Composers

Click Picks, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Steve’s click picks #16

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:

“New” Mexico via Myspace

NEW Mexico If your idea of contemporary Mexican art music is still Chavez and Revueltas, you’re so far out of date that it’s not even funny! I can’t catch you up on composers from the 50’s through the 90’s; Google will have to help you out there. Some names to explore might be Manuel Enríquez, Mario Lavista, Federico Ibarra-Groth, Marcela Rodríguez, Hilda Paredes, Hebert Vázquez, Germán Romero, Gabriela Ortíz Torres, Juan Felipe Waller, Julio Estrada, Mauricio Beltránand. (Feeling out of the loop already? Then get busy…)

Those are all fine and respected composers, surely, but where I want to take you is to an even newer fringe of younger Mexican composers and performers, experimental and electronic musicians and improvisers, who happened to have set up a loose confederation on Myspace.com. We’re talking the NEW new, musicians whose influence lists always include Ferneyhough, Lachenmann and Murail right along with my generation’s heros like Xenakis, Ligeti and Feldman; where Zorn and Merzbow are placed as equals with any of those previous names; and where electronic and digital means are are taken for granted as stock-in-trade, right along with all the traditional instruments.

Many will have links on their Myspace page to more “official” websites; but the Myspace pages will give you an easy central location with plenty to listen to for starters, lots of information (Spanish helps but isn’t absolutely essential), and a good sense of the interconnection involved. I don’t need to tell you much more; this is Myspace after all, so you don’t need to just listen but can actually meet and talk with each and any of them! So what are you waiting for?.. say hello to our southern neighbors.

Iván Naranjo: Composer, his 2002 string quartet Uno, played by the Arditti, was just released on a new Mode CD.

Wilfrido Terrazas: Flautist and composer, seems to be a large part of the “glue” bringing these groups of musicians together.

Isaac de la Concha: Composer, improviser, teacher, with no less than three (!!) Myspace pages, one devoted to each aspect.

Alexander Bruck Santos: Violist with a fondness for everything from Feldman to free improv.

Adnán Márquez-Borbon: Saxophonist and improviser.

With a number of other musicians (who you’ll find listed in their personnel of the pages), this posse does duty in one or more of the following experimental ensembles:

Generación Espontánea

Ensamble Áspero

ArtoEnsamble

Colectivo Kaoss

Circling the periphery, but still connected and quite worth checking out, are these composers:

Arístides Llaneza

Juan José Bárcenas

Pablo Rubio Vargas

by Steve Layton
Composers, Contemporary Classical, Strange

Still want that Fulbright?

Michael Rose & friendsMichael Rose, composer and pianist who’s normally found teaching at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, has been on a Fulbright-sponsored stay at the Kerala Kalamandalam, a performing-arts school in south India. The nice folks over at the music & audio review site La Folia are hosting Michael’s report on the highs and lows of his adventure. Not least among the lows is his current opinion of the whole Fulbright biz… The link will take you to part one of his — both entertaining and cautionary — adventure, with links there to parts two and three.

by Steve Layton
Click Picks, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Steve’s click picks #15

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:

Cecilia Arditto (b. 1966 — Argentina / NL)

Cecilia ArdittoCecilia will tell you:

I have always been struck by the sensuality of sound, I have always loved it. The infinite possibilities of instruments constitute a source of inspiration and research. However, the exploration of sound would just be an empty category, a cosmetic idea, if it were not tied to the idea of musical grammar. Here, then, is an introduction to my research: intense exploration of the world of tone-colour – principally of acoustic instruments and the human voice – subordinated to a profound preoccupation with the idea of form. For me form is conferred only by a few elements, by small points. They could be few in number and minimalist; complexity is not a matter of quantity. […]

Musical works transcend the various performances and their historicity, they transcend the composer’s intentions. Music resonates at a historical moment, but also in the most intimate categories of a human being: it resonates in places you cannot grasp, that can only be suggested, that can only be guessed at through a delicate network of relationships. Music is neither notes nor instruments, nor is it time. It constitutes an object that is impossible to define, that gives rise to a multiplicity of simultaneous perspectives. The essence of a musical work is given by the listener. This essence propulses the music into a more abstract condition. […]

I think music has to do with several things at the same time: feelings, thoughts, perceptions that are always changing. I cannot say, “That’s how it is!”. So I cannot answer your question. It is when I write music that I find what I am looking for.

At her site you’ll find the rest of this 2004 interview, along with many MP3s and scores. There’s also a link to her (Spanish-mostly) blog, “La cocina de Ce”.

by Steve Layton
Composers, Contemporary Classical

Philip Glass at 70–Undervalued or Not?

Philip Glass turns 70 today and it seems to me he is doing so without much of the hoopla that surrounded Steve Reich’s attainment of that milestone a few months back.  No mention of the event in today’s New York Times and Google News turns up only a brief note about a birthday concert in Nashville.  Underwhelming reaction for a man who is America’s best-known living composer and one whose music is so widely available in so many forms–CDs, films, concerts and so on.

