Contemporary Classical, Piano

Hugh Sung’s Magical Mystery Tour

Our favorite techno-geek pianist Hugh Sung has come up with a really neat new way to integrate live music with dynamic imagery, animations, and synchronized video clips, all of which can be controlled by the performing musician directly a simple foot-switch.  Think Arditti Quartet meets the Joshua Light Show.  (Perhaps too old a reference for most of you.)  Hugh calls his system the Visual Recital which seems as good a name as any.

You can catch Hugh’s next Visual Recital live on Saturday night at the Darlington Arts Center, 977 Shavertown Road, Boothwyn, PA
(610-358-3632) or if you can’t make it you can watch this sample clip from “Vernacular Dance No. 1” by S21 blogger Charles B. Griffin: 

[youtube]vW4ud9k9-x8[/youtube]

by Jerry Bowles
Composers, Contemporary Classical

Philip Glass at 70–Undervalued or Not?

Philip Glass turns 70 today and it seems to me he is doing so without much of the hoopla that surrounded Steve Reich’s attainment of that milestone a few months back.  No mention of the event in today’s New York Times and Google News turns up only a brief note about a birthday concert in Nashville.  Underwhelming reaction for a man who is America’s best-known living composer and one whose music is so widely available in so many forms–CDs, films, concerts and so on.

Part of the problem, it seems to me, is that Glass had written so much music that critics assume that it must be uneven in quality and, of course, that is certainly true.  But, like the work of Martinu, (another busy little beaver) Glass’ seconds are better than most composers’ first. 

Whatever it is, Glass is generally undervalued by the critics and music directors and that’s a shame because he has (according to some critics whose work I respect) been doing some of his best composing in years lately.  When his new opera Waiting for the Barberians opened in Austin last weekend, the reviews were considerably better than they have been for a long time:  “Some of [Glass’s] most agile, vivid music,” wrote Steve Smith for The New York Times, “setting scenes with a genuinely impressive emotional specificity.” Mark Swed said in The Los Angeles Times that “Barbarians is a sad, shocking and painfully pensive story … Glass’s music, commercially successful, long ago lost its ability to shock. But he can still write melancholic, wistfully pensive music — and better than ever.”  

Another new Glass opera, Appomattox, will debut next October at the San Francisco Opera.

So, here’s today’s Cafferty File question:  Is Philip Glass overrated, underrated, or fairly valued?  I want an up or down answer from everybody. 

by Jerry Bowles
Uncategorized

Lean Tuesday

While we’re all sitting around waiting for the big event (Can you guess what day tomorrow is, boys and girls?), let’s talk about movies.  I’ve only seen two of the Academy Award nominees–Letters From Iwo Jima, which is almost great and has some haunting, low-key music by Clint Eastwood’s son, Kyle and the alleged comedy Little Miss Sunshine, which is the single most depressing movie I have ever seen and that includes To Live, The Ballad of Narayama and the one about the Guatamalan kids crawling through the sewer across the Mexican border and being bitten by rats and one of them dies. 

For some reason, Barbaro’s death touched me deeply.  I wrote something about it here.

by Jerry Bowles
Uncategorized

Last Night in L.A.: Celebrating Steve Reich

Last night’s Los Angeles Master Chorale concert in the Walt Disney appeared to be sold out.  The only thing that might surprise outsiders was that the advertising had emphasized that the program would be two works that were actually written in the twenty-first century.  Oh, it was a good concert!

The two works were by Steve Reich:  “You Are (Variations)” which the Chorale premiered in 2004 and performed in New York as part of the Reich birthday party, and the recent “Daniel Variations” for which this was the West Coast premiere.  Reich was at the sound controls handling the amplification.  “You Are” is a great work, and Grant Gershon makes this a signature piece.  I’m pretty certain that most of the singers, all four pianists, and all four marimba/vibes were the same as in the recording.  “Daniel Variations” uses similar resources, with a slightly smaller chorus (from 18 to 12) and a much smaller chamber orchestra (from 20 to 7 if I counted correctly), with the same four pianos and marimbas.  As has been commented on, the music makes the violin quite prominent, honoring the violinist who was Daniel Pearl.  Steve Reich (in his black baseball cap, of course) came down to the stage to join Gershon and the performers and receive the waves of applause and pleasure from the audience.

To complete the concert Grant Gershon gave us an interesting bit of programming.  Each of the two Reich works was preceded by two short motets, one by Josquin des Prez and one by William Byrd.  Instead of being linearly arranged on stage, the chorus for each set formed itself in a circle to the side of the stage, with Gershon in the center.  As a result, instead of a sound stage of individual voices, the combined voices rose as a column of sound, a column expanding to fill the hall.  The 400-year-old music was a pleasing introduction to the new.

