Charles Wuorinen, "A Solis Ortu" (1989)

A solis ortu usque ad occasum laudabile nomen Domini.

From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the name of the Lord is to be praised.1

1

Barak Hussein Obama

Pinheaded GOP strategist Ed Rogers actually made some sense yesterday when he dismissed Barak's chances in a presidential run.

Chip Franklin explains why.

RedHead

Longtime ANALOG friend, Jason Heinrich is premiering his first film at Studio 35 in Columbus, Ohio this Saturday. Check out the trailer at redhead-movie.com.

A Happy Thanksgiving from Kurt Weill

The Berlin Requiem (Weill/Brecht, 1929)
"Great Hymn of Thanksgiving"
"Ballad of the Drowned Girl"
"Epitaph"
"Legend of the Unknown Soldier Beneath the Triumphal Arch"
"Second Poem on the Unknown Soldier Beneath the Triumphal Arch"
"Great Hymn of Thanksgiving"

Worship the night and darkness by which you are surrounded
Come with a shove.
Look to the heaven above:
Day is already confounded.

Worship with fulness of heart the weak memory of heaven
It cannot trace
Either your name of your face
Nobody knows you're still living

Worship the grass and the beasts that have life and must perish
Lo!Grass and beasts
Like you partake of life's feasts
Like you they also must perish.

Worship the cold and the darkness and calamity dire
Scan the whole earth
You're a thing of no worth
and you may calmly expire

Cristóbal Halffter, "Noche Pasiva del Sentido" (1971)

The Game, "Compton"

Also Out Tomorrow

"Never Let Go"



"Bottom of the World"

Sufjan Stevens' Christmas Box Set Out Tomorrow

Replete with essay by Rick Moody and songs like "Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!"

The Ark

"This Piece of Poetry Is Meant To Do Harm"

"Echo Chamber"

Mauricio Kagel, "Acustica" (Side Four)

The work consists of two -- almost separate -- plains; one constitutes the playback of a 4-track tape recorder with a fixed sequence, whereas the second derives from the playing of 2 to 5 musicians which can be varied from performance to performance in the construction of acoustic material and in the manner of interreaction. I have deliberately avoided combining both plains as I have always had the impression-also in my works which display similar problems-that the attempt to weld together electronic and instrumental music is more wishful thinking on the part of the listener than acoustical reality. (On the other hand, this blending is immediately attainable if the total sound comes from the loudspeaker).

The four-track tape was produced in Winter of 1969 in the electronic music studio of West German Radio, Cologne (WDR). The recording consists of purely electro-acoustically produced material as well as recordings of instrumental and vocal sounds which were not manipulated. (Apart from the instruments, the voices of Alfred Feussner and William Pearson are to be heard).

The point of departure for this tape-composition was to compound as homogeneously as possible, two categories of sounds, dissimilar in the nature of their production (a combination which seemed to me over-simplified when produced by means of a metamorphosis of the concrete recordings by filtering, ring modulation, alteration of the tape playback ). It should rather be achieved by similar treatment of instruments and electronic sound-production.

The similarity between the procedure in the composition of the electronic material and the way in which I set instruments and their playing-function, made a mechanical transformation - mechanical since electrical, but worked by hand-of the recording unnecessary.

The instrumental part of the work was written on approx. 200 filing-cards, in the top right-hand corner of which the relevant main-instrument is indicated by a symbol. Neither the order of the cards nor the manner of ensemble are specified-every action is, however, exactly predetermined. The performers always decide the point of their entries; this freedom demands, however, a perfect mastery of text and context. Thus the performers achieve more than a mere reproduction of their parts, as they incorporate influences from another in their playing as if they were audience of themselves.

ACUSTICA, one of my most extensive works of recent years, is written in memory of Alfred Feussner, my early-departed friend.

