aworks :: "new" american classical music

Blowin' in the Wind (1963). Bob Dylan /via salt lake city/

I may be going soft in the head but the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's rendition of Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind isn't completely ludicrous. In fact, I just purchased the 10 cent stream at lala.

From a 1990 Argo recording Songs from America's Heartland. Well, I suppose Dylan is technically from the heartland. Less sure about Paul Simon though...

Wikipedia on Blowin' in the Wind: Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of philosophical questions about peace, war, and freedom without supplying concrete answers. The refrain "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" has been described as "impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind"...In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI...wrote that he was uncomfortable with music stars such as Dylan performing in a church environment.

links for 2008-06-30

• If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,
  There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats: When Legends Gather #411
  "Mickey Rooney and Duke Ellington"
• visionsong: It ain't at Lincoln Center, yo
  "John Harbison/at it agin/ getting five commisions and then mailin' three in."
• The Reverberate Hills; or The Apotheosis of the Narwhal: and repetition palls him
  "the singers were wonderful, the orchestra excellent, and the staging top-notch, and I loathed every minute of it...I compared it to being clubbed to death with meringues...and maybe Tony Bennett will be singing later in the Carnelian Room. . ."

The Collection (1920). Charles Ives

Leonard Link reports Naxos will issue a series of recordings with all of the songs of Charles Ives. I have days where I think this collection of songs represents the greatest achievement of American classical music. At a mininum, I'll take the songs to the proverbial desert island.

Leonard does chide Naxos for ordering the songs by title rather than in a more satisfying manner. This will mean ripping to MP3 and constructing playlists, I suppose.

Also, it appears the texts generally won't be available. Fully appreciating the music without them is difficult. I solved that problem in the past by buying the music to 114 songs; couldn't afford the $250 for the 129 songs though.

By the way, it looks like lala has free streaming for about 15 recordings of Ives songs including Dora Ohrenstein singing The Collection.

links for 2008-06-29

• Priced out of the Castro, LGBTs seek housing elsewhere | The Bay Area Reporter Online
  Despite going by the Four Seasons on Market Street tonight with its dog walkers and super-efficient human door openers, I remain skeptical about SF's long-term trend towards the affluent (and ultra-affluent). Still, even Vallejo has a Rasputin's.

links for 2008-06-28

• Dragoncave: What does "published" mean?
  "We got to this point...because of poetry publishing's over-emphasis on originality; a problem that is shared across many of the arts nowadays, and has been since the rise of the Romantic and Modernist archetype of the individualist genius-hero-artist."
• Musicwhore.org: The Slush Pile, or too distracted
  "Elliott Carter, String Quartets Nos. 1 & 5 (Pacifica Quartet). Wow, are these works harsh." !
• Flaming Pablum: Why Brooklyn Sucks: McCarren Pool Disses Devo
  "I haven't seen as white and pasty an assemblage of rock geeks like this since the last WFMU record fair. I was again among my own kind." !
• Michael J. Totten: How Kosovo Created its Own Liberal Islam
  "We are Muslims, but we think the European way." There's a truth here, somewhere.
• Soundcheck Blog » Music Therapy: Science or Art? Or Neither?
  I can't even calibrate my reactions to the various John Fahey tracks I've heard today. How could one predict the positive reaction of others? And yet, while Fahey is not generally "healing music,"  it's artistically inspirational, if a bit noisy.
• Seth’s blog » Blog Archive » How Art School Reveals Human Nature
  "Photography majors tend to be self-centered and outspoken...Illustration majors are relatively childlike; they are wacky and playful and fun and less serious. In the illustration department critiques are always sugar-coated"
• BAGnewsNotes: Pictures Of Unity
  Obama / Hilary courtship...
• Research Disputes Value of The Long Tail
  I wish iTunes displayed sales data so I could figure out the most popular tracks I've recently added. Ned Rorem, no. Roy Harris, no. Philip Glass' Song from Liquid Days, no idea. Maybe the Wonderwall EP by Oasis. Clearly I listen in the long tail.

aworks list :: grate and great

Here's what's on my musical mind:

• Whom Do You Work For? Ornette Coleman. Apparently if I am going to listen to Ornette, I want it to be as outrageous as possible. lala
• Who Knows Where the Time Goes? Fairport Convention. From a BBC live recording that I generally find grating, this song still staggers me. lala
• Blues for New Orleans. An Ellington album new to me. The opening with organ, piano and then the band is fine. lala
• Escapisms in a Comedic Form. From a John Fahey tribute album that was disappointing, this track by "Lichens" begins to get at the depth of feeling Fahey himself could express. Overcome ("I didn't mean it...") on the other hand is too over the top for me. I'm not sure why only the supremely talented are capable of being outrageous. amazon
• Short & Sweet. Charlemagne Palestine & Terry Jennings. I've heard of the late Jennings for a long time but I think this is the first time I've actually heard his music. Worth the wait. What might have been new ag-ish somehow has substance for repeated listening. The chanting/drony voice on a later track took some getting used to (a la Terry Riley's Chorale). From a recent release. mimaroglu
• Nocturne from Symphony No. 2. John Corigliano. Given I've always liked Corigliano's First Symphony, it's strange that I've only now heard about his second. lala
• Sea Change. Jeff Parker. Some lyrical jazz guitar I stumbled upon. emusic's post-millennial jazz page

links for 2008-06-25

• Notes from a Defeatist: Inobservant
  "Mr Holden doesn't like to stray too far from the opera house, so his reviews are usually about operas, ...But occasionally he remembers that there are other classical music genres, and manages to get himself to one of those concert hall places."
• Digital Audio Insider: How We Listen
  'Is there an official name for this sort of feeling? If not, I'm proposing "content fatigue."'

17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur (2007). Bill Dixon

After reading about Bill Dixon in Wire and then seeing his CD 17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur on display at Amoeba, I'm now listening to it. Given the title, I half expected this music to be sombre or even dismal. Instead, it was mostly subdued and interesting.

The composer on the the intent of the title:

There is no 'political message', overt or otherwise, with regards to this piece of music. On the other hand, if in listening to the music and viewing the cover painting, thoughts on the situation in Darfur are raised and brought to the listener's attention and/or consciousness, the point that I would have liked to have made, without being procedurally political, would have been achieved.

The ensemble sound is chaotic and feels like it is going to unravel but never does. It's also a live recording and the applause detracts from the effect.

---

amazon: 17 musicians. bill dixon with exploding star orchestra. bill dixon/archie shepp

links for 2008-06-22

• Dear New York Philharmonic: Please Don't Call Me In The Middle Of Performances To Ask For Money
  "I understand why the Philharmonic is a vicious fundraiser..."

aworks list :: quotes from the latest Wire Magazine

• "I just happen to think it's easy to misrepresent John Cage, and that his work represents a core of ideas and values that's worth defending." :: Philip Clark in a letter to the editor responding to a complaint about Clark's review of George Lewis' AACM book.
• "In order for the neophyte, uneducated, naive listener to get something out of something, he or she has to want to get that something, and has to bring something to that wanting." :: trumpeter Bill Dixon
• "Few if any composers have done as much to expand and revise the obdurately stuffy lexicon of opera as Robert Ashley." :: David Stubbs in a review of Ashley's Concrete.
• "There's been previous discussion in The Wire about accuracy when Braxton plays standards or compositions by the likes of Charlie Parker and Lennie Tristano, and it's pertinent that the GTM series manages to sidestep the possibility of note-specific mistakes." :: Philip Clark in a review of Anthony Braxton's Quartet (Ghost Trance Music) 2006.
• "Among the three archive tracks collected on this CD, part of Alga Marghen's Golden Research strand dedicated to unearthing the early work of Charlemagne Palestine, a beautiful example of Jennings's art has been restored to the public domain, in a piano/soprano sax duo recorded at CalArts in 1974." :: Rob Young in a CD review mentioning the late Terry Jennings.
• "The recurring loping modal rhythm effectively conjures up the image of Riley's cosmic dromedary as he guides it through a pulsating psychedelic soundscape that is flickering with Back-like organ flourishes, improvisational jazz and the disciplined vocal vibrations he was introduced to when studying with Pandit Pran Nath." :: Edwin Pouncey in a review of Terry Riley's The Last Camel in Paris.
• "This confirmed to Cage that, for all its modernity, Boulez and his music, like Schoenberg, belonged to an older, stuffier European tradition." :: David Stubbs in a book review of David Nicholls' American Composers: John Cage, describing how Cage reacted to being in a restaurant when Pierre Boulez ranted about the food and service.

Wire issue #293