aworks :: "new" american classical music

links for 2008-02-29

• Mick LaSalle : Cinematically Illiterate
  He argues film critics should be specialists rather than generalists. Still, it bugs me he doesn't like Blade Runner or 2001.
• Eine Kleine Nichtmusik: There comes a time....
  "MHWGO is surely the tribute song for the accented auxiliary note, and none the worse for that." Yikes, more intelligent comment on the music of Celine Dion.
• ComingAnarchy.com » Blog Archive » Behold! The War Tuba!
  No, not related to the recent NY Phil trip to N. Korea.
• Silicon Valley Moms Blog: Where in the world are Gustavo Dudamel tickets?
  "Comments: My preschoolers have enjoyed watching him on You Tube. The man moves and grooves! Good luck finding tickets."

Ayre (2004). Osvaldo Golijov /einstein on the 101/

• This evening's commute was worse than normal so I had more time to think. I did resist the urge to twitter while driving.
• When I started the car after work, the first words out of the radio were "Eighth Blackbird." I did a double take to make sure this wasn't from a podcast on my iPod. No, this was drive-time radio, not normally a source of anything artistically contemporary. It turned out to be an ad on KQED for the upcoming Cal Performances concert in Berkeley of Golijov's Ayre that includes the group Eighth Blackbird.
• I generally prefer San Francisco's other public radio station but the radio was still tuned to KQED this evening after listening to Bush's press conference this morning. In that press conference, there had been a pointed question about revealing who was going to fund the future Bush presidential library and whether foreign donations were going to be accepted. But mainly it got me to thinking that when Bush read Steve Smith's recent blog post about North Korea, did the President secretly aspire to have a similar gigantic metal sculpture of himself at his new library. Surprisingly, no one followed up at the press conference with that question.
• Back to Golijov, I haven't yet decided if I should treat him as an American composer similar to how I don't know what to do about fellow immigrants Schoenberg and Stravinsky. You think I would be used to complicated blends of foreign and domestic background given I work for a UK company in Silicon Valley, California where in maybe half the meetings I attend, I'm the only American-born. And I know more about immigration law, H1Bs, green cards etc. than I ever thought I would need. I suppose with this post, Mr. Golijov officially becomes an aworks composer. I can't yet grant the same honor to Mr. Schoenberg. Maybe if he had an equivalent to that great CD cover of Mr. Stravinsky and Michael Tilson Thomas.
• Back to the iPod, I spent the rest of the commute listening to Knee Play 5 and other tracks from Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach. Repeating this Knee Play multiple times, I found it was more fun to whistle the counting (123412345612345678...) rather than actually recite the numbers. I also preferred to whistle the violin arpeggios rather than listen to the recitation. This is all part of my life exploration to determine why I apparently prefer the timbral to the cerebral, at least in music. It's either genetic or it's because I heard the Beatles on the radio in 1964, permanently altering my brain.

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• Bonus quote from the press conference, via The Left Coaster:

And when you couple that with the idea that... taxes may be going up in a couple years, that's double uncertainty.

• YouTube of Knee Play 5 played on a Turkish baglama guitar. Mr. Bojangles also played on baglama and accompanying an animated pie chart.
• A repeat of the link to Steve Smith's colossal man photo.

links for 2008-02-28

• North Korea Invites Clapton, Too - New York Times
  “There is no agreement whatsoever for him to play in North Korea, nor any planned shows there.”
• WNYC - Soundcheck: Why the Philharmonic's trip may not be so unique (February 26, 2008)
  Podcast complete with Norman Lebrecht and Drew McManus.
• Glass Notes: No Appomattox?
  Yes, I was also wondering if it had been cut from the list of planned film showings.

An American in Paris (1928). George Gershwin /no disrespect intended/

I hate to seem parochial but ever since I saw the New York Philharmonic's program for their North Korean concert, my thoughts have shifted from the political to the merely aesthetic. This leads me to ask the question -- was Gershwin's An American in Paris really the best American work Lorin Maazel could come up with?

Since the orchestra is an invited guest, some repertoire would be inappropriate to play for our North Korean hosts, regardless of its charms e.g. John Adam's The Chairman Dances.

I'll also concede it's probably not a good idea to clear the hall on such an auspicious occasion with American modernism or other contemporary music of a less than soothing nature, as in Elliott Carter, some John Cage oddity or the latest Michael Gordon work.

Bit while it may have been a deliberate choice to favor an American work that was neither brash nor boasting about American life, I can think of several works that are better representations of our country, complicated as it is:

• Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring (even if it was actually written prior to being titled)
• Philip Glass' Koyannisqatsi (ok, it's not orchestral and represents the less than appealing side of modern life but is still a reasonable approximation)
• Charles Ives' Symphony No. 2 (representational of America at least in Ives' mind and surprisingly appealing)

But my real complaint is that we all know* An American in Paris is not even Gershwin's greatest orchestral work.