Part of the problem, it seems to me, is that Glass had written so much music that critics assume that it must be uneven in quality and, of course, that is certainly true.  But, like the work of Martinu, (another busy little beaver) Glass’ seconds are better than most composers’ first. 

Whatever it is, Glass is generally undervalued by the critics and music directors and that’s a shame because he has (according to some critics whose work I respect) been doing some of his best composing in years lately.  When his new opera Waiting for the Barberians opened in Austin last weekend, the reviews were considerably better than they have been for a long time:  “Some of [Glass’s] most agile, vivid music,” wrote Steve Smith for The New York Times, “setting scenes with a genuinely impressive emotional specificity.” Mark Swed said in The Los Angeles Times that “Barbarians is a sad, shocking and painfully pensive story … Glass’s music, commercially successful, long ago lost its ability to shock. But he can still write melancholic, wistfully pensive music — and better than ever.”  

Another new Glass opera, Appomattox, will debut next October at the San Francisco Opera.

So, here’s today’s Cafferty File question:  Is Philip Glass overrated, underrated, or fairly valued?  I want an up or down answer from everybody. 

by Jerry Bowles
Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical

He’s Baaack!

Major props to young Master Salvage for his outstanding work attending to the front page over the past couple of weeks while I attended to some pressing matters of commerce.  Big up yourself, David.  Well done.

So, let’s go to the mailbag and see what’s happening.  Ah, here’s something.  Our regular Rob Deemer has just launched a new radio program called The Composer Next Door on Oklahoma City’s classical radio station KCSC-FM.  Rob, who lives and teaches in OC, approached the general manager of the station last summer with the idea of a  locally-created show that focuses on living composers and new music.  Six months later, Rob tells us, it’s running smoothly.

“I’ve contacted composers from all over the country (and am continuing to do so) and over 50 established and emerging composers have been gracious in donating recordings to include in the broadcast,” he says. “The project is entirely home-grown; I write and record the scripts and edit the show completely in my own house. It’s a labor of love, but I think it may have some legs to it (and will be easily transportable if I find myself in another location in the future).”

The show is aired at 4 pm CST every Sunday on KCSC and is available on the web.  Sounds like fun.

This looks neat.  Miller Theater is doing the U.S. premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Lost Highway, an opera based on the David Lynch film, on February 23 and 24.  The production is a joint between Miller and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music’s Contemporary Music Division.   Says here that “This haunting opera was adapted from the cult film by David Lynch, and is at once a mystery and a thriller.  Neuwirth’s moody and mysterious opera combines live musicians, singers, actors, electronics, and video-a full arsenal of stage techniques to bring Lynch’s film to life with gripping immediacy.” We’re reserving judgement.

I need somebody to handle the front page for me from February 5 through 10.  Who wants to be lead blogger for a week?  Means you have to put something up every day before noon.  Hands?

Here’s a little something for your dining and dancing pleasure recommended by Marco Antonio Mazzini, which reminds me of a couple of things.  One is that the HBO series Rome is fabulous with all these great English actors and actresses that you never heard of.  Equal opportunity full-frontal nudity, too. The other is that an Italian guy I know is looking for somebody to practice his English on for about an hour a day for a couple of weeks.  He’s making a presentation in English in Las Vegas in February and wants to polish a bit.  Late afternoon, early evening, and he’s willing to pay.  You must, however, Skype.  Don’t volunteer unless you’re Skypeable.

And now on with the show:

[youtube]rC3OXai7W9I[/youtube]  

by Jerry Bowles
CDs, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music

Before, Between and After

DeLaurenti CD cover My pal Christopher DeLaurenti — composer, field-recordist, improviser, and writer on Seattle’s classical and new-music scene in the weekly Stranger newspaper — is happy to announce the release of his latest CD, Favorite Intermissions: Music Before and Between Beethoven, Stravinsky and Holst. Chris’ short description:

“Secretly recorded at orchestral concerts across the country, this collection of intermissions teems with unusual soundscapes, startling (and unintended) collective improvisations, and surprising, sometimes gritty sonic detail from the sacred space of the concert hall. [….] Why record intermissions? One duty of the composer is to expose the unexpected, overlooked, and hidden skeins of music woven in the world around us. Culling sounds from the world as a composition subverts long-standing, essentialist notions of music as comprised of notes, melody, traditional instruments (violin, guitar, drums, piano, etc.) and so forth as well as flouts contemporary expectations of abstractly agglomerated, musique concrète-ized sound.”

I see Chris himself on the right of the cover, no doubt deep in the process of bringing us this latest opus. You can get your own copy directly through GD Records.

by Steve Layton
Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Uncategorized

John Ogdon, born January 27th 1937

John Ogdon was born, seventy years ago, on January 27th 1937. The following words were written by him in 1981. “Here then…are some of the harsh facts behind the words ‘severe mental illness’ and ‘serious nervous breakdown’ which the press has been using about me so often lately. Not that I am complaining about the press! – I was thrilled by the sympathetic and wide spread media interest that came my way both before and after my return to the … concert stage”. 

