Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Yusef Greiss: Egypt (1932)
• Levon Minassian: “Hovern’ engan” (2006)
• Ellen Williams: “Time to Say Goodbye” (2023)
• James P. Johnson: Yamekraw (1928)
• Michel Camilio: Piano Concerto (1998), Suite for Piano, Strings & Harp mvts 1 & 4 (2001)
• Harry Reser: Suite for Banjo and Orchestra (1930)
• Hans Zimmer: The World of Hans Zimmer Part II: A New Dimension (2025)
• Signe Bisgaard: “Begyndelse” & “Doden og Jomfruen” & “Triumf” & “De dodes O” (2020)
• Francesco Tristano: “Strings of Life” (2005)
• Cengiz Ozdemir: Concerto for Baglama mvt. 3 (1998)
• Juventino Rosas: “Sobre las olas” (1888)
• Charles Ancliffe: “Nights of Gladness” (1912)
• Abram Chasins: “Rush Hour in Hong Kong” (1926)
• Adolf Jensen: “Murmuring Zephyrs” (1864)
• Friedrich Burgmüller: “Arabesque” (1852)
• Carl Bohm: “Moto Perpetuo” (1898)
• Shirish Korde: Svara Yantra mvts. 2 & 3 (2005)
• Wayne Horvitz: Halfrack (1993), Daylight (1997)
  • With these new listens, Horvitz has now crossed the 5-hour mark as one of my favorite musical artists! [playlist]
• Thomas Tallis: “Spem in alium” (c. 1570)
• Michael Nyman: “Shaping the Curve” (1990), The Upside-Down Violin mvts 2, 3 (1992), “De Granada A La Luna” (1998), “Yellow Beach” & “House on Fire” & “Rope Trick” & Wheelchair Chase” & “Mrs. O’Growney Appears” & “Final Act” (2002)
  • With these new listens, Nyman has now crossed the 5-hour mark as one of my favorite musical artists! [playlist]
• Simon Franglen: “Happiness is Simple” & “The Tulkun Return” (2022)
• Thomas Bergersen / Two Steps from Hell: Sun (2014), Classics Vol. 2 (2015), and many individual tracks [see playlist]
• Heiner Goebbels: “Ballade von zerrissenen Rock” (1998)
• Emma Robinson: “Stay”¹ & “Hallelujah” & “Treasure” & “Young & Beautiful” & “Titanium” (2013), “Stronger Than Me” (2014) “Paper Hearts” (2015), “Rise Up” (2016)
• Hermann Necke: “Csikos Post” (1895)
• Karl Jenkins: Palladio Reimagined mvts 1, 3 (2024)
• Akusmi: Fleeting Future (2022), Lines (2023)
• Serj Tankian: Symphony No. 1 “Orca” (2012)
• Petar Lyondev: “Kaval Sviri” (1984)
• Artie Shaw: “Concerto for Clarinet” (1940)
• Zhivko Vasilev: “It’s Raining in 7” & “Triple Tension” (2021)
• Li Huanzhi: “Spring Festival Suite Overture” (1955)
• Various Artists: Swordsmen of China (1994)
• Steve Coleman: “Spontaneous Pi” & “Mdw Ntr” & “Pad Thai / Of Many Turns” & “Spontaneous Drum” (2024)
  • With these new listens, Coleman has now crossed the 5-hour mark as one of my favorite musical artists! [playlist]
• No Joy: Bugland (2025)
• John Hollenbeck: Shut Up and Dance (2010)
• The VSOP Quintet: Five Stars (1979)
• Redman / Mehldau / McBride / Blde: RoundAgain (2020)
• Chris Potter: Circuits (2019)
• Isfar Sarabski: Planet (2021)
• Okay Temiz: Oriental Wind (1977), “Moon” (1982)
• Oriental Wind: Chila-Chila (1979)
• Cardiacs: LSD (2025)
  • With this new listen, Cardiacs have now crossed the 5-hour mark as one of my favorite musical artists! [playlist]
• Christian Wallumrød: “Bunadsbangla” (2013)
• Alexander Alyabyev: “Cherubic Hymn” (1820s?)
  • lol that final bass note, geez
• Igorrr: Amen (2025)
• Ado: “Unravel” (2023)

I also listened to a significant portion of the recorded works by each of the (new-to-me) composers listed below.² My favorites pieces from them (names linked to playlists) were:

