Complement.Inversion.Etc

Xenakis; The Architect

2011-05-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

Plan of Xenakis's Amorgos Villa, via Amorgos Island Magazine.

If you follow Centre Iannis Xenakis on Facebook then you'll occasionally see posts from them with links to articles and features about 'Mr X's' architecture . Now of course we all know about the 1958 Phillips Pavillion and the sections of La Tourette Monastery he designed but there's more.

So if you're not already Facebook friends with Le Centre here's a couple of choice examples to be going along with.

Firstly the 'Amorgos Villa' designed between 1966 and 1977 is worth a look...

The vacational house on Amorgos he designed for his daughter and their husband and composer Francois-Bernard Mache. The building complex is located on the slope of a hill, overlooking the northern coast of the Tirokomos gulf, near Lefkes. The nearest settlement stands 200 m higher: it is Aghia Thekla, typical of the traditional Cycladic nineteenth century architecture.

Link to article..(includes video, which is nice).

Second, the (currently unrealised) house Xenakis designed for composer Roger Reynolds which was recently 3d printed as a model by LMNts.

The 'Reynolds house', link to article here.

Finally, this discussion from 1992 about 'computer music' between Reynolds, Paul Lansky, Xenakis and François-Bernard Mâche is probably worthy of your attention.

Garth Knox: Viola Spaces

2011-02-28T18:30:00.001-08:00

Garth Knox: Cleverly hidden amongst a group of other musicians (from Jean Francois Charles's site).

Just a quickie, if you head over to Garth Knox's website you'll find a most excellent collection of YouTube videos featuring performances of his Viola Spaces; a set of eight viola studies composed by Knox which explore various extended techniques.

In his own words...

Interpreters of classical music can study technical exercises (scales, arpeggios, finger exercises, etc.) confident in the knowledge that these patterns will be useful in playing classical pieces. Due to the extreme diversity of styles in new music today, it is now more often a case of constructing a new technique to reply to the demands of a new piece. There are however recurring techniques which can be studied, among these the so-called “extended techniques” (usually meaning classical techniques taken a little further). I had the idea to write a series of pieces which explore these techniques.

Each piece (or « space ») concentrates on one specific technique, and exists in a solo version, and in a duo or trio version, the other viola parts using the same techniques, but in a simpler way. In this way, a player can learn the technique on the simpler part, then progress to playing the solo part himself.

Great to see Knox himself perform these pieces and even without the score they're most informative (I'd call them didactic but that seems to be a dirty word these days, wasn't in my day, personally I blame immigrants and violent rap music).

The score is published by Shott and can be purchased here.

TinyURL for this post: http://tinyurl.com/6kq6onb

Another Quote (more Kurtág, same book, yes, I know)

2011-02-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

Ligeti and Kurtág: Old hands.

So, first scene (central-on the podium):

Christmas Eve 1957-according to a telegram I still have, at 11.02 p.m.-Paris-Gare du Nord. Ligeti arrives in Paris for the first time in his life. I wait at the station. The pianist György Szoltsanyi, my friend and our host that evening, finds it strange that someone would want to travel so late on Christmas Eve. He invites Ligeti as well to his home at 48 Boulevard Garibaldi.

"The metro is still running," I say.
"No, let's walk!"

And without hesitating Ligeti leads me through the streets of Paris, I who have lived here for over six months-naming every intersection and the streets beyond.

(back corner, top, left):
Ligeti's early childhood. His obsessive pastime: perusing maps and memorizing them by heart-among them the map of his dream city, Paris-while already working on his fictitious country, Kylwyria.

(front, top, right):
The spirit of the Kylwyria construct seems to be hereditary-also in his early childhood, his son Lukas spent years writing the encyclopedia of his invented planet, with examples from its scientific history, literature, fine arts, and music.

György Kurtag, Mementos of a Friendship, György Kurtag on György Ligeti. (Three Interviews and Ligeti Homages, B.A. Varga).

TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/6zsatfq

48 Boulevard Garibaldi

A Quote (Because it's so good).

2011-02-21T20:32:00.000-08:00

György Kurtág and his wife Márta Kurtág: György displaying his Olympic gold medal (Luge, 1960. A little known classical music fact, or is it?).

'For me, harmony is melody pressed like a flower.'

György Kurtág: Three Interviews and Ligeti Homages, Bálint András Varga.

TinyURL for this post: http://tinyurl.com/66b5a9l

Barrett on Ferneyhough

2011-02-21T06:12:00.000-08:00

Ferneyhough, Cage and, someone else (from the Virtual Museum).

Recently picked up the 1992 edition of Contemporary Composers at my local Oxfam bookshop and I must say it is rather good. This entry on Ferneyhough by Richard Barrett is the best summary I can remember reading on the great man (Barrett isn't just a good composer so it seems).

Thought it worth sharing here. Also it's Ferneyhough's turn to be Totally Immersed at London's Barbican on Saturday, also broadcast on the BBC.

................................................

It often seems that either Brian Ferneyhough's music is talked about more than listened to or performed, or that his name embodies some kind of numinous idea with scant reference to the compositions with which is it presumably connected. To his critics he often represents all that is most esoteric and pointless in the compositional ivory tower; to many of his supporters he appears as the torch carrier for centuries-old mainstream of "progress" in musical thought.

Ferneyhough has no doubt inadvertently supplied support for both arguments in the often impenetrable verbal apparatus with which he surrounds the music. To dispose of this aspect first, closer examination of almost any of his published statements reveals a coherence, and indeed reasonableness, of which the more woolly-minded among composers would do well to take notice. For performers and listeners alike, the "difficulties" presented by Ferneyhough's music are mainly to do with depth and span of attention. The music resists casual listening as surely as it does sight-reading, but there is a great difference between this and, on the one hand, lack of interest in the sound itself, or on the other hand lack of sensitivity to performing resources (Ferneyhough is assiduous in researching instrumental possibilities, as many players eventually agree).

Ferneyhough's music certainly has its roots in the tradition of serial thinking, or, to be more general, "parametric" thinking, where the different (and differently defined) aspects or dimensions of a sound or complex of sounds may be not only organised, but organised independently. The density of sound and notation in most of his music is a result of applying such principles to many more and much subtler "parameters" than he had previously. An instrumental line will hardly ever be free of layer upon layer of superimposed articulations, ornamentations and so on, which almost function as "counterpoints" to each other and to the pitch-contour itself (if indeed the latter remains discernible).

The finished score is the "sounding trace" of a vast and contradictory network of processes and permutations, a network constructed to draw together and solidify what Ferneyhough has called an "unformed mass of creative volition". The title of his seven-part cycle Carceri d'invenzione ("prisons of invention") not only recalls Piranesi's etchings of imaginary dungeons, but also the process by which the composer might set up more or less systematic restrictions in order to channel initially inchoate compulsion or desire. Nevertheless, however abstractly formulated these restrictions, Ferneyhough's music processes abundant stylistic "signatures". It would be over-simplifying to talk of a "Ferneyhough sound" when one of the music's most obvious features is a refusal to arrive at a point of unequivocal statement, but on a "microscopic" level there are any number of characteristic gestures which occasionally emerge from his typically hyperactive polyphony.

Ferneyhough's earliest mature works date from the mid-1960s, when in the Sonatas For String Quartet, for example, disparate compositional means (serial and non-serial) coexist without fusing. The work is also typical in its fragmentary overall form; nearly all of Ferneyhough's longer compositions are either made up of separate, shortish movements, or divided into at least notionally discrete sections (24 in the Sonatas). The following works brought about increasingly complex relationships between deterministic and empirical composition, which are paralleled in the diverse degree of notational exactitude in Transit. At the same time, tendencies towards "parametric polyphony" in writing for solo instruments reached their apogee in Unity Capsule, where the superimposed layers of notation for parameters such as embouchure position and vocal activity threaten to marginalise the (traditionally paramount) pitch structures.

The most recent works, while retaining and even building upon these characteristics, also embody a new openness to formal clarity (relatively speaking), exemplified in the gradual disintegration of a sharply-defined initial situation in La Chute d'Icare, the starkly juxtaposed textures towards the end of the Third String Quartet or the series of etude-like miniatures which constitutes Kurze Schatten II. In these pieces, a more important structural role is played by contrasts in overall texture, although an essential ambiguity is retained, that sense of an endless recursion of qualifications around every statement, which is at the same time one of the most frustrating and one of the most rewarding features of Ferneyhough's work.

Richard Barrett. Contemporary Composers, Morton & Collins, St James Press 1992.

TinyURL for this post: http://tinyurl.com/5rt6j4a

A Quote Just Before February 2011

2011-01-31T18:16:00.001-08:00

Xenakis and Messiaen: Because I couldn't find a picture of Messiaen and Varèse (it was always going to be a long shot). Taken from a 'Q & A' with James Dillon on The Arts Desk.

Varèse, whom I heard him [Messiaen] describe as 'my brother, who does for the urban landscape what I try to do with nature'.

Alexander Goehr: Finding The Key ('The Messiaen Class').

Also do check out this Varèse documentary extract on YouTube. Best thing I've seen on him so far but I can't find out where to get the full length film. Don't think it's the new Frank Schaeffer film Varese: The One All Alone (which I haven't seen, yet). Looks too dated but it's hard to tell with all the stock footage and YouTube compression etc.

Lutoslawski Video: It's Mi Parti and I'll Cry If I Want To

2011-01-31T16:59:00.000-08:00

Lutoslawski (R): Garden party guests never tired of Witold's jokes about limited aletoricism and Soviet repression.

Alright so this post isn't actually about Lutoslawski's piece Mi Parti but I had to make use of that pun at some point - it was rapidly burning a hole in my blog-post-pun-title-pocket.

Instead you can watch a documentary imaginatively entitled 'Open Rehearsals With Witold Lutoslawski'. It was produced in 1984 for the USC School of Music.

I wasn't aware this existed until I spotted it in Ádám Kondor's FB news feed today (thanks to him then). Interesting to see him rehearse and conduct various bits and pieces of his repertoire and to hear him discuss some of his ideas (no new insights really, you'll find the same arguments in Conversations With Witold Lutoslawski and The Music of Lutoslawski for instance. Nice to hear it from him directly though, perhaps).

Below is the first part, you'll need to find the other three yourself. Good luck, we're all counting on you (ad libitum, natürlich).

TinyURL for this post: http://tinyurl.com/6y3m6bn

New Piece: St Mary's for Organ.

2010-12-29T14:07:00.000-08:00

Recent piece of mine above. It's the third of four 'framed pieces' I've just finished writing. It's super-brief as the score has to fit into an A3 frame and include the various matrices, arrays and geometric gubbins used in its manufacture.

As usual the harmony is a cryptogram of the title, St Mary's (all my pieces begin life like this so it seems, for various reasons, not sure if any other composers use this specific method as my cursory research hasn't turned up anything so far, I'm claming it anyway). In this case the main gesture - or melody if that isn't too unfashionable a term to use - is a direct mapping of the title: 6, 7, 0, 0, 5, 0, 6. That appears in the first section and again transposed in the second (T-1). The vertical harmony was generated via a rotational array.

I could be more specific with the registrations but I'm reasonably happy to leave that to the performer. Also it's the first piece I've written for organ so I'm at least a few country miles away from being any sort of expert in that regard.

St Mary's playing score (©Edward Lawes 2010).

These four pieces are all based on Birmingham things* as I intend to sell them in the new and most spiffing We Are Birmingham shop. (*places, buildings, mottos, all sorts).

St Mary's is a medieval church conveniently located behind my house in Moseley. The piece was written for their organ and the above recording was made there, performed by Michael Perrier (my old piano teacher as it happens, I hadn't seen him since I was 6, that was 1984. I'm taller than him now but he has more hair).

Mick at the organ.

I intend to make a longer piece out of it when I've finished designing the framed scores (taken quite a while to get used to using Illustrator and InDesign also I need to finalise a design that looks nice but is still functional, and even didactic if I can be so bold).

The idea is to make recordings of each piece so people who buy the scores can go online and hear them, and/or I might produce a CDR that comes with each score. This is all something of an experiment at this stage, whether there is much of a market for contemporary scores in this form remains to be seen (I'm not expecting a deluge of commercial action obviously, just a vaguely modest turnover, perhaps).

Thanks loads to Mick for performing the piece and to those at St Mary's for their generosity. Finally an equally gigantic thankyou to Alan Dolhasz for engineering the recording. P.S. the hiss you can hear is the sound of the air going through the organ, it's not tape noise or some other recording artifact. It wasn't that easy to record given the wide dynamic range.

Guess The Score Number 3

2010-12-29T13:41:00.000-08:00

Click image to enlarge (you'll be able to see it more clearly then, funny that).

Right, no clues at all this time as surprisingly the previous two scores have been guessed almost straight away (credit to Dan in both cases). It's a great piece, I can say that much. I'll post a YouTube link to it when/if it's correctly identified.

Good luck.

TinyURL for this post: http://tinyurl.com/2vr7djc

UPDATE: Correctly guessed really rather quickly by Mr Jacob Sudol. Good work sir!

Christmas Quote 2010

2010-12-29T13:00:00.000-08:00

Ligeti: 'What did I come in here for?'**

"Ligeti doesn't ever try your patience. Few composers are so attuned to their audience's concentration threshold."

The Independent, December 1996

Quote taken from the Ligeti Facebook group. 'Like' it.

**Think I've used that pic and gag before but, what the hell.

Kurtág's Kafka Fragments: Video Discussion

2010-12-16T07:40:00.000-08:00

Mikhail Shmidt discusses Kafka Fragments from gatheringnote on Vimeo.

Zach Carstensen from The Gathering Note blog discusses Kurtag's Kafka Fragments with violinist Mikhail Schmidt.

Also The Barbican Centre in London have some video interviews about the piece on their YouTube channel.

An introduction, The Performance Experience and The Collaborators.

New S21 Post: The Guerilla Orchestra

2010-12-03T10:59:00.000-08:00

Yes, new article of mine just posted over on Sequenza21 featuring The Guerilla Orchestra who'll be performing 'flashmob' style in various UK cities next week to protest about cuts in education funding. Have a read (will repost the article here in a couple of weeks).

Information Theory, Algorithms and The Whitney Music Box (Video)

2010-10-29T16:05:00.000-07:00

Interesting video here from Jim Bumgardner (no tittering at the back please British readers). He discusses information theory and entropy/randomness in a manner not unrelated to a previous post about brevity and non-tonal music.

Also of note is his 'Whitney Music Box' which he explains in the second half of the presentation.

Jim Bumgardner at Gel 2007 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

Free Stuff!! Bartolozzi Score For 'Collage'

2010-10-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

Page one of the book. Not included, unfortunately.

