enjoy them. Without the listening sessions I wouldn't have known all the different ways that music can be represented
...they don't exactly play that on the radio."
"I loved the listening sessions. They were awesome."
Each afternoon the entire YCP community gathers together to listen to great works from the past 40 years and to discuss frankly and openly how we feel about them. The works chosen are musically fulfilling and exemplary of many aspects of compositional craft but are also challenging and often "ear opening." They also exhibit a range of style and stances from Bolcom to Boulez, from Adams to Ades, from Schwantner to Sciarrino.
The purpose is not necessarily that the students "like" the pieces, but that they become aware of modes of expression and music-making. The resulting "barrage" of music which is so very different can feel confrontational at first, but there is a clear development through the week as students become better and better and releasing their preconceptions and enthusiastically pursuing these unusual musical adventures. This is of course an important kind of learning for young composers--not only to enable them to appreciate recent masterworks, but even just to appreciate the very different musics of their friends and peers.
By the end of the week a sense of transformation is evident in the way the students talk about music that is very different from their own. We gather one last time and have the students write a few words about the one or two pieces that were the most meaningful to them. We then go around the circle and share. Here are just a few of the works which interested and inspired past YCP students:
Quotations above come from survey responses
Listening Session Responses
Luciano Berio - Sinfonia (Movement III)
-- "Unlike anything I have heard before, it made me really wonder what a live performance would be like. I doubt I will ever write in a style similar to this, but I am glad someone does."
-- "It was so original that, even though after listening to it you may not be able to remember everything, it left a new impression that made you want to hear it again. Overall this piece was very strikingly new."
-- "It's a very striking piece and the way he wove old musical ideas/themes into the work (i.e. the use of the Mahler scherzo) along with voices was very interesting. It also opened my ears (along with the Ligeti) to musical possibilities that I had never considered before that could be very effective in some of my music."
Luciano Berio - Thema (Omaggio a Joyce)
-- "Berio's interpretation of Joyce's poem through music really gave me a new perspective on what music is. My thoughts before hearing the piece were that atonal music was essentially not music and didn't take any real brain-power to produce. After hearing it and learning about the work that went into producing it in the 1950s, my eyes were opened to the possibility that music is not as narrow and one dimensional as I'd thought."
-- " I liked the overall idea of taking a simple, yet beautiful, reading of Joyce's Ulysses and explored the musical potential in everyday speech. His manipulation of the words and his expansion of the idea of a fugue presented by the text really added a new level of significance to each word. I also feel that the knowledge of the technical feat behind the work helped raise my appreciation of it."
-- " The Luciano Berio Thema was an eye opening composition. This piece for voice and tape was created in the 1950s in the infancy of tape technology. I was intrigued by the inflection of the voice and the wide range of emotional feelings it brought out of Joyce's words. I was also impressed with the tape work toward the end. The piece made me realize the difficulty of working with tape."
-- "I think that this piece does a fantastic job of exploring and exposing the musicality of spoken text. The work is so meticulously produced that it seems to bridge the gap between electro-acoustic music and traditional compositions by creating seemingly infinite relationships between words. I also chose this piece because of the discussion that it sparked in class. The piece certainly opens my eyes and I also think it did the same for others. And more importantly it got us to communicate our thoughts and feelings on the piece and this type of music."
Margaret Brouwer - Light
-- "Margaret Brower's piece Light had a beautiful combination of lyricism and texture. I enjoyed the interesting combination of instruments and voice."
Margaret Brouwer - Percussion Concerto
-- "A highly unique and well-written work. The showcasing of the percussion section in a soloistic manner was truly thrilling to hear."
John Corigliano - The Ghosts of Versailles (Act I) [video]
-- "I love this opera not only because of the opera within an opera idea, but also due to Corigliano's way of weaving back and forth between contemporary styles and the style of Mozart. In particular, my favorite part was Bergearss's singing "Long live the worm." The composer's creative way of staging interplay between the two world's struck me as incredible."
-- " It's good to know that great operas are still written. I can't see anyone being bored by an opera like this."
-- "aside from the fact that the opera is good to begin with and interesting (mostly the polystylistic presentation), what was most striking about it was that it shows that modern opera can be appealing to modern audiences."
John Corigliano - Symphony No.1 (Movement I)
-- "It was in many ways like listening to a stranger divulge his deepest feelings and fears--his secrets. In using the piano off stage and looping the tango theme Corigliano puts the listener in a truly uncomfortable position. Not necessarily with regard to the sound of the piece, but because of the sentiment that contrast evokes. Truly a wonderful piece."
George Crumb - Black Angels [video]
-- "This piece was a great experience for me ...I enjoyed seeing what the live performance adds to the listening experience."
