aworks :: "new" american classical music

listening journal 3 - cage and young, good and bad

Alexei Lubimov and Natalia Pschenitschnikova have one of the best John Cage recordings, As It Is, and I'm glad ECM is on Spotify, as I have no idea where my CD is and I've given up on MP3 files via iTunes.

Not sure if it's a new recording or just a re-packaging, but I'm also listening to John Cage's Variations IV. As always, except for his piano music from the 1940s, it's never obvious what Cage is trying to do. The sounds are interesting even if the organization still doesn't make any sense to me. The chugging and Christmas music in Excerpts - 9pm to 10pm are unpleasant. Here's the process for this work:

As in the earlier Variations pieces, the materials here are transparencies (1 sheet with 9 points and 3 small circles) and a short written instruction. All points and circles are cut up for the creation of a program; 7 points and 2 circles are needed, which are all (except for one circle, which is placed anywhere on the map) to be dropped on a map of the performance space, creating places where actions might be performed. Lines are drawn from the placed circle to the points. The second circle is only used if one of the lines intersects it (or is tangent to it). The result is a graphic representation of where sounds may occur. Cage indicates that sounds may be produced inside and outside the performance space. There are no indications of durations, dynamics, etc.

Not much of La Monte Young's music on Spotify. I have the DVD of The Well-Tuned Piano, which is the canonical work. The composer's work on Spotify is sparse and transposed music for guitar is not as satisfying. The Ambient Century playlist has four tracks, including one from Noël Akchoté (who records more diverse music than any other guitarist in the world).

listening journal 2 #hurricane #demos #devil #songsters #texture

Aaron Copland's The Second Hurricane is a "children's opera" but I find I enjoy it. And Bernstein's narration is in some way reassuring ("I know I have.")

Miklós Rózsa wrote the score for 1959's The World, the Flesh and the Devil. The movie tells the story of the few remaining survivors in a post-apocalyptic Manhattan. There are many shots of empty streets and buildings and the music is sparse and unmemorable. Not on Spotify.

From my wife's CD collection, I listened to PJ Harvey's 4-Track Demos on my commute. Fierce, intense, crude and passionate, the music makes the recent Liz Phair demo release sound mellow in comparison.

Although I hated banjo from the days of the idiotic Hee Haw TV show, I'm beginning to come around, starting when I heard and watched a musician play the instrument on Haight Street. If I come to the music with the notion that the sound is percussive and even minimalistic, it sounds better. 32 tracks from Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia is good, if a bit too much. Spotify's The Pulse of Drone Folk is also good, but not particularly drone-ish. 

I marked seven tracks from this week's Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. The artists were Aukai, Dictaphone, Don Cherry, Kikagaku Moyo, Linda Smith, Mount Kimbie and Mark Pritchard. All new to me except Don Cherry. Somewhat dark playlist with varying texture and beat and no classical.

listening journal #1

I'm finishing Sonic Youth's SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century, with Burdocks by Christian Wolff, the rough-hewn Piano Piece #13 by George Maciunas and Pièce enfantine by Nicolas Slonimsky. Maciunas was Lithuanian American and a founder of Fluxus. This is as good a modern avant-garde album as there is although I'm skipping the Cornelius Cardew piece tonight. I sometimes think about saying goodbye to the 20th century and focusing my listening on the last 2 decades of American classical music. But not yet.

I don't know the backstory of The Wellwater Conspiracy. I'm listening to Sleveless and Shel Talmy from their Declaration of Conformity from 1997. There's also an early Pink Floyd cover, Lucy Leave, which may be better than the original.