aworks :: "new" american classical music

Anima Mundi (1991). Philip Glass /napster re-re-visited/

Napster has opened up their service so that if you register (and are a resident of the US), you can stream for free a large majority of their tracks, up to five times each. Here's Philip Glass' fully streaming album Anima Mundi. Be prepared for US Navy ads and low fidelity, but still the selection is better than I expected e.g. John Adams' Naive and Sentimental Music or the Smith Quartet playing the first movement of Steve Reich's Different Trains.

String Quartet No. 4 (1986). Elliott Carter

And after that burst of archaic nationalism, iTunes served up Elliott Carter's Fourth String Quartet. While I can't say I enjoyed the juxtaposition of hardcore modernism and patriotic pastiche, the quartet is always interesting. For good measure, iTunes followed with Barber's First Essay giving me a chance to assimilate my American music experience for the day.

Elliott Carter:

On another level, American works are seldom the product of working methods characteristic of many important European composers, who have gone about their work in a systematic way, carefully coordinating musical means and ends at every level while weeding out initially accepted elements that did not contribute to their specific intentions. For often it seems that they must have formed a very clear idea of what they wished to accomplish, and were determined to pursue this down to the smallest details of their work. In my opinion, it is the very absence of this sharpness of focus and close coordination of means in terms of a very clarified musical intention that gives the good works of American music their special freshness and makes the listener sense in them an aesthetic point of view different from the more or less standard European one.

But wouldn't Carter's own methods be classified as European by this definition?

 

'The Union' Concert Paraphrase On National Airs (1862). Louis Gottschalk

After yesterday's National Anthem post, I started listening to some music and coincidentally, iTunes shuffled up Gottschalk's 'The Union' Concert Paraphrase On National Airs. It's like a piano concerto version of the Star Spangled Banner coupled with some militaristic flourishes and Yankee Doodle Dandy quotes. Although of historical interest, it's not really recommended for inspiring patriotism in 21st-century ears...

"Blue" Gene Tyranny describes via NewMusicBox:

A real virtuosic show-stopper, Gottschalk's "L'Union: Paraphrase de Concert on National Airs," Op. 48 (1862) is this southern-born musician's declaration of loyalty to the Union: a tumultuous introduction—with grand minor to major chords and fiery (strepitoso: clamourous, resounding) descending octaves alternating with a pedal point...

Piano Sonata (1939-41). Aaron Copland /short playing videos/

It's like we're back to the era of 45s or 78s before LPs with short playing music (YouTube video files are limited to 100 Mb). Here's the first movement of Copland's Piano Sonata played by Mario Ajero (who has a piano podcast here).

Mario also has a video describing how to play Clocks by Coldplay; I enjoy this purely for pedagogical reasons, of course. And The Standing Room highlights the Chinese group Twelve Girls Band, who play Coldplay covers on an erhu.

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Mario in the comments points out the Piano Sonata is in Copland's "rugged modernist" style; I've been so immersed in this stuff lately I forgot it may sound unusual to those expecting say, Billy the Kid.

And this quote just in from Chris Martin of Coldplay: When I’m 40, and too old to be a rock star, I plan to go back to college to study classical music.

The Star-Spangled Banner/Nuestro Himno (1814/1919). Francis Scott Key/Francis Haffkine Snow

From Wikipedia (after a mention in Language Log):

"Nuestro Himno" is a Spanish translation of "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States. "Nuestro Himno" is Spanish for "Our Anthem"...

The song has sparked some debate because it is not an exact translation...

And yet this is not the first time that the National Anthem has been translated into another language by ethnic and immigrant groups in the United States. In 1861, it was translated into German (and is also on that page in Latin). It has been translated into Yiddish by Jewish immigrants and into French by Acadians of Louisiana. It has also been translated into Samoan...

The Wikipedia entry on The Star-Spangled Banner mentions Richard Wagner, Giacomo Puccini, Leopold Godowsky, Edwin Bagley, the musical Hair, and John Adams but not Igor Stravinsky and his arrangement for orchestra.

David Sinden weighs in with a (mostly) musical analysis of the situation:

Masculine? There are some similar melodic contours, but "Nuestro Himno" is in duple time, but ANACERON is in triple. This highly edited, artificial, celebrity-heavy performance is pompously polyphonic, not hummably homophonic.

