aworks :: "new" american classical music

String Quartet No. 2 (1999). Jefferson Friedman /disquiet's best/

Disquiet's "BEST OF 2011: THE 10 (OR 12) BEST COMMERCIAL AMBIENT/ELECTRONIC ALBUMS" includes the Chiara String Quartet playing music of Jefferson Friedman. 

rdio playlist of the selections (for those available on that service):

Related articles

• Classical Recordings: Jefferson Friedman: String Quartets Nos. 2, 3; Remixes (nytimes.com)
• aworks unordered list :: best of 2011 recordings (rgable.typepad.com)

Caprichos Enfáticos: Los Desastres de la Guerra (2007). Martin Bresnick

Christian Carey highlights a work by Martin Bresnick, commissioned for Lisa Moore and So Percussion:

Cast in eight movements, the piece mirrors the trajectory of Goya’s etchings from a semblance of order and civilization to chthonic brutality. In successive iterations, the gestural language of the farandole and folk-like thematic material is overwhelmed by a noisier environment: populated with a diverse battery of percussion instruments and a correspondingly chaotic phraseology.

YouTube:

aworks five-star links and tracks :: december 28, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

• A video of George Crumb's Four Nocturnes played by Ensemble Linea. atonality.net
• Vince Guaraldi's heirs are suing Concord Music for unpaid Charlie Brown music royalties. Belated Merry Christmas. sfweekly
• Tracks from 2011 Issue Project Room concerts e.g. David Borden, Nate Wooley, and Ellen Fullman. freemusicarchive.org
• Charles Rosen on Elliott Carter's use of time in recent compositions. New York Review of Books
• I found Helen Vendler's review of The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century Poetry to be a "screed," although Michael Leong doesn't think much of Rita Dove's recent response to the review, either. Big Other
• Evan K. on David Lang's The Woodmans, walking, and the Random Word Generator. embody the struggle

Child's Play (1986). Pamela Marshall /synchronicity/

Image via CrunchBase

Synchronicity...

I was at Amoeba Music in San Francisco and in addition to the obligatory John Fahey CD, among others, I purchased Noises, Sounds & Strange Airs, a collection of contemporary classical music.

I stared reading some blogs this morning including Elusive Music by the composer Pamela Marshall. She posted about navigating through social media, and happened to mention my paper.li site the contemporary music daily. 

I then checked my email and had a notification that the composer had started following aworks on twitter.

And now I am listening to last night's purchases, and interestingly, I just realized Noises, Sounds & Strange Airs includes three works by Pamela Marshall.

Her Child's Play, a fun set of percussive vignettes, streams here.

aworks ordered list :: peter burwasser top classical albums of 2011

From the Philadelphia citypaper, Peter Burwasser's list of top classical albums (suitably elided for the blog):

• Marc-André Hamelin Etudes (Hyperion) ...It is not surprising, but it is fantastic; dense, lush, extraordinary textures, and played with his usual wizardry. 
• Peter Orth/Jonathan Hays/Jeremy Gill Helian/Book of Hours (Albany) Local composer Jeremy Gill writes music that evokes the ancient power of the art, in the manner of his teacher, George Crumb, as in the piano work Book of Hours...
• Heidi Louise Williams Drive American (Albany) An all-American program of solo piano music that is lots of fun, beginning with John Adams' manic American Berserk and ending with a trio of superb Etudes by William Bolcom... 
• Tilson Thomas/San Francisco Symphony Orchestra Ives-Brant: A Concord Symphony (SFS Media) Henry Brant's orchestration of Charles Ives' mighty Concord Sonata, originally a solo piano work, was the culmination of a lifelong project. 
• Chris Brown/William Winant Iconicities (New World) ...Think Steve Reich on Quaaludes. 
• Leon Kirchner Music for Orchestra (Albany) The late Leon Kirchner was an American master, and his tough but beautifully well-crafted orchestra music is a special treat.

Stress Position, for solo amplified piano (2008). Drew Baker /goodbye, pre-20th century/

Image via CrunchBase

I was innocently listening to Stress Position, as played on piano by Marilyn Nonken. Then, I started reading The New York Times via mlaff (usual disclaimer: not safe for work, republicans, brahms' lovers etc.) about music criticism:

Our attitude toward the classical canon, after all — and this increasingly applies also to older forms of jazz and pop — is that great music transcends time. If the New York Philharmonic did not regularly give us Beethoven, Brahms and symphonies, we would complain that it had abandoned the conservationist aspect of its charter and lament the disappearance of works that had moved people for decades or centuries. That tension is not easily resolved.

Yes and no.

One solution: Stop listening to music pre-20th century. I know I did. Other than maybe Simone Dinnerstein's Bach and Alexandra Silocea's Prokofiev, I can't off-hand remember any legacy music in 2011 that has rocked my world. And for the record, I'm becoming increasingly anti-institution when it comes to my music consumption (apologies to SFS, SFO, etc.). 

