New Music reBlog: December 2009 Archives

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December 31, 2009

Only thing traditional about this trio is St. Louis gigs - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Only thing traditional about this trio is St. Louis gigs
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
... think is music worthy of improvisation. "Yeah, we made this last record with a singer and it was all cover tunes. But there was a Gyorgi Ligeti song on ...

Originally from lutoslawski OR xenakis OR boulez OR Dutilleux OR ligeti OR "elliott carter" OR stockhausen OR "steve reich" OR "tristan murail" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)

'Unsound Festival New York' Opens 2/4/2010 With Free Concerts at Lincoln ... - Broadway World

'Unsound Festival New York' Opens 2/4/2010 With Free Concerts at Lincoln ...
Broadway World
In the repertoire of Kwartludium are graphic and intuitive compositions of composers such as Stockhausen, Bergstroem-Nielsen, Cardew, Stark, Wolf, ...

My favorite concerts of 2009, in Madison and (slightly) beyond - Isthmus Daily Page

My favorite concerts of 2009, in Madison and (slightly) beyond
Isthmus Daily Page
No melodies were to be heard, and I can't ever imagine playing this patternless music at home. (The stern and foreboding Elliott Carter was the only ...

and more »

Flaming Lips cover Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' album; results are ... - Entertainment Weekly

Flaming Lips cover Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' album; results are ...
Entertainment Weekly
They actually imbue “Time” with some much-needed muscle, and the tape-looped cough they add to the song is a nice Steve Reich touch. ...

and more »

Uptown Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News - Uptown

Uptown Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News
Uptown
Inspired by American composer Steve Reich's 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet, the contemporary ballet received its world premiere at the Guggenheim ...

and more »

2009 Salute To Idleness Vol. 2

A few hours on, the books reviews from Vol. 1 are admittedly looking a little arduous. Don’t worry, Miss Mussel has got you covered.

First thing is a wee trip in the way back machine. Click if you dare. For Miss Mussel, even the opening chord is enough to take her back to Grade 7 gym class where her less-than-five-foot tall teacher would lead the stretches every day to this tune — her verbal instructions aided by hot pink false nails and the extreme stylings of….uh….>

A Note From The Department Of Career Suicide: Thoughts on bosses – “They end up distracting us from their crummy work with giant desks,they replace action with incomprehensible acronyms, blame others for failure, and cheat to create the illusion of progress.” Meanwhile, the actual work gets done by those who have not yet scaled the summit of their own incompetence.” It gets better.

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Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

2009: Done, Gone, and Looking Ahead

Compositionally, the past year has been a good one for me, providing time for consolidating some older ideas and experimenting with new ones. I'm particularly pleased with a gentle, but still rather hard-line quartet for melodicas, The Long March* (a pseudo 1950's serial bebop piece for solo melodica also prepared for the online anthology of new melodica pieces should also be mentioned) and two pieces for woodwind ensemble based on Gray Codes: Came & Went for trio and A Beckett-Gray Code for quintet. The Beckett-Gray Codes, which I use to control scoring patterns, have become something of an obsession, and the piece I'm working on now, for the L'Histoire instrumentation, with the percussion treated as soloist, tentatively called Six or Seven, Whatever it Takes, continues this line of work. There have been the usual number of bagatelles (recorder, keyboard, chorus), occasional pieces (including a set of ifve-fingered birthday pieces for Walter Zimmermann), and the usual arrangements and other work-for-hire along the line, and outlines of projects for next year are emerging (including some incidental music, a collection called Six Simple Machines, and two longish solo pieces (Meander Scar and Pareidolia) as well as a brief operatic project concerning two sisters, the favored one of whom has the habit of secretly sucking out all the water in the despised sister's fish tank with a long straw, so that, all-in-all, this year is rather seamlessly flowing into the next.

_____

* a pseudo 1950's serial bebop piece for solo melodica should also be mentioned.**

** or maybe not.

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

Moments Musicaux

13 February 1984. Philadelphia. I sang, jotting the notes quickly I continued, and heard the painfully simple single line ritornello in the piano that followed in my head as I wrote it. I had been composing for over six hours. I was . I knew I would finish the piece in a few moments. I heard my friend Karen Hale's voice in my mind's ear, singing, and raced ahead of her to get the phrase down on paper so that the next could be heard clearly. she continued. Ah. I heard the final piano ritornello that would follow in a couple of bars, ending the piece, skipped ahead, and wrote it down. I heard one long note. A critical voice piped up, said, 'Nobody will understand the sense of if you set it, a one syllable word, on a long note.' The other voice asked, 'But isn't that the point?' I slashed the final double bars down, signed my name, set down the date, sat back, and sighed.

Originally from 'notes' a composer's life by daron hagen, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

not sure which thread we're p…

not sure which thread we're posting on anymore...but... here's a shorty (1:40) in two (or maybe three) parts:
nixx (canons) - bruce hamilton

Originally from Shorties - Pieces Shorter Than a Minute - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

fragment (12/23/09) - Jukka-P…

fragment (12/23/09) - Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

Originally from Shorties - Pieces Shorter Than a Minute - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

Another New Piece of Horrible Noise & Disjointed, Illogical Rhythms from Stearns-Benzola

Furred Antennae

Dan Stearns- Intergalactic guitar's and inorganic bass & Euglena
Joseph Benzola- Non sensical and out of pocket electronic percussion played in real time.

Happy listening!!!!

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

How Much Does Your Environment Influence Your Music?

I spent that past couple of days in Arizona, surrounded by a wide-open beautiful desert. I live in a suburb of Los Angeles. Over the past couple of days, I've been wondering if the music I make would be different were I living in a different environment. So, how much do you think your music is influenced by the environment you live in?

I probably know Glenn's answer already. :-)

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

How many drummer composers are there on Netnewmusic?

I am curious how many of us there are on this forum and how do you feel about the music you write. If you, like me, felt out of step with everyone else? Do you think the 21st century will be our time to shine? I am really bent on getting a solo career together with interactive computer accompaniment. The piano, another percussion instrument, has been played out. (that's gonna get a big booo) I love the piano, too.

I am speaking strictly drummers. Not those guys who stand up.

Also, why only 5 people participate in these forums? Are there not 1300 people on this network?

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

In The '60s, A Musicians' Loft In Flux - KUAR

In The '60s, A Musicians' Loft In Flux
KUAR
"It was an entirely different kind of music," says jazz musician and teacher Bill Kirchner. "The avant-garde became one of the biggest focuses of jazz of ...

and more »

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

Music review: Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord, Accomplish Jazz - Creative Loafing Tampa (blog)

Music review: Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord, Accomplish Jazz
Creative Loafing Tampa (blog)
Lundblom's far-reaching six-string approach, liberally influenced by rock and 20th Century avant-garde music, can stir up quite a ruckus with fuzz and ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

Matthew Shipp: Song of Himself - JazzTimes Magazine

JazzTimes Magazine

Matthew Shipp: Song of Himself
JazzTimes Magazine
“It was nothing new, jazz musicians doing electronic or electric music,” Shipp observes. “But I guess in my sense I was keeping my 'avant-garde' pedigree ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

Amid the Avant-Garde - Wall Street Journal

Amid the Avant-Garde
Wall Street Journal
And from mid-September through mid-December the Brooklyn Academy of Music's annual "Next Wave Festival" took the stage once again. ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

Q&A With Steven Shelley of Sonic Youth - SFStation.com

Q&A With Steven Shelley of Sonic Youth
SFStation.com
With a meringue of avant-garde sound and pop undertones, the band's latest album, Eternal, realizes all the facets of group's past success. ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

İstanbul gains new music house on İstiklal Street - Today's Zaman

İstanbul gains new music house on İstiklal Street
Today's Zaman
Other acts on the current season's lineup include the İstanbul-based contemporary classical music collective Hezarfen Ensemble, Turkish harpist Şirin ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

A can't-miss season for symphonies and stages - The Detroit News

A can't-miss season for symphonies and stages
The Detroit News
27 at Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor: The celebrated composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, who turns 85 in March, leads a concert ...

Steve Reich's music being celebrated at Stanford by the quartet So Percussion - San Jose Mercury News

Steve Reich's music being celebrated at Stanford by the quartet So Percussion
San Jose Mercury News
If every composer's dream is for his or her music to be performed around the world, Steve Reich has attained nirvana. ...

2009 Salute To Idleness Vol.1

It’s the last day of 2009, folks! To be honest, it doesn’t feel all that exciting since for Miss Mussel (and, she suspects, most of you) the year begins in September when concert season starts up again. Nevertheless, it seems a small commemoration is in order if for no other reason than everyone else seems to be excited about it.

As such, Miss Mussel presents her 2009 Salute To Idleness

Here’s how it’s going to go down. Four posts have been queued up packed full of links, videos and other means of edification/distraction. Since productivity will drop to record lows as the day reaches its end, they have been arranged from brainy to silly. No one wants to read the Atlantic while they’re waiting for the final working minutes in 2009 to disappear into the hourglass.

Ok – here are a few links to get you started:

From the Plus ça change department: “François Mitterand’s motive in building the Opéra Bastille was essentially the same as the Duke of Mantua’s motive in staging Monteverdi’s operas, namely the representation of power….. Financial pressure has also been a constant, for opera is unusual if not unique among the arts in that its production costs invariably outrun income.” From Tim Blanning’s review of Daniel Snowman’s reportedly excellent new book The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera

Language: Yet Another Thing Ruined By The Middle Class – “People tend to go nuts around the English language. Of course, most of us are nuts anyway, but the language is always there, in the ether, or staring at us from a page, and if we’re feeling particularly cranky, it never fails to provide a ready excuse for us to fly off the handle.” Carolyn See reviews Lexicographer’s Dilemma in the Washington Post.

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Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 31, 2009 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)

Pacific NorthWest Ballet brings mixed bill to New York - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com

The Star-Ledger - NJ.com

Pacific NorthWest Ballet brings mixed bill to New York
The Star-Ledger - NJ.com
... will include works by emerging dancemakers Marco Goecke, Edwaard Liang and Benjamin Millepied, with an energetic closer set to music of Steve Reich. ...

There Go the Zeros - LA Weekly

There Go the Zeros
LA Weekly
When German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen notoriously (and career-endingly) described the attack on the World Trade Center as “the greatest work of art ...

Free cello concert Sunday at Goodnow Library - Sudbury Town Crier

Sudbury Town Crier

Free cello concert Sunday at Goodnow Library
Sudbury Town Crier
The concert features works composed by Beethoven, Dvorak, Popper, and Ligeti. Free admission with a reception to follow. Ungerleider is a celebrated young ...

Tuned In: By George, it's a Benjamin music fest at Davies Hall - Inside Bay Area

Tuned In: By George, it's a Benjamin music fest at Davies Hall
Inside Bay Area
Benjamin went to Paris at age 16 to study with Messiaen and his pianist wife and became a greatly favored pupil of the man who also taught Stockhausen, ...

and more »

Cops on film - The Guardian

Cops on film
The Guardian
There are only three composers pictured: Dion, the man that didn't get on Buddy Holly's plane, Bob Dylan and Karlheinz Stockhausen! ...

December 30, 2009

Thoughts from the Vienna woods

The Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert 2010 will be conducted for the second time by the French conductor Georges Prêtre. Due to the television and radio broadcasts in more than 70 countries, the New Year's Concert is in terms of its international coverage the largest classical music event in the world.

That quote comes from the Vienna Philharmonic's website. Big is the new beautiful in classical music, so the Vienna New Year's Day Concert - the largest classical music event in the world - joins the BBC Proms - the world's largest classical music festival.

Of course size matters. Or does it? From 1950 to 1982 a radio programme called Listen with Mother was broadcast by the BBC. The format of the fifteen minute programme of nursery rhymnes and stories for the under-fives and their mothers was desperately tired. But nobody at the BBC dared take it off air because the rudimentary research data of the day showed it reached a large audience. But then BBC research became more sophisticated and reported not only how many people were tuned to Listen with Mother, but also who the listeners were. This new data showed that a considerable number of the listeners were long-distance truck drivers. It was rapidly dropped from the schedules.

Yes, audience size is important. But so is the quality of engagement with that audience, as veteran BBC broadcaster Libby Purves so eloquently reminded us:

All that you can do is to make - and publicise - the best and most passionately well-crafted programmes you can think of. Ratings have to be watched, but calmly and with a sense of proportion. You have to believe that if even one person is swayed, or inspired, or changed, or comforted, by a programme, then that programme has been worthwhile.

It is my hope that in 2010 we will again start to measure classical music by its ability to sway, to inspire, to change and to comfort, as well as by its audience size.

A very happy and musical new year to all my readers.

* My header photo is, of course, not Georges Prêtre. It is Willi Boskovsky who conducted his last New Year's Day Concert on January 1st, 1979. Memories of Boskovsky here, and the story behind the recording of his final New Year's Day concert 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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 30, 2009 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)

Slide Show Jam

36642534-149x149-0-0_Braun+Braun+Multimag+Slide+Scanner+4000+for+35mm+T

Sound Clip: Braun Multimag 3600 Slide Scanner by Michael Peters

Based on a 2003 recording of a Braun Multimag 3600 slide scanner, scanning a magazine of about 50 slides. The process took over an hour. This is a segment of that long recording, sped up (without changing pitch) 64 times.

Bernstein Agonistes

Raphael Mostel: “My most searing memory of Bernstein comes from backstage at Avery Fisher Hall, just as Bernstein and his ever-present entourage boarded the elevator. They were vainly reassuring him how great his music was. He broke away from them to ask me, a student at the time, and the only one in the elevator not known to him, whether I thought he had composed anything that would last. I was shocked at how deeply, how profoundly, he doubted he had. Nothing I or anyone else could have said could have rescued him from his personal, private hell.”

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Unquiet Thoughts, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 30, 2009 at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

When Two Worlds Collide

…Collide in a good way, that is… The world of “avant” classical and “avant” jazz (I know I know, half of you will cringe at the labels, but it’s as good as we’re going to get here) share so much in common: a long and staid tradition and preconception to fight past and against, to push and trespass beyond; interest in new sounds, new forms, new aesthetics; an intensity of commitment to their vision, even when it might mean a long spell of creating and performing in the shadow of those taking the safe path.

But for all their similarities, there’s also often a kind of fine barrier that keeps many on the classical side from truly “getting” the jazz side, and vice-versa. Differences in approach, language, culture maybe; maybe also a little intimidation with the unknown. (Like my own mystification upon entering a McDonalds — where do you go? How do you order off that board? Do I get my drink, sit down, pick it up where? — when every regular does it all on autopilot.)

To hear the voices cross over and talk about the other is always interesting, and a recent guest post at Jeff Jackson’s and Jeff Golick’s jazz blog destination.out seems particularly welcome. In

Some Current Trends in Contemporary Classical Music: An Improviser’s Guide

Steve Lehman — one of the few who fully (and formidably) inhabits both worlds, as both composer and saxophonist — gives “out-jazz” folk an introduction to the likes of Gerard Grisey, Tristan Murail, Michael Finnissy, Helmut Lachenmann and Beat Furrer. The notes on each come from a slight jazz angle, and Steve thoughtfully includes audio of representative works. The comments after the post are also good and worth reading.

A few of the terms and comparisons may be unfamiliar to the avant-classical fan, but really we’re mostly talking, listening, and thinking about the same things. It’s a fairly “eurocentric” list, but you’ve got to start somewhere. And truth told, there are plenty of new-music types on our side, that are still largely unaware of some of these developments, and can only benefit from Steve’s little musical tour.

Originally posted by Steve Layton from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 30, 2009 at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

The Victorian Tongue

We may live without poetry, music, and art:
We may live without conscience, and live without heart;
We may live without friends; we may live without books;
But civilized man cannot live without cooks.
He may live without books,—what is knowledge but grieving?
He may live without hope,—what is hope but deceiving?
He may live without love,—what is passion but pining?
But where is the man that can live without dining?
—Owen Meredith, Lucile (1860)

Owen Meredith was the pen name of Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton; as Viceroy of India, Lytton counted on his résumé the Great Indian Famine of the late 1870s as well as the Pyrrhically expensive Second Anglo-Afghan War, the latter decisively contributing to the 1880 downfall of Disraeli's second (and final) premiership. For his efforts, Lytton was created 1st Earl of Lytton. "Genius does what it must," Lytton/Meredith famously wrote, "talent does what it can."

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 30, 2009 at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)

Was Purcell our finest composer? - Telegraph.co.uk

Was Purcell our finest composer?
Telegraph.co.uk
We know he sang at the Chapel Royal as a boy and composed music for the Chapel and Westminster Abbey in his twenties. We know he held positions at court and ...

Riga Synagogue Hosts Musical Evening - Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS

Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS

Riga Synagogue Hosts Musical Evening
Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS
The musical evening was an unforgettable event for members of the local Jewish community and for all music lovers. It was the first public concert in the ...

12/30/09 playlist

Charles Ives ~ Waltz ~ Theo Bleckmann & Kneebody

Michael Gandolfi ~ Themes from a Midsummer Night ~ BMOP dir. Gil Rose

Roomful of Teeth ~ Passacaglia (Caroline Shaw)
Final Fantasy ~ Library
Bang on a Can ~ The Manufacture of Tangled Ivory (Annie Gosfield)
Icebreaker ~ the Archangel Trip (Gavin Bryars)

Moondog ~ From One to Nine
Anon. ~ Dinaresade
East Village Opera Company ~ Habanera
Chris Turner & Peter Wetzler ~ Broken Reed
Osso ~ Year of the Ox (Sufjan Stevens)
Sufjan Stevens ~ Year of the Tiger
Bang on a Can All-Stars ~ 2/1 (Brian Eno)

Tin Hat Trio ~ Company
Lawrence Dillon ~ The Voice (from an upcoming Naxos release)
Theo Bleckmann ~ Songs my Mother Taught Me (Charles Ives)
Bon Iver ~ Woods
Balmorhea ~ a Circumnavigation

Originally from Music For Internets, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 30, 2009 at 06:04 PM | Comments (0)

XXXMas playlist

Despite my skull having been magically transformed into crystal, I fought through my vodka-induced haze to to bring some hollandaise cheer to any who might have tuned in.