• Svante Henryson (b. 1963): Electric Bass Concerto No. 1 (2007), Concerto for Jazz Cello and Orchestra (2022)
• Daniel Bjarnason (b. 1979): “Red-handed” (2010)
• Marcos Balter (b. 1974): “Cherubim” (2013)
• Scott McAllister (b. 1969): Freebirds (2007), “More Cowbell” (2007), “Zing!” (2008), Death and Disfigurations (2024)
• Annie Gosfield (b. 1960): Ewa7 (1999)
• Jonathan Leshnoff (b. 1973): Double Concerto for Violin and Viola (2007), “Starburst” (2010), Violin Concerto No. 2 mvt. 4 (2018), Piano Concerto (2019), Of Thee I Sing (2020), Symphony for Winds mvt. 1 (2023)
• Zdenek Fibich (b. 1850) [none]
• Sergei Taneyev (b. 1856): Piano Quintet in G minor mvt. 2 (1911)
• Amy Beach (b. 1867): [none]
• Ernest Chausson (b. 1855): [none]
• Richard Danielpour (b. 1956): [none]
• Nick Omiccioli (b. 1982): “Fuse” (2014)
• Adam Schoenberg (b. 1980): American Symphony mvts. 1, 3, 5 (2011), Picture Studies mvts. 2, 3, 10 (2012), Scatter (2015)
• Henrik Anassian (b. 1937): Concert for Duduk and Orchestra (2010)
• Moritz Moszkowski (b. 1854): Piano Concerto in B Minor (1875), Spanish Dances (1876), Johanna d’Arc mvts. 1 & 4 (1876), Violin Concerto in C Major mvt 3 (1881), From Foreign Lands mvt. 6 (1884), Orchestral Suite No. 1 mvts. 2 & 5 (1886), Piano Concerto in E Major mvts. 1, 3, & 4 (1898), Suite for Two Violins and Piano mvt 1 (1900), 15 Virtuosic Etudes No. 1 (1903)
• Engelbert Humperdinck (b. 1854): String Quartet in C Major mvt 3 (1920)
• Hugo Alfven (b. 1872): Swedish Rhapsody No. 1 (1903), Swedish Rhapsody No. 2 (1907), The Prodigal Son Suite (1957)
• Christian Sinding (b. 1856): Suite in A Minor mvt. 1 (1891), “Rustle of Spring” (1896), Violin Concerto No. 1 mvt. 1 (1898)
• Alexander von Zemlinsky (b. 1871): [none]
• Hans Rott (b. 1858): [none]
• Josef Suk (b. 1874): [none]
• Anton Arensky (b. 1861): [none]
• Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961): Piano Concerto No. 2 mvt. 4 (1992)
• Charles Stanford (b. 1852): Symphony No. 2 mvt. 3 (1880)
• Jeff Beal (b. 1963): “House of Cards Title Theme” (2013), “Youthful Rebellion” (2015), House of Cards Symphony mvt. 9 (2018)
• Ottorino Respighi (b. 1879): [none]
• Vladimir Rebikov (b. 1866): [none]
• Reinhold Glière (b. 1876): Symphony No. 2 (1907), The Red Poppy (1927), Bronze Horseman Suite (1949), “Whirlwind” (1952)
• Gabriela Ortiz (b. 1964): [none]
• Ahmet Adnan Saygun (b. 1907): [none]
• Malek Jandali (b. 1972): “Piano Dream” & “Yafa” & “Arabesque” (2009), Emessa (2012)
• Michio Miyagi (b. 1894): [none]
• Friedrich Gulda (b. 1930): Piano Concerto No. 2, mvt 1 (1963), Music for 4 Soloists and Band mvts 1 & 3 (1964), Fantasy for 4 Soloists and Band (1964), Variations for Two Pianos and Band (1966), Eurosuite (1966), Symphony in G (1970), Wings mvts 2 & 4 (1973), Concerto for Cello, Wind Orchestra, and Band mvt 1 (1980), Concerto for Myself mvts 1-2 & 4 (1988)
• Franz Schmidt (b. 1874): [none]
• Emil von Reznicek (b. 1860): “Donna Diana Overture” (1894)
• Alberic Magnard (b. 1865): [none]
• Benjamin Yusupov (b. 1962): “Viola Tango Rock Concerto” (2005)
• Dora Pejačević (b. 1885): Piano Concerto mvts 1, 3 (1913), Symphony in F-sharp minor mvts 3, 4 (1917), Piano Quintet in B minor mvts 1, 3, 4 (1918), Phantasie concertante (1919)
• Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah (b. 1962): [none]
• Tôn-Thất Tiết (b. 1933): [none]
• David Chesky (b. 1956): [none]
• Vasily Kalinnikov (b. 1866): [none]
• Nguyen Van Quy (b. 1925): [none]
• Gabriella Smith (b. 1991): “Bard of a Wasteland” & “Tarn” (2021)
• Grażyna Bacewicz (b. 1909): [none]
• Victor Herbert (b. 1859): [none]
• Nikolai Medtner (b. 1880): Piano Quintet in C (1949)
• Alexander Gretchaninov (b. 1864): Symphony No. 1 mvts 1, 3 (1894), Symphony No. 2 mvts 2, 3 (1908)
• Guy Ropartz (b. 1864): [none]
• Abu-Bakr Khairat (b. 1910): [none]
• Calixa Lavallée (b. 1842): [none]
• Dana Suesse (b. 1909): “Jazz Nocturne” (1931), Concerto in 3 Rhythms mvts 1 & 3 (1932)
• Arturo Márquez (b. 1950): “Paisajes Bajo el Signo de Cosmos” (1993), “Danzon No. 1” & “Danzon No. 2” & “Danzon No. 3” (1994), “Zarabandeo” (1995), “Danzon No. 4” & “Octeto Malandro” & “Danza de Mediodía” (1996), “Danzon No. 5” (1997), Máscaras (1998), Espejos en la arena (2000), “Danzon No. 6” & “Danzon No. 7” (2001), “Danzon No. 8” (2004), “Conga del Fuego Nuevo” (2005), “De Juarez a Maximiliano” (2006), “Leyenda de Miliano” (2010), “Danzon No. 9” (2017), Concierto de Otoño (2018), “Lejania Interior” (2019), Fandango (2020), La Sinfonia Imposible (2022)
  • With these new listens, Márquez has now crossed the 5-hour mark as one of my favorite musical artists! [playlist]
• Miguel del Águila (b. 1957): “Conga-Line in Hell” (1994), Wind Quintet No. 2 mvts 2, 4 (1994), Salon Buenos Aires mvt 3 (2005), “Milonga” (2017)
• Rageh Daoud (b. 1954) [none]
• Aaron Jay Kernis (b. 1960): [none]
• Timo Andres (b. 1985): [none]
• Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941): [none]
• Antonio Bazzini (b. 1818): “Dance of the Goblins” (1852), “Calabrese” (1859)
• Bongani Ndodana-Breen (b. 1975): [none]
• Tim Brady (b. 1956): [none]
• Paul Richards (b. 1969): “A Butterfly Coughs in Africa” (2003), “Witch Doctor” (2008), “If You Could Only See the Frog” (2010)
• Benjamin Dean Taylor (b. 1983): [none]
• Christopher Gunning (b. 1944): Poirot theme (1989)
• Aram Satyan (b. 1947): [none]
• Stepan Rostomyan (b. 1956): [none]
• Grigor Arakelian (b. 1963): “Melody and Dance of Sun” (2010)
• Vache Sharafyan (b. 1966): [none]
• Avner Dorman (b. 1975): [none]
• Nikolai Budashkin (b. 1910): “Concert Variations on a Folk Song” (1946), “Balalaika Concerto” (1946), “First Rhapsody” (1947), “Second Rhapsody” (1949), “Russian Overture for Orchestra” (1950), “The Legend of Lake Baikal” (1950), Domra Concerto (1953), “Lyric Suite in Four Parts” (1955)
• Kuan Nai-chung (b. 1939): Scenes from Yunnan (1982), “Bumper Harvest Worship [Harvest Festival]” (1983), Butterfly Dream (1988), “Prayer for Rain” (1989), Memory of Mountain mvt 1 (1991), The Peacock (1998), The Age of the Dragon (1999), “Millennium Overture” (2001), The Charming Braid (2009), Erhu Concerto No. 5 “Centennial of the Xinhai Revolution” (2011)
• Peng Xiuwen (b. 1931): “Axi Moon Dance” (1956), Four Seasons Suite mvt. 1 (1971), 12 Months Suite mvts 1, 10 (1989)
• Ferruccio Busoni (b. 1866): [none]
• Carl Reinecke (b. 1824): [none]
• Guo Zurong (b. 1928): [none]
• Huang An-Lun (b. 1949): [none]
• Judd Greenstein (b. 1979): “Change” (2009), “City Boy” (2010), “Clearing, Dawn, Dance” (2010), “Acadia” (2012)
• Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958): [none]
• Florence Price (b. 1887): Symphony No. 1 mvts 1, 3, 4 (1933), Piano Concerto in One Movement sec. 3 (1934), Suite of Negro Dances (1951), Violin Concerto No. 2 (1952), Piano Quintet in A minor mvt 4 (1952)
• Kamran Ince (b. 1960): Music for a Lost Earth mvts 5, 9, 10, 12 (2007)
• William Perry (b. 1930): Trumpet Concerto mvts 1, 3 (1986), Six Title Themes in Search of a Movie mvt 1 (2008)
• Ignacy Jan Paderewski (b. 1860): Piano Concerto mvt 3 (1888)
• Guillaume Connesson (b. 1970): [none]
• Sergei Lyapunov (b. 1859): [none]
• Leo Delibes (b. 1836): La Source Suite “Scene dansee” & “Introduction et Mazurka” (1866), Coppélia Suite “Prelude” & “Theme slave, variation 5” & “Galop final” (1870), Sylvia Suite “Les Chasseresses, Fanfare” & “Strette, Galop” (1876), Lakmé “Flower Duet” (1883)
• David Baker (b. 1931): “Screamin’ Meemies” (~1959), “IU Swing Machine” (1968), Concerto for Violin and Jazz Band (1969), “5M Calypso” (1989), Three Ethnic Dances (1993), “Dance of the Jitterbugs” (1993), “Walt’s Barbershop” (2016)
• William Russo (b. 1928): “Frankly Speaking” (1953), “Blues Before and After” & “Bacante” (1954), “Rituals” (1964), 3 Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony Orchestra (1968), Street Music mvts 3, 4 (1977)
• Donal Fox (b. 1952): “Variations & Improvisations on Prokofiev’s Toccata” (2001), Scarlatti Jazz Suite (2007), “Variations on Piazzolla’s Oblivion" (2007), “Le Coucou and the Funky Chicken” (2010), “Partita Jazz Suite in G Major” (2010), “Variations on Ludovico Einaudi’s I Giorni” (2022)
• Erwin Schulhoff (b. 1894): [none]
• Constant Lambert (b. 1905): [none]
• Pietro Mascagni (b. 1863): [none]
• David T. Little (b. 1978): [none]
• Brendon Randall-Myers (b. 1986): “The World as a Nail” (2017)
• D. J. Sparr (b. 1975): The World Within mvts 1-3 (2022)
• Dario Marianelli (b. 1963): “Briony” (2007), “21 Years” (2013), “The War Rooms” & “We Shall Fight” (2017)
• Orbert Davis (b. 1960): [none]
• John Alden Carpenter (b. 1876): [none]
• Ferde Grofe (b. 1892): Mississippi Suite mvt 4 (1926), Grand Canyon Suite mvt 1 (1931)
• Vladimir Dukelsky [Vernon Duke] (b. 1903): [none]
• Patrick Hawes (b. 1958): “Quanta Qualia” (2004)
• Paul Mealor (b. 1975): [none]
• Eriks Esenvalds (b. 1977): [none]
• Peter Gregson (b. 1987): Quartets: One mvt 3 & Quartets: Two mvt 1 (2022)
• Tansy Davies (b. 1973): [none]
• Luigi Cherubini (b. 1760): [none]
• George Enescu (b. 1881): [none]
• Franz Berwald (b. 1796): [none]
• Thomas Schmidt-Kowalski (b. 1949): [none]
• Emmanuel Chabrier (b. 1841): [none]
• Hugo Wolf (b. 1860): [none]
• Ernest Bloch (b. 1880): [none]
• Anton Rubinstein (b. 1829): [none]
• John Korsrud (b. 1963): “Cruel Yet Fair” & “Scratching the Surface” (1995), “Crush” (2003), “Lowest Tide” (2005), “Slice” & “Chorale in Two Chords” & “Wise Up” (2014?)
• Alexander Arutiunian (b. 1920): [none]
• Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (b. 1895): [none]
• Arnold Bax (b. 1883): [none]
• Dobrinka Tabakova (b. 1980): [none]
• Brett Dean (b. 1961): [none]
• Somtow Sucharitkul (b. 1952): Requiem for the Mother of Songs mvt 1 (2011)
• Mohammed Fairouz (b. 1985): Symphony No. 4 mvts 3 & 4 (2012)
• Richard Rodney Bennett (b. 1936): [none]
• Peter Boyer (b. 1970): “Celebration Overture” (1997), Three Olympians mvt 3 (2000), “Silver Fanfare” (2004), American Rhapsody (2008), Symphony No. 1 (2013), “Rolling River” (2014), Balance of Power (2019), “Fanfare for Tomorrow” (2021)
• Roberto Sierra (b. 1953): Fandangos (2000)
• Frank Ticheli (b. 1958): [none]
• Johan de Meij (b. 1953): T-Bone Concerto mvts 1 & 3 (1996), Wind in the Willows mvts 1 & 2 (2002), “Klezmer Classics” (2002), At Kitty O’Shea’s (2010), “Spring” (2010), “Songs from the Catskills” (2011), Sinfonietta No. 1 (2011), Extreme Beethoven (2012), African Harmony (2017), Pennsylvania Faux Songs (2018), Symphony No. 5 mvt 2 (2019), “Rotterdam 1945” (2019), “Los Cuatro Vientos” (2021), Los Libros Olvidados (2023), “Elegy & Scherzo” (2023)
• Jacob de Haan (b. 1959): [none]
• Otto M. Schwarz (b. 1967): [none]
• Philip Sparke (b. 1951): [none]
• James M. Stephenson (b. 1969): [none]
• Zhou Tian (b. 1981): Grand Canal Symphonic Suite “The Grand Canal” & “Life” & “Tomorrow” (2008)
• Qigang Chen (b. 1951): [none]

