CDs, Classical Music, Contemporary Classical, Strange

Waltzing Across Texas

Anthony Tommasini has a eulogy today for the much-loved and soon to be gone forever classical music department at Tower Records at Lincoln Center.  It was probably the last place in the universe where a perfect stranger would come up to you as you were reading the back of a CD and say “I happened to catch the Sawallisch performance when it was recorded in Vienna. It’s much better.”  Sometimes, that person was Sawallisch.

Strange story here about a Texas grandmother who was convicted in New York yesterday of purloining some Glenn Gould memorabilia about 20 years ago and was caught after selling them last year.  My favorite part of the story is the bit about her lawyer, a fellow Texan, thought he would score points with a New York jury by suggesting that her cover story about how the papers were given to her by a now dead curator was true because the guy was gay and, thus, untrustworthy.  There really are two Americas. 

Yet another music social networking site.

by Jerry Bowles
Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Music Events, S21 Concert

Sequenza21 Concert: Lawrence Dillon’s “Singing silver”

Third installment of a series of Composer Perspectives previewing the November 20th Sequenza21 Concert.

First of all, many thanks to all the people doing the behind-the-scenes work to make the upcoming Sequenza21 concert happen. It’s a daunting task, bringing all of these disparate voices together. I wonder if concertgoers don’t routinely underestimate the headaches that are hidden behind any successful performance.

I’m very curious to hear the music on this concert, having come to know all of the composers a bit online and not at all in person. But I’m uncertain which pieces I will actually be sitting in the audience for. At some point in the evening, I will be on the stage, performing in the premiere of Singing silver with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).

Scored for narrator, soprano, horn, cello and guitar, Singing silver is my latest attempt to combine words and music in a way that fully satisfies the needs of each. The narrator (me) speaks most of the text, with phrases spinning freely off of specific beats in the score. The soprano (Tony Arnold) echoes some of the text, but more often blends wordlessly with the instruments, acting as a connective sinew between the muscle of poetry and the bone of music.

Similarly, the words of Singing silver are the tissue that connects the person I’ve become with the child I once was. We all have rites of passage; mine took place in an autumn dusk, walking home from school, stepping into a busy street for God knows what reason.

Here is the text:

I was crossing the road on an autumn afternoon when a spark in the pavement caught my eye,
sun low in the sky.
I dropped to the ground on one red knee and peered into the black and gold,
as the day grew old.

Sixteen thousand jewels I found shattering the autumn light,
while the air prepared to greet the night.
Sixteen thousand diamonds calling colors to the sky
Sixteen thousand stars and crowns astounding to the eye

But I knew the ones you’d love.

I will bring them home to show to you.
I will bring them home to give to you.
I will bring them home.

I was crossing the road on an autumn afternoon when a lonely tone caught my ear,
a careful keening, strangely near.
I stopped and listened to the sky, sun angled to my right,
clutching at the night.

Sixteen thousand sounds I found shattering the autumn air,
as the day rolled over in bewildered prayer.
Sixteen thousand fragments tumbling through the atmosphere
Sixteen thousand jangled dreams rebounding in the ear

But I knew the ones you’d love.

I will bring them home to show to you.
I will bring them home to give to you.
I will bring them home.

I was crossing the road on an autumn afternoon when a flash of metal spun me round,
and up off the ground.
I thrust my arms out left and right, sun darting under me,
fleeing westerly.

And then I saw him, sitting near, laughing gently at the blurring cars
Singing silver in my ear, like sixteen thousand dangled stars.
Sixteen thousand silent smiles shining in the mist
Sixteen thousand aspirations dancing in his fist.

And I knew that he would love you.

Come home with me, I have someone to show you.
Come home with me, I have someone to give you
Come home.

by Lawrence Dillon
Bootlegs, Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Hot Bootleg of the Month

An awesome recording of Frederic Rzewski’s “Coming Together” in a live performance by the Crash Ensemble with Gavin Friday.  Picked up directly from Rzewski himself in Kansas City by Scott Unrein.  Not available commercially.  Rzewski says it’s his favorite recording of the work. 

And you can listen to it, or download it, here.

