Contemporary Classical

A Modest Proposal for Sequenza21 2.0

OK, here’s an idea I’ve been working on for a few days… it attempts to combine ALL the projects/ideas into one. What it attempts to do is this:

1. Empower and pay performers – get them excited to be involved
2. Be easily replicable across cities
3. Keep the concert experience short and not too much setup
4. Produce a CD in the process
5. Auto-generate a podcast when combined with interviews
6. Do NOT commission composers – pay performers well – develop some loyalty in the process
7. Combine the ‘variety show’ aspect of the miniatures concert (Miniaturist Ensemble/60×60/Analog Ensemble Micro-Happenings) – with a slightly longer time interval

Well… now here’s the idea:

1. Participating cities/regions will have one coordinator and one core standard ensemble for each concert. (Pierrot quintet, string quartet, etc). That means less setup, less coordination, easy to replicate or do again. By using a Pierrot quintet style group, we can have duos, trios, etc.
2. S21 will go through our comments and blogs and articles and find every person that left an email address. People who write articles and have blogs and/or comment more than X times here will get extra credit. This will be our pool of composers for the concerts.
3. These folks will be invited to send scores/pdf’s to the coordinator for each concert. No anonymous entry. This is about community/music/people. Pinning music to the names of the folks that ‘shoot their mouths off’ here as somebody politely put it.
4. The participating ensemble and the coordinator will pick 10 or so composers and each composer will be asked to write a 5-6 minute piece for that ensemble and for this particular concert.
5. The ensemble will go through the pieces as they arrive and decide if they want to or can play them or not.
6. A concert will take place and be recorded and these 10-12 pieces will be recorded and be in the CD. We make a podcast by adding interviews with the performers and the composers. We can do this by phone if necessary. We can even make a podcast of the concert preliminaries, interviewing the folks involved ‘in process.’

The main things I tried to do in thinking up this process was to remove the hassles we experienced in putting on the last S21 concert. Not too many performers, pay them well, make them the stars. Shorter pieces, no setup hassles and recording as part of the thinking. Get each performer/composer to agree to the license BEFORE the concert.

The numbers can be debated… my thinking has been to develop an easily replicable process; to make S21 a concert/commissioning/performance venue. The shortness of the pieces, I recognize is problematic, but we represent a huge cross-section of composers here. How can we be inclusive and have plenty of variety?

Comments?

by Jeff Harrington
Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Elias Tanenbaum, 1924-2008

Yet another one, via Carson Cooman:

Elias Tanenbaum, composer, teacher and long-time New Rochelle resident died on Thursday after a long illness. He composed over 140 works in all idioms, including music for concert, jazz, theater, television, ballet and electronic and computer music. His music has been performed extensively throughout this country, Europe and Japan and recordings of his music can be found on Albany, New World, MMC and other labels. Mr. Tanenbaum was the Founding Director of the Electronic Computer Music Studio at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, and he was a member of the composition faculty there for almost 30 years. Born in 1924 in Brooklyn, New York, Elias Tanenbaum studied trumpet at an early
age and played with many jazz bands. He volunteered for the U.S. Army in World War II, and lost his right leg above the knee in Southern France in 1944. After being awarded a Purple Heart, he received a Bachelor’s from the Juilliard School of Music in 1949, and an M.A. from Columbia University, all on the G.I. bill. Besides music, he loved art, movies, reading, cooking, politics and comedy. He lived in New Rochelle, New York from 1959. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, pianist Mary Tanenbaum, his brother Ray, two children, David and Jacob, and three grandchildren, Zachary, Simon and Nicky. 11 AM memorial gathering will be held on Sunday at the Funeral Home followed by a 12 PM service.

GEORGE T DAVIS FUNERAL HOME 14 Lecount Place New Rochelle, NY 914 632 0324

by Jerry Bowles
Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music

Happy Almost-Birthday, Chapel!

Steve PetersSteve Peters quietly came to Seattle in 2004, after running the non-profit performance organization Nonsequitur out of Albuquerque for 15 years. After a stint at Jackstraw he was finally ready to get back to what he does best (besides making his own wonderful music/sound-art): creating an inviting and flexible space and then filling it up with vital performances. Very soon after its inaugaration this year, the Chapel became probably the premiere initmate space in Seattle for catching new music.

