aworks :: "new" american classical music

Niagara Symphony (1854). William Henry Fry

Today I started reading Denise Von Glahn's The Sounds of Place: Music and the American Cultural Landscape which discusses the Hudson River School of painters as an example of art successfully inspired by geography. Coincidentally, Kyle Gann has also just mentioned the Hudson River School of painters in a post about American romanticism. Both point out how 19th-century American painters, although educated in Europe, managed to develop a truly worthwhile aesthetic, unlike 19th-century American composers.

Gann emphasizes the dearth of early American compositional success:

Insofar as one can judge from available recordings, I have only found three pre-1890 American orchestra works of any notable interest: The Ornithological Combat of Kings (1836) by Anthony Philip Heinrich (1781-1861), the Niagara Symphony (1854, though it doesn't seem to have been performed before the current decade) by William Henry Fry (1813-1864), and Night in the Tropics (1861) by Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869).

And The Sounds of Place has a chapter illuminated with works by Heinrich and Fry (and George Frederick Bristow).

Violin Concerto (1993). John Adams /the john adams reader/

Amazon sent me some well-targeted email:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

We've noticed that customers who have purchased Violin Concerto/Shaker Loops also purchased The John Adams Reader. For this reason, you might like to know that The John Adams Reader is now available . You can order your copy at a savings of 37% by following the link below.

Hmm, the editor is Thomas May, a music critic who also happens to be the Religion and Spirituality Editor at Amazon.com. Can't "search inside the book," though.

Mark Carlson (1952-) /aworks guide/

Mark Carlson is a professor at UCLA, plays flute and is the founder/artistic director of the Pacific Serenades chamber music ensemble.

As if hit by a bolt of lightening, I thought, “These are as much art songs as Schumann and Schubert songs are,” and I became determined to include some aspect of my American-music roots in all of my music from that point on.

1. Quartet (1994). For flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, cello, and piano.
2. Abschied (1993). For cello and piano.
3. Piano Quartet (1992). For violin, viola, cello, and piano. Low key.
4. The Hall of Mirrors (1990). For clarinet and piano. Also low key.

The Hall of Mirrors

mark carlson: official site roger bourland

The Golden Mean (). Charlemagne Palestine /animal/

Adam Baratz attends that Feldman/Palestine piano concert and makes an interesting observation:

Palestine's music, despite its flirtations with Eastern thought, struck me as being very animist. All his hammering seemed like it was trying to tap the same energy reached by the man-animal deities that surrounded the pianos.

Like a Sick Eagle (1913-17). Charles Ives

On December 10, 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. Article 5 states "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". Wikipedia

...But Cheney doesn't exactly inspire confidence at this point, does he? What I fear most is not just the next attack, but the response to it; and how, bit by bit, the West and our enemies may become gradually more and more alike...But the center is weak. Andrew Sullivan

Intimidation has not turned back one transcendent thought or one valuable idea from going where it was destined to go, and doing what it was destined to do. It may be temporarily delayed, or its species may revert only to propagate in a related form, but brute force (the world's greatest idiot) has never kept the germ from its divine order. A black eye never reformed a drunkard, a czar never stopped a free thought. Charles Ives

We don't yet live in interesting times but man, the times they are a confusin'...

• Personally, for this month anyway, it's summer, life is good, there are three or four World Cup soccer matches every day and despite a first game debacle, the US could still make it to the next round tomorrow. And yet, contemporary news makes it clear we torture, they torture, and others used to torture. I'm not a conscientious objecting purist but how did we lose the moral high ground?
  
• Although (or because) I grew up in a family of old-fashioned Indiana conservatives, I don't generally hang out around smart Gay Republicans. And yet I am closely following Andrew Sullivan's blog. Something about bloggers who also write for national publications -- gotta respect that. I do have a fantasy that Sullivan can be the tipping point and become our generation's Walter Cronkite by moving beyond the Republican Party. Or to phrase it differently, our short-term fate is in Republican hands and I believe there are enough traditional, responsible Republicans to think all is not lost. But time is running out...
• I also don't know what to make of the Charles Ives' quote. On the one hand, he's become my "desert island" composer. His work is so sophisticated, interesting, and pleasurable that I will never get enough of it. On the other hand, his comments in general and his music are rather "in your face." I won't call him or his music "brutish" but it definitely has an air of brashness, albeit in a humane way. It pains me to say this but I predict his music will be held in less esteem twenty years from now, similar to the cooling of avant-gardism between say 1922 and 1942 (John Cage notwithstanding). One can only hope it's a temporary lull.
• Finally, I already miss the "good ol' days" when Ligeti (and modernism) was alive...

