Responding to the "New"

I heard this piece on Radio Lab an NPR science show and I think it is pertinent to post here. It is rather long so you may wish to skip ahead to past the middle or so to go straight to the Stravinsky portion.



See the whole story here:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2006/04/21/segments/58280

I was curious what Stravinsky would have composed if he had had a synthesizer or computer. What would the "Rite of Spring" sound like If Igor had been born in 1982 instead of 1882? Here is a quote form Conversations With Stravinsky

KC. Do you have an opinion about electronic music?


IS. I think that the matiere is limited; more exactly, the composers have demonstrated but a very limited matiere in all the examples of electronic music I have heard. This is surprising because the possibilities as we know are astronomical Another criticism I have is that the shortest pieces of electronic music seem endless, and within those pieces we feel no time control Therefore, the amount of repetition, imaginary or real, is excessive. Electronic composers are making a mistake, in my opinion, when they continue to employ significative noises in the manner of musique concrete. In Stochausen's Gesang der Junglinge, a work manifesting a strong personality and an indigenous feeling for the medium, I like the way the sound descends as though from auras, but the burbling fade-out noises and especially the organ are, I find, incongruous elements. Noises can be music, of course, but they ought not to be significative; music itself does not signify anything. What interests me most in electronic music so far is the notation, the "score.(Stravinsky/Craft p.125)

Here is Stochausen's Gesang der Junglinge . Stochausen also wrote the curious "Helicopter" string quartet where each player is in a separate helicopter and the work is performed whilst flying about.



Of course I did find the rite of spring arranged for synthesizer.
This is Part 1 of Fuzzbach's interpretation of Igor Stravinsky's "Adoration of the Earth" from The Rite of Spring.
The arranger notesthat it's a simple interpretation, and that some instruments from the original score are not represented in this interpretation.

Part I



Part II



Bibliography

Stravinsky, Igor, and Robert Craft. Conversations with Igor Stravinsky. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1959.

"YouTube - FuzzBach's Channel." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 11 June 2009 .