aworks :: "new" american classical music

links etc. :: january 30, 2008 /the real world/

Image via Wikipedia

Which is to say, it's a safe bet that Mehserle did not intend to kill Grant and that he felt remorse after doing so, hence a tragedy for everyone involved (sfist). May be true but I wouldn't yet call it a "safe bet."

For them, 21st-century music will likely come from where they least expect it. From somewhere out there in the noises of the world. (Sonatas and Interludes)

Frozen Speak - Andrew Deutsch (lala). Most interesting contemporary work I've heard on lala this week.

A bizarre cast of characters, including the centaur Chiron from Greek mythology, a pair of Siamese twins, a slave, a maestro, a virtuoso castrato, and Napoleon cavort for nearly two hours presenting snippets of historical narrative from this lengthy history, not so much acting out events, but relating them through a series of farcical interactions that include singing, dancing, throwing sand, and horrid costumes like something out of a John Copley-directed operatic nightmare. (Out West Arts)

(a) Zeppelin in the Bay Area (Horizontal Rain). Best photos yet. Multiple times, I've wanted to pull off the road and just watch. Tickets for an hour are ~$500.

Dude and kid go without "electronic technology" for 24 hours (Peter Rukavina - PDF)

Not to snark, but musicals don't count as part of the western classical cannon. That having been said, all I have at the moment is Mahler 1. (AskMetaFilter). aworks operational note :: musicals *do* count as part of the American classical canon. The MeFite goes on to redeem him/herself by suggesting Schnittke.    

Women's Prison - Loretta Lynn (lala). As always from the streaming service, no liner notes but I surmise this is a track from a Jack White-produced Loretta Lynn album. Electric guitar, organ and Loretta -- powerful. Roger Bourland confirms the White Stripes connection and has the video. I listen to a lot of music and am somewhat jaded but the song bowls me over.

I can hear the warden coming
From the clinging of the keys
...
Now they've strapped me in the chair
And covered up my eyes
...

Walking Distance (1959). Bernard Herrmann /michigan via the twilight zone/

Image via Wikipedia

Terry Teachout finds a 1959 Twilight Zone episode with a Bernard Herrmann soundtrack.

Wikipedia: Originally aired on October 30, 1959, it was the most personal story Serling ever wrote, and easily the most sensitive dramatic fantasy in the history of television. 

The young Ron Howard happens to make an appearance. And from the closing episode narration:

Martin Sloan, age thirty-six, vice-president in charge of media. Successful in most things but not in the one effort that all men try at some time in their lives—trying to go home again...

Although I was alive when this episode aired, I don't remember the first time I saw Twilight Zone, although I know the house in Michigan we lived in at the time.

This reminds me; I've become increasingly nostalgic for that state. The latest symptoms include being interested in a strange photo blog that specializes in the decaying city of Detroit, following a blog that snarkily documents the the downfall of the US auto industry, appreciating Dragoncave's Ann Arbor memories post and shivering at the AskMetaFilter advice for a Californian moving to Wisconsin (ok, it's not Michigan per se but the advice on winter driving and layering would apply even if the cheese curd recommendations don't).

Ok, back to reality. The local eight-year-old wants to read her new MadLibs to me and I also have a 6am conference call tomorrow with our Russian software developers. Still, Herrmann's score is better than I first thought...

The First Emperor (2008). Tan Dun /on the worst list/

Summer Is Coming In (Sumer Is Icumen In) has an interesting list of best and worst from last year.  Doctor Atomic, Nico Muhly etc. are best.  Music@Menlo, The Magik*Magik Orchestra, The First Emperor etc. are worst.

aworks listening log :: jimmy smith

Cover of Back at the Chicken Shack

1. Back at the Chicken Shack (lala). Jimmy Smith was a superbly talented jazz organist. I was too young to have seen John Coltrane before he died but I do regret never seeing Smith play. With the bounty of music on lala, I find myself veering towards his music (as well as the organ music of Bach).
2. The Cat (lala). The brass is over-bearing and I don't think of cats as being this joyous, but still, this is a great track.
3. When Johnny Comes Marching Home (lala). The crisp, military-style snare drumming manages to fit into this context.
4. See See Rider (lala). This being lala and so no liner notes, it's not obvious who is on tasteful guitar; probably Kenny Burrell.
5. The Jumpin' Blues (lala). Such clear lines from all the soloists.
6. Funjii Mama (lala). The melody is a little too cute.
7. Time after Time (imeem). This is the most played Jimmy Smith track on imeem. Unfortunately, imeem's clutter makes it difficult to figure out what album this on and therefore, who is the saxophonist. Smith is really just a sideman on this track.