youtube: john kerry steps up versus 'stay the course'. the dark side part one, courtesy dick cheney. "classic" torture from the original mess (video not safe for humans).
wikipedia: the phrase 'you are either with us, or against us' (as used by such notables as bush, jesus christ, anakin skywalker and indiana's current republican governor)
answers.com: like a sick eagle overview
aworks: charles ives
fourthturning eras: unraveling crisis
how to save the world: dave pollard

Piano Phase (1967). Steve Reich /i've gotta.../

I'm a rather eclectic listener but college radio can be too much even for me...

KZSU Stanford this evening pleasantly surprised with Steve Reich's Piano Phase but soon followed with the Evaporators' I've Gotta Rash.

i've gotta rash: mp3 piano phase: wikipedia aworks

The Golden Mean (). Charlemagne Palestine /boston/

Charlemagne Palestine performs The Golden Mean and Stephen Drury performs Palais de Mari by Morton Feldman in a Boston concert next week.

Palestine is the esoteric, fascinating artist and composer who visited the Bay Area earlier this year. Wikipedia:

A contemporary of Philip Glass, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich, Palestine wrote intense, ritualistic music in the 1970s, intended by the composer to rub against audiences’ expectations of what is beautiful and meaningful in music.

Drury is the artistic director of the The New England Conservatory Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance as well as the pianist on the superb Cage CD In a Landscape.

palestine: composer site

Lux Aeterna (1966). György Ligeti /1923-2006/

Eleven tracks for today:

• Atmospheres: Overtures. György Ligeti. 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack.
• Walking Forward Looking Backward. Algorhythm.
• Études pour piano: IX. Vertige. György Ligeti. Jurgen Hocker.
  
• Three 2-part Studies: I Presto. Conlon Nancarrow. Herbert Henck.
• Violin Concerto: IV. Passacaglia. Lento intenso. György Ligeti. Frank Peter Zimmermann,
• String Quartet No. 1: 5. Presto. György Ligeti. Hagen Quartet.
• Wear Your Seatbelt. Cliff Martinez. Solaris soundtrack.
• Artistiya. Amadou & Mariam. Dimanche à Bamako.
• Langage En Dessin. Lukas Ligeti & Beta Foly.
• Musica ricercata: III. Allegro con spirito. Pierre Charial.
• Drei Stücke für zwei Klaviere: Selbstportrait mit Reich und Riley (und Chopin ist auch dabei). György Ligeti. Begoña Uriarte, Karl-Hermann Mrongovius.

György Ligeti on minimalism:

I did not know either of them [Reich and Riley] at this time. It is not a question of priority. It was something in the air. When I heard a minimalist piece for the first time—it was In C by Riley—it greatly pleased me. But it was already after my composition Continuum. I was astonished to hear something close to what I had done. Then, I met him, and I greatly liked this character. Much later, in California in 1972, I heard Violin Phase by Reich for the first time. I also met him a little afterwards. Then, I made this small homage to Reich and Riley, by utilizing the “pattern transformation” technique of Riley and the “phase shifting” technique of Reich, and by combining them with my technique of “grids,” lattices or trellises, or stroboscopes, as I did in the Second String Quartet.

On an I Love Music thread on Ligeti vs. Reich, Lee G:

I dunno, I like a lot of early Reich and don't imagine I'll ever stop responding to stuff like Music for 18 Musicians, but Ligeti offers music to chew on, you know? The fact that it isn't as immediately approachable while being just as intriguing indicates to me I'm probably going to be puzzling over and enjoying it for a long time to come.

Through Ligeti (and Reich), I learned the rewards of contemporary music.

ligeti: wikipedia bay area 1993 herman sabbe interview do the math the kittensnake the concert paul griffiths in the ny times

The Fog of War (2003). Philip Glass /library talk/

I think I'd be a lot more motivated if they played the Philip Glass soundtrack to the Fog of War in the library while I did work...Heck, I might even Brylcreem my hair down into a natty centrepart, just like Mr Robert McNamara, to give the whole thing authenticity. Quick Little Splinter

The Hours (2002). Philip Glass /welcome to the world! cup!/

Alexander the Gay from Malaysia time-blogs:

7.32 pm Came back from photography. Alone. Listening to Michael Reisman playing Philip Glass' score of "The Hours". The sun has set.
...
8.16 pm Came back from dinner. Campus is quiet. Walked under near full moon's glow and occasional glare from artificial lighting.
...
8.45 pm Crickets chirping outside my window. Philip Glass' piano music inside. Juxtaposition of harmonies.

