Scored Beckett: Earl Kim

The last thing a guy like Samuel Beckett wants is some schlemiel turning his words into a song. Someone who wrote so economically is naturally going to oppose a florid meditation on his own texts; so, it's surprising that anyone ever got permission to set his poetry.

Earl Kim's Now and Then (1981) uses two of Beckett's poems, mixed with some Chekhov and some Yeats. The Chekhov is actually the germ of the cycle ("For thousands of years the earth has borne no living creature/on its surface and this poor moon lights its lamp in vain."), which is based on his experience flying over Nagasaki the day after America bombed it needlessly. The cycle is an articulate and eclectic call for peace in the classic anti-nuke mold that would reach its peak a few years later.

On the Meadow (from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov)
Thither (Samuel Beckett)
Roundelay (Samuel Beckett)
Thither (Reprise) (Samuel Beckett)
Among the Deepening Shade (from The Tower by William Butler Yeats)

Jesus, the Armenian

Our liason with the Beckett estate recently wrote in to share this passage from Gary Wills latest book, What Jesus Meant:

"For two years, Jesus slipped through the traps set for him. He moved like a fish in the sea of his lower-class fellows. He kept on the move, in the countryside. If I think of music to be heard in the background of his restless mission, it is the scurrying agitato that opens the Khachaturian violin concerto."

Decide for yourselves if he's right.

Aram Khatchaturian - Violin Concerto (Scottish National Orchestra; N. Järvi, Lydia Mordkovitch)
- I. Allegro con fermezza
- II. Andante sostenuto
- III. Allegro vivace

Incidentally, her latest book has just been released:

The Coup - "I Love Boosters!"

Lotta Lulu

What better way to celebrate Decoration Day than with some Lulu pumping out your sound system?

"To Sir With Love (Almighty Remix)"

"My Boy Lollipop"

"Shout"

"We've Got Tonight" (with Ronan Keating)

Your Bone's Got a Secret Machine

"All At Once It's Not Important"

< < The Secret Machines > >


"Lightning Blue Eyes"

Peter Sellers, International Man of Mystery

The opening bars of "Soul Bossa Nova" were an instant signifier that the Go-Go cool of Peter Sellers' classic work was the touchstone for Austin Powers (That, and the glasses). It's a broad frame of reference, encompassing sight gags, awful puns, brilliant parody, and an abounding silliness. Though the films stand brilliantly on their own two feet, they do often pay direct hommage to Sellers, and before we get into all that, we feel compelled to point out the utter weirdness of seeing such a cool (and utterly serious) preview for Casino Royale.

Anywho, the scene at Alotta Fagina's penthouse is based on a sketch Peter did with Sophia Loren, "I Fell in Love With an Englishman". At every occassion, in response to Alotta's silky seductiveness, Austin is unrelettingly awkward, cracking bad jokes, fumbling with his cravat, farting in the hot tub. But he still shags her.



In Goldmember, there's a direct lift of a gag from 1966's After the Fox, where Nathan Lane lip sync's for Beyonce.



Most of the references to Sellers are more oblique, such as the next scene, where Myers speaks "English English" with Michael Caine, calling to mind Sellers' "A Right Bird".



Or the prelude to "Scotty Don't", where Dr. Evil and the Frau toss "yeah's" at each other in the style of Sellers' classic "She Loves You" renderings.

But our favorite hommage to Peter Sellers from all three films is Dr. Evil's speech to a group therapy session lead by Princess Leia. The deadpan zaniness is one of Sellers' comedic calling cards, and while there's plenty of examples to share, the one that always comes to mind is "Setting Fire to the Policeman".

The Rise and Fall of Rawles' Balls

Blackfoot Sue - "Standing in the Road"



Barry Blue - "Dancing on a Saturday Night"



Cockney Rebel - "Judy Teen" & "Sebastian"



The Glitter Band - "Angel Face"



Alvin Stardust - "Jealous Mind"



T-Rex - "Ride a White Swan"



Wizzard - "See My Baby Jive" & "Ball Park Incident"



Cozy Powell - "Dance With the Devil"



Sparks - "This Town Ain't Big Enough For the Both of Us"



Suzi Quatro - "Can the Can"

The Real Seeger Sessions

"Erie Canal"

Early in the Morning...

Before You Eat Your Breakfast, You Got To Get Down

And this is how we got down this morning:

Dr. Octagon - "A Gorilla Driving a Pickup Truck"


Rob Sonic Road Rage Remix

Don't miss the other remixes posted by World's Fair.

