How long have you been watching her, sitting there in the corner? Maybe it’s time you got up and asked her to dance. You might find out that she’s not so shy after all. Not only that, but she’s got you dizzy after just the first turn around the floor. How much have you had… Read more »
Farewell Ligeti, lyrebird does chainsaw impersonation, the dish on net neutrality, iPod news (human rights violations and…; death of…). Plus: Stump LaLa! This could take a while…
Until I heard Corigliano’s mind blowing Circus Maximus for massive wind band at Carnegie Hall last year, my favorite piece of his was this intimate set of three short movements for two pianos tuned a quarter tone apart from 1997, which I knew from a Vanguard recording by the Duo Turgeon who commissioned the work.… Read more »
Even if music is something akin to “intelligent design,” does it mean anything in the end?
Should NewMusicBox run an obituary of Hungarian composer György Ligeti (1923-2006)?
I’ve shared the bill with music by David Claman on two oddball instrument programs this past year—The Extensible Toy Piano Project in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Capital M’s world premieres extravaganza of compositions for rock band—and in both cases I was struck by how Claman redefines ensembles for his own compositional ends. So it figures that… Read more »
So who’s writing In Memoriam Abu Musab al-Zarqawi? Come on. I’m sure it’s at least crossed somebody’s mind.
Might an appreciation for contemporary art translate to an appreciation for contemporary art music? Don’t count on it.
The unidentified author of the booklet notes for A. Paul Johnson’s new CD, Xtreme Classical, describes the title as “the ultimate fusion of pop-jazz-folk-latin-blues-minimalist-theatre music from the Americas with the classical traditions of European concert music” which Johnson “pioneered…in his early works from the 70’s.” That’s a rather large range of music to consolidate, but… Read more »
The Knights played a concert at the visually stunning Angel Orensanz Center called Rewind which I should have loved, but they never stopped playing.
A seminal Alvin Lucier sound installation triggers complaints of nausea by museum staffers.
Computers might not need an audible language to talk to one another, but I imagine that if they did, it would sound an awful lot like this. The disc’s track titles follow a recognizable path-awake, crawl, speak, glow, last-but listeners looking for concrete aural markers to guide them through might feel a bit lost in… Read more »
Time again and again I have witnessed concert halls packed with avid followers for youth orchestras and often these ensembles have better precision and musicality than many adult community orchestras.
Jennifer Bilfield, who has served as president of Boosey & Hawkes Inc. since 2003, has been appointed artistic and executive director for Stanford Lively Arts.
Chorale preludes composed in 2002; what’s going on here? If anyone tells you they know what 21st-century music is, don’t listen. Instead, listen to these evocative and poignant neo-Ivesian ruminations for solo piano that are my favorite recordings to date among Larry Bell’s numerous recent recordings. —FJO
Most of the professional lenses might be trained on Brangelina’s baby this week, but if new music had a tabloid, we bet our Page Six would look something like this…
Just a few notes sounded on some instruments is enough to conjure up an era, perhaps none more powerfully than the Rhodes electric piano. But though Mike Holober mans such a keyboard on Jason Rigby’s Translucent Space, the disc isn’t really a ’70s throwback. Rather the ensemble soothes you with the nostalgia implied by the… Read more »
How much impact does today’s conservative discourse have on the music we write?
In late May, fifty young composers were honored by the charitable foundation branches of American performing rights organizations ASCAP and BMI. Both organizations collective distributed approximately $60,000 in scholarships, grants, and cash awards which were divided among all of the winners.
This first CD devoted to the music of the youngest composer currently on the roster of G. Schirmer focuses on his solo piano music. Chock full of tunes and bravado pianism, Piano Sonata No. 1, though composed only eight years ago, sounds like it was created in an earlier, less self-conscious era and ought to… Read more »
Much more than a biography of one composer, Phillip Ramey’s Irving Fine: An American Composer in His Time is a compelling group portrait of Fine, Copland, Stravinsky, Bernstein, Harold Shapero, and many others.
An interview with Phillip Ramey, author of Irving Fine: An American Composer in His Time.
Mozart’s 250th birthday celebration throws more “fair and balanced” programming out the window.
Although jazz guitarist, composer, and educator Pete McCann titled “Hunter Gatherer” after “a nearly unintelligible expression used by President George W. Bush in a pre-Iraq War speech (gathering force),” this dreamy tune doesn’t sound particularly sinister. In fact, it sort of lulls you into submission. Maybe that’s the point. —FJO