Toro Takemitsu ~ Three Film Scores for Strings
Gavin Bryars ~ Cadman Requiem
Terry Riley ~ In C (Paul Hillier and Ars Nova Copenhagen)
Tarik O'Regan ~ Triptych
Milford Graves ~ Transmutations
Theo Bleckmann ~ The Housatonic at Stockbridge
Cordame ~ Mediterranée

And then I woke up.... Around about this time it was 12:30 and Classical prgramming was done for the day. I also brought a crate full of vinyl and a hard drive full of goodies and just started spinning for the next 2.5 hours.

(*played on vinyl)

Woods ~ Bon Iver
Let Us Down Easy ~ Ryan Adams *
The Perfect Space ~ the Avett Brothers *
Boat Behind ~ Kings of Convenience *
Sell Me A Coat ~ David Bowie *
The Pharaohs ~ Neko Case *
Do Not Go Quietly Unto Your Grave ~ Morphine
Librarian ~ My Morning Jacket *

That's Us/Wild Combination ~ Arthur Russell
Lion in a Coma ~ Animal Collective *
Alan Parson's in a Winter Wonderland ~ Grandaddy
Winter Sleep ~ Valgier Sigurdsson *
You're An Actor Out Of Work ~ St. Vincent *
Be Less Critical ~ House on Fire
Powerless ~ the Flaming Lips
Thine Planetarium ~ RJD2 *
Money ~ Apollo Sunshine *
I'll Be Home For Christmas ~ Bob Dylan
Welfare Breed ~ King Khan & the Shrines *
Kissability ~ Sonic Youth *

The Other Side of Grace ~ Banter/3.1
The Moog & Me ~ Dick Hyman *
Marrow ~ St. Vincent *
Electronic Renaissance ~ Belle & Sebastian
Ivan Meets G.I. Joe ~ the Clash *
D.J. ~ David Bowie *
Redondo Beach ~ Patti Smith *
Laundry Room ~ the Avett Brothers *
This is a Dream of Win & Regine ~ Final Fantasy
I'd Rather Dance With You ~ Kings of Convenience
Breakfast at Denny's ~ Combustible Edison *
Yo Shakespeare ~ Icebreaker
My Girls ~ Animal Collective *
Of Course ~ Jane's Addiction *

And then I had to go to dinner at my parents..

Originally from Music For Internets, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 30, 2009 at 06:04 PM | Comments (0)

Slow Dance #3b

This is a work in progress.

Play it:

Subscribe here:

Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 30, 2009 at 06:04 PM | Comments (0)

Look Back, Look Ahead

As to this, the recording of the Messiaen which at the time struck me as a bit blanched, must have been the Haitink/Concertgebouw recording. (Of course, if I were to go back and listen to the recording today, I should likely hear it differently.)

2010 could turn out to be The Year of Musical Visition from Elsewhere. Ivan Moody is projecting a visit to Boston to deliver the paper “Arvo Pärt: Aspects of Spirituality, Music and Text in the 21^st Century” — and I hope the visit may be timed to allow his attendance at the Sine Nomine performance of the Opus 92.

And in June, flutist/composer Nicole Randall Chamberlain (with whom the recent concert in Atlanta was such an assured triumph) will be coming to Boston with her husband Brian (a guitarist, and also a composer). There must be playing, I believe . . . .

Audio of the entire 17 November concert can be harkened unto at InstantEncore.

Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 30, 2009 at 06:03 PM | Comments (0)

Major orchestras play Vail music festival this summer - Vail Daily News

Major orchestras play Vail music festival this summer
Vail Daily News
The Chamber Music Series also takes place throughout the Festival with world premiere by the award-winning composer-in-residence Joan Tower on July 20. ...

and more »

Originally from "wolfgang rihm" OR "joan tower" OR "conlon nancarrow" OR "scelsi" OR "sciarrino" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 30, 2009 at 06:02 PM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2009

Mihae Lee Named Essex Winter Series Artistic Director - Chester, Deep River, & Essex LocalOnlineNews.TV

Chester, Deep River, & Essex LocalOnlineNews.TV

Mihae Lee Named Essex Winter Series Artistic Director
Chester, Deep River, & Essex LocalOnlineNews.TV
She is a gifted interpreter of composers ranging from Scarlatti to Chopin to Ligeti, and she has premiered and recorded works by such renowned composers as ...

BeepSNORT.com - Web Page Playlist Player

This is a very self-serving, but the work I developed here for the random player and other things to come was the progenitor of the project. Recently I decided I should get it off the ground.

http://beepsnort.com

It's basically the same code that I'm using for other apps around, including the Shorty player, but I'm hoping to generalize it and make a few $$$ with Google ads. We'll see!

Tell me what you think and sorry to self-promote here, I'm doing it more out of a curiosity about features, etc.

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 09:31 PM | Comments (0)

Radicalized relativity

RICHARD FOREMAN says:
(Founder & Director, Ontological-Hysteric Theater)

In my area of the arts and humanities, the most dangerous idea (and the one under who's influence I have operated throughout my artistic life) is the complete relativity of all positions and styles of procedure. The notion that there are no "absolutes" in art and in the modern era, each valuable effort has been, in one way or another, the highlighting and glorification of elements previous "off limits" and rejected by the previous "classical" style.

Such a continual "reversal of values" has of course delivered us into the current post-post modern era, in which fragmentation, surface value and the complex weave of "sampling procedure" dominate, and "the center does not hold".

I realize that my own artistic efforts have, in a small way, contributed to the current aesthetic/emotional environment in which the potential spiritual depth and complexity of evolved human consciousness is trumped by the bedazzling shuffle of the shards of inherited elements never before as available to the collective consciousness. The resultant orientation towards "cultural relativity" in the arts certainly comes in part from the psychic re-orientation resulting from Einstein's bombshell dropped at the beginning of the last century.

This current "relativity" of all artistic, philosophical, and psychological values leaves the culture adrift, and yet there is no "going back" in spite of what conservative thinkers often recommend.

At the very moment of our cultural origin, we were warned against "eating from the tree of knowledge". Down through subsequent history, one thing has led to another, until now here we are, sinking into the quicksand of the ever-accelerating reversal of each latest value (or artistic style). And yet there are many artists, like myself, committed to the belief that having been "thrown by history" into the dangerous trajectory initiated by the inaugural "eating from the tree of knowledge" (a perhaps "fatal curiosity" programmed into our genes) the only escape possible is to treat the quicksand of the present as a metaphorical "black hole" through which we must pass indeed risking psychic destruction (or "banalization") for the promise of emerging re-made, in new still unimaginable form, on the other side.

This is the "heroic wager" the serious "experimental" artist makes in living through the dangerous idea of radicalized relativity. It is ironic, of course, that many of our greatest scientists (not all of course) have little patience for the adventurous art of our times (post Stockhausen/Boulez music, post Joyce/ Mallarme literature) and seem to believe that a return to a safer "audience friendly" classical style is the only responsible method for today's artists.

Do they perhaps feel psychologically threatened by advanced styles that supercede previous principals of coherence? They are right to feel threatened by such dangerous advances into territory for which conscious sensibility if not yet fully prepared. Yet it is time for all serious minds to "bite the bullet" of such forays into the unknown world in which the dangerous quest for deeper knowledge leads scientist and artist alike.

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)

Buy or live in darkness

Nielsen and Haydn arguably wrote the most life-affirming music in the classical canon. Which may explain why two sets of these composer's symphonies have been among my most listened to recordings in 2009. I have already written about Brilliant Classic's re-issue of Adam Fischer's set of Haydn's symphonies with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra and, interestingly, my Nielsen symphonies of choice come from the same Dutch budget label.

Theodore Kuchar's recordings of Nielsen's six symphonies with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra have become something of a legend among those who have sought them out since their release by Brilliant Classics in 2007. These Czech performances are not just superb bargain priced Nielsen, they are superb Nielsen at any price. No one has put it better than Jack Lawson in his Musicweb International review:

If this Brilliant set was marketed as a Limited Edition with wooden crate and gold-plated audiophile CDs at £110, I would advise everyone to buy or live in darkness. At £11 - at full UK price for all three discs [currently £8.79 on amazon.co.uk - Pliable] - I hope you will not hesitate.

From the very first bars of the First Symphony you know you are listening to something very special. Inspired music making is captured in beautifully natural sound with lots of bloom in the Ostrava Concert Hall in the Czech Republic. So often Nielsen's music is presented as no more than a worthy Nordic cul-de-sac; but in the hands of Theodore Kuchar and his Czech musicians we hear the six symphonies for what they really are, important contributions to global twentieth-century music. Some will attribute the success of the Janáček Philharmonic in Nielsen to its mastery of Dvořák and Smetana. Others may see significance in different repertoire listed on the orchestra's website:

Ostrava's Janacek Philharmonic (116-piece symphony orchestra), is among the five leading orchestras in the Czech Republic. Throughout its existence, JPO has been a strong advocate of contemporary music. Since 1997, JPO has regularly performed new music, including works by Earle Brown, John Cage, Maria de Alvear, Morton Feldman, Petr Kotik, Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, Somei Satoh, Martin Smolka, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Toru Takemitsu, Edgard Varese, and Christian Wolff.

The performance of 103 by Cage (90 minute composition for 103-piece orchestra) at the festival of Music of Extended Duration in Prague resulted in a CD release on the Asphodel label, San Francisco. Under the baton of Christian Arming, Petr Kotik and Zsolt Nagy, the JPO triumphed with a program of music for 3 orchestras at the 1999 Prague Spring festival, and the Warsaw Autumn Festival 2000. JPO performed Gruppen by Stockhausen, Diamonds by Lucier, Modules 1,2,3 by Brown, and Nest by Smolka.

American Theodore Kuchar has been making quite a name for himself in repertoire that is notably absent from the programmes of higher profile maestros. During his tenure with the National Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine Kupar's recordings have included works by Ukraine’s leading contemporary symphonist, Yevhen Stankovych and by Borys Lyatoshynsky, and he has worked with many leading orchestras in America and Europe.

Credit must also go to Brilliant Classics who have made the transition from re-issue to new recording label with flair and imagination. At the moment many classical music journalists are sharing with us their views on the important events and trends of the past year and past decade. Oh, how wide of the mark these commentaries are, with their transparent agendas of 'you scratch my back and I will scratch yours'. How few of the reviews look beyond the music mutual admiration societies that flourish in London, New York and Los Angeles. How few look beyond the press releases and the free concert tickets and free CDs that are handed out on the gravy trains of 'big music'. If I had to nominate a label of the year I would struggle to make the call between Brilliant Classics, Alia Vox, Zig-Zag Territoires, Accords Croisés and Ad Vitam; not one of which is based in the self-styled world centres of music or records with 'big name' ensembles.

For proof there is life beyond the commercial hegemony of 'big music' just listen to Theodore Kuchar and Ostrava's Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in the Finale, allegro from Nielsen's Sinfonia Espansiva. This is surely the musical equivalent of divine revelation and that reviewer really nailed it in one when he wrote -'I would advise everyone to buy or live in darkness'.

Back in 2005 I wrote - If you only buy thirty-four CDs this year - buy these.

Portrait of Carl Nielsen is by Michael Whittlesea. I bought the Brilliant Classics Nielsen symphonies set online. 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 Dec 29, 2009 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)

Slow Dance #3

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This is a work in progress...

This is a palette cleanser for between two tracks of more complex material. Same scales as Winding out to the Pacific, but in thirds.

Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

CD of the Week: Augustin Hadelich

20;Ballade”; Augustin Hadelich, violin (Avie).

The track comes from Hadelich’s album “Flying Solo.” For more, see my Critic’s Notebook this week.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Unquiet Thoughts, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)

Boulezzapalooza

Sony have reissued a slew of Boulez-conducted recordings. The contents of just a few of these:

Boulez conducts Schoenberg I (5 discs)
CD1: Suite op.29, Verklärte Nacht (string sextet), Three Pieces for Chamber Orchestra
CD2: Die Jakobsleiter, Chamber Symphony No. 1, Begleitmusik au einer Lichtspielszene
CD3: Serenade op.24, Five Pieces for Orchestra op.16, Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte
CD4: Die gluckliche hand, Variations op.31, Verklärte Nacht (string orchestra)
CD5: Erwartung, Pierrot Lunaire, Lied der Waldtaude

Boulez conducts Schoenberg II (6 discs)
CD1 & 2: Choral Works
CD3 & 4: Gurre-Lieder, Orchestral Songs op.22
CD5 & 6: Moses und Aron, Chamber Symphony No.2

Boulez conducts Stravinsky, Messiaen, Dukas, Falla (4 discs)
CD1: Stravinsky The Firebird Suite, Pulcinella Suite, Scherzo fantastique, Suites 1 & 2
CD2: Stravinsky Petrushka, The Rite of Spring
CD3: Messiaen: Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, Couleurs de la cité céleste, Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments
CD4: Dukas: La Peri, de Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat, Harpsichord Concerto

The Stravinsky & al. set I found for an irresistable price (< $17 including shipping), so I keenly await its delivery.

Two items, interest in which practically drives satisfaction for the price all on their own, are the de Falla Harpsichord Concerto (which has been only a name to me these long years), and Messiaen’s Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, which I first heard live in Rochester, played by the Eastman School Wind Ensemble. Such a vivid impression did that performance make, that a CD I afterwards bought of the piece (some conductor other than Boulez) seemed colorless in comparison.

Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)

Composition Contest for Harp (5') - Deadline 8th of January 2010

The International Harp Competition & Festival, the Netherlands is holding a Contest for composers. All composers are welcome to participate!

Participants will compose a piece for solo harp of 5 minutes, with no other instruments or electronic means involved. The winning pieces will be performed during the 1st International Harp Competition & Festival, on Wednesday the 24th of March 2010.

Jury:

■Petra van der Heide, solo harpist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
■Daan Manneke, composer
■Carlos Micháns, composer

Apply:

To apply, two copies of your work and a resume must be received by us no later than the 8th of January 2010. Please send to:

■HKU Conservatorium
■T/A Composition Contest, International Harp Competition & Festival
■Mariaplaats 28, 3511 LL Utrecht, the Netherlands
Or by e-mail, received by us no later than the 8th of January 2010, to: info@harpcompetition.nl.

Help:

If you wish to receive more information, or if you would like assistance of a harpist, please write your question to: info@harpcompetition.nl.

Rules:

■There are no costs to participate in the Composition Contest.
■There is no age limit for the participating composers.
■The work must be unpublished, unawarded and may not have been performed.
■Scores must be printed. Handwritten scores are only permitted when they are clearly legible.
■The results of the Composition Contest will be announced on the website of the International Harp Competition & Festival (www.harpcompetition.nl), on the 15th of January 2010.
■Three pieces will be chosen and performed during the 1st International Harp Competition & Festival, on Wednesday the 24th of March 2010.
■The decisions of the jury are final. There will be no correspondence about the results.
■The received scores remain property of the IHC&F. The scores will not be used for any other purposes than this Composition Contest, unless the candidate gives explicit permission to do so.

http://www.harpcompetition.nl/composition-contest

Originally from Discussion Forum - Group for New Music Ensembles and Composers, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)

Detailed Musicology - Towards Analysis Discussions in 2010

Does any one like the idea of hosting more thorough discussions in 2010, maybe more in line with the British tradition of Paul Griffiths, and host a weekly "high dialectic" topic - that included detailed formulaic analysis of important music. Does that interest anyone?

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

If you think about it, drums are the new violins.

Yes?
No?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/arts/music/28percussion.html?_r=1

"But as the music has changed, from string-, wind- and brass-driven Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler and even Schoenberg to modern works of all stripes, in which the percussion lines are frequently in the spotlight, percussionists have moved out of the background. This change was well under way by the mid-1960s. John Cage, though principally a pianist, was drawn toward percussion in the 1930s and ’40s, and organized ensembles for which he wrote his “Constructions” and other works.

Steve Reich began his musical life as a percussionist, and a seminal part of his training was his study of traditional drum techniques in Ghana. When he assembled his own ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, vibraphones and marimbas were central, and the magnum opus of his early years was “Drumming.”

Skip a generation, and you’ve got composing percussionists everywhere: Lukas Ligeti composes works in styles that skirt classical, jazz and world music; Glenn Kotche, the drummer for Wilco, writes percussion music that sounds at home at a new-music concert. (He performed some with the Bang on a Can All-Stars at Alice Tully Hall in March. Ms. Glennie, though a vigorous commissioner of new works by established composers, has written plenty of music herself, and the So Percussion ensemble is as likely to perform its own music (particularly that of Jason Treuting, its principal composer) as that of Mr. Reich or anyone else."

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

Noise Based Music

Does noise based music have a future?

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

The White Dove

For the last several years my wife (and sometimes son) and I have been on an epic, joint art movie tear, usually taking in two to four a week .

I've written a lot about them on other lists but not much if anything here------maybe there's an idea for a new group? Anyway, tonight i saw one of the most perfectly paced and flawless (not to mention) beautiful art movies i've ever seen, Holubice (The White Dove), which is a 1960 Czech movie by the amazingly underappreciated Frantisek Vlacil .

Incredible semi-linear, yet simple story, told with an uncanny attention to shear cinematic beauty and a persistent homage to the surreal imagery of everyday things. I've seen several Vlacil' movies now, and they've all been great, but this one really is something-----imagine all the hyper-melodramatics of say The Cranes are Flying, or The Shop on Main Street (or even something like To Kill a Mockingbird) sans the obviousness of that melodrama mixed with an photographer/artist's eye for detail a la Antonioni in La Notte and a ultra-humanistic black and white cinematographic scope on par with Nykvist's work on Through a Glass Darkly all mixed with a certain underlying dread a la Berman's Hour of the Wolf, yet all in the service of an obvious, but not too obvious ,message that is ultimately in some ways uplifting .

whew….okay that's a lot to live up to, but this is really great stuff, so check it if you can

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

Decade in review: Classical music - San Francisco Chronicle

Decade in review: Classical music
San Francisco Chronicle
In 2000, Adams was a popular and well-respected laborer in the semi-obscure vineyards of contemporary classical music. Today, after a productive and ...

and more »

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 12:25 PM | Comments (0)

Charles Spearin, Jon Hassell and Mountains Take Top Honours in Exclaim!'s Best ... - Exclaim!

