Composers

Awards, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Better late than never…

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We’re a little late in reporting this, but last month composer George Tsontakis was awarded the Charles Ives Living by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. I had never heard of this prize before, but it’s a sweet deal. Tsontakis receives $75,000. each year for three years provided that he forgo all normal paid work. He may, however, accept commissions. The Charles Ives Living was established by Ives’s widow with royalties from her late husband’s music. This round the selection committee was chaired by none other than William Bolcom. The previous three winners were Stephen Hartke, Chen Yi, and Martin Bresnick. 

Can we agree that between this and the Grawemeyer Tsontakis is on a serious roll these days? I think we can.

Otherwise things look pretty quiet here today. I’m taking over the daily post here for two weeks as Jerry sees to some Top Secret S21 Business. Stay tuned . . .

by David Salvage
Classical Music, Click Picks, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Uncategorized

Steve’s click picks #12

Our regular listen to and look at living, breathing composers and performers 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:

Hidayat Inayat-Khan (b.1917 — India / Europe)

Hidayat Inayat-Khan

Taken mostly from the 1981 Cambridge International Biographical Centre entry, I just have to give you a good taste of this very interesting bio:

Hidayat Inayat-Khan’s great-grandfather, Mula Bux, founded the first Academy of Music in India in the 19th century, and also invented the music notation system carrying his name. Born in 1882, Professor Inayat Khan, father of Hidayat Inayat-Khan, was the greatest classical musician in India in his time. He wrote several books, among them ‘Minca-I-Musicar’, the first treatise on Indian music. His first historical Western concert was given on 9 April 1911, in the Hindu Temple of San Francisco. Later, in Russia, he met Scriabin. In 1913 Lucien Guitry organised Professor Inayat Khan’s first concert in Paris, where Claude Debussy was also inspired by the charm of Indian music. It is reported Professor Inayat Khan gave Claude Debussy lessons in Vina playing.

Hidayat Inayat-Khan was born in London on 6th August 1917, and was cradled in an atmosphere of Indian music. His western musical education began in 1932 at the Ecole Normale de Musice de Paris, in the violin class of Bernard Sinsheimer; the composition class of Nadia Boulanger; and the orchestra class of Diran Alexanian. Later, he attended chamber music courses given by the Lener Quartet in Budapest. In 1942 Hidayat Inayat-Khan became Professor of music at the Lycee Musical de Dieulefit, France, and later in Holland joined the orchestra of Haarlem as violinist. In 1952 He conducted the orchestra of Hertogenbosch for the broadcasting of his Poème en Fa for orchestra and piano, in a world-wide program, and, in the same year, founded his first chamber music orchestra ensemble.

Significant occasions in Hidayat Inayat-Khan’s professional life include the playing, on 4th May 1957, of his Zikar Symphony at Salle Pleyel, Paris. On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s centenary, on 21st November 1969, Hazrat Inayat Khan’s Gandhi Symphony was played in a special concert organized by UNESCO in Holland. This was also played in 1971 during a broadcasting of ‘The Voice of America’, as well as on the United Nations Radio in the USA and was later recorded by the US Armed Forces Radio Stations in a world-wide Carmen Dragon show. In 1988 Hidayat Inayat-Khan assumed the role of Representative-General of the Sufi Movement International and Pir-o-Murshid of its Inner School. He divides his time between Holland and the family home in Suresnes, but travels extensively, giving classes and lectures on Sufism.

I didn’t see a death-date; if not he’s still pushing 90 this year. The Sufi Petama Project hosts an extensive site dedicated to Hidayat Inayat-Khan, including MP3s of a number of his works (and links to places to buy CDs of this rather rare stuff). On the left navigation, head to the Quartet op. 48 first; starting somewhere in Delius/Debussy land, by the third movement rolls around (which mysteriously expands the quartet to full string orchestra) you’ll be strongly reminded of Hovhaness. Then give his Ziukar Symphony or Message Symphony a go. If it all sounds up your alley, my work is done… If not then never fear, I’ll head back into experimental territory next outing!

by Steve Layton
Composers, Contemporary Classical, Film Music

Pare & Virgil

For those of you who were insufficiently cheered by Florida’s decisive surge over the Ohio State football factory, here’s something that should help.  Our friends at Naxos will  release on January 31 a  DVD of fellow Mountaineer Pare Lorentz’s landmark New Deal-era documentaries “The Plow that Broke the Plains” (1936) and “The River” (1938), featuring the first complete modern recordings of the seminal Virgil Thomson soundtracks by Washington, D.C.-based Post-Classical Ensemble under Angel Gil-Ordóñez, with narration by Floyd King.

“The Plow that Broke the Plains,” which examines the causes of the Dust Bowl drought and was made for $20,000, was the first film produced by the United States Government for commercial release. Despite being rejected by the film distribution system as New Deal propaganda, the documentary reached people in over 3,000 theaters. “The River,” which addressed flood control on the Mississippi River, won Best Documentary honors at the Venice Film Festival and received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for its script.  It is probably unfair to call Lorentz Roosevelt’s Leni Riefenstahl but his films demonstrated the power of documentary to influence opinion.

Virgil Thomson’s soundtracks to both movies rank among the composer’s greatest work and also set the trend in the 1930s and 1940s for a new style of film music. A young Aaron Copland found the scores to be “fresher, more simple, and more personal” than most Hollywood soundtracks, “a lesson in how to treat Americana.”

