Tracks:

Valse Sentimentale - Clara Rockmore
Oraison - Ens D'Ondes De Montreal
Etude Aux Chemins De Fer - Pierre Schaeffer
Williams Mix - John Cage
Klangstudie II - Herbert Eimert/Robert Beyer
Low Speed - Otto Luening
Dripsody - Hugh Le Caine
Forbidden Planet: Main Title - Louis Barron/Bebe Barron
Elektronische Tanzste: Concertando Rubato - Oskar Sala
Poem Electronique - Edgard Varese
Sine Music (A Swarm Of Butterflies Encountered Over The Ocean) - Richard Maxfield
Apocalypse-Part 2 - Tod Dockstader
Kontakte - James Tenney/William Winant
Wireless Fant - Vladimir Ussachevsky
Philomel - Milton Babbitt
Spacecraft - MEV

Tracks:

Cindy Electronium - Raymond Scott
Pendulum Music - Sonic Youth
Bye Bye Butterfly - Pauline Oliveros
Projection Esemplastic For White Noise - Joji Yuasa
Silver Apples Of The Moon, Part 1 - Morton Subotnick
Rainforest Version 1 - David Tudor
Poppy Nogood - Terry Riley
Boat-Woman-Song - Holger Czukay
Music Promenade - Luc Ferrari
Vibrations Composees: Rosace 3 - Francois Bayle
Mutations - Jean-Claude Risset
Hibiki-Hana-Ma - Iannis Xenakis
Map Of 49's Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals: Drift Study '31/69 c.... - La Monte Young

Tracks:

He Destroyed Her Image - Charles Dodge
Six Fants On A Poem By Thomas Campion: Her Song - Paul Lansky
Appalachian Grove - Laurie Spiegel
En Phase/Hors Phase - Bernard Parmegiani
On The Other Ocean - David Behrman
Stria - John Chowning
Living Sound, Patent Pending Music For Sound-Joined Rooms Series - Maryanne Amacher
Automatic Writing - Robert Ashley
Canti Illuminati - Alvin Curran
Music On A Long Thin Wire - Alvin Lucier
Melange - Klaus Schulze
Before And After Charm (La Notte) - Jon Hassell
Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills) - Brian Eno

Amazon.com

Opening with Clara Rockmore's reworking of Tchaikovsky with the theremin, and finishing with one of Brian Eno's ambient soundscapes, OHM artfully succeeds in its goal of giving a representative (as opposed to the impossible, comprehensive) overview of the first several decades of electronic music. Over 3 discs, 42 compositions, and 96 pages of notes and photos, OHM clearly illustrates the producers' and contributing writers' point that early electronic music is much of the foundation of contemporary music. Herein lies the connective tissue bridging musique concrète, 20th-century classical, electronic experimentation, and the theoretical avant-garde to psychedelia, ambient, dub, techno, electro, and synthpop and the globalization of sound. The groundbreaking uses of loops, sampling, drones, remixes, and cut-and-paste technology are put fully into context. The diversity of music included makes any sort of summation impossible, but that is also the point: electronic music is not really a genre, but an open field of endless possibility. From John Cage's famous "William's Mix" of tape snippets to Karkheinz Stockhausen's electronic orchestral compositions, from David Tudor and Holger Czukay's experiments in unrelated blendings of audio elements to David Behrman's supremely peaceful duet between computers and musicians, the aural renegades on OHM tread where none (save a few of their contemporaries) had gone before. The liner notes convey the incredible amount of hard work and experimentation it took to stitch together many of these pieces in the predigital era. Putting aside the inevitable quibbles about what's missing (much of it due to legal and/or logistical issues), a more complete collection of musical eggheads, eccentrics, and visionaries is hard to imagine. --Carl Hanni

Customer Reviews:

excellent but uncomplete.......2006-11-12

Althought most of the music here is an excellent collection of electronic music history, this 3 CDs lack of the important contribution given by the RAI phonology studios of Milan, Italy in the 50s
(which was bigger than Koln's WDR studios) with Bruno Maderna, Luciano Berio and Luigi Nono.
This is a big mistake. Milans studios were the biggest of europe and produced many important electroacoustic pieces.
If the collection aim to describe faithfully electronic music history, it should include this artists too.

