aworks :: "new" american classical music

Music for 18 Musicians (1976). Steve Reich /best American work?/

Hachi Suzume blogs on listening to Reich's Music for 18 Musicians:

If you've never listened to Reich before, then this is the perfect place to start. Listening to his Violin Phase or Piano Phase might be fun for a basic understanding of what minimalist music is trying to accomplish, but 18 musicians is so far some of the most absorbing music I've heard from him.

This reminds me I never responded to the Occam's Razor post about the best work of American classical music. He makes a strong case for Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. I might nominate Music for 18 Musicians. It is innovative, uniquely American in origin, has crossed over to non-classical audiences without sacrificing critical respect, and overall, just has such an appeal.

Three Tales (2002). Steve Reich /repetition/

An article on nea.org describing the use of Three Tales in education:

I was delighted to discover that my 4th and 5th grade elementary students became very excited on seeing "Hindenburg" -- as much about what the video didn’t say as by what it did. Why did it blow up? When did this happen? What is in their grandfather’s lifetime? Did everyone die? Who were the Nazis? Good learning provokes even more questions. The facts and ideas Korot and Reich worked with in Hindenburg were economically chosen in the way a poet chooses words. Sounds and images are repeated operatically over and over with fascinating variation to express and impress single ideas. I thought students would find this challenging, but instead it seemed to focus their attention.

This reminds me of a sociology book by Edward T. Hall I read in my twenties describing how Americans in general don't like repetition but that kids do. Via a quick Amazon search inside the book, here's what he really said:

In a culture such as our own, with a time system like ours, people are conditioned--with rare exceptions (teenagers who see a movie twenty times)--to viewing a single performance... We demand variety and shun what we have already seen. This introduces a certain superficiality, a certain lack of depth that leads to dissatisfaction with the simple things of life...

While I have only watched Three Tales once (didn't much care for it), how many times have I heard, say, Reich's Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ? Twenty times? Fifty times? Maybe this just means Reich, on occasion, finds an effective balance between repetition and variation.

  I should also mention the anti-repetitive Elliott Carter; I don't know his music well enough to know if he ever wrote anything remotely recurrent but nothing immediately comes to mind. I did find, again via Amazon search in a book by John Link (a link to Dr. Link here), this comment by Carter:

Carter warns "against mechanical repetition and its frequently disastrous results," which he constrasts with Mozart's "impression of constant human awareness.

Fortunately, I don't believe Reich and Mozart are mutually exclusive, although Glass and Carter might be.

Update:  The Washington Post has a political article today mentioning the power of repetition:

Afterward, Grassley told reporters he would push for private accounts even if a majority of the public does not appear behind the idea. "The president knows one of the rules of politics is repetition," he said.

Adagio for String Strings (1936). Samuel Barber /trombone/

I promise I don't only view the world through Adagio so bear with me...

The OTJ Forum ("Discuss and Discover the Trombone") had a recent poll to vote on preferred arrangement of Barber's Adagio. To the trombonists' credit, string orchestra won out over the arrangement for trombone choir (which I'll admit I haven't heard). All well and good, but then I just read Paul Bailey's post where he laments the traditionally limited path for trombonists:

listening to them talk and prepare the same few excerpts seemed like they were limiting the trombone to a character actor status instead of practicing an instrument that is capable of a wide range of expression. many of my lessons on classical repertoire were consumed not with musical expression, but strategies and discussion of the various “schools and sounds” in the trombone world.

He also points out that playing the traditional repetoire, despite its lack of connection to contemporary culture, is the equivalent of having comedians today primarily performing vaudeville. Today, for something different, I happened to read comic Jay Mohr's book about his two years on Saturday Night  Live. While Mohr behaved in some less than flattering ways, at the end, he comes across well by forsaking his SNL gig in order to regularly perform as he was driven to do. Clearly, SNL was stifling his creativity and so he found a means of expression more true to himself. It sounds like Bailey, at some point, made a similar decision to focus on his own ensemble instead of the conventional "paradigm."

And apparently, Chris Farley was the funniest man alive and a great guy.

