New Music reBlog: April 2007 Archives

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April 30, 2007

The genteel powerhouse

It takes real guts (among other things) to program Pierre Boulez's Second Piano Sonata at the end of a concert, but Maurizio Pollini has guts and much more at his disposal. At yesterday's astonishing Carnegie Hall recital, he seemed even more vibrant than when I last saw him, in October of 2004. And after the Boulez, with a clamorous audience raining down whistles, bravos and applause, he had the stamina for five encores -- not bad for someone who turned sixty-five last January.

Originally posted by bhodgesnyc from Monotonous Forest, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)

Mario Davidovsky, "String Trio" (1982)

Originally posted by jodru from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jodru on Apr 30, 2007 at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)

Paul Hindemith, "Consolation of Mary"

Continued Notes From GSC Recordings GSC 7:

Das Marienleben, XII "Consolation of Mary"

PEGGY BONINI has had a varied career as a singer in concert, opera, musical comedy, and oratorio, and as an actress in the legitimate theatre. She was a principal singer with the New York City Opera company for several reasons. Her versatile vocal talent has allowed her to sing a variety of roles, from Susanna in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, to the title role in Bizet's Carmen.

Originally posted by jodru from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jodru on Apr 30, 2007 at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)

The Styrenes, "In C"

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.

The legendary Cleveland band takes on Terry Riley.

Originally posted by jodru from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jodru on Apr 30, 2007 at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)

World Premiere of Elodie Lauten Ecocity Part of May 2 American Festival of Microtonal Music MicroFest 2007 Performance at Bowery Poetry Club, New York City

The World Premiere performance of Ecocity by New York composer Elodie Lauten will be given on Wednesday, May 2 – 10:00 PM at the Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery at Bleeker Street in Manhattan as part of the American Festival of Microtonal Music’s MicroFest 2007.

Ecocity for wind quintet and two percussionists is about listening to the sound of the city like an ecosystem made of animals, people and machines. Birds, traffic sounds and the pulse of New York life inspired this piece, scored for the AFMM orchestra with subtle, ear-friendly chordings and temperaments in Werckmeister and Just Intonation. This is an AFMM commission.

The premiere will be performed by: Jennifer Grim, flute; Hideaki Aomori, clarinet; Ron Kozak, oboe; Johnny Reinhard, bassoon; Rheagan Osteen, horn; Christine Bard, timpani & drums; Mustafa Ahmed, percussion.

Also on the evening’s program are Johnny Reinhard’s Imprimatur featuring Dave Taylor, bass trombone; Joseph Pehrson’s Black Jack for wind quintet; and Kyle Gann’s The Day (Revisited) for flute, clarinet, electric bass and synthesizer.

Admission to this concert is $10. For more information, please call the American Festival of Microtonal Music at (212) 517-3550 or visit them online at http://www.afmm.org/.

Composer/keyboardist/producer Elodie Lauten (http://www.elodielauten.net) has been described as a pioneer of post-minimalism, and a force on the new music scene. More than two dozen recordings of her music have been released on 10 labels. Lauten has received several major awards and performances at many major venues in New York and Paris, including the Lincoln Center Festival, the New York City Opera, the Whitney Museum, The Kitchen, the World Music Institute, the SEM Ensemble and the Paris Museum of Modern Art. Lauten’s Symphony 2001, was premiered in February 2003 by the SEM Orchestra in New York. Read her lively Music Underground blog at http://www.sequenza21.com/lauten.html.

Originally posted by s21concerts from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 08:02 PM | Comments (0)

A Sliver of Rehearsal Time Can Go a Long Way

I recently asked a chamber ensemble if it would be possible to take five minutes to read through one of my student's pieces; instead of doing it behind closed doors, the group offered to do the reading as part of a public rehearsal/workshop.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)

Various Artists - Electronica Unplugged 1 & 2

Electronica Unplugged from the Aerotone netlabel is described as “a collection of nearly acoustic tunes only influenced by electronica”. The key word is “nearly” as all of the tracks use electronic background or mild enhancement in some way. Nonetheless, acoustic instruments are center stage on this album of gentle melodies hovering in the areas of ambient, neo-folk, and new age.

All ten artists featured on the first compilation have something worthwhile to say. The starting track by Winterpark has a icy beauty to its sparse keyboard and soft cherubic chorale backing. Leander’s “Directions” offers a fragile vocal aided by guitar and ryhtmic glitches. Bersarin Quartett’s “St. Peterburg” is aptly titled as it evokes a Classical atmosphere at the beginning until the electronics phases in. The track has a feeling not unlike the chill of a Russian winter. “Dawn and Echoes” is a good introduction to Cantaloup”s masterful blending of electro-acoustic elements and voice. Akira Kosamura’s ” Drop” is the most minimalist of efforts with simple piano lines acompanied by water drop effects. The final track by Virculum is a gentle jazz excursion with a superlative bass solo. Other tracks by The Banjo Consorsium, Arturo en el Barco, Roll Film, Teamforest round out the compilation.

The second collection offers more of the beautiful same. Of the ten artists, only the Bersarin Quartett is a repeat. Again, they are all good but I especially like the contributions by Crepusculum, My First Trumpet, Sepia Hours, and Aoyoma. While these two albums may not be totally unplugged they still make for an enjoyable listen and a nice introduction to some promising artists.

Electronica Unplugged is available as a full album zip or separate tracks in 192kbps MP3. Electronica Unplugged 2 comes in 256kbps MP3.

Download
Electronica Unplugged
Electronica Unplugged 2

Originally posted by freealbums from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)

Mstislav Rostropovich: 1927-2007: Gifted cellist and conductor championed human rights

Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/28/2007

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)

Dreams of night, lost in shade

The admittedly parochial thing that always amazed me about Mstislav Rostropovich, who died today, was that, even if he had never picked up a cello or a baton, he probably could have still been world-famous as an accompanist. As it was, he only ever really showed this talent in recitals with his wife, the formidable soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. The pair premiered a number of works written for them, including a personal enthusiasm, Benjamin Britten's Pushkin cycle The Poet's Echo—which I continually, and so far unsuccessfully, have attempted to foist on many a singer. (They also started their own foundation dedicated to improving the health and plight of children in the former Soviet Union.) Here's the pair performing the "Elegy" from Mussorgsky's Sunless.

Dreams of night are lost in shadow.
Through heaven's misty clouds,
A pale, lonely star keeps watch over the earth,
While far below, in the distant valley,
The tiny bells of roaming sheep sadly echo.

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)

The Song Is You

Gil Alterovitz, a research fellow at the Harvard Medical School, has devised a way of musically representing genetic sequences. Alterovitz hopes to use the technique as a real-time health monitoring tool. As reported in the Harvard Crimson, Alterovitz presented some of the tunes as part of the Cambridge Science Festival last week:

While showing protein structures on a screen, Alterovitz played the compositions made when he matched up certain instruments to protein structures, creating harmonious melodies for healthy patients and atonal ones for sickly ones.

Now, is that really accurate? Every time I've watched a consumptive perish on the operatic stage, it's always been to the accompaniment of ringing triads. (Although all those "classical music is dying" types will probably accuse Alterovitz of swiping their diagnostic tool.) On the other hand, I do like the idea of a hospital ringing with the cacophony of hundreds of genomic melodies in Cagean counterpoint.

Alterovitz may end up with a hit on his hands, according to this report:

By turning the components of genetic and proteomic data into musical notes, he was able to represent biological networks such as gene regulation and protein interaction in a way that sounded exciting to a broad audience of all ages.

Hey, if he can make proteomic data sound exciting to any age group, the sky's the limit.

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)

A day, made

For one reason or another, this was one of those days when nothing quite went right, except discovering this by Tim Rutherford-Johnson, of The Rambler:

I love this post on “The Edge of the Beat” by Daniel Wolf: it just reads like exemplary, thoughtful blogging to me - it’s about nothing and everything, compact philosophy to keep the imagination ticking over, and loaded with astute observations.

The oddest thing about writing -- words or music -- is that response is entirely unpredictable. The items worked on most often drop like a lead balloon, uncommented, while other items, tossed together with half-a-thought go on to have substantial half-lives of response and controversy. Maybe this, learning to live with this arbitrary indifference, is the hardest part about being a composer or a writer or an artist of any other sort. But you get a few words like these once in a while and all is forgotten: Isn't life grand?

Perhaps it's time to rest on these bloggéd laurels and devote myself instead to cooking, croquet, and composing some Péchés de vieillesse.

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)

Piled higher and deeper

It used to be the case that a Master's degree, MA or MFA or MMus, was the standard terminal degree for composers. Then, sometime in the late sixties, US institutions started more widely offering doctorates in composition (PhDs or DMAs); without much public ado, that has become the de facto terminal level and doctoral programs in composition continue to open and grow. There are a number of reasons for this development -- on the input level, due to a perception that undergraduates are less well prepared than in the past, but also because a PhD program creates prestige, more interesting course loads for the professorate, and a supply of cheap teaching and research assistants. The big downside of this development is, of course, that there is no correspondence between the increase in advanced degree recipients and available jobs within academia or without, and that the academic job market is increasingly limited by the growth in the professional academic theory specialist and the move of historical musicologists into 20th century and more recent music, areas that had, until recently, been rather safe service teaching territories for composers.

I have noticed, however, that many of the best and best-known of my younger colleagues have chosen not to pursue academic degrees beyond the Master's (or even Bachelor's) level, effectively returning to the credentialing practice of my teachers' generation. On the one hand, this is a realistic response to the working conditions of a TA and the state of the academic job market, but on the other hand, these musicians are in fact spending their journeyperson years figuring out how to make a living (or half-a-living or some other fraction-of-a-living) directly from making music rather than teaching it. I suppose that some of these composers may someday re-enter academe, and perhaps be able to do so at a senior level, but the continuing presence of a class of non-academic composers is an important corrective, and is definitely a good thing.

(For the record, not one of my own composition teachers had a doctorate; in fact, two had no degrees at all and still carried full professorial rank and regalia; a good thing, I think. My own advanced degrees are a composer's MA from a World Music program, and a nominal PhD in Ethnomusicology, as musicology had not yet widely moved into the late 20th century and I had the odd notion that there might be a market somewhere for generalists. I toyed a bit with the idea of pursuing a Habilitation, to add one more degree to my pile of traveling papers, but that notion was met with blank stares by even the most academic of composerly American academics: a Habili-what?.)

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)

Niblock tells a bit more

Paris Transatlantic has a very good interview of composer and film maker Phill Niblock by Bob Gilmore. Very good, because Phill usually avoids being all-too-explicit about how his music (and films) work, and here he's even tossing about words like "structure".

Niblock is one of a small group of composers (I'd add Young and Lucier) who pioneered work that featured musical environments in which the familiar parameterization (rhythm is not pitch is not timbre is not dynamics is not rhythm) is blurred, broken down, or irrelevant.

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)

Performance practice

This video of John Cage's 1960 appearance on I've Got A Secret, including a performance of Water Walk, is a great document of Cage both as a performing musician and a public figure.

It is also a good example of Cage's pragmatism: all of his scores were composed to be played, and in this case, when a union conflict made it impossible to plug in the five radios required in the score, Cage substituted an alternative, non-electric, instrumental technique. I am sure that this variation from the printed score will receive due attention from musicologists and historically-informed performance practice specialists in the future.

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)

Agitation

For what it's worth, here's an interesting take on the political blogoplan* as an avant-garde movement. The author identifies it as a form of Fluxus-style agitation, which is a swell idea, even though I have to suspend my usual distrust of all things Fluxus to get there (AFAIC, the best work of artists associated with Fluxus happened when they were as far away from Fluxus as possible, although the connection between Fluxus and Lithuanian politics is genuine) and I'd throw a dose of Situationism in there, too.

New musical blogs do not strike me as having yet located the potential in the medium for avant-garde agitation akin to that of our political colleagues; indeed, considering the fact that we're theoretically promoting an avant-garde within our own medium, we have generally done a poor job of exploring the experimental possibilities of the blog form -- our use of language is dull, our ideas old, our enthusiasms mild, and our controversies and rivalries small. No manifestos. Not much in the way of setting violins on fire or topless cello playing or electrocutable piano keys around here nowadays. Heck, we can't even organize a decent boycott against competitions with over-high fees. Children: get to work!
_____
*Blogoplan is the flat-earth equivalent for the round-earthers' blogosphere. The author is not literally a flat-earther, but someone who recognizes that we organize our daily lives around flat earth coordinates and illusions of simultaneous downbeats and in-phase tuning.

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)

The Simpsons and Samuel Barber

Robert Gable is a blogger who I suspect stays up late - since his posts arrive in my reader very early in the morning. He has documented various appearances of the Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. The tune, funereal, beautiful, morbid, elegant, depressing, easy to recognize and therefore very popular, has obviously become an established "musical icon" in our culture.

Last week Leslie and I caught a new Simpsons episode which we had taped. In it Bart and Marge play online video games while Lisa and Homer get involved in soccer. That is until Lisa watches a DVD (from Canal+) on soccer hooliganism.

Here are four captures from the short clip (inexpertly done directly from the TV into my pocket point 'n shoot) which are accompanied by the narration below.

And the music to accompany this Rambo-like action scene? Why it's the Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, of course. I didn't actually fall out of my chair laughing. Came close.

NARRATOR: Last year in Brazil an onfield scuffle became so violent that locals say a statue of the virgin Mary came alive . . . and beat the holy snot out of everyone.

P.S. Someday I will explain my idea of "musical iconography" here on Mixed Meters - probably when I finally publish my midi-symphony Wagner and Schubert Have Intercourse, which makes use of the concept.

Hooliganism Tags: Simpsons. . . Samuel Barber. . . Adagio for Strings. . . Aworks. . . Robert Gable. . . musical icon

Here's a previous Mixed Meters post on the Simpsons.

Originally from Mixed Meters, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)

Garry Moore and John Cage

These days a musician who wants to sell albums goes on television. And that happened in 1960 too, I guess. Thanks to WFMU's Beware of the Blog you can watch a video of John Cage performing live on national television game show called I've Got a Secret hosted by Garry Moore.

The performance has everything - an incredulous host, a union dispute, a change of plans, no panelists, an amused audience and a performance of Water Walk, with a last moment change to the radio parts. Nine minutes, twenty-two seconds. Enjoy this little avant-garde side show.

Garry Moore reacts to hearing how John Cage has changed the part for radios in his piece, Water Walk

Garry Moore tells audience that it's okay to laugh during John Cage's performance

John Cage,near the end of Water Walk on I've Got A Secret, turns a radio OFF

Click here for a list of previous Mixed Meters mentions of "John Cage"

I've Got a Secret Tags: John Cage. . . I've Got A Secret. . . Garry Moore. . . video. . . television. . . game show. . . Water Walk

Originally from Mixed Meters, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)

Rostropovich, 1927-2007 (Updated)

Cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich died today in Moscow. Tim Page wrote a fine WaPo obituary. YouTube has a relatively small collection of Slava-iana, but does include such delectable moments such as Rostropovich playing the Dvorak concerto with Carlo Maria Giulini and the London Philharmonic, and he himself conducting the Tuba Mirum portion of Britten's War Requiem in his utilitarian conducting manner. Other Rostropovich YouTube clips are here. And Alex has a sound clip of Rostropovich playing part of Britten's First Cello Suite.

WFMT's Peter Whorf has posted an attractive archive of Slava-iana. Three youtube clips (Bach, Brahms, the finale of the Dvorak concerto) fall between two radio interviews. "'I tell this musician'-who only played mezzo-forte and fortissimo-'you not true musician, you just mezzo-fortiste,'" Shostakovich once told Rostropovich.

Originally posted by MarcGeelhoed from Marc Geelhoed: Deceptively Simple, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)

Going to town with “Going to a Town”

I’ve had it on my list for a while to look into Rufus Wainwright’s music. The time finally came late last week, when Roger Bourland posted a YouTube clip of “Going to a Town,” Wainwright’s new single. Bourland started his blog in connection with a freshman seminar on Wainwright’s music he was giving at UCLA. The blog has diversified, but Wainwright still crops up regularly. Among other things, Bourland sometimes channels composition lessons to Rufus from various dead but still pedagogically-inclined classical composers (Ives, Debussy, and Berlioz, and maybe others I haven’t seen). This strikes me as a fun and clever way to highlight the contrasting musical mindsets and values involved, though I don’t think that’s Bourland’s agenda.

Bourland had only one thing to say about the “Going to a Town,” in reference to its refrain, “I’m so tired of America”:

I guess Rufus is tired of America. Hmm, well I say people act like people no matter where you go.

I completely agree with Bourland about people acting like people wherever. From that point of view, it’s reasonable to wonder why the refrain isn’t “I’m so tired of humanity.” (more…)

Tags: composing, Going to a Town, Music, music analysis, political music, popular music, Rufus Wainwright, songwriting

Originally posted by Robert Zimmerman from Re:harmonized, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)

Music of Primes

Prime numbers - sciencenews.org This afternoon I went over to the UC Berkeley campus for a talk by Marcus du Sautoy, author of the absolutely fascinating book, The Music of the Primes. Du Sautoy is Professor of Mathematics at Oxford. The event was organized by the Math Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley.

Mathematics fascinates me. And while my B.S. is in Applied Math (1964), I never became a mathematician. I probably would not have been a very good one. (Most math majors are good bridge players, and I never liked playing cards, so my fate was sealed early on.) But I can see maybe having become a math teacher.

Fortunately (or not) I discovered computers early on, and altho computers and math are related, they're not really the same. Still, I've tried to keep up my math chops, and I still enjoy reading calculus books. (My fave is Ralph Agnew's textbook from 1962, and, of course, Richard Courant's classic.) This is great literature. I'm always looking for ways to explain things. And, after all, I am a technical writer.

There's been an explosion in popular books on topics in math recently, and Marcus du Sautoy's book is a prime example. (sorry). There are a couple of books about the number (and concept of) zero, many about pi, and even e (Euler's constant), and imaginary numbers.

Surprisingly, the S.F. Chronicle carried an article about today's lecture, so maybe that's why the Chan Shun auditorium, one of the biggest on campus, was completely full. Many students, but also many older folks from the community, like me, and even some pre-teens with their parents.

It helps to know that du Sautoy is quite a performer. His appearances on BBC TV and radio are legend, like his talk on "Why Beckham Chose the 23 Shirt". And today's talk met all expectations, and then some.

For example, in explaining how Reimann's Zeta function improved on Gauss's approximation for finding the number of primes below a certain number, du Sautoy had to explain how the buildup of the harmonics of a sine wave can create more complex waves. To illustrate this he played a violin, then a clarinet, and finally riffed on his trumpet with a canned jazz combo streaming off his laptop! It did stretch the point a bit, but it was entertaining.

You can find much of his talk on the internet here, and here.. And of course his book covers much much more. He actually gets into why the persuit of prime numbers is of such great interest to mathematicians for centuries. He interviews some of the major players and exposes some academic rivalries. (Those rivalries still go on, apparently; see this negative review of du Sautoy's book on the MMA website.)

It was exciting to think about math for an hour or so today. I'll probably pick up a few more books on the subject just to keep the juices flowing.

And it was a beautiful day to be back on campus again. It's getting close to finals week, and there was lots of activity. Almost made me want to register for next semester.

Originally from All I Know², ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:20 PM | Comments (0)

A Tribute to Max Mathews at the Computer History Museum

This afternoon I attended a tribute event for Max Mathews on the occasion of his 80th birthday. It was at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

This was organized by CCRMA, the computer music research lab at Stanford.

Max is one of the great pioneers in using computers to synthesize speech and music. He started working on it in 1957 when he was at Bell Labs. Speech and sound synthesis in general was a topic of great interest to the researchers at the phone company. And altho the computers that were around 50 years ago were many thousands of times less powerful than the cell phones and laptops of today, he did set the theoretical vision for everything we take for granted today, like the iPod and mp3 music players, iTunes, and GarageBand.

But Max's first real contribution was a program called MUSIC IV, written in FORTRAN, that allowed the programmer to set parameters that would define synthetic musical "instruments", and have the computer generate the sound samples characteristic of those parameter settings. What the computer was doing was solving the equations of sound that simulate the vibrations in air that we associate with music and musical instruments.

Back in 1966, when I was working as a systems programmer at the Courant Institute computer center at NYU, I had heard about work that was being done to synthesize sound on a computer. And thru some contacts I had with the NYU music department, I eventually got involved with porting Max Mathews MUSIC IV program to the CDC 6600 at NYU. One day I received the source code from Bell Labs via Princeton, with some sketchy documentation on how it was supposed to work.

I did get it to work, somewhat, but I never went beyond that for a couple of reasons. The biggest problem was the the computer center was funded by the Atomic Energy Commission (eventually the Department of Energy), and the Music department was not quite able to justify this use of their supercomputer. Then also, the output of the program was a digital tape that had to be sent to Bell Labs in New Jersey to be converted to analog sound. If I recall, a full digital tape, which held about 600 MB of data and took a few hours to generate, represented only about ten minutes of sound. So this was pretty impractical. So eventually the project was dropped. But in the process of researching all this, I did get to meet Vladimir Ussachevsky and Milton Babbitt, and then Morton Subotnick, who was using a large Buchla analog synthesizer at the time. Once I was introduced to Don Buchla's analog voltage-controlled synthesizers I gave up on computer synthesis. (As it turned out, we needed to wait another 20 years before it became practical.)

But at some point I did get to meet the famous Max Mathews. I believe it was at a talk he gave at NYU. I cannot remember. But I did have some correspondence with his assistants at Bell Labs or Princeton regarding some problems I was having porting Music IV.

Skip ahead to the 1970's and now I'm doing radio programs on KPFA in Berkeley and involved with electronic music activities at Mills College and other things. During that time I meet Jean-Claude Risset and John Chowning, two composers who pushed Mathews technology even further. Risset came from France to teach a seminar in computer music one summer at Stanford, where John Chowning was teaching and setting up a computer music research lab that eventually became CCRMA. Unfortunately I couldn't attend the seminar, but friends of mine did and I got some of their notes, and featured some of the new computer music on the radio.

From that point, the technology of computer generated music advanced extremely rapidly as smaller and faster computers became available. And jump forward to today, where the computer plays an integral part of all music (and film) production, much of these advances are due to the seminal work done 50 years ago by Max Mathews and his team at Bell Labs.

So it was fitting for both CCRMA and the Computer History Museum to honor Max for those 50 years and on his 80th birthday.

Hahn Auditorium was filled to capacity today to hear CCRMA's director Chris Chafe, Evelyne Gayou from the French Groupe de Rechereches Musicales (GRM) in Paris, John Chowning of Stanford, Gerald Bennett from Zurich, Jon Appleton from Dartmouth, and Jean-Claude Risset from Marseille, each give a brief talk about their work with Max over the years, and his importance to them as mentor and guide. These reminiscences were heartfelt and gave some insight into how visionary Max's work really was. And then Max gave an all-too-brief summing up of the early years working with the IBM 7094 and DEC PDP 10 (versions of which were downstairs on the museum exhibit floor.)

The talks were followed by an hour-and-a-half concert that I only wish was better. Of the six works presented, most were dreadful, or worse. It left me pondering about how music depends on so much more than just enabling technologies.

But there were two that stood out because they demonstrated a true musical consciousness that was above the rest.

One was Gerald Bennett's Un Madrigal gentile, for tape alone. (We say "for tape alone" to indicate that the sound was mixed and generated probably on a computer and written probably to an audio CD or AIFF format data file. I doubt if any "tape" was really involved, but the language from the pre-digital days remains... we don't say "for CD alone"). This was a wonderful, minimalist piece that mixed brief choral sounds with voices, natural sounds, and lots of silence. Unlike so many pieces of this genre that throw everything at you all at once, Bennett's "tape" piece allowed itself to take all the time it needed. I found the subtleties of the sound and the pacing very engaging, and I wanted to hear more.

The other stand-out piece on the program was Jean-Claude Risset's Strange Attractors (parts 2-4) from 1988 for clarinet and prerecorded sounds. Combining live traditional instruments with computer accompaniment is difficult to do well. But here Risset concentrates on the most interesting sounds that the B flat and bass clarinets produce, those low sensuous tones. The musical style was firmly placed in the late '80's, with the prerecorded sounds of the clarinets playing against the live solist. The intertwining of the live and recorded sounds provided an interesting backdrop. But I was expecting more. So it was a bit disappointing. I've heard a number of Risset's works that are far better than this one. But still, it was miles ahead of the other works on the program. The live clarinet parts sounded quite difficult to master, and they were performed dilligently by Gareth Davis, dressed in old jeans and a faded t-shirt. Maybe I'm turning into an old fart about this, but it might have been better had he dressed a bit snappier for the occasion, rather than like he just came from the gym.

Anyway, I was glad to see such a turnout in tribute to Max, who is remains, even at 80, a vital part of this community. Happy birthday, Max!

Originally from All I Know², ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:20 PM | Comments (0)

'Art And Literature Should Be Judged By The Conscience Of The Creator, His Peers In His Field And All Of The People, Not By A Separate Bureaucracy'

"Art and literature should be judged by the conscience of the creator, his peers in his field and all of the people, not by a separate bureaucracy, artificially compressing the arteries and veins of this life-sustaining circulation."

-- Mstislav Rostropovich, testifying at a 1990 United States Senate hearing on the National Endowment for the Arts.

*

"The passing of Mstislav Rostropovich is a bitter blow to our culture. ... He gave Russian culture worldwide fame. Farewell, beloved friend."

-- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, commenting to the Russian ITAR-Tass news agency.

This sculpture of Dmitri Shostakovich's head, by Russian artist Ernst Neizvestny, was one of Mstislav Rostropovich's late cold war gifts to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in the Nation's Capital; and to the American people. This gift occured at a time when the military-industrial complexes of both the United States and the Soviet Union were each aiming tens of thousands of nuclear-tipped missles at each other's major population centers.

Photo credit: Via http://www.cannes.artinfo.ru/ru/exhibition.htm. With thanks. (This is a very interesting contemporary visual arts website.)

Originally from Renaissance Research, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:20 PM | Comments (0)

Mr Cogito Watches Stephen Hawking Fly For 8 Minutes And Then Ponders His Own Attempt At Weightlessness At 2 to 15 Meters Above Current Sea Level

" ... offshore the same depletion and near extermination of marine mammals occurred. There, the decimation began even before the advent of mining, without the influence of tens of thousands of gold seekers. Two aquatic animals—the sea otter and the beaver—were the targets of the fur rush beginning more than a century before the Gold Rush. The sea otter was abundant along the California coast, particularly around San Francisco and Monterey bays and the Channel Islands. Perhaps 300,000 or more swam in the offshore waters. Unfortunately for the otters, they had a dense, warm brown coat with a silvered frosting of guard hairs. This came to be regarded as highly desirable among fur wearers in Moscow, Peking (Beijing), and elsewhere among the world's elite.

The trouble started in 1740, when the Russian government sent Vitus Bering to explore the northern Pacific toward Alaska. In the Aleutian Islands, the native Aleuts brought him large numbers of otter skins, which on the return of his expedition proved to be highly popular in Russia and China, and by the late 1700s, Russian ships were hunting the animal along the California coast. The Spanish exploitation of sea otters, probably using Chumash hunters, began before 1785, when the first government regulations on the trade were issued. Between 1786 and 1790 alone, nearly 10,000 skins were exported from Mexico to Asia via the Manila galleons. The Russians, partly to improve their access to the fur trade, established bases at Fort Ross in 1812 and in the Farallon Islands, from which they went forth with their Aleut hunters to kill sea otters. One hunting party in San Francisco Bay in 1811 massacred 1,200 otters. The French also played a minor role; in 1786 the expedition of Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse obtained 1,000 skins, which they sold in China for $10,000. The price went up from $10 to $60 a skin by the 1790s. Americans became involved in the early 1800s and were still active by gold-rush times. The best known American hunter, George Nidever, was particularly busy in the Channel Islands and offshore in Baja California from 1834 to 1855. By gold-rush times the otters were becoming scarce, and prospecting held a greater allure for the hunters. Nevertheless, the otter population had been reduced to perhaps thirty-two survivors by the time it was given full protection in 1911." ...

