aworks :: "new" american classical music

aworks ordered list :: amazon kindle wishlist

I splurged and bought the Amazon Kindle for electronic reading. After several days of use, I feel like I did when I first bought a CD player in the Eighties -- this is a new world.

The Kindle is a first generation product and has some interface glitches (the annotation facility is not as usable as I hoped, battery ran out unexpectedly on my commute etc.). Also, it is based on a proprietary format. But overall the device is easy to hold and read. And the wireless connection works surprisingly well. So well in fact that if the supplied experimental web browser becomes more reliable, I'd use this much more than my web-enabled phone with a much tinier screen.

In the aworks household, opinion is mixed. The local 7-year-old likes it and is in the middle of reading Nim's Island. The local spouse (and former Stanford English major) prefers legacy technology.

I'm also sorting through what books are available in Kindle format and at what cost. Five minutes of browsing turns up lots of interesting music titles, many at $10.00 or less although the academic titles appear to be more. Here's my new wish list:

1. Keyboard Music Before 1700. A. Silbiger
2. Monk's Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making. Gabriel Solis
3. Hitchcock's Music. Jack Sullivan
4. Classical Music, Why Bother?: Hearing the World of Contemporary Culture Through a Composer's Ears. Joshua Fineberg
5. From Paris to Peoria: How European Piano Virtuosos Brought Classical Music to the American Heartland. R. Allen Lott
6. Musicophilia. Oliver Sacks
7. Songs in Their Heads: Music and Its Meaning in Children's Lives. Patricia Shehan Campbell
8. 20th Century Chamber Music. James McCalla
9. Louis Moreau Gottschalk and the Rise of Cuban Music. George L. Moneo
10. Recorded Music in American Life: The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890-1945. William Howland Kenney
11. Who Needs Classical Music?: Cultural Choice and Musical Value. Julian Johnson
12. For the Love of Music: Invitations to Listening. Michael Steinberg
13. The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany. Martin Goldsmith

I'd add The Rest Is Noise to this list but will hold off since I already own paper and audio versions. Now if I could just get Fanfare and Wire magazines on the device...

aworks ordered list :: yesterday's top new emusic tracks /so far/

1. Gimme Shelter. Rolling Stones. Boomer nostalgia in an eerie kind of way.
2. Hurdy Hurry. Phill Niblock. In hindsight, of course a hurdy gurdy makes for good drone.
3. Different trains (America - before the war). Steve Reich. David Robertson. Reich says this version is "more melodic."
4. Variations for Orchestra. Arnold Schoenberg. James Winn and Cameron Grant. Using two pianos gives the transcription some density.
5. Country Honk. Rolling Stones. The beep beep and the violin make for a great second version of Honky Tonk Women. A forgotten pleasure.
6. Decasia: part 5. Michael Gordon. This is sufficiently weird.
7. Monkey Man. Rolling Stones. That Keith Richards is such a nice guitarist.
8. Flute, 2 Bb Clarinets, and Percussion. John Cage. The Barton Workshop. Too chirpy to really be a drone?
9. Sidewalk. Jorge Liderman. New Pacific Trio. Up and down.
10. Prelude, BWV 999. JS Bach. Eliot Fisk.
11. Les baricades misterieuses. Francois Couperin. Eliot Fisk.
12. Rondo in A Major. CPE Bach. E Fisk.
13. Triple quarte (for string orchestra) (I.). Steve Reich. David Robertson. YouTube of the Kronos version.
14. ...
55. You Can't Always Get What You Want. Rolling Stones. This was profound when I was fourteen. Nice organ in the background, though. And who was Mr. Jimmy anyway?
56. The four sections (for orchestra) (Ii.). Steve Reich. David Robertson. Too much percussion; too little orchestra.

aworks ordered list :: favorite10 albums of 2007

Via FoeWeel, favorite10 is a new community ("what really matters is what you like") where you list your favorite albums. Here's my 2007 list:

1. Andorra. Caribou.
2. American Voices. Brian Sacawa.
3. Al-Noor. Carl Stone.
4. Sound of Silver. LCD Soundsystem.
5. Red Arc/Blue Veil. John Luther Adams.
6. Boxer. The National.
7. Music for 18 Musicians. Steve Reich/Grand Valley State New Music Ensemble.
8. Notes from the Kelp. Alex Shapiro.
9. Dracula. Philip Glass.
10. Some Loud Thunder. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Or maybe it should be Feist or organist Alan Morrison's American Voyage or the Arditti playing Conlon Nancarrow. Definitely not Radiohead's In Rainbows.

