aworks :: "new" american classical music

Pachinko: Season 2 (2024). Nico Muhly

It's a new season of Pachinko on AppleTV. My free subscription has lapsed so may not see it. Nico Muhly has a soundtrack for the new season as well. Some interesting  and touching sound fragments, but this is not a Bernard Herrmann-esque composition.

Lilacs (1995). George Walker #llm

I've been using ChatGPT to help me identify "American" classical music composers and then the year of composition for specific works.  I then asked it to summarize the session. This is surprisingly useful:

Composition	Composer	Year	Attributes
Lilacs	George Walker	1995	Pulitzer Prize-winning work for soprano and orchestra, based on Walt Whitman's poem, emotional depth.
Lyric for Strings	George Walker	1946	Lyrical and emotional piece for string orchestra, compared to Barber's Adagio for Strings.
Piano Concerto	George Walker	1975	Technically demanding, complex orchestration, showcases Walker's virtuosity as a pianist.
Guido's Hand	George Walker	1986	Modernist string quartet with intricate counterpoint and rich harmonies, exploring musical history.
Aheym	Bryce Dessner	2009	For string quartet, combines minimalist elements with intense emotional expression, inspired by Jewish heritage.
Duet	Steve Reich	1993	Short, lyrical piece for two violins and string orchestra, dedicated to Yehudi Menuhin, peaceful and melodic.
p r i s m	Ellen Reid	2018	Pulitzer Prize-winning opera exploring trauma and healing, using shifting musical styles and vivid staging.

The Unanswered Question (1908). Charles Ives #soundtrack #germany

I saw a re-release showing of Run Lola Run at the Aquarius Theatre in Palo Alto. Originally released in 1998. the movie excerpts Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question, one of my favorite works.

aworks listening log - week of feb 18, 2023

1. emby downs, Steve Gunn - Looming change / Building fabric [2023 Longform Editions]
2. Mike Cooper - Extraordinary Moments @ Hotel Palenque [2023 Room40]

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3. Bardo Pond - Bardo Pond, Vol. 1 [2021 Fire Songs]
4. Sergio Sorrentino, John King - 21st Century Blues [2023 Sergio Sorrentino & John King]
5. Simeon ten Holt, Erik Hall - Canto Ostinato [2023 Western Vinyl]
6. Surface 10 - A Stray Ending [2023 Something Else Music Limited]
7. Michael Robinson, Anindo Chatterjee - Those Sighs [2023 Azure Miles Records]

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8. Stereolab - Simple Headphone Mind / Trippin' With The Birds [2022 Duophonic UHF Disks under exclusive license to Warp Records]
9. Domenico Scarlatti, Vox Heri - Scarlatti: Exercises, Kk. 1-30 [2023 Classical Goat]
10. CPE Bach, Claudio Colombo - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: 6 Keyboard Sonatas, Wq. 49 "Württemberg [2023 Claudio Colombo]
11. Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - The Strays (Soundtrack from the Netflix Film) [2023 Netflix Music, LLC]
12. Georg Frederic Handel, Millenium Orchestra, Leonardo García Alarcón - Handel:Solomon [2023 Outhere]
13. James P. Johnson - The Father of Jazz Piano - James P. Johnson the King of Stride [2023 Old King]
14. Brooklyn Rider - The Wanderer (Live from Paliesius, Lithuania) [2023 In A Circle Records]
15. Kurt Elling, Charlie Hunter, Nate Smith - Guilty Pleasures (feat. Nate Smith) [2023 Edition Records]
16. Morunas - Beyond Our Dreams [2023 Morunas]

aworks listening log - 2023 american classical releases

1. Alvin Lucier, Austin Buckett, Australian Art Orchestra - Swing Bridge & Sizzles [Mode Records]
2. John Williams, Boston Pops Orchestra - John Williams [UMG Recordings, Inc.]

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3. James Romig - Spaces [James Romig]
4. Terry Riley  Aleksey Peresidly - In C [Aleksey Peresidly]
5. Amy Beach, Tomas Ehrenberg - Amy Beach Opus 37, 44 & 51 [Tomas Ehrenberg]

Roger Reynolds: Violin Works - Gabriela Díaz, Gil Rose, Boston Modern Orchestra Project #2022release

• Personae (1989-1990)
• Kokoro for solo violin (1991-1992)
• Aspiration (2004-2005)

• Roger Reynolds: "I grew up in a home that contained scant aesthetic stimulation (absent music, minimal visual art, no books other than, inexplicably, an illustrated copy of Moby Dick). This meant that my outlook was relatively free of the canonic values of Europe or America."
• Recorded 2013-2018.
• Album booklet

Terry Riley, Cleveland Orchestra, Calder Quartet, James Feddeck - The Sands [2022 Cleveland Museum of Art]

• The Sands, from 1991, was commissioned by the Salzburg Festival and written for the Kronos Quarter and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. "A kind of metaphor for what the people of a small Middle Eastern country might be feeling when under a savage air attack from the world's mightiest military." Wise Music Classical
• "A clever, carnival-esque movement, it was composed as a kind of soundtrack for Riley's reminiscences of his early years in Europe, during which time he made a living playing piano for cabarets and circus acts." Jeremy Grimshaw/AllMusic
• Played as part of a 2013 California Masterworks concert, along with Cowell, Rudhyar, Harrison, Tenney, and (John Coolidge) Adams. Cleveland Museum of Art

Becoming Air (2018). Annea Lockwood #closetonoise

Most of the work is as close to noise as I've heard in awhile. The website says this is a "trumpet solo by Annea Lockwood and Nate Wooley." Ok, intriguing if unsettling.

Der Wegweiser from Winterreise (1828). Franz Schubert

This post would be more appropriate on a "gworks - 'new' german classical music" blog...

I of course know of Franz Schubert. And Kai Schumacher is on my Spotify favorite artists list. This new release combines both in a way I haven't yet comprehended:

Kai Schumacher: "For me, the Schubert Lieder are among the most beautiful music of the 19th century. However, for me, the immediacy of the songs is lost in classical recitals. It is often too artificial for me. The classical singer embodies a role on stage - perfect intonation and fidelity to the work are often more important than feeling and intention. I have always been curious about how it sounds when someone approaches it in a completely unaffected way, without classical etiquette, and makes the songs his own without bias. This singer actually had to be Gisbert zu Knyphausen from the beginning... I also wanted to maintain this fine line between classical standards and respect for the original on the one hand, and very personal and contemporary interpretation on the other. So neither neo-romantic kitsch, nor smooth crossover pop." Neue Meister Music

The recording is distinctive and stretches my definition of "Schubertian."

Peter Garland, Ron Squibbs - 3 Dawns & Bush Radio Calling (2021 Cold Blue Music)

3 Dawns (1982)

• Inspired by poems of Jean-Joseph Rabéarivelo. bandcamp
• "Two succinct parts bookend a plaintive and subtly regal central movement, the outer frames beguiling in their buoyant, sing-song character and interlacing patterns. It's the softly chiming middle one, however, that proves most stirring in the way it slowly, gracefully, and methodically unfurls for twelve resonant minutes." textura

Bush Radio Calling (1992)

• Composed for the Alan Bunton Play "Just Them Walking." bandcamp
• "Cumulatively, Bush Radio Calling advances like a journey down a winding river, with the trip abundant in vivid contrast and striking scenery." textura