tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-173781192009-07-29T02:35:43.341-04:00Jacob SudolJerry Bowlesnoreply@blogger.comBlogger132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-24689204190431521352009-07-29T02:16:00.002-04:002009-07-29T02:35:43.354-04:00MP3 Blog #99 "Inner Voices"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/Buddhabrot-deep-785687.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/Buddhabrot-deep-785643.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><center>Image of a <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhabrot>Buddhabrot</a> fractal</center><br /><br />Chinary Ung: <a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/InnerVoices.mp3>"Inner Voices"</a> (1989)<br /><br />For Orchestra<br /><br />Performed by the American Composers' Orchestra<br /><br />Available for purchase on <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Colin-McPhee-Tabuh-Tabuhan-Harrison-Symphonic/dp/B000004CWE>this compact disc</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-2468920419043152135?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-12707570750638334302008-11-23T04:21:00.002-05:002008-11-23T04:25:56.138-05:00Mp3 Blog #98: “The Space Between”<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1010017-713624.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1010017-712950.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Jacob David Sudol: <a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/Space-Between.m4a>”The Space Between”</a> (2008)<br /><br />For soprano, flute, clarinet, cello, and live electronics<br /><br />Performed by Stephanie Aston (voice), <a href=http://christinetavolacci.com/>Christine Tavolacci</a> (flutes), Przemyslaw Bosak (clarinets), Ashley Walters (cello), Jacob David Sudol (electronics/mixing), <a href=http://www.secondavenueklezmer.com/site/pp.asp?c=juIWLdMTJrE&b=1320151 >Robert Zellickman</a> (conductor)<br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br />‘Alas, when the Uncertain Experiencing of Reality is dawning upon me here,<br />With every thought of fear or terror or awe for all set aside,<br />May I recognize whatever appear, as the reflections of my own consciousness;<br />May I know them to be the nature of the apparitions in the Bardo:<br />When at this all-important moment of achieving a great end,<br />May I not fear the band of Peaceful and Wrathful, mine own thought-forms.’<br /> <br /> –verse for traversing the <I>Chönyid Bardo</I> *<br /><br /><I>The Space Between</I> was written in 2008. The composition intends to explore the experience of traversing through and inhabiting a great variety of constantly changing yet unified intermediate states. <br />The primary inspiration for this work was the initial state of dying as described in <I>The Tibetan Book of the Dead</I> where one first begins to recognize “the dissolution of earth… into water, water into fire, fire into wind, wind into consciousness.”* These ideas were treated abstractly and combined with a personal vision of dying as a confused state where unusual simplified archetypal characters constantly bleed into and out of each other.<br /><br />* Texts taken from Chapter 11 of the <I>The Tibetan Book of the Dead</I>: translated by W.Y. Evans-Wentz (Oxford, 1960)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-1270757075063833430?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-21861607159887191432008-08-25T23:27:00.005-04:002008-08-27T16:34:10.336-04:00Mp3 Blong # 97: "Longing, we say"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1010019-729737.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1010019-729137.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Jacob David Sudol:<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/LongingWeSay.m4a>”Longing, we say”</a> (2007)<br /><br />For violin and cello (preliminary sketch for future string quartet)<br /><br />Performed by Batya McAdam-Somer and Kaylie Eriksen<br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br />"Meditation at Lagunitas”<br /><br />All the new thinking is about loss.<br />In this it resembles all the old thinking.<br />The idea, for example, that each particular erases<br />the luminous clarity of a general idea. That the clown-<br />faced woodpecker probing the dead sculpted trunk<br />of that black birch is, by his presence,<br />some tragic falling off from a first world<br />of undivided light. Or the other notion that,<br />because there is in this world no one thing<br />to which the bramble of <I>blackberry</I> corresponds,<br />a word is elegy to what it signifies.<br />We talked about it late last night and in the voice<br />of my friend, there was a thin wire of grief, a tone<br />almost querulous. After a while I understood that,<br />talking this way, everything dissolves: <I>justice,<br />pine, hair, woman, you</I> and <I>I</I>. There was a woman<br />I made love to and I remembered how, holding<br />her small shoulders in my hands sometimes,<br />I felt a violent wonder at her presence<br />like a thirst for salt, for my childhood river<br />with its island willows, silly music from the pleasure boat,<br />muddy places where we caught the little orange-silver fish<br />called <I>pumpkinseed</I>. It hardly had to do with her.<br />Longing, we say, because desire is full<br />of endless distances. I must have been the same to her.<br />But I remember so much, the way her hands dismantled bread,<br />the thing her father said that hurt her, what<br />she dreamed. There are moments when the body is as numinous<br />as words, days that are the good flesh continuing.<br />Such tenderness, those afternoons and evenings,<br />saying <I>blackberry, blackberry, blackberry</I>.<br /><br /><br />- Robert Hass<br />from the poetry collection “Praise” (Ecco Press, 1979)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-2186160715988719143?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-91755088556880965732008-03-16T04:23:00.003-04:002008-03-16T04:28:56.739-04:00Mp3 Blog # 96: "Crois-tu en l’immortalité de l’âme?"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1010045-782339.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1010045-781665.