St. Louis Brass Quintet

We don't usually get into brass geek terrain here, mainly because we never were. But occassionally, we do slip into that mode, and the tuba riff at the end of this Vivaldi Allegro from my old teacher's group, The St. Louis Brass Quintet, just blew me away. That's Daniel Perantoni tonguing the shit out of those sixteenths, y'all:

Live Lynyrd

"Simple Man"

All Shall Be Well

On An Overgrown Path have a nice little post about the restored home of Julian of Norwich, of whom I'm quite fond, partly because she's responsible for one of the all-time keepers in the English language:

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well

Lucas with the lid off:

Good song, great video by Michel Gondry

ANA.Bod functions

My thoughts on Lachenmann's NUN differ slightly from julio's suggestion that it is music "closer, more faithful to the instruments".

NUN utilizes actual harmonic/melodic materials, much closer to a sense of Western traditional music, where as in Gran Torso, one hears more from the instrument themselves; tailpieces, scrolls, backboard. You can't get closer to the instrument than that, can you .... (?)

I hadn't actually heard NUN until you pointed me to it. Great music.

Cheers.

Towel Day

Rawles, He's Got Big Balls

Rawles has been bringing you the best in vintage cool for a while now in this space. After too long a hiatus, he's back with a killer set of tunes, including the best single we've ever heard by The Rubettes.

Ian Hunter - Once Bitten Twice Shy



Slade - "Cum on Feel the Noize"; "Mama Weer All Crazy Now"; "Gudbuy T' Jane"



Chris Spedding - "Motorbinkin'"



Bryan Ferry - "Let's Stick Together"



Brian Eno - "Seven Deadly Finns"



Geordie - "All Because of You"



The Rubettes - "Sugar Baby Love"

ANA.Bod - echo's two cents

I'm chiming in regarding Helmut Lachenmann. Guero via Beck (for piano, 1970) and Gran Torso (string quartet, 1971) have to make this list. These pieces marked the period of Lachenmann's work which reflected his interest in a truly "instrumental" and physical music.

disclaimer: my own reading
- ignore or not

Gran Torso uses the instrument bodies themselves as material; (more) scraping, rubbing, scratching, knocking.

Guero employs the performance technique of the guero, a rhythm instrument of Cuban origin, scraping and sliding along the corrugated surface. Guero-like surfaces on the piano: black keys, tuning pegs, strings.

As promised earlier, here is the Disney Hall Stage lay out
for the CalArts performance of Terry Riley's In C (March 20, 2006)

Word.

Kyle Gann's gone postal over at his blog.

Sad thing is that he's absolutely right when he talks about bias in electronic music circles. One highlight:

"I thought it [Max/MSP] must be some incredibly powerful program, from what I kept hearing about it - it turns out, the technonerds love it because it’s incredibly impotent in most people’s hands, until you’ve learned to stack dozens of pages of complicated designs.

His comparison to serialism falls short, given the lowly status of electronic music on the academic totem pole, but the point is well taken. Such a marginalized genre only shoots itself in the foot by clinging to such obsolete standards.

Annotating The List

It's gonna take a while, of course. Easy stuff first:

Arvo Pärt - Cantus in Memory of Benjaming Britten

Dodgers Clash with (Hartford) Indians

Paul Shuey, Cleveland Indians & the LA Dodgers.

Posted from Baseball Toaster: Dodger Thoughts

Mauricio Kagel - Transicion for Piano, Percussion & Tapes

i just woke up from a very unpleasant dream of tuning my violin strings and have the bridge snap in half as well as numerous cracks along the body of the instrument - the violin pretty mch fucked.

At least the neighbourhood ice cone man was passing by. Rescued by strawberry ice cone !!

ANAGeeks

We make some pretty eggheaded posts; so, it's only fair that we should get some of our own back in the comments section.

For those of you who wouldn't normally see a comment on echo's incredible Johnny Cash post:

Thank you very much for this, but I don't think it's from 1968. Why? During the Carter Family Appearence, Anita Carter sings the song "Loving him was easier" which she first recorded in 1971 for a single. Afterwards she sang the song in the J.C. shows, like for example on Danish TV in 1971. So my guess is that this concert also was recorded in 1971 or 1972. But still it's GREAT to have it. -- Anonymous

In all fairness, echo did get in a 'circa'.

The Unbreakable Heart EP

What's the newest CD no one can get enough of in NYC? Trouble Club's debut EP. Songs like "Girls Gone Wild" just stick in your ear, and the buzz on their debut show at Arlene's last week is that these killer songs are even better live.

Noblesse Oblige

Tee Templeton's new band, with Tim from Babe the Blue Ox, just put up a few tunes on myspace, and they are really beautiful. Hopefully, we'll have some more to post in the coming weeks.

Sputnik Wishes You Better Things!!

Here's an alternate version of our cover of the Kinks classic, "Better Things".

Remember, Sputnik will be playing at the Living Room (154 Ludlow Street, NYC) at 11 p.m. tomorrow!