aworks links etc. :: january 25, 2009 /collecting/

Cover of Trout Mask Replica

I collect books. I have over 180 different editions of Don Quixote, covering 17th-20th century. Safely in storage. Along with around 36,000 others. Ran out of money to build my library. One day…. (confused of calcutta). Impressive. He also admits why both he and Dick Cheney are lucky.    

Robert Gable Political Campaign Contributions 2008 Election Cycle (campaignmoney.com). For the record, this is not me.

Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica is apparently in the White House Record Library. Rolling Stone says Reagan had the collection moved to the basement. (The Captain Beefheart Radio Station).

Dumbarton Oaks (1937-38). Igor Stravinsky /tepidity?/

Image via WikipediaAfter immersing myself several years ago in American classical music of the 1920s, I ended up like the later Americana phase of Aaron Copland more than I would have ever thought. Something about how modernism was later put to use for social purposes, albeit in a constrained manner. Although I suppose cynics would say that Copland himself was a cynic or at best an opportunist.

On the other hand, I just don't like the modernism of Igor Stravinsky. I've listened to a fair amount of his music and I can't find anything I really want to hear again. Just to clarify my modernist credentials, that's less true for me with Schoenberg and certainly not true with Webern.

So one pertinent sentence from Out West Arts on an LA Philharmonic concert caught my attention:

The show also featured Stravinsky’s “Dumbarton Oaks” concerto, a bit of tepid Americana à la Copland that didn’t help matters either.

Since I haven't heard this in years, I quickly found a Stravinsky-conducted version on lala:

Stravinsky & Prokofiev Conduct...

And my take? Tepid Americana.

So it's back to Copland's El Salón México for me, via a Lalo Schifrin jazz arrangement. In particular, I like the ride cymbal although others may find the whole thing tepid:

El Salon Mexico - Lalo Schifri...

Transcendental Modulations (1993). George Perle /1915-2009/

Via The Rest Is Noise, the composer George Perle has died.

Kyle Gann on the composer: Only gradually has the music world come to realize how individual his music is, what a flexible musical language he has developed, and how different that language is from serialism. Thus the 1986 Pulitzer Prize Perle received for one of the works on this record, the Wind Quintet No. 4, seemed not so much an award for an isolated achievement as an overdue tribute to someone who has upheld the highest musical standards for over a quarter-century. 

His Transcendental Modulations: “...Using a mildly astringent language reminiscent of late Stravinsky, but with heart, Mr. Perle presents a stream of subtle contrasts: assertive solo lines against sumptuous ensemble work; intricate wind figures against lush string scoring; fleeting moments of lightheartedness against a pervasively melancholy introspectiveness. Throughout, Mr. Perle speaks with an almost Neo-classical restraint. — Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, November 26, 1996

Transcendental Modulations - A...

Air and Simple Gifts (2009). John Williams /recap/

Performance Today stream. YouTube video:

pre-recording

- Itzhak and Yo-Yo Go Milli Vanilli (Gizmodo)
- I have less of a problem with the prerecording then not telling people. (Berman Post)
- almost lip-synching...Marine Band, choruses were live (Daniel Wakin)
- The synching business bugs me because President Obama has been very clear that he wants his to be as transparent an administration as possible. (Iron Tongue of Midnight)
- Apparently the same folks that ran the Beijing Olympics were running the inauguration... (Dan Savage)

