Kalvos's Top 100

Damian's Top 100

Kalvos is stranded on a desert island with a doggone good stereo and plenty of power. It's a rather fortuitous stranding, and he gets to take along 100 of his favorite compositions.

Want to know his taste? This is what he likes to hear from the past quarter century or so (I took out some previous must-haves such as the Nancarrow Study 40B, Cowell's The Banshee, Bartók's String Quartet No. 4 ... sigh). Well it's what Kalvos would like to hear this week. (Anything by N.N. und Ähnliche Elemente or Erika Jürgens or any of their personae would also be great, but they're so prolific I can't keep up.)

He'd miss the pop music, of course, and Rite of Spring, and certainly all that marvelous Gesualdo and Ockeghem. Thank goodness he'd never, ever have to hear Mozart or Schubert again (except that Shing Kee is built from some). As life goes on, there's only time for new now. So in this great Golden Age of new music, it's a good thing to forget about Take the A Train, the Brandenburg Concertos, or Paint it Black.

But Kalvos's tastes will change ... if he can get off the island. Oh, and yes, the music on the faves list has all been played at one time or another on the K&D Bazaar but, alas, some aren't commercially available. Search the playlists for details.

Then check out Damian's list. Hah.

This list is updated again on April 25, 1999. Boy is Kalvos fickle. Anyway, some record labels are added for those on the hunt.

Okay, it's been over a year, so we're updated again on August 28, 2000. He's made discoveries and gotten bored.

Wow. Four years gone by? Today is December 12, 2004. Okay, many new pieces I love since too long ago! Maybe this'll have to turn into a Top 250. Now that would be easier!

The First Hundred

John Adams: Harmonielehre
John Luther Adams: Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing. New World 80500-2.
Louis Andriessen: Hout. Low wind version from the composer only.
Christine Baczewska: I Don't Like the Moon. paRiah Records [no number].
Clarence Barlow: Im Januar am Nil. From the composer only.
Clarence Barlow: Orchidiae Ordinariae. From the composer only.
Gary Barwin: Martin's Idea.
Dennis Báthory-Kitsz: Zonule Glaes II. Malted/Media malt9905-2.
Dennis Báthory-Kitsz: Softening Cries. From the composer only.
Marc Battier: transparence. BondAge BRCD9595.
Eve Beglarian: Overstepping. OODiscs OO33
David Behrman: Figure in a Clearing.
Luciano Berio: Sequenza III.
James Bohn: Suites for Toy Piano. From the composer only.
Ross Bolleter: Unfinished Business. Pogus 21021-2.
Anthony Braxton: Composition 40G.
Michael Byron: awakening at the inn of the birds. Cold Blue CB 0012.
Allison Cameron: Raw Sangudo.
Wendy Mae Chambers: Ten Grand. Newport NPD 85553.
Rhys Chatham: An Angel Moves Too Fast to See.
Michel Chion: Sanctus. empreintes DIGITALes IMED 9312 CD.
Charles Coleman: Absolution. Enja Nova ENJ 9394-2.
Ornette Coleman: Lonely Woman.
Nicolas Collins: Broken Light. Trace Elements TE 1019-CD.
John Coltrane: Ascension.
Noah Creshevsky: Jubilate. Private release.
Peter Maxwell Davies: Eight Songs for a Mad King.
Maria de Alvear: En Amor Duro.
Nick Didkovsky: The Twittering Machine. Pogus 21008-2.
Violeta Dinescu: Vortex-Wolken I II III. Symposion ISCL0207.
Charles Dodge: Earth's Magnetic Field.
Judy Dunaway: Champagne in Mexico City. CRI 778.
Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet. Nonesuch 9 79320-2.
Matthew Fields: Sh'mah. MMC 2087.
Furious Pig: I Don't Like Your Face.
Diamanda Galas: Panoptikon.
Philip Glass: Satyagraha.
Daniel Goode: Clarinet Songs. Experimental Intermedia XI 113.
James Grant: Chart - Overture for Orchestra. From the composer only.
David Gunn: Mass of Mercury. From the composer only.
Tom Hamilton: Sebastian's Shadow. monroe street msn60103
Jane Henry: Exuberance (Hat Dance). From the composer only.
Brenda Hutchinson: Eee-yah!. From the composer only.
Arthur Jarvinen: The Vulture's Garden.
Scott Johnson: John Somebody.
Tom Johnson: Failing: A Very Difficult Piece for String Bass. CRI 628.
Ben Johnston: String Quartet No. 3.
Carson Kievman: Sine nomine (autore ignoto). From the composer only.
Phil Kline: Premonition. CRI 801.
Joseph Koykkar: Expressed in Units.
Joan LaBarbara: as lightning comes, in flashes.
Anne La Berge: fixiation. From the composer only.
Elodie Lauten: The Deus Ex Machina Cycle. 4tay 4013.
Mary Jane Leach: Xantippe's Rebuke. Aerial 1994/6.
Mary Jane Leach: O Magna Vasti Creta. New World 80525-2.
Michael Lowenstern: Spasm. New World 80468-2.
Laurel MacDonald: Kyrie. Improbable Music IMACD-01.
Salvatore Martirano: Ballad. New World 80535-2.
John McGuire: A Capella. From the composer only.
Marc Mellits: Polysorbate 60.
Scott L. Miller: Dies Sanctificatus. From the composer only.
Mary Lou Newmark: Canto de Luz. From the composer only.
Pauline Oliveros: A Love Song.
Pauline Oliveros: The Well.
John Oswald: Spectre.
Harry Partch: Delusion of the Fury.
Harry Partch: Eight Hitchhiker's Inscriptions....
Steve Peters: Three Short Stories. Cold Blue CB0018.
Krzysztof Penderecki: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima.
Larry Polansky: B'rey'sheet.
Larry Polansky: Lonesome Road. From the composer only.
Horatiu Radulescu: inner time II.
Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians.
Steve Reich: Tehillim.
Paul H. Reller: Some Good Old-Fashioned Electronic Music. BONK BFM-047.
Terry Riley: Salome Dances for Peace.
George Rochberg: String Quartet No. 3.
Poul Ruders: Tundra.
Frederic Rzewski: Lip Service.
Kaija Saariaho: Du cristal.
Kaija Saariaho: Nymphea.
Linda Catlin Smith: Little Venice. Artifact ART-004 CD.
Linda Catlin Smith: Versailles.
Ann Southam: Re-Tuning.
Laurie Spiegel: Cavis Muris.
Laurie Spiegel: Unseen Worlds. Aesthetic Engineering AE 11001-2.
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Gesang der Jülinge.
Carl Stone: Shing Kee. New Albion NA 049 CD.
Morton Subotnik: Silver Apples of the Moon.
James Tenney: For Ann (Rising).
George Todd: Penny's Dream.
Lois V. Vierk: Manhattan Cascade. CRI 626.
Claude Vivier: Lonely Child.
Erling Wold: A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil. MinMax CD 012.
Julia Wolfe: Four Marys. CRI 671.
Randall Woolf: My Insect Bride and all of Shakedown. CRI 777.
Charles Wuorinen: Time's Encomium.
Iannis Xenakis: Bohor I. EMF CD 003.
Pamela Z: Badagada. Musicworks 76.
Pamela Zero: The Yearning. From the composer only.