[Read more…]

1. See also the original YouTube version here. [↩]
2. The pieces I listened to for each composer were: Henryson, Bjarnason, Balter, McAllister, Gosfield, Leshnoff, Fibich, Taneyev, Beach, Chausson, Danielpour, Omiccioli, Schoenberg, Anassian, Moszkowski, Humperdinck, Alfven, Sinding, Zemlinsky, Rott, Suk, Arensky, Liebermann, Stanford, Beal (plus many of his film scores and several of his jazz albums), Respighi, Rebikov, Glière, Ortiz, Saygun, Jandali, Miyagi, Gulda, Schmidt, Reznicek, Magnard, Yusupov, Pejačević, Abdelfattah, Tiết, Chesky, Kalinnikov, Nguyen, Smith, Bacewicz, Herbert, Medtner, Gretchaninov, Ropartz, Khairat, Lavallée, Suesse, Márquez, Águila, Daoud, Kernis, Andres, Hailstork, Bazzini, Ndodana-Breen, Brady, Richards, Taylor, Gunning (plus a few of his film/TV scores), Satyan, Rostomyan, Arakelian, Sharafyan, Dorman, Budashkin, Kuan, Peng, Busoni, Reinecke, Guo, Huang, Greenstein, Lindberg, Price, Ince, Perry, Paderewski, Connesson, Lyapunov, Delibes, Baker, Russo, Fox, Schulhoff, Lambert, Mascagni, Little, Randall-Myers, Sparr, Marianelli (plus many of his film scores), Davis, Carpenter, Grofe, Dukelsky, Hawes, Mealor, Esenvalds, Gregson, Davies, Cherubini, Enescu, Berwald, Schmidt-Kowalski, Chabrier, Wolf, Bloch, Rubinstein, Korsrud, Arutiunian, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Bax, Tabakova, Dean, Sucharitkul, Fairouz, Bennett (plus several of his film/TV scores and a few of his jazz tunes), Boyer, Sierra, Ticheli, Meij, Haan, Schwarz, Sparke, Stephenson, Zhou, Chen, TODO. [↩]

Why is classical music (including new classical music) so unpopular? Part of it is because lots of classical music is dissonant, overly complex, long-winded, etc.,¹ but it’s also because the classical music world is actively hostile to listeners. (I say this as someone who enjoys a ton of classical music!)

In particular, classical music is often:

1. Unavailable:
   1. Outside the most popular ~350 classical composers, most works by most composers have never been commercially recorded (even if they’ve been performed repeatedly),² making it almost impossible to hear them.³ For comparison, the 350th most popular/acclaimed rock music artist according to this aggregated list is Kings of Leon; imagine if most of their songs were available as notated scores and occasional live performances in specific cities but never actually recorded! That is the state of classical music listening.⁴
   2. When a new piece of classical music is premiered, it’s often not commercially recorded and released for several years, or even decades. Imagine hearing that your favorite musical artist played an entire new-album set in a city far away from you, but there’s no information on when the album will be released, and it might not come out for several years. Amazingly, this is standard practice in classical music, even for the most popular composers: e.g. Philip Glass’ Appomattox (2007), John Williams’ La Jolla (2011), and John Adams’ Second Quartet (2014) still haven’t been recorded and released, despite each being performed several times around the world.
2. Hard to navigate / poorly promoted:
   1. Classical music critics typically recommend pieces based on their historical importance, innovativeness, or abstract music theory ideas rather than on how fun they are to listen to for most people. Many “classical music for beginners” lists include some honest selections like Pachelbel’s “Canon in D,” but also obvious lies such as Stravinsky’s wild, wandering, and dissonant Rite of Spring.⁵
   2. Classical music review books and websites are poorly organized, e.g. compositions and recordings often aren’t given any kind of rating or ranking, and they aren’t categorized into hundreds of precise stylistic subgenres as is common in e.g. rock music, where even a single subgenre like punk rock has many sub-subgenres like pop-punk, hardcore punk, art punk, crust punk, garage punk, riot grrrl, melodic punk, ska punk, synthpunk, grindcore, emocore, and so on.⁶ So if you find a piece of classical music you like (say, Pachelbel’s “Canon in D”), it’s difficult to find other similar pieces you might like.⁷
   3. On review sites for pop, rock, or hip-hop music, almost all reviewed releases are of new (not previously released) music, but on classical music review sites, almost all reviewed releases are cover albums (of compositions that have been recorded and released before), making it difficult for fans to track what’s actually new. This could be easily solved if classical music review sites used a special tag or section for premiere recordings, but they’ve chosen not to!
   4. Many of the most-recommended compositions are available in (a) multiple different arrangements (e.g. for solo piano vs. string quartet vs. orchestra), in (b) multiple different revisions (e.g. Beethoven’s Fidelio has three versions, Starvinsky’s The Firebird has four, and Bruckner’s 3rd symphony has six), and in (c) dozens or hundreds of different recordings, which vary in pacing and dynamics and other choices, in performance quality, and in recording quality. If someone recommends a rock album to you, just search the album name and click Play. But if you search the name of a classical piece that was recommended to you, often hundreds of versions will appear, and there’s rarely clear guidance on which version you should try first.
   5. Many compositions are listed using different titles depending on which source you check. For example, Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” is also frequently listed as “Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor,” “Piano Sonata Op. 27, No. 2,” “Sonata quasi una fantasia,” “Mondscheinsonate,” or “Sonate für Klavier cis-Moll.” Obviously, it’s hard to know at a glance that these six different phrases all refer to the same piece!
   6. Music streaming services will often fail to show you the piece you searched for, even if it’s in their catalog, because they were designed around the cataloguing conventions of pop music.

Even the ~least popular (and ~lowest-budget) rock, jazz, or hip-hop music is much more navigable and available than this.

Opera has its own special additional anti-consumer habits, some of them covered here.