Raymond F. Dasmann from Chapter 5 "Environmental Changes before and after the [California] Gold Rush" in James J. Rawls and Richard J. Orsi, editors A Golden State: Mining and Economic Development in Gold Rush California California History Sesquicentennial Series, 2

'Egg pickers gather the harvest on one of the Farallon Islands, some thirty miles off the Golden Gate, in 1880. The wild rush west of thousands of gold seekers created an enormous demand in California not only for game, but also for fish and fowl and eggs. Between 1850 and 1856 the Farallone Egg Company alone brought over three million eggs—chiefly those of the common murre—to the San Francisco markets.' California Historical Society, FN-30975.

Photo and caption credit: (c) California Historical Society from sources cited above. With thanks.

Originally from Renaissance Research, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:20 PM | Comments (0)

Mongolian Pop Music and Pink Telephones

Well, all the Budapest bloggers are sharing this little YouTube item, so I figured what the heck….

Despite the truly terrible music heard here, this video combines my two favorite things: Budapest and weird languages. It’s a Mongolian music video shot for some reason in Budapest. I can make out enough Cyrillic to tell that the title has the word “Budapest” in it.

Who knew Mongolia was turning out music videos? Anyway, there are some lovely shots of Budapest (and some not so lovely), and the language is certainly interesting to listen to, if you can stomach the music.

P.S. - Yes! The payphones in Budapest are all pink, since Deutche Telekom a.k.a T-Mobile owns a big stake in the former state telephone company.

P.P.S. - Stick with it, because it get’s really silly in the last ten seconds. (OK, not fair: If I understood the lyrics it might make perfect sense.)

Originally posted by Michael Kaulkin from About the Composer, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:19 PM | Comments (0)

Tristan Björk Agenda

Tonight in NYC, the Wordless Music series presents Real Quiet and the Books; ICE plays NYU composers at Merkin; and the Mannes Contemporary Music Festival opens. Tuesday night the NEC Percussion Ensemble invades Zankel, ICE presents Huang Ruo at Mo Pitkin's, a Paul Moravec piece is premiered at Mannes, and New York New Music Ensemble does Eight Songs for a Mad King. Wednesday you may choose among the LA Phil's Tristan Project, opening night of Mark Morris's Orfeo ed Euridice at the Met, Björk at Radio City, a Kyle Gann piece at MicroFest 2007, Reich's Drumming free at Mannes, ICE at the Tank, and the radically kitschy music of JacobTV at the Whitney at Altria. Thursday it's an all-Annie Gosfield program at Merkin and the opening night of the 2007 Look and Listen festival. More to come.

Listening to:
— TIC: Works by the Common Sense Composers' Collective (Marc Mellits, Belinda Reynolds, Ed Harsh, Randall Woolf, Dan Becker, Carolyn Yarnell, John Halle), as played by the New Millennium Ensemble (Albany)
— Glenn Branca, Lesson No. 1, Dissonance, Bad Smells (Acute)
— Gershwin, Piano Concerto in F, Rhapsody in Blue, Cuban Overture; Jon Nakamatsu, piano, with Jeff Tyzik conducting the Rochester Philharmonic (Harmonia Mundi)
— Kalevi Aho, Tuba Concerto and Contrabassoon Concerto; Øystein Baadsvik and Lewis Lipnick, soloists, with the Norrköping Symphony and Bergen Philharmonic (BIS)

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:19 PM | Comments (0)

Jazz Wins a Pulitzer - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Jazz Wins a Pulitzer
Wall Street Journal (subscription), NY - Apr 27, 2007
NEW YORK -- This year's Pulitzer Prize for music went not to a classical work but to an album of improvised jazz, Ornette Coleman's "Sound Grammar. ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:18 PM | Comments (0)

A Brief Primer on Twelve Tone Music

Okay, so this is going to require some theory to understand, so if this boggles your mind, just ignore it. I realize that I'm writing currently for someone with a fairly high education in music, and I'll try to come down to a lower level a bit in further posts.

So what Schoenberg was doing at the time he thought of this was trying to write music that didn't sound tonal. This proved very hard to do, because the Western ear organizes music tonally so strongly that even a random series of notes will usually appear to have a tonality. So he decided to give every note of the equal-tempered chromatic scale equality, by using a tone row.

Now let's give an example of one of my tone rows:

G B C# D F E A F# D# C A# G#
0 4 6 7 10 9 2 11 8 5 3 1

Now let's talk about the construction of this tone row. First of all, the opening motif suggest the lydian dominant altered scale. Second the last three notes have an appearance of a cadence in G#. Third, there is a fourth between the first and second hexachord and a half step back to 0. There is only one dissonant interval in the row, and that's the fourth, and it will be either dissonant or consonant depending on where it appears in the counterpoint of the tones.

That's how I construct a tone row. I stick to mostly thirds, sixths, and semitones, a few whole tones, and fourths and fifths between hexachords or tetrachords, and I generally avoid the tritone class totally.

So then you construct the matrix, by subtracting the next note from 12. So below G would go D#. When you are finished, the downward columns are the inversions, the upward columns the retrograde inversions, the left to right rows the transpositions of the tone row, and the right to left rows the retrogrades of the tone row.

And now you have to make choices about the rhythm of the melody, and then you add the canon, finish up the markings and you have a composition that uses twelve tone atonality.

It's easier than it sounds. I've been working on different ways of approaching these things in my music, sometimes not using a tone row but making use of atonal colors, or making the rhythm somehat serial. All kinds of things. I'm so glad to have Finale Songwriter to experiment with these ideas in.

Originally from T.D. Lake's Fragments, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:18 PM | Comments (0)

Waking Up Before the Birds

So I've had WBGO on all night, and I woke up early and I'm looking to post some things here.

So you might notice that one of my big influences is Berg. Now, Berg took Schoenberg's twelve tone system and used it to create tonal music. I've extended this idea somewhat. I use tones borrowed from scales outside the tone row, or use the tone row in tonal ways, much the way Berg did. I had someone tell me that even my jazz compositions sound like Berg. That pleases me.

One thing about my compositions is that they're very mathematical. There is an element of serialism in all my works. I try not to use it to the point where the human side is lost, but I have a very mathematical mind. Everything in my music is mapped out according to a plan, not necessarily a matrix, but a plan.

The influence of Berg is most readily seen in that first string quartet, "Four Corners." I used a twelve tone matrix and created the canon and harmonies from the matrix, adding tone color, primarily in the viola part. But the other ones have some of the same characteristics.

Why Berg? Because I love his music, primarily. Also, it fits well with the way I think about music: as a language that communicates, and as organized sound.

One thing I want to say: Please don't go through my compositions and add chord symbols to them. I don't like block chord harmonization in any music, and the whole point is that the harmony is realized through melody. I'm loathe to use the piano at all because I can just see it... Cmin7/F, Adim/F, etc... That's not the point of my music. You can play it that way, but you're missing the point.

When you improvise a piece of my music, the idea is that you'll listen to the bass and any other stable parts and improvise melodically, not based on chord symbols. As the players vary the parts your improvisation will change. This is my way of integrating Ornette Coleman's free jazz into my work.

Just some thoughts for the morning...

Originally from T.D. Lake's Fragments, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:18 PM | Comments (0)

Alan Rich, music critic

I read an entertaining and insightful interview (”Critical Condition” 1 Apr.2007) with LA Weekly critic Alan Rich in the local Arts blog FineArtsLA.com. Alan is a brilliant and witty writer and has covered and listened to more music than probably anyone else on the planet. He has faithfully reported musical life in New York and Los Angeles as he has seen it. When he like something we cheer, and when he doesn’t we are entertained by his lashings. For those of us who have been whipped by him, we still smart.

Holding on to old pain causes cancer as far as I’m concerned. I, and many others, blow up his scathing reviews way beyond their importance, and I/we need to get over it.

Bourland, get over it.

I write this, not because anyone complained, or asked me to, but in updating an old opinion, I have to keep reminding myself that there is no reason to hold on to ancient pain, especially when the pain derives only for someone else’s opinion.

Many blogs and their readers thrive on invective. I have never imagined this blog being one. I am not negative as a person, so to be so here is not being honest to myself, my friends, or my readers. I apologize to Alan and my readers for any biochemical hot-flashes of invective. Public exorcisms can be cathartic for a while for a young blogger, but they begin to smell bad after a while. Wise critics and young bloggers all must learn this lesson.

Alan Rich has been a vital part of Los Angeles culture and deserves some kind of Living Legend (or Living Curmudgeon) for his service. He has hauled his butt out of his house to attend thousands of concerts he likely may have not really wanted to attend, but he did. And reported on it to his thousands of readers. Alan deserves a great deal of credit as a faithful chronicler of music and I blush at my blindness.

And after all is said and done,

I read Alan Rich.

—-

Here is the first part of the interview:

FALA: What are your strengths as a critic?

AR: I know how to evaluate performance values. I’ve always been able to. The most important influence on my own musical education was Joseph Kerman at UC Berkeley. In addition to being one of the most respected musicologists in the world, he was a performer. He created awareness of performance values at Berkeley by performing — putting on operas and concerts of music all the way from Monteverdi operas to lieder recitals and contemporary music — and he made people aware of the fact that they had not only minds to memorize the dates of composers, but they also had ears to listen.

FALA: What are you listening for when you go to a concert?

AR: When I go to a concert I have a pretty good idea of the music I’m about to hear.

FALA: From recordings?

AR: I listen to recordings, I read scores, I think about what I know of the composer from a long lifetime of hearing his music, and I measure what I hear against what I think I should hear, or what I’d like to hear.

FALA: And the actual qualities of the music you’re listening for? The dynamics of fortissimo and piano? How well the musicians are working together?

AR: Yes, how well they’re working together. I listen for musical shape, both in a piece I know and in one I don’t know. After 82 years I know where a piece of 18th-century or 21st-century music should go based on what it tells me at the beginning. And I watch for how smoothly, successfully and cleverly it goes there. I think I know when a piece of music has reached a satisfactory time of ending. I’m really good at that.

A couple of nights ago I was hearing a whole program of piano music that I didn’t know, and every good piece of music on that program followed a curve and came to an end where it was supposed to. That was good; it kept me awake.

FALA: What is the current state of music criticism in Los Angeles?

AR: Well there are just two of us, really, and there are just two outlets: The LA Times and LA Weekly. There’s also Timothy Mangan at the Orange County Register. But the Times‘ Mark Swed and I both have a passion for new music, and realize that the future of music in Los Angeles depends to a large extent on our support of forward motion. Together we can take a lot of credit for the fact that this is the liveliest music center in the country, both in terms of a very progressive attitude toward performances and toward new music. In terms of quantity we can’t match New York or even Boston, but in terms of quality and state of mind I think we’re right up there, and this is becoming more and more recognized by our colleagues on the East Coast.

There was a story in the New York Times not too long ago called “Continental Shift.” It has to do with Esa-Pekka and concerts of new music, the management of the Philharmonic and at CalArts and other schools, and it has a little bit to do with Mark and me.

[…]

Read the entire article.

For my readers who do not know Alan’s work, start by reading his columns “A Little Night Music” for the LA Weekly. His latest book is “So I’ve Heard: Notes of a Migratory Music Critic.”

Originally posted by Roger Bourland from rogerbourland.com, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)

Theremin album back from grateful dead

'Starting out on another concert tour in the fall, (Paul) Robeson took along with him as "associate artist" (and more! - Pliable) Clara Rockmore, the pert, feisty, attractive second wife of Bob Rockmore, and the world's leading theremin player (an instrument whose tone and dynamics are created by the juxtaposition of the hands in an elctromagnetic field). Clara Rockmore had begun her musical life as a prodigy (as had her pianist sister, Nadia Reisenberg), winning admittance at the unprecendented age of five (Heifetz had been eight) to the conservatory in Petrograd to study violin with the famed Leopold Auer, teacher of Heifetz, Zimablist, and Elman. An injury to her arm forced her, at age nineteen, to give up the violin and turn to a career with the theremin.'

From Paul Robeson by Martin Bauml Duberman (Pan ISBN 0330313851). And right on cue Bridge Records have just released Clara Rockmore's Lost Theremin Album. With the duo of Rockmore and Nadia Reisenberg playing treatments of works by Bach, Ravel, Gershwin, Ponce, Chopin and many more, can you resist this back from the dead album? And as a bonus you get interviews with Rockmore and Robert Moog.

For the full story of the theremin take this path, for new music for the theremin take this one, read about Paul Robeson here, and the Grateful Dead here.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 05:29 PM | Comments (0)

Nobody’s perfect …

From Media Monkey’s Diary in today’s Guardian : - Poor Norman Lebrecht, and we never thought we’d say that. First the Sunday Times’s Michael White, in a review of Lebrecht’s book, Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness, called him “the Jilly Cooper of music journalism”. Ouch. Then outgoing BBC Proms boss Nicholas Kenyon had a pop, saying of his successor, Radio 3 controller Roger Wright: “he did give Norman Lebrecht a radio programme, but then again nobody’s perfect.” Double ouch! Lebrecht, the Evening Standard’s arts supreme and assistant editor was on holiday last week. Monkey wonders if he had time to dip into Jilly’s latest b0nkbuster.

Nicholas Kenyon’s comment is a first-class case of musical dog eating dog, and here’s another great example.
Typo above is deliberate to allow the many readers who arrive on the Path, through corporate firewalls to read this post. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 05:29 PM | Comments (0)

All Around the Town

Lots of neat stuff happening this week and beyond.

Pulse, the composers federation that includes our amigo Darcy James Argue will close out its 2006-2007 “season” with a new music project called Sihr Halal, Music of Praise and Celebration. The concert is Saturday, May 5th 2007 at 8:30 PM at Roulette located at 20 Greene Street in SoHo (tickets are $15 at the door, $10 students/seniors). The project is funded in part through Meet the Composer’s Creative Connections program.

Sihr Halal features the premiere of six compositions by the composers of Pulse—Darcy James Argue, Jamie Begian, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider, and Yumiko Sunami. You can get a taste of what’s in store by going over to the Pulse blog where you’ll find audio excerpts from all of the pieces available online (recorded during rehearsal) along with commentary from the composers.

Another friend of the family, Jenny Lin, is doing an all Valentin Silvestrov program, including Der Bote, Epitaph, Post Scriptum & Drama Sunday, May 6, 2007, 5:00 PM 31 Little West 12th Street New York, New York 10014 Info here or call 212.463.8630. Young-Ah Tak, the amazing pianist who blew the joint away with her performance of Judith Lang Zaimont’s Wizards (2003) at last year’s Sequenza21 concert is playing the piece again (along with works by people named Haydn, Debussy, and Schumann) at the Yamaha Piano Salon, 639 Fifth Ave., 34th Street (entrance on 54th Street between Madison and Fifth). The concert starts at 7:30 and admission is free. If you want to catch a real comer while she’s still making her bones, this is a great chance.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 05:02 PM | Comments (0)

Andrew Hill - Strange Serenade (Soul Note)

How many deaths will I have to address this year? Andrew Hill was special to me, and his work brings me comfort in a time when death seems more present than usual, given the flood of recent events, including...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 05:02 PM | Comments (0)

Hollow Tree Mailbag

Originally from The Hollow Tree Experimental Music Report, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

Taylor Ho Bynum: Spontaneous Yet Focused

Taylor Ho Bynum is the subject of a long interview.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Bagatellen Reviews

From Bagatellen:

John Tilbury - Plays Samuel Beckett - 29 Apr 07
Ryu Hankil/Jin Sangtae/Choi Joonyang - 5 Modules I, Hong Chulki - 5 Modules II - 24 Apr 07
Grosse Abfahrt - Erstes Luftschiff zu Kalifornien - 22 Apr 07

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

New from Important Records

The latest releases from Important Records:

ASA IRONS & SWAAN MILLER
self titled

Highly recommended solo recordings from Feathers/Witch member Asa Irons accompanied by his childhood friend Swaan Miller. Asa lives in a home he built from stones in the rural woods of New Hampshire and this record was constructed with the same sort of honest, real & quiet sincerity. Again, essential. (more)

PAULINE OLIVEROS
Accordion & Voice

Finally rescued from the original reels this is the first time Accordion & Voice has been in print in over 20 years. This album is a major piece of American minimalist composition from one of its most celebrated composers. (more)

PAULINE OLIVEROS
The Wanderer

When we sent out the original reels for The Wanderer to be transferred to digital we were shocked and excited to have discovered an extended collaboration with David Tudor. It’s with a terrific amount of excitement that we present it here for the first time along with the albums two original pieces. This is the sister album to Accordion & Voice. (more)

MERZBOW & CARLOS GIFFONI
Synth Destruction

Over 60 minutes of total analog destruction by noise king Merzbow and Brooklyn noise boss Carlos Giffoni, This live collaboration was recorded during Giffoni’s Synth Destruction Japan Tour in September of 2006. This is Sound Totalism….. (more)

ALESSANDRO STEFANA
Poste E Telegrafi

Featuring an allstar cast including Mark Ribot & Leo Abrahams, Stefana creates a dreamy world of instrumental perfection and beauty. Inspired by the work of Ennio Morricone, Ry Cooder, Simon Jeffes, Steve Reich and Brian Eno, he has created a thoroughly modern Western world.(more)

JESSICA RYLAN
Interior Designs

Jessica Rylan (you may know her better as Can’t) is finally releasing her first officially published instrumental work for synthesizer. Titled Interior Designs, these compositions are more “classic” in nature than her work as Can’t. Inspired by Pauline Oliveros, Eliane Radigue, Iannis Xenakis and especially Thomas Lehn, Rylan……(more)

LARSEN
Musm II

Musm has long been out of print on both cd and lp. Originally released as a tour only cd this extremely expanded edition is titled Musm II and it includes all the non-album tracks that Larsen have released since their first full length as well as the original tracks from Musm. ……(more)

MERZBOW
Merzbear

Author, activist, painter and sound artist Masami Akita had been at the foreground of experimental music for over 25 years. Inspired by psycedelic rock, free jazz, early electronic composition as well the physical arts, especial Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbau, Masami Akita has created a musical language all his own. ……(more)

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Newsbits

Wordless Music has a performance in NYC Monday night. The latest Alog release is reviewed. A benefit for the family of recently passed drummer Lance Carter takes place at New York’s Knitting Factory at the end of next month. Pharoah Sanders is honestly profiled in anticipation of an Australian performance. The Union Pool bar in Brooklyn is offering the latest in the Phantom Ear music series.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Umbrella Music Through May 10th

From Chicago’s Umbrella Music

Wednesday, 02 May 2007
The Hideout
10:00PM | Trixie Friganza
Mixed small groups and conductions by
The School of the Art Institute’s Sound Improvisation Class
(out from) under the baton of John Corbett
two sets
$3 cover
PLUS | DJ Sets by John Corbett and Friends

Thursday, 03 May 2007
Elastic
10:00PM | Battlecats
Jaimie Branch - trumpet
Anton Hatwich - bass
Toby Summerfield - drums
11:00PM | Bishop/Rempis/Kessler/Zerang
Jeb Bishop - trombone
Dave Rempis - saxophones
Kent Kessler - bass
Michael Zerang - drums
$7 requested donation

Sunday, 06 May 2007
The Hungry Brain
10:00PM | Allos Musica
James Falzone - clarinet/director
Katherine Young - bassoon
Amy Cimini - viola
Kevin Davis - cello
Krzysztof Pabian - bass
Eric Platz - percussion
Todd Carter - electronics
with special guests Jorrit Dijkstra and Tony Malaby
CD Release : The Sign and the Thing Signified
11:00PM | Dijkstra/Malaby Quintet : East meets Midwest
Jorrit Dijkstra - alto sax, lyricon
Tony Malaby - tenor sax
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Jason Roebke - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums

Monday, 07 May 2007
Gallery 37
7:00PM | Jorrit Dijkstra’s Game Pieces Septet
Amy Cimini - viola
Kevin Davis - cello
Jorrit Dijkstra - reeds/electronics
James Falzone - clarinet
Jeb Bishop - trombone
Katie Young - bassoon
Jason Roebke - bass
FREE
(but tickets required)

Wednesday, 09 May 2007
The Hideout
10:00PM | Gianni Gebbia, Daniele Camarda
Gianni Gebbia - solo saxophones
Daniele Camarda - solo electric bass
11:00PM | Gebbia/Lonberg-Holm/Roebke/Rosaly
Gianni Gebbia - saxophones
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Jason Roebke - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums
$7 cover
PLUS | DJ Sets: Josh Berman Focuses on the Tenor, Trumpet and Clarinet

Thursday, 10 May 2007
Elastic
10:00PM | Gebbia/Camarda Duo
Gianni Gebbia - alto saxophone
Daniele Camarda - electric bass
11:00PM | Gebbia/Camarda/Baker/Daisy
Gianni Gebbia - alto saxophone
Jim Baker - piano/arp synthesizer
Daniele Camarda - electric bass
Tim Daisy - drums
$7 requested donation

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

links for 2007-04-30

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

Songs without words.

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall
The New York Times, April 30, 2007

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)

Member News: SPUTNiK Orbits Cape Cod

Originally from ANALOG Arts Ensemble news, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 05:02 AM | Comments (0)

Seriously Off-Topic

Somehow I happened across a blog called The Comics Curmudgeon today. Its premise is that the author (I can't even...

Originally from PostClassic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 30, 2007 at 02:00 AM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2007

Keys to the future.

Dirty_little_secret
CD review: Andrew Russo - "Dirty Little Secret"
Andrew Russo, pianist
Endeavor Classics END 1019; CD
The New York Times, April 29, 2007
(ArkivMusic, Barnes & Noble)

The performance by Russo and his trio Real Quiet on Monday, April 30 that's mentioned in the second paragraph of this review is the latest installment of Ronen Givony's invaluable Wordless Music series, which pairs the trio with the Books, a engrossing duo that wields cello, guitar and electronics. Real Quiet opens with music by Annie Gosfield (Wild Pitch), Phil Kline (The Last Buffalo) and Marc Mellits (Tight Sweater). The Books follow with a set of their original music, then the two groups combine for expanded versions of items from Real Tight's repertoire.

The week ahead is huge for Annie Gosfield. In addition to the Real Quiet performance, she has a piece on Wednesday night's appearance by exciting Swedish new-music quartet The Peärls Before Swïne Experience at Lower East Side venue The Stone, part of a wide-ranging month programmed by Fred Frith. The group will also play pieces by David Lang, Tristan Murail, Maja Ratkje and Anders Hillborg. On Thursday night (May 3) at Merkin Concert Hall, the Swïne will participate in a Zoom: Composers Close Up program devoted to Gosfield's music; that same show also includes a new chamber concerto featuring Real Quiet cellist Felix Fan and a performance by Gosfield's own trio. On Friday (May 4), Gosfield has a piece on the second concert of this year's Look & Listen Festival, at Robert Miller Gallery on West 26th Street. (On that same bill, saxophonist Brian Sacawa reprises Alexandra Gardner's Tourmaline, which was mesmerizing when heard at the recent MATA Festival.)

Another inventive new-music composer having a big week is Jacob ter Veldhuis, whose uproarious The Body of Your Dreams is on Russo's CD. Ter Veldhuis, also known as JacobTV, is the subject of a three-concert series presented by the Whitney Museum of American Art this Wednesday through Friday (May 2-4). The explosive Kathleen Supové plays The Body of Your Dreams on the last concert, which also includes the world premiere of The White Flag, a scorching piece composed in response to the current Iraq war and performed by Kevin Gallagher's quartet Electric Kompany. My TONY feature on JacobTV is here, but please be sure to take note of something I failed to mention: the series is being presented not at the Whitney space on the Upper East Side, but at its Altria site on 42nd Street, near Grand Central. All three JacobTV programs are being presented free of charge.

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

John Tilbury - Plays Samuel Beckett

Matchless MRCD62 Its bad enough that this 2005 release had escaped my notice until recently but, worse, I fail to find almost any reviews of it on-line at all. Perhaps the WIRE covered it (I wouldnt know, having given...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)

Keys to the future.

Dirty_little_secret
CD review: Andrew Russo - "Dirty Little Secret"
Andrew Russo, pianist
Endeavor Classics END 1019; CD
The New York Times, April 29, 2007
(ArkivMusic, Barnes & Noble)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)

A Tribute to Joni Mitchell

Despite the fact that Mark Carlson told me that of his class of 30 students, only 2 had heard of her, I am happy to recommend a terrific new compilation of covers of Joni Mitchell songs just released on Nonesuch (3 cheers for Bob Hurwitz). It is not a sing-around-the campfire love fest of old Joni songs. Many of the artists chose rarely heard numbers to revisit. Some of these songs were formerly released on other CDs, but many are new, and really worth buying.

Sufjan Stevens Mariachizes “Free Man in Paris” with his cheery and bubbly voice, making the song his own. Björk delivers an eerily chilling treatment of “The Bojo Dance. Caetano Veloso lights a doobie and floats to the Caribbean with “Dreamland” and I swear he sounds an awful lot like David Byrne. Brad Mehldau offers a gorgeous piano solo, evoking Keith Jarrett and Fred Hersch in his “Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow.” It was amazing to hear Cassandra Wilson channeling Joni’s unique amplitude modulation type vibrato and phrasing in “For the Roses.” Prince reaches high high high into his register to turn “A Case of You” into a near soft-gospel prayer. Like Wilson, Sarah McLachlan respects Joni’s original providing multi-layered vocals (all-Sarah) in a devastating revisit of “Blue.” One of the amazing numbers, Annie Lenox’s “Ladies of the Canyon” starts with an 80s synth vamp that grows into a thrilling world-music meets the 60s accompaniment. Emmylou Harris converts “The Magdalena Laundries” back into the folk-country song that lurked behind Joni’s original jazzy version. Elvis Costello sings “Edith and Kingpin” accompanied by a brilliant Ornette Coleman-style cool jazz ensemble. The album ends with the better and better k.d. lang who covers “Help Me” with the help of her old collaborator, Ben Mink.

Whether you are looking for a new Joni album (stop waiting, she has retired), or want to rediscover some new angles on songs you know and don’t, or are looking for an album to orchestrate your life this spring, “A Tribute to Joni Mitchell” will likely please many. I love it.

Originally posted by Roger Bourland from rogerbourland.com, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 06:15 PM | Comments (0)

Jean Sibelius: Symphony No.5

Jean Sibelius and Eugene Ormandy
I’m up in Lake Arrowhead this weekend — one of the gorgeous mountains that overlooks LA — at a UCLA retreat. Sitting in the lodge, over the speakers I am revisiting an old friend: Jean Sibelius’s “Symphony No.5.” I’m sure most of my classical readers know the piece, but for the rest who are eager to learn new music, may I highly recommend this work. This is, in my opinion, one of the best spring pieces there is. It is so invigorating, I can see a Disney Fantasia-like movie of roots coursing their way deeper into the earth, I smell the earth thawing, I see buds popping out of branches. I know, maybe I’m hypersensitive in this way, but I am covered with goose bumps. Emotions somewhere between shouting for joy and crying well up.As much as I have little patience for muzak, hearing random pieces on the radio can reintroduce us to forgotten pieces. When I get home, I’m going to put this old friend on and listen to it again. Sibelius: what a giant!

Originally posted by Roger Bourland from rogerbourland.com, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 06:14 PM | Comments (0)

Classical Audience revisited

I have tried to be positive about the idea of building an audience for classical music. I feel that I have done everything in my power to do so, but the sad truth is the percentage of people who actually go to concerts of their own free will (even free concerts) is very small.