Programming Amazon-Style

Patent abuse is widespread nowadays, and some guy in New Zealand with enough time on his hands to do something about it is suing Amazon over their 1-Click patent.

The idea that someone could hold a patent over an idiotically simple e-commerce model is patently ridiculous. But it doesn't stop there. How about patenting the human genome? (It's in the works)

So, we're going to start filing patent claims on all of our ANALOG arts ensemble innovations. For instance, to our knowledge, no one else has ever put popular music on a classical program before. If they have, tough shit. Cuz' pretty soon, we'll own the patent on that idea and you'll have to pay through the nose to use it.

Uh, let's see, what else have we invented? Oh yeah, we thought of starting an mp3 blog before anyone else, too. Consider it patented!

More significant Works from the last two decades....

The discussion is winding down, but not without more significant mentions; so, we've updated the list, including its first annotation.

Adams, John - Naive and Sentimental Music; Harmonielehre; Violin Concerto; Chamber Concerto; Shaker Loops (1983); Dr. Atomic; Book Of Alleged Dances
Anderson, Laurie – O Superman (for Massenet)
Andriessen, Louis – Writing to Vermeer
Aphex Twin – Windowlicker
Baird, Tadeusz - Voices from Afar
Barrett, Richard - Vanity ('90-'94)
Beauvais, William - Incoming Light (for prepared classical guitar; gets the sound of a gamelan out of the instrument)
Bell, Shawn - Currents II (a lovely classical guitar piece; post-minimal with lots of energy and pretty use of very dissonant harmonies; a lot of harmonics)
Benjamin, George - Antara
Berio, Luciano – Notturno; Sinfonia (1969)
Birtwistle, Harrison - Pulse Shadows; Gawain; Earth Dances (1986); Theseus Game
Boulez, Pierre – Répons (1984)
Braxton, Anthony
Budd, Harold
Cage, John - Apartment House 1776 (1976)
Carter, Elliott - Symphonia: Sum fluxae pretium spei; String Quartet No. 5; Oboe Quartet
Cooper, Lindsay - Face In the Crowd (sax quartet, played by Rova)
Crumb, George
Curran, Alvin - Inner Cities #1 - 12
Czernowin, Chaya - Dam Sheon Hachol
Davies, Peter Maxwell - Eight Songs for a Mad King; Symphony No.5; Naxos Quartets
Dempster, Stuart - Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel
Dench, Chris - Sulle scala della fenice ('86-'89)
Dillon, James - Windows and Canopies ('85)
Drumm, Kevin – Sheer Hellish Miasma
Dumitrescu, Iancu - Galaxy (1993); Pierres Sacrees (1991)
Dutilleux, Henri - L'arbre Des Songes
Eastman, Julius - Unjust Malaise (CD)
Emsley, Richard - Flow Form ('87)
Eötvös, Péter - Atlantis (1995); Three Sisters
Feldman, Morton - For Samuel Beckett (1987); Rothko Chapel (1971); Piano and String Quartet (1985); Bunita Marcus; Triadic Memories; String Quartet No. 2
Fenn O’Berg (Members: Christian Fennesz, Peter Rehberg and Jim O'Rourke)
Ferko, Frank – Hildegard Organ Cycle
Ferneyhough, Brian - Mnemosyne ('86); Cassandra's Dream Song (1970); Etudes transcendentales (1985)
Finnissy, Michael - The History of Photography in Sound (2001); Recent Britain ('98); Folklore II (1994)
Firsova, Elena - The Mandelstam Cantatas
Fox, Christopher - A Canonic Break ('02-'03)
Frith, Fred – Upbeat; Ayaya Moses
Galas, Diamanda - Vena Cava
Garland, Peter - Sones de Flor
Glass, Philip – Symphony No. 3; 1000 airplanes; Freezing & Liquid Days; Music in a Similar motion; Music in 12 parts; Einstein on the Beach; Koyyanisqatsi; String Quartet #2; Aphex Twin remake of Hero's Symphony
Golijov, Osvaldo – Ayre; La Pasion Segun San Marcos
Goebbels, Heiner - Surrogate Cities
Gordon, Michael – Decasia; imreadywhenyouare; the light is calling; Tinge
Gorecki, Henryk - Symphony no.2 (1972)
Grisey, Gérard - Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil (1998)
Gubaidulina, Sofia - Johannes-Passion; The Canticle Of The Sun
Harbison, John - Requiem
Harvey, Jonathan - Inquest of Love
Holt, Simon - Sunrise’ yellow noise
Howells, Herbert - Take him, earth, for cherishing (1963)
Hyla, Lee - We Speak Etruscan
Ikeda, Ryoji - Op
Kilar, Wojciech - Krzesany (1974)
Kline, Phil - Three Rumsfeld Songs
Kurtág, György – Kafka-Fragmente; Messages of the Late R.V. Troussova (1980); Ligatura: Message to Frances-Marie (The Answered Unanswered Question) (1989); Officium Breve In Memoriam Andreae Szervánszky
Lachenmann, Helmut - Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (2002)
Lang, David
Ligeti, György - Violin Concerto; Atmosphères (1961)
Lindberg, Magnus – Kraft; Clarinet Concerto
Lutoslawski, Witold - Chain 3;Chantefleurs et Chantefables; Livre pour orchestre (1968)
Messiaen, Olivier - Éclairs sur l'Au-delà; Sept haïkï (1962)
Monk, Meredith - Atlas (1992)
Nishimura, Akira - Into The Lights of the Eternal Chaos for symphony orchestra, 1990
Nono, Luigi - La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura
Nørgård, Per - Symphony No. 6, "At The End Of The Day"
Normandeau, Robert - Clair de Terre
Otte, Hans - Das Buch der Klange (1982)
Pallett, Owen
Part, Arvo – Litany (1996); Festina Lente; Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten (1977)
Partch, Harry - And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma (1966)
Penderecki, Krzysztof - Threnody - To the Victims of Hiroshima (1960); Violin Concerto No. 2, “Metamorphoses"
Pritchard, Alwynne - Craw (1997)
Radulescu, Horatiu – String Quartet No. 4
Reich, Steve - Different Trains; It's Gonna Rain (1965); Six Pianos (1973); Music for 18 Musicians (1974); You Are Variations; Drumming; Tehillim; It's Gonna Rain
Rihm, Wolfgang - Jagden und Formen
Riley, Terry - In C (1964)
Rzewski, Frederic – The Road; The People United Will Never be Defeated (1975)
Saariaho, Kaija - L'amour de loin; Amers; Grammaire des rêves (1988); Graal Théâtre
Saunders, Rebecca - Albescere ('02); Cinnabar (1999)
Sciarrino, Salvatore - Studi Per L'intonazione Del Mare
Schnittke, Alfred - String Quartet No. 4; Peer Gynt
Sharp, Elliot - Abstract Repressionism
Sheng, Bright - H'un (Lacerations) (1988)
Stockhausen, Karlheinz – Hymnen (1967); LICHT; Helicopter Quartet; Kontakte
Stone, Carl
Takemitsu, Toru - I Hear the Water Dreaming; riverrun; From Me Flows What You Call Time; To the Edge of Dream (1983); Spirit Garden
Tavener, John - The Apocalypse (1993)
Tenney, James - Critical Band (1988)
Tippett, Michael - The Rose Lake; String Quartet No. 5
Twining, Toby
Ustvolskaya, Galina - Piano Sonata No. 6
Vierk, Lois
Walshe, Jennifer - "as mo cheanne" ('00)
Wilson, Ian - ... wander, darkling (2000)
Wolfe, Julia
Yi, Chen
Ziporyn, Evan - Tire Fire
Zorn, John – Spillane (1987)

