Boyd, I will send you a CD for posting an ad on your board, I expect things on it to be finished around the end of the summer, so I'll get back to you on it then. It's interesting to surmise what types of music HPL or CAS liked, I had always heard that HPL was tone deaf. His like of the "Banannas" song may be proof of that fact, haha. I'm betting that REH would have been into country, or possibly celtic music.

Are any of you familiar with the band "The Darkest Of Hillside Thickets"? They are a weirdy type rock band from Canada who pretty much exclusively do songs about HPL, and they are pretty decent. For non-rock fans, there is a band called Azathoth from Russia?! who do really strange HPL inspired songs, I can't really think of a good way to describe them though, but some of their songs kind of sound "opera like" to me. So who is going to be the first to start up an all CAS band?

My goodness, another little furor! But it seems to have resolved into peace among
all parties - I don't have much time at this moment, but two quick notes. My first
response (which I am sure is included in free speech) was certainly not an attact.
I, myself, at my age have little interest in the "new" for its own sake. I am not
against it by any means, only that for me, re-reading my favorite books, re-listening
to my favorite records (Rubenstein playing the Emperor et al), is an ever-deepening
experience of plunging into fountains of limitless depth. As for Clark's taste in
music -- I have pondered this a bit, and I know from his friendship with the
Sully's that he had experienced and enjoyed the classics - I think of the moderns
he might have liked Lighetti (as in the Kyrie from 2001 Space Odyssey). Recall
his line about the "horses vatitty who sang a dumb ditty called Sweet Adeline" -
As a frequenter of the "Happy Hour" - he was easily familiar with all of that
genre. He enjoyed naughty ballads and surprised me that he knew some I had learned
in the Eastern University milieu - ie - (he joined in this one once and knew all
the words) "Oh my sister Lily is a whore in Picadilly,
And me brother runs a brothel in the Strand;
And me father spreads his ass'l
At the Elephant and Castle,
We're the biggest f'ing family in the land (2 beats, repeat last line)

Clark loved the solitude and inwardness of fine music, and much of his work laments
the modern loss and corruption of even the opportunity to launch the mind into
those gulfs, and the entombment within symphony halls and museums for those
arts "certified" superior- Compare in his experience, hearing the Sully girls and
friends do a Mozart string quartet in the back yard on a splendid Auburn summer's
eve with sitting starched and tuxed in a $75 seat -

Yes, we have no Tsathogguas, we have no Tsathogguas todaaay! How many "n"s in bannanna? Hosanna, better ask the "n" crowd! Would CASmith have approved of spam? I am sure he would have enjoyed spam, eggs, baked beans, spam and spam, spam, spam, and if somebody might be interested in buying some books, dvds, cds, or spam, I would be more than happy to accommodate them. As a Professional bookseller, I love to tell people about all the lovely things I have to sell, but it breaks my heart to hear that people are usually too poor to buy anything. This means that I almost never post big lists on items for sale, although I do mention one or two items now and then. In fact, Eldritch Dark may be long overdue for Gavinicuss to make some kind of pitch or other, maybe sooner, maybe later, just so you will all be prepared for it. But I am just so shy, it goes against my nature to blow my own horn. But how else are people going to get the word?

Oh, I just had this thought, and it is appropriate to the venue: I happen to be reordering the Arkham reprint of Rendezvous in Averoigne so I will have copies close at hand if anyone needs a copy.

And dear Dr. Farmer, bless your heart, you fit in just fine with all the rest of us spelling-impaired individuals! But if you are adding an "h" to Gyorgy Ligetti, it may be because it reminds you of spaghetti, which puts the stress on the wrong syllable for the composer. I used to follow the lead of the most arrogant grad students in the school of music at the University of North Texas and they all seemed to say Ligetti with the accent on the first syllable, like lickety-split. So, avoiding an "h" after the "g" reminds me not to go astray. We have our own traditions here in Texas, where E.T. stands for Ernest Tubb and not some bicycle-riding puppet from a spaceship. And even opera starts to sound more familiar when you realize that Giuseppe Verdi is just good old Mean Joe Green with an accent!