I played two concerts this weekend as part of a university arts festival in a town that boasts 20,000 residents when school is in session. The concerts were not publicized properly, but even with poor publicity (mostly e-mail messages from me and a listing in the local newspaper) more than a hundred people knew about the concerts. The first concert, a concert of Medieval songs and dances (great music from France, Italy and Spain) played by crummhorns, recorders, strings, and triangle, had an audience of four. It was in a museum on campus, and the museum director and his wife made up half the audience. The next quarter was made by the music history professor in the music department, and the fourth member of the audience read about it in the newspaper. The second concert was yesterday afternoon--a violin and piano recital. There was a larger audience--maybe 15-20 people came to it--devoted music lovers, every one. It was a very nice audience, and we played a very enjoyable concert. Meanwhile, a few hundred yards away, crowds of people (hundreds and hundreds of them) completely uninterested in listening to classical music, were eating dipping dots and arts festival food, enjoying looking at crafts in the lovely weather, and watching a man build a sand castle.

I have been teaching music appreciation classes at a rural community college for a few years now. I put my heart and soul into trying to teach people about music and how to listen to it. As part of the work of the course, I require students to go to a concert and write about the experience. I give them lists of concerts to choose from, and let them know that they can go to more than one if they like. With very few exceptions each student goes to one concert, writes about it enthusiastically, and never goes to another concert again after the course is over.

Thank goodness for my family, my friends, and the global musical community of the internet. Thank goodness for the cities 50 miles or so away that have enough of a population to support an active classical music culture.

Originally from Musical Assumptions, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Gordon, "Weather"

Weather: 1, 2, 3, 4

Originally posted by jodru from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 05:54 PM | Comments (0)

RED LIGHT NEW MUSIC presents David Hanlon’s HOLD THE APPLAUSE

Sunday, May 13, 5:30 pm
Gallerie Icosahedron
27 North Moore St.
New York, NY 10013
1 Train to Franklin Street
$15 Admission / $10 Students

Pianist David Hanlon’s Hold the Applause concerts submerge the listener in a continuous stream of music where pieces of haunting beauty, violent aggression, and sly wit are linked by composed and improvised transitions, shaping the evening into an organic whole. This program will feature works by established European composers such as Lachenmann, Nono, and Ades and premieres by young American composers Kyle Hillbrand and Alex Mincek. The evening is presented by Red Light New Music.

Originally posted by s21concerts from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

Molecules Spring Tour

From Ron Anderson:

The Molecules Ron Anderson, Thomas Scandura and John Shiurba will be touring Europe in May and in support of our new CD/DVD called Friends. 4 tracks of Friends can be heard at www.myspace.com/ronandersonmoleculespak

The CD is available from www.ronanderson-molecules.com and I-tunes at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=219765648

The Molecules European Spring Tour 2007

The Molecules will be touring with bands from the label Les Potagers Natures based in Bordeaux France. The first half will be Chocolat Billy for the second half will be Glen or Glenda

May 4 - Cherbourg-Octeville, France - Festival Terra Terma
5 - Lille, France - La Malterie
6 - Brussels, Belgium - Le Magazin Quatre - with Yolk
7 - Rennes - France - TBA
8 - Poitiers - France - Zooprod
9 - Bordeaux, France - Athénée Libertaire
10 - Bourges, France - Emmetrop
11 - Lyon, France - Sonic
12 - Brainains, France - Moulin de Brainans
13 - Geneva, Switzerland - Cave 12
14 - Strasbourg, France - Molodoi
16 - Reims, France - TBA
17 - Dijon, France - Les Tanneries
18 - Nancy, France - Musique Action Festival @ L’Autre Canal
19 - Paris, France - Instants Chavirés

The Molecules will tour Europe again in November with a performance at the Wels Music Unlimited Festival, Wels Austria.

The official tour poster by Jason Berry at www.ronanderson-molecules.com

The Molecules music can be heard at my-space http://www.myspace.com/moleculesronanderson and http://www.myspace.com/ronandersonmoleculespak

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Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Zorn at the Miller Theater Reviewed

A review of this recent performance is available.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

The Roulette in May

From New York’s Roulette:

ROULETTE presents
20 Greene St (between Canal and Grand St)
8:30 PM Admission $15 Students $10 MEMBERS FREE
TICKETS/RSVP: 212.219.8242

contact: press@roulette.org http://www.roulette.org/

5/3: Kim Young / Jessica Feldman - “Final Statement”
5/4: Michelle Nagai with Ursula Scherrer - “Synthetic Hand Holding”
5/5: Pulse Jazz Composers - “Sihr Halal”: Music of Praise and Celebration
5/6: The Bill Horvitz Expanded Band in Tribute to Philip Horvitz
5/11: Dave Dove & Pauline Oliveros - Deep Syrup without the Sentiment:
H-Town Oozing Upward
5/12: Second Annual Mother’s Day Concert [curated by Gisburg]
5/17: Kris Davis [8 pm]/ Lindha Kallerdahl [9:30 pm]
5/18: Ned Rothenberg – Benefit for Roulette [all tickets $15] with John
Zorn, Marcus Rojas & Brahim Fribgane
5/19: Matthew Welch and Wayang Kontemporer
5/20: Janis Mercer / Cyrus Pireh with Anthony Jay Ptak
5/24: Bernadette Speach - “Steppin’ out and movin’ on…”
5/25: Matana Roberts - “Black Man”
5/26: Rocco Di Pietro with Kathleen Supové

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Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Festival Rock In Opposition Photos: Nebelnest

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

AMN Podcast: George Cartwright - A Tencious Slew

A Tenacious Slew

Download “Indifferent This Fire In The Air / The Stupendous Fabric” (mp3)
from “A Tenacious Slew”
by George Cartwright
Innova Recordings

Dusted Reviews

From Dusted:

Artist: Billy Bang
Album: Above & Beyond: An Evening in Grand Rapids
Label: Enja / Justin Time
Review date: Apr. 26, 2007

Artist: Nico
Album: The Frozen Borderline: 1968-1970
Label: Rhino
Review date: Apr. 25, 2007

Artist: Rudresh Mahanthappa
Album: Codebook
Label: Pi Recordings
Review date: Apr. 24, 2007

Artist: Brotherhood of Breath
Album: Brotherhood of Breath / Brotherhood
Label: Fledg’ling
Review date: Apr. 23, 2007

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

links for 2007-04-29

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

Rawles Balls World Premiere

Rawles brought the noise on Wednesday night at Galapagos. Though he didn't sing, he did unveil his latest composition, Holland Tunnel^{Rush Hour} help of Travis Just from Object Collection.

Originally posted by jodru from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 02:15 AM | Comments (0)

Cinco de Mayo Celebration — May 4 at 8 PM!

NORTH/SOUTH CONSONANCE Inc. will present its fourth concert of the current season on Friday evening May 4, 2007. The concert will take place at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church (120 West 69^th St, NYC) on Manhattan’s West Side. Admission is free (no tickets necessary).

The program will mark the Cinco de Mayo holiday featuring choral music by Mexican composers from the colonial and contemporary eras. Conductor Deborah Simpkin King will lead her acclaimed choral ensemble Schola Cantorum on Hudson.

The program will open with music dating back to the 16^th century by Juan Gutierrez de Padilla and Gaspar Fernandes. One of the compositions – Teponazcuícatl — employs texts in Náhuatl (the language of the Aztecs) celebrating the apparition of the Virgin Mary to the Indian Juan Diego. Manuel de Sumaya (1678-1755) will be represented by a set of polyphonic villancicos or madrigals written when the composer was appointed music director of the México City Cathedral.

Jorge Córdoba (b. 1953) will be on hand for the premiere of his recently completed Celebración Para el Arco Iris – Rainbow Celebration — a collection of madrigals inspired by Haiku poetry. Mr. Córdoba is an active composer and choral conductor in México City and was commissioned to write this work especially for the occasion.

The program will also feature choral works by well-known 20^th century Mexican composers Carlos Chávez, Blas Galindo and Manuel M. Ponce as well as Villancicos Rebeldes — Rebellious Villancicos– by Mexican-American Max Lifchitz, North/South Consonance’s founder.

Conductor Deborah Simpkin King, founder and director of the thirty-five choral ensemble Schola Cantorum on Hudson, is active as vocalist and educator. A graduate of North Texas State University, Dr. King directs the choral studies program at Caldwell College and is a much sought after guest conductor and clinician throughout the tri-state area. To learn more about the activities sponsored by Dr. King and her ensemble please visit www.scholaonhudson.org.

NORTH/SOUTH CONSONANCE’s 27^th consecutive season is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support for these free admission events comes from the Music Performance Funds from the American Federation of Musicians (Local 802) and numerous individual donors.

Originally posted by s21concerts from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 02:01 AM | Comments (0)

[no title]

Originally posted by s21concerts from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 02:01 AM | Comments (0)

10 musical acts you won't read about at Hollow Tree

Originally from The Hollow Tree Experimental Music Report, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 29, 2007 at 02:00 AM | Comments (0)

April 28, 2007

An Italian in San Francisco

Italy has produced great pianists like Busoni, Michelangeli, and Pollini. Its current pianist in the running for that distinction, Marino Formenti, even hails from Pollini’s hometown, Milan, where he was born in October 1965. Formenti has been dubbed ” a Glenn Gould for the 21st century ” by The LA TIMES’ Mark Swed, which probably refers to his Gould-like obsessive-compulsive absorption in the music he performs, as well as the widely divergent composers he programs. These traits were certainly center stage in the last of 3 San Francisco Piano Trips programs — the first consisted of Kurtag and 17 other composers — he gave at the De Young Museum’s Koret Auditorium in Golden Gate Park. Would that the museum were beautiful, to say nothing of site specific. Instead its bland forbidding facade sits shopping mall generic — one half expects to see a banner saying “SALE” on it — and its interior has a funny model home smell as if nobody ever lived there or would want to.

Fortunately the Koret is another story entirely. It’s a commodious 269 capacity steeply raked theater, with seats that flip up snugly when you or your neighbor needs to get by. And even better news is that Formenti’s program there, Nothing Is Real — Music for The Present and The Future — was theatrical and worked.

Formenti entered as if from a trap door stage left, clad head to toe in avant garde black, then sat down at the Hamburg Steinway to play Matthias Pintscher’s Monumento — In Memoriam Arthur Rimbaud (1990). The 36 year-old German has apparently been embraced by both the musical right and left, and judged from the evidence of this piece alone, it’s not hard to see why. Here’s a sensitive artist who’s fashioned a work with a wide, though never showy, dynamic range, with beautiful, expressive harmonies, and a firm and probably uncalculated sense of space and line. Formenti’s performance was pellucid and powerful. Next came Music for Piano and Amplified Vessels (1991 ), by the American, Alvin Lucier ( 1931 — ), which sounded like a short, spare lament. This was followed by 2 offerings by Helmut Lachenmann (1935 –), Wiegenmusik (1963), and Guero (1970), which were far more extreme, but less interesting than the previous pieces, yet just as well played. Formenti made a strong case for Hommage a Ligeti, for two pianos, tuned a quarter-tone apart (1985), by Austrian Georg Friedrich Haas (1953-), which he played, arms outstretched, between 2 grands, as both hands went up and down the keyboard incrementally. Ligeti has rarely been a charrming composer, and Haas’ “hommage” lacked that quality in spades. But what it did have going for it was an obsessive focus on conjoined and opposed sonorities, though Glass has explored these things more fully and more interestingly in Music in Similar Motion (1969), and the seminal, rarely heard Music with Changing Parts (1970). Quarte-tones give Arabic music much of its expressive power, and some Western composers who’ve used them, like Alex North, in parts of his film scores like CLEOPATRA (1963), and UNDER THE VOLCANO (1984), have done so with wit and point.

The 3 succeeding pieces by Galina Ustwolskaya (1919 –), Sonatas # 5 (1986), and 6 (1988), and Perduto in una Citta D’Acque (Lost in a City of Water) ” (1991), by the newly famous Salvatore Sciarrino (1947 –) , were colorful, and Ustwolskaya’s # 5 even seemed to quote Bartok’s 1936 Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. Formenti also played Cage’s 1958 Music Walk, and his setting and resetting of radios of vastly different sizes, makes, and hues, was amusing, and focussed the ear on sounds we wouldn’t normally give full attention to. Sciarrino was represented again by Notturno Crudele No. 2 (Cruel Nocturne) (2000) , a stylisitc and coloristic tour de force, and Lucier, once more, by Nothing Is Real (Strawberry Fields Forever) (2000), which was lyric quiet personified. It also brought into very sharp focus the sometimes ahistorical nature of the school stemming from Cage, where everything, as in American life as a whole, has to be now, or next, while the European pieces Formenti played here showed how our neighbors across the pond are as preoccupied as ever with the weight of their histories.

Formenti, who looks like an Italian character actor, has a strong presence, formidable technique — both conventional and extended — and some pieces required him to use his fists, the flat of his hand, or his forearms. His fierce devotion to whatever enters his musical orbit impressed big time. Musicians, and especially pianists, with this breadth, and passion are rare. His audience here listened hard, and responded with grateful applause.

Originally posted by Michael McDonagh from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

It's alive!

Originally from Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)

Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death (1968). George Crumb /War...huh...yeah, what is it good for?/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)

Dorkbot Art and Technology Forum

Hi all,

I wanted to invite all of you to attend dorkbot-atl, the Atlanta chapter of the international forum on art and technology dedicated to “people doing strange things with electricity.” Our final meeting of the year is this Thursday, May 3rd, at 7 pm in the Couch Building (room 207) at Georgia Tech.

Full details and directions are available at:

http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotatl/

The meeting will feature a hands-on demonstration of Flock, a work in progress being developed by myself, Liubo Borissov, Frank Dellaert, Mark Godfrey, Dan Hou, Justin Berger, and Martin Robinson. Come and help create the music being performed by a live saxophone quartet, learn how everything works, and give us feedback on the experience as we continue to develop the piece.

Flock is a performance work for saxophone quartet, conceived to directly engage audiences in the composition of music by physically bringing them out of their seats and enfolding them into the creative process. During the performance, the four musicians and the audience members move freely around the performance space. A computer vision system determines the locations of the audience members and musicians, and it uses that data to generate performance instructions for the saxophonists, who view them on wireless handheld displays mounted on their instruments. The data is also artistically rendered and projected on multiple video screens to provide a visual experience of the score. More information about flock is available at:

http://www.jasonfreeman.net/flock/

As always, dorkbot, which is sponsored by the Georgia Tech Music Department, is free and open to the public.

Hope to see you there!! This is the final event at Georgia Tech for our academic year, but there's more exciting things to come this fall...

Originally from Atlanta Composers Blog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

Hollenbeck and Mahanthappa are Guggenheim Foundation 2007 Fellows

This year’s Guggenheim Foundation Fellows include John Hollenbeck and Rudresh K. Mahanthappa.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

From AAJ:

28-Apr-07 Lol Coxhill
More Together Than Alone (Emanem)

28-Apr-07 Dino Saluzzi / Anja Lechner
Ojos Negros (ECM Records)

27-Apr-07 Adam Bohman & Roger Smith
Reality Fandango (Emanem)

27-Apr-07 John Abercrombie
The Third Quartet (ECM Records)

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Avant Garde Project 58: Pauline Oliveros and More

From AGP:

The Avant Garde Project is a series of 20th-century classical-experimental- electroacoustic torrents digitized from LPs whose music has in most cases never been released on CD, and so is effectively inaccessible to the vast majority of music listeners today. This is wild stuff, so check it out if you’ve never heard this sort of music before. The analog rig used to extract the sound from the grooves is near state-of-the-art, producing almost none of the tracking distortion or surface noise normally associated with LPs.

AGP1-55 are now available for direct download in the archive at www.avantgardeproject.org

AGP56-57 and other recent AGP installments are available at http://thepiratebay.org/user/loudav

=======================================

AGP58 collects works by Pauline Oliveros, Lucia Dlugoszewski, Ben Johnston, and Toshi Ichyanagi from five LPs released by American labels in the 1970s. Oliveros is represented by a live electronic composition (I of IV), a choral work (Sound Patterns), and a work for flute, percussion, and string bass (Outline). The two compositions by Dlugoszewski are for chamber ensembles. Ben Johnston’s Casta Bertram is for string bass and other nonsense (see notes), and was discovered in my stacks after the release of AGP9. Ichyanagi’s Extended Voices is from an Odyssey LP of that name that also features John Cage’s Solos for Voice 2 from AGP56 and Oliveros’ Sound Patterns. The other compositions on that LP are all available on CD.

Two of the works in AGP58 have been released on CD but are now out of print. These tracks were transcribed from LPs that are in excellent condition, but there are varying levels of pressing noise. While I would describe the pressing noise as only light on most tracks, it is clearly audible in the quietest passages, and there is more such noise than on the last several AGP releases. The torrent includes a text file containing notes from the five LPs from which these works were transcribed.

Equipment used for A/D conversion: Lyra Helikon phono cartridge, Linn LP12/Lingo turntable, Linn Ittok tonearm, Audioquest LeoPard tonearm cable, PS Audio PS2 preamplifier, Kimber PBJ interconnect, M-Audio Audiophile USB A/D converter.

01 - I of IV [20:34]
02 - Sound Patterns [4:04]
03 - Outline [14:25]
04 - Casta Bertram [10:46]
05 - Fire Fragile Flight [8:32]
06 - Angels of the Inmost Heaven [8:25]
07 - Extended Voices [11:14]

NOTE: To the best of my knowledge, these recordings are currently out of print. If you know otherwise, please let me know ASAP, as I do not wish any artists to be deprived of the royalties that they so richly deserve.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

DMG Newsletter April 27th 2007

From DMG:

FROM WINTER to SUMMER in ONE WEEK ONCE AGAIN w/ NEW DISCS from

ELTON DEAN & THE WRONG OBJECT, JIM O’ROURKE, ELLIOTT SHARP, GUY KLUCEVSEK/DAN BERN, THEO BLECKMANN & BEN MONDER, NUBLU ORCHESTRA w/ BUTCH MORRIS, MATS GUSTAFSSON & YOSHIMI P-WE, MYRA MELFORD & TANYA KALMANOVITCH, DAVID WATSON,

TERRY RILEY, EARL BROWNE, CONLON NANCARROW, HANS WERNER HENZE, 2 from PAULINE OLIVEROS, MELT BANANA, COLD BLEAK HEAT, ZENO DE ROSSI’ SHTIK, LUCIO CAPECE/AXEL DORNER/ROBIN HAYWARD, SMEGMA, VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA, MERZBOW CARLOS GIFFONI

PLUS ARCHIVAL DISCS from PAUL SCHUTZE, DEREK BAILEY, ARCHIE SHEPP, DON CHERRY, MIKE TAYLOR, HARUMI, BUZZY LINHART, FLOWER TRAVELLIN’ BAND & A BUNCH OF JAPANESE RARITIES VINYL-ONLY COPIES OF CARLA BLEY & MICHAEL MANTLER’S WATT CATALOGUE!

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Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Sonomu Reviews

From Sonomu:

Buckethead & Travis Dickerson, Chicken Noodles (TDRSmusic)
The trajectory of the career of guitarist Buckethead is certainly as interesting, if not more so, than any other axe-wielder´s. Originally drawn toward straight-forward metal, inspired by comic books and giant tin robots, he somehow came into contact with demon producer Bill Laswell and has a long… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 09:22, 26 Apr 2007

Richie Miletic, Outside Scenic (self-produced)
Inside nice, too. Richie Miletic has a nice, reassuring voice, rather than a good one. But he´s a jim-dandy songwriter with an eagle eye for detail and a razor wit, as this collection attests. Debuting at twenty-five years of age - said to have been “discovered”, like Regina Spektor, at New… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 08:36, 20 Apr 2007

Daisuke Miyatani, Diario (Ahorenfelder)
Ahornfelder is a vibrant young label based in Leipzig and dedicated to exploring the interstices between post-rock, quiet acoustics, idiosyncratic jazz and field recordings. So far, only delicate and unobtrustive ambient-cum-field recordings have reached this reviewer´s ears, almost always to his… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 09:23, 16 Apr 2007

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Musique Machine Reviews

From Musique Machine:

The Alps - Jewelt Galaxies / Spirit Shambles

Jewelt Galaxies and Spirit Shambles is a compilation of two earlier small pressing CD-R’s released on Root Strata and Foxglove respectively. Spekk has tastefullly packaged this re-release in an oversized gatefold case, with serene artwork which reflects the nature scene that the enclosed music evokes.

Various Artists - Fun From None-DVD
Fun From None offers up several visual snapshots from both 2004 & 2005 No Fun noise festivals in New York. Featuring live work-outs from a total of twenty acts/ artist over the two DVD set including the likes of Wolf Eyes, Jazkamer, Carlos Giffoni, Hair police and Double leopards to name a few.

Hoor-paar-Kraat - The Absurdity of Symbolism
The Absurdity of Symbolism is the new slice of surreal, ever morphing sound world that is Hoor-paar-Kraat. It finds Mr Mangicapra & his Grim sound Dr’s melding more guitar textures into their sound, following on from the excellent Nagaraja Movements from early this year, but in a more progressive and varied manner.

Vomit Orchestra - Bridges Burnt
Vomit Orchestra is a project that is at odds with ones perception of them. Firstly their name suggest some sort of tacky Carcass clone. Secondly their puzzling artwork which is made up of old soft-core female pictures, out of focus matter and slight occultic learning’s- leaves you unshaw quite what to expect.

Adam_is - Moles
Moles is the first audio fruit of sound artist Adam _ is aka Michail Adamis, it offers up five road/ Tunnel making sound based tracks. That go from echoched purring, to machine idleing drones ,to often quite complex tapestry of different drill and machine tones.

Cloaks - A Crystal Skull in Peru
Imagine if Popol Vuh at their most dreamy and mellow were mixed with modern soothing and tinkling quiet noise. Then you get something close to the wonder that is the Cloaks first widely available disk A Crystal Skull in Peru.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Zappa Plays Zappa on Tour

The latest list of shows:

7/18/2007 Winnipeg, MB - Centennial Concert Hall
Public onsale on May 4th through Ticketmaster

7/19/2007 Detroit Lake, MN - 10,000 Lakes Fest
Onsale now through

Chicago, IL - Civic Opera House
Public onsale on May 5th through Ticketmaster

7/21/2007 Milwaukee, WI - The Rave
Public onsale on May 5th through Ticketmaster

7/22/2007 Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room
Public onsale May 5th through Ticketmaster

7/24/2007 Cincinnati, OH - Moonlite Gardens
Ticketmaster auction starts on Wed, April 23
Public onsale on May 4th through Ticketmaster

7/25/2007 Erie, PA - Warner Theatre
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7/26/2007 Columbus, OH - LC Pavilion
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7/27/2007 Detroit, MI - Meadow Brook Festival
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7/28/2007 Cleveland, OH - Cain Park
Ticketmaster auction running now:
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oronto, ON - Hummingbird
Public onsale on May 7th through Ticketmaster.ca

7/31/2007 Montreal, QC - Metropolis
Public onsale on May 4th through www.ticketpro.ca

8/1/2007 Quebec City, QC - Albert Rousseau Hall

Public onsale on May 4th through www.billetech.com

8/2/2007 Hampton Beach, NH - Hampton Beach Casino
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8/4/2007 Boston, MA - Fleet Boston Pavilion
Ticketmaster auction starts on May 2nd
Public onsale on May 7th through Ticketmaster

8/5/2007 Red Bank, NJ - Count Basie Theatre
Public onsale on May 4th through www.countbasietheatre.org

8/6/2007 Westbury, NY - Northfork Theater @
Westbury Music Fair
Ticketmaster auction running now here -

Public onsale now through Ticketmaster

hiladelphia, PA - Electric Factory
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8/9/2007 Baltimore, MD - Rams Head
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8/10/2007 Norfolk, VA - Norva
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8/11/2007 Asheville, NC - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
Ticketmaster auction starts on April 23rd
Public onsale on May 4th through Ticketmaster

8/13/2007 Tulsa, OK - Cains Ballroom
Public onsale May 5th through HYPERLINK www.gettix.net www.gettix.net

8/15/2007 Albuquerque, NM - Kiva Auditorium
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8/16/2007 Tucson, AZ - Fox Theatre
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*VIP tickets available for this show (include a ticket, soundcheck access and a show poster)

Phoenix, AZ - Dodge Theatre
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8/18/2007 Las Vegas, NV - House Of Blues
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8/20/2007 San Francisco, CA - Berkeley Community Theatre
Ticketmaster auction will start on Wed, April 23rd
Public onsale on May 6th through Ticketmaster

8/21/2007 San Diego, CA - House Of Blues
Public onsale on May 5th through Ticketmaster
*VIP tickets available for this show (include a ticket, soundcheck access and a show poster)

8/22/2007 Anaheim, CA - House Of Blues
Public onsale on May 5th through Ticketmaster
*VIP tickets available for this show (include a ticket, soundcheck access and a show poster)

8/23/2007 Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern
Public onsale on May 5th through Ticketmaster

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

This week in New York

Listings from the New York Times:

SUSIE IBARRA AND ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ (Wednesday) Ms. Ibarra is a drummer with a passion for texture and abstraction, and a composer committed to the idea of cultural exchange. “Electric Kulintang,” her percussive collaboration with Mr. Rodriguez, adds a contemporary sheen to the chiming kulintang music of the Philippines. At 9:30 p.m., Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 539-8778, joespub.com; cover, $15, with a two-drink minimum. (Chinen)

ROB REDDY QUINTET/BRANDON ROSS INTENTION (Tomorrow) The alto and soprano saxophonist Rob Reddy never runs out of ways to bundle the timbres in his band, which includes violin, mandolin and guitar. A similar claim could be made for Brandon Ross, who plays guitar and banjo, and features a cellist here. At 9, Jalopy Theater, 315 Columbia Street, near Second Place, Red Hook, Brooklyn, (718) 395-3214, jalopy.biz; cover, $10. (Chinen)

AMERICAN FESTIVAL OF MICROTONAL MUSIC (Sunday and Wednesday) For fans of microtonal music — music in non-standard tunings — this annual festival opens on Sunday with a performance by MicroJam, an ensemble from Boston, and Dave Taylor, the trombonist, who will perform Johnny Reinhard’s “Zelig Mood Ring” and stay on for a jam with Mr. Reinhard and MicroJam. The second installment, on Wednesday, includes more music by Mr. Reinhard and works by Elodie Lauten, Kyle Gann and Joseph Pehrson. At 10 p.m., Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, at Bleecker Street, East Village, (212) 517-3550, afmm.org; $10. (Kozinn)

KRONOS YOUNG ARTISTS CONCERT (Tomorrow) Four emerging quartets will perform repertory they have studied in workshops this past week with the innovative Kronos Quartet, which champions contemporary music and frequently commissions new works. The lineup features pieces either written for or arranged for Kronos, including Steve Reich’s “Triple Quartet,” John Zorn’s “Cat o’ Nine Tails” and Alexandra du Bois’s String Quartet, as well as arrangements by Osvaldo Golijov and others. At 7:30 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $15. (Schweitzer)

MANNES CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) Works by the Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Moravec; an evening of percussion that includes Steve Reich’s “Drumming”; world premieres by Davide Zannoni and others; and pieces by leading figures, like Iannis Xenakis, are all part of this festival, which takes on various aspects of the contemporary. Performers include chamber and percussion ensembles and, of course, the Mannes School Orchestra. At 8 p.m., Mannes College of Music, 150 West 85th Street, Manhattan, (212) 496-8524, mannes.newschool.edu; free. (Midgette)

OPUS 21 (Tomorrow) This new-music ensemble explores Postminimalism, with works by Richard Adams, who founded the group in 2003, as well as by Louis Andriessen, Anna Clyne, Mark Dancigers, Dennis DeSantis, David Lang, Steve Reich and Billy Ryan. At 8:30 p.m., Thalia at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400, symphonyspace.org; $12; $15 on the day of the show; $8 for students. (Kozinn)

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Latest Free Jazz Reviews

From Free Jazz
Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake - From The River To The Mountain
William Gagliardi - Memories Of Tomorrow
Ken Vandermark - Three reviews
Matt Lavelle Trio - Spiritual Power

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

links for 2007-04-28

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

The Atlanta Score Study Group's New (Old) Direction

From Eddie Horst:

This is an announcement about The Atlanta Score Study Group (ASSg) regarding some changes in its focus and direction.