1. Lots of classical music has features most listeners don’t like, e.g. dissonance, wild complexity, sudden volume changes, bombastic/pretentious vocals (think of opera), and lots of time on what sounds like “aimless wandering” (music nerds call it “musical development”). (For example, even the famously delightful “galloping” section of the William Tell Overture doesn’t start until over 8 minutes into the piece. Or to take a more obscure example: I think many listeners will enjoy the bombastic first 1.5 minutes of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 mvt 4, but then be bored by most of the rest of the 24-minute movement. I suspect very few people can identify and appreciate most musical development, e.g. the parts of a sonata.) Composers defend all this by writing essays like “Who Cares if You Listen?“ [↩]
2. For example: (1) The most prominent classical composer in all of Africa (19% of world population) is Fela Sowande, who wrote hundreds of pieces for organ, chorus, orchestra, and more — only a handful of which have been recorded. (2) Xian Xinghai was the leading “founder” of Western classical music in China (17% of world population), and one of its most prominent composers. He wrote over 300 works for chorus, orchestra, chamber ensemble, and more, but again only a handful have been recorded. (3) This is not just a feature of classical composers outside Europe and North America. For example, Simon Sechter was one of the most prolific classical composers in history, he taught Bruckner and was praised by Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann, and yet only a handful of his pieces have been recorded. Or consider Ferdinand Hiller, who was close friends with Chopin, Berlioz, Liszt, Rossini, and Mendelssohn, and wrote hundreds of pieces across all genres, perhaps roughly 7% of which have been recorded. Similarly few surviving classical works have been recorded for many other significant Western composers, e.g. Ludwig Minkus (~15%), Don Davis (~25%), Nicola Piovani (~15%), Nikolai Kapustin (~25%), or Dario Marianelli (~3%). Or consider perhaps the most popular modern classical composer, Ennio Morricone (>70 million records sold). He is best known for his film scores, but also composed numerous “classical” compositions, only a fraction of which have been recorded (~20%). [↩]
3. Since performances near your home will happen rarely or never. Note that I’m not counting software-generated realizations for scores that were meant to be performed by musicians, since they are typically a poor substitute for a live recording as of the technology available today. [↩]
4. Of course, this isn’t a “fair” comparison: there have been far more rock/pop artists in history than classical composers. Gemini 2.5 Deep Research estimated for me that “For Western classical composers, encompassing the tradition from its early roots through contemporary classical music, a plausible estimate is in the range of 50,000 to 75,000 individuals throughout history. For rock musical artists, including bands and solo performers from the genre’s inception to the present day, the number is likely in the low to mid-millions, potentially ranging from 2 million to 8 million or more distinct artist entities.” [↩]
5. A great piece, but not accessible to beginners! [↩]
6. Classical music is often organized by chronological period (e.g. baroque vs. classical vs. romantic), by instrument ensemble (e.g. solo piano vs. string quartet vs. piano trio vs. chamber orchestra vs. symphony orchestra), or by structure/form (e.g. canon vs. fugue vs. sonata vs. rondo vs. theme and variations), but those categorizations (especially the last two) are typically mostly unrelated to style in the sense of most rock / pop / hip-hop subgenres. There are some recognized style genres for classical music (e.g. arguably Mannheim School, Sturm und Drang, galant, Empfindsamkeit, impressionism, neoclassicism, or minimalism), but there are many fewer of these in common use than for rock music, and most classical music books and websites don’t reliably use them to categorize compositions or recordings. [↩]
7. See also here. [↩]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:¹

• DJ Koze: Music Can Hear Us (2025)
• Wayne Horvitz: Those Who Remain mvt 1 (2018), “A Walk in the Rain” & “Barber Shop” (2014)
• George Russell: “Time Spiral” and “Ezz-thetic” (1983)
• Aaron Parks: Invisible Cinema (2008)
• Spiro Dussias: “Negative” (2024)
• Vijay Iyer: Far from Over (2017)
• Christian McBride: Live at Tonic (2006)
• McCoy Tyner: The Turning Point (1992)
• Chris Potter: Follow the Red Line (2007)
• Eskaton: Musique post-atomique (1979)
• Bob Brookmeyer: “Make Me Smile” (1982)
• Levi McClain: Etch a Sketch (2018)
• Graeme Shields & others: Pocket Grooves (2019)
• Adrián Berenguer: “Overture” (2025)
• Matyáš Novák: “Vltava” (2021)
• Carla Bley: Fleur Carnivore (1989)
• Too Many Zooz: “Lose Control” (2024), “Severance Theme” (2025)
• Aaron Hibell & Dan Heath: “Odyssey” (2025)
• Natural Information Society & Bitchin’ Bajas: “Clock no Clock” (2025)
• Josef Gung’l: “Narren Galopp” (c. 1855)
• Eduard Strauss: “Bahn Frei!” (1869)
• Trombone Shorty: “Hurricane Season” & “Neph” (2010)
• Andrew Wrangell: “Rush E” (2018)
• Darcy James Argue: “Best Friends Forever” (2016)
• Woody Shaw: The Moontrane (1975)
• Gustavo Santaolalla: “Babel”
• Saagara: 3 (2024)
• New Age Doom / Tuvaband: There Is No End (2023)
• KALI Trio: “Transitoriness” (2021)
• Avishai Cohen: Continuo (2006)
• Jacques Loussier: Plays Bach, the 50th Anniversary Recording (2009)
• Bent Knee: Twenty Pills Without Water (2024)
• Soap&Skin: Untitled (2008), “Sugarbread” (2013)
• Danny Elfman: Back to School (1986), Darkman (1990), Serenada Schizophrana (2006), Rabbit & Rogue (2008), Iris (2011), Eleven Eleven (2017), Percussion Quartet (2019), Percussion Concerto (2022), Wunderkammer (2022), Cello Concerto (2024)
• Christopher Tin: Calling All Dawns (2009), The Drop That Contained the Sea (2014), To Shiver the Sky (2020)
• Kosaku Yamada [playlist]: Symphony in F Major mvt 4 (1912), “Sunayama” (1923)
• L. Subramaniam [playlist]: “Rainbow Serenade” & “Kali Dance” (1981), “Garland” (1982), Double Concerto for Violin and Flute in E Major (1983), “Flight of the Humble Bee” (1984), Fantasy on Vedic Chants (1985), Spring Rhapsody (1986), Turbulence Concerto mvts 1 & 3 (1987), Shanti Priya mvts 1 & 3 (1988), Freedom Symphony (2007), “Tribute to Bach” (2015), Isabella Violin Concerto (2016), Bharat Symphony (2017), Mahatma Symphony (2022)
• Ludovico Einaudi [playlist]: “The Apple Tree” (1995), Doctor Zhivago (2002), “Nuvole Bianche” & “Dietro Casa” (2004), “Primavera” & “Divenire” (2006), “Lady Labyrinth” & “Nightbook” (2009), Intouchables (2011), “Wetlands” (2012), “Experience” & “Life” & “Run” (2013), “Night” (2015), Nomadland (2021)
• MONACA Inc. [playlist]: several tracks from NieR Gestalt & RepliCant (2010)
• Miles Davis: ‘Four’ & More (1966)
• Terence Blanchard [playlist]: “Hannibal” & “Kaos” & “Unchanged” & “Soldiers” (2018)
• Kurt Rosenwinkel [playlist]: “Chords” & “Flute” (2008)
• Sonny Rollins: G-Man (1987)
• Heiner Goebbels: “Ballade vom zerrissenen Rock” (1998)
• Annie Gosfield: “Impulse Turbine: Inlet, Exhaust-cumbustion Chamber” (1999)
• Daniel Bernard Roumain: Voodoo Violin Concerto (2002)
• Matthew Hindson: Speed (1997)
• Mike Mills: Concerto for Violin, Rock Band, and String Orchestra (2016)
• Cannonball Adderley: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (1967)
• Dexter Gordon: Homecoming (1977)
• VSOP the Quintet: Live Under the Sky (1979)
• Lubomyr Melnyk: Corollaries (2013)

[Read more…]

1. Here are ~all the works I listened to for some of the composers below: Yamada, Subramaniam, Einaudi. [↩]

I recently made Spotify playlists for all the music I “strongly like” (or better) by each of my favorite musical artists. That makes it easy to tell how many minutes of music I strongly like by each of them, so now I can rank them by that metric.

This metric’s biggest downside is that it can’t track enjoyment differences within “strongly liked.” E.g. if I had to choose between the 3.5 hours I strongly like from Foals and the 0.5 hours I strongly like from Erik Satie, I’d choose the Satie.

But still, I like this as a measure of my “favorite” artists, because:

• I didn’t know in advance how the ranking would turn out.
• It tracks something central: how much music did they make that I strongly like?

Before I present the ranking, a few clarifications:

• I’ve rounded to the nearest 0.5 hours.
• I typically only include one recording per track/composition (typically from a studio album), but in some cases I include additional performances by the original artist if they’re significantly changed from the original and I strongly like them, e.g.: some Phish live tracks, orchestral re-imaginings of Metallica tracks in the S&M albums, or live jazz performances that differ substantially from the originals while still involving the original composer (e.g. the high-speed versions of Miles Davis classics on Four & More).
• For classical composers, I sometimes include later re-arrangements of their compositions either (a) instead of the original composition, if I like it better, or (b) in addition to the original composition, if they are now sufficiently “canon” (e.g. Ravel’s re-arrangements of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition).
• Because of how jazz works, I often attribute an entire jazz album to the bandleader even if it includes a couple pieces written by others. (But if most tracks were originally composed by someone other than the bandleader, then I attribute them to the composer instead.)
• The numbers below might not match what you see if you click through to a particular playlist, because I plan to continue updating the playlists as I listen and re-listen to music by these artists.

