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June 30, 2008
Chico Mello - "FATE AT EIGHT"
(Part 1/4)
Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
Johanna Beyer: Sticky Melodies
Johanna Beyer: Sticky Melodies
r Clarinet No. 1
String Quartet No. 1
Three Songs for Clarinet and Soprano
Bees
The Federal Music Project
Movement for Two Pianos
Suite for Clarinet No. 2
String Quartet No. 2
Ballad of the Star-Eater
Movement for Double Bass and Piano
Three pieces for choir
Sonatina in C
Astra Chamber Music Society, John McCaughey, director
New World Records
Johanna Beyer is a composer who has been woefully neglected. As the composer of what many consider to have been the first electronic piece (Music of the Spheres, 1938), it’s amazed me how little one hears of her. I first became enamored with the 1938 work on a landmark LP with new music by women composers, and am delighted that New World Records is making a lot of Beyer’s music available in a recent 2-CD set. The recordings provide a really nice overview of Beyer’s music since 1930 (her pre-1930 music remains unknown). Beyer was a contemporary of Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger, Henry Cowell and other American “experimentalists” of that era, and her music was very much ahead of its time. She ultimately developed ALS and, along with a worsening relationship with Cowell after his release from prison, made her last years tragic and unfortunate.
Fortunately for us, however, we have these 2 CDs with a good deal of Beyer’s music in extremely sympathetic and skillful performances. Of all the music on the album, the two string quartets particularly stand out. While the fourth movement of String Quartet No. 1 have been described in terms that make it seem proto-minimalist, I’m struck more by its use of repetitive glissandi than its stasis. The string writing reminds me of the one performance I heard years ago of John Becker’s string quartet, another amazing piece that I wish were heard more often (note to performers: I’ll die a lot happier if I could hear the Becker again, it’s that good).
The two works for clarinet solo are gems, as is the piece for contrabass and piano. In fact, all the pieces on these discs are incredible finds, and belong in any new music aficionado’s playlist. I’ve wanted to hear more of Beyer’s music since hearing that early electronic piece of hers, and now want to hear the remainder of her oeuvre.
Originally posted by David Toub from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)
They’re Officially In The House
A little while back on S21, I mentioned the good news that the indomitable / indubitable / inscrutable / incontinent Kalvos & Damian were bringing back an online-only version of their (ASCAP Deems Taylor) award-winning broadcasts. Though the name has changed from New Music Bazaar to In The House, The show retains all of its trademark off-the-wall storytelling, banter, and enthusiasm for sharing the music and thought of all kind of interesting NON-POP musicians at work today. Our duo may be out in the wilds of rural Vermont, but there isn’t anything backwoods about their awareness of the new-music scene. Each show is provided in both a high- and low-bandwidth version, so there’s just no excuse to not be listening, hear?
[Note: Happy as I am about this return, I’d be remiss not to also acknowledge the New Music Bazaar’s different yet fine replacement, Noizepunk and Das Krooner. Since 2005 Gene Pritsker and Charles Coleman have been running their own mostly-monthly show, with lots of the same type of K&D-worthy guests. All of their shows are archived for listening at the K&D site right along with the New Music Bazzar’s vast archive.]
Though Kalvos (Dennis Bathory-Kitsz) and Damian (David Gunn) last appeared in 2005, they more or less pick up just where they left off, with an fun interview of the muy importante left-coaster Art Jarvinen. Art has been a big factor in helping shape what’s come out of CalArts (and Cal, period) lately, and Art’s own music and interview heard in this show perfectly show off much of what California/West-Coast/Southwest music has been concerned with these last 30+ years (hint: it ain’t set-theory or the New Complexity… oh, they probably know it, but “thanks, no thanks”; life’s just too short and sweet…).
Shame on you if you’ve never bookmarked the K&D site; but all is forgiven if you do it now, and be sure to check back regularly for all the fun to come. …Oh, and send ‘em a check every so often too, OK? Pure love and enthusiasm can’t pay those production costs and server bills, and Paypal couldn’t be simpler to use. They’re doing this for you, so do a little back.
Originally posted by Steve Layton from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)
NonPop Show 040
NonPop Show 040
Program Notes:(running time: approx. 24 min.)1. “Cries Upon The Mountains” (1975) 7:04by Ingram MarshallIKON And Other Early WorksNew World Records2. “Lena Beamish” 10:33by Miranda JulyThe Binet-Simon TestKill Rock Stars (KRS296)3. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” 5:36by John CaleCompounds + ElementsAll Saints Recordshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Nonpop/~4/323075903" height="1" width="1"/>
From Podcast: NonPop.
Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)
EINSPRUCH | MUSIKALISCHE (R)EVOLUTIONEN UM '68
PROTEST
MUSICAL (R)EVOLUTIONS AROUND '68
FREDERIC RZEWSKI
plays
36 Variations on "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!"
(Akademie der Künste, Berlin. 28.6.2008)
(apologies for this shortened version, i only started recording a few variations in... )
Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)
Miscellaneous updates
Off-topic diva Veronika Part danced her last leads at ABT this season (she is scheduled for a large supporting part -- Myrtha -- in two later performances of Giselle) in two terrific and well-received performances of La Bayadere. As a commenter here noted, however, word on the internet (also dutifully repeated in the papers) is that she may be staying after all. In what capacity? We'll see.Originally from An Unamplified Voice, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)
ITEC wrap-up
I arrived at the airport almost 2 and a half hours before my departure this morning so that the Mikes could get back to Ithaca on time (they're playing in the band for the IC Wind Conducting Symposium. Had I known this was going on AFTER ITEC, I would have maybe tried to participate as a conductor and get credit for it. Dr. Steve Peterson, director of band as IC, is one of my musical heroes. More on that some other time.). I've been trying to keep busy via my BlackBerry, and happened to open up the Tasks application.This little lifesaver, which is often packed with reminders and deadlines, and basically dragged me through the rigors of applying for grad school and getting through my job alive, is empty.
What am I going to do before the move?
I suppose a better question would be, "what would I like to accomplish before I move to Denton?". The only thing I have on this list is to try and throw a good amount of my effort into doing a lot of playing, while trying to think about getting that "easy" sound that more put-together players have. I know after already seeing some residual effects of the conference's many performances that it is a reasonable and achievable goal. Of course I'll have ensemble audition music to practice and material to review for placement exams, so I'm sure I'll keep busy.
Overall, the conference was a very important experience for me, one of several over the last few weeks. It's been overwhelming at times: tears have been shed, sentimentality has been felt, moods have been altered, sleep has been lost. My views on most things in my life have changed quite a bit, especially over the last 2-3 years. I've always been very goal-oriented, but I have shifted some importance from the outcome of the process to the process itself. Although we are often found navigating unexpected detours, the journeys of all sizes these last few years have paid incredible dividends.
Perhaps this is where I've found much of the patience that is now, in my opinion, a normal part of my character. It was not always this way (and let me tell you, nothing helps you become more patient than teaching middle school band...): had my experience with my trip out to Dayton happened a few years ago, I would have lost my mind. I was able to step back and being pretty reasonable about the situation.
I had not expected the bad weather, but was glad that I acted when I did to move my flight. I did not like having my horn under the plane, but I nabbed the last available seat on the flight, and would not have made it to Ohio until the following day if I hadn't acted.
My bag was not lost; at least we knew where it was. There were plenty of alternatives if my bag didn't arrive, and in the end, it worked out. All it took was a little more driving and a little less sleep.
Finally, the horn. This is tricky, because I could easily blame myself for taking the risk of bringing it along when I didn't "need" it. One thing is certainly my fault: I should have waited with the horn until it was picked up by someone working with the baggage. Then I could have looked them in the eye and told them what was up. I have learned my lesson with that. Still, I could have ended up with worse (the Mikes actually seem to like the "melted" look).
It's also nice to have friends who can remind you of where your problems fit into the big picture. I didn't get stuck anywhere, didn't have to spend an extra money, and didn't have to go out of my way (besides the luggage).
As I said before, this experience is going to prove to be very important for me. It's helped me put a few pieces together in my mind so that I can take that next step towards resuming my serious study of the euphonium. I'm glad that it's been such a tough yet rewarding month so far.