While the publisher has no plans to reprint this rather excellent book I thought as a companion to the pieces I posted previously I'd post the scores too (including the guide on the back page). Not the world's greatest scan but it's legible I think.

'DL' as a .pdf from Dropio here. If the link is dead please let me know in the comments and I'll re-upload it.

Enjoy, presumably.

Perhaps it will be reprinted at some point, why not a digital download? Lame, really.

UPDATE: Thanks to John for posting a comment about Dropio being down (it's now a discontinued service apparently). I've uploaded this score to Mediafire here. Also I'll reupload the Bartolozzi audio files from a previous post when I get time (the files are quite large).

Please post comments about any other dead links and I'll reupload those too. Thanks. Ed.

Guess The Score No.2

2010-10-12T17:23:00.000-07:00

Click on the image to enlarge.

Yes, here is the second entry in my already highly regarded 'Guess The Score' series.

This one's not as easy as the previous Varèse extract so I'm not expecting anyone to get it but you never know.

Some clues, the composer is male, still alive, and hasn't composed many pieces for orchestra. This is the beginning of the third movement (as you can see) and features some rather natty quintuplets at different speeds. One of my favourite pieces as it happens.

As before, don't all rush in at once.

EDIT: Congrats to Dan who got the right answer. It's Kurtag's Stele, the first page of the third movement. Have a listen below (turn your speakers up as the introduction is rather quiet).

Tinyurl for this post: http://tinyurl.com/38m5p55

Complement.Inversion.Etc 'Ident'

2010-10-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

Christmas jumper ('sweater' if you're in North America, I think).

This isn't really a 'proper' post (I won't be linking to it on Twitter and Facebook and so on). It's an 'ident' I made a ages ago which was supposed to preface some instructional vids on harmony (I wanted to explain what a complement inversion actually is, for instance. Not exactly rocket science but worth doing probably).

It's a parody of the BBC Open University ident from the late 70s and 80s and I intended to make the instructional vids in this style too for bit of a laugh (basic computer graphics/diagrams, very dry presentation style and most importantly, a chunky knit Christmas jumper with reindeers or it or something. Quite fancied growing a beard too).

The dots which appear at the end represent the pitch classes used in the rather perfunctory accompanying piece. I seem to remember using some piano chords I recorded for another project and then adding some single pitches also previously recorded (flute and me playing the violin, badly).

EDIT: The first pitch in the piece is an E (4). There's no 4 in the set shown in the animation (or its inversion) and I don't tend to transpose and reduce sets to prime forms etc which got me thinking what the reference is, it can't be the set used in the music. Think it's something to do with the name Complement.Inversion.Etc, will try and work it out if I get the time/energy.

It was some time ago though and the details have left my brain. It certainly isn't a carefully composed piece, just some odds and ends thrown together really.

I made the animation in 3ds Max and processed the video in Vegas.

Anyway, just a bit of fun. I've posted the original Open University ident below too (the music is actually pretty good for a bit of TV incidental music, apart from the distressingly consonant final chord, arguably).

Oh, and why not the classic A Bit of Fry and Laurie Open University sketch too.

Brevity Is The Soul Of Non-Tonal Music

2010-10-05T07:48:00.000-07:00

If Shakespeare were alive today, he'd agree with me.

I've said it many times before (at a party last night for instance, fascinating company me) but now it's official.

There are exceptions that prove the rule of course (prove as in test obviously, prove as in confirm would be a bit mental) but generally speaking non-tonal music is like a cup of espresso coffee, or a shot of whisky (single malt naturally) or perhaps most cogently, a poem.

Music which has no pulse, no 'tune' and lacks a tonal centre ought to be fairly brief; unless you can find other means of parsing the material into graspable sections or moments (as Sciarrino does with silence/space or Kurtág via many short movements to cite two examples).

To break this 'rule' or to compose in ignorance of it is to run the risk of writing music which approaches a sort of entropy; so much information that the listener can't process it, can't remember it or walk away feeling like they have a clear idea of the piece. Boredom would be a more prosaic description.

More is certainly less in most cases, many a beautiful chord or flowing contrapuntal section has been ruined by suffocation.

If you're going to write a long non-tonal piece (let's say 10+ minutes) justify it, musically (not with some guff in the programme notes or commentary).

Rant over/off.

Feel free to disagree, as always.

Tiny URL for this post: http://tinyurl.com/37p95s4

Free Stuff!!: Audio For Bartolozzi's 'New Sounds For Woodwind'.

2010-08-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

Bruno Bartolozzi: But then you knew that.

So, you've got the Bartolozzi book 'New Sounds For Woodwind' but you don't have the record in the back?

Well, now you have arguably the second best thing, lossless flac versions of the pieces. See the links below for a link to each individual piece. The quality isn't great as it was an old scratchy library record but it's listenable and arguably the surface noise adds a little, something (?).

I haven't processed the audio at all, not sure it's really necessary (obviously I'm not talking about FFT noise reduction or some crackle remover, that would be unthinkable, shudder).

Side 1

Collage for Flute (30mb) ('Bartolozzi' is mispelt in the file name for this one, so sue me).
Collage For Oboe (34mb)

Side 2

Collage For Clarinet (30.5mb)
Collage For Bassoon (75mb)
Collage For Ensemble (14mb)

They're example pieces using the fingerings and techniques he discusses in the book but they do stand up as pieces in their own right, to me at least. I think they are performed by players from the Maggio Musicale Orchestra of Florence in 1967 but the book doesn't make that entirely clear (the book was first published in 1967 so I'm inferring the recording dates, ahem).

Oh and before I forget, you can get a version of Collage for Clarinet on the excellent AGP 84, 'Italian Composers' (including Bartolozzi and Donatoni and you know, all the guys). Not sure if it's the same recording, not compared them, could be, fun.

And, thanks to Mel for transferring the record.

Tiny URL for this post: http://tinyurl.com/36brbhv

EDIT 25/03/2010: The audio files have now been re-uploaded to Mediafire as Dropio is no more.

Schoenberg and Slightly More Than 100 Years of Wilful Ignorance

2010-06-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

Schoenberg; Table tennis because Wimbledon starts tomorrow (table tennis and tennis are basically the same right? What? You mean I have to look it up?)

I suppose the great man wouldn't be surprised, over 100 years on from his (partial) break with the tonal system and people still think he's 'difficult'. So much so that often they don't even bother to do basic research when passing comment about his work as is unfortunately the case with a recent article about John ~~Williams~~ ~~Luther~~ Adams in The Observer online.

According to Peter Conrad (a teacher of literature apparently which makes his gaffe somewhat more forgivable I suppose)...

As a young man, John ~~Williams~~ ~~Luther~~ Adams upset the sedate peace of American symphonic music. His scores pulsed as relentlessly as the bass in a rock band, his noisy riffs repeated themselves to the point of madness. He enjoyed being childish: in Harmonielehre, a 1984 symphony that alludes to a crabby atonal textbook by Schoenberg, he imagined his infant daughter, Quackie, riding on the shoulders of the German mystic Meister Eckhart.

As is commonly known amongst people who know, stuff, about 20th century music Schoenberg's Harmonielehre is certainly not an 'atonal textbook' and Conrad wouldn't know whether or not the tone of the work is 'crabby' as he obviously hasn't read it. Not exactly an honest or learned beginning to an article.

Disappointing for the Guardian/Observer, if Tom Service were dead he'd be turning in his grave.

I'll shoot Chiggi a message about it, perhaps they can change the article and give Conrad one of those slaps on the back of the head that makes a satisfying 'thwap' sound.

TinyURL for this post: http://tinyurl.com/39jwh22

New Series! : Guess The Score! : No1 (!)

2010-06-08T14:43:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, it's 2010 (it has been for a while apparently) and it's time for a new series of posts. The title is fairly self explanatory, I'll present a fragment of a full score and you can try and guess what it is.

It's almost like sport only without all of the physical exercise, expensive outfits and potential injuries, what's not to like?

A fairly easy one to start with (don't all rush in at once with guesses everyone). Click on the image if you want to see it more clearly.

Tiny URL for this post: http://tinyurl.com/36mnupn

Free Stuff: Sketch Scores On Your Smartphone!

2010-05-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

A mobile phone, and some manuscript paper, amongst other things.

Yes that's right. Unfortunately I can't claim to have programmed some natty 'app' I've actually included here a very simple, almost stupid solution to something that arguably wasn't a problem in the first place.

Ever been out of the house and had a musical idea you wanted to jot down but didn't have a pen or any paper? (I did at a birthday party last night as it happens, hence my 'invention' this morning).

Well, now there's no need to worry as by using a touchscreen smartphone, a free paint package and the blank manuscript .jpg I've included a link to here you can sketch away at your leisure. You can even pretend to be Stravinsky and use different colours, and you know, stuff.

I've got a Nokia phone which uses the Symbian OS and I've been using the Paint Pad 'app' which allows you to 'paint' over a still image. I edited some blank manuscript paper to a convenient size (4 staves, didn't bother with clefs or systems etc for reasons that should be obvious) and now use that to sketch notes on top of (if you wanted to you could of course give yourself more staves or extra details, easy to do in photoshop).

Obviously it's a bit fiddly to use and sometimes accidentals and grace notes etc can be a bit tricky to draw but it does work quite well for basic sketches while you're sitting on the bus and so on.

One day perhaps your phone will play your sketches back to you (any programmers out there?)

The iPhone has a scoring 'app' available, not sure about Android or other platforms but this Paint Pad way of doing things is A: Free, B: Simple, C: Means I actually have a use for the stylus that came with my phone (this was my primary motivation obviously).

So there you go, get to it (or not).

Here's an early attempt at a sketch I did today, not exactly neat but I think you can work out what's going on. Extra brownie points for anyone who can tell me what 'piece' this is a fragment from.

TinyURL for this post: http://tinyurl.com/33evqj8

Free Stuff! Streams of Feldman

2010-04-22T15:41:00.000-07:00

Morton Feldman: Ready to pounce on a small insect perched on Db4.

Spotted this link in UbuWeb's rather useful twitter feed where all manner of interesting things pop up (like this Derrida interview on religion I just saw, I hope it's in English. I speak French fluently of course, just not right now, ahem).

Here are the details then...

Morton Feldman (1926-1987)

Chorus and Instruments (II)
Christian Wolff In Cambridge
The King of Denmark (7:23)
Realzed by Max Neuhaus.
This recording should be played at very low volume - "so that you almost don't hear it."

See accompanying text and score.
Track 1, 2 from Extended Voices
Track 3 From Aspen No. 5+6

TinyUrl for this post: http://tinyurl.com/23v7kdk

A Brief Autobiographical Technical Encounter, In Lieu of Anything Else

2010-04-18T08:42:00.000-07:00

Not Jamie and I discussing something, I've no idea who these people are but if they keep talking much longer they're going to get wet feet. Or are they? Perhaps the tide is going out in the picture? I've no idea but I think the purpose of this picture caption is fulfilled and I'll end it here.

Given the lack of any decent 'original' content on m'blog of late I thought I might post a brief 'discussion' about harmony which occurred on that popular 'social networking' site recently.

The two protagonists are my fine self, and the most distinguished Jamie Bullock. I lead off with a 'status update' about material from a string quartet I'm currently writing...

EL ('status update' 17/04/2010): how can two different transpositions of the same rotational array produce different pitch class sets? I must have made a mistake. Hopefully the decent bit of music I wrote using one array is the correct one of the two. Good times.

EL (comment on 'status update' 17/04/2010): Fixed. Got one line wrong when transposing to the second array somehow. Thought it was odd as the sets were of a different cardinality. Decent bit of music saved then, all is well with the world (apart from war and poverty and disease and old age and, stuff).

JB (comment on 'status update' 18/04/2010): Your compositional techniques sound so much like computer programming (or maths). (Absolutely no implicit criticism intended, BTW). Out of interest, do you ever keep stuff that works musically, but breaks the process you are using?

EL (comment on 'status update' 18/04/2010): It is basically maths I suppose. Set theory a bit but it's more like combinatorics (from what little I understand of higher mathematics anyway).

Also geometry plays a role. I plot every set on a clock face so it's mod 12 arithmetic. Transposition becomes rotation, inversion becomes reflection etc.

Re keeping stuff that isn't justified within the system, no. But more specifically I wouldn't find that material as I don't use my 'ear' for generating material. Only for auditioning material I make via the pre-compositional procedures outlined briefly above.

I have so many ways of generating material from a basic line or set I have no need to use pitches from anywhere else, and it sounds better that way to me. I don't trust my ears any more, I never think 'that would sound better if it were a semitone or a tritone' or whatever, I just accept the results of the system and if I don't like it I use different basic material.

It might sound a bit rigid or dogmatic but if you think about it tonality is just as 'restrictive'. It's only because it's an ideology that many don't see it that way, history becomes nature as Foucault might say.

You wouldn't go from a II-V- progression to a dense chromatic cluster for instance, you'd use tertiary harmony and would consider the root progression. If you list the 'rules' of tonality there is nothing 'natural' or 'free' about it.

The same process applies, one auditions the available material (an output from the system) and one chooses the 'best' stuff.

Same could also be said for our western tuning system. It's sort of amusing that we have a sort of romantic noble savage popular music culture that suggests one can 'invent' or 'create' new music 'freely' by 'ear' as a product of 'inspiration' without any 'training', when in fact the harmonic system employed is just as rigid and limited as any other and the only reason the untrained can write songs/music easily is because of the hard work of many theorists and musicians over hundreds of years.

Oh, the irony.

(this discussion continues in the comments section, feel free to join in).

Tinyurl for this post: http://tinyurl.com/y66un4p

A Quotation Because It's Been Rather a Long Time

2010-03-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

Susan Bradshaw

'The ultimate aim of any technical system must be to establish a number of stylistic premises, sufficient to liberate the composer from the need to identify himself afresh with each new work and so to free his imagination by removing the burden of absolute choice. Or this is the theory.'

Susan Bradshaw (1931-2005) The instrumental and vocal music; Pierre Boulez: A Symposium. (pg128-129)

TinyUrl for this post: http://tinyurl.com/yl3p7hy

A Quotation, Because It's Nearly Christmas.

2009-12-10T16:23:00.000-08:00

Stravinsky; courtesy of Pablo Picasso.

I did not and indeed could not, count on any immediate success for this work. It is devoid of all the elements which infallibly appeal to the ordinary listener and to which he is accustomed. It would be futile to look in it for any passionate impulse or dynamic brilliance.

It is an austere ritual which is unfolded in terms of short litanies between different groups of homogeneous instruments.

I fully anticipated that the cantilene of clarinets and flutes, frequently taking up again their liturgical dialogue and softly chanting it, did not offer [the public] sufficient attraction.

