aworks :: "new" american classical music

Apparition (1979). George Crumb /shrinking three centuries/

George Crumb via last.fm

Christine Schäfer's New York vocal recital included the music of Henry Purcell and George Crumb.

parterre box:

If these composers share anything, it is their freedom from the rigorous classicism that informs the language of essentially all composers from 1750 to 1900. But the connection between Crumb and Purcell, it turns out, is perhaps better demonstrated than explained.

Allan Kozinn/NY Times:

Except for “Apparition” (1979), at the end of the program, the Crumb works strewn among the Purcell were student pieces from the late 1940s, written in a conservative, fetchingly melodic style that shrinks the nearly three centuries that separate these composers.

Black Angels (Images I). George Crumb /newness/

From We Are All Mozart:

• This is not a fetish for newness, in particular fashion or faddishness, but merely the sense that a fresh viewpoint illuminates the recollection of the past without the need to revisit it, particularly if that recollection is vivid and almost tangible.
• The Philips vinyl of George Crumb's Black Angels was ugly and the recording harsh.
• Rock bands and jazz musicians all practice (no matter how dissonant or confrontational) over and over again, and take risks.
• Familiarity beats newness in the comfort people seek in their daily lives, and repetition affords the ability to hear through and perform through to a new level each time.
• It's no wonder that musicians have claimed that today Mozart would be writing like Radiohead rather than Liebermann.

I've done the nostalgia trip this year with such notable artistic giants as Styx, Poco, Cream, and *egad* Journey, but have no desire to revisit anytime soon. But I haven't figured out why I've responded so much to Miles Davis in the last year, in particular Bitches Brew. Seeing A Different Kind of Blue seems to have re-triggered something in my brain, coupled with the grief from Hurricane Katrina.

By the way, Soho the Dog suggests American classical music "is America's classical music" and "jazz is jazz." For this polytheist, America's classical music is both. On the other hand, I agree the following is a fallacy:

"Nobody actually enjoys listening to atonal music—they just want other people to think they’re a pretentious intellectual."

new orleans saints on monday night football: game reality saints #9

Madrigals, Book IV (1969). George Crumb /do you know the way to santa fe?/

"Seeking" on the car radio today:

next after sting...a non-injury accident on 87...70 by the bay...sean hannity's freedom concert in new jersey...senator boxer will introduce...from the brickyard 400...futbol...here's where nick swisher needs to make contact...love shack...i get by with a little help from my friends...

After all that radio cotton candy, two surprises on San Francisco's KALW. First, from a series of broadcasts of Santa Fe Chamber Music festivals, George Crumb's Madrigals, Book IV, while unattractive, at least provides some substance. Then, on This American Life with Philip Glass' Cousin, Alex Blumberg follows the trail of that Detroit rock band who went on a tour of Michigan libraries.

other kalw shows of note: sunday 8pm - sarah cahill's then & now. friday 11pm richard friedman's music from other minds. npr: ira glass interviews philip glass
blogging from santa fe: acb joshua kosman charles t. downey sfgate: kosman's review of adès' the tempest
blogging from michigan: fred of the fredosphere john of utopianturtletop
asbury park press: crumb is a traditionalist, not an experimentalist
aworks' libraries of choice: san jose/san jose state menlo park stanford palo alto san francisco

Ancient Voices of Children (1970). George Crumb

Inspired by kottke's four things list, here are some notable American (or related) works I've never heard:

1. String Quartet in F major Op. 96 "American." Anton Dvorak.
2. Ancient Voices of Children. George Crumb.
3. Antony and Cleopatra. Samuel Barber.
4. Atlas. Meredith Monk.
5. You Are (Variations). Steve Reich.
6. Dead Man Walking. Jake Heggie.
7. Four Saints in Three Acts. Virgil Thomson.
8. Musicircus. John Cage.
9. Paul Bunyan. Benjamin Britten.
10. most of David del Tredici's Alice compositions

Voice of the Whale (1971). George Crumb

Sarah Tiedermann's post "Be the whale" lets us in on the fun and perils of rehearsing George Crumb's Voice of the Whale (aka Vox Balaenae). Amazon samples e.g. tracks 21 and 22 give some idea of the full sea and whale experience.