Mauricio Kagel, "Acustica" (Side Three)

...
Balloons as resonators for wind instruments and as (regained) air-supply in the production of oral processes;

Pipe-branch, a piece of narrow hose approx. 130' long with connections (on the ends of which organ pipes [mixtures] and penny-whistles are attached), which is fed by a compressed-air cylinder of 27 cubic feet capacity (an "aerophone" for collective use, where only generously-minded players can play together: should one of the performers divert the air-current for himself alone, all the others will be made silent);

Gas blow-lamp, to produce vibrations in pipes, the fundamental frequency of which is reached by altering its total length;

Mutes for wind instruments with built-in loudspeakers which permit a perfect diaphony with the simultaneous playback from the tape recorder of the blown notes;

Megaphones, likewise with built-in loudspeakers (also to be used by contestants, in which case power-saving cassette-recorders are switched on to drown the puny volume of the official side);

Humming-loudspeaker (the German term "Summenlautsprecher" derives both from "Summe" = sum and from "summen" = to hum), the diaphragm of which is worked on with various articles during the performance (so that the loudspeaker becomes more of an instrument than an actual loudspeaker).

Council for National Security Can't Guarantee Composer's Security

S.P. Somtow

And the hits just keep on coming from General Sonthi's coup. The latest gaffe in his Council for National Security's bid to rid Thailand of corruption was to pick a fight with the country's most famous composer, Somtow Sucharitkul. His new opera, Ayodhya, depicts the death of the demon-king Thotsakan (pictured below at right).



While that is a taboo in Khon, the country's traditional masked drama, it doesn't particularly extend to Westernized opera. Still, Sonthi's dunderheaded "interim government" promised that they would blame Somtow's opera if anything bad happened to them, and made him sign an agreement allowing them to ban the opera at any time.

Prelude, from Ayodhya
First Movement, from Requiem (commissioned by the previous government In Memoriam 9/11)

Mauricio Kagel, "Acustica" (Side Two)

(continued liner notes)

Some examples:

Castanette-Keyboard with a scale of diameters from 1 4/5" to 7 1/5" which can be "tuned" by means of double-bass pegs in the action-tention (with the result that even deep-sounding castanettes will sound clearly when played extremely quickly);

two sets of Bull-Roarers (one with an aerodynamic profile, the other out of plain pieces of wood), which are wielded by hand and worked by twisted rubber band.

Nail-Violin, a form of the idiophonic friction-instrument invented in the mid-18th century, with 16 iron rods of equal width but of different lengths (between 2 1/25 and 16 4/5"; temperature 15√8) which vibrate transversally when played with a cello or double-bass bow;

Roundpeg-Violin, a version of the nail-violin (9 wooden sticks between 3 23/25" and 3'; temperature 8√9);

Scabella, clapper-sandals worn by Ancient Roman choir-leaders, but fitted with a hinge in the middle of the sole, so that the performer can achieve audible results with the minimum of effort;

Hinged-board (Crepitacolo), a flat piece of wood with various handles attached which the iron parts hit according to the force with which it is shaken back and forth (a new version of the original church bell);

five-tongued Ratchet with common crankshaft, the cogwheel frequency of which is tuned in five stages, so that the loudness of the noise can be influenced by altering the tongue-setting;

Pick-ups and Diaphragms in as many forms as possible (other than the usual ones), in order to explore the devious route to higher sub-fidelity: e.g. plastic funnel and knife-feather and ukelele, sandpaper and drawing pin, matches with and without box;

Cross-blower for the timbre-modulation of the pages of a book;

-- from Avant Garde Project

Morton Feldman, "For Stefan Wolpe" (1986)

-- for chorus & vibraphones

Mauricio Kagel, "Acustica" (Side One)

From the LP: ACUSTICA (Deutsche Grammophon 2707 059)

Kölner Ensemble für Neue Musik

I. Christoph Caskel
II. Karlheinz Böttner
III. Edward H. Tarr
IV. Wilhelm Bruck
V. Vinko Globokar
Formation of the palyers during recording session:

		III
	II		IV
I				V

Produced by Karl Faust
Artistic supervision and sound direction: Mauricio Kagel
Recorded Studio Rhenus, Godof Bei Köln (28. - 31. 1. 1971)
Co-production with the West German Radio, Cologne (WDR)

Each side of the two records is to be taken as an independent section. The author does not expect the listener to follow the complete recording in one session.

ACUSTICA for experimental sound-producers and loud-speakers

One of the fundamental thoughts behind this composition is expressed in the actual invention of the sound-sources: new instruments as self-evident supplement to currently existent sound-makers (together with experimental acoustical equipment, the manipulation of which presupposes a diverse musical faculty).