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Claude Vivier:<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/TroisAir.mp3>"Trois airs pour un opéra imaginaire"</a> (1982)<br />For Soprano and Ensemble<br /><br />Performed by Ingrid Schmithüsen and the Société du musique contemporaine du Québec<br /><br />Available on this <a href=http://www.emusic.com/album/SMCQ-Claude-Vivier-MP3-Download/10980349.html>album at emusic</a><br /><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Croix.mp3>"Crois-tu en l’immortalité de l’âme?"</a> (incomplete 1983)<br /><br />Performers unknown<br /><br />Live performance on <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Claude-Vivier-McFadden-Makuuchi-Schonberg/dp/B000CIWXSW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1205655583&sr=1-1>this DVD</a><br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br />“...I pursued my work with a kind of marvellous serenity. I compose more slowly as I have more and more notes of my music to write! I have just completed the first six minutes of Croix-tu en l’immortalité de l’âme? I am almost doing ‘Dripping’! The whole piece uses two poles: mobility and immobility! Here is a text which I sue in an immobile part:<br />I was cold, it was winter<br />well I thought I was cold<br />maybe I was cold.<br />God had told me that I would be cold.<br />Maybe I was dead.<br /> <br />I was not afraid of being dead<br />as much as I was afraid of dying.<br />Suddenly I got cold<br />very cold - or I was cold.<br />It was night and I was afraid.<br />I believe that it is a beautiful text for the work I am now composing...”<br /><br /> Excerpt from a letter to Thérèse Desjardins by Claude Vivier, Paris, January 7th, 1983<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-9175508855688096573?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-91295189476400483012008-02-25T05:08:00.005-05:002008-02-25T05:17:58.822-05:00Mp3 Blog # 95: Diario PolaccoLuigi Nono:<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Quando.mp3>”Quado Stanno Morendo. Diario Polacco N. 2”</a><br /><br />For two sopranos, mezzo-soprano, contralto, bass flute, cello, and live electronics<br /><br />Performed by Ingrid Ade, Monika Bayr-Ivenz, Monika Brustmann, Susanne Otto, Roberto Fabbriciani, and Christine Theus<br /><br />Currently out of print<br /><br />Another recording available on <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Luigi-Nono-Quando-stanno-morendo/dp/B0006B987O>this SACD</a><br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br /><i>Campo dei Fiori</i><br /><br />In Rome on the Campo dei Fiori<br />baskets of olives and lemons,<br />cobbles spattered with wine<br />and the wreckage of flowers.<br />Vendors cover the trestles<br />with rose-pink fish;<br />armfuls of dark grapes<br />heaped on peach-down.<br /><br />On this same square<br />they burned Giordano Bruno.<br />henchmen kindled the pyre<br />close-pressed by the mob.<br />Before the flames had died<br />the taverns were full again,<br />baskets of olives and lemons<br />again on the vendors’ shoulders.<br /><br />I thought of Campo dei Fiori<br />in Warsaw by the sky-carousel<br />one clear spring evening<br />to the strains of a carnival tune.<br />The bright melody drowned<br />the salvos from the ghetto wall,<br />and couples were flying<br />high in the cloudless sky.<br /><br />At times wind from the burning<br />would drift dark kites along<br />and riders on the carousel<br />caught petals in midair.<br />That same hot wind<br />blew open the skirts of the girls<br />and the crowds were laughing<br />on that beautiful Warsaw Sunday.<br /><br />Someone will read as moral<br />that the people of Rome or Warsaw<br />haddle, laugh, make love<br />hs they pass by matyrs’ pyres.<br />Someone else will read<br />of the passing of things human,<br />of the oblivion<br />born before the flames have died.<br /><br />But that day I thought only<br />of the loneliness of the dying,<br />of how, when Giordano<br />climbed to his burning<br />he could not find<br />in any human tongue<br />words for mankind,<br />mankind who live on.<br /><br />Already they were back at their wine<br />or peddled their white starfish,<br />baskets of olives and lemons<br />they had shouldered to the fair,<br />and he already distanced<br />as if centuries had passed<br />while they paused just a moment<br />for his flying in the fire.<br /><br />Those dying here, the lonely<br />forgotten by the world,<br />our tongue becomes for them<br />the language of an ancient planet.<br />until, when all is legend<br />and many years have passed,<br />on a new Campo dei Fiori<br />rage will kindle at a poet’s word.<br /><br />-<a href= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czes%C5%82aw_Mi%C5%82osz>Czeslaw Milosz</a><br />Warsaw, 1943<br /><br /><I>(translated to English from Polish by Louis Iribarne and David Brooks)</I><br /><br />* * *<br /><br />The texts sung and the historical context of this masterpiece are available in <a href=http://d-sites.net/english/nonopolacco.htm>this thorough online analysis.</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-9129518947640048301?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-69003630544967171222008-02-24T21:48:00.003-05:002008-02-25T03:53:39.415-05:00Mp3 Blog #94: Some Older Two-Part Compositions<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P8260032-733480.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P8260032-732537.