As you may know, ASSg, in a previous incarnation, was started by Eddie Horst, but revived and artfully managed over the past year by Jonathan Cazanave.

The original direction of the group was to be as the name implies: studying great music by listening to recordings and diligently examining and learning from the score. The ultimate aim was to increase our skills and proficiency as composers by truly understanding the means by which great music was created in works that we admired.

Many of the past meetings did indeed focus on this goal, but I came to learn that about half the attendees had various other goals (all very worthy). So to better address our various interests I would like to introduce a solution for all of us. First, I would like to return ASSg to its original course, and second, because of exciting new developments in the Atlanta composer community, I would encourage those not focused on score study to find an existing group, or even to create a new one that more suits their needs. There is plenty going on. Jonathan showed us that there are many eager composers in our midst.

Before I describe how ASSg might better operate, let me describe how our relationship to the Atlanta composers' community will be strengthened through our friend, Darren Nelsen. As many of you know, Darren is a great organizer and visionary who maintains an excellent blog at Atlantacomposers.com. News of ASSg's meetings have been and will continue to be disseminated through his blog, along with news from other groups. So ASSg is not going away. It is simply refocusing back to its original mission and continuing to stay in touch with the community through Darren's blog. ASSg is one part of a larger thing.

ASSg Purpose: To study scores communally so as to help ourselves and each other become better composers.

Participation: If you agree to be a part of ASSg, and you show up at a monthly meeting, you must agree to commit to some listening and studying beforehand. Yeh, like homework, but the payoff might be more exciting than a mere degree. You will also be expected to give something at the meeting. Remember, this is like a musical commune: everyone gives, everyone gets. Anyone can suggest a piece for the group to study. The score and mp3 will be made available by me to everyone a month or so beforehand. The score may even come as a standard midi file which would allow easy non-transposed analysis in sequencer or notation software while synchronized with the audio.

What to Study:
Classical, Romantic or Contemporary music written for an ensemble
Classic or contemporary film scores
Our own music, as long as it is of benefit to all of us
Various other music that is a) good and b) appealing to the group

ASSg will be interesting, thought-provoking, educational, inspiring, and certainly fun. However, to be those things for everyone, it will require a commitment for each of us to listen and study intently beforehand and then actively participate in the meetings. When this works well it is actually a thrilling experience (Well, at least for me).

The analysis can touch on anything that might help us write better music including but not limited to:
compositional aspects
melody
harmony
rhythm
form
orchestration
instrumentation
counterpoint
texture
vertical structures
the line and horizontal aspects
tension and release
voicings
patterns
emotional effects
complexity
originality
density
repetition
doublings
and on and on.

If you are interested in being an active member in the new ASSg, please send me a quick email indicating what you feel you can contribute for your own and the group’s enlightenment. Give me your thoughts on how the new ASSg will help you. Give me your thoughts on what you might want to change or add. We will try to keep the number of participants at a relatively low number so that we can stay on track with the most committed members. Incidentally, I am inviting a few very serious score study buddies who have not been to any previous meetings.

I will set up the first meeting when I hear from you. We can continue to meet monthly at Crawford on any night we choose. Jonathan will likely be involved in managing things but his duties will not be as extensive. We will all share.

Send to:
eddie@eddiehorstmusic.com

Originally from Atlanta Composers Blog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 05:01 AM | Comments (0)

Arpeggios in Opposite Directions

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This is a work in progress...

I changed the finger piano envelope to something like that chart, and then fed each note of some opposite direction arpeggios through it.

Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 02:01 AM | Comments (0)

Debussy Arrested! Mais non!

Debussy arrested! Debussy on trial? Did it ever happen? No — not really, but in this fantastical comedy, the Music Police (wielding baguettes, bien sur!) arrest Monsieur Debussy as a harmonic anarchist! In reality, critics did call him a musical anarchist — to them, Debussy followed no “laws” of music and broke all the sacred traditions.

Claude Debussy was one of the greatest revolutionaries in music, and had there been Stalinesque (or Nazi-like) culture police in Paris at the time, you can be sure he would have been locked up for his parallel ninth chords, unparalleled use of the whole-tone scale, and other chromatic criminality. If the pentatonic scale did not really land Debussy in the penitentiary, it makes a good story and allows us to defend, and so explain, his music to the audience.

As in nearly all the Meet the Music shows, the musicians will also be actors. The Daedalus Quartet will play the part of the Baguette Quartette, and the two males in the quartet (Kyu and Raman) will also appear as the music police. Pianist Gilles Vonsattel will play the part of a pianist (he can do it, believe me) and he will be an important witness in the trial. The audience will be the jury (as they always are!) and the judge will be played by the 8 1/2 year-old Katja Stroke-Adolphe, a close relative of mine who just happens to share quite a lot of genetic material with me (and my wife Marija!) As the judge, Katja will ask the jury to consider the evidence as it is presented during the trial. The evidence will be the music of Monsieur Debussy and the defense attorney will be none other than Sherlock Key, private ear, from London.

Debussy did not care about “laws” of music, but only about the pleasure of the sounds. However, he arrived at this viewpoint after much study and traditional training, so he knew precisely what he was doing and not doing! Naturally, his style and language developed a clear profile (and a nice goatee) and one could make a case that Debussy created his own grammar, syntax and, therefore, his own “law and order”. In fact, that is exactly what Sherlock Key, the great private ear, proves to the jury and judge during the course of the trial. The jury (audience) will learn how to create and perform Debussy’s beloved harmonies, how to recognize (and sing) whole tone and pentatonic scales, and so they will come to understand the prisoner and, we hope, they will set him free at the end of the concert!

Do join us for this fanciful historical fictional musical theaterical event. And bring your baguette!!

Yours,

Inspector Bruce Adolphe

Originally posted by Ronen from Intermission: Impossible, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 28, 2007 at 02:00 AM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2007

More Variations in the Variability

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This is a work in progress...

The piece offers each part a variety of measures to choose from. Sometimes I push one of the instruments to keep choosing the same measure, sometimes to try very hard not to choose the same one. Or it can sequence through them in a series. Variability is set for each instrument to a number from 0 (never pick the same thing again) to 32 (always pick the same thing again). The higher the number, the more likely it will pick the same measure twice in a row. In this section I vary the variability a bit.

Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

New Music News Wire

Erin Gee and Yotam Haber win Rome Prize, Wind band recordings are Grammy eligible, Federal court rules in favor of digital music services, Shelton Berg named dean of Miami's Frost School of Music, musicians union lifts boycott against Delta, 400-piece orchestra will perform for Jamestown anniversary.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

VIM: TRIBECA Presents Recordanza; Kimball Gallagher, piano

Pianist Kimball Gallagher offers fresh renditions of time-tested works by Chopin, Scarlatti, Bartok, and Debussy. Inspired by pianists from the early half of the 20th Century, Gallagher seeks to reestablish older traditions of piano playing by melding romantic ideals and modern vitality into a bold, personal musical experience.

Filling a void in New York City’s vibrant concert scene, VIM: TRIBECA presents a panoramic view of the emerging artists who will help define music in the 21st Century. The Fall-to-Spring series, curated by Gallagher and composer Judd Greenstein, showcases serious young musicians with fearless and inspired artistic convictions, ranging from new ensembles performing the music of today, to solo pianists, vocalists, and chamber music ensembles giving new relevance to time-tested music from the past. VIM: TRIBECA brings young talent into the heart of New York’s TriBeCa neighborhood at Gallerie Icosahedron, a beautiful, postindustrial gallery owned and curated by Dalia Chako, featuring a wide variety of nontraditional, anti-conformist artwork.

Sunday, April 29, 2007 at 5:30 pm

Donations Gratefully Accepted

Gallerie Icosahedron — 27 N. Moore St. New York, NY 10013 btw. Varick and Hudson

(Subway: 1 to Franklin, 2 to Chambers, A C to Canal)

Originally posted by s21concerts from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)

Quintet of the Americas to Present Special May 1 Concert of Music from Brazil and Colombia in Jamaica, Queens, with Guest Percussionist Gaudencio Thiago de Mello

The Quintet of the Americas will present a special May Day concert of music from Brazil and Colombia in honor of mediation on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 12:30 p.m. at Community Mediation Services, 89-64 163^rd Street, Jamaica, Queens, New York. Special guest artist will be Forest Hills resident Gaudencio Thiago de Mello, organic percussion.

Thiago de Mello, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, was born and grew up in the Brazilian Amazon. Thiago’s musical influences include the hymns and spirituals brought by missionaries, classical pieces he heard his siblings play on the piano and violin, and the whistling wind, the roar of rivers, and delicate bird songs - elements he incorporates in his percussion and composition. He will demonstrate his organic percussion and play with the Quintet. Visit him online at http://www.thiago-amazon.com/.

Other works on the program include a new work commissioned by the quintet from the brilliant young Brazilian composer Ricardo Romaneiro, duos for flute and clarinet and flute and bassoon by the 20th century master composer Heitor Villa-Lobos and music by Ernesto Nazareth, Pixingquinha, and Olaya Muñoz.

This concert is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 718-523-6868 or 718-261-7664.

The Quintet of the Americas is in residence at The Department of Music and Performing Arts in The Steinhardt School at New York University. Visit their website at http://www.quintet.org.

Originally posted by s21concerts from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)

Piano Music of Judith Lang Zaimont to Be Performed by Young Ah Tak at Yamaha Piano Salon in New York City on May 2

American composer Judith Lang Zaimont’s Wizards – Three Magic Masters will be performed by pianist Young-Ah Tak as part of her concert on Wednesday, May 2 – 7:30 PM at the Yamaha Piano Salon, 689 Fifth Avenue (3^rd floor) in Manhattan. She will also present Haydn’s Sonata in C Major, Hob. XVI:50, Debussy’s Images, Book I and Schumann’s Carnaval, Op. 9.

Wizards, an 8 minute 30 second piece for solo piano in three movements, was commissioned for the November 2003 San Antonio International Piano Competition and was a required work for that competition, where it was given 12 premiere performances. It is published by Vivace Press, Inc. and was recorded to great critical acclaim by Young-Ah Tak for Albany Records - http://www.albanyrecords.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AR&Product_Code=TROY785.

The May 2 performance is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Yamaha Artist Services at 212-339-9995 or visit them online at http://www.yamaha.com/yasi/0,,CTID%25253D560242%252526CNTYP%25253DOVERVIEW,00.html.

More about Young-Ah Tak at http://www.youngahtak.com/.

More information about Judith Zaimont, including sound clips of many of her compositions, is available at her website http://www.jzaimont.com/.

Originally posted by s21concerts from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)

Sad news from Russia

Hearing of his death today, I am so grateful I got to hear Mstislav Rostropovich conduct one last time, almost exactly a year ago, with Maxim Vengerov and the New York Philharmonic in an all-Shostakovich program. If not quite as memorable as his Shostakovich Eleventh Symphony a few years back with the London Symphony Orchestra, it was nevertheless an evening I will treasure.

From Time Europe in 2004, here is an appreciation in Vengerov's own words.

[Drawing by Sol Schwartz, via photographer Norman Koren.]

Originally posted by bhodgesnyc from Monotonous Forest, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)

Festival Rock In Opposition Photos: Zao

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)

Slava, Dead at 80

Mstislav Rostropovich died this morning in Moscow. He was 80 and suffered from intestinal cancer. Tim Page has an appreciation here.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

The Friday Informer: I Wonder If They'll All Make 2.6 Million

The New York Phil had a dream of young conductors and new music. Oh, wait, nothat was me.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)

Why We Fight

... with the piano, that is. It's a practice day, which, seeing as how I played a recital last night, will require extra motivation for my default-lazy fingers. (Spring can really hang you up the most, once it gets to end-of-the-semester juries.) Anyway, this is what'll keep me going today: Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Roy Eldredge, and a whole bunch more, giving "Fine and Mellow" a bluesy workout. If practicing is all about being ready just in case lightning strikes, this is a musical anvil cloud. (Via Hester, who writes about it beautifully.)

I'll add another: one of my favorites, the late British virtuoso John Ogdon, making a portion of Liszt's "Après une Lecture de Dante" look way too easy.

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 03:51 PM | Comments (0)

In Memorium, Mstislav Rostropovich, Musician and Humanist, 1927 - 2007

Portrait of Rostropovich (right), as young performer and humanist, with Sergei Prokofiev, senior performer, composer, and humanist -- Moscow ca. 1950.

Such a musical meeting would be inconceivable in today's Nation's Capital -- Washington, D.C.

Prokofiev is represented by only one work on Sharon Rockefeller's new Classical WETA-FM Lite, in the Nation's Capital; where Rostropovich was ultimately unsuccessful in instilling a living classical music culture and where his calls for a national music conservatory were ignored by the musical Establishment and by Congress.

Rostropovich's other great mentor and friend, composer and humanist Dmitri Shostakovich, is not truly represented at all on the new Classical WETA-FM Lite, in the Nation's Capital; though occasionally snippets of Shostakovich's minor ballet music or jazz settings are performed for tokenist purposes. This morning, however, National Public Radio did intervene in the new Classical WETA-FM Lite's reactionary silliness by broadcasting a powerful passage from Shostakovich's great Symphony #5, when announcing Rostropovich's passing.

The last work that I heard Rostropovich perform as a cellist, in Washington, D.C., was Sofia Gubaidulina's Canticle of the Sun; with members of the NSO and Washington Chorus. I believe that one of the last works, if not the last work, that I heard Rostropovich conduct with the National Symphony was the world premiere of Alfred Schnittke's Symphony #6. Mr Schnittke was in the audience, though he looked very pale at the time.

Rostropovich also commissioned and permiered with the National Symphony two symphonies by Vyacheslav Artyomov; though Rostropovich was ultimately frustrated in his plan to give the North American premiere of Artyomov's Requiem to the Victims of Stalin's Terror at the Washington National Cathedral.

With sympathy to the Rostropovich family.

Photo credit: (c) Boosey and Hawkes, Ltd. via Prokofiev.org. With thanks.

*

I first saw Rostropovich when he conducted an afternoon cello master class at Alfred Hertz Memorial Concert Hall, in Berkeley, in 1976. We revisited Hertz Hall last Wednesday noon where Graeme Jennings performed a superb solo violin recital, sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute, of works by Berio, Donatoni, and Sciarrino. Rostropovich would certainly have approved of the seriousness of that recital in that it reflected his own musical vision of a living classical music tradition; a living tradition he ultimately found lacking in Washington, D.C.

[Rostropovich is forgiven for calling my wife N. "a little rabbit", a few summers ago.]

Originally from Renaissance Research, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)

Puccini at the Movies

On Saturday opera lovers across the U.S. and Canada and as far away as Sweden and Japan will experience the Met on the big screen at our latest live movie theater performance transmission. They will be settling into their seats to watch the Met’s sixth and final HD transmission of the season: Puccini’s “Il Trittico” in a hit new production by Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien (who introduces the broadcast).

This trio of one-acters is the largest production (with four stunning sets) in the Met’s repertory, elbowing out Zeffirelli’s staging of Puccini’s “Turandot.” Met Music Director James Levine conducts a stellar cast, including triple-threat Stephanie Blythe (appearing in all three operas), Alessandro Corbelli, Barbara Frittoli, Massimo Giordano, Maria Guleghina, Salvatore Licitra, Olga Mykytenko, and Juan Pons.

Ever wonder what it takes to sing on the Met stage? Award winning filmmaker Susan Froemke followed a group of aspiring young singers as they competed in the early rounds of the Met’s National Council Auditions in San Antonio, Texas. This short behind-the-scenes documentary will be a special intermission feature of this exciting live transmission.

Next season’s eight HD transmissions are bookended by Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón in Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” (December 15, 2007) and Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez in Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment” (April 26, 2008).

Originally posted by Matt Dobkin from MetBlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)

Mstislav Rostropovich, 1927-2007

The sad news has arrived that Mstislav Rostropovich has died in Moscow early this morning, after a battle with cancer. His death is especially tragic for Washingtonians because of the great Russian cellist and conductor's long relationship with the city, as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1977 to 1994. Lacking words to express the enormity of Rostropovich's musical and humanitarian achievements, here is an excerpt of the tribute published by Jean-Louis Validire (Dissident et défenseur de Soljenitsyne, April 27) in Le Figaro today (my translation):

On November 9, 1989, in the very first hours after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mstislav Rostropovich, seated on a chair against a section of the Berlin Wall, played a Bach sonata [he means suite--Ed.]. The image broadcast on international television made him one of the architects of the struggle against a world that was crumbling and earned him worldwide recognition. But the cellist's actions in support of democracy and especially in defense of his persecuted friends did not date from that moment immortalized by photography.

Rostropovich always demonstrated an active sense of compassion for the victims of the purges. For example, he always defended the family and memory of Sergei Prokofiev, too often accused of collusion with the authorities, so much had the image of official composer been established. [...] Rostropovich's admiration for [Shostakovich] never flagged. He bought and renovated the apartment in St. Petersburg, in which Shostakovich had lived from 1914 to 1934. He brought together there a large amount of documents and souvenirs that had belonged to the composer to create a museum devoted to Shostakovich at 9 Rue Marat.

It was the defense of Solzhenitsyn that ultimately brought the Rostropiviches to their disgrace. Since 1969, the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya couple had supported the novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, by allowing him to live in their dacha outside Moscow. They also wrote, in 1970, an open letter to Brezhnev protesting Soviet restrictions on cultural freedom. These actions had as an immediate consequence the cancelation of the couple's concerts and recording projects, as well as all travel abroad. Later, in 1974, exit visas were granted that allowed them to go into exile, and four years later, they renounced their Soviet citizenship.

See also the tribute by Tim Page in the Post today.

Originally from ionarts, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)

UK Rail Company Tries to Charge Cellos for Seats on Half-Empty Train

Vivien Schweitzer, PlaybillArts, 4/25/2007

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)

Boise Experimental Music Festival

The Boise Experimental Music Festival is going on today and tomorrow. Lots of interesting-looking acts.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

Braxton - ‘9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006′ Reviewed

A review of this convoluted piece of work is available.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

Prolific Patton Keeps Momentum Going With Peeping Tom

Another article covers Mike Patton and his many projects.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

Nels Cline Profiled

Cline is interviewed as part of this article on his work with Wilco and other projects.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

RIP, Slava

From Fidelio Magazine, Spring 1999
Fidelio: on November 11 [1989] you played a Bach suite at Checkpoint Charlie.
Rostropovich: It was a simple need; I had to do it. And by myself, for sure. Because, this Wall was a symbol of my life, or my “two” lives—the one before 1974, and the one thereafter—which were so completely different, and could not be brought into harmony as long as this Wall existed.

Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011
Prelude : Allemande : Courante : Sarabande : Gavotte I : Gavotte II : Gigue

Originally posted by jodru from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)

Rostropovich – reaching out for the music

There are three ways of knowing a thing. Take for instance a flame. One can be told of the flame, one can see the flame with his own eyes, and finally one can reach out and be burned by it – Sufi scholar.

Some of us are told of music, some of us can see music, but Mstislav Rostropovich, who died today age 80, reached out and was burnt by it. I first met him after he conducted a wildly exuberant performance of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony with the Snape Maltings Training Orchestra in 1977. Rostropovich had a long-standing relationship with the Aldeburgh Festival, and with its founder Benjamin Britten, who had died the previous year. This relationship had produced the Cello Symphony, the Cello Suites, and a Cello Sonata, all of which Britten wrote for the Russian cellist.

Back in the 1970s I was working for EMI, and Slava’s relationship with the company went back to 1956 when he recorded the Miaskovsky Cello Concerto. In 1974 Rostropovich and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, left the Soviet Union, and the following year he recorded the two Haydn Cello Concertos, with Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, in the Henry Wood Hall in London for EMI.

At that time EMI’s famous International Classical Division, which had been founded by Walter Legge, was housed in modest offices in Hanover Square, just off London's Oxford Street, I was EMI’s international marketing manager working for the division’s director, Peter Andry, who had masterminded several legendary ‘east meets west’ recordings, including Karajan’s Dresden Meistersinger and the Berlin Beethoven Triple Concerto with Richter, Oistrak and Rostropovich.

For me, an incident away from the recording studio showed the difference between Rostropovich and other superstar musicians. We decided to celebrate the release of the Haydn record by inviting Slava to the EMI offices in 1977 to present him with the lavish EMI-Pathé gatefold edition of the concertos. The visit summed up Slava’s approach to life - energy, enthusiasm, passion, but above all a love for music and a love for the human race. He made sure he spent time talking to all the background staff who rarely came into contact with the artists, yet alone superstars. We were working with many other great musicians at the time, but the prospect of Herbert von Karajan visiting our offices, yet alone hugging a secretary was unthinkable.

Others will document Rostropovich’s career and achievements in more detail, and in particular his work defending human and artistic freedoms. We are fortunate that he leaves such a fine recorded legacy as a cellist. He went on to achieve much as a conductor, but the electricity he radiated from the podium was difficult to transfer to recordings. I can remember discussions at EMI as to whether his 1970s Tchaikovsky Symphony cycle should be remastered, as the pressings somehow lacked the frisson of the actual performances.

In the later years his energy was occasionally misplaced, and his fee as a conductor became an obstacles with some promoters, restricting his appearances at important series such as the BBC Promenade Concerts. The last time I saw him was in London several years ago with the Lithuanian Ballet, when he conducted a staged performance of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet that ended with a bizarre mis en scene with Rostropovich joining the dead lovers on stage in the final bars.

Mstislav Rostropovich will be remembered as a genius with the cello and baton, as a champion of human rights, as a consummate ambassador for music, and above all for his love for humanity. He truly reached out and was burnt by the music, let us celebrate that today.

Slava's Russian roots informed everything he did, now read about Western takes on Russian music.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

Post-Hakola

NY Times music critic Allan Kozinn's review of Present Music's Kimmo Hakola concert in New York appeared today. Interesting take on the music and nice action pic of your MMM host.

Originally posted by Phillip from Mostly Music in the Midlands, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

Think of the children 2!

From Ball State professor Keith Kothman’s blog about our concert in Muncie, IN: While my daughter thought that the concert was lonnngg, she still proudly displays her personal merchandise acquisition from the evening. Its a must-have for every 7-yr-old new music fan. I’ve written before about the addiction of children to contemporary music, but from the bemused expression I can’t say this seven-year-old looks like she will be a groupie anytime soon…

Originally posted by Tim from thirteen ways, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

More on busking - with added Tasmin Little

It occurs, reading Jessica Duchen’s London reprise of the Joshua Bell experiment, that there is a further aspect mentioned, but not yet considered, in the Independent’s and Washington Post’s versions of the story. Both lament the fact that so many people walk past, listening to their iPods, and barely even notice the music making that is happening live, before their eyes. Of course, those people ignoring Little and Bell may, just possibly have one or the other - or even Menuhin - in their ears at that moment; the point is, they’re already listening to music - should we expect them to stop, in order to, er, listen to music?

What makes that question not as apparently tautological as it sounds is that it conceals a large number of value judgements about the relative merits of enjoying a public performance of great classical music by a great performer, and enjoying the private experience of music of your own choosing. If we completely level the playing field, clearly watching Tasmin Little, live, playing Bach is better than listening to her on your iPod. Leaving aside issues of recording fidelity, and the crappy 128KBps compression iTunes will have put your music through, live performance is generally a richer experience than recordings.

But we’re not on a level playing field. We’re comparing hearing a snippet of Bach performed in somewhat compromised conditions with complete pieces of music that travel with you as you go home. I would suggest that for at least some of those iPodders, even if they entirely failed to register Ms Little, hearing their music, uninterrupted, is of some value to them. Busking is, essentially, muzak - music is heard as fragments of a stream that is considered to be more or less continuous. It is of an entirely different form to music heard in the concert hall, which has a beginning, a middle and an end. That form is taken to be inherent in the music itself. It’s not a consequence of the concert hall institution, rather, concert halls have evolved into what are considered the best venue for listening to music from beginning to end.

Tied up with this are a set of judgments about the value of great art, a canon of great works, and a series of Dead White masters. A theory of artistic masterpieces only makes sense if you are able to consider them, in isolation, as unified aesthetic objects. All of which, it seems to me, is anathema to busking, which is a transitory, ephemeral, performer-based art. Bach’s great masterpieces have precious little to do with it: they are considered masterpieces because in an ostensible competition between all other musical works, they come out on top. This makes (a sort of sense) in the sanitised conditions of the concert hall; but in the street Bach is not competing with Brahms or Franck, he’s competing with train times, noise, appointments, and people’s different, immediate music choices. The value systems that work for him in the concert hall collapse out here. Is beauty beautiful everywhere? And is beauty all that matters?

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)

Musician Deathwatch

del.icio.us/skills/obituary | About this list
With the recent announcement of Rostropovich’s passing after a long illness, we bid farewell to the following members of the musical community:

:: Mstislav Rostropovich Cellist and composer
:: Bobby Pickett ‘Monster Mash’ singer
:: Herman Riley Jazz saxophonist
:: Carlo Badini Superintendent of La Scala
:: Andrew Hill Jazz pianist and composer
:: Lobby Loyde Rock guitarist
:: Brian Fahey Big band arranger and composer
:: Walter Hendl Conductor and composer

Rest in Peace.

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)

Recording Session at the Magic Closet

This past monday and tuesday I was in the Magic Closet recording studio doing the tracking with my quartet for the upcoming cd to be released on Diatic Records. After an un-thrilling first day in which we didn't get much done(I was trying out a big ass fender amp that wasn't working for me) we came back the second day and charged through all ten tunes on the list. There are for sure some rough spots, but what the hell, it's live. I really dug the way Randy Rollofson, Tim Willcox and Bill Athens played my tunes - they really put some effort into pulling it together and go in the direction intended when I wrote them. The playing was all round very strong and the energy and atmosphere seems like it's coming across. We just started mixing this so there is still
alot to listen to.... Many thanks to Bryan Daste for a great job with the engineering!

Unfortunately, Tim wouldn't stop picking his nose long enough to get a proper picture...

Originally from Jazz Thinks, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)

On the Next MUSIC FROM OTHER MINDS

On the next Music From Other Minds, Friday 11pm repeated Monday 11pm (PT), R. Murray Schafer's Sixth String Quartet from 1993 and Wolfgang Rihm's Violin Concerto DRITTE MUSIK, also from 1993.

And we'll also try something completely different to end the program from a new CD by the Eighth Blackbird ensemble.

Music From Other Minds airs on KALW-FM San Francisco 91.7 FM, and is available, on line, for the week following, via our website: otherminds.org/mfom

Originally from All I Know², ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

Restructuring

(Click to enlarge.)

Update: Joshua Kosman reveals the thought process.

Disclaimer: to the best of my knowledge, the concertmaster of the NY Phil does not actually have a mistress.

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

R.O. Morris momentarily indulges his inner Vorticist

I'm addicted to antique textbooks, so, looking to brush up on some basics, I naturally ended up with a 1922 copy of Contrapuntal Technique in the Sixteenth Century by the British composer and educator R.O. Morris. Morris was in the vanguard of teaching counterpoint as an exercise in style rather than rote memorization, and thus the book has a certain verve: nothing inspires a Brit quite like disparaging his academic predecessors. When he gets to the section on parallel intervals, Morris liberally boils his strictures down to three. The first:

1. Consecutive fifths (and a fortiori consecutive octaves) are forbidden between any two parts if no other notes intervene, no matter what the value of the note.