Exclaim!

Charles Spearin, Jon Hassell and Mountains Take Top Honours in Exclaim!'s Best ...
Exclaim!
Mountains, Jon Hassell and Social Junk are not dissimilar in their missions to reimagine music technology as sound sculpture. And the G Spots compilation ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 12:25 PM | Comments (0)

New York City Ballet - Ballet Magazine

New York City Ballet
Ballet Magazine
The music – Bach's Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins – provides not only intensity and color to the movement palette but also an ingenious structure to ...

Leave James Levine aloooooone! - Macleans.ca

Leave James Levine aloooooone!
Macleans.ca
... the orchestra's and Boston's century-long special relationship with French music, and a repeat performance of a five-year-old piece by Elliott Carter, ...

Lenny, Rehearsing Igor Fyodorovich

Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 29, 2009 at 02:10 AM | Comments (0)

December 28, 2009

Güher & Süher Pekinel, pianos - Live in Concert (2009) - Audiophile Audition

Audiophile Audition

Güher & Süher Pekinel, pianos - Live in Concert (2009)
Audiophile Audition
But the short music video tries too hard to fit the usual pop video style and is a bit embarrassing with its fire and belly dancers, and although the short ...

"Sturm und Drang" = NICOLAS BACRI: Concerto Amoroso 'Le Printemps;' Concerto ... - Audiophile Audition

Audiophile Audition

"Sturm und Drang" = NICOLAS BACRI: Concerto Amoroso 'Le Printemps;' Concerto ...
Audiophile Audition
As CD annotator Martin Anderson notes, growing up in France in the 1980s, with the domination of Boulez and the contemporary music establishment, ...

The Virtual Haydn Blu-ray Review - Blu-rayDefinition.com (blog)

The Virtual Haydn Blu-ray Review
Blu-rayDefinition.com (blog)
To my ears, raised equally on the music of Schöenberg, Stockhausen, and Sonic Youth, and also having spent my teens and early-twenties experimenting with ...

"Sturm und Drang" = NICOLAS BACRI: Concerto Amoroso 'Le Printemps;' Concerto ... - Audiophile Audition

Audiophile Audition

"Sturm und Drang" = NICOLAS BACRI: Concerto Amoroso 'Le Printemps;' Concerto ...
Audiophile Audition
Bacri studied with Giacinto Scelsi and in the late eighties was head of chamber music for Radio France. Since then he has been a full time composer. ...

Originally from "wolfgang rihm" OR "joan tower" OR "conlon nancarrow" OR "scelsi" OR "sciarrino" AND music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 28, 2009 at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)

Classical music: Programs were orchestrated to thrill, and they fit the bill - Pioneer Press

Classical music: Programs were orchestrated to thrill, and they fit the bill
Pioneer Press
Twin Cities classical music lovers also were blessed with some spectacular performances by experts at violin and voice. I attended more than 90 classical ...

Huddersfield 2009 (5/5) -- communities and dialogues

Graham McKenzie, the director of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, has made the point that he does not like to assign themes to festivals, but prefers to watch patterns emerge during the event itself. For me, one of major patterns I saw on all sorts of levels was community and dialogue--from the institutional level--between organizations like the festival and the university--to the interactions between musicians--improvisers in particular--onstage. So much is made possible when independent, forward-thinking people work together within the context of an event.

Alvin Curran has been exploring various ways of involving local communities in his pieces, from the Maritime Rites installations and performances to the community bands of Oh the Brass on the Grass, Alas. His piece, OH MAN OH MANKIND OH YEAH was called "A Community Sing," which included the Huddersfield Choral Society, the University Choir, instrumentalists from the university, and vocalise, "the Festival's new vocal group for young people." Curran writes,

The work is about singing, transforming ponderous mass into weightless matter, singing invisibly together, singing in reckless conflict and sweet harmony, singing with you... so join in at the end if you like!

The performances were all quite strong, but the kids stole the show. They were having so much fun up there on stage, and they were totally engaged in their various noisemaking activities.

Curran, along with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum, is also a member of Musica Elettronica Viva, which has been in existence since 1966. As they themselves put it,

Part myth, part reality, part dream, Musica Elettronica Viva in its 23rd year continues to resist retirement and greatly enjoys its one gig a year.

In the name of the collectivity, the group abandoned both written scores and leadership and replaced them with improvisation and critical listening. Rehearsals and concerts were begun at the appropriate time by a kind of spontaneous combustion and continued until total exhaustion set in.

In a totally enjoyable conversation and Q&A session after their performance, the friendship of these three Americans expatriates in Rome was obvious. Rzewski responded at some length to one question, and Teitelbaum then said, "I completely disagree with Frederic." In their performance, they were at many times so remarkably in sync that I might have thought it was a piece that had been composed and rehearsed. But learning more about the background of the group and the (in)frequency of their performances made it clear that it wasn't. These are long-standing friendships that play out in music as well as in life. They made the point in the conversation afterwards that they have used fewer and fewer instructions as they have continued to work together.

Quite similarly (though to a very different effect), on the day of fORCH's performance, Richard Barrett said in an interview with Graham McKenzie that over the last few years,

the amount of notated material has gradually gone down until for today's performance there's very little left... this collective of people has developed its own musical personality and become its own composer, so to speak.

Barrett wrote in the program notes that "The framework ... is intended not to enclose improvisatory spontaneity, but to create a point of departure for it." The players, who that night included Phil Minton and Ute Wassermann (voices), FURT (Richard Barrett and Paul Obermayer, electronics), Anne La Berge (flute, electronics), John Butcher (saxophones), Aleks Kolkowski (viola, musical saw), and Rhodri Davies (harp), are overwhelmingly creative in the sounds they find and explore in their instruments. FURT plays an interesting role, sewing together, splitting apart, amplifying, distorting, and otherwise manipulating the sounds produced by the rest of the group. Their performance at the hcmf and the material I have heard on their myspace page are like nothing else. I'll hold off on writing more about the individual members' other involvements for some future entries. What they are doing is too interesting to squeeze into an already-long post.

Another partnership is crucial to all of the events that I've written about in these last five posts, as well as the many others that I did not cover, and that is the partnership between the University of Huddersfield (including CeReNeM) and the hcmf. The mutual benefit is substantial. That is not just for the obvious practical reasons of venues for the festival, exposure for the university, etc. All of that would be trivial if it were not for the fact that both the festival and the faculty and students involved with new music have a similar and complementary orientation towards... (It's dangerous to try to codify this too much, but I'll make a first stab) ... highly creative work that lies well outside of the mainstream. The students and faculty that I've had a chance to get to know have a huge diversity of interests and approaches, but they have quite a lot to say to one other. It was great to see that in the three masterclasses I attended, the nine pieces were remarkably different from one another, but Liza Lim, Jonathan Harvey, and Rebecca Saunders had really insightful things to say to the students about each of them. The programming of the whole festival was similarly vibrant, free of aesthetic branding, and rich with opportunities for thought and discussion. What more can I say? If it continues to be this strong, and on this schedule, I'll be missing many more Thanksgivings. Something really special is happening in Huddersfield.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Originally posted by jennie from sound expanse, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 28, 2009 at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)

Winding out to the Pacific - take 17

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This piece is pretty much finished now.

Winding out to the Pacific is the second to last piece in the Music of the Hoh River Valley series. This one is scored for vibraphone, marimba, harp, finger piano, and sine waves. The intonation system is 72 equal divisions of the octave. There are four chords derived from four scales used throughout the piece, and they are played in succession:

Subminor with a root on the 26th tone in 72 EDO
Minor on 23
Major on 19
Super Major on 16
Major on 19
Minor on 23

This sequence is repeated three times. These four scales are derived from the Partch tonality diamond to the 15th limit. Click on the images below to make them bigger.

In the diamond above, purple is the major scale, 4:5:6:7:9:11:13:15. Green is the minor scale: 12/8:10:12:7:9:11:13:15. Subminor is a mode of the major scale, shown in pink, and yellow is the supermajor, a mode of the minor. Laid out as vertical scales, they look like this:

The orange rows are the primary notes of the scale, making the major or minor sounding chords. Green is for the alternative chords, and white are the really strange ones. I construct fourth chords from these scales, and either play the chord outright, or arpeggiate it up and down. The fourths are constructed starting at the 7th note of the chord in the bass, and going up by approximately 30 steps of the 72 EDO, attempting to go up 60 steps every other note until it repeats. Here are the scale degrees of the fourth chords for each scale.


sub 726 158 473
min 736 251 473
maj 736 251 472
sup 726 148 372

The piece uses indeterminacy heavily. Each instrument has a set of choices for what to play. In this version, the choices random, but weighted towards not picking a choice if it has already been played before.

This version is the 17th run through the algorithm. The 12th and 13th are nice as well, and I might post them some time.

The length of time to stay on one of the four chords is variable from one to eight measures, also chosen with a weighted random selection method.

The tempo is continuously variable, but it tends to go faster on those chords that are played more measures, and slower when the number of measures is low. The transition from one tempo to another is gradual. Here's a nice picture of the mouth of the Hoh River as it enters the ocean, about 56 miles from its source.

Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 28, 2009 at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)

Some one thousand, three-hundred and nineteen items later...

... Renewable Music had its fifth anniversary on the 15th of December. If you haven't yet, please check out the two anthology projects (A Winter Album with new works for piano by 15 composers and Melodica! with works for that instrument by 13 composers); if you happen to be a composer yourself, please consider contributing to the up-coming and long-awaited A Spring Album of percussion music.

This experiment in composerly blogging, originally just making public the sorts of notes I habitually write to myself in manuscript margins and on cocktail napkins and the backs of envelopes, has covered some interesting territory, including a month of writing a new whole piece each day and assorted forms of cogitation, agitation, and even experimentation with the blog as literary/critical form. Thanks for reading, (cor)responding and — if you care to stick around — expect more of the same!

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 28, 2009 at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)

Lost and found

Underneath the dictionary perhaps?

What's in a name?
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 Dec 28, 2009 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)

Footnotes: Schubert and Beckett

In this week’s issue of the magazine, I write about Katie Mitchell’s theater piece “One Evening,” an intermingling of Schubert’s song-cycle “Winterreise” and texts by Samuel Beckett. When I cite Beckett on the topic of Schubert’s “rigid economy of application,” I am quoting from the first volume of “The Letters of Samuel Beckett,” which contains many lively musical observations. In 1931, Beckett heard the Unity String Quartet play Schubert’s String Quintet and Beethoven’s Quartet Opus 127. The Schubert he loved, but Beethoven, surprisingly, moved him not. “I feel that Beethoven’s Quartets are a waste of time,” he wrote. “His pigheaded refusal to make the most of a rather pettyfogging convention annoys me. He needed a piano or an orchestra.”

Three years later, Beckett heard the great Busch Quartet play Beethoven’s Quartet Opus 130, and had a quite different reaction: “Although it is only his penultimate quartet [in fact, his third-to-last] it has as its finale the last composition we have from his hand, an incomparably beautiful Allegro. But it is the Cavatina that immediately precedes that Allegro that made the greatest impression on me. A movement which in calm finality and intensity goes beyond anything I have ever heard by the venerable Ludwig.”

In the same year, Beckett heard the Beethoven Seventh under the direction of Wilhelm Furtwängler, who pleased him not at all. “Mr. Furtwängler, like the good Nazi he is, cannot tolerate mysteries, and it was rather like a fried egg, and, if you prefer, like a foot put in it, that he presented this music.”

In late 1936 and early 1937, Beckett spent some time in Germany: “I heard a lovely concert with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sabata (pupil of Toscanini) from Milan: Strauss’s Don Quixote, which belongs to the same period as Heldenleben & which therefore I expected would be awful but which was exquisite; Bolero, mistimed as usual, ejaculatio praecox as usual; & Brahms’s 2nd Symphony superbly played, so that I understand Brahms (the Brahms of the symphonies) a little for the first time & why I had always found him so difficult to understand. Sabata was more conducted than conducting.”

Perhaps the most striking musical meditation in this volume comes in a famous letter to the editor and translator Axel Kaun, in German. Beckett is here arguing for a creative extension or distortion of ordinary language, a “dissonance of instrument and usage.” He writes:

Is there something paralyzingly sacred contained within the unnature of the word that does not belong to the elements of the other arts? Is there any reason why that terrifyingly arbitrary materiality of the word surface should not be dissolved, as for example the sound surface of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is devoured by huge black pauses, so that for pages on end we cannot perceive it as other than a dizzying path of sounds connecting unfathomable chasms of silence?

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Unquiet Thoughts, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 28, 2009 at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)

Kick off 2010 with classical delights - San Francisco Examiner

Kick off 2010 with classical delights
San Francisco Examiner
... (seen at the San Francisco Ballet in 2002) to music by Ligeti, and “Rhapsody Fantaisie” to keyboard works by Rachmaninov, along with other works. ...

Toshi's picks - TheDay.com

Toshi's picks
TheDay.com
4. "ONE LOVE" by David Guetta "Interesting new electronic music. Better than Stockhausen." 5. "THE RESISTANCE" by Muse "They simply love classical music, ...

2009 in review: Classical music - San Francisco Chronicle

2009 in review: Classical music
San Francisco Chronicle
It's because of a spate of younger musicians taking a new look at the possibilities of the genre, performers for whom the music of Messiaen, Ligeti and ...

In Memory of Maryanne Amacher - New York Times (blog)

New York Times (blog)

In Memory of Maryanne Amacher
New York Times (blog)
Alvin Curran, a student of Elliott Carter and co-founder of the legendary group Musica Elettronica Viva, makes music with all sounds, in all forms, ...

and more »

In Memory of Maryanne Amacher - New York Times (blog)

New York Times (blog)

Memorable music for 'commemorable' times - Today's Zaman

Today's Zaman

Memorable music for 'commemorable' times
Today's Zaman
The program choices were decidedly influenced by minimalism (Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Phillip Glass), ambient and poly-stylistic techniques. ...

In Memory of Maryanne Amacher

Recalling the life of a friend steeped in music, science and the joy of sound.

Originally posted by By ALVIN CURRAN from The Score, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 28, 2009 at 02:11 AM | Comments (0)

December 27, 2009

Percussionists Go From Background to Podium - New York Times

Percussionists Go From Background to Podium
New York Times
Flipping through a stack of program books from recent new-music concerts devoted to chamber works by John Adams, Pierre Boulez, Mario Davidovsky, ...

Shuffle Sunday

1. Stravinsky, Le baiser de la fée, Scene ii, A Village Fête (LSO, Robt Craft) [29/1172]
2. Shostakovich, Symphony № 4 in c minor, Opus 43, movement iii.
(Prague Symphony, Maksim Dmitriyevich) [939/1172]
3. Captain Beefheart, “Sugar and Spikes” from Trout Mask Replica [881/1172]
4. Frank Zappa & The Mothers, “The Air” from Uncle Meat [973/1172]
5. Prokofiev, Marche, № 1 from Ten Pieces, Opus 12 (Eteri Andjaparidze) [962/1172]
6. Nielsen, Suite from Aladdin (Opus 34, FS 89), vii. Negro Dance (SFSO, Blomstedt) [145/1172]
7. Elgar, Elegy, Opus 58 (Hallé Orchestra, Barbirolli) [276/1172]
8. Prokofiev, Piano Concerto № 2 in g minor, Opus 16, ii. Scherzo (Béroff, Gewandhausorchester, Masur) [614/1172]
9. Prokofiev, Romeo & Juliet, Opus 64, Act III Scene vi, № 38 Romeo and Juliet, Lento (BSO, Ozawa) [74/1172]
10. Prokofiev, Romeo & Juliet, Opus 64, Act I Scene ii, № 9 Preparations for the Ball, Andante assai. Scherzo (BSO, Ozawa) [50/1172]
11. Genesis, “Anyway” from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway [154/1029]
12. Stravinsky, De elegia prima from Threni (Robt Craft conducting) [241/1172]
13. Stravinsky, Canticum sacrum ad honorem Sancti Marci nominis, ii. Euntes in
mundum (Westminster Cathedral Choir, City of London Sinfonia, James O’Donnell) [185/1172]
14. Sibelius, Öinen ratsastus ja auringonnousu (Night-Ride & Sunrise), Opus 55 (LSO, Dorati) [565/1172]
15. Prokofiev, Romeo & Juliet, Opus 64, Act I Scene i, № 2 Romeo, Andante (BSO, Ozawa) [37/1172]
16. Shostakovich, Symphony № 6 in b minor, Opus 54, i. Largo (Prague Symphony, Maksim Dmitriyevich) [738/1172]
17. Prokofiev, Cinderella, Opus 87, Act II, № 35 Duet of the Sisters with the Oranges (Cleveland Orchestra, Ashkenazy) [116/1172]
18. Vaughan Williams, Dona nobis pacem, ii. “Beat! Beat! Drums!” (Atlanta Symphony Chorus, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robt Shaw) [261/1172]
19. Prokofiev, Le pas d’acier, Opus 41, Act I, Scene i, Matelot à bracelets et
ouvrière (Cologne West German Radio Symphony, M. Jurowski) [529/1172]
20. Vaughan Williams, Symphony № 5, ii. Romanza. Lento (London Philharmonic, Haitink) [397/1172]

Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)

By-line to Review of the Decade

Scroll down to Classical Music:

[ link → “High points of the noughties” ]

Elliott Carter The “difficult” quiet American composer reached 100 years (in 2008) and gained celebrity. Now he says he's old enough to write “simpler stuff.” It’s never too late.

Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

A soundtrack for Vincent

Excited by the links he found between painting and Wagner's music, Vincent van Gogh took lessons from the organist of St Catherine's Church in Eindhoven. But the lessons were not a success and the organist concluded he was dealing with a madman. Presumably Vincent was not a fan of ECM discs, because their 2009-10 catalogue does not contain a single note of Wagner's music, or of Tchaikovsky's. Talking of madmen, near the end of his life Van Gogh was incarcerated in an asylum at Saint-Remy-de-Provence, which is close to where my header photo was taken a couple of weeks ago. Talking of meteors that burnt out prematurely, the organ in the church in Saint-Remy was used by Scott Ross in 1972 to record Couperin's two organ masses.

