aworks :: "new" american classical music

Grandpa's Spells (1923). Jelly Roll Morton /random 25 tracks/

Image via Wikipedia

Steven Rubio has a random 25 track list on Facebook. Here's mine:

1. M-Bike. PJ Harvey
2. Black Cadillacs. Modest Mouse.
3. Son of a Gambolier. Charles Ives - Paul Sperry
4. Incantation & Dance. William Grant Still
5. White Witch Doctor: Talking Drums/Prelude Etc. Bernard Herrmann
6. The Mission of Virgil: IV. Paolo aand Francesca. Charles Wuorinen
7. Din Of Iniquity. Paul Dresher
8. IV. Finale, con variazioni. Largamente. Henri Dutilleux
9. Cleaning Apartment. Clint Mansell
10. Miss Being Mrs. Loretta Lynn
11. Transient: Slow. The Nonesuch Guide To Electronic Music
12. Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing. Sufjan Stevens
13. Love Samba. McCoy Tyner
14. Grandpa's Spells. Jelly Roll Morton
15. Loose Change. Joe Henderson
16. Cosmic Tomes For Sleep Walking Lovers - Part I. Rob Mazurek
17. Broken Circles Live. Ars Nova Ensemble Instrumental & Franck Vigroux
18. Danger to Self. Dr. Kevin Keough
19. All Of The Law. The Psychedelic Furs
20. Pleasant Valley Sunday. The Monkees
21. Too Much. Elvis Presley
22. Urbia. Kissinger
23. F.R.C. Clarke - Three Shakespearean Miniatures
24. Dihy. Henry Kaiser and David Lindley et al
25. Hiya Ansadou. Khaled

I admit I don't remember why I have a track by a band named Kissinger. And that Loretta Lynn album with Jack White may be the best music of any on this list.

Dystopia Suite (2009). Nicole Lizée /via soundcloud/

The Ecstatic Music Festival is in January at Merkin Concert Hall. In a nice touch, the website has an embeddable soundcloud playlist:

Ecstatic Music Festival by merkinconcerthall

For the record, Nicole Lizée is Canadian and creative:

Along with turntables, she has written for other unorthodox instrument combinations that include the Atari 2600 video game console, Simon and Merlin hand held games, and karaoke tapes.

Related articles

• Seeing the operation of code in Atari 2600 games (adafruit.com)
• Darcy James Argue To Collaborate With Newspeak, Vijay Iyer, Nicole Lizée And David T. Little At Ecstatic Music Festival (improvisedcommunications.com)
• Distellamap: Visualization of Atari 2600 Code and Data (benfry.com)

Chants Music (). William Bradbury /endlessly circling dancing/

random image by Dean McCoy Photography via Flickr

Some interesting piano music by William Bradbury, as played by Peter Gach on his Fresh Piano recording of Southern Californian composers.  Bradbury:

As with other pieces in the Chants Music set, the work is inspired by global ecstatic traditions, in this case, the dancing of whirling Dervishes. For me, the rhythmic ostinato in the left hand represents the endlessly circling dancing of this tradition. 

Figments and Fragments (2010). Lawrence Dillon /a strange synthesis/

A pondering Schumann via Wikipedia

Composer and blogger Lawrence Dillon admits he talks about form too much:

The form of Figments and Fragments is a case in point.  It takes the sequential processes found in early Schumann – collections of character pieces – and gradually expands the cracks between the pieces into an increasingly hectic and disturbed narrative.  In other words, the form of the piece is a strange synthesis of organic and sequential principles.

I know, I know: zzzzzzzzz.  Have a nice nap.

Figments and Fragments is part of his Schumann Trilogy.

Clarinet Sonata (1941-42). Leonard Bernstein /e-music churn/

Leonard Bernstein anguishes over e-music 

I'm listening to Bernstein's Clarinet Sonata on naxos.com. 

