aworks :: "new" american classical music

links for 2008-03-31

• MySpace.com - moby - New York, NEW YORK - Zouk / Japanese Classic Music / Hawaiian - www.myspace.com/moby
  Moby's new album streams on his MySpace page. He also lists Gershwin and John Lee Hooker as influences. Before this, I might have bought the album but now I'll just buy a couple of tracks. Thanks Moby.
• POP QUIZ: Moby
  "Q: ...Are you gratified that everyone has come around to your way of thinking about selling songs to commercials? A: Not really...In hindsight, it wasn't fun being the crucified poster child for selling out."
• Twitter / Vidya A.:
  College: two hundred people reading same book. An obvious mistake. Two hundred people can read two hundred books.- John Cage.""
• steven yi :: music » Blog Archive » A Small Trip to Big Sur
  "Arriving in Big Sur at about 11:30 AM, we listened to John Adams’ The Dharma at Big Sur (though, I must say, much of which is difficult to hear while driving in Big Sur as the noise of the road often drowned out the music)"

links for 2008-03-30

• The Metropolitan Opera Goes to the Movies - WSJ.com
  Terry Teachout: "In fact, it was overwhelming -- one of the most memorable experiences I've had in a lifetime of opera-going."
• Opera: Asian Aria - WSJ.com
  "Mr. Hao's reworking includes an extra 18 minutes, a new aria for the title character of Princess Turandot, and the new character of Princess Loulin"
• WNYC - New Sounds: New Choral Works (March 30, 2008)
  "Composer Eric Whitacre purports to be influenced by Depeche Mode, Bjork and seventies prog rock as much as he is by Bartok, Barber and Monteverdi. "

links for 2008-03-25

• San Francisco's Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival - August 22-24, 2008
  "General Admission 3-Day Festival Ticket - $225.50...One Ticket will be issued for 3-day entry to festival. Customer must present same ticket each day at gate. Pending availability single day tickets may be released at a later date." 3 days? $225? Yikes.

Mass (1971). Leonard Bernstein /lennie and the beatles would also approve/

I just noticed that Alarm Will Sound made the upper right "brilliant/highbrow" corner of this week's New York Magazine's Approval Matrix:

Alarm Will Sound explores "a/rhythmic" music at Zankel Hall, in arguably the number-one a/rhythmia show in town.

Usually, the only classical artists to make the matrix are legends like Steve Reich or Philip Glass. Despite the fact the group's Zankel Hall concert was last month and the even more newsworthy "1969" concert just played at The Kitchen this weekend, I'm impressed with the recognition. Note that the Zankel concert was what I saw at Stanford last year (posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5); the more recent show was a themed extravaganza, including works by Berio, Bernstein, Stockhausen, and a re-creation of the Beatles' Revolution No. 9.

Keeping with all things musical and New York, Alarm Will Sound also has a call for scores:

Alarm Will Sound invites submissions for a 5-15 minute piece to be performed as part of a March 2009 Alice Tully concert of music by New York City composers. Works should be submitted in PDF and/or MP3 format to [email protected]. Preference will be given to works that use Alarm Will Sound's full instrumentation and which do not require additional personnel. This call for scores is directed at New York City composers -- the connection of the composer to New York City should be explained as part of the submission. All submissions must be received by 5:00PM EDT on April 1st.

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• bernstein mass wikipedia entry.   
• alarm will sound website.
• youtube video from the band in the lowbrow/despicable corner of the approval matrix, complete with warning "This video may not be suitable for minors." the nsfw content probably isn't suitable even for those of us who actually remember the year 1969.
• "behind the approval matrix" blog.
• an approval matrix from earlier in the month points out prince is getting a hip replacement.

links for 2008-03-24

• Techno + Classical = JOY | Ask Metafilter
  Not for those who seek authenticity, of course.
• YouTube - I Like Chopin (Techno Remix)
  Chopin may not be the best source for techno remixes and I'm not even a traditionalist.
• Kevin Kelly; A Web Page For Every Species
  "While outlining the reasons to why doing ALL was important I realized I was an "all-ist." A person who believes there is a transformation phase transition when you go from many, most, to all. "
• "radiohead is unimpressive" - Google Search
  I'm the one and only search result and it's not even my sentiment.
• The Failed Misanthrope: some thoughts on my collection
  "6. I love Bach, Chopin, and Philip Glass." I've also loved all three although I've lost the feeling for Chopin and maybe Bach.

