Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Mr. Postman, If You Please

Sara writes:

hello my name is sara and i am doing a project for school and i was wondering if you could give me a job description of a composer or a brief detail of what they do

thank-you

sara

Blackdogred ponders Brian Eno in his post today and in the Composers Forum Lawrence Dillon raises the eternal question: is it more fun to write or have written?

posted by Jerry Bowles 10/29/2005

Friday, October 28, 2005

Blackdogred Friday aka Scooter's Lament

We have liftoff. Blackdogred's Indie Beat is up and running. Blackdog is coming into this from the rock side so he's depending on our very hip readers (as opposed to a not-so-hip editor) to help him sort out the connections. Should be fun.

Our buddy (and fellow Deems Taylor Award Winner) Marvin Rosen will be doing a special 2 1/2 hour radio program devoted to the music of S21's Arnold Rosner in observance of the composers 60th birthday. The broadcast will air on WPRB in Princeton, NJ (103.3 FM or on line at www.wprb.com) next Thursday morning, November 3 from 8:30 until 11:00. The "Classical Discoveries" website is here.

posted by Jerry Bowles 10/28/2005

Thursday, October 27, 2005

I Come in Peace Edition

Bob Shingleton, who produces the extraordinarily classy On an Overgrown Path from a bosky little corner of England and shares his thoughts with us a couple of times a week under the nom de blog, Pliable, writes:

Jerry, just loved your The Fiery Furnaces post. Beautifully turned.

I'm just getting a bit concerned though about a trend I'm noticing across posts from lots of us. If we write about music or musicians there is little response (Except for John Adams). If we write about intangible philosophising -Is the Symphony Dead? Connections between motor-cycle maintenance and composing - every one piles in with responses. Are readers starting to confuse the form and the function?

Article in gestation about just that very point, and pointing out that contemporary jazz musicians are making a connection that contemporary classical composers are missing.

Interesting question; my personal preference is that the S21 discussions focus mainly on music and music creators with occasional, polite forays into social issues even if the ratio provides less entertainment value for the more combative among us.

And for the new readers who are just tuning in, let me restate our long time philosophy (or, rather, my longtime philosophy) about S21. This is the Feldmanesque blog--quiet, assertive but always polite, intense but subtle, understated but multilayed. We can disagree but we do so with respect for the opinions of others. We don't do flame wars or personal attacks or gratuitious score-settling. We don't do anonymous posts. Abusers can and will promptly be banned.

I'm sure this little lecture is totally unnecesary but I want to head off anything that resembles the unpleasantness that used to break out regularly at the old New Music Box forum.

I should point out that this little screed was not triggered by the discussion of the lack of representation of women on new music programs. I thought that discussion was very polite and positive for the most part. Consider it merely a preemptive strike to any Jerry Springer fans who might be lurking out there.

In the blogs today, Corey Dargel talks about good teachers; Tom Myron is stuck on the letter "B" and Jacob Sudol is on about phony Frenchmen (or something like that).

posted by Jerry Bowles 10/27/2005

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Granny Rehearses the Choir

I haven't bought a new pop album in years; somewhere around Michael Jackson's "Killer" days and Mariah Carey's $20 million buyout I lost interest. Too silly, as the Monty Python lads used to say. Pop music had reached a deadend...or so I thought.

I subscribe to the Rhapsody music service and lately I've been listening some of the indie groups like Death Cab for Cutie and Sigur R�s and the wonderful art songs of Anthony and the Johnsons and have been amazed at how much the new indie crowd has absorbed from "serious" composers like Steve Reich and Michael Gordon and Meredith Monk and Eve Beglarian and Phil Kline and, yes, even Philip Glass. These folks have clearly spent a lot of time listening to Kyle Gann's Postclassic Radio. I'm sure the closing gap between pop and serious music is no surprise to most of you whippersnappers but I'm a bit slower on the uptake these days.

