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[Nickbat]

From Wikipedia:

The Portsmouth Sinfonia was an orchestra founded by a group of students at the Portsmouth School of Art in Portsmouth, England, in 1970. The Sinfonia had an unusual entrance requirement, in that players had to either be non-musicians, or if a musician, play an instrument that was entirely new to them. Among the founding members was one of their teachers, English composer Gavin Bryars. The orchestra started as a one-off, tongue-in-cheek performance art ensemble but became a cultural phenomenon over the following ten years, with concerts, record albums, a film and a hit single. They last performed publicly in 1979.

The result?

THIS:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpJ6anurfuw&feature=player_embedded[/media]

   

[Debs.]

  That poor-cat must`ve suffered terribly!

[millwall]

they are pants

[Dishevelled Den]

Far Canal - also sprach Dick Strauss.

[kevinminton]

Portsmouth Sinfonia were IIRC a descendant of the conceptual union of JC (John Cage, that is) with his predecessor Marcel Duchamp.

IMO John Cage will be shown to be the most influential composer of the second half of the twentieth century.
 
So, in PS you're just hearing another waymarker in the evolution to music & performance that we have now. We don't laugh at Sunday morning soccer teams 'cos they're not as good as the best footballers (sorry football is not my subject). We applaud them for taking part, having a go, enjoying and making the most of their lives. Why should music be any different?

K

[Nickbat]

Portsmouth Sinfonia were IIRC a descendant of the conceptual union of JC (John Cage, that is) with his predecessor Marcel Duchamp.

IMO John Cage will be shown to be the most influential composer of the second half of the twentieth century.
 
So, in PS you're just hearing another waymarker in the evolution to music & performance that we have now. We don't laugh at Sunday morning soccer teams 'cos they're not as good as the best footballers (sorry football is not my subject). We applaud them for taking part, having a go, enjoying and making the most of their lives. Why should music be any different?

K

Indeed, Kevin, you are right and John Cage is most talented. My post was not intended as a serious critique, merely poking fun at something which is irredeemably dreadful. I have feeling that members of the Portsmouth Sinfonia knew what they were getting into when they did it, and good for them!

Whichever way you look at it though, the result is still a case of aural GBH and would make poor Richard spin at more than 6,000 rpm in his grave.

   

[Dishevelled Den]

Actually I wouldn’t mind having root canal treatment as I think my rather comely (female) dentist fancies me.

[kevinminton]

To compensate, keeping with R Strauss, here's one of my faves. A Strauss orchestration of Francois Couperin harpsichord music. Isn't the internet wonderful? I thought that this was just too obscure to be on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv_n984o2f8&feature=related

(All quite distant from Cage's HPSCHD, of course. Or is it?)

[kevinminton]

Thanks Nickbat, that's nice.

NB it's Richard Strauss btw, no relation of the Vienna Johanns - all waltzes and stuff.

K

[Nickbat]

Thanks for that, Kevin. Richard it is.

I amended my post accordingly, lest my error make it into the annals of history. 

[Dishevelled Den]

Being somewhat of a backwoods man, when I think Dick Strauss I immediately fall to this - sung by the devine Lucy Popp.


[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zB4qaE0rRg[/media]

[Nickbat]

To compensate, keeping with R Strauss, here's one of my faves. A Strauss orchestration of Francois Couperin harpsichord music. Isn't the internet wonderful? I thought that this was just too obscure to be on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv_n984o2f8&feature=related

(All quite distant from Cage's HPSCHD, of course. Or is it?)

Thanks for posting; I enjoyed that!