George Harrison, "Dream Away"

Cartridge Music (Berlin-Style) LA Edition

Saturday, November 25, 2006
8:00 p.m.

at Dangerous Curve
an Experimental Exhibition and Performance/Live Art Space

1020 East Fourth Place
(500 Molino Street #102)
Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.

$8--12.00 sliding scale

Works:

James Tenney: Just Another Bagatelle
Istvan Zelenka : Nokturne Underground always Never Are Good
- 1 Reformation for 3 Readers world premiere

John Cage: Cartridge Music
Christian Wolff: Berlin Exercises

schematic


Performers:

Jessica Catron, cello
Johnny Chang, violin/cartridge operator
Jeremy Drake, guitar/cartridge operator
Marc Nimoy, electronics/cartridge operator
Michael Pisaro, electric guitar

Bobby Creekwater, "Let It Be"

You don't tug on Superman's cape...

You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim



GO BUCKS!!

Cold War Kids

"Hospital Beds"

"The Soloist in the Living Room"

Fritz Wunderlich

I was looking for some records to deface and make noisy. Instead? Ha, I have been searching for the music of Fritz Wunderlich for a while, especially his Viennese Songs. If you don't speak German (and mine is bad), the lyrics are about Love, Women and (when things are going well), looking at the world through the rosy rosy lense of well, these songs... ?

I posted 4 for your listening pleasure - the 4th is particularly slip-slurppery.








Wien, Wien, nur du allein



Denk dir, die Welt wär ein Blumenstrauss



Ich kenn' ein Wagerl im Helenental



In Wien gibt's manch winziges Gasserl

Josef Riedl, "Vielleicht-Duo" (1963/70)

The 'Vielleicht- Duo' (which originated from the sentence "perhaps it is so, but perhaps it is not so" from Buchner's 'Leonce und Lena') is written on the one hand for a vocalist who changes his sounds by means of water - whereby he speaks into a bowl of water or with water in his mouth - on the other hand for electronic sounds which imitate human speech by means of a Vocoder. It is a duet of alienated natural speech and naturalized artificial speech, which comes into being through the reactions of the vocalist to the tape - improvisation to a slightly improvised cantus firmus.

Animal Collective, "Winter's Love"

Josef Riedl, "Studien für Elektronische Klänge IV" (1959-62)

The Klaxons, "Atlantis to Interzone"

Jim Tenney in a water bottle

The following recording was done out at Giant Rock Airfield during Festival (6) Desert; a simultaneous performance of Mark So' haley's comet, jupiter, the stars, the open field [late summer, 1985] (2006) & jim tenney's for percussion perhaps, or ... (night)

This is one of many Jim Tenney tributes in the months/years to come. And I'm guessing the windiest...

"rooms of calarts"

James Orsher's transcriptions of 3 locations in the calarts building. Recorded in a performance at Sandpaper Books : your los angeles point for abrasive texts and other printed matter (Figueroa & 37th)

~

performers: johnny chang, lewis keller, james orsher, mark so, tashi wada

B318 mp3 (score)


Main Gallery mp3 (score)















R.O.D mp3 (score)

Josef Riedl, "Studien für Elektronische Klänge I" (1959-62)

Los Lobos, "The Valley"

These guys have had their nose to the grindstone for over two decades, and their new album is just the latest in a string of solid releases from one of America's best rock bands.

Josef Riedl, "Studien für Elektronische Klänge II" (1959-62)

Josef Anton Riedl's works are mostly remnants of functional music: when he has to write film or theater music which, as at it is, differs from that generally found in these categories - he composes it in such a way that the music can stand independently. The normal procedure of diluting an autonomous composition to fit a film or play is directly reversed: here one begins with the music and ends with an artificial independent work of art. The accidental motive which determined the choice of material is inherent to this work.

