Last August I decided to start doing a link round up of cool things I come across each week. I just discovered the draft. These are too good to not post about though:
(Twelve Tone Advertisement)
Yo Yo Ma playin the Cello
From here
I was hoping that with Explorations wrapping up until 2010, I would have some time to post on some other things that have been on the back burner, but life has not dealt me those cards. Or so I think. I’m going to attempt the trick where I try to write something now even though I don’t really have the time for it and see if I’ll start automatically finding time in the near future. Wish me luck…
I know a lot of people who have a difficulty grasping really complicated music from the 20th/21st Century and/or find minimalism to be so simple that its boring and/or listen to Cage on my urging and say “what’s the point?” One of these days I’m going to strangle one of these people.
I imagine that this same group of people would respond to Rothko as untalented, or say that ANYONE could do what Mondrian did. (I have in fact disrupted the peace of an art museum once when my ex-girlfriend said that to me, actually)
I think these people are looking at those works in a way they weren’t intended to be looked at. On a much smaller level, its like looking at a painting of a bowl of fruit and saying “I don’t get it, that landscape is TERRIBLE.” Its like listening to Clapping Music and wondering when the Soprano is going to enter with her Aria.
At the heart of this, in my mind, is musical (and art) literacy. If a person doesn’t know what they’re listening for, it is going to be much harder for them to appreciate it. If you don’t understand that one aspect of minimalism is to experience small changes over time, you might appreciate the gorgeous sororities (of bouncing juggling balls), but you’re missing a huge part of the music. If you don’t approach Cage’s music with the serious playfulness he approached his own music, you’re going to be left feeling like you missed the point or that the music was dumb. If you’re presented with an electroacoustic soundpainting without understanding that the piece is an exploration of timbre (you would, understandably, also need to know what the hell Timbre meant.), you might find the work abrasive and unmusical.
I personally love to just wash my eyes out in the colors of Rothko or consider my different reactions to various Mondrian pieces that are only slightly different. I’m not expecting to be moralised to or told a story or worship the Heavens when I see this sort of art. If I was, I’d be left a little bewildered.
One more thing… I know I already linked to it, but the Reich Clapping Music Video with Jugglers is GREAT. Also, it really helps to illustrate the music and teach someone what the big deal is because you can see the different juggling balls bouncing. You can see the music and hear it, and that’s really awesome.
Brittelle, W – Hey Panda – Mohair Time Warp
Xenakis – Rebonds 8 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziQjykdLDVU
Verdi – Otello, Act2- Credo in un Dio crudel (Jago) - Leo Nucci (Jago), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti, conductor
Mussorgsky, M – Night on Bald Mountain – Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Ligeti, G – Movimento preciso e meccanico – Alarm Will Sound
Ligeti, G – Requiem, Lacrymoso - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Voices, Jonathan Nott
van de Vate, N – Gema Jawa – Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, cond. Zzymon Kawalla
Miguel Bolivar’s Saxophone Quartet will finish up this Set of Explorations. The work is an energetic frenzy requiring excellent technique, communication across the ensemble, and a nuanced handling.
Bolivar is a tenor saxophonist and composer residing in Elizabeth, NJ. He earned degrees from Montclair State University and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins. His compositition teachers include Robert Livingston Aldridge and Michael Nathaniel Hersch, and his saxophone teachers include David Bixler, Dr. Jeremy Justeson and Gary Louie. He enjoys salsa dancing and tennis when away from music.
Additionally the piece is performed by the AM/PM Saxophone Quartet, a quartet dedicated to the promotion of new music. They recently performed at the Look Listen Festival in Brooklyn, among other engagements. Hopefully they’ll post a 2010 schedule shortly.
The Saxophone Quartet was written in 2007 and premiered by AM/PM in Baltimore in 2008. In four movements, with two running consecutively, the quartet explores contrasting settings for the musical material heard at the very beginning of the work. Starting off slow and then quickly snowballing into a furious rush, the first two movements don’t resolve so much as fall to the feet of the third movement. This movement builds a tense groove where the lower instruments find ways to come out of the background texture to play with the soprano saxophone. The final movement reviews the opening gestures but in a somber tone with meditative space between each idea. The work proves to end in this manner, proving to be a somber conclusion to the tension that existed throughout the first three movements.
What fascinates me about the work is how music that appears to be themes prove to be transitions to much more declarative material. The form is fluid in that sense, even thought feels well defined from section to section. The energy also is maintained from beginning to end, which is a credit to not just the composer but the ensemble.
I’m exhausted. Yes, I sort of phoned this one in.
