aworks :: "new" american classical music

Adagio for Strings (1936). Samuel Barber /itunes #1/

via del.icio.us/thestandingroom, the Guardian reports the number one classical music download  on iTunes is Barber's Adagio for Strings. I suppose I'm not surprised as maybe 5% of all aworks traffic is Adagio-related. This includes people searching for:

• the identity of the music from Platoon
• the identify of the music played at FDR's funeral
• a free MP3 of the work, either a traditional version or the numerous dance remixes (try this search)
• a musical analysis of the work
• the reason why Barber wrote it
• how it is "arch" form
• whether or not Philip Glass wrote it

Speaking of Adagio's use in Platoon, Barbara Heyman says that Barber's partner Gian Carlo Menotti "believes Barber would not have been amused by its success in this film and might not have even allowed the Adagio to be used." She also quotes the composer Virgil Thomson as saying that it's about "a detailed love scene."

Daniel Felsenfeld writes of Adagio:

To quickly take in the piece's structure is to peek behind the curtain at the composer's technique; the work makes three attempts to the top before finally pushing through the ceiling.

Wikipedia has the definitive list of its use in popular culture including Adagio being featured in, egad, South Park.

aworks on adagio: cumulative as in "24" suitable for marching band? at a cure concert flute version at emusic troy cady essay blog quotes midi version the word whisperer more quotes beethoven and barber in warwickshire acj's peace at the Olympics similar to autechre which sheen? as a memorial

Cantos Desiertos (1993-). Terry Riley

London's Tim Rutherford-Johnson has his Music on a Shoestring concert listings. More modestly, tomorrow night, the Bay Area has a free concert of note -- Music Written after 1988:

On Tuesday, March 28 at 8:00 PM Formerly Known As Classical will present their first concert at Temple United Methodist Church, 65 Beverly Street (at Shields Street) in San Francisco [near San Francisco State]. Admission is free but donations will be accepted for Amnesty International.

Map here. Artistic director Matthew Cmiel speaks wisely:

It is true that in modern music anything goes, but it is also true that if anything goes there is probably music out there that will surprise and delight people.

To illustrate, on the program is Riley's guitar piece Cantos Desiertos -- Billboard calls it "mellifluous," aworks says the David Tanenbaum recording (with William Winant, Gyan Riley, and Terry Silverman) on New Albion is "excellent," and The Wire describes that album thusly:

The music sounds much as you would anticipate: American chamber with Jelly Roll Morton's beloved 'Spanish tinge', the Eastern modes which Riley sets his stars by, and that unique pragmatism which [Glenn] Gould suggested was manifest as music which 'requires instructions rather than instruction'.

Other works of note on a compelling program include John Adams' Halleluiah Junction, David Conte's Of a Summer Evening, Osvaldo Golijov's The Last Round, Preben Antonsen's Nicklecurve as well as Cmiel's Sonata for Lou Harrison.

photo of milton babbitt with preben antonsen et al here. review of the naxos recording of desiertos here. university of iowa center for human rights. wikipedia on Lou Harrison and William Colvig.

The Evidence (2006). Frederic Himebaugh

Inspired by Lisa Hersch's post, I attended last night's San Francisco Choral Artists concert in Midtown Palo Alto. I was dubious for many reasons: I don't like choral music all that much (although I like vocal recitals), the idea of spending my Saturday night sitting on a church pew for two hours didn't appeal, one of the composers has multiple personas, another of the composers has publicly railed against a favorite Bogart/Lupino classic albeit dated film, the church was in my old neigborhood of eleven years which was both familiar and strange ("oh look, the shoe repair shop is now a brokerage office"), and finally, yesterday was my birthday (thanks to Laura et al for having festivities in the afternoon). But in the service of new American music, how could I not attend?

In fact, Magen Solomon, the artistic director, arranged an interesting and thoughtful program by dividing the works into seven discrete sets or themes: love, humanity, Japanese  poetry, of life and death, social conscience, birds, and God. Included were six premieres, other works by numerous living composers, and some older ones as well (though, I still don't like Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms). Not that I have the ear for it, but the singers performed well.