links for 2008-03-21

• mellysblog: Melly's Music Links: Melly's Music Links
  "Alarm Will Sound has a show Friday and Saturday night this week at The Kitchen. Rep concentrates on arrangements and compositions from the year 1969... Stockhausen, Berio, Stravinsky...and an arrangement of The Beatle's Revolution 9 "
• Metallica In-Store Set For 'Record Store Day'
  "The band will participate in an signing and meet-and-greet at Rasputin Music's Mountain View store"
• CAFE LA LA: RoRo's Lebenese Cuisine
  "Kio, Jeffe, Peter, Suji and I went to go see Carl Stone perform at Amoeba records last night. It was great to hear his new laptop based compositions. The King of Sampling was truly at work. " Then they went out to eat.
• Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise: 1969
  Justin Davidson: "Today I sat in on a rehearsal for "Revolution No. 9," an obsessively accurate transcription of that signal event in the history of organized delirium. "

links for 2008-03-19

• The Washington Monthly: DIVISIVE....
  Not to trivialize the message but I also thought Obama's pronunciation odd. And this post's commenters are didactic and funny. "Yes. There was a memo. But it referred to it as an 'alternative' pronunciation (not 'alternate')." +BBC/Coltrane ref
  (tags: coltrane bbc pronunciation)
• Download details: Notable changes in Windows Vista SP1
  Is it a good or bad sign that the document that describes the notable changes is 2.1 MB? Wish me luck.
• Beta.BookLamp.org
  "BookLamp.org is a system for matching readers to books through an analysis of writing styles, similar to the way that Pandora.com matches music lovers to new music. Do you like Stephen King’s It, but thought it was too long? "
• Obama's faith in the reasoning abilities of the American public - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
  "I found the speech riveting, provocative, insightful, thoughtful and courageous -- courageous because it eschewed almost completely all cliches, pandering and condescension"
• Right Wing Nut House » OBAMA’S SPEECH A CALL FOR A VICTIMHOOD COALITION
  An alternative viewpoint...
• Orange Crate Art: Barack Obama and Ralph Ellison
  'Ellison's narrator is a brilliant, compelling speaker who hires out his eloquence to an organization and pays heavily for finally speaking his own thoughts..."one, and yet many" '
• Urban Modes: Music and Life in New York » I review my reviewer
  "Marcelo Zarvos and Amy Kohn are not influenced by "the minimalist works of Philip Glass" - such a remark is laughable in its ignorance. " This got my attention but seems decisive/divisive.
• BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Obama explains
  "This is not the decisive decision of a leader, I think...Barack Obama is simply American." Dunno re: the first statement.
• Democratic Strategist: Wright and Wrongs
  "This is a very old conception of the church...but one that won't make a lot of sense to those Americans who view church membership as an expression of consumer choice, and ...of the spiritual discrimination and good taste of the religious consumer."

links for 2008-03-18

• Disquiet » NIN MP3s Leave Listeners Speechless
  "To hear Nine Inch Nails without the familiar, gaping-wound screams of its main member, Trent Reznor, proves to be a refreshing, reflective opportunity."
• Six-Word Reviews of 763 SXSW Mp3s by Paul Ford - The Morning News
  "I realize that I have potentially hurt the feelings of nearly 3,000 musicians, for which I apologize. By no means should you ever stop writing and recording music." The reviews are funny, in a mean kind of way. BoDeans get five circles. Via Kevin Kelly.
• Top 10 Stunning 20th Century Operas - The List Universe
  Complete with YouTube videos for each selection.
• Twitter / gabe ck
  'rather absurdly, I'm sitting in downtown menlo park after 6pm thinking "this buzz of urban life is what Fremont's missing."' Ok, sure.

links for 2008-03-17

• Nico Muhly » Sassy
  "On our way out of the venue last night, David totally sass-talked the Eels’s tour manager and I thought there was going to be a fight, but we escaped unharmed into an art deco bar playing trashy dance music." And they say classical music is boring...
• Musicwhore.org: Rinka Maki/KbN/Damage/toddle/hey willpower, SXSW 2008, March 15, 2008
  "I bet she sold a lot of merchandise." and "Electronica bands make for lousy live shows...The illusion of repetition is a great thing, but repetition itself is dangerous."

links for 2008-03-16

• Open Library Developer's Meeting: One Web Page for Every Book Ever Published
  "the goal of the Open Library is to be implemented...by amassing as many records describing as many books as possible, saving them to a database, and making the content of the database available through a myriad of ways." What I want for compositions.
• Theater of Found Sounds: Spem In Alium
  "What is it about Spem In Alium that so profoundly moves me?:
• The Opera Tattler: Peter Grimes Live in HD Met Simulcast
  "Donald Runnicles seemed to have a good handle on the orchestra, and everything sounded very much together. I had no idea our maestro perspired so much...simulcasts, they do sometimes show us more than we wish to see."