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />J.S. Bach:<br />From <I>The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1</I><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Prelude.mp3>Prelude in b flat minor</a><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Fugue.mp3>Fugue in b flat minor</a><br /><br />Performed by Glenn Gould<br /><br />Available on <a href= http://www.amazon.com/Glenn-Gould-Bach-Well-Tempered-Clavier/dp/B0000028NI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1203906717&sr=1-2>this compact disc</a><br /><br />Fryderyk Chopin:<br />Two Nocturnes, Opus 55<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Nocturne15.mp3>#15 in f minor</a><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Nocturne16.mp3>#16 in E flat major</a><br /><br />Performed by Arthur Rubinstein<br /><br />Available on <a href= http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Collection-Frederic/dp/B000026OW3/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1203906752&sr=1-3>this compact disc</a><br /><br />Ludwig van Beethoven:<br />Sonata # 32 in c minor, Opus 111<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/111-1.mp3>I. Maestoso; Allegro con brio ed appassionato</a><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/111-2.mp3>II. Arietta: Adagio molto, semplice e cantabile</a><br /><br />Performed by Artur Schnabel<br /><br />Available on <a href= http://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Piano-Sonatas-Ludwig-van/dp/B000002S29/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1203906799&sr=1-1>this compact disc</a><br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br />Before I post a few more contemporary two-movement works I wanted to post a few older two-part and two-movement compositions.<br /><br />The first two works not technically two-movement compositions. That said I feel that both are good examples of a work constructed in two parts. For example, the prelude and fugue is arguably one of the archetypal pairs that comprise a whole. I’ve chosen J. S. Bach’s b flat minor prelude and five-voice fugue from <I>The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1</I> because it is possibly my favorite prelude and fugue. <br /><br />Most of Chopin’s nocturnes were published in pairs and to this day are often performed in recitals that way. Opus 55 is probably my favorite of these pairs.<br /><br />Beethoven struggled with the two-movement form periodically throughout all of his piano sonatas and arguably it wasn’t until the last try that he really got it right. While looking for two-movement compositions I noticed that the form is used far less regularly than three or four-movements. This might be because it is harder to balance multiple movements when there are only two of them. In my opinion it is this attempt at literal balance that makes most of Beethoven’s other two-movement sonatas less remarkable. On the other hand, it seems to be the misbalance between the normal-length tempestuous first movement and extended and almost transcendental second movement that makes Opus 111 so moving and unforgettable.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-6900363054496717122?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-78007057604689982812008-02-20T17:37:00.006-05:002008-02-24T21:56:08.894-05:00Mp3 Blog #93: Two Movement Compositions/Nørgård and Wölfli<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/WolfiBandHainLarge-746310.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/WolfiBandHainLarge-746304.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Per Nørgård:<br />Symphony #4: (1981)<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Nor4-1.mp3>I. Indian Rose Garden</a><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Nor4-2.mp3>II. Chinese Witch's Lake</a><br /><br />Performed by the Danish Notional Radio Symphony Orchestra<br /><br />Available along with many of Nørgård's works on <a href=http://www.emusic.com/browse/c/b/-dbm/a/0-0/1611604854/0.html>emusic</a><br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br />In the last three years I've been rather preoccupied with the idea of writing two movement compositions. In reflection, I think this preoccupation started after I heard Denys Bouliane present an analysis of his work <a href=http://www.sequenza21.com/2008/02/mp3-blog-92-rumore-sui.html>"Rumore Sui."</a> What struck me the most about this piece at the time was the two-sidedness of the two movements -- how, although the two movements are constructed in a very simple near perfect symmetry, one perceives something much more complex in their relationships.<br /><br />This preoccupation has led me to work on two compositions that each have two movements -- a work for clarinet or saxophone and electronics and a violin and cello duo. To date, I have only finished the first movement of each work. (The violin and cello duo was premiered at a jury recently at the University of California in San Diego and the clarinet/electronic piece will be premiered in a rough form on Tuesday.) Not finishing either of these works has bothered me quite a bit and in attempting finally finish the second movement of the clarinet or saxophone and electronics works I've begun to listen to a lot of my favorite two movement compositions.<br /><br />One of my favorite two movement compositions is <a href=http://www.pernoergaard.dk/eng/indhold.html>Per Nørgård's</a> Symphony #4. Lately I have been listening to a lot of music Per Nørgård. This is in part because he has written a number of successful two movement piece such as the <a href=http://www.sequenza21.com/2006_11_14_jsarchive.html>Third Symphony</a>, "Voyage into the Golden Screen," "Remembering Child," and his Fourth Symphony.<br /><br />Nørgård composed his Fourth Symphony soon after he became obsessed with the work of outsider artist <a href=http://www.adolfwoelfli.ch/index.php?c=e&level=17&sublevel=0>Adolf Wölfli (1864 - 1930)</a>. As a result of this obsession Nørgård dedicates this work to Adolf Wölfli. This obsession with Wölfli is also seen in the compositional style of this symphony which includes an extreme drama not found in any of Nørgård's previous work. In fact, I often hear this symphony as a parody of the monumental high structuralism that is so present in his previous Symphony #3. That aside, this symphony also includes a personal emotionalism drawn from Nørgård's reflections on some of Wölfli's imagination. In my opinion this emotionalism is largely what imbues Nørgård's compositions written since the 80's with an expressiveness that I am greatly drawn towards.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-7800705760468998281?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-42420233687914582912008-02-17T18:17:00.006-05:002008-02-24T21:56:20.736-05:00Mp3 Blog #92: "Rumore Sui"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P9230020-732653.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P9230020-731626.