Forget serialism, forget postmodernism, forget historically informed performance and electronics and extended techniques: The absorption of Asians into the formerly European- and American-dominated field of classical music is the classical music story of the latter half of the 20th century.
I had three experiences during my first-ever visit to Cleveland this past weekend which offer some interesting variations on the theme of getting more people interested in hearing new music.
New Music Images claims it can take any composer and, regardless of the “style” of the music, attract the attention of the media and the American Idol-loving public.
From virtual orchestras and polymicrotonality to pioneering ambient music and switching on Bach, Wendy Carlos has created several musical worlds.
If you can’t beat ’em…
After hearing pieces in just intonation and the beauty of 7th, 11th, and yes, even 13th partials, how could I constrain myself to a system that ignores them completely?
Orchestras are frequently criticized for not playing enough new music. But less attention is focused on the cost of such “adventurous programming,” both from the viewpoint of orchestras renting new scores and the publishers and composers producing them.
As a composer of intimidating-looking music, what compromises, if any, do I need to make in order to break into the realm of symphonic writing?
While it is extremely convenient to simplify ideas through binaries and compartmentalization, art (and indeed human nature) is rarely so clear cut.
Why do so many composers shy away from declaring themselves pedagogues; do we actually believe that “those who can’t do, teach?”
During which we squint and see the world in a whole new way—and have to bother with a lot less of it!
Composers Inc. announces 2007 Lee Ettelson Composer’s Award winners, five finalists were chosen for American Pianists Association 2007 Jazz Fellowship Awards, American composers rank high in Vocal Works’ Sacred Voice 2007 Competition, and the Kronos Quartet selects a composer for its fourth Under 30 Project.
Lately, I’ve been hearing the language used to describe enjoyment and interest take a turn toward mental imbalance.
I’ve been forced to consider a problem I’ve been putting off for years: My music just doesn’t sound good enough.
The fact that live performance persists in the face of market pressures speaks to a basic human need that even Adam Smith’s invisible hand can’t slap away.
Houston-based composer and pianist Pierre Jalbert has been awarded the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln’s Center’s $25,000 Stoeger Prize in recognition of his achievements in chamber music composition.
I’m trying my best to recover from list-o-mania (you know, obsessing over all these lists of the greatest “fill in the blank”). However, my fuming while reading through all these lists did inspire some new lines of questioning about our relationship to the music we care about and its seemingly fragile relationship to the world beyond us.
Perhaps it is time to take matters into our own hands and create something like match.com for facilitating the creation and playing of new music by young players.
If you go to your local record store, you’ll find Meredith Monk and Björk in completely separate categories, but as you’re about to hear, they’ve got a lot in common. Born a generation apart, both women have gained a reputation for creating adventurous music for the human voice, work that has taken them beyond the concert stage and into the realms of theater, film, visual art, dance, and performance art. Over the course of this hour-long program, these two artists share personal stories and trade ideas about music alongside illustrative samples drawn from their extensive recorded catalogues.
I’m one of these folks for whom ambient music is a terrific foreground experience: Brian Eno, early Aphex Twin, bring it on. I hear in this music what in fact is an extremely fluid relationship with the intentionally foreground minimalist music I enjoy listening to more than most things. So it’s always nice when the… Read more »
Look out world—here we come!
Ashley Bryan, narrator; Ted Gurch, clarinet; Barbara Cook, oboe; Amy Leventhal, viola; Laura Gordy, piano; Peggy Benkeser, percussion; Spivey Hall Children’s Choir Much of this piece—a setting of five poems by Ashley Bryan—is filled with lovely images and softly entwining solo instruments (oboe, clarinet, and viola). But the third poem, titled “The Hurricane,” introduces startling… Read more »
There’s no reason a so-called serious composer should feel the urge to pooh-pooh something just because it has a steady beat.
Nothing says fornication-time like a Hammond B-3. Sure, Barry White’s voice might do the trick for some, but organs are just plain sleazier. So whenever the mood strikes, be sure to put on the Nick Moran Trio’s latest, The Messenger, in the background. The disc starts with a lively tune called “Papa George.” Here the… Read more »