An actual chapel in the beautiful, old Good Shepherd Center (a former home for young girls), tucked into a great park in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood, the Chapel accomodates performances from across the musical spectrum, with nary a miss among the bunch. A glance back at an amazing first year:

The ChapelAnimist Orchestra  // Jessica Catron, cello & Johnny Chang, violin: The Microscores Project // Visual/Sound/Digital Poetry (Subtext Reading Series) // Death Posture butoh // Colin Andrew Sheffield & James Eck Rippie, Phil Hendricks, and Rebreather, electronics // Vanessa Skantze, spoken word/theater performance // Tom Baker Quartet + Sunship // Paul Hoskin, contrabass clarinet // Seattle Composers Salon // Eric Barber, sax & Tom Varner, horn // Duo Juum // Dean Moore, gongs & Bill Horist, guitar // DX ARTS group show // Doug Haire, field recordings // However, poetry + music // Byron Au Yong, voice, piano, percussion & Christopher Blaisdel, shakuhachi // Jeffrey Allport, guitar & Tim Olive, percussion + Cristin Miller, voice & Jason Anderson, electronics // Milind Raikar, Indian violin & tabla + Hell’s Bellows, accordion quartet // Dennis Rea & Stuart Dempster // Lisa Moore, piano // Francisco Lopez & Matt Shoemaker // Piano Christening: Gust Burns, Dawn Clement, Duo Juum, Wayne Horvitz, Julie Ives, Johanna Kunin, Victor Noriega, Amy Rubin, Cristina Valdes // Marathon: 40 artists in 10 hours (Nonsequitur, Jack Straw, Clear Cut Press, Subtext, Phonographers Union, DoubleSharp, WA Composers Forum, Seattle Composers Salon) // Chris Chandler, Paul Benoit, Ela Lamblin, Vishal & Ushwal Nagar // Gust Burns + Julie Ives, piano // Moraine + Snapbite // Gretta Harley, choral/spoken word performance // Duran/Schloss/Mitri Trio + Paul Rucker Quinte // Jim Haynes, sound art + Eric Lanzillotta, analog synth // Gregory Reynolds, sax & Gust Burns, piano // No West Festival of Improvised Music & Dance // Matthew Postle & Derek Terran + Michael Owcharuk Trio // Bling! + Figeater // Yann Novak & Son of Rose // Reptet + Ziggurat Ensemble // Dean Moore & Sha’ari Garfinkel, gongs // Satoko Fujii, piano & Natsuki Tamura, trumpet // Gamelan Pacifica // Diego Piñon butoh // Seattle Latin American Music Festival // Flute Force, flute quartet // Greg Sinibaldi // EQlateral Ensemble // Keith Rowe & friends, improvised guitar etc. // Andrea Parkins, accordion & electronics + Lesli Dalaba, trumpet & Rob Angus, electronics // Gino Robair, improv opera // Trevor Watts & Jamie Harris & Reuben Radding & Jane Rigler // Wally Shoup Quartet & Gust Burns Trio (Earshot) // Tom Baker Quartet // Metal Men, electronics, noise // Malcolm Goldstein, violin // Alexei Pliousnine, guitar // Iva Bittova, violin & voice // October Trio // Margaret Brink, piano + Tom Baker Quartet // Seattle Harmonic Voices // Tiffany Lin & Motoko Honda, piano // Tim Root // Philip Arnautoff, harmonic canon + Christopher Roberts, guqin // Shulamit Kleinerman & friends, medieval violins // Alison Knowles // John Butcher, sax, Torsten Mueller, bass, Dylan van der Schyff, drums // Katsura Yamauchi, sax and Arrington DeDionyso, bass clarinet // Impressions of Romania, chamber music // Paul Rucker Quintet // Sean Osborn, clarinet & Greg Sinibaldi, sax & electronics // Sunship // Wally Shoup Trio // Jhababa & Eric Lanzillotta

Whew! The Seattle scene has always been more-or-less alive-and-well, through places like the plucky Gallery 1412, but the Chapel provides a much-needed venue for new and experimental music that takes it out of the back alley and gives it a place where people can respect the space as much as they already do the music and artists. Even if you’re not a Seattlite, keep an eye on their blog for even more wonders this year (or sign up for the mailing list). Major Kudos to Steve P., and wishes for a wonderfully full year to come.

by Steve Layton
Classical Music, Contemporary Classical

Sequenza21 2.0

Given the inexplicable stature of our little S21 community, it occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that we should do something useful.  I’ve chatted with a few of the regulars and gotten some good ideas but I thought I would open up the discussion to everybody.