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Denys Bouliane:<br />"Rumore sui”: (2002-2003)<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Rumore-I.mp3>Via prima</a><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Rumore-II.mp3>Via secunda</a><br /><br />For string quartet<br /><br />Performed by the <a href=http://www.quatuorbozzini.ca/accueil.e/>Quatuor Bozzini</a><br /><br />Recording not commercially released<br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br />"Rumore sui” is the second in Denys Bouliane’s new trilogy of chamber works (the first being the <a href=http://www.sequenza21.com/2006/10/mp3-blog-35-qualia-sui.html>previously posted ”Qualia sui"</a> (2001-02) for piano trio and the final being “Tremore sui” for violin and piano (2004-)). The thematic linking in these works derives itself from the Latin word “sui” which means “of oneself." As the trilogy progresses a there is a progression towards a deeper level of introspective probing. <br /><br />The two movements in "Rumore sui" are essentially two views on the same musical material -- the first movement an extroverted view and the second an introverted view. The second movement of this work with its early culminating vortex and the following hypnotic shattered modal faux-music-box is quite possibly my favorite of all of Denys's works.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-4242023368791458291?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-52783233227592949912007-12-30T19:20:00.000-05:002007-12-30T19:35:56.769-05:00The Sanctuary ProjectIn my last post I failed to mention that in late Summer I moved from Montréal to San Diego where I just started studies towards a Ph.D. in composition at the University of California at San Diego. Unfortunately this move, and the subsequent challenges of getting my feet on the ground again, kept me from updating this blog with my previous regularity. That said, now that I have a little more free time I wanted to share some of my recent experiences.<br /><br />* * *<br /><br />As part of my stipend at UCSD I was assigned to be one of Roger Reynolds’s two studio Research Assistants. This quarter this meant that I got to help work on Roger Reynold’s most recent large work <I><a href=http://sanctuaryproject.net/>Sanctuary</a></I>, for percussion ensemble and live electronics. My main tasks included consulting with Roger and Ian Saxton (Roger’s other Research Assistant) on the <a href=http://puredata.info/>PD</a> patch Ian programmed to run the live electronics in <I>Sanctuary</I>, helping with the technological set-up, as well as triggering the piece’s 180+ electronic cues during rehearsals and performance.<br /><br />In mid and late October Steve Schick, red fish blue fish, Roger Reynolds, Ian Saxton and myself spent a little a more than two weeks at UCSD working in the Multipurpose Space at CalIt 2. We spent this time experimenting with and refining technology for the world premiere of <I>Sanctuary</I> that occurred on November 18th. <br /><br />Below are two photos taken while we worked in the Multipurpose Space <br /><br /><center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB040030-763855.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB040030-762911.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a>Left to Right: <br />Greg Stuart and Roger Reynolds<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB040032-765660.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB040032-764033.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a>Left to Right: <br />Ian Saxton (at computer), Greg Stuart, Justin DeHart, Roger Reynolds, Fabio Olivera, Ross Karre<br /></center><br /><br />For a week in mid-November, Steve Schick, red fish blue fish, Roger Reynolds, Ian Saxton, Josef Kucera, and me headed to Washington D.C. to prepare for and give the world premiere of <I>Sanctuary</I> in the atrium of the East Building of the <a href=http://www.nga.gov/>National Gallery of Art</a>. Every night before the performance we had to set up everything for <I>Sanctuary</I> after the gallery closed, rehearse, and then breakdown everything by 11 P.M. This was particularly stressful because not only did the the set-up include five percussion stations, two remote almglocken stations, but one to three microphones for every station, twelve speakers distributed across three levels of the gallery, recording equipment, and multiple computers and audio mixers. That said it was remarkable to rehearse in the National Gallery after it closed every night and the performance went off with virtually no technical problems. <br /><br />Below are some photos I took while we worked at the National Gallery of Art. (There are also photos of the premiere available <a href=http://sanctuaryproject.net/Performance_Images_NGAPremiere.html>here</a>.)<br /><br /><center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB160051-772990.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB160051-772111.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a>Steve Schick rehearsing <I>Chatter/Clatter</I> during a dinner break<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB180012-773804.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB180012-773178.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a>Fabio Olivera watching Steve Schick rehearse<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB180015-723533.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB180015-722786.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a>Roger Reynolds, Lina Bahn, and members of red fish blue fish relaxing before rehearsal<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB180018-724550.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB180018-723881.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a>Ian Saxton frenetically programming behind the empty chair where I sat with the score and triggered cues<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB210003-796445.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/PB210003-795559.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a>Breaking down after a successful performance</center><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-5278323322759294991?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-74108776327149423752007-11-04T00:33:00.000-04:002007-12-30T19:40:24.034-05:00Mp3 Blog #91: "Sing/Lose"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P8260013_1-777635.