Ernst Bacon, "Alabaster Wool"

It sifts from Leaden Sieves
It powders all the Wood.
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road--

It makes an Even Face
Of Mountain and of Plain--
Unbroken Forehead from the East
Unto the East again--

It reaches to the Fence--
It wraps it Rail by Rail
Till it is lost in Fleeces--
It deals Celestial Veil

To Stump and Stack--and Stem--
A Summer's empty Room--
Acres of Joints where Harvests were,
Recordless, but for them--

It Ruffles Wrists of Posts
As Ankles of a Queen--
Then stills its Artisans--like Ghosts,
Denying they have been--

Emily Dickinson

Josef Riedl, "Nr. 4/I" (1969)

Riedl was previously engaged in purely electronic music, in which every single passage must be prefixed and worked out in detail (as in his 'Studien'). Already here dynamic passages occurred which possessed the character of a process to a high degree, and then he worked in recordings of concrete sounds whose unprofiled contours unravelled the strict lay-out of the course - as in the 'Kompositionen 3 and 4/1'. For Riedl, electronic sounds became more and more material reservoir and generator - whether their output was added to film or theater productions, or whether the material was used as part of instrumental or vocal processes.

way better than episode 1

Josef Riedl, "No. 3" (1967)

In 1966/67 Riedl produced the film "Elektronische Musik" for the NDR in collaboration with Stefan Meuschel. For the documentary part, which dealt with the origin of this newest kind of music, Riedl made a variety of recordings of mechanical musical instruments. For instance he recorded the Wehe-Mignon-piano in the Deutsche Museum in Munich, which had retained many historical interpretations including some from Debussy, but which at the same time produced puffing noises; also the similar pneumatic action Hupfeld-Violine, a glockenspiel roll with Weber's Jungfernkranz music, and a machine which produced sounds by means of rods upon metal discs - and played La Paloma. The laughter and humming of the museum attendants also came into the recording of these singularly unusual instruments. Riedl amalgamated this and other material - chance discoveries and remains of film-work - into an electronic combination of square-wave tones, filtered and frequency-modulated sounds and other material, and added suitable concrete sounds which happened to be at hand (barking dogs, aeroplane noise, mumbling and hissing sounds etc.). By the careful integration of this material, making use of the slightest subtle variations, and by a highly differentiated treatment of the volume which imparted complicated amplitude envelopes to the processes, 'Komposition Nr. 3' was created. The origin of the work - the fortuitous discovery of a colourful world of sound - lends it freedom; the realization by means of integration secures its unity - a unity which combines strictness with sensitivity.

Matching Mole, "O Caroline"

Josef Riedl, "Paper Music" (1970)

Two performers handle various types of paper in various ways until the material has been used up. This is recorded on tape. In performance another set of paper is used up, but this time the performers improvise to their own tape, whereby the control of the reproduction is influenced by the live-performance: improvisation with feedback.

Interspecies Communications Inc. Presents:

Jim Nollman's "Realtime Interspecies Music", from the release, Belly of the Whale.

Not to be confused with the defunct Interspecies Music and Communication Research, Jim's Interspecies Communiciations Inc. sets up collaborations between animals and human artists. This tune features Jim on guitar and a pod of orcas on vocals. The lineup for the rest of the CD is pretty stellar, featuring such artists as Merzbow & Scanner.

Josef Riedl, "Polygonum" (1968)

Polygonum consists purely of improvisation to an improvisation. Two to four interpreters choose their own sound mediums, play them according to given rhythmic and dynamic structures. Then they work further with them, invent to the invention.

Josef Riedl, "Glas-Spiele" (1977)

Glas-Spiele (Glass Games) The "Glas-Spiele" were sketched in 1974 and composed in 1977 in two versions. Along with "Metallophonic Raum - Klangwerkstatt" (Metallophonic Space - Sound Workshop, 1974), this is one of Riedl's pieces for self-constructed instruments. Here the instruments are as unconventional as the manner of performance: they are made entirely of glass. The composer has described the
structure of his work as follows:

"Several systems of light metal tubes are placed in adjoining rooms, or in one large room. They are of various shapes and sizes, and resemble scaffolding systems.

Glass tubes, plates and rods varying in area (plates), length, thickness and diameter (tubes, rods) are arranged separately or in groups. Either they are freely suspended from the pipes of the system, or they lie on styrofoam in wooden 'caskets'. The latter in turn rest on tables made of light metal pipes etc. which may or may not be part of the system.

On different pipes in the system, several paths are constructed from various combinations of straight, U-shaped or other glass tubes. These paths vary in length, and resemble roller coasters.

The tubes, plates and rods have pitch, and are placed or suspended in a particular order (e. g. sequences of 'pitch', timbre and noise, continuums from timbre to noise etc.).