Which brings me to a point...finally. There was a terrific article in the New York Times today about a couple of nice Jewish kids from Brooklyn by way of Chicago named Matthew and Eleanor Friedburger who call themselves The Fiery Furnaces. For their brand new release (Amazon doesn't even have it up yet), Rehearsing the Choir, Matthew Friedburger gathered a family oral history from their 83-year-old grandmother and set it to music--using grandma as narrator and Eleanor to sing her younger parts. Naturally--since granny seems like my kind of gal--I rushed over to Rhapsody and fired it up. It's pretty darn brilliant stuff although I found it far too exhausting to listen to the whole thing in one sitting. Honky Tonk Woman, this is not. The lyrics are dense and difficult; the rhythms multi-layered and complex. Matthew Friedburger has remembered--and used--every sound and musical style he has heard from the last ten years which is both the album's strength and its weakness. When this kid learns what to leave out, he's going to be a major.

By the way, we have in development (as they say in H-wood), a new Sequenza21 blog that will cover the indie pop/postclassical scene. Watch for Blackdogred's Indie Beat, coming soon to a computer screen near you.

posted by Jerry Bowles 10/26/2005

�The Mines of Sulphur� at City Opera

Once again City Opera�s fall schedule features a contemporary modernist opera. Last year we had Wourinen�s overwrought �Haroun and the Sea of Stories.� This year the company presents Sir Richard Rodney Bennett�s 1965 work �The Mines of Sulphur.� A hit at Glimmerglass a few summers ago, let�s hope it draws in crowds at the State Theater as well: the opera is very, very good.

�Mines� takes place one wintry night long ago in the West Country of England. In the opening scene, a lecherous old aristocrat, Braxton, is murdered by the lover of his former servant Rosalind. Rosalind, her lover Boconnion, and an old beggar, Tovey, subsequently take over the decaying mansion and help themselves to Braxton�s luxurious clothes and jewelry. Soon, however, they are interrupted by a mysterious troupe of actors in search of shelter for the night. Boconnion agrees to let the actors stay on the condition they perform a play. The play they chose is called �The Mines of Sulphur� (a reference to Othello), and its plot eerily mirrors the events that took place at the mansion before the actors arrived. Tension mounts between the actors and the three vagabonds and culminates in an unexpected denouement.

Bennett�s score is a quite approachable instance of postwar atonality. While the surface tends to be fairly fluid, he does not shy away from rhythmic regularity and Romantic lyricism. His use of groups of like instruments � clarinets, flutes, double-reeds � recalls Stravinsky; yet the lush harmonic idiom emits more than a whiff of Lulu. While the orchestration overall is pretty thick, beautiful chamber and soloistic moments crop up from time to time to relieve the ears. Bennett flows smoothly in and out of fast and slow tempi, and, at just over two hours, the opera is about right so far as length goes.

The libretto, by Beverley Cross, is also far more compact and effective than James Fenton�s for �Haroun.� The momentum does flag at odd moments: before the actors arrive, as they set up for the play, and in the second act after Rosalind and Tovey call for the play to stop. But the resultant ennui, while pushed a little too far, does contribute to the air of decadence and decay pervading the opera. And while I wasn�t entirely convinced by the turn the opera takes in its final scene, the chilliness and horror of the music (and the conceit) do contrast nicely with the story�s tempestuous opening.

Among the cast, the standout is Caroline Worra, who sings the role of Jenny � a pivotal member of the troupe of actors. Her vocal power and vivid presence rescue the second act just in time. Bennett and Cross make tremendous demands on their leading man, Boconnion, who must carry the action of the second act alone for a long time. These demands are probably a little too big for the theatrical shoes of tenor Mark Duffin, but, as soon as Jenny reenters, the pace picks right back up again, and the opera burns steadily to its close.

�Mines� is a must-see if you�re in the area, and bravo to City Opera for giving this clever and creepy work a second life.

posted by David Salvage 10/26/2005

Gy�rgy Ligeti's Private Passions

Find out about the musical influences on one of our leading contemporary composers in Gy�rgy Ligeti's Private Passions. During the fall On An Overgrown Path is running a weekly feature on the music that has influenced leading arts and music personalities.