music

+ nice tune (Berman Post)
+ somber, elegiac tones (Daniel Wakin)
+ I've been very vulnerable to being song-virused by "Simple Gifts," also known as The Shaker Hymn (The Infamous Brad)
- dull and sad (Seri's Journal)
- also, the peroration at 3'19 is lovely and compensates for the hackneyed (and desultory) exchanges between violin and cello that infest the piece around 2'40; and why not give the pianist something interesting to play?  (Christopher  Delaurenti)
- Sounds like drunken whales singing...It's time! Swear him in already! (Myth-Jack This)
+ But the performance had an accessible, exciting power, and McGill’s clarinet interpretation of Copland’s “Simple Gifts” melody was easier to understand, and was more potent, than anything in Alexander’s poem. (Margaret Hair)
Did anyone else notice that the piece that John Williams wrote for Barack Obama's Inauguration has the same as the instrumentation as Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time? (Musical Assumptions)

composer(s)

+ So why not have John Williams pick a quintessentially American tune (thanks to Copland) to make a lighter occasional piece (Musical Perceptions)
- Regular readers are aware that I am not a fan of Copland in Americana mode, and I have heard the damn tune too many times already in Appalachian Spring.  And aren't there better American composers available than John Williams? (Iron Tongue of Midnight)
- warmed-over Copland, though Obama seems to enjoy it (LawyerWorldLand)
- Even the scoring (the clarinet introduces the tune) was unoriginal (Arthur Kaptainis)
- This composition, passed of by John Williams as original, is strikingly similar to Ben Johnston's Sting Quartet #4, 'Amazing Grace'. He basically does the same thing: takes a traditional American song and puts it in a chamber group environment and presents it several contexts. (The Yellow Board)
- I wanted to write about the John Williams commission, but it should speak for itself, another part of the deep embrace between official State pomp and the Hollywood representation of the auspicious in American today. (Renewable Music)
- John Adams, responding to the catastrophe of 9/11, wrote a masterpiece, “On the Transmigration of Souls”; Williams, responding to a request for a Presidential entr’acte from Mr. Obama, made a touching little tribute to Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.”  (Russell Platt)
+ But let's give credit to the man who actually wrote "Simple Gifts" in the 19th century, a member of the Shaker faith named Joseph Brackett.  (Minnesota Public Radio)

performance

+ Obama became president during the performance (Fox the Poet)
+ South Sider (and no doubt Sox fan) Anthony McGill on the clarinet (Kate McKinnon)
- 12:03 PM EST- Itzhak AND Yo-yo playing John Williams? It’s like the ultimate “considered sophisticated but still known to most of middle class America” supergroup! I’m expecting a nation-wide tour with Asia opening, gents. (Cracked)
+ I couldn’t help but be moved by the enormity of the situation. The free transition of power, ushered gracefully through by the masterful playing of Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Itzhak Perlman on violin, Gabriela Montero on piano and Anthony McGill on clarinet.(Listening Room)

second performance

+ The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra said it would present the work during Friday night’s regular program, which was to include Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” with Ms. Montero as soloist. She was to be joined in the Williams piece by members of the orchestra. (Daniel Wakin)
+ Violinist Andres Cardenes, cellist David Premo and clarinetist Michael Rusinek were Montero's sensitive partners last night. Montero wore a Terrible Towel when they came out for their bow.  (Mark Kanny)

Orion (2004). Philip Glass /travelogue/

Cover of Philip Glass : OrionI might not have recognized this as by Philip Glass if I didn't already know that. But it's obviously not quite traditional either.    

philipglass.com: Work by Philip Glass composed in collaboration with Ravi Shankar, Mark Atkins, Wu Man, Foday Musa Suso, Ashley MacIsaac, and Uakti.

Philip Glass: Orion - Philip G...

Update:I heard the Canada track first. Now that I'm listening to the first track, Australia, it's clearly Glass-like.

Bethena (1905). Scott Joplin /the curious case of benjamin button/

Image via Wikipedia

As played by Randy Kerber, Bethena by Scott Joplin shows up in the soundtrack for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Marc Silver: When Joplin wrote the waltz in 1905, his wife of two months had just died; Bethena may well have been her nickname. Now, more than a century later, the song is perfectly suited for the Benjamin Button movie. In spite of its age, "Bethena" sounds as fresh as it if were written just minutes ago, a tender and heartfelt remembrance of a love lost.

lala:

Bethena (A Concert Waltz) - Ra...