Update:  I cheated and fixed the spelling of Fred’s name.  Be sure to check the Workspace for a new commissioning prize.

by Jerry Bowles
CDs, Classical Music, Composers, Uncategorized

New Music Is A Global Language

Kalevi Aho, Lowell Liebermann, Áskell Másson, Þorsteinn Hauksson, Haraldur Sveinbjörnsson, Eiríkur Árni Sigtryggsson, Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson, Atli Heimir Sveinsson, Atli Heimir Sveinsson, Björk, the Sugarcubes, Quarashi, Sigur Rós, Minus, Olga Bochihina, Caspar Johannes Walter, Nicolaus Richter de Vroe, Michael Hirsch, Juliane Klein, Vladimir Nikolaev, Moritz Eggert (photo above), and Iraida Yusupova are just some of the contemporary composers from around the globe who have featured On An Overgrown Path during the last week.

New music comes in out of the cold in Iceland highlighted the flourishing new music scene in that remarkable country while A Who’s Who of contemporary composers featured a recently released CD of eight new compositions by German and Russian composers for that most bizarre of instruments, the theremin, and that article prompted a response from Germany from one of the featured composers who explained why Contemporary composers must never be bored. There was even a cautionary tale featuring a well known English composer about how not to compose new music, and, if you can handle it, an insight into the musical tastes of Bill Gates.

by Pliable
Awards, Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Sunday Morning Coming Down

The always reliable Pliable tells me that Charles Griffin’s Sequenza21 blog From the Faraway Nearby: An American Composer in Latvia was chosen blog of the week (or some such) by no less than The Times in London.  He couldn’t find a Times link online and neither can I but if someone comes across it, pass it along.  Maybe this will encourage Charles to do a second post.

My copy of the Gramophone Awards 2006 arrived by post this week and I was somewhat bemused to discover that my local radio station, WQXR – The Classical Station of the New York Times, has now created (at considerable marketing expense, I expect) a sub-category called The 96.3 WQXR Gramophone Awards 2006, selected by a committee of worthies like Frank J. Oteri, Alex Ross, Greg Sandow, a couple of guys from Gramophone, and “members of the Programming Department of WQXR.”

The winners are all highly commendable, if a little predictable–Peter Lieberson’s Rilke Songs on Bridge; Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre on DG, and Steve Reich’s You Are (Variations) on Nonesuch.  There was also a special recognition award for Mark Morris.

My question for the distinguished panel is this:  Have “members of the Programming Department of WQXR” ever scheduled any of the winning CDs to actually be played–in whole, or in part–on the station?  Frankly, I doubt it, with the possible exception of the Lieberson which they might have played late at night or on weekends when they thought nobody was listening.  Here’s a typical playlist.

Anybody want to be the main Sequenza21 New York reviewer of live concerts?  We can get a couple of free tickets to most concerts here in town but so far finding someone (or two) who wants to cover new music in New York the way Jerry Zinser does Los Angeles, has been difficult.   

For example, I’d love to have a marthon blogger who could go to all three nights of Joe Rubinstein’s Keys to the Future Festival of contemporary piano music and write about each of the concerts and give us a sense of what’s new and exciting in new piano works.  No money now, but if you’re really good at it, who knows? 

Speaking of someone who is really good, I just noticed that Steve Smith is now doing some concert and CD reviews for the New York Times.  (Maybe, he’s been doing it for awhile but I just noticed).  Nice work, Steve.

by Jerry Bowles
Classical Music, Critics, Music Instruments, Strange

Useless for shooting

From the entry on “Musical bow” (p. 351) in Sybil Marcuse, Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary (New York: W.W. Norton, 1975).

