tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-95117192007-05-10T09:06:20.995-04:00Sequenza21/Composers ForumJerry BowlesBlogger411125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-73215707335303066152007-05-02T11:53:00.000-04:002007-05-02T12:43:31.249-04:00This American Idol On the broadcast radio front, you may have heard of the Public Radio Talent Contest that's being run by Public Radio Exchange and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Basically it's like American Idol - the first round allows anyone to submit a 2-minute clip of them doing something radio-ish. Then 10 people will get picked to go on to subsequent rounds until there's just one host from Rob Deemertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1168018160755898072007-01-05T12:24:00.000-05:002007-01-05T12:29:20.873-05:00James MacMillan InterviewI had a chance to interview Scottish composer James MacMillan for a November episode of WFIU Public Radio's Profiles program. The composer was here for the premiere of Sun Dogs at Indiana University with the IU Contemporary Vocal Ensemble conducted by Carmen Tellez.
He had many fascinating comments about his music, his philosophy, and music's relationship to the Catholic Church. You can hear theCary Boycetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1162661225532140162006-11-04T12:16:00.000-05:002006-11-04T12:27:05.570-05:00Kyiv-Lavra Perchersk MonasteryI've just returned from Kyiv (Kiev in Russian), where I visited the Kyiv-Lavra Perchersk Monastery, a beautiful, mystical, and fascinating place. But the core of the place for a musician is the sung service in the orthodox chant style. Those monks ROCK, and the acoustics (Lavra is the equivalent of "cathedral") are stunning. I'll post some sound files soon for your listening pleasure.
But it Cary Boycetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1157061464645835892006-08-31T17:07:00.000-04:002006-08-31T17:57:44.766-04:00Female Composer Commissions in the Chronicle of Higher EdThis article was published today in the Chronicle of Higher Education and reprinted in the Syracuse University News:
How Colleges Can Encourage Female Composers
by Eileen Strempel
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/31/06
If classical music during the 20th and 21st centuries has become increasingly invisible, as reflected in such depressing tomes as Joseph Horowitz's Rob Deemertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1156916028591894222006-08-30T01:32:00.000-04:002006-08-30T01:33:48.606-04:00A More Perfect UnionDrew McManus, over at Adaptistration, is wondering how people feel about the impact of organized labor on the orchestra business. This subject is directly related to something I've been thinking about -- the fact that orchestra jobs are not simply "good jobs" in the standard economicspeak sense of high-paying, or high-pay-low-effort, but desireable for the specific work itself. I would Galen H. Browntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1156457467958508782006-08-24T17:56:00.000-04:002006-08-24T18:11:08.030-04:00'In C' Follow-UpThe first 3 paragraphs of the score posted at Other Minds:All performers play from the same page of 53 melodic patterns played in sequence.
Any number of any kind of instruments can play. A group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work. If vocalist(s) join in they can use any vowel and consonant sounds they like.
Patterns are to be played consecutively withjodrutag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1156453410011954072006-08-24T16:51:00.000-04:002006-08-24T17:03:30.036-04:00Text and Con-TextRegarding a comment about erotic text in choral music and a religious choir, a controversial choice can can cause unintended results and schisms.
A couple years ago for an oratorio, I had in mind a "nightmare" movement involving a somewhat occult/erotic text by Baudelaire. At one of the early discussions with the commissioning ensemble, there was a minor shockwave and controversy. Some of the Cary Boycetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1156386159342842782006-08-23T22:06:00.000-04:002006-08-23T22:31:32.566-04:00Will choral music always be tonal?I am a huge fan of the late Stravinsky choral works:
Requiem Canticles, Canticum Sacrum, Sermon, Narrative and a Prayer, The Dove Descending (Anthem), Babel, and Introitus. (Less fond of The Flood and Threni and those hideous late pieces of Schoenberg.) It seems these works rarely get performed. I remember MTT doing Requiem Canticles in LA in the 80s. It was peculiar to see the string section Roger Bourlandtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1156338122681240522006-08-23T08:57:00.000-04:002006-08-23T09:02:02.723-04:00Two QuestionsDoes anyone know if Terry Riley ever revised 'In C'?