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P8260013_1-777017.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Jacob David Sudol: <a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/SingLose.mp3>“Sing/Lose”</a> (2007)<br />For chamber ensemble (15 players)<br />Performed by the <a href=http://www.lenem.ca/>Nouvel Ensemble Moderne</a> conducted by Lorraine Vaillancourt <br />Not available commercially<br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br />First off I have to apologize for my long lack of posts. With this post I plan to return to my previous regular rate of postings.<br /><br />This is the recording of the piece I wrote over the summer that was magnificently premiered by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne at the 2007 Domaine Forget New Music Sessions in northern Québec earlier this summer. The rehearsal process was pretty painless and with each subsequent reading I became more and more pleasantly surprised. I’ve included the program note below.<br /><br />* * *<br /><br />The title "Sing/Lose" refers to the two primary preoccupations in my music, and in this piece – as in all my music – I approach these preoccupations abstractly. For example, "Sing" does not refer literally to singing but to a lyricism in the phrases and timbres, as well as to an almost breath-like musical flow. Likewise, "Lose" does not refer to any specific loss but to Andrei Tarkovsky's assertion that "the life force of music is materialized on the brink of its own total disappearance." In this piece "Lose" refers to the eventual disintegration, decay, even death of the work's organic material and form.<br /><br />“Sing/Lose” was written for the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and the New Music Sessions at the 2007 Domaine Forget international music festival in northeastern Québec. I composed the piece during the summer of 2007, at the end of a three-year stay in Montréal. The piece is dedicated to all those who have been close to me during my sojourn in Montréal.<br /><br />-Jacob David Sudol<br /> July 24, 2007<br /> Montréal, Québec<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-7410877632714942375?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-34829710433422735782007-08-21T12:12:00.000-04:002007-08-21T12:16:28.087-04:00Vacation<a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P8210034-753536.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P8210034-752727.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I apologize for my recent absense. I'm currently enjoying new music, discussion, the Canadian wilderness, and the wide Saint Lawrence river at Domaine Forget. Regular posts will resume in September.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-3482971043342273578?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-68870007271054513722007-07-12T13:59:00.001-04:002007-07-12T14:13:26.464-04:00Writing<center><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/Misc/Sing-Lose.jpg><img src=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/Misc/Sing-Lose(preview).jpg></a></center><br /><br />I apologize for my lack of new posts as of late. I'm currently throroughly entrenched in the final stages of composing my new piece for the <a href=http://www.nem.umontreal.ca/>Nouvel Ensemble Moderne</a> – <i>Sing/Lose</i>. Normal posting will resume after July 20th.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-6887000727105451372?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-71005316584773136362007-07-02T14:12:00.000-04:002007-07-02T14:20:46.850-04:00Mp3 Blog #90: "Ogive"<a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1060079-791941.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1060079-791220.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a href=http://www.allaingaussin.com/>Allain Gaussin</a>:<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Ogive.mp3>"Ogive"</a> (1977)<br />Original version for Harpischord and 12 strings<br />Performed by Elisabeth Chojnacka and the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Jean-Claude Pennetier conductor<br /><br />Not available commericially<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-7100531658477313636?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-49286403497884987442007-06-19T11:35:00.001-04:002008-04-29T13:18:40.697-04:00Mp3 Blog #89: "TemA"<a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P6150053-780587.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P6150053-779774.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Helmut Lachenmann:<br />"TemA" (1968) <i>Removed by ensemble's request</i><br />For flute, voice, and cello<br />Performed by Martin Fahlenbock, Linda Hirst, and Lucas Fels<br /><br />Not commercially available<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-4928640349788498744?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-83199330529551016942007-06-16T15:17:00.001-04:002007-06-16T15:21:59.131-04:00Mp3 Blog #88: Happy Bloomsday!<a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P6150045-782629.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P6150045-782051.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Luciano Berio:<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Thema.mp3>”Thema (Ommagio a Joyce)”</a> (1958)<br />Acousmatic Music<br />Not commercially available<br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br />The perfect piece of music for whatever your <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomsday>Bloomsday</a> festivities may be Berio’s “Thema” is one of the first masterpieces and one of my favorite works in the acousmatic genre. It also features one of my favorite instances of word painting in all music – the <I>b-b-bl-bl-bloo-bloo-bloom-bl-bloom-bl-bloom-bloom-blooming-ooming-ming-ing</I> of the word blooming. <br /><br />The text that Cathy Berberian recites in this piece, taken from the beginning of the “Sirens” episode in James Joyce’s <a href=http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4300>”Ulysses”</a>, follows:<br /><br /><I>BRONZE BY GOLD HEARD THE HOOFIRONS, STEELYRINING IMPERthnthn thnthnthn.<br /><br />Chips, picking chips off rocky thumbnail, chips. Horrid! And gold flushed more.<br /><br />A husky fifenote blew.