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*Ok, I exaggerate. Honorable people have been known to disagree with my assertion. Plus Wikipedia reports AAIP was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic.

And since we are on patriotic musical topics, one of my favorite Stravinsky works is his arrangement of the Star-Spangled Banner, even if it did get him arrested in Boston.

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Update: Fixed a title typo. Also listened to a synthesizer arrangement of An American in Paris by an artist I won't mention since it may be the least appealing music I own.

links for 2008-02-26

• YouTube - James Tenney's WAKE for Charles Ives
  Somber yet driven percussion music.
• YouTube - Virgil Fox Legacy | Ives | Variations on America
  Nice garb, Virgil.
• Mahler Owes Me Ten Bucks: John Adams made my cat shut up
  If only the music of Adams had the same effect on our dachshund.

aworks ordered list :: fresh rips

I'm grinding through a bunch of freshly ripped albums. Some are recent purchases, some not. My quick assessments:

1. Thelonious Monk. 1951-1952. Despite titles like Skippy, Criss Cross, Tinkle Tinkle, and Willow Weep for Me, this upbeat music shows a guy who can play.
2. Bang on a Can. Brian Eno: Music for Airports (Live). 1/1 and 2/2 continue to impress (and were arranged by Michael Gordon and Evan Ziporyn respectively).
3. Club 8. The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming. Swedish pop of a gentle persuasion.
4. Various. Sonic Rebellion. A mishmash of "alternative classical," but cool given it is a Naxos recording.
5. Cat Power. Jukebox. Good but not as good as expected given source material like Holliday, Williams, Mitchell, Sinatra etc.
6. The Cars. Not as earthshaking as when it came out in 1978, so whatever happened to "New Wave" anyway?
7. Philip Glass. Solo Piano. Not a disappointment even if it is last on the list although the recording is a reminder the dude is a composer more than a player.

links for 2008-02-24

• Vitro Nasu » Blog Archive » Sun Rings and Dracula
  "Kronos Quartet plays Sun Rings composed by Terry Riley"

links for 2008-02-23

• Pan-African News Wire: Teo Macero, 82, Recorder Producer Who Worked With Miles Davis, Dies
  "But the electric-jazz albums he helped Davis create - especially "Bitches Brew," which remains one of the best-selling albums by a jazz artist - have deeper echoes in almost 40 years of experimental pop, like work by Can, Brian Eno and Radiohead."
• Night After Night: Journey into mystery.
  Have a good trip.
• Philip Glass - Muppet Wiki - a Wikia wiki
  'In 1979, he wrote a series of short vocal and instrumental pieces for Sesame Street called "Geometry of Circles."' A Muppet Wiki?
• Category:Composers - Muppet Wiki - a Wikia wiki
  Bacharach, Bernstein, the Gershwins, Joplin, Joan La Barbara, Mozart, Rachel Portman, Schickele, Sondheim, Denny Zeitlin, ...

Fellow Traveler (2008). John Adams /longstanding titan/

The Kronos Quartet plays Carnegie Hall tonight:

John Adams, that longstanding titan of American minimalism, brings gravitas to the program with his compact, exhilarating new work, Fellow Traveler.

links for 2008-02-21

• Copious Notes: Introducing Daniel Meyer
  "Q: Where do you see classical music in America today? A: I think it’s a lot more vital and more connected to Americans today than it was, say in the '50s and '60s" This blog notwithstanding, I disagree.
• Hot Chip
  the aworks household band of the year, so far...
• A VC: David's Got It Right
  "Here's what the labels need to do: drop that penny per track per stream rate to about 10% of what it is today (that's right - 1/10 of a penny per stream). " Having an interface as easy to use as YouTube would also be required for success...
• if charlie parker was a gunslinger,
  there'd be a whole lot of dead copycats: The Present Day Composer #57
  "Béla Bartók (1881-1945)" I'm not a good judge of these kind of things but he aged better appearance-wise than Sibelius, whose photos still scare me.
• Mick LaSalle : Second Word On Lindsay Lohan and Marilyn
  "It reminds us that this wasn't an icon, but a person, and making people into icons is one way we help kill people by pretending to immortalize them."
• The Standing Room: The M6:Meredith Monk Music Third Generation
  "The yield from that effort was one of the most mentally vigorous weeklong experiences of my life, an experience shared with 18 performers who had come from Uruguay and Israel, Serbia and northern Wisconsin, to work intensively with Meredith Monk" M Monk!
• Marginal Revolution: My favorite things Spain, music
  "Varese sounds much better live than on disc." Not my experience but then I'm a specialist. I also don't know what he has to do with Spain.