aworks :: "new" american classical music

albums, ranked (3/27/20)

1. Mal Waldron - Left Alone [2020 Hotel 49]
2. Michael Gordon, Donald Nally, The Crossing - Michael Gordon: Anonymous Man [2020 Cantaloupe Music]
3. Sun Ra - Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, Vol. 1 [2020 Sun Ra LLC]. Ths is "out there" and I like that. Haven't yet heard Volume 2.
4. Meredith Monk, Bang On A Can All-Stars, Ashley Bathgate, Ken Thomson - Memory Game [2020 Cantaloupe Music]. See also Ashley Bathgate's  album from last year.
5. Lalo Schifrin - Bullitt (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [1968 Warner Records Inc.]. Love the movie; the soundtrack, not as much.
6. Thom Yorke -The Eraser Rmxs [2008 Thom Yorke]
7. Nicolas Jaar - Cenizas [2020 Other People]
8. Brooklyn Ryder - Healing Modes, disc 1 [2020 IN A CIRCLE RECORDS]
9. Jacaszek - Music for Film [2020 Ghostly International]
10. Tomo - lien 2014 [2020 tomo]. I think this at the bottom of the list because I didn't understand it. I should give it another try.  

albums, ranked (3/20/20)

1. Moondog - Improvisations at a Jazz Concert [2020 Estate of Moondog]. Short but groovy.
2. Brian Eno - Ambient 4: On Land [1982 Virgin Records Ltd.]. Lizard Point still sounds great.
3. Christian Loffler - Lys [2020 Ki Records]
4. Antonio Vivaldi - Work from Home with Vivaldi [2020 UMG Recordings, Inc.]. I think Vivaldi these days rests at home rather than actually working there.
5. Drum & Lace - semi songs [2019 EverybodyHz Records]
6. Chris Forsyth, Garcia Peoples - Peoples Motel Band [2020 Chris Forsyth]
7. Broadcast - The Noise Made by People [2000 Warp Records Limited]

albums, ranked (3/13/20)

1. Four Tet - Sixteen Oceans [2020 Text Records]
2. Richard Chartier - Variable Dimensions [2020 LINE]
3. Julia Holter - Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [2020 Focus Features LLC]
4. Horse Lords - The Common Task [2020 Northern Spy]
5. James Lentini - Through Time and Place [2020 Navona]
6. Deap Lips, Deap Vally, The Flaming Lips - Deap Lips [2020 Deap Lips]
7. Oregon Symphony, Carlos Kalmar - Aspects of America: Pulitzer Edition (Live) [2020 PENTATONE]
8. Circles Around the Sun - Circles Around the Sun [2020 Royal Potato Family]
9. Jay Electronica - A Written Testimony [2020 Roc Nation, LLC]
   

aworks listening log :: 2/14/19 #hotstreak

Markus Hinterhauser - Cage: Works for Prepared Piano [Col Legno 1998]

• * The Perilous Night (1943/44)
• Two Pastorales (1952)
• Daughters of the Lonesome Isle (1945)
• A Valentine Out of Season (1944)
• Spontaneous Earth (1944)
• Root of an Unfocus (1944)
• The Unavailable Memory of (1944)
• Triple Paced (1944)
• Prelude for Meditation (1944)
• Our Spring Will Come (1943)
• And the Earth Shall Bear Again (1942)
• Bacchanale (1942)
• In the Name of the Holocaust (1942)

Cage had quite the hot streak with his piano music in the 1940s.

For some reason, only disk 1 of the 2 CD set is on Spotify.

aworks listening log :: 2/11/19

Markus Hinterhauser - Cage: Works for Prepared Piano [Col Legno 1998]

• A Valentine Out of Season (1944)
• Spontaneous Earth (1944)
• Root of an Unfocus (1944)
• Totem Ancestor (1942)

aworks listening log :: 2/10/19 @brucelevingston

Bruce Levingston [Sono Luminus 2019]

• * Three Visions: no 2, Summerland (1936). William Grant Still
• * American Citizen (). Nolan Gasse
  • Subtly evocative of things American in its fleetingly adopted snippets of blues and folk gestures. Gasser is the architect of the Music Genome Project for Pandora.
• Sacred Spaces (2017-18). C. Price Walden
• Accumulation of Purpose (2017). David T. Little 
• 3 Pieces "Locations in Time" (). Augusta Gross

John McCabe  [Metier 2019]

• Heaven to Clear When Day Did Close (1980). Barney Childs
• Piano Song (1978). David Maslanka
• Carnival Music (1976). George Rochberg
  • the only piano work by Rochberg to make use of ‘popular’ musical tropes

London Philharmonic Orchestra, Nick Palmer [Toccata Classics 2019]

• Nocturne (1978). Arnold Rosner

Noël Akchoté [Noël Akchoté 2016]

• The Well-Tuned Piano - Arr. for Guitar (1974). La Monte Young
  • A guitar arrangement of The Well-Tuned Piano is bizarre.

Laurie Spiegel [Unseen Worlds, LLC 2012]

• * Appalachian Grove (1974). Laurie Spiegel

Markus Hinterhauser [Col Legno 1998]

• * Music for Marcel Duchamp (1947). John Cage
• Mysterious Adventure (1945). John Cage
• A Room (1943). John Cage
• Tossed At It Is Untroubled (1943). John Cage
• Primitive (1942). John Cage

aworks listening log :: 2/9/2019

• Michael Byron - Fabric for String Noise (2018). String Noise [Cold Blue Music] *
• Carson Cooman - Praeludium in festo S. Philippi apostoli (2017). Erik Simmons [Divine Art] *
• Steve Reich - Sextet (1984-85). Ekkozone [Mode Records] **
• Steve Reich - The Desert Music (1983). Sydney Symphony Orchestra, David Robertson, Synergy Vocals [Australian Broadcasting Corporation]
• Michael Byron - Dragon Rite (Version Without Percussion) (1973). James Bergman [Cold Blue Music] *
• Steve Reich - Six Pianos (1973). Daniel Brandt, Erol Sarp, Gregor Schwellenbach, Hauschka, John Kameel Farah, Paul Frick [FILM] *

aworks listening log :: july 8, 2018 @HedgehogMusic ‏

 Robert Ashley

• ✓ She Was a Visitor (1967). Robert Ashley [1967 Sony Music Entertainment]
• The Wolfman (1964). Robert Ashley [2008 Pogus Productions]. "gaining considerable reputation as a threat to the listener's health." It's definitely full of noise.

