Composer Anthony Cornicello (born in Brooklyn, New York, 1964) writes music that blurs distinctions between performers and electronics, timbre and harmony, composition and improvisation, and explores the boundaries of what may be considered post-classical concert music. His music is vibrant and visceral, full of rhythmic energy and harmonic sophistication, and his forays into live electronics have led to exciting combinations of instruments and processed sound. Cornicello’s background as a jazz pianist is evident not only in the rhythmic activity of his music, but also in his constant investigation of the rich sonorities available from a variety of instruments.
He has been commissioned to write music for the Scorchio Electric String Quartet, ModernWorks! (funding from Meet the Composer/ Commissioning Music USA), the Auros Group for New Music, the Prism Saxophone Quartet, the New York New Music Ensemble, David Holzman, the Group for Contemporary Music, and the InterEnsemble of Padova, Italy. His work has also been featured on the Guggenheim Museum’s “Works and Process” series. Cornicello’s works have also been performed by the Chicago Civic Symphony, Parnassus, ALEA III, Composers Concordance, Madeleine Shapiro, Robert Black, among many other outstanding groups and solo performers. His music has been presented as part of the Darmstadt International Festival of New Music as well as the June in Buffalo Festival.
Cornicello’s Second String Quartet has been recorded by the Atlantic String Quartet; the Second Sonata for Piano by David Holzman (Centaur). More recently, his Post-Modern Waltz was recorded by Eric Moe for Albany Records. A portrait CD of Cornicello’s works is scheduled for 2006 release on Albany Records.
As a performer, he has conducted or played piano in his own works on numerous occasions. While a graduate student at Rutgers, he formed and directed the Janus Ensemble, a group dedicated to contemporary music. More recently, Cornicello has begun performing on the laptop, using a variety of interfaces and the Max/MSP program. Those performances, mostly with EEE!, have had a notable impact on his music, as EEE!’s music ranges from hip-hop to experimental noise. EEE! is based at Eastern Connecticut State University, where Cornicello is an Associate Professor and Director of the Electronic Music Lab.
Cornicello received the Ph.D. from Brandeis University, where he studied with David Rakowski, Eric Chasalow, and Martin Boykan. His teachers also include Charles Wuorinen, Gérard Grisey, and Richard Beirach.
His current fields of interest include developing unusual interfaces for live computer music performances, as well as continuing to investigate resonance and spatialization. His recent and current projects (mostly for string instruments and electronics) have been exploring the latter two, and the series of experimental works ReZenant Garden, performed by EEE! have operated on all three areas of interest. Future projects will include works for instrumental groups or soloists and electronics, as well as turntablists.
Cornicello's works are published by C.F. Peters Corporation and APNM, and he is a member of BMI.
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Friday, October 20, 2006
emusic and mp3.com
Has anyone tried mp3.com? I'm a little puzzled, and, frankly, a little angry at mp3.com. They seem to have this teaser mentality, which can be very frustrating.
Here's the deal: I'm a jazz fan as well as a new music buff. Back in my undergrad days, I had a sizable collection of LPs, mostly jazz. Well, I was tired of carrying them around, needed some cash, so I sold a lot of them to Princeton Record Exchange (I wonder if they're still there?). That was in the early 90s. I've been kicking myself since.
Of course, a lot of those LPs have been re-issued as CDs, and I've bought them back, or downloaded them from emusic or other similar sites. There have been a few items that are almost impossible to find:
1. Lennie Tristano's C minor complex. This was on "The New Tristano", yet when the released the CD, some bubblehead thought it would be okay to leave this off! This solo piano work is remarkable, maybe Lennie's best recorded moment. It does appear on a release that basically mimicks "The New Tristano", but that's the only 'new' cut. That CD is hard to find, and it's hard to justify paying full price for a CD when I only want the one cut.
2. Some 70s and 80s music by Richie Beirach, Dave Liebman, and Quest (the group they co-led). There's a wonderful CD set on Mosaic, but that's not the material I'm looking for.
So, I get to mp3.com, looking up this stuff. It lists some of them, and even lists them as available. A few of them even have good sounding clips of the music. At this point, I'm reaching for my wallet with glee. I go to download the files, only to see:
Sorry, at this time no downloads have been found for "What Is This Thing Called Love?" on album What Is This Thing Called Love. Check the albums tab for other downloads from Richie Beirach.
Yet, on the previous page:
This album is available for download from our partnered music services.
Now you see why I'm a little upset with mp3.com. I'd be okay if they just said from the start, "we don't have this stuff". Yet, they list every album, all the tracks, the release info, the album cover, as if they had the CD, ready to hand to you.
Argh!
posted by Anthony Cornicello
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