Pretty obvious. Here's the second:

2. Consecutives on successive semibreve beats are broken by the intervention of a minim if it is a harmony note, but not if it is a passing discord. Consecutives on successive minim beats are similarly broken by the intervention of a crotchet if it is a harmony note; not otherwise. (This is the doctrine of Morley, and it is in every way substantiated by sixteenth-century practice.)

Morris throws students a lifeline by letting them finesse parallels via consonant escape tones. (I don't have a problem with this, but I'm pretty sure I have at least one other textbook that does.) But then we get to his third rule:

3. A suspension may be said to temper the wind to the shorn consecutive.

The what to the what now? What he's getting at is that it's OK to use a suspension to avoid parallel fifths even though they're technically "still there" (i.e., they show up if you move the suspended note onto the beat). But that's pretty Modernist-enigmatic for a counterpoint rule. It's practically a haiku.

The note, suspended,
Will temper the wind to the
Shorn consecutive.

Ezra Pound would have slapped an ideogram on that and sent it to Harriet Monroe. I need to hunt down Morris's book on keyboard harmony; I'm hoping for an Imagist evocation of the various semitonal alterations available on the subdominant.

Update (4/26): Joshua Kosman reads more than I do (see comments).

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

Shere's good fortune

Charles Shere ends a delightful report on concerts of Schubert and Purcell with this:

And what came of that was the thing that unites Purcell and Schubert: their fundamental innocence, their good cheer, their generosity of spirit. This is something they share with Mozart and Satie and, I think, John Cage, and with so few other composers. They're not in business for their egos. They're as amazed at the beauty they discover as we fortunate listeners are. They are, I think, in a way, angels, Ariels. How lucky we've been to share two evenings in three days with them!

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Still Shunning American Classical Music, Classical WETA-FM Lite, In Nation's Capital, To Program Saturday Operas From American Companies Year-Round

"Classical WETA-FM (90.9) has decided to air opera year-round, expanding upon its current Saturday afternoon broadcasts of Metropolitan Opera performances during the December-May season, the Arlington public radio station said yesterday.

"Classical WETA Opera House," debuting on May 12, will air productions from five major national companies, including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera and, of course [sic], the Washington National Opera. The program will air during the same slot as the Metropolitan broadcasts at 1:30 p.m. on Saturdays.

"Opera House" will kick off with a broadcast of Giacomo Puccini's "Turandot" as performed by the Lyric Opera of Chicago." ...

Kara Rowland "WETA expands opera lineup" Washington Times April 25, 2007

http://www.washingtontimes.com/business/20070424-095247-4441r.htm

*

Last week in Berkeley, California, in one single hour of public radio listening, I heard classical music by three living classical composers: Jake Heggie [sung by Frederica von Stade], Ricky Ian Gordon, and Vladimír Godár [performed by Iva Bittová].

I also heard, on public classical radio, San Francisco conductor Michael Tilson Thomas's The MTT Files [from American Public Radio and the San Francisco Symphony] program on Stravinsky; and a delayed broadcast, by the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas, of Stravinsky's Divertimento from The Fairy's Kiss and Symphony in Three Movements, and Tchaichovky's first attempt at a symphony -- his Winter Daydreams [Symphony #1].

All of these three works -- along with similarly public radio broadcast works by Kissine, Takemitsu, Aho, Ades, and Piazolla -- are too new and unusual for Sharon Rockefeller's currently constituted, Luddite Classical WETA-FM Lite, in the Nation's Capital. [San Francisco Symphony Program Notes]

Classical and new classical music artists Frederica von Stade and Iva Bittova, above, are good enough for classical music lovers around the world; but not good enough for Sharon Rockefeller's new Classical WETA-FM Lite, in the Nation's Capital.

What national American classical culture an older generation of the Rockefeller family gave to the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums [the De Young Museum's Rockefeller Collection of American Art] and the Nation, has been taken away by Sharon Rockefeller, Dan De Vany, and Jim Allison of the new, American classical music disdaining, Classical WETA-FM Lite, in the Nation's Capital.

National Gallery of Art, American Painting Galleries

National Museum of Women in the Arts, Celebrating 20 Years

Photo credits: (c) Hans Fahnmayer and Andante.com; and Prague Radio and img.radio.cz. With thanks.

Originally from Renaissance Research, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Friends connect to create rhapsody for viola

Elaine Guregian, Akron Beacon Journal, 4/26/2007

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Sink down

Photo: Kira Perov

Some tickets remain for the L.A. Philharmonic's Tristan Project at Lincoln Center, none of them below $175. If you don't have that much cash lying around, you can still immerse yourself in Tristan via WNYC's week-long Tristan Mysteries series. Quoth the website: "Highlights include interviews with playwright Terrance McNally; anthropologist Helen Fisher; adult film actress/'Vivid Girl' (and Wagner fanatic) Savanna Samson; choreographer Mark Morris; and acclaimed video artist Bill Viola" — not to mention the bløgôsphëre's own Danny Felsenfeld, explaining the phenomenon of the "Tristan chord" with reference to music from Debussy to Radiohead. I wrote about the Paris Opera incarnation of the Sellars/Viola/Salonen Tristan in 2005, and I've done a quick survey of Salonen's CDs for the New Yorker website. If you're curious about Gustavo Dudamel, Salonen's successor in LA, you can hear him with his future orchestra via a webcast on KUSC on Sunday at 4PM Pacific time. An iTunes release of this same January 2007 concert, featuring Kodály's Dances of Galánta, Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto (with Yefim Bronfman), and Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, will arrive next month. Some random photos from my last L.A. trip follow the jump.

Classical music, A1 above the fold in the LA Times. The writer is Mark Swed, whose articles, Ernest Fleischmann told me, played a not insignificant role in getting Disney Hall built.

I spent a lot of time in this hotel room at the Omni. I also finished writing my book at the Omni in January. Yeah, put up a plaque.

Someone else is sitting late in front of the computer.

Dr. Gene is gone, but his spirit lives.

I kept waiting for a David Lynch movie to start in this parking lot, but it never did.

You L.A. people are lucky.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)

Local music notes: See more of Seymore - Minneapolis Star Tribune (subscription)

Local music notes: See more of Seymore
Minneapolis Star Tribune (subscription), MN - 14 hours ago
The next day, the guys headed to New York for a release party at the Knitting Factory. Their eponymous debut is being issued by avant-garde label Thirsty ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

BOISE EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC FESTIVAL - IdahoStatesman.com

BOISE EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
IdahoStatesman.com, ID - 6 hours ago
... Krispen Hartung said was a relatively strong showing considering the size of the city and the limited audience for experimental and avant-garde music. ...
Experimenting With Sound • Art and More at the Market • A Dog's ... Boise Weekly
all 2 news articles

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Stacey Pullen - Put Your Hands Up For Music - Tranzfusion

Tranzfusion

Stacey Pullen - Put Your Hands Up For Music
Tranzfusion, Australia - 5 hours ago
... are in the position of being able to really answer the question: What was it like knowing that you were in the midst of an Avant-Garde time for music? ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Triumphant evening to celebrate Easter - Cumberland News

Triumphant evening to celebrate Easter
Cumberland News, UK - 4 hours ago
It avoids the innovations of the avant-garde music of the early 20th century yet in its own quiet way tells the Passion story effectively in music of high ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Celeste Hutchins: Space Corridor

Celeste Hutchins: Space Corridor
Commissioned and titled by Graham Coleman. Commission your own for only $14! http://celesteh.etsy.com

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

Small Labels Saving Classical Music

Classical’s death knell has been over-exaggerated, some say as small labels are picking up where the larger ones left off, and doing quite well in the process.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:50 PM | Comments (0)

Paint it black.

The Norwegian black-metal band Dimmu Borgir released its first new studio album in four years, In Sorte Diaboli, on Tuesday, but you might not have guessed as much from the first hour of the set the band played at the Nokia Theatre Times Square on Thursday night. The new disc, a very strong one, is -- of all unfashionable things -- a concept album, a song cycle that loosely tells the tale of a priest who breaks with the church and pursues a darker path.

Given that this performance took place in the very heart of New York City's theater district, I honestly expected the band to come out and play it complete, perhaps with selected hits from previous releases before and after. Instead, what we got was a fast-paced set of the band's greatest hits, starting with its best song so far, "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse" (from its 2003 disc, Death Cult Armageddon), and touching on most of its previous releases.

The kind of black metal that's currently in vogue among trucker-cap hipsters is the ultra lo-fi isolationist strain currently offered by the likes of Xasthur and Nachtmystium: groups and one-man projects that deliberately set out to emulate the weedy sound of black-metal pioneers like Bathory, early Mayhem and Burzum, who literally couldn't muster enough technique or cash to sound any better. Dimmu Borgir, inspired by the latter-day efforts of Norwegian forebear Emperor, goes for the opposite extreme. It revels in bombast, both lyrical and musical: "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse" is as bombastic as it gets, all thundering power chords accompanied by a full orchestra with French horn swoops worthy of Richard Strauss. The first single from the new album, "The Serpentine Offering," sticks rather close to that formula; it's somehow fitting that the video is shot in widescreen format:

Dimmu Borgir's members can all play their instruments extremely well; the group's aesthetic aims for Wagner, and manages something like Danny Elfman. Mixing elements of darkwave electronica and industrial music into the mix alongside red-blooded thrash, this band paints its diabolical tapestries on massive canvases. Onanistic extended guitar solos are kept to a minimum; majesty and brutality are paramount.

What had ultimately made Death Cult Armageddon start to finish Dimmu Borgir's best album was the chemistry that had developed between the founding members and their recently acquired collaborators. Dimmu Borgir was originally the product of two young men, vocalist Shagrath (whose grotesque croak sometimes suggests a demented Popeye) and guitarist-composer Silenoz. As the initial lineup dispersed, the founders subsequently surrounded themselves -- à la the New York Yankees -- with top free agents and carefully selected draft picks. Guitarist Galder, architect of the ornate one-man band Old Man's Child, and keyboardist Mustis considerably broadened the band's sonic signature, while bassist-singer I.C.S. Vortex, drafted from the proggy Borknagar, offered heroic "clean" vocals as a counterpoint to Shagrath's demented screech. Completing the band was drummer Nick Barker, an imposing powerhouse drafted from another second-generation black-metal band, Cradle of Filth.

Barker was eventually ejected, à la Yankees pitcher David Wells. His replacement on In Sorte Diaboli was Mayhem drummer Hellhammer, an unquestionably phenomenal player whose obvious prowess could at times be obscured by his reliance on triggering: achieving inhuman feats through the electronic equivalent of steroid doping. That old urge to drive things over the top...

But when you're watching someone like Mark McGuire or Barry Bonds belt balls over the fence all night long, you tend to forget about artificial enhancements and just go with the ride. That's the way it felt Thursday night, as Hellhammer provided ridiculously thrilling blasts throughout Dimmu Borgir's show. His succinct solo, between two In Sorte Diaboli tracks ("The Serpentine Offering" and "The Chosen Legacy"), was like a tornado caught in a bottle. And his cymbal work, untouched by triggers, is something special.

Among black-metal purists, Dimmu Borgir inspires some of the most colorful scorn to be found on the Internet. ("Dummy Burger" and "Drama Burger" are commonly found epithets.) But the truth of the matter is that on a good night, this is one of the best metal bands in the business. And of the five Dimmu Borgir shows I've caught since 2001, this one rated near the top.

Setlist: Intro / Progenies of the Great Apocalypse / Vredesbyrd / Cataclysm Children / Kings of the Carnival Creation / Sorgens Kammer del II / Indoctrination / A Succubus in Rapture / The Serpentine Offering / drum solo / The Chosen Legacy / The Insight and the Catharsis / Spellbound (by the Devil) / Mourning Palace / Outro: The Fallen Arises

Playlist:

The Conet Project (Irdial)

Neurosis - Given to the Rising (Neurot, due May 22)

Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (Century Black); Grand Declaration of War (Necropolis); Chimera and Ordo ad Chaos (Season of Mist)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

links for 2007-04-27

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

Lineal - Michael Dessen

Lineal Michael Dessen Circumvention 048 I like trombones. I cant walk by an available one without blowing a raspberry through it. And with the motion of the slide, the players look like theyre having fun. Craig Harris sounded like...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 05:01 AM | Comments (0)

Steve Kornicki: Horizontal Color Forms 15

Steve Kornicki: Horizontal Color Forms 15
Steve Kornicki's Horizontal Color Forms #15 (4 pieces for string quartet) performed by the West End String Quartet. Program notes: http://www.stevekornicki.com/downloads/hcf15.htm

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 05:01 AM | Comments (0)

Simplify the Repetitions

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 02:01 AM | Comments (0)

Time out for Tchaikovsky (again)

Tonight at 9:00pm here, PBS will be showing the Met's extraordinary Eugene Onegin, originally aired live on February 24. I've seen the filmed version twice, in addition to a couple of performances in the Met house, and am happy to report that broadcast director Brian Large captured what will probably go down in history as one of the best Met afternoons ever.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky is astonishingly good in the title role, even though much of the attention was focused on Renée Fleming, who also gives a spine-tingling performance. Even some of her detractors (not your writer) confessed they found her breathtaking as Tatiana. And then there is Ramón Vargas, whose portrayal of Lenski might be worth the entire three hours.

Robert Carsen's gorgeously spare, evocative production was understandably tinkered with for video, yet retains much of its impact, elegantly framing the dramatic intensity onstage. And the electrifying work by Valery Gergiev and the Met Orchestra, particularly in the dances in the last half, is as memorable as the vocal fireworks. Let's hope this is released on DVD at some point.

Originally posted by bhodgesnyc from Monotonous Forest, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 02:01 AM | Comments (0)

... Starting Tonight ...

BENT FESTIVAL NYC

April 26 - 28

Presented by The Tank

"Circuit-bending is the creative short-circuiting of low voltage,
battery-powered electronic audio devices such as
guitar effects, children's toys and small synthesizers
to create new musical instruments and sound generators. "

All workshops and concerts will be held at Eyebeam Atelier. Click here for concert and workshop schedules.

Eyebeam Atelier
540 W. 21st Street
(between 10th and 11th Avenues)
NYC

Originally posted by ECHO from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 27, 2007 at 01:09 AM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2007

Dudamel and the LA Phil on radio

On Sunday, April 27, KUSC will broadcast (and stream on the internet) the program with Dudamel conducting the L.A. Philharmonic. It was an exciting performance, and I hope that comes across when broadcast. For those of you in the center of the known universe the broadcast will begin at 7:00 pm. For those of us in more adventurous climes, it begins at 4. The program is Dances of Galanta by Kodaly, the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto with Bronfman, and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra. That’s on KUSC, with links for PC, Mac, and iTunes.

And do try to see and hear the Viola/Salonen conception of Tristan, despite the exorbitant prices being charged by Fisher Hall. If you can only see a single act, the visuals in the third act are a powerful addition to the music, those of the first act occasionally distract from the plot, and those of the second act, beautiful as they are, seem to lack the focus of the other two. But the whole thing in one evening is the most powerful. A new Tristan has been brought on, and he’s getting excellent reviews. [JerryZ]

Originally posted by JerryZ from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

Time out for Tchaikovsky (again)

Dmitri Hvorostovsky is astonishingly good in the title role, even though much of the attention focused on Renée Fleming, who also gives a spine-tingling performance. Even some of her detractors (not your writer) confessed they found her breathtaking as Tatiana. And then there is Ramón Vargas, whose portrayal of Lenski might be worth the entire three hours.

Originally posted by bhodgesnyc from Monotonous Forest, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

Eugene Chadbourne Interview

Guitarist Chadbourne is interviewed.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

Festival Rock In Opposition Photos: Salle Gaveau

Our friend Mike Eisenberg has graciously provided a large number of photos from the recent RIO festival in France. Today’s feature is Salle Gaveau. More to follow.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

Standing on the Corner

Composing music is like creating a fictional character, we have to fully realize each toenail and eyelash if our goal is to generate something convincing.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

Pity the poor BBC presenter

A novelty at this years' BBC Last Night of the Proms, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek, is Fučík's Entrance of the Gladiators.

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)

Joy of Music - a celebration of diversity

Joy of Music is a book by Leonard Bernstein based on the scripts he wrote for an educational TV series in the late 1950s. The book is a celebration of diversity, ranging from American music theatre, through Mahler and the importance of contemporary music, to Bach’s use of counterpoint in his chorale preludes.

My photographs are a visual celebration of the vibrant musical life beyond busking superstars, child prodigies and MySpace. The photos were all taken at Oxfam Books and Music, Norwich on 26th April 2007. Just left click on the images to enlarge, you'll see real diversity - everything from Monteverdi to Stockhausen, and there is even a record deck to audition them on. I’m now away for a few days, so do explore the joy of music through the wonderfully diverse mix of music blogs listed in my side-bar.

The sleeve above is Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations, so why not read about the best damn record he ever made?
All photos copyright On An Overgrown Path, 2007. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)

Lost and Found

Harry Somers

A Midwinter Night’s Dream

Canadian Music Centre 12306

Any one considering an opera suitable for young people may want to consider Harry Somers’ A Midwinter Night’s Dream. The story takes place in very-north America, near the Artic circle, and tells the story of a bored young man who slips into a dream, thinking he is dead. The libretto, by Tim Wynne-Jones, shows a fusion of cultures, combining folklore and present-day ideas (like Star Wars and Miami Vice).

The score is atmospheric. Using a piano and percussion, along with a children’s chorus, the textures move the text (and I assume the action) to the foreground. The musical language is at times complex and “modern,” but also playful and perfectly suited for young singers and listeners.

Ben Goldberg Quintet

The door, the hat, the chair, the fact

Cryptogramophone 126

The juxtaposition of relatively standard jazz numbers with abstract songs suits the Ben Goldberg Quintet: they are either a jazz combo or a new music ensemble (why not both). The opening work, Petals, is a compact prologue featuring Ben Goldberg for the first twenty seconds. Song and Dance is a bouncing ensemble piece complete with solos and catchy riffs.

Carla Kihlstedt intones the words of Ben Goldberg’s teacher, Steve Lacy, in Facts, accompanying herself on the violin, and later joined by the rest, in a seductive melody. The following track, Blinks, a composition by Steve Lacy, displays a delicate, pointillism that grows into an all out brawl.

Roumi Petrova

Enchanted Rhythms

Cello music from Bulgaria

Kalin Ivanov, cello

Elena Antimova, piano

MSR 1156

Homesickness can do wonders for the creative mind. Roumi Petrova (b. 1970) expresses her love and longing for Bulgaria in Enchanted Rhythms. The musical language isn’t unique, but it does capture what, I suspect, is a Bulgarian sound. The rhythms are energetic; the melodies are real Bulgarian songs or made to sound that way. The opening Passacaglia on a Traditional Bulgarian Melody “pays tribute to the Bulgarian community in New York City.” Two cello sonatas and a five movement suite are also included, all remaining faithful to Petrova’s vision of creating strong Bulgarian music.

Originally posted by Daniel Gilliam from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 08:04 PM | Comments (0)

NEW Mexico comes to NYC

In my Click Pick #16 I introduced you to the young Mexican contemporary scene. I just recived a note from one of the musicians profiled, flutist/composer Wilfrido Terrazas, that I’ll pass along:

Friday, May 4, 2007 at 7PM
Wilfrido Terrazas, flutist
New Mexican Works for Flute

Americas Society
680 Park Avenue
New York, NY

This concert, organized in collaboration with ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), is part of a project during which the flutist has collaborated with some of Mexico’s most daring and original composers in pieces that explore novel ways of writing for his instrument. The concert will feature new works by Mauricio Rodríguez, Víctor Adán, Ignacio Baca Lobera, Hiram Navarrete and Juan José Bárcenas, and is made possible by a grant from Mexico’s FONCA.
Founded in 2001, the International Contemporary Ensemble is a uniquely structured chamber music ensemble comprised of thirty young performers who are dedicated to advancing the music of our time. This concert is part of ICE’s Young Composers Mini-Festival, which that will take place at different venues throughout New York from April 30th to May 4th.

See? It all comes together… You’re practically old friends now, so turn out and give Willy a warm welcome.

Originally posted by Steve Layton from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 08:04 PM | Comments (0)

John Zorn Scores the Treatment

A new Zorn movie soundtrack is on the way.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)

Works for Me

The venerable (by new-music standards) American Festival of Microtonal Music is this week and next, three concerts at the Bowery...

Originally from PostClassic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)

Exploring a Unified Theory of Beethoven’s ‘Grosse Fuge’

Allan Kozinn, New York Times, 4/25/2007

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)

Mp3 Blog #73: String Quartets 3

Originally from Jacob Sudol, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)

Ink-Stained Wretch

I've once again been thinking about getting a tattoo, after my genius friend Jack Miller reminded me the other day that I once had a plan to get a tattoo on my back saying, "If you're a heart surgeon, flip me over." Anyway, I started trolling the Web for designs related to classical music, and came up with, well, next to nothing. I mean, I wasn't expecting a full-sleeve portrait of J. S. Bach with a flaming skull (although that would be pretty lovely), but given the predominance of popular music logos, lyrics, and album covers I've seen permanently disfiguring various club denizens, I was hoping that at least a few adventurous souls were holding up the highbrow end. (Frank Zappa did turn up, as did La Divina—we'll give Nietzsche an honorable mention.)

The most common classical tattoo seems to be the music itself: This guy opted for a Bach suite, and here's an interesting cross between the Ravel Pavane and an Earle Brown score. Also Brahms 3, although if you're going to ink up your foot, Winterriese might be a wittier choice. My favorite is this guy, who will never, ever forget the fingering to the Chopin First Ballade. (All links via the inexhaustible BMEInk.)

I considered tattooing my hand in a Guidonian manner, but palm tattoos are, from what I hear, comparatively excruciating. Maybe I'll go with the lion from Marc Chagall's Zauberflöte poster.

Ah, maybe not—that face kind of creeps me out. See? This is why I still don't have a tattoo.

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 02:57 PM | Comments (0)

Musical Uncyclopedia

One of Michael's students told me about the Uncyclopedia, a parody of the Wikipedia, so I decided to investigate the musical entries. Here's a good one for Webern and good one for conductor.

There are some that are simply empty slapstick, and some that are just plain dumb, but it is fun to go through their collection. They certainly need more musical entries. Would you believe Musicologist, and Alban Berg aren't yet taken? Maybe they will be soon.

Originally from Musical Assumptions, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 02:57 PM | Comments (0)

A Lesson in Instrument Safety

Last night while I was putting off work I had to do, I did a Google search for my brother. Boy, was I surprised to find this blog post! I feel that as a responsible sister I should come to Marshall's public defense (since he was not able to do so very well in court) and mention that he is a very good composer, a very good violist, and also, in spite of the fact that he ran a red light on camera in Memphis, a pretty good driver. It's a good thing he went into music and not into law.

My father told me that Marshall was right about the fact that sudden braking could cause damage to an instrument sitting on the back seat. Of course Marshall should have been prepared to stop when he saw the light turn red, and I agree with the powers that be that the fine was justified. If another car had been in the intersection, there could have been a terrible accident.

I have chosen to learn something from this and to share it with people who might be interested. From now on, just in case (no pun intended) I run into a situation when I have to brake suddenly, I'm going to take my father's advice (advice he got from a luthier) and keep my case on the floor between the front and back seats when I'm driving.

Originally from Musical Assumptions, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 02:57 PM | Comments (0)

Blogolalia

Interesting new pages turn up all the time:

Mixed Meters, commentary and much story telling from David Ocker, veteran of L.A. new music.

Boring Like a Drill, a blog by experimental composer Ben Harper (not to be confused with my hometown friend, this Ben Harper).

Musical Assumptions, composer Elaine Fine.

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)

Phin in a haystack

Yes, It’s been a while since my last post, I know. But good things are in the works, I have just been waiting to meet a benchmark good enough to post. I don’t really know if I have, but I decided that since this blog isn’t really about the idea of “finished” music, but about experimenting and learning, I’d go ahead and post my most recent project.

I’ve never been a huge fan of VICE magazine, for reasons immaterial to this post, but I recently found their new video site and decided to give it a look anyhow, as I am really interested in the possibilities inherent in internet video. While a good portion of it is typically boring, I was pretty much overjoyed to see the inclusion of a Sublime Frequencies channel. I have admired the fine fellows who put together the always lovely SF compilations and even more so the dynamic individuals they document, so the chance to see these individuals playing this wonderful music is truly singular.

I checked back the other day to see if any new videos had been added and discovered the focus of my new obsession. In the video “Thai Ghost Festival, Part 1″ The focal point of much of the video is an amazing electric “guitar” player improvising a molam-meets-hendrix jam over a group drumming and bamboo xylophone (Pong-Lang) backbone. The whole image, vibe and content of this video is truly awesome. The sound of the “guitar” was just eastern enough and just snarly enough to form a totally new sound. I wanted it. I had been thinking about another instrument building project, especially a microtonal one, and for me, this was it.

You may be wondering to yourself, why I keep putting the word “guitar” in parentheses… Well, in Thailand it seems they use the word “guitar” to reference any instrument that resembles and plays in the same range as a western guitar. However, the instrument being played was very un-guitar-like. It had only three strings (on each of it’s two necks! Rock!), and a fret placement so odd, it almost looked random.

Image capture of the phin player from the Sublime Frequencies video

After a some googling, I was able to find out that the instrument is question is called a “phin” (piin, pin). It seems from what I can gather that the phin is the main guitar-like instrument of modern Thai culture, although the western guitar has also become very popular.

Earlier in the week I had, out of the desire to build something, begun working on a 2 stringed instrument, built out of a mop handle and an old cookie tin. Initially this was going to be fretted in dulcimer tuning, even though the idea bored me some. I wanted to explore other tunings, but I didn’t know how. Whenever I searched I got a ton of sites using a language I knew was based on english, but that I didn’t understand, and a bevy of math, with which I am inherently completely worthless. Upon seeing the phin tho, the idea changed. “What if I had an instrument I could put in any tuning?”, I thought. The idea came to me, to attach movable frets to this new instrument, so I could tune it to any interesting method that I found.

As soon as I got a chance I banged my instrument together. It came together pretty quickly which was good, and I was really pleased with the overall banjo-like sound. This version is a sort of prototype, so there are things i’d like to change, but all of that can be done fairly easily in the future. I pretty much just wanted to get this thing playable to see whether or not it was worth my time.

The next problem was of course, tuning it, and this is where the story gets a little complicated. I knew i could figure out phin tuning if I could just find a proper image. Which I did, but what I realized soon after is that unlike instruments in the west, the tunings of instruments in many other cultures is widely open ot interpretation. So, while I had my image, there was no guarantee it was going to come out sounding at all like what I had heard in the video. But I went for it anyway.

In order to get the fretting in the image I found on to my instrument, I made use of some of the tools of my actual trade, graphic design. I brought the image in to Adobe Illusrator and mapped the frets, nut and bridge with lines made with Illustrators “pen” tool. You can see the lines in the image below. This made scalable markings that would not distort upon stretching to the scale of my instrument. I measured my instrument from face of bridge to face of nut, and entered that measurement into Illustrator and stretched my newly copied scale to match. I then printed out my newly drawn fret position template, laid it across the neck of the instrument and began positioning frets.

fret mapping in illustrator
fret mapping in illustrator (close up)

I had looked into a couple classic methods of making movable frets, but found all of them too complicated for now or lacking in some way. I decided to experiment instead with small “zip-ties”. The ones I had laying around were about 2mm thick, and a nice green to match my tin (total coincedence I swear). They work GREAT! I put them on pretty tight and they just stretched out enough after a day to be easily movable, but stay put when you need them to. The only down side is the cut ends are sharp (though they could be filed down) and the ties are 1mm thick all the way around which makes playing a little difficult, but I think with practice and a shoulder strap, I could play around those obstacles. My future plan though, is to build a proper 3 string phin, but I think I still want to have movable frets. In that case, I think I will try the sitar method, which uses a bar for a fret, that is notched towards the ends so that it can be tied on. I think this would look nicer and also make for a nicer tone.