“See also: adingili, adungu, aeolian bow, andobu, arpa-che, bagili, bajang kerek, balu, bandingba, barikendikendi, bawa, bazombe, bendukudu, benta, bentwa, berimbao de barriga, beta, bikefe, bobre, bogonga, bombo, bucumbumba, bumba-um, bum-bum, burum-bumba, busoi, caramba, carimba, chizambi, chunga, cora, darkun, dende, didilavy, dingba, dongeldongel, dumba, egoboli, ekitulenge, elem, elingingile, enanga, fengcheng, gabus, gamakha’s, ganza, gedo, goaramba, gora, goukha’s, gourd bow, gualambo, gubo, gubuolukhulu, gulutindi, gunga, guru, gwale, gwaningba, hade, h’onoroate, hunga, hungo, ibigumbiri, igongs, ikoka, imvingo, inkinge, inkohlisa, ipiano, isankuni, isiqwemqwemana, isitntola, itikili. itumbolongonda, jejilava, jul, kabarome, kakulumbumba, kaligo, kalirangwe, kalove, kalumba, kambaua, kambili, kandiri-kandiri, kandiroe, kan’gan, kanutitsunanikoya, kashane, katungu, kedondolo, kha’s, kidrigo, kijonga, kilibongo, kilingbindiri, kilingilam kinanga, kitingbi, kitingi, koali, kodili, koh’lo, kongo, konko, kpwokolo, kudungba, kumbili, kimguleme, kinkulkawe, kupu, kwadi, kwendibe, lalango, lekope, lengope, lesiba, ligubu, lingongo, lipombo, lontana, lugube …”

by Richard Buell
Click Picks, Contemporary Classical, Uncategorized

Steve’s click picks #3

Our weekly listen to and look at composers and performers that you may not know yet, but should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer quality listening online:

Recordings of New Music from Indiana University

Rather than a single composer, here’s a whole gaggle of them all in one tidy location. For the past decade, Indiana University in Bloomington has been actively exploring ways to get work out of their halls and on to a wider public by using the internet. One result is this page, which will take you to MP3s by many members of the faculty (Claude Baker, David Dzubay, Don Freund, Eugene O’Brien, Frederick Fox, Jeffery Hass, P.Q. Phan, Sven David Sandstrom), with some student pieces right alongside them. You’ll also find a really large offering of IU-focused CDs for purchase.

SONUS.CA

SONUS is the online archive of electronic and electroacoustic music, hosted at the Canadian Electroacoustic Community’s website. The focus of course is on Canadian creators, but the archive is open to submissions from any country. It’s truly vast, with more than 1800 complete works freely available as MP3s, including such Canadian greats as Francis Dhomont (who celebrates his 80th birthday with a concert in Montréal on Nov. 2nd), Monique Jean, Robert Normandeau, Stéphan Roy, and Katharine B. Norman. But there’s plenty of quality hiding in the cracks, too; I like to just click “search” and browse alphabetically. If it all seems a bit intimidating, there’s a link to curated playlists that will take you on differently-themed audio “tours” of the EA (electroacoustic) landscape.

Lloyd Rodgers and the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra

Lloyd Rodgers is currently teaching at Cal State Fullerton, making a charmingly sly and subversive music. But 20-25 years ago he was one of the “kids” in a brash West Coast / L.A. brand of classi-pop-minimalism, little known outside California. Lloyd’s site documents some of the rare recordings of this place and time. Besides his self-claimed work, what’s truly fascinating here are the recordings of the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra. Originally formed by eight young composers in 1979, and continuing in one form or another through all of the 1980’s, it was a laboratory for a new kind of classical… or a new kind of pop… I’m not really sure, all I can say is that it’s still fresh and buzzing with young energy and transgression, and I like it!

by Steve Layton
S21 Concert

Smell that fresh air

Alaska

You see this picture here? That is Alaska. That’s where my Three Miniatures for Violin and Marimba was premiered at the Juneau Jazz & Classics Festival this past May. I have fond memories of my trip there: the piece was performed no fewer than four times during the festival in various contexts, each one a little different: there was the formal premiere at a beautiful chapel by the lake with large windows serving as the backdrop to the stage; the somewhat guerilla-esque performance at Heritage Coffee; the workshop with the kids at the local magnet school. (“What did you guys think of that?” the violinist asked them, and a boy in the back raised his hand with dramatic flair and declared with the utmost finality, “WHOAH.”) I had my first radio interview ever, with Susan Fitzgerald on KTOO-FM in Juneau; I must have broken a record for the number of “umms” in a ten-minute period. Best of all, the festival arranged for participants to get free helicopter tours to Mendenhall Glacier just outside of Juneau, in which the helicopter lands ON THE GLACIER and you can hike along the ice field. As it happens, the recording of the premiere performance is scheduled to arrive today, and I may be hearing it for the first time as you read this.

You may not get to experience Alaska on Monday, November 20, but you will get to hear the first performance in New York of my piece. You know what else you’ll get to hear?

