Running Down the Avant-garde or Into the Hot

In discussions of philosophers of aesthetics one finds disparaging remarks about art journalism, about music journalism especially [when I started in philosophy — in the glorious mid-1960s, at Wayne State University — the footnote phenomenon hadn’t reached its present proportions. The nice thing about bloggin’ is this: one can give a citation and keep on steppin’ (is this a footnote?).]

I have neglected Paul Griffiths two books on modern music and the avant-garde since 1945 and his history of the string quartet [Modern Music: The avant-garde since 1945; Modern Music And After: Directions since 1945; and The String Quartet: A history in my posts. Griffiths has been my guide in all matters concerning (what used to be called) modern music. I recommend Griffiths’ writings to all non-professional music lovers who desire to know and who would like to get straight about the details.

Paul Griffiths' very informative web site is linked under Favorite Web Sites.

I was listening to the Italian composer Franco Donatoni’s [1927 - 2000] exciting com- position that bears the title ”Hot (1989)” per saxophono soprano e sei strumeni. Before listening to Donatoni’s ”Hot” I was listening to Dizzy Gillespie’s ”Manteca Suite” per- formed by his big band with solos by Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet and Lucky Thompson, tenor saxophone. I wondered if Donatoni had Dizzy’s ”Manteca” hovering in the back of his mind when he was committing ”Hot” to paper. I had in mind ”Birth of the Hot”, a glance in Miles’ direction. Both ”Hot” and ”Manteca” are wonderful works.