aworks :: "new" american classical music

aworks listening log :: recordings of the week #sonoluminus

• Modern Mandolin Quartet. Americana (Sono Luminus). "The Modern Mandolin Quartet returns after an extended recording absence with their strongest and most impressive release to date"
• Moon Duo. Circles (Sacred Bones Records). "8/10 Space rock is a crowded constellation these days" NME
• John Fahey. Christmas Album (Burnside). We just celebrated Christmas tonight in Menlo Park with revered and traditional music, for this family anyway.  
• Julia Holter. Ekstasis (Domino) "strays towards pop on occasion (In the Same Room, notably), but it's the cerebral, detached pop of Laurie Anderson or, at a pinch, latterday Japan" Guardian. I think I found this by stalking Christian Carey on Spotify.
• Four Tet. Pink (Text Records). "Four Tet is capable of going deeper and expanding higher than almost anyone else out there" Pitchfork
• eighth blackbird. meanwhile. (Cedille Records). 'Excerpts from rehearsals of Stephen Hartke's "Meanwhile" with three amazing students from the Colburn School of Music, Los Angeles' YouTube
• Los Angeles Percussion Quartet. Rupa-khandha. (Sono Luminus). Best new music of the week.
• Jeremy Limb. The Piano Music of Philip Glass (First Creative). So far, I love and hate his interpretations.
• Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Paraiso UFO. Son of a Bitches Brew (Important). "they never get so referential as to become a pastiche band" (Dusted Magazine). WTF of the week.
• ALIAS Chamber Ensemble. Boiling Point: Music of Kenji Bunch (Delos).  'Bunch explains. “These are the works that have led me to define my approach as a composer of what I like to call New American music' NewMusicBox

label scoreboard

 

1. Naxos (4)
2. Sono Luminus (2)
3. Cedille Records (2)
4. Orange Mountain Music (2)
5. EMI Classics (2)
6. Arabesque (2)
7. Sacred Bones Records
8. Burnside
9. Domino
10. Text Records

 

 

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String Quartet No. 3 (1985). Philip Glass #americana

I'm enjoying the Modern Mandolin Quartet playing Philip Glass' String Quartet No. 3 (Spotify). Alternate instrumentation can be hit or miss, but mandolin is amenably minimalistic. 

aworks listening log :: recordings of the week #foyle's #nonextraneous #zygotones

• Jim Parker. Foyle's War (Harkit Records)
• Daphni. Jiaolong (Merge Records)
• Ljova. Vjola: World of Four Strings (Kapustnik Records) twitter
• David Greilsammer. Baroque Conversations (Sony Classical)
• Asian Music for String Quartet (Naxos)
• Mariel Roberts. Nonextraneous Sounds (Innova)
• Music of Barbara Kolb (Composers Recordings)
• Joan La Barbara. Singing Through (New Albion)
• Loretta Goldberg. Zygotones: Contemporary American Works For Piano, Yamaha Disklavier And Sampler (Centaur)
• Bruce Brubaker. Time Curve: Music for Piano by Philip Glass and William Duckworth (Arabesque)

Label tally so far:

1. Naxos (4)
2. Orange Mountain Music (2)
3. EMI Classics (2)
4. Arabesque (2)
5. Harkit Records
6. Merge Records
7. Kapustnik Records
8. Sony Classical
9. Innova
10. Composers Recordings

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Shaker Loops (1978). John Adams #q2 #poll #topfive

Q2 is asking for your five favorite compositions written since 1913. Off the top of my head, here's mine:

• Shaker Loops. John Adams
• Music in Twelve Parts. Philip Glass
• Different Trains. Steve Reich
• Turtle Dreams. Meredith Monk
• Symphony No. 3. Roy Harris

 

Hallelujah Junction (1996). John Adams #entertainment #breathlessencomium

America's most popular living classical composer makes an interesting comment in a New York Times book review of Camille Paglia:

The achievement of [George] Lucas, like that of Disney, is indisputably a defining element of American culture. But no amount of apotheosis and breathless encomium will elevate it to be other than exactly what it is — entertainment. To see George Lucas as the “greatest living artist” is to repeat an error especially common among Americans, which is to measure an artwork’s importance by its reach rather than its depth. Paglia, who knows her Emily Dickinson and her Kafka (both artists with zero “fan base” in their lifetimes), has journeyed to the wrong continent, and what she has found glittering there is fool’s gold.

Ok, having quoted that, America's most popular living classical composer may instead be John Williams. 
The greatest works of John Adams are without argument better than those of John Williams (Nixon in China vs. Star Wars!). But in the second tier where reach and depth get murky, Williams' works will outlast Adams'. 

This is a long, roundabout way of saying Hallelujah Junction won't be part of the American canon and John Williams is better than George Lucas. H.J., the book is recommended, though.

I have no opinion to offer on Camille Paglia, which is probably her worst nightmare.

 

aworks listening log :: recordings of the week #eastmeetsmothertongue

1. Massimo Mercelli And I Virtuosi Italiani Perform Philip Glass (Orange Mountain Music)
2. East Meets West. Jun Quan, Kent McWilliams.(Albany Records)
3. Capstone Collection: Music For Piano. Phillip Schroeder - Jeri-Mae G. Astolfi (Capstone Records)
4. Time Curve: Music for Piano by Philip Glass and William Duckworth. Bruce Brubaker (Arabesque Recordings)
5. The Guga Hunters of Ness. Dead Rat Orchestra (Critical Heights)
6. Die Entdeckung der Elektrizität. Now!-Ensemble (Sona Records)
7. Asian Music for String Quartet (Naxos)
8. Mothertongue. Nico Muhly (Brassland)
9. The American Trumpet - Eylar: Dance Suite; Carbon: Notturno; Mckinley: Miniature Portraits. Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz (Naxos)
10. Feels Like Rain. Buddy Guy (Silvertone)

As always, warning: numbers 5 and 10 aren't remotely classical music and purists will make that same claim about 1, 4 and 8. The label tally including last week's post:

1. Naxos (3)
2. Orange Mountain Music (2)
3. EMI Classics (2)
4. Albany Records
5. Capstone Records
6. Arabesque Records
7. Critical Heights
8. Sona Records
9. Brassland
10. Silvertone
11. Kanine Records
12. Cedille
13. Rocket Recordings
14. Cantaloupe Music
15. Cold Blue Music
16. concertartistsguild

aworks listening log :: recordings of the week

As always, I'm tinkering with how I listen to the deluge of available recordings and then how I log it. My current point of view is that the music world still revolves around record labels, so I plan to pay more attention to that dimension (not that I don't believe in works, composers, artists, journalists, blogs, playlists, twitter, YouTube, archaic round disks etc).

This week's iteration:

1. Royal Baths - Better Luck Next Life (Kanine Records)
2. Jennifer Koh - Bach and Beyond, Part I (Cedille)
3. Goat - World Music (Rocket Recordings)
4. David Lang - The Passing Measures (Cantaloupe Music)
5. 100 Best American Classics (EMI Classics)
6. Cold Blue Two (Cold Blue Music)
7. Svet Stoyanov - Percussive Counterpoint (concertartistsguild)
8. Massimo Mercelli And I Virtuosi Italiani Perform Philip Glass (Orange Mountain Music)
9. Nathan Gunn, Kevin Murphy -  "American Anthem" - From Ragtime to Artsong (EMI Classics)
10. Asian Music for String Quartet (Naxos)

Note: items 1 and 3 bear no relation to classical music. listen at your own risk (or pleasure).

And my best of November playlist on rdio (same warning may apply):