Stravinsky writing about Symphonies of Wind Instruments; Chronicle of My Life pp.156-7 (quoted in Stravinsky by Roman Vlad pg. 80)

For US readers, Chronicle of My Life and Stravinsky by Roman Vlad Complement.Inversion.Etc store links (UK store links above.)

Yet More Free Stuff!!. Webern's Complete Works dir. by Robert Craft.

2009-12-03T16:37:00.000-08:00

Anton Webern: Trying to look composed after falling over in the grass, probably.

Just spotted a useful tweet from Ubuweb which links to The High Pony Tail blog where you can find 'Webern: The Complete Music recorded under the direction of Robert Craft.'

Recorded in 1957 apparently and released by Columbia as a 4-LP set (out of print and never released on CD.)

Here's the link to an updated post featuring a processed mp3 version of the album and a link to the original post with an unmeddled with version in lossless flac format.

I haven't had a chance to peruse the other content on The High Pony Tail but from the post titles in the sidebar it looks like there is some good stuff available (not sure of the legality of it though, this Craft recording seems ok but I haven't looked at the rest.)

TinyURL for this post: http://tinyurl.com/yghlmnu

Free Stuff!!, Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments

2009-11-06T14:11:00.000-08:00

Stravinsky: 'What's that?, free stuff?'

That's right, Stravinsky's finest piece (possibly, as if such a thing could exist) Symphonies of Wind Instruments was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 this evening.

Performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth you can listen to it on the BBC's site here, but if that isn't working for you (you are reading this after the 7 day period for instance) then by some strange coincidence some kind and thoughtful soul has uploaded it to the internets, you can get it here as an MP3 (let me know if the link goes dead and I'll try and find another copy of it, somewhere.)

While on the subject of Stravinsky's best piece (cough) don't forget about Frank Scheffer's excellent documentary 'Stravinsky: The Final Chorale' available on DVD from the complement.inversion store here (US 'customers' go here.)

It's a double bill with his documentary about Schoenberg's über Five Orchestral Pieces (now in its centenary year.)

Probably the 'best' DVD in Ideale Audience International's 'Juxtapositions' series (excluding the ones about Glass, Part and Dun, not seen those obviously, or, obviously)

Both documentaries feature the usual talking heads stuff about the pieces and end with performances (the Stravinsky by the Netherlands Wind Ensemble cond. Reinbert De Leeuw, the Schoenberg by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic cond. Michael Gielen), very worth seeing.

Tinyurl for this post: http://tinyurl.com/ybegkmw

Quote Of The Last Few Months (normal service resumed)

2009-10-31T17:04:00.000-07:00

Varèse: seemingly unaware of the piano next to him.

Suddenly, toward the end of his life, Kierkegaard began to worry what his answer might be if he were asked in Heaven: 'Did you make things clear?.' He realised that in order to make things clear, he must make it known that of all those serving the Church of Denmark, not one had any feelings for God.

And ourselves?, what if we were faced with the same question?, being that music is our life, in that it has given us life - did we make things clear?. That is do we love Music, and not the systems, the rituals, the symbols - the worldly, greedy gymnastics we substitute for it?. That is, do we give everything - a total commitment to our own uniqueness?.

Have we no examples of this?, is this not Varèse?. Do we only have models for scale tinkering and instrument clinking?. Do we think Varèse isnow something to dissect?. Are we making ready the test tubes?, remember, there was no funeral. He escaped.

Morton Feldman: Perspectives of New Music, Vol 4, No.2 (Spring - Summer 1966)

Berio Liner Notes; Poetic Injustice.

2009-07-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

Dealing out criticism isn't really in this blog's remit (I prefer to feature things I like), however this is something worth covering, perhaps.

A while ago I started collecting Berio material, recordings, scores, documentaries, books and so on (previously I just had Sinfonia on cd, sad, I know.)

A primary resource is my local music library, thankfully they have quite a bit of stuff, however there was a gap in their catalogue. In stock were the scores for Chemins I and Chemins IIb/c but they didn't have any recordings of them, the only ones currently available were on a fairly recent Col Legno release (Chemins I and IIb, IIc is the same but includes an extra bass clarinet part, not sure a commercial recording of this exists.)

So I filled in a form on the library's site suggesting they buy this cd and that I would like to reserve it if they did. I heard nothing back about it for a few months and in the meantime I bought the album as an Mp3 from ClassicsOnline (link here), and very good it is too (you can watch the Chemins I performance on YouTube here, not a great quality recording but on the plus side, it's free. The cd also includes Formazioni and Concerto For Two Pianos and Orchestra.)

Then the other day I got an email saying the library had bought the cd and it was reserved for me (I had forgotten all about it), I thought I ought to go and borrow it even though I didn't really need it now (at least I could burn a copy of it and have an uncompressed audio version, I had paid for an mp3 of it remember.)

On the way home from the library I ran into a musician friend (Mark the tubist) who on hearing the story said 'at least you'll have the liner notes'. Yes I thought, good point, I walked the rest of the way home thinking about all the fine words the booklet would surely contain.

However, this was not to be. For some strange, unfathomable reason, poetry has replaced the usual and arguably more useful musicological/biographical material. I shall ~~subject~~ treat you to an example.

Formazioni -:

there's a draft (quake, quote)
that is building up
collectively and thereover
thunder
and above it the little birds
buzzing hissing
the sun rises
mounting darkness
below
a cloud of white birds in the white whey
i acknowledge
i know nothing
pinpricks
pricking pins (pastiche)
then the part
partitioned parts lend it
a sudden whole
nobody's
trump
trumpets fanfare briefly
strike without
knowledge
You, she says, or i, say she
expectation

Ferdinand Schmatz, September 2008

I'm no literary critic so I'm not going to comment on the relative merits of the work, but do think Col Legno should have included some normal liner notes, with or without the poetry.

To end on a positive note, if you like Berio's music this cd is a must-have and I commend Col Legno for releasing it, just don't expect to learn anything about the music from the booklet.

I've 'stocked' the cd in my shop/store, UK here, US here.

TinyURL for this post... http://tinyurl.com/kn2bzb

Contemporary Music At The Proms 2009

2009-07-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

[Note: This is a duplicate/archive of an article I published on Sequenza 21 on 14/07/2009]

...........................................

Yes, it's Proms season again here in the UK/GB (see link for the differences.) The "worlds greatest music festival" kicks off on Friday and I thought I would put together a vaguely 'contemporary' programme for those so inclined.

Included are composers who are still alive regardless of 'style', and a few 20th century composers I thought relevant (excuse my subjective and rather fuzzy criteria; Stravinsky and Bartók are included for instance, Debussy, Ravel and Shostakovich are not; feel free to berate me in the comments section.)

All the concerts listed will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and will be archived a week or so later on their website (for seven days only). Also, the BBC normally broadcasts quite a few live on TV (usually on BBC 2); these will be archived on their 'iPlayer' but unfortunately this is not accessible by those outside the UK (if you are not a native get your British friends to set their VCRs or whatever newfangled device people are using these days).

If you fancy making a personal appearance, most of the concerts will be on at the Royal Albert Hall in London with those from the 'Proms Chamber Music' series occurring at Cadogan Hall in Chelsea (listed below with the prefix 'PCM', Chelsea is also in London if you didn't already know.) The festival runs from Friday the 17th of July to Saturday the 12th of September.

If you are visiting from outside the UK this might be a good year given how weak the pound is currently (against the US Dollar and the Euro at least.) To buy tickets and to check availability please visit the Royal Albert Hall's tickets page.

Rather than list each Prom I thought composers in alphabetical order might be more helpful (taken from this page on the BBC site where you can access the full list, including Debussy, Ravel and Shostakovich et al), please click on the links to each piece to get more information about the specific concert.

A couple I am looking forward to are Prom 63 featuring two Xenakis pieces (Aïs and Nomos Gamma) and Prom 65 featuring Ligeti's Atmospheres and Schoenberg's Five Orchestral Pieces (in it's 100th year) conducted by Jonathan Nott. Also it will interesting to see/hear some of the pieces by younger composers I have never heard anything from before such as Anna Meredith, whose piece Left Light is premiered at Prom 32 and Ben Foskett whose From Trumpet has its first outing at Prom 24.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the list... [EDIT: I've now added a link to a Google calendar with the dates and details of all the Proms in the list plus a few more I think, thanks very much to Jamie Bullock for putting it together.]

Link to a Google calendar version of the list, and an ical link.

Andriessen, Louis (born 1939)

The Hague Hacking (Concerto for 2 pianos & orchestra) - Prom 43

De Staat - Prom 58

Antheil, George (1900-1959)

Ballet mécanique (4 pianos and ensemble) - Prom 33

Arthurs, Tom (born 1980)

And Distant Shore (world premiere) - PCM 18

Bartók, Béla (1881-1945)

Dance Suite - Prom 15

Sonata for solo violin - PCM 8

Sonata for two pianos and percussion - Prom 33

Violin Concerto No.2 - Prom 44

Berg, Alban (1885-1935)

Chamber Concerto - Prom 49

Birtwistle, Harrison (born 1934)

Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum - Prom 27

The Mask of Orpheus - Act 2 - Prom 39

Silbury Air - Prom 27

Verses for Ensembles - Prom 27

Bondt, Cornelis de (born 1953)

Doors Closed (London premiere) - Prom 58

Casken, John (born 1949)

Orion over Farne - Prom 16

Chin, Unsuk (born 1961)

Cello Concerto (world premiere) - Prom 38

Crumb, George (born 1929)

Ancient Voices of Children - Prom 66

Night of the Four Moons - Prom 66

Vox Balanae (Voice of the Whale) - Prom 66

Davies, Peter Maxwell (born 1934)

Roma, amor - Prom 29

Solstice of Light - Prom 71

Violin Concerto No.2 (UK premiere) - Prom 70

Westerlings - Prom 71

Foskett, Ben (born 1977)

From Trumpet (world premiere) - Prom 24

Glanert, Detlev (born 1960)

Shoreless River (UK premiere) - Prom 46

Glass, Philip (born 1937)

Symphony No.7 (A Toltec Symphony UK Premiere) - Prom 37

Violin Concerto - Prom 37

Goehr, Alexander (born 1932)

Since Brass nor Stone - PCM 7

Goldie (born 1965)

Sine Tempore - Without Time (world premiere) Prom 21, and Prom 23

Golijov, Osvaldo (born 1960)

She Was Here (after Schubert) (UK premiere) - Prom 59

Greenwood, Jonny (born 1971)

Popcorn Superhet Receiver - Prom 39

Harvey, Jonathan (born 1939)

Come, Holy Ghost - Prom 8

Holliger, Heinz (born 1939)

(S)Irato (UK premiere) - Prom 26

Hosokawa, Toshio (born 1955)

Cloud and Light (UK premiere) - Prom 10

Jarrell, Michael (born 1958)

Sillages (world premiere) - Prom 25

Knussen, Oliver (born 1952)

Horn Concerto - Prom 30
Flourish with Fireworks - Prom 76

Ligeti, György (1923-2006)

Atmosphères - Prom 65

Lutoslawski, Witold (1913-1994)

Concerto for Orchestra - Prom 31

Variations on a Theme by Paganini for two pianos - Prom 32

Macmillan, James (born 1959)

Seven Last Words from the Cross - Prom 6

Martland, Steve (born 1959)

Beat the Retreat - Prom 58

McCabe, John (born 1939)

Horn Concerto 'Rainforest IV' (London premiere) - Prom 67

Study No.12 (Sonata) (world premiere) - PCM 16

Meredith, Anna (born 1978)

Left Light (world premiere) - Prom 32

Nyman, Michael (born 1944)

Six Celan Songs - Blume; Psalm - Prom 54

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover - Memorial - Prom 54

The Draughtsman's Contract - selection - Prom 54

The Musicologist Scores (world premiere) - Prom 54

Pärt, Arvo (born 1935)

If Bach Had Been a Beekeeper - Prom 21 and Prom 23

Saunders, Rebecca (born 1967)

traces (UK premiere) - Prom 56

Schnittke, Alfred (1934-1998)

Nagasaki (UK premiere) - Prom 52

Schoenberg, Arnold (1874-1951)

Five Orchestral Pieces, Op.16 - Prom 65

Simcock, Gwilym (born 1981)

Contours - PCM 18

Stravinsky, Igor (1882-1971)

Agon - Prom 57

Apollo - Prom 39

Concerto in D major - PCM 4

The Fairy's Kiss - Prom 34

The Firebird - Prom 16

Fireworks - Prom 1

Jeu de Cartes - Prom 30

Les noces - Prom 33

Orpheus - Prom 40

Petrushka (1947 version) - Prom 15

Pulcinella (complete) - Prom 20

The Rite of Spring (two piano version) - Prom 38

Scènes de ballet - Prom 28

The Soldier's Tale - Suite - PCM 18

Takemitsu, Tŏru (1930-1996)

Ceremonial - An autumn ode - Prom 10

Green - Prom 10

Thomas, Augusta Read (born 1964)

Violin Concerto No.3 'Juggler in Paradise' (UK premiere) - Prom 72

Tracey, Stan (born 1926)

Genesis Suite - Prom 3

Vivier, Claude (1948-1983)

Orion (UK premiere) - Prom 60

Weir, Judith (born 1954)

Ascending into Heaven - Prom 8

Widmann, Jörg (born 1973)

Con brio (UK premiere) - Prom 18

Wigglesworth, Ryan (born 1979)

The Genesis of Secrecy (world premiere) - Prom 8

Williams, John (born 1932)

Music from 'Jurassic Park' " 'Star Wars' - Prom 21 and Prom 23

Woolrich, John (born 1954)

Capriccio (World premiere) - PCM 4

Xenakis, Iannis (1922-2001)

Aïs - Prom 63

Nomos gamma - Prom 63

Zimmerman, Bernd Alois (1918-1970)

Dialoge - Prom 64

Contemporary Music at the Proms, on S21

2009-07-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

Just uploaded a list of more or less 'contemporary' music on at this year's Proms at Sequenza 21, I'll archive it here in a week or so.

EDIT: The list now includes a Google calendar version of the list (and an ical file too.) Thanks to Jamie Bullock for putting it together.

A Quotation For Nearly The Middle of July

2009-07-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

Berio: Cigar, mackintosh, strange heart shaped pendant (???)

'I get the impression that behind the far-from-desperate musical folly of a Morton Feldman who writes everything pianissimo, lies the fear of taking even a step out of the "avant-garde", lest he should end up in those regions which in old maps used to carry the inscription "hic sunt leones", where music opens out with all its volcanoes, its seas and its hills. Maybe he is afraid of being eaten alive.'

