aworks :: "new" american classical music

Marquee Moon (1977). Tom Verlaine /(the) seventies rock/

Marc Weidenbaum blogs about a Kronos Quartet/SF Jazz Festival concert including an arrangement of Televison's Marquee Moon:

There was also a cover of Television’s great punk-era rock song “Marquee Moon,” composed by Television’s Tom Verlaine and arranged by Steven Mackey. Though a classical quartet covering a rock song remains somewhat newsworthy for pushing boundaries, it’s worth noting that the original song was recorded five years before the founding of the San Francisco Jazz Festival.

Here's an alternate take of the original, via YouTube:

European Son (1966-67). Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker /noise control/

As I rebuild my MP3 library, I'm listening to a special program on counterstream radio:

CS Staff DJ: Trevor Hunter—Noise Control

Music doesn't have to always be built on hummable melody and lush harmonies. One of the most important developments in modern music has been the use of noise—mere timbres in time. Whether produced electronically or acoustically, noise has become a musical element on par with any other.

Some tasty selections so far from the noise end of the musical spectrum...

• Ghosts of the Evening Tides. Joseph Waters. Offshore
• European Son. The Velvet Underground. The Velvet Underground & Nico
• Pieces For Orchestra. Yoko Ono. If Tigers Were Clouds: Eight Decades Of Women In Experimental Music
• Piano Piece #13 (Carpenter's Piece) For Nam June Paik. George Maciunas. SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century
• Williams Mix. John Cage. OHM: The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music
• Ionisation. Edgard Varèse. Boulez conducts Varèse 3
• Ballet Mecanique. George Antheil. Ballet Mecanique

And here are some lyrics from that 60's Velvet Underground track:

You killed your European son
You spit on those under twenty-one
But now your blue car's gone
You better say so long
Hey hey, bye bye bye

String Quartet No. 4 (1969). Andrew Imbrie /1921-2007/

Composer Andrew Imbrie has died. From Joshua Kosman's obituary:

The goal, always, was to speak directly to listeners. "A piece can be fairly complex, but I believe that there's a deal you make with your audience," he said in a 2001 interview with The Chronicle. "You make the piece as clear as you can, and they have to give it their undivided attention. And if you both keep to the deal, then there's a real communication going on."

While mentioning Imbrie's teachers including Leo Ornstein, Nadia Boulanger, and Roger Sessions, Robert Commanday also describes the composer:

What controls and guides the forces of Imbrie’s music is first a dialectic process, the musical idea generating both its own continuity and its contrasting response, and second his grasp of the whole, a vision of the music’s destiny.

His String Quartet No. 4 is a good example. This also reminds me the 20th century is over.

Philosophy of the World (1969). The Shaggs /aws 2007.3/

Continuing to slow-blog the Stanford Alarm Will Sound concert from Friday night...

Ok, this next piece was a big test of "wacky or worthwhile."

First, AWS explained who the Shaggs were. Here's the Wikipedia explanation:

The Shaggs were an American all-female rock and roll group.... Their first album, Philosophy of the World was released in 1969. The Shaggs have often been considered the worst rock and roll band in the world...The Shaggs seem to have a consistent (but highly idiosyncratic) approach to melody, harmony, and rhythm. The songs use highly irregular verse structures, which are emphasized by the melodic structures, which typically accord one note per syllable: the guitar accompaniment attempts to reproduce this pattern as well. Most of the Shaggs material is made up of eighth- and quarter-notes.

Then, we heard over the speakers a song from the original Shaggs album. Finally, Alarm Will Sound played their arrangement of the same song.

About the content, I'll only say this is some of the most unusual music I've heard; idiosyncratic in an almost Ivesian way although the rhythmic complexity may have been unintentional. Note that the conductor and drummer were both wearing headphones, presumably for a click track.

About the process, holy musicology! Hearing the orginal and then hearing the arrangement played live was a great way to experience what the musicians (and arranger Gavin Chuck) had accomplished. The Nancarrow transcriptions of player piano music would have also benefited from the same treatment. And if only Marin Alsop or some other conductor would play some of the original David Bowie immediately before a performance of Philip Glass' "Heroes" Symphony.

Who would have expected that hearing recorded rock music on stage, in the midst of a "classical" concert, would lead to a surprisingly worthwhile experience.

And finally, some text from Philosophy of the World:

It doesn't matter what you do
It doesn't matter what you say
There will always be
One who wants things the opposite way

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aws aworks posts: 2007.1 2007.2 2006.1 2006.2 2006.3 2006.4 2006.5 program notes (pdf)
the big game: stanford 20 cal 13 -- yawn, i mean, yay.

Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death (1968). George Crumb /War...huh...yeah, what is it good for?/

Listening to George Crumb's Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death, I wonder to what extent this evocative (although sometimes incomprehensible) work was explicitly influenced by the nightmare of the Viet Nam war. I suspect not so much; more likely it was a awakening-era prelude to the ugly years to follow (1968-70) and the composer's subsequent Black Angels.

I also wonder if any lasting art will be inspired by the Iraq War. Although, I suppose not even the interpretation of Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony is as clear as it first seemed.

youtube: edwin starr - war. george crumb - black angel part 2. more cheerful video circa 1965 via roger bourland

You Look Sweet upon the Seat of a Bicycle (1963). Frank Zappa

Let the conciousness revolution era begin, circa 1963:

We believed that self-expression took precedence over self-control—even if we still assumed that big institutions would continue to cohere and function without much difficulty.