Hmm, I like his form (in the post, in the post). Ok, my turn, if a bit more frantic...

6.33pm Home from work. Avoided first day World Cup spoilers. Watching Germany Costa Rica on tape. Alone except Sparky -- beloved, long-haired, barking, Dachshund.

6.35 pm Cranked iTunes over boring American announcers. Super Numeri's energetic The First League of Angels. Super Numeri website Flash upgrade? Not super. Napster also broken. Reliable software a difficult problem -- who knew?

6.39 pm Germany scores! Munich crowd ecstatic! Juxtaposition of emotions. Not Torsten "Handball" Frings? I'm ecstatic!!

6.41 pm TV shot of German coach/California resident/former star/future national goat or hero Jurgen Klinsmann. Yay Jurgen!

6.45 pm Wanchope for Costa Rica scores! Yay Wanchope!

6.52 pm Germany scores again!

6.53 pm Sparky: First World Cup. Yet to learn vestigal Germanic roots. Scared. Confused. ("Why is Dad yelling at TV. What's up with so much nationalism"). Walks out of room.

7.00 pm Lucky Man by ELP. Yes, so far, in a modest kind of way. And cheers Alex in Malaysia. Lucky Man synthesizer MP3 example.

7.10 pm Bored by second half. Blogging.

7.22 pm Hovhaness by Shanghai Quartet. Calming. True multi-nationalism?

7.25 pm In kitchen! Missed third German goal!

7.28 pm iTunes with Mick LaSalle! Great critic podcast -- just not now. Skip to Seeland by Neu. Appropriate Germanic mellow.

7.37 pm Germany too mellow. CR scores. I've Got Viking in Me by Four Tet. I like but sounds as if played in reverse. Foreshadowing of tomorrow's Sweden vs. underdog calypso of Trinidad & Tobago? 

7.40 pm John Fahey's Yes, Jesus Loves Me. I like but sounds as if played upside down. Bush theme song.

7.51 pm Handball scores. Boo! On my deathbed, hopefully not soon ("that f* Torsten").

7.58 pm Organist Jimmy Smith closes. The Cat. Brazil to come.

8.30 pm No, what happened? Goal, Ecuador versus Poland. Please (please!) don't let the US be one down versus Czech Republic (Monday 9am PDT, consult your local listings). Cheers to my former Polish colleague who visited San Jose. And again, sorry for the outburst, Sparky.

9.02 pm Half-time Commercials. iTunes plays Tinariwen's Nar Djenetbouba. Tinariwen -- best new music this year, bar none, albeit from 2002. "Music of the unemployed" or the next blues...

9.16 pm TV screen with computer font and garish green background circa commodore 64: Emergency Alert System: Required Weekly Test. Back to game, please.

9.35 pm Tommy Smyth re: Poland: Something has to change if they are going to get something out of this game. That comment from Bristol, Connecticut, which for whatever reason is not Germany. What, we can't afford to send all the announcers to the World Cup? Bonus Smyth quote: You take off your headset after a game, go to the ESPN cafeteria and nobody's celebrating. It's just weird.

949 pm Surely! It's Ecuador ecstasy! It's two-nil, they lead! Hmm, maybe they play well at lower altitude as well.

953pm Here we are. Here we are. We are antic. There it is. There it is! That's the picture. You see it for yourself. There it is. It's a man. There it is. via The Books' Be Good to Them Always. See also Music in a Suburban Scene.

10.05pm ESPN2's Eric Wynalda: I'd like to be in Quito tonight! Sure, any place is better than Bristol.

Saturday 6.00am aworks' Robert Gable: I'm here in Palo Alto at the Rose & Crown for England Paraguay. Or not. If it were Scotland, of course...

aworks: the hours philip glass alan hovhaness
goals (and teams) i care about: lahm wanchope klose klose(2). wanchope(2). some german loser best forgotten.
world cup etc: steve rubino on english vs. spanish soccer tv and again. poles and ecuadorians at a ny tire store