Sunday afternoon’s Phil concert had the Stravinsky Violin Concert performed by Gil Shahan to give spark and verve to an otherwise uninteresting concert.  (Tchaikovsky’s “Hamlet” was boring, and it’s hard to get excited about the Schumann 2nd.)  The Stravinsky was elegant, and dry, and witty.  The two works surrounding it achieved so much less with so many more resources.

by JerryZ
Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical

He’s Baaack!

Major props to young Master Salvage for his outstanding work attending to the front page over the past couple of weeks while I attended to some pressing matters of commerce.  Big up yourself, David.  Well done.

So, let’s go to the mailbag and see what’s happening.  Ah, here’s something.  Our regular Rob Deemer has just launched a new radio program called The Composer Next Door on Oklahoma City’s classical radio station KCSC-FM.  Rob, who lives and teaches in OC, approached the general manager of the station last summer with the idea of a  locally-created show that focuses on living composers and new music.  Six months later, Rob tells us, it’s running smoothly.

“I’ve contacted composers from all over the country (and am continuing to do so) and over 50 established and emerging composers have been gracious in donating recordings to include in the broadcast,” he says. “The project is entirely home-grown; I write and record the scripts and edit the show completely in my own house. It’s a labor of love, but I think it may have some legs to it (and will be easily transportable if I find myself in another location in the future).”

The show is aired at 4 pm CST every Sunday on KCSC and is available on the web.  Sounds like fun.

This looks neat.  Miller Theater is doing the U.S. premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Lost Highway, an opera based on the David Lynch film, on February 23 and 24.  The production is a joint between Miller and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music’s Contemporary Music Division.   Says here that “This haunting opera was adapted from the cult film by David Lynch, and is at once a mystery and a thriller.  Neuwirth’s moody and mysterious opera combines live musicians, singers, actors, electronics, and video-a full arsenal of stage techniques to bring Lynch’s film to life with gripping immediacy.” We’re reserving judgement.

I need somebody to handle the front page for me from February 5 through 10.  Who wants to be lead blogger for a week?  Means you have to put something up every day before noon.  Hands?

Here’s a little something for your dining and dancing pleasure recommended by Marco Antonio Mazzini, which reminds me of a couple of things.  One is that the HBO series Rome is fabulous with all these great English actors and actresses that you never heard of.  Equal opportunity full-frontal nudity, too. The other is that an Italian guy I know is looking for somebody to practice his English on for about an hour a day for a couple of weeks.  He’s making a presentation in English in Las Vegas in February and wants to polish a bit.  Late afternoon, early evening, and he’s willing to pay.  You must, however, Skype.  Don’t volunteer unless you’re Skypeable.

And now on with the show:

[youtube]rC3OXai7W9I[/youtube]  

by Jerry Bowles
CDs, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music

Before, Between and After

DeLaurenti CD cover My pal Christopher DeLaurenti — composer, field-recordist, improviser, and writer on Seattle’s classical and new-music scene in the weekly Stranger newspaper — is happy to announce the release of his latest CD, Favorite Intermissions: Music Before and Between Beethoven, Stravinsky and Holst. Chris’ short description:

“Secretly recorded at orchestral concerts across the country, this collection of intermissions teems with unusual soundscapes, startling (and unintended) collective improvisations, and surprising, sometimes gritty sonic detail from the sacred space of the concert hall. [….] Why record intermissions? One duty of the composer is to expose the unexpected, overlooked, and hidden skeins of music woven in the world around us. Culling sounds from the world as a composition subverts long-standing, essentialist notions of music as comprised of notes, melody, traditional instruments (violin, guitar, drums, piano, etc.) and so forth as well as flouts contemporary expectations of abstractly agglomerated, musique concrète-ized sound.”

I see Chris himself on the right of the cover, no doubt deep in the process of bringing us this latest opus. You can get your own copy directly through GD Records.

by Steve Layton
Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Uncategorized

John Ogdon, born January 27th 1937

John Ogdon was born, seventy years ago, on January 27th 1937. The following words were written by him in 1981. “Here then…are some of the harsh facts behind the words ‘severe mental illness’ and ‘serious nervous breakdown’ which the press has been using about me so often lately. Not that I am complaining about the press! – I was thrilled by the sympathetic and wide spread media interest that came my way both before and after my return to the … concert stage”. 

Ogdon (photo above) was an extraordinary pianist, composer, and new music visionary whose close friends and musical influences included Peter Maxwell Davies, (who wrote his Opus 1 Sonata for Trumpet and Opus 2 Five Pieces for Piano for him), Harrison Birtwistle and Alexander Goehr.