Originally from the search for artistry, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)
Classical vs. pop reviews, June 26
There's no better way to understand why classical music doesn't speak to many people these days than by comparing pop and classical music reviews. I've chosen some from the New York Times, both because I read that paper every day and because the reviews on both sides of the fence are more than reputable. So the comparison, broadly speaking, is fair.So here's a bit of Ben Ratliff's review last Thursday of Gilberto Gil:
His set was a deep fusion of pop and folk culture...An interesting artist, you'd have to say. (And Minister of Culture! Note to everyone at NPAC who wanted a Cabinet-level arts department in the U.S. government -- beware of getting what you wish for. Suppose Obama wins, sets up a Department of Cultural Affairs, and names John Mellencamp to head it. And suppose Mellencamp, an outspoken populist, says that he thinks symphony orchestras get too much money.)
The name of his band, Banda Larga Cordel, means broadband, and Mr. Gil's communications-technology thoughts lie somewhere between cybertheory and metaphorical poetry about practical things....He's not necessarily interested in the status or time-saving aspects of, say, cellphones; he's an artist, the opposite of a salesman. But he is also the minister of culture for Brazil. In interviews, and in songs like the new "Banda Larga Cordel" and the old "Pela Internet" ("On the Internet") -- a tune from 1996 that he played on Tuesday -- he casts broadband technology as an empowerment issue, a cheap way to have an entire country, and ideally an entire world, included in political and social discussions.
Brazilians have long been obsessed with the past and the future at the same time, a double consciousness that has helped produce a lot of good music over the last half-century. Mr. Gil in particular made peace with popular culture before many of his contemporaries did; the tropicália movement, which he helped build in the late 1960s, was playfully anti-nostalgia and ferociously anti-purist. He is the same as ever, a man of big ideas.
Now read Anthony Tommasini, the same day, on a New York Philharmonic concert in Central Park:
Standing at the podium looking south from the Great Lawn to the skyscrapers of Midtown, the conductor Bramwell Tovey declared the sight "one of the great views in the world." Best known to New Yorkers from his guest stints conducting the Philharmonic's Summertime Classics concerts, Mr. Tovey brings droll British wit to his impromptu commentaries. He was in good form on Tuesday night.If I were a smart Martian, new to the earth, I'd read all this, and decide that pop music is serious, and classical music is light entertainment, a blend of Las Vegas and the fourth of July. Somebody, of course, might object that the Philharmonic concert was designed as entertainment, a happy, unchallenging night in Central Park. To which I'd reply that there's also a pop series in Central Park, and Gilberto Gil could well be on it.
After opening the program with an exuberant account of Shostakovich's "Festive Overture," Mr. Tovey tried to explain to concertgoers how they could vote to choose an encore for the orchestra. "No superdelegates here," he added....
After intermission there was a refreshingly straightforward performance of Tchaikovsky's "1812" Overture. The composer may have been embarrassed by this made-to-order occasional piece, but Mr. Tovey and the orchestra treated it as a respectable score with a knockout finale, here punctuated with booming cannon shots courtesy of an electric keyboard. The concert ended with three marches by Sousa that had the crowd clapping and children marching up and down the grassy aisles.
Here's Steve Smith, also on Thursday in the Times, about the Brooklyn Phlharmonic in yet another Central Park orchestral event:
The 29-member ensemble was amplified but still had to contend with an idling truck, cellphones that were answered rather than silenced, and other sporadic nuisances.Classical music here seems like a technical exercise. The pieces are known. So how were they played? Badly or well? The Martian visitor -- or any smart person, reading the Gilberto Gil review and this one -- could be forgiven for simply declining to care. Only at the end of Steve's review, and in parentheses, comes something that might spark some interest:The performance too had its rough edges. Stravinsky's "Dumbarton Oaks" Concerto sounded scrappy, with balances often less than ideal; the robust finale came off best. In Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 the soloist, Tim Fain, played with an easy brilliance and sweet tone. Competing with a nonplused sparrow and a cavorting bystander only seemed to intensify his megawatt smile. Once again, the last movement was strongest.
I took in those works from a seat near the front, then moved to the plaza behind the seats for Beethoven's Symphony No. 4. There the sound was clearer and better blended, and [the conductor's] careful attention to dynamics and rhythm was more readily discerned.
(During the Adagio sounds from the New York Philharmonic concert wafted on wayward breezes, briefly creating an Ivesian jangle.)And this, of course, has -- strictly speaking -- nothing to do with the meaning or purpose of the concert, or at least not with any meaning the Brooklyn Philharmonic might have intended.
Please note: I'm friendly with both Tony and Steve, and I'm absolutely not saying that either is a bad critic, or that Ben Ratliff (whom I also know) is better than they are. I'm saying that pop music gives Ben more ideas -- more substance -- to work with.
Originally from Sandow, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)
Friends
As I mentioned the other day, I’ve decided to reread some Hermann Hesse books lately: would they be as stimulating as they were in high school or college?
I started with his first novel, Peter Camenzind. In it, I see how nascent artistic youths (esp. young men) might be truly inspired by this book. There are themes of leaving home, going for long walks, discovering wine, discovering women, discovering art, debating religion, debating suicide, being arrogant and discovering who YOU are — all testosterone driven impulses of a young man.
One part of the book has stuck with me: the act of finding a friend. Peter came from a small town where everyone dead and alive was a Camenzind. So, he evidently decided that a friend who is related is a different kind of friend from one who is not. His passion for finding a friend was touching. And this was not a homosexual desire, rather a homosocial one. He wanted a male best friend.
The most haunting part of the book was the part where he implies that he has no friends. This state seemed bewildering to me. The state of having NO friends. Trying to imagine this has made me realize and appreciate my thousands of friends. With each one of my friends, I, at some point, decided that I wanted them to be my friend, and they me. Having that articulated felt good.
Looking at Peter Camenzind at age 55 feels differently than it did when I first read it at age 19 –– been there, done that, but it still resonates with me.
Originally posted by Roger Bourland from rogerbourland.com, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)
Just Saying
Tonight, as I was transferring in the tube, some man gestured to me. I thought he was going to ask for directions, so I took off my headphones. Instead, he slurred, “What’s your mom doing tonight, if you’ve borrowed her dress?” (I was wearing a lab coat, double-breasted, white, gorgeous). I put my headphones on and marched on. Then I got home to my hotel and read this article, about some retarded Anglican conservatives who are talking about something something not wanting to allow gay people something else something else:
Anglican conservatives, frustrated by the continuing stalemate over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion, declared on Sunday that they would defy the church’s historic lines of authority and create a new power bloc within the church led by a council of predominantly African archbishops. [...] They depicted their efforts as the culmination of an anti-colonial struggle against the church’s seat of power in Great Britain, whose missionaries first brought Anglican Christianity to the developing world. The conservatives say many of the descendants of those Anglican missionaries in Britain and North America are now following what they call a “false gospel” that allows a malleable, liberal interpretation of Scripture.
LOL! I love how they’re talking about how hating on gay people is the culmination of, like, Ethnic Swaraji Politics. I sort of wish Gayatri and shit would drop everything and address this so I don’t have to deal with it on my blog. It is sort of fascinating, of course. The Church of England as a colonial side-dish (or main course, depending on which classes you took in college) rolled into Africa, made everybody Anglican, and all they got were these stupid Anglo Proclivities. It is, legitimately, an interesting argument, because of course, the global south is still, through the remaining colonial religious structures, beholden to the shifting fashions of the Golbal North. They inherited a whole system of beliefs that is rooted not only in Orþódox Christianity from, you know, the time of Christ, but also a whole culture of English Christianity that deeply rolls from the King James Bible to the music sung during services to Sherry in the Chaplain’s Roomz and everything else, including some things that Bishop Akinola is not so fond of. Whatever. She can take it or leave it, as far as I’m concerned. That’s how I approach the church: I take what I like (which is most of it) and the rest of it, I stick my fingers in my ears and sing Spem in Alium. Part of me wants to first address the whole issue of gays in the military before I start harping on African homophobes, because god knows I have other fish to poach, but seriously, I find it so inappropriate.
