Interesting Wikipedia articles for killing time and expanding your mind!! - Page 129 - Other Topics Forum - Discuss Pop Culture, Arts and Entertainment

I don't think Cage's work resembled Duchamp's and definitely not an abstract expressionist like Pollack - it has more in common with a painter like Ellsworth Kelly.

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08-15-2016 , 08:32 AM

#3202

JudgeHoldem

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Sounds (as in reminds) a bit like Arnold Schoenberg.

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08-15-2016 , 09:27 AM

#3203

IBeDrummin

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One of my favorite John Cage stories (never confirmed, but fun nonetheless) was when he was commissioned to write a solo for one of the world's greatest conga players to be premiered at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. He was offered $50,000 to compose a fifteen minute piece. Upon delivery, the soloist opened the score and saw a single measure with a whole note and a fermata with the composer note "Improvise for 15 minutes".

He was paid the $50,000 and the premiere was very well-received.

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08-15-2016 , 10:37 AM

#3204

kokiri

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Quote:

Originally Posted by IBeDrummin

The shugakuin is one of the great architectural/artistic sites in Kyoto. There's a story that an artist was paid to paint some doors for one of the sub buildings. He took the money and got drunk, didn't do the paintings. So obviously the boss gets mad and wants to know where his paintings are. The painter said 'I painted some fish, but they were so realistic that they came off the screen and jumped into the pond'. So the artist got given more money and painted the fish "again", this time painting a net over them to keep them from escaping.

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08-15-2016 , 01:30 PM

#3205

Dominic

Tripod

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It's funny, but I can watch and be intrigued by any experimental film or photo or painting - anything visual - but if it's experimental music, I have a hard time wanting to bother listening to it.

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08-15-2016 , 01:31 PM

#3206

daveT

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Quote:

Originally Posted by jalfrezi

I don't think Cage's work resembled Duchamp's and definitely not an abstract expressionist like Pollack - it has more in common with a painter like Ellsworth Kelly.

My general thinking, though utterly indefensible, I sure:

I think Cage and Pollock could have had an interesting career no matter which way they decided to go with their work.

http://www.wikiart.org/en/jackson-pollock

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08-15-2016 , 01:31 PM

#3207

Dominic

Tripod

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lol at the fish story....that's a guy who could think on his feet.

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08-18-2016 , 06:27 PM

#3208

maxicasas

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I believe that this article wasn´t posted

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuggee

Quote:

Estimates of the total number of victims vary widely, since no reliable source confirms the length of the Thugs' existence. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Thuggee cult was responsible for approximately two million deaths; British historian Mike Dash said that they killed a total of 50,000 people over an estimated 150 years. Political scientist David C. Rapoport estimated that 500,000 people were killed by the Thugs, making them the most destructive terrorist group in history.[9] According to other estimates, they murdered one million people.

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08-19-2016 , 12:35 AM

#3209

daveT

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Is that where the word "thug" with it's current connotation comes from? I wish there was a statement about that. Seems possible?

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08-19-2016 , 04:25 AM

#3210

JayTeeMe

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wow

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08-19-2016 , 04:43 AM

#3211

Bluegrassplayer

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Quote:

The Thugs were popularised by books such as*Philip Meadows Taylor's 1839 novel,Confessions of a Thug, which introduced the word "thug" to the English language. Ameer Ali, the*protagonist*of*Confessions of a Thug, was said to be based on Syeed Amir Ali. "Thuggee" and "Thug" should be pronounced "Tug-gee" and "Tug", with the "t" and the "h" separate (as in "hothouse"), and were so pronounced before "thug" and "thuggery" acquired their current English meanings.

Under the "English language" section

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08-19-2016 , 06:06 AM

#3212

riverboatking

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Quote:

Originally Posted by daveT

4'33"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%E2%80%B233%E2%80%B3

4′33″ (pronounced "Four minutes, thirty-three seconds" or just "Four thirty-three"[1]) is a three-movement composition[2][3] by American experimental composer John Cage (1912–1992). It was composed in 1952, for any instrument or combination of instruments, and the score instructs the performer(s) not to play their instrument(s) during the entire duration of the piece throughout the three movements.