Via Clif on the American Street, the US Library of Congress hosts a score from 1919 of a Spanish translation, arranged by conductor Walter Damrosch. And the National Anthem Project ("Restoring America’s Voice ... through Music Education! "), with honorary chairman Laura Bush, hosts a mariachi version (PDF) of same.

A Love Supreme (1964). John Coltrane /see me.../

Here's a long, multi-year thread on I Love Music about John Coltrane's A Love Supreme being "over-estimated." Lawrence the Looter links it with the Who's Tommy, of all things:

i always thought of a love supreme as coltrane's tommy; it was necessary, it was a milestone, it certainly has its moments, but ultimately it's a transitional work. like tommy, a love supreme really came to life in a live setting (even though it was only played live once or twice).

A live version of A Love Supreme was just performed in Boston yesterday.

I like ALS, even in its component parts. I made an MP3 of just Elvin Jones' drum solo at the start of Part 3. And I posted earlier about liking the McLaughlin/Santana versions although I'm not crazy about their all-white suits.

Someone on that ILM thread also suggests Miles Davis' Bitches Brew is a murky mess. Murky, yes; a mess, no.

Heroes Symphony (1996). Philip Glass

Percolating on aworks: Corey D., Jorge L., George & Ira G., John A., Franz S./Louis G./German soccer player Torsten "handball" F.*, and maybe a post on Wolfgang A. (via Music@ Menlo).

However, those are on hold as I'm still wound up about the implications of the Philip/Nidrian youtube video. While I think through this, let me textually report (yawn) that I'm listening to Philip Glass' "Heroes" Symphony, based on the music of Brian Eno and David Bowie. Allmusic says it's less adventurous than the original. The composer:

I've taken six tracks from the original Bowie / Eno recording and made each of them the basis of a dance work. By combining these themes with original music of my own I ended up with a six movement work which is symphonic in scale and, at the same time, serves the dramatic purpose of Twyla's ballet. The result, hopefully, will be as enjoyable for the listener at home as well as a new dance work for the stage.

Me, I'm partial to the Wallflowers/son of Dylan version of Heroes. Of course, I have a bias for the "new"...

*how many days until world cup 2006? i'm about to pass out from the anticipation. coincidentally, i'm starting to think i'll need a full week off from work in june to pick up the mom and bring her back to california for the summer, but then i'm such a diligent son. of course, this assumes small town, indiana gets espn.

Music in Twelve Parts (1971-74). Philip Glass /his tube/

Nidrian is not enamored with his new purchase of Music in Twelve Parts (and he's only at Part 2). Me, I much prefer this to Glass' symphonies...

The Hours (2002). Philip Glass /inner chekhov/

Jeremy Eichler reviews a piano concert by Konstantin Soukhovetski and comments on the performance of the piano transcription of Philip Glass' The Hours:

He imported a slightly heavy Russian emotionalism to the work's coolly repeating figures, as if introducing Mr. Glass to his own inner Chekhov.

Scanning Soukhovetski's repetoire, it looks rather traditional except for Rochberg's Carnival Music Suite. Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue counts as traditional, in this case.

Divine Peacemaker (1966). Albert Ayler

President Bush visited Silicon Valley yesterday. I had seen posters advertising a protest in San Jose but apparently Stanford wasn't immune either, according to the New York Times:

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Bush's visit to Stanford was interrupted by protesters, who blocked the only road leading to the Hoover Institution, where Mr. Bush was to meet with fellows before dining with Mr. Shultz. As a result of the protest, the meeting was switched to Mr. Shultz's house, and the dinner followed.

For the record, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was at the Starbucks in our building in San Jose the prior week but everyone says it was a friendly event.

All of which is a lead-in to pointing out my current favorite Albert Ayler track -- his Divine Peacemaker. It's combination of old-time band music with the usual "out there" jazz sounds so American to me. Call it glorious tradition in a crazed, regal kind of way.

...the strings saw away at steady eighth notes, Don plays a martial theme and Albert begins a very soft squeal on the tenor. As he crescendos, Beaver Harris comes thundering in on the tom-toms and the ensemble breaks apart for a wild saxophone solo. Jeff Schwartz

albert ayler discography. official bios of george schultz, the president and the governor. menlo park-based organization advocating amending u.s. constitution to allow foreign-born presidents (site not updated recently)