Here’s what we have so far: 

1) another Sequenza21 concert like the very successful one we had a couple of years ago.  We’d raise a little money from readers and I would shake down…ur, trade a few record companies some free advertising for dollars.  My feeling is that if we go the concert route, we should have somebody prominent who is not a composer curate the program to avoid the unfortunate tendency of the selection committee to be overrepresented on the program.  Ideas?

2) a Sequenza21 virtual CD or CDs.  Steve Layton has some great thoughts on this that would keep the costs down and avoid the wrath of ASCAP.  Maybe, Steve could elaborate.

3) A modest Sequenza21 commissioning fund for composers and who contribute here regularly.  (We’ll have to define what contribute here regularly means).

4) Some sort of outreach to performers and musicians who are not composers.  We’d like to get more of them involved in S21.  Maybe a Performers Forum?

5) Something we haven’t thought of yet but you have.

The floor is now open.

by Jerry Bowles
Click Picks, Contemporary Classical, Deaths, Experimental Music

And one more…

Henri ChopinHonest, I swear this is Sequenza21, not the obituaries. But this is otherwise (and unfairly) likely to pass unnoticed in our usual music-blog land: Henri Chopin, one of the pioneering figures in sound poetry, passed away in France on January 3rd.

Born in 1922, he was one of the great explorers of a poetry that favored supremacy of the voice — in all its manifestations — over the “tyranny” of the word. An early adopter of tape recorders and the same electronic studios European composers were at work in, and for many years an active publisher of magazines that disseminated many of the leading voices of the 50’s, 60’s and &70’s, his influence on a whole generation of avant-garde poets and musicians was strong (though largely unheralded over here). Even though officially labeled a poet, Chopin’s work was just as much a kind of music.

A generous free sampling of his recordings are kept on their own page at UBUweb, and a bit more is to be had at Erratum.org.

by Steve Layton
Contemporary Classical

New Music & Public Radio

State of Affairs is a call-in discussion program on Louisville’s NPR affiliate, 89.3 WFPL (kind of like Talk of the Nation), Weekdays at 11am (EST)

Tomorrow’s topic is NEW MUSIC.  I will be a guest along with Marc Satterwhite, professor of composition at the University of Louisville.  Marc also coordinates the Grawemeyer Award.  Joining by phone will be Peter Lieberson, latest Grawemeyer winner.

It’s a call in show, so if you have a comment or question give us a yell (I don’t know the number, but it will be announced throughout the program).

“But Daniel, I don’t live in Louisville.” No worries, you can tune in online at http://www.wfpl.org/listen.htm

That’s tomorrow, Wednesday, January 9 at 11am.

After State of Affairs, move on over to Classical 90.5, WUOL (also public radio in Louisville) for Lunchtime Classics, a live concert program.  Wednesday’s program features Marc’s compositions performed by faculty at the University of Louisville.  He will also present some recorded selections and talk about his work.  I’ll be hosting this program.  You can listen online to 90.5, as well.  Visit www.wuol.org.

by Daniel Gilliam
Contemporary Classical

Deadline Approaching for Pulitzer Shenanigans

Remember how last year’s music Pulitzer was awarded to Ornette Coleman’s “Sound Grammar” even though the album wasn’t entered into the competition?  I argued at the time that by awarding the prize to a composer who hadn’t entered, the Pulitzer committee had essentially voided the requested $50 “handling fee.”  This is significant because the number of people who apply for the prize each year is quite small–last year there were only 129 entries for the music prize.  Presumably what happens is that only people who think that they write in the right style and have the right connections and national profile bother to enter–why throw away 50 bucks unless you think you have a shot, right?  Wouldn’t it be nice if the slate of entries were a more accurate representation of the totality of contemporary American composition?

This year’s deadline is January 15, for “works that receive their American premiere between January 16, 2007 and January 15, 2008.”  (How you’re supposed to make that deadline if your premiere is on January 15, I’m not sure.)

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to pick your best piece from 2007 and submit it, following all the guidelines except for the entry fee.  Include a note indicating that the reason that you aren’t sending an entry fee is that since Coleman was awarded the prize without having entered, the competition is clearly open to anyone, whether they officially enter and pay the handling fee or not.  I’ll be submitting my piece “Waiting in the Tall Grass,” which was premiered by Relâche at the end of November.

by Galen H. Brown
Contemporary Classical

Naxos’ Sonic Revolution

Naxos has a spate of exciting releases coming out, including recordings of works by Carter, Wuorinen, Coates, and Hersch, all of which will be covered in subsequent columns. Today’s posting focuses on their recently released new music sampler.

Various Artists

Sonic Rebellion

Naxos

WWW.Naxos.com

Want to familiarize yourself or your loved ones with modern classical music, but not sure where to begin? Sonic Rebellion, a compilation of excerpts from Naxos recordings, is an excellent single disc starter kit. The CD features composers in most of the main stylistic idioms prevalent in recent times: modernism, minimalism, aleatory, neo-romanticism, and even electronic music. Naxos is to be applauded for selecting a nice balance of compositions — both watershed works as well as several pieces that aren’t by the “usual suspects.”

Highlights include Conlon Nancarrow’s Toccata for Violin and Player Piano, a lively piece featuring rhythmically complex music that doesn’t take itself too seriously. At the other end of the spectrum is Krysztof Penderecki’s moving string orchestra piece Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, which employs clusters of sounds in a pileup of dissonances, signifying a long woe-filled keening. Jorgen Plaetner’s Beta bridges the gap between avant-garde electronic compositions and popular electronica. A portion of Charles Wuorinen’s Second String Quartet asserts the enduring vitality both of modernist post-tonality and the traditional chamber music milieu.

Of course, the bits and pieces here are not enough to give a thorough grounding in the music of our time. Hopefully, the CD will inspire listeners to dig further, in the process gaining greater appreciation for the abundant and diverse riches available in contemporary concert music.

by Christian Carey
CDs, Composers, Contemporary Classical

You Ought to Be in Movies

I am not, generally speaking, a big fan of movie music although the ability to produce useful art on demand appeals to my lifetime hack sensibilities.  I don’t think Bernard Hermann and Miklos Rozsa are overlooked concert hall geniuses who might have been among the greats had they not traded their souls for big houses in Beverly Hills.  They are what they are.

Writing for films is a craft, not an art, but it is a demanding craft that not every composer–even a great one–can do.  In Andre Previn’s memoirs of his Hollywood years (which is called No Minor Chords because Irving Thalberg once degreed that no MGM picture should ever contain music with a minor chord), Previn writes of having taken one of the big moguls, Louis B. Mayer, I believe, to the Hollywood Bowl to hear the Sibelius Violin Concerto.  Afterwards, he asked him how he liked it.  “Well,” Mayer said.  “It was good but he couldn’t write for pictures.”

I suspect Mr. Mayer was right.  Many “serious’ composers (and writers, too, think of Faulkner) are not good at writing for pictures.

The latest example of underachievement in the category of film music is Osvaldo Golijov, whom Francis Ford Coppola specifically commissioned to write the music for Youth Without Youth, Coppola’s recent comeback film which was seen by absolutely nobody.  On the surface, Golijov’s enormous multicultural sound palette would seem perfect for film.  Alas, the result is more insipid than limpid, if you know what I mean.

On the other hand, Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead fame nails his film debut with the score for There Will Be Blood.   The music has to be pretty dramatic to match Daniel Day-Lewis’ over-the-top, spit-slinging, snot-dripping performance as a rabid early oil man but Greenwood pulls it off.  So he’s channelling Penderecki, Gorecki, and Messiaen, originality is less important than conveying mood in film music.  Like Ry Cooder, another unexpected star of film music, Greenwood shows himself to be a master of atmosphere and shifting physical and mental landscapes.  If he wants to give up his day job, he’s probably got a future in Hollywood.

by Jerry Bowles
Composers, Contemporary Classical, Deaths

Jennifer Fitzgerald (1975-2007)

Jennifer FitzgeraldThe past few months have seemed depressingly full of deaths, including some of the grand figures of our time. But sadder still is when we lose a wonderful musical voice far too soon. I just learned over at NewMusicBox that the highly talented composer and pianist Jennifer Fitzgerald lost her life to cancer just a few days before Christmas. Only 32 years old, but already crafting some really beautiful, exciting music… One of the strange artifacts of the Internet age is that a person can leave and yet appear to be around through their webpages, busy and happy, like nothing at all had happened yet. Jennifer’s own website still has news of the recent NYC performance of her opera-in-progress, Judgement of Paris, and her composition list includes a number of pieces that were in the works. Both from her official site, as well as her Myspace page, you can hear excerpts of her music, that show all kinds of command and promise of even more good to come. I never met Jennifer; but through her music I’ll never forget her, either.

by Steve Layton