Photo is (c) On An Overgrown Path 2009. 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 Dec 27, 2009 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)

Hail and farewell to an Australian composer of distinction - Sydney Morning Herald

Sydney Morning Herald

Hail and farewell to an Australian composer of distinction
Sydney Morning Herald
Also pushing boundaries was the intrepid Ensemble Offspring in a concert of spectral music in May and Stockhausen later on. The year's three best moments ...

and more »

NY Philharmonic's CONTACT! Debut Concert Webcast Dec. 22 and 27 - PlaybillArts

PlaybillArts

NY Philharmonic's CONTACT! Debut Concert Webcast Dec. 22 and 27
PlaybillArts
... the New York Philharmonic's new-music series, will be broadcast online via Classical 105.9 FM WQXR's contemporary classical music stream Dec. ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

The Bad Plus celebrate 10th annual holiday shows at the Dakota - Minneapolis City Pages

The Bad Plus celebrate 10th annual holiday shows at the Dakota
Minneapolis City Pages
King, who's usually out on the road with one of his many projects (including avant-garde trio Happy Apple, indie pop band Halloween, Alaska, ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

Yoko Ono (The Perennial One) - New York Press

New York Press

Yoko Ono (The Perennial One)
New York Press
I came from the avant-garde music world, and they were talking about electronic [music] all the time And it wasn't that fast, like what we're doing now, ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

Music For Landscapes - NHPR

Music For Landscapes
NHPR
"When I want to hear music, I open a window.” That quote, commonly attributed to avant-garde composer John Cage, sums up the musical quality of urban life. ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

New Music Agency to put on traditional concert - Lincoln Journal Star

New Music Agency to put on traditional concert
Lincoln Journal Star
The New Music Agency is made up of wind and percussion players who perform and create contemporary classical music. The group's membership includes ...

and more »

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

Paul McCartney's Interview for The Big Issue - MaccaBlog.co.uk (blog)

MaccaBlog.co.uk (blog)

Paul McCartney's Interview for The Big Issue
MaccaBlog.co.uk (blog)
I'd been listening to a lot of avant-garde music and that was inspired by the composers I was going to see in London at the time. You're playing 'Give Peace ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

The hand that composes the Gardner's programs - Boston Globe

Boston Globe

The hand that composes the Gardner's programs
Boston Globe
This year he instituted a sequence of concerts by the Callithumpian Consort, a local avant-garde troupe led by pianist Stephen Drury, “whom I adore,'' says ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

Global Self-Promotion License Application

Beginning in 2010, anyone self-promoting on the Internet has to obtain a Global Self-Promotion License (GSPL). Failure to do so, will result in the revocation of your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube accounts; moreover, repeat offenders will lose their license to blog and comment on the Internet.

We all have attention capital accounts. Attention capital accounts are recharged via great user experiences and energizing content; whilst overwhelming choice, bad design and unrefined content have the opposite effect.

Music Industry Self Promotion Privileges Calculator
Please use the Self-Promotion Privileges Calculator (SPPC) below to determine which self-promotion license you qualify for.

	Standard MySpace (SM-GSP) License If grandma, grandpa, mom and dad have listened to (with or without earplugs) and smiled at your music, you are cleared to create a standard or botched MySpace profile page. However, if you plan on engaging in the useless and annoying act of MySpace friending, you will need to obtain the MySpace Plus (MP-GSP) license. Neither of these GSP licenses qualifies you to engage in any other forms of self-promotion.
	Standard Facebook Profile (SFBP-GSP) License After the people that tell you what you want to hear (girlfriends / boyfriends) have convinced you that your music is “pretty good”, you qualify for a Standard Facebook Profile License. NOTE: The SFBP-GSP License is a license to create standard Facebook profile pages only. The SFBP-GSP license does not cover Facebook Fan Pages, the use of widgets or Facebook apps. Anyone caught using widgets under SFBP-GSP license will have their GSP license revoked. Infrequent music-related status updates are legal under this license.
	The Standard Widget (SW-GSP) License If you have played in front of more than fifty people, AND more than six people know the lyrics to one of your songs, AND more than five girls (over the age of 15) have simultaneously swayed or slightly rocked to one of your songs (covers not included), then you are qualified to use ugly, over-branded, feature-laden or poorly designed widgets (up to five per web page). However this W-GSP license does not cover widgets that have been custom designed and developed. The SW-GSP license also enables you to deploy widgets on your own blog or website.
	The Status Update (SU-GSP) License The Status Update (SU-GSP) license qualifies you to use a Facebook Fan Page and/or a Twitter profile to notify your small but growing list of fans on status updates pertaining to music creation, scheduling and other infrequent humorous or heartfelt happenings. To qualify for a SU-GSP, at least three industry professionals that have worked on a combined total of no less than 65 albums (or 300 singles) must agree that your music “could be pretty good with some paid improvements”. Local producers with more gear than money qualify as legal song appraisers.
	The YouTube Video (YTV-GSP) License To spend money to create, and to place and promote a music video on YouTube, you must be generating at least $50,000 a year in music-related revenue. Otherwise, save your money until you have almost arrived. If you have synched one of your less-than-stellar songs to a wild, unique or unusual video that could become viral with or without your song, or if you have created a live music videos with poor sound quality, you may apply for this license separately.
	The Professional Self Promotion (PRO-GSP) License The Pro-GSP License enables you to molest the local, regional and national press that cover music and entertainment. You are also licensed to spend money on custom widgets and iPhone applications. To qualify for this license, large lines must form wherever you perform and/or several music industry veterans should be trying to persuade you to follow them into eventual bankruptcy. Pro licenses are rarely granted to artists that have not already professionally recorded at least one album or six singles.

Originally posted by Bruce Warila from Music Think Tank (primary) RSS, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

New Piece: Khalid's Journey to the Alabaster Horizon

Khalid's Journey to the Alabaster Horizon

Thanks for the listen and Happy Holiday's to all!!!!

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

Christmas Day Parade in Guatemala

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)

New Playlist Tool for NNM Folks

I'm a little hungover so I decided to work on a little software project. When you type in a URL into the form on this page it'll generate a player for that page. (And only that page).

If you copy the HTML that it generates, you can post it anywhere and it'll make a Flash player with that page's playlist. ;)

You can also use it direct if you want with this url:

http://netnewmusic.net/cgi-bin/url-xspf.cgi?url=MYURL

Here's a player with a page from NNM, Steve's complete Shorties page:

URL: http://netnewmusic.ning.com/group/shorties/forum/topics/so-im-uploading-my-own-player

Let me know about any bugs or if you have any questions.

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 27, 2009 at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)

LAUDING A LEGEND - Asbury Park Press

LAUDING A LEGEND
Asbury Park Press
For a taste of Elliott Carter's music, performed by some of the world's best musicians, try the MET Chamber Orchestra, led by James Levine. ...

Opera in 2009: Bars and parks outdo the big house shows - Independent

Opera in 2009: Bars and parks outdo the big house shows
Independent
In new music, composer David Sawer bounced back from a dodgy January (Opera North's Skin Deep) to a triumphant November (Birmingham Contemporary Music ...

High points of the noughties - The Guardian

The Guardian

High points of the noughties
The Guardian
... but gained Pappano as music director of the Royal Opera House. He goes from strength to strength. Elliott Carter The "difficult" quiet American composer ...

December 26, 2009

A decade of art, locally and globally -- timeline - Arizona Republic

A decade of art, locally and globally -- timeline
Arizona Republic
Conductor Michael Christie named music director of Phoenix Symphony. • Cartoon drawings of Mohammed printed in Danish newspaper cause outrage in Muslim ...

and more »

FDR Fireside Chats Mash Up

Sound Clip: FDR and Louis by Michael Roth

Michael Roth composes music and sound design for theatrical productions in North America. This 2008 recording is from You Can’t Take It with You. He writes,”The director, Warner Shook wanted to open the play with the classic Louis Armstrong recording of “Sunny Side Of The Street” – but, especially given my own politics, I wanted to create an overture to the song and the play that created a surprisingly political context for the production, given that the play, though certainly a comedy and a very funny one, was taking place during and was a response to the depression in the 30’s, and more so simultaneously given what our country and the whole world was going through particularly in the fall of 2008. And as we are still of course reeling from the recession, so did the Vanderhof family in the play continue to deal uniquely with the ongoing depression.

I tracked down online recordings of FDR’s fireside chats, edited them together, aiming to whittle them down to a clear and concise message, cleaned up the sound quality, put a click track to it, composed and orchestrated a score around FDR’s voice, using elements of “Sunny Side” as well as my own music, and recorded it with the great players in Seattle. The sound challenge was pretty exacting – they are archaic archival recordings of pretty dubious consistency. But, combining two FDR chats (March 9, 1937 and March 12, 1933), with the particular help of Brendan Hogan, we finessed the eq and dynamics to make it as consistent as possible, and ultimately laid out the chats so they would make their point and be, for want of a better term, musically as well as politically clear – and always trying to remember of course that this to be an introduction to a comedy.

The recording posted here is of my intro, segueing to Louis’ recording (always worth listening to). The result proved to be pretty rewarding, mainly I hope politically, as my respect for FDR grew enormously, listening to him deal with the way things were and talk to the American people as if we were adults, clearly and patiently (if you’ve never listened to them, I urge you to track them down). And of course, the irony of it all in 2008-9, hearing a ghostly president’s voice from 70 years ago admonish bankers who showed themselves “either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people’s funds” was not lost on me, nor on the Seattle audience – it got applause at most every performance, the first applause of the night it would seem – not bad.”

More information on Michael Roth

Originally posted by Margaret from Sound is Art, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 26, 2009 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)

Huddersfield 2009 (4/5)

There are several pieces and performances I've wanted to write about from the Huddersfield festival that don't fit under a single umbrella. This post will be a sort of catch-all for them.

Rebecca Saunders' disclosure, played with real sensitivity and power by MusikFabrik, was informed by a Beckett quote: "I still see, sometimes, that waning face disclosing, more and more clearly the more it entered shadow, the one I remembered." Thinking about the piece and the quote in relation to each other helps me to understand each of them better. The focus at the opening was on the transition from the very local-level timeline for any player between not playing (add a hyphen if you like) and playing. Silence was not really a factor, nor was controlled sound. The focus was on everything between the two. The playing moved suddenly to sounds which were on the other side of the controllable playing range (beyond it), and then pulled back to a compelling violin solo, powerfully played by Juditha Haeberlin. Saunders' vocabulary of sounds is enormous, and the form of the piece was enigmatic. I'm sure I would make something else of it on a second or third hearing. (By the way, there is a very useful, brief interview with Saunders from 2002 on the Ensemble Modern site.)

James Weeks conducted the New London Chamber Choir in a wonderful performance of Jonathan Harvey's The Summer Cloud's Awakening. It was a rich piece and, at 35 minutes, a truly immersive experience. I find it difficult to talk about, but fortunately Harvey describes it well:

"Everything is based on the relationship of a brief phrase from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde to the Buddhist vision of reality. The Wagner phrase is stretched out from 12 seconds to five minutes - the 'longing' of the Wagnerian phrase so achingly long that it seems almost motionless."

"The sound is chopped up at speed and flung around and above the listener, often in canonic formations. Huge clusters of sound ('clouds' and 'mists' are created from the voices and instruments. Some sounds are recorded, but many are created in real time."

Oliver Coates' stage presence was quite unassuming, but his performance, both on this piece and on Saariaho's Sept Papillons was tremendous. On the Harvey, he used a second cello with two G and two C strings, all tuned an octave down. Harvey aptly describes this as "a deep, strange, heiratic sound." Weeks also wrote a very useful article about the piece and its preparation that was posted on the hcmf site.

Sebastian Berweck launched the first CD (Extended Piano) of the new label HCR (Huddersfield Contemporary Records) with his recital for piano and analogue electronics that included pieces by Michael Maierhof, Benjamin Lang, Thomas Wenk, Johannes Kreidler, and Enno Poppe. (The CD also includes a piece by James Saunders.) HCR is curated by CeReNeM, the Centre for Research in New Music at the University of Huddersfield. I will be following the label's releases as well as CeReNeM's other activities with interest. Berweck's recital posed fundamental questions about what the piano is, and what it is that a pianist does. In his program note he speaks of "Five ways to get out of the historical straitjacket ... as diverse as can be":

Maiherhof decides to use the piano as what it is: a huge soundboard with a fake reverberation device.

Benjamin Lang decides to use the piano as what it is: an instrument that makes sound everywhere and writes a piece that barely uses the keys at all.

Johannes Kreidler extends the piano with a tape -- a tape that destroys the piano rather than enhances it by bringing sounds from our daily dosage of media entertainment into the concert hall.

Thomas Wenk turns back to the analogue.... Taurus CT-600 is certainly not a piano piece. But a piece for piano player maybe?

Enno Poppe uses the pianist for what he is: someone who can play keyboards. In Arbeit (Work) Poppe uses a virtual rendition of the Hammond B3 Organ.

Each of the pieces was provocative in a different way, and Berweck played them all with real skill and commitment. You can see part of an earlier performance he did of Thomas Wenk's TAURUS CT-600 at the opening of this youtube video, and part of one of Maierhof's splitting pieces at the 3:06 mark.

A number of other sound samples are available on Berweck's own site. I also recently came across this documentary about another piece by Johannes Kreidler that is quite interesting. Kreidler's answer to the objecting audience member is so articulate that I think he may have been planted there. But in any case, it's a piece that asks some very cutting questions.

There was tremendous energy in both Matthew Shlomowitz's Theme Street Parade and its performance by the Quatuor Diotima. Shlomowitz chose not to write a program note, but in an interview about the piece he said that “The basic premise is a formalistic treatment of vernacular material." I enjoyed my own shifting reaction to the piece. In a festival situation in particular (when so much music is presented) it's easy to start making an assessment about a piece from its opening moments. This opening was so straight-forward and conventional that I was puzzled. I couldn't figure out what he was trying to do. Then the musical materials were broken apart horizontally and vertically, repeated, examined, distorted. After the violist's string broke a few minutes into the piece, we got another chance to hear how the material was toyed with. Shlomowitz speaks about "taking very familiar musical themes and doing unexpected things with them.... It’s that pulling-the-rug-out thing that I’m interested in." The actual material used was quite short. Shlomowitz loops back on it to an extreme point, raising questions about what repetition is and what it does. This piece will be broadcast on BBC's Hear and Now on January 9th and will be available for the week following. It's really vibrant and packed with innovation--well worth a listen. In the meantime, I'll post one more video: a performance by Parkinson-Saunders of one of Shlomowitz's Letter Pieces. They are all quite interesting, but I'm attached to this one since I was one of the members of the audience that bust up laughing at a performance of it at Listen/Space in New York. How they carry it off in such a deadpan performance is beyond me.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Originally posted by jennie from sound expanse, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 26, 2009 at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)

The essence of things

Anything can be painted. It's more difficult to see whether what one is doing is any good or not. But that's the only thing that counts. As Duchamp showed, it has nothing to do with craftsmanship. What counts isn't being able to do a thing, it's seeing what it is. Seeing is the decisive act, and ultimately it places the maker and the viewer on the same level.

-- Gerhard Richter.

Originally from Depth Noise, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 26, 2009 at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)

New forms and old traditions

New forms meet old traditions in the church of Notre Dame de Pentecôte in Paris. French architect Franck Hammoutène's 2001 design uses a 115 feet tall front wall of translucent glass wall which can be seen in my centre photo. L'Eglise de Notre Dame de Pentecôte is in François Mitterrand's monumental contribution to the Paris skyline, the new la Défense business district. This temple to the free market overlooks the campus of Paris West University Nanterre, which was at the centre of the unrest that sparked the 1968 student riots in Paris.

In 1968 the demonstrators may have been Vive la Révolution! but today employees from the financial service businesses and technology consultancies from the surrounding tower blocks form a large part of the congregation for the new church. On the day I took these photos in November 2009 there was a very different demonstration of new forms meeting old traditions. Giant photos of Tiger Woods promoting the Accenture management consultancy graced the elevated walkways of La Défense while elsewhere the media speculated in equally graphic terms on the golfer's latest struggles in the rough.

New forms meeting old traditions also provides the soundtrack for my photo essay. French composer Charles Tournemire (1870-1939) is forever linked with his monumental organ cycle L'Orgue Mystique based on Gregorian chant, and the rest of his output is largely forgotten. But Tournemire was a prolific composer and his catalogue of just seventy-six opus numbers is very deceptive. Just three opus numbers (55 to 57) account for the almost fifteen hours of L'Orgue Mystique, while one opus (52) comprises a massive trilogy of oratorios titled Faust, Don Quichotte and Saint François d'Assise that has yet to be performed.

Probably most interesting are Charles Tournemire's eight symphonies. The first five were composed before 1914 and were well received in performance. But his last three symphonies, composed between 1914 and 1924, were victims of the change in musical fashions after the First World War and remained unperformed until they were recorded in the 1990s. Among them was the mighty sixth which lasts for fifty-five minutes and is scored for large orchestra, tenor solo and mixed choir.

Although Tournemire's music fell foul of fashion it is by no means reactionary and his bold scoring explores the outer reaches of tonality. Below is the 1997 recording of Tournemire's best known symphony, his Fifth (what is it about Fifth Symphonies?) in a coupling with the Eighth made by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège conducted by Pierre Bartholomée, who is a contemporary composer in his own right. The excellent sleeve notes for this CD, on which this article draws, are by Belgian musicologist Harry Halbreich, who interestingly contributed an essay to a recent re-release of Iannis Xenakis' chamber music. Sadly this recording and Marco Polo's complete cycle of the Tournemire symphonies ares now deleted, although individual discs remain available.

Regular readers will know that I now refuse to play the 'forgotten masterpiece by a neglected genius' game. Anyway, it would be foolhardy to pretend that Charles Touremire's orchestral output changed the direction of modern music. But these are honest compositions whose main interest lies in their origins in the period of transition from old to new in twentieth century music.

