aworks :: "new" american classical music

aworks unordered list :: new releases on rdio #2 /hello dolly!/

Louis and Barbra via Wikipedia

Last week, I listed the new releases on rdio. The highlights turned out to be a re-release of Edgard Varèse music and some George Crumb works.

Since rdio doesn't yet believe in genres, I have to click through 19 pages to come up with this week's list:

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Ok, 10 pages in and it's all live albums by Jefferson Airplane and Phish, and a zillion pop groups I've never heard of. Here's hoping something of interest shows up:

• live in baden-baden. Modern String Quartet. String versions of Take the A Train, All Blues, Hello Dolly etc.
• 60 Lounge Bar Grooves. Various Artists. Two versions of 'Round Midnight, one LIght My Fire etc.
• C'est si bon. Louis Armstrong. With Hello Dolly!
• Antheil Bad Boy's Piano Music. Benedikt Koehlen
• Glassworks - Live at (le) Poisson Rouge. Signal, Brad Lubman

That last one looks rather good and includes a version of Philip Glass' Music in Similar Motion. A playlist of the above:

Related articles

• aworks unordered list :: new releases on rdio (rgable.typepad.com)
• aworks five-star links, tracks, and questions :: november 13, 2010 (rgable.typepad.com)
• aworks 2010 favorites :: music players (rgable.typepad.com)
• On Rdio [Lifechanger] (gizmodo.com)
• aworks listening log :: december 5, 2010 /conventional (if highly abstracted)/ (rgable.typepad.com)
• Rdio Would Like to Thank the Academy (appscout.com)

aworks unordered list :: mp3s of the week

Samuel Barber via last.fm

• Largo for Clarinet, Violin and Piano. Charles Ives - Millard Taylor and Frank Glazer
• Excursions. Samuel Barber - Lara Downes
• Excursions. Samuel Barber - Leo Smit
• Spoonful. Willie Dixon - Howlin' Wolf
• September, 10th. Stanislav Vdovin - Unit 21
• From a Room on the Plazza. Alvin Curran
• Ez Street Ext. Moon Duo
• Andecy. - Andrew York - Sharon Isbin
• Two for One - Ezra Sims
• Mother Africa - Santana
• Music in Twelve Parts : Part VIII. Philip Glass - Philip Glass Ensemble
• Landing of the Spirit of '76 from Nixon in China. John Adams
• Flight from North by Northwest. Bernard Herrmann
• I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby. Captain Beefheart
• In Limbo. Radiohead
• Kid for Today. Boards of Canada

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aworks unordered list :: music new to me anyway, via lala

• Liberace playing Chopin (lala)
• Paul Desmond's Take Ten (lala)
• Take California by Propellerheads (lala)
• Naptown Blues by Buddy Rich (lala via Cahl's Juke Joint)
• Paranoid by The Cosmic Giggle from their album Chutes & Ladders (lala)
• The Ugly Organist by Cursive (lala via Kevin Stever MUH). See also their Art Is Hard, Butcher the Song etc.
• John Adam's Short Ride in a Fast Machine as played by the Northwestern Symphonic Wind Ensemble (lala)
• Billie Holiday sings Gershwin's Summertime (lala)
• Smells Like Teen Spirit (made famous by Nirvana). From The Most Relaxing Piano Classics Ever Made (lala)

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aworks unordered list :: getclicky searches edition

Cover via Amazon

I just renewed my getclicky web statistics for another year. So this seems like as good a time as any to list some recent searches that led people to aworks:

• the answer my friend is blowin in the wind piano score (UK). When one blogs about a popular rock song, one gets more blog hits than normal. I can't help on the piano score front though, even if I did say the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's version "isn't completely ludicrous."
• water night eric whitacre (USA). My 2004 post of popular recordings on Amazon that happens to mention Eric Whitacre in the title is one of my most popular posts. I later quit using work names as titles for list posts. While good for my google ranking, it ultimately felt deceptive.
• what musical era did philip glass live in? (USA). This search found a Music in Twelve Parts post but that didn't answer the question. My answer would be "minimalism," at least through Einstein on the Beach. But after that, I'm not sure Glass is really a "post-modernist" composer so I can't say.
• blog "cheryl mendelson" -comforts -housekeeping -laundry (USA). Cheryl Mendelson is the author of Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House, which coincidentally was a present to the local spouse and myself from the soon-to-be mother-in-law. I don't remember the context for why I quoted from her given I don't agree with the sentiment but here's what I posted:
  • We find almost nothing in classical composition after 1950 to be interested in even though we've heard lots, and we want to like it. Cheryl Mendelson via Steven Hicken's post on BOP. [dead link]
• fanfare for the common man guitar tab (UK). I don't normally think of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man as being good guitar material. Although, this post linked to a "dated, silly, Canadian" performance by ELP of the work so I guess bassist Greg Lake had to play something. Unfortunately, YouTube has taken down that video. Here's the audio track on lala.
• "they are there"- Ives (San Jose State). Posting on the birthday of Charles Ives, I had a long quote from Kyle Gann on Ives and at the end, I call him "enigmatic." Ives, that is. I stand by my word.
• Robert Gable (Stanford University). Yikes, someone googled me from Stanford. Or else they were looking for Robert Gable the psychologist or the guy who ran for Governor of Kentucky and lost or.... I checked and there are about 4 Gables for every 100,000 people in the US (via census tool) and even 8 RG's in California, so the name collision is not totally surprising.

