Bob Burnett: there's a blogger somehow connected to Spotify who goes by the name Ulyssestone. Thank you whomever you are. Ulyssestone has a blog titled Spotify Classical Playlists. In addition to the blog, "the U" assembles playlists and compilations. A few to my liking include: John Cage: A Chronological Collection on Spotify, Karlheinz Stockhausen A Chronological Playlist, Aaron Copland: A Complete Chronological Catalog. These are all healthy compilations; the Copland one has 273 tracks and over 20 hours of music plus there's the added bonus that the compilation was specifically arranged in historical order.
The Stockhausen playlist has been very helpful. I've always liked a few of his compositions (Hymnen, Zyklus, Kontackte) but there can be great barren stretches for me in his overall body of work. This 37 track/7 hour compilation has been a very insightful way to discover a wider range of work at the right price; the $10 monthly flat fee. Stockhausen CDs have always been expensive (looks like about $33 for a single disc these days) so the risk factor is greatly increased when experimenting. There's one indispensable Ulyssestone list that I frequently visit titled No Ads For Awhile. It's a compilation of long duration contemporary compositions--88 tracks make for a running time of three days. There's a nice sampling of Morton Feldman (Piano and String Quartet, For Bunita Marcus, Triadic Memories) as well as many more names I
'm consistently drawn to: John Cage, Anthony Braxton, Eliane Radique, Erik Satie (42 Vexations), Phil Niblock, David Tudor (Rainforest--a piece he composed for Merce Cunningham), Iannis Xenakis, Tom Johnson, Pauline Oliveros and Terry Riley just to give a general idea. Since original posting: I just discovered Ulyssestone did an expansive Bob Dylan compilation too.
If you have Spotify I suggest you search Ulyssestone and run through the list of compilations assembled. There are many others that raise curiosity beyond the ones I mention here.
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