The initial tuning was a total success. Aside from a couple minor issues, it played wonderfully, and the tuning sounded great. The only problem is, it did not sound like the tuning in the video. This is where things get kind of tricky. Due to the fact that these instruments are not built to a certain set specifications, but instead to the builders own ear, the chance that the phin I used to build the scale, is tuned the same as the phin in the video, is more than slim. Now you may be asking yourself why I care, since I can’t play this instrument in combination with any of the others I own anyway. Well, for one, I love to figure things like this out so the search is an end in itself. Secondly, I just LOVE the way the phin in the video sounds and I want to give what Ive got to try and get it.

Since I started this, I have tried about 5 or so different tunings, all from different images I have found. I still can’t find one that sounds like the one in the video. I may actually attempt to pull a fret chart from the video, but this is complicated for a number of reasons. I love the “The Tihn”, as I have jokingly called it and I’m sure it won’t be staying in any one tuning for very long. I feel a weird sense of accomplishment having built it, even though it was the simplest thing. Maybe it’s just the excitement of having such a flexible instrument at my disposal.

Thoughts for the future (before I wrap this thing up):
- a pickup
- a small soundhole?
- strap
- black paint for the neck?

If I happen to find this elusive tuning, I will post it here, but for now, check out these samples of my initial tuning:

- All frets played on the high string, going from lowest to highest
- A little jam

BONUS: A rip of the sound from the Sublime Frequencies video
BONUS: Another nice little phin piece I found

By the by, if anyone can read thai and wants to translate this page for me, I’d love you forever.

Here’s a bunch more cool phin images:

phin
phin
phin
phin
phin
phin
phin
phin
phin
phin
phin

Originally posted by howsthatsound from OF SOUND MIND, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)

Remembering Jack Nitzsche

I watched “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” last night, and noted that the score was composed by Jack Nitzsche. This was a name I first saw in the dreamy cut, “Expecting to Fly” from the Buffalo Springfield’s second album, AGAIN. Jack’s orchestral accompaniment alone brought a magical sophistication to the group that outdid the Moody Blues pseudo-orchestral sound. It didn’t sound “classical,” nor easy listening. It was an original sound. After that, I discovered his poignant Americana string quartet interlude on Neil Young’s first album, “String Quartet from Whiskey Boot Hill.”

Nitzche’s discography is stunning. He has produced, arranged, composed, or performed for The Rolling Stones, Tim Buckley, Captain Beefheart, Crazy Horse, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Dino, Desi and Billy (!! anyone remember them?), The Everly Bros, Leslie Gore, Rod McKuen (sic), Tom Petty, Mamas and the Papas, The Ronettes, David Rose, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Soupy Sales, Ringo Starr, Barbra Streisand, The Tubes, The Turtles, and Neil Young to list a portion of them.

Jack Nitzche’s film credits are equally impressive. Films I know include PERFORMANCE, THE EXORCIST, CRUISING, CUTTER’S WAY, AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, PERSONAL BEST, BREATHLESS, STARMAN, STREETS OF GOLD, STAND BY ME, and THE INDIAN RUNNER.

There are currently two CD compilations of his work available.

I’m impressed by this man, he had an amazingly rich career. To think of an aesthetic that spans The Ronettes to the scoring motion pictures. He seemed out of the limelight considering the the wild times he lived through. The impression I get is that he was happy to be out of that light. He was really a kind of a George Martin figure, but on a smaller scale and mostly in Los Angeles.

I wish more bands and pop artists would hire people like Nitzche or Martin [or ME!] and take their sound to musical places they might never discover on their own.

Jack died of a heart attack in 2000 at the age of 63. I look forward to discovering more of his music and influence.

Originally posted by Roger Bourland from rogerbourland.com, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)

Adrienne Albert, composer

Stravinsky fans who know his original recordings will likely know the name of Adrienne Albert. She was famous to me for being the voice that sang Stravinsky’s last work “The Owl and the Pussycat” as well as many other of his late works. I found her voice refreshing, more popish and not so much of the wobbly operatic voice that most professional singers aspire to. She confessed to the maestro upon her audition that she had never had voice lessons, and he emphatically urged her to never do so.

I ran into Ms. Albert maybe 10 years ago and asked whether she was THE Adrienne Albert and she said yes. Although I know she has to be older than 50-something, she still has a marvelous little girl aura, and is a completely likable, warm and friendly human being. Adrienne is a composer these days. No, she hasn’t picked up where Igor left off, she has carved out her own path. Last night, I heard her recently commissioned work “Between the dark and daylight” premiered by Mark Carlson’s award winning chamber ensemble Pacific Serenades. in three movements, the work is filled with modal Brownian motion that almost evokes an Americana tone. The last movement quotes a variety of children’s tunes and was, for this listener, the most engaging. The quotation techniques did not evoke Ives at all, but was rather completely her own. The emotional feel of it was kaleidoscopic and a bit like a musical roller coaster. It was peculiar that the most chromatic moment of the entire piece was her harmonization of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” but the sold-out audience didn’t particularly mind, and offered her a resounding ovation at the end.

Mark Carlson has to be thanked for being an important part of Los Angeles’s musical culture. No, it’s not the Monday Evening Concert series or the LA Phil’s Green Umbrella. It prides itself on presenting a new work every concert, (Adrienne’s was the 85th) right along side music from the common practice repertoire. ASCAP has already given Pacific Serenades an award for “Adventurous Programming.” Don’t expect to read about it in the LA Times or the LA Weekly as the series is regularly ignored by our local crickets. Like me, and other tonal composers, Pacific Serenades has developed a thick skin knowing it will likely be ignored by our Los Angeles tonality-only-on-my-terms music critics.

David Ocker offers up his own brand of frustration on his blog about the history of many other ignored composers in our city. Adrienne seems to harbor no resentment as David, Mark, and I do from time to time. Her personality is as sunny as her music. I hope you get a chance to hear some of her music sometime, as she is a talent and a great gal as well.

Originally posted by Roger Bourland from rogerbourland.com, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)

Random notes agenda

After writing about New York new music a couple of weeks ago, I've heard tell of several more ensembles and series based in the city, links to which have been added to my new music page.... The Newspeak ensemble plays tonight at Princeton, in a program including Judd Greenstein's What They Don't Like (For Chuck D), Samson Young's Efflorescentric Aftermath (Game Boy Music II), and David T. Little's sweet, light, crude. You can listen live at the Princeton music department website at 8PM.... Princeton seems a happening place these days, what with grad composers such as Little, Greenstein, Christopher Tignor, Miriama Young, Andrew McKenna Lee, and Gregory Spears, broad-minded elders such as Steven Mackey and Paul Lansky, electronic projects such as the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, and groundbreaking theoretical explorations by Dmitri Tymoczko (listen here as Tymoczko demonstrates how charming music can be concocted by imposing efficient voice-leading rules on a random collection of notes).... Tonic may be gone, but lively-sounding things are transpiring at The Tank, a space I've yet to visit. Amp Music is presenting a new-music series called Inflections. And this Saturday, Wet Ink plays with, er, Glissando bin Laden. Note also Tranzducer at Lemurplex in Brooklyn. And Roulette is back in action; this Thursday they host the Amsterdam-based, frequently recorded Barton Workshop.... The ICE Ensemble begins its epic nine-program assault on New York with a solo flute show tomorrow night at Galapagos, part of the Darmstadt series.... Kalamazoo's Opus 21 plays Saturday at Symphony Space, presenting premieres by Richard Adams, Anna Clyne, Mark Dancigers, Dennis DeSantis, and Bill Ryan. And on Friday, John Adams conducts the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie. Adams spricht: "The model of the composer as lonely outsider, the Schoenberg or the Adrian Leverkühn that Thomas Mann so vividly sketched, is not the ideal for me...."

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 02:08 PM | Comments (0)

Not for all

Looking for the perfect Mother's Day gift for that mom who loves Schoenberg? The Schoenberg Center in Vienna can cover your needs. The Schoenberg Shop is offering Schoenberg T-shirts (mit Aphorismen), pencils, mousepads, and postcards. Also check out Schoenberg on YouTube. And, of course, Schoenberg Webradio and Schoenberg Jukebox are still going strong.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 02:08 PM | Comments (0)

Our Town Could be Your Life - The Portland Mercury

The Portland Mercury

Our Town Could be Your Life
The Portland Mercury, OR - 15 hours ago
So why is this performance by one of the leading contemporary classical chamber ensembles in the Northwest not spoken of by Portland music enthusiasts with ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

Composer Cenk Ergün with members of So Percussion, group A, and others @ the Stone NYC

Turkish composer Cenk Ergun will present a night of his music at The Stone, NYC, on Saturday May 12. Cenk was invited to perform by Fred Frith, who has curated the month of May performances at The Stone.

An excellent cast of performers including the members of So Percussion (NYC) and group A (San Francisco) will join Cenk in concert. The program includes phono cello moto: a solo wind-up phonograph/laptop performance; Susie Hotel: a chamber composition for 6 musicians and 2 dancers; and an improvised set by smpl: Cenk Ergün (laptop), Jason Treuting and Lawson White (percussion.)

A native of Turkey, Cenk Ergün is a San Francisco based composer and laptop performer. In 1995, Cenk moved to New York to study composition at the Eastman School of Music, where he began composing for chamber ensembles. In 1999, he moved to California to further his studies at Mills College, where he became interested in laptop improvisation using samples.

Cenk’s chamber music has been performed by various artists such as Joan Jeanrenaud, Fred Frith, Abbie Conant, Ossia, Musica Nova, and Alarm Will Sound, at venues including the Merkin Hall (John Schaefer’s “New Sounds Live”), Symphony Space (2003 Bang on a Can Marathon), and SomArts Gallery.

As a laptop performer, Cenk has collaborated with various artists including Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran, Fred Frith, William Winant, , performing at venues such as the Yerba Buena Center For the Arts, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Other Minds Brink Series, The Deep Listening Space, Recombinant Media Labs, Stanford University, the C.E.A.I.T. Festival at CalArts, the Thirteenth International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA2006) at San Jose, Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam, and the Akbank Jazz Festival in Istanbul.

I draw my musical material from my personal relationships with everything that makes sound. Acoustic or electronic, my work aims to magnify the physical details of sound traveling in time and space.

Cenk Ergün makes music with the sounds of bees, goats, chimps, bats, whales, ships, ship horns, sine waves, feedback, electric currents, machines, people, pianos, autoharps, drums, celli, clarinets, trombones, and the home shopping network.

WHAT: The music of Cenk Ergün

WHEN: Saturday 05.12.2007 8pm

WHERE: The Stone, @ the corner of Avenue C and 2nd street, NYC

TICKETS: $10

Further Information:

http://www.thestonenyc.com/

http://www.cenkergun.com

http://www.groupadance.com

http://www.sopercussion.com

(510) 601 1307

info@cenkergun.com

Originally posted by s21concerts from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

From AAJ:

26-Apr-07 Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake
From the River to the Ocean (Thrill Jockey)

25-Apr-07 Joseph Jarman
As If It Were The Seasons (Delmark Records)

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

links for 2007-04-26

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

Adult education.

Midori and Robert McDonald at Avery Fisher Hall
The New York Times, April 26, 2007

=====

I seldom add remarks and enable comments when I post my Times reviews, but just this once I'll make an exception. Before a last-minute swerve found me at Avery Fisher Hall for the Midori recital -- which I didn't regret a bit, mind you -- I'd intended to catch the Metropolitan Opera's Giulio Cesare on Tuesday night with its new cast members: Lawrence Zazzo in the title role, Jill Grove as Cornelia and most especially Danielle de Niese as Cleopatra. (I'd also originally hoped to catch a performance by the first cast with David Daniels, Patricia Bardon and Ruth Ann Swenson in those roles, but settled for listening to last Saturday's Met broadcast through ear-buds while I traipsed around the Philadelphia Zoo.)

My interest in Tuesday night's performance mostly had to do with De Niese, whose gorgeous singing and sinuous, Bollywood-inspired dance moves in the recent Glyndebourne Guilio Cesare had so won me over on DVD. That production arrives at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in November (details here), and I'm very much hoping to make a trip to see it. So after the Midori concert, I headed over to the Met lobby, arriving just in time to watch De Niese deliver what appeared to be a show-stopping rendition of the Act II lament "Se pietà di me non senti" on one of those now-omnipresent flat-screen monitors.

What I heard might not have been quite so crushingly detailed as Magdalena Kožená's account in the Minkowski recording included in the playlist of the post that preceded this one. But even via a single-camera broadcast on a monitor in a lobby, this very nearly reduced me to tears. (Granted, Handel deserves at least some of the credit.)

So, to anyone who might have been in the house on Tuesday night: Was De Niese's performance as strong in person as it seemed on video?

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)

Boat people.

Mark_and_olga Back in 1976, violinist Olga Bloom had the offbeat notion of mooring an inactive coffee barge at Fulton Ferry Landing, near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, and converting it into a floating chamber-music space. (The story can be read here.) Thirty-plus years later, Bargemusic remains one of New York's busiest, liveliest concert halls: for years, it has presented a steady stream of concerts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. The experience of gently rocking while you listen can be slightly disconcerting at first, but the setting is intimate and the sound is remarkable.

Music directors have come and gone over the years; the man providing the crazy energy lately is another violinist, Mark Peskanov. Young players are seen more frequently, such as chamber ensemble the Knights, filled with adventurous musicians like Yo-Yo Ma cohorts Johnny Gandelsmann and Colin and Eric Jacobsen, as well as renegade pop star Christina Courtin. Seasoned performers such as pianist Randall Hodgkinson, New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and the Fine Arts Quartet drop by regularly.

This weekend's offerings are especially intriguing. Performing Saturday, April 28 and Sunday, April 29 is a group called the Kremeratini Quartet. The program on Saturday features violinist Dzeraldas Bidva, violist Ula Ulijona, cellist Giedre Dirvanauskaite and pianist Andrius Zlabys, playing Gubaidulina's Reflexions on Bach for String Quartet, Schnittke's Piano Quintet and Beethoven's String Quartet No. 15. On Sunday afternoon, vibraphonist Andrei Pushkarev replaces Zlabys; the Gubaidulina and Beethoven items are repeated on a program that also includes Astor Piazzolla's Tango Sensation for vibraphone and quartet, as well as Pushkarev's solo improvisations on two-voice inventions by Bach.

Sharp eyes will notice that despite the presence of string quartets on both programs, the Kremeratini Quartet features only one violinist. Filling the other chair is a "very special surprise violinist." And if the group's name and repertoire don't make that player's identity perfectly obvious, note that those other three string players are also members of this group, which Allan Kozinn reviewed in today's New York Times. The last time Zlabys and Pushkarev performed here in the company of a prominent violinist was also reviewed by Kozinn, here. Tickets are priced at $50 (students $25), but you could pay considerably more to see these artists play elsewhere and not be half as close to the music.

There's also something worth noting about tomorrow night's appearance by the East Coast Chamber Orchestra: it's the last Thursday-night chamber music concert to be presented by Bargemusic. From May onward, programming starts on Wednesday nights. Initially, Thursdays will be quiet, but what I just learned today is that Bargemusic will launch a new jazz series in June. This is a great idea, a means by which to get new people on the boat without sacrificing any of its staple offerings.

The series begins on June 7 with a performance by the great swing-jazz pianist and composer Dick Hyman, who celebrates his 80th birthday with a concert this Saturday night at the 92nd Street Y. The handful of bookings announced so far, posted by Jim Eigo at All About Jazz, suggests that the series may lean toward mainstream modes of jazz. Which is not to say "conservative," since one of those bookings is genius trumpeter-composer Randy Sandke, who brings an intimate trio with guitarist Howard Alden and bassist Nicki Parrott aboard on June 28.

Playlist:

Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade (SST)

Maria McKee - You Gotta Sin to Get Saved (Geffen), High Dive (Viewfinder) and Late December (Cooking Vinyl)

George Frideric Handel - Giulio Cesare - Marijana Mijanovič, Magdelena Kožená, Anne Sofie von Otter, Charlotte Hellekant, Bejun Mehta, Les Musiciens du Louvre/Marc Minkowski (Archiv)

Paul Hindemith - Violin Sonata in E-flat, Op. 11, No. 1 - Ulf Wallin, Roland Pöntinen (Bis)

Richard Strauss - Violin Sonata in E-flat, Op. 18 - Ruggiero Ricci, Ferenc Rados (Hungaroton)

Ludwig van Beethoven - Violin Sonata No. 5, "Spring" - Joseph Szigeti, Claudio Arrau (Vanguard)

Einojuhani Rautavaara - Symphony No. 1; Adagio Celeste; Book of Visions - National Orchestra of Belgium/Mikko Franck (Ondine)

Benjamin Britten - Piano Concerto; Violin Concerto; Cello Symphony; Sinfonia da Requiem; Cantata Misericordium; Prelude and Fugue for Strings; Simple Symphony; Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge; The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra; The Prince of the Pagodas; Diversions for Piano (Left Hand) and Orchestra; Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo; The Holy Sonnets of John Donne; Songs and Proverbs of William Blake; Winter Words; Tit for Tat; Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings; Les Illuminations; Nocturne - Sviatoslav Richter; Julius Katchen; Mark Lubotsky; Mstislav Rostropovich; Peter Pears; John Shirley-Quirk; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; London Symphony Chorus; English Chamber Orchestra; New Philharmonia Orchestra; London Symphony Orchestra; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden/Benjamin Britten (Decca)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 26, 2007 at 05:02 AM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2007

Violinist Emily Bayer-Pacht to Perform Solo Violin Work by Composer Steven R. Gerber at New York University on April 29

On Sunday April 29^th at 4:00 PM, violinist Emily Bayer-Pacht will perform Steven R. Gerber’s Three Songs Without Words for solo violin at the Black Box Theater of New York University, 82 Washington Square East in Manhattan.

Three Songs Without Words (1987) is taken from the composer’s own Words For Music Perhaps (based on poems by W. B. Yeats), originally written in 1985 for soprano and two violins. The three songs are available for free download from the composer’s website at http://www.stevengerber.com/scores.htm.

Other works on the program include Franck’s Violin Sonata in A, Brahms’ Trio, op. 87 and the Bach Chaconne in d-minor. Ms. Bayer-Pacht will be joined for this recital by cellist Liam Veuve and pianists Lu Yang and Fabio Gardenl.

This concert is free and open to the public. For more information, please call the NYU Steinhardt School Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at 212-998-5424 or visit them online at http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/.

Steven R. Gerber is the subject of an Electronic Dialogue interview in Sequenza 21 web magazine, which can be read at http://www.sequenza21.com/gerber.html. Visit his website at http://www.stevengerber.com.

Originally posted by s21concerts from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

Steve’s click picks #27

…Will just have to wait… Since, in just a little over a week, this nearly-lifelong Northwesterner will have left Seattle and be stumbling around our new home:

Yep, Houston, Texas! My wife has an incredibly sweet job waiting at the Houston Chronicle, and I’m happy to play Mister tag-along. As to music, I’ve done the “virtual” scope-out of the big and small institutions, ensembles, and universities. You all know me, though; I’ll be poking around in the cracks, looking for the really interesting folk.

As to its out-of-the-way “podunkiness”, I might have to remind a few of you that while you were distracted elsewhere, Houston somehow sneaked up to become the country’s fourth-largest city. And it’s not finished growing by a long shot… Whether that means more nights at the opera, I seriously doubt — after all, already over 40% of those millions are Latino, over 20% African-American, and it’s home to one of the largest Vietnamese concentrations in the country. Whatever your stereotype of the city, the Bush-buddies and their poof-haired wives are the real minority now, and shrinking every day. Whatever form the musical scene takes, there’s a feeling that some very dynamic, 21st-century stuff can grow along with the city.

The wonder-that-is-the-web means I’ll still be hanging around through the whole move, and when I’m settled the click-picks will undoubtably pick up where they clicked off. Bien viaje to me! I’ve got to go run all my old coats to the Goodwill and buy a bunch of new light shirts…

Originally posted by Steve Layton from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

Using Dreams to Explore Silence: Wakonda's Dream Premieres in Omaha

Despite my familiarity with an emerging American opera that tangles with contemporary history, Anthony Davis's Wakonda's Dream, which received its premiere last month at Opera Omaha, still surprises me.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

very rare performance of JOHN CAGE’s ‘SONGBOOKS’ — May 1st — 8:30 pm — Medicine Show

“Song Books”
by John Cage
a non-foreseeable music theatre

with Kara Feely, Jessica Feldman, Gisburg, Beth Griffith, Travis
Just, Christian Kesten, Dafna Naphtali, Craig Shepard,Harris Wulfson

Tuesday May 1st 2007 at 8:30 pm
ticket: 10$
at
Medicine Show Theatre
549 West 52nd, 3rd Floor
New York

John Cage’s “Song Books”, which he wrote in 1970, consists of 90 solos.

Cage uses a wide variety of vocal styles: Imitations of classical
opera arias by Mozart, Satie-like chansons, folk singing, pop singing,
Indian raga style, breath sounds, cheerleader shouting, Cage’s
special technique of „falsetto and grunts“, or Cage’s own type of
Aria or Arioso: a „virtuoso performance will include a wide variety
of styles of singing and vocal production“.

A performance may be done by any number of singers/performers, each
of them making an independent program filling an agreed-upon time
length. Any superimposition or silence may occur by chance.

The texts which are used are by two of John Cage’s favorites:
French composer Erik Satie and the American philosopher Henry David
Thoreau, both known for their anarchic spirit.

Cage’s notion of „theatre“ does not imply expressive,
psychological
acting, but merely an impassive performance of simple actions.
The order of actions is determined by means of chance operations.

The outcome is an exuberant potpourri of vocal production, superimposed
by a theatre of absurd actions, a partly non-foreseeable music
theatre, entertaining in its anarchic spirit, opening ears and eyes!

Kara Feely is a director/writer/designer for experimental theater and
co-founder of Object Collection. Her upcoming project, FAMOUS ACTORS,
will premiere at the Ontological Theater in June.

Jessica Feldman is a New York-based intermedia artist working with
sound, sculpture, installation, interactivity and technology. Pieces
often occur in extremely public or extremely private spaces and have
been performed, installed and exhibited internationally at art
galleries, concert halls, public parks, city streets, tiny closets
and the internet. Her work has received grants/awards from the LMCC, the
Max Kade Foundation and Columbia University, among others. (http://
www.myspace.com/jessmedia)

Gisburg is a singer and composer who composes cinematographic music
and melody minimalism. She performed and toured Classical New Music
extensively with Dieter Schnebel’s “maulwerker” ensemble from Berlin.
She recorded several CDs for Tzadik and an experimental trip-hop
soundtrack for “High Life”. She sings chinese Pop Music of the 30’s
and 50’s and is a member of the Hai-Tien Choir with Mrs. Pi-Chu
Hsiao. As a sound and music editor for film she has worked with
Abigail Child, Ethan Coen, Robert Duvall and Rob Marshall (a.m.o.).
Currently she is working on the film music for Hounddog by Debra
Kampmeier.

Since her European debut 25 years agowith Mauricio Kagel’s solo
theater piece Phonophonie, Beth Griffith has performed at festivals
across Europe and America (Warsaw Autumn, Cologne Triennale, Wien
Modern, Numus Festival, RIAC, Donaueschingen Musiktage, Darmstadt
Summer Courses ,Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik , ISCM and New
Music America a.o.) Recent New York performances: “Rhythm inthe
Kitchen” festival, the Stone, Roulette, Medicine Show Theatre, PS 122.

Travis Just is a composer and performer of experimental music and co-
founder of the New York-based performance group Object Collection.
His work has recently been seen at the Ontological Incubator,
Experimental Intermedia, Chez Bushwick/AMBUSH, Brooklyn College,
Columbia University, Merce Cunningham Studio, CalArts, Kenyon
College, TESLA/Podewil (Berlin), Galerie Mark Müller (Zürich), Kunst-
Station Sankt Peter (Cologne), and Kunstraum (Düsseldorf).

Christian Kesten lives in Berlin, Germany and works as composer,
stage director, performance artist and vocalist; performances
worldwide. He is member of the ensemble “Maulwerker” and has been
performing Cage’s Song Books throughout Europe for the past 17 years;
he co-directed and performed in a complete version at Theater
Bielefeld in 2001. Recently composers like Chico Mello, Iris ter
Schiphorst, Alessandro Bosetti and Makiko Nishikaze wrote operas,
music theatre pieces or vocal solos for him. www.christiankesten.de

Dafna Naphtali is a sound-artist and improviser-composer from an
eclectic background of music-making, including rock, folk/gospel,
contemporary classical. A singer/guitarist/electronic-musician, she
performs and composes using custom computer programs she has been
writing since 1992. Besides composing and improvised projects, she
co-leads the digital chamber punk ensemble, What is it Like to be a
Bat? with Kitty Brazelton (Tzadik) and has collaborated / performed
with many fine musicians and travels widely to perform. She’s
received commissions and awards from NY Foundation for the Arts, NY
State Council on the Arts, Brecht Forum, Meet the Composer,
Experimental TV Center, American Composers Forum, and a residency
at STEIM (Holland).

Craig Shepard is a member of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble. His
compositions have been performed at the Akademie der Künste Berlin,
Moments Musicaux Aarau, Real Art Ways in Hartford and throughout
Europe and the United States. One of his most successful projects was
On Foot, a 350 mile trek across Switzerland in which he composed a
piece every day, wrote it down, and performed it in a public space.
Mr. Shepard was awarded a Bachelor of Music, magna cum laude, from
Northwestern University, where he studied trombone with Frank
Crisafulli and composition with Michael Pisaro. He received a
Master’s in Music Education from the Hochschule Musik und Theater
Zürich, where he served as a Lecturer and Researcher. His research
into listening has been published in the Schweizerische Muzikzeitung .

Harris Wulfson is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from New York
City.
He is currently pursuing a PhD in composition at the City University
of New York Graduate Center and studying with Morton Subotnick.

responsible for contents of this e-mail is: Gisburg, 182 Franklin St
#E17, Brooklyn, NY 11222, ph.: 718-383.1287

Originally posted by s21concerts from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)

Spring hailstorm

The next two weeks or so will present difficult choices for New York's new music fans, and the International Contemporary Ensemble isn't making things any easier by presenting (gulp) nine concerts here, starting tonight at Galapagos. Claire Chase, the group's flutist and co-founder, will be featured in recent works for flute and electronics by young composers, along with Vermont Counterpoint (1982) by Steve Reich.

[Photo: All-Storm Repairs, Inc.]

Originally posted by bhodgesnyc from Monotonous Forest, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)

Mahler’s message for German parliament

Early in the morning of 26th April 1986 two explosions destroyed reactor no. 4 at the Soviet nuclear power station at Chernobyl in Ukraine. This started the chain of events that led to the world's worst nuclear power accident, and left victims like the children seen above in an oncology unit in the area. 26th April 2007 is Chernobyl Day, and On An Overgrown Path can exclusively reveal that Germany’s Environment Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, is using Mahler’s music to send a powerful message to the country’s parliament.

Last year I told the story of the 20th anniversary Chernobyl concert held in Berlin which featured Thomas Quasthoff singing Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder. Sigmar Gabriel is Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in German chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet. This week, in a dramatic gesture that underlines the terrible risks associated with nuclear power, he has sent all 614 elected members of the Bundestag a CD of the Chernobyl anniversary concert. Herr Gabriel is no stranger to controversy, and he recently made headlines when he accused the United States of blocking progress on two key areas of global environment protection.