Beethoven, L – Quartet in Eb, op 127; mvmt 1 – Emerson String Quartet
Horwood, M – Piece Percussionique No. 6 “Requiem” – Toronto Percussion Ensemble
Tremblay, G – Croissant – New Music Ensemble
Bach, J S – Partita 4 – Andras Schiff
Lang, A – Doloras: Poemas para Piano, No. 2 – Pola Baytelman
Nancarrow, C – Sudy No. 3A – Alarm will Sound
Brahms, J – Clarinet Quintet, II Adagio – Karl Leister, Amadeus Quartet
Ives, C – Sonata No. 1 for Piano, mvmt 4 – Richard Zimdars
Van de Vate, N – Fantasy for Harpsichord – Ewa Gabrys
Miracles of Sant’Iago – Offertory – Anonymous 4
**Explorations**
Bolivar, M – Saxophone Quartet – AM/PM Quartet
** **
Bach, J S – Partita III, Sarabande – Andras Schiff
Varese, E – Poeme Electronique
Maslanka, D – Unending Stream of Life: A hard thought turns out alright – Illinois State University Symphonic Winds, cond. Stephen K Steele
Balter, M – Ut – Nadia Sirota
Bach, J S -Partita II in c minor, Allemande – Andras Schiff
Rudhyar, D – Third Pentagram: The Gift of Blood – Richard Zimdars
anon. – The Lily and the Lamb: Processional Hymn – Anonymous Four
Mochipet/Stefan Freund – Dessert Search for Techno Baklava – Alarm Will Sound
Al-Zand, K – Tableau and Details – The Fischer Duo
Lang, D – wed – Lisa Moore
Winteregg, S – Concerto for Tuba and Small Orchestra: II Lyric – Timothy Buzbee, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, cond. Jacomo Rafael Bairos
Mansurian, T – Three Arias: I Andante – Kim Kashkashian, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, cond. Gil Rose
Paganini, N – Capricci 1 & 2 – Thomas Zehetmair
Start yer engines!
Al-Zand, K – Pattern Preludes, Book 1, V: Slowly (after Debussy) – Calogero Di Leberto
Von Bingen, H – 11, 000 Virgins, Responsory: Spiritui sancto – Anonymous 4
Grant, J – Three Furies for Tuba and Orchestra: Fury 1 – Timothy Buzbee, Iceland Sympony Orchestra, cond. Jacomo Rafael Bairos
Glass, P – Koyaanisqatsi, Clouds – Philip Glass Ensemble
Bach, JS – Partita in e minor, Toccata – Andras Schiff
**Explorations**
Redman, W – Book, OOYHUMBC -John Dierker, Jeff Arnal, Jonathan Vincent, Marc Miller, Cam Collins,
Emily Madsen, and Brent Madsen, Will Redman
Redman, W – Book, FrmnBss – Mike Formanek
Redman, W – Book, Gberja - Gordon Beeferman (piano), Evan Rapport (reeds), Jeff
Arnal (perc)
Braxton, T – Opening Bell (album entitled Central Market)
Paganini, N – Caprici 22 in F Major – Thomas Zehetmair
Mansurian, T – Three Arias, III Lento ma non troppo – Kim Kashkashian, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, cond. Gil Rose
Again, this is after the fact, but I still wanted to put out my good thoughts on Will Redman’s music, some of which you can hear at the bottom of this post.
Will Redman hails from Baltimore, MD, where he is active as both a composer and percussionist. His principal teachers were Michael Finnissy, Stuart Smith, and Jeff Stadelman. His music has been performed Internationally, and he is a percussionist in a number ensembles, including Microkingdom, the Open Music Ensemble, and All Coda. His music has also been recently published in the anthology Notations 21, which celebrates new musical notation and written music as a form of visual art (website)
Redman’s music explores as he describes, “the Avant and the Garde.” Leaning towards avant garde jazz in the pieces I played, the rhythms are open and prickly. All from a series entitled Book which is a set of graphical notated pieces offering lots of interpretive freedom, the musical ideas float between sounding entirely composed and very free. This grey area is a beautiful place for music, to me, with sounds feeling both free and purposeful. Below you can hear an example of this, Gberja. Of course, the making of the music is just as much a product of the performers as the composer, who are Jeff Arnal, Evan Rapport, and Gordon Beeferman.
Catelnuovo-Tedesco, M – Romancero Gitano: Crotalo – Counterpoint Ensemble
Domini, P – Responsorium graduale – Die Singphoniker, cond. Godehard Joppich
Perron, A – Sequences voilees – Polish Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra of Kroakow, cond. Jose Maria FLorencio
Porokofiev, S – March in Bb Major – Chamber Orchestra of Europe, cond. Abbado
Hallman, J – Sonatin for Violin and Piano – http://www.myspace.com/josephhallmancomposer
Joseph Hallman’s Listening Party
Diamond, D – Suite from the Ballet TOM: Dance of Thankfulness for Freedom – Seattle Symphony, cond. Gerard Schwarz
Mozart, W A – The Enchanted Flute – Accentus, cond. laurence equilbey
Stravinsky, I – Symphony in Three Movements: III con moto – London Symphony Orchestra, cond. Sir Colin Davis
Lee, O -Story of You and Me – (album entitled Nihm)
Bach, J S – Contrapunctus VII – American Brass Quintet
Braxton, T – Platinum Rows (album entitled Central Market)
Shostakovich, D S – String Quartet No. 2: mvmt 1 – Borodin Quartet
The Green Leaves of Summer – The King’s Singers