I'm not sure this sample of searchers found what they were looking for. Maybe Stephen Wolfram's new computational knowledge engine will help.

Yes, I'm a Witch (1974). Yoko Ono /ok, sure/

Wikipedia

To get out of my listening rut, I decided to create a playlist of MP3 tracks I haven't played yet. Then I sorted them by composer name but in reverse alphabetical order. That's to avoid immediately jumping into all those Aaron Copland works:

• Duo. Zoltan Kodaly. From the album of the name similar to that novel I never finished reading in high school, Music For A Glass Bead Game.
• Yes, I'm a Witch. Yoko Ono. From a CD where various indie pop acts  remix Yoko songs (DJ Spooky, the Brother Brothers, Cat Power etc.). Mostly not that pleasant to listen to.
• Métaux. Iannis Xenakis. From a percussion record of the composer's music, this may be one of the few Xénakis works I'd like to hear again.
• The Fourth Blind Wound . Since I've never heard of the composer, Wrest, nor the metal group, Leviathan/Sapthuran, I can't explain why I have this track.
• Blindspot. Yannis Kyriakides. I recognize the artist, Ice Breaker, but not the composer.
• Uh oh, 72 Wolfgang A. Mozart tracks up next. This playlist is not going as well as I hoped...

aworks unordered list :: joanna newsom's american favorites

Orange Crate Art has a quote from singer Joanna Newsom on what she likes about the US. I'll extract out some of the aworks-relevant ones with appropriate links:

• Van Dyke Parks - "Discover America" on LaLa
• Ruth Crawford Seeger - Continuum on LaLa
• Joni Mitchell (Charles Mingus) - "Mingus" on LaLa
• "The Sting" - Joshua Rifkin plays Joplin on LaLa
• Billie Holiday - Billie Holiday on last.fm
• San Francisco Tape Music Center - Morton Subotnick on LaLa and John Rockwell on Amazon
• Mills College - Steve Reich on LaLa
• Aaron Copland - Eugenie Russo on LaLa
• Alan Lomax - Leadbelly on LaLa or is it Lead Belly?
• Henry Cowell - Sarah Cahill on last.fm
• Terry Riley - Terry Riley on last.fm
• Gavin Newsom - Kidding. The SF mayor (and distant relative of Joanna) was not on her list.
• Clark Gable - I don't have a link about the ties between the Indiana Gables and the Ohio Gables so instead here's the book about Clark's alleged bisexuality.

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And it's been a while since we've been to the Musée Mécanique (warning: link has weird laughter)

aworks list :: random one-star tracks

I'm scanning through my lowest-rated tracks. Here's a random selection:

• Clay Music. Barney Childs.
• Coverville-050704-Birthday Requests for Blondie and Fred, a 4th of July track and more! Brian Ibbott.
• Atomic Moog 2000 (Cornelius Mix). Coldcut.
• If I Were Only A Child Again. Curtis Mayfield/Four Tet.
• McKonkey's Ferry Overture. George Antheil.
• The Game With The Golden Apples / The Firebird. Igor Stravinsky. Gerard Schwarz.
• Abele Dance (Remix). Manu Dibango.
• Group Four. Massive Attack.
• The Tigress Inside. PantyChrist/Bob Ostertag.
• Heather Angel. Sonic Youth.

I do like other music by all of these artists e.g. Barney Child's Quartet for Bassoons, odd as it may be. And on further listening, the orchestral Antheil is better than this. I will nominate the Stravinsky CD as one of my least favorite recordings, though.

Heather Angel lyrics:

He bought books and records
I dont care about that
I just want to be alive
And go to the other...