<br /><br />Blew. Blue bloom is on the<br /><br />Gold pinnacled hair.<br /><br />A jumping rose on satiny breasts of satin, rose of Castille.<br /><br />Trilling, trilling: I dolores.<br /><br />Peep! Who's in the... peepofgold?<br /><br />Tink cried to bronze in pity.<br /><br />And a call, pure, long and throbbing. Longindying call.<br /><br />Decoy. Soft word. But look! The bright stars fade. O rose! Notes chirruping answer.<br /> <br />Castille. The morn is breaking.<br /><br />Jingle jingle jaunted jingling.<br /><br />Coin rang. Clock clacked.<br /><br />Avowal. Sonnez. I could. Rebound of garter. Not leave thee. Smack. La cloche! Thigh smack. Avowal. Warm. Sweetheart, goodbye!<br /><br />Jingle. Bloo.<br /><br />Boomed crashing chords. When love absorbs. War! War! The tympanum.<br /><br />A sail! A veil awave upon the waves.<br /><br />Lost. Throstle fluted. All is lost now.<br /><br />Horn. Hawhorn.<br /><br />When first he saw. Alas!<br /><br />Full tup. Full throb.<br /><br />Warbling. Ah, lure! Alluring.<br /><br />Martha! Come!<br /><br />Clapclop. Clipclap. Clappyclap.<br /><br />Goodgod henev erheard inall.<br /><br />Deaf bald Pat brought pad knife took up.<br /><br />A moonlight nightcall: far: far.<br /><br />I feel so sad. P. S. So lonely blooming.<br /><br />Listen!<br /><br />The spiked and winding cold seahorn. Have you the? Each and for other plash and silent <br />roar.<br /><br />Pearls: when she. Liszt's rhapsodies. Hissss.</I><br /><br />-James Joyce<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-8319933052955101694?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-60919761792826023942007-06-13T14:04:00.000-04:002007-06-13T14:07:30.631-04:00Guest Mp3 Blog #1: “From the land of pity / To that without pity!”<a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/Untitled-769270.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/Untitled-769250.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />A very dramatic person told me that folk music is dead. I don’t really know if these songs have anything to do with that or with each other, but I thought I would put them all together anyway and see what happens. <br /><br />Luciano Berio: from <I>Folk Songs</I> (1964)<br /><a href= http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Wonder.mp3>“I Wonder as I Wander…”</a><br /><a href= http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Femminisca.mp3>”A la femminisca”</a><br />Performed by Cathy Berberian with the Julliard Ensemble, conducted by Luciano Berio<br />Available with the complete Folk Songs <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Berio-Recital-Cathy-Songs-Weill/dp/B000003FOS/ref=sr_1_1/104-8022088-8411918?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1181756901&sr=8-1>on this compact disc</a><br /><br />Unknown performer (recorded in the 1970’s)<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Bocet.mp3>”Bocet” </a> Romanian funeral song.<br />Not available commercially<br /><br />Lau Nau: <a href= http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Mimulla.mp3>”Los Mimulla Olim”</a> and <a href= http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Kuula.mp3>”Kuula”</a><br />– Finnish and young and intimate<br />Available from <a href=http://www.locustmusic.com/index.php?option=com_artists&task=view&Itemid=6&cid=37>Locust Records</a><br /><br />From Bryan.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-6091976179282602394?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-6006766962165594172007-06-13T14:03:00.000-04:002007-06-13T14:04:28.729-04:00Guest PostsFollowing what seems to becoming increasingly common in the blogging and mp3 blogging genre I’ve begun to recruit some of my friends, mentors, and colleagues to write guest mp3 blog posts for this site. <br /><br />The first guest entry I’m posting is written by my good friend Bryan Jacobs. One of my previous mp3 blog entries featured one of Bryan’s acousmatic works <a href=http://www.sequenza21.com/2007/04/mp3-blog-65-into-callous-hands.html >“Into Callous Hand”</a> and Bryan was actually the friend <a href=http://www.sequenza21.com/2006/05/mp3-blog-1-discordance-gloria-and.html>I referred to in my first post</a> who suggested I start a contemporary music mp3 blog. <br /><br />The following post is the first of what I hope will be many guest mp3 blog posts on this blog.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-600676696216559417?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-81717643621680927432007-06-11T15:27:00.001-04:002007-06-11T15:32:05.280-04:00Mp3 Blog #87: "Ur"<a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1070026-797149.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1070026-796425.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Magnus Lindberg:<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Ur.mp3>"Ur"</a> (1986)<br />For five instruments and computer controller Yamaha TX-816 Sampler<br />Performed by Ensemble Intercontemporain, Peter Eötvös conductor<br /><br />No longer available commercially<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-8171764362168092743?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-3682833635927085042007-06-10T13:30:00.000-04:002007-06-10T13:42:11.334-04:00VisitorsA little over a year ago I put a little link on my blog that counts visitors and keeps track of some information about where the 100 most recent visitors are from, how they found my blog, how many entries they looked at, and how long they stayed at my blog. (BTW, trust me I don't use this information for any illicit purposes, I just have a fascination with human statistics.)<br /><br />Earlier today I looked at my counter and I was amazed to find out the number of visits to my blog is over 43,000 and the page visits on has exceded 100,000! Furthermore it seems that the number of visits I get every day has more that quadrupled in the last year, now averaging just above 200 blog visits and 400 page visits a day!<br /><br />I never would have expected this type of traffic and would like to thank everybody who has checked out my blog in the last year and those of you who continue visit in ever increasing numbers.<br /><br />...okay, back to composing.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-368283363592708504?