almost TMoP: unknown blogger's open letter to JM Coetzee

[Robin Landseadel]

Harrison has written a fair amount of westernized gamelan.
Doesn't really thrill me.

Xenakis is truly scary.

On Nov 24, 2008, at 5:01 PM, Richard Ryan wrote:

> Must confess I don't much about Harrison's work at all.

> A few pieces/recordings you would recommend, LB?
>
> --- On Mon, 11/24/08, Lawrence Bryan <lebryan at speakeasy.net> wrote:
>
>> From: Lawrence Bryan <lebryan at speakeasy.net>
>> Subject: Re: almost TMoP: unknown blogger's open letter to JM Coetzee
>> To: "Robin Landseadel" <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
>> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Date: Monday, November 24, 2008, 7:05 PM
>> Don't know about most of these. There used to be several
>> gamelans in my area but after Lou Harrison died in 2003 - he
>> wrote a fair number of pieces in gamelan style - I
>> haven't heard much from that musical quarter. Japanese
>> drumming, taiko, seems to have taken over here.  Cage is fun
>> to read about, imaginative and, at times, thought provoking.
>> (His absolute zero, 4'33", for example.) I have
>> some albums of both Reich and Reilly. Not favorites but not
>> discarded either. I have nothing by Glass.
>>
>> Lawrence
>>
>> On Nov 23, 2008, at 1:33 PM, Robin Landseadel wrote:
>>
>>> I guess everyone's got that one special type of
>> music that drives them mad,
>>> and for most people that music is by Philip Glass. For
>> this person, after
>>> listening to Alvin Lucier or Balinese dance music, or
>> John Cage or Metallica,
>>> or Xenakis or Anthony Braxton or Ornette Coleman or
>> Buckhead or Skid Roper
>>> & Mojo Nixon, the music of Philip Glass is a balm
>> for the soul.
>>>
>>> You might want to try Steve Reich's "music
>> for 18 musicians" or Terry Reilly's
>>> "in C" before giving up on minimalism and
>> then again you might not.
>>>
>>> On Nov 23, 2008, at 1:01 PM, Richard Ryan wrote:
>>>
>>>> Lawrence, you are a very fine fellow, but
>> you're wagging the dog on
>>>> this one.  The soundtrack of Kundun alone would
>> win Glass a place
>>>> among the immortals...
>>>>
>>>> ------Original Message------
>>>> From: Lawrence Bryan
>>>> Sender: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org
>>>> To: markekohut at yahoo.com
>>>> Cc: pynchon -l
>>>> Sent: Nov 23, 2008 3:49 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: almost TMoP: unknown blogger's
>> open letter to JM Coetzee
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> great??? Yuck. Music that any good computer
>> program could write.
>>>> Repetitive, inane, totally without and redeeming
>> qualities.  As
>>>> interesting as listening to an amplified heart
>> beat.
>>>>
>>>> I've walked out of films with his music
>> drowning out the dialog, so
>>>> dominating all one can think of is the mute
>> button.
>>>>
>>>> But then what do I know? :)
>>>>
>>>> Lawrence
>>>>
>>>> On Nov 23, 2008, at 7:46 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> You probably know by now that the great
>> American composer Philip
>>>>> Glass has written an opera based on your novel
>> Waiting for the
>>>>> Barbarians.......
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>>>>
>>>
>>>