Also: What even is the Anglican Communion without the gays? Aren’t there other things in Rwanda that require the clergy’s attention? Aren’t there weird pygmy swaraj issues they should be addressing first before h8ing on what I do before and after church? For which, chances are, I have written some beautiful music? (PS, those Pygmies have also written some beautiful music. For my Rwandan readers, next time you want to talk about abomination, why don’t you go figure out what those pygmy polyrhythms are and fax that shit to me, because I still cannot figure it out. Maybe I’m too busy with all that Sodomy or whatever, but it’s a mystery to me and I, as a pledging Anglican, need your help!) What are those bitches doing, running around Africa in they purple robes? What is THEIR mom doing tonight, if they already borrowed her dress?
(My mom, for her part, is probably poaching some fish in a light stock right now. And she borrowed my dress the other week to cook pizza for me, my boyfriend, another homosexual, his dog, and my father, and she looked fierce).
Originally posted by Nico from Nico Muhly, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)
Murakami on Schubert
"...playing Schubert's piano sonatas well is one of the hardest things in the world. Especially this, the Sonata in D Major. It's a tough piece to master. Some pianists can play one or maybe two of the movements perfectly, but if you listen to all four movements as a unified whole, no one has ever nailed it....that's why I like to listen to Schubert while I'm driving. Like I said, it's because all the performances are imperfect. A dense, artistic kind of imperfection stimulates your consciousness, keeps you alert. If I listen to some utterly perfect performance of an utterly perfect piece while I'm driving, I might want to close my eyes and die right then and there. But listening to the D major, I can feel the limits of what humans are capable of---that a certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. And personally, I find that encouraging...."
from Haruki Murakami's novel, "Kafka on the Shore," translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel
Originally posted by Phillip from Mostly Music in the Midlands, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)
Moorish Spain - truly multi-cultural civilisation
Football doesn't feature here very often, but I have to record my delight at Spain's victory last night in Euro 2000. There is currently a refreshing vibrancy about Spain that is all the more remarkable considering that both Spain and its Iberian neighbour Portugal suffered under right-wing oppression for decades after the defeat of Fascist poster-boys Hitler and Mussolini.
The roots of Spain's creative vibrancy go back to the seven centuries of Arab rule from 711 to 1492, which gave rise to a truly multi-cultural civilisation in which three monotheistic religions and peoples of diverse origins lived in a harmony which should serve as an example in our terror-torn twenty-first century. In Andalucia the cities of Córdoba , Seville and Granada became great centres of cultural, artistic and religous activity in which music and the other creative arts flourished.
Three diverse elements came together to create the Moorish music of the region - Middle Eastern, North African Berber and native Iberian and these three elements also come together in a fascinating CD titled Jardin de Myrtes and inspired by Moorish music from Andalucia. It is played by the French ensemble L'Ensemble Aromates supplemented by Arab musicians. Although an exotic range of instruments is used there is no pretense of historic authenticity; this is a vibrant CD of Oriental music with Baroque touches mixed with Western music with Eastern touches. Highly recommended, and just one of many off-the-beaten-track delights in the innovative Alpha label's Les chants de la terre (Songs of the earth) series. .
More about the truly multi-cultural civilisation in Convivencia and in the story of the Sephardic Jews.
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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)
Weir: A Night at the Chinese Opera Scottish Opera - Musical Criticism
Weir: A Night at the Chinese Opera Scottish Opera Musical Criticism, UK - Early in this work there is a passage that has a passing resemblance to the dense, shimmering textures that Steve Reich creates, for instance, ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)
Classical music online: Salonen, Sellars and Mozart - Los Angeles Times
 | Classical music online: Salonen, Sellars and Mozart Los Angeles Times, CA - A concert honoring the LA Philharmonic music director and a shocking interpretation of 'Zaide' show the Internet's potential as a window to a wider world. ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)
Robert Irwin Plays the Game
"So if you start telling them what art is now, then all you've done is burden them with an old idea." Artist Robert Irwin lecturing, La Jolla, February 2008
Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)
Music in China
Symphony of Millions. The New Yorker, July 7 and 14, 2008.
Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)
Reviews - Classical vs Pop
Greg Sandow brings an interesting viewpoint to the division between classical and pop music - the review. In his blog for 26 June, he compares two reviews, one for pop music and one for classical music. He presents the idea that pop reviews are more interesting (at least that's how I read his post).
In writing classes they say "write to your audience" and I suppose a classical reviewer is looking at their audience as being the older, probably more educated (at least in terms of classical music education) and more affluent, where as a pop reviewer is trying to reach the masses. And typically that's what he crowds are. Occasionally you'll get concerts "in the park" where popular classical tunes are played and fireworks are let lose which bring out the families. But generally, classical concerts are filled with an aging crowd, a crowd that is not necessarily replenishing itself - and part of this is due to the perception that classical music is stuffy, old and unless you're really "into it" boring.
How do we change this, how do we encourage reviewers that the audience is more than just the narrow band of classical music lovers?
Originally from Interchanging Idioms, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)
Second Half of July at the ISSUE Project Room
From the ISSUE Project Room:
ISSUE Project Room
232 Third Street - Brooklyn, NY 11215
www.issueprojectroom.orgWednesday July 16
ryan jewell+nate wooley+jesse kudler“…to explore the micro and macro structural implications of improvised forms in a real time collaborative environment utilizing the the minute control of unstable sounds in excess audio and silence..”
For this Issue Project performance, Ryan has brought together two of his favorite collaborators, Nate Wooley and Jesse Kudler, who will be performing together publicly for the first time on this date.Ryan Jewell- snare drum, electronics
Nate Wooley- trumpet
Jesse Kudler- electronicsRyan Jewell was born in a small Appalachian river town in southern Ohio in an environment set between the rundown post-industrial factories by train yards and the natural beauty of the forested foothills on the Ohio River. The juxtaposition of these two seemingly conflicting environments has profoundly affected his aesthetic. He studied percussion and electronic composition techniques at Capital University and has since studied drumset with Susie Ibarra and tabla with Dr. Lowell Lybarger. Ryan regularly works as a solo performer and collaborator in the arenas of very quiet improvised music and very loud harsh noise. In addition to being a perpetual traveler of the US, he has also toured extensively in Europe. He was invited to perform at such respected international festivals as the SOWIESO 1 festival in Paris, the Kraak Festival in Brussels, the International Noise Conference in Miami, SXSW in Austin and Les Sciences Bruitistes also in Paris.
He has collaborated with such diverse artists as C. Spencer Yeh, Greg Kelley, Nate Wooley, Jack Wright, Christine Sehnaoui, Bhob Rainey, Larry Marotta, Mike Shiflet, Tatsuya Nakatani, Reuben Radding, Hasan Abdur-Razzaq, Tom Abbs, David Boykin, Douglas Ewart (AACM), Graveyards, Envenomist, Fossils, Wasteland Jazz Unit, and many more…Nate Wooley (b. 1974) was born in Clatskanie, Oregon. He began his professional career on trumpet with his father at the age of 13. After a brief stay in Denver, Nate moved to Jersey City in 2001. He has developed a highly personal style, mixing his knowledge of jazz and classical trumpet tradition and context with a very healthy bit of experimentation. His solo album, “Wrong Shape to be a Storyteller” on Creative Sources Recordings from last year was a culmination of this kind of thinking and was critically acclaimed as a benchmark for solo documents in the lowercase/reductionist tradition. His main thrust is still the trio, Blue Collar, whose sophomore cd “Lovely Hazel” on Public Eyesore was voted one of the top 10 jazz and improv cds by the Philadelphia CityPaper in 2005. Besides these projects, Nate does a great deal of work as a sideman with figures as diverse as John Butcher, Anthony Braxton, Paul Lytton, John Olsen of Wolf Eyes, David Grubbs, Daniel Levin, Stephen Gauci, and the Sound/Vision Orchestra.