-- "While it was certainly not my favorite piece, in the terms in which I would normally describe my favorite music, Crumb's Black Angels really struck me. It showed how properly-ordered sound, in any form, when given a dramatic and intensely contrasting context can produce an emotional response. The mark of a great performance (as this one should was) is its ability generate emotions in the listener and, after getting acquainted with Crumb, my belief is strengthened that music is good if it is emotional by any means."
-- "Although the piece wasn't my favorite, it was almost entirely new to me in terms of the sound and the score for the piece. It allowed me to explore ideas that I wouldn't have even thought of without hearing this piece."
Jacob Druckman - Prism
-- "This piece was different than anything I've heard. A lot of composers quote from others but in Prism Druckman ...made it sound like the Baroque theme was interrupting his own ethereal music. I've never heard this effect before and I thought it worked extremely well."
Henri Dutilleux - Preludes pour Piano
-- "I found this piece to be extremely beautiful in its use of dissonance. I feel that this piece would make an excellent transition [from listening to tonal harmony to atonal harmonies] because the dissonance of the chords and melody don't require resolution because of the their beauty."
Aaron Jay Kernis - Colored Field
-- "Colored Field by Aaron Jay Kernis was to me amazing and made a huge impression on me. For me it was the visual quality of the piece that made it outstanding. And another thing was that it had a massive spectrum of colors that clearly described the title. The idea of memory and how it interacts with the "protagonist" (or soloist) was interesting to me. Also the idea of how a soloist interprets and becomes swallowed into the texture."
-- " Many times in modern music, I do not have the patience I would like to for the sharp dissonances composers use today. However, in Kernis' Colored Field, the poignant dissonances really created an intense picture in my mind of blood bubbling out of the newly killed bodies on an open field. This is unusual for me because when I listen to music, I often only listen, I don't create a portrait in my head. What did it for me was that it contained dissonances that seemed to make sense in the context. I loved the elegance and tragedy of the piece and I also think the English horn was the perfect solo instrument for this piece."
-- "the entire piece was just gorgeous and intoxicating and he really proved that quasi neoromantic/expressionist music can be pretty and good and workable through modern musical idioms."
Gyorgy Ligeti - Lontano
-- "The Ligeti made me reconsider dissonance. Often times it is used for negative energy as a contrast to consonance. In this piece, it is constant and therefore not negative or positive."
-- "dreamy quality, "walls of sound," extreme ranges of the orchestra opened my ears to most modern music"
-- "This piece creates a world in which the gradual movement between chord clusters such that only harmony is meaningful and all concept of meter and rhythm disappear for the listener. It has accomplished things that I have only begun to think about intruding into my compositions."
Gyorgy Ligeti - Lux Aeterna
-- "I really liked how the notes slowly and gradually changed, creating different tone colours...very different from any other chorus piece I had heard before."
-- "The degree to which Ligeti changes harmony is so miniscule...something I hadn't thought possible to listen to. Ligeti seems to have found a way to make whole notes gorgeous."
Steve Reich - Tehillim
-- "One of the most moving pieces that was played over the week was Tehillim. The pure melody and the minimum of extraneous activity kept me focused and involved."
Giacinto Scelsi - Uaxuctum
-- "The Scelsi impressed me because of the composers' ability to express the idea of desctruction. I loved the colors, especially the use of the chorus. I'm glad we listened to this because it gave a new composer to look into."
-- "I really connected with the concept of a "third dimension" to music and I think I really try to capture a similar sensation from my music."
-- "I remember the vivid tone--the darkness of the atmosphere, created especially by the drones of the voices. This is an effect that I have not heard before, and I really liked the mood it created. The dissonant chords did not strike me as dissonance because the percussion seemed to accent these chords and it was one of the first times for me that dissonance was pleasing to the ear."
Salvatore Sciarrino - Tre Notturni Brillante
-- "Sciarrino creates a new backdrop other than silence for a spare, rhythmically regular points that make up the architecture of the piece, similar to the Takemitsu. The difference between the two is that the Takemitsu uses silence as a backdrop and also has another color in his palette: use of two instruments. I enjoy these mindscape pieces because they allow the listener to participate in an individual way to the music."
Toru Takemitsu - November Steps
-- "November Steps was a boundless piece that offered much insight into the possible culture combinations. With such interesting rhythms and provocative sounds, this piece's imagery was gracefully conveyed."
-- "I was very impressed with the strong imagery that I got out of this piece. The rhythmic and melodic gestures he used had a deep impact on me and it was unlike anything I'd ever heard. I don't think I would have ever discovered a piece like this on my own and I'm glad that I've heard it now."
John Tavener - The Annunciation
-- "John Tavener's The Annunciation was both compelling and inspirational. Its new sound has offered truth and self-reflection. The Annunciation was introspective and liberating. With every repeat of the A-section, my stomach would turn with the choir as they sounded over a dissonant lyrical and beautiful chord."
-- "It really made me want to write for chorus."
Quotations above come from survey responses
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