[La Mano Gaucha]

I haven't checked AM in a little while, thus my delay in responding.

ProgDirJim:

I will send you an e-mail in a few days re. classical suggestions for AM. I have to think carefully about what repertory to place on the list I would be sending you because the pieces need to be closely related to Prog Rock, important to the history of western music, of the highest quality, and last but not least, not too many in quantity (funds are probably not unlimited and this is after all a Prog Rock station). I also need to select the finest recordings/interpretations of these, so I will need a little bit of time. I appreciate your possitive response very much.

As a side note, I have to agree about the Beethoven 9th -- it's an awesome work, but it really doesn't fit in well with the rest of the repertoire of AM, so it does make sense to remove it from the list.

Everyone else:

Thanx for the responses to my original post. I didn't think that there would be more than three or four, so I'm pleasantly surprised.

Alas, some of you would like to have classical music completely out of AM... I think that that would be limiting, and in the scheme of things, a bit of a mistake. After all, Prog Rock would be unthinkable without that particualr influence. Remember, we're only talking here about the addition of one or two dozen crucial works, not making AM into a classical station. If one were to calculate percentages, the classical pieces I would suggest via e-mail to Jim would almost certainly amount to well below 1% of the total repertory available at AM, even if some of those pieces are of somewhat considerable length. AMs Prog repertory is *massive*. Yes, a few Prog things could still be added here and there, but damn, what a great selection!

Someone mentioned Ligeti in a previous post. One or two works from Ligeti's early maturity would make perfect sense too, so I'm glad that this composer was mentioned. "Atmospheres" and "Lontano", both for large orchestra sans percussion, are dark and highly complex "forerunners" of things like Brian Eno's "On Land", especially the more mysterious and shadowy tracks of side one. Now technically speaking, they are highly different works of art, and their formal processes completely at odds with each other, but the end result is quite similar, generally speaking -- a musical picture (and a very still one) of a very particular and distinct mood. Those two Ligeti pieces are obviously much more developmental and ambitious, but the *surface* similarity is sometimes clear. I think that Eno is much closer to certain minimalist composers from the late sixties and early seventies, such as LaMonte Young, Charlemagne Palestine and early Reich, but the "atmosphereness" of Eno is quite related to the Ligeti of that period. Come to think of it, the third of Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 (Colors: Summer Morning by a Lake, Op. 16, No. 3) is very close indeed to the more "inward" pieces of Eno.

Anyhow, the whole thing seems like an interesting possibility for AM, so I'll be sending that e-mail soon. Perhaps some relevant jewels can be added to the request list...

Also, I would love to host a show, but even if the folks that run AM invited me to do so, I wouldn't be able to do it. I'm currently living in China and the vast majority of my recordings are on the other side of the world! Thanx for the vote of confidence though!

cheers,

LMG