Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Is Eric Whitacre a neo-impressionist?

Impressionism

Is Eric Whitacre a neo-impressionist?

To begin answering these questions, I believe we need a clear definition of impressionism and neo-impressionism. Thus I have quoted applicable excerpts from an authoritative musical reference, Grove Music. Grove’s describes impressionism first with its origins in art and then applies those philosophies to music:
“A philosophical, aesthetic and polemical term borrowed from late 19th-century French painting. It was first used to mock Monet’s Impression, Sunrise, painted in 1873 and shown in the first of eight Impressionist exhibitions (1874–86), and later to categorize the work of such artists as Manet, Degas, Pissaro, Sisley, Renoir, Cézanne and Regnault. ‘Impressionist’ also describes aspects of Turner, Whistler, the English Pre-Raphaelites and certain American painters, as well as the literary style of Poe and the Goncourt brothers, and the free verse and fluidity of reality in symbolist poetry…
In music the association between Impressionism and innovation was more short-lived and more narrowly restricted to Debussy and those whose music resembled or was influenced by him. These composers’ attempt to explore the fleeting moment and the mystery of life led them to seek musical equivalents for water, fountains, fog, clouds and the night, and to substitute sequences of major 2nds, unresolved chords and other sound-colours for precise designs, solid, clear forms, and logical developments. To convey a sense of the intangible flux of time, they used extended tremolos and other kinds of ostinatos as well as a variety of rhythmic densities. But, like the painters who stressed not new realities but new perceptions of it, Debussy explained that this music’s ‘unexpected charm’ came not so much from the chords or timbres themselves – already found in the vocabularies of composers such as Field, Chopin, Liszt, Grieg, Franck, Balakirev, Borodin and Wagner – but from their ‘mise en place’, ‘the rigorous choice of what precedes and what follows’. For Debussy form was the result of a succession of colours and rhythms ‘de couleurs et de temps rythmés’ or, as Dukas put it, ‘a series of sensations rather than the deductions of a musical thought’. This concept in turn demanded new approaches to performance. In interpreting Ravel’s Jeux d’eau, the pianist Ricardo Viñes used the pedals liberally when playing fast-moving passages in the high registers ‘to bring out the hazy impression of vibrations in the air’.
Yet to describe Debussy’s aesthetic as Impressionist is not entirely accurate, for his notion of musical line was as neo-Impressionist as it was Impressionist, and his musical innovations owed much to his predecessors. Like the Impressionist painters, who responded to Haussmann’s transformation of Paris and sought to disguise the banality of its forms, Debussy gave the musical line a decorative function. Eschewing conventional melodies, he fragmented themes into short motives and used repetitive figurations resembling those of Liszt and in Russia, The Five. Quickly moving passages wherein overall direction and texture are more audible than individual notes and rhythms give the effect of quasi-improvisation. At other moments in his and other Impressionist music, two kinds of line interact. As in Monet’s and Renoir’s paintings where sketchlike images of people vibrating with the rhythms of nature are juxtaposed with the straight lines of Haussmann’s gardens and avenues or industrial railroads and bridges, sinuous arabesques in this music, liberated from their dependence on functional harmony and sometimes incorporating medieval, whole-tone or pentatonic scales, give a sense of timelessness, of a hypnotic turning in place, while clearly etched tunes focus the listener’s attention. Here, however, the resemblance to Impressionist painting breaks down. While the straight lines of Impressionist painting came from modern life, Debussy’s melodies were often derived from folksongs, as in music by The Five. Reflecting the return of traditional values more characteristic of neo-Impressionist art, they are simple and hark back to earlier times or pastoral settings, often with a nationalist subtext. This is also the case in music imitating or incorporating Spanish popular song (such as that of Ravel, Albéniz, and Falla), or the Celtic traditions of Brittany or western Ireland. The strongly melodic character of Ravel’s music likewise places him outside the purely Impressionist style.”[1]
The article includes information about neo-impressionism and post-impressionism.
