Quarta-feira 28 Nov 2007, 7h:40

Well, if you take a look, even a not very close one, just at the surface so to speak, through users' journals and group discussions etc, you will discover that there seems to be one thing that nearly everyone does, did or surely soon will do: Questionnaires. Any version of a music quiz asking questions like "where did you hear band X for the first time" or "what's your favourite song by artist Y" etc.

I always refused making something like that. On the one hand because it is only to help people to represent their taste as fast as possible, and on the other hand because the questions are just coincidental… "Of course they are", one could say, but nevertheless I would think the whole affair to be more meaningful if I would consider myself, concerning which group or which artist I would like to ask which question…
The other important reason for me not to make it was the fact that my whole profile wasn't really representative for my musical preferences. My hearing habits are characterized by the fact that they are divided into large phases, each particular one of which arises again and again in arbitrary order.

There are a few artist though who emerge independent from any phase, and although they are perhaps not led completely above in my ranking list they are nevertheless among my absolute favourites. Maria Callas must be mentionned first - her raisedness cannot be doubted. Her dramatic coloratura soprano, her bel canto technique is just divine. She had the deepest comprehension of the classical Italian style, the most musical instincts and the most intelligent approach, coupled with exceptional dramatic powers. Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows is another one, created by a very special person I discovered when I was fourteen and adore her since then. Anna-Varney's music is mostly tagged as "darkwave" or "medieval", and both are just lousy misinterpretations. I think the best categorisation will always be "chamber music", despite the classical connotation.

As I had scrobbeled the first 10.000 titles my top artists list consisted almost exclusively of composers of contemporary classical music - completely specifically expressed: Film music/scores. Long live the glorious Michael Nyman I could say, and I think there's nothing more to say about him (although lots of people only seem to know him for his music for "The Piano", and although this is truly a very beautiful piece of music I really get pissed off as so much of his better works are simply unknown to most of the people who aren't into this whole soundtrack thing). Then there's Philip Glass, another one whose music is described as minimalistic. I love and adore him since I first saw "The Hours", which is now one of my absolute top three films of all times because… - well, I can't say, but I just have to cry unrestrainedly when I watch it. A few days ago I rediscovered "A Descent into the Maelström", it's wonderful and I am happy that I found it again.
I also must mention the more classical film music composers, those like Maurice Jarre, Jerry Goldsmith and John Barry, especially these three form the great trias for me. It's just impossible to not love Jarre for "Doctor Zhivago" or "Lawrence of Arabia", as it is the same with Barry for "Zulu", "A Lion in Winter", "Out of Africa" or "Mister Moses". (It's a little bit hard for me to admit though that I dont like his musics for the whole 007 thing… Maybe I better should commit suicide now or be silent for ever and listen to some Britney or the man with the 50 in his name…) Mister Goldsmith made such great music for "Legend", a film best known for a half-naked Tom Cruise playing his first role as Jack and the wonderful Tim Frank'n'Curry as the Lord of Darkness with enormous horns and hoofs. What I like the most though is "The Mummy". The film itself is terribly stupid and I hate Brendan Fraser (what was the name of the woman? Rachel whatever…), but the music is really fascinating.
Then there is Zbigniew Preisner! What a great artist! Since I first saw - and heard - his work for the "Trois Couleurs" trilogy I'm addicted to his dreamlike melodies. His "Requiem for my friend" as well as his "Dekalog" series are stunningly beautiful. Danny Elfman - Hm, everyone knows him for his cooperations with Tim Burton (which are great, of course), but I like "Black Beauty" the most though.
Who else should be mentionned here? Ah, yes, Richard Robbins. He made wonderful music for most of the Merchant Ivory Productions films and was nominated for the Oscar two times for "Howard's End" and "Remains Of The Day". I fist heard of him when I saw "A Room With A View", the film debut of Helena Bonham-Carter when she was nineteen (I think). Although "Howard's End" was finished one year before "Remains…" I saw the second one first - and was doomed without hope the minute it began. I searched for this PHANTASTIC score more than six years, and just a few weeks ago I was presented with it by a lovely friend. I also have to write something about Angelo Badalamenti though I don't appreciate his work for David Lynch as much as I probably should. But "A Verly Long Engagement" is one of my most loved filmmusic works ever.
I really don't want to ignore the others, Dario Marianelli, Patrick Doyle or James Horner for example, but this whole thing will become just too long.

