Watch this video and tell me you don’t think that this will fundamentally change music, pretty much all genres, the day after it comes out (September). [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3SsYQrgcyA[/youtube] http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/06/moog-unveils-ba.html
Read moreIt may be old news to some of regular music blog readers, but I think some of the tips by conductor Kenneth Woods – Oh no! More tips…. Now it’s the poor composers…. might be of interest to S21 readers. The rehearsal tips alone are something every composer should memorize. The notation tips, might be controversial, but they’re what I have been doing since I got our of grad school. Always using Italian for instructions, notating as simply as possible, etc. His story about the recent composer in residence process as seen through an arts community was also fascinating. Thanks
Read moreOK, here’s an idea I’ve been working on for a few days… it attempts to combine ALL the projects/ideas into one. What it attempts to do is this: 1. Empower and pay performers – get them excited to be involved 2. Be easily replicable across cities 3. Keep the concert experience short and not too much setup 4. Produce a CD in the process 5. Auto-generate a podcast when combined with interviews 6. Do NOT commission composers – pay performers well – develop some loyalty in the process 7. Combine the ‘variety show’ aspect of the miniatures concert (Miniaturist Ensemble/60×60/Analog
Read moreUnfortunately, I’ve been unable to keep up with the spam attacks our little wiki have suffered and have been forced, because of bandwidth charges, to take it temporarily down. I don’t mind spending a few bucks for the new music world; I’m just not that interested in spending bucks for creepy botboys. I’ll be looking for some plugins or other solutions in the meantime. Sorry for any inconvenience. All of the data is fine – including a zillion links to sex toys, viagra, ciallis in our articles and then there’s the spam stuff too! Just kidding… and stay tuned. P.S.
Read moreAfter his spectacular Spoleto Festival performance of the 16 piece Violin Futura set, Piotr Szewczyk continues to promote the series with a new video and an upcoming gig at the Santa Fe New Music Festival, February 2nd. [youtube]Ywd_mkPa8Oo[/youtube]. Check out the entire series, which was designed around short, exciting pieces for solo violin composed just for Piotr. My favorites include our own Lawrence Dillon’s Mister Blister, Piotr’s Cadenza and Carson Cooman’s The Doors in the Sky. Other composers featured include Mason Bates, John Kennedy, Marc Mellits, and myself with Puce. Piotr’s use of YouTube videos and the web in general
Read moreIn the interest of furthering dialog between our 12ET brethren and our more flavorful microtonalist artists I present this provocative YouTube recording of America’s favorite band, Van Halen attempting to close a set with their signature cheeseburger – Jump. The backstage sound guy accidentally plays the synth opening at 48K rather than 44.1 causing a 1.5 semitone tonal conflict to occur. Eddie and the crew attempt to roll with the microtonal noise but no… it is not meant to be. Somehow I believe new music’s brilliant microtonalist/guitarist Neil Haverstick could have done a lot better. [youtube]Mjx_GjyXCs4[/youtube]
Read moreAs many of you know, we also run a new music wiki here. It’s got lots of user-created content, links to very cool MP3 files through our Listening Room and a lot of lists of performers, and opportunities. Recently we’ve come under attack, not from SpamBots but from a new type of bot which seemingly means only to destroy wikis. We’re not the only one being attacked, but it has seemingly focussed a great deal of attention on our little homebrew music information site. If you check out the Recent Changes you’ll see auto-generated usernames and very slight random text
Read moreMy father-in-law, Alfred Russell, died a few weeks ago. He was an amazing painter and a really eccentric person. He was one of the hottest Paris/New York abstractionist painters in the 40’s and 50’s. Ad Reinhardt was the best man at his wedding; he got Rothko his first teaching job; was friends/enemies with all the big names but because of his notorious provocateur spirit he never got rich while all of his equals sold their souls to the rich for millions of dollars. A famous article in October Magazine started the trend, when he lamented the ‘easy abstraction’ of the
Read moreSo who’s going to help break the back of the mega-music corporations by buying – at any price – at your price – for nothing – a download of the new Radiohead album In Rainbows? I did it this morning and I feel good about it. I’m now promised an email with a download URL for the entire album tomorrow. For those who haven’t been paying attention to the world’s greatest art rock band, their new album is downloadable tomorrow – without the cooperation of any record company. You pay what you want. You can pay $.01. You can pay
Read moreWith news that Apple is suing the manufacturers of the iGasm it occurred to me last night that this perhaps was a possible new venue for contemporary music. I brought up the subject with a few friends over beers and the debate began, ‘What piece of avant garde music would be the ideal iGasm driver?’ Steve Reich? Philip Glass? Xenakis? Ferneyhough? The winner at the table seemed to be the genre of noize punk. Driving 200 BMP noise. But who knows? Maybe your music could be a hit at this latest of new music venues extended! What piece of music
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