aworks :: "new" american classical music

Concert 4-3. Jennifer Higdon (2007). /"if copland composed a concerto for a punk bluegrass string trio..."/

Political blogger Atrios interrupts his normal posting to recommend music by Jennifer Higdon.

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jennifer higdon. time for three.

String Poetic (2006). Jennifer Higdon /sf arts and political coverage/

Speaking about speaking about Jennifer Higdon, SF Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman today reviews the recent Jennifer Koh concert which included the composer's String Poetic:

Like much of Higdon's music, it tends to fall prey to easy emotionalism, particularly in the schmaltzy "Nocturne." But where Higdon's spirits run high, the effects are crisp and venturesome. In the matched pair of outer movements, piano notes on muted strings play chase-me-Charlie with violin pizzicatos; another movement, "Maze Mechanical" (which Koh suggested was inspired by John Adams' "Road Movies"), is still wittier and more breathless.

In addition to 24x7 SF mayoral coverage (I'm not saying whom I voted for), SFist occasionally provides local cultural news including an interview with Jennifer Koh:

...When you premiered String Poetic in Philly, you paired it with Adams Road Movies. Do you like his violin concertos? Would you perform them?

I love John Adams! And I love both his violin concerti! I am planning on performing it!

By "both," I assume she means the Violin Concerto and the Big Sur electric thingie, and not Adams' Road Movies.

Also on SFist, the star blogging team of M. C— and SFMike reviewed the bizarre Chinese New Year Spectacular founded by Falun Gong practitioners. Their report was excellent but I admit I skipped the 109 comments about Chinese cultural and religious freedom that followed. Wikipedia elaboborates on the general disagreement (the political disagreement in China that is; not any between the reviewers):

Despite market reforms, the Communist Party of China remains in sole control, requiring the registration and supervision of all civic organizations. The CPC suppresses groups that it claims are threats to social stability and national unity, such as Falun Gong and the separatist movement in Tibet. Supporters of these policies claim that they safeguard stability in a society that was torn apart by class differences and rivalries, has no tradition of civil participation, and limited rule of law. Opponents claim that these policies severely curtail human rights and that they have resulted in a police state, creating an atmosphere of fear and ignorance.

wikipedia: falun gong suppression of falun gong people's republic of china
recommended sf blog posts: waltzing to guantanamo choices wrong and wronger because we love old footage...

Zaka (2003). Jennifer Higdon

Speaking of Jennifer Higdon, I'm neither particularly a concerto guy nor argumentative but her chamber music piece Zaka, leading off the new eighth blackbird CD on Cedille Records, intrigues on first listen. I like the energy and the quiet interludes and I'm starting to realize she really knows how to write for specific instruments (as opposed to just being good at orchestration). Generation X John Adams on fast forward with a hint of complexity in the flute?

zaka: To do the following almost simultaneously and with great speed: zap, sock, race, turn, drop, sprint. See also: eighth blackbird.

wikipedia: jennifer higdon eighth blackbird generation x g.i. generation cedille records flute john coolidge adams
eighth blackbird blog: the g.i. generation copes with a missing downbeat
cd recorded at: ball state