aworks :: "new" american classical music

Scircura (1982). Chas Smith /sound vs. symphony/

I don't normally quote entire paragraphs but this post from a fellow traveler merits it:

2. Sound vs. Symphony: It's usually only about sound for me. Narratives - when the music peaks, how sections relate to each other - I've never really cared for. I've also never really been able to hear tonal relationships, so the grand D major falling into Db major (of the 9th) doesn't do much for me (of course, the muted resonance of strings playing in a very foreign Db major thrills me). Ditto my TV habits: if Ben misses an episode of Lost, he can't bring himself to watch a later episode without first catching up on what he missed. I, on the other hand, have never understood plot twists and can easily go to bed without first finding out who the winner is on Iron Chef. But sound! Piano, celesta, harmonium, 3 harps, organ, 2 mandolins, throw in a lingering flute and an almost inaudible clarinet, it's orgasm central right there. 

It's about the sound for me as well, although even simpler, non-orchestral, instrumentation that blurs foreground and background can be equally as satisfying e.g. Chas Smith's Scircura:

Scircura - Chas Smith

Endless Mardi Gras (2006). Chas Smith

Today's listening log:

1. Numerous Radiohead songs after buying the book Radiohead - Back to Save the Universe: The Stories Behind Every Song. I was hoping for content like Alan Pollack's notes on the Beatles canon -- form, key, discography etc.-- but this is interesting too e.g. Pink Floyd was influenced by Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. By the way, Malcolm Gladwell's review of Why? notes the difference between stories and technical accounts, which may explain my expectations.

2. Endless Mardi Gras. Chas Smith. Effective use of jet airplane noise.

3. Symphony No. 3. Charles Ives. Northern Sinfonia / James Sinclair. In the comments to a Sequenza21 post about the lack of attention paid to composer Ruth Schonthal, David Toub says this (Pulitzer Prize-winning) symphony is "insignificant." This is not my favorite Ives work nor even my favorite Ives symphony but I think this piece will endure. Coincidentally, I listened to Toub's for Philip Glass this week, all 1 hour and 58 minutes of it. Ok, my attention wandered some and it took me two train commutes to finish it but I found the propulsive minimalism satisfying. Via this podcast-like feed.

3. False Clarity. Chas Smith. Long, blurry tones, appropriately enough.

4. A selection from Philip Glass' Satyagraha among other works played on organ by Kevin Bowyer. It's hard to top the Christopher Bowers-Broadbent organ recording of Part, Glass, and Peter Maxwell Davies, though. And David Toub blogged about how, to my surprise, Satyagraha is superior to Akhnaten. I grant that Akhnaten has its flaws and is all downhill after the first act, but I find it much more dramatic than Satyagraha.

5. Symphony No. 8. Dmitri Shostakovich. Concertgebouw/Haitink. Streamed from Contemporary Classical on live365. I didn't make it through all 62 minutes. This doesn't sound particularly "contemporary" in the sense that World War II is also historical, not contemporary. If I get time, I want to elaborate on what does sound contemporary.

6. John Klemmer's Touch and the Police's Regatta de Blanc. Two nostalgia CDs from the library, neither of which sounds contemporary, nor even particularly good, several decades later.

And I didn't actually hear it but some guy speeds up/slows down video game music resulting in loops he listens to hundreds of thousands of times. His method of editing WAV file speeds sounds too difficult. I'd like a moderato fast-forward button, myself...

An Hour Out of Desert Center (2003). Chas Smith

John Luther Adams gets credit for incorporating his Alaskan environs into his work; the same dynamic may apply to Chas Smith. His searing An Hour Out of Desert Center captures the stark, fiery, and wide-open sense of the California desert.

Scircura (1982). Chas Smith

After listening to the Books' Be Good to Them Always, which is packed  with found voices and unidentifiable pop-like sounds, and which could be the aural-equivalent of a quick cutting music video, Chas Smith's Scircura sounds positively tranquil. It's possible I'm on a slippery slope that may lead to regularly listening to KDFC radio...

Prior Scircura post.