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
Read moreJohn 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
Read moreOur 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) — 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
Read moreSam Pottle’s theme song for “The Muppet Show;” the feeling of breaking the thousand measure mark in a piece (without repeats); Rodney Lister’s thoughts, voiced to me almost ten years ago, about humor, proportion, and Messiaen; music groups on Facebook (example: “If being a Music Major were easy, we’d call it Your Mom!”); how simultaneously essential and swept-under-the-rug ear training is and has become; the Met’s slightly obnoxious new policy for buying standing-room tickets (must buy day-of); goofy fictitious opera/composer pairings (example: “Pippy Longstocking” by Brian Ferneyhough); the injustice Oscar (in the pic) dealt “The Good Shepherd;” good and bad
Read more. . . He looks around, full of secrets; His strange deep thoughts have brought, so far, no harm. Carefully, with fists and elbows, he prepares One dark, tremendous chord Never heard before–his own thunder! And strikes. And the strings will quiver with it A long time before the held pedal Gives up the sound completely–this throbbing Of the piano’s great exposed heart. Then, soberly, he begins his scales. . . . – from “After-School Practice: A Short Story” by Donald Justice The Collected Poems of Donald Justice (1925-2004) were released in paperback last year. When the young Justice
Read moreJohn Adams is almost 60 (February 15), and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella concert last night had Adams as conductor of three of his works. It appeared to me to be the largest audience in the series, with even some people up in the organ-loft seats facing the conductor. The concert was a pleasure, a treat. Only a curmudgeon could have been dissatisfied at the exuberance and joy of the evening, feeling that serious music shouldn’t have that much fun associated with it. The program opened with “China Gates” (1977), a work for piano solo in which Adams was
Read moreThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center has announced their 2007-2008 season. Do you realize that in one year Elliott Carter will be 100 years old? Wowza. To mark the occasion, CMS will present his five string quartets in January of 2008.. The season will also include works by Jennifer Higdon, Mario Davidovsky, Joan Tower (who is in residence with CMS), and the Benjamin Franklin. Well some people think that old five-movement string quartet is by him . . . Read here. The following composers are up for Oscar next month: Gustavo Santaolalla (in the pic), Babel; Thomas Newman, The
Read moreThe 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
Read moreDoubtless 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
Read morePhilippe Kocher (b. 1973 — Switzerland) 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
Read more