For the full story visit John Ogdon – a blazing meteor.

by Pliable
Click Picks, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Steve’s click picks #14

Our regular listen to and look at living, breathing composers and performers that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer so much good listening online:

Bun-Ching Lam (b. 1954 — China / US)

Bun-Ching Lam — Born in the Macau region of China, Bun-Ching Lam began studying piano at the age of seven and gave her first public solo recital at fifteen. In 1976, she received a B.A. in piano performance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She then accepted a scholarship from the University of California at San Diego, where she studied composition with Bernard Rands, Robert Erickson, Roger Reynolds, Pauline Oliveros. Afterwards she was invited to join the music faculty of the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where she taught until 1986. She’s been the Jean MacDuff Vaux Composer-in-Residence at Mills College, California, the America Dance Festival, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra; and a Visiting Professor in Composition at the School of Music, Yale University, and at Bennington College in Vermont. She now divides her time between Paris and New York.

From an interview with Meet The Composer‘s Ken Gallo:

Bun-Ching Lam: Half of my life I have lived in the United States and I grew up in Macau, which was a Portuguese colony. So, I was well versed in Western culture; but still deeply rooted in my Chinese culture. I have the best of both worlds. Actually, I don’t think of it as two worlds. It’s one world; one with a very cosmopolitan view. I’m comfortable here; I’m comfortable in China, and, actually, I’m comfortable in Europe. I speak all these different languages. There is no conflict in who I am. Sometimes I feel like eating Japanese food; sometimes I feel like eating French. I am a citizen of the world. It’s all the same to me.

Ken Gallo: You didn’t grow up under Communist rule?

BCL: No, I grew up under Portuguese government. My piano teacher was Portuguese and we spoke English most of the time. My background is very different from other Chinese-American composers like Bright Sheng, Zhou Long and Chen Yi, although we are all Chinese.

KG: When you lived in China, did you know these other Chinese composers who are now your American colleagues?

BCL: Actually, we only met in 1986 in Hong Kong during a Chinese composers conference. That was the first time; 10 years after the Cultural Revolution.

KG: Did you find that you had any common stories to share about the Cultural Revolution?

BCL: Not really. For example, Chen Yi is from Canton which is not far from Macau; like from NYC to Albany. Although, we both speak Cantonese, politically Canton was a very different climate than Macau. I did go to a so-called “Communist school,” so I knew all the Revolutionary songs. During the Cultural Revolution, when I was in school, I was playing the accordion and singing songs praising Chairman Mao. We all have that in common. When we met they were very surprised when I knew all those songs.

Sure, Chen Yi’s hit the big awards, Tan Dun’s the flavor-of-the-month; but Bun-Ching Lam’s been working her own brand of fusion every bit as long or longer, just as comfortable writing for zheng, dizi, erhu and sho as for trombone, violin, or piano, and has made plenty of more-than-wonderful music. From her site, follow the link marked “Samples” and you’ll find MP3s of complete movements of a number of her works, a good 50 minutes at least.

by Steve Layton
Uncategorized

The Heap

Sam Pottle’s theme song for “The Muppet Show;” the feeling of breaking the thousand measure mark in a piece (without repeats); Rodney Lister’s thoughts, voiced to me almost ten years ago, about humor, proportion, and Messiaen; music groups on Facebook (example: “If being a Music Major were easy, we’d call it Your Mom!”); how simultaneously essential and swept-under-the-rug ear training is and has become; the Met’s slightly obnoxious new policy for buying standing-room tickets (must buy day-of); goofy fictitious opera/composer pairings (example: “Pippy Longstocking” by Brian Ferneyhough); the injustice Oscar (in the pic) dealt “The Good Shepherd;” good and bad movie-sex music, constitution of; the end of the world (example: “Legally Blonde: The Musical”); where are good, challenging, undergraduate-level analytical articles about Steve Reich?; how much I’m looking forward to seeing my students once again next week: things I’ve been thinking about posting about, but haven’t. So far.

Steve Layton wonders about things unusual in the Composers Forum; Lawrence Dillon and ICE just got done heating things up down in North Carolina. Don’t forget Ian Moss Tonite.

 

See you all around,

by David Salvage
Uncategorized

Mr. Justice Speaks

. . .

He looks around, full of secrets;

His strange deep thoughts have brought, so far, no harm.

Carefully, with fists and elbows, he prepares

One dark, tremendous chord

Never heard before–his own thunder!

And strikes.

          And the strings will quiver with it

A long time before the held pedal

Gives up the sound completely–this throbbing

Of the piano’s great exposed heart.

Then, soberly, he begins his scales.

. . .

– from “After-School Practice: A Short Story” by Donald Justice

The Collected Poems of Donald Justice (1925-2004) were released in paperback last year. When the young Justice went off to the University of Miami (FL), he had it in mind to become a composer. He soon decided, however, that he had more promise as a writer, and he changed majors and graduated with a degree in English. But this was not before he had taken some lessons with none other than Carl Ruggles.

One of the very few things I don’t like about living in New York is that my apartment is too small for my piano. Roland ep.9 ‘s, whatever their virtues, don’t come with dark tremendous chords.

A little slow out there. Jacob Sudol has some Scelsi, and, just below, Jerry Zinser files a dispatch from L.A.

by David Salvage