I’ve been paying some bills for the past couple for the past couple of days and haven’t had a chance to update much. While I’m still catching up, why don’t we do a followup to our great music fiction list–the essential non-fiction books about music. Perhaps, we could have a beginner’s or popular list and an advanced list. Who’s got something?
Read moreLast week I went to Corey Dargel’s new postmodern cabaret show “Removable Parts,” and it was excellent. I call it “postmodern cabaret” because I’m not sure what else to call it—it was a series of songs on the theme of voluntary amputation, and they were performed by Corey and Kathleen Supové who performed in character as a sort of dysfunctional cabaret act. The songs were delightful—intelligently composed and quirky, moving in fits and starts, building up grooves and then taking them apart, stealing from and recontextualizing various pop, rock, and classical idioms. The lyrics and dialogue were witty, treading that
Read moreReview in yesterday’s NYT of a novel called The Spanish Bow by a Chicago-born, Alaska-domiciled writer with the unlikely name of Andromeda Romano-Law. The teaser is this: “In a dusty, turn-of-the-century Catalan village, the bequest of a cello bow sets young Feliu Delargo on the unlikely path of becoming a musician.” Reminds me that I don’t think we’ve done a list of novels in which music, or musical instruments, have played a key role. I’ll start the list with the distinctly unfriendly to the little people Annie Proulx’s Accordian Crimes. Who’s next?
Read moreThe season is underway in New York and, as usual, there are a number of promising looking performances coming up. Here are a few things to look for: Margaret Garner, Richard Danielpour’s operatic collaboration with Toni Morrison, is in mid-run at City Opera and, judging from the ads, there are plenty of seats to be had. I can’t quite stir myself enough to drag up there and sit through an evening of misery about a runaway slave who murders her daughter rather than have her captured. Doesn’t stop me from having an opinion, though. Morrison is too sanctimonious and self-important by half and
Read moreOur 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, with so much good listening online: Virgil Moorefield (b. 1956 — US) With not only an M.F.A. and Ph.D. in composition from Princeton, but a B.A. and an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Columbia (with a bit of Juilliard thrown in), you might expect some “high-concept” mixing with the music in Virgil Moorefield’s work, and so there is. But Virgil has a powerful weapon for keeping that ivory tower from becoming
Read moreWhen he went to work for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center a few years ago, Ronen Givony knew very little about classical music. Not himself a musician, but a passionate music fan, his tastes inclined to Indie-rock. He listened to Radiohead, David Byrne, Björk, and other, more obscure eclectics. At CMS he discovered classical music and was quickly smitten by old fogies like Bach, Mendelssohn, and Ligeti. Seeing his fellow Indie fans as a natural audience for classical music, he proposed a series of joint rock/classical concerts at Lincoln Center. He now works at Nonesuch. For a series
Read moreOn September 15, 2001 Kalvos & Damian put out a call for pieces composed in reflection of the September 11th tragedies in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania, to be broadcast on the late, lamented radio program. Their list is here. There have been lots of pieces since–Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls, Carl Schroeder’s Christine’s Lullaby, Michael Gordon’s The Sad Park. Who can name some others?
Read moreSo that’s what’s wrong! (nudge-nudge, wink-wink…): Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8 Music, a mode of creative expression consisting of sound and silence expressed through time, was given a 6.8 out of 10 rating in an review published Monday on Pitchfork Media, a well-known music-criticism website. According to the review, authored by Pitchfork editor in chief Ryan Schreiber, the popular medium that predates the written word shows promise but nonetheless “leaves the listener wanting more.” “Music’s first offering, an eclectic, disparate, but mostly functional compendium of influences from 5000 B.C. to present day, hints that this trend’s time may not only have
Read moreFabulous review of Corey Dargel’s “darkly enchanting” theater piece about voluntary amputation, Removable Parts, in today’s New York Times. A few years from now when Corey is permanently ensconsed in the old Bobby Short room at the Carlyle, we’ll all say we knew him when. Matthew Cmeil has a new website. Steve Layton has a hot new piece for your dining and dancing pleasure: Spin It (2002; 2007 performance) Alesis QSR & my FreeSound posse (sandyrb, oniwe) Minimalist multi sax and keyboard barrage, to be played as loudly as you or your neighbors can stand… The technique is all Rzewski &
Read moreOkay, he stayed too long at the fair. The idea of a 60-year-old, 400-pound man playing a starving artist failed to suspend disbelief. The three tenors crap was execrable. He probably inspired Andrea Bocelli. But, once upon a time, there was this voice: [youtube]_CC9U43BFio[/youtube] Alex Ross, Steve Smith, Marcus Maroney, Charles T. Downey, Tim Mangan, Marc Geelhoed, Opera Chic
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