Black Angels (1980). George Crumb /auto-linked/

Running my previous post through Auto-Linker, some of the links are good...

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In a post yesterday, I disparaged "legacy" European music. Listening to the Kronos Quartet's Black Angels CD today makes me realize I may have been a little hasty. While Charles Ives' They Are There! is a bit of a novelty, George Crumb's Black Angels lacks the passion and intensity of the European works, particularly the moving Spem In Alium by Thomas Tallis and the bizarre (to my ears) and compelling voices of Doom a Sigh by Istvan Marta. Still, none of this counts as mainstream, be it American or European.

Checking my stats, I see that the majority of recent aworks visitors come from outside North America, with Italy being #2 overall.  And hello to Finland, Hong Kong, Brazil, and Serbia and Montenegro.

New Sounds has an archived program of the Kronos Quartet:

    ...hear the story behind Istvan Marta’s “Doom – A Sigh,” which contains field recordings of two Romanian women singing personal laments to fallen friends and family. These heart-wrenching sounds are woven into the fabric of the piece, which was written in just 3 short weeks for the quartet, after Marta burned what he had originally written for the group.

Black Angels (1970). George Crumb

In a post yesterday, I disparaged "legacy" European music. Listening to the Kronos Quartet's Black Angels CD today makes me realize I may have been a little hasty. While Charles Ives' They Are There! is a bit of a novelty, George Crumb's Black Angels lacks the passion and intensity of the European works, particularly the moving Spem In Alium by Thomas Tallis and the bizarre (to my ears) and compelling voices of Doom a Sigh by Istvan Marta. Still, none of this counts as mainstream, be it American or European.

Checking my stats, I see that the majority of recent aworks visitors come from outside North America, with Italy being #2 overall.  And hello to Finland, Hong Kong, Brazil, and Serbia and Montenegro.

New Sounds has an archived program of the Kronos Quartet:

...hear the story behind Istvan Marta’s “Doom – A Sigh,” which contains field recordings of two Romanian women singing personal laments to fallen friends and family. These heart-wrenching sounds are woven into the fabric of the piece, which was written in just 3 short weeks for the quartet, after Marta burned what he had originally written for the group.

Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik (A Little Midnight Music): Ruminations on a Tune of Thelonious Monk (2002). George Crumb

Pianist Emanuele Arciuli has commissioned classical composers to write variations on jazz musician Thelonius Monk's classic 'Round Midnight. Composers participating include Aaron Jay Kernis, Frederic Rzewski, Milton Babbitt, Augusta Read Thomas, Michael Torke, John Harbison, Michael Daugherty, William Bolcom and others. Alan Becker describes George Crumb's contribution:

...Crumb has the soloist use mallets on the soundboard, playing with the guts of his instrument as Henry Cowell loved to do, and vocalizing when it suited the composer's purpose. Into this melange was thrown quotes from Debussy's Golliwog's Cakewalk, Wagner's Tristan, and that roguish prankster Till Eulenspiegel....

I have Arcuili's Americans! XXth Century Piano Music of American Composers CD where, in the liner notes, he suggests Europeans pursue the ideal of thesis/antithesis/synthesis while "the American model is a continuum which transforms its material through a process of what is usually accumulation or addition." He also thinks American music is exciting and appeals to a broader audience, although it can be simple and naive as well.

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• Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz
• About the 'Round Midnight Variations (in Italian).
• 'Round Midnight MP3s: Miles Davis/John Coltrane, The United States Air Force Airmen of Note

A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979 (1980). George Crumb

Played in a Christmas program at Western Michigan.

The movements:

1. The Visitation
   
2. Berceuse for the Infant Jesus
   
3. The Shepherds' Noël
   
4. Adoration of the Magi
   
5. Nativity Dance
   
6. Canticle of the Holy Night
   
7. Carol of the Bells
   

James Primosch calls the piano music variously "contemplative", "surreal", "visionary", and "exuberant."

Multiple recordings exist. Amazon streams samples from the first three movements. The music sounds serious.