Also, can anyone point me to the score for Ligeti's "The Future of Music"?jodrutag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1156187803479292772006-08-21T15:13:00.000-04:002006-08-21T15:16:43.503-04:00New Music ClarificationI've adopted a boilerplate for New Music Liner Notes:
In this work, the composer defibrillates the imitative cells in their discreet segmentation in the form of invariant and hypoglycemic polyphonic inversions. The harmonic milieu, and its subsequent extraterrestrial ambulation, signifies the victimization and hardcore politicization of its own internal variable discontinuities. Therefore, when Cary Boycetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1155590783398582162006-08-14T17:16:00.000-04:002006-08-14T17:26:23.450-04:00Original VoicesMuch has been said recently of an “original voice” being much overstated or over-rated.
I disagree.
The music that really counts, the music we all go back to hearing again and again, by performers and composers both, has that most rare of qualities. Bach had it. Mozart had it. Beethoven had it. Mahler had it. There are many imitators, but no one else quite sounds like them. Sergei Prokofiev, Cary Boycetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1155565877512079402006-08-14T10:26:00.000-04:002006-08-14T10:31:17.703-04:00No More Great Artistsfrom a Forum in the September 2006 issue of Harper's, on whether or not video games can be used to teach (creative) writing skills:
"Everyone in the overdeveloped world will have the tools they need to create this amazing stuff, whether it be blogs or films or [video] games. None of it will rise to the peaks that we associate with names like Joyce or Proust, but a great deal of it will be Corey Dargeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1155324592585963972006-08-11T15:20:00.000-04:002006-08-11T15:29:52.766-04:00Sun-Dogs, Music, and ReligionJames MacMillan was in Bloomington, Indiana last week for the premiere of a new choral work, Sun-Dogs, which was sung by the IU Contemporary Vocal Ensemble conducted by Carmen Helena Tellez. It was a grand event, with many workshops, panels, discussions, and of course some fine music making.
He's a thoughtful fellow, and generous with his time and his views. You can read some of his articles, asCary Boycetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1155080808429268332006-08-08T19:45:00.000-04:002006-08-10T09:30:01.770-04:00Gamelan Players Wanted: ChicagoHi.
My name's Craig Wedren.
I'm a composer for film, and was the singer/gtr player in the band Shudder To Think.
My lady and I are getting married in Chicago on October 15 of this year, and I'm looking for a group to perform Lou Harrison's 'Three Pieces for Gamelan with Soloists: Threnody for Carlos Chavez (1979)' during the ceremony.
Do you know of anyone who might be able to help?
Thanks so Jerry Bowlestag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1154970492987006082006-08-07T12:38:00.000-04:002006-08-07T13:14:50.823-04:00consumer-driven music?A friend recently raised an idea that, while I don't agree with it, I thought might be of interest to others. Should a composer rework his or her music into various shorter works based on listener feedback? According to my friend, this is what Philip Glass is doing of late. I was with my kids at the Franklin Institute's IMAX Theater to see Roving Mars, a film about the Mars Rover Mission, and theDavid Toubtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1153885495502364252006-07-25T23:42:00.000-04:002006-07-25T23:44:55.526-04:00Brand-Conscienceness in LondonVia the indespensable ArtsJournal.com I find a short essay in The Guardian by freelance violinist Philippa Ibbotson criticising the London Symphony Orchestra for a new venture with a company called Baby IQ. "Rather than aiming to instil a love of music or smooth away youthful anxieties, their new venture is, apparently, ‘all about brand recognition’." Ms. Ibbotson obviously means well, but I’m Galen H. Browntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1153409432936650042006-07-20T11:20:00.000-04:002006-07-20T11:30:33.036-04:00I Remember RuthI was saddened to hear of the passing of Ruth Schonthal, and several friends alerted me to read Judith Lang Zaimont’s eloquent blog on the subject and to contribute remarks of my own. This, as it turns out, is not an easy matter for me. While I met Ms. Schontal once or twice at the abodes of mutual friends (the exceptional cellist, Maxine Neuman, and Max Schubel, the inveterate “Mr. Opus One Arnold Rosnertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1152824438919633172006-07-13T16:30:00.000-04:002006-07-14T14:57:57.100-04:00He Poos CloudsI'm surprised that the new album He Poos Clouds from Final Fantasy has not been mentioned in this forum or on Blackdogred's blog. Final Fantasy is a.k.a. Canadian violinist, singer, and composer Owen Pallett. I had the pleasure of opening for him several times in England last May.
