Sunday Classics: We've got some mystery music, but you can solve the mystery with the click of a mouse

by Ken

My first impulse, when I decided to present this particular group of excerpts, was to make it a "Mystery Music Quiz." Of course I know that nobody but me would care, which kind of takes the fun out of it.

Then it occurred to me that we can kind of have our mystery and eat it. So here are the four excerpts -- [B] and [C] being quite short, and [A] and [B] not that much longer -- in "mystery" form, but all you have to do is click through to the link at the bottom, where all is revealed.

[A]

[B]

[C]

[D]


IN FAIRNESS, I HAVE TO SAY . . .

that if we were playing guess-the-music (kind of pointless now, I guess), I doubt that I would get more than one of the four. That would be [D], of course, and it's a long way from being one of my favorite pieces of music. As many times as I've listened to the darned thing, trying my darnedest to get some sort of message from it, I'm still not entirely persuaded that it is a piece of music, as opposed to a collection of notes artfully arranged to seem like one. (However, I know, or at any rate have heard tell of, people who veritably swoon over this piece.) For what it's worth, this is by a good margin the most nearly persuasive performance I've heard. If you know the piece, I think you may be surprised to learn who's responsible for the performance.)

Actually, I'm becoming quite fond of [A], though. I think this is a piece we might like to hear more often. [B] is kind of catchy too, don't you think? All 1:03 of it. And that's the problem -- i.e., what comes after it.


NOW, TO LISTEN TO OUR EXCERPTS
WITH FULL IDENTIFICATIONS --

Click here.


AND IN TOMORROW NIGHT'S PREVIEW --

We'll hear more of, er, the sort of thing we heard in tonight's preview, and then a bunch more in Sunday's main post.


OF COURSE IF YOU'D LIKE TO PLAY ALONG --

Then don't click through, and wait for tomorrow night's preview, when the music will be such a dead giveaway that think how smart you'll feel for identifying it!

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