Now, the ranking (I’ll update the spreadsheet occasionally):

[フレーム]

A few observations:

• This list is very different from what I would’ve said in response to “Who are your favorite musical artists?” before constructing this list. But when I look at each one, I think “Oh yeah, I do strongly like all the music on this playlist!” So this exercise was eye-opening to me.
• This ranking privileges musical artists who are highly prolific and write long pieces, e.g. classical and jazz over rock/pop. But this is a feature not a bug: the classical and jazz artists really do compose more minutes of music I strongly like as a result of being more prolific.
• I’m surprised by how diverse the genres represented at the top are. I would’ve expected my tastes to be more concentrated at the very top, rather than including not just jazz and contemporary classical but also e.g. psychedelic pop, post-rock, prog rock, industrial, electronica, a singer-songwriter, tribal ambient, art pop, jungle, etc.
• Many of these artists are probably unusual choices for “favorite” artists, but only a few of them are truly “obscure” — on this “>5hrs” list it’s mainly Vampire Rodents / Ether Bunny, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Spring Heel Jack, and Ghost Rhythms (each have <1000 monthly listeners on Spotify).
• After >20 years of listening to a huge variety of music fairly comprehensively, I am still discovering new favorite artists! For example, I more-or-less discovered L. Subramaniam in 2025, and David Maslanka in late 2024.

Today’s best AI “large language models” are especially good at tasks where hallucinations and other failures are low-stakes, such as making music recommendations.

Here is continuously-updated doc of music search prompts I’ve found helpful, a few examples below:

Which compositions by [composer] are most popular and/or highly regarded today? Please list 20 of their compositions in a table, along with the evidence that they are popular and/or highly regarded, and direct Spotify links to complete recordings where available (but it’s fine to list many compositions which aren’t available on Spotify).

**

What are 20 of the most celebrated covers or re-interpretation of compositions by [musical artist]? Please list each one in a table along with the performer(s), the release year of the cover/re-interpretation, a few notes about what is changed from the original, and a direct link to the piece on Spotify (where available).

**

Who are the top 20 most highly respected composers of [genre]? Please list them in a table, and for each composer please list 4 of their most celebrated works/albums.

**

Who are the top 20 contemporary classical composers who (a) mainly write notated music for performance by classically trained musicians, but who (b) frequently draw inspiration from popular electronic music genres in their compositions (e.g. breakbeat, drum and bass, dubstep, electro, EDM, grime, IDM, techno, or trance)? Please list them in a table with four columns: Composer, Example 1, Example 2, Example 3. Each of the three examples should be a composition by that composer which draws inspiration from popular electronic music genres, along with a short description of how, exactly, it draws inspiration from popular electronic music genres. Where possible, please link each listed composition title to a recording of the piece on Spotify (but it’s fine to list many compositions which aren’t available on Spotify).

Please don’t include any of the following composers, because I’m already familiar with them: [list of composers]

**

What are 20 of the most creatively unique and ambitious [genre] albums/compositions after 2000 that are also relatively “tonal” and “accessible” to the general listener? Please list each album/composition in a table along with its composer, release year, a paragraph describing what is so creatively ambitious about it, and a direct link to a complete recording of the piece on Spotify (where available). Please also limit yourself to one album/composition per musical artist.

Spotify is very bad at searching for classical music recordings.

For example: if I search Spotify for “telemann oboe concerto in a major”, my top results are Telemann’s Oboe Concerto in E Minor, Telemann’s Concerto for Flute... [TWV 54], Vivaldi’s Oboe Concerto in C Major, and many other other pieces I wasn’t looking for. If I search the TWV catalogue number (“telemann 51:A2”), my top results are TWV 55:B1, TWV 51:G9, TWV 51:G2, and so on, without a TWV 51:A2 in sight.

Does this mean Spotify doesn’t have the piece I’m looking for? No, it has at least three recordings of it! One, two, three.

So how did I find those? I asked Perplexity “Are there recordings of Telemann’s TWV 51:A2 available on Spotify? Please provide links.” This requires more typing and more clicks to find a recording than Spotify search would if Spotify wasn’t broken, but I’ve found Perplexity to be much better at finding classical music recordings on Spotify than Spotify is. (Other web-search-enabled AI systems may be similarly capable.)

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Pinkshinyultrablast: Everything Else Matters (2015)
• Third Coast Percussion: Perspectives (2022)
• Chuquimamani-Condori [Elysia Crampton]: “Breathing” (2023)
• Bryce Dessner: Quilting (2014), “Haven” (2019), Trombone Concerto (2020), Violin Concerto (2021)
• Edward Ratliff: Wong Fei-Hong Meets Little Strudel (2000)
• Goat: Joy in Fear (2023)
• Eric Christian: Trois Valses Sentimentales (2022)
• Richard Harvey: Concerto Antico (1995)
• Los Angeles Guitar Quartet: “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” (1995), LAGQ (1998)
• Ian Krouse: Symphonies of Strings No. 1 “La Follia” (1993), Guitar Quartet No. 5 “Labyrinth” (1995)

Previously, I listened to hundreds of orchestral arrangements of non-orchestral compositions and listed my favorites. This quarter, I decided to explore acoustic guitar arrangements of classical compositions (by a different composer). Ones I especially liked, listed by performer, are [playlist]:

• Kazuhito Yamashita: Bach’s BWV 1006 mvt 1 & BWV 1007 mvt 1; Debussy’s Petite Suite & “Passepied“; Vivaldi’s RV 425 mvts 1 & 3
• John C. Williams: Bach’s “Air on a G String“; Vivaldi’s RV 93 mvt 2; The Baroque Album
• Dublin Guitar Quartet: Performs Philip Glass
• Johan Smith: Schubert’s “Erlkönig“
• Los Angeles Guitar Quartet: Rimsky-Korasakov’s Capriccio espagnol; For Thy Pleasure; Bizet’s Carmen Suite; Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite; Warlock’s Capriol Suite; Copland’s “Simple Gifts“
• Amsterdam Guitar Trio: Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons
• Los Romeros: Vivaldi Guitar Concertos
• Vincent Airault: Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (w/ flute);
• Philip Hii: J.S. Bach: New Transcriptions for Guitar;
• Tariq Harb: Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor; Debussy’s Clair de lune; Beethoven’s Fur Elise;
• Moran Wasser: Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor;
• Vancouver Guitar Orchestra: Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No 3 mvt 1;
• Edson Lopes: Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik mvt 1;
• Vera Danilina: Mozart’s Turkish March;
• Rolf van Meurs: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 mvt 2; Shostakovich’s Jazz Suite No. 1, Waltz No. 2;
• Bridget Mermikides: Mozart’s “Lacrimosa“;
• Emre Sabuncuoglu: Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings mvt 2;
• Tim Sparks: Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite;
• Julian Bream: Bach’s BWV 1006 mvt 1, BWV 999;
• Eliot Fisk: Bach’s BWV 1006 mvt 1;

[Read more…]

Since I began reading fiction again in late 2023 (in my late 30s, after a >15yr hiatus from fiction), I’ve been tracking my reading on Goodreads, and rating works I finish 1-5 stars based on pure enjoyment rather than e.g. artistic merit. I’ve now finished reading 151 “books” (including e.g. short stories), all but 8 of those in 2024, with an average work length of 425 pages. (Counting “books read this year” with no mention of pages is strange to me, since books vary enormously in length. E.g. Goodreads says the shortest “book” I read in 2024 was 3 pages, and the longest was 2184 pages.) My reading rate was surprisingly steady in 2024: I read between 4500 and 5800 pages each month, without exception.

Of works I’ve finished (151) or DNF’d (quit; 80), I rated only 5% (13 total) of those 5 stars. But I expect the “favorite” and “best” lists below to change significantly from year to year, as I’ve read very few books so far.¹

Favorite works

Below are the 5-star works I most enjoyed so far. When multiple works are from the same author and I enjoyed them similarly, I combine them into one item.

1. Project Hail Mary
2. Lonesome Dove
3. The Pillars of the Earth
4. Last Argument of Kings, Before They Are Hanged , Best Served Cold, Red Country, The Heroes
5. Kindred

Other 5-star books: Of Mice and Men, The Paper Menagerie, Stoner, World Without End.

Best 5-star works

Here are the works I enjoyed at a 5-star level that I’d rate highest for “aesthetic value” or “artistic merit” or something like that:

1. Lonesome Dove
2. Stoner
3. Of Mice and Men
4. The Heroes

There are some novels I’ve read or DNF’d that might be as good (on “artistic merit”) as some of those listed above, but I didn’t also enjoy them at the 5-star level — e.g. possibly The Sound and the Fury, The Master and Margarita, The Grapes of Wrath, Lolita, or A Confederacy of Dunces.