The features are based on the long running Private Passions programme on BBC Radio 3. It is presented by contemporary composer Michael Berkeley who asks leading figures to discuss their innermost musical likes and dislikes. The programme has opened up invaluable overgrown paths to new discoveries for Pliable, including Swedish pianist Jan Johansson, and Norwegian singer Radka Toneff's sublime interpretation of Weill.

Faber have just published a fascinating book which lists the musical choices (including recording and catalogue number) for every guest on the programme, together with some very brief notes on the choices.

So take An Overgrown Path to find out about Gy�rgy Ligeti's Private Passions for, among other things, Javanese Gamelan and Central African Banda polyphony.

Listen to the latest BBC Radio 3 Private Passions programme with this link.
Information taken for promotional purposes only from Private Passions by Michael Berkeley published by Faber ISBN 0-571-22884-4 which you are strongly recommended to buy.
Image credit - Frankfurt Music Prize 2005.

posted by Pliable 10/26/2005

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Once More Into the Breach

Ed Note: William Osborne sent me the following note with the suggestion that I publish it on the frontpage of S21. I am doing so because I think the whole subject of women in music is an important and provocative one. I do have some reservations, however. I don't want Sequenza21 to become a political forum, sexual or otherwise. I am reluctant to provide a platform for "single-issue" enthusiasts; we have too many of them in real life and look what it has brought us. I am intuitively suspicious of male "feminists." I don't like singling out a particular group without hearing their side of the story. And, as Lawrence Dillon notes in his post today, 50 years after Rosa Parks we still have a plenty of other injustices we need to attend to.

With all that said (and perhaps some truly outrageous stuff still unsaid), here's Mr. Osborne's comment:

The New York new music group, Ensemble Sospeso, is presenting 21 composers this season. Only one is a woman, the pop singer Bj�rk Gu�mundsd�ttir. That's 20 to 1, or 4.76% for women.

What would it take to get the directors of Sopeso to understand this kind of programming is grotesque? Many of the men they perform are very obscure, while they have never programmed many very well-known women composers.

Are the directors of Sospeso sexist, or the victims of circumstance, or a little of both? Would it be worthwhile to write and ask them why they setup this 20 to 1 ratio? Is it appropriate to express anger, and what is the best way to do that?

Or what if a group of brave women distributed protest leaflets at a couple of their concerts? (Something short, simple and respectful distributed with calm, friendly dignity. It could simply note the poor ratio and list the many recognized women who have never been programmed.) Would it have an effect on next season's program? What would Sospeso think with the public sitting there holding those leaflets along with their all-male program?

The stats for women in all of Sospeso's seasons taken together appear to be even worse, but I didn't bother counting the exact numbers.

The ES website is at: http://www.sospeso.com/contents/musicians.html

The names for this season's composers are listed below my signature.

William Osborne
100260.243@compuserve.com
http://www.osborne-conant.org

Composers featured this season by Ensemslbe Sospeso
(* denotes world premieres performed this season)
john ashcroft
john barry
alban berg
pierre boulez
johannes brahms
joshua cody *
marc-andr� dalbavie *
brian ferneyhough *
bj�rk gu�mundsd�ttir
bruno mantovani *
thurston moore *
kirk noreen *
george plimpton
wolfgang rihm
arnold schoenberg
erik satie
elliott sharp *
dj spooky *
rand steiger *
morton subotnick *
john zorn

posted by Jerry Bowles 10/25/2005

The Percussive Guitar of Arthur Kampela

As I perused the monthly schedule at Satalla before Arthur Kampela kicked off his set, I realized that a new music writer should feel a bit out of place here. Satalla bills itself as the "Temple of World Music," and its schedule is filled with acts ranging from Haitian to Balkan. Kampela, however, is a prime subject for review on this or any other new music site. He sports a Columbia doctorate, Times reviews, and a solid list of commissions and awards. Though the several bossas and the bai�o that appear in his set place his Brasilidade on display, even these traditional forms feature arrangements unafraid of dissonance and extended techniques. By the time Kampela dismisses his ensemble and begins his two "Percussion Studies" for solo guitar, any questions about his classical pedigree vanish. These prize-winning pieces, which feature Kampela's 'tapping technique,' use the full body of the guitar and a couple of props (including a spoon) to dramatically expand the sound world of the instrument.

