VOTD 5/12/2023

 Leo Ornstein: Danse Sauvage-Early Piano Music of Leo Ornstein (Orion)

Purchased at Jerry's Records from the Duquesne University collection

I had a CD on hat Art titled The Bad Boys, a collection of piano works by George Antheil, Henry Cowell, and Leo Ornstein. I lent that and an LP of Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky playing two piano works by Ligeti and Zimmermann to a co-worker at CAPA. As might you have guessed, I never saw them again. Don't lend your stuff out.

Here's another one of my Duquesne U $3 bin buys. Again, the vinyl sounds unplayed. I've posed the question multiple times here, do people still play this composer's works? My guess is in this case, probably yes. For all his cluster voices, extended and polytonal harmonies, the works probably make more "sense" to the current ear than when these are composed. 

I had to do some research and spent a lot of time in issues of Musical Review (I think that was the name of the magazine) from the pre- through the post- WWI era, the period of these works. Ornstein's name came up multiple times. There was Ornstein the composer, described as a "musical futurist", not a compliment. Or begrudgingly: I think I remember "the best of the musical futurists" being written. But there was also Leo Ornstein the concert pianist, an up-and-comer in the scene. Add to that, Ornstein being wealthy and supporting concert series and possibly the magazine itself (there were ads he'd bought), and you can see even then how money influences what was written.

----

I continue to post to this blog, I don't know how much longer. I'm fearing it's largely a waste of time, but if so it's still a better wasting of time than sitting and watching TV. I've kept a running list of the artists I have written about here. It skews heavily on the so-called classical side, which has a lot to do with the recent cheap purchases I've been making at Jerry's. I'll keep at this for a while before I decide if I want to move on.