Favorite authors

To calculate my favorite authors, I’ll award each author 1 point for each page in a 4.5-star work,² and 2 points for each page in a 5-star work.³ By that metric (calculations here), my favorite authors to date are:

1. Joe Abercrombie (5637 points across 6 works)
2. Ken Follett (4426 points across 2 works)
3. Larry McMurtry (2467 points across 2 works)
4. Brandon Sanderson (2095 points across 2 works)

Commentary

• Some works are hard to classify by genre, but I’ll say 6 of my five-star reads are primarily historical fiction, 5 are primarily fantasy, 1 is primarily science fiction, and 1 I’ll call “other.”
• I generally prefer genre/commercial fiction to literary fiction. Only one of my 5-star reads has the “literary fiction” tag on Goodreads (Stoner).
• The oldest 5-star fiction work I’ve read is Of Mice and Men (1937), the shortest is The Paper Menagerie (32 pages), and the longest is World Without End (1237 pages).
• It’s interesting that Project Hail Mary is my favorite novel, and it was only the 5th novel I read as an adult. When will I find something I like even more? Or, is this an artifact of my being easier to thrill and impress back when I had read almost nothing?

1. My TBR (to be read) list is >3800 items long, and that’s only counting one work per series for books in a series. To give you a sense of how little I’ve read, some famous authors I haven’t yet tried at all (as an adult) include the Brontës, Shakespeare, Mann, and Dumas. Even within my favorite genres (fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction), I haven’t yet tried (as an adult): JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Roald Dahl, GRR Martin, Steven Erikson, Anne Rice, Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Jules Verne, William Gibson, Michael Crichton, Liu Cixin, Hilary Mantel, Colleen McCullough, Bernard Cornwell, James Clavell, Edward Rutherfurd, or Patrick O’Brian. [↩]
2. Annoyingly, Goodreads doesn’t allow scoring with half-points, but I have written “4.5 stars” in the Goodreads review of each book I’m rating 4.5 stars. [↩]
3. For page counts, I use figures from Goodreads. [↩]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Lusaint: “Wicked Game” (2021)
• The Smile: “Zero Sum” (2024)
• Foxing: Foxing (2024)
• Jhariah: Trust Ceremony (2024)
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor: No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead (2024)
• Xiu Xiu: 13″ Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips (2024)
• Colin Stetson: The Love It Took to Leave You (2024)
• Ekaterina Shelehova: “Earth Melodies” (2021), “Awakening” (2023), “Savage Daughter” (2023), “My Mother Told Me” (2024)
• Time is a Mountain: III (2021)
• Crystal Antlers: EP (2008), Tentacles (2009)
• Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch (2024)
• SML: Small Medium Large (2024)
• ØKSE: ØKSE (2024)
• Ches Smith: Laugh Ash (2024)
• Joey Duran: “The Meteorologist” (2024)

[Read more…]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Gregorio Allegri: “Miserere” (c. 1635)
• Dimash & Chanté Moore: “Lose Control” (2024)
• Clark: Playground in a Lake (2021)
• The Last Dinner Party: “Call Me” (2024), Prelude to Ecstasy (2024)
• Varijashree Venugopal: Vari (2024)
• Ske: Insolubilia (2021)
• Ni: Fol Naïs (2023)
• The Octopus Project: Hexadecagon (2010)
• Foals: Total Life Forever (2010), What Went Down (2015)

[Read more…]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Vampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us (2024)
• Toby Talbot: Sneaker Wave (2004)
• Eunuchs: Harbour Century (2024)
• Chelsea Wolfe: She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She (2024)
• Maruja: Knocknarea (2023)
• Lara Fabian: “Caruso” (2000)
• Long Fin Killie: Valentino (1996), Amelia (1997)
• Bedrich Smetana: “Vltava [The Moldau]” (1879)
• Water Damage: In E (2024)
• Various: Télescopages Volume 2 (2008)
• Raze the Maze: 7am Dream (2022)
• Sydnie Christmas: “My Way” (2024), “Tomorrow” (2024)
• Sachal Jazz & Wynton Marsalis: “Take Five” (2013)
• Willow: Empathogen (2024)
• Mabe Fratti: “Kravitz” (2024)

[Read more…]

On May 28th, I resigned from the Anthropic Board of Directors (announced here).

Naturally, many people have asked why I resigned. In the wake of many recent safety-related resignations at OpenAI, some have wondered whether my own resignation was safety-related.

It was not. The main reason I resigned is that it became increasingly complicated over time for me to simultaneously be (a) an AI governance grantmaker at Open Philanthropy (my day job), where we support a wide variety of organizations including some who work on US AI policy, and (b) a Board member at a US-based frontier AI company (though I’ve never held any Anthropic equity).

I wish Anthropic the best of luck in its mission, and I continue to think Anthropic’s leadership team takes the challenges of AI safety, security, and public benefit very seriously.

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• John Surman: “Pebble Dance” (2024)
• Cliff Eidelman: Magdalene (1988)
• Hans Zimmer: Dune: Part Two (2024)
• Mark Knopfler: “An American Hero” (1997)
• George Fenton: Cry Freedom (1987)
• Michel Legrand: Musicales Comédies (2009)
• David Shire: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
• Mychael Danna: Kama Sutra (1996)
• Various: Black Cat, White Cat (1998)
• Kevin Penkin: Made in Abyss (2017), Made in Abyss 2 (2020), Made in Abyss 3 (2022)
• Kenji Kawai: Avalon (2001)
• Le Cri du Caire: Le Cri du Caire (2023)
• John Zorn: Parrhesiastes (2023)
• Matthew Halsall: An Ever Changing View (2023)
• David Maslanka: “An Ascent Into Heaven Where Pagan Dances...” (1981), Symphony No. 4 (1993), Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble (1999),¹ “Solvitur Ambulando” (2000), 11:11, A Dance at the Edge of the World (2001), Testament (2002), Traveler (2003), “Mother Earth” (2003), Symphony No. 6 (2004), “Coming Home” (2005), Give Us This Day mvt 2 (2006), Symphony No. 8 mvts 1 & 3 (2008), Quintet for Winds No. 4 mvt 1 (2008), “Nighthawks” (2009), Liberation (2010), Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Wind Ensemble (2012), “Illumination” (2013), “On This Bright Morning” (2013) [playlist]
• Heitor Villa-Lobos: Fantasia for saxophone, three horns, and strings (1948)
• Pierre Max Dubois: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra (1959)
• Darius Milhaud: Scaramouche, Suite for Saxophone and Orchestra (1939)
• Henri Tomasi: Saxophone Concerto (1949)
• Toshiyuki Honda: Concerto du vent (2005)
• Jacques Ibert: Concertino da Camera (1935)
• Takashi Yoshimatsu: Saxophone Concerto “Cyber-bird” [Opus 59] (1994)
• Nico Muhly: “Storm Centre” (2009), “Can’t Wait” (2010), So Far So Good (2011), Viola Concerto, mvts 1 & 3 (2014)
• Nonkeen: “Ceramic People” (2016)
• Michael Gordon et al.: Cloud River Mountain, mvts 1 & 2 (2015), Road Trip, parts 1-5 & 8-9 (2017)
• Julia Wolfe: Flower Power (2020)
• Joby Talbot: “Hovercraft” (2006), Tide Harmonic [Eau] (2009), Fool’s Paradise (2012), Suite from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2012) [playlist]
• Miklos Rozsa: “Quo Vadis Prelude” (1951)
• Dmitri Shostakovich: “The Youth of Maxim Overture” (1935), “The Gadfly Overture” (1955)
• Michel Legrand: “Sword for Your Supper” (1973)
• Dimash Qudaibergen: “Diva Dance” (2017), “Sinful Passion” (2018), “Olimpico” (2019), “SOS d’un terrien en détresse (2021 live)“ & “Stranger” (2021)
• Angelina Jordan: “I Put a Spell on You” (2016), “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2020), “Love Don’t Let Me Go” & “Now I’m the Fool” (2023)
• Emma Kok: “Voilà ” & “Voila [duet]” & “Hallelujah” (2023)
• Disturbed: “The Sound of Silence” (2016)
• Diana Ankudinova: “Last Dance” (2018), “Wicked Game” (2019), “Can’t help falling in love“ & “Personal Jesus” (2021)
• Teddy Swims: “Lose Control” (2023)
• Indila: “Last Dance” (2013)
• Asaf Avidan: “Different Pulses” (2012), “Lost Horse” (2020), “Reckoning Song” (2023 version)
• Pentatonix: “Daft Punk” (2013), “Hallelujah” (2016)
• MB14: “La Cup Worldwide Showcase 2018” (2018)
• D-low: “Sing a Little Harmony” (2023)
• Aurora: “Runaway” (2015)
• Yebba: “My Mind“ (2014)
• Jackie Evancho: “Nessun Dorma” (2011)
• Heart: “Stairway to Heaven” (2012)
• Solomia Lukyanets: “Time to Say Goodbye” (2015)
• Jordan Smith: “Mary Did You Know” (2021) and live version (2023)
• Bei Bei: “The Voice of China” (2020)
• Marcelito Pomoy: “Time to Say Goodbye” (2020)
• Piet Arion: “SOS d’un terrien en détresse” (2019)²
• Cristina Ramos: “Call Me” (2019)
• Chezelle Shahadat: “The Sound of Silence” (2019)
• Tamara Weber-Fillion: “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (2016)
• Lord Huron: “The Night We Met” (2015)
• Lara Fabian: “Je Suis Malade (live)“ (2016)
• Yma Sumac: “Tumpa” (1954)
• So Hyang: “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (2015), “Arirang Alone” (2015)
• Chris Stapleton: “Nothing Compares to You” (2016), “The Star-Spangled Banner” (2023)
• Chase Holfelder: “I Will Always Love You“ (2016)
• Kristen Cruz: “I See Red” (2022)
• Matt Corby: “Brother” (2020)
• Paolo Nutini: “Iron Sky” (2014)
• Malakai Bayoh: “Pie Jesu” (2023)
• James Last: “The Lonely Shepherd” (1977)
• Alex Shapiro: “Moment” (2016)
• Omar Thomas: “Mother of a Revolution” (2019)
• Ravi Shankar: Symphony (2010)
• Shirish Korde: Svara-Yantra (2005)
• John Tchicai: Moonstone Journey (1999)
• Moondog: Snaketime Series (1957)
• Denny Zeitlin: “Syzygy” (1977)
• Albert Mangelsdorff: “Do You Like Pastrami” (1999)
• Tom Harrell: “Vista” and “Brazilian Song” (1990)
• Daniel Kobialka: “Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun” (1986)
• Craig Harris: “The Veil” (2005)
• Ernie Krivda: “The Glory Strut” (1980)
• acloudyskye: What Do You Want! (2022)
• Jerskin Fendrix: “Poor Things Finale and End Credits” (2023)
• Distant Cowboy: “Core Memory” (2022)
• Christine and the Queens: Paranoia, Angels, True Love (2023)
• Sewerslvt: “Jvnko Still Loves You” (2020)
• Raja Kirik: “Waru Doyong” (2023)
• Myroslav Skoryk: “Melodia in A Minor” (1982)
• Fabiano do Nascimento & Sam Gendel: The Room (2024)

