Music for Gray Days

The next question you might ask, after reading the last entry, is "well, what is the proper music for a gray, non-rainy day?"

I like music that is slightly moody, but not given to intense emotionalism. Or I like music that I can sink my teeth into, particularly if it is fairly austere. I often get nostalgic for the pieces that cemented my love for modernist music, particularly the early electronic pieces.

In many ways, this is the time when I want my comfort music. I am in no mood to be charitable to grinning neo-tonalists. I want my brain to be taxed, not my patience.

In no particular order, I present to you my list of music for a gray day:

1. Any string quartet by Anton Webern
2. String Quartet and Piano by Morton Feldman
3. Rothko Chapel by Morton Feldman
4. Te Deum by Arvo Part
5. Any of the early electronic music pieces by Pierre Henry, Pierre Schaeffer, Edgard Varese (particularly Poem Electronique, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Ilhan Mimoroglu (I need to check the spelling on that - don't speak Turkish), John Cage, Iannis Xennakis.
6. Later electronic music pieces by Morton Subotnik, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Laurie Anderson, etc.
7. Various baroque recorder consort music
8. Claudio Monteverdi
9. Choral work by Ligeti
10. Frescobaldi
11. French early baroque chamber music
12. Portuguese and Spanish pre-classical harpsichord music
13. Portuguese guitarradas
14. John Coltrane's Crescent
15. Lou Harrison's harpsichord music
16. Lou Harrison's percussion ensemble music
17. Balinese gamelan
18. Iranian classical music
19. Dino Saluzzi (any of his stuff)
20. Alvin Lucier's Music on a Long Thin Wire
21. John Cage prepared piano pieces.
22. Hyperrationalist chamber music by Stockhausen and Boulez
23. Late Franz Liszt, particularly The Lugubrious Gondola and At the Grave of Richard Wagner
24. L'apres midi d'un faun
25. Gordon Mumma's Megaton for William S. Burroughs
26. Harry Partch, particularly And on the seventh day, petals fell on Petaluma
27. Come Out by Steve Reich
28. Smetana's Ma Vlast
29. Dvorak chamber works
30. Berg's Piano Sonata Op. 1, Lyric Suite and
31. Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire
32. Stravinsky's , Les Noces, and Petrouchka
33. Erik Satie
34. Johnny Cash's American Recordings
35. George Jones (anything, any period, even his decadent stuff)
36. Roger Miller
37. 1920's blues, rags and other string music, for instance, Suzy Thompson's soon to be released CD on Arhoolie, or the Crumb soundtrack, or John Jackson's Country Blues and Ditties.
38. Mance Lipscomb and other rural acoustic blues (again, for the best in this stuff, go to Arhoolie Records)

If you want more information or specific recording recommendations, holler.