Month: August 2010

Composers

Role Models

Young composers, like me, seem particularly drawn to comparing themselves to the generations that have preceded us, which probably why my first collegiate composition lesson began with my professor telling me: “You can’t be Beethoven.” I will start pursuing my Masters degree at the University Michigan in September, and in the four years since I heard those words I’ve learned composers of all ages spend a lot of time and thought on how they relate to the lives and works of their contemporaries and predecessors.

I know it is commonplace to open a discussion about the composers whom we revere and by whom we are influenced, but I am curious if any of the composers in the Sequenza 21 community have powerful non-musical role models. As scatterbrained as it may seem, I often draw connections between my compositional work ethic and that of professional athletes. For example, I aspire to be as well-rounded and versatile a composer as Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant is a scorer in basketball, and when I am really focused on a piece I compare myself to a baseball pitcher who is locating his fastball with consistent precision. Do any of you have uncommon influences like these and, if so, how do choose to reconcile them with your musical pursuits?

by Garrett Schumann
CDs, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, File Under?

We love teaser tracks…

Victoire, a Brooklyn based quintet of female alt-classical performers, is currently doing a mini tour in the Midwest to support the impending September release of their album Cathedral City on New Amsterdam. Matt Marks and Mellissa Hughes are taking their show on the road, performing selections from Matt’s opera Little Death Vol. 1.

Missy Mazzoli and company have been kind enough to allow us to share the title track from the LP on File Under ?’s Tumblr here. The track combines vocalizing courtesy of Missy with skittering glitchy percussion and a somewhat jazzy harmonic background. Kind of like Julee Cruise meets BoaC on Steely Dan’s patio, sharing drinks with Matmos…

Missy Mazzoli tours the Midwest


Victoire with Matt Marks & Mellissa Hughes,Brian Harnetty, and The Wet Darlings
Sun., Aug. 8, 8pm, $10 adv./$12 door
BoMA
583 E. Broad St.
Columbus, OH 43215

Victoire
Mon., Aug. 9, 6:30pm, Free
The Dusk Variations Series
The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park
N. Michigan Ave. & E. Randolph St.
Chicago, IL 60602

Victoire with Pantree Owl
Tues., Aug. 10, 8pm, $5, 18+
The Bishop
123 S. Walnut St.
Bloomington, IN 47404

Victoire with Matt Marks & Mellissa Hughes & Lord Scrummage,
Wed., Aug. 11, 8:30pm, $5, all ages
The Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID)
5141 Rosa Parks Blvd
Detroit, MI 48208

by Christian Carey
Contemporary Classical

LibLabs, Dramaturgs and Opera to Go in Toronto

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Xin Wang & Alvin Crawford in the 2008 world premiere of Sanctuary Song, presented by Tapestry & Theatre Direct in association with Luminato.

Turns out the Hartford Opera Theater folks are not the only group that creates short operas through a collaborative process. In fact, they may have “borrowed” the idea from a Toronto-based organization called Tapestry New Opera, which has been holding an annual Composer-Librettist Laboratory (known affectionately as the LibLab) every year since 1995. LibLab is also the model for the English National Opera Studio’s All In Opera, as well as Pacific Opera Victoria’s Composer-Librettist Workshop.

Here’s how it works: four composers and four writers are brought together for a 10-day period of collaborative discovery through the creation of sixteen 5-minute scenes, each of which are written, composed and performed within a 48 hour cycle that is repeated four times, enabling each writer to work with each composer. Guiding the composers and librettists throughout the process are dramaturg (I thought a cure have been found for that, but I guess not) Michael Albano and musical dramaturg Wayne Strongman, Tapestry’s Managing Artistic Director. At the disposal of the creative teams will be some of Canada’s most respected performers, including soprano Carla Huhtanen, mezzo soprano Kimberly Barber, tenor Keith Klassen, baritone Peter McGillivray, as well collaborative pianist Christopher Foley. Out of this seminal laboratory, nearly 100 artists have graduated with 43 teams emerging to create new works for the stage, either for Tapestry of for other companies nationally and internationally. Tapestru is currently celebrating its 30th season.

This year’s Composer-Librettist Laboratory is coming up in a couple of weeks–August 23rd to September 2nd at Toronto’s Rosedale United Church. The writers chosen are Hannah Moscovitch, Anusree Roy, Michael Pollard, and Maja Ardal. Joining them will be composers Norbert Palej, Anna Höstman, Iman Habibi, and Gareth Williams. Also joining Tapestry in 2010-2011 is multi-talented theatre and opera artist Marjorie Chan, as the company’s new Writer in Residence, a role most recently assumed by Governor General’s Award Winner Colleen Murphy. Marjorie is a graduate of the LibLab (2003 and 2009) and librettist for the Dora Award-winning new opera Sanctuary Song which premiered with Tapestry and Theatre Direct for the 2008 Luminato Festival.

