Sonata (1939). Paul Creston /goodbye, 20th century/

(Paul Creston)

I stumbled onto the Analekta label at Amoeba Music and I have to say I am impressed with their marketing:

1. The miscellaneous Radiohead bin at Amoeba had a CD with the prominent photo of conductor Edwin Outwater. This turned out to be a new release from the label with compositions by Nico Muhly, Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead, and Richard Parry from Arcade Fire. The recording was also available in the new classical releases section, for the more traditional shopper.
2. The CD came with a $9.99 credit for additional downloads at the Analekta site.
3. That site had a search facility including the ability to filter by era. My first reaction was to complain that "Contemporary" was separate from "Twentieth Century" so I was going to have to go to the trouble of doing two separate searches. Then I realized, this is a proper demarcation. Much if not all music from the last century is no longer contemporary.
4. To balance the truly contemporary music on the purchased CD, I eventually downloaded music written by Paul Creston (played by Duo Gaulin-Riverin) and Duke Ellington (played by Duo Campion-Vacho).

Related articles

• Music: Edwin Outwater's research in (rhythm and) motion (macleans.ca)
• Radiohead Silence (slate.com)
• 90+ (1994). Elliott Carter /goodbye, late twentieth century/ (rgable.typepad.com)