Sequenza21

Our pal Frank Oteri has written a contribution for Take A Friend to the Orchestra, and it’s up today.  Frank describes taking his friend Joe Ornstein to the ACO concert at Zankel Hall a few weeks ago.  Ornstein is smart and funny and pulls no punches–it’s a good read.  “People who go to the three-B concerts are snobs generally speaking. And if they aren’t, I don’t know what the hell they’re doing there.”  I actually met Joe at that concert and we had a lovely chat during intermission.

My own essay on the structural differences between the popular music experience and the classical music experience and how those differences make recruiting new audience members difficult can be found here.

Bill Harris, an expert on organizational systems, wrote a fascinating systems analysis of the potential effectiveness of programs like TAFTO.  You can, and should, get your geek on here.

And back on April 4, Leonard Slatkin spun a couple of yarns that illustrate the importance of putting on truly inspirational concerts if you really care about finding new audiences.

That’s just a sampling–there’s other good stuff too.

Place your bets!

And the winner is:

Awarded to “Sound Grammar” by Ornette Coleman, recording released September 12, 2006.

Other finalists:

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: “Grendel” by Elliot Goldenthal, premiered June 8, 2006 by the Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, libretto by Julie Taymor and J.D. McClatchy, and “Astral Canticle” by Augusta Read Thomas, premiered June 1, 2006 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (G. Schirmer, Inc.).

Also:

A posthumous special citation to composer John Coltrane for his masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz.

Delighted to report that our regular Cary Boyce was among five composers selected from a field of 128 entries representing 35 states to participate in the May 2007 Essentially Choral reading session–an annual program co-sponsored by American Composers Forum and VocalEssence with the support of the Jerome Foundation.  Essentially Choral provides an opportunity for emerging composers from across the country to develop their skills in writing for choral ensemble. The selected composers are:

Cary Boyce (Bloomington, IN): “The Magi”
Kitty Brazelton (New York City): “Love, I Know, Beyond a Doubt”
Gao Hong (Northfield, MN): “Coming of Spring”
Aya Nishina (New York City): “Sleeping in Dew”
Matthew Peterson (Bloomington, IN): “Miserere Mei”

Over the course of two days in May, the participants will hear their works-in-progress read by the 32-voice VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, a professional mixed chorus. Some of the works call for instrumentalists as well. In conjunction with the reading sessions, the composers will attend mentoring sessions with both VocalEssence Artistic Director Philip Brunelle and composer Libby Larsen. Seminars will also be held for the selected composers, led by Philip Brunelle, Libby Larsen and American Composers Forum staff.

One of the selected composers may also receive a $3,500 commission to write a new work to be premiered by VocalEssence during its 2007-2008 concert season.

For details and more information about Essentially Choral, visit http://www.vocalessence.org, or call VocalEssence Director of Community Engagement Kimberly Meisten (612-547-1456, https://www.sequenza21.com/mailto;kmeisten@vocalessence.org. 

A requiem for Tonic in today’s Times.

Julius Eastman’s Crazy Nigger (1978? 1979?) was given its West Coast premiere last night at REDCAT.  Three members of California EAR Unit gave up their usual instruments (flute, cello, percussion) for the piano to join their pianist Vicki Ray in giving the work its four-piano interpretation.  While the score doesn’t specify a particular instrumental combination, it was recorded by Eastman with four pianos, and this recording was the one that brought the work to the public.  It would be interesting to hear Crazy Nigger in a different configuration, but it would certainly take more than four musicians to give the sonorities so central to the work.

It would have been interesting to have heard this last year in association with the minimalist festival, and the performance of In C in particular.  Eastman worked for something very different from Riley, and he gave the performers both more freedom and more structure.  Structure was provided by specifying notes to be added, in sequence, and by stating specific times for moving from section to section in the work. (Each pianist had a clock by the score.)  The players had freedom, or the ensemble had freedom, to decide how to provide the notes.  The work begins like In C, with a repeated sequence of the pitch; instead of adding melodic cells, however, Crazy Nigger builds sonority.  First, the core tone is supplemented by that note in different octaves.  Then, gradually, another tone is added.  The color changes.  Another tone.  Another.  The sound becomes three-dimensional, not quite solid, but shifting and shimmering.  Finally, for the climax of the work, six additional pianists stepped on stage one by one, going to a keyboard to add six additional pitches to the structure.  Fifty-five minutes have seldom seemed so short.  The EAR Unit deserve a lot of credit for their interpretation.  With the audience seated so that they could see the hands of all four pianists, it was easy to see which person took a little longer to make sure that her hands were correctly placed for the right note, but their interpretation used the skills of each and used them well. 

I think I saw Alex Ross; his blog this morning shows a photo with the wall of Disney Hall and the coral tree in the garden, so I know he was in town.  Perhaps he’ll comment.

The Guggenheim Foundation recently divulged its latest crop of worthies. Click here for a complete list of the winners by category. Editorial bias compels me to extend a special mention of Tania Leon, Paquito D’Rivera, and Dmitri Tymoczko (orbifolds — remember?  Quiz Monday, y’all.). 

The other music folks are, unfortunately, news to me.  Though something tells me they aren’t to many of you . . .

Once again, one of our regulars is responsible for adding some coolness to the world.