Jesse Kudler, born 1979, improvises on guitar, synthesizer, tapes, radios and electronics, and he makes music on the computer. Recent interest has focused on both internal (electronic) and external (microphone/speaker) feedback, from radios/transmitters and microphones, allowing dynamic textures to arise in concert with the space in which they are played.
In his various travels, Kudler has performed with Matt Bauder, Kyle Bruckmann, Gene Coleman, James Coleman, Tim Feeney, Marcos Fernandes, Brent Gutzeit, Horse Sinister, Bonnie Jones, Jason Kahn, Mazen Kerbaj, Pauline Oliveros, Bhob Rainey, Vic Rawlings, Christine Sehnaoui, Mike Shiflet, Jason Soliday, Howard Stelzer, Christian Weber, Matt Weston, Jack Wright, Jason Zeh, and many others. He has toured the United States several times.
Jesse Kudler lives in Philadelphia. Current projects include: Benito Cereno (with Dustin Hurt, Chandan Narayan, Tim Albro, and Ian Fraser); HZL, an electronics duo with Tim Albro (and sometimes Dustin Hurt, as HZL BRD); Tweeter, a treble-intensive noise trio with Alex Nagle and Eli Litwin; solo performance and recording; and various ad hoc groupings.
His last name rhymes with “muddler.”8pm $10
Thursday July 17th
roy vanegas+ kiThe sound of Noise Floor Music, Roy Vanegas’s solo music project is electronic, at times guitar-based, heady, typical, and experimental. The music can be described as an ambient cross between Arvo Pärt and Boards of Canada (with the audio mechanics of Western melody conjoining the two).
Roy Vanegas is a musically-inclined technician. His passions for post-rock, electronica, and neo-classical don’t allow him to choose the genre in which to work, so he attempts to put elements of them all into his music. He listens to Tabula Rasa every day.
KI
Percussionist/vocalist Fritz Welch is a founding member of The Peeesseye and peeinmyfacewithsurgery. He has also played with W!77iN6, Irritating Horse Eye, Three Day Stubble, and the live video performance group Naval Cassidy and the Hands of Orlak. His approach to improvisation ranges from the absurd to the prophetic in a framework of blistering density and earthbound invisibility.
Michiko ::
One of member of No Neck Bluce Band.and MASK (Sabir Mateen and other). She played with many more musicians. She plays piano alto sax etc.., also performs Butoh dance.Shiraishi Tamio::
Originally from Japan. mainly play alto sax. Performers with whom he played include Keiji Haino, Crash Worship, Alan Licht, and many more. Also he performed with many Butoh dancers in Japan. Recently he often performs outdoor.8pm $10
Friday July 18th
duane pitre + corridors+ ilya monosovByron Westbrook (b. 1977) is a sound/intermedia artist living in Brooklyn, NY. His audio video performances as CORRIDORS involve the distribution of processed instrumental and environmental recordings through a multi-channel environment with a focus on energy distilled from sound and light. He has shared bills with Sawako, Tony Conrad, O.blaat, Lichens, James Blackshaw, Anette Krebs, Soft Circle, Mountains among many others, and presented at venues such as Tonic, Issue Project Room, Experimental Intermedia, Exit Art Gallery. He has also collaborated with Rhys Chatham in the drone metal group Essentialist (Table of the Elements), as well as performed in the ensembles of Phill Niblock, Rhys Chatham (alongside Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Kim Gordon), Glenn Branca and Jonathan Kane. He was a 2007 recipient of the Jerome Foundation Emerging Artists Commission through Roulette Intermedium. Releases are forthcoming in 2008 for both Corridors and Essentialist, along with European Corridors performances and a fall tour of the US with Alessandro Bosetti.
www.byronwestbrook.com
www.myspace.com/corridors—————————————————————
Duane Pitre (w/ ensemble)
Duane Pitre (originally from New Orleans) is a Brooklyn-based composer, improviser, and sound-artist. His primary instrument is electric guitar(s), which he plays in a nontraditional fashion, utilizing various objects such as mallets and rotary tools to coax unusual sounds from the instrument. His current works explore both chaos and discipline–and the territory that exists between the two.
In summer of 2007 Pitre’s album, Organized Pitches Occurring in Time, was released on Important Records (CD) and Trome Records (vinyl). This album consists of two versions of his lengthy drone/contemporary-classical composition Ensemble Drones. Ensemble Drones was performed live in December 2007 by a 13-piece ensemble in Burlington, VT, and future performances of the piece are in the works for Chicago, San Diego, and New Orleans.
Pitre has a number of releases scheduled for 2008, including a track on a compilation of experimental/avant-garde guitarists, which will also feature work by Keith Rowe (AMM), Tetuzi Akiyama, Sebastien Roux, and others. He is currently curating–and will be contributing a track to–a Just Intonation compilation that will be released on Important Records in late 2008. The compilation will include work by artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Ellen Fullman, Michael Harrison, and Arnold Dreyblatt.
Pitre is currently constructing, and writing for, a bowed-guitar ensemble, which will use unconventionally strung electric guitars (utilizing multi-unisons) tuned in Just Intonation. Tonight’s performance will be from this ensemble/material.
www.duanepitre.com
www.myspace.com/duanepitre8pm $10
Tuesday July 22nd
Mary Magdalene Feastday Celebration Curated by M.M. Serra
A fantastic evening of films and festivities - a homage to the female subject and the exultant powers that SHE possesses as both a sinner and saint.8pm $10
Wednesday July 23rd
mask mirror meets james rouvelle+ j sam sheffield +alessandro BosettiAlessandro Bosetti – mask mirror/electronics/voice
J Sam Sheffiled – electronics/network desing/visuals
James Rouvelle - electronics/network desing/text generatorsSound artist Alessandro Bosetti and he’s speaking sampler project “Mask Mirror” meet the media artists James Rouvelle and J Sam Sheffield.
Mask/Mirror a sampler to process recordings of spoken language in real time.
The sampler follows both sound and meaning criteria in sorting, organizing and processing samples and in formulating utterances.
It is a software tool based on max/msp and a speech recognition software interacting with my own voice during performances. It’s also a state of mind enabling expanded spoken and vocal improvisation, expanded communication and ecstasy.
It has been developed in collaboration with STEIM in Amsterdam.
In the Issue project room performance Bosetti, Rouvelle and Sheffiled will create a sonorous, linguistic and visual network using mask mirror, automatic text generators and translators and allowing the audience to participate via sms to the unfolding text improvisation.
Mask/Mirror has to do with virtually everything but at the same time it does not have anything special to do with anything special.
As well as being a blank mask I can put on my face - and my voice - it’s also a mirror that let me browse and talk to my memory while I am watching into it.
All mirrors are masks and vice versa. Both are tools enabling identity.“It is difficult not to treat Mask Mirror, with its randomized garble of words, as a willfully cryptic Oracle of Delphi reincarnated as an Apple laptop. While Bosetti had described the project as “about the aboutness of being about” what Noise got out all of this is that it’s devilishly hard not to seek meaning even where it’s clear none is forthcoming. Not until the program, in a moment of absurd hilarity, spit forth the word “hamburgers” did it all click: Mask Mirror is a tool for shearing all meaning from language. It’s a liberation, of sorts, like the sound version of Rorschach tests: The mind is encouraged to wander freely and delight in words purely for their sound. In the information overload of contemporary times, Mask Mirror’s playful rupturing of sense–its nonsense, in other words–is a welcome respite.” Raven Baker - Noise/Citypaper
Alessandro Bosetti was born in Milan, Italy in 1973. He is a composer and sound artist working on the musicality of spoken words and unusual aspects of spoken communication, producing text-sound compositions featured in live performances, radio broadcastings and published recordings. In his work he moves across the line between sound anthropology and composition, often including translation and misunderstanding in the creative process. Bosetti is assistant professor in sound at the Maryland Institute College of Art MICA, Baltimore.
James Rouvelle is an interdisciplinary artist who uses visual art, music and sound. His work is experimental using electronics, mechanics, computers, and robotics. He is professor for interactive media at MICA in Baltimore.