“It is at this point that one should speak of the emergence of musical post-Impressionism, for in its embrace of line, colour and form from another perspective, and constructions that bring pleasure to the mind as well as the senses, this aesthetic resembles that of post-Impressionist painters like Gauguin and Matisse. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring perhaps best exemplifies this tendency in music. In one sense it extends the Impressionist notion of sound for its own sake; in another, as Jacques Rivière put it, The Rite rejects the ‘sauce’ of its predecessors’ music, with its language of nuance and transitions, in favour of larger-scale juxtapositions of violent emotions, brutal rhythms, robust colours and a more advanced harmonic language that includes polytonality. Both aspects of post-Impressionism laid the foundation for a Franco-Russian form of modernism. Respighi in Italy, Schmitt and Dukas in France, and Bax and Holst in Great Britain also represent this duality, in different ways. Perhaps only Satie, among French composers of the time, rejected Impressionism completely. With humour and irony he attempted to rid music of its literary and painterly associations, setting the stage for the neo-classicism of the 1920s.
During this period and after Debussy’s death in 1918 a large number and wide variety of composers, some of them falsely called post-Impressionists, continued to use Impressionist techniques, albeit sporadically. Among others, in England there were Delius, Vaughan Williams, Scott, Bridge and Ireland; in France, Koechlin, Aubert, Louis Vuillemin, Ropartz, Roger-Ducasse, Ladmirault, Caplet, Lili Boulanger and later Messiaen; in Hungary, Bartók and Kodály; in Poland, Szymanowski; in Italy, Malipiero and Puccini; and in the USA, Griffes. Even at the Schola Cantorum, a Parisian school which inculcated different ideals, Impressionism made an impact on composers. Roussel, Albéniz and Le Flem reconciled the harmonic freedom and timbral nuances of Impressionist music with the solid construction, linear clarity and rigorous logic demanded by d’Indy and his followers. Ravel, who Landormy claims helped discredit Impressionism through his embrace of classical forms, continued to use Impressionist approaches to harmony and timbre even after his style changed around 1908. For a time the aesthetic even appealed to Schoenberg: although the emotional content of Gurrelieder is Expressionist – meaning that its form and language are subordinated to an inner resonance in the composer – its mystical concept of nature is altogether Impressionist.
Despite the pejorative connotations they have acquired since the 1920s (association with vague lines and structure, a style that lacks vitality), and revisionist notions of Debussy in the 1970s as a symbolist by scholars and as a modernist by composers, the Impressionist and neo-Impressionist aesthetics continue to exercise an important influence on music, especially in French- and English-speaking countries. Other traditions have found it fairly easy to assimilate certain elements of Impressionism because of its formal freedom and openness to non-Western philosophies of sound and music. In jazz Impressionism has permeated the harmonies of Duke Ellington, the orchestral textures of Gil Evans, and the piano styles of Art Tatum and Cecil Taylor. In the film music of Korngold, Herrmann and their followers it has affected audiences’ perceptions of images on the screen. In Japan Takemitsu incorporated elements of Impressionism to infuse his music with Western nuances. In the USA Glass and Reich used simple, repeated Impressionist-like figurations, albeit in the service of another aesthetic, to slow down time in their early minimalist music. More recently a generation of French composers born in the mid-1940s – Grisey, Murail, Dufourt and others – have returned to the Impressionist notion of sound as an object of research. Using the computer to study the nature of timbre with scientific precision, they have also renewed attention to harmony as a factor of timbre, and composed ‘spectral’ music based on contrasts of registers, speeds and intensities. Misunderstanding of the term ‘Impressionism’ has thus never kept musicians from the music itself, and in borrowing from various times, places and cultures, the aesthetic can be seen as a precursor to the cross-culturalism of what is marketed as World beat and other contemporary musics” (Groves).
What this article does not do is discuss many specific musical devices. It does mention the use of substituted sequences of major 2nds, unresolved chords and “clear forms” though it does not specify what these forms are. So for a more general idea of some specific musical devices I went to a much less reputable source, wikipedia, which provided a number of procedures used by impressionist composers. Their list included both major and minor scales as well as more “uncommon” scales such as the whole tone scale, the pentatonic scale and the church modes. The article also makes reference to the use of non-western techniques and sounds such as folk music. Both articles note the importance of successions of colors and rhythms.

