aworks :: "new" american classical music

Electric Counterpoint (1987). Steve Reich /*****/

1. Paint the Silence. South. British.
2. Small Time Shot Away. Massive Attack. British.
3. Spem In Alium (Sing And Glorify). Thomas Tallis. Kronos Quartet. British.
4. Largo Ostinato. Lou Harrison. Californian.
5. Dirty Love. Frank Zappa. Californian.
6. Love and Death. The Stills. Canadian/New Yorker.
7. Fantasia in c minor. Bach: Das Orgelbüchlein Vol.2. Wolfgang Rübsam. German. I wish iTunes had predictive capability i.e. if you liked that, you'll like this. Otherwise, I get stuck on the same great tracks.
8. Drum solo from Pursuance. A Love Supreme. Elvin Jones. Michigander. To try out the open-source audio editor Audicity, I've extracted Elvin Jones' drum solo as a separate MP3.
9. Long Night. Kyle Gann. Texan/New Yorker.
10. Little Fluffy Clouds. The Orb. British. Samples Reich's Electric Counterpoint as played by Pat Metheny; sounds like an organic part of the mix (rather than those dodgy remixes on top of Reich's music).  Disquiet interviews Steve Reich on Clouds etc.:

First of all, a lot of things happened before I was even aware of it, so consequently, no one sent me a copy of "Little Fluffy Clouds" and said, "Is this alright with you." Because at the time they were relatively unknown, we didn't take any legal steps either, when we had that option. This is a field of musical appropriation that depends on the quantity of the music that is used. The little I have heard of the use of my music, I think it's just fine. And I'm interested to see how people will take off on it. There's a tradition in music of people stealing from other composers, quoting and otherwise. I don't know if you saw "Hindenburg," the piece that's the first act of three tales we presented at BAM in the fall. The third scene is called "Nibelungen Zeppelin," which is a stealing of the [he sings the "Ride of the Valkyries" theme] thing in Wagner and putting it into the [mix].

11. You're the Top. Louis Armstrong. Louisianan. Satchmo singing Cole Porter over a big band arrangement. Delightful.
12. I Am Home. Massive Attack. Still British. Fierce.
13. Hungaro Viva. Sonic Youth. New Yorker via Neptune (this track anyway).
14. Laughing Cavilier. Ladytron. British/Bulgarian.
15. Mein Weg hat Gipfel und Wellentaler. Pärt. Christopher Bowers-Broadbent. Estonian. Apocalyptic organ music. Amazon has a clip.
16. Valentine from World Outside. Psychedelic Furs. British. and there's no time to set it straight or take a side.
17. 2005-08-21. Cinema Volta: Daily Ambience. Podcaster (originally via Kyle Gann). Composed daily. Description for this one:

I got a handle on the processing from yesterday and this is the first result. This is the start of a series that are all generated from a single note. That note is run through a stack of processors, some at war with each other. Through the series, the note and the processing will stay the same, just the sound source will change.

rgable: aworks reich: official del.icio.us wikipedia google news yahoo audio singingfish electric counterpoint: boosey & hawkes

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Trio for Strings (1958). La Monte Young

Via David Beardsley, the MELA Foundation announces, in honor of La Monte Young's 70th birthday, a performance of Trio for Strings at the Dream House in New York. Composed while Young was at UCLA, the trio is an early example of using long, sustained tones as the organizing principle and is a benchmark of the minimalism movement. It lasts about an hour.

  The composer quoted by Keith Potter in Four Musical Minimalists:

The Trio is, he avers, 'a rather tonal piece. It's in some sort of C ... probably  C-minor .... It doesn't start there, but it gets there...

Potter also suggests Milton Babbitt admired the music of Young at the time.

rgable: aworks american high era young: official del.icio.us wikipedia google news yahoo audio singingfish

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A Survivor from Warsaw (1947). Arnold Schoenberg

Frank Oteri has an essay on NewMusicBox about who should be classified as an American composer -- clearly an issue relevant for aworks. I spent time in August reading several Schoenberg biographies to better understand his life after he came to the US and to better understand what he actually composed while here. From his arrival in 1933 until his 1951 death in Los Angeles, he wrote, depending on what you count, on the order of twenty compositions. What I can't say, having not heard enough of these works, is what influence if any did he absorb into his music from living here.

