Contemporary Classical

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:

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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
Awards, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Better late than never…

tsontakis_g.jpg

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
Classical Music, Contemporary Classical

Gas Attack Monday (Local Joke)

Well, I see Chamber Music America is having its annual conference in the Center of the Universe this week, beginning on Thursday.  I wasn’t invited this year.  Last year, Alex Shapiro and Drew McManus and I did a dynamite panel on blogging to an SRO room.  Alex and Drew were wonderful and, frankly, I thought I was pretty damned clever but three or four people complained on their evaluation sheets that I had said rude things about our esteemed President.  Or, maybe, it was the part where I took a picture of the room and said I had been asked to do so by the National Security Agency.  Kind of thing that has kept me out of the big time.

Who wants to review a new Charlemagne Palestine recording?  Don’t say yes if you’ve been a disappointment to me already.

I was reading my copy of pinknews.uk this morning and came across this story about the forthcoming civil partnership ceremony of the composer Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies and his partner, Colin Parkinson.
 

by Jerry Bowles