I had struggles with naxos.com last night after paying $19.95 a year for basic streaming. For some reason, I couldn't actually play any tracks after logging in. I also found the site surprisingly slow. Today, I can at least play tracks although twice I've had internal web sql errors browsing to the basic composers page. There's also no way I can see to actually cue up music i.e. I have to click play for each track I want to hear when I am ready to hear it.

Unfortunately, the 48kbps sound is grating, even by my somewhat low audiophile standards (MP3s, computer speakers, bluetooth, iPod etc.). 

I also used my San Jose library card to try Overdrive. This is a feature that lets you check out Windows Media format recordings for three weeks. The DRM is clunky; as far as I can tell, you can only play the music with the Overdrive player on a PC and only on an entire album basis rather than track by track. So now I have three Naxos albums for the next three weeks.

The library also offers freegal, which allows three unrestricted MP3 downloads a week. I've downloaded once; not sure it will be worth the trouble, though

The San Jose library has a new website, by the way. 

I was spoiled by the user experience, social features and catalog of lala. Rdio is not as good on any of those dimensions especially the ability to find classical music and classical music listeners but the site is slick enough that I plan to keep paying for it. Mog had a better catalog but was less appealing to use and so I just cancelled my web subscription to that service. So my streaming churn continues...

 Update: This just occurred to me. Unlike last.fm, lala, and Rdio, naxos.com doesn't "scrobble" to last.fm. It's not that I enjoy pointing out all the problems with a budget label's website; it's just that I feel the need to rationalize why I shouldn't just get the full-bore Naxos library subscription with better fidelity for several hundred dollars...

Related articles

• Catching Up With Leonard Bernstein (online.wsj.com)
• The Porous Bernstein Border (nytimes.com)
• Leonard Bernstein's Dark Side: 'A Quiet Place' Revived After Three Decades of Neglect (observer.com)

Dream (1948). John Cage /compelling and static/

I'm on the Kyle Gann side of the argument rather than the John Adams side: that John Cage's music does make for good listenin'...

Mishima (1984). Philip Glass /your darkness may vary/

Someone on ask.metafilter is looking for "dark" music and as one of the examples, mentions Philip Glass' Mishima. His music can be many things (especially since he so prolific), but for me anyway, it's not really dark. Maybe somber, in this case. Your darkness may vary:

Note also, the music for the film was recycled into his String Quartet No. 3.

Related articles

• Philip Glass: I'm drawn to Kafka's darkness (telegraph.co.uk)
• In the Penal Colony | Opera review (guardian.co.uk)
• Glass: Orphée (guardian.co.uk)

aworks five-star links, tracks, and questions :: november 13, 2010

Jackson image via Wikipedia

• The Albongo (1933). John J. Becker. Raymond DesRoches. Early and loud percussion work.
• Un grand sommeil noir (1906). Edgard Varèse. Mireille Delunsch. I don't know what to make out of the fact that my favorite Varèse work is the only conservative piece still in existence.
• 3 Hommages (pno)/3: à Ravel (1972). Robert Helps.
  
• Hey Boy, Hey Girl (1999). Chemical Brothers. "Here we go..."

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• Forensic musicology and Michael Jackson. slate
• "Kronos remembers Gorecki." File Under ?
• Hard to follow Anthony Braxton recording from 1986, Five Compositions. Music Arcades
• Cindy McCain is a puzzle to me as well. Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Amoeba 20th anniversay celebration tomorrow. Facebook

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• why do i find that photo of michael jackson sad? 
• do facebook links actually work outside facebook? 
• am i going to get back in the habit of linking to blogs and not just reading them?

2x5 (2009). Steve Reich /endless possibilities/

Doug Lausten's remix...

2x5 (2009). Steve Reich /more remix/

After Steve Layton's remix of the new Reich work, today it's Evan Kuchar's:

Related articles

• two recent works by steve reich (netnewmusic.net)
• Remix Contest for Steve Reich's 2 x 5 Begins October 12 (thecontrapuntist.com)
• Steve Reich: Double Sextet; 2x5 | CD review (guardian.co.uk)