The conductor's work

'Folk' Tune 'Arrangements'

Standing on the shoulders of giants such as Bartok or Berio, I recently finished writing an ensemble piece titled Bastard Tunes. The piece was composed with the help of a machine learning system trained on transcriptions of Celtic music. The system produces short melodies that share many characteristics with the style it learned. But, with the possible exception of the fourth Bastard Tune, my piece applies more freedom in the way the system's output is used as compositional material. The piece will be premiered in a concert with other examples of music composed by and with computers.

Purcell What power art thou

The chromatic motion is in the vocal line combined with the pulse to a unique result:

Johannes, Robert and Clara

Tamás Vásáry manages to capture the intimate nature of this music:

Minimal music

But a totally different kind of minimal:

(Thanks to EnsembleXY for introducing me to this piece)

Old and older

Recorded at the cathedral where it was first performed, this performance highlights the spatial dimension of the music (a topical subject but we sometimes forget the long history of sound disposition in spaces):

The string writing is, of course, very effective (score from imslp).

Granados - Goyescas

A recording of Granados performing his own music (in 1916 remastered from piano rolls):

Children's Songs

A set of short pieces from jazz pianist Chick Corea, here is #4:

Humour

Playing with some familiar music

Gesualdo

Some of the most extraordinary music we have with dramatic harmonic shifts:

His life was also rather strange and dramatic.

Monteverdi

Lamento della ninfa from the 8th book of madrigals (performed by La Venexiana):

The text with English translation.

Ravel - Repetition

Ravel's famous Bolero (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra)

Bulgarian choral music

Interesting harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic practice growing out of traditional Bulgarian folk Music. Both video and audio sections (for example listen to excerpts from POLEGNALA E TUDORA PILENTSE PEE or VESELI TRANSKI PESNI the later includes an instrumental section). Also some videos:

implicit knowledge of pentatonic scale

Grieg - Lyric Pieces

Construction of melody - elaboration, variation; phrase structure; use of simple harmony;

And the same melody in a different dress (+ unexpected modulation):

Octave scrambled melody

As Diana Deutsch demonstrated, spreading the notes of a melody across different octaves effects our ability to recognise the melody.

Serialism+

Here is Milton Babbitt's Semi-Simple variations:

 and a jazzed up version of it. The same band also playing some Ligeti.

a 'simple' song

My Funny Valentine

Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time

Messiaen uses interesting approaches to both melody and rhythm particularly clear in movements 5 (starts around 18'20") and 6 (starts around 25'25"). A very good discussion of Messiaen's rhythmic processes can be found in this article:

Julian L. Hook Rhythm in the Music of Messiaen: An Algebraic Study and an Application in the "Turangalîla Symphony"  Music Theory Spectrum , Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring, 1998), pp. 97-120

Melody - flute solo

Two interesting pieces for flute: Debussy Syrinx and Varese Density 21.5 (various recordings available) the scores can be accessed: Syrinx and Density.  Here is a good article examining both pieces with reference to melodic construction and the influence of the earlier piece on Varese's composition. And an interesting discussion of performance interpretation in Density.