So now we must approach the question, Is Eric Whitacre a neo-impressionist? Groves makes no mention of Whitacre, however wikipedia comments on his use of Whitacre Chords or 7th and 9th chords which add or do not add suspended 2nds and 4ths. It also disscusses his use of quartal and quintal chords and harmonies as well as his unconventional chord preogressions. Certainly these quartal and quintal harmonies can be recognized as being influenced by non-western music which gives his music a relationship to impressionistic music. Also he uses unusual harmonic progressions which have the harmonic freedom the grove article on impressionism discusses. This harmonic freedom was paired in both the impressionistic movement as well as by Whitacre with rhythmic force. Whitacre did so with mixed meters, compound meters, frequent meter changes and unusual rhythmic patterns.
In conclusion I feel Eric Whitacre is a neo-impressionist composer. He allows the freedom and non-western influences of the impressionist composers along with their solid, but unspecified form. Impressionism was innovation and Eric Whitacre did not lose that part of the magic in his composition. He did not mimic the past, but incorporated it.


[1] Jann Pasler. "Impressionism." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/50026 (accessed March 31, 2009).

Monday, March 30, 2009

Great Minds Think Alike, Smoke Anyone???



Did you know Miles Davis was influenced by John Cage? "Mingus was playing really different shit. All of a sudden he started doing this strange-sounding music, almost overnight. Now, nothing in music and sounds is "wrong". You can hit anything, any kind of chord. Like John Cage playing the shit he's playing, making all them strange sounds and noises" John Cage and Miles Davis met in 1948 in New York. Miles recorded in 1949 and 1950, this was Birth of the Cool. The music was meant to be more laid back and mellow than the fast rhythms and elaborate solos associated with regular bebop music, also using different chord tones. Did Cage influence Miles on this recording? These recordings inspired a whole new movement in jazz music, typically referred to as cool jazz. Although Miles thought Cage's music was "Crazy" he respected the music and what Cage was trying to do. Some of Miles's influences are Jimi Hendrix, Prince, john Cage, and Harry Parch. I just wanted to bring this up so that people can realize American Jazz Innovation was influenced by classical music. What we are discussing in class translates perfectly to what I will be discussing in a few weeks regarding AmericanMusical Innovation in Jazz.

Country Music and Musique Concrète.

Howdy!!! Last Friday we went out to eat with a couple from our church and after dinner they treated us with an amusing adventure: they took us to a country show (as they said – “a Hillbilly/head neck experience). I am not the biggest fan of country music (I actually don’t have any on my ipod J), but I usually try to appreciate things out of my mostpleasurable-and-comfortable musical zone with a positive attitude, meaning I try to concentrate on the good aspects of the experience. My husband and I were also informed that we would be the youngest people in the crowd and we were indeed!!!!

Well, we had a lot of fun that night. I have to say that it was a little overdose (it last a little longer than 2 hours!!!!!), but I am glad we did it. Some things caught my attention: first the fact that the people were really good! The violinist – oops, my bad, the fiddle player had such a beautiful sound, and yes, he could play country. Two thumbs up also for the keyboard player. Second, they were so funny… and they seemed to have soooo much fun doing music together. Finally, one thing got stuck on my head; it was the observation of our friends. They, completely aware of us being working on our doctorate degree, said something like: “isn’t it fun, those guys couldn’t care less about going to school, and they have no idea of what to do with a music score, but they could play anything by heart and THEY HAD SO MUCH FUN. It seemed like they were playing just for the sake of it!!!!”

Yes, that made me think if sometimes we don’t get so involved in our ‘academicality’ that we end up losing the fun, the motivation to do music just for the sake of it… I really hope our journey on school serves to increase our joy in doing music, may this be a means of musical-happiness growth!!!!

I believe that by now you are wondering where am I going to fit Musique Concrete to this country experience, aren’t you? Well, I won’t. I just wanted to put some definition in here since Dr. Brunner mentioned it in our last class and I didn’t quite remembered what this is about.
Here it goes:

Grove - Concrete music. Music prepared from recorded sounds, either natural (e.g. birdsong) or man‐made (traffic, instr. etc.). Term originated by Pierre Schaeffer in 1948 to differentiate between music assembled from concrete sound objects and music based on the abstract medium of notation. Strictly, musique concrète should not be modified electronically but the distinction between it and electronically synthesized sound has been increasingly blurred until the term electronic music covers the whole process.