The Mahler CD was recorded in the famous Philharmonie Hall in Berlin, and the performers include Grammy winning baritone Thomas Quasthoff, and the orchestra of the Hanns Eisler Academy conducted by Christian Ehwald. As well as music by Mahler, Schubert and Mozart the CD includes readings from the best-selling book by Belarus author Swetlana Alexijewitsch titled Tschernobyl - Eine Chronik der Zukunft (Chernobyl - a chronicle of the future), and from the writings of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the philosopher Günther Anders.

The benefit concert and CD is just one of many remarkable projects in the twenty-three year history of IPPNW Concerts. They are part of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a non-partisan international grouping of medical organisations dedicated to the abolition of the nuclear threat, who work with the long-term victims of nuclear incidents ranging from Hiroshima to Chernobyl. Their work was recognised with the 1984 UNESCO Peace Prize, and 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.

* Buy the Chernobyl anniversary CD online via this link.

Read the full story of the Chernobyl anniversary concert here, about IPPNW Concerts here, and read this story which says it all. Image credit Belarusguide.com. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)

Having a ball at the 2007 BBC Proms

West End star Michael Ball has also been signed up to perform an evening of show tunes at the Royal Albert Hall on 27 August as part of the 2007 BBC Promenade Concerts season announced today . Ball, who has starred in The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects Of Love, Les Miserables and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, will perform hits from West End and Broadway musicals.

Outgoing Proms ditector Nicholas Kenyon said: "I think he is one of the great, intelligent singing artists alive today. "He deserves a place at the Proms just as much as performers in the great classical tradition. Our job is to cover the whole waterfront."

The Proms programme also includes a concert featuring scores from celebrated British films including The Dam Busters, Shakespeare In Love, Bridge Over The River Kwai and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone . Report from BBC News.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you, but at least there is an end to the drought of women composers.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 05:33 PM | Comments (0)

Minimalist Friday

It’s minimalist week in the Center of the Universe, highlighted on Friday night by the John Adams 60th birthday concert at Carnegie Hall. Adams will be conducting the American Composers Orchestra in performances of My Father Knew Charles Ives, The Wound-Dresser (with bass-baritone Eric Owens) and the Violin Concerto, with Leila Josefowicz doing the honors.

Meanwhile, also on Friday, in a nearby universe, Michael Riesman, Music Director of the Philip Glass Ensemble and concert pianist, will be performing the world premiere of his marvelous new transcription for solo piano of Glass’ score to the 1931 classic horror film, Dracula. The gothic walls of the Orensanz Foundation for the Arts provide a perfect backdrop to Reisman performance, which will done live to film. Tickets are $20 ($25 at the door).

On a more somber note, there will be a public memorial service for composer and pianist Andrew Hill, who died last Friday, at Trinity Church (89 Broadway at Wall Street) this Friday, April 27, at 2:00 pm.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 05:02 PM | Comments (0)

Beautiful Music, R.I.P.

Can new music have at once the same quality of "pushing at the edge of the conceivable" that Beethoven's had in its day as well as its emotional resonance?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)

The New-Music Narrative, Interrupted

Take a look at this list of books: Leonard Meyer: Music, the Arts, and Ideas, 1967 Iannis Xenakis: Formalized Music,...

Originally from PostClassic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)

Links for the week

Not much to report on this week. Maybe the internet’s having as hectic a time of it at the moment as me? Still, Boring Like a Drill manages to fire off a well-aimed disgruntlement in the direction of “spatialised electroacoustics”.

There’s good contemporary, christian music out there, but it doesn’t describe itself as Contemporary Christian. Now that electroacoustic music is ten-a-penny, spatialisation is the new incursion of ossified academicism: there’s infrastructure and funding needed to support that, with the attendant accumulation of material resources to legitimise cultural authority that the music cannot substantiate on its own.

I love this post on “The Edge of the Beat” by Daniel Wolf: it just reads like exemplary, thoughtful blogging to me - it’s about nothing and everything, compact philosophy to keep the imagination ticking over, and loaded with astute observations.

And apparently crappy national radio is turning more and more listeners to the pirates.

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

Source of Breath, Source of Life

As I mentioned in our last blog, our last studio concert featured the first performance of Source of Breath, Source of Life, a new piece by Mischa Zupko, commissioned by the Green Festival. The Green Festival is a big trade, community building, social justice event, open to the public and produced by Global Exchange and Co-Op America. It was held in San Francisco for eight years or so and in DC for the last three. Expectations were high for this new Chicago version, which took place downtown last weekend. As one of the major sponsors, the City of Chicago had a 2000 sq ft pavilion. They created a “Chicago Sustainable City Soundtrack” that will include works from diverse genres all related to local sustainability issues. Mischa’s new piece was part of this soundtrack. The installation will now be broken down and installed in other locations throughout the city. The piece was composed, rehearsed, performed and recorded in less than a month. Working within these challenging constraints, Mischa produced a strong piece, which he intended as a musical exploration of his thoughts about the environment and fears for its destruction. Here’s a photo of me with the good Mr Zupko (for those of you who complain that I’m too camera-shy): The 5-minute piece is in three sections. A virtuosic, driving, jazzy middle section, described by the composer as “the ‘critical mass’ moment, where things change dramatically,” is framed by two more complicated mixed-meter sections. These sections are based on a short, minor-key, stepwise-motion tune in 7/8. The score directs all ensemble members to produce a host of unconventional sounds, including sharp, violent inhalations and exhalations; rhythmic stamping; and percussion sounds from the whole group, including ratchets, brake drums, sandpaper. Mischa’s intention was to mimic the mechanical sound of industry. All sound very cool in the context, but presented some practical problems for the ensemble. At one point in the score the ensemble cuts off, leaving Matthew sawing a piece of wood in a steady eighth-note rhythm. The 8bb official hand saw was brought out of retirement for this purpose (last year, in Gordon Fitzell’s theatrical inescapable, Nick had to cut a block of wood in half, an action with which the composer literally wanted to fell the rest of the ensemble). Unfortunately, Matthew’s heartfelt attempts to saw the wood resulted in pathetically timid, irregular noises, which caused gut-aching bouts of laughter from the whole ensemble. For an ensemble made up of experienced new music players, our attempts at eighth-note stomping were frankly embarrassing. Hocketing passages of simple rhythms limped lamely to their conclusion, and a trio of unison sixteenths became a jumble of noise. Off all the unconventional sounds, it was the rhythmic breathing that caused the most disagreement. Lisa hissed through her teeth, Matt and I exhaled with a broad “Haaaaaah”s, Nick and Matthew blew forceful breaths. We tried to vote, but nobody could agree. The composer was unequivocal: sharp, forceful air sounds. We agreed to disagree. Funniest to watch in rehearsals was Matt, whose part undoubtedly required the most complicated coordination. He looked as if he were doing brain surgery: play violin, put down bow, count 2+3+3+2, pick up brake drum stick, play complicated rhythm on brake drum, put down stick, count 2+2+3, stamp a rhythm with both feet while picking up violin bow, play after just two further beats. Here is a photo of Lisa’s setup, complete with sandpaper-covered blocks, ratchet, brake drum, block of wood (not pictured), and, most importantly, official eighth blackbird M&M dispenser:

Originally posted by Tim from thirteen ways, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

Recording Zupko

Below are some photos from our late-night Source of breath, source of life recording last Thursday night at our rehearsal studio. Here is engineer and great friend of the group Charlie Williams (who was responsible for recording our March 8th benefit performance at 6.30pm, mastering it and burning 100 CD copies in time to distribute to attendees before they left at 11pm), working in our makeshift recording booth, the loading dock down the hall from our studio: The overhead lights in the studio make too much noise, so for recordings 8bb sets up makeshift spots. Here Mike is standing on his official 8bb “Zupko rhythmic stamping” board with those sexy, sexy cowboy boots of his. Yee-haw: For these situations, as recording man and assistant recording man respectively, Matthew and Mike are in charge of sorting out logistics, guiding microphone placement, barking instructions. Despite this, ensemble members have enough experience to be able to place the mics in pretty much the right place straight away. Because of an incredibly tight time-frame, and no real editing opportunity, we ran the five-minute piece four times. The first two had some pretty obvious slips, much of the third was passable, but the fourth was by far the closest. Packing up the web of wires after a pretty painless hour of work:

Originally posted by Tim from thirteen ways, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

Roger Bourland: Personae (1981)

In 1977 I began thinking about writing a piece that musically captured the personalities of four friends, and was to have been called “Four People.” In 1978 Phoebe Carrai and Ed Barker asked me to write a work for cello and bass in solo tuning (meaning the bass is tuned UP a step so as to give the instrument a more brilliant, soloistic sonority) for them. I immediately envisioned a virtuosic piece and began sketching under the working title of “Duo Concertante” a la Stravinsky and Leon Kirchner. What resulted was an amalgamation of the two ideas, but rather than basing the work on specific people, I strove for capturing elements of universal personality types, or “personae.” As a visual embodiment of the four personae, I chose four paintings by Pollock, Rembrandt, Magritte, and Rothko as an inspirational springboard for sonic impressions.

In the first movement, “The War Goddess,” I focused on the wild, violent, Dionysian side of man. The physical, bellicose, and irrational side of man is musically represented through dissonance, abrupt shifts of register, and dramatic change in timbral color. The second movement, “St Peter in Prison,” deals with the emotional, passionate side of man and is in two parts: the suffering, and then the transcendence of suffering toward cosmic optimism. The third movement, “The Reckless Sleeper” flows back and forth between sonic hallucinations of “wind chimes on Jupiter” and long, sustained dream-like flights, climaxed with a nightmare. The last movement, “Music for Rothko Chapel” reflects a spiritual, mystical persona. The shimmering chords of harmonics, continually varying in volume, manifest a magical spirit.

The piece was first written in 1979 and revised in 1981 for this performance. The performers here are Jules Eskin and Edwin Barker, and the concert is from a BSO Chamber Players in Symphony Hall (Boston).

I was studying with Earl Kim at the time. I know he was not amused that I had a piece performed by this group before he did. I brought the piece into my composition seminar and Earl gave me grief about the ending. It was a soft, ethereal ending rather than a strong, macho, purposeful ending. You WILL notice the piece ends on a perfect 5th, foreshadowing my return to tonality.

PERSONAE (1979; rev.1981) by Roger Bourland

Jackson Pollock: The War Goddess
Download personae1.pollock.mp3

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn: St Peter in Prison
Download personae2.rembrandt.mp3

Rene Magritte: The Reckless Sleeper
Download personae3.magritte.mp3

Mark Rothko: Music for Rothko Chapel
Download personae4.rothko.mp3

[Painting: “The Reckless Sleeper” by Rene Magrittle]

Originally posted by Roger Bourland from rogerbourland.com, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)

The Edge of the Beat

My son and I have been assembling a paper model, and it's been the cause of yet another of my bouts with edge anxiety. You see, I've never figured out if you're supposed to cut on the line, or just before or after the line. These cut-out projects are rarely specific about whether and how the width of the line figures into the width of the piece you're supposed to excise.

This anxiety is akin to one familiar to most musicians - when, precisely, does a beat begin? and does one articulate that beat on, before, or after that beginning? and is this done consistently or flexibly?

The best musical ensembles internalize a common location for their beat, and the very best ensembles can do this with great flexibility. One trick of many European orchestras is to lay back, just behind the conductor's visual downbeat, creating an round or even neutral attack. By opening up that space between the conducted and the played beat, the orchestra can then respond flexibly in passages where a sense of urgency or sharpness is intended. By leaning closer to the visual beat, an impression of acceleration is created without actually rushing the tempo. If, however, the conducted and played beats are identical, there's nowhere to move but to rush).

This is an enormously subtle and subjective phenomena, and I suppose that, for most musicians, one that takes place at a pre-conscious or even involuntary level. Nate Mackey's fine epistolary novel Bedouin Hornbook (1986) had a sweet passing reminder that the word "conspiracy" is, at root, blowing together, and that physicality is essential. The Vienna Philharmonic is well-known for the conspiratorial precision of their ensemble rubato, and one suspects that the hesitation in this traditionally male-only preserve to permit women to become members is an expression of a very male insecurity, not only in preserving a male-only employment sector (a common phenomena in modernizing economies) but also a form of insecurity at a fundamental level of identity, where the physicality of music making has been confused with that of gender.

If it weren't worn by bellicose practice, I'd be amused by the Bushian slogan of "drawing a line in the sand". A line drawn in the sand is even more difficult to hold onto than a line drawn in a cut-out book or a conductor slicing the air with hand or baton. And although sand is tangible and discrete, our perception of sand is that of a mass phenomena with unsharp edges, the detailed reports of individual grains disappear into that edge.

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)

Okay, let's see...Schumann...

Faced with this program of Kurtag, Ligeti, Shirish Korde, Pablo Ortiz and Gerardo Gandini* last night, my mind raced to put connections together when I first saw it. Gandini's Eusebius and Kurtag's Hommage a R. Sch both referred to Schumann, Ligeti's Nouvelles Aventures is silly, and, um, well, nothing else is silly here...but Ligeti and Kurtag both went to the Liszt Academy! And Korde and Ortiz's last names both have five letters!

A little birdie had tipped me off a couple days before the concert to say that Osvaldo Golijov, who curated the concert, saw the thematic link between these disparate works as "Melancholy in Music." He explained his point through little speeches between pieces and before the concert, from the stage, inviting people closer to the stage since "the music is so intimate." He was right; this was, quite simply, one of the most emotionally moving and musically cohesive concerts of new music I've ever heard. Mostly Mozart is in good stead with him on board as composer in residence, as is the CSO.

I fell down in my critical duties by not reading through the score to Gandini's Eusebius, for four pianos, prior to the performance. It nevertheless struck me as 15 minutes of pensive and inventive writing, alluding to a theme from Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze without turning treacly. Each piano adds something to the conversation, and the effect of the four pianos playing together, moving in and out of dialogue with each other, melted more than one heart last night. "That really moved me," said my concert-going friend, a listener with high standards who gives compositions far less quarter than I do. The pianists were Sebastian Huydts, Jelena Dirks (who doubles as a substitute oboe with the CSO), eighth blackbird's Lisa Kaplan and Amy Briggs Dissanayake, and they were in perfect unanimity last night.

Kurtag's Hommage a R. Sch. needs silence to make its silences felt. Like Disney Hall, the Harris Theater doesn't really care for silence, with every cough and dropped program amplified tenfold. Which means that the young, well-meaning couple that brought a 12-month old infant and decided to let that infant, who, it must be said, looked adorable, squeal erased whatever hold on an audience Kurtag had had up to that point. The baby cried just as clarinetist Lawrie Bloom struck the bass drum to signal the end of the work, and the farewell Kurtag intended was turned into "Good bye. Wait, what the hell was that?"

Jennifer Gunn, the CSO's piccolo-player, and Brant Taylor, a CSO cellist, turned in rapt, moving accounts of solo works. Gunn's intricate trills and swooping arpeggios concluded a touching performance of Korde's flute and strings work Nesting Cranes, based on and in homage to the Japanese shakuhachi piece "Tsuru no Sugomori." Taylor's subtle inflections in Ortiz's tango homage worked a similar spell, like listening to a South American version of a Bach cello suite.

All that melancholy dissipated with Ligeti's Nouvelles Aventures, as soprano Tony Arnold, mezzo Julia Bentley and baritone Alexander Hurd argued and chatted with each other in Ligeti's nonsense text. And yet, and yet...there is still an undercurrent of unease running through it, as the characters seem unable to communicate and make themselves understood. Young Frenchman-on-the-rise Ludovic Morlot conducted the ensemble convincingly, as he did in Nesting Cranes, bringing out all of these feelings and did his part to dispel the myth of emotionally barren contemporary music.

*less than accurate translation

Playlist

Symphony No. 3-Mahler Michelle DeYoung, mezzo, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, et al, Bernard Haitink, conductor (CSO Resound) (Disc available May 8, iTunes download available today)

Symphony No. 4-Bruckner Berlin Philharmonic, Simon Rattle, conductor (EMI)

Violin Concertos-Mozart, Michael Haydn Baiba Skride, violin; Kammerorchester C.P.E. Bach; Hartmut Haenchen, conductor (Sony)

Violin Concertos-Shostakovich, Janacek Skride, violin; Munich Philharmonic/Mikko Franck (DS), Berlin Radio Symphony/Marek Janowski (LJ) (Sony)

Gaspard de la nuit-Ravel Tzimon Barto, piano (Ondine)

Piano Concertos 1 & 2-Bartok Maurizio Pollini, piano; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Claudio Abbado, conductor (DG, reissue)

Originally posted by MarcGeelhoed from Marc Geelhoed: Deceptively Simple, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)

Mp3 Blog #72: String Quartets 2

Originally from Jacob Sudol, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)

Joe Colley, Jessica Rylan and Kevin Drumm — Pure

The Russian netlabel Musica Excentrica crosses intercontinental boundaries by presenting three American sound artists from a live session in Moscow. On the album Pure, each artist presents a 12 minute work in their own singular fashion. Joe Colley starts the concert with a work of random static noises and urban sound samples. It’s a quiet piece best experienced with headphones. “Pure Three” by Kevin Drumm uses a guitar played by such unconventional material as pieces of glass and magnets, The sound develops into a intense and unrestful drone making for a dynamic but somewhat disturbing work.

However the cream of the Pure crop belong to synthesizer artist and vocalist Jessica Rylan, “Pure Two”. As in the other tracks, it starts quietly with a single sound but then slowly builds as other tones meld. One of the tones is revealed as Rylan’s own voice electronically altered. Synthesizer and voice phases in and out of each other, her voice slowly start to verbalize barely recognizable words and then breaks into a nerve-racking climax in this mind-altering experience. Pure is a enjoyable avant-garde recording with two good tracks and one great track.

The album is available in 320kbps MP3.

Download

Originally posted by freealbums from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)

New York’s vital new-music scene.

Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 4/24/2007

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

Composer William Bolcom's vast repertoire makes the most of local musical resources

David Hawley, Pioneer Press, 4/24/2007

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

Random notes agenda

After writing about New York new music a couple of weeks ago, I've heard tell of several more ensembles and series based in the city, links to which have been added to my new music page.... The Newspeak ensemble plays tonight at Princeton, in a program including Judd Greenstein's What They Don't Like (For Chuck D), Samson Young's Efflorescentric Aftermath (Game Boy Music II), and David T. Little's sweet, light, crude. You can listen live at the Princeton music department website at 8PM.... Princeton seems a happening place these days, what with grad composers such as Little, Greenstein, Christopher Tignor, Miriama Young, Andrew McKenna Lee, and Gregory Spears, broad-minded elders such as Steven Mackey and Paul Lansky, electronic projects such as the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, and groundbreaking theoretical explorations by Dmitri Tymoczko (listen here as Tymoczko demonstrates how charming music can be concocted by imposing efficient voice-leading rules on a random collection of notes).... Tonic may be gone, but lively-sounding things are transpiring at The Tank, a space I've yet to visit. Amp Music is presenting a new-music series called Inflections. And this Saturday, Wet Ink plays with, er, Glissando bin Laden. Note also Tranzducer at Lemurplex in Brooklyn. And Roulette is back in action.... The ICE Ensemble begins its epic nine-program assault on New York with a solo flute show tomorrow night at Galapagos, part of the Darmstadt series.... Kalamazoo's Opus 21 plays Saturday at Symphony Space, presenting premieres by Richard Adams, Anna Clyne, Mark Dancigers, Dennis DeSantis, and Bill Ryan. And on Friday, John Adams conducts the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie. Adams spricht: "The model of the composer as lonely outsider, the Schoenberg or the Adrian Leverkühn that Thomas Mann so vividly sketched, is not the ideal for me...."

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)

Philharmonic cryptogram

A story by Dan Wakin in the New York Times reveals that the New York Philharmonic has devised a new post of "principal conductor" to go alongside that of music director, and that it also plans to appoint a composer-in-residence, found a new-music group, and present mini-festivals. These are all intelligent moves, signalling, as I suggested in my piece this week, that the Philharmonic is making deliberate strides toward artistic renovation (with the LA Phil perhaps providing inspiration). Trouble is, no names are being put forward to fill in the blanks. The second-banana role would seem tailor-made for a younger conductor such as Alan Gilbert or Ludovic Morlot, but neither is mentioned. Zarin Mehta, the Philharmonic president, is said to have "ruled out" Riccardo Muti and Daniel Barenboim for the lead post and further stated that "no conductors had been approached" about either job. A strange cliffhanger. Notice a statistic at the end: "Over the last four seasons, the orchestra has recorded a steady increase in ticket sales, raising the percentage of tickets sold to a projected 86 this year, from 73."

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)

Epic Mingus: Epitaph Conducted by Gunther Schuller in Four Cities ... - Jazz Police

Epic Mingus: Epitaph Conducted by Gunther Schuller in Four Cities ...
Jazz Police, MN - 29 minutes ago
A long-time jazz fan and supporter, Cosby hosted Mingus' “comeback concert” at Carnegie Hall in 1972, and featured Mingus’ music in his series, ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

Experimenting With Sound • Art and More at the Market • A Dog's ... - Boise Weekly

Experimenting With Sound • Art and More at the Market • A Dog's ...
Boise Weekly, ID - 6 hours ago
... including several major representatives of the experimental, avant-garde and creative music genres from New York, Seattle and British Columbia. ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

50th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival

The 50th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival takes place in September, focusing more on the mainstream, but with a number of edgier acts as well.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Bagatellen Reviews

From Bagatellen:

Ryu Hankil/Jin Sangtae/Choi Joonyang - 5 Modules I, Hong Chulki - 5 Modules II - 24 Apr 07
Grosse Abfahrt - Erstes Luftschiff zu Kalifornien - 22 Apr 07

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Mike Reed’s Last Year’s Ghost Release

This new release is out on 482 Music.

Called “one of Chicago’s most sublime Jazz outfits” by Time Out Chicago, Loose Assembly features alto saxophonist Greg Ward, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, cellist Tomeka Reid and bassist Josh Abrams. Last Year’s Ghost documents aural poems Reed created based on the compositional ideas and freeform playing of his band mates, linked by the common theme of what he calls “the traces of people and places past.”

Musicians: Josh Abrams (bass), Jason Adasiewicz (vibes), Mike Reed (drums), Tomeka Reid (cello), Greg Ward (alto saxophone)

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Musique Machine Reviews

From Musique Machine:

Sturm - Le Prix du Sang et des Larmes

Le Prix du Sang et des Larmes is French band Sturm’s debut album. I have no idea how many members there are to this band, or who plays what, etc. due to the fact that there was no information provided with the promo CD. A search of the internet failed to elucidate the picture, because all that the label and band websites had to offer were scant information. Perhaps the band are trying to perpetuate an aura of mystery.

Mayhem - Ordo Ad Chao
Ordo Ad Chao sees Mayhem with singer Attila Csihar back on board trying to recreate an atmosphere akin to De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas with modern experimental touches and grim cinematic air. So does it soar to heights of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas ?- sadly not- the key word above anything here is atmosphere- which is as deep as the night, but sadly more often than not it seems they’ve forgotten to write memorable tunes or song structures to support the atmosphere.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

AMN Podcast: Left Coast Improv Group - April / May 2002

April/May 2002

Download “Free Improv #5″ (mp3)
from “April/May 2002″
by Left Coast Improv Group
Edgetone Records

Reviewed: Taylor Ho Bynum live at the Velvet Lounge

Soundslope reviews this recent performance.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Tons of Nels Cline News

From Nels Cline:

SPRING 2007 UPDATE

FROM NELS (APRIL 20, 2007):

I am sitting here in Sydney, Australia. April 20th would have been my father’s 92nd birthday, were he still alive. And Andrew Hill has died. As most of you know, I love his music. I recorded some of his pieces on my CD, released last year, called NEW MONASTERY: A View Into the Music of Andrew Hill (Cryptogramophone). I recorded it as a tribute to a LIVING MASTER and inspiration. I didn’t know it when I came up with the idea to do the project, but Andrew Hill was gravely ill. Now he is released from suffering. His years-long struggle with lung cancer is over. I write this to send my love and condolences to his family and friends, and to send all possible love to the spirit of Andrew Hill. In a strange twist of fate, my sextet that plays his music was asked to open for Mr. Hill’s group at the San Francisco Jazz Festival last October. It was nerve-wracking for me, but also exciting, and Andrew was generous, telling me, after I expressed a sheepishness about playing his music in front of him, that what was important was that I was doing MY interpretation - that that’s what it’s all about. He also said, more than once, in a voice that was becoming increasingly tiny from his fight to live, “And I really like what you are doing with the accordion”, referring to Andrea Parkins’ contribution. Accordion was Andrew Hill’s first instrument, which he apparently played on the streets of Chicago as a lad…. This sextet of mine also played last month in New York, the same week that Mr. Hill played what was probably his last concert. It was a free afternoon event at The Trinity Church. I was way uptown at Colunbia University shilling for my band’s gigs on the radio, and had no idea until it was too late that he was going to play this concert of what he was calling “ecclesiastical music” with his trio. I learned that Andrew’s health had become even worse, that he could barely speak. I missed the concert, but I think it may still be streaming as a film document on the Internet. I suggest you seek it out. I suggest that you seek out all of Andrew Hill’s music. It is visionary, unpredictable, wide-ranging in approach, loose-limbed yet articulate, and as I have said before, much like the man: beautiful and free. Love to you, Andrew Hill. Love to your family. The music you made lives on. In loving memory.

The next NELS CLINE SINGERS disc is all finished. It is called DRAW BREATH and will be out on Cryptogramophone (natch) this summer. Of course the band is Devin Hoff (contrabass), Scott Amendola (drums, percussion, ‘live’ electronics), and yours truly. Glenn Kotche is our guest playing percussion on one track. Here is the sequence/track listing as it stands today:

CAVED-IN HEART BLUES
ATTEMPTED
CONFECTION
AN EVENING AT POPS’
THE ANGEL OF ANGELS
RECOGNIZE I
MIXED MESSAGE
RECOGNIZE II
SQUIRREL OF GOD

We spent an extra day tracking - a luxurious 3 days! - and consequently ended up recording a whole other album’s worth of free pieces (with no electronics/effects) dedicated to the late, great guitarist Howard Roberts. I played a beautiful mid-70s Gibson Howard Roberts guitar on these tracks. Maybe it will be streamed on Cryptogramophone’s website or something. Maybe we can release it on vinyl…Once again the fabulous Rich Breen recorded and mixed, and Jeff Gauthier held our hands, gave us knowing glances, and made sure we were nourished (in other words, produced). Artwork for the package is by the wonderful painter Angela DeCristofaro. Stay tuned for a specific release date.

Click logo to check out recent Rolling Stone “Guitar Gods” article.

THERE ARE CDs OUT NOW THAT I PLAYED ON…

ANDREA PARKINS/TOM RAINEY/NELS CLINE - Downpour (Victo CD)

This has just emerged from Victoriaville, Canada! It is the set from last year’s Musique Actuelle Festival there by the trio I put in motion a few years ago with Andrea Parkins (keyboards, laptop) and Tom Rainey (drumset). It’s the first thing we’ve gotten out since Ash & Tabula (Atavistic), and I might say it SMOKES. What an honor to tear it up with these two…Thanks to Michel Levasseur and everyone at Victo.

ELENI MANDELL - Miracle of Five (Zedfone Records)

Eleni has been wriring/singing/playing around L.A. and the world for a while now. She is a delight. Ex-Fibber Kevin Fitzgerald plays drums with her. I played on a bunch of tracks, but I think I am noticeable on about 5 here. The mood is winsome, a bit melacholy, and a bit retro.

ANTHONY SHADDUCK QUARTET - Debut (Sounds Are Active)

This is a “free jazz” disc, very limited pressing, with young SoCal bassist Anthony Shadduck, woodwind wildman and keeper-of-the-flame Lynn Johnston (do your homework), ubiquitous drummer extraordinaire Ches Smith, and yours truly. Recorded in Lynn’s parents’ living room one hazy Sunday afternoon, it’s got some great chemistry and cogent crosstalk.