Luciano Berio, an interview with Rossana Dalmonte (1981), from Luciano Berio, Two Interviews, available in the UK here, US here.

TinyURL for this post...http://tinyurl.com/m7lfd3

Quotation For Early July

2009-07-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

Ferneyhough, Cage, and Reynolds (image courtesy of The Library of Congress.)

'What I have against the term "serial" is certainly partially dictated by the cliche which the word has become. In a sense, it means all and nothing. Music is in every case a more or less ordered object; whether the methods employed call for some form of pre-ordering or emerge only in the course of actual composition by so-called intuitive processes is scarcely very interesting.'

Brian Ferneyhough, Interview with Andrew Clements, taken from Brian Ferneyhough: Collected Writings, edited by James Boros and Richard Toop. Available in the UK here, US here.

TinyURL link for this post.. http://tinyurl.com/kuks3s

Earle Brown Documentary, yes....Free Stuff!!!

2009-06-25T16:50:00.000-07:00

Earle Brown: Is that a tan or has he just been up a chimney?.

This may not be news to some, but if you go to Earle Brown's site you can watch a 25 minute documentary about him (you have to hand over some email details first though.)

It features the great man himself explaining some of his ideas and the history behind them, plus a little conducting footage is thrown in for good measure.

Oh, and also you get to watch him feed some swans in slow motion and hose down his black Porsche 911 (which he drives later on, wearing a black baseball cap, black leather jacket, blue jeans and white hi-top sneakers, nice, it looks like late 90s early noughties too, even better.)

Here is the now routine tinyurl for this post for feeds/blogs/water cooler conversations and so on.. http://tinyurl.com/kuyuf6

Quotation For The End of June

2009-06-25T16:38:00.001-07:00

Alan Walker: being 'generous' at McMaster University.

'The whole point of an inspired composition is that it diversifies a unity. On the other hand, the whole point about musical analysis is that it seeks to show the unity behind the diversity.'

Alan Walker, A Study in Musical Analysis (London, 1962).

Quoted in Repetition in Music by Adam Ockleford.

You can purchase the book in the UK here, or in the US here (probably better to buy it from the UK though, it's £10, compared to $100 in the US.)

Quotation For Mid-June 2009, and, Free Stuff!!.

2009-06-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

Lerdahl and Jackendoff: not a brand name emblazoned on hi-end audio equipment, apparently.

..'What of the other well-known Chomskian argument, the argument from linguistic universals? Chomsky urges that the existence of certain principles common to all languages strengthens the case for innateness. Are there structural similarities between the musics of different cultures that would support a parallel argument for music?.

Not just any universal feature will suffice for such an argument to work: in order to justify an explanation in terms of innate cognitions, the universal features need to be of reasonable complexity and somewhat "unobvious". For example, suppose it were found that all cultures made chairs. It would clearly be absurd to attribute this universal to a specialised mental structure for chair construction, because the idea of a chair is just too obvious to need a special structure.

I think we can say the same of ideas such as regular pulse, pitch centricity, and scales. Consider the example given in the context of Lerdahl and Jackendoff's version of the universality argument:

The range of variation among rules in different idioms also constitutes grounds for hypotheses about innateness. For example (to consider an extreme case), though idioms differ in metrical and intervallic possibilities, we feel safe in conjecturing that there is no idiom that makes use of metrical regularities 31 beats apart, or for which the most stable melodic interval is the thirteenth.

The trouble with this is that such similarities are just too obvious to call for explanation in terms of an innate grammar or module. The preference for somewhat smaller, more readily singable, intervals and simpler divisions of musical time are just the most obvious musical structures, just as chairs are the obvious things to sit on.

This is really another version of Putnam's point: if a structural principle is simpler than the
alternatives, it does not need to be explained by innate cognition.'

John Croft; Musical Memory, Complexity, and Lerdahl's Cognitive Constraints. 11-12. (masters thesis from 1999 which you can download for free from Croft's site here.)

TinyURL for this post for blogs/feeds etc.... http://tinyurl.com/mw2crb

Birtwistle On Messiaen

2009-06-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

Interesting video here from the Southbank Centre in London with Birtwistle talking to Gillian Moore about Messiaen (I found it on the London Sinfonietta's site.)

If that wasn't enough the Southbank Centre made a three part documentary on Messiaen in 2008 (as part of their Messiaen festival) that's also on the same YouTube 'channel' (Lightweight Media.) Links to parts 1, 2 and 3. (it says a four part documentary in the blurb but I can't find that one, also, who knew Jack Bruce was a Messiaen fan?.)

BTW if you want to download this or other YouTube videos I suggest using Any Video Converter, it's free (in basic form) and once you have downloaded the clip it will convert the file into a format of your choice (I have been dl'ing stuff off YouTube and putting them on my Walkman, the quality is surprisingly good.)

Probably best to use the HQ version of the clip you want to DL, to do this add some text to the end of the YouTube URL,... &fmt=18

As per usual these days, here is a tinyurl for this post for your blogs and twitterings and so on.. http://tinyurl.com/mkard6

Berio's Sincronie, More Free Stuff!!!.

2009-06-01T12:20:00.001-07:00

Yes indeed. I found an old copy of the score to Berio's string quartet 'Sincronie' (1964-67) a while ago at my library and it looked like an interesting piece, however, I couldn't get hold of a recording of it (you can get a study score here, via UE.)

The only one available is on a Disques Montaigne CD* performed by the Arditti Quartet from 2002 but that is out of print (at the time of writing you can buy a second hand copy for over £50 on Amazon.)

I gave up looking after a while, then, like a crepuscular ray, I saw the light. A set of torrents called the Vinyl Flac Project or VFP. Inspired by the boss Avant Garde Project the VFP collects old vinyl recordings which have never been released digitally and preserves them for the good of man/womankind.

There doesn't seem to be much uploaded so far (from a few searches I made anyway) but amongst what I could find there was a recording of Sincronie made by the Lenox String Quartet.

Unfortunately I can't find a date for the recording though judging by the graphic design of the record sleeve and the audio quality I would guess late 60s to early 70s (I stand to be corrected.)

It took a few days to download the torrent but I got it eventually, to save you the trouble of doing the same I have uploaded a 320kbs Mp3 of the piece to deposit files, download it here (its about 32meg.)

Here is what Berio had to say about the piece in the program at the 'world premiere' in 1964..(from the OCR version of the liner notes of the album that comes with the torrent, I've uploaded the .doc file here.)

"Most commonly used instrumental ensembles reflect the typical equilibrium of classic polyphony. There is no doubt that the four voices of a string quartet are one of the most homogeneous and perfect examples of this equilibrium. With "Sincronie," however, I was interested in using the string quartet not especially as a polyphonic ensemble, i.e. as a dialogue among four voices of the same family but rather as a single, homophonic instrument. The four participants elaborate the same sequence of harmonic blocs almost continuously, simultaneously 'saying' the same thing in different ways."

The original torrent is here.

Here is a TinyURL for this post for your feeds/blogs etc, http://tinyurl.com/l7aqby (please don't just rob the links.)

Regards copyright etc, I have no idea if anyone still owns the rights to the recording but am fairly certain that if someone does they won't be expecting to get rich off the back of it or ever release it again so it seems fair to share this rare gem (if you do own the copyright and want me to remove the link let me know in the comments section.)

*Re Disques Montaigne, that link is to their parent company Naïve, they were purchased by them in 1998 and don't have their own web address for some strange reason, you have to navigate the overly-fancy Naïve one to find the relevant stock.

EDIT: 14/10/2010

Thanks to Tassimo for adding some useful info in the comments section about the various recordings of this work. I've added the text below.......................

There have been four recordings of Berio’s Sincronie, two of which were released on LP, two on CD:

Luciano Berio: Sincronie (1963-64; 1966)
The Lenox String Quartet
Peter Marsh & Delmar Pettys, violins; Paul Hersh, viola; Donald McCall, ’cello
Desto CD 7129 [This is the LP catalogue number] According to the liner notes, “Berio added a section to the work after the original ending in 1967 which completes the present work as recorded here,” so the recording probably dates from 1967 or thereabouts. Other sources date the revision/expansion to 1966. (The Lenox Quartet had premièred the first version in Grinnell, Iowa, on 25 November, 1964.)

Luciano Berio: Sincronie (1963-64; 1966)
String Quartet of the Società Cameristica Italiana
Enzo Porta & Umberto Oliveti, violins; Emilio Poggioni, viola; Italo Gomez, ’cello
Recorded October 1968, Südwestfunk, Baden-Baden
Wergo 60053 (P) 1970 [?]

Luciano Berio: Sincronie (1963-64; 1966)
Kairos Quartett
Wolfgang Bender & Chatschatur Kanajan, violins; Simone Heilgendorff, viola; Claudius von Wrochem, cello
edition zeitklang ez-90007 (or DeutschlandRadio 4032824000092)
Recorded Berlin, 28 December 2000, (P) 2001

Luciano Berio: Sincronie (1963-64; 1966)
Arditti String Quartet
Irvine Arditti & Graeme Jennings, violins; Dov Scheindlin, viola; Rohan de Saram, cello
Disque Montaigne: Naive MO 782155
Recorded 2002; (P) 2002

Free Stuff!!!, Berio Interview and Ferneyhough Pieces Free To Stream, and More!.

2009-05-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

Berio, during his neck-less period.

For your perusal today I have an interview with Berio on NPR from March 1994 (thanks to Laputean Solaris for the link, worth checking his twitter feed for more interesting stuff)

Also, an oldie but a goodie (did I just write that?), some Ferneyhough pieces free to stream via the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, go here.

A list of the pieces..(real media streams)
Prometheus (1967) für Bläsersextett
Four Miniatures (1965) für Flöte und Klavier
Terrain (1991/92) für Violine und Oktett
On Stellar Magnitudes (1994) für Sopran und 5 Instrumente
Superscriptio (1981) für Piccoloflöte
La Chute d'Icare (1988) für Klarinette und Ensemble

Also, if that wasn't enough, the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg has more stuff to stream, from Yun, Härtling, Killmayer, Matsudaira, Donatoni, and Kancheli.

Here is a TinyURL address to link back to his post for your twitter/FB feeds and so on..., http://tinyurl.com/myuvhf

Quotation For Late May, and, Free Stuff!!.

2009-05-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

Xenakis: Possibly taking a break from doing a spot of painting and decorating (just out of shot is a large mug of strong tea and a king size Lambert and Butler alight in an ashtray)

Xenakis: ...'I was amazed by the fact that with so few notes you can produce that comprehension of things. I felt like a child because I write many notes.'

Feldman: 'I felt like a child because I write so few notes. Half of the alphabet is not there. . .'

Xenakis: 'It also was a kind of lesson: I thought about a piece that I should write with very few notes. . .'

Morton Feldman and Iannis Xenakis In conversation 1988. You can download the full text here (via Evergreen State College.)

Let me know if the link goes dead and I'll upload it again, also please link back to this post if you want to spread the freeness on your twitter feeds or blogs etc (don't just go 'hey guys, look what I found!.'), here is a tinyURL link especially for you.... http://tinyurl.com/poa2x7

Free Stuff!!, Again: Contemporary Music on YouTube and from the JACK Quartet

2009-05-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

The JACK Quartet (photo by Justin Bernhaut.)

I haven't done a 'free stuff' post for a while, sorry about that, not been on the internets much recently (composing, listening, reading scores, international espionage, you know the deal.)

Here is one to be going along with anyway. I spotted on Tim Rutherford Johnson's blog The Rambler that he has updated his YouTube list of contemporary classical music, worth a look (he also has a list of classical mp3 blogs too.)

Also, I should mention the JACK Quartet again, not only have they recently recorded and released Xenakis's complete string quartets on Mode Records (CD/DVDs) but as I mentioned a while ago, they have a fair bit of music free to stream on their site (Lachenmann, Xenakis, Cassidy, Eötvös and more.)

EDIT: The JACK Quartet used to have full pieces to download/stream on their site but now there are only samples unfortunately, still, better than nothing eh.

If you are feeling in the mood to purchase the JACK Quartet's new releases you can get them at the Complement.Inversion.Etc shop/store.

UK shoppers go here for the CD, and here for the DVD, shoppers in the US go here for the for DVD and at the moment I can't find the CD listed in the US (?) (you can download the CD as an mp3 too BTW, nice, here for UK, here for US)

Now a Sequenza 21 Contributor

2009-05-16T19:08:00.000-07:00

That's right, as of fairly recently I am now a contributing editor for the excellent new music site Sequenza 21. Almost certainly the most visited new music site on the internets (in the English language anyway, but probably in any language, New Music Box is another worthy contender I suppose, slightly different remit though).

When I have something to contribute (nothing as yet, working on it, busy with music lately) I'll post a link to the article here then archive it here after a couple of weeks.

Quotation For Mid May

2009-05-16T18:59:00.001-07:00

What I want...
- is always the same: a music which in order to be grasped, does not require a privileged intellectual training, but can rely uniquely upon its compositional clarity and logic; a music which is at the same time the expression and the aesthetic form of a curiosity able to reflect everything - including the illusion of progressive-ness. Art as a fore-taste of freedom in an age without freedom.

Helmut Lachenmann: from the liner notes of the Kairos CD pictured above. Available as usual from the small but ever-growing and select CD stock at the Complement.Inversion.Etc shop, or store if you are in the U.S.A.

Also, check out this audio interview with Lachenmann at/with the Slought Foundation way back in 2008.

Quotation For Early May

2009-05-10T14:58:00.000-07:00

A Japanese Biwa, image courtesy of Centre for Nonlinear Studies,
Institute of Cybernetics at
Tallinn University of Technology

A sawari mechanism on a Shamisen, 'Sawari is a mechanizm of making buzzing sound purposely to put the first string off the upper bridge of shamisen, and the touch the string to top of the dent and then we can get the buzzing sound like biwa.(Biwa has this mechanism in all strings.)' text and image from a Japanese blog I can't work out the title of, here.

Tradition of Sawari

The biwa could be called the mother of Japanese music. The major characteristic that sets it apart from Western instruments is the active inclusion of noise in its sound, whereas Western instruments, in the process of their development, sought to eliminate noise. It may sound contradictory to refer to 'beautiful noise,' but the biwa is constructed to create such a sound. That sound is called sawari, a term that also has come to be used in a general sense, as we shall see.

On the biwa the sawari is part of the neck of the instrument where four or five strings are stretched over a grooved ivory plate. When a string is stretched between these grooves and plucked, it strikes the grooves and makes a noise. The concave area of the this ivory plate is called the 'valley of the sawari,' the convex area the 'mountain of the sawari,' and the entire plate simply sawari. When a string is stretched between these grooves and plucked, it strikes the grooves and makes a noisy 'bin.'