And my albums of the moment. Amnesiac, Stockhausen and Warne Marsh, sure. But Cat Power? Really?

aworks ordered list :: alas, not a steven mackey post

I was quickly scanning my email backlog and saw a message from the Amie Street music service. That's the one that prices music to start with at free and then increases the price based on how much it sells. Top seller today is a track by These United States, now at  98 cents. Gary Numan's Praying to the Aliens is 26 cents.

The reason the email caught my attention is that it was promoting the following:

Hey aworks - World Premiere from Stephen Malkmus, These United States and Tha Dogg Pound In Your Inbox!

However, my brain read it as "World Premiere from Steven Mackey." Alas, it wasn't to be. In fact, it's not clear Amie Street even offers classical music, although it does have bachata, cumbia, death metal, gothic rock, hall, and psy trance. I have to say the one selection I just heard of psy trance didn't capture my interest. The Gary Numan track wasn't so good either.

Since I'll try any music commerce as long as it is easy or cheap, this got me to thinking about where I do get my music these days. So, here's a guess at the source of my recorded musical enjoyment over the last six months or so, sorted in decreasing order of quantity:

1. Amoeba San Francisco/Berkeley. Long live the king.
2. Rasputin San Francisco/Mountain View/Berkeley/Campbell. Long live the scruffy king.
3. emusic. Long live the online king. I can always find enough to empty out my monthly allotment of tracks. It's also got me in the habit of thinking before a purchase whether I should buyhere or at the above stores. Are there large numbers of short tracks? Is it on a budget label on Naxos I can find cheaper in the real world?...
4. Disney Radio. Ok, maybe not the most challenging music but I get what I deserve since last year I pointed out the existence of this AM radio station.
5. Disney Channel. They play a few music videos over and over (and over and over...) but they aren't too bad. How about those Jonas Brothers? (No link; the page has blaring audio by default).
6. counterstreamradio.net. The best streaming on the web, for obvious reasons. Coincidentally, the music playing right now is by Wadada Leo Smith, whom I happened to mention on Monday.
7. Menlo Park Public Library. Good, recent indie pop selection although I've picked through the classical music section too many times.
8. YouTube. Still the best way to find semi-popular music like Philip Glass on Sesame Street.
   
9. KALW. On the weekends, that is. I haven't heard KITS, KKSF, KDFC or any other FM music station in the last six months since I now mostly listen to the iPod while driving to and from work.
10. last.fm. Now that they have more full tracks on demand, my interest has picked up.
11. Amazon MP3s. I can usually but not always fight the urge to splurge.
12. Art of the States. Good source of obscure streams on demand.
13. Rhapsody. I used to always exhaust my twenty free plays, but less so lately. I wouldn't subscribe since the music won't play on the iPod.
14. songza. Music search engine although not as good as YouTube.
15. imeem. Uploading is too much of a hassle and the existing selection is not a good fit.
16. Hype Machine. Streams music blogs. I go here to listen to Feith remixes etc.
17. Pandora. The classical version was disappointing but that was several months ago.
18. earbox. The John Adams official site. (No link; the page plays sophisticated audio by default. Ok, just on the works pages but still).
19. Public television. I watched half of the New York Philharmonic's North Korea visit but nothing else lately I can remember, except 37 seconds of a uibiqitous Wayne Dyer self-help show.
20. iTunes. Ack. Digital restrictions management.