As a guitar and composition student of Kampela's, the "Percussion Studies" are always a highlight of Kampela's concerts for me. The percussive techniques are varied and novel, but they�re tightly integrated both with each other and with pitched materials played in the standard fashion. In addition, all this timbral play is encapsulated within jagged, but propulsive, New Complexity-style rhythms. The piece is undoubtedly virtuosic, but it�s a personal, intimate sort of virtuosity that comes from a composer writing for the performer he knows best - himself.

All this I knew in advance, but on Saturday I was surprised to realize that the �Percussion Studies� prove to be the favorites of the rest of the audience as well. An audience whistling and cheering in approval of new music � what a concept! But before all you composers rush off to book a show at Satalla and look for this miraculous audience, let me tell you a little bit more about how I think Kampela managed to get such an ovation.

The key is not so much the individual pieces, but how they fit into the entire set. Kampela neatly eases the crowd into just the right mode for appreciating his particular brand of contemporary classical. The songs that occupy the bulk of the set draw the listener in; the melodies are enchanting, but the arrangements keep you on your toes. There's no hint of 'avant-garder-slumming-it' in these pieces; despite the doctorate, Kampela's retained his connection to and fluency with popular forms. The songs possess directness and intensity that simultaneously mask and attest to their skillful composition. All the while, Kampela consistently raises and lowers the 'difficulty level' so the listener can never settle into expectations.

Then, several numbers in, you suddenly find yourself listening to thoroughly challenging music and discovering that you've somehow been perfectly prepared to appreciate it. All the quirky musical details of the previous songs - the cello's pizzicato glissandi, Kampela's vocal percussion, the scraped bass strings - find their corollaries in the guitar pieces, and these elements, along with Kampela's instrumental virtuosity, leap into the foreground. Similarly, you can't help but listen differently to the songs that follow the "Percussion Studies."

The ability to not only compose effectively in diverse styles, but to blend them as well, is Kampela's forte, and it suggests some wonderful directions for new music. Perhaps new music can expand into unlikely venues. And perhaps concerts programmed similarly, even if they span several composers and/or performers, can similarly prepare unlikely audiences to find themselves surprised and pleased with new music.

posted by Lanier Sammons 10/25/2005

Skating on Thick Ice

Speaking of feisty gals, I personally can hardly wait for Nancy and Tonya: The Opera coming up at Tufts University next spring. With a libretto by Elizabeth Searle and music by Tufts graduate student Abigail Al Dorry, the saga of ice skating's most famous attempted kneecapping promises to make Carmen and Micaela's little tussle look like the undercard of a Don King Production. Naturally, this has Everette Minchew thinking up some additional formerly unlikely subjects for operas.

Anthony Cornicello has some thoughts on Alvin Lucier and unpretentiousness. Elodie Lauten provides some highlights for the week. And don't miss Evan Johnson's review of David Lang's latest.

Corey Dargel has a couple of gigs this week. Tonight, at Saint Peter's Church, the duo Two Sides Sounding (Eleanor Taylor, soprano; Jocelyn Dueck, piano) will be premiering a song cycle they commissioned from Corey called "Con Dolcezza" (with Sweetness)--settings of speeches by Condoleeza Rice.

And Wednesday through Saturday at Dance Theater Workshop, Corey will be performing portions of his original score for choreographer Scott Heron's "Flossing and Other Dances." See Automatic Heartbreak for details.

posted by Jerry Bowles 10/25/2005

Monday, October 24, 2005

Where Are the Gals? (Again)

Once more the question of why Sequenza21 seems to be an all-boys, no-girls-allowed treehouse has been raised. Alex Shapiro passed along a post from William Osborne on the IAWM e-list, which reads:

I've been reading the blogs at Sequenza 21-- a site devoted to new music.

