“But he, Siddhartha, where did he belong? Whose life would he share? Whose language would he speak?” These words of Hermann Hesse depict Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) at a pivotal point in his quest to find purpose in the world. He will soon find it, seeing one where he once saw many, finding that the seemingly unrelated are related.

Later in the same book, Siddhartha, is a chapter called “By the River,” which inspired the title of Indian-American composer Asha Srinivasan’s newest work, By the River of Savathi, that will be premiered on June 2nd and 3rd, in New York City, as part of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s “Notable Women Festival: A Celebration of Women Composers”—result of winning first prize, among seventy-four applicants between the ages of twenty and thirty, in the BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) Foundation’s Women’s Music Commission. (more…)

With 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 would drive the adventurous iGasm user into sensory overload?

According to the American Symphony Orchestra League, which has been coordinating an advocacy campaign on the subject, the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee in the House of Representatives  passed yesterday a $35 Million increase in the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts.  According to ASOL, “This increase is significantly higher than the modest $4 million increase proposed by the President and represents a much more substantial restoration of NEA funds than has been proposed by the House committee since the NEA sustained a 40% budget cut more than a decade ago.”  I don’t see any confirmation of this on the committe’s website or on the news wires yet, but ASOL presumably has a reliable source.

The proposed increase is still a long way from becoming law.  If my understanding of the process is correct, the Appropriations Committe has to approve the recommendations of the Interior Committe, and then the budget has to be debated on the House floor and voted on, then debated and voted on in the Senate.  Chances are that different versions will be passed in the House and Senate, so it will then have to go to Conference, where the differences will be ironed out.  Then it goes back to both chambers and gets voted on again.  Then it goes to the President.  And at any point in here, the NEA funding increase could be used as a bargaining chip and get traded away for something else.

ASOL has a brief with background and talking points which you can read here.

UPDATE: The Chronicle of Higher Education has the story too.  The proposed budget seems to be $160 Million for the NEA and $160 Million for the NEH.  The $35 Million increase for the NEA would apparently be the largest increase ever.  The Chronicle also confirms that this proposal hasn’t been approved by the full Appropriations Committe, so it could easily go up in smoke.

Jacob ter Veldhuis might be the best composer you’ve never heard of. Let me explain.

Start with his 1999 piece “Heartbreakers,” which takes recordings of American daytime television talk shows like Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, and Oprah, and sets them within the context of a Jazz ensemble. Ter Veldhuis uses the technique, pioneered by Steve Reich in pieces like “Different Trains,” of playing fragments of speech and doubling the melodic patterns with the instruments. Musically, the result is a sort of post-minimalist jazz jam-fest, complete with improvised solos and speech clips sliced and diced and repeated until the meanings of the words are subsumed by the musical content. The bulk of the source material for the piece is crack addicted prostitutes being confronted by their mothers on Jerry Springer, and ter Veldhuis treats their plight with a fascinating combination of humor and sympathy, and that’s where the comparison with Steve Reich becomes moot. (more…)

This week’s Los Angeles Philharmonic program honored 1960, with three works composed in that year, a composer of a fourth (and major) work who was born that year, and performed by a soloist born that year.  I’ll start with the last point.  The soloist was Dawn Upshaw.  Adjectives are inadequate.  Looking up quotations to find some marvelous comment on “dawn” wasn’t useful.  I simply cannot imagine another singer performing the two works at any level approaching her artistry.

The program was constructed around two works for singer with orchestra.  First, before intermission, was Time Cycle (1960) by Lukas Foss.  A good summary of the work is here, and sound clips from the Bernstein recording are here; Upshaw’s performance sets a higher standard than in this recording.  Then after intermission, there was a performance of Golijov‘s Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra (2002), a beautiful work comprising works written separately and for other uses that have been brought together and reorchestrated as necessary to make a cohesive song cycle.  The central work is “Lua Descolorida” (Colorless Moon), written originally for Upshaw and later incorporated into the Pasion segun San Marcos.  Upshaw has recorded the original version of this song, with piano, and the Pasion has a version with orchestra, for which a clip is available from iTunes, but not from Amazon.  The current cycle surrounds this work with “Night of the Flying Horses”, originally written for a film, and “How Slow the Wind” which combines two Emily Dickinson poems.  In the form we heard yesterday, Golijov has written one of the major works for vocalist and orchestra in the literature. 

The concert opened with Samuel Barber’s Toccata Festiva (1960), for organ and orchestra, written for the new organ in Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, later recorded by Philadelphia, among others.  Simon Preston played the Disney Hall organ, and the work provided lovely fireworks to serve as a compatible introduction to the Foss.  The evening ended with Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story”, which was given a joyous performance.  The members of the orchestra even seemed to enter into the spirit of snapping their fingers and calling out “Mambo!”.  Once again Alexander Mickelthwaite had stepped in for an ailing colleague, and he did well.

Saturday night was the closing concert of this year’s “Jacaranda” series, with a well-shaped program of Berg, Mahler, Schoenberg and Schubert in a tribute to Vienna.  Mark Robson played the Berg piano sonata and accompanied bass-baritone Dean Elzinga in six “Wunderhorn” songs by Mahler.  Gloria Cheng played the Schoenberg Six Little Pieces and performed with the Denali Quartet and Elzinga as narrator in a brilliant performance of Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte.  The Schubert Song of the Spirits Over the Waters for eight men and five low strings served as a closing benediction.  Next season’s Jacaranda series of eight concerts will feature Messiaen.