The term sawari may also mean 'to touch,' but this term, more than referring to a part of an instrument or touching, contains a much wider significance useful in understanding Japanese aesthetics.

In a book from the Edo period [1615-1867], the biwa player is advised to try and imitate the sound of the cicada. The biwa is deliberately designed, with sawari plate, to create such insect sounds. This is also true of the shamisen.

The term sawari, which also means 'touch,' may additionally mean 'obstacle.' Thus, sawari is the 'apparatus of an obstacle' itself. In a sense it is an intentional inconvenience that creates a part of the expressiveness of the sound. Compared to the Western attitude toward musical instruments, this deliberate obstruction represents a very different approach to sound.

In the kabuki repertory there are many long works such as Chushingura. When one sees only the famous scenes this is referred to as 'viewing only the sawari.' In this sense sawari is a very important part of a work.

What we call hogaku today is that collection of pieces developed and refined by the Edo population. Why did those people bring sawari (understood now in the sense of obstacles) into their music?. Whether the reasons were political, religious or social is not clear to me.

The monthly biological function in women is also referred to in Japanese as the 'monthly sawari' - a natural inconvenience for women but essential in producing children. For me there is something symbolic about this: the inconvenience is potentially creative. In music the artificial inconvenience in creating sound produces the sound. The resulting biwa sound is strong, ambiguous, deeply significant. While the Japanese biwa cannot execute the fast passages that are part of the Chinese p'ip'a technique, it is capable of complex, profound and wonderful sounds.

We can see that the Japanese and Western approaches to music are quite different. We speak of essential elements in Western music - rhythm, melody and harmony. Japanese music considers the quality of sound rather than melody. The inclusion in music of natural noise, such as the sound of the cicada, symbolises the development of the Japanese appreciation of complex sounds.

Tōru Takemitsu; Confronting Silence. (US astore link)

Listening/Reading Recently

2009-05-03T14:13:00.001-07:00

Eötvös: writing on a score, see? (image courtesy of his site.)

Listening to and reading recently (apart from the Eötvös score and Kurtág Op2 score which I have ordered from EMB and the Feldman and the Dutilleux which I don't have access to, the Feldman isn't published anyway I don't think)

Eötvös - Sequences of the Wind ('flute and other instruments')
Scelsi - Ko Lho (flute and clarinet)
Kurtág - Officium Breve Op28 (string quartet), Wind Quintet Op2 (have a guess)
Dillon - Sgothan (flute)
Ferneyhough - Superscriptio (piccolo)
Lachenmann - Air (percussion and orchestra)
Berio - Allelujah II (for five groups of instruments), Points on a Curve to Find (for piano and 22 instruments)
Messiaen - Trois Petites Liturgies De La Presence Divine (women's choir, piano, onde Martenot, celesta, percussion, and strings)
Takemitsu - Garden Rain (brass ensemble)
Feldman - Trio for Flutes (erm)
Dusapin - I Pesci (flute)
Dutilleux - Ainsi La Nuit (string quartet)

Calling All Contemporary Woodwind Ensembles

2009-04-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

James Dillon, image courtesy of the Guardian, this interview as it happens.

I recently started looking at James Dillon's pieces, starting with Sgothan for flute (which you can hear performed for free by Richard Craig via the great Avant-Garde-Project, Sgothan really stands out on that album as per my ears).

Then the other day I spotted the score for a woodwind quintet called 'Le Rivage' by Dillon in my library's 'basement stock' and I took it out (you have to find the secret PDF file of their non-catalogued contemporary music and ask for stuff 24 hours in advance, it's quite exciting.)

It looks really interesting (only had it since yesterday, not studied it properly yet.) I started looking around for a decent recording of it, no luck, apparently there is no commerically available recording of the piece (I googled, quite a lot), but you can hear an extract of the Ensemble Intercontemporain performing it via the French archive search engine/site/thing I posted about recently.

It sounds good to me, I would like to hear the rest and emailed the archive but unfortunately they can't sell or distribute the recording (legal stuff.). They suggested I contact Mr Dillon himself, which I did, he confirmed that there isn't a recording available to buy anywhere (but did give me a line on an 80s recording to follow up), so I am suggesting that someone make one, immediately!.

Some exciting and talented woodwind ensemble should take it on, I would buy it, so would others presumably. If you are in a woodwind ensemble or know someone who is, get on it.

Fear of Music: Visual Art vs Music

2009-04-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

Perhaps an interesting book here (I haven't added it to the now world famous Complement.Inversion.Etc shop because it might not be that interesting, I haven't read it, I might do at some point)

Writer/Composer David Stubbs wonders why people 'get' Modern Art like Mark Rothko's but don't 'get' contemporary, avant-garde music like Stockhausen's and Feldman's, listen here on the BBC's Today programme site, including some audio from the programme and some extracts to listen to of pieces Stubbs recommends.

I sort of agree with Stubbs, that contemporary music should be appreciated in the same way as modern art, however, there would be a downside, one thing that is valuable about contemporary music is its resistance to commercial appropriation (commerce being arguably, the most dominant force on the planet, for better or worse.)

I don't want to draw out some extended Adorno like argument about how great it is to resist popular paradigms and so on but I think it's worth mentioning that having some forms of music or art which don't appear in TV commercials or as background music in hotel bars and so on is a good thing.

It's like a musical wilderness or green belt land, somewhere you can go without seeing a Macdonalds or a Barrett home or a billboard advert for underwear or car insurance. In this sense contemporary music is certainly not elitist as it is sometimes claimed, it's our music, not something that can be co-opted and sold back to us as a cliché (perhaps I have tempted fate, expect to see a new iPod advert featuring one of Berio's sequenzas or something)

By the way I am not suggesting commerical music is bad or immoral by comparison (that would be silly), just that there is a place for music that is outside of mainstream discourse, we don't have to feel sorry for contemporary music or seek to change the situation.

While being at the cultural margins relative to the mainstream has its problems - e.g lack of resources, scores going out of print, lack of performances and so on - the plus side is more than a compensation arguably.

Either way, it's a win-win situation in my opinion, if contemporary music suddenly becomes the new pop, fine, if it stays in the margins, fine. I don't see any reason to complain. Foucault said it far more elegantly some time ago (I've quoted this before on this blog, I'll probably do so again.)

'..Painting in those days was something to be talked about; at any rate, aesthetics, philosophy, reflection, taste - and politics, as I recall - felt they had a right to say something about the matter, and they applied themselves to it as if it were a duty: Piero della Francesca, Venice, Cezanne, or Braque. Silence protected music, however, preserving its insolence.'

Michel Foucault: 'Pierre Boulez, passing through the screen'; Aesthetics Vol 2, Essential works of Foucault 1954-1984.

A Quotation For Late April

2009-04-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

György Kurtág

Amid this motley procession of works that passed in front of my increasingly overstrained eyes, one score suddenly arrested my attention and assailed my curiosity. Composed for soprano voice with piano accompaniment, it immediately struck me by virtue of its uniqueness. In retrospect I think it must have been The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza.

My queries yielded the information that the composer, György Kurtág, whose name was totally unknown to me (I later found out that this work had actually been performed in Darmstadt in 1968, but I hadn't set foot in Darmstadt since 1965, following years of perhaps good, and certainly loyal, service!) was working on a piece entitled Messages of the Late Miss R.V. Troussova for soprano and a small orchestra.

I immediately seized on the opportunity and, following some complications of the practical sort, we managed to produce a meticulously rehearsed performance as well as the first recording of this piece. Thus began a sustained relationship whose milestones were set by compositions that consistently displayed genuine originality within a thoroughly personal sphere.

After consulting the archives of the Ensemble Intercontemporain I realised that, curiously enough, to this very day we have never performed The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza, the work to which I owe my discovery of this utterly singular composer. I hope that we will have a chance to perform it in the near future, even if it was not exactly written for a birthday celebration.

Pierre Boulez 'Birthday Greetings' to György Kurtág, from the Hungarian Quarterly.

Also from the same publication, Struck By Apollo; Remembering György Ligeti by György Kurtág (2007)

Lutoslawski's Ad Libitum method: A Failed Experiment.

2009-04-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

A while I ago I was looking into Lutoslawski's 'ad libitum' method - called, post-facto, 'controlled aletoricism' by the more musicologically minded - I didn't get that far into it before I moved on to look at something else (studying Simha Arom's book 'African Polyphony and Polyrhythm', still some way from finishing it, it's about 700 pages long, I am currently more interested in scoring things conventionally at the moment so I chose to follow this route first)

From what I picked up the pitches are notated but the durations, tempos and rhythmic values are, in general, approximate. These sections are cued in and out by the conductor, sometimes performed simultaneously with semi-conducted sections (where the conductor gives some instruments a starting pulse/tempo, as in Jeux Venetiens) and (more often) these ad libitum sections are juxtaposed with fully conducted or 'A Battuta' sections/movements (as in Chain 2.) [one odd one out so to speak, is his String Quartet of 1964, which obviously, has no conductor, I intend to study that one more closely when I get the opportunity.]

Even though I hadn't grasped the method fully (probably an understatement) I had a mess around with it by multi-tracking some flute parts. I wrote a twelve-tone row and simple aggregate section (i.e. all twelve notes in use at once, 4 per voice) to see what they sounded like, not that great as it turns out (make your own mind up from the YouTube clip.)

I constructed the twelve-tone row as chromatically as I could stomach in the hope that the vertical alignment wouldn't stray too far from the sound I had in mind (i.e. avoiding any tonal implications ideally).

I chose a twelve-tone row just to see how it worked as presumably it's one of the most trying or challenging melodic/horizontal forms to use (the more pitches you use, arguably, the more indeterminate the result.)

As you can see from the score on the video clip it's a basic heterophonic form, the same line with slightly different rhythmic values (played freely/approximately.)

The aggregate section is musically more successful in my opinion but still wanders somewhat and in the vertical domain there are a few shaky moments, and some nice ones. From my cursory look at Lutoslawski's method he tends to use less pitches per voice which, I think, results in a more predictable vertical arrangement, that is how it seems to me anyway comparing the tone row version and the aggregate section.

One reason I tried using this more indeterminate approach was to see why Lutoslawski didn't (I haven't seen any evidence of him composing like this anyway however I may find some when I look into it properly.) Perhaps using this many pitches per voice would require a fully scored approach to maintain the 'atonal equilibrium'.

I thought I would upload it here anyway just in case anyone finds it interesting or is researching this themselves also, I learned something from it anyway (what not to do, more or less).

I intend to look into this properly when I have finished looking at African polyphony/polyrhythm.

Also please bear in mind I have only been playing the flute for a year and a half so it's a bit ropey here and there, particularly the higher notes which are a bit edgy. I should also state that I had to pitch correct the higher flute part slightly in the aggregate section as it was sharp compared to the lower two (I performed each part without listening to the others, as Lutoslawski recommends, implicitly at least, in some of his score notes.) In retrospect I should have used a reference tone to play to however a 'natural' performance wasn't necessary for this test, I just wanted to see how the texture sounded.

French Contemporary Music Archive

2009-04-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

This site I just ran into looks quite useful, I'll let them explain...,

The gateway to contemporary music resources in France is a specialized search engine for art music from 1945 to this day. Simple or advanced searches allow one to find and localize resources made available by the French partners of the gateway: documents (books, periodicals, music scores, commercial and archival sound recordings, films, program notes, documentary files, music databases…), events (concerts, festivals, conferences, courses…), addresses (of people and organizations). It is thus possible to find rapidly which library holds documents about a specific music work (recordings, scores, analyses…), where and when it will be performed in a live concert, how to contact the composer or a performer and to read their biographies. Many sound excerpts of heretofore unpublished archives are available online.
This gateway has been made possible with grants from the French Ministère de la culture et de la communication and Sacem to the founding partners.

Add to that this more recent news...,

2/16/09 : over 2000 excerpts from the sound archives of the Ensemble intercontemporain went online and are accessible via this gateway. • 2/2/09 The records of the contemporary music holdings of the Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse de Lyon have integrated the gateway.

A good research tool by the looks of it, perhaps even more respect is due to the French taxpayer (what with their generous funding of contemporary music and all, e.g. IRCAM)

A Beautiful Score (Kurtág)

2009-04-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

It's not often that the graphic design of a score is this good (in my experience and as per my tastes.)

Kurtag's Omagio A Luigi Nono doesn't just have a pretty cover, have a look at the third movement, a beautiful, elegant page of music, and it sounds like it looks (unsurprisingly, perhaps, have a look at the YouTube clip of the piece at the bottom of the post).

I intend to look more closely at the harmony at some point but I am currently a bit too busy with other stuff so it will have to wait. The piece can be found on this CD (first link UK shop, second US, the first CD 'in stock', so far.) The score is currently out of print unfortunately (so I am told by Boosey and Hawkes although they are still listing it for some reason)

(click on the images to enlarge them, as per usual.)

UPDATE: Hungarian composer Adam Kondor informs me that Kurtág scores can be ordered direct from the publisher, Editio Musica Budapest. Thanks to Adam for the information and links.

Also if you search on their site you can have a look at sample pages of the scores and listen to extracts of pieces, nice feature/s.

Unfortunately, EMB have changed the design of their scores, now Omagio has a somewhat muted black shiny jacket, see. (looks a bit like a restaurant wine list.)

Now On Twitter

2009-04-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, I now have a Twitter account (which must make me a twit) not quite sure what it's all about but I have signed up anyway. Not really looked around for people/stuff to 'follow' yet but I intend to update information about things posted on this blog and/or other possibly exciting music things.

If you are also a contemporary music person then feel free to add me or follow me or whatever people call it and i'll do likewise (or just hide behind the sofa and hope all this networking tish-tosh goes away or something.)

Quotation for Mid-April

2009-04-14T16:48:00.000-07:00

Reginald Smith Brindle (right) talking to Danish guitarist Erling Moldrup, image courtesy of Moldrup's site.

Summing up in the general musical scene, it would seem that the major period of avant-gardism is past, and the most radical upheaval in musical history is over. For a while it seemed that genius could only be expressed through the greatest complexity and erudition, but in the end, it would seem rather that true genius lies where the profoundest thoughts are expressed with the greatest directness and lucidity. But while it seems certain that the sound jungles of Répons lead to non-communication, it is enigmatic as to what simple musical language can become a vehicle for our deepest feelings. Perhaps that is the next musical revolution. Nevertheless the avant-garde period has revealed a vitality in music which by comparion, makes the other arts seem in decline.

Reginald Smith Brindle; The New Music ('Conclusions -1986'.)

