Sunday, May 22, 2005
What are you listening to?

I am curious as to what music the Sequenza21 gang and readers are listening to, so let me know what is in heavy rotation in your cd player.

Here is a list of Cds that are in my current rotation:

-Harrison Birtwistle
2cd set “The British Music Collection”
I have become a huge Birtwistle fan and have been listening
to the following works from the 2cd set quite a bit:
Secret Theatre for chamber orchestra
Earth Dances for orchestra
Panic for alto saxophone and orchestra

-Wolfgang Rihm
Jagden und Formen
Dominique My conducting the Ensemble Modern

-Elliott Carter
Concerto for Clarinet and various chamber works
Nouvel Ensemble Moderne
Conducted by Lorraine Vallaincourt

Popular music Cds also in my current rotation:

Björk - Medulla

Beck - Guero
posted by Everette Minchew 4:09 PM

Sunday, May 15, 2005
For Tom Myron.

Ligeti

After reading Tom Myron's latest post, I now know that I am not the only one that dreams about meeting composers.

I recently had a dream that I was wandering through a forest in Germany searching for Gyorgy Ligeti's house. (I don’t know why I thought Ligeti lived in the forest.) The forest seemed enchanting like the forests told of in fairy tales.
I found this stone path and followed it to a wonderful little house. Smoke was coming from the chimney and it smelled as if someone was baking goodies. I could hear music from the outside so I walked in. I guess I just invited myself in. (This is the only dream I have had where I am breaking and entering a composer’s home.) A woman greeted me as I walked in. I wandered from room to room looking for Ligeti. I found a vocal ensemble rehearsing a work I have never heard but there was no mistaking that it was the music of Ligeti. It kind of sounded like the Nonsense Madrigals. I walked through more rooms in the house. It was bustling with people; all getting ready for upcoming performances. The house was bursting at the seams with music. I entered another room where Ligeti’s Horn Trio was being rehearsed. I stood there for awhile listening to the musicians.
I never found Ligeti, but it was wonderful walking around in this enchanted house full of wonderful sounds.
posted by Everette Minchew 2:56 PM

Audience response.


Hydra by Katy Etheridge

The above artwork was created by a good friend of mine in honor of my sextet, Hydra.

Well I have been meaning to make another post for about two weeks now, but instead I was put out of commission by spring allergies. Damn flowers!

After the Integrales concert, I had the chance to speak with three audience members about the performances. None of them make a habit out of listening to classical music much less do they take the time to listen to new music, yet all three thoroughly enjoyed the Integrales concert. All three of them were really surprised about how much they enjoyed the music.


Here are some things to think about......

Could it be that when presented with something new and different audiences may actually enjoy it?

Why do so many performers or ensembles refuse to program new music?

Are these ensembles and performers really catering to a conservative audience, or is it a refusal by performers to accept the demands put on them by the composers of new music?
posted by Everette Minchew 1:06 PM

Monday, May 02, 2005
......Back from Integrales 2005

I have finally returned to the midwest after attending rehearsals and performances at the University of Southern Mississippi's Integrales New Music Festival. The inaugural year of the festival consisted of only one evening concert. The turnout was very good. The audiences at USM are known for being conservative so it was very encouraging to see the nice turnout.
[Since the turnout was so positive, Integrales 2006 will occupy an entire weekend!]

The concert featured twelve works by ten different composers.

The program:
Sequenza for Solo Flute - Luciano Berio
Sic Mea Fata for a capella choir - Alan Theisen
Three Dickinson Poems for a capella choir - J.D. Frizzell
Figment No. 2 "Juggler's Fancy" for solo violin - Everette Minchew
Esprit Rude/Esrit Doux for flute and clarinet - Elliott Carter
Variations on a Bach theme for antiphonal saxophone quartets - Marcus Ballard
-intermission-
Vermont Counterpoint for eleven flutes - Steve Reich
Tempo di Ciaconna from Violin Sonata - Bela Bartok
Four Songs - Berg
Three Dickinson Songs for soprano, double bass and piano - Juan Carlos Pena
Sequenza VIIb fo sorano saxophone - Berio
Hydra for wind sextet - Minchew

All of the performers were students and faculty of USM.

Samantha Neal gave a very invigorating performance of my solo violin work, Figment No. 2 "Juggler’s Fancy". (Just in case anyone was wondering about the title it is a reference to one of Sam’s favorite pastimes: juggling.) Juggler is a challenging work, and the audience had a very positive reaction to the piece.

The second of my works to be performed was Hydra for wind sextet (fl, ob, cl, a sax, hn, bsn). Hydra concluded the concert. The work was composed for saxophonist/composer, Marc Ballard. The perfomers gave a very energizing performance of this very aggressive piece. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. [Not because I was nervous but because the performance was very exciting.] I only wish the work could have been louder.

There was a very interesting occurrence during the performance of Hydra.....an audience member's hearing aid began making very weird feedback-like noises. The noise became very loud during parts of Hydra. It did not interrupt the performance it just created an impromptu electronic accompaniment. I would like to think that it was all of the multiphonics in my work that set the woman's hearing aid into hyperactive Poeme Electronique-mode. It was really bizarre.
Later, I made the joke that next year on Integrales 2006 I will compose a work for 40 hearing aids. (I really liked some of the sounds being created by the hearing aid problem.)


I have more to post later about the audience's reaction to the concert.
posted by Everette Minchew 9:33 PM


Composer Everette Minchew (born 1977) is consistently active in the creation, performance, and promotion of contemporary music. Moderately prolific, his catalogue includes small chamber pieces for violin, piano, various wind instruments, harpsichord and electronic music. Current commissions include a string trio and an opera based on an 11th-century crusades tale. His earliest musical training came at the age of eleven when he began playing alto saxophone; it wasn’t long until he began his first attempts in composition.

He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music History from the University of Southern Mississippi, where he studied saxophone under world-renowned soloist, Lawrence Gwozdz.

Fearing that traditional university training would hinder his development as a progressive composer, he abandoned the idea of formal lessons in favor of an intense private study of modern masterworks.

Minchew's works are characterized by their intense timbral explorations and brutal dissonance. That is not to say, however, that the compositions are devoid of beauty. In the first of the Two Brief Pieces, for example, the harpsichord chimes stringent yet haunting chords evoking a sense of loss. Other pieces, like the Figment No. 2 "Juggler's Fancy" play upon the kaleidoscopic interaction between timbres and tones. The rapid alternation of pizzicato, arco bowing, and extreme glissandi remind the listener of Xenakis coupled with a Berio Sequenza. Minchew's Invention "Two-Part Contraption" for piano owes much to Ligeti's etudes and boogie-woogie jazz.

His music has been performed around the United States, and he was the featured composer at the 2005 Intégrales New Music Festival in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
He currently resides in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with his wife, Cheryl.

CONTACT INFORMATION