While Tournemire was exploring the outer reaches of tonality in his last symphonies, the young Messiaen was being exposed to the older composer's celebrated organ improvisations at the Basilique Ste-Clotilde, Paris. Although Messiaen was never a pupil of Tournemire he is now recognised as an influence, moreover both composers were deeply influenced by the mystical elements of the Roman Rite and both wrote major works on the subject of Saint François d'Assise. For these reasons alone Charles Tournemire, the 140th anniversary of whose birth is celebrated in 2010, deserves to be recognised as more than Catholicism's most prolific composer for organ.

Also worth exploring are the symphonies of Albéric Magnard, who was a contemporary of Tournemire. Another mix of modern eccesiastical architecture and organ music here.
My CD of Tournemire's Fifth and Eighth Symphonies was bought at retail some years ago. 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 Dec 26, 2009 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)

More Light! More Space! More Time!

Composer Taylan Susam is asking all the right questions in a short essay, here. I like this, especially: In my opinion, the supposition - uttered by many contemporary musicologists - that the numerical relation between music and the cosmos is mimetic by nature, is plainly false. Music is more of a parallel manifestation of the harmony that also governs the kosmos. The numerical relations are to music what the projector light is to the cinema.

I disagree, too, with the mimetic supposition. I believe that it introduces an unnecessary — and distracting — distinction between nature and art, whereas it should be abundantly clear that works of art are part of natural history, just like the human beings who make them, and making a distinction between art and everything else and calling that everything else "nature" simply avoids the hard project of explaining what it is that makes artwork special within the domain of the natural.

Someplace else, I wrote that Sounds articulate precise dimensions in physical space; musical sounds also articulate precise dimensions in social and private spaces. That is right, methinks, as far as it goes, with physical, social and personal spaces relating to one another like nesting dolls, but I don't think that it goes far enough, in that time is not represented. Sounds are events in natural history and there is an inseparable intimacy between sound and the experience of time passing, indeed, sound is a means for making that experience articulate.

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 26, 2009 at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

Christmas Greetings... and some music... Howling Wolf... Paul Butterfield... Steve Lacy...John Zorn... Funkadelic... Thelonious Monk... Lennie Tristano...

Seasons greetings to all. It's been a while... but I've decided that there might be some life in the mp3 free download and obscure chat formula still - maybe a concentrated look at a track or two could still be interesting in this age of mass album downloads - well, before they shut us all down, or try to... I live in the hope that the Internet can resist the fools and thieves - i.e. politicians - and their attempts at policing the Anarchosphere...

To the music: here comes the Taildragger – the mighty Howling Wolf performing 'Shake for me.' Taken from a live recording from the American Folk Blues Festival on tour in 1964. Guessing at the lineup, Hubert Sumlin contributes some stinging sharp guitar, comping and single note lines that lock nicely with Sunnyland Slim's piano. Classic Chicago blues...

Some rocky white blues edging into r and b/soul stylings with the addition of the horn section – Paul Butterfield and his band at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Playing 'Driftin' Blues,' I'm guessing this is the same lineup that recorded 'Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw,' so Keith Johnson on trumpet leading it in before the vocal takes it up, shadowed by Elvin Bishop's guitar. Butterfield takes a harp solo, three eloquent choruses that build nicely. Video of the performance here

Steve Lacy with bass and drums playing 'Blue Jay' from his album 'The Holy La,' recorded in France in 1998. Despite all his years playing, there was always an early morning fresh jump out of bed feel to his work.

John Zorn in 1998. From the album 'Downtown Lullaby,' this is '228 West Broadway.' Bit of a curiosity, interesting in the sense that the musicians: Zorn plus Wayne Horvitz, keyboards, Elliott Sharp, guitar and Bobby Previte on drums freely improvised the material in the studio and then added the titles – all New York addresses that refer, I think, to loft spaces where they have played. Oddly eastern feel to it - Elliott Sharp's electric guitar weaving in and out of Zorn's alto over minimal drums that build into a backbeat that stops just under four minutes in as Horvitz drops in some sprinkles of keyboard, reforming again after half a minute, adding some cymbal splash. Starting to get more interestingly tangled together, Previte mixing up the rhythm, keyboard dropping in some chordal crashes. Ebbing away and down as Zorn plays with a fragment of melody, tossing it around gently. Out on faint scuffling drums and a dying guitar note.

Mr Clinton from 1974. 'Alice in my fantasies,' from 'Standing on the verge of getting it on.' I first got into George C when I bought a copy of Parliament's 'Chocolate City' in a Dublin cut-out bin, circa 1976(? - That was a heavy Black Bushmills year). Not sure how the new prez will work out after a decidedly jumpy start, but let's be charitable in hard times: 'You're the capital, C.C.' This is a wild ride which cuts through a few genre barriers, rock colliding with funk in a heavy guitar-laced track, some weirdo vocal giving way to the mighty 'Smedley Smorganoff,' the criminally unsung Eddie Hazell blasting out some fierce wah wah, fading out somewhat abruptly. A bit of fun...

Monk, the first album he made for Columbia – 'Monk's Dream' – and take one of 'Bye-ya.' Another album which is important to me – I bought this when I was living with my first wife in some glorious boho dump in London – our first 'apartment.' Used to play this on a portable record player... it was my birthday present from her that year. Frankie Dunlop's drums open by spelling out the rhythm of the theme, when the band come in they accentuate Monk's compositionary vision - a seamless mix of rhythm, melody and harmony. Charlie Rouse takes a jaunty solo, followed by Monk in expansive mood, prodding and flowing in equal order, jumping off a riff to roll down on his patented whole note runs. A solo that amply demonstrates how he respects his improvisational start points. But everything on a good Monk track (which was most of them) always comes together - not always on first listen if you don't understand his vocabulary but there is always a supreme musical intelligence at work. Tunes are never just vehicles for blowing - over the years that I have been listening to his work, since that mind-blowing performance in 'Jazz on a Summer's Day' which opened my very young ears further to the possibilities of modern jazz and beyond, I have never bought into the myths that he was some kind of mad primitive. Monk was an exotic character, which is part of his appeal, but the vision behind the music and the man should be acknowledged more. It looks as if the new biography may go some way to rectify some of the idiocies - can't wait to grab a copy in the New Year. Apparently Bill Evans thought that Monk's singular vision was due to not being exposed to Western classical music, some kind of idiot savant... which demonstrates my point. Yes he was, Bill...

Another pianist/visionary who suffered at the hands of critical myopia - ironic, given his own disability - was Lennie Tristano. While Monk had at least a good measure of success in his life and is still acclaimed critically, Tristano was never as highly regarded - yet he was one of the great pillars of modern jazz with a unique take on linearity and melody. Here he leads a powerhouse lineup - Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz on saxophones, Billy Bauer on guitar, Arnold Frishkin, bass and Denzil Best on drums. One of those corny titles: 'Sax of a kind' - ha ha - which disguises a fleet and intricate theme. Bauer solos first, fluently - he was a fine bebop guitar player - followed seamlessly by Tristano, over to Konitz then Marsh, a brief trade between the saxes then into the theme before you realise it. One flowing whole, no joins - fascinating, how Tristano taught his methods of improvisation to pupils who remained of his school while developing their own distinct approaches.

Back soon...

Howling Wolf
with possibly Sunnyland Slim (p) Hubert Sumlin (g) Willie Dixon (b) Clifton James (d)
Shake for me
Download

Buy

Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield(v,hca)
with possibly Elvin Bishop (g)David Sanborn (as) Brother Gene Dinwiddie (ts) Keith Johnson (t) Mark Naftalin (keys) Bugsy Maugh (b) Phillip Wilson (d)
Driftin' Blues
Download

Buy

Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy (ss) Jean-Jacques Avenel (b) John Betsch (d)
Blue Jay
Download

Buy

John Zorn
John Zorn (as) Wayne Horvitz (keys) Elliott Sharp (g) Bobby Previte
228 West Broadway
Download

Buy

George Clinton/Funkadelic
Spaced Viking; Keyboards & Vocals: Bernard (Bernie) Worrell
Tenor Vocals, Congas and Suave Personality: Calvin Simon
A Prototype Werewolf; Berserker Octave Vocals: Clarence 'Fuzzy' Haskins
World's Only Black Leprechaun; Bass & Vocals: Cordell 'Boogie' Mosson
Maggoteer Lead/Solo Guitar & Vocals: Eddie 'Smedley Smorganoff' Hazel
Rhythm/Lead Guitar, Doowop Vocals, Sinister Grin: Gary Shider
Supreme Maggot Minister of Funkadelia; Vocals, Maniac Froth and Spit;
Behaviour Illegal In Several States: George Clinton
Percussion & Vocals; Equipped with stereo armpits: Ramon 'Tiki' Fulwood
Rhythm/Lead Guitar; polyester soul-powered token white devil: Ron Bykowski
Registered and Licensced Genie; Vocals: 'Shady' Grady Thomas
Subterranean Bass Vocals, Supercool and Stinky Fingers: Ray (Stingray) Davis
Alice in my fantasies
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Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk (p) Charlie Rouse (ts) John Ore (b) Frankie Dunlop (d)
Bye-ya take one
Download

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Lennie Tristano
Lee Konitz (as) Warne Marsh (ts) Lennie Tristano (p) Billy Bauer (g) Arnold Fishkin (b) Denzil Best (d)
Sax of a kind
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Buy

Originally from wordsandmusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 26, 2009 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

40 Years Old, a Musical House Without Walls - New York Times

New York Times

40 Years Old, a Musical House Without Walls
New York Times
When Deutsche Grammophon declined to release a seminal recording of Steve Reich's “Music for 18 Musicians” that Mr. Eicher had produced, he released it on ...

December 25, 2009

Holidays 2009

Here are a couple of great programs from the past for Christmas and New Years Fridays:

25 December 2009: rebroadcast

#178: April 17, 2009 :: Garland/Hovhaness

Peter Garland: String Quartet #2 “Crazy Cloud” (1994)
Apartment House Quartet - Cold Blue CB0032 (2009)

Alan Hovhaness: Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra (1954)
Premier recording: Martin Berkofsky, Atakan Sari, pianos
Globalis Symphony Orchestra, Konstantin Krimets, cond.
Black Box BBM1103 (2004) This work had to wait 50 years for a first performance and recording!

1 January 2010: rebroadcast

#91 :: January 19, 2007 :: THINKING

Maria de Alvear: THINKING (2000), for piano + violin + video - piano: Stephen Clarke, violin: Marc Sabat; based on texts by: Tsolagiu M.A. RuizRazo:

THE THINKING OF PEOPLE

WHEN I SPEAK OF THE SPIRIT
IT IS FAR BEYOND WHAT MOST PEOPLE THINK OF.
I’M CONFIDENT IN MY WAYS.
I DON’T CARE ABOUT WHAT PEOPLE THINK OF ME
BECAUSE I DO KNOW THAT WHAT I HAVE BEEN SHOWN
AND TOLD IS FAR BEYOND.

Recording: 12.1.2001, Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto, Canada; LIVE UNEDITED CONCERT RECORDING. World Edition CD0009

Best wishes for the new year!

Originally posted by rchrd from Music From Other Minds, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 25, 2009 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)

Heard on High

Struggle Over Symbols, Dept.

“The top official in California’s Sonoma County has rescinded a ban on stars and angels on Christmas trees in county buildings”:

[ link → County official reverses ban on angels ]

Public defender Barry Collins, who is Jewish, erected a Christmas tree adorned with a star in the lobby window of his office. He called the ban ridiculous and said his office’s mission was to represent those whose constitutional rights are infringed.

Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 25, 2009 at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

Oil & Water

It’s the sound of human consciousness.
— An eighth-grader’s response to an initial hearing
of Elliott Carter’s Symphonia: Sum fluxae pretiam spei

All music — all art, all entertainment — requires empathy . . . .
— from the introduction to Jazz
(Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux)

I adamantly believe that rock in all of its forms is a critical problem which our civilization must get to grips with in some genuinely effective way, and without delay, if it wishes long to survive.
— curtain line to chapter 5, “Jazz and the Blues,”
from The Secret Power of Music (David Tame)

A tango is a sensual experience. Doing a tango with Al Pacino — I’ve never recovered.
— Gabrielle Anwar, recollecting work on Scent of a Woman

The tango is vertical rape.
— Astor Piazzolla

Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 25, 2009 at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)

Merry Xmas, Happy New Year and VIVA 21st-century Women

Full of food and drink, playing with those presents, a couple days now to relax… How about capping the holiday huddled around the warm, cozy glow of the old ‘puter?

Because this Sunday the 27th, beginning at 1900 (7pm) EST and running all the way until Monday evening at 1900 (7pm) EST, our new-music radio host-with-the-most Marvin Rosen is having his annual Viva 21st-Century – Women Composers Edition 24-hour broadcast marathon. We’re talking all-women, all-the-time, and all things written only from 2000 ’till today! You’re bound to be enlightened, and possibly even amazed, with much of what you’ll hear. Your geography doesn’t matter either, because wherever you’re at you only need click to WPRB’s live stream and you’re good to go.

So pay a visit; your ears will thank you. And if inclined give a shout to Marvin himself for pushing himself to push this music, and so push you into a greater awareness of all the wonderful stuff being written by women composers in the here and now. (Marvin sez: “Wake up phone calls during this marathon will be welcome“…)

Originally posted by Steve Layton from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 25, 2009 at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)

Praetorius: Lutheran Mass For Christmas Morning

Happy Christmas from the OM!
Here is the most glorious of Christmas pieces: Michael Praetorius’ Lutheran Mass For Christmas Morning performed by Paul McCreesh’s impeccable Gabrieli Consort.

1.2.4"-->

wish to add this recording to your collection (and Miss Mussel can’t think of a reason why you wouldn’t) the disc is available on Archiv here.

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Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 25, 2009 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)

The Big Gigs: Our critics' music picks - Minneapolis Star Tribune

The Big Gigs: Our critics' music picks
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Ornette Coleman, Yes, Aphex Twin, Gyorgy Ligeti, ABBA, Nirvana, Igor Stravinsky, Black Sabbath, Milton Babbitt, Burt Bacharach, Blondie, Irving Berlin ...

and more »

Pacem in Terris

mcmurdo I took this picture at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica around 3 a.m. on December 25, 1966 as some of my shipmates and I made our way back from the McMurdo “Playboy Club” to the U.S.S. Atka, a Navy icebreaker that no longer exists. Given the other military options available to young men on that date, it was not a bad place to be. This rather surreal tableaux of drunken comraderie illustrates, I think, a dirty little secret known to all men and a few women and that is that men–especially hetrosexual men who have worked, lived and played together under difficult circumstances–love each other best.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 25, 2009 at 02:10 AM | Comments (0)

December 24, 2009

Faces to Watch in 2010: Music - Los Angeles Times

Faces to Watch in 2010: Music
Los Angeles Times
A couple of years ago, when the Dallas Symphony announced the appointment of Jaap van Zweden as its next music director, heads scratched in Texas at an ...

and more »

KFUO sale sings a sour note among top performances - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

KFUO sale sings a sour note among top performances
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The story of the year in classical music is the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's sale of KFUO (99.1 FM) to Gateway Creative ...

Winding out to the Pacific

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

I'm at the stage of generating multiple runs through the piece and picking the one to save as the final version. This one is take 12 of 18.

Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)

!!!!Katia Tiutiunnik!!!

discuss?

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)

What Are Your Musical Goals For 2010?

One of the characteristics of successful (define it how you like) people is setting and reaching goals.

Also, at the end of each semester, I challenge my students to take their creative output up a notch (which can mean many things to my students, from learning an instrument on up).

So with these thoughts in mind, what are your musical goals for 2010? Seriously.

Let's dig this one up in a year and see how we did.

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)

one thing’s for sure: distribution is king

iTunes has also trained listeners to think of music as piecemeal singles instead of cohesive artistic visions. Music isolated from context only tells a partial story, and this shift in listener habits may be permanent. ... It seems, then, that the iTunes model has changed the musician, too.

(In 2008, vinyl sales were up 90 percent from the year before; 2009 vinyl sales are up 50 percent. Of course, vinyl is a niche market only representing 1 percent of total music sales.)

read The Decade You Listened to Too Much Music

With so much free music at one’s disposal and so many obscure new acts to discover, many downloaders find it hard to listen to it all.

"a lot more than just the music" - that's also the problem. Music "in itself" is not enough..

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)

Getting a Performance

There's been several post about difficulties getting music played. For me any instrumental things I've written I've had to get people together and play with them to get a performance.
John Zorn talks about it in this way;
"I'm not going to sit in some ivory tower and pass my scores down to the players." said Zorn, "I have to be there with them, and that's why I started playing saxophone, so that I could meet musicians. I still feel that I have to earn a player's trust before they can play my music. At the end of the day, I want players to say: this was fun - it was a lot of fucking work, and it's one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it was worth the effort."
What's your experience?

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)

Silence Defined

A graduate student asked me recently for my definition of silence. It was not an easy task. I wanted, at first to succinctly capture the essence of silence's role in both the musical and every-day environments, however this proved to be more of a paragraph than a phrase/short sentence, which is what the student wanted.

The short definition:
Silence is the space we live in.

The longer definition (gist):
Silence is an inter-dependent element of music that is both rythmical and spatial aspects. The rythmical component acts between notes. The spatial component is heard both harmonically (above and below, around pitches and other sound events) and in the listener's aural environment inhabiting the spaces around the edge of the aural experience. The rythmic element of silence also lends to a psychological sense in the act of listening. It is this sense of space/place that positions the listener within the context of the music, as a participant in the musical experience.

Originally from Thoughts on Music and Silence, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)

Handbell Hero

Assuming that most people are working a half day today, Miss Mussel has saved a treat for the final hour. Gather your office mates round the computer and have a go at the utterly fantastic Handbell Hero.

As near as Miss Mussel can make out, Handbell Hero is in its third incarnation as a holiday funtimes publicity for the VML marketing agency. Here’s how it developed way back when decade was still middle-aged.

“Handbell Hero ’07 originated over an off-site creative breakfast. One person said, “Hey, what should we do for Christmas this year?” Then somebody said, “Dude. This coffee is hot.” And someone else said, “But my muffin is fresh.” Which naturally brought Guitar Hero to mind, so we spent the next 35 minutes discussing high scores and stuff.

ually we got back to Christmas. And someone said “How about a music video starring our Flossie in a red sequined gown singing carols on top of a baby grand?” Well, that was totally ridiculous because Flossie doesn’t do strapless this time of year – even with long gloves. So then we all agreed the white gloves you wear in handbell choirs are pretty cool. And, voila! Handbell Hero ’07 was born.”

