Links

A list of a select few links to blogs, podcasts, channels or pages that I want to recommend. The descriptions are in the language of what I link to.

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Eine Liste von wenigen ausgewählten Links zu Blogs, Kanäle oder Seiten welche ich empfehlen möchte. Die Beschreibungen sind in der Sprache dessen, was ich verlinke.

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Blogs / Channels / Podcasts

• Brute Reason (Miri Mogilevsky)

A blogger who wrote some of the best posts about mental health that I've seen so far. Also about polyamory, atheism, social justice in general.

• Queersplaining (Callie Wright, Ari Stillman, Eli Dadabhoy)

(Formerly known as The Gaytheist Manifesto, changed name in 2019)

A podcast on the intersection of the atheist community and the LGBTQ*-community, in particular from trans perspectives. It covers a wide variety of topics, but - most importantly - discussions almost always include the people who are actually affected by the thing they are talking about.

• Neuroqueer (blog) / Lian Herzberg (on youtube)

Ein kleiner Channel der Einblick bietet in die Perspektive eines Menschen u.a. mit körperlicher Behinderung. Mir haben vor allem die Videos, wo es über Stimming erzählt, ein Licht aufgehen lassen.

• Aaron Ansuini (on youtube)

A small youtuber who is making short and concise videos about being neurodivergent (ADHD and autism) and being trans-masculine.
Also check out the podcast "My Favourite Podcast", which, despite the cheesy name, is quite good.

• Zinnia Jones / Gender Analysis

A trans blogger, whose articles about trans stuff and its relations to mental health are amongst the most well-researched on the internet. I recommend her as one of the best starting points into trans topics.

• Riley J Dennis (on youtube)

A trans youtuber, whose videos usually contain short compact information that I can recommend as a basic introduction to trans issues. She also makes regular political commentary and sex education videos.

• Alexandra Erin (on Twitter)

Linking a twitter account for the first time... well, I just think that she is one of the best commentators on whatever is going on in US politics.
(Also, I enjoyed over a million words of her fantasy writing and never paid a penny for it, so I can at least promote her.)

• Aurabytes

Surreale Welten: Literarischer Weltenbau. Minimalismus. Ein Blog.

Communities

• Weltenbastlerforum

Deutschsprachige Community von kreativen Menschen, die sich unter anderen über ihre fiktive Welten, Ästhetik, Schreiben, Graphisches, benötigtes Fachwissen oder Methoden austauschen. Die Community umfasst außerdem halbjährige Treffen in einer einigermaßen mittigen Region Deutschlands (regelmäßig seit 2005), sowie lokale Stammtische.

• visiBi*lity austria

Verein für Bi*sexuelle in Österreich. Regelmäßige Treffen in Wien; in anderen Städten hoffentlich auch in Zukunft. Fußgruppe auf der Regenbogenparade.

• Klartraumforum

Deutschsprachige Community von Klarträumer*innen und/oder Menschen, die sich generell mit dem Thema Träume intensiver beschäftigen. Beherbergt sowohl sehr esoterische als auch überhaupt nicht esoterische Leute.

Music Recommendations

Lili Boulanger : Du fond de l'abîme (1917)
Her masterpiece, written over the course of several years. I consider this piece amongst the best choral/orchestral pieces ever written - certainly of her time. That she was able to write this before her too early death at age 24, and during World War I, is a moving testament to what humanity could be.

Lili Boulanger : Vieille prière bouddhique (1914)
This piece was my introduction to Lili Boulanger and therefore has a place in my heart.

Galina Ustvol'skaya : Grand Duet (1959)
It was this piece that started my obsession with Ustvol'skaya´s music. Works like this make it clear why Ustvol'skaya didn't consider her music to be "chamber music" - it is more like a grand symphony condensed into only two instruments, retaining all the impact.
(Note: There are some ridiculously bad recordings of this piece available. For this reason, I specifically recommend the recording by the Barton Workshop, which was endorsed by the composer herself.)

Galina Ustvol'skaya : Piano Sonata No. 2 (1949)
This is the first piece of her in which there is no other metric unit smaller than quarter notes, and indeed almost nothing else. A radical yet precise exercise, providing a catarthic experience.

Galina Ustvol'skaya : Piano Sonata No. 5 (1986)
In an odd way, this piece might be more accessible, because the main narrative is easy to understand: A constant struggle to keep up and insisting on the middle d-flat, despite all the rest of the piece trying to smash it with all kinds of painful methods. Think of a martyr that doesn't ever denounce their belief even when tortured?

Galina Ustvol'skaya : Violin Sonata (1952)
To be honest, I recommend almost all pieces by Ustvol'skaya, but at least I want to point to one more, the Violin Sonata, as another favourite of mine.

