Odd

Composers, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, Odd

Summer reading

What to enjoy on those flights to festivals, composing on the beach or just to unwind this summer reading? Dick Strawser has been busy writing the sequel to “The Schoenberg Code” over on Thoughts on a Train – another pun filled parody called “The Lost Chord.” Fans of Dan Brown beware, Strawser outdoes the fiction writer and adds unbelievably hilarious names to a modern composition based thriller. (You might also enjoy his “Stravinsky’s Tavern” as well!)

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Bang on a Can, CDs, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, New York, Odd, Performers

Multiple goodness

Just a few weeks ago over at our CD Review section, Jay Batzner wrote about the new Julia Wolfe Dark Full Ride CD: “Each piece transfixes me.  I am writing my own music differently because of this disc.  I am so glad that Julia Wolfe exists, is writing music, and that such talented performers play the hell out of her stuff.”  It’s a really interesting Ride, each piece intensely working over some greater or lesser multiple of the same instrument. If you’re a skeptical “show me” kind of person, free as a bird tomorrow (Nov. 10th) in NYC and maybe

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Composers, Contemporary Classical, Minimalism, Music Events, Odd, Spain

Sonata for Piano and Dirt Bike

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb50kHf7Tw0[/youtube] Carles Santos has been a force on the Spanish “downtown” scene (taking musicians like Santos, Llorenç Barber and Maria de Alvear in opposition to the “uptown” likes of Cristobal Halffter, Joan Guinjoan and Tomás Marco) since the early 1970s. This “downtown” movement had a huge impact on Spanish musicians in the 80s, and still carries through to today. Starting as a formidable young pianist who’d breeze through the Second Viennese school, Santos turned his attention to a combination of minimalism and theatrical spectacle (often with himself as protagonist). But aside from his fanfare composed to open the 1992 Barcelona

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Odd, Uncategorized

Storytime

Ever browsed the books on your shelf, and had the sudden strange feeling they were telling you something? Nina Katchadourian selects a few spines to show you you weren’t so far off — including this succinct tale that gets a helping hand from none other than John Cage:

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Minimalism, Odd

With Conductors Like This…

…Who needs an aerobic DVD? The clip title is roughly “Maraca Driven Crazy”, but I don’t think that’s the only thing coming unhinged here. Though this was posted around a year ago, I can’t help feeling that somewhere in Italy they’re still running through this phrase, over and over… (The piece rehearsed is Reich, but I’m not sure which piece; help, anyone?) Thanks to my wonderful cellist pal Francesco Dillon for the tip to the clip. [youtube]zejCcymd1Io[/youtube]

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Contemporary Classical, Odd, Strange

The Onion does it again

So that’s what’s wrong! (nudge-nudge, wink-wink…): Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8  Music, a mode of creative expression consisting of sound and silence expressed through time, was given a 6.8 out of 10 rating in an review published Monday on Pitchfork Media, a well-known music-criticism website. According to the review, authored by Pitchfork editor in chief Ryan Schreiber, the popular medium that predates the written word shows promise but nonetheless “leaves the listener wanting more.”  “Music’s first offering, an eclectic, disparate, but mostly functional compendium of influences from 5000 B.C. to present day, hints that this trend’s time may not only have

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Classical Music, Contemporary Classical, Odd

Programming Note

9 P.M. (Lifetime) LOVE NOTES                                                When a classical music critic becomes pregnant from a fling with (gasp!) a country-music singer, she decides to give her baby to her infertile best friend.  But will she undergo a change of heart, or at least a change in musical tastes?  Laura Leighton and Antonio Cupo star. A female classical music critic?  Must be a fantasy.

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