I also watched many YouTube “reaction” videos for my two favorite vocal performances of all time: Ankudinova’s “Can’t help falling in love” and Dimash’s “S.O.S.” Lots of warranted shock, goosebumps, speechlessness, and weeping on display. A few examples: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. YouTuber “Fairy Voice Mother” has excellent explainers on how each performance is achieved technically: Ankudinova, Dimash. You may also enjoy her reaction/analysis for Johnny’s Cash’s “Hurt.”

Another very impressive vocal performance I discovered this quarter is Will Ramos’ “To the Hellfire,” but I can’t exactly say I “enjoy” it, so I didn’t list it above. How many different species of demon do you hear?

[Read more…]

1. Unsurprisingly I also like the arrangement for orchestra. [↩]
2. Still cool even though the highest whistle notes appear to be manipulated. [↩]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Munich Radio Orchestra w/ James Morrison: “Mission Impossible Theme” (1994)
• Peter Warlock: Capriol Suite (1926)
• Gibran Alcocer: “Idea 1” & “Idea 9” & “Idea 10” & “Idea 22” & “Solas” (2022)
• Astor Piazzolla: “Fuga y Misterio [arr. for cellos]” (comp. 1968), “Libertango [arr. for cellos]” (comp. 1974)
• Thylacine: Vivaldi (and 74 musicians) (2023)
• Yuja Wang: “Variations on the Turkish March” (2017)
• David Bruce: “The Crescent Moon is a Dangerous Lunatic” (2009), Cymbeline (2013)
• Rafael Krux: The Epic Baroque (2021)
• Hania Rani: Ghosts (2023)
• Noordpool Orchestra: Radiohead, A Jazz Symphony (2012)
• Ara Malikian: “Dzovarev” and “Paranoid Android” and “L’estate” (2017)
• Steve Hackman: Brahms X Radiohead (2013)
• Multiphonic Quartett: “Mishima Closing” (2021), “Air” (2022), “Songs for Tony (1st movement)” (2022)
• Howard Shore: The Lord of the Rings Symphony (2011)
• Louie Ashley: “Knights of Cydonia” (2022)
• Marnie Stern: The Comeback Kid (2023)
• John Rutter: Suite for Strings (1973)
• Oren Ambarchi: Shebang (2022)
• Alfonso Peduto: Binary Data, Vol. 1 (2022)
• Joseph Nicolas Pancrace Royer: “Le Vertigo” (1746)
• Brad Mehldau: Jacob’s Ladder (2022)
• Philip Glass: The Complete Piano Etudes (2014)
• Bryce Dessner: Murder Ballades (2013), Concerto for Two Pianos (2018), “Alarms” & “Pulsing” (2021)
• Katie Gately: Fawn / Brute (2023)
• Odette: “Thunderstruck” (2020)
• Alex Lahey: “Welcome to the Black Parade” (2019)
• Prizes Roses Rosa: “Always Returning” (2022)
• Connor Gallagher: “Shostakovich Symphony 5 mvt 4” (2015), “Shostakovich Symphony 10 mvt 2” (2016), “Shostakovich String Quartet 8 mvt 2” (2018), “Stravinsky’s Infernal Dance” (2018), “Adagio for Strings on Electric Guitar” (2019)
• Hope Lies Within: “Der Erlkönig” (2012)
• Andre Antunes: “Master of Puppets in the style of Muse” (2022), “Akhiyan Udeek Diyan” (2023)
• Zequinha de Abreu: “Tico Tico No Fuba” (1917)
• Tomaso Antonio Vitali: “Chaconne in G Minor” (~1740)
• Neptunian Maximalism: Eons (2020)
• Amen Seat: Amen Seat (2023)
• Georg Muffat: “Violin Sonata in D Major” (1677)
• Anatolijus Senderovas: Concerto in Do [Concerto in C] (2002)
• Nikolai Korndorf: Symphony No. 3 (1989)
• Paul Dresher: Concerto for Violin and Electro-Acoustic Band (1997), Concerto for Quadrachord & Orchestra (2012)
• Urmas Sisask: Spiral Symphony (1999)
• Mason Bates: Omnivorous Furniture (2004), Violin Concerto (2012)
• Klaus Makela & Orchestre de Paris: The Rite of Spring & The Firebird (2023)
• Arvo Part: Fratres (version for guitar & orchestra) (1977), “Cantique des degrés” (1999), “Littlemore Tractus” (2000)
• Thomas Ades: “The Thieves” and “Mount Purgatory” (2020)
• Steve Lehman: “39” (2023)
• Darcy James Argue: Dynamic Maximum Tension (2023)
• Allison Miller: Rivers in Our Veins (2023)
• Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (2023)
• Isaiah Collier: “Village Song” (2023)
• Tyshawn Sorey: Continuing (2023)
• Elliot Goldenthal: “Truffaldino’s Sausage Shop” & “Under Bustle Funk” & “Green Bird Descent” (2000)
• Nino Rota: La Strada Suite (1966)
• Patrick Williams: An American Concerto (1980)
• Stjepan Sulek: Symphony No. 8 mvt 2 (1981)
• Heikki Sarmanto: Suomi (1984)

[Read more…]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Takeshi Inomata: Jazz Rock for Grand-Prix (1971)
• Erik Hall: ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato (rel. 2023)
• Mammal Hands: Shadow Work (2017), Gift from the Trees (2023)
• Ben Lukas Boysen: “Medela” (2020)
• Philip Glass: Symphony No. 12 (comp. 2019), Symphony No. 14, mvt. 3 (2021)
• A Love Supreme Electric: A Love Supreme (2020) [i.e. disc 1 of this.]
• Jaimie Branch: Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (2023)
• Aaron Hibell: “Destroyer of Worlds” (2023)
• Lautten Compagney: “Opening” (2010), “Anthem Part 1” (2019), “Larghetto” & “Il Bajazet” & “L’Inverno focoso” & “Summer Tempest” (2022)
• Belgorod State Symphony Orchestra: Nyman’s “Memorial” (2017)
• Topology: Perpetual Motion Machine (2003)
• Paul Bailey Ensemble: Retrace Our Steps (2007), Alt-Classical (2010)
• Hypnotic Brass Ensemble: Youngs’ “Soon It Will Be Fire” (2021)
• Blue Cranes: Voices (2021)
• Odesza: “The Last Goodbye” (2022)
• London Philharmonic Orchestra: The 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music (2009)¹
• Alice Babs: “Jazz Fuga” (1963)
• Florent Ghys: “Hommage à Kevin Volans” (2007), Television (2014)
• Don Plonsey: Moving About... (2001)
• Esmerine: Dalmak (2013)
• Mouse on the Keys: An Anxious Object (2009)
• Makaya McCrarven: In These Times (2022)
• Yonatan Gat: American Quartet (2022)
• Max Richter: Beethoven Opus 2020 (2020)
• Emily Wells: Regards to the End (2022)
• Brooklyn Raga Massive: In D (2020)
• Johan Ullen: Infinite Bach (2021)
• Nikolai Kapustin: Piano Concerto No. 2 (1974)
• Lawrence: “Don’t Lose Sight” (2021)
• Joe Parrish: “Shostakovich 10 Mvmt. II” (2020), The Rite of Spring (2021), “Dirty Boy (acoustic)” (2021),
• Nono & Roie Shpigler: Appassionato [single] (2023)
• Ludwig Goransson: Oppenheimer (2023)