64 32 12 6 3

from the commodore 64 games vault - Andrew Craigie: Android (1987) Apparently back in the mid-80's there was a huge fascination with androids - i was 8 years old back in Taiwan, so i had no idea... But i finally discovered Bladerunner, so everything is fine. And now i have this digital+analogue sound in my life. woo...

you need it too.

commodore 64 SID player
SID music collection

Rawles Balls Show TONIGHT!!

Mauricio Kagel, "Serenade for Three Instrumentalists"

Now's the time when we throw rocks at a barn

That seems pretty straightforward, right? But when you click the link, here's the event info you get:

Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Lorin Maazel, conductor
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano
Gerald Finley, baritone
New York Choral Artists, Joseph Flummerfelt, director
Peter Lieberson: The World in Flower (World Premiere: New York Philharmonic Commission)

Okay, so where's the Carter? You have to click through, and apparently, be registered on the NY Phil's site to see that the Lieberson piece isn't done yet. The Carter introduction is actually a video clip on the event page, but he won't be at the event, which is what this dopey little ad would make you believe.

ANADroid Interviews TK421 from Loop 2.4.3

The founder of Loop 2.4.3 was kind enough to sit down with ANADroid for a phone interview yesterday.

Rawles Has Something to Say

more

FESTIVAL :
a day-long guerrila celebration of experimental music

<> ---- >
calarts main gallery < ---------

music by...

(???)

at any time, something may happen. or nothing may happen!

FESTIVAL :
a day-long guerrila celebration of experimental music

<>

music by...

(???)

at any time, something may happen. or nothing may happen!

Who says current composers can't write a tune?

