Or, how to confuse Spotify and YouTube’s algorithms (sorry, Molly!).
Well, a with a little extra time on my hands, I was able to complete Musicology Duck’s Listen Wider Challenge 2020 in only three months, much sooner than I expected. And two of the pieces I got to hear live (asterisks below).
The prompts:
- A composition of 60 minutes or more in length by a woman or non-binary composer
- *Kate Soper, Here Be Sirens (2014)
- A country song released in the last 6 months
- Ashley McBryde, “One Night Standards” (2019): I like this one a lot
- A chamber piece for 7-12 players written since 1980
- *George Lewis, Mnemosis (2012)
- The cast recording of a musical featuring a queer character
- Tim Acito and Alexander Dinelaris, Zanna, Don’t! (2003): “Fast” is a fun patter song
- A miniature composition under 90 seconds long
- Marc Shaiman and Scott Scott Wittman, “Twenty Seconds” (2020)
- An opera with a libretto by an author of color
- John Adams, June Jordan, I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (1995): I am an Adams fanboy, but this work is not successful. Tin-eared libretto, thin orchestration.
- A track by a Native/First Nations/Indigenous hip-hop artist
- Eekwol & T-Rhyme, “For Women By Women” (2018)
- A work by a student composer
- Tiara Tanka, “Bennu” (2015) for 3 flutes and cello: Tanka is a student in the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music, Northwestern University
- A work from a religious/spiritual tradition other than your own
- “Allah Hoo Allah Hoo,” Al-Haaj Muhammad Owais Raza Qadri
- A composition that won a major award in 2018 or 2019
- Kendrick Lamar, DAMN. (2017): “FEEL.” has whiffs of Bob Dylan, Gil Scott-Heron
- A classic rock album from the 1960s or 1970s you feel like you should have listened to in its entirety by now, but never have
- Traffic, Traffic (1968): left me unsatisfied; its two big songs do better as covers. After Blind Faith, Blind Faith (1969), I realized that a little Steve Winwood goes a long way. So I enjoyed Eric Clapton playing the blues on Cream, Disraeli Gears (1967).
- A piece by a composer from Central or South America
- Roque Cordero, “Sonatina Rítmica” (date?) and “Soliloquio” No.6 (1992)
- A campaign song for each of the opposing candidates in any election, current or historical
- Milton Ager and Jack Yellen, “Happy Days Are Here Again” (1929) vs. “Thank God! We’ve Found the Man” (1940): FDR vs. Willkie
- A composition written when the composer was older than age 80
- Milton Babbitt, “A Gloss on ‘Round Midnight” (2002): which sent me down the rabbit hole of Emanuele Arciuli, ‘Round Midnight: Homage to Thelonious Monk (2011)
- A piece notated using graphic notation
- Hans-Christoph Steiner, “Solitude” (2004)
- An instrumental work from before 1750 written by a woman
- Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, Les pièces de clavessin, “Suite in D minor” (1687); and Elisabetta de Gambarini, Lessons for the Harpsichord, op. 2 (1748)
- A piece specifically for children by a composer or songwriter who usually writes for adults
- Imogen Heap, “The Happy Song” (2019)
- A top hit from the year you were born—from a country other than your own
- Peter Alexander, “Der Mond hält seine Wacht” (1956): wacky backing vocals. Also popular in Germany that year was “Sie heiß Mary Ann,” to the tune of Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons,” but nothing to do with coal mining.
- Two different tracks that sample the same song
- Run-D.M.C., “Run’s House”; and LL Cool J, “The Boomin’ System”: I did not know about James Brown’s “The Funky Drummer.”
- A song sung by two or more siblings
- Fred and Adele Astaire, “Fascinating Rhythm” (1924)
- The soundtrack for a film in a language other than English
- Yann Tiersen, Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)
- An art music composition (broadly defined) that received its premiere in an African country
- Bongani Ndodana-Breen, Three Orchestral Songs on poems by Ingrid Jonker (2015)
- A classical recording from an independent label
- Aheym (2013) ANTI187296-2, Kronos Quartet plays music of Bryce Dessner
- A record by a winning Eurovision Song Contest performer other than their competition song
- Netta, “BEG” and “Nana Banana”
- A protest song by a songwriter who identifies as LGBTQIA+
- “We Stand United” (2016)
- A song or piece written to memorialize victims of a natural disaster
- Tom Rush, “Galveston Flood” (1966)
- A song by an artist currently atop Billboard’s “Social 50” chart
- BTS, “Black Swan” (2020)
- A concerto for tuba, bassoon, or double bass
- Johann Nepomuk Hummel, concerto in F for bassoon (ca. 1805), Mathis Kaspar Stier (bassoon)
- A jazz album recorded since 2015
- Ezra Weiss Big Band, We Limit Not the Truth of God (2019)
- A song written by or from the perspective of an immigrant
- Alexis Torres Machado, “For My Immigrants” (2016)
Mind you, I came by a couple of the recordings via the CD giveaway shelf at work.