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-89571963983189068732007-06-09T17:30:00.000-04:002007-06-10T22:37:44.390-04:00Mp3 Blog #86: Southwest Songs<a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1020088-782271.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1020088-781308.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Warren Zevon:<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Carmelita.mp3>”Carmelita”</a><br />Available on <a href= http://www.amazon.com/Preludes-Warren-Zevon/dp/B000NVIXJG/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-8022088-8411918?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1181424653&sr=8-1>Preludes: Rare and Unreleased Recordings</a><br /><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Charlies.mp3>”Charlie’s Medicine”</a><br />Available on <a href= http://www.amazon.com/Envoy-Warren-Zevon/dp/B000MGV9WK/ref=pd_sim_m_2/104-8022088-8411918?ie=UTF8&qid=1181424653&sr=8-1>The Envoy</a><br /><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Accidentally.mp3>”Accidentally Like a Martyr”</a><br />Available on <a href= http://www.amazon.com/Excitable-Boy-Warren-Zevon/dp/B000MGV9WA/ref=pd_sim_m_3/104-8022088-8411918?ie=UTF8&qid=1181424653&sr=8-1>Excitable Boy </a><br /><br />Calexico:<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/BlackHeart.mp3>”Black Heart”</a><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/AcrossWire.mp3>”Across the Wire”</a><br />Available on the excellent album <a href= http://www.emusic.com/album/Calexico-Feast-of-Wire-MP3-Download/10869624.html>“Feast of Wire” at emusic</a><br /><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Bloodflow.mp3>”Blood Flow”</a><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Frontera.mp3>”Frontera”</a><br />Available on <a href= http://www.emusic.com/album/Calexico-The-Black-Light-MP3-Download/10869612.html>”The Black Light” at emusic</a><br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br />Over the years I’ve read and talked to a lot people who say that certain songs and music have an almost geographical or photographic representation of a time and place. I feel this is something that is hard to formulate because it is primarily personal; however, I think that when one makes this personal connection these representations become completely undeniable.<br /><br />Since coming to Montréal a number of bands and compositions have helped me understand and come to terms with what it means and feels like to live on this strange French Canadian island. However now that I’ve spent the last three years getting used to Montréal I have to prepare myself to move to San Diego and return to the American southwest in September. To help myself with this move I’ve been seeking out and listening to some particularly southwestern artists and songs.<br /><br />Primarily based in L.A. (which is a mere 90 minutes north of San Diego) I’ve always felt that Warren Zevon writes songs that feel baked to exhaustion in the overly clear and optimistic skies of southern California. What I particularly like about Warren Zevon is that, unlike some other well-known L.A. musicians, he writes songs that a have a very distinct human and tragically dark and/or violent edge to them. To me it’s what you see when you get past a romantic conception that you’re living in an exotic desert paradise – it’s the true wild and often unforgiving natural harshness of a hot and dry terrain.<br /><br /><a href= http://www.casadecalexico.com/index.php>Calexico</a> is band from Tucson, Arizona (where I spent most of my life) that writes music that frequently sounds like it belongs in the soundtrack to a movie about some of my old friends who would live from paycheck to paycheck or gig to gig in this heart of Sonoran desert. Listening to Calexico I can almost feel the hot wind reflecting off of downtown’s pavement in the middle of a dry desolate summer day or hear the sudden lightning that ushers in the harsh wind and rain of a sudden July monsoon shower.<br /><br />Listening to these albums and songs I’m starting to get excited about returning to a land more familiar. In a few days I’ll post some songs that have helped me come to grips with Montréal and are already beginning to make me nostalgic<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-8957196398318906873?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-47976567648547643792007-06-08T15:33:00.001-04:002007-06-08T16:07:30.304-04:00Mp3 Blog #85: "flying white"<a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P6040028-716036.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P6040028-715490.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a href=http://www.roland-dahinden.ch/>Roland Dahinden</a>:<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/FlyingWhite.mp3>String Quartet #4 "flying white"</a> (2003)<br />For string quartet and electronics<br />Performed by the Klangforum Wien String Quartet<br /><br />Available on <a href=http://www.emusic.com/album/10983/10983938.html>this album at emusic</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-4797656764854764379?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-8466891758596155202007-06-08T15:32:00.001-04:002007-06-10T22:40:35.738-04:00Concentration and CompositionI used to think that I could easily do multiple things at once and never lose my concentration. In the last year or so I’ve begun to realize that this was really an incorrect perception – when I am really involved in something it overwhelms my entire concentration. This is particularly the case with composing. For example whenever I become deeply involved in a compositional project the rest of my life falls into severe disorder.<br /><br />I bring this up because in the last week I’ve become deeply absorbed in working on my new composition “Sing/Lose” for the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. In this time I’ve also lost all regularity in my sleeping, eating, and working schedules. I used to have a routine where I would wake regularly at noon, work until 7 or 8 P.M., cook and eat dinner, work a little more, and either read or spend time with friends until I went to sleep. This week, in contrast, I’ve woken up at completely different times every day and even spontaneously taken a nap one evening at 8 P.M., worked on my score for as much as twelve hours straight or as little as two hours straight, had absolutely no idea what to do for dinner every day except one, and spent most evenings pondering what my piece needs or spontaneously taken walks around Montréal.