Ruth Crawford Seeger : Two Ricercari (1932)
This is, in my opinion, a perfect example how political art songs can work.
"Here is the brush made of study. Here is the soap made of action. Let us all wash with the brush! Let us all press with the iron! Wash! Brush! Dry! Iron! - Then we shall have a clean world." (Text by H.T. Tsiang)

Béla Bartók : The Miraculous Mandarin - Suite (1918-1926)
If someone asks me about my favourite orchestra piece, this is it. I don't care much for what the libretto of the ballet says (and it's racist implications), but the music is both structurally solid and evocative like only few other pieces.

Béla Bartók : String Quartets (1909 - 1939)
Those works are difiicult to get into - at least that was my experience as a teenager - but whenever I return to them, they seem to provide a more wholesome music experience than what others have to offer.
If I'd had to pick a favourite, it would be the String Quartet No. 2 (1917).

Hans Werner Henze : Symphony No. 4 (1955)
Henze wrote a lot of music, some bad, some good, and a few brilliant pieces like this one. The calm quiet dark forest that this music was supposed to depict (in his opera King Stag) just works really well as a stand-alone orchestral piece.

Edgard Varèse : Amériques (1921/1927)
This piece is like fresh air. Wildly imaginative in its time, aggressively noisy with its dominating percussion, and yet strangely reminiscent of impressionist sound in other places.

Igor Stravinsky : The Rite of Spring (1913)
In the unlikely case that you don't know this piece, you would have missed one of the most brilliant and influential orchestral pieces of the 20th century.

Leonard Bernstein : MASS (1971)
While Bernstein remains one of my favourite composers - and has been since my early childhood -  there is not a single work by him to which I can point that I don't have some problem with. MASS is the same - there are some parts in it that are genuinely great, on a level few composers ever reach. Other parts are not - let's leave it at that.

Emily Howell (AI) : Shadow Worlds, IV. Movement (2003)
In order to further diversify this list, I am happy to add a piece by one of the (for now) most famous AI composers. I found this piece and its devilishly tricky rhythm quite addictive.

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I try to keep this list very short. It is not meant to be comprehensive - also I will probably regular blog about music I like, and you will be able to use the label 'music' to find all those posts.

Index - Bloginhalte

Blog Content / Bloginhalte

LGBTQIA+ Begriffsdschungel
Eine Einführung in die gebräuchlichen und weniger gebräuchlichen Begriffe der Queer Communities, aus meiner eigenen Perspektive, aber auch als Versuch, möglichst viele Begriffe hoffentlich akkurat vorzustellen.
Teil 1 - Geschlechter, Geschlechtsidentität
Teil 2 - Orientierungen und Attraktionen
Teil 3 - Und der ganze Rest

related labels: lgbtqia, non-binary, bi, transgender

Texte über Ästhetik / Musikbetrachtungen
Fünf Wege für eine Musik des 21. Jahrhunderts

related labels: aesthetics

The Bible According to Google Translate
A semi-random series of poetry based on translation errors.
The Ten Commandments
Genesis 1, 1-5
Genesis 1, 6-10
Genesis 1, 11-19
Genesis 1, 20-25
Genesis 1, 26-31
Genesis 2, 1-7

related labels: atheist, poetry, random736

Surreale Texte
Kurzgeschichten, Schreibexperimente, ...
Gitarristenkleid (Januar 2019)

label : surreal prose

Music by Jundurg Delphimė
A list of music and musical experiments that you can listen to.
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Eine englisch geführte Liste von Musik und Musikexperimenten die im Internet zum Anhören verfügbar sind.

label : composer

Music by other composers or machines
A list of music I recommend.
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Eine englisch geführte Liste von Musikempfehlungen.

label : music

Languages / Sprachen

This blog contains posts in english, in german, and bilingual posts. If you want to read only posts in one language, use the labels "deutsch" or "english".

label : english

Dieser Blog enthält Posts auf Deutsch, auf Englisch, und solche die zweisprachig geschrieben wurden. Wenn du nur Posts in einer der beiden Sprachen lesen möchtest, verwende die Labels "english" oder "deutsch" respektive.

label : deutsch

(this index is a work in progress)

Music by Delphimė

This post will contain a somewhat organized list of my music that can be found on the internet.

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Instrumental Music

Piano Music

If I have to categorize my piano music, I feel like I have to draw a line that very much resembles the common division between music for entertainment and art music - which I resent, but since my late teenage years, there has been a constantly widening gap between the pieces I consider a serious attempt at creating something new (for me) and those that follow a neo-romantic or neo-classical approach. Mind that the latter is still very much informed by composers of the modern era - Bartók, Debussy, Stravinsky, ...