J Sam Sheffield is a media and visual artist and programmer currently living in Baltimore.8pm $10
Thursday July 24th
emily manzo
‘A night of vocal music from many genres’Pianist Emily Manzo plays all of her favorite music- Webern, Ives, Neil Young, George Gershwin, Christy & Emily- with all of her favorite singers – Daisy Press (virtuosic soprano and champion of new works), Judith Berkson (of Platz Machen), Nick Hallett (!), Aaron Diskin (of Golem, Lycaon Pictus), Rachel Cox (of Oakley Hall), Pat Sullivan (of Oneida, Oakley Hall) and Christine Edwards (of Christy & Emily). Plus other surprise guests and DJs.
8pm $10Friday July 25th
droid: amir ziv + jordan mclean + luke o’malley
w/ visualist cjAdvanced screening of: “DROID – The Spirit of Improvisation”
A documentary film by Rafael AltmanEmerging out of the underground dens of New York City’s DJ-based remix revolution - DROID pushes the envelope of improvised music, mixing elements from breakbeat / electronica to industrial rock and NU-form jazz. Their combination of all these disparate sensibilities is a touchstone to an incredible new scene in NYC; reminiscent of the eclectic mix of people and sounds that brought about the early 80’s NO WAVE scene. In 2000 the band was signed to Shadow Records and released “NYC D ‘n’ B” as well as various tracks on Shadow compilations “Hard Sessions” 1 & 2. NYC’s DJ Spooky and Detroit producer Carl Craig incorporated Droid’s music in their own remixes.
The musicians that make-up DROID combine experimentation, musicianship and an attitude for current beat culture. Amir Ziv (long-time member of Cyro Baptista’s Beat the Donkey & leader of KOTKOT w/Marc Ribot, Cyro Baptista & Shahzad Ismaily) plays drums and co-leads with trumpeter Jordan McLean (Antibalas & leader of Fire of Space). The past few years have seen Droid collaborate with synth virtuoso Adam Holzman (keyboardist and musical director of Miles Davis!!!) As for the LOW-END…. BASS that is - it’s basically a rotating “electric” chair which so far has been bravely filled by the likes of: Tim LeFebvre, Jonathan Maron, Luke O’Malley, Shahzad Ismaily, Stu Brooks & Yossi Fine. Droid has been very active during 2007/2008 doing live events at their Lower East Side Estate home-base and recording/archiving their current sound.
Tonight’s event will feature an advanced screening of “DROID – The Spirit of Improvisation”, a documentary film by Rafael Altman. Followed by a performance set featuring Amir Ziv on drums, Jordan McLean on Trumpet and Luke O’Malley (Antiballas) on bass.
In addition, projection artist CJ (Chris Jordan) will be collaborating with the group as they fold time and space.
For more info on the artists and sound clips please go to:
http://www.myspace.com/droidfactory
http://www.myspace.com/amirziv
http://www.myspace.com/fireofspace
http://www.seej.net/
http://www.rafaelaltman.com
8pm $10Tuesday July 29th
harrius + the mothJenny Graf (Metalux) and Chiara Giovando (PCPCG) are Harrius, a duo from Baltimore, Md. Their first LP “Enter the Cotton Ring” was released on Ehse records in 2005. Described as a “bizarre dream of a record… this is willfully weirdly its own brand of wonder! It works a deep subconscious rupture…like a blood vessel mic’d up to volcano level.”
Harrius creates a strange and perplexing sound that straddles the line between psychedelic folk and electronic improv via BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Never resting on either side of the fence, they build soft arenas of song that are alternately revealed and consumed by a dense field of electronics. Far removed from any “noise” record professing the same instrumentation; Harrius uses vocals and violin to blend in and out analog electronic hiccups and tidal waves. Both their recordings and live performances yield carefully sculpted composition.
The duo has also recently completed a short film, “Proud Flesh”, a kind of psychedelic Western shot in the Badlands of South Dakota that is scheduled to Premiere in Baltimore on July 11th 2008.
For Issue Project Room Performance Chiara will be playing violin electronics and voice and Jenny will be playing Trinu, an istrument designed with Peter Blasser and voice.
The Moth is a Swedish improv/elctronicaduo comprised of Martin Öhman and Erika Alexandersson. With drums, voice and live electronics, attractive as well as repulsive soundscapes take form. The moth use no pre-recorded tracks since they are very fond of creating in the spur of the moment. And that’s what you’ll hear at ISSUE PROJECT ROOM - the spur of the moment!
Erika Alexandersson and Martin Öhman decided to form a band. At first the music was acoustic (it still is sometimes…), but after a while as moth´s do “the moth” went through a transformation and reinkarnated as an impro/electronica duo.
MARTIN ÖHMAN has received a lot of attention for his unorthodox way of playing. Martin uses fans, razors or whatever he can to create a different sound. In The Moth, Martin uses drums and cymbals, amplified with the help of contact microphones and manipulated through various guitar effects and custom made electronics. In recent years he’s built a reputation as a highly sought after composer by composing for bands, filmscores and other projects. In 2005 he put together and composed for an ensemble with The Moth partner Erika Alexandersson, world famous bassplayer Anders Jormin and trumpet phenomenon Arve Henriksen from the norwegian improv/electronica group Supersilent.
ERIKA ALEXANDERSSON has spent time tearing down the vocal boundaries and investigating the sound possibilities of the human voice. As a result, her singing stretches from melodic simplicity to making free improvised lyrics and transforming the human native sounds into music. Apart from The Moth, Erika Alexandersson appeared with the Swedish indiepop band Loney, Dear, and with her other duo, Josef och Erika, that recently was nominated a Swedish Grammy for their second album. Erika is also about to release her debut solo album in Japan during the fall 2008.
8pm $10
Wednesday July 30th
Music at the Bridge Festival Brooklyn Bridge Park in the Tobacco Warehouse
ISSUE Project Room presents and evening for the Music at the Bridge Festival
Theremin Society w/ members Dorit Chrysler, David Simons, Rob Schwimmer,
Theremin Society was founded in December 2005 by ISSUE Project Room Artistic Director Suzanne Fiol and thereminist Dorit Chrysler. The project focuses on the contribution of the theremin to 21st century musical culture and the musicians who have devoted their careers to this instrument. Participants are defined by varying approaches and a wide range of musical language, which has included abstract experimentalist to classical to pop electronica. To date there have been 13 Theremin Society performances and each one has featured new guest artists.
John Zorn’s Cobra
jim staley… trombone
sylvie courvoisier… plano
david weinstein… keyboard
annie gosfield,,, keyboard
anthony coleman,,, keyboard
eyal maoz,,, guitar
mark fekdman,,, violin
okkyung lee,,, cello
shanir blumenkranz,,, bass
ikue mori… electronics
cyro baptista… percussion
kenny wollesen… drumsjohn zorn…prompter
Written and premiered in 1984, “Cobra” is a classic in the circles of
new music, having been performed innumerable times. In fact, composer and “prompter” John Zorn says in the liners that it his
most-often-performed composition — no mean feat considering his prolific output. It is no wonder, though: There is a mischievous,
cartoonish quality to it that epitomizes Zorn’s style but also makes
for continually fascinating listening. Based on the composer’s
secretive “game pieces,” “Cobra” is a fun-filled, mystical,
blindfolded ride down a dark alley that circles back every few yards.
(Steven Loewy, All Music Guide).Jonathan Kane’s February
Jonathan Kane is a Downtown NYC legend — as co-founder of the no-wave behemoth Swans, and the rhythmic thunder behind the massed-guitar armies of Rhys Chatham and the rock excursions of La Monte Young and one of the hardest-hitting drummers on the planet. With his solo work, Kane summons Swans’ concussive wallop, Chatham’s dense guitar strata, and the perpetual propulsion of 70s krautrockers Neu, then steers it all head-on into… the blues. Make no mistake about it: Kane is a bluesman, and beneath the high-decible bombast, he’s powering guitar-driven minimalism into the blues, and the blues into guitar-driven harmonic maximalism. So roll with Jonathan Kane down his Highway 61 of the mind — it’s the shape of blues to come.