Wickpedia - Musique concrète (French for "concrete music" or "real music"), is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sonorities derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as 'musical' (melody, harmony, rhythm, metre and so on). The theoretical underpinnings of the aesthetic were developed by Pierre Schaeffer, beginning in the late 1940s.

You can also hear this example from Schaeffer at Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9pOq8u6-bA

Have fun y’all!!!!

What is more American than Jazz???



Fun find. I am researching on the innovation of Miles Davis and his “Jazz Fusion”. I found a cool website, check it out http://www.jazzfusion.tv/ . Also PLEASE check out Wikipedia, tons of great information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis. I am doing my presentation on April 7th, Check out this stuff before hand.
Small bit of Jazz history, ease everyone into it rather than me just list tons of information on jazz. Jazz actually began in the late 19th century down in New Orleans, Louisiana. This new sound used elements from Blues and Ragtime, among other influences. What made Jazz such a unique and interesting style was its intense use of improvisation. This was the first time a genre in western music used improvisation. Was it??? Yet it felt completely natural. Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians. European classical music during around 1920 was being "turned upside down" by such composers as Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, the United States was starting to develop its own distinct and separate musical form. At this point, jazz was not the product of a handful of composers or formal creative innovators. Instead, it was a relatively unsophisticated folk‑music. During the 1920s, large groups of jazz musicians began to play together, forming the big bands that became so popular in the 1930s and early 1940s, (the swing era). The development of the big band can be majorly credited to the achievement of Duke Ellington and his revolutionary song, "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing". This soon became the new word for music played with a happy, relaxed beat. What is more American than Jazz??? Jazz is an American form of music, and it's history occupies a much smaller span of time. The terms "Jazz" and "Jazz Band" first surfaced in the year 1900. Some say this occurred in New Orleans, although similar music was played at the same time in other places. Was New Orleans this birthplace of jazz? After World War I, Jazz music had evolved and was helped by the development of the recording industry. The small dance band ensemble grew into the larger orchestra known as the "Big Band". The music of the Big Bands became known as "Swing." Two of the more famous Swing band leaders were Tommy Dorsey and Harry James. In the late 1940s and through the 1950s, a different kind of Jazz became popular. This music, played by a very small ensemble, was much more complex . Its rich harmonic changes and melodic counterpoint were not conducive to dance. It became known as "Bop," with Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie being the early proponents. In the last twenty years there has been a combination of Jazz with popular music of the US and Latin America. This modern Jazz music has been called "Fusion." Present performers include Pat Metheny and Chic Corea. There has also been a return to the sound of Bop in the last ten years by such musicians as trumpeter Winton Marsalis and his brother Branford, a saxophonist.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Musical Background

Hello, my name is Susan and I am a Musical Theatre Addict.

Whew. Now that’s off my chest, here are some terms to know. Some will be long if I’m not planning on talking about them on Tuesday, but still think they’re important. More terms may appear!

Burlesque – To make fun of something. Burlesque is actually the basis for the modern musical comedy, though the genre quickly devolved into bawdy strip shows.

Minstrelsy – White performers in blackface “burlesque-ing” plantation life. Usually showed slaves happy with “massah” or freed slaves bemoaning their choice of freedom. Needless to say, these weren’t popular with the abolitionists. Popular songs that came out of this tradition include “Turkey in the straw” and of course “Dixie” which was originally intended to mock plantation life. Its composer, Dan Emmett was a devote abolitionist and was appalled when his song became the Battle hymn of the Confederacy. The “Jim Crow” laws (a name coined by a white blackface performer) were instituted to among other things, ban blacks from appearing on stage. This didn’t stop many black performers from joining supposedly all-white Minstrelsy troupes. The tradition died out by 1910, though it was revived in movie musicals a decade or so later thanks to “The Jazz Singer.”

Vaudeville – French slang for “Songs of the town” this term describes family-friendly variety entertainment that became popular in the 1880s and lasted well into the 1930s.