Thanks to S21 familiar Chris Foley, bloggerturg of The Collaborative Piano Blog and Legacy Leadership Intern at Tapestry for the tip.

by Jerry Bowles
Composers, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, Odd

Summer reading

Dr. Dick
Dick Strawser
What to enjoy on those flights to festivals, composing on the beach or just to unwind this summer reading? Dick Strawser has been busy writing the sequel to “The Schoenberg Code” over on Thoughts on a Train – another pun filled parody called “The Lost Chord.”
Fans of Dan Brown beware, Strawser outdoes the fiction writer and adds unbelievably hilarious names to a modern composition based thriller.
(You might also enjoy his “Stravinsky’s Tavern” as well!)

by John Clare
Contemporary Classical

New Music Criticism on the Mean Streets of the Intertubes

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdkGaNQVOFs&feature=related[/youtube]

I was checking out video performances of Christopher Rouse compositions, when I came across the lively exchange excerpted below from the comments section of the above performance of Ogoun Badagris.

I love reading this kind of discussion about new music. Strip away all the jargon and citations, add some internet acronyms and sarcasm, and a lot of the back-and-forth on musical aesthetic issues in scholarly journals boils down to pretty much what these gentlemen are discussing below:

• TheKingBolden
5 months ago
What a useless piece. I’m sure the composer thinks he’s conveying something deep and spiritual, lol.

• bdowns2
5 months ago
@TheKingBolden
Why do you think the composer would think that? Can’t a piece be fun or ephemeral and still be of value? Is “deep and spiritual” the quality that each piece must express (or arouse, or emulate….).

• TheKingBolden
5 months ago
When you know something about the title of the piece, you will begin to get my point. Regarding your question as to whether or not “deep and spiritual” are necessary qualities, it seems like an individual choice.

• jfloyd1879
5 months ago
TheKingBolden, your name should be the King Douchebag. This piece is badass, and you probably think its lame because you dont have the chops to play it. There doesn’t have to be a reason or meaning behind every piece of music, just enjoy it and quit being a buzzkill

• perryma44
4 months ago
@TheKingBolden actualy if you would do research before acting like you know what your talking about, you would know that this piece is about sacrificing a virgin. It is broken into 5 parts of a story and every instrument plays a role. So stfu before you try to talk shit about Rouse

• macoup1
4 months ago
Actually KingBolden do you really know what this piece is about? If you really did you would know that the music is a representation of a ritual in which a virgin is sacrificed. Nice try

by Christian Hertzog
CDs, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Festivals, Lincoln Center, Music Events, New York, Performers

Hitting the Asphalt

In this space just a year ago we told you about Asphalt Orchestra‘s Lincoln Center Out of Doors hit-the-streets, in-you-face debut last summer. Well, what a year they’ve had! In August they performed during lunchtime at Philadelphiaʼs 30th Street Amtrak Station; it’s a testament to the band’s transcendence of genre that The Philadelphia Inquirer named that show one of the 10 Best Classical Performances of 2009, even though it took place in a train station and featured almost no classical music! In late 2009 the band was selected to play the official opening of Lincoln Centerʼs newest space, the David Rubenstein Atrium, and garnered even more critical hoo-hahs. Their ever-changing set list now includes commissions from Tyondai Braxton of Battles, Stew and Heidi Rodewald of The Negro Problem and Passing Strange, celebrated Balkan musician-composer Goran Bregovic, as well as new arrangements of Björk, jazz legend Charles Mingus, Swedish metal pioneers Meshuggah, the eminent American experimental composers Conlon Nancarrow and Frank Zappa, the playful Brazilian songwriter Tom Ze and the iconic Zimbabwean artist Thomas Mapfumo.

AO brings together some of the best rock, jazz and classical musicians in New York City and beyond: Jessica Schmitz (piccolo), Ken Thomson (saxophone), Peter Hess (saxophone), Alex Hamlin (saxophone), Shane Endsley (trumpet), Stephanie Richards (trumpet), Alan Ferber (trombone), Jen Baker (trombone), Kenneth Bentley (sousaphone), Yuri Yamashita (percussion), Sunny Jain (percussion) and Nick Jenkins (percussion). Is it classical? Yes. Is it rock, prog, jazz, world-party street band? Yes. Is it useless to try and pigeonhole this vital bridge between the arty and the party? Yes.

All this is to tell you that Lincoln Center Out of Doors is back starting tomorrow, Aug 4th, and AO can be found there again doing their gloriously noisy thing Wednesday through Sunday this week. Head to AO’s website for daily event details.

Among their here-there-and-everywhere, they’ll be premiering new commissions by David Byrne and Annie Clark, and Yoko Ono (they’ve been rehearsing with both Ono and Byrne the past weeks). If that weren’t enough, following their own set on August 5th they’ll be featured in the Taylor 2 performance of Paul Taylor’s piece “3 Epitaphs,” in celebration of Taylor’s 80th birthday. Appearing with the company’s dancers, the band will premiere new arrangements of pieces originally played by the Laneville-Johnson Union Brass Band.

But wait, there’s still more! AO’s eponymous first CD on Cantaloupe Music just dropped today, allowing happy listeners around the world to hear much of this music. The recording was made live-in-studio at Water Music Studios, Hoboken, NJ, in August 2009; here’s the tracklist:

1. Frank Zappa: Zomby Woof
2. Goran Bregovic: Champagne
3. Charles Mingus: The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers (arr. Jose Davila)
4. Meshuggah: Electric Red (arr. Derek Johnson)
5. Bjork: Hyperballad (arr. Alan Ferber)
6. Stew and Heidi Rodewald: Carlton
7. Tyondai Braxton: Pulse March

by Steve Layton