Ogdon (photo above) was an extraordinary pianist, composer, and new music visionary whose close friends and musical influences included Peter Maxwell Davies, (who wrote his Opus 1 Sonata for Trumpet and Opus 2 Five Pieces for Piano for him), Harrison Birtwistle and Alexander Goehr.

For the full story visit John Ogdon – a blazing meteor.

by Pliable
Click Picks, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Steve’s click picks #14

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:

Bun-Ching Lam (b. 1954 — China / US)

Bun-Ching Lam — Born in the Macau region of China, Bun-Ching Lam began studying piano at the age of seven and gave her first public solo recital at fifteen. In 1976, she received a B.A. in piano performance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She then accepted a scholarship from the University of California at San Diego, where she studied composition with Bernard Rands, Robert Erickson, Roger Reynolds, Pauline Oliveros. Afterwards she was invited to join the music faculty of the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where she taught until 1986. She’s been the Jean MacDuff Vaux Composer-in-Residence at Mills College, California, the America Dance Festival, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra; and a Visiting Professor in Composition at the School of Music, Yale University, and at Bennington College in Vermont. She now divides her time between Paris and New York.

From an interview with Meet The Composer‘s Ken Gallo:

Bun-Ching Lam: Half of my life I have lived in the United States and I grew up in Macau, which was a Portuguese colony. So, I was well versed in Western culture; but still deeply rooted in my Chinese culture. I have the best of both worlds. Actually, I don’t think of it as two worlds. It’s one world; one with a very cosmopolitan view. I’m comfortable here; I’m comfortable in China, and, actually, I’m comfortable in Europe. I speak all these different languages. There is no conflict in who I am. Sometimes I feel like eating Japanese food; sometimes I feel like eating French. I am a citizen of the world. It’s all the same to me.

Ken Gallo: You didn’t grow up under Communist rule?

BCL: No, I grew up under Portuguese government. My piano teacher was Portuguese and we spoke English most of the time. My background is very different from other Chinese-American composers like Bright Sheng, Zhou Long and Chen Yi, although we are all Chinese.

KG: When you lived in China, did you know these other Chinese composers who are now your American colleagues?

BCL: Actually, we only met in 1986 in Hong Kong during a Chinese composers conference. That was the first time; 10 years after the Cultural Revolution.

KG: Did you find that you had any common stories to share about the Cultural Revolution?

BCL: Not really. For example, Chen Yi is from Canton which is not far from Macau; like from NYC to Albany. Although, we both speak Cantonese, politically Canton was a very different climate than Macau. I did go to a so-called “Communist school,” so I knew all the Revolutionary songs. During the Cultural Revolution, when I was in school, I was playing the accordion and singing songs praising Chairman Mao. We all have that in common. When we met they were very surprised when I knew all those songs.

Sure, Chen Yi’s hit the big awards, Tan Dun’s the flavor-of-the-month; but Bun-Ching Lam’s been working her own brand of fusion every bit as long or longer, just as comfortable writing for zheng, dizi, erhu and sho as for trombone, violin, or piano, and has made plenty of more-than-wonderful music. From her site, follow the link marked “Samples” and you’ll find MP3s of complete movements of a number of her works, a good 50 minutes at least.

by Steve Layton
Click Picks, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Uncategorized

Steve’s click picks #13

Philippe Kocher (b. 1973 — Switzerland)

Philippe Kocher

Philippe Kocher studied piano, electroacoustic music and musicology in Zurich and more recently music theory and composition with Detlev Müller-Siemens at the Musikakademie Basel, where he graduated in June 2004. He spent the academic year 2004-05 in London at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was at the same time a student and a teaching assistant for electroacoustic composition and real-time digital audio programming (Max/MSP). His work encompasses pieces for instruments and voice with or without electronics, and his interest lies both in electronic and instrumental music. As means for sound and score synthesis, the computer has become his most important instrument in both fields. Philippe’s music has been performed both in Switzerland and world-wide (Berlin, Munich, Rome, London, Brussels, Bourges, New York, Boston) as well as being broadcast by Swiss and German radio stations.

I suppose a lot of Kocher’s music qualifies for the new-high-modernist moniker, but it’s much more appealing than that sounds, with lots of brilliant color and quirky asides. Head for the “Audio” link on the navigation, and you’ll find plenty to hear; Figuren Bewegungen (6 microtonally-tuned keyboards) or Il Niege au Soleil (solo violin, ensemble and electronics) are slightly more intimate starting-points, while the larger and longer die moderne Unruhe setzt ein (mixed choir, violin, violoncello, baritone saxophone, percussion, sampler and live electronics) is a much more ambitious place to dive in.

by Steve Layton
Composers, Contemporary Classical, Uncategorized

Equality of the composing sexes

Five minutes before Elisabeth Lutyens appeared live on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Start the Week’ in 1979 she threatened to denounce Russell Harty as a ‘homosexual interviewer’ if he mentioned the phrase ‘lady composer’; thankfully Harty avoided using the words when the programme was on air. Lutyens was a larger than life personality who pioneered serial techniques in her unfairly neglected music. She was also well connected as my photo shows. For the full story, and a recommendation of a new CD of her music, click on Walking with Stravinsky.

by Pliable