Update: Forgot wfmu.org for odd downloads.

aworks ordered list :: composers in the rest is noise

Mixed Meters has gone to the trouble to tabulate the most discussed composers etc. in Alex Ross' The Rest Is Noise. Here's the list:

1. Arnold Schoenberg
2. Igor Stravinsky
3. Dimitri Shostakovich
4. Aaron Copland
5. Benjamin Britten
6. Olivier Messiaen/Richard Strauss
7. Gustav Mahler/Sergei Prokofiev
8. Bela Bartok/Jean Sibelius
9. Kurt Weill
10. John Cage/Richard Wagner
11. Alban Berg/Claude Debussy/George Gershwin
12. Anton Webern/Paul Hindemith/Pierre Boulez
13. Charles Ives
14. Bertolt Brecht/Karlheinz Stockhausen/Leonard Bernstein/Virgil Thompson
15. Adolf Hitler/Gyorgy Ligeti/Josef Stalin/Morton Feldman/Philip Glass/Steve Reich
16. Duke Ellington/Leos Janacek/Ludwig van Beethoven/Thomas Mann

I'm not surprised the three S's are at the top but I might have thought John Adams would have cracked this list. And I should do the equivalent for American musical works mentioned in the book.

I also find it rather incongruous to see the names Josef Stalin and Morton Feldman next to each other. I've read numerous biographies of Hitler and especially FDR but could never finish any of Stalin because I was so disturbed by reading about such personal ruthlessness. And is there any music more peaceful than Feldman's?

There's also an interesting comment about future assessment of contemporary composers:

So, at the end of The Rest Is Noise Ross understandably resorts to musical name dropping, giving us long lists of current well-known composers. I hope he rewrites this ending in about 20 years when there's general agreement over who actually ascends to the pantheon of musical importance. Those are the artists who will force future composers to deal with their own musical issues.

Again, I'm also interested in what current works remain notable twenty years from now.

aworks ordered list :: fresh rips

I'm grinding through a bunch of freshly ripped albums. Some are recent purchases, some not. My quick assessments:

1. Thelonious Monk. 1951-1952. Despite titles like Skippy, Criss Cross, Tinkle Tinkle, and Willow Weep for Me, this upbeat music shows a guy who can play.
2. Bang on a Can. Brian Eno: Music for Airports (Live). 1/1 and 2/2 continue to impress (and were arranged by Michael Gordon and Evan Ziporyn respectively).
3. Club 8. The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming. Swedish pop of a gentle persuasion.
4. Various. Sonic Rebellion. A mishmash of "alternative classical," but cool given it is a Naxos recording.
5. Cat Power. Jukebox. Good but not as good as expected given source material like Holliday, Williams, Mitchell, Sinatra etc.
6. The Cars. Not as earthshaking as when it came out in 1978, so whatever happened to "New Wave" anyway?
7. Philip Glass. Solo Piano. Not a disappointment even if it is last on the list although the recording is a reminder the dude is a composer more than a player.

In a Silent Way/It's About That Time (1969). Miles Davis /classic, to me anyway/

Putting on my empiricist hat, I did a quick check to find the long tracks I have listened to most in iTunes. For this exercise, I define long as at least ten minutes:

1. In a Silent Way/It's About That Time. Miles Davis. 49 plays. album.
2. Scircura. Chas Smith. 44. composer.
3. El Salon Mexico. Aaron Copland. Eugenie Russo piano, Leonard Bernstein arrangement. 38. album.
   
4. Pharoah's Dance. Joe Zawinul. Miles Davis. 36. review.
5. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed. Dicky Betts. Allman Brothers. 35. wikipedia (2 band members are buried near ms. reed).
6. Our Town. Aaron Copland conducting Aaron Copland. 31. aworks re: jewish melancholy etc.
7. Liquid and Stellar Music. Paul Dresher. 30. cassette version.
8. Music in Twelve Parts, Part 2. Philip Glass. 30. official site.
9. Chromatic Canon. James Tenney. 29. newmusicbox interview.
10. Persian Surgery Dervishes: April 18, 1971 Los Angeles Part 1. Terry Riley. 29. swedish enthusiasm.

