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"The Worst Piece Of Classical Music Ever Written"

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Gauk
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« Reply #15 on: April 03, 2013, 08:14:38 am »

Writing the Worst Piece Of Music In The World would require persistence, application, and a determined approach!  ;)  Something that was merely unplayable would not be sufficient :)  There are, after all, many pieces like that!

OK, but my point is, supposing you tried to write the worst piece. How would you set about it, and how would you know if you had succeeded? Unless we can describe that, we don't really know what "worst" means. (This is very Popperian!)
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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #16 on: April 03, 2013, 08:54:39 am »

Unless we can describe that, we don't really know what "worst" means. (This is very Popperian!)

I'm not sure that we aren't putting the cart before the horse? :)

Do you believe there might be putatively worse music than has already been written? 

Shouldn't they be trying to compose bad music that meets the criteria we recognise as 'bad'?  Or do you believe that a certain degree of experimentation might eventually produce music that is objectively 'worse' than anything currently known?  ;)

I am strangely prompted to think of Vogon Poetry in this regard...
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Gauk
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« Reply #17 on: April 03, 2013, 06:24:49 pm »

Do you believe there might be putatively worse music than has already been written? 

I don't know, because no-one has defined a standard by which "worst" can be assessed. Unless someone can define what is meant by "the worst piece of music", then no-one can meaningfully nominate a possible candidate. If it is possible to write a worse piece than any previously composed, how would we recognise it as such?
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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #18 on: April 03, 2013, 06:56:01 pm »


I don't know, because no-one has defined a standard by which "worst" can be assessed. Unless someone can define what is meant by "the worst piece of music", then no-one can meaningfully nominate a possible candidate. If it is possible to write a worse piece than any previously composed, how would we recognise it as such?

Thankfully the rich diversity of criteria and example by which bad music may descend to the depths of 'worst' is so broad, that there is scope for the truly talentless to keep putting out execrable drivel for many centuries to come ;)
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Jolly Roger
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« Reply #19 on: April 04, 2013, 02:50:17 pm »

a solo concerto on one note would probably suffice..John Cage might have an interest..
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Gauk
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« Reply #20 on: April 05, 2013, 11:08:40 am »

a solo concerto on one note would probably suffice..John Cage might have an interest..

Oh that exists! I have seen a score for a concerto for solo vuvuzela.
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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #21 on: April 05, 2013, 01:29:33 pm »

Oh that exists! I have seen a score for a concerto for solo vuvuzela.

Purcell: Fantasia Upon One Note
(score, IMSLP)
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Gauk
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« Reply #22 on: April 05, 2013, 05:19:08 pm »

I think a good way to approach this topic is to look at what great composers have done when deliberately trying to write bad music. The best example is Mozart's Musical Joke, where he tries to parody a bad composer of his day. It always amuses me when the finale of that piece is used e.g. for TV theme music as if it was intended to be good music, when in fact it is Mozart's attempt to write something incredibly trite and stupid.

Two other examples are Britten's parody of bad opera in A Midsummer Night's Dream (which must be some the laugh-out-loud funniest music ever written), and Nielsen's 6th Symphony, though Nielsen is rather poor as a parodist, and I'm rather sorry he did that.
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Christo
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... an opening of those magic casements ...


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« Reply #23 on: April 09, 2013, 10:50:36 am »

and Nielsen's 6th Symphony, though Nielsen is rather poor as a parodist, and I'm rather sorry he did that.

 8)
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… music is not only an `entertainment’, nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.  RVW, 1948
Jolly Roger
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« Reply #24 on: April 13, 2013, 01:33:49 am »

I suspect that if someone wrote the most awful piece they could create, in these amorphous days someone would claim it to be marvellously creative..very unique..pioneering..and the like.
And I suspect that a rational review of a few pieces by some more "adventurous" composers (who shall remain nameless) would reveal that they had that intent in mind.
I am also reminded of what happpened to Stravinsky's critics at the premier of The Rite of Spring and the resulting phobia of being branded a conservative at every similar concert thereafter. There were other premieres where conservatives had sound judgement as                                                                                                                              the music was abhorrent, but those events were of little consequence. But hopefully, a sense of balance between the two extremes will result.
There must be more to great music than just being "diverse".
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Gauk
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« Reply #25 on: April 13, 2013, 07:45:34 am »

I was thinking that it might well be acclaimed as a piece of conceptual art. Probably, to achieve true awfulness, you have to aim high - way above the imits of your talent. If you imagine the village composer satirised by Mozart, and imagined that he attempted to write a sequel to Beethoven's 9th, then you might be getting close.
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Jolly Roger
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« Reply #26 on: April 13, 2013, 07:18:39 pm »

One of the most sour pieces of music I have heard was this one from Latvian Radio
It is really something everyone should hear:

Dubrovajs,Laszlo 1943 - Concerto for two tubas (2008)
Roland Sentpali,Robert Vida(tubas),the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orch,Imre Kolar
The Hungarian Radio April 6th studio in Budapest
Latvijas Radio 3 - Klasika, 2009.5.augusts

I have never heard agonizing sounds like this and had no idea a tuba could make them.
Actually, the piece is compelling in a very strange way.
I felt it was appropriate music for the Obama Inauguration
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kyjo
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« Reply #27 on: April 13, 2013, 10:32:26 pm »

I felt it was appropriate music for the Obama Inauguration

 ;D ;D ;D
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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #28 on: April 14, 2013, 05:00:31 pm »

I felt it was appropriate music for the Obama Inauguration


 ;)
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tapiola
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« Reply #29 on: April 14, 2013, 05:14:29 pm »

Jolly Roger, I hope that was some sort of sarcasm.   :(
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