Tubes and rods of equal length etc. are tied together in bundles. The same is done to tubes and rods of different length (clusters).

Glass marbles of various sizes and numbers roll along the paths, falling at the end into glass containers of various shapes and sizes.

Tubes are brought into contact by hand, either individually or in groups. They are struck (lightly) against one another. Tubes, plates and rods, both lying and suspended, are struck with one or two glass marbles (per performer) and scraped for various distances (creating 'glissandi' with various numbers of pitches) and at various speeds. Sometimes, instead of marble(s), felt-headed drumsticks are used, one or two per player. The sticks may also be inverted (wood end on glass), or used in various combinations such as one normal and one inverted drumstick, marble plus normal stick, marble plus inverted stick etc.

A marble is used to write on a suspended glass plate. The 'writing' may consist of continuous texts such as letters; full stops, colons and semicolons, quotation marks, exclamation points, question marks, commas and dashes; minus, plus, percent and
paragraph signs, parentheses, slashes; individual numbers, columns of numbers, addition problem etc. It may also proceed at various speeds such as ritardando, accelerando, very slow, very fast, rubato etc. It is also possible to draw maps, landscapes, faces etc. at a quick pace. One or two marbles are used per player, and the sound is modulated by the different surfaces.

The resultant sounds and noises (including those from the containers) are electronically amplified by means of suspended and contact microphones, and are distributed to the rooms (or within the room) by means of a control panel and variously positioned loudspeakers. The amplification should never drown out the original sounds.

A tape with music obtained in a similar manner is played at the beginning of the piece.

Aluminium-coloured or 'white' metal tubes and transparent or 'white' suspended glass objects are brightly illuminated by several small spotlights attached to pipes in the system. These lights have narrow apertures and illuminate the metal or glass laterally with 'white' light so as to create colour spectra of various lengths (glissandi).

Sound/light structure(s), sound/light constructions)."

The composition proceeds along four levels. Level A is the tape containing sounds and noises similar to those called for in the piece. Once the tape has finished, level B begins. It is created by one or two players drawing angular lines on plates with marbles and thus defining the structure of the surfaces. These lines are repeated, each time with variations. The players also generate rhythms which are likewise constantly repeated, the rhythm remaining intact while the dynamics and tone colour change. Now Level C is added. It is performed by eight musicians, each playing the same program at different intervals of
time. First they strike the suspended plates and tubes, then write and draw with marbles on suspended and lying plates. This leads to a brief, very free passage using all materials in which marbles are rolled in the 'roller coaster' systems. Finally, in level D, noises take the upper hand. The piece ends with the dying out of the last sound or noise, however
soft.

Ideally, the audience should be able to move about freely in the room, discovering and rediscovering the sounds from different angles.

This disc contains an excerpt from "Glas-Spiele". Gisela Gronemeyer (Translation: J. Bradford Robinson)

Earle Brown, "Music for violin, cello, and piano" (1952)

Sunday, November 12, 8pm

Concert with guest composer and violinist, Thomas Stiegler (Frankfurt)

CalArts, ROD Hall

(1/2) Two pieces for solo violin (using very unusual playing techniques),

Sonata Facile (1993), Thomas Stiegler, violin (score)
Quasi una fantasia (1995), Johnny Chang, violin

(3) a piece for a reader (166 pages "read" in 11 minutes),
und.ging.aussen.vorüber (III), (2006), Stina Hanson, reader

(4) and one for a humming choir (exploring 'contrapuntal' breath patterns):
viel-leicht (2002), Experimental Music Workshop

+
(5) also a performance of Antoine Beuger's "Cantor Quartets" (2003)
Thomas Stiegler, Johnny Chang (violins), James Orsher (harmonium) and
Michael Pisaro (gutiar)

Earle Brown, "Music for cello & piano" (1955)

Mike Post Themes

In a tip of the hat to their newfound love of licensing, and the apparent prerequisite that all detective shows have a Who-like song as a theme, The Who have penned an ode to Mike Post on their amiable new album.

Who's Mike Post? Only the most brilliant TV theme writer of all time:

Hill Street Blues


Riptide


Quantum Leap


NYPD Blue


Doogie Howser, M.D.