Darker Piano Music

Early Pieces

Fantasy Music

I lump everything together under this label that is neo-classical, neo-romantic, film-music-like, listener-friendly (ugh, which listener though?), etc.

Youtube-Playlist Fantasy Music
This list should contain every piece in this category I uploaded on youtube, and will be updated regularly.

Gunnerkrigg Chords (2012 - ongoing)
These pieces are a musical hommage to the wonderful webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell. If you haven't read this one, you should!

Note that most of the time, I do not really plan on what specific element of the comic a new piece refers to - I compose first and then decide on a title afterward. Despite this, I think at least in some cases, I captured the mood of the comic to my own satisfaction. Well, my mood reading the comic, anyway.

From a musical standpoint, this series is an experiment in how many individual pieces I can create derived from the same basic elements - eventually deriving from the derivations, and so on, until I am somewhere completely different than where I started.

Diary Entries

These pieces are written intentionally sketch-like, without any indications on tempo or dynamics, and without any indication on how long an individual note is supposed to last. If played as written, they can sound monotonous (which I like for the most part) but there is also plenty of room for different interpretations.

All of these pieces have in common that they are written on a single day - hence the name "diary entries" - although sometimes with later additions and usually some minor changes.

I am experimenting with finding a middle ground between composition and improvisation - while there are some "standard-interpretations" in which I play a piece relatively straight as it's written, they are also intended as a basis for free improvisation.

Diary Entries / Tagebucheinträge # (2015 - ongoing)
In this playlist, I collect all interpretations, whether they are standard or free improvisations. Because it is notoriously hard to find titles for improvisations or individual interpretations, I decided to use some sort of strange code. Note that standard interpretations will usually start with the letter ⱷ. Other than that, it's just going by my own aesthetic instinct. ;-)

TE #1 (2015)

I remember the idea of lines, lines moving through each other, as the core inspiration for this first piece. I wrote it just a few days after my last composition lesson at the end of the semester. (proof again that I work best when left alone )

TE #1 A . »ӽ , TE #1 A . ʎ₪ (2018)
Very free improvisations on the first page of the first piece in the series. Part A is probably the best suited for improvisation (so far), and I'm getting better at divorcing myself from the notated music.

TE #2 (2015)

Experiment in continuing the 'lines' idea of the first entry while using a latgalian folk tune. Originally wasn't meant to be a stand-alone piece. No recording yet - it's not quite so easy to play.

TE #3 (2016)

I wrote #3 shortly before I came out as bi*, and have since associated the central part of the piece with a gesture of opening up and the struggle to get there.

TE #3 . Ʌ (2016)
An early standard-interpretation of the third piece, from when I was barely able to play it.

TE #4 (2017)

This piece was written on the day of the Austrian general election, just after I had gone to vote, but before any results came: Trying to capture a specific moment of political uncertainty, and what the result could mean for me.

TE #4 . ⱷϞϫҁ (2018)
A standard-interpretation.

TE #5 (2017)

Written just before christmas, this piece has a peaceful feel to it - although I really don't tend to feel particularly peaceful at this time of the year.

TE #5 . ⱷɁѦ (2018)

A standard-interpretation.

Other Improvisations

Improvisation 13B (2013)
This is sort of the prelude to the next piece, 13C. It is, as far as I can see, one of my best improvisations.

Improvisation 13C (2013)
This one has a special place in my heart.
It follows a repetitive pattern that is very Ustvolskayan in nature, but it has a lot of tempo changes that were characteristical for a lot of my piano music especially of my late teenage years. One day, I will transcribe this piece - but I doubt I will be able to figure out all the different tempi, so it will probably remain somewhat flexible and improvisation-like anyway.

Improvisation 1802 - March (2018)
This is mostly a dark, cynical piece, but with some hope shining through towards the end. Marches are by nature military music, and this one is particularly violent, but I like the possibilities of a strong contrast, which makes the softer parts even more urgent.

MIDI Music

Omriwg (2009/2010)

the General Midi Random Instruments Sequence (2014/2015)

mid.iary

Electroacoustic Music

Noise / Modified Recordings

Hel (2015) ~ 

Germanic goddess of the underworld. Also, depressive hellspace. Dystopian noise piece made from a piano/voice improvisation recorded with the wrong microphone setting. A piece that happened by accident, but is, in my opinion, genuinely one of the best things I made in 2015.

Algorithmic Music

Sometimes when I feel like I want to dabble into the field of algorithmical composition, I go and continue working on my program AlgoLine which still does not do the one simple task I originally wanted to write it for, but instead does lots of other things, like generating a million notes of MIDI and playing them along with a graphical interface that lets you see roughly what was going on in the algorithm. Well, in theory, at least - as those things get complexer, the visual representation is more just for show.

Early Results

Sinope Algorithm

Newer Stuff