aworks :: "new" american classical music

Mouseketier Praxis (2003). Mark Applebaum

I'm listening to more of Mark Applebaum, the Stanford composer/performer/educator. Mouseketier Praxis sounds like Brian Eno meets Jurassic Park remixed as dark ambient.  A second listen confirms. This is one of his pieces where he builds an electronic sound-sculpture out of spare parts and junk and plays it with chopsticks, violin bow, etc. It sounds far better than you might think, maybe because of the pulse and liveliness of what is essentially percussion.

Pre-Composition (2002). Mark Applebaum

Mark Applebaum's Pre-Composition consists of Mark and his inner voices as they discuss, debate, criticize and sing parts of a new electronic piece he is writing.  The cast includes stupid idea guy, diplomatic guy, intellectual guy, technical guy, "Mr. Spiritual" and others; he/they engage in creative dialogue while working through the composition.

...
"Well, I'm sure if Mozart were alive today, he woud know how many samples his piece of music was, that's all I'm saying."
"That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard."
"I'm sure you are both right."
"I'm sure you are both idiots."
...
"What kind of bandwidth would the hamster have?"
...
"I think we should all join hands."
...
"Build a dry-ice to MIDI conversion but one with, you know, solenoids."
...
"Just because it's an overused gesture, I don't think that  necessarily makes it a cliche."
...
"Or a theremin with a flanger."
...

This is an extremely funny piece that effectively illuminates the composer's creative process, albeit in a facetious way.  The real Mark Applebaum does admit to a "council of elders" advising him on his composing.  The composer comments:

The sounds are simply unprocessed vocal sounds, moving from meta-musical narration to absolute musical expression.

---

• Mark Applebaum is an assistant professor at Stanford.    Apparently, Applebaum just performed two piano works by Tom Johnson at Stanford Memorial Church.  Composer website.
  
• Disclaimer 1: The piece is on his CD Intellectual Property™. I couldn't find a stream or MP3 of the piece but it's for sale at  Downtown Music Gallery.
  
• Disclaimer 2: I was the guy on Caltrain today broadly smirking as he listened to his iPod.
  
• Disclaimer 3: Laura and my father-in-law are both Stanford grads, despite Palo Alto CD shopping being inferior to that in Berkeley, Westwood, West Lafayette, Bloomington, Ann Arbor, Norman, Austin, Princeton, Cambridge MA, etc.  On the other hand, I was enticed last year to attend Stanford's homecoming reunion because the composer gave a lecture "Musical Schizophrenia: Art vs. Pop."
  
• Disclaimer 4: I just got the joke that he trademarked the phrase "intellectual property."
  

Mark Applebaum (1967-)

1. Pre-Composition
2. Mouseketier Praxis
3. Ferneyhough Remix
4. Intellectual Property
5. Plundergraphic

• Scipio Wakes Up

• Composer website.