I suspect I could live with just this set of liquid and stellar music for quite awhile...

aworks ordered list :: most played albums

As I continue to ponder if albums still have meaning for me, I did a quick massage of data from iTunes to determine my most played recordings since I began using iTunes in 2004. In decreasing order:

1. Bitches Brew. Miles Davis (play time of 43 hours)
2. Inner Cities. Bruce Brubaker.
3. SXSW 2006 Showcasing Artist (2.5 GB bittorrent download)
4. Hail to the Thief. Radiohead.
5. The Complete 10-Inch Series From Cold Blue.
6. Geogaddi. Boards of Canada.
7. Wizards & Wildmen - Piano Music Of Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison. Anthony de Mare.
8. 100th Window. Massive Attack.
9. Alan Hovhaness - Zhou Long - String Quartets - The Shanghai Quartet.
10. Twoism. Boards of Canada.
11. ...
2163. Toto Bona Lokua (play time of 21 seconds)

You may not care so much but I find this list fascinating and not what I would guessed. The common theme may be keyboard -- acoustic or electronic.

aworks list :: last.fm track counting

I'm interested in quantifying musical popularity i.e. what people actually listen to and really, only for artists and works I care about. Or to phrase it differently, how much more popular is say, Haydn, than Carl Ruggles?

I've played with this idea via Amazon and Google but last.fm also provides data about the number of tracks people have listened to, for particular artists. Here's what I found, in round numbers:

• 30,000,000 - Radiohead
• 10,000,000 - Interpol
• 9,000,000 - Boards of Canada
• 8,000,000 - Massive Attack
• 7,000,000 - The Prodigy, Aphex Twin
• 3,000,000 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• 2,000,000 - Four Tet
• 1,000,000 - Philip Glass
• 700,000 - Dust Brothers, Erik Satie
• 300,000 - Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, Amadou & Mariam, Igor Stravinsky
• 100,000 - Franz Haydn
• 80,000 - György Ligeti, Tinariwen
• 70,000 - Arnold Schoenberg
• 50,000 - Николай Римский-Корсаков /aka Rimsky-Korsakov/, Terry Riley
• 40,000 - John Adams
• 20,000 - Charles Ives, Pierre Boulez
• 200 - Carl Ruggles

So the answer is 500 times but really, the surprise is how little people listen, relatively speaking, to Haydn or Ruggles (or Ives or...).

for those who point out this conflates artist and composer, i'm open to suggestion...

aworks list :: composer play counts /in one ear and.../

I'm still playing with last.fm. One of its features is to log what you play on iTunes and last.fm itself, although not on iPod which renders it wobbly. And unfortunately, last.fm logs data by album/track/artist but not by composer.

As an experiment, I exported two+ years of iTunes playlist data and tallied the number of tracks played per composer. My thesis was that I listened to the Big Three Minimalists (Glass, Reich, Adams) more than anyone else. But the results were somewhat surprising:

1. Charles Ives - playcount of 2118
2. John Cage - 1692
3. Philip Glass - 1107
4. Aaron Copland - 966
5. "Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood, Phil Selway & Thom Yorke" - 739 (aka Radiohead, mostly this summer)
6. Michael Sandison & Marcus Eoin - 682 (aka Boards of Canada)
7. Henry Cowell - 665 (aka Menlo Park modernist)
8. Lou Harrision - 636
9. John Adams - 572
10. Alan Hovhaness - 533
11. Virgil Thomson - 499
12. Conlon Nancarrow - 497
13. Steve Reich - 302
16. Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet - 236
19. Gyorgy Ligeti - 208
29. Erik Satie - 141
34. Amadou Bagayoko/Manu Chao/Mariam Doumbia/Ousmane Cisse/Samou Bagayoko/Tiemoko Traore - 136 (aka Amadou & Mariam)
45. Bob Dylan - 95 (aka Robert Zimmerman)
46. Franz Joseph Haydn - 93
1141. Eminem - 1 (aka Marshall Mathers III)
1141. Beethoven - 1 (aka classical music's most revered composer)

Note that a majority of my non-classical tracks have no composer tag, which probably skews the results.

The impetus for this was Alan Taylor at New Music Notes asserting that minimalism is not pervasive:

It developed for good reasons, never really put down firm roots in Europe, and now is just one of the many quarries for ideas available to composers.

So, I was going to counter-argue that my listening actually did revolve around minimalism. But while I know the music of the "Big Three" better than any other composers, the data indicates more diversity.

Welcome to my world, Charles Ives...