In a 1982 interview, and on numerous other occasions, Cage stated that 4′33″ was, in his opinion, his most important work.

4′33″ has been recorded on several occasions: Frank Zappa recorded it as part of A Chance Operation: The John Cage Tribute, on the Koch label, 1993

In 2010 a group was set up on the social networking website Facebook that encouraged people in the UK to buy a new rendition of 4′33″ in the week leading up to Christmas 2010,[43] in the hope that it would prevent the winner of the seventh series of The X Factor topping the UK Singles Chart and achieving the Christmas number one.

There are quite a few version of this piece found on youtube, including a death metal version. Hopefully, I'll have the bravery to play this one on stage one day. Laugh all you want, but this is some serious business right here. The performer would have to be able to er... "play" this tune without any sense of hipster **** or irony, and the crowd would have to be captive enough to get what is going on without either walking out, laughing, or booing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by that_pope

Here's a video to help you understand:

that is so ****ing stupid.

ppl that pretend to like that or "appreciate it's meaning" are pretentious douchebags who are the exact same ppl as the subjects adoring the emperor and his new "suit".

HES NAKED YOU MORONS THERE IS NO ****ING SUIT.

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08-19-2016 , 05:46 PM

#3213

maxicasas

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Interesting people:

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Quote:

Rochester's life was divided between domesticity in the country and a riotous existence at court, where he was renowned for drunkenness, vivacious conversation, and "extravagant frolics" as part of the Merry Gang (...) In 1669 he committed treason by boxing the ears of Thomas Killigrew in sight of the monarch and was banned from the court, although the King soon called for his return.(...) By the age of 33, Rochester was dying, from what is usually described as the effects of syphilis, gonorrhea, or other venereal diseases, combined with the effects of alcoholism.

---------------
This one is a "darker" guy (spoiler)
Marquis de Sade

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) (French: [maʁki də sad]), was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer, famous for his libertine sexuality

Spoiler:

-------------------------------------

If you watched "The Borgias" (series) you know this pope...

Pope Alexander VI

Quote:

Pope Alexander VI, born Roderic Borgia (Valencian: Roderic Llançol i de Borja (Valencian pronunciation: [roðeˈɾiɡ ʎanˈsɔɫ i ðe ˈβɔɾdʒa], Spanish: Rodrigo Lanzol y de Borja [roˈðɾiɣo lanˈθol i ðe ˈβorxa]); 1 January 1431 – 18 August 1503), was Pope from 11 August 1492 until his death. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, partly because he acknowledged fathering several children by his mistresses. Therefore his Italianized Valencian surname, Borgia, became a byword for libertinism and nepotism, which are traditionally considered as characterizing his pontificate. However, two of Alexander's successors, Sixtus V and Urban VIII, described him as one of the most outstanding popes since St. Peter.[3]

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Caligula, roman emperor

Quote:

Philo of Alexandria and Seneca the Younger describe Caligula as an insane emperor who was self-absorbed, angry, killed on a whim, and indulged in too much spending and sex.[98] He is accused of sleeping with other men's wives and bragging about it,[99] killing for mere amusement,[100] deliberately wasting money on his bridge, causing starvation,[101] and wanting a statue of himself erected in the Temple of Jerusalem for his worship.[95] Once, at some games at which he was presiding, he ordered his guards to throw an entire section of the crowd into the arena during intermission to be eaten by animals because there were no criminals to be prosecuted and he was bored.[

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08-20-2016 , 03:03 AM

#3214

RainierWolfcastle

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Music that needs to be explained to be appreciated is the nut low.

