aworks :: "new" american classical music

A Milli (2008). Lil Wayne /obviously minimalist techniques/

I don't have strong opinions about the influence of John Adams on younger composers. But amidst all the noise, I found an interesting minimalism reference to hip hop:

Even mainstream hip hop hits like Lil Wayne’s A Milli (reached #6 on the charts) are clearly outer developments of obviously minimalist techniques.

A Millie - Lil Wayne - Carter III
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A Door into the Dark (2008). Missy Mazzoli /pseudo-post-pre-modernist/

Image via Wikipedia

The ensemble Victoire plays the music of MIssy Mazzoli. NPR is streaming:

Is Victoire's music post-rock, post-mimimalist or pseudo-post-pre-modernist indie-chamber-electronica? It doesn't particularly matter. It's just good music.

Creatures of Day Creatures at Night (). Peaking Lights

list of heavy metal genres via Wikipedia

Continuing my exploration of web music players, now it's shuffler.fm. The site provides a slick interface for playing MP3s from music blogs, with each station organized by last.fm tag. Genres include indie, electronic, remix, alt-country, jazz, swedish, 60s, seen live, emo etc. Of course, no classical. And from the site, no heavy metal either:

Where is the Heavy Metal channel? The blogs that we track don't talk too much about about Heavy Metal apparently. We only show the 50 more blogged genres. If you know of a good Heavy Metal blog, please tip us! But if you are a hak3r you can find out a way by looking at the urls of the channels on the home...

I'm listening to the drone channel which is playing a track from the dublab blog. 

And as sugggested here's the hacked classical channel.

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update: ...and a shuffler link for minimalism.

Irish Jig (1925). Henry Cowell /music on the tv/

Image via CrunchBase

I'm playing with the new MOG app on the Roku box connected to my TV and stereo. After the death of lala, I've subscribed to both rdio and MOG. A plus for MOG that they now have a Roku app.

To start, I tried the "play music similar to" Peter Garland. First up was Cowell's Irish Jig for piano. I hadn't connected those two composers before but that makes sense.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Summary Box: MOG, Rdio enter mobile music field (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

You Noticed (2010). Nels Cline

Image by michaelz1 via Flickr

NPR has the Nels Cline Singers playing in the NPR office, including Scott Amendola on drums. Crowded, restrained jazz but no actual singing, of course...

Escalator over the Hill (1968-71). Carla Bley

This MetaFilter post finally got me to seek out Carla Bley's Escalator over the Hill. I had first heard of this album 30+ years ago, so I suppose it was time to actually listen to it...

...and it is nothing like I expected. Instead of being some austere, sophisticated, aloof jazz, it's a amalgam of various musical genres -- a bit of a mess so far. One commenter called it:

It sounds like the ghosts of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits are fighting for control of Kenny G's body.

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mog: escalator over the hill

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unknown work (post 1950s). John Cage

John Adams blogs about a visit with John Cage to the Soviet Union, including a local performance of a Cage work:

...Rendered by this ensemble on a violin, clarinet, trumpet, cello and double bass, and without the charm of Cage’s typically unconventional sound sources such as prepared piano, toy instruments, kitchen appliances or electronic circuitry, the piece sounded dishearteningly drab. I thought of Cornelius Cardew’s savage attack on Cage in the essay “Stockhausen Serves Imperialism,” a twisted, hurtful condemnation of what this Maoist convert felt was the vacuous uselessness of Cage’s chance-controlled aesthetic. I wondered in what state of mind Cage received performances such as the one we were hearing.

But the Russian players were utterly jazzed to be performing this piece for the famous composer himself, and they all but outdid each other with the antic athleticism of their playing.

String Quartet No. 1 "In Praise of Poor Scholars" (1986). Peter Garland

The late Lou Harrison on this piece:

Peter's quartet [No. 1] is the most beautiful thing since Corelli.

That may be hyperbolic as it isn't even Garland's most beautiful piece. But after last night's explosion on the peninsula, some calm and lean sounds are welcome.

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david garland "a" works: matachin dances | string quartet no. 1

awork listening log :: fake plastic robots

Cover of The Day the Earth Stood Still

a

• Fake Plastic Trees. Radiohead

b

• Tango. Tom Johnson. Steffen Schleiermacher
• Fünfe Kleine Klavierstücke. Lainie Fefferman
• Prayer of Saint Gregory. Alan Hovhaness. Benny Wiame, Rudolf Werthen/The Orchestra of Flanders
• Peaches En Regalia. Frank Zappa. Ensemble Modern
• The Day the Earth Stood Still Suite. Bernard Herrmann. The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra -  Nic Raine
• Satyagraha (Act 3, Conclusion). Philip Glass. Bruce Brubaker

c

• String Quartet "Birds". Elliott Cole. Enso Quartet
• Georgia On My Mind. Bix Beiderbecke & Paul Whiteman And His Orchestra
• Pour Caitlin et Katherine. Tristan Perich

d

• Gangster Of Love. Steve Miller Band
• Informal Hillbilly Jive. Henry Flynt

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The Henry Flynt sounds like he is bowing with a rusty nail.

Partita for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano (1935). David Diamond /in the pages of modern music/

Image via Wikipedia

I keep trying to listen to the music of the late David Diamond. I want to like it but for whatever reason, I'm not getting much out of the experience. Too conservatively modern, I guess...

DRAM:

“My Partita for oboe, bassoon, and piano,” writes the composer, “was composed in 1935 and received its first performance at a league of Composers concert on March 29^th, 1936. It was among the first of my chamber-music works heard in New York, and was highly praised by Aaron Copland and Roger Sessions in the pages of Modern Music. In three tightly-organized movements, it can be considered in sonatina form.”

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rdio: David Diamond Chamber Music - The Chicago Chamber Musicians