To call it music may be a bit limiting. .......2006-10-24

Some of the tracks on here are "music". That is that they contain all the bits we're trained to experience as music -- melody, etc. Some are not, and the composers would be the first people to tell you that. A lot of these works are reactions to ingrained rules, so they're bound to be jarring.

A more successful way to approach such a broad and varied collection of audio experimentation is to think of it as curated sound. This isn't something to wash the dishes to, or to seduce someone to (although if you did manage to seduce someone with the recordings on this anthology, HOLD ON TO THAT PERSON, because they've got to be a keeper). These are unique sound textures that deserve a close, probably solitary listen, and I think if you're in the right frame of mind, it can be a very rewarding listen.

My main complaint is sequencing: each dicrete piece follows it's own internal logic, so there are more than a couple rough gear changes. However, since each piece is so different, and the collection is so varied, I'm not sure that you could totally escape that.

A worthwhile collection.......2006-01-11

The OHM collection contains some of those ground breaking electronic compositions that have shaped today's styles, from the early electronic instruments of Theremin and Martenot, through Pierre Schaeffer's Music Concrete tape music and the electronic music of Stockhausen and Subotnick, to the mainframe computer output of Risset and Chowning.

It is unfair to mark this collection down due to the production quality and 'musicality' of its contents, to do so would be to staggeringly miss the point of the development of electronic music through the 20th Century. What this collection shows is the ideas behind those at the cutting edge of the genre before many could even conceive of such output. That said it is hard going at points, as experimental music can be.

Highlights for me are no doubt Olivier Messiaen's 'Oraison' on CD 1, David Tudor's 'Rainforest Version 1' on CD 2 and on CD 3 David Behrman's 'On the Other Ocean' and Maryanne Amacher's 'Living sound Patent Pending'.

OhMyGodHowDreadful.......2005-08-15

Ok, this collection is supposed to be early works and, thus not expected to be very sophisticated or polished. But the OHM collection sounds like the first attempt of a spastic cat turned-loose on a Moog keyboard. When it is not boreing, this collection of random and dissonant sounds (I can't call it music) is without any redeeming qualities to make it worth while. Don't get me wrong, I am a long-time fan of Wendy (nie Walter) Carlos and some other real pioneers of electronic music. However, I find that the Ohm collection has no similar qualities and is a major disappointment.

Kid Stockhausen.......2003-01-17

This is required listening for anybody interested in the history of electronic music. Although implicitly aiming for the techno music audience, this audio history is overwhelmingly focused on the classical avant-garde of electro-acoustic composers. The closest you'll get to pop electronica is the Brian Eno track at the end of the third disc. No Kraftwerk, no Moroder, etc. Instead "OHM" manages to point to the continuities between, say, John Cage and artists currently working at the experimental edges of electronica (so-called IDM). It seems to be saying, "You think Kid 606 is visionary? Well check out this Stockhausen track from '59!"

Admittedly, some of the songs are much more interesting to think about than they are to listen to. Some of the early pieces that were made through thosuands of hours of pains-taking tape-splicing could be made today in an afternoon with a digital audio editor and a few effects plug-ins.

Tracks:

Come Ready And See Me
Sweet Suffolk Owl
Waterbird
Anniversaries: For Craig Urquhart - Fred Weldy
On This Wondrous Sea
The Metropolitan Tower
The Strong House
Secret Words
Sugar In The Cane
Night Without Sleep
Fort Tryon Park: September
For My Daughter, Nina - Fred Weldy
Bee! I'm Expecting You
I Never Saw A Moor
Recuerdo
Social Note
Anniversaries: For William Kappel - Fred Weldy
Never More Will The Wind
Dream With Me
Prld I - Fred Weldy
Prld II - Fred Weldy
Prld III - Fred Weldy
Someone To Watch Over Me

Customer Reviews:

AMERICAN SONG RECITAL.......2000-02-17

AMERICAN SONG RECITAL

Channel Classics Records has taken a first-rate initiative in giving winners of important international music competitions the opportunity to record a CD in the "Winning Artists Series." This CD, with fairly unknown American songs, is part of the above series. Other than a piece by Hundley, the remaining 22 songs are based on texts by American writers.