He Poos Clouds has ten excellent examples of how a sophisticated and carefully crafted composition can work as an Corey Dargeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1152730813652794012006-07-12T14:50:00.000-04:002006-07-12T15:00:13.676-04:00Conflicts of InterestI occasionally write "pre-views" of concerts or upcoming musical events. I shy away from writing reviews, though I have done them on occasion. And with one notable exception, if they weren't overwhelmingly positive I simply didn't follow through. As active composers, we are perhaps the most qualified to comment publicly -- yet it's difficult, if not a downright conflict, to pass judgment on ones Cary Boycetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1152684491129904712006-07-12T02:06:00.000-04:002006-07-12T02:08:11.146-04:00Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who’s the Rockin’est of them all?One of my college English professors, William Spengemann, once remarked in class that "the entire world can be divided up into things that suck and things that rock." Recognizing the validity of that observation, I have undertaken a research project into classical music which, since it employs Science, is sure to be entirely valid. By searching the worldwide compendium of all knowledge (i.e. Galen H. Browntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1152583691165935562006-07-10T22:02:00.000-04:002006-07-10T22:08:11.183-04:00The CUNY PhD Music Composition ExamThis summer, in addition to fielding submissions for the S21 concert, two things are keeping me busy. The first is working with the worthy folks at RILM Abstracts of Music Literature. If you don’t know what RILM is, by all means click the link and find out. The second is studying for my PhD exams which occur at the end of the summer. And that’s what I’m ringing in here to talk about.
So. David Salvagetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1152568251115392622006-07-10T17:47:00.000-04:002006-07-10T17:50:51.136-04:00When Did We All Become Philosophers?Steve Layton writes: You want a forum topic, you got a forum topic...
That's easy, the 19th century. So maybe the real question to ask is "WHY Did
We All Become Philosophers?" Or maybe more relevant to now, "How Do We STOP
Having to Be Philosophers?" ...Yes, you. Deny all you like but face it,
we're still in a culture that expects us to always have some deeper idea
lurking at the bottom of a Jerry Bowlestag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1151935817364355402006-07-03T10:08:00.000-04:002006-07-03T10:10:17.380-04:00New Music Series at The FleaKathleen Supové writes: Dear Friends:
If you're receiving this letter and are on my email list, it's because you're either a composer or performer of new music or an enthusiastic audience member for new music.
I'd like to share news about the launch of MUSIC BYTES @ The Flea, a music series devoted to the discovery of new, fresh sound, created and performed by contemporary musicians. Curated byJerry Bowlestag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1151540039207910522006-06-28T19:47:00.000-04:002006-06-29T18:19:56.763-04:00How do you get decent sound in Carnegie Hall?There was an excellent article in the New York Times over the weekend about the difficulties of playing Jazz at Carnegie Hall -- actually, the difficulty in surmounting the acoustic problems that make said Jazz difficult to hear.
"Opened in 1891, the hall has a large proscenium designed for unamplified
music; the room's natural acoustics enable sound to travel both back and
forth across the stageGalen H. Browntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9511719.post-1150991672555893742006-06-22T11:52:00.000-04:002006-06-22T11:54:32.573-04:00Guess the Composer:
Not pictured: each player is accompanied by a different, unspecified percussion patternjodru