the aworks collection

"a" works :: Bernard Herrmann

North by Northwest (1959)

• "Written in the style of a fandango it doesn't rely on having a great deal of thematic material to work from, but uses its few motifs in a dazzling display of orchestration invention." (Soundtrack Express)

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

• "But equally characteristic is his experimentation with unusual sounds: ...no strings in Journey to the Center of the Earth" (Film Reference)

Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

• "From the first time I watched this film when it was first released in 1966, I have marveled at the evocative score full of magical orchestral sounds. I agree...this is Bernard Herrmann's last great masterpiece. I would go even further and say it is the among greatest film scores of the 1960s." (American Music Preservation)

Bernard Herrmann "a" works

"a" works :: Beth Anderson

Tower of Power

Tower of Power (1973). Beth Anderson

Mills College Chapel by Spiritualmonkey via Flickr

1. Performance instructions: "Hold as many keys and pedals down as possible, using only your body, at as loud an amplitude as possible, using both your ears and your equipment to decide, for a minimum of five minutes, using yourself and your audience to decide, changing timbres a minimum of five times, without letting any notes up, avoiding any sharp contrasts, allowing your organ to dictate the possibilities..." First performance at Mills College. (DRAM)
2. "The noisiest is Tower of Power, in which organist Linda Collins uses her body to hold down as many organ keys and pedals as possible, as loud as possible, multiply amplified, and squirming somewhat, for ten minutes - new music offers no more grinding mass of audio waves, no more opaque wall of noise." (PostClassic)
3. "And yet, my favorite Anderson piece may be Tower of Power, a decidedly non-melodic, non-traditional organ piece" (aworks)

Tower of Power - Beth Anderson

Sleep Talking (2006). Ornette Coleman

Cover of Sound Grammar

1. 'At every junction the band seems to be breathing the same breath, becoming one. In Sleep Talking Mr.Coleman begins by quoting the opening of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring to then proceed on a tightrope of sparse notes set against the meandering dialogue of the two basses. The music flows seamlessly from revisited blues (”Turnaround” and “Once Only”) to unknown territories.' (A Gathering of the Tribes)
2. '"Sleep Talking" finds Coleman playing violin on slow, blue jazz tune that resembles rain falling in the streets.' (James Calemine - Swampland)
3. 'The material is mostly new, though some pieces sound familiar. "Sleep Talking" (which may or not be related to an earlier tune calles "Sleep Walking") has a dolorous, achingly beautiful melody that sounds like it might have been around forever, just waiting for Ornette to pluck it out of the air.' (Peter March - BBC)
4. "Sleep Talking is as sweat-soaked as anything in the Coleman catalog: at once turbulent and sweet, muscular and gentle." (Fred Kaplan - Slate)
5. "The ballad Sleep Talking provides a respite from the aggressive sound on other tracks"  (John Henry - Audiophile Audition)
6. "the album's musical syntax is spirited, whimsical, playful, and in the case of the sober tune "Sleep Talking," wistfully lyrical (Dan Ouellette- Billboard)
7. 'It seemed to skip the attention of most critics - much due to a faulty fact sheet from Ornette's record company - but there is a beautiful reworking of "Sleep Talk", retitled "Sleep Talking", on Sound Grammar.' (Perfect Sounds)
8. Sound Grammar CD - Amazon emusic
9. streams - The Hype Machine Grooveshark NPR

The Blessing (1958). Ornette Coleman

Cover via Amazon

quotes:

1. "This has a great laid-back alto solo, full of the main key of the song (G) and casual implications of strange tangents to weird II-V’s. At 3:30, we look into the abyss. The master then wraps it up with a blues cry." (The Bad Plus)
2. Coleman refurbished the blues framework, threaded it through his jazz without getting rid of its folk-like, simplistic milieu. (Tom Jurek - AllMusic)
3. Two things should be done when hearing this: you should remember Ornette's horn is plastic, and you should forget his later work. (John Barrett Jr. - all about jazz)
4.  'And the first phrase of "The Blessing" contains the first phrase of [Coltrane's] Naima.' Don Cherry (Ben Sidran - Talking Jazz)
5. '"The Blessing" could pass for ordinary jazz of the time -- but Coleman's clearly straining at the bar lines.' (The New Rolling Stone Album Guide)
6. "the melodic line is...rhythmically free" (Dave Oliphant - Texas Jazz). Texas jazz?
7. "in his earliest recordings can be heard 12-bar blues, I Got Rhythm-like choruses, and other original 32-bar sequences such as The Blessing." (Brian Priestley - Chasin' the Bird)
8. 'It's not quite "free jazz," or whatever Coleman is so frequently praised for co-founding. But it was new, and if it wasn't the best thing since sliced bread, it was, at the very least, Something Else.' (NPR)
9. "It was composed in a park at Fort Worth at one or two early in the morning" (Keep Swinging)
10. "The Blessing was formed in 2000 to share a fascination with improvised music, a pathological distrust of chords and a passion for north-african cuisine."(ATP Festival)

videos:

1. JFB's Hard Dixie Four (YouTube). Dixieland version including banjo.
2. Ryo Kawasaki (YouTube).
3. Mark Lockett Quintet (YouTube). With trombone.
4. Gary Tu Trio (YouTube). Lots of bar noise.

"a" works :: Ralph Shapey

21 Variations for Piano

• lala

"a" works :: Ornette Coleman

Zig Zag

• As played for John Zorn.

Sleep Talking

The Blessing

"a" works :: Nico Muhly

A Hudson Cycle

Clear Music

• Clear Music is an extended exploration of a single measure in John Taverner’s (1490-1545) motet Mater Christi Sanctissima.  (Chester Novello)

Honest Music

"a" works :: Archie Shepp

Archie Shepp (via last.fm)

Trio (1963)

• Recorded in Copenhagen. The most “advanced” number is a 15 minute-long tune called “The Trio” which uses both modal scales and changing meters. (JazzLoft)
• With the New York Contemporary Five - Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, John Tchicai, Don Moore, and J.C. Moses (Wikipedia)
• (emusic)

When Will the Blues Leave (1963)

• Also from the New York Contemporary Five.

"a" works :: Alvin Lucier

In Memoriam Steve Marshall (1993/2003)

• What we can say is that confronting these low sounds without interruption for the duration of this piece is a particularly dark, somber, and cumulative experience, which becomes apparent in the few seconds after the end when the sound has finally ceased. Considering this, it is difficult to overlook completely that this is an In Memoriam. (DRAM)
• In Memoriam Stuart Marshall, for bass clarinet and pure wave oscillator, aligns the gravity of dispassionate process with the emotional gravity of loss to forge a piece that is powerfully affecting in its restraing. (gardenvariety)
• the clarinetist (here the superhuman John Anderson) produces a series of 43 small intervals in relation to the constant sine tone (Sequenza21)