Trained musicians will find it confusing because the pitches don’t always correspond with their vertical position on the staff but that’s ok. Leveling the playing field just makes it more fun for everyone. At the moment, you can choose from three seasonal songs. There’s a marketing lesson in here somewhere but who cares…it’s Christmas and it can wait until January.

If you turn out to be a handbell ninja, as Miss Mussel apparently is, you can look forward to the following ego boost:

Booya…..or something.

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Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)

Tagline

Creating without cognitive enhancement since 1969 . . . .

Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)

Joyeux Noël

Come, come, whoever you are,
Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.
Meulana Jalāl ad-Dīn Rumi

Reflections of Christmas captured at Printemps Haussmann, Paris and (c) On An Overgrown Path 2009. 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 Dec 24, 2009 at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

CRITIC'S CHOICE – CDs, Pianists: Mitsuko Uchida, Temirzhan Yerzhanov, and ... - SanFranciscoSentinel.com

CRITIC'S CHOICE – CDs, Pianists: Mitsuko Uchida, Temirzhan Yerzhanov, and ...
SanFranciscoSentinel.com
BY STRANGE de JIM BY EDWARD ZERIN, Ph.D. By Seán Martinfield Decca Music Group's recent release of The Cleveland Orchestra's live recording of Mozart's ...

Day 22: O Little Town Of Bethlehem

Today we head to a little church in Swansea, Wales for a performance by Rob Charles of O Little Town of Bethlehem. The tune is the ever lovely Forest Green, which was first attached to the carol by Vaughan Williams.

The Willcocks descant to this tune is very effective, so it was tempting to post the St Pauls’ version with Kiri Te Kanawa but as a shout out to church organists everywhere riding the wave of the second busiest week of the year, Miss Mussel decided to go with Mr Charles.

North American readers will be more familiar with the original tune, known as St. Louis. To Miss Mussel’s ears, it always seemed too murky for a Christmas carol. There aren’t many wrongs that a certain Elvis Aaron Presley can’t right however and although she still prefers the Forest Green version by quite a fair margin, Elvis’ jaunty phrasing is difficult to resist.

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Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

Day 23: The Little Drummer Boy

If you can endure 2 minutes of toe-curlingly lame dialogue leading up to a horrifying arrangement of one of the worst Christmas songs ever written, then you deserve to witness this historic intersection of Venn diagrams. Ladies and gents, it’s Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing The Little Drummer Boy.

Wikipedia has it that Bowie only appeared on Crosby’s television special because “I just knew my mother liked him.” Crosby died just over a month after recording the special, which aired on 30 November 1977.

According to co-writer Ian Fraser, Bowie balked at singing the Little Drummer Boy because he hated the song. Fraser, along with songwriter Larry Grossman and the special’s scriptwriter, Buz Kohan, then wrote Peace on Earth as a counterpoint to Little Drummer Boy.

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Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

Day 24: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!

Miss Mussel is dragging herself to the Advent finish line on the back of this thriller of a carol. It’s old school majestic and unafraid of appearing a spectacle. Feast your ears on David Willcocks‘ classic arrangement sung at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Of the two famous cathedrals in town, St Paul’s is by far the boomiest. That the conductor (wonderfully effete and ever-so-slightly ginger in a way only a British man can be) kept everyone together is a a small miracle in it’s own right. Miss Mussel is willing to bet that the organist finished at least a whole bar before the congregation.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing was composed by Charles Wesley and set to a tune by Mendelssohn. The carol is traditionally sung at the end of the Nine Lessons And Carols Service at King’s College, Cambridge.

It is late in the season and Miss Mussel is out of historical factoids and dinner table anecdotes, so if you’d like to study up and impress your companions, head over to the fount of all knowledge and take a sip.

Miss Mussel hopes you have enjoyed the Advent Odyssey as much as she has. Stay tuned tomorrow for a very special treat.

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Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

Merry Holidays!

I would like to wish my visitors and fellow bloggers happy holidays and hope that everyone enjoys whatever holidays and traditions are celebrated. I'll be offline most of the time during the next few days as I'm visiting family and maybe a lost relative. I hope to resume posting a day or two after Christmas.

Originally from A Closet of Curiosities, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)

Artists: Dale Lloyd

Connections to Dale Lloyd are often recurrent in Spiritual Archives, but it's right and proper to dedicate, at last, the necessary space to Dale, for all he gave (and keeps on giving) to us during these years.
Personality gifted with unique sensibilities, as his works reveal, and inventor of one of the most evocative and inspired places: and/OAR.
Phonographers, field recordists, microsound artists can feel at home there.
A decade (and more) of Dale's sound work is described below.

______________________________________

Discography:

Like Ullyses

Label: Overheard And Rendered
Cat. #: OAR1
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2000

______________________________________

Know Random Events

Label: Overheard And Rendered
Cat. #: OAR5
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2000

______________________________________

Know Random Events

Label: Tiln
Cat. #: tiln_006
Format: File, Mp3, 96k
Release date: 2000

______________________________________

Vulcan Augmented

Label: and/OAR
Cat. #: and/01
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2001

______________________________________

Elemental Dialogue

Label: S'agita Recordings
Cat. #: s'agita 014
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2003

______________________________________

Eminus: Hymns From The Horizon

Label: and/OAR
Cat. #: and/05
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2003

______________________________________

Enabling Articulate Fields

Label: Earlabs
Cat. #: LM004
Format: File, Mp3, 192k
Release date: 2003

______________________________________

Aionios The Fundament

Label: Mystery Sea
Cat. #: MS12
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2004

______________________________________

Turba / Lateral Minor

Label: Stasisfield
Cat. #: SF-3010
Format: File, Mp3
Release date: 2004

______________________________________

Volatile And Fixed Principles

Label: Leerraum [ ]
Cat. #: 008.2004
Format: CD
Release date: 2004

______________________________________

Amalgam

(w/ Robert Horton, Nathan McNinch, Darcy McNinch, Omnid, Ben Owen, Josh Russell, Jon Tulchin, Scott Taylor, Stuart Dodman, Ubeboet, Heribert Friedl, K.M. Krebs)

Label: CONV
Cat. #: CNV R04
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2005

______________________________________

Semper

Label: and/OAR / Alluvial Recordings
Cat. #: -- / A19
Format: CD
Release date: 2005

______________________________________

Untitled

(w/ toy.bizarre)

Label: Bremsstrahlung
Cat. #: blung 005
Format: CD
Release date: 2006

______________________________________

Akasha For Record

Label: Elevator Bath
Cat. #: eeaoa028
Format: LP
Release date: 08/2009

______________________________________

Appears on:

Lucid - Baby Labyrinthian (1994, æ, æ1)
After The Flood - After The Flood (1996, æ, æ2)
Lucid - Idylls And The Secret Remain (1996, æ, æ3)
After The Flood - After The Flood 2 (1998, æ, æ6)
Bambule - Untitled (1999, Praxis, Praxis 29)
Lucid - Aurora Sunder (2000, Overheard And Rendered, OAR2)
DASL~Zen Tread - DASL~Zen Tread (2000, Overheard And Rendered, OAR4)
John Massoni & Sonic Boom - The Sundowner Sessions (2001, Space Age Recordings, ORBIT025CD)
Lucid - Magnabella (2001, Overheard And Rendered, OAR3)
The Phonographers Union - Live On Sonarchy Radio (2003, Accretions Records, ALP-033 CD)
John Massoni - Stillborn Dreams (2004, Space Age Recordings, ORBIT038CD)

______________________________________

Tracks appear on:

VV.AA. - Phonography.org 1 (2001, phonography.org, pho/1) track: Old Snoqualmie Train Tunnel
VV.AA. - Sonicabal 2001 (2001, Sonicabal, --) track: Embryonic In The Same Traditions
VV.AA. - 60" Somewhere / 60" Somewhere Else (2002, Throat, hz3 / hz4) track: Untitled
VV.AA. - Inflation (*0 "0.000" Remix) (2002, Mu Label, MU LABEL003 + 004) track: Irony In The Audible
VV.AA. - Lowercase-Sound 2002 (2002, Bremsstrahlung, blung 002) track: Fleeting Recollections Of The Snow Plain
VV.AA. - Phonography.org 3 (2002, phonography.org, pho/3) track: Stairwell Acoustics (Former Spl Building)
VV.AA. - Phonography.org: Compositions Using Field Recordings 2 (2002, phonography.org, pho/cc2) track: Zazen: A Consideration Of Work
VV.AA. - The Watermann Memorial (2002, microsound.org, --) tracks: Wassermann Wieder Gemischt, Wassermann Wieder Gemischt 2
VV.AA. - Another Kind Of Language: Dedicated To Andrei Tarkovsky (2003, and/OAR, and/10) track: Smoldering Ardor
VV.AA. - Tensile: International Experimental Acoustic Guitar Anthology (2003, Labile Music, Labile 13) track: Of The Six And Of The Twelve
VV.AA. - The Pi Project (2003, microsound.org, --) tracks: Mon.omial 1, Mon.omial 2
VV.AA. - A Call For Silence (2004, Sonic Arts Network, SAN 2004) track: Lobby And Lebeg
VV.AA. - USA/USB (2004, Shadow Puppet Recording Company, sprc004) track: Concurrent States
VV.AA. - Presque Museifu: Phonographic Migrations 1 (2004, Tiramizu, tiracd_003)
VV.AA. - Golden (2005, TRANS>PARENT RADIATION, TRANS002) track: Embedded Systems Of Unfolding
VV.AA. - Phonography.org 7 (2005, phonography.org, pho/7) track: Mt. St. Helens Locusts
VV.AA. - Serie01.mp3 (2005, Leerraum [ ], 012.2005) track: Volatile And Fixed Principles
VV.AA. - Ten Below (2005, petite sono], o4iv) track: The Fabric Of Impasse
VV.AA. - Territorium (2005, Non Visual Objects, nvo 004) track: Anamorphic_At
VV.AA. - The Post_Piano 2 Open Remix Project (2005, term., term. 12) track: Ruminations (Post AKEO)
VV.AA. - Untitled Songs On The 49th Year Of Gesang Der Jünglinge (2005, Sirr, SIRR 0020) track: Untitled
VV.AA. - Artificial Memory Trace Presents: Interpretations I (2006, Wachsender Prozess, WP20) track: din.terpreta
VV.AA. - On Isolation (2006, Room40, EDRM410) track: Among The Many
JM - Silent Approach (2006, Ideal Standard, idmix015) track: Enabling Inarticulate Fields 2
VV.AA. - Airport Symphony (2007, Room40, EDRM417) track: Airs For Beacons / Signals For Ports (here)
VV.AA. - Extract - Portraits Of Soundartists (2007, Non Visual Objects, nvo 011) track: Provisional (here)
VV.AA. - Yasujiro Ozu - Hitokomakura (2007, and/OAR, and/26) tracks: One And The Same, Beginnings And Endings, Return To Me Who Sleeps
VV.AA. - Rhythm (2007, Cherry Music / Gruenrekorder, cherry-003 / Gruen 050) track: 1928 Australian Streetcar
VV.AA. - A Cleansing Ascension (2007, Elevator Bath, eeaoa040) track: Our Morphosis
VV.AA. - Sound Contributions (2007, Leerraum [ ], 031.2007)
VV.AA. - Mandorla Autumn Soundscapes (2007, Mandorla Netlabel, MNL 010) track: Warm Equatorial Nox
VV.AA. - 88 Tapes (2008, Kesh, kesh:::008) (track: Solar Mirage)

______________________________________

Links:
Dale Lloyd
Interview By Tobias Fischer@Tokafi

Originally from Spiritual Archives, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 05:12 AM | Comments (0)

Lucid Culture: Amy X Neuburg CD: "Ambitious, dizzying"

Amy X Neuburg's The Secret Life of Subways has been reviewed at Lucid Culture.

They call Subways "a very ambitious, dizzying ride," adding that Neuburg "creates a loosely thematic series of surreal, theatrical, Bowie-esque vignettes and epics, some harsh and aggressive, others ambient and atmospheric."

Visit Amy's website.

Originally from Starkland, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 05:10 AM | Comments (0)

Something Old, Something New - Wall Street Journal

Something Old, Something New
Wall Street Journal
Earlier this year, EMI released his CD "Shadows of Silence," which pairs works by the modern-music titans Witold Lutosławski and György Kurtág with pieces ...

Music Listings: Dec. 24-31 - Kelowna.com

Music Listings: Dec. 24-31
Kelowna.com
24, 7 pm, $39-115, 604- 280-4444 So Percussion » Experimental band from New York performs music by Steve Reich and David Lang. Heritage Hall, 3102 Main St, ...

Unsilent Night – Cambridge – 2009

Monday was Unsilent Night in Miss Mussel’s corner of the universe. The crowd that gathered to stroll through the town centre was rather large although only one in ten had any sort of audio device. Mere Mussel’s best efforts were foiled by her offspring’s sieve-like memory (mp3 player was left at home), so no ethical lines were even remotely approached, let alone crossed.

Since Canadian are such nice people, everyone kept a respectable distance away from each other. This accommodation of others’ space proved to be a bit problematic in light of the lack of music sources. The full effect of the piece was most noticeable when we were forced off the street into a big clump waiting to move to a footpath.

One other magic moment came near the end when the bells on the recordings met up with a carilloneur playing a wobbly Here We Come A Wassailing at Central Presbyterian. Seeing as it’s the season of goodwill, Miss Mussel will charitably suggest that it was perhaps the world’s only hipster carilloneur playing ironically. *ahem*

Here’s what it was like. Audio and stills were captured on iPhone using HT Recorder and CameraBag. Not a bad piece of kit to have in knocking about in a pocket or handbag.

Composer Phil Kline discusses the ideas behind the piece ici:

Other people have also reported on Unsilent Night happenings in their respective towns:
Anne Midgette | Brian Sacawa Part 1 – Part 2

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Originally posted by Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel on Classical Music & Culture, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 24, 2009 at 02:11 AM | Comments (0)

December 23, 2009

Labels: Winds Measure Recordings

Winds Measure Recordings is an American (Brooklyn, NY), relatively young label (four years of activity) whose aim is to spotlight innovative methods in sound exploration, facing uncommon levels of investigation through the recourse to elements of musique concrète, improvisational components and a wise handling of environmental recordings.
As confirmation of that, its catalogue exhibits some of the best names in the field (Asher, Gilles Aubry, Greg Davis, Richard Garet, Andy Graydon, Lawrence English, Jeph Jerman, Jason Khan, Ubeboet, and, of course, Ben Owen, the mind behind this project).

Another prerogative of wmr is a particular care for the layout and package design of the titles, conceived according to a minimalistic perspective, following an exclusive, unique graphic style.
Furthermore, and not a (minor) detail, their contents offer aural contexts often involving visual significances as natural projection, a substrate almost functional to them, despite different sources exploited by the artists: raw recordings or practices of digital processing or, more, products of analog treatments.

Music that would spread into wide open spaces as well as eligible for a close listening in a small room; sounds which give motion to stills of daily life and, equally, very useful as interpretative key of urban experiences.

______________________________________

Founder: Ben Owen
Location: New York, USA

Area: Electronic, Experimental, Ambient, Field Recordings, Free Improvisation

Website: http://www.windsmeasurerecordings.net/
Blog: http://windsmeasure.tumblr.com/
Mail: wm(at)seasonalbk.net

Address: PO Box 1444 - NY NY 10276 USA

______________________________________

Catalogue:

Jeph Jerman + Albert Casais - And This

Cat. #: wm01
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2006
Notes: limited edition of 100 copies
Package: silkscreen and letterpress sleeve. Designed and printed by Ben Owen

Cat. #: wm01-2
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2009
Notes: second edition
Package: translucent vellum envelope with letterpress sticker. Designed and printed by Ben Owen

______________________________________

Ben Owen - Radio>in

Cat. #: wm02
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2006
Notes: limited edition of 100 copies
Package: letterpress sleeve. Designed and printed by Ben Owen

Cat. #: wm02-2
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2009
Notes: second edition
Package: translucent vellum envelope with letterpress sticker. Designed and printed by Ben Owen

______________________________________

Ting Ting Jahe - 18 (16)

Cat. #: wm03
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2006
Notes: limited edition of 100 copies
Package: letterpress sleeve. Designed and printed by Ben Owen

______________________________________

Greg Davis / Jeph Jerman / Albert Casais - 6 x 20

Cat. #: wm04
Format: 2xCD-R
Release date: 2006
Notes: limited edition of 100 copies
Package: letterpress sleeve and two composite photo cards. Designed and printed by Ben Owen

______________________________________

EA - Balancing Act With Controlled Dynamics

Cat. #: wm05
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2006
Notes: limited edition of 100 copies

Package: 2 panel letterpress sleeve and one score card insert. Designed and printed by Ben Owen and Gill Arnò.