Tin Pan Alley – New York City’s famous song writing corridor in what is now the Flatiron district. The popular origin of the name is as a derogatory term for all the pianos playing in different keys, making sounds comparable to banging on tin pans. Probably not true, but it’s a good story nonetheless.

Revival – A re-staging of a show that has previously been performed which remains at least somewhat faithful to the original. (Nothing to do with a tent)

Revue – A collection of usually unrelated or loosely related songs designed to showcase a particular singer, dancer or theatrical effect.

Chorine – fancy name for a chorus girl

Ziegfeld Follies (Florenz Ziegfeld) – Ziegfeld first came to Broadway in 1896 and produced shows featuring his supposedly French common-law wife Anna Held (She was actually a Jewish girl from Warsaw but had made a name for herself on the Paris Stage). Supposedly, it was Anna who suggested the idea of a revue based on the famous Folies Bergère (A popular Parisian revue) featuring songs, dancing and “appealingly underdressed” female dancers. Unlike the bawdy girls of Burlesque, the Ziegfeld chorines wore revealing, but tasteful costumes and behaved like proper ladies (at least on stage).Though Follies was not the first Broadway Revue it certainly became the most famous. The name Ziegfeld Follies wasn’t adopted until 1911, and different productions claimed different titles, such as the S.S. Vaudeville. Most of the chorus girls didn’t dance a step or sing a note, but they were pretty to look at and often modeled the latest haute couture which kept the audience (both male and female) coming back for more. The real stars of the Ziegfeld Follies were the comedians who often got the top billing (after the Ziegfeld girls of course). Most famously, Ziegfeld hired a black comedian, Bert Williams to headline. When several white cast members threatened to walk out, Ziegfeld pointed to the door, calmly explaining that he could do the show without them, but not without Williams.
The Ziegfeld name has become synonymous with Broadway glamour and elegance.

Broadway Baby – a term for a wide-eyed young thing who comes to New York to maker her/his fortune as a musical star.

Book Musical – Term for a musical that relies on plot and character development, to varying degrees. (Wicked, anything by Rodgers and Hammerstein II, and most of what debuted in the 1950s)

Concept Musical – A musical that revolves around a particular idea, often without spoken dialogue or clear plot (i.e. Swing! and Movin’ Out). An exception to this is Avenue Q a musical performed with puppets and live performers, in the vein of Sesame Street, as well as many others.

Mega-Musical - A musical that relies on massive stage effects and bombastic music, often at the expense of plot or artistic value (anything Andrew Lloyd Webber). The good guys are always tenors and the girls are always vapid while the bad guys are easily avoided. Due to impressive marketing campaigns, these musical are often more memorable than their more artistically satisfying counterparts.

Rock Opera/Musical - A sub-genre of the Mega-Musical, this kind of show has a plot but relies on the trappings of a rock concert (flashing lights, booming sound, visible microphones) for its set and sound. (Spring Awakening, Jesus Christ Superstar)

Disney-fication - My own term (possibly) for the invasion of Broadway by Disney Mega-musicals that with few exceptions are visual spectacles with nothing else to recommend them. Yes, I saw The Lion King and I was not impressed.

Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway and Off-Off-Off Broadway - Any show that premiers at one of New York’s many theatres not included in the Broadway district. (The Fantasticks! is the most famous)

Famous Broadway Performers (people you might want to know)

- Ethel Merman: Every Broadway Baby’s idol, Merman was a New York-born secretary who started in show business as a teenager (her precise age is unknown) and never left until her death in 1984. She starred in shows by Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin and her crowning theatrical achievement was Mama Rose in Jules Styne’s Gypsy. Though she didn’t get the lead in the 1962 film, she toured with the show during the premier of the film, thus upstaging Rosalind Russell who did get the part. She never did make the transition to Hollywood stardom, mostly due to her bombastic personality as well as her voice. She did however make an excellent career by doing cameo appearances as she got older. If you’ve seen Airplane! You’ve seen Ethel Merman.