Programming Google Cube-Style

The Google Cube, a technological yeti, is supposed to be a $200 computer that uses software as a service, rather than charging you up the wazoo to build it into the machine. You don't need it there. And by keeping it off your machine, you're free to do loads of other things (first of which is saving yourself hundreds of dollars).

In the Times Magazine, Kevin Kelley wrote this weekend about another legendary Google project (which is actually happening, as opposed to the Cube): the Google Library, gbooks, or what have you. The idea is to scan everything that's ever been written. Kelley deftly sums up the logistical implications of the idea:

From the days of Sumerian clay tablets till now, humans have "published" at least 32 million books, 750 million articles and essays, 25 million songs, 500 million images, 500,000 movies, 3 million videos, TV shows and short films and 100 billion public Web pages. All this material is currently contained in all the libraries and archives of the world. When fully digitized, the whole lot could be compressed (at current technological rates) onto 50 petabyte hard disks. Today you need a building about the size of a small-town library to house 50 petabytes. With tomorrow's technology, it will all fit onto your iPod. When that happens, the library of all libraries will ride in your purse or wallet — if it doesn't plug directly into your brain with thin white cords. Some people alive today are surely hoping that they die before such things happen, and others, mostly the young, want to know what's taking so long. (Could we get it up and running by next week? They have a history project due.)

As with the Google Cube, highly accurate and extremely swift access to such vast resources is an enormous empowerment. Anyone who's ever done analog research knows how time-consuming it can be. With all that legwork cut out, researchers will have vast amounts of time for analysis, yielding more substantive papers and books, and so on.

This basic access-to-empowerment ratio applies to programming as we see it. We've always approached a basic concert program in the same way Google would approach a search. Type in 'numun' and you'll get results ranging from Sumerian mathematical operators to Northwestern University's model UN (not to mention a pretty kick-ass band). A chord's a chord. A song about elf's is a song about elf's whether it was written by Schubert or Freddie Mercury.

The access we have at this moment to musics of every sort is not a delimiting factor, though it seems to be for classical music in particular. It's a tremendous liberation. We're not stuck with a choice between Beethoven or Black Sabbath. If you're after Sturm und Drang, program them both. You'd be hard-pressed to find an audience today that won't appreciate the combination. It's sort of like building a $200 computer. You can't lose.

A Giant Sucking Sound

When you walk the streets of NYC tonight, you may notice the ghostly absence of all the cool kids. That's because they'll all be at the Trouble Club show at Arlene's Grocery.



Trouble Club
Wednesday, May 17th--TONIGHT!
8:00pm sharp
Arlene's Grocery
95 Stanton Street, just east of Ludlow
Take the F Train to 2nd Ave.

Show at 8, drinking in the bar next door at 9 til the cows come home!

#1 least important reason to catch Trouble Club? Angus has toured with Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Band of Horses, "Funeral"

What are the most significant classical works of the last 15-20 years?

That simple question always proves not so simple. The usual garden-variety 'what is classical music' issue sprouted up, but amidst all the distractions, there's quite an impressive list of pieces, several of which are outside the timeframe of the question.

Here's the complete list of pieces & composers mentioned so far:

Adams, John - Naive and Sentimental Music; Harmonielehre; Violin Concerto; Chamber Concerto; Shaker Loops (1983)
Andriessen, Louis – Writing to Vermeer
Aphex Twin - Windowlicker
Baird, Tadeusz - Voices from Afar
Barrett, Richard - Vanity ('90-'94)
Beauvais, William - Incoming Light (for prepared classical guitar; gets the sound of a gamelan out of the instrument)
Bell, Shawn - Currents II (a lovely classical guitar piece; post-minimal with lots of energy and pretty use of very dissonant harmonies; a lot of harmonics)
Benjamin, George - Antara
Berio, Luciano – Notturno; Sinfonia (1969)
Birtwistle, Harrison - Pulse Shadows; Gawain; Earth Dances (1986)
Boulez, Pierre – Répons (1984)
Budd, Harold
Cage, John - Apartment House 1776 (1976)
Carter, Elliott - Symphonia: Sum fluxae pretium spei
Cooper, Lindsay - Face In the Crowd (sax quartet, played by Rova)
Czernowin, Chaya - Dam Sheon Hachol
Davies, Peter Maxwell - Eight Songs for a Mad King; Symphony No.5
Dench, Chris - Sulle scala della fenice ('86-'89)
Dillon, James - Windows and Canopies ('85)
Dumitrescu, Iancu - Galaxy (1993); Pierres Sacrees (1991)
Dutilleux, Henri - L'arbre Des Songes
Eastman, Julius - Unjust Malaise (CD)
Emsley, Richard - Flow Form ('87)
Eötvös, Péter - Atlantis (1995)
Feldman, Morton - For Samuel Beckett (1987); Rothko Chapel (1971)
Ferko, Frank – Hildegard Organ Cycle
Ferneyhough, Brian - Mnemosyne ('86); Cassandra's Dream Song (1970); Etudes transcendentales (1985)
Finnissy, Michael - The History of Photography in Sound (2001); Recent Britain ('98); Folklore II (1994)
Fox, Christopher - A Canonic Break ('02-'03)
Frith, Fred – Upbeat; Ayaya Moses
Galas, Diamanda - Vena Cava
Golijov, Osvaldo – Ayre; La Pasion Segun San Marcos
Goebbels, Heiner - Surrogate Cities
Gorecki, Henryk - Symphony no.2 (1972)
Grisey, Gérard - Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil (1998)
Gubaidulina, Sofia - Johannes-Passion
Harvey, Jonathan - Inquest of Love
Holt, Simon - Sunrise’ yellow noise
Howells, Herbert - Take him, earth, for cherishing (1963)
Ikeda, Ryoji - Op
Kilar, Wojciech - Krzesany (1974)
Kline, Phil - Three Rumsfeld Songs
Kurtág, György – Kafka-Fragmente; Messages of the Late R.V. Troussova (1980); Ligatura: Message to Frances-Marie (The Answered Unanswered Question) (1989)
Lachenmann, Helmut - Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (2002)
Ligeti, György - Violin Concerto; Atmosphères (1961)
Lindberg, Magnus – Kraft; Clarinet Concerto
Lutoslawski, Witold - Chain 3;Chantefleurs et Chantefables; Livre pour orchestre (1968)
Messiaen, Olivier - Éclairs sur l'Au-delà; Sept haïkï (1962)
Monk, Meredith - Atlas (1992)
Nishimura, Akira - Into The Lights of the Eternal Chaos for symphony orchestra, 1990
Nono, Luigi - La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura
Normandeau, Robert - Clair de Terre
Otte, Hans - Das Buch der Klange (1982)
Pallett, Owen
Part, Arvo – Litany (1996); Festina Lente; Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten (1977)
Partch, Harry - And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma (1966)
Penderecki, Krzysztof - Threnody - To the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)
Pritchard, Alwynne - Craw (1997)
Reich, Steve - Different Trains; It's Gonna Rain (1965); Six Pianos (1973)
Rihm, Wolfgang - Jagden und Formen
Riley, Terry - In C (1964)
Rzewski, Frederic – The Road; The People United Will Never be Defeated (1975)
Saariaho, Kaija - L'amour de loin; Amers; Grammaire des rêves (1988)
Saunders, Rebecca - Albescere ('02); Cinnabar (1999)
Schnittke, Alfred - String Quartet No. 4
Sharp, Elliot - Abstract Repressionism
Stockhausen, Karlheinz – Hymnen (1967); LICHT
Takemitsu, Toru - I Hear the Water Dreaming; riverrun; From Me Flows What You Call Time
Tavener, John - The Apocalypse (1993)
Tenney, James - Critical Band (1988)
Walshe, Jennifer - "as mo cheanne" ('00)
Wilson, Ian - ... wander, darkling (2000)
Ziporyn, Evan - Tire Fire
Zorn, John – Spillane (1987)

Favorite Musical Legends

Quite nearly our favorite musical legend is the old chestnut about Palestrina dashing off his Missa Papae Marcelli to stave off a clerical ban on polyphony. Like all good bullshit, it's based in fact. At that point, the Church was hemorrhaging membership to the more approachable Reformation style of worship. The use of the vernacular was a big uptick for those seeking to actually understand a church service. Another impediment to cognition was polyphony.

Elaborate polyphonic writing was obscuring the words so much that the Council of Trent felt the need to address the problem. Enter a commission of a council of cardinals to come to a conclusion. They sampled several masses and concluded that it was indeed possible to employ polyphony while still clearly communicating the words of the Mass, citing, in particular, Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli. Somewhere along the line, the idea stuck that he'd actually written the mass expressly for the cardinals as proof of the power of polyphony. He hadn't, but by that point it didn't matter, and more campfire versions of the story than you could possibly catalogue have been passed on to generations of music lovers.

One notable variation actually turns the mass, which, because of this legend, exceedingly overshadows all of Palestrina's other work, into a divine writ, merely transcribed by Palestrina from the hand of Pope Marcellus, who, being Pope, was actually writing on behalf of God himself. That's a doozy, but hey, so's the Mass:

Kyrie
Gloria
Credo
Sanctus
Benedictus
Agnus Dei I
Agnus Dei II

Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person

Earl Brown's Centering from 1973 was inspired by Mary Caroline Richards' book; MC Richards is a co-dedicatee with Bruno Maderna.

