Renewable Music‘s long-time American-in-Deutschland, Daniel J. Wolf, had the idea of inviting composers to contribute to an album for piano, simply centered around this moment and season. No publishers, no glitzy “call for works”, just a friendly invitation for any interested. The result is the A Winter Album, twelve piano pieces of quite diverse hues, for each and everyone of us to freely peruse in our gray and inclement hours. The composers may not be known to you, but all the better; they’re a stellar bunch in my book: Dennis Báthory-Kitsz, Jon Brenner, Steed Cowart, Elaine Fine, Hauke Harder, Ben.Harper,
Read moreWhat’s Christmas without a little organ music? Der Engel by our own Steve Layton.
Read morePaul Dirmeikis attended Stockhausen’s funeral on December 13, and has a report. The family is already starting to slowly walk away. Some of us stay around the tomb, scattered between the neighbour tombs. Near the larger alley going down to the chapel, all members of Stockhausen’s family gathered together in a circle, holding their hands. Simon reads something. It’s around 4 pm. That’s it. One of the greatest composers of these last 50 years has just been buried. It’s a freezing afternoon in a distant German village. Fermata.
Read morePassed on by Carson Cooman: The American composer Robert Moevs died Monday evening, December 10, 2007 at age 87. Born in La Crosse, Wisconsin on December 2, 1920, Moevs studied at Harvard University (BA, 1942). He entered the US Air Force and served as a pilot. He resumed his musical studies at the Paris Conservatoire (1947–51) and then at Harvard (MA, 1952); his principal teachers were Walter Piston and Nadia Boulanger. For the next three years he was at the American Academy in Rome as a Rome Prize Fellow. An inspiring teacher, Moevs served on the faculty at Harvard (1955–63)
Read moreOur gaucho amigo Marvin Rosen is the most innovative and knowledgeable music programmer in the universe but who knew that he aspired to become the new music world’s Jerry Lewis? Marvin is hosting a special 24-hour marathon edition of his terrific radio program Classical Discoveries titled “Viva 21st century,” which will air on WPRB out of Princeton, NJ beginning at 6:00 pm on Thursday, December 27 and will conclude at 6:00 pm on Friday, December 28. Sympathizers and fellow travelers who don’t live in the Princeton area can listen to the show online at www.wprb.com The program includes works from only
Read moreI was late getting to the Times today and just noticed that Andrew Imbrie has died. Joshua Kosman’s obituary is here. Robert P. Commanday remembers him here. Imbrie wasn’t nearly as spectacular or well-known a musical figure as Stockhausen but through his prolific and quietly impeccable body of work, his teaching, and his singular, unique voice, he may have been just as influential. You can listen to his magnificent Requiem, written in 1984 after the death of his son, free at Art of the States. I’m listening to it now.
Read morerecieved at the Canadian Eletroacoustic mail-list: PRESS RELEASE The composer Karlheinz Stockhausen passed away on December 5th 2007 at his home in Kuerten-Kettenberg and will be buried in the Waldfriedhof (forest cemetery) in Kuerten. He composed 362 individually performable works. The works which were composed until 1969 are published by Universal Edition in Vienna, and all works since then are published by the Stockhausen-Verlag. Numerous texts by Stockhausen and about his works have been published by the Stockhausen Foundation for Music. Suzanne Stephens and Kathinka Pasveer, who have performed many of his works and, together with him, have taken care of
Read moreThe new Pope with the Prada slippers whose name nobody can remember, and who is, by the way, German, is apparently banning modern music in the Vatican. Seems he thinks that Pope Gregory pretty much nailed it and is backing his chief enforcer–Mgr Valentin Miserachs Grau, director of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, which trains church musicians, who says that there had been serious “deviations” in the performance of sacred music. “How far we are from the true spirit of sacred music. How can we stand it that such a wave of inconsistent, arrogant and ridiculous profanities have so
Read moreOur regular listen to and look at living, breathing musicians that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer so much good listening online: Julie Harting (b. 1957 — US, NYC) The talk is always “Oh that Schoenberg, making this artificial system that nobody really gets or feels!”… Except there are a few people like Julie: When I was 7 or 8, I found a miniature violin in my father’s closet, because he played violin when he was a kid. I also found a book called
Read moreTranslating pop music into more ambitious musical forms is a risky business that sometimes produces surprising results. Who would have guessed, for example, that Twyla Tharp’s recycling of Billy Joel’s songs to tell the central story of the Sixties generation would be such a compelling and moving theatrical experience–an effect greatly heightened by having those songs reproduced note by note on stage by the world’s best tribute band. Once you’ve seen it, you’re forced to admit that Joel (who you might have previously taken lightly, as I did) writes really intelligent songs that display a wide and deep musical versatility. It’s one of those ‘aha’ moments like seeing Fleetwood Mac and realizing
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