- Al Jolson: Another Jewish-Russian Immigrant who became “The World’s Greatest Entertainer” or so he said. His parents wanted him and his brother to become Orthodox Jewish Cantors, but the call of popular music was too strong. Jolson’s delivery was unmatched and his talents as an all around performer are unrivaled. His most famous performance was in the first Hollywood musical, “The Jazz Singer” in which he appeared in blackface singing his hit songs like “Swannee” and “Darlin’ Little Mammy” and he remained THE Broadway star through most of the 1920s.

Sources:
Kenrick, John. Musical Theatre: A History. Continuum Publishing Group, New York 2008
ML 2054.K46 2008

Horowitz, Joseph. Artists in Exile: How Refugees from 20th Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts. HarperCollins Publishers, New York 2008ML 2266.3.H67 2008

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Adams: innovator or renovator

Recently, the topic of renovation in music was brought up in class. Since I have done a little bit of exploration into the music of John Adams this semester, it seems to me that such a question would make for an excellent investigation into Adams output.

The twentieth century was a time of great upheaval, both politically and socially. This is mirrored musically in the crisis that composers underwent during much of the century. At the dawn of the twentieth century, the tonal vocabulary had been almost completely exhausted, and composers had begun to experiment outside tonal parameters. The result led to atonality in the music of the second Viennese school, and a growing alienation of composers with concert going audiences.

This led to fragmentation in music circles. Conservatives wished to write music that would appeal to audiences, but their compositions were old fashioned and dated, while atonal composers, followed by composers of chance music wrote music that was too challenging to be appreciated by the lay listener, leading to an ensuing rejection by the populace. The conservative composers, while writing music that appealed to audiences, just had that, audience appeal with minimal content. A crisis of identity in music arose. Those who wrote had creative ideas to share didn't know how to relate to their audience, while composers who knew how to relate to their audiences, didn't know how to introduce the concertgoer to the new ideas music had to offer. Audience attendance at concerts plummeted likewise.

As a result, composers realized that in order to regain an audience, they needed to write music that would appeal to the audience. This could be viewed as the renovation aspect of music, in which composers in the decades of the 1980s and 1990s definitely did take part in. They wrote music that attempted to patch relations with an audience that felt like it had been betrayed.

On the surface, it appears that Adams could be a renovator, but only on the surface. As I have pointed out in previous weeks, Adams very carefully adapted many modernistic techniques into a vocabulary that not only could be understood by the concert going populace, but would take on greater emotional and social significance. One only needs to look at the Transmigration of souls and all of the quarter tones, the prerecorded elements, and the other multimedia effects incorporated into the work to realize that Adams is not by any means looking back to the past for inspiration, but is attempting to write a work of emotional intensity with a modern vocabulary that is relevant to our day and age.

Granted, Adams did renovate the symphonic scene by reestablishing the possibility of living composers writing music for a vehicle dominated for centuries by composers of the stature of Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn. Yet again, he did it in a highly innovative way, he took the orchestra and fit it into the harmonic and melodic vocabulary of the modern era.

With this having been established, a distinction can be raised between these two concepts. A renovator is someone who takes something and attempts to restore it to its previous state, typically through reverting to models from the past and not looking forward towards the future. An innovator, on the other hand, takes something and attempts to create something that looks towards the future.

This again raises the question of Adams. Is he an innovator or renovator, since his music displays aspects of both. Simply put, he is an innovator who renovated an art that had neglected the audience for too long.

Whitacre as a "neo-Impressioist"