Two "bird" pieces were particularly entertaining. Crows in the Cornfield by Thomas Phillips described agrarian life from the point of view of crows. There is Nothing by Quincy Porter quoted this from Ogden Nash:

There is nothing in any religion
Which compels us to love the pigeon.

I Died for Beauty was a soft and effective setting of Emily Dickinson by Wayne Eastwood, who apparently specializes in setting her work.

Of the other serious compositions, two of opposite nature but with text from the 17th-century stood out. The first, A Chant for Peace composed by Theodore Morrison, was a vividly homphonic setting of text by the ex-communicated pantheist Spinoza. The other was The Evidence, by the blogosphere's own Fred Himebaugh, based on writings by English writer Thomas Traherne. Fred's blog, of course, is anything but sedate, showing much spirit, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But appropriately, his composition was equally lively. It made full use of voices via dynamics and especially across the group's sections. It also effectively highlighted certain idiosyncratic phrases:

Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, Patriarchs are
...
God, Angels, Men, Fowls, Beasts, and Fish enjoy
...
Of Wisdom, Goodness, Power, and Lov Divine

After the climactic ending, an audience member let out a "Yes!" The work was powerful -- the musical highlight of a successful evening.

Freeman Etudes (1989-90). John Cage

The John Cageblog fills in a few missed works after finishing his survey of Cage's canon. He also does something astounding with the Freeman Etudes:

This time for a change of pace I actually tried to use them to help me sleep and, surprisingly, it worked pretty well.  The screeching complaints of the violin as it is tortured do not strike me as relaxing, but somehow the lack of melody or rhythm in the performance made it easy to break that concious focus that keeps me awake.

Tortured screeching indeed.

recent listening: cello sonata/ligeti/haimovitz. the way you look tonight/astaire. everything you do is a balloon/boards of canada

In a Silent Way (1969). Joe Zawinul

In the past, I've been one to naively pooh-pooh Davis' departure from "pure" acoustic jazz. Now, after listening to this and reminding myself that it was recorded in 1969, I am simply blown away. Fretful Porpentine

After scouring the jazz section, I picked up two Miles Davis CDs, In A Silent Way and Filles De Kilimanjaro. I've been listening to them for the last couple hours...gorgeous, soulful and timeless music! Armen Chakmakian

Now though I wanted to mention that Miles Davis's song In a Silent Way helps me pray. It is very beautiful. ChristopherSly

I keep coming back to [Van] Morrison's ultra-elongated Common One. Often dismissed as dull and indulgent, it's first of his meditational '80s works, and owes much to Miles Davis' In a Silent Way. Jim Walsh

In a Silent Way is a one of kind record that mixed the late-'60s pop and underground movement into the jazz realm. On this record Miles began to hook into the late '60s sounds that flowed from the jam bands in San Francisco. Trevor MacLaren

I'm not a fan of jam bands (except maybe the Allman Brothers' Live at Fillmore East) and yet this is great music.

recent listening: nobody knows the trouble i've seen/albert ayler. mysterious mountain/alan hovhaness/andrew litton. duo for flute and piano/james willey/richard sherman

String Quartet (1960). Terry Jennings

Terry Jennings' String Quartet was just performed as part of the Minimalist Jukebox festival at Disney Hall in Los Angeles...

Mark Swed: As much an exploration of low volume as the Orb is of high, the quartet contains little more than a handful of chords or pitches that last a long time and are played at dynamic levels within the pianissimo and pianissississimo range. If you've spent too much time around electronica concerts, you've likely lost the hearing needed to perceive this music.

Johnny Chang (one of the performers): The concert last night went off. Well not entirely - the first piece, String Quartet of Terry Jennings, was even more difficult for the audience than it was for us. [coughing. snickering. cell phone at the 28'50" mark]

Zach Behrens: The "drone-inspired, modal, repetitive," extremely quiet and delicate work gave room for a chorus of antiphonal coughs, throat clearing and shuffling feet. These small, but constant sounds foreign to the piece, made it even more beautiful in that sort of "you are a noise nerd" way.

