This week, we took music to the max on Ether Game with a show about abundance and excessiveness. Browse below for a symphony of a thousand, an organ of 28 thousand pipes, and more. 

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Concerto in a for Four Harpsichords, BWV 1065 he five-year span between 1735 and 1740 is especially significant to the history of keyboard music. It was during this period that Bach wrote the majority of his works for  keyboard and orchestra, and developed the keyboard concerto into a legitimate musical genre. Many of these works were written for Bach to perform with his sons, and are largely re-workings of early material. However the Concerto in A Minor for 4 Harpsichords is unique in that it is a rare case where Bach did not re-arrange his own work. The piece is actually a transcription  of a concerto for 4 violins composed by Antonio Vivaldi in 1712. Vivaldi still loomed large as one of the premiere composers of Italian music, and is responsible for the three-movement concerto that has become standard today.  

Richard Wagner (1813–1883) GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG: Siegfried's Funeral March When you sit for four days watching the four lengthy operas of Wagner’s daunting Ring Cycle, you expect a pretty epic ending. And in the final scene of Götterdämmerung, Wagner delivers. Siegfried has been killed, and Brünnhilde prepares a funeral pyre for his corpse. As the flames arise, she takes the Ring, mounts her horse, and rides into the fire, destroying the Ring (and herself… and her horse). The Rhine River breaches its banks, extinguishing most of the pyre, and the Rhinemaidens reclaim the Ring. However, the fire is carried up to Valhalla, the temple of the gods, which becomes engulfed in flames and destroyed. During this scene, Wagner reprises many of the cycle’s musical themes, a culmination of everything that’s happened before. For his inspiration, he drew from 11th-century Old Norse epics, and eventually adopted the Old Norse phrase “Twilight of the Gods” for the title of this final opera. The original title, however, was Siegfried's death or in German, Siegfried's Tod.

Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585) Spem In Alium Thomas Tallis’s famous 40-voice motet, “Spem in alium,” employs an extraordinarily large ensemble, and Tallis takes full advantage of the dynamic possibilities presented by his metaphorical “cast of thousands.” The 40 voices are, in the original full score, notated on 40 separate staves. The arrangement of the parts in the original manuscript, which now resides in the British Library, seems to indicate that Tallis intended the voices to be divided into eight separate choirs, with five voices, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass, in each choir. The composer, who was well-known for his contrapuntal prowess, gradually introduces each voice through imitation, one of the most common entrance techniques in Renaissance music; each voice enters by repeating the musical motive that directly precedes it. Through the skillful manipulation of his eight five-voice choirs, Tallis manages to create a slow build until the final grand entrance, when all 40 voices sing in unison. 

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Symphony No. 2 in c 'Resurrection' Gustav Mahler’s day job was as a conductor, so when he composed, he had to do it during the summer, between the typical opera or symphony performance seasons. His second symphony, the most popular of his works during his life until he finished his 8th symphony, took him six summers to complete. Written on the theme of resurrection and his life-long belief in the beauty of the after-life, the forces required for this piece are of biblical proportions: a full orchestra, organ, soprano and alto soloists, mixed chorus, bell tower, and an off-stage brass choir. Mahler originally expected this work to also include a printed narrative that audience members would read as they listened to the work, but ultimately withdrew the idea completely. He indicated that the Finale was a “fervent hope for everlasting, transcendent renewal.” He would later transfer this theme into another of his most popular works, Das Lied von der Erde.

Henry Purcell (1659-1695) Music for Plays & Masques The majority of Purcell’s music for theatre was written during the late Restoration period at the height of English semi-opera, which had been developed to rival French comedy-ballets. In the semi-opera, there is a very clear distinction between episodes of spoken dialogue and episodes of music, singing and dancing, with different performers for each. In Purcell’s works, the musical episodes are often self-contained masques which do little to further the plot. Many semi-operas during this time were being upgraded into what became known as the “Restoration Spectacular.” Spectaculars were extravagant productions using the whole breadth of resources available to a theater. Enormous casts of singers and actors were paired with elaborate scenery, mechanical special effects, acrobatics, aerials and fireworks. 

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) Gruppen (Groups) Karlheinz Stockhausen was a member of a group of composers known as the Darmstadt School. The composers of the Darmstadt School claimed direct stylistic descendance from the Second Viennese School of Schoenberg, Webern and Berg, who used serial techniques to determine the pitches they would put to paper. The Darmstadt School took this approach even further, using serialism to also determine rhythm, dynamics, articulations, durations, and tempo. This work Gruppen, for three orchestras and three conductors, has many levels of predetermined organization. The exact organization of the tempo, for instance, was inspired by the contours of a mountain range in Switzerland. Stockhausen has other music that might also be called excessive. His Helicopter Quartet from 1995 has members of a string quartet perform from four separate helicopters, incorporating the sound of the rotating blades so they are considered instruments in their own right.

Marcel Dupré (1886-1971) Organ Concerto in e, Op. 31 Marcel Dupré was one of the finest organists in the early 20th century. His considerable skill and impressive memory brought him around the world, where he dazzled audiences in Paris and London. When he came to perform in America, it seemed only appropriate that he play the most famous organ in the U.S., the Wanamaker Organ. Named after the department store in Philadelphia where it was located, the Wanamaker organ is the largest fully-functioning organ in the world, consisting of over 28,000 pipes, 400 ranks, and six manuals. While performing on the Wanamaker, Dupré improvised a series of plainsong chants into an imaginative fresco, which he later turned into his Symphonie-Passion. The Wanamaker organ is still in use today at that same department store, now a Macy’s.

Havergal Brian (1876–1972) Symphony No. 1, "The Gothic" The first symphony of British composer Havergal Brian titled “The Gothic,”at one hour and 45 minutes, is one of the longest pieces of music from the symphonic repertoire. It was written over the course of seven years, but its genesis was partly inspired by a conversation with conductor Henry Wood, about older instruments that had fallen out of favor. Brian decided to write a huge symphony that included all of these older instruments—like the basset horn and the oboe d'amore—alongside every other instrument he could think of, like the thunder machine, a full organ, and a scarecrow (which was shaken like a rattle). The title “Gothic” is a reference to the massive expansion of human knowledge that occurred in the Gothic age, roughly the 12th century. Humanity’s achievement in this time is exemplified by the massive Gothic cathedrals known for their intricate craftsmanship and architectural ingenuity.

Dan Deacon (2015) Feel the Lightening Listeners of NPR might have been introduced to Dan Deacon in 2015 when he appeared at the NPR offices for his Tiny Desk Concert with a mechanical piano that he could control from a laptop, and pile of synthesizers, wires and microphones that he spread out on a low table in front of the audience. Deacon’s electronic music is often described as a form of “Maximalism: ” saturated waves of patterns and chords at a high volume, combined with voice modulators that create chords out of his solo voice in real time. Deacon started gaining attention for his live shows while based in Baltimore, Maryland. He prefers to perform surrounded by the audience rather than on stage, and also directs large group dances that he initiates while performing his music. Composed in 2015, Feel the Lightning comes from his most commercially successful album. Glass Riffer, which reached number two on the Dance/electronica billboard charts.