And they said the avant-garde can't be fun... (YouTube videos via American Street):

Ceres Motion (1973). David Borden

I've been listening to the Terry Riley quite a bit lately. Then last night, I fired up the last-fm/pandora mashup pandorafm using the Pandora Quick Mix station along with the pandorafm "now playing" explanation tab. Finally, Pandora has presented something new and interesting: Ceres Motion from the album Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. 1970-1973. Here's what Pandora thinks I like and why it played this track:

This song has IDM influences, a repetitive verse, inventive synth arrangements, intricate rhythms, a synth bass riff, synth riffs, a highly synthetic sonority, a dry recording sound, trippy soundscapes, an emphasis on varied instrumentation.

I assume Riley's Rainbow in a Curved Air would have many of these same attributes although I reserve the right to tire of trippy soundscapes, if not highly synthetic sonorities...

Mother Mallard's is apparently a 1973 album with David Borden among others who were influenced by Cage, Reich, Glass, and of course Riley.

mother mallard: mp3s
pandora's current punishment: aftertaste by helmet (i never should have indicated i liked filter's hey man nice shot)

I Am With You (1982). David Garland

I feel compelled to comment on Steve Smith's latest post on Night after Night:

Night After Night - Conspicuous consumption of music, live and otherwise, in New York City.

- In spite of some training, practice, and enthusiasm, I am at heart a music consumer and it's great to see a blog that understands that dynamic (in the spirit of Christgau). And even in the reasonably supplied Bay Area, we still want to know the NY musical life.

This afternoon, I received a most unexpected phone call from a friendly representative of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), who called to tell me that I'd won this year's Deems Taylor Internet Award for my nocturnal ruminations here at Night After Night.

- Nocturnal ruminations pay off as we all know. Congratulations.

And clearly Mr. Portico is mistaken to claim that my listening consists entirely of the new.

- And not to belabor the point, but as I focus on my particular "genre cage" (see the Amazon editor review of this recording re: cages), I'm surprised in the amount of music that is new by impact if not by calendar.

During the years that I've been active in classical music journalism and especially criticism, I've often been stricken with an envy of peers whose grasp of the canon is deeper than mine.

- And I happen to blog about a topic where every perfomer/composer/writer/educator/researcher who happens to read aworks knows infinitely more about the subject than I do. And yet, I hope point of view also matters. In Steve's case, it clearly does.

Writing about Corey Dargel means knowing something of Franz Schubert, David Garland and Morrissey, at the very least.

- Ok, I've shared my enthusiasm for the music of Dargel, Schubert, and Garland. And for the record, I've known Morrissey enthusiasts, even if I preferred Electronic by Johnny Marr et al. (And a different Morrissey set up my first date with Laura. Hi, another Steve/Morrissey.)

And truthfully, it works both ways: Knowing Mozart's music doesn't require me to know Schnittke's, but knowing Schnittke's music enriches my engagement with Mozart's.

- This is so wrong <grin>. Every year that I listen to Ives/Cage/Reich, I lose my ear for European music. I need to be precise here; I've probably listened to Sibelius more recently than any other non-American composer but it's all those German/Austrian guys, circa 19th century, that I no longer relate to. I never expected that. Still, Haydn is a newfound pleasure.

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Enough with the detail. Why is Night after Night worth reading night after night? I think it's because of the attempt to document the comprehensiveness of the musical world, which is the world, I at least, live in.

playlist: Vivaldi for Organ - Guillou. The Welcome Table - Super Numeri. U. S. A. - Nancarrow, Carter, Ives, Yim, Feldman, Lucier, Young, Cage - Arditti String Quartet. The Association's Greatest Hits. Phaedra - Tangerine Dream.
david garland: what's new myspace

Purple Haze (1967). Jimi Hendrix /faith as an act of entertainment/

Blogger, Chevron cashier, and former monastic worshipper The Sarabite quotes a 17th-century criticism of Charpentier:

"They transform into entertainment that which has been created for no other purpose than to produce in the Christian soul a holy and salutary sadness."

He also mentions how the offensive can become the orthodox.

Outside the Dream Syndicate (1971). Tony Conrad

Tony Conrad plays with the band Faust and Jim O'Rourke on a live version of Outside the Dream Syndicate. Not having heard Conrad before, I wasn't sure what to expect. It's much more primitive than any of the early minimalism of Reich, Glass, Riley, or Young but sounds fresh to my ears. It starts with violin drone and then other instruments join in but nothing resembling traditional musical development really occurs.

I bought this today at Aquarius Records in SF. Amazon also happens to have a review signed by Aquarius Records. Clever (the review as well as the idea of leveraging Amazon's platform):

This is raw, building, blistering, pounding, droning brilliance!

On first listen, I'm not sure it is brilliant but it is all those other adjectives.

If I go to Tower Records, I see many artists too mainstream for me to know. If I go to Aquarius Records, I see many artists not mainstream enough for me to know. Today, Aquarius did have the new Stills CD but I was worried about it not being cool enough. I looked at it several times but passed. It's the aesthetic equivalent of buying Mariah Carey at Tower or that time in a seventies department store when I looked at various albums for thirty minutes, but in the end made a quick grab for Elton John's Greatest Hits which had just come out, resulting in the clerks chuckling at me. So instead, today I bought Tony Conrad, Z'ev, and the new Captain Beefheart DVD. Curse you, seventies record clerks...

Aquarius is also near the Beadissimo bead store. I'd like to have the two establishments swap their in-store music to see which one would empty out first -- the music hipsters or the creative beaders? It's not clear who would be more tolerant. And note the Beadissimo mission statement (which I certainly respect even if I don't share their passion):

Beadissimo is dedicated to promoting creativity and individuality by providing interesting and unique product and expert staff to help anyone interested in designing and creating jewelry achieve a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

Speaking of the intersection of noise and music, disquiet.com mentions (see #14) the UK Honda ad where a choir performs the sounds of a Honda Civic. Recommended (both disquiet.com and the performance).