aworks :: "new" american classical music

Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings (2005). Steve Reich /next la la/

I'm at least temporarily captivated by the new version of lala (next.lala.com). They have on-demand streaming of numerous albums and tracks. The twist is that the first stream of a track is free. To hear a track again, you pay 10 cents for perpetual streaming rights or else buy the MP3 for 89 cents. After registering, it appears you get the first fifty perpetual streams free. Digital Audio Insider also points out you can later upgrade your stream to a download for 79 cents.

I don't yet have a feel for the depth of what's available. If I apply the "Wuorinen test," it looks like just 34 tracks by composer Charles Wuorinen are there (although I already own the four albums that represents).

To also gauge the extent of recordings, I count 31 stream-able Steve Reich albums. This includes the new album with Daniel Variations and Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings.

And speaking of Reich, Melissa Hughes blogs of her upcoming participation in the composer's music at the Ojai Music Festival. I'll make it back there eventually if someone can ever pry me away from the computer...

Different Trains (1988). Steve Reich /hey, interesting american music!/

Metafilter has a post about interesting American music. One of the links is a set of Pulitzer Foundation concert streams e.g. Steve Reich's Different Trains. Of course, since this work makes heavy use of pre-recorded sounds, it's hard to distinguish this performance from the original Kronos Quartet recording.

Wikipedia: In Different Trains, after each melody in the piece is introduced, usually by a single instrument, a recording of the spoken phrase from which the melody derives is played. The melody is then developed for a while, with the instruments playing along with the recording of the phrase or part of the phrase. In addition to speech, the piece calls for recordings of train sirens.

LIstening to this for the first time in a while, I'm surpised how much the sirens add to the piece, even the eerie European ones.

Nagoya Guitars (1994). Steve Reich /after further consideration.../

After the lively and spirited LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire concert on Friday, I was going to post on how sterile the presentation of classical music in comparison can be. But then the local 7-year-old highlighted this YouTube video of Steve Reich's Nagoya Guitars. The presentation is in fact sterile but the music is nonetheless enchanting:

David Tanenbaum transcribed Nagoya Marimbas for guitar.

Music for Pieces of Wood (1973). Steve Reich /my "oh, hi!" post/

After reading about Pierre-Laurent Aimard's superb results at the Ojai festival, I've been listening to a couple of his recordings. I don't know what to make of the pygmy tracks interspersed with Ligeti etudes on the CD to the right although Robert Carl called the release "an adventurous and substantial disc, a true success."

But Aimard's take on Music for Pieces of Wood is a reminder the piano is a glorious percussion instrument. And I find this multi-tracked solo performance even more thrilling than say Reich's Six Pianos and maybe even better than the original multi-percussion version of Music for Pieces of Wood (practice video here).

Quotes via Ojai:

Jerry Z: In the quiet you heard the birds in the trees, the occasional sounds from the playground in the park and the movements in the street.  (John Cage would have approved.)  Finally the spell ended and the applause began.

Timothy Mangan: If we had good music education though, everyone would hear and study the "Concord" Sonata in 10th grade, and we'd all have Ives to share and talk about and hear on concerts with anticipation.

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aworks: prior offhand comment re: ives study in the schools. prior post on aimard, reich and paul theroux.

Come Out (1966). Steve Reich /la la la la.../

lala.com, the CD trading site, has a new site design with new features. Foremost, you can stream tracks from numerous albums. I just listened to a track The Secret Agent from a Philip Glass album on my "want list." They also have a page to see the most wanted and most played albums and to my surprise, classical music is a choice. And according to that page, John Zorn's Absinthe/Naked City is the #1 most requested classical CD ahead of the Emerson String Quartet playing Bartok.  Finally, the Reich Remixed 2006 album appears to be available for full streaming of all tracks.

By the way, I've started populating an aworks playlist on lala.

The Four Sections (1987). Steve Reich /smarter playlist/

I continue thematic listening on my iPod rather than the pseudo-random mode of the last several years. Today, it's remixes of Steve Reich works. Some comments:

• The older remixes from the late nineties are much less sophisticated than those from last year. But even where both recordings have artists I already listen to, e.g. Howie B and Four Tet, the old remix of Eight Lines sounds trivial versus the more organic Drumming. Maybe the art of remix has really improved in the last ten years.
• I like the Andrea Parker remix of The Four Sections better than the original but wouldn't say that about any of the others. I think this is a function of how poorly Reich's techniques sound with orchestra.
• The Tranquility Bass Megamix juxtaposes multiple Reich works in a clever way. I'd like to hear this done with other composers as well.
• Still to listen to, The Orb's Little Fluffy Clouds which samples Electric Counterpoint and America's Most Blunted which samples Come Out.

Eight Lines (1983). Steve Reich /not your father's steve reich ensemble/

The London Steve Reich Ensemble on YouTube playing Steve Reich's Eight Lines:

They also play music by others.

Drumming (1971). Steve Reich /the emperor's new groove/

And next, David Byrne comments on the Steve Reich concert:

The music shimmers; it’s a kind of musical Brownian motion. Even when he incorporates cellos and strings the effect is percolating, bubbling.

On the other hand, he doesn't think Reich's music "grooves" in the manner of say, African popster King Sunny Adé. I never really thought about it but in my list of top concerts would be King Sunny Adé at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz as well as Kronos Quartet in Ojai where they played Steve Reich's Different Trains. The former definitely grooved but the latter had the pulse, in a notated, restrained, contemporary classical kind of way...

Different Trains (1990). Steve Reich /defining classical music, one concert at a time/

Kenneth Woods:

Classical music is acoustic music*.

This statement, to the extent it is endorsed and practiced by major musical arts organizations, could be a significant reason why I don't attend concerts as often as I could.

Or to phrase it differently, if I thought I could reliably repeat electronically-assisted musical experiences like John Adams' Doctor Atomic (at San Francisco Opera), Steve Reich's Different Trains (as played by Kronos at the Ojai Festival), or Philip Glass' Akhnaten (at Oakland Opera), I might actually subscribe to a series from one of the many organizations that hound me via telephone calls, mailed flyers etc.

Instead, I spend most of my discretionary classical music money at Tower, Amoeba and Amazon.

And I never really thought about it but Cal Performances, despite some idiosyncracies, happens to be my favorite Bay Area arts institution (with Oakland Opera as "talent deserving wider recognition.")

recent listening: the children's hour - charles ives /deborah voigt. blues - william grant still. pieces for cello and piano - webern. fell on black days - soundgarden. the sixth extinction crept up slowly, like the sunlight through the shutters, as we looked back in regret - red sparowes. spem in alium - thomas tallis

Octet (1979). Steve Reich /and counting.../

Happy Birthday to composer Steve Reich on his 25,567th day. He will turn 26,000 on 12/9/2007. May I be fortunate enough to still be listening to his music when I turn 25k...

tool: age in days google news: reich 70th birthday