Ferneyhough's Bone Alphabet

2009-04-14T16:05:00.001-07:00

An interesting video of Ferneyhough talking about how to play the beginning of his piece Bone Alphabet, also I've posted a performance of the piece in the video below that by Morris Palter (I can't vouch for the accuracy of the performance, I don't have the score, or the 'chops' probably but it sounds good to me anyway apart from the usual camcorder sound issues)

Quotation For Early April

2009-04-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

Helmut Lachenmann, resting the weight of his beard on his fingers.

Beauty-according to my own definition from twenty years ago-as 'the denial of habit' (not of all things habitual!)-has, insofar as the term 'habit' encompasses the idea of (...comfortably? thoughtlessly? safely? unemancipatedly?) 'dwelling', the following meaning: an offer to break free from all security, i.e. a naively intact bourgeois consciousness. The 'retrieval of art' would thus-to expand upon Kraus's pronouncement-mean: bringing art to a place of in-security, discarding false securities, and doing this with reference to an innovatively-orientated work-ideal that subjects our experience of music to constant dialectical renewal.

Helmut Lachenmann; Philosophy of Composition: from Identity and Difference: Essays on Music, Language and Time.

(first half of blue link above goes to the UK compinv Amazon shop, second part to the US store, UPDATE, that doesn't work for some reason, link to UK shop here.)

Free Stuff!!: Ligeti Documentary with English Subs, Plus Other Stuff Inc Audio Interview

2009-04-02T17:41:00.001-07:00

Ligeti: A still from the documentary linked to here.

That's right, that documentary on Ligeti you might have come across, the only one ever made as far as I know which unfortunately never had English subtitles, well now it has, sort of, with a bit of jiggery-pokery.

Here is the English blurb and credits..

Runtime: 64mins
Language: French (no subtitles)
Réalisateur: Michel Follin
Auteurs: Judit Kele, Michel Follin, Arnaud de Mezamat
CoProduction: Abacaris Film, Artline Films, La Sept Arte, RTBF, Magyar
Televizio, Productions du Sablier, Centre Georges Pompidou

Grand Prix, Festival International du Film d’Art de Montréal (1994) Prix Sacem, Film de musique (1994)
The Hungarian composer György Ligeti's biography typifies the displaced cosmopolitan, truly at home only in the international community of music. Appropriately enough, this revealing film portrait of his life and music has a train journey as its central metaphor, with Ligeti gazing through the window onto the changing middle-European landscape. His music - innovative, complex, brilliantly eclectic - accompanies his reflections and memories.

I shall explain this jiggery-pokery, I found a 'DVD' copy of the documentary on a non-legit music site that cannot be named here (see Gerry in the legal department if you want an explanation, 5th floor.)

Someone posted a comment on the page with a link to a file containing some English subtitles he/she and his/her friend had put together (unfortunately the French speaking side of the partnership 'disappeared' at some point so apparently the last few minutes of the documentary have been translated with Google translate, you can still understand the text though.)

They are ok as far as I can tell (I don't speak French unfortunately), not brilliant but good considering it was a non-professional DIY job, some spelling and grammatical errors here and there etc.

Overall I found it watchable and informative anyway so thanks very much to those involved.

I shall get to the point then, you can download the video file legally and for free from the great UBUWEB site, link here.

This video file has no subtitles so for those you will need to go here (a Deposit Files link to the .SRT file I just uploaded there, it's only 43kb).

UPDATE: Alternative link to SRT file here.

The original .SRT file was made to match the much larger 'DVD' version on the site-that-cannot-be-named (I don't think there is a real DVD version, I couldn't find one anyway, it might just be a better quality copy, it's over 2gig.) I renamed it to match the UBUWEB version, happily, the two work together ok (the UBUWEB version is a more manageable 600+ meg.)

To get the subtitles to work simply place the .SRT file in the same folder as the video file, then make sure you have subtitles selected in your media player (I don't know if this will work with Macs BTW, try it, if not do some searching for how to use .SRT files)

And Bob's your uncle, you can now watch the documentary in English. If you speak French and think the translation is terrible and needs doing again, let me know, send me the text and timings and I'll make another version of it (I might cut it into pieces and put it on YouTube too.)

That's not all, when looking for a decent picture for this post I came across this site called Lichtensteiger, not sure what it's all about (home page says something about digital design) but on their servers somewhere is this page on Ligeti, featuring lots of tracks to stream and various links and quotes, including one back to the BBC's Radio3 site featuring the John Tusa interview with Ligeti (in English) which you can stream here (it covers quite a bit of the same material as the documentary.)

Top of the Un-Pops: Composer Rankings

2009-03-31T18:05:00.000-07:00

Debussy playing the piano: Of the 'normal' composers he is the most wiki'd over the last 30 days (excluding Zappa, who isn't easy to categorise, I umm'd and ah'd about whether to include him.)

Here it is, a big list that took longer than I thought it would to compile. Composers active from the 20th Century onwards ranked by the popularity of their English language Wikipedia page in the last 30 days.

The links in the list go to Wikirank so you can look further into the Wiki stats, if you like. Also from the Wikirank page you can click through to the relevant Wiki article or do a Google search etc.

It isn't an exhaustive list for what should be fairly obvious reasons (it's subjective, too many composers to list, and where do you draw the line?, for instance I excluded soundtrack composers and Paul McCartney but did include Zappa).

If you think I have missed anyone or wish to debate the list in some fashion leave a comment. (Oh and don't re-post the content on your blog without linking back here, as if you did all the leg work, this took me a few hours, if you do I'll find you out and will remove you from my Christmas card list)

Regards the 'take-out' of this 'research' (to use a marketing term, cough), not sure yet, only just put it together, make up your own minds. I just thought it would be interesting to see which composers people are reading about.

For some comparison, Beethoven's page was viewed 256, 439 times over the last 30 days, Mozart's 165, 698, Bach's 154, 182.

For a 'pop' comparison the Beatles' page was the most viewed on Wiki overall in the same period, 3, 341, 283 views.

I will check this list for gaffes over the next day or two, I don't think my brain can take any more stats right now (I'll probably wake up in the night realising I've left out some important composer or other.)

UPDATE on 01/04/2009 22:08....added, George Perle, Paul Lansky, Ludovico Einaudi, Kyle Gann, Roger Reynolds and Carlos Chavez.

UPDATE: AM 02/04/2009 : Post some discussion on the PCME group on Facebook I've included results for the last 90 days for the top 20 composers and provided a summary and a link to the relevant 90 day graph.

Not sure what is the best sample size to use, both would be ideal but I don't currently have the time to collect data for everyone in the list, so the last 30 days will have to do for most of them (better than nothing eh.) I don't see any major changes in traffic, just a few peaks here and there (a couple of fairly major ones, Gershwin particularly.)

I don't think using a slightly larger time window will make that much difference in terms of accuracy, and I think the last 30 days is a easy period to look at (views per month more graspable than views per three months, arguably), but then statistics are not my strong point so if you disagree let me know in the comments section.

.............................................

1. Frank Zappa viewed 101,954 times in the last 30 days, 307,276 for the last 90 (fairly smooth graph)

2. Claude Debussy viewed 88,219 times in the last 30 days, 228,214 for the last 90 (some moderate peaks in March)

3. Sergei Rachmaninoff viewed 48,258 times in the last 30 days, 137,921 for the last 90 (fairly smooth, one moderate peak)

4. Igor Stravinsky viewed 45,651 times in the last 30 days, 126,151 for the last 90 (a bit up and down, low in early January but with a fairly large blip later in the month.)

5. George Gershwin viewed 45,560 times in the last 30 days, 145,624 for the last 90 (smooth apart from a very large blip around the 5th of February, not sure what that's about)

6. Philip Glass viewed 41,720 times in the last 30 days, 110,407 for the last 90 (fairly smooth with one moderate peak in January)

7. John Cage viewed 39,429 times in the last 30 days, 109,060 for the last 90 (fairly smooth, one moderate peak in February)

8. Giacomo Puccini viewed 35,017 times in the last 30 days, 98,505 for the last 90 (fairly smooth with three moderately large peaks spread out across the period)

9. Richard Strauss viewed 34,092 times in the last 30 days, 92,197 for the last 90 (smooth apart from four moderate peaks)

10. Leonard Bernstein viewed 33,484 times in the last 30 days, 96,685 for the last 90 (a few peaks)

11. Dmitri Shostakovich viewed 33,063 times in the last 30 days, 95,532 for the last 90 (fairly smooth)

12. Sergei Prokofiev viewed 32,771 times in the last 30 days, 89, 807 times for the last 90 (a bit spiky but generally consistent)

13. Gustav Mahler viewed 32,055 times in the last 30 days, 92, 661 for the last 90 (a few spikes but nothing major)

14. Aaron Copland viewed 31,845 times in the last 30 days, 99,814 for the last 90 (smooth apart from a fairly large peak in February)

15. Maurice Ravel viewed 30,784 times in the last 30 days, 98,764 for the last 90 (very large peak in January)

16. Arnold Schoenberg viewed 28,869 times in the last 30 days, 79,641 for the last 90 (fairly smooth)

17. Erik Satie viewed 25,590 times in the last 30 days, 73,606 for the last 90 (two smallish peaks)

18. Béla Bartók viewed 24,453 times in the last 30 days, 66,496 for the last 90 (fairly smooth, one smallish peak)

19. Ralph Vaughan Williams viewed 19,084 times in the last 30 days, 60,203 for the last 90 (two big peaks)

20. Benjamin Britten viewed 18,830 times in the last 30 days, 55,676 for the last 90 (a bit spiky but nothing major, fairly consistent)

21. Carl Orff viewed 18,625 times in the last 30 days.

22. Edward Elgar viewed 18,152 times in the last 30 days.

23. Samuel Barber viewed 17,557 times in the last 30 days.

24. Jean Sibelius viewed 16,144 times in the last 30 days.

25. Steve Reich viewed 15,844 times in the last 30 days.

26. Gustav Holst viewed 15,305 times in the last 30 days.

27. Olivier Messiaen viewed 13,667 times in the last 30 days.

28. Aram Khachaturian viewed 12,471 times in the last 30 days.

29. Arvo Pärt viewed 12,277 times in the last 30 days.

30. Kurt Weill viewed 11,624 times in the last 30 days.

31. Charles Ives viewed 11,533 times in the last 30 days.

32. Karlheinz Stockhausen viewed 11,234 times in the last 30 days.

33. György Ligeti viewed 11,138 times in the last 30 days.

34. Alban Berg viewed 9,978 times in the last 30 days.

35. Alexander Scriabin viewed 9,458 times in the last 30 days.

36. Francis Poulenc viewed 9,252 times in the last 30 days.

37. Iannis Xenakis viewed 8,652 times in the last 30 days.

38. Edgard Varèse viewed 7,989 times in the last 30 days.

39. Heitor Villa-Lobos viewed 7,972 times in the last 30 days.

40. Paul Hindemith viewed 7,714 times in the last 30 days.

41. Pierre Boulez viewed 7,670 times in the last 30 days.

42. Anton Webern viewed 7,608 times in the last 30 days.

43. Leoš Janáček viewed 7,602 times in the last 30 days.

44. Ludvico Einaudi viewed 7,497 times in the last 30 days.

45. Terry Riley viewed 7,401 times in the last 30 days.

46. La Monte Young viewed 7,325 times in the last 30 days.

47. Krzysztof Penderecki viewed 7,244 times in the last 30 days.

48. Ástor Piazzolla viewed 7,204 times in the last 30 days.

49. John Adams viewed 7,155 times in the last 30 days.

50. Manuel de Falla viewed 7,144 times in the last 30 days.

51. Tan Dun viewed 6,034 times in the last 30 days.

52. Darius Milhaud viewed 5,671 times in the last 30 days.

53. Zoltán Kodály viewed 5,587 times in the last 30 days.

54. Frederick Delius viewed 5,488 times in the last 30 days.

55. Ottorino Respighi viewed 5,407 times in the last 30 days.

56. Henryk Górecki viewed 5,346 times in the last 30 days.

57. George Enescu viewed 5,319 times in the last 30 days.

58. Henry Cowell viewed 5,135 times in the last 30 days.

59. Elliott Carter viewed 5,063 times in the last 30 days.

60. Luciano Berio viewed 4,630 times in the last 30 days.

61. Carl Nielsen viewed 4,271 times in the last 30 days.

62. Morton Feldman viewed 4,227 times in the last 30 days.

63. William Walton viewed 4,171 times in the last 30 days.

64. Alfred Schnittke viewed 3,975 times in the last 30 days.

65. Paul Dukas viewed 3,914 times in the last 30 days.

66. Ferruccio Busoni viewed 3,808 times in the last 30 days.

67. George Crumb viewed 3,738 times in the last 30 days.

68. Jacques Ibert viewed 2,588 times in the last 30 days.

69. Bohuslav Martinů viewed 3,543 times in the last 30 days.

70. Alberto Ginastera viewed 3,537 times in the last 30 days.

71. Milton Babbitt viewed 3,506 times in the last 30 days.

72. Peter Maxwell Davies viewed 3,472 times in the last 30 days.

73. Karol Szymanowski viewed 3,308 times in the last 30 days.

74. Witold Lutosławski was viewed 3,261 times in the last 30 days.

75. Frank Martin viewed 3,260 times in the last 30 days.

76. Henri Pousseur viewed 3,281 times in the last 30 days.

77. Ernest Bloch viewed 3,246 times in the last 30 days.

78. Arthur Honegger viewed 3,237 times in the last 30 days.

79. Malcolm Arnold viewed 3,232 times in the last 30 days.

80. John Corigliano viewed 3,194 times in the last 30 days.

81. Max Reger viewed 3,137 times in the last 30 days.

82. Erich Wolfgang Korngold viewed 3,067 times in the last 30 days.

83. Tōru Takemitsu viewed 2,895 times in the last 30 days.

84. Maurice Duruflé viewed 2,799 times in the last 30 days.

85. Alan Hovhaness viewed 2,766 times in the last 30 days.

86. Michael Tippett viewed 2,742 times in the last 30 days.

87. Conlon Nancarrow viewed 2,593 times in the last 30 days.

88. Einojuhani Rautavaara viewed 2,427 times in the last 30 days.

89. Luigi Nono viewed 2,403 times in the last 30 days.

90. Cornelius Cardew viewed 2,327 times in the last 30 days.

91. Arnold Bax viewed 2,276 times in the last 30 days.

92. Sofia Gubaidulina viewed 2,230 times in the last 30 days.

93. Thomas Adès viewed 2,223 times in the last 30 days.

94. Henri Dutilleux viewed 2,186 times in the last 30 days.

95. Hans Werner Henze viewed 2,174 times in the last 30 days.

96. Louis Andriessen viewed 2,148 times in the last 30 days.

97. Virgil Thomson viewed 2,102 times in the last 30 days.

98. Lou Harrison viewed 2,057 times in the last 30 days.

99. Ernő Dohnányi viewed 2,048 times in the last 30 days.

100. George Antheil viewed 2,032 times in the last 30 days.

101. William Bolcom viewed 1,985 times in the last 30 days

102. Harrison Birtwistle viewed 1,979 times in the last 30 days

103. Mauricio Kagel viewed 1,955 times in the last 30 days.

104. Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji viewed 1,901 times in the last 30 days.