The NewMusicBox definition of American composer:

any composer born here, whether working at home or abroad, as well as any composer who moves to this country and continues to compose.

Therefore, Bartók's (or would it be more American to spell it Bartok without the accent) Concerto for Orchestra is classified as an American work. And only time will tell if history agrees with Charles Wuorinen's notion that Stravinsky and Schoenberg are the greatest American composers.

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Long Night (1980-81). Kyle Gann

I'm listening to Kyle Gann's Long Night as played by Sarah Cahill. Poignantly and painfully appropriate right now. Next up, Lou Harrison's Largo Ostinato (Andante calls its polytonality "haunting"), Massive Attack's equally haunting I Am Home and finally South's Paint the Silence to end what's been a disconcerting week:

Don't paint the silence black now save me
Don't leave it a day
You got a right to stand or die so maybe
You take chances all the same
Pain comes in stages
If we dont make it
Nothing changes

gable: aworks culture wars era gann: blog del.icio.us wikipedia yahoo audio singingfish long night: review by gann recording session amazon sales rank #137,864

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Black, Beige and Tan (1943). Duke Ellington

Everyone's favorite oboe blogger has her performance schedule posted including the October American music concert in San Jose with works by Amram, Ellington, and Gershwin.

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Music with Changing Parts (1973). Philip Glass

Cognitive Daily has a post about the Mozart effect where listening to Mozart may increase learning. Here's the relevant excerpt describing a study of the effect:

Jackson and Tlauka’s participants did the task twice: once after listening to Mozart’s piano sonata, and once while listening to Philip Glass’s Music with Changing Parts. None of the participants did the task following a period of silence. While the participants were able to learn the maze, the Mozart music did not lead to an improvement compared to the Philip Glass.

Hmm, scientific proof Mozart isn't superior to Glass...

David Hurwitz on Amazon suggests Music with Changing Parts as a less extreme alternative to Music in Twelve Parts although a reviewer calls it a "house clearer." I find La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano best for removing infidels from the premises...

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Fanfare for the Common Man (1942). Aaron Copland /hurricane katrina/

My blogging has ground to a halt as I try to get a handle on Hurricane Katrina and its physical, social, emotional and economic impact. But mainly, as the week progresses, I've struggled to come to terms with how little we have been able to help.

When I think back to the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, although having only minor impact to most people in the Bay Area, I found it disorienting at the time, albeit only temporary.  I can't imagine living with the consequences of chaos for an entire week, as in the current situation. It was either Kevin Kelly or Stewart Brand who wrote of the insight gleaned from civic duty in the Marina District in SF during the quake but as I remember, the advice was that in an emergency, you can't wait for authorities and so people needed to self-organize to take initial action. However, that was difficult since suitable tools were not available.  Again, the situation in the South must be 100 times worse.

With 9/11, my experience was mostly via television and the Internet. As I got off the train at the San Jose station, I noticed law enforcement which I thought odd. Then, I went to the office, began to read email, and was puzzled by a message from an engineer that because of the attacks, the bridges were closed and he wasn't coming in to work that day. What attacks? Via the Internet, I discovered what was happening but it was only watching the first tower collapse that I had a feeling of shock. I don't think I've ever been more astounded than the morning of 9/11 and it still feels unreal. We are of course still playing out the results from that day, for better and worse. While I don't have the same visceral sense of the hurricane and its aftermath, it seemed ominous for those unlucky enough to get caught in the disaster.

The previous two  paragraphs strike me as a bit self-indulgent, given what is still happening on the Gulf Coast. That may also be why I haven't blogged this week. But, as a way to keep in mind the victims of the hurricane and their current peril, I propose to contribute $10 to the American Red Cross for every blog post I write this weekend as well as $1 to the Salvation Army for every del.icio.us link I create.  Godspeed to all those in urgent need of help.

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From the WWNorton website on Fanfare for the Common Man:

This may be Copland's most recognizable work. The simplicity of the opening idea, and the spare grandeur of the harmonized statement that follows suggest the ideal of the worth and dignity of the common person.

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