aworks :: "new" american classical music

aworks top ten "new" tracks :: #2 /the man i love/

My second top ten track list, where I don't repeat classical composers and jazz musicians from the prior list:

• Still Lives II. Hammock. Alvin Lucier
• Miserere Mei. Nico Muhly
• Love in Vain. Madeleine Peyroux. Cover of the Robert Johnson/Rolling Stones song.
• Ouverture / Xanadu. Bernard Herrmann. Piano rendition by Stephan Oliva.
• The Man I Love. Coleman Hawkins
• Between B & C. Kieran Hebdan and Steve Reid. The late Steve Reid was a jazz drummer, playing here with the Four Tet electronica guy.
• Episode. Aaron Copland. Hmm, is there other Copland organ music?
• Cathedral Et Chartes II. Jack Rose. From a tribute album for the folk guitarist Peter Walker.
• Listen Here. Eddie Harris. From the great jazz collection Hommage á Nesuhi.
• Wir Weben for String Sextet: II. Die Weber. Martin Bresnick

Previously: #MonkKirchnerColemanHamiltonFaheyCageGlassSharrockRzewskiAdams

#LucierMuhlyPeyrouxHerrmannHawkinsReidCoplandWalkerHarrisBresnick

aworks top ten "new" tracks :: #1 /the heartbreak of the best-seller list/

Michael Dirda bemoans the tyranny of the book best-seller list:

Is nothing to be done? As it happens, I do have a solution to the heartbreak of the best-seller list. It’s really quite simple and doesn’t involve changing how the list is reported or structured. All we need do to enrich our American culture and literature is adopt this rule: A writer can only be on the best-seller list once.

In my own little corner of the world, I sort of have this same problem. Is it really necessary that I keep listening to the same composers e.g. Glass, Cage, and Kirchner? To mildly remedy this, I've decided to start periodic playlists that adhere to the following rules for each selected track:

• available on rdio (or whatever streaming web service is still available at the time of post)
• something I've recently listened to and particularly liked
• by a composer who hasn't been on prior "new" tracks lists

These constraints may pose some interesting challenges i.e. by the time I'm on the 47th list, I'll be forced to consider the merits of the various works of Wallingford Riegger. We'll see how this goes...

#MonkKirchnerColemanHamiltonFaheyCageGlassSharrockRzewskiAdams