This quarter, I was reminded that I often like orchestral arrangements of originally non-orchestral pieces (by a different composer). Here are some favorites, most of which I discovered for the first time this quarter [playlist]:

• Leopold Stokowski (as arranger): Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and “Sheep May Safely Graze” and “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” Rachmaninov’s “The Bells of Moscow,” Clarke’s “The Prince of Denmark’s March,” Mozart’s “Turkish March,” Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata mvt 1, Franz Schubert’s “Serenade,” Chopin’s “Funeral March” and “Minute Waltz” and Preludes (Opus 28) No. 24, Albeniz’s “Festival in Seville,” Handel’s “Dead March,” Purcel’s “Dido’s Lament,” Mussorgsky’s “St. John’s Night on the Bare Mountain,” Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”
• Ferde Grofé (as arranger): Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
• Henry Wood (as arranger): Grieg’s “Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak,” Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp minor
• Maurice Ravel (as arranger): Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
• Henri Büsser: Debussy’s Petite Suite
• Gustav Mahler (as arranger): Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14
• Steven Stucky (as arranger): Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary
• Arnold Schoenberg (as arranger): Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1
• Benjamin Britten (as arranger): Purcell’s Chacony in G Minor
• Franz Liszt (as arranger): Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy
• Erwin Schulhoff (as arranger): Beethoven’s “Rage Over a Lost Penny”
• Claude Debussy (as arranger): Satie’s Gymnopédies
• Francis Poulenc (as arranger): Satie’s Gnossiennes No. 3
• Gustav Holst (as arranger): Bach’s Fugue a la gigue in G Major [BWV 577]
• Eugene Ormandy (as arranger): Bach’s “Sleepers Wake” [BWV 140]
• Various arrangers: Brahms’ Hungarian Dances

[Read more…]

1. Of course this is closer to a “most popular” list than a “greatest” list, but regardless, these pieces are great, and do seem to me like a great selection for introducing someone to classical music. [↩]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Mason Bates: Philharmonia Fantastique (2022)
• Bebawinigi: Stupor (2022)
• Anna Meredith: Concerto for Beatboxer & Orchestra (2010)
• Ran Cap Duoi: *1 (2023)
• Kaatayra: Inpariquipe (2021)
• Alice Boman: Dream On (2020)
• Tony Ann: Emotionally Blue (2023)
• Medicine Singers: Medicine Singers (2022)
• Jeremy Blake (arr. David Bruce): “Aquamarine” (2020)
• Tuatara: Trading with the Enemy (1998)
• Squid: O Monolith (2023)
• Model/Actriz: Dogsbody (2023)
• Monika Roscher: Failure in Wonderland (2012), Witchy Activities and the Maple Death (2023)

[Read more…]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• I Like to Sleep: Sleeping Beauty (2022)
• Quadratum [Unlucky Morpheus]: “The Dance of Eternity” (2021)
• Mason Bates: Piano Concerto (2022)

[Read more…]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Siddhartha Kohsla: “Only Murders in the Building Main Theme” (2021)
• Low & Spring Heel Jack: Bombscare (2000)
• The Comet is Coming: Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam (2022)
• Mazie: The Rainbow Cassette (2021)
• The Grassy Knoll: III (1998)
• P’taah: “Perfumed Silence” (2011)
• Mulatu Astatke: Inspiration Information (2009)
• Yussef Kamaal: “Strings of Light” (2016)
• Shibusashirazu: Shibuboshi (2004), Shibuki (2007), Shibu-yotabi (2010)
• Salaryman: Karoshi (1999), The Electric Forest (2006)
• Turing Machine: Zwei (2004)
• Government: “Masses Bald as Love” (2022)
• Alex Weston: The Novice (2021)
• Ikarus: Plasma (2022)
• Alexander Noice: Noice (2019)
• Meute: Taumel (2022)
• Cristobal Tapia de Veer & Kim Neundorf: White Lotus Season 2 (2022)
• Ensemble 4’33”: Sergey Kuryokhin: The Spirit Lives (2016)
• Serge Gainsbourg: “Bonnie and Clyde (Akse Remix)” (2012)

[Read more…]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Anteloper: Pink Dolphins (2022)
• Labrinth: Euphoria (2019), “I’m Tired” and “Love Is Complicated” (2022)
• Sirom: The Liquified Throne of Simplicity (2022)
• Karrots: Karrots I (2020)
• Bitch ‘n’ Monk: We Are Peering Over (2016)
• Ran Cap Duoi: Dep Trai Chet Het (2018)
• Jon Mueller: Tongues (2016)
• Balungan: Kudu Bisa Kudu (2022)
• Janel Leppin: Ensemble Volcanic Ash (2022)
• Peruvian Sleep: “Shapeshifter” (2015)
• Broun Fellinis: Real Moments (1995), Out Through the N Door (2000)
• Mimika Orchestra: Divinities of the Earth and the Waters (2018)
• Fun Da Mental: Erotic Terrorism (1998)
• DJ Krush: Jaku (2004)
• Viagra Boys: Street Worms (2018)
• Jihye Lee: Daring Mind (2021)
• Nik Bärtsch: Stoa (2006), Randori (2006), Holon (2008), “Modul 29_14” (2016)
• Oren Ambarchi & others: Ghosted (2022)
• Fleshquartet: Love Go (2000)
• Jimsaku: “Aztec” (1997)
• Eivind Aarset: Light Extracts (2001)
• Tim Hagans: “Animation/Imagination” and “Hud Doyle” (1999)
• Matthew Herbert: Goodbye Swingtime (2003)
• Payton MacDonald & others: Void Patrol (2022)
• Benny Omerzell & others: “Omersall, Kong & Sievaerd” and “Skagerrak” (2017)
• Cinema Cinema: Man Bites Dog (2017)
• Plaistow: Lacrimosa (2012)
• Innercity Ensemble: II (2014), IV (2019)
• Meute: “You & Me” (2018), “Peace” (2022)
• Szun Waves: “Exploding Upwards” (2002)
• Daniel Rossen: You Belong There (2022)
• Meute: Tumult (2017), “You & Me” (2018)
• High Castle Teleorkestra: The Egg That Never Opened (2022)
• Trance Mission: Le Pendu (2020)

[Read more…]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Metropole Orkest & Leo Pellegrino: “Brass House / Moanin’ / Better Git It In Your Soul” (2017)
• Emmet Cohen / Bruce Harris / Patrick Bartley: Live From Emmet’s Place Vol. 52 (2021)
• Spiritualized: Everything Was Beautiful (2022)
• Sault: Air (2022)
• Arcade Fire: We (2022)
• Congotronics International: Where’s the One? (2022)
• The Smile: A Light for Attracting Attention (2022)
• Amorphous Androgynous: The Isness (2002)
• Transglobal Underground: Rejoice, Rejoice (1998)
• Mark Pistel: “Colorful World” (1997)
• Joe Rainey: Niineta (2022)
• Loop Guru: Moksha: Peel To Reveal (1996), Loopus Interruptus (2001), Bathtime with Loop Guru (2003)
• Directions: “Echoes (Continental Drift Version)” (1997)
• William Parker: Mayan Space Station (2021)
• Embryo: Auf Auf (2021)
• Eclectic Maybe Band: Reflection in a Moebius Ring Mirror (2019), Again Alors? (2022)
• Gnome: King (2022)
• Poliça: “Alive” (2022)
• Snarky Puppy: “Trinity” (2022)
• Miroslav Vitous: Universal Syncopations (2003)
• Vivaldi / Max Richter: The New Four Seasons (2022)¹

[Read more…]

1. I really enjoy this, but did we really need another Richter “recomposition” of this exact piece before Richter has provided the same treatment to other beloved works? Could he next recompose Beethoven’s 9th or Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring or something else? [↩]