Virtuoso Alice (1984). David Tel Tredici

Well, this is disappointing. Joshua Kosman reviews Anthony De Mare's new CD of music by David Del Tredici and Aaron Jay Kernis. While appreciative of the pianist, he trashes the compositions:

To hear him lavish his considerable gifts on this maudlin goo is enough to break your heart... the overinflated "Virtuoso Alice" is mawkish and predictable, an assemblage of lush chords heard through a cheesy soft-core blur.

On the other hand, Kosman likes the new Icebreaker CD ("Conlon Nancarrow brilliantly arranged for the ensemble") as well as The Oxford History of Western Music written by Richard Taruskin ("Readable, provocative, endlessly challenging and informative... It's an achievement unlikely to be equaled").  In my weak moments, I've considered buying and reading the million-plus words (35% discount at Amazon).

Henry Cowell (1897-1965) :: composer

quote	I had an idea which I've never given up and which is, curiously enough, to be a very informal one, and that is that instead of studying one brand of harmony and counterpoint and applying this to every thought in music, that I should have a different kind of musical material for each different idea that I have. So even from the very start, I was sometimes extremely modernistic and sometimes quite old-fashioned, and very often in between.
life	March 11, 1897 Menlo Park CA - December 10, 1965 Shady NY.
piano works	Exultation. High Color. Hero Sun, Antimony. Aeoloan Harp. Amiable Conversation. Anger Dance. Woof. Fabric. Advertisement...
MP3s	Epitonic: Exultation, High Color, Hero Sun.
blogging	Renewable Music post, aworks post, category.
links	Schirmer bio, worklist, discography. Wikipedia. Kyle Gann. University of South Carolina Collection bio.
search	Google web, news, print. Technorati.
CDs
books

aworks operational note

Inspired by the feminist of the day feature, as seen on this blog, I want to capture interesting and relevant reference information for American composers, performers, etc, beyond my American work-centric approach.  This will not be "composer of the day"; it's more of an occasional way to collects links and whatever and update the post as needed. Note that updates won't appear on the RSS feed once the original post drops off the front page, which is probably a good thing. I may also cutdown on the bandwidth required to load all those Amazon images; it's getting a little out of hand...

Eleven Intrusions (1949-50). Harry Partch

Rafael Behr describes Harry Partch in  a review of the re-release on New World Records of his Collection:

Like most innovators, he becomes gravel on the road that most people drive on. So he was the first one through the door and the crowd tramples him. But nobody has done anything like that since.

I'm not sure who really followed this maverick; it is clear what he did was unique.

String Quartet No. 1 (1966). Gloria Coates

Eddie Oliver, on rec.music.classical.recordings, comments on a Naxos CD of Gloria Coates' string quartets:

Trying to be as polite as I can, and avoiding use of the sorts of words I would really like to use, I would suggest that the only resemblance between this stuff and music is that it is played on instruments otherwise used for musical purposes.

The comments on Amazon imply the music is in fact special. All of which makes me want to hear the CD, be it great or car wreck...

Scenes from Nek Chand (2001-02).

Via Renawable Music, Lou Harrison's last composition Scenes from Nek Chand streams on archive.org, recorded from an Other Minds performance.

Table's Clear (1990). Paul Lansky

Wikipedia has one of those graphical timelines for composers, in this case of the 20th century. I see Paul Lansky listed. I first heard his music at a CCRMA concert at Stanford's Frost Ampitheatre. It was the same night as the premiere of the opera The Voyage by Philip Glass. Back in the day, local commercial radio actually broadcast live opera so I brought headphones and a radio and listened to the opera during gaps in the concert. The only music I remember from the concert was an electronic tape piece by Paul Lansky, Table's Clear, I think. The work started from a recording of his family playing/banging kitchen items; the end result charms. Amazon samples. MP3 excerpts on Table's Clear here. Lansky describes the piece:

The piece had its origin one evening after dinner in October, 1990, when my two sons, Jonah and Caleb (ages 14 and 9 at the time) took our kitchen apart, recording the sounds of everything they could find which would make noise (including themselves). I ran the tape machine and Hannah ran for cover. I then transferred all the sounds to my computer, spent a few months working, and came up with this piece.

Wikipedia has a surprisingly good entry on Paul Lansky, including the fact that Radiohead's Idioteque uses a Lansky work as a source.