Richard Hundley's songs are beautiful and his compositions true to the texts on which they are based. All the emotions found in the texts are expanded in the compositions to ensure that the story comes through clearly and is not lost in the music. Lori Laitman was specifically asked by Lauren Wagner to compose a song. She chose a text by Sara Teasdale and the CD is worth owning for this song alone: magnificent! Another "plus" to this production is that the source and full text of the songs are in the CD book.

In addition to songs, a number of piano solos have been recorded. Those of Leonard Bernstein are not very well known, but very much worth listening to. He composed these works for friends, relatives and colleagues. They are concise, very complete compositions.

The fact that Lauren Wagner won four important prizes in 1991 is also not surprising. This singer possesses incredible timbre, has a beautiful, controlled voice and sings with incredible ease. Her music is truly a pleasure to hear. Her accompanist Fred Weldy matches her level of skill easily. This CD is definitely a worthwhile addition to your collection.

Tracks:

In Storm And Sunshine
Whip & Spur
Invictus
The Big Cage
Bones Trombone
Them Basses
The Circus Bee
The Screamer
Thunder And Blazes
Robinson's Grand Entree
Circus Days
Bombasto
The Squealer
Rolling Thunder
Bennett's Triumphal
Bravura
Bugles And Drum
Illinois March
Children's March
The Interlochen Bowl
Onward-Upward
Boy Scouts Of America
Americans We
Officer Of The Day
March 'Grandioso'
Second Regiment, Connecticut National Guard March
Mad Major
Guadalcanal March

Average customer rating:

Schumann & Hindemith

Manufacturer: Channel Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000067SB
Release Date: 1998-03-10

Tracks:

Vc Con in a, Op.129: Nicht Zu Schnell
Vc Con in a, Op.129: Langsam
Vc Con in a, Op.129: Sehr Lebhaft
Fant, Op.73: Zart Und Mit Ausdruck
Fant, Op.73: Lebhaft, Leicht
Fant, Op.73: Rasch Und Mit Feuer
3 Stucke, Op.8: Capriccio (Violincello Con Sordino)
3 Stucke, Op.8: Phantasiestuck
3 Stucke, Op.8: Scherzo
5 Stucke Im Volkston, Op.102: Langsam (No.2)
Bonus Track
Bonus Track

Average customer rating:

New American music

Wind in the Channel

Manufacturer: O.O. Discs
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000003D8S
Release Date: 1997-05-13

Customer Reviews:

New American music.......2000-07-16

Stuart Saunders Smith is an American composer of a slightly younger generation(born in 1948) than most well-known composers. He is not wildly famous by any means, but those who know his music quickly become loyal followers. He is particularly well-known among percussionists, mainly because of his series of 11 pieces for vibraphone written over the course of about 20 years called the "Links Series of Vibraphone Essays."

Smith is unique from most other composers these days as he has a deeply emotional style with subject matter usually drawn from his own personal experiences.

The pieces on this CD are cetainly representative of his style and the recordings/performances are wonderful. My only complaint of this CD is the selection of pieces. There are a few pieces such as "Notebook" and "Pinetop" which are slightly less memorable for me than the others. Of course they're by no means bad pieces.

Customer Reviews:

Marvellous cello concertos.......2005-08-28

This is a terrific set of cello recordings, with Pieter Wispelwey as the cellist. The first disc (of four) has the two famous Haydn cello concertos. We're treated to Wispelwey's fine candenzas for all three movements of the D major concerto and the first movement of the C major one. The final movement of the C major is a test for any cellist: can one play it fast and cleanly? Before I heard Wispelwey, my favorite was the recording by du Pre. But I now prefer this recording, which has an unbelievably fast tempo.

The first disc includes an unusual recording of Haydn's final symphony transcribed for flute, piano, and string quartet.

There is a fine selection of cello works on the remaining discs. The most famous ones are the cello concertos by Schumann, Dvorak, and Elgar. But there are also works by Hindemith, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Arensky, Davidov, and Lutoslawski. Throughout, Wispelwey's technique is superb, and I also enjoyed his interpretations and his very lively tempos.

I highly recommend this set of cello works.