Only two of the ten bloggers are women, and they do not post many entries. Only one of the seven editors is a woman. (That makes the overall ratio 15 to 2.) The tone and perspective of the site is overwhelming male (as if that were anything unusual in new music.)

I was thinking that maybe the IAWM should start a blog site for a revolving set of women composers. There are so many women who compose, including a number who are very well-known, who I think a lot of people would really like to hear from now and then. Maybe there could be about five bloggers at a time, with the line-up changing maybe once a month or so. What would people like Tania Leon, Judith Shatin, Diane Thome, Anne LeBaron, Annie Gosfield, Eve Beglarian, and Kitty Brazelton have to say in an informal blogging sort of way? And what about including some scholars who focus on women in music like Ellie Hisama, Susanne Cusick and Ellen Koskoff? One could also include some women who are still students so that their perspectives could also be given voice.

Even if the participants only made two or three entries for the month, it would still be very interesting. At the very least, it could give people a better sense of who they are. Blogs can encourage people to write, because they do not have to be formal like articles, the entries can be short (or long,) and one can chat about whatever happens to be on their mind.

I think the blogs would draw many readers in the new music world, and also help raise the profile of women in music and the issues that concern them. I hope that perhaps the Board and Advocacy Committee will give this some thought.

William Osborne
100260.243@compuserve.com
http://www.osborne-conant.org

Alex responded:

William Osborne makes a fine point that more women should participate in the excellent blog, Sequenza 21. I would like to point out that the numbers he cites of just three female participants are mistakenly low; on the front page alone you can count the names of seven of us--about a third of everyone--and many more women throw in their two cents as they respond to posts which pique their interest. A number of male S21 bloggers have bemoaned the paucity of women in this wonderful little musical tide pool, and S21's editor, Jerry Bowles, has tried to be more aggressive in inviting women to participate.

So, to that end, I'd like to invite any of my female IAWM colleagues to join me, Beth Anderson, Elodie Lauten, Deborah Kravetz, Stefanie Lubkowski, Christina Fong, Carmen Helena T�llez and all the other women who enjoy this good-spirited exchange of ideas about music and life, to log on to http://www.sequenza21.com (which just won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Internet Award) and check out the Composers Forum, among its many other pages. All voices are welcome, and you might even hear from Jerry asking whether you'd be interested in becoming more involved.

Cheers,
Alex Shapiro

I can only add any serious musician who wants to participate in Sequenza21 is more than welcome. I have no idea why more women don't do so except to note that the vast majority of all bloggers in all categories are male. Blogging is the most equalitarian form of communication ever invented; anyone who wants to start one can go to www.blogger.com, hit a button called "create a blog," follow some extremely simple instructions, and five minutes later be sharing their opinions with the world. The barriers are certainly not economic (Blogger will host it free) or technological (there are three simple steps). It's even easier here; I'll set it up for you.

On the positive front, Adrienne Albert is joining the Composers Forum.

posted by Jerry Bowles 10/24/2005

Chanticleer rocks with Sound in Spirit

Concept albums have been at the cutting edge of rock music for decades. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released by the Beatles in 1967, was the definitive concept album which set the ground rules of a common musical theme with linked liner art, and tracks that sequed into each other. Many other major bands of that era adopted the concept format, notably the Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed (which started as a rock treatment of Dvorak's New World Symphony), S.F. Sorrow from the Pretty Things, and the The Who's rock opera Tommy.

The massive artistic and commercial success of Sgt. Pepper meant that the concept album has remained an important creative format for rock artists, and has become an established way of reaching new audiences and boosting sales. Recently the classical industry has been desperately trying to find ways to fight declining concert attendances, slowing CD sales, and ageing audiences. The strategy of choice to reverse the decline has been to make classical music easier to access, and cheaper CDs (with prices driven down by the rise of Naxos) and internet downloads (see MaxOpus) have been the main weapons of defence. But interestingly the classical concept album has never really featured as a method of winning new audiences.