  • Four world premieres by Galen H. Brown, Lawrence Dillon, David Salvage, and David Toub.
  • Performances by a killer cast including Daniel Beliavsky, members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Thomas Meglioranza, and David Starobin.
  • The United States premiere of The Weather Riots by our Dutch friend, Samuel Vriezen – and guess what? The Frolicsome Composer from Hell himself will be there to tinkle the keys for us.
  • Plus killer stuff (including many pieces being heard for the first time in New York City) from Anthony Cornicello, Jeff Harrington, Mary Jane Leach, Tom Myron, Frank J. Oteri, and Judith Lang Zaimont.

So how much would you think such an orgy of sound would cost? Try FREE. That’s right, no service charges, no “convenience” fees, no taxes, no late penalties, no interest due. Just show up at 7:30 and bring your antihistamines, ’cause this concert is gonna be sick.

by Ian
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Music Events, Piano

Keys to the Future festival of contemporary piano music

Keys to the Future is a festival of contemporary music for solo piano that began here in New York in 2005. Season 2 takes place November 7-9 (Tues., Wed. and Thurs.) at Greenwich House’s Renee Weiler Concert Hall. (If you haven’t been there, this intimate hall is ideal for listening to piano music.) If you’re interested in checking out pertinent information, the website is http://www.keystothefuture.org/, or you can contact me directly at joe@keystothefuture.org. The six pianists involved are: Lisa Moore, Blair McMillen, Tatjana Rankovich, Lora Tchekoratova, Polly Ferman, and myself. I thought I’d talk briefly here about the Festival and then focus on one piece from each of the three programs.

My goal as Artistic Director of Keys is to get listeners up to speed on what’s been happening in recent years with solo piano music. In 2005, we were fairly rigid about the pieces on the programs being very recent, but this season, the Festival has opened up a bit to include a handful of pieces from the 1970s and 80s. My rationale was that pieces by a great but little-known British composer like Howard Skempton are so rarely performed that, despite the fact that some were composed 25 years ago, they will be as new to most listeners. The Festival has embraced the stylistic diversity of the contemporary scene, and you will hear pieces on the same evening of a type that are rarely if ever performed on the same program (for example, a short work by Berio followed by an arrangement of a Radiohead tune on 11/8).

Now to 3 of the pieces:

On the first night (Tuesday, 11/7), I will play 8 short works by the aforementioned Howard Skempton. These pieces combine minimalism and the English folk tradition, expressed in the form of extremely condensed miniatures, some of which last for less than a minute. Three of the pieces were composed in memoriam: for Cornelius Cardew (“Well well Cornelius”), John Cage (“Of Late”) and Morton Feldman (“Toccata”). I thought rather than start the Festival with a dazzling virtuosic showpiece, I’d begin the Festival with some peaceful, meditative sounds.

On the 2nd evening (Wednesday, 11/8), brilliant pianist Tatjana Rankovich will open the program with Franghiz Ali-Zadeh’s “Music for Piano” (1997). Ali-Zadeh is a native of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan whose eloquent music is poised between the Middle East and the modernist West. “Music for Piano” is notable for turning the middle register of the instrument into a stand-in for the “tar,” a long-necked lute played across the Middle East and Central Asia. To accomplish this, Tatjana will prepare the instrument with a beaded necklace over the central portion of the strings inside, as instructed in the score.

On the third evening (Thursday, 11/9), Polly Ferman, the world’s foremost specialist in the piano music of Latin America, will close the program with Osvaldo Golijov’s “Levante: Fantasy on a Chorus from the ‘St. Mark Passion’” (2004). This is Golijov’s first piano work. Based on the eleventh section of his 2001 Passion–a setting of the story of Judas offering to betray Jesus for silver coins–the piece is fired by Latin American dance rhythms. The composer has compared the section to a raucous Cuban meal in which a drunken priest relates the biblical narrative. Interestingly, in the process of transcription to piano, the music morphed from Cuban rhythms to tango.

I hope you come to one or more of the evenings. It should be fun. Please take a look on Sequenza21.com next Friday for my second post.

Joe
Joseph Rubenstein
Artistic Director, Keys to the Future

by Joseph Rubenstein