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08-20-2016 , 07:48 AM

#3215

GermanGuy

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A German comedian did a spoof on this several years ago by doing a show as an Eastern European singer of "modern classical music" for an unsuspecting audience.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp2EErem974

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08-20-2016 , 05:23 PM

#3216

daveT

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Quote:

Originally Posted by riverboatking

We are talking about John Cage here. Look up Suite for Toy Piano and Solo for Sliding Trombone for a better idea of his style of music / performance, and 4'33" is hardly out of place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep5fNEeoh74

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2diY6wC1Xs4

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08-21-2016 , 01:38 AM

#3217

daveT

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Poème symphonique

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Po%C3%A8me_symphonique

Poème symphonique is a 1962 composition by György Ligeti for 100 metronomes.

The piece requires ten "performers", each responsible for ten of the hundred metronomes. The metronomes are set up on the performance platform, and they are all then wound to their maximum extent and set to different speeds. Once they are all fully wound there is a silence of two to six minutes, at the discretion of the conductor, then at the conductor's signal they are all started as simultaneously as possible. The performers then leave the stage. As the metronomes wind down one after another and stop, periodicity becomes noticeable in the sound, and individual metronomes can be more clearly distinguished. The piece typically ends with just one metronome ticking alone for a few beats, followed by silence, and then the performers return to the stage (Ligeti 1962).

A conductor could be a real ass and play 4"33' then this, which means that you can have anywhere from 6:33 to 10:33 seconds of total silence.

The controversy over the first performance was sufficient to cause Dutch Television to cancel a planned broadcast recorded two days earlier at an official reception at Hilversum's City Hall on 13 September 1963 (Ligeti 1997, 7, 11; Morrison 2012). "Instead, they showed a soccer game"

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08-21-2016 , 03:56 AM

#3218

jalfrezi

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I love that line: "Instead, they showed a soccer game".

I like football a lot but I'd much rather see this interesting piece than a 1963 Dutch football game.

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08-21-2016 , 05:17 AM

#3219

Bluegrassplayer

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That conductor would be refunding at least one ticket.

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08-21-2016 , 07:19 AM

#3220

daveT

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To be fair to Ligeti, some of his music is a bit strange, but much of his work is pure genius. Definitely check out his piano etudes if you are into that kind of stuff.

****

Opus clavicembalisticum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_clavicembalisticum

Opus clavicembalisticum is a solo piano piece composed by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, completed on June 25, 1930.

The piece is notable for its length and difficulty: at the time of its completion it was the longest piano piece in existence. Its duration is around four hours, depending on tempo. Several of Sorabji's later works, such as the Symphonic Variations for Piano (which last probably about nine hours of music) are even longer.

At the time of its completion, the piece was possibly the most technically demanding solo piano work in existence due, for the most part, to its extreme length and rhythmic complexity and to the vast resources of physical and mental stamina demanded by its many passages of transcendental virtuosity...

There have only been a handful of performances of Opus clavicembalisticum.

The first was by Sorabji himself on December 1, 1930, in Glasgow, under the auspices of "The Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary Music".

Pars prima was performed by John Tobin on March 10, 1936; this performance is noted to have taken approximately twice as long to perform as the score dictates. This performance, and its reception, led to Sorabji's ban on public performances of his works, claiming that, "no performance at all is vastly preferable to an obscene travesty". Sorabji maintained this ban until 1976.

You go out of your way to write the longest, most difficult piece of music to date, you get upset that no one can play it and put a ban on all your music for 41 years?!?!?

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08-22-2016 , 12:45 AM

#3221

Dominic

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I like that guy's style.

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08-22-2016 , 07:20 AM

#3222

Bluegrassplayer

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If I couldn't handle 10 minutes of silence doubt I could handle 4 hours of just a piano.

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08-22-2016 , 09:07 AM

#3223

IBeDrummin

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I took a look at a few pages of the score for Clavicembalisticum and that guy was confirmed the devil.

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08-22-2016 , 09:16 AM

#3224

mmbt0ne

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Thugee article reminds me a lot of the Hashashin, which came about during the first Crusades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hashashin

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08-22-2016 , 09:52 AM

#3225

JudgeHoldem

banned

Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 8,197

with all this piano talk i highly recommend doing a search for derek paravicini, seems to be the absolute nuts in regard to piano virtuoso ability

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