Alfred Hill

So, this blog needs updating. And it's exams period! Perfect time for procrastinating.

All I know about Alfred Hill is that he appears in my Music History notes in the ONE lecture we got on Australian composers under the heading "Some composers in the first half of the 20th century". And that's it. Also, that he was born in 1870 and died in 1960.

What it failed to mention is MOUSTACHE MOUSTACHE MOUSTACHE.

YOU. GUYS.

LOOK IT GOES TO TWO POINTS.


Less exciting, more Marshall-Hall-esque, but impressive hair height.


OH WOW. The moustache has points, the hair has impressive height and lustre. How did he do it?

ALL OTHER COMPOSERS GO HOME, THIS ONE HAS FLUFFY HAIR AND A MOUSTACHE THAT COMES TO TWO POINTS AND HE'S POUTING AND LEANING ON HIS HAND IN A PORTRAIT.

That's all.

Thomas Adés

What's that? A NEW SCHUBERT WAS A BABE POST?!?!?!? WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTF!!!!!
This is good news. THE BLOG ISN'T DEAD YET.

Man in question: Thomas Adès.

An English composer and pianist, Grove tells us that "Adès's music shows few signs of direct contact with the rigours of 20th-century constructivism, and he avoids the consistent textural fragmentation and formal disjunction of an Expressionist aesthetic."

STFU he's good-looking NONE OF THAT MATTERS.

Francois Boi(e)ldieu

So, there I was, sitting in my music history class, awkwardly fumbling under my chair for my phone, which I'd dropped for the second time in about ten minutes, and neither my nimble flutey fingers nor Bryza's sharp guitar claws could find the rotten thing, and people kept straggling in late because the lecture theatre is in a side street, like not even IN the uni, and so our lecturer was getting peeved (but in a musicologist kinda way) and it was all madstressballs - and then this pretty picture came up on the screen, and I was like: thankyou.

His name is François-Adrien Boieldieu. Or Boildieu, depending on who you want to believe, my lecturer or Wikipedia. I know, Sophie’s Choice, right?

Anyway, he wrote Opéra Comique, which actually wasn’t generally all that funny. But Wagner liked him, and Berlioz thought he was alright, so that’s all that matters.

He lost his voice completely later in life, which must’ve been absolutely terrible. No real lulz there, huh? And then he died, as all composers do, in relative not-very-wealthy-ness.

But he was pretty in a vaguely boring lecture. Although I will get told that he is not in fact pretty, by people who know these things, or whatever. But I appreciate his mussed up hair, and exasperated yet fully deep facial expression, and also that mad neck tie-up thing. I must learn what that is called.

He is also either clasping a dog or grasping at a couch because he’s just so overwhelmed by the universe, man. I’m ok with either.

Ian Clarke

Subtitle: Musicjuice Got New Repertoire Today, and Subsequently Googled All Composers in Order to Find Babes; Also Felt Guilty About Neglected Blog.

This is Ian Clarke. He's got a bit of "thinking woman's crumpet" about him. You know: Shaun Micallef, Colin Firth, that sort of thing. If he were a tv actor, rather than a modern composer, he'd probably spend a lot of time being photographed in white shirts and manful watches on beaches, with accompanying articles about his singledom and deep thoughts etc. And the interviews would probably be published in The Sunday Age's "Sunday Life" (*spits*) magazine. Like, often.

Anyway: music stuff. He writes pieces with weird alternate fingerings (LOL) etc. So, good for him.

Maryanne Amacher

Voila Maryanne Amacher. She looks pretty reserved, right? Maybe a little uptight? Maybe a little cray-cray?

More on the cray-cray.

But in a good way! In an excellent way. Maryanne made soundscapes - crazy huge houses full of wiring and speakers and all sorts of things that could go wrong. And she spent most of her time in red overalls. And crazy red hair and ace glasses. And she passed away last year. No good way to segue to that after perving on her, really. Sorry for lack of finesse. There's a (possible) leadership spill and stuff tonight.

Yardena Alotin

This woman is a babe. Srsly. This is what I want my hair to look like. Usually, I just look like I've come off a treadmill.

Anyway, enough about me. Alotin was born in Tel-Aviv, and wrote lots of unaccompanied choir stuff. And some other stuff which isn't very interesting. And a flute piece called "Yefei Nof", which apparently is like a total fave of Galway's, and has "become established in the international flute repertory", according to my Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. It was a prize, alright! But anyway: I don't know this piece, so it can't be any good. KIDDING.

ps she's a babe. Nice pattern on shirt as well.

Andreas Traeg

I know nothing about this man. He hasn't even got a wiki. I mean, come on man! I know you've been dead a while and everything, but if you'd created a good enough legacy etc etc.

Well, he wrote a Solo Flute Fantasy in G Major. Not very exciting.

However: HELLO SAILOR. He's just got that look. How marvellous.

Also, bit of trivia: his sash is made out of French watered silk. I know this, because when I was music captain of my inner south eastern suburbs Catholic girls school (yeah, I know right?) we wore blue sashes made out of blue French watered silk, just like that.

You're completely welcome.