Until, perhaps, the arrival of Sound in Spirit from the Bay Area choral ensemble Chanticleer. This twelve male voice group, which positions itself as an "Orchestra of Voices", has established an enviable reputation for musicality and innovation since its foundation in 1978. Sound in Spirit is as close to a classical concept album as we are likely to get. Producer Steve Barnett sets out a clear agenda. This is the first Chanticleer album created to be totally recorded and remixed in a studio environment. It was conceived as a conceptual whole with no pauses between tracks. And the album borrows some techniques from outside the classical world, most notably the use of ambient sounds. But the album is certainly not an exercise in dumbing-down, rather it is a work of serious musical scholarship. Several of the tracks use 'overtone singing' either intentionally (Sarah Hopkins' Past Life Memories) or accidentally due to the precise intonation of the ensemble (Joseph Jennings' Sound in Spirit).

Sound in Spirit is a mosaic of mosaic of sacred chant, drawing from traditions as diverse as Native American and Japanese, Byzantine and Tibetan, Gallo-Portuguese and native Australian. The composers range from Tomas Luis de Victoria and Alfonso X de Castille to the contemporary voices of Jan Gilbert, Carlos Rafael Rivera, Jackson Hill and Sarah Hopkins. Particularly interesting is Past Life Memories by Sarah Hopkins which draws on her work with Australian Aboriginal music.

The full story Chanticleer rocks with Sound in Spirit, including excerpts from an interview with Chanticleer's Music Director Joseph Jennings and an audio sample from Sarah Hopkins' Past Life Memories with its overtone singing, is On An Overgrown Path.

Photo credits:
Sgt. Pepper - Amazon.com
Sound in Spirit - Chanticleer

posted by Pliable 10/24/2005

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Carnegie Hall Dispatch

Went to hear Mahler 5 last night at Carnegie with Alan Gilbert and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. Didn�t realize I�d also be hearing some new music. But, indeed, courtesy of Benny Andersson and Anne Sofie Von Otter, some new music I got.

Turns out Benny Andersson (need I remind you he�s one of the �B��s in �ABBA"?) wrote a musical back in the 90s called ��Kristina fran Duvem�la� about a Swedish family that emigrates to the United States in the mid-1800s. The song Ms. Von Otter sang is called �At Home.� It�s filled with drum rolls and cymbal crashes and sweet tchunes that make one�s thoughts hearken back to simpler times when women stayed in the kitchen, men tilled the fields, and kids knew the meaning of a good spankin�.

No translation was provided, but a helpful summary clarified the many subtle nuances the audience otherwise would have missed.

�Lingering at the horizon, they [Kristina and her family] see the Land of Dreams, America . . . Their feelings are a mixture of relief and alienation . . . What will be her [Kristina�s] home now? Will she ever find a safe place to call home for herself, her husband Karl-Oscar, and their children?�

At least the Mahler was yummy. (Mork, mork, mork.)

posted by David Salvage 10/23/2005

Medieval or Modern?

Question: When does Jerry Bowles allow me to write about Tallis' sublime motet Spem in Alium, composed in the 16th century, on Sequenza21?

Answer: When it is playing as part of a performance installation in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Back in May I wrote about Janet Cardiff's Forty Part Motet when it was installed at the Norwich and Norfolk Festival (photo right), and a fellow blogger reports it is now playing at the revamped MOMA. The installation uses a specially commissioned recording of Tallis' Forty Part Motet Spem in Alium with forty discrete audio channels (via DAT) for each of the voices. Forty B&W DM303 speakers are located around the periphery, grouped in eight blocks of five reflecting the five SATB voice groupings in Tallis' score.

For links to a lot more detail, and photos, take An Overgrown Path to You Saw It Here First....

Photo credit - Taken by my son on his mobile phone!

posted by Pliable 10/23/2005