Peaceful Choral Music: 50 tracks from 50 living composers

The playlists are coming back, for real this time.

In the past 2.5 years I've spent most of my time on fundamental metadata issues that made the streaming experience (for classical and other music) often not as pleasant as it should be. We are still not there yet, and I'm aware of the issues that still bother classical fans: long track title readability, especially on mobile; no composer column (though composer is displayed as first artist at track level for classical content); search could be lacking for aficionados and overwhelming for classical newbies. They are not forgotten. It just takes more time to fix 30m tracks delivered by tens of thousands of labels in different formats (and constantly updated), than fixing a personal music library.

From now on I will also spend some spare time on playlisting. Hope you enjoy the first effort. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

Postminimalism Playlist, After Kyle Gann's Discography

A few weeks ago, like every other card-carrying philistine, I thought Minimalism Music meant Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Adams, In C, and La Monte Young. I knew a few other composers whose works obviously drew from minimalism, but I didn't know how to categorize them, since they often sound vastly different from each other.

Then I stumbled upon a blog post on Modern Tempo, and discovered William Duckworth's The Time Curve Preludes. Upon first hearing I was totally enchanted by its "Mozartean melodic logic" (I also noticed that Coldplay "borrowed" the grand melody of 12th prelude for their 'Til Kingdom Come). I rushed to Wikipedia and read everything I could find. It turned out there's a genre that I never heard of: Postminimalism.

Kyle Gann

"Writer Kyle Gann has employed the term more strictly to connote the style that flourished in the 1980s and 1990s and characterized by:

1. a steady pulse, usually continuing throughout a work or movement;
2. a diatonic pitch language, tonal in effect but avoiding traditional functional tonality;
3. general evenness of dynamics, without strong climaxes or nuanced emotionalism; and
4. unlike minimalism, an avoidance of obvious or linear formal design."

The last history book on contemporary music I've read, Richard Taruskin's Music in the Late Twentieth Century, doesn't even mention this term or any of its key composers, so I guess many people are not familiar with this genre. I recommend everyone, especially those who hate or feel indifferent to minimalism, to read Kyle Gann's fascinating essays Minimal Music, Maximal Impact and A Forest from the Seeds of Minimalism. Thanks to Spotify, I listened to many of the postminimalism recordings he listed, and I compiled a sampler playlist, one track per composer, for those of you who want to explore this genre.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Postminimalism (26 track, total time: 3 hours) See track list below, composers and works are linked to official sites, Wikipedia or other informative pages. Personally I found it a thoroughly enjoyable playlist that deserves and benefits from intense repeated listens (I can only take Music For 18 Musicians once a month. Einstein On The Beach? Once a year if you mean the whole opera...), hope you like it as well, and look forward to recommendations.

• John Adams – Grand Pianola Music
• Beth Anderson – Torero Piece
• David Borden – The Continuing Story of Counterpoint
• Gavin Bryars: Cello Concerto (Farewell to Philosophy)
• Michael Byron – Marimbas in the Dorian Mode
• Mary Ellen Childs – Kilter
• Conrad Cummings – Photo-Op
• Paul Dresher – Other Fire
• William Duckworth: Southern Harmony
• Michael Jon Fink – Celesta Solo
• Peter Garland – Another Sunrise
• Daniel Goode – Clarinet Drum
• Jean Hasse: Next Dance
• Guy Klucevsek – Perusal
• Paul Lansky – Still Time
• Mary Jane Leach – Trio for Duo
• Daniel Lentz – Apologetica
• John Mcguire – Pulse Music
• Ingram Marshall – Three Penitential Visions
• Maggi Payne – Airwaves (realities)
• Stephen Scott – Vikings of the Sunrise
• Wayne Siegel - Devil's Golf Course
• Bernadette Speach – Chosen Voices
• James Tenney - Chromatic Canon
• Kevin Volans: String Quartet No.3 "The Songlines"
• Wes York– Music for Strings

P.S. My experience with postminimalism music is another example of the power of cloud services. Before Spotify, if I read about The Time Curve Preludes, I could only hear 30-seconds previews on Amazon; if I heard it on the radio (not possible where I live) and was convinced I should explore this genre, since I couldn't afford Kyle Gann's whole discography, I probably would start a discussion on Amazon's classical forum, then after hours of head-scratching I'd end up buying a couple of albums the most participators recommended.

With Spotify, now I can listen to anything that arouses my curiosity, anything I wouldn't normally buy, immediately, and even recommend to a few people who otherwise won't listen to it either. At the cost of a few imaginary CD sales, Spotify introduces this music to at least dozens (average subscribers number of my contemporary playlists) of paying listeners, and maybe even motivates a few of them to buy recordings of these composers, or go to the concert when a postminimalism pianist is in town. To me this explains Why Classical Music Needs Spotify.

Piano Transcriptions of Famous Symphonic Works

 "To compare Gould's piano version [of the Beethoven 5th] to an orchestral version would be like comparing a great wine to a great meal." - an Amazon reviewer

Well they are not all symphonic works, but Piano transcriptions of famous works for a solo instrument or voice, an ensemble of instruments and/or voices, or even a piece originally for solo or ensemble piano doesn't look like a more adorable title.

This playlist features piano transcriptions of Beethoven's nine symphonies (by Liszt), Dvorak's New World Symphony, late symphonies of Mozart and Schubert, Mahler's Symphony No.1 "Titan", Bruckner's 2nd, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Debussy's La Mer and his arrangement of Wagner, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.4 and 6 "Pathétique", Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring, Prokofiev's Symphony No.1 "Classical", Smetana's symphonic poems My Country, Shostakovitch's Symphony No.10 (played by the composer) and his piano arrangement of Honegger's Symphonie Liturgique. And Glenn Gould's last recording, his piano transcription of Wagner.

As well as chamber works such as Mendelssohn's Octet, Franck's Violin Sonata (by Cortot), Richard Strauss' Serenade For 13 Wind Instruments (by the composer), Schumann's piano quartet (by Brahms) and quintet (by Clara Schumann). Amazingly, there are even piano arrengments (reductions?) of Fauré and Verdi's requiems, Mozart's Masonic Funeral Music, and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.

Too many Liszt transcription of romantic lieders out there, so I only put in some hightlights, for Bach it's the same (virtually all Bach played on piano are transcriptions). In my other playlists you can find Brahms's own transcription for most of his symphonic and chamber works, and piano four-hand version of Mozart and Beethoven operas. I left them out of this one to avoid duplication.

I don't think there would be an organ transcription playlist so I also included organ transcription of the Mahler 5th and Bruckner 8th.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Piano Transcriptions (335 tracks, total time: 1 day) It may work better in Album view (easier to tell one piece from another) If you find other interesting transcriptions please leave a comment or send to my Spotify inbox. Thanks.

If you find this one too overwhelming, go to the end of the playlist and listen to James Rhodes play the solo piano version of the Romance from Chopin's Concerto No.1.

The Art of 20th Century Fugue

A perfect playlist to shake off the Friday fever: 30 fugues written in the 20th century. Starts with the solemn E minor fugue from Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, then the grand double fugue from Hovhaness' Mysterious Mountain Symphony, the sonic earthquake from Boulez's 2nd piano sonata, Salgán's lovely A fuego lento, fugue meets tango, played by Daniel Barenboim, Sergei Taneyev's beautiful prelude and fugue in G sharp minor, and many other charmingly profound fugue pieces.

Here's the Spotify playlist: 20th Century Fugue (30 tracks, 3 hours). I will add in more interesting pieces when I find them on Spotify, and looking forward to your suggestions.