As always, Tim Rutherford-Johnson of The Rambler comes through with the goods. Another example of his perceptive and brilliant writing on music is up at NewMusicBox: an essay on the continuing influence of Cage’s 4’33″, including discussion of Ekmeles favorites Aaron Cassidy and Peter Ablinger. He also touches on the Catskills setting of the seminal work’s premiere, critical—I think—to understanding what the piece is all about.
Read the full post over at NewMusicBox.
Though it’s not vocal music, it is music by an incredibly prolific and wonderful composer of vocal music, and I think a great decision on the part of a publisher to reach out electronically:
Universal Edition has put online the scores to each of Wolfgang Rihm’s string quartets, celebrating their performance at the 5e Biennale de quatuor à cordes. It’s a wonderful opportunity to peruse these scores at your leisure, without leaving the comfort of your desk!
In the midst of preparation for our upcoming show at NYU, I thought I might point you towards the websites of the composers who have written new works for us: Friedrich Heinrich Kern, Wang Jie, Adam Mirza, and Maria Stankova; and a YouTube clip of a piece by Efraín Rozas. It’s always interesting to see how a composer’s vocal works relate to their instrumental writing, and it’s been great to be able to use the internet to find a context for our new pieces.
I’ve been enjoying this 8-hour Classical Christmas themed playlist on Spotify. While it’s not all actually Christmas music, it’s all festive and quite enjoyable, with good performances selected. For the contemporary listeners in you – enjoy Crumb’s “A Little Suite for Christmas A.D. 1979″, complete with score. Check out the other videos on this user’s channel for an incredible selection of recordings paired with scores.
I’ve just started reading the wonderfully written—and delightfully named—blog 5 against 4. I especially recommend the series of responses to James Dillon’s Nine Rivers, complete with score and recording for the truly curious among us! Having missed the recent New York premiere, I am delighted to have the opportunity to peruse the work itself along with such deep criticism! Enjoy.
I recently had the experience of excitedly playing a recording of an avant-garde vocal work to someone, only to have her response completely dampen my enthusiasm. “… That sounds pretty sexy,” she said, and I suddenly realized the entire sonic content of the piece – despite its decidedly unsexy subject matter – could give the impression that the singers were performing an act generally deemed unsuitable for the concert hall. Similarly, a piece that I once thought was a study in oro-pharyngeal articulations was revealed to me as a nasty incidence of sleep apnea.
At first, wanting to defend my enjoyment of this music, I thought of these comments as merely literal minded, but my attitude has grown more sympathetic. I attempt an accepting and open viewpoint when it comes to hearing new sounds. Still, hearing a trusted colleague or friend laugh at something I play her has helped me to realize it’s possible that I’ve closed myself off from certain reactions to music by insisting that I take every sound as a very serious one.
My initial frustration has gradually turned to a kind of happy acceptance, as I realize that the baggage that allows my new favorite avant-garde recording to sound obscene or silly is the same cultural and human filter that can make someone deeply connect with a musical performance, no matter the sonic vocabulary. Besides, what harm does it do if someone in the audience blushes or giggles at heaving breaths or uvular trills? When it comes to audience response, I side with Cage: I prefer laughter to tears.
Thanks to Ken Ueno, you can hear a beautiful combination of a few of my favorite things! (So they’re not Tuvan. But it’s still pretty fun!)
One of my absolute favorite new music blogs is Tim Rutherford-Johnson’s “The Rambler”. Truly intelligent writing about contemporary music and the community surrounding it. The comments on his posts are a real goldmine, as his readership includes many eminent composers and performers; Ian Pace and Liza Lim both made recent appearances in discussions of complex music and the publishing business respectively.
Of especial interest to Americans – now that the service is available to us – might be his Spotify playlist of contemporary music, which are a great way of discovering new things!
I’ve just stumbled across the Vimeo page of Daryl Buckley, guitarist and artistic director of ELISION Ensemble, and among the many treasures to be found there, recommend this recent Liza Lim piece. I had the pleasure of singing the US Premiere of her piece Chang-O and love the timbral detail in her music.
Songs Found in Dream Liza Lim (2005) performed by ELISION ensemble from Daryl Buckley on Vimeo.