aworks :: "new" american classical music

Live on Rare Frequency (2008). Keith Fullerton Whitman

I've listened to two things lately that may indicate a change in my listening:

1. After listening to John Coltrane heavily in my youth, then not at all for twenty years, and returning to listen again for the last five years, I may be headed back into Coltrane dormancy. I'm finding his insistent tone on the sax mildly annoying. The clue to pay attention to this showed up when I heard the Nels Cline guitar version of Saturn from Coltrane's Interstellar Space and I greatly preferred it to the original.
2. The other track that is starting to warp my ears in a different direction is Phog Masheen's Survey of Brutality from a Wired Magazine insert CD. Stimulating if not exactly pleasant, it sounds fresh to my ears.

Other listening tonight that sounds new (rather than "new" -- it's not like I reverted to Brahms or something) include Jonny Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver and an in studio performance by Keith Fullerton Whitman.

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keith fullerton whitman: rare frequency podcast
jonny greenwood: popcorn superhet receiver
john coltrane: interstellar space
nels cline & gregg bendian: interstellar space: the music of john coltrane
phog masheen: live @ koos art center - warning: short but noisy youtube video

Shaker Loops (1978). John Adams /!/

Early news of a Wordless Music concert in SF at the Herbst Theatre August 21:

The Magik*Magik Orchestra
Benjamin Shwartz, Conductor
Joan Jeanrenaud, Cello
Gloria Justen, Violin
William Winant, Percussion

Arvo Pärt: Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Fred Frith: Save As
John Adams: Shaker Loops
Mason Bates: Icarian Rhapsody
Jonny Greenwood: Popcorn Superhet Receiver

Let's see, Jeanrenaud and Winant have been long-time contemporary music favorites, Save As is a great title, and Mason Bates is getting the compositional buzz lately as well as the fact that Cantus and Shaker Loops are my favorite works by Pärt and Adams, respectively. Plus a piece by Radiohead's master guitarist.

!

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wnyc: prior wordless music concert with stream of popcorn superhet receiver
sonicliving: sf concert announcement

Ionisation (1929-31). Edgard Varèse /frank's influences/

Via Kill Ugly Radio, it's a sneak peak of the tracks on an upcoming release of Frank Zappa's Jukebox. What other album includes music by Varèse, Webern and Stravinsky as well as Cecil Taylor, Howlin' Wolf, Eric Dolphy and Little Richard, among others?

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amazon

aworks ordered cloud :: last 500 tracks

Via a meme from MMmusing, here's a word cloud of the last 500 tracks I've played. Double click to see a larger version. Have I really listened to so much John Cage lately?

links for 2008-07-28

• My Fickle Ears Dig It: Zander @ TED
  "if one's favorite music is not very popular, giving a lecture about why it is so great is neither an effective nor a valid way of attempting to improve its standing."
• Benjamin Zander on music and passion | Video on TED.com
• Benjamin Zander - Conductor, Teacher, Speaker, The Art Of Possibility
  This website is almost overwhelming in its presentation.
• Benjamin Zander - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  "When he was nine, Benjamin Britten took an interest in his development and invited the family to spend three summers in Aldeburgh with him."
• Amazon.com: The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life: Rosamund Stone Zander, Benjamin Zander: Books
• Benjamin Zander on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
  Photo by tech blogger Roberto Scoble, from Davos.
• oboeinsight » Blog Archive » Benjamin Zander
  Patty already found the video.

Eight Pieces for Four Timpani (1950). Elliott Carter

Chamber Music Today has more than maybe you need to know about the timpani, including a list of over fifty works for the instrument. I wasn't aware of Carter's timpani pieces:

VI. Canto (1966) – Jan Williams – Uses pedal tuned timpani played by snare drum sticks in a line that slides from one pitch to another.

links for 2008-07-13

• Silliman's Blog
  "this is my 2,000th post to the blog, and I’m feeling feisty. The history of poetry, like the history of any art form, is not a procession of its “best works.” Indeed, the well-wrought urn is, if anything, the deservedly forgotten one"
• SaxNewWorks » Saxophone Quartet (SATB)
  List of pieces for Saxophone Quartet

links for 2008-07-12

• The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - Mental Health Break
  I love the painting. The video not so much.
• Create Digital Music » iTunes App Store is Here, But Early Music Entries May Disappoint
  "So, after all these years, are we still struggling to catch up to late 90s Palm apps? Really?" My take also. The only one of note was Pandora.
• Circus Acts: Last.fm Will Pay You Royalites Once You Jump Through This Flaming Hoop
  "as long as you can get in touch with that girl who played harp on your track a few years ago and the engineer who you put down as the producer who left town last year,...and you wrote the song entirely by yourself, everything should be fine"
• Internet Archive: Details: Morning Concert: Carl Stone and Nicolas Slonimsky
  Charles Amirrkhanian gets Carl Stone to describe the fair use law in 1987 and what would happen if the composer made an enormous profit on one of his pieces. + Slonimsky says Varese was a mystic and uses the word "agglutination" talking about Arcana.

Appalachian Spring (1944-45). Aaron Copland /best American work?/

Conductor Kenneth Woods suggests Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring as greatest American work:

I came away from the concert more in awe of it than ever- it is so perfectly put together, so deeply moving and so ferociously challenging. America has produced a lot of great music (and Copland produced a lot of that), but Appalachian Spring may be the great work of American music.

Maybe, although Our Town and Four Piano Blues are probably my favorite Copland compositions. And I am still fond for the piano version of El Salon Mexico.

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aworks: rob kapilow on appalachian spring el salon mexico

links for 2008-07-11

• 13: THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD - Bernard Herrmann - "Theme & Fight Scenes" (1958)
  'So without further delay, here's the jackhammer theme from "The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad"' No idea why I'm so interested in BH lately...
• Neuromarketing » The Power of “New”
  "Neuroscientists have now determined that the appeal of “new” is hard-wired into our brains."