<br /><br />I bring this up because this irregularity will probably continue for the next month or few weeks until I feel satisfied with the score. As a result I doubt I will remember to check comments and post that many long entries. That said I do intend to continue posting music – I just may not have as much to say about it as I’ve had to in the past.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-846689175859615520?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-47544455714970976542007-06-01T13:04:00.000-04:002007-06-01T13:09:21.530-04:00Mp3 Blog #84: "Sgt. Pepper's" turns 40<a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/sgt_pepper_cover-714928.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/sgt_pepper_cover-714916.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />The Beatles:<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/MrKite.mp3>”For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”</a><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/DayLife.mp3>”A Day in A Life”</a><br /><br />If you don’t already have “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Sgt-Peppers-Lonely-Hearts-Club/dp/B000002UAU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-8022088-8411918?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1180716988&sr=8-1>buy it</a> now.<br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br />Forty years ago the Beatles’ seminal album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was released. I can’t gush about how I consider it the best album ever because I reserve that title for <a href=http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21226-kid-a>Kid A</a>, but I can talk about my relationship with Sgt. Pepper’s and some of what it has personally meant to me.<br /><br />When describing my position as a popular music aficionado I often claim I am at heart a Beatles baby because when I was about eight or nine, and really began to start loving music, it was through the Beatles. One of the defining moments that I remember was a weekend when Tucson’s now defunct 92.9 KOOL FM played the Beatles for half an hour every other half hour. I remember enthusiastically recording many of these half hours on my handheld cassette player to listen to later.<br /><br />Soon after I inquisitively rummaged through my parents record collection and discovered their original mono copy of “Sgt. Pepper’s” (complete with the original cardboard cutouts). This worn-out old record was the first album I really came to love and soon after it was also my first of far too many compact discs.<br /><br />To this day “Sgt. Pepper’s,” along with almost of the Beatles’ middle and late catalogue, are perennial favorites in my collection and always function as a sort of charming musical relief from whatever stresses life throws at me. With time I’ve also learned to more greatly appreciate the musical depths in their work and this album. At first I was just drawn to the catchy melodies. Since then I’ve also fallen for the arrangements (to which I largely must credit George Martin), countermelodies, lyrical content, and – what has possibly been the most important in my compositional life – the restless searching experimentalism. Because of this I think that “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” along with most of the Beatles’ catalogue have aged particularly well and will probably continue to hold up just as well for decades to come.<br /><br />* * * <br /><br />By the way, I’m taking part in the convocation for my Masters’ of Music in composition at McGill today. For those who are curious, or don’t know yet, I’ll be heading to the University of California at San Diego to start my Ph.D. in September.<br /><br />Also, if you’re in Montreal and a friend or acquaintance that doesn’t already know about this, Denys Bouliane is throwing a party at his house tonight. The bus (!?!) loads at 17h30 in front of the Strathcona Music Building and returns downtown around 2h00 or 3h00.<br /><br />Cheers!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-4754445571497097654?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-55781587540473694122007-05-29T14:55:00.000-04:002007-05-29T15:00:25.165-04:00Mp3 Blog #83: Unsuk Chin, Violin Concerto<a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1020063-762216.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/P1020063-761114.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a href=http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=2754>Unsuk Chin:</a><br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/ChinViolin.mp3>"Violin Concerto" (all 4 movements)</a> (2002)<br />Performed by the Viviane Hagner on violin, the Deutshes Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Kent Nagano conductor<br /><br />Not available commercially<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-5578158754047369412?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17378119.post-42887621722334512092007-05-25T16:51:00.000-04:002007-05-25T16:58:46.445-04:00Mp3 Blog #82: "Blumenstuck"<a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/714goya-706215.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/714goya-706206.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Georg Friedrich Haas:<br /><a href=http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Blumenstuck.mp3>"Blumenstück"</a> (2000)<br />For choir, bass tuba, and string quartet<br />Performed by Tom Walsh on tuba, the Quintett Rigas Kamermuziki, and the Latvian Radio Choir, Wolfgang Praxmarer conductor<br /><br />Not available commercially<br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br />"Down with liberty!"<br /><br />-Spanish rebel before just execution and student rioters at a zoo in Luis Buñuel's "Le Fantôme de Liberté"<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17378119-4288762172233451209?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fsudol.html'/></div>Jacob Sudolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001389386559687921noreply@blogger.com1