The Second Hundred

Including the older ones previously in my Top 100 ... I'd still take 'em along if there was room:

Laurie Anderson: Monkey's Paw.
Robert Ashley: She Was a Visitor. Lovely Music LCD1002.
Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 4.
Eve Beglarian: FlamingO.
Michael Byron: Entrances. Cold Blue CB0002.
John Cage: HPSCHD.
John Cage: Suite for Toy Piano.
Joseph Celli: 8 Mallets Four Brian.
Henry Cowell: The Banshee.
George Crumb: Black Angels.
George Crumb: Ancient Voices of Children.
Nick Didkovsky: Flykiller.
Nick Didkovsky: Meat.
Hamza El Din: Waterwheel.
Morton Feldman: Christian Wolfe in Cambridge.
Daniel S. Godfrey: Intermedio.
Kenneth Gaburo: The Wasting of Lucrecetzia. Pogus 21020-2.
David Gunn: Running Lights. From the composer only.
Hans Werner Henze: Essay on Pigs.
David A. Jaffe: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Drew Krause: Dead Aria.
Robert Kyr: Threefold Vision. New Albion NA 075 CD.
Anne La Berge: revamper. Frog Peak FP004.
Mary Jane Leach: Ariadne's Lament.
Malcolm Lindsay: Solitary Citizen. Classic Productions CP010.
Eric Lyon: Bonko Bonzo.
Charles Mingus: Epitaph.
Conlon Nancarrow: Study No. 40B.
Arvo Pärt: Passio.
Jean Piché: Steal the Thunder.
Richard Povall: Impossible Rags. Frog Peak FP005.
Thomas L. Read: Light After Light.
Terry Riley: Imbas Forasnai.
Poul Ruders: Gong.
Eric Salzman: The Nude Paper Sermon.
Gunther Schuller: Quartet for Doublebasses.
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Gruppen.
Igor Stravinsky: Anthem: The Dove Descending.
William Susman: Twisted Figures. From the composer only.
Yoshihisa Taïra: Hiérophonie V.
Richard Tolenaar: Veil.
Lois V. Vierk: Go Guitars.
Iannis Xenakis: Oresteia.
Frank Zappa: The Perfect Stranger.
Frank Zappa: The Beltway Bandits.