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As the cost of making orchestral recordings in the United States continues to skyrocket, less than 15 recordings by the major American orchestras have been slated for studio time this year. Clearly, something must be done to make American orchestral recordings viable once again and the answer is in the recording of new American repertoire. It is sadly ironic that in the month we have chosen to focus on the performance of American repertoire by American orchestras only 4 new recordings of American music are orchestral and of those, only 3 are new recordings of American music by American orchestras. (The fourth is a long-overdue re-issue of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra‘s 1960s performances of symphonies by Amy Beach and William Grant Still.)

Although they were not included in our round-up of American orchestras this time around, the New York-based Riverside Symphony has proven its commitment to American music once again with its world premiere recording of Andrew Imbrie’s 1984 Requiem, one of his most profoundly moving compositions. The Albany Symphony, which is most definitely included in our orchestra report, gains yet another accolade for its new Roy Harris CD. And Universal Classics has finally issued Michael Tilson Thomas’s New World Symphony performances of three Morton Feldman orchestral works in the United States, although none of the works on the disc are world premiere recordings as the label claims.

Chamber music, which is much easier to organize and record, continues to dominate the new recordings of American repertoire. Four new American composers join the ranks of “composers with single-composer discs” featuring works for a wide array of instrumental combinations: Robert Avalon, Amy Rubin, Jan Krzywicki and Chaya Czernowin. And it is great to hear inspired performances of small-scale works by Ralph Shapey even though recordings of so many of his large-scale works are still pipe dreams. CRI has also re-issued four song cycles for voices and chamber ensembles by Leo Smit and Sony Classical’s latest Columbia Masterworks Heritage re-issue features historic composer-led performances of vocal chamber works by Samuel Barber, Virgil Thomson and AMC-founder Aaron Copland.

On the improvisatory end of the American chamber music spectrum, a couple of new jazz groups have finally made it to disc including George Schuller‘s Schulldogs and Rob Reddy‘s Honor System, featuring the great Pheeroan Aklaaf. Sony Classical, who’ve done much in recent years to stretch the definition of the “C” word, have issued uncategorizable bassist Edgar Meyer‘s latest blend of jazz, bluegrass and contemporary concert hall music with co-conspirators Sam Bush, Mike Marshall and classical violin star Joshua Bell. And for something even more uncategorizable … if the 10-CD boxed set on Organ of Corti wasn’t enough, the small L.A.-based label Transparency has re-issued an additional 4-CD boxed set of material recorded by a variety of ad-hoc pre-industrial experimental ensembles from the mid-1970s known collectively as the Los Angeles Free Music Society.

Electronic media, of course, allow composers to employ chamber means to paint with orchestral palettes, and several new recordings take full advantage of the latest technology. Carl Stone programs computers to create a wide-array of super-human sounds while Larry Austin gets more out of chamber ensembles by combining acoustic instruments with electronics and computer processing. A re-issue of ’60s electro-acoustic music by Richard Maxfield and Harold Budd shows how far our technology has come while at the same time proving that antiquated technologies can still yield timeless music. Finally, Eric Belgum uses multi-track recording to create unique collages of spoken conversation which hover at the boundary between literary art and music.

We have tracked down new recordings of music by 65 American composers this month. As always, the variety is overwhelming. There are three new MMC anthologies of orchestral music featuring works by 21 composers proving that the orchestra continues to be a source of inspiration for composers with a wide variety of stylistic inclinations ranging from a powerful Piano Concerto by Emma Lou Diemer to an evocative meditative Elegy by James Caldwell to a wild parody of the orchestral tradition by John Biggs. At the same time, younger composers like Jane Ira Bloom and Tyson Rogers are breathing new life into hard bop jazz.

As usual, however, many of the discs included herein, are unclassifiable. David Garland is coming from a place somewhere between alternative rock and downtown experimentalism. Jose Halac combines the folk music of his native South America with the post-industrial improvisations of the very different folk he met here. Kyle Gann uses synthesizers to explore entire new sonic vistas opened up by alternate tuning systems. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Panzer proves that a harp isn’t always angelic and Matthew Fields reinvents the carillon. And Robert Rutman creates music with instruments of his own design including the steel cello and the bow chime. Now that the eery soundworld of the once mysterious theremin seems ubiquitous, a new disc features first recordings of theremin works by Bohuslav Martinu, written during his American exile, and Gershwin’s composition teacher Joseph Schillinger.

There are also new CDs of works for a variety of unusual instrumental combinations by two of America’s greatest elder statesmen of music: Lou Harrison and Henry Brant, both of whom are members of the American Music Center, by the way. William Thomas McKinley‘s new large-scale cantata combines solo voices with a string quartet and a saxophone quartet creating a remarkably balanced range of sonorities. On the other hand, Leo Smit‘s cycles of Emily Dickinson settings continue the art song tradition and a disc of nine new flute works performed by Grzegorz Olkiewicz show that this most intimate of voices continues to inspire a wide diversity of approaches.

Three new recordings of piano music, each by foreign-born pianists, show that 20th century American concert music is gaining more and more international prominence. Japanese-born Tomoko Deguchi features works by eight recent composers on her new disc. Tatjana Rankovich, from the former Yugoslavia, plays works by three forgotten American romantics: Paul Creston, Nicolas Flagello and Vittorio Giannini. German pianist Steffen Schleiermacher continues his remarkable series of the complete piano music of John Cage with a monumental performance of the enigmatic 1951 Music for Changes. And, by curious co-incidence, the two discs of 19th century American music featured this month where our focus is on immigration and emigration are both by composers who emigrated to the United States from other countries, French born Charles Martin Loeffler and Claudio Grafulla, who did not leave his native island Millorca, Spain, until the age of 28 to become the most important brass band leader of the Civil War era!

Once again this month, each recording featured in SoundTracks is accompanied by a RealAudio sound sample of music from the disc so make sure to experience each of these exciting new discs.

For our third issue of NewMusicBox, we have expanded the scope of SoundTracks. In addition to featuring the cover and complete track information for all new recordings of American music that we can get our hands on, we are also featuring sound samples of every recording. So rather than hearing us rave about one of these discs, you can judge for yourself!

The array of music being released, once again, is stunning. From a passionate double concerto by Katherine Hoover to a “reggae symphony” by Hayden Wayne, from the totally controlled yet spontaneous-sounding compositional rigour of Robert Erickson to the totally improvised yet intricately-woven sonic tapestries of Joseph Jarman, from previously unavailable historic recordings of music by George Gershwin and Captain Beefheart to the long-awaited re-release of Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe starring Beverly Sills … These are but a few of the sounds awaiting you herein.

As in the past, most of these new recordings are only a click away from being purchased on Amazon.com, making them easier to get a hold of than ever before.