105. György Kurtág viewed 1,758 times in the last 30 days.

106. Lukas Foss viewed 1,743 times in the last 30 days.

107. Frederic Rzewski viewed 1,739 times in the last 30 days.

108. Marcel Dupré viewed 1,696 times in the last 30 days.

109. Vincent Persichetti viewed 1,695 times in the last 30 days.

110. Giacinto Scelsi viewed 1,683 times in the last 30 days.

111. Brian Ferneyhough viewed 1,625 times in the last 30 days.

112. Paul Lansky viewed 1,562 times in the last 30 days.

113. Gavin Bryars viewed 1,529 times in the last 30 days.

114. Christian Wolff viewed 1,479 times in the last 30 days.

115. Frank Bridge viewed 1,468 times in the last 30 days.

116. Ernst Krenek viewed 1,381 times in the last 30 days.

117. Kaija Saariaho viewed 1,263 times in the last 30 days.

118. Jonathan Harvey viewed 1,243 times in the last 30 days.

119. Wolfgang Rihm viewed 1,235 times in the last 30 days.

120. Luigi Dallapiccola viewed 1,208 times in the last 30 days.

121. Helmut Lachenmann viewed 1,170 times in the last 30 days.

122. Gérard Grisey viewed 1,153 times in the last 30 days. TIED

123. Roger Sessions viewed 1,153 times in the last 30 days. TIED

124. Carlos Chávez viewed 1,107 times in the last 30 days.

125. Tristan Murail viewed 1,074 times in the last 30 days.

126. Oliver Knussen viewed 1,076 times in the last 30 days.

127. Salvatore Sciarrino viewed 989 times in the last 30 days.

128. Edison Denisov viewed 982 times in the last 30 days.

129. Paul Creston viewed 969 times in the last 30 days

130. John Luther Adams viewed 965 times in the last 30 days.

131. Magnus Lindberg viewed 959 times in the last 30 days.

132. Galina Ustvolskaya viewed 886 times in the last 30 days.

133. Bernd Alois Zimmermann viewed 827 times in the last 30 days.

134. Carl Ruggles viewed 808 times in the last 30 days.

135. Earle Brown viewed 794 times in the last 30 days.

136. Charles Wuorinen viewed 768 times in the last 30 days.

137. Bruno Maderna viewed 749 times in the last 30 days.

138. Michael Finnissy viewed 732 times in the last 30 days.

139. Mark-Anthony Turnage viewed 716 times in the last 30 days.

140. George Perle viewed 693 times in the last 30 days.

141. Andrzej Panufnik viewed 683 times in the last 30 days.

142. Franco Donatoni viewed 620 times in the last 30 days.

143. Kyle Gann viewed 615 times in the last 30 days.

144. Alexander Goehr viewed 610 times in the last 30 days.

145. Claude Vivier viewed 605 times in the last 30 days.

146. Julián Carrillo viewed 589 times in the last 30 days.

147. Peter Eötvös viewed 555 times in the last 30 days.

148. Alvin Curran viewed 545 times in the last 30 days.

149. Alois Hába viewed 516 times in the last 30 days.

150. Pascal Dusapin viewed 499 times in the last 30 days.

151. Alun Hoddinott viewed 491 times in the last 30 days.

152. Roger Reynolds viewed 469 times in the last 30 days.

153. Kevin Volans viewed 456 times in the last 30 days.

154. James MacMillan viewed 415 times in the last 30 days.

155. Richard Barrett viewed 412 times in the last 30 days.

156. James Dillon viewed 396 times in the last 30 days.

157. Gloria Coates viewed 345 times in the last 30 days.

158. Karel Goeyvaerts viewed 333 times in the last 30 days

159. Horaţiu Rădulescu viewed 321 times in the last 30 days.

160. Beat Furrer viewed 302 times in the last 30 days.

161. George Benjamin viewed 274 times in the last 30 days.

Coming Soon

2009-03-29T12:22:00.001-07:00

A Screenshot of a work in progess animation based on Stravinsky's 'rotational arrays' (the row from 'The Flood' in this instance.)

Apologies for not posting anything recently, I have been busy sorting out my computer (installing new programs, DVD burner, fixing stuff), playing at FES (Birmingham University) and reading (library scores and books like Arom's)

Coming fairly soon will be (hopefully) an animated video (possibly with 'narration') describing/explaining (see Nietzsche for the difference/s) Stravinsky's 'rotational arrays' (from his later 'serial' period.)

You can use the method for structuring any group/sets of pitches, it's not just a 12-tone serial thing.

Also i'll be posting in the next day or two with a sort of 'Top of the Un-Pops' composer list, I won't spoil the surprise by saying any more about that.

So, that's it for now then.

P.S. you can read a bit about rotational arrays in this PDF (courtesy of The University of Houston.), and/or buy the Cambridge Companion to Stravinsky (a USA Amazon complement.inversion.etc. link here.)

Stretch Yourself: Avoid RSI, Tendonitis and Carpal Tunnel, etc.

2009-03-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

Something about RSI, via this page.

Ok so this isn't a post about music or music stuff but it's important (you can't play an instrument or compose very easily if you hands/arms are in pain)

Whether you play an instrument or compose a lot, and/or sit at a computer for a few hours a day you are risking a repetitive strain injury of some sort. Jazz saxophonist Matt Otto has suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome since the 1990s but is still playing regularly, daily stretches, exercise and diet are his solution (you can here him play if you go to his blog as linked to above, two free albums to listen to.)

He has uploaded some useful YouTube videos of the stretches he does (see embedded vid below) and he talks a bit about the condition and his experience of it, here is a link to his YouTube channel.

Also he answers some questions on this topic here (Casa Valdez, a jazz blog mostly focusing on saxophone, that's where I got the blanksheetmusic.net link in the previous post from too.)

I am trying to do these stretches every day and in my opinion (so far) they help avoid aches and pains and hopefully keep any more serious injuries at bay (I was getting a slightly annoying 'clarinet thumb' recently, seems to have gone away now after exercising, better to try and fix these things sooner rather than later for obvious reasons.)

Free Stuff!!!: A Sheet Music Utility and a Firefox Mp3 Plugin.

2009-03-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

A couple of useful free things I have found recently on teh internets are Blanksheetmusic.net, a site which unsurprisingly offers various types of blank manuscript paper (you can customise the page to your liking, like Sibelius or Finale but faster and browser based.). Good if you want to print some blank sheets to write on with that antiquated technology, the hand.

The other is the Foxytunes/Yahoo Firefox plugin. It works really well for those sites that have mp3 links but don't feature a browser player (you know the ones, where you click on the mp3 link and it loads a whole new page, not ideal.).

An example (and this isn't a criticism btw) is the Clarinet of The 21st Century site which has lots of mp3 examples (click the images on the page) of the listed techniques/fingerings, now you can play them all from the same page with ease, you'll see a little play arrow underneath each example. Nice :-)

Quote For Late March

2009-03-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

Igor Stravinsky, at work, from LIFE Magazine's photo archive.

The creator’s function is to sift the elements he receives from [the imagination], for human activity must impose limits upon itself. The more art is controlled, limited, worked over, the more it is free . . . My freedom consists in my moving about within the narrow frame that I have assigned myself for each one of my undertakings.

I shall go even further: my freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint, diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self of the chains that shackle the spirit.

Stravinsky, Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons, trans. Arthur Knodel and Ingolf Dahl (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,1947), 63–5.

Available from the USA shop here, and UK here (and excellent value might I add.)

Messiaen's Technique of My Musical Language: Available!!

2009-03-21T18:33:00.001-07:00

This essential text was out of print for ages (I had to look for years and years before finding a copy of it, its importance as a reference and its rarity is arguably the primary reason why various scans of it are floating round on the interweb, which I won't link to here for legal reasons.)

It's now available (in legal hard-copy) from a few sources, Lynn* has managed to get a copy for the complement.inversion.etc franchise (thanks Lynn.), check it out here (only USA though, you could buy it in other territories obviously but that is where it ships from, only one in stock apparently so if you want it via the 'store' move quickly.)

I've included it as my 'deal of the week USA' if you check the side bar on the right and as the link above shows it's in my USA 'store' (which still needs its stock sorting out a bit, books are not in much of a decent order, bear with me.)

Also, you can buy it from Thompson Edition, here (ships from the USA but you can select different territories and currencies to display using the gadget thing at the bottom of the page.)

Amazon dealer price is currently $79,95, via Thompson Edition it's $71.50 (not including postage, I think.). So for those in the UK that's in the £50 'ball-park' at the current exchange rate.

And in the UK, it's available from Musicroom.com, here (a slightly pricey £79.99)

I can say (from the bottom of my 'heart') that it's a really useful text, not just for interpreting Messiaen's music, but of wider compositional interest. Importantly, its practical, succinct style and its bevy of musical examples make it an easy read.

Not only that, but I have uploaded a DVD list to my UK 'shop' which has some excellent titles on offer, most of which I have seen/own hence their inclusion, i.e. they are not a load of rubbish (I am tempted to get the Lachenmann DVD next, I don't have that, or the Wolfgang Rihm one.)

I'll do the USA DVD list next (I am holding off doing CDs and Scores for the time being, they will take longer to select, CDs particularly, obviously.)

(*I should mention, just in case my straight faced 'humour' has confused anyone, Lynn and the other 'staff' at the complement.inversion.etc store don't actually exist, just a bit of fun, i'll continue to make reference to them though, until I get bored of it/them....etc.)

Opera, Intellectuals, and the Emotions, (sic, etc)

2009-03-19T18:47:00.001-07:00

The Rhetoric Analyser (pat pending: Lawes Industries 2009). False Dichotomy warning light on, now with added feature specifying a 'standard' or 'binary opposition' form.

Rufus Wainwright's new 'opera' is discussed in the Independent here. I don't have much to say about it really, not my sort of music so on the one hand good luck to him, I hope people like it. On the other hand, at least as per the quotes in the article, he comes out with some rather challenged guff about the state of the art which seems worth commenting on. The issue primarily is the false dichotomy* presented here...

"Opera seems to have been hijacked by intellectual elements," he said. "For a long time I wanted to make it a little less intellectual and have more emotional engagement. You have to remember it was a populous form, like the bandstand of its time."

Let's assume we know what he means by the terms 'intellectual' and 'emotional engagement' and go on to contrast the two (let's also give him the benefit of the doubt and assume the grammatical error, malapropism even, was a product of faulty transcription, of course it should be popular, not 'populous', that would suggest opera was once densely populated, like the Netherlands).

So, apparently, the intellect and the emotions are A: possible to define and separate B: antonymous. The caption underneath a moody looking picture of Wainwright reads.. 'Rufus Wainwright: Opera is for all, not just intellectuals'.

It might as well say 'Opera is for all, intellectuals and emotional people', this reframing highlights the false nature of this dichotomy (* it's not, perhaps, exactly a false dichotomy depending on which definition you use, there is no 'excluded middle' in Wainwright's formulation as he uses the term 'less', it's not an either/or argument specifically either, erm, see a philosopher UPDATE: a philosopher speaks, see comments)

Emotional states are of course, impossible to avoid if one is conscious, that is if we accept the concept at all. Card carrying 'intellectuals' are just as emotional as erm, normal (?) people. 'Intellectual' opera (whatever that is) is just as emotional as erm, emotional opera? (help me out here Rufus.)

I don't want to pick on him too much, he might not have even said the stuff attributed to him in the Independent article (as tends to happen in newspaper interviews, I remember my brother being interviewed by a local newspaper years ago about a BBC drama soundtrack he had composed, at the end of the article it quoted him as saying 'it was a real boon', he never said that, he never says that, the journalist just made it up and it became an mildly amusing catchphrase for a few weeks. I still use variations of the phrase now and then like in this previous post.)

However, this creaky old trope is a bit annoying and worth challenging or at least poking fun at. It gets trotted out every now again when someone trying to preempt criticism from those 'intellectual' meanies wants to justify making some 'nice' music ('emotional' could just be replaced by the terms 'romantic' or 'traditional' in Wainwrights 'world'.)

Nothing wrong with writing melodic romantic opera, not my bag but who cares, go with it, no need for polemics (by protesting it suggests he does think there is something wrong with it.)

Anyway, I don't want to be mean, just to suggest that the dichotomy intellectual/emotional is specious rubbish, and that Wainwright should have more confidence in his work, whatever sort of music it is (the rhetoric of enmity not required.)

Spotify: Free Music Streaming Software.

2009-03-16T18:28:00.001-07:00

Spotify: A mixture of 'spot' and 'identify' apparently.

I am normally quite skeptical about this sort of thing, but I saw a news story about 'Spotify' in The Times (which I don't normally read, honest) and thought I would give it a go, also I spotted saxophonist Bruce Coates gave it the thumbs up in a Facebook status update, proving they are not always inconsequential whimsy.

It turns out that it's pretty good, meaning it has a lot of music on it, including a lot of classical and contemporary classical stuff (not tried searching for anything else yet, only installed it today.)

According to the wiki page it's only available as a free beta service in Western Europe at the moment but the subscription service should be available in other territories.

For the free service you download the software and off you go (might want to check your firewall settings though, the program made a few server requests which I blocked and it didn't affect the streaming content so erm, not sure what's up with that).

I have the score for Lutoslawski's Double Concerto out from the library and the moment and was looking around for a cheap or free stream of the piece somewhere as it seems one of his less recorded works, glad to see Spotify has it, amongst lots of other peformances of pieces by him. Hopefully the free streaming service continues past the beta stage, probably something worth supporting.

Complement.Inversion.Etc Stores Open For Business!

2009-03-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

Opening day today at the brand new complement.inversion.etc store in Tallahassee, Florida. Staff from left to right, Margret: Marketing Manager, Terri: Retail Assistant, Carl: Manager, Riley: Security, Lynn: Stock Manager. Welcome to the complement.inversion.etc family guys, and remember, companies don't succeed, people do.

Yes, check the sidebar on the right. I've only 'stocked' music books and some aesthetics stuff so far, not in any particular order (just listed the ones I own or have read and recommend, and a few I don't own yet but intend to, like 'The Music of Lutoslawski' which i'll order through 'shop' shortly.)