______________________________________

Andy Graydon - At Bay

Cat. #: wm06
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2007
Notes: limited edition of 100 copies
Package: letterpress sleeve. Designed by Andy Graydon and printed by Ben Owen

______________________________________

Civyiu Kkliu & Ilya Monosov - Cartolina Postale, Composition No. 2

Cat. #: wm07
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2008
Notes: limited edition of 150 copies
Package: letterpress sleeve. Designed by Civyiu Kkliu and Ilya Monosov, produced and printed by Ben Owen

______________________________________

Ben Owen + Scott Allison - Untitled (For Agnes Martin)

Cat. #: wm08
Format: 8" lathe cut
Release date: 2009
Notes: limited edition of 50 copies
Package: letterpress sleeve. Designed by Scott Allison, printed by Ben Owen with Scott Allison

______________________________________

Asher & Ubeboet - Cell Memory

Cat. #: wm09
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2008
Notes: limited edition of 150 copies
Package: letterpress sleeve. Designed and printed by Ben Owen

______________________________________

VV.AA. - V-p V-f Is V-n

Cat. #: wm10
Format: 7"
Release date: 2008
Notes: limited edition of 350 copies
Package: letterpress sleeve and insert. Designed and printed by Ben Owen

______________________________________

Lawrence English - Studies For Stradbroke

Cat. #: wm11
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2008
Notes: limited edition of 150 copies

Package: letterpress sleeve. Designed and printed by Ben Owen, cover image from a photograph by Lawrence English

______________________________________

Richard Garet - L'avenir

Cat. #: wm12
Format: CD-R
Release date: 2008
Notes: limited edition of 150 copies
Package: letterpress sleeve. Designed and printed by Ben Owen

______________________________________

Sawako - Untitled

Cat. #: wm13
Format: Poster
Release date: 2008
Notes: limited edition of 50 copies

Package: letterpress printed in 2, 3 and 4 panel. Sewn with wire or conductive thread

______________________________________

Jason Kahn And Takefumi Naoshima - In A Room

Cat. #: wm14
Format: CD
Release date: 2009
Notes: limited edition of 300 copies
Package: letterpress sleeve. Designed and printed by Ben Owen

______________________________________

Ben Owen + Scott Allison - Untitled (For Agnes Martin)

Cat. #: wm15
Format: Poster
Release date: 2009
Notes: limited edition of 40 copies

Package: 3 color letterpress print, 10.25" x 16". Designed by Scott Allison, printed in collaboration by Ben Owen and Scott Allison

______________________________________

Gilles Aubry - s6t8r

Cat. #: wm16
Format: CD
Release date: 2009
Notes: limited edition of 300 copies
Package: letterpress sleeve. Designed and printed by Ben Owen

______________________________________

Originally from Spiritual Archives, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)

Release the Horns!

By Colin Holter
There are two sides of the horn that never seem to meet: the signifier of the hunt on the one hand and, on the other, the producer of psychoacoustically mesmerizing sonorities. Why don't more horn players specialize in the natural horn and commission pieces from people like Marc Sabat and Alvin Lucier?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)

Columbia and ACO Partner For New Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute

The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University and the American Composers Orchestra have announced a new collaborative project, the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute (JCOI), which will provide instruction and performance opportunities to jazz composers who are interested in working with the symphony orchestra.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)

Jonathan Howard Katz Wins 2010 Robert Helps Composition Competition

Composer/pianist Jonathan Howard Katz has won the fifth annual Robert Helps Prize in Composition, a $10,000 cash award sponsored by the University of South Florida School of Music; the premiere performance of Katz's winning work, Talking of Michelangelo (2009), will take place at the 2010 Robert Helps Festival on February 12, 2010 in Tampa, Florida.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)

Marielle Jakobsons and Agnes Szelag—Science and Folklore

Marielle Jakobsons and Agnes Szelag exist concurrently as string players, computer programmers, and Eastern European dronemongers. Their duo Myrmyr is the result of this consanguinity.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)

Persepolis + Remixes Edition 1

Iannis Xenakis - Persepolis + Remixes Edition 1 I found this one somewhere on the web some time ago. This is a 2-CD release with a recording of "Persepolis" on the first disc and the second disk contains remixes (or interpretations) by some of the biggest names and the cream-of-the-crop in contemporary experimental sound art. Also found on the web are the information and background of "

Originally from A Closet of Curiosities, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)

Winding out to the Pacific 8

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This is a work in progress...

So I took the time this morning while my wife and daughter were out shopping to code the tempo as a continuously variable speed that can be set inside the piece, instead of imposed externally with a hand coded Csound tempo command. Now, every note or phrase can have its own tempo. The speed gradually changes from one tempo to another in this version.

I can't believe I waited this long to implement such a simple function. In this version, I let the program choose from among 5 possible tempos. The choice is made when it chooses to play a measure of 96 to 240 beats, so that longer sections have faster tempo and shorter ones play slower.

Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)

Music without prior ownership

Most Sufis believe that the great religions and mystical traditions of the world share the same essential Truth. The various prophets and spiritual teachers are like the light bulbs that illuminate a room. The bulbs are different, but the current comes from one source, which is God. It is the same light; each of the individual bulbs receives electricity from a single source. The quality of the light is always basically the same, and so is the original source - from Essential Sufism.

Although Sufism is technically an esoteric branch of Islam it has also fascinated great minds from other cultures including the Catholic mystic Thomas Merton. My header photo shows Titi Robin (right) and Faiz Ali Faiz (left) whose new album Jaadu Magic sets Sufi poetry. Faiz Ali Faiz was born in Pakistan and trained in Qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music. Titi (Thierry) Robin is a French gypsy guitarist whose biography says -

...has explored various streams following his destiny East, through endless travels with Roma and Sinti people, carrying little luggage but immense dreams.

On Jaadu Magic Titi Robin and Faiz Ali Faiz are joined by a group of musicians playing acoustic instruments from the east and west. All the tracks are original compositions by Titi Robin; their starting point are the modes and rhythms of Qawwali, but the music expands to encompass flamenco, gypsy and Indian classical music. Fusion is now a redundant musical term; Jaadu Magic is not fusion, it is new music. And thereby lies an important lesson for classical music: the bulbs are different, but the current comes from one source.

One of the most important trends in music savant during the last ten years has been the emergence of fresh, exciting and usually improvised music like Jaadu Magic created by musicians from differing cultures and performing traditions. Sadly this trend has largely passed classical music, with its heavy baggage of strict notations and equally strict performance traditions, by. The beneficiary has been that grey area where world music meets jazz and folk. This territory was once the property of ECM, but as we move into a new decade others are now beating Manfred Eicher at his own game. Artistic residencies such as that at Les Escales Saint-Nazaire in France, which brought Titi Robin and Faiz Ali Faiz together, and French labels such as Accords Croises, on which Jaadu Magic is released, are the crucible in which this new music is being forged.

The second decade of the twenty-first century is going to be a very exciting time for music savant, but perhaps not for classical music. In the 1960s young people adopted rock as 'their' music because it came without prior ownership and without performance traditions. Young, and not so young, people are today looking for music to call their own. But, unless classical music can distance itself from prior ownership, innovative projects such as Jaadu Magic, which comes with hand baggage only, may be the future.

n in the video above, is one of the albums featured in My World of Music on Future Radio on December 26th at 4.00pm UK time. More on the Roma, the forgotten Holocaust victims, here.

Jaadu Magic was bought at La Friche Librairie, Paris. 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 Dec 23, 2009 at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)

Review of the Year 2009: Opera - Musical Criticism

Musical Criticism

Review of the Year 2009: Opera
Musical Criticism
Ligeti's Le grand macabre made for a strong season-opener at ENO, but the subsequent productions of Turandot, Bluebeard's Castle and Messiah have been mixed ...

Vampire Weekend, 'Contra' (XL) - Spin Magazine

Vampire Weekend, 'Contra' (XL)
Spin Magazine
It's music about the contradictions of neo-liberalism that might infiltrate Chelsea Clinton's Nano, the same way Simon might've mellowed her parents' living ...

The 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2009 - New York Observer

New York Observer

The 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2009
New York Observer
But Infernal Machines also draws on the minimalism of Steve Reich and the apocalyptic rock and roll of Radiohead. This is also music with a message, ...

12/23/09 playlist

All works performed by Boston Modern Orchestra Project dir. Gil Rose
all recordings provided by BMOP/sound

Gunther Schuller ~ Concertino for Jazz Quartet & Orchestra (BMOP/sound 1004)

Michael Gandolfi ~ Y2K Compliant (BMOP/sound 1002)

Elliott Schwartz ~ Chamber Concerto V: Water Music (BMOP/sound 1013)

John Cage ~ Sixteen Dances No. 15 [The Erotic] (BMOP/sound 1012)

Lukas Foss ~ The Prairie w/Providence Singers dir. Andrew Clark (BMOP/sound 1007)

Charles Fussell ~ Wilde, Symphony for Baritone & Orchestra (BMOP/sound 1005)

Originally from Music For Internets, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

Winding out to the Pacific 7

Listen here:

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This is a work in progress...

Playing with the tempo. I'd really like the ability to set the overall tempo the way I set the overall volume: as a continuously variable speed that can change with each note. Csound allows that, I just need to code the preprocessor to support it. Today I hand code it thusly:
t0 480 200 840 300 1280 600 800 700 240 900 1200 2000 1300
Where starting at time zero the tempo is 480 beats per minute, until time 200, when it reaches 840 bpm, then speeds up to 1280 at beat 300, then slows down to 800 at beat 600, and so on.
But that means I have to know when the tempo change is supposed to happen, and that varies depending on the chosen route through the piece. Simple matter of programming...

Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

Losing Definition

[ Greg in the southeast US asks: ]

Overall, how do you think you can define “high art” (if it’s even possible in the first place)?

[ Alan in the UK replies: ]

Over years I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that it’s not possible. There’s just too much blurring of the edges to be able to formulate a precise definition - and since philosophy hasn’t succeeded in producing an entirely satisfactory description even of what ‘art’ is, the notion of ‘high art’ gets dragged along into the general muddiness of that. Which all sounds rather unhopeful - and yet, curiously enough we find the term useful, and often we seem to understand each other when we use it. I'm reminded of the concept of ‘Reynolds number’ in physics. It’s a value you can calculate related to the flow of a fluid - a low value implies that the flow will be smooth, while a high value implies turbulence. It’s ever so rough and ready, and the boundary is terribly blurry, but even so it’s proved to be a useful way of talking about fluid flow.

The most useful (I don’t say ‘precise’ or ‘complete’) description of artistic activity I’ve encountered so far comes from Susanne Langer’s book Feeling and Form. She suggests that artistic activity involves the creation of ‘symbols of feeling’ - so the idea is that the artist makes these symbols (in paint, or music, or whatever), which we can then contemplate and, at least potentially, experience a similar feeling ourselves. If for the moment we take this as a starting point for a definition of art, then I suppose ‘high art’ or ‘fine art’ would involve the creation of an object whose primary purpose was entirely devoted to this process - that is, the communication of feeling, through symbols, to the viewer or listener. This distinquishes it broadly from craft-objects such as chairs and teapots, whose primary purpose (however beautifully they’re designed) is to assist in the process of sitting and tea-drinking.

And that all sounds well and good, until we start thinking about the blurry overlap areas - like the painting whose sole purpose is to decorate a room tastefully, to match the furniture; or a Morris chair which is best enjoyed as a piece of abstract sculpture because it’s so uncomfortable to sit on.

So I think we search for a rigid definition in vain, because the concept will always keep ducking out from under our grasp and spreading into awkward places. But we’ll still keep talking about it because it seems to be broadly useful despite its soap-in-the-bath ungraspability.

Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)

The Twelve Tones of Christmas

The last thing I should be thinking about right now is teaching, following my release from it last Friday. But I'm designing a course that I've threatened to teach for years: 12-tone Analysis. I've been recycling the same courses (Renaissance counterpoint, 18th-century sonata, 19th-century harmony, 20th-century analysis) for years, and if I don't come up with something new I'll bore myself to death. I even had a vivid dream that I was teaching a serialism course, and woke up excited about it, until I started enumerating the hurdles. The main one is that the serialist pieces I really love tend to be long and huge - Mantra, Pli selon pli, Rituel, Grande Aulodia, Philomel, Monologe, Sinfonia, Fragmente - Stille an Diotima. The cost of scores would impoverish my students' parents, and a semester wouldn't be long enough to do more than a couple of them justice.

But I think instead I'm going to scale it back and make up a list of smaller pieces. I really don't want to spend a lot of time on the First Vienna School, who don't interest me much - the payoff for me is all post-war Darmstadt - but I think with undergrads I probably should. I could teach one of the Webern Cantatas (I've grown deadly tired of dissecting the Symphony) and part of Berg's Violin Concerto to start off, plus Dallapiccola's Piccola Musica Notturna or Sex Carmina Alcaei. I can't think what Schoenberg to teach, since I don't like any of his 12-tone music except for Moses und Aron. Maybe I can suppress my gag reflex and do the Orchestra Variations or a movement from the Third Quartet. I do not want to waste my time teaching pieces I don't like in this class. I've been analyzing Post-Partitions for years as a Babbitt example, and while it's easy to outline, I just don't think it's a strong piece.

So I'm thinking All Set, for jazz ensemble, if there's enough documentation about it in Andrew Mead's book. I well know the folly of trying to analyze Babbitt without a cheat sheet. I regret that Mead doesn't discuss The Widow's Lament in the Springtime, which would be a perfect size. For another American, I'm thinking Rochberg's lovely Serenata d'Estate, or possibly the first movement of his Second Symphony. For Stockhausen I wouldn't mind trying my hand at Kontrapunkte, which I rather like. (I'm a little weary of rushing through Gruppen in alternate years.) I'd love to include Maderna, but the only score I have is Aura, which is too big. I don't want to do early Boulez, Le Marteau included; the sonatas are too doctrinaire, and Marteau seems like more work than it's worth. Ditto the Stockhausen Klavierstucke, with the possible exception of IX. Berio's Sinfonia would be worth spending a few weeks with; that and Mantra could be the semester's two major works. I'm also thinking about Berio's Circles, a more manageable score. Ligeti's Continuum is a good teaching piece, though I'd rather do something like Melodien or Monument-Selbstportrait-Bewegung. I'd love to do some later Nono, but I'm not inclined toward Il Canto Sospeso and even less to Polifonico-Melodia-Ritmica, which are the scores I own. I've always had a soft spot for Pousseur, but the only piece of his for which I own both score and recording is Jeu de Miroirs de Votre Faust, which is fun but hardly seems representative of serialism. The problem, as some of you know, is that some of these pieces contain complicated hidden structures, and don't make much sense unless someone with inside information has written about them. I once had a frustrating experience trying to analyze Requiem Canticles in class, though I've since found enough information to want to try again. I shy away from Sessions for this reason, too - something about his row technique I don't get.

What am I missing? What could I get and afford scores for, and find coherent analyses of?

Originally from PostClassic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 08:10 AM | Comments (0)

A Snapshot of Life Circa 2009

I've kept you too long in suspense about the upshot of Saturday night's thingNY concert, which took place during a momentous blizzard that must have cut heavily into its audience. The evening consisted, not of pieces by all the composers on the program, but of just about everything the group got back in response to their mass e-mail, including a few "unsubscribe" messages, a Halloween greeting, some jpegs, a description of a piece submitted with way too large an instrumentation, some mp3s, and about half a dozen pieces, like mine, written for the occasion. It was a funny evening, the unsurprising responses often as comical as the surprising ones. And as avant-garde as anything I've seen recently - by which term I inexactly mean that it was more focussed on how we live at this exact moment than on the traditional conventions of concert-giving. I was glad to have been involved.

Originally from PostClassic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 05:10 AM | Comments (0)

Our music critic picks his faves of a year gone by - Globe and Mail

Our music critic picks his faves of a year gone by
Globe and Mail
The Chinese pianist brushed aside her label's request for a debut full of encore pieces, and dug deep into major works by Liszt, Scriabin, Chopin and Ligeti ...

Review of the Year 2009: Culture - Independent

Review of the Year 2009: Culture
Independent
... whose After Dido was a miracle of ingenuity and synchronization, and La Fura dels Baus's production of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre at ENO, so dazzling in ...

JOHN ADAMS: Dr. Atomic Symphony; Guide to Strange Places - St. Louis Symphony ... - Audiophile Audition

Audiophile Audition

JOHN ADAMS: Dr. Atomic Symphony; Guide to Strange Places - St. Louis Symphony ...
Audiophile Audition
Soon contrasting chords from brass and double basses carve dark undercurrents into the music. Like Béla Bartók, Adams sets up an undulating sound cloth, ...

'Phantom of the Opera' to take the stage - WPTV

'Phantom of the Opera' to take the stage
WPTV
One of Fort Lauderdale's most popular community events, the SunTrust Sunday Jazz Brunch takes place Sunday, January 3 from 11 am to 2 pm and welcomes music ...

Winding out to the Pacific 7

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This is a work in progress...

Trimmed the algorithm down to fit in 60 seconds. I still need to work on showing the drift from sub-minor, minor, major, supermajor.

Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 02:11 AM | Comments (0)

Landmarks (43)

Sometimes the moment just requires one piece of music, and only that piece. I had that moment this evening when I just needed Heinrich Isaac's motet Quis dabit capiti meo aquam? (1492). As a lament on the death of Lorenzo de' Medici ("the magnificient"), it's about as elite as a piece of art can get, and the rest-in-peace sentiment is definitely not a sentiment I share*, but still: is there anything as devastatingly beautiful as this? Three features stand out for me: the devastating drop of the bass in the opening phrase, a single gesture which casts everything that follows into the darkest hues; then, where the poet Angelo Poliziano, punning on Laurel/Lorenzo, lets lightning strike, Issac has the tenor sing Laurus tacet and one of the four voices drops out, marking Lorenzo's absence with an absence in the musical texture; and then there's the bass line, which takes a bit of chant, Et requiescamus in pace, restating it five times, but at each pass it is sequenced down a scale step, a bit of technique that is obvious, minimalist even, yet uncanny in its effect (in the passacaglia which ends my string trio, Figure & Ground, I plain stole Isaac's idea of an ostinato which develops systematically with each reiteration, in my case in extending in length rather than modulating it). There is much more to treasure here, with the textural and harmonic variety of the entire work providing a strong counter-charge to a work with pre-compositional, even systematic, elements.

What most devastated me at this moment, today, was that I couldn't locate a copy of this music. It doesn't seem to be available online and my old photocopy of the original notation (from which I first sung this piece, in Idyllwild in '76 under the conductor Jon Bailey) is nowhere to be found. But fortunately, a piece of this strength has a way of imprinting itself in memory; could one ask anything more of a lament?

____

* For the record, when I go, I want my ashes to be placed in an hourglass, so that, at least in one way, I may keep on working.

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 02:11 AM | Comments (0)

Watch Hans Tutschku’s “Winternacht”

Hi Everyone,

if you missed the HYDRA concert on December 11, here you can watch the video of our performance (with Sam Solomon on percussion). Even if this video cannot capture the effect of the electronics with 32 loudspeakers I guess it will still stimulate your appetite for the next HYDRA series. I hope you enjoy the video of Winternacht as much as we enjoyed performing it! Let us know what you think!