New Music Reblog

With Jeff Harrington on vacation, the Net New Music Reblog is offline for the next two weeks, and as avid readers of the blog, we just couldn't face the thought of it. So, we jimmied up an emergency reblog, until Jeff gets back, all chilled and shit.

Reblog | RSS

Live Blogging Loop 2.4.3 on WPKN

Well, live-blogging your own radio appearance is tougher than it sounds.

It may not have a real future as a promotional gimmick, but it sure was fun, and who knows, maybe it could go back to school and get its masters degree in something useful.

Pre-Show Intro
World Premiere of "Carnivale"
More world premiering of "Carnivale"
Finale of world premiership of "Carnivale"
NY Times, 5.12.06, as read by Loop 2.4.3
Post-Show Interviews
Post Post-Show Gurgles
Post Post-Show Gurgles Protest By the Equipment for Being So Abused

for you happen to be in Australia

Mother Tongue / 'Tämä Kieli Jota Vaalin' (This Tongue I Am Cradling)

On June 10 and 11, in concerts in Brisbane and Sydney (with the support of ABC Classic FM) ELISION celebrates twenty years of activity with major premieres of exciting new work by Liza Lim (composer) and Patricia Sykes (poetic text) Mother Tongue, Chris Dench's Agni-Prometheus-Lucifer 2006, Timothy O'Dwyer's Gravity 2006 and Amor of John Rodgers for intertwined flute and oboe.

Artists and friends involved include: conductor Jean Deroyer (France), soprano Piia Komsi (Finland), violinist Graeme Jennings (USA), saxophonist John Butcher (UK), oboist Peter Veale, and clarinettist Carl Rosman (Germany).

Since the late eighties, ELISION's focus has been resolutely international and this has brought rewards and recognition for Australian new music. This internationalism is indicated by: nineteen tours to fourteen different countries; over thirty-four international composer commissions; the presence of over one hundred and twenty composers, visual artists, conductors and musicians as international participants within the group's actual Australian program; the uptake of ELISION repertoire, composers and collaborative practices by other ensembles; partnerships with Ensemble Modern and CIKADA; and a presence in the programs of some of world's most distinguished international arts festivals and venues - Wien Modern, Philharmonie Berlin, Hebbel Theatre, Saitama Arts Centre Japan, Agora Festival Paris, Milano Musica, Zurich TheatreSpektakel, Pro Musica Nova, BBC-3, and the Huddersfield and Liverpool Festivals.


THE ELISION TWENTIETH BIRTHDAY CONCERTS
10 June at 7.30pm Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
420 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
Tickets: $17, Concession $12; Bookings (07) 3872 9000

AND

11 June at 6pm Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Macquarie Street, Sydney
Tickets: $30, Concession $20; Bookings (02) 8256 2222
With the support of ABC Classic FM

Enquiries to Daryl Buckley : daryl@elision.org

Photo: Carl Warner

Cursive Tour Dates Announced

Wed-Jul-05 Champaign, IL Canopy Club
Thu-Jul-06 Lansing, MI Temple Club
Fri-Jul-07 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop
Sat-Jul-08 Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Smalls
Mon-Jul-10 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
Tue-Jul-11 Norfolk, VA NorVA
Thu-Jul-13 Newport, KY Southgate House
Fri-Jul-14 Des Moines, IA Vaudeville Mews

This is the first stage of the tour in support of their brand new album Happy Hollow. They'll also play Lollapalooza in August.

Loop 2.4.3 on WPKN Tomorrow!

Try to catch Loop 2.4.3 on Ray Terlaga's show tomorrow night at 8:30 p.m. on WPKN (89.5 FM Bridgeport; WPKM 88.7 FM Montauk). We'll be promoting our upcoming concerts in Connecticut and featuring new material, including some readings of Beckett's poetry. Tom is busy cooking up a brand new percussion duet for the occasion, and the Annoying Idiots will be there, too!

In the meantime, check out Lorne's wicked hand drum mastery on Conguero. Too bad he'll be in Seattle tomorrow!

WFMU Cops an ANABlog

Check out their very ANABloggish post of 65 versions of "Stairway to Heaven". Our favorite band that we never heard of:

Dusty Cowshit

Pulp, "The Fear"

Loop 2.4.3, "Son of Odin"

Loop will be performing this in Cheshire on May 21 on their program, "Peace Within Chaos".

The Warlocks say,

...."The Dope Feels Good"

Iannis Xenakis, "Anemoessa" (1979)

ANABlog's Advice

It's been a while since we've dispensed some of our highly regarded relationship advice in this space, and for that we apologize. Every day, we are inundated with letters from readers: "Why did you post so many Tapes 'n Tapes songs all at once?", "Proof deserved it", "RIP Proof", "Casey, would you please play 'Smokin' in the Boys Room' by Poison for my dying brother? He sure did love his cigs." (We keep telling that last guy he's got the wrong show)

Well today, we're going to respond to all our readers who clamor for more of our wise words on love and life by sharing one of the secrets to wooing a woman. There's basically only five surefire ways to get any woman to fall in love with you, and one of them is to sing like Ian Whitcomb.