As I reached the 20,000 border again another phase ended. In its process I listened to a large extent of music which is generally entitled with the term "Gothic" - although I would not use this one to describe it as it is much too generalizing.
I would prefer the more specific descritptions like neoclassic and neomedieval for those bands and ensembles which are anxious to interpret authentical music pieces of a certain culture-historical period without straining the singularity by combining it with some kind of rock music (for example by using original instruments)…
Many of these groups (like Sarband, Estampie or Kalenda Maya) play and sing early music seriously, far from some modern Pop culture, and they are often internationally recognized cooperative projects of excellent reputation - nevertheless they are heard by many people who lump them together with groups such as Helium Vola (those to despise are not, although they make sometimes even Disco Pop, but with medieval texts…), Corvus Corax or In Extremo (and I especially just abhor the last one - and nearly all of their comrades…) etc.
What is very special about the ensemble Sarband, and what I like most about them deapite their music, is for example the fact that musicians from different countries like Bulgaria, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Sweden, Great Britain, Italy and Germany perform together. They have an enormous Early Music repertoire and interpret European historically informed performances combined Mediterranean traditions, especially concerning the Ottoman Empire, as it stands as an ideal of a culturally developed, tolerant political unity of many different peoples and religions.
Kalenda Maya were very special as they played, among other styles of course, Skandinavian Medieval music. They recorded a wonderful album with ballads from Norway, which have been passed on only through oral tradition and which were just recently transcribed.
There are a lot of other bands or projects worth mentioning, although most of them don't reproduce authentically historical music - but they make beautiful neoclassical folk: Ordo Equitum Solis, the female lead-singer of which formed Trobar de Morte after OES had disbanded, or Arcana, Corde Oblique, The Moon and the Nightspirit, Camerata Mediolanense, which are quite similar to Ataraxia sometimes (and not only because Francesca Niccoli sang on one of their CDs)… Perhaps I should write an extra entry especially for my favourite neoclassical bands, I think that would make the whole thing much more clear.
Then there are a lot of bands which music is best described as semi-classical darkfolk, apocalyptic folk, neofolk (although I find especially the last one very misleading), such bands like Death in June, Gaë Bolg and the Church of Fand, Sol Invictus, Triarii or The Moon lay hidden beneath a Cloud, who are all more or less politically controvers as they are often interpreted as to be right-winged.
It's obvious that I am one of those people who absolutely love female vocalists - but what does that express? Alas, this really strange tag could describe anything from Marlene Dietrich to Diamanda Galás. (Both of which I absolutely adore.) But I use it nevertheless, and I have actually no idea why… There're women to be found in my charts like Lisa Gerrard, Loreena McKennitt, Monica Richards, leadsinger of Faith and the Muse, Zarah Leander, the wonderful Soeur Marie Keyrouz - a French nun from Lebanon singing beautiful oriental cantiques comparable to Azam Ali, who also makes sacred music sometimes - and, to come to an end, Nico. Most of the bands I listen to are also female fronted, such as Dead Can Dance, The Creatures and Stoa were or Qntal are. The male voices? Hm, only the neofolk bands seem to be able to enchanrt me with them…

So, now as I just reached the 30.000, is there something to add? The wonderful and lovely Emily Loizeau entered my lists, though she can't be seen yet - I will change that soon. So we have modern pop chansons "de la nouvelle scene francaise". Two months ago I became acquainted with The Raga Dolls Salon Orchestra, a very good ensemble from one of Australia's main cities with which I was surprisingly presented. Then I discovered the phantastic Meredith Monk a few days ago, also with a little help from the other end of the world. One just cannot have enough avantgarde, especially when it is such wonderful performance-art… Oh, and, of course, Antony and the Johnsons, what a wonderful band to be found while listening to some group-tag radio-station…
There's still just few classic to find other than Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi and Henry Purcell, so I think I should listen to a little bit more composers - of all the different periods which are interesting for me:

- Medieval, especially the Ars antiqua (Petrus de Cruce and W. de Wycombe) and the Ars nova (Guillaume de Machaut), though I like the Trecento too…
- Renaissance (Guillaume Dufay from Burgund; Robert Parsons and Thomas Campion from England; Pierre de La Rue, Orlande de Lassus and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck from the Franco-Flemish School; Claude Le Jeune and Joachim Thibault de Courville from France; Hieronymus Praetorius from Germany; Giulio Cesare Martinengo, Alfonso Fontanelli, Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi and Giovanni Maria Nanino from Italy)
- Baroque (Girolamo Frescobaldi, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marc Antoine Charpentier, Jean-Philipe Rameau, Domenico Scarlatti, Baldassare Galuppi, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - to name just a few, as the Baroque is my favourite musical period…)
- Classical (Early era (born 1710-1730): Christoph Willibald Gluck, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz and Giuseppe Sarti. Middle era (born 1730-1750): Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Michael Haydn and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger. Late era (born 1750-1770): Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, Joseph Martin Kraus, Luigi Cherubini, Franz Xaver Süßmayr)
- Classical/Romantic transition (Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Niccolò Paganini, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Gaetano Donizetti)
- Romantic (Early era (born 1800-1820): Hector Berlioz, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, Giuseppe Verdi, Jacques Offenbach. Middle era (born 1820-1840): Bedřich Smetana, Amilcare Ponchielli, Camille Saint-Saëns, Georges Bizet. Late era (born 1840-1860): Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Antonín Dvořák, Jules Massenet, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Gabriel Urbain Fauré, John Philip Sousa, Giacomo Puccini, Ruggiero Leoncavallo)

And then there's also THE 20TH CENTURY!
But I think I should - and will - list those composers later…

So is this whole profile sufficiently representative now? Well, at least I guess it is…