This is a free concert and will take place in Dumbo NOT at ISSUE
Thursday July 31st
Walking Another Way + Cosmic Poetry –
New audiovisual compositions of ethereal qualities.Walking Another Way – Being 98% water, jellyfish are the visual manifestations of water as a creature. First performed at EyeWash *Scenario” earlier this year, Walking Another Way is an all-immersive audiovisual performance exploring the elegant movements and mysterious world of the jellyfish. With Lady Firefly on live video mix and Dok and Zemi17 on live sound.
Cosmic Poetry - Cosmic Poetry premieres at IPR as a series of audiovisual performances dedicated to the cosmos. In the first installation, Cosmic Poetry transforms analog / digital noise, feedback, and video abstractions into flower-like and organic imagery — creating a sonic and visual jungle. Other short form pieces to be included. Developed by Lady Firefly at a residency at Experimental Television Center this summer.
Lady Firefly (a.k.a. Zarah Cabañas) is a video artist/VJ based in New York City who explores the vital, sensual, and transient qualities. Zarah performs and exhibits her self-dubbed “electrorganic” works throughout New York City and internationally including the River to River Festival, American Museum of Natural History, EyeWash, Eyebeam, and South Street Seaport; to eclectic events at nightclubs, warehouses, parks, music venues, rooftops, mountaintops, galleries, and living rooms. Festivals have included Territoria Festival (Moscow), Apositsia III Experimental Music Forum (St. Petersburg), Lux VJ Festival (Barcelona), LoopVideoArt Fair (Seville), DUMBO Arts Festival (NYC) and the Montreal Sketch Comedy Festival. She is a 2008 resident of Experimental Television Center, former resident at Chashama, Knitting Factory, and Nublu. She is also vocalist for Oloroso, saxophonist of audiovisual group Silence Corporation, and video editor at Blue Man Group.
http://www.fireflylab.comDok Gregory has been composing/performing and recording experimental electronic music since 1983. As a member of NYC based audio visual group Amoeba Technology from 1997 to the present, he has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Russia and South America. Audio visual works have been featured in programs at the Forum Des Images in Paris, Basel Art Fair in Switzerland, The Kitchen and Lincoln Center in NYC, and elsewhere. Dok has also toured/worked extensively as a member of Psychic TV, Trance Pop Loops and Ransom Corps. Current projects include ongoing collaborations with fellow 23 Windows resident Zemi 17, and “ZGT” with Peter Principle of Tuxedomoon.
http://www.amoebatechnology.netZemi17 is a composer, musician and media artist who creates experiences that are to plant seeds for the evolution of consciousness. He is the co-founder of the Ransom Corp and 23 Windows Studio in Bushwick Brooklyn, co-curator of the Resonant Wave Festival in Berlin, and has lived and worked extensively in Indonesia collecting field recordings of insects and frogs, while researching and learning archaic and sacred forms of music.
http://zemi17.net8pm $10
Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)
I'm not trying to knock you out, or what's it about
Originally from Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)
The marimba, rich and warm, makes itself heard
Vivien Schweitzer, New York Times, 6/29/2008Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)
Porteur de L’Image - Through a Glass Darkly
Don Hill’s music project Porteur de L’Image is both strange and inspiring, sort of a “Dark New Age” to coin a phrase. It appears that most consider this to be post-industrial, a description I will grudgingly concede. Through a Glass Darkly, which has the subtitle of “Electronic Sounds of Faith”, was originally released in 2003 from Epiphany records as a limited release but is now available as a free and legal MP3 album. Often surreal and chant-like, Hall’s electronic soundscapes are hypnotic but disquieting. The first three tracks are interesting but it really didn’t grab me until the mesmerizing “Take This Cup from Me” and the following “In Mercy Broken”. Each track has its own unique sound environment and bears attentive listening.
The album is available in 192kbps MP3.
Originally posted by Marvin from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
Spoleto Italy: At the Zeppelin Cafe, Another German Trauma
At the Roman amphitheater in Spoleto, the Spanish actress Victoria Abril was giving a flamenco-inflected concert of French chansons, and directly above her a large screen set up in an outdoor cafe was showing the European championship soccer match, in which Spain was beating Germany.Originally posted by Daniel J. Wakin from ArtsBeat, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
Anne Midgette to Stay at WaPo
Originally from Ionarts, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)
Kirk Knuffke Quartet - Bigwig
Clean Feed 107 Unassumingly ambitious is one way to characterize the debut disc on Clean Feed of trumpeter Kirk Knuffkes quartet. Knuffke is a relative newcomer to New York, who has worked in the ensembles of Butch Morris and...Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)
Gary Smith - June 2008
By Massimo Ricci This interview came out from many months of email conversation between 2007 and 2008 with guitar explorer Gary Smith, following a review of his SuperTexture CD (Sijis) on Paris Transatlantic. Those who know Mr. Smiths work need...Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)
Jeff Harrington - Irae with Clarinet - for Violin, Clarinet and Contrabass
Jeff Harrington - Irae with Clarinet - for Violin, Clarinet and Contrabass
Score and parts available for free at http://jeffharrington.org
Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 05:11 AM | Comments (0)
Chris McGregor: Brotherhood (Fledg’ling - 2008)
En 1972, sortait Brotherhood, deuxième album (après un éponyme assez anecdotique) du Brotherhood of Breath, grand ensemble libertaire dirigé par le pianiste sud-africain Chris McGregor, ou Duke Ellington du Cap. Réédité.
Douze musiciens, parmi lesquels compter aussi Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, Harry Miller, Louis Moholo, servent sous les faux airs d’une fanfare joyeuse un mélange rare de free jazz sans limite pour rejeter avec force l’influence de piano bar à laquelle doit faire face McGregor (Joyful Noises) et de swing à l’allure mouvante, puisque altéré par les sifflements instrumentaux (Think of Something).
Plus vindicatives, les percussions soufflent ensuite sur les braises d’un répétitif et dansant Do It, saxophones clamant une dernière fois l’héritage de Sun Ra (le parallèle avec les enregistrements en leader du disciple Eddie Gale, à faire aussi) avant d’entamer un court Funky Boots March qui finit de révéler la fougue du groupe de McGregor, qui accueillera plus tard des invités de la taille d’Evan Parker ou Paul Rutherford), et donne ici l’un de ses enregistrements les plus enthousiasmants.
CD: 01/ Nick Tete 02/ Joyful Noises 03/ Think of Something 04/ Do It 05/ Funky Boots March >>> Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath - Brotherhood - 2008 (réédition) - Fledg’ling. Distribution Orkhêstra International.
Originally posted by Grisli from Le son du grisli, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 30, 2008 at 02:13 AM | Comments (0)
June 29, 2008
The Price of Coolness
On Friday, our functioning but old air conditioner took its last breath, knocking out main breaker power to our house along the way. Panic briefly ensued, but rational heads prevailed. On Saturday, we had a brand new air conditioner and the house and family was no worse for the wear. However the bank account had taken some damage.
On Friday, we had plans to spend the weekend in Michigan, going to amusement parks and beaches. On Saturday our plans had changed to stay home and fit the trip in sometime later in the summer.
We usually keep the doors and windows closed year round due to my family’s issues with seasonal allergies. So air conditioning is a greater need for us than it is for more people.
About the trip: the kids are disappointed, but not as much as my wife. I’m ok with postponing it, as my schedule is crazy enough this week.
Originally posted by Mike from Turtles all the way down, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
funiculi, funicula
Last week's performance of Napoli. Remember, the flag pictured off to the side is made entirely of duct tape.
I'm taking a mini-vacation (again) from the blog. Talk to you soon.
Originally from the search for artistry, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
Wednesday Links
- What’s the first thing you need to do when starting your own country? Create a national anthem of course. Yotam Haber has a crash course in anthem writing at the New Music Box. Here’s a hint: don’t copy Italy.
- Prospect has published a list of the top 100 public intellectuals. It appears that qualifying for the list requires more than just being intellectual in public. Denouncing God is helpful as is telling the world what it’s like to get a sanga wax.
- Countless hours and likely billions of dollars have been poured into efforts to close the gender gap. In some fields, like hard science, it doesn’t seem to be working.Perhaps girls just aren’t interested.
- Why are so many musicians excellent cooks?