Hey, somebody start some trouble over on the Composers Forum page.

 

by Jerry Bowles
Ambient, Classical Music, Competitions, Composers, Contemporary Classical

‘Neath the Shade of the Old Walnut Tree

Back in July, nine students associated with AAIR, the independent radio station of London’s Architectural Association School of Architecture, spent several days recording natural and man-made sounds to create an extensive sonic map of Capri, the island, not the car or the pants.   The result is Radiocapri.

Now they’re inviting all of us to “remix” the sounds of the island in their cleverly named “International Remix Competition A.”  Here’s the best part:  the winning entry will be picked by Brian Eno, Arto Lindsay and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

The winner will get fame, fortune and more attractive lovers, plus a spot on an upcoming Radio Anacapri recording.  Deadline is January 31.  Details are here.

by Jerry Bowles
Awards, Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Musical Mashup or Composers Say the Darndest Things

From the CBC:

Toronto composer James Rolfe has won the $7,500 Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music for his contemporary work raW, the Canada Council for the Arts announced Thursday.

raW, written during the buildup to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, won the award designed to encourage the creation of new Canadian chamber music. It was chosen from a field of 115 new compositions.

The work “was written by filtering J. S. Bach’s Second Brandenburg Concerto through Bob Marley’s War (first movement), Burning Spear’s The Invasion (second movement), and John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever (third movement),” Rolfe said. 

Does anybody remember who I gave Lee Hyla’s latest CD to review?  Hope it wasn’t Evan since he’s wandered off somewhere until February. If it was somebody else, please review it because I promised.  

I have a bunch of new stuff lying around although some of you still owe me from last year.  How about this one:  John Cage’s Postcard from Heaven for 1-20 harps?

 

by Jerry Bowles
Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers

Calling All Clarinetists

Our friend Marco Antonio Mazzini is inviting all clarinetists to participate in the first “Musical Marathon – Prize for Most Creative Interpretation” contest that will take place on the web, from January 10th to August 10th, 2007.  Each contestant must make and submit a recording of “Convalescencia“, a solo clarinet piece by Argentinean composer Juan María Solare. This score is available HERE. All the details are here. 

“The title of this event focuses on the ‘creative’ word:  the piece we selected can be played (technically) by any average clarinet student, but the fun is…what to do with it,”  Marco says.  “Also, it can be performed in any clarinet.

“One of the members of the Clariperu jury is the godfather of the bass clarinet, Harry Sparnaay (my hero). Bass clarinetist don’t have many competitions (if any!).”

Marco also asked that we mention his group’s sponsors, Vandoren, Periferia Music and Radio Fabrik.   But, of course, we don’t do such things.

Enjoy the film.

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by Jerry Bowles
Composers, Deaths, Uncategorized

Joan Baez sings Sibelius

Yes, you read that right. 2007 brings the fiftieth anniversary of Jean Sibelius’ death, and his tone poem Finlandia was written as a protest against Russian influence in Finland at the end of the 19th century. Joan Baez sung her own a cappella version on Michael Moore’s 2004 Slacker’s Uprising Tour, and in anticipation of the composer’s anniversary year On An Overgrown Path has the full story and an audio file in Sibelius – his genius remains unrecognised. 

by Pliable
Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Music Events

Oh, It Doesn’t Look at All Like Christmas

You wouldn’t know it from the freakish weather (60 degrees today) here in the Center of the Universe but it’s Christmas time and that means it’s time for Phil Kline to lead a massive chorus of boomboxes through the streets of Greenwich Village in the 15th annual holiday presentation of his legendary UNSILENT NIGHT.   

The fun starts this Saturday, December 16 at 7:00 pm, at the arch in Washington Square Park.  You know the drill:  Kline puts the different parts of his composition on cassettes, and distributes them to those who show up at Washington Square.  At the given signal, everyone simultaneously pressses  PLAY.  When the cassettes start rolling, “they blossom into a marvelously crafted symphony” (Time Out New York) and the crowd begins to snake eastward, following a pre-determined route until the piece ends in Tompkins Square Park less than an hour and a mile later. 

Since its debut in 1992, UNSILENT NIGHT has become a cult holiday tradition in NY and around the world, drawing crowds of up to 1,500 participants.  This year will see (actually some of them have already happened) repeat presentations in San Francisco, Philadelphia, San Diego, Vancouver BC, Middlesbrough (England), and Sydney, Australia, as well as the first ever performances in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Baltimore, Charleston, Rochester, Asheville, Milledgeville (Georgia), Banff (Alberta, Canada), and the Yukon Territory.  This past February, a new version of UNSILENT NIGHT was presented at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, as part of a sound art festival in the Alps.

You’re strongly encouraged to bring your own boomboxes, for which Kline will provide tapes.  Which raises an interesting question:  where do you find boomboxes these days.  Haven’t they gone the way of the 8-track?

Yeah, so get with it Phil.  Let’s have the silent UNSILENT NIGHT with a bunch of people wandering around the Village with their ears stuffed with iPod ear thingies.  Positively Fourth Street Cageian.

Our friend Brian Sacawa led the first-ever Baltimore version of UNSILENT NIGHT on Friday night and has video to prove it. 

 

by Jerry Bowles