In addition to audience noise, the concert included Riley's In C. The reviews imply a future for contemporary music as well as a future audience for the LA Philharmonic.

Octandre (1923). Edgard Varèse

Via oboeinsight, Terry Teachout bemoans attending classical concerts. Ok, more specifically, he says:

Hearing a decently played program of oft-recorded standard repertoire in the company of noisy strangers is not. Why should I come hear you play Op. 111 in Alice Tully Hall when I can stay home and listen to Artur Schnabel playing it?

I'm headed in the opposite direction. After attending three or four concerts all of last year, already this year I've seen the Berkeley Symphony play Octandre (and a vivid Carter Piano Concerto), Rob Kapilow obsess over Copland's Appalachian Spring (in a mostly fun way), and Alarm Will Sound swing to the music of John Adams (3 blog posts remaining). With each concert, I'm astonished how much more rich, full, and fun the live listening experience is. If it means occasional disruptions like that college age guy next to me in Berkeley during Octandre who ignored his cell phone but then gave in to temptation and listened to the subsequent voice mail (it was a girl). Hey, I could even tolerate the Stravinsky finale...

Anyway, I count at least five enticing concerts in the next several weeks. While I admit to being overrun with a bounty of great CDs MP3s, given the right repertoire, I don't think "the institution of the classical-music concert as we know it has just about run its course."

The Death of Klinghoffer (1992). John Adams

AMK's Journal recommends the DVD of The Death of Klinghoffer and points out some compelling aspects of its production (and that it has a "making of" on the disc, which I never noticed when I saw it).

prior aworks post on visualization, minmalism, and the death of klinghoffer

Violin Concerto (1939). Samuel Barber /march madness/

I missed WGUC's composer tournament round of 64 (Igor Stravinsky over John Adams 84%-16%!). But here are my preferences for the round of 32:

• Barber over Bach - No one can say I'm not a fanatic.
• Mahler over John Williams - But I have my limits, nonetheless.
• Debussy over Sibelius - Had to think about it.
• Dvorak over Strauss - He was affiliated with the home conference.
• Haydn over Rimsky-Korsakov - I like "Antar," though.
• Gershwin over Prokofiev - Yo' George.
• Chopin over Verdi - No contest.
• Tchaikovsky over Ravel - Russians rule.
• Beethoven over Grieg - Again, no contest.
  
• Copland over Stravinsky - This one is particularly rewarding.
• Bernstein over Rachmaninoff - Easy opponent.
• Brahms over Moussorsky - Whatever.
• Liszt over Mozart - My upset special.
• Wagner over Mendolssohn - Haven't seen either of these on ESPN lately so my opinion may be stale.
• Vivaldi over Schubert - Didn't expect this result.
• Handel over Schumann - Also beat Schuman during the regular season.

Playing out the matchups results in a final four of Debussy, Gershwin, Copland, and Handel with Aaron "Trash Talk" Copland winning it all.

Tournament bracket PDF here. To those non-American or non-sports fans, this is a take on the men's college basketball tournament now in progress. Me, I'm rooting for Stanford and Purdue in the women's tournament. And for Joan Tower in same...

And in early action from the SXSW showcase, early winners include Sarah Hepburn, Christopher O'Riley, Los Nativos, Morningwood, Tunng, Uncut, Winterpills, and Animal Alpha.

September Requiem (2002). Stefania de Kenessey

Calimac hits the 1200 mark on collected composers and makes this comment:

I haven't kept track of the number of women composers, but a quick count reveals 40 whom I know to be female. Half of these are living. Musical genius is rare enough, and needs enough of a favorable training environment to emerge, that I'm convinced that lack of opportunity is what suppressed female compositional genius in the past. Those few women who did manage to get through the gauntlet were, alas, mostly not very good. But sexism pushed down harder than genius could rise. In the last half-century or so it's been very different, and there's lots of great women composers out there. My most-collected are Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Elizabeth Maconchy, and Stefania de Kenessey.

We know Zwilich and Maconchy. de Kenessey was born in Budapest, studied with Milton Babbitt and now lives in New York. Allan Kozinn says her music is "neo-Baroque", "neo-classical", and has a touch of "early rock."