Next up on ANABlog Advice: how to get those leaves out of your gutter with a salad bowl.

Beckett & Buster @ MOMA

Samuel Beckett's Film and Literary Cinema
May 12–13, 2006
Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2
Museum of Modern Art



On the centenary of Samuel Beckett's birth, publishing pioneer Barney Rosset presents a selection of films with unique literary pedigrees. In the early 1960s, Rosset's legendary Grove Press commissioned film scripts from leading figures in world literature, including Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Marguerite Duras, to be produced by their Evergreen Theater production company. Only Beckett's Film was shot and completed. It remains his single cinematic work, as well as Buster Keaton's final role. The film also helped Grove Press enter the distribution business, and within a decade the publishing house had become one of the most respected independent film distributors in America.

Organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film and Media, and Ed Halter, independent curator and writer. Thanks to Astrid Myers.

Film. 1965. USA. Directed by Alan Schneider. Screenplay by Samuel Beckett. With Buster Keaton. Beckett made his only trip to America for the film shoot in New York. Taking as its basis George Berkeley's theory that "to be is to be perceived," Film follows Keaton as a hooded agoraphobe. 21 min.
Outtakes from Film. 1965. Never-before-seen alternate scenes, recently discovered in Rosset's private archives. Approx 10 min.
Un Chant d'amour. 1950. France. Written and directed by Jean Genet. Distributed by Grove Press. Genet's classic is sordid, brutal, and provocative, yet as poetic and lyrical as its title suggests. Silent. 26 min.
The Hard-Boiled Egg. 2006. USA. Directed by James Fotopoulos. Digital video production of Ionesco's heretofore unproduced screenplay, commissioned by Rosset from Fotopoulos. 25 min. World premiere.
Total runtime approx 82 minutes

Friday, May 12 at 8:30.
Program as listed above, followed by a conversation with Barney Rosset and James Fotopoulos, moderated by Ed Halter. Free admission.

Saturday, May 13 at 2:00.
program as listed above.

More production photos from Film:

The Big Show's Poster

(From Left - Pemberton Roach, bass; Mic Rains, some six-stringed thing; Genie Morrow, blonde ambition; Nigel Rawles, photo wizadry; Joe Drew, hot dogs)

Check out "2541" from the soon-to-be-released Sputnik album!

NBA Playoffs

Fight On !!!

a really big show

Doonesbury 1976

As usual, Rawles has got a point.

So, we're all sitting around getting ready to rehearse for Sputnik's big show, and I mention how the self-importance of Springsteen's new album title really rubs me the wrong way.

Rawles asks, "What's it called?"

"The Seeger Sessions," I answer.

"That wouldn't, by any chance, be Bob Seger would it?"

Dang, It's Another Rawles Balls CD Release Party!

"Dang Me"



Come see the hardest working band in show business at the Living Room tonight at midnight.

The Old Tune

The 'absurdist' tag hardly does justice to the bulk of Beckett, but this adaptation of Robert Pinget's radio play is pure Goon Show:

The Old Tune (1960, from Pinget's La Manivelle)


(Pinget's smoking as Beckett looks on)

Way to go, Mexico!

Witold Lutoslawski, Symphony No. 3

(notes)

Venice Is Sinking

"Pulaski Heights"

"Undecided"

A review of a concert of music (Kunstraum, Düsseldorf) of myself and friends, Mark So and James Orsher from Petra Hedler, writing for the NRW gazette (North Rheinland - Westphalia).





Translation:

"It was very interesting for me to experience how Pisaro's students carry on with these ideas [i.e., those discussed in the previous paragraph]. They do it in a highly individual way. Johnny Chang gives the tones more space and volume and creates tender sound currents that carry one along. Mark So strongly embraces the phenomenon of the just barely audible, taking up a broad palette of sound producing devices (including glasses, stones). James Orsher lets small, filigreed tone islands appear and disappear again and again from a sea of silence."




Here's one of the pieces on that concert; Goldsmith Variations - in a version performed at calarts for 2 double basses, flute, ukele, harmonium & piano. This kind of instrumentation pretty much speaks to the variety of sounds that my friends bring to any rehearsals of highly focused yet openly creative concept pieces. (Not to forget wine glasses + H2O, pebbles on saucers
placed on snare drums, harmonicas, e-bowed e-guitar etc.etc.etc)

The Great American Songbook, Vol. 4

"Ukelele Lady"