You'll see there is a US store and a UK shop.

Also I have created a 'product of the week' widget where i'll try and promote some worthy purchase (if I spot something cheap and good etc, available in a US and UK version)

I intend to add more stuff to the shop like scores, DVDs and CDs etc. Every time you buy something through the shop with your Amazon account I get some sort of credit with them which eventually gets turned into an Amazon voucher, so I can buy more books and music and post yet more quotes and rambling remarks here, so, everyone's a winner.

However, some items are not available through Amazon directly, used books etc via their various dealers, i've included those anyway as there is some good stuff you can get second hand thats out of print or whatever.

If you want to special order anything let me know, I can get Lynn to order it in.

Bon Marché.

The Mathematics of The Baroque

2009-03-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

Gottfried Leibniz, 'baroque' mathematician and chocolate biscuit innovator (see the way the chocolate is on only on one side?, the man was a genius.)

The Baroque isn't exactly on topic for this blog but the combination of mathematics and aesthetics and/or rational approaches to it are, so there!.

Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy explores the role of science and mathematics in the arts of the baroque. From Bernini's architecture and sculpture in Rome, the playful gardens at Versailles, to the grand dome of St Paul's Cathedral and the music of Monteverdi and Bach, he discovers that new ideas about perspective, capturing movement and the infinite all play a part in the baroque vision.

A BBC Radio3 programme, Listen to it here (available for another seven days from Sunday 15/03/2009)

Quote For The Middle of March

2009-03-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

Brian Ferneyhough: perhaps just after reading a funny computer printout.

One of the 'complex' things about 'complex' music is its quality of of refusing to present a straightforward object (as for instance in much minimal sculpture): it is always perceived in the act of underlining it's own ongoing and provisional nature. It doesn't present the illusion of not being an illusion - in large measure because of the continual problematization of the performance/interpretaton context.

Brian Ferneyhough; Responses To A Questionnaire on 'complexity' (1990), from Collected Writings (you can get the relevant pdf extract plus another one in this previous 'free stuff' post.)

My note, this concept of a piece being ongoing and provisional reminds me of Derrida's idea about meaning always being deferred, perhaps one could speculate that music like Ferneyhough's is a product of the same post-structuralist/post-modern milieux (if you like, or perhaps it would be better just to drink beer and crush the empty cans on our heads, it's probably post-something)

Boulez Dérive Analysis Site Courtesy of The London Sinfonietta

2009-03-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

Boulez: A man has no need for a comb when he has perfect pitch.

UPDATE: The sound intermedia site is down at the moment, has been for a couple of days. If this situation persists i'll email them and ask if it's permament (hopefully not.)

This little site about Boulez, specifically focusing on his composition Dérive is a London Sinfonietta project (built by Sound Intermedia and funded by various other bodies).

It's in the same mould as the Takemitsu 'Tree Line' site I linked to in a previous post. It's not the easiest site to get around (could do with keeping all the links in the same place rather than moving them around depending on where you are on the site) however, there is some straight-to-the-point analysis and information on it and some good ideas for workshops and teaching ideas based around Boulez's piece/concepts.

Also, check the London Sinfonietta's site, some interesting stuff, such as their audio-video section, this Lutoslawski video for instance (London Sinfonietta's 1989 performance of Lutoslawski's Chain 1 conducted by Lutoslawski).

Free Stuff!!!: Two Interviews, Ferneyhough and Xenakis.

2009-03-13T15:36:00.000-07:00

Brian Ferneyhough Time and Motion Study III 1974 16 mixed voices, percussion, live electronics (detail of the score) [image and text via this James Wagner blog entry]

That's right, some extracts of interviews* with Ferneyhough here and here, courtesy of UNT again, both from Ferneyhough's 'Collected Writings', and here is an interview with Xenakis from 1993 (with James Harley).

Also, there is a good interview with Ferneyhough on Wiki-talk, here.

*well ok, part one of the Ferneyhough extract is a questionnaire on 'complexity'.

Sequenza 21 Feature

2009-03-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

This is just a brief post to link back to Sequenza 21 who featured the Radio3 info in the previous post and linked back to this blog (via this post by managing editor and composer Steve Layton).

It's probably the main site/community weblog/community/call-it-what-you-will for contemporary music in the English language, check out their site if you haven't checked it out before, there is a main news type page (main link above) a Composer's Forum, and a CDs reviews section.

Ligeti, Free Stuff, Again (and some Xenakis).

2009-03-09T12:53:00.000-07:00

Ligeti: 'What?, me?, again?!, great!!'

I just can't help it at the moment, it seems the great man keeps appearing all over the place. This week Ligeti is BBC Radio 3's composer of the week (my Dad who listens to Radio 3 said to me today 'your mate's on the radio this week').

For those of you unfamiliar with the format, it's a one hour long programme with music and discussion broadcast every weekday (here is the Radio 3 schedule), these programmes are then archived for a short time (7 days I think). I have no idea how it all works if you are outside of the UK (though I think you can access the programmes, not sure though, good luck).

Then, Ligeti's Violin Concerto is on Performance on 3 on Friday at 7pm, and, while i'm at it, there is an edition of Radio 3's excellent Discovering Music series about the Violin Concerto which you can listen to as part of their archive (also you'll find a link to an interview with John Tusa).

And, Xenakis's music is featured on Performance on 3 tomorrow at 7pm again...(an event connected to the one covered by Lizzie a couple of posts ago).

A concert given at the Barbican, London, featuring the music of Iannis Xenakis, described by Olivier Messiaen as 'a hero unlike any other'. Xenakis's very original music has many complex rhythmic patterns, polyphonic melodies and distinct instrumental and vocal textures and draws on his training as an architect and his work as assistant to Le Corbusier. In his piece Nuits, voices explore the phonetic sounds of Sumerian and ancient Persian.
Christian Lindberg (trombone)
Rolf Hind (piano)
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins (conductor)
Stephen Betteridge (conductor)

Xenakis: Tracees; Anastenaria; Sea-Nymphs; Mists; Nuits; Troorkh; Antikhthon

Free Stuff!!!: Ligeti In Conversation PDF

2009-03-07T14:46:00.000-08:00

Ligeti, none too pleased about having to pose with (100) metronomes (to add insult to injury it looks like he was asked to sign a print of the photo at a later date)

Here it is, a PDF of a conversation with Ligeti which is an extract from the now out of print In Conversation: Gyorgy Ligeti in Conversation with Peter Varnai, Joseph Hausler, Claude Samuel and Himself (1983.)

I found it ages ago via Google or Scribd I think and just found it now while going through the archives, it's hosted on Joseph Klein's region of the University of North Texas site. Some thanks due to him then.

UPDATE: as far as I can tell, Klein seems to have taken that PDF down (can't find it now anyway, thanks to keralitee for letting me know via a comment). Here is an alternative link I found (on Deposit Files).

UPDATE 2: Thanks to a comment from Lizzie it seems the link from the University of North Texas still works, I must have messed up the original link somehow (cough) and then failed to find it again on Google (and one PDF search engine I use has stopped working today for some reason). I've updated the original link now and i'll leave the Deposit Files one up too just in case. Thanks keralitee and Lizzie.

(the book the extract comes from seems to be out of print, if you own the copyright or the book is going back into print and think the extract should be removed, let me know)

Total Immersion: Iannis Xenakis - Double Bill of films

2009-03-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

The Phillips Pavillion designed by Xenakis in 1958.

Here is a brief report from guest poster Lizzie on the recent Xenakis documentary double bill at the Barbican in London (originally posted as a comment on a recent Xenakis post then she edited it a bit so it could be included here, thanks Lizzie :-)

Total Immersion – Xenakis Composer Day at the Barbican

As part of the Barbican’s composer day on Xenakis was a double bill of documentaries about the life and music of Iannis Xenakis preceded by a talk by Ivan Hewett.

Something Rich and Strange: The Life and Music of Iannis Xenakis

The first documentary, by the BBC, comprised of interviews with Xenakis and his wife Françoise mainly filmed whilst he was visiting his old school on the island of Spetzai. It also had an interview with the writer Nouritza Matossian (who spent 10 years collaborating and working on his biography, simply titled Xenakis – well worth a read, although I think it is unfortunately now out of print).   Anyway, it was more about his life and how his experiences and education influenced his music rather than how he composed. I can’t remember if it was him or his wife who said that he tried to explain and understand the world –particularly the order in chaos and the structure in randomness – through his music.

Speaker Ivan Hewett gave a 20 minute talk about his music before the documentaries were shown and he used the analogy of a flock of birds in the sky all flying in their own way/direction in a way that appears to be random but together they form an order – you can clearly see the outline of the flock of birds and where the sky begins – and that is how a lot of his music, particularly Metastaseis works. Roger Woodward, the Australian pianist who first performed Keqrops said that after he plays Xenakis music he feels like he can do anything, which is hardly surprising considering how complex and demanding the piece is! Anyway, it was a good documentary in that you really could understand what drove him to write the music he did and see what a complete thirst for knowledge and understanding of the world he sought but I really wanted to understand more about the way he composed.

The second documentary titled Building Sights Europe: Iannis Xenakis simply followed Xenakis on his visit to the Dominican monastery Le Couvent Sainte Marie de La Tourette near Lyon, which he worked on with Le Corbusier. Although Xenakis assisted Le Corbusier on the design of this monastery he had in fact never seen it until now. The documentary was very brief, only 10 minutes long, but enough to get a glimpse into Xenakis the architect and see how even then (he worked on this building from 1954-1957) he was using musical ideas as part of his architectural design.

Text Quote For The Fifth of March

2009-03-04T18:13:00.001-08:00

An all interval row, from Berg's Lyric Suite, courtesy of this page from Northern Arizona University.

I have been researching into the matter of twelve-tone chords, I have categorised them - I came to the conclusion that the fewer the number of constructive intervals is the more characterisitc the resultant chord sounds.

Sometimes I use chords constructed with three or four intervals, though; but the building material of my chords never amounts to Schoenberg's Allintervallreihe ('row consisting of all twelve intervals'), because such 'omni-intervallic' chords cannot but turn out colourless, insipid, flat and tame (although in some - execeptional - cases chords constructed in this fashion can be useful, too.)

Conversations With Witold Lutoslawski: Irina Nikolska (pg 121)

The grammatical error in the first paragraph is due, I think, to the translation from Polish to English, a few lightly amusing malapropisms also result, such as, 'from the angel of pitch organisation', and, 'Debussy himself was an empiricist of the first water' (both from p76.)

Visual Quote For The Fifth of March

2009-03-04T16:11:00.000-08:00

'Lutoslawski's sketches of texture'. Click for larger image. (example 16c Pg181) from Conversations with Witold Lutoslawski; Irina Nikolska.

Yet Another Quote For The Beginning of March

2009-03-03T17:04:00.001-08:00

Milton Babbitt (centre) amuses the panel with yet more discussion about hexachordal combinatoriality. (photo via this Julliard article)

'The problem of analysis, of course, is that of significance, not of identification.'

Reply to George Perle; Collected Essays of Milton Babbitt: Milton Babbitt.

Another Quote For The Beginning of March

2009-03-03T16:50:00.001-08:00

Ligeti: 'now, what did I come in here for?'

Although complex polyrhythms have existed in Ligeti’s music ever since he came to the West—practically every score abounds in simultaneous layers of quintuplets, septuplets, etc.—the difference between the earlier pieces and the recent music lies in this new conception of pulse.

In the earlier works, the pulse is something to be divided into two, three and so on; even thirteenth-tuplets occasionally appear. The effect of these different subdivisions, especially when they occur simultaneously, is to blur the aural landscape, creating the micropolyphonic effect of Ligeti’s music from the sixties. The smallest common denominator of all these subdivisions is a microscopic fraction of a beat; no one can hear it, much less count it.

On the other hand, the recent music (and a few earlier pieces such as Continuum, 1966) conceives of the pulse as a musical atom, a common denominator, a basic unit which cannot be divided any further. Different rhythms appear through multiplications of the basic pulse, rather than divisions: this is the principle of African music seized on by Ligeti.

It also appears in the music of Philip Glass, Steve Reich and others; and significantly it shares much in common with the additive rhythms of Balkan folk music, the music of Ligeti’s youth. In effect, the blurred rhythmic patterns are now seen through a microscope; instead of a dense web, the shape’s contours become clearer, though fantastically complex, like an image of a fractal coastline.

“In a piece such as Continuum where I (consciously) tried to create an illusionary rhythm, I came (unconsciously) close to the rhythmic conception evident in the music of sub-
Saharan Africa” (Ligeti 1988b:6).

Ligeti, Africa and Polyrhythm:// Stephen Andrew Taylor

Quote For The Beginning of March

2009-03-03T14:46:00.000-08:00

A transcription of an Aka Pygmy song.

It is the conflation and ultimate unification of the horizontal and vertical “dimensions,” which, for us in the West, have traditionally been regarded as opposites, that could ultimately be regarded as the most deeply fundamental conceptual basis for both traditions.

Surprisingly enough, a precedent for the concept of horizontal-vertical unification exists, but in a completely unexpected place, the thought and practice of the notorious Twentieth Century composer and theoretician, Arnold Schönberg.

Schönberg’s “method of composing with twelve tones related only to one another,” was based on a conception of the “unity of musical space” as, among other things, a “succession of tones . . .
whose comprehensibility as a musical idea is independent of whether its components are made audible one after the other or more or less simultaneously” (Schönberg 1975:208). Or, stated somewhat differently, “The mutual relation of tones regulates the succession of intervals as well as their association into harmonies . . . ” (ibid.:220).

Thus, in most of Schönberg’s mature works, melodic lines and harmonies are tonally unified in
that both may contain essentially the same types of interval (or, more precisely, interval class). This is a highly distinctive and unusual aspect of Pygmy and Bushmen counterpoint as well.

Whereas in most types of polyphony, tribal, ethnic, folk or classical, melodies tend to be stepwise, i.e. based on intervals of a second, while simultaneities are most often based on thirds, fourths and/or fifths, such distinctions are disregarded in the “floating” musical space of Pygmy/Bushmen and atonal music alike. Additionally, we find yet another mode of horizontal-vertical unification in certain works of Schönberg’s student Webern, and serialist disciples such as Boulez, where, as so often in both Pygmy and Bushmen music, though with radically
different results, polyphony and heterophony are conflated.

While it would be unwise to make too much of such remote parallels, they do give us a sense of how remarkable and indeed sophisticated is the musical thinking of both of these so-called “primitive” hunter-gatherer peoples.

Concept, Style and Structure in the Music of the African Pygmies and Bushmen: A Study in Cross-Cultural Analysis;.. Victor Grauer