- It is one thing to love a person’s music - quite another to try and physically resemble that person while watching them perform in concert. Chuck Klosterman on the uber-fans
Like this? Why not try:
Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
Extracts From A Schimpflexikon: One Of A Series
I played over the music of that scoundrel Brahms. What a giftless bastard! It annoys me that this self-inflated mediocrity is hailed as a genius....Originally posted by ACD from Sounds & Fury, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
What's Wrong With This Picture?
The following are part of German director Elke Neidhardt's justification of her rewriting of the stage action and updating of the setting of Mozart's Don...Originally posted by ACD from Sounds & Fury, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
windiness
I'm in Chicago for a bit of R&R and a family wedding. Back next week, y'all.
Originally from Sequenza21/Composers Forum, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
Landmarks (34)
Gordon Mumma: Pontpoint (1966-1980), electroacoustic music. Premiered as music for a dance by Jan McCauley for her company, Cirque.Mumma's own analog cybersonic circuitry is here used to modify sounds from two acoustic sources, a bandoneon (the free reed instrument best known for its use in the Argentine Tango ensemble) and a bowed psaltery. These two sound sources, each generally characterized by simple and stable wave forms, are modulated to produce sound events with spectra that are often far from simple and are subject to change in a variety of parameters over time. Moreover, Mumma modulates the position of sounds within physical space, a device which becomes critical to the formal development in Pontpoint.
Minimalism in music is too often limited to an association with musics using a reduced set of tonal possibilities. The minimalist impulse in music did not, however, originate in a nostalgia for tonality, but rather in interest in the intensification of the listeners' engagement with the material state of sounds and the compositional problem of translating that intensified experience into musical forms. To recover that impulse, I believe that it's very useful to return to the definition of minimalism as the elimination of distractions.
In Pontpoint, Mumma isolates individual sounds between silences, a framing device that better allows the listener to focus attention on the activity within a single sound by eliminating the distraction of the continuity between neighboring events . And although the global pace of activity, from one island of sound to the next, is leisurely, the pace of activity within single sounds is made both more intense -- invoking the same sort of tempo paradox that Monteverdi uses in the stile concitato -- and distinctive.
With the combination of three techniques: use of electronics to further individualize acoustic events, the isolation of events in time between silences, and the assignment of each event to distinct positions in physical space, Mumma shapes each sound into an individual island within an archipelago. Pontpoint thus achieves a remarkable balance between the larger form, which suggests nothing so much as a narrative or a journey, and its local punctuation by events or attractions of heightened contrast and detail.
Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
Surfacing
Despite appearances, this blog is not dead. I spent most of March finalizing a score to submit to New England Conservatory for my doctorate. They’ve been expecting it for about 7 years, so push finally came to shove.
One of the last things I managed to do before the dissertation score took over my life was to write about the Greensboro Opera Company’s production of Hansel and Gretel. As an afterthought, I sent an email to the people listed on their contact page to say that I had enjoyed the opera and had written a little on my blog about it. Based on the emails I got back, they were genuinely pleased. I know from my own experience how nice it is to find that someone has heard my music and been engaged by it–a better and rarer thing than simply liking or enjoying it. An excellent thing to keep in mind if you have a blog and you’re inclined to write about the arts.
In that entry I mentioned that the fine young baritone who played the father is a student at North Carolina State University, here in Durham, and that I hoped I’d have a chance to hear him again before long. Lo and behold a comment was left this afternoon to say that his graduation recital well be about a week and a half from now:
Richard Leon Hodges’s Senior Recital
An Afternoon of Classical Music
Sunday, April 15, 2007
4:00pm - 5:15pm
B. N. Duke Auditorium on the Campus of North Carolina Central University
1801 Fayetteville Street
Durham, NC
I’m looking forward to it. His web page is well worth reading, too.
I’m also hoping to get back to Greensboro next week, when they’re doing Henry Mollicone’s Face on the Barroom Floor.
Tags: Greensboro Opera Company, operaOriginally posted by Robert Zimmerman from Re:harmonized, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
Plugged.
Luca Francesconi - 'Etymo'; 'Da Capo'; 'A Fuoco'; 'Animus'
Barbara Hannigan, soprano; Pablo Márquez, guitarist; Benny Sluchin,
trombonist; Ensemble Intercontemporain, conducted by Susanna Mälkki.
Kairos 0012712KAI; CD.
(Kairos Music Shop)
Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
on Pétrouchka
The Times of London asked me to write a short article about a song that was, for one point, the soundtrack to my life. The result is printed here, or, reprinted below.
The main struggle my teachers had with me was making me learn large-scale structure: you start at the beginning, you undergo a series of controlled transformations, climax, then bring it home to the barn. Stravinsky’s 1911 ballet Pétrouchka, as a narrative, is a fragmented procession of episodes inside a Russian country fair: a perfect vehicle to show off the different stuff that Stravinsky could, as a composer, perfectly execute, all the while resisting traditional (19th-century) structures. Think of a meal that is made up of 16 small dishes, rather than the meat and two veg to which we are all accustomed.
I first bought a CD of Pétrouchka in 1994; and, with it, the cheap and old-fashioned Dover edition of the score. Spotty and awkward, I spent hours on the floor of my parents’ house, obsessively studying the details of each episode. That modal melody a few minutes into the piece is played on cellos, way too high for their normal comfort zone, which is why it sounds like an accordion. The second large part begins with an explicitly flatulent contrabassoon. Sassy? Inappropriate?
I pressed my nose into those orchestrational decisions: a little flourish with English horn, celesta and some bizarre subcommittee of the second violins plucking three notes sent a shiver down my spine. The details of the score seemed more important to me than whatever the overall structure might be.
I listened and ignored the primary melodic material. What’s left is a latticework of patterns, detailed and repetitive, energetic from the distance of 60ft away in a concert hall, but pornographically mesmerising with a score in the hand and the volume knob turned up dangerously high. In my most narcissistic moments, I like to imagine some 14-year-old kid sitting on her floor in Russia, blissing out on the pointillistic bumps and grinds I constructed in a cabin in Vermont.
This isn’t to say that Stravinsky’s orchestration was the only thing that appealed to me; I began learning the piano reduction, which allowed me to prolong my repetitive obsessions. In the Danse Russe of the first tableau, a bassline walks down a fourth, then a fifth — you hear this in Abba, you hear it in Beethoven.
A circular rhythm machine of oboe and bassoon twitters, and the bass comes in again. This time, though, it doesn’t hit the money note, but a terrifying, disorienting, evil f-natural. The oboe doesn’t care, and starts up the food processor again, merrily chirping along. The bassline comes back and plays the “good” note again. It’s a perfect cycle.
Not only does Stravinsky ignore the romantic notion of a small motive blossoming into a whole narrative, his material is already self-contained and self-realised, like the greatest and simplest folk art: the garland, the braid, the wreath, the woodcarving of a serpent devouring its own tail.
For most of my adolescence, I could only think about this kind of music, and it is still the music to which I return with the most familiar kind of relationship. Put on a recording of Pétrouchka and I’ll be there, even rooms away, swaying with the big rhythms and twitching with the small, seeing the notation swirl around my face like a cloud of birds.
Originally posted by Nico from Nico Muhly, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)
Atonal Composition with Pablo Casals
I thought I'd share this 1962 drawing by Lorenzo Homar of Pablo Casals surrounded by JFK, Franco, and Dean Rusk, that I found tucked among several pieces of his over at BibliOdyssey.
Originally from Musical Assumptions, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)
Wagner and The Birds
I imagine that this brilliant marriage of opera and film was put together by Roy.
Originally from Musical Assumptions, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)
Karita Mattila
Link to all posts related to Karita Mattila on mostly opera here.
KARITA MATTILA - CAREER
Finnish soprano. Born 1960, Somero, Finland.Education: Sibelius Academy, Helsinki. Further studies with Vera Rozsa.
Winner of the first Cardiff Singer of the World competition 1983.