Sarah Davachi

• ✓ Mordents (2018). Sarah Davachi [2018 Recital Program]. Canadian composer studying musicology at UCLA.

Paul Epstein 

• ✓ Changes 6 (2013). R. Andrew Lee [2015 Irritable Hedgehog]

John Adams

• ✓ Hallelujah Junction (1998). Jeroen van Veen [2017 Brilliant Classics]

Terry Riley

• ✓ Simone's Lullaby (1994). Regina Myers. [2017 Irritable Hedgehog Music]. Score  of The Heaven Ladder, Book 7.

Lou Harrison

• ✓ Philemon and Baukis (1989). [1992 Amarc, LLC.]

George Crumb

• ✓ Pastoral Drone (1982). Gregory D'Agostino [2006 Bridge Records, Inc.] 

Alan Hovhaness

• ✓ Hymn to Yerevan (1969). Central Washington University Wind Ensemble, Larry Gookin, Keith Brion, Mark Goodenberger [2018 Naxos]. "A stirring and mysterious work with direct emotional appeal."

Michael Hersch

• Violin Concerto (2015). Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Tito Muñoz, International Contemporary Ensemble [2018 New Focus Recordings].  "a composer of brutally honest music"
• end stages (2016). Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Tito Muñoz, International Contemporary Ensemble [2018 New Focus Recordings]

 

aworks listening log :: july 7, 2018

John Adams

• Absolute Jest (2011/12). Doric String Quartet, Peter Oundjian, Royal Scottish National Orchestra [2018 Chandos]
• American Berserk (2001). Jeroen van Veen [2017 Brilliant Classics]
• ✓ Hallelujah Junction (1998). Jeroen van Veen [2017 Brilliant Classics]
• Naive and Sentimental Music (1997-98). Peter Oundjian, Royal Scottish National Orchestra [2018 Chandos]
• Phyrgian Gates (1977/78). Jeroen van Veen [2017 Brilliant Classics]
• ✓ China Gates (1977). Jeroen van Veen [2017 Brilliant Classics]

Julius Eastman

• Buddha (1984). Kukuruz Quartet [2018 Intakt Records]. And a vocal version on Soundcloud.
• Fugue No. 7 (1983). Kukuruz Quartet [2018 Intakt Records]. Minimalism is now "venerable." 
• ✓ Evil Nigger (1979). Kukuruz Quartet [2018 Intakt Records]. “a basicness, a fundamentalness, and eschews that thing which is superficial or—what can we say?—elegant.”

Bernard Herrmann

• ✓ Cape Fear (1962). Bernard Herrmann Studio Orchestra, Bernard Herrmann [Classical Pages]
• The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956). Bernard Herrmann Studio Orchestra, Bernard Herrmann [Classical Pages] 

Samuel Barber

• String Quartet (1935-36). The Alexander Quartet [1992 Amplitude CD]. Canonic second movement, of course.
• Serenade (1942). The Alexander Quartet [1992 Amplitude CD]. It's his Opus 1.

Aaron Copland

• Movement for String Quartet (1923). The Alexander Quartet [1992 Amplitude CD]
• Two Pieces (1928). The Alexander Quartet [1992 Amplitude CD]

George Gershwin

• ✓ Lullaby (1948). The Alexander Quartet [1992 Amplitude CD]

Notable Spotify plays: Fugue No. 7 33561, Absolute Jest 22731, Cape Fear 2586, Naive and Sentimental Music 1794

aworks listening log :: july 6, 2018

Julius Eastman

• ✓  Gay Guerrilla (1980). Kukuruz Quartet [2018 Intakt Records]. New recording adds to the reputation of the late composer. Kyle Gann on Eastman.

Frederic Rzewski

• ✓  Coming Together (1971). NakedEye Ensemble [2018 Starkland]. Not like any other version.

Christian Wolff

• Rhapsody (2009). National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic [2018 Naxos]
• John, David (1998). Robyn Schulkowsky, SWR Symphony Orchestra [2018 Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc.] 

Patrick Higgins

• Dossier (2017). Patrick Higgins [2018 Other People]. Composer & guitarist recording live although it's not guitar-like at first glance.

Hans Zimmer 

• Mountains (From "Interstellar")  (2014). Grissini Project [2018 Grissini Project]. They play cover versions of film music etc. 

Stephen Stucky

• Concerto for Orchestra No. 2 (2003). National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic [2018 Naxos]. Numerous explicit musical influences.

John Harbison 

• Symphony No.  4 (2003). National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic [2018 Naxos]. Wikipedia: 'Lisa Hirsch of the San Francisco Classical Voice wrote, "It's an engrossing work, full of interesting detail and structural experimentation..."'

Bernard Herrmann 

• Concerto Macabre for Piano and Orchestra (From "Hangover Square")  (1945). [1974 Sony Music Entertainment]

Carl Ruggles

• Sun-treader  (1931). National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic [2018 Naxos]. His best known work. 

Notable Spotify plays: Symphony No. 4 53406, Mountains 15384, Hanover Square 2297