Yes Gavin, I love the music of Joe Green, though in my old age
I prefer Johnny Creek (Bach for the unitiated). If the spelling
of Ligetti is not Lighetti as you suggest, I accept that; though
the only place I have ever seen it in print is the album cover
of 2001 Space Odyssey where it is spelled like Spaghetti (just
checked on my aged album of the antiquated 33 1/3 LP unearthed
during a recent archaeological expedition in my library). I have
never bothered seeking out anything else by this composer since I
found that as eerie background music for a space movie, it was very
effective, but as a "Kyrie"? I don't think so - the emotions
evoked in the Russian orthodox liturgy are closer to my own
experience (somewhere there may still be a copy of the "Don
Cossack Chorus" singing (sorry, no Russian font) "Gospodee Pomeelooy."
Fabulous - overwhelming power - and other assorted expressions of
awe and wonder.

I hate to be a pedant, but the correct spelling is Ligeti, whose works form the 1960's I consider to be among the greatest in the Classical reperetoire of any period, although they especially stand out in the decadent post-war era. The "Kyrie" from his Requiem may not reproduce the sentiments of the traditional liturgical text, but that was, I think, hardly his intention. The Requiem, I think, needs to be evaluated as a whole, and not as a sound bite. Other Ligeti masterpieces include Lux Aeterna and Atmospheres (both also heard in that superb Nietzschean film 2001: A Space Odyssey) and Lontano, inspired by the "magic casements opening upon faery lands forlorn" of the celebrated Keats ode. For me, at least, "Fabulous - overwhelming power - and other assorted expressions of awe and wonder", indeed!

Yes, the composer's name is Gyorgy Ligeti and he is currently enjoying a bit of a Renaissance. Sony Masterworks started a collection devoted to his music, but stalled after a few volumes. Teldec took over and from the evidence of their disc devoted to the orchestral music, they will do a fine job. This disc contains "Atmospheres", "Lontano", "Apparitions" and "Concert Romanesc" (these last two premiere recordings). The performances and sound are excellent. Now, if only someone would finally record a performance of the REQUIEM worthy of it. I have the old Wergo recording of the complete composition conducted by Gielen and the excerpt recorded by Bour on the 2001 soundtrack; I much prefer the Bour, but there are only a few minutes of it.

Jim

Jim:

I've heard the new recording of which you write, and agree that it sets an excellent standard (although I think that I still prefer the "blurrier" Bour reading of Atmosphereson Wergo). The version of Lontano here is definitive. Like you, I look forward to the recordings of the choral works in this series--not only to Requiem, but also to a fresh reading of Lux Aeterna. As I recall, not only is there some distortion in the Wergo CD version of this piece (I never owned the vinyl, so I don't know whether this is a digital artefact or a flaw in the original recording), but, as I recall, the fortissimo entrance of the choir around the mid-point of the piece is far louder than Ligeti specified in his score.

Speaking of the Requiem, here's a bit of grotesque trivia. I'm a connoisseur of sleazy '70's horror films, and there are few sleazier than 1972's Love Me Deadly. In this charming, Rohmer-esque character study of a female necrophile, there is one scene in which a necro-cult whose ringleader she has met (working out of a funeral home, of course) are stripping a corpse suspended by his arms. All this occurring to the (completely unauthorized, surely) strains of--you guessed it!--the "Kyrie" to Ligeti's Requiem! If Ligeti was litigiously angry over the distortion of his music in 2001, then I can only imagine how he would react if he knew about this.

I agree about both "Atmospheres" and "Lontano", though the Teldec is the best performance of it I have heard since Bour's recording: Abbado's and Bernstein's are just dull. What I like about the new recording of "Lontano" is that the conductor (with plenty of help from the orchestra and the sound engineer) makes the music sound beautiful without in any way falsifying it.

I wish I could put my finger on what is wrong with Gielen's REQUIEM on Wergo---all the notes seem to be there, but little else, as if everyone is sight-reading.

Jim