Karita Mattila´s career initially centered around Mozart (Pamina, Countess, Donna Elvira) with debuts at Covent Garden (1985) and the Metropolitan Opera 1990 (Countess). A heavy performance schedule during these early years led to a vocal crisis requiring surgery on her vocal chords in 1992, one of the reasons she currently limits her annual performances to about 50. Karita Mattila´s career seemed to have reached a plateau in the early 90´s, however in the mid-90´s she re-emerged in the lyric-dramatic repertoire with highly acclaimed interpretations such as Chrysothemis (Salzburg 1995) and Elsa (Paris 1996), and she is now one of the absolutely leading sopranos of her generation with performances in all major opera houses, in particular the Metropolitan Opera.
Karita Mattila is reknowned for the beauty and versatility of her lyric-dramatic voice, with an exceptionally beautiful middle register as well as for her extraordinary stage ability and range of expressivity. Karita Mattila is also an admired recitalist and exponent of new music, particularly that of compatriot Kaija Saariaho, who also wrote a song cycle for her, Quatre Instants in 2002.
Karita Mattila on the profession:
"It doesn't do any harm if you look good and take care of yourself. I lost 40 pounds through Weight Watchers when I was 22 and I am glad I did it. I wasn't fat, but I was plump, and I didn't feel comfortable. It has been an eternal battle. It has nothing to do with vanity; it's just to serve your work by looking the part."
"I don't break my contracts for personal reasons because I owe it to my audience to be there. If it has already been announced that I will be singing there, then I think it would be very unprofessional for me to cancel."
"There is always room at the top, and it is very windy, meaning that it is harder to be at the top than on the way up."
KARITA MATTILA - KEY ROLES AND PERFORMANCES
ngrin) - Paris Bastille Opera 1996 (d: Carsen), Metropolitan Opera 1998, 2006 (d: Robert Wilson). Her immensely beautiful middle register and secure top made Karita Mattila the ideal Elsa, a role she now seems to have retired from her repertoire. In my opinion, she was unsurpassed in this role, possibly her finest to date.Chrysothemis (Elektra) - according to Mattila, this role in Salzburg 1995 marked her transition from Mozart to the heavier lyric-dramatic repertoire, for which she is reknowned today. She seems to have retired this part as well.
Fidelio - Metropolitan Opera, London ROH (MET premiere 2001, d: Flimm) - also on DVD. One of Karita Mattila´s signature roles, which she continues to perform worldwide.
Katya Kabanova and Jenufa - Karita Mattila has a special affinity for Janacek´s heroines, which she continues to perform at major stages worldwide.
Salome - Metropolitan Opera 2004 (d: Flimm). Mattila´s Salome at the Metropolitan Opera 2004 is among the most admired operatic performances of the last decade, and will be repeated autumn 2008 at the MET. Sound clips with photographs here.
Previously, Karita Mattila had major successes in the Italian repertoire such as Elisabeth in Don Carlos (d: Bondy, Covent Garden and Châtelet - also on DVD) and Amelia in Simon Boccanegra (d: Stein, c: Abbado, Salzburg and Firenze - also on DVD) as well as Ballo di Maschera. Other successes include Hanna Glawari (Merry Widow), Arabella and Lisa (Pique Dame). Meistersinger (Levine, Metropolitan Opera 2001)KARITA MATTILA - THE FUTURE
Karita Mattila will repeat her Salome at Metropolitan Opera in September/October 2008, a performance transmitted live in HD to cinemas worldwide and probably to appear on DVD as well.
Karita Mattila will open the 2009/2010 Metropolitan Opera season with a new production of Tosca.
She has previously stated she will probably sing Sieglinde in the future.
There have been speculations of Karita Mattila singing Isolde, to which she has replied: "Maybe, maybe, one day. But -- not without a Tristan. I have a feeling you can't do that opera without a Tristan."KARITA MATTILA ON CD (SELECTED)
Strauss: Orchestral Songs, Four Last Songs (Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonics, 2999, DG). Karita Mattila has had an extensive collaboration with Claudio Abbado, who considered her voice ideal for a wide range of repertoire.
Karita Mattila - Live in Helsinki (2007, Ondine) - A stunning recital performance of songs by Rachmaninov, Saariaho, Dvôrak, and Duparc.
Gurrelieder (Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonics 2002, EMI)
Meistersinger (Solti 1998, Decca) Overall I´d recommend this as the version to own.
Jenufa (Bernhard Haitink, Covent Garden 2002, Erato)
Karita Mattila recently released a successful jazz CD, as well as previous cross-over recordings.
Full discography here.KARITA MATTILA ON DVD (SELECTED)
Don Carlos (Pappano, Paris Châtelet 1996, d: Luc Bondy)
Fidelio (Levine, Metropolitan Opera 2001, d: Flimm)
Full discography here.
Karita Mattila as Elsa (Lohengrin, Paris Bastille 1996, Robert Carsen´s production):
KARITA MATTILA - LINKS
All posts on mostly opera related to Karita MattilaKarita Mattila complete performances at the Metropolitan Opera
Wikipedia biography on Karita Mattila
Originally from mostly opera..., ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)
The REAL Peach State
Haven't figured out yet how to embed YouTube videos into my blog posts, so instead I have to refer you to Laurin Manning's blog for this Stephen Colbert excerpt. Colbert, who is a native South Carolinian, sets the record straight about what state is the true champion when it comes to my favorite fruit. The bittersweet end to summer as August passes into September is not just about the change of weather, or "going back to work." It really is about the peak of peach season passing into the gloom of non-peach season. This was a good one, my major accomplishment having been to make a couple of good peach pies from the recipe in Pat Conroy's wonderful cookbook.
Originally posted by Phillip from Mostly Music in the Midlands, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)
Cellist Anthony Elliott and USC Cello Choir
This weekend brings another edition of USC Cello Choir, an event organized each year by the university's distinguished professor of cello, Robert Jesselson. Each year he brings in a guest cellist to conduct master classes and perform as soloist with the massed ensemble of cellos. This year's guest is the wonderful cellist Anthony Elliott, who was a colleague of mine for several years at the University of Michigan and with whom I've worked in many different scenarios, from the old MayMusic festival in Charlotte that I was directing in the 90's, to concerts in Japan. Tony is a great teacher and if you want to watch his teaching in action, come to the master classes at the USC Recital Hall on Friday. There'll be a session for high school cellists and then one for college-level cellists.Tony and I recorded a CD several years ago with 3 of the major French works for cello and piano: the Franck, Debussy, and Poulenc sonatas. It's available via CD Baby. For more information on the USC Cello Choir events click this link.
The final concert of the cello choir is at 5 PM Saturday in the Koger Center; if you get out by 6:30 you can go right next door to the School of Music and you might, I repeat might have a chance of getting a seat for the first Southern Exposure concert of the season. They've been granting a reserved seat for the whole series to those who contribute $75, and I understand many of the seats are getting snapped up. The first concert features the Amernet String Quartet playing Bartok's 3rd Quartet and, jumping the gun a bit on his 100th birthday coming up next year, Elliott Carter's 5th, plus works by Joel Hoffman and a work by Russell Platt for bassoon and quartet, featuring USC bassoon whiz Peter Kolkay.
Originally posted by Phillip from Mostly Music in the Midlands, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)
Review: NZ Symphony Orchestra at Auckland Town Hall - New Zealand Herald
Review: NZ Symphony Orchestra at Auckland Town Hall New Zealand Herald, New Zealand - Strauss and Dutilleux are just two influences in this exquisitely shaded music. Leppanen forged the most idyllic of pathways around the edges of Young's ... |
Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Jun 29, 2008 at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)
Die Fledermaus in Bangkok
The Metropolitan Opera of Bangkok presented a thoroughly enjoyable production of Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus this past weekend at the Thailand Cultural Center Small Hall. Everything from the costumes to sets were professional and the orchestra sounded wonderful, clean and clear. Though many in the all-Thai cast were new to opera, there were still a few standout performances, namely from soprano Siriwaranya Supranee as Rosalinde and baritone Piyawat Pantana as Dr. Falke. Sophie Tanapura, founder and lead vocal coach for the Met Opera BKK singers, was a spunky Adele. The production was directed by Dr. Charles Henn, a foreign affairs guru with a penchant for opera, and it was sponsored by the Austrian Embassy.