So, in the previous class, Dr. Brunner posed the question of whether or not Eric Whitacre is a Neo-Impressionist. I don't know much of Whitacre's music, but I am pretty sure that I wouldn't want to piegeon-hole him into just one category. I think that he is way more versatile than that. I only know a couple of his band pieces, and then the pieces that were presented to us in class. (Beautiful choral music, by the way.) If all that he wrote was the choral music, I guess that I would think that he has strong ties to an Impressionistic style. The slow moving chords, and chords that are packed full of notes that can go anywhere harmonically resemble that kind of style. It was beautiful music and the text painting added an extra amount of aural interest to his music. I however, am more familiar with "Godzilla eats Las Vegas," since I have played in wind ensembles most of my life. If that was all that I knew, I would probably think you were insane to classify his music as being impressionistic. Also, the opera, "Paradise Lost" didn't seem very impressionistic either. I would have to see a performance, but I wouldn't associate what I heard with Debussy or Ravel. I think that is why you might not want to place whitacre into a label like we so often tend to do. What's wrong with just being original? He seems to have his own voice and is able to successfully and convincingly navigate in and out of a variety of styles. I think what I like about his music is that he does have a strong since of melody, and a fairly tonal outlook considering a lot of music that is composed today. I really like that he is able to be accessible and interesting at the same time. Maybe that is why he is an great innovator. I think that it is hard to be relevant in this day and time. I have played some new pieces for clarinet and have forgotten about them after the performance is over. What I like about Whitacre, is his music can be fun, interesting, and highly beautiful time after time. In a culture where we tend to linger on what Romantic Germans and Italians wrote, it's nice to know that some composers from today have such success writing in their own point of view. Maybe I am way off here, but that is what I like about Whitacre's music.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Beginning: "Why start there?"

This semester has been a fascinating yet challenging blend of musical time periods. Here, I have been introduced to music and composers and ideas which are new for me and sometimes challenge my ears. This does not mean in any way that I do not "like" what is new and different -- it is simply that: new and different. It has been a joy to get to know some in the class much better this semester and to have them share music with me. I am thankful for the proximity of the horn studio to the percussion studio, because I have had some great conversations with Kyle, Ben, and Brad -- they are so much more connected than I to music being composed right now.

My assigned topic for Horn Literature has been music for the horn during the Baroque era. Hmmm.... Often, the sounds in my car will switch from Quantz, Heinichen, Zelenka, or Neruda -- to Lou Harrison or Martin Bresnick [Thanks, Kyle!!]. Then I listen to Rosetti/Rosler, Charles Lefebvre, and Jean Francaix who gave me the music I will play for my full faculty hearing in May.

Woven in with all of these sounds has been the music assigned to the MUS 203 Scholars. Anonymous, Hildegard, Beatriz, Leonin & Perotin, more Anonymous, Dunstable, DuFay, Josquin and others. This music is just as "foreign" to many of the 203 Scholars as Partch, Nancarrow, and La Monte Young has been for some of us.

Last evening, following a study session both exciting in the obvious connections between sound and concept being made by a few students and heartbreaking in the obvious frustration seen in the faces and voices in a few as they struggle to make any connections to music and vocabulary which is still beyond foreign-sounding to them, I pondered all of these things in my heart. [I have a passion for undergraduate students and their stage in life which only those who know my story appreciate fully.] So many of these young students feel no apparent connection in the earliest music we explore to their chosen source of musical sound-making [percussionists and low brass players especially]. And I wondered this....

Why do we start at the beginning when teaching music history? The beginning may indeed be a very fine place to start when learning many concepts, but is it the only place to start when trying to ignite a passion for learning in all undergraduate students? What would a musicology class be like if we started with right now? If we began with the music being composed right now -- and worked back to discover connections and influences? What if, instead of transporting students to what seems to them a musical "galaxy far, far away," we begin by listening and discussing what they sing and play right now, by living composers?

Some Humanities texts do just this. They begin with what is being created by our current society to represent where we are as individuals and people groups. Only then do they begin to look back to explore what past peoples felt compelled to create in sound, in visual image, in drama, in the written word, in dance -- to leave for us clues to their narrative.

So I wonder, "What would happen if we reversed the order of the music history sequence?"

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

As if You Weren't Eric-Whitacre-ed Out . . .


So here are some follow-up links to more info on Eric Whitacre.  Of course, a Google search will probably reveal a plethora of results, these are the ones I found most relevant.

www.ericwhitacre.com is his official website, the one that requires the latest version of Flash to view.

His Wikipedia page also gives a list of links.

John Schaeffer's interview on "New Sounds" can be found at:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/newsounds/episodes/2008/10/01
This interview, of course, actually includes the music they discuss.

A search on youtube will bring up more videos that you probably want to deal with, but here are some I liked:
-Get some "Sleep," arranged for marimbas— http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stM4xTBKAIM
-In "Godzilla Eats Las Vegas" (in two parts), you too can experience the joy of hearