Sequenza21

The theoretically minded of you out there should be aware of the work of Dmitri Tymoczko. Tymoczko is a composer and teaches at Princeton. An active music theorist, his recent work develops geometric models for the mapping of musical space. His paper “The Geometry of Musical Chords” was published last fall in Science magazine; it was the first music theory paper the publication has accepted in its over one hundred years of existence.   In collaboration with colleagues in math and science, Tymoczko demonstrates in the paper the efficacy of orbifolds for mapping musical space. Orbifolds are multi-dimensional non-Euclidean shapes

Doubtless legions of Sequenza21 fans are crestfallen this morning. Being people of superior intellect, you were all hoping for a New England / New Orleans Super Bowl. Now we get the Bears and the Colts. In any case, Prince is the halftime show this year. Can you guess what young composer went on the record a few years ago saying “Nothing is better than Prince?” Well, Bach is better than Prince–but that’s just me . . .  Oh – something else that’s better than Prince: Ian Moss and his burly crew of choral composers are commandeering the Norwegian Seaman’s Church

Hey – don’t worry if you don’t have a great date to go to the movies with tonight: just stay home and tune in to modernism’s official goofball, Mauricio Kagel. UbuWeb is featuring a bunch of his films made between 1965 and 1983 all packed onto one zany page. These films are apparently rarely screened in the US, and one doubts they’re screened much anywhere else. So get cracking: Dreamgirls can wait, gosh darnit. Have a good neo-Dada weekend.

The picture was taken about 11 am on November 22, 1963 in the newsroom of The Parthenon, the student newspaper of Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va.  The young man, barely recognizable to me today as a former version of myself, is interviewing Art Buchwald, his hero, for the paper.  A half hour later Buchwald was on his way to the airport for a flight back to Washington and an hour or so later John F. Kennedy was dead.  A couple of weeks after the tragic day, Buchwald wrote me a letter about the importance of not losing faith and going on despite the loss.   He knew

Right now — just maybe — on Contemporary Classical Internet Radio, there might be the broadcast premiere of a string piece by Arnold Schoenberg. Is this the big moment? Find out here. (Thank Glenn Freeman.) Speaking of Arnie: yesterday I lugged a bigass score of Erwartung on the 2 train from Brooklyn College all the way to Borough Hall, then paraded it down Court Street. Crowds gathered to cheer my progress, women threw themselves at my feet, and a wine merchant presented me with a bottle of his best. Now I know how Schoenberg himself must have felt all those

The description in the title is how Messiaen described a section of the piano part in the second movement of his great “Quartet for the End of Time” (1941).  Last night’s Philharmonic chamber concert in Disney Hall came as close as I can imagine to enabling me to see sounds.  It was a gorgeous performance by members of the Phil (with CalArts’ Vicki Ray as pianist).  I’ve only been to one other live performance, and of course it’s one of the Messiaen tracks on my iPod, but the sound of the performance made it seem as if I was hearing

Robert Ashley’s latest opera, Concrete, deals with the secrets of ordinary people who are accompanied by Ableton Live. It opens tonight. Steve Smith had a substantive piece in the Times a few days ago. Lawrence Dillon likes the cold; go over and read some CD reviews; and I’m feeling beamy these days. Or should I? Let’s hear it for winter!

Jerry sent me a box load of CDs for review under the agreement that I will choose lesser-known composers. So a new column called “Lost and Found” is born, and will (hopefully) be an every-other week installment. American Women: Modern Voices in Piano Music (self-published) Nancy Boston, piano In American Women: Modern Voices in Piano Music, Nancy Boston explores piano literature from American women composers, or less specifically American composers. The recording title could do without the introductory gender reference, despite Ms. Boston’s good intentions. The music featured here represents American composers, in the same way an all male recording

Anyone who’s dabbled even casually with the music world knows it’s full of heartbreak, exhilaration, passion, and drama. A profession overstuffed with possibilities for storytellers in all media, it’s a wonder to me why more film directors, novelists, and playwrights don’t take the plunge. But appearing today in bookstores across the fruited plain is Overture (Doubleday, $24.95), the debut novel by Yael Goldstein. Overture is about a famous violinist who also has a passion for composition. But her marriage to an acclaimed and revolutionary composer compels her to sacrifice her own composerly ambitions. (Alma Mahler, anyone?) Then to make matters