Best,
Seda

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

Originally posted by Seda Röder from Seda Röder, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 23, 2009 at 02:10 AM | Comments (0)

December 22, 2009

Pianist excited about homecoming - Comox Valley Record

Pianist excited about homecoming
Comox Valley Record
Schmidt convocated at the University of Lethbridge in October, earning a bachelor of music degree with distinction in piano performance and composition. ...

Obsession vs. Autopilot vs. Style

Fear not, this is not one of those “year in review” blogs. 2009 was a doozy of a year but I’m much more interested in the Now than I am the Then.

So I’m writing a piece for your standard flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano ensemble. I was working on one that included harp and a whole string quartet but it struck me as impractical, no matter how beautiful it was. Wow. I really just wrote that, didn’t I? Crap. Maybe the compromised ensemble is more of a problem than a help. Crap.

Anyway, that previous paragraph isn’t really what I wanted to blog about. It is an important revelation nonetheless, so I’ll let it stand. As I’ve been working on this piece I’m starting to notice trends in my compositional behavior. I’ve been doing very similar things in the last few pieces and I can’t tell whether it is just where my head is right now or if I’m falling into a rut. I suppose it could be both.

Am I taking the easy way out or am I really honing a style? Everything in the piece feels right so I am inclined to think this is a style thing. Yet I’m hoeing the same row that I see in my last half dozen pieces or so. With some exceptions, sure, but for the most part my music has been getting slower, simpler, and longer. Doing something else is really difficult.

So where does a composer’s current obsession end and style begin? When does style become a positive trait not marred by the notion of “phoning it in?” Maybe I’m too hyper-aware of this in my own music because of all the self analysis I did during the Unsafe Bull Podcast days. Maybe I’m just scared of where I’m headed. I am writing the music I need to write at this moment. I suppose the rest will fall into place. And, if I’m lucky, I’m giving some poor musicology doctoral student in the far future a dissertation topic.

Originally posted by Jay C. Batzner from Jay C. Batzner, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)

Unknown Knowns and Known Unknowns

By Frank J. Oteri
Combining sight reading and moderate improvisation is invariably something of a balancing act.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)

Winding out to the Pacific 6

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

Originally from Podcast Bumper Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)

Yesterday Was FZ Day

What’s new in Baltimore (better go back and find out!):

[ link → So, today is Frank Zappa Day, eh? ]

“I did have one question, however: Is Frank Zappa Day just today? Or every Dec. 21 from now on?”

And, separately, from the Department of Confectionary Importation:

[ click for larger image ]

tyle="font-family:Georgia;color:#25383c;">When I’m with you, I get a chocolate feeling . . . .

Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

Something to chew on over Christmas

There is some nice chewy music on Future Radio over Christmas. That is me above putting together My World of Music, a two hour special of music from different cultures and traditions around the world which is being broadcast by Future Radio at 4.00pm UK time on December 26th on a local FM frequency and over the internet. A podcast of the programme will be available a few days after broadcast. Here is the playlist together with links to related articles On An Overgrown Path:

1 - Titi Robin (guitar) and Faiz Ali Faiz (voice), Lage Jiya from Jaadu Magic: Accords Croises AC130
2 - Jean-Rodolpe Kars (piano), Beloved of the Soul from Musique Juive: Editions de l’Emmanuel CDD0148 5.37
3 - Keyvan Chemirani (Iranian percussion) and Pandit Anindo Chatterjee (tabla), Ma maison se trouve sur le chemin emprunté par mon Coeur from Battements au Coeur de l’Orient (Percussion at the heart of the Orient): Accords Croises AC121
4 - Driss el Maloumi (oud), Rajery (Madagaskan bamboo tubular zither) and Ballarkeé Sissoko (kora), Anfass from 3MA: Contre Jour CJ0202 6.11
5 - Jutta Carstensen (voice) and Trio Trielen, Ofjn Pripetschik from Yiddish chants and Klezmer music: Ad Vitam AV090415
6 - Ken Zuckerman (sarod) and Prabhu Edouart (tabla), Raga sobre O Gloriosa Domina from Francisco Javier: Alia Vox AVSA9856
7 - Tashi Lhunpo Monks and tantric and monastic orchestras, Ngag-ki-rolyang, Om Mani Padem Hum, Chaksten Choepa from Dawn to Dusk: Tashi Lhunpo Monastery Trust TLM250489
8 - John Coltrane, Spiritual from Coltrane Spiritual: Impulse 589 099-2
9 - Raphael Vuillard clarinet, Khaled Al Jaramani oud and percussion and Mohannad Al Jarami percussion and vocals, Zephir from Bab Assalam: Ad Vitam AV090115
10 - Pandit Debashi Bhattacharya (Indian slide guitar), Aviskaar from Calcutta Chronicles: Riverboat Records TUGCD1049
11 - Ustad Mahwash (voice), Tchi chawad ba tchehra-e-zaard-e-man from Radio Kaboul: Accord Croises ACC100
12 - Hezy Levy (voice and guitar), Song of the Grasses from Singing Like the Jordan River: Ad Vitam AVOC 050621
13 - Jean-Rodolpe Kars (piano), Allons, exultons et rejouisoons-nous from Musique Juive: Editions de l’Emmanuel CDD0148
14 - Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar, Prashanti from Passages: Private Music 2074

Before the Christmas police start complaining the music isn't very seasonal I would point out that the title of the last track, which comes from Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar's 1990 album, means Peacefulness in English. More on that album 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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)

Classical music: review of the decade - Telegraph.co.uk

Classical music: review of the decade
Telegraph.co.uk
In 2007, Alfred Brendel gave his farewell concert, and that mystagogue of modernism Karlheinz Stockhausen died. As if to emphasise the inexorable greying of ...

So hallow’d and so gracious is the time

. . . as ’twere with a defeated joy,—
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole . . . .

Interrupting ths festive season, comes word that “Annetta Gomez-Jefferson, a member of the faculty at The College of Wooster from 1974 until her retirement in 1995, died at her home in Wooster on Dec. 16.”

While I was at Wooster, Annetta was chairman of the Theatre Department (I can still hear her gravelly voice advising someone, “Don’t call me a chairwoman, and for God’s sake don’t call me a chair, either”). I was in the Music Department, and the occasion for our paths crossing was (predictably) an inter-departmental project, an ad hoc production of Stravinsky’s L’histoire du soldat (a modest affair which did not use the entire ensemble, instead employing the trio arrangement of the Suite). By chance I stumbled on a small group of people preparing to audition for the spoken roles, and on a whim I auditioned, myself. I was appointed to the title role.

Annetta remembered this little stage business a couple of years later when she was planning a Wooster production of Amadeus, and she felt that she wanted a musician to play the role of Salieri. As there would necessarily be dissatisfaction among the students actually majoring in Theatre, at someone outside the department being cast for so juicy a role, Annetta had a directing student of hers ‘groom’ me for the audition. I should never have made anything out of the role without Annetta’s patience, her active assistance, and her belief in what little stage talent I managed to evince.

I have too little to say of Annetta, apart from my gratitude for the short, sharp impact her warmth and professionalism had upon me at a formative stage. I know there are many students who worked with her longer-term, whose benefit from working with Annetta must have been several orders higher.

Also while I was at Wooster, Annetta produced Hamlet, not absolutely complete, but with fewer cuts than many another director might have opted for; and in full keeping with Wooster’s place as my alma mater, it was the first live production I had ever seen.

Flights of angels sing thee to thy rest, Annetta.

Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)

The 12-Day Virtual Rocket

First, the video of the 1998 performance:

an style="font-family:Georgia;color:#25383c;">Reunion concert ten years after:

an style="font-family:Georgia;color:#25383c;">According to the wikipedia article [ link ] the ‘old’ video was uploaded to youtube in 2006, receiving 10 million hits; and the CEO of Atlantic Records signed the group (Straight No Chaser) to a five-album contract.

The energy and wit of the arrangement not only recommend themselves, but (I confess) made it possible for me to consider the traditional “Twelve Days of Christmas” without shuddering. Straight No Chaser’s is “an adaptation of Richard C. Gregory’s 1967 comic arrangement of the song for his Williston Caterwaulers” (wikipedia).

Yes, wheels are turning.

Originally from henningmusick, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)

Let's try that again. Here is…

Let's try that again. Here is yesterday's Shortie, some sketches for a longer piece I'm working on. Sketches for Winding Out to the Pacific by Prent Rodgers.

Originally from Shorties - Pieces Shorter Than a Minute - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)

Straitjacket - Steve Moshier

Originally from Shorties - Pieces Shorter Than a Minute - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)

"art scene and heard" - Bend Bulletin

"art scene and heard"
Bend Bulletin
Recent works, including “Bottom of the World,” featuring music by gravelly-voiced Tom Waits, displayed new choreographic innovation. ...

and more »

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

Baltimore honors native son with 'Frank Zappa Day' - The Associated Press

The Associated Press

Baltimore honors native son with 'Frank Zappa Day'
The Associated Press
The bust was given to Baltimore by fans of Zappa from Lithuania, where his music was popular among the avant-garde in the early 1990s. ...

and more »

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

The decade in classical music - Times Online

Times Online

The decade in classical music
Times Online
What didn't happen to classical music in the past decade is almost more significant than what did. Despite dire predictions, orchestras haven't collapsed ...

Originally from "contemporary classical" | "avant garde" music - Google News, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

Natural Acoustic

George crumb wrote the following in an article on the future of music. Does this resonate with anybody?

Although technical discussions are interesting to composers, I suspect that the truly magical and spiritual powers of music arise from deeper levels of our psyche. I am certain that every composer, from his formative years as a child, has acquired a "natural acoustic" which remains in his ear for life. The fact that I was born and grew up in an Appalachian river valley meant that my ear was attuned to a peculiar echoing acoustic; I feel that this acoustic was "structured into" my hearing, so to speak, and thus became the basic acoustic of my music. I should imagine that the ocean shore or endless plains would produce an altogether different "inherited" acoustic. In a broader sense, the rhythms of nature, large and small -- the sounds of wind and water, the sounds of birds and insects -- must inevitably find their analogues in music. After all, the singing of the humpback whale is already a highly developed "artistic" product: one hears phrase-structure, climax and anticlimax, and even a sense of large-scale musical form!

Originally from Discussion Forum - NetNewMusic, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Dec 22, 2009 at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

60x60 Call for Works - Attention All Shorty Folks!

O.K. Here it is what you have been waiting for… The long awaited 2010 60x60 Call for Works.

AND

It is all going to be done online!

That is right! 60x60 is collaborating with ICMC (International Computer Music Conference 2010) for a unique 60x60 event and all the works submitted to 60x60 will be simultaneous submissions for ICMC.

For this special event we are looking for 360 works for 6 one hour performances at Stony Brook University and New York City: 360 degrees of 60x60.

We are also have an International Mix and a microtonal mix (the UnTwelve Mix) I also have venues for another UK Mix, Midwest Mix, Canada Mix, and Pacific Rim Mix. (if we get enough submissions… get it? if you submit…there is a possibility of 12 different mixes… that is 720 slots with a great chance of multiple performances around the globe and the possibility of a multimedia collaboration with video or dance that are getting press reviews and attending audiences in the thousands.)
SPREAD THE WORD! The more the merrier!

So what I need is your submission. Even if it is a past submission that will be great! There were so many submissions in the past that were great that we couldn’t use for one reason or another, I would love to get the chance to present them now. But I need you to submit online.

ICMC has an online submission process.
http://music.oc.cct.lsu.edu/author/submit.php

check the 60x60 box

and then upload your ZIP file containing your submission form (PDF) and sound file (AIFF) (I know it says MP3 is allowed but don’t do that for 60x60 submissions)

you can get the submission form here:
http://www.VoxNovus.com/60x60/Call.htm

So tell everyone you know. This is going to be the biggest 60x60 yet. The idea is to activate the entire community of electro-acoustic music. I think we can do it. Let’s wake up the world and show them what our music is about!

I am looking forward to listening to your submission!

Rob

Robert Voisey

RobVoisey@VoxNovus.com
60x60 Director
Living Music Foundation Vice President
Founder of Vox Novus
http://www.VoxNovus.com

Oh yeah.... Here is the call:

Vox Novus is inviting composers to submit recorded works 60 seconds or less in length to be included in its eighth annual 60x60 project!

Download Submission form here:
60x60 PDF Submission Form
or
60x60 MSWord Submission Form

Vox Novus In collaboration with ICMC (International Computer Music Conference 2010) is inviting composers to submit recorded works 60 seconds or less in length to be included in its seventh annual 60x60 project. 60 compositions will be selected to be played continuously in a one-hour concert.

The 60x60 concert season will have multiple performances in several different mixes and multi-media throughout the world. Mixes planned for 60x60 2010 include the International Mix, 360 degrees of 60x60 at ICMC, the UnTwelve Mix (including only microtonal works) as well as any other past mix (i.e. Midwest Mix, UK Mix, etc) where more than 60 submissions are received.

Please submit a ZIP file containing the submission form and an AIFF recording of the work at the ICMC website:
http://music.oc.cct.lsu.edu/author/submit.php

During the concert each of the 60 pieces selected will begin precisely at the beginning of the minute, this will mark the end of one piece and the beginning of another. There will be no pause between the pieces. Works may be less than 60 seconds in length, but may not exceed 60 seconds. Works selected that are less than 60 seconds long will be “padded” with silence either before, after, or surrounding the composition. Please note that the total duration of the work including silence may NOT exceed sixty seconds.

The 60x60 project’s definition of a record work is as follows: any work created as a musical composition which is captured on recorded media, which does not require live performers for its production in broadcast at concert halls, radio, multi-media, etc. Its creation can include but not limited to acoustic instruments, voice, environmental sources, and computer (Sampling, MIDI, C Sound, ProTools, etc.)

Acoustic compositions should be submitted with the understanding that it is their recording that is of prime importance and is what will be used to determine its selection. Scores of works are strongly discouraged and will not be used in the selection process.

60x60 is a project of “signature works” and short works created specifically for the 60x60 project. Excerpts of larger works are strongly discouraged. Works generated from procedures (i.e. mathematical matrices, organizational systems, or computer programs,) remixed works, or themes and motives recomposed from ot

New Music reBlog

December 31, 2009

Only thing traditional about this trio is St. Louis gigs - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

'Unsound Festival New York' Opens 2/4/2010 With Free Concerts at Lincoln ... - Broadway World

My favorite concerts of 2009, in Madison and (slightly) beyond - Isthmus Daily Page

Flaming Lips cover Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' album; results are ... - Entertainment Weekly

Uptown Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News - Uptown

2009 Salute To Idleness Vol. 2

2009: Done, Gone, and Looking Ahead

Moments Musicaux

not sure which thread we're p…

fragment (12/23/09) - Jukka-P…

Another New Piece of Horrible Noise & Disjointed, Illogical Rhythms from Stearns-Benzola

How Much Does Your Environment Influence Your Music?

How many drummer composers are there on Netnewmusic?

In The '60s, A Musicians' Loft In Flux - KUAR

Music review: Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord, Accomplish Jazz - Creative Loafing Tampa (blog)

Matthew Shipp: Song of Himself - JazzTimes Magazine

Amid the Avant-Garde - Wall Street Journal

Q&A With Steven Shelley of Sonic Youth - SFStation.com

İstanbul gains new music house on İstiklal Street - Today's Zaman

A can't-miss season for symphonies and stages - The Detroit News

Steve Reich's music being celebrated at Stanford by the quartet So Percussion - San Jose Mercury News

2009 Salute To Idleness Vol.1

Pacific NorthWest Ballet brings mixed bill to New York - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com

There Go the Zeros - LA Weekly

Free cello concert Sunday at Goodnow Library - Sudbury Town Crier

Tuned In: By George, it's a Benjamin music fest at Davies Hall - Inside Bay Area

Cops on film - The Guardian

December 30, 2009

Thoughts from the Vienna woods

Slide Show Jam

Bernstein Agonistes

When Two Worlds Collide

The Victorian Tongue

Was Purcell our finest composer? - Telegraph.co.uk

Riga Synagogue Hosts Musical Evening - Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS

12/30/09 playlist

XXXMas playlist

Slow Dance #3b

Look Back, Look Ahead

Major orchestras play Vail music festival this summer - Vail Daily News

December 29, 2009

Mihae Lee Named Essex Winter Series Artistic Director - Chester, Deep River, & Essex LocalOnlineNews.TV

BeepSNORT.com - Web Page Playlist Player

Radicalized relativity

Buy or live in darkness

Slow Dance #3

CD of the Week: Augustin Hadelich

Boulezzapalooza

Composition Contest for Harp (5') - Deadline 8th of January 2010

Detailed Musicology - Towards Analysis Discussions in 2010

If you think about it, drums are the new violins.

Noise Based Music

The White Dove

Decade in review: Classical music - San Francisco Chronicle

Charles Spearin, Jon Hassell and Mountains Take Top Honours in Exclaim!'s Best ... - Exclaim!

New York City Ballet - Ballet Magazine

Leave James Levine aloooooone! - Macleans.ca

Lenny, Rehearsing Igor Fyodorovich

December 28, 2009

Güher & Süher Pekinel, pianos - Live in Concert (2009) - Audiophile Audition

"Sturm und Drang" = NICOLAS BACRI: Concerto Amoroso 'Le Printemps;' Concerto ... - Audiophile Audition

The Virtual Haydn Blu-ray Review - Blu-rayDefinition.com (blog)

"Sturm und Drang" = NICOLAS BACRI: Concerto Amoroso 'Le Printemps;' Concerto ... - Audiophile Audition

Classical music: Programs were orchestrated to thrill, and they fit the bill - Pioneer Press

Huddersfield 2009 (5/5) -- communities and dialogues

Winding out to the Pacific - take 17

Some one thousand, three-hundred and nineteen items later...

Lost and found

More questions than answers

Footnotes: Schubert and Beckett

Kick off 2010 with classical delights - San Francisco Examiner

Toshi's picks - TheDay.com

2009 in review: Classical music - San Francisco Chronicle

In Memory of Maryanne Amacher - New York Times (blog)

In Memory of Maryanne Amacher - New York Times (blog)

Memorable music for 'commemorable' times - Today's Zaman

In Memory of Maryanne Amacher

December 27, 2009