| Carl,
"Extreme music", to me, is any music which empowers the player to make a personal statement. Jazz and free improv certainly qualify, as do some early baroque musics (far more about style and improv than substance), all romantic music (about the performer and how far (s)he can take it), and difficult to sort out contemporary musics. The Gruber pieces would certainly fall within the latter (!)
A well known example of the above are the 36 Transcendental Etudes of Charlier. There isn't a "right" way to play these terrific little compositions. John Wallace used to describe them as "little crossword puzzles" and the beauty of romantic music is that they can, and in my opinion should, be solved differently each time. They test your ability to take extreme musical chances. Voila!
When you're willing to cross that particular bridge it empowers you to take more chances with the rest, including, perhaps, pieces that take a bit more thought and preparation.
Do any of you have these titles in your repertoire?
Eino Tamberg: Trumpet Concerto
Antoine Tisné: Emotion
Alfred Desenclos: Incantation, Thrčne, et Danse
Giacinto Scelsi: Quattro Pezzi
Toru Takemitsu: Paths
Bernd-Alois Zimmerman: Nobody Knows the Trouble I See
Georg Enescu: Legende
Each is hard (but far from impossible) and asks you to make choices and take risks. There are many, many more to recommend as well.
Fun stuff,
EC |