M.WARD - To Go Home 7″ (Merge)

Word on the street is that a song I played on for M.Ward (cover of Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s “Headed For A Fall”) is coming out this month on 7″ vinyl. You’ll know it’s me if you hear it because I am doing my now-familiar “rave-up” solo. Hope you’re not tired of it! Compared to Mr. M.’s moody, reverb-y songs, this one pretty much ROCKS…I hope someone sends me a copy!

CHRIS MURPHY - Luminous (Kufala Recordings CD)

Electric violinist Murphy said he wanted to do a really “L.A” record, and he totally overachieved in the personnel department: Mike Watt, John Doe, Victoria Williams, DJ Bonebrake, Stephen Hodges, Earl Harvin, L.Shankar, Larry Taylor…Good lord! The results are diverse as the players. I recorded in an apartment in the heart o’ Hollywood. It actually is kind of “L.A.” in that the simple, fuzzy, fiddle-laden pieces would probably make a great soundtrack to L.A. driving. I am credited with playing on 2 songs (tracks 5 & 6), but I am pretty sure I hear myself lurking around on track 3. In fact, after listening to this, I think they laid down so many tracks by different people that they got confused! Anyway, I finally got to play on a song with John Doe. Too bad we weren’t playing together at the same time in the same room! Mr. Murphy digs his cinema. I’m on a track called “Night of the Hunter”, and there’s one called “Richard Widmark”…

DANIELE CAVALLANTI ELECTRIC UNIT - Smoke Inside (Long Song Records)

A large group of Italians and I recorded this, a set of “electric jazz”, in Milan for Long Song. It’s very early 70s style, and almost everyone involved with this fun record are old enough to really know how to play this stuff in the pre-FUSION way, which is to say, pre-“popping”, pre-“symphonic”, pre-CRAPPY.. Daniele, who I met and played with about 13 years ago, has a sound that reminds me of the great (and, sadly, recently departed) Dewey Redman.

GLANDS OF EXTERNAL SECRETION/MY CAT IS AN ALIEN (Opax/Very Friendly split series #5 CD)
This a split with the San Francisco-based noises-of-mystery unit Glands Of External Secretion and Italian “noise” duo (and are they ever ADORABLE - really!) My Cat Is An Alien. I play mangled lap steel on the 17-minute “Icebox (Defrosted Mix)” by The Glands, and if you can even find this it could be the perfect accompaniment to an evening of chopping exotic ingredients to add to what TV star chef Emeril Lagasse calls “refrigerator rice”. This has been out for awhile and I forgot to write about it. I suck… I hear that there is a super-limited edition of this on vinyl and that the cover is an actual painting! Try Midheaven Mailorder if you are so inclined.

UPCOMING - SOON as well as LATER:

ELLIOTT SHARP/NELS CLINE - Duo Milano (Long Song CD)
Recorded in Milan, this is the first release (our actual first one never came out) by this duo - a personal favorite. The improvised pieces are both electric and acoustic, and the music is by turns intimate, textural, and apocalyptic/psychedelic. The cover photograph is by the great Ralph Gibson. Find it soon (late March?) from IndieJazz.com. Thanks to Fabrizio Perssinotto.

WILCO - Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch CD/LP)

Yup. Out May 15th. There will no doubt be a ton of hype and maybe concomitant dread around this much-anticipated release - the first sudio recording of the band with Pat Sansone and yours truly as members. I have never been involved with a “much-anticipated” release! I think I will just sit back and watch the parade… No amount of hype, dread, or blather can detract from my satisfaction with the music on this record. It was recorded totally independently in Chicago in the Wilco loft, and the experience was rewarding, relaxed, and fruitful.

DAVID WITHAM - Spinning the Circle (Cryptogramophone CD)
Keyboard wizard Witham (whom some of you may know from either the Jeff Gauthier Goatette and/or George Benson’s band) has made a groovy, throwdown beats and bleats disc with a bunch of his pals. I played on 2 tracks. Release date sometime this Spring.

G.E STINSON/NELS CLINE - title and label TBA
One of my favorite people is this fellow G.E. Stinson. He is a marvelous guitarist, an expert in creating ethereal and gut-level SOUNDS. We have collaborated in many ways in the past - from his band A Thousand Other Names to L.Stinkbug, to the G.E. Stinson String Group, to… This is our first duo recording, recorded in a studio in West L.A. The afternoon session yielded enough for at least 2 CDs of good stuff, but this first one is of a 45-minute improvised piece, all of it recorded in real time. Maybe we’ll even get it released!

ALAN PASQUA - The Anti-Social Club (provisional title…) (Cryptogramophone CD)
A totally spirited, neo-70s jazz/rock blowing session led by the incredible and versatile Mr. Pasqua, who WAS THERE, people! He has played keyboards with a staggering number of amazing musicians - it’s truly daunting. Read up. The session included Jimmy Haslip on bass and Scott Amendola on drums. Stay tuned!

THE QUIET ORCHESTRA - An Internet-only large group explosion of contrasts led by young bassist Gabe Noel. Maybe if you Google this in another month or two something sonic will emerge out of your computer…

WHITE OUT ‘LIVE’ w/ yours truly as guest (TBA)
New York spaceprov genies Lin Culbertson (synth, autoharp, voice, flute) and Tom Surgal (drums) are sifting through recordings from Tonic (NYC) and various European dates to release a ‘live’ document. Good luck, kids! Most of this stuff was pretty damn good!….You can check out some live clips of us on YouTube.

STEPHEN GAUCI - Quartet recording with saxophonist Gauci, Ken Filiano (contrabass), Mike Pride (drums), and yours truly. Brooklyn free jazz that was a blast to do and may find its way to you all someday…

I recently went into Geza X’s (do your homework) studio in Malibu with Mike Watt to record Blue Oyster Cult’s “Burnin’ For You” for a compilation called GUILTY PLEASURES, or some such thing. I guess there’re more than one… Anyway, Watt, Chad Smith, and I threw down some neo-FM glory with Paul Roessler at the controls (keep on Googlin’…).

Petra Haden and “Money Mark” Nishita were apparently added later for full orchestral majesty. It was sick fun for sure. No idea when this tawdry gem will emerge, but if not for this it will be well worth it for Petra’s version of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”! And for what it’s worth, I don’t think Watt is the least bit guilty about liking BOC. Now if someone would just ask me to record New Order’s “Regret”…Not guilty!

LOST AND WAITING TO BE FOUND:

LEE RANALDO/MARINA ROSENFELD/NELS CLINE ‘Live’ at Tonic NYC (purportedly an Atavistic “Out Trios” series CD)
While the rough of this recording sits somewhere in Sonic Youth’s lair, another potential recording from Tonic with Lee (gtr, bells), Alan Licht (gtr), Carlos Giffoni (synth), and yours truly ALSO could emerge. The suspense is killing me. What will happen??
I apologize for the morass of releases/info. It takes me a while to remember this stuff, then to write about it, so it’s all in a heap. Enjoy.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

My Amazon predictions: looking good so far

It’s unseemly to gloat that I told you so, but I’m not being paid for this gig so I’ll take my satisfaction where I can find it: According to a Digital Music News report on Amazon’s plans (free registration required), Amazon will be integrating its much-rumored digital music offering into its existing CD-centric online store:

… MP3s from participating artists will be blended into the larger, existing Amazon store. They are not trying to replace iTunes, iPod, Zune, whatever, one source said. It’s going to look just like Amazon does today. That means that a search for an artist will yield a number of results, including CDs, merchandise, DVDs, and MP3s if available.

As I previously pointed out:

… one of the things I think is most interesting is the potential impact of having [Amazon] sell both CDs and DRM-free digital tracks in an integrated way, and how that might affect the way both CDs and digital tracks are sold and perceived.

Digital Music News also notes that Amazon will likely launch with an all-MP3 offering and without digital content from all major labels:

… if major labels opt not to license their tracks in the open format, the ecommerce giant has decided not to wait. They are utterly, unflinchingly confident that they have 100 percent of the leverage in this situation, one source flatly stated. They are not waiting for the [major] labels at all.

Again, as I wrote before regarding the major labels wanting Amazon to push DRM:

… as a top 5 music retailer Amazon presumably has some actual influence over the major labels, and may be able to help push them kicking and screaming into the post-DRM world, especially now that EMI has broken away from the pack. Why give in to major labels’ demands at this time, as opposed to waiting until they might be more eager to make a deal?

And finally, as almost everyone (including me) has speculated, Amazon will apparently offer some form of variable pricing:

Meanwhile, multiple sources also pointed to an approach that includes variable pricing, though the store will insist that providers sell in the MP3 codec.

Unfortunately sloppy language marred one other prediction in the article, namely the question of whether Amazon will introduce its own digital media software:

Instead of competing with iTunes, Amazon will encourage users to incorporate their downloads into the Apple store, and transfer tracks to their iPods. Stick with iTunes, but buy from Amazon, one source quipped.

Here the article is confusing the iTunes Store (i.e., the online service operated by Apple) with the iTunes player (i.e., the desktop software used to store users’ digital tracks and synchronize them with their iPods). Obviously Amazon will be offering an online service that is independent of and competitive with the iTunes Store, but apparently Amazon will not attempt to compete with the iTunes player. It remains to be seen whether Amazon will offer some automated or semi-automated way for people to have tracks purchased from Amazon moved into the iTunes player’s catalog. That point aside, coexistence with the iTunes player is a good strategy, at least for now, especially given the immature state of would-be iTunes competitors like Songbird.

Update: Paul Resnikoff of Digital Music News has some additional comments on Amazon’s entry into the digital music market. His main point is that Amazon’s strategy of incrementally adding MP3 content is tailored to Amazon’s strengths as a music retailer, and wouldn’t make sense for anyone else; I agree 100%. He also thinks that the major labels (except for EMI) will sit out this round and wait to see if this whole let’s sell DRM-free music thing is just a fad; no surprise there.

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 08:01 AM | Comments (0)

75th Anniversary Bach Festival, April 20-22, 2007

The Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory Riemenschneider Bach Festival gave it's 75th Anniversary performance last weekend at Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio. Conductor Dwight Oltman led the combined Baldwin-Wallace and Bethlehem chorus in a resounding redition of the B Minor Mass. Read more about the Bach Institute that has put on this outstanding festival for 75 years. There is another chance to hear the landmark performance at the 100th Anniversary of the Bethlehem Bach Festival

Originally posted by dolf from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 05:24 AM | Comments (0)

ANALOG Arts Ensemble Tonight

Galapagos Art Space

April 25, 2007
10.30pm

70 North 6th Street
between Kent and Wythe
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
NY 11211

ANALOG curates a collaborative performance featuring all-stars from the Brooklyn indie chamber music scene, including Loop 2.4.3 with members of Object Collection and Arsenic-Free Music. You can expect a wide-ranging exploration of found sounds, field recordings and accidental sounds.

Playlist for the night:

Johnny Chang: Los Angeles Transcriptions (6): il corral
Dolf Kamper: Number 25
Nigel Rawles: Jokes...
Christian Kesten: Dodger Stadium
Steve Reich: Pendulum Music (preview mp3 from the rehearsal)
Joseph Drew: Arena
Samuel Beckett: Quad Variation from Samuel Beckett
Kozumplik/Watson: DBC
Johnny Chang: Two Violins
Eric Clark : Slaughter Series
Devin Maxwell: Music for Space Ships to Make Love To (Battle of Los Angeles)
Samuel Beckett: Breath
Kozumplik: Mantra
Velvet Underground: The Gift

Originally posted by ECHO from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 05:24 AM | Comments (0)

Fixed an octave misplacement in the finger piano arpeggio

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 05:02 AM | Comments (0)

The business case for eMusic’s Connoisseur plans

In a previous post I offered some pretty snarky advice for indie labels complaining about eMusic per-track payouts. For this post I ‘ll try to look at things in a more objective manner and consider why eMusic does business the way it does, and why eMusic’s approach is arguably better for labels than various alternatives. In particular I’ll address the business case for eMusic offering its new Connoisseur plans, since that was apparently one major bone of contention between eMusic and Victory Records. As Tony Brummel of Victory famously said with regard to the Connoisseur plans, I just don’t believe in what they’re doing. He may have lost his own faith in eMusic, but perhaps I can justify it to others.

First, I’ll repeat my previous point that the key concern for labels should ultimately be total revenue and profits, not necessarily per-track margins and certainly not per-track list prices. As David Pakman notes in his recent Forbes interview, eMusic’s payout to labels is not a direct function of track list prices, but rather is based on revenue sharing arrangements, which in turn are influenced by customer behavior. The more customers who don’t use up their subscription quotas, the more money labels end up getting on a per-track basis:

It doesn’t come down to a wholesale price, it’s a revenue share. We take all the revenue the company generates from every plan and cut it in half. Half of it gets paid out to all the labels each quarter pro rata based on the number of downloads they got. The important thing to note is if you signed up for the Connoisseur 300 plan at $75 a month and you went on vacation for a month or you just didn’t use the service or you only downloaded 10 songs, we still take the $75, put it in the pot, divide it by half and pay [it] out to all the labels.

This ties back into Tony Brummel’s and others’ (mis?)perceptions about the Connoisseur plans. From a naïve point of view it might appear to be bad for labels for eMusic to allow customers to download more tracks per month at a $0.25 per track price point. Wouldn’t it be better to force customers to buy booster packs, which are much more expensive on a per-track basis (from $0.50-0.60 per track at present), and thus achieve per-track payouts closer to those of the iTunes Store?

However this analysis ignores the point that people maxing out on their monthly downloads may be reluctant to buy booster packs, given the steep incremental cost over that for subscription downloads. (This is certainly the case for me, and based on comments on the eMusic message boards it appears to be the case for others as well.) People who max out their subscription downloads may prefer to upgrade to a plan offering more downloads, and run the risk that in some months they may not download their full quota. In effect they are opting for certainty in their per-track costs (locking in a nominal $0.25 per track price) as opposed to trying to optimize things by having a less expensive plan supplemented by booster packs.

To better understand the logic underlying the introduction of the Connoiseur plans, let’s look at an example: Consider a user who is on the current eMusic Premium plan (75 tracks for $19.99, or just under $0.27 per track), regularly maxes out his quota, and finds himself adding at least one or two albums per month to his Save for Later list. (Since eMusic’s customer base has a lot of frequent music purchasers, I suspect many customers found themselves in this situation.) To satisfy his desire for more music each month he decides to upgrade to the cheapest Connoisseur plan (100 tracks for $24.99). However once he upgrades he then for whatever reason ends up downloading only 85 tracks per month on average over the next year. At the end of the year he would have paid $299.88 (12 times $24.99) for 1,020 tracks (12 times 85), or on average $0.294 per track.

In hindsight the customer would have been equally well off staying on the Premium plan and buying four 30-track booster packs (at $14.99 per pack) as necessary to account for the 10 extra tracks per month (120 extra tracks per year) that he was downloading. His average per-track price would then have also been $0.294 (12 times $19.99 plus 4 times $14.99 for a total of $299.84, divided by 1,020 tracks). He would also have had more flexibility in downloading tracks, since booster pack downloads don’t expire at the end of each month.

However this approach has two disadvantages from the customer’s point of view:

Combining a (maxed-out) subscription plan plus booster pack purchases requires a degree of forethought and rational calculation that most users are likely not willing to devote to the question of buying downloadable music. In particular, buyers incur a mental transaction cost for each buying decision they make, so in general it’s better for a retailer to minimize the number of separate buying decisions a customer has to make. (For example, this has been used as an argument against micropayment schemes.) When upgrading to the Connoisseur plan the customer in the example above needs to make only one decision, but when taking the booster pack approach he would have to make more, given that he probably wouldn’t buy all the booster packs at once.
The maxed-out plan plus booster packs approach also runs the risk that customers may end up paying more on average than if they had upgraded to the next higher plan. If the customer in the example above downloaded 90 tracks per month on average instead of 85, then over the course of a year he would have had to buy two more 30-track booster packs to account for the additional 60 tracks (five per month) he wanted to download. Doing this in turn would have raised his total cost to $329.82 ($299.84 plus 2 times $14.99) and his average per-track price to $0.305 ($329.82 divided by 12 times 90 or 1,080). This is significantly more expensive than the $0.27 per track he was originally paying under his maxed-out Premium plan. Given that people generally are more concerned with avoiding losses than pursuing gains, the customer in our example would likely opt for a plan upgrade and stability in his eMusic-related expenses as opposed to running the risk of overspending on booster packs.

The upshot is that for our example customer it makes sense (at least from a behavioral economics point of view) to upgrade to a higher-priced plan. It also makes sense (from a rational business point of view) for eMusic and its labels to offer him this option, as long as the customer doesn’t download more than 92 tracks per month (out of a quota of 100). Below that point the per-track payouts are higher than for a maxed-out Premium plan, while above that point they are lower.

However if it’s likely that lots of customers would be maxing out (or close to maxing out) the 100-track Connoisseur plan then eMusic could simply offer a high priced Connoisseur plan providing more monthly downloads, and encourage people to upgrade to that. This of course is exactly what eMusic did, offering a $49.99 plan with 200 downloads and a $74.99 plan with 300 downloads. The logic is the same as before: for customers maxing out their current plans it’s typically simpler and more attractive to upgrade to a more expensive plan than to rely on booster packs to supplement a lower-priced plan.

eMusic could make this approach more attractive from a business point of view (for both itself and the labels) by increasing the price of booster packs (which increases the incentive for customers to upgrade their plans instead) and by raising the minimum price for the higher-priced plans (to minimize the impact on profitability of extremely heavy downloaders). Again, this is exactly what happened: eMusic increased the minimum per-track prices for booster packs from $0.30 to $0.50, and set pricing for the Connoisseur plans so that the per-track price is never lower than $0.25 (vs. $0.22 under the Premium plan prior to the current one).

David Pakman did a good job of summing up this strategy in the Forbes interview:

For us, subscription business optimization is about making sure customers are never always maxing out their plans. That way, the customer feels they have some headroom and we’re able to optimize the profitability of our business.

The result of this optimization is a win-win for eMusic and the labels as well as for eMusic customers (at least some of them):

eMusic and the labels realize both higher overall revenue and higher profits: higher revenue because customers are on higher-priced plans, and higher profits because per-track payouts are higher than they would be if customers were maxing out on lower-priced plans and didn’t have the option of upgrading to higher-priced plans that many of those customers in practice wouldn’t take full advantage of.
eMusic customers in general can plan their music purchasing and minimize the risk of over-spending their budgeted amounts per month, and price-sensitive eMusic customers in particular can get a good deal in terms of actual (not nominal) per-track prices by purchasing tracks in volume and downloading all the tracks per month to which they’re entitled.

Since eMusic presumably has complete records on the buying and downloading activities of its customers, and has also in effect conducted experiments in pricing strategies by changing its pricing model in the past, I’m presuming that eMusic can in fact demonstrate to labels using hard data that its current business model is good for both eMusic and the labels. In other words, the labels don’t just have to take this on faith.

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 05:01 AM | Comments (0)

St. Louis Blues (1914). W.C. Handy /twittering and tooting/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 05:00 AM | Comments (0)

Ryu Hankil/Jin Sangtae/Choi Joonyang - 5 Modules I, Hong Chulki - 5 Modules II

Ryu Hankil/Jin Sangtae/Choi Joonyong 5 Modules I Manual Hong Chulki 5 Modules II Manual Two invigorating releases from Korea serving notice that the boundaries are still being pushed, that fascinating music remains to be discovered in the nethermost nooks...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 02:01 AM | Comments (0)

Spare Change?

What's that they say about death and taxes? A third certainty here at Bagatellen is the annual appearance by the server host piper, a surly leotarded sort who won't leave the premises until payment is proffered. In past years,...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 02:01 AM | Comments (0)

Complaining Doesn't Work

For the brief all-too-finite period of time of the ASCAP I Create Music Expo we were all one community, albeit one that is defiantly not monolithic, even within individual stylistic paradigms.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 25, 2007 at 02:00 AM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2007

April 27-Roman Stolyar, Susan Allen, Nicholas Chase; Multi-Media + Music at REDCAT

April 27, 2007
Roman Stolyar, Susan Allen, Nicholas Chase and friends
Multi-Media and Music at REDCAT

REDCAT, Los Angeles, April 27th at 8:30 p.m.

http://redcat.org/season/0607/mus/stolyar.php

Corner of 2nd and Hope Streets in the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex
637 W. 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213-237-2800)
www.redcat.org
Tickets $18 (students $14, CalArts $10)

ROMAN STOLYAR
“One of the best of a new trend of modern Russian composers.”
- Expose
The Russian free jazz innovator and members of the CalArts Improvisation Ensemble weave together a series of new collaborative multimedia works developed using Stolyar’s unique “Improvising Orchestra” methodology. In a continuance of their ongoing collaboration, Chase and Allen join Stolyar, forging ahead into uncharted aesthetic territory. This project was first begun in Siberia between Allen and Stolyar following an arts conference that touched on improvised music as a means for transnational communication.

The performers:
As a piano improviser, Roman Stolyar has collaborated with musicians from across the globe, including Anatoly Vapirov (Bulgaria), Carl Bergstroem-Nielsen (Denmark), Hans Schuettler, Heinz-Erich Goedecke, Ge-Suk Yeo (Germany), free jazz groups Kieloor Entartet and Day & Taxi (Switzerland), the Cohen family (Israel) and others. He has collaborated with numerous choreographers such as Nelson Fernandes, Christin Carter, Marina Collard (UK), Colin Connor (USA), Randall Scott (Holland), Torbjorn Sternberg (Sweden) and others. He has released CDs under the labels of Ermatell Records (Novosibirsk), Electroshock Records (Moscow) and Intuitive Records (Denmark). In 2000 Stolyar was chosen as a member of the Russian Composers’ Union. He became a Vice Chairman of Siberian branch of Composers’ Union in 2001 and sits on the Board of Advisors of the International Society for Improvising Music.
rstmusic.narod.ru

Susan Allen has performed and toured with American legend, Dr. Yusef Lateef, SONOR, Composers in Red Sneakers, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Musica Viva, Speculum Musicae, and many orchestras. She has been active in studio recording in the Los Angeles area for Universal, Paramount, and Warner Brothers. She received grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, the Massachusetts Arts Council and the Gaudeamus Foundation. She has lectured internationally on both the harp and music pedagogy and has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. Her records are on the Flying Fish, Black Saint/Soul Note, 1750 Arch, Meta, Vox, Galaxia, Nonesuch, and Opal/Warner Brothers and Ermatell labels.
music.calarts.edu/~susie
www.summerharpcourse.com

Nicholas Chase’s interactive visual work with the improvising trio NIRUSU III (Chase, Allen, Pearson) has been acclaimed by the LA Weekly as “pushing the edge of audio/visual improv.” In this appearance at REDCAT, Chase explores the possibility of a dynamic, spontaneously composed visual narrative that includes animated film, vector generated graphics, and electro-acoustic musical improvisation, performed by Chase and Stolyar together. Nicholas Chase has received numerous awards for his compositional work, including the Andy Warhol Prize given jointly by the Philadelphia Classical Symphony and the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. Chase is founder of the LA-based Musical Arts/Sound Laboratory (www.mas-lab.org) who premiered Yusef Lateef’s String Quartet No. 1 (Bismilah) in collaboration with REDCAT in 2005, and founding director of the the Egg Ensemble, the creative team responsible for the trans-disciplinary serial (The Enigma of Salvador) Dali’s Egg, which has been presented at venues in Hollywood, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Helsinki (www.dalisegg.com).
www.nicholaschase.net

This event is funded in part by a grant from the Trust for Mutual Understanding.

WHERE
REDCAT (the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater) is located at the corner of W. 2nd St. and S. Hope St., inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex.

TICKETS
An evening performance is scheduled for April 27th at 8:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $18-14, with discounts available. Seating is general admission. Tickets may be purchased at the REDCAT box office— located at the corner of 2nd and Hope Streets, by calling 213.237.2800, or at . Please plan on arriving at least 30 minutes before curtain time. Seating at REDCAT is unreserved, and late seating is not guaranteed.

PARKING
Parking is available in the Walt Disney Concert Hall parking garage. Enter from 2nd St. and proceed to level P3 for direct access to REDCAT. The evening event rate is $8 after 5 p.m. Before 5 p.m., the maximum daytime rate is $17.

Originally posted by s21concerts from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Apr 24, 2007 at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

(New Music + Bunny Slippers) / Long Day = Perfect Evening?

Is listening to a new music concert online at home a danger to the live concert experience?

Originally from NewMu

New Music reBlog

April 30, 2007

The genteel powerhouse

Mario Davidovsky, "String Trio" (1982)

Paul Hindemith, "Consolation of Mary"

The Styrenes, "In C"

World Premiere of Elodie Lauten Ecocity Part of May 2 American Festival of Microtonal Music MicroFest 2007 Performance at Bowery Poetry Club, New York City

A Sliver of Rehearsal Time Can Go a Long Way

Various Artists - Electronica Unplugged 1 & 2

Mstislav Rostropovich: 1927-2007: Gifted cellist and conductor championed human rights

Dreams of night, lost in shade

The Song Is You

A day, made

Piled higher and deeper

Niblock tells a bit more

Performance practice

Agitation

The Simpsons and Samuel Barber

Garry Moore and John Cage

Rostropovich, 1927-2007 (Updated)

Going to town with “Going to a Town”

Mp3 Blog #74: String Quartets (plus) 4

Mp3 Blog #75: String Quartets 5

Review: Electronic Music in CT, week 2

Music of Primes

A Tribute to Max Mathews at the Computer History Museum

'Art And Literature Should Be Judged By The Conscience Of The Creator, His Peers In His Field And All Of The People, Not By A Separate Bureaucracy'

Mr Cogito Watches Stephen Hawking Fly For 8 Minutes And Then Ponders His Own Attempt At Weightlessness At 2 to 15 Meters Above Current Sea Level

Mongolian Pop Music and Pink Telephones

Tristan Björk Agenda

Jazz Wins a Pulitzer - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

A Brief Primer on Twelve Tone Music

Waking Up Before the Birds

Alan Rich, music critic

Theremin album back from grateful dead

Nobody’s perfect …

All Around the Town

Andrew Hill - Strange Serenade (Soul Note)

Hollow Tree Mailbag

Taylor Ho Bynum: Spontaneous Yet Focused

Bagatellen Reviews

New from Important Records

Newsbits

Umbrella Music Through May 10th

links for 2007-04-30

Songs without words.

Member News: SPUTNiK Orbits Cape Cod

Seriously Off-Topic

April 29, 2007

Keys to the future.

John Tilbury - Plays Samuel Beckett

Keys to the future.

A Tribute to Joni Mitchell

Jean Sibelius: Symphony No.5

Classical Audience revisited

Michael Gordon, "Weather"

RED LIGHT NEW MUSIC presents David Hanlon’s HOLD THE APPLAUSE

Molecules Spring Tour

Zorn at the Miller Theater Reviewed

The Roulette in May

Festival Rock In Opposition Photos: Nebelnest

AMN Podcast: George Cartwright - A Tencious Slew

Dusted Reviews

links for 2007-04-29

Rawles Balls World Premiere

Cinco de Mayo Celebration — May 4 at 8 PM!

[no title]

10 musical acts you won't read about at Hollow Tree

April 28, 2007

An Italian in San Francisco

It's alive!

Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death (1968). George Crumb /War...huh...yeah, what is it good for?/

Dorkbot Art and Technology Forum

Hollenbeck and Mahanthappa are Guggenheim Foundation 2007 Fellows

AAJ Reviews

Avant Garde Project 58: Pauline Oliveros and More

DMG Newsletter April 27th 2007

Sonomu Reviews

Musique Machine Reviews

Zappa Plays Zappa on Tour