On the other hand, all that superb 20th century music from John Cage, Thelonious Monk, and John Fahey is keeping me from hearing even more from such interesting new composers as Drew Baker.

(and thanks to maura lafferty for the reminder re: contemporaneity)

Update: I don't mean to imply mlaffs is not safe for work etc. She's super good. Read my previous Rick Perry does Aaron Copland via The Rude Pundit post to understand the joke. On the other hand, The Rude Pundit is for selected audiences only...

Related articles

• aworks ordered list :: top 100 /goodbye, 20th century/ (rgable.typepad.com)
• Music Review: New York Philharmonic With Jeffrey Kahane - Review (nytimes.com)
• Emboldened Orchestras Embracing the New Music (nytimes.com)
• New Book Says Good Stress and Probiotics can Change Your Life (prweb.com)

Danzón Cubano (1942). Aaron Copland /in the pew every sunday etc./

I was innocently listening to Danzón Cubano, as played on piano by Christian Ivaldi and Noel Lee. Then, I started reading The Rude Pundit blog (not safe for work, republicans, etc.) about the Rick Perry video I will never bother to watch:

The first line Perry speaks is the crude giveaway of his true intention. "I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country," he says as Aaron Copland-esque music surges and falls under him. The pun here is clear. "I'm a Christian...

...and the post descends from there.

Related articles

• Rick Perry Has Another 'Oops' Moment [Video] (inquisitr.com)
• aworks +1 web log :: live dreams and other pursuits (rgable.typepad.com)
• Jesus vs. Rick Perry? (secularnewsdaily.com)
• Some Friendly Advice for Rick Perry (bigthink.com)
• Rick Perry Boldly Admits He's Christian In Unbelievably Bigoted Campaign Ad [Video] (jezebel.com)
• Rick Perry's 'Strong' Campaign Ad Gets the Web Angry - and Laughing (newsfeed.time.com)

and a prior aworks post about D.C. as played on the piano.

aworks ordered list :: top 100 /goodbye, 20th century/

Cover of Kundun

Steve on rec.music.classical.recordings has his top 100 20th century works. Here's the filtered version:

100. Adams – Short Ride in a Fast machine
98. Reich – Different Trains
94. Hovhaness - Mysterious Mountain
92. Antheil – Ballet Mecanique
89. Barber – Second Essay
86. Glass – Kundun
82. Ives – Three Places in New England
77. Corigliano - Phantasmagoria
74. Barber - Violin Concerto Op.14
72. Schuller - Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee
71. Korngold - The Sea Hawk
70. Gershwin- Piano Concerto in F
69. Bernstein – Chichester Psalms
47. Harris – Symphony #3
42. Barber – Symphony #1
36. Copland - Sextet
35. Korngold – Symphony in F
29. Copland - Appalachian Spring
27. Gershwin - An American in Paris
22. Copland – Billy the Kid
19. Ives Symphony #2

Related articles

• Walton: Violin Concerto; Barber: Violin Concerto, etc - review (guardian.co.uk)
• Long Ago, in a Symphony Far, Far Away (inwindsymphony.wordpress.com)
• Son of Chamber Symphony (2007). John Adams /goodbye, 20th century/ (rgable.typepad.com)
• aworks unordered list :: best of 2011 recordings (rgable.typepad.com)

Son of Chamber Symphony (2007). John Adams /goodbye, 20th century/

Image via Wikipedia

I was at the Rasputin going-out-of-business sale today in Mountain View, CA. Yikes, it's the same store where Tower Records went out of business back in 2006.In a bit of nostalgia, I finally purchased the St. Lawrence String Quartet's John Adams CD. You probably don't remember but this was the album that on rdio  was available to subscribers except for one track. Ack. 

Ok, I'm now home and ripping the (archaic) CD to the (possibly archaic) MP3 format. Although, when iTunes talks to Gracenote to identify the tracks, it reports that the composer for the third movement of Son of Chamber Symphony is Conlon Nancarrow. If only...

Work (1954). Thelonious Monk /swinging from another planet/

Patrick Jarenwattananon explains his Grammy pick of Fred Hersch for best jazz solo:

The pianist's improvisation on the Monk tune, taken from a solo performance at the Village Vanguard, dares to be different. It's got this two-hand independence thing going on, as if it were some sort of improvised baroque fugue. Hersch shoots off in all sorts of different directions through what feels like the piano's entire range, but he still implies this rock-solid swing undercurrent in perfect time. (You can hear it at the Palmetto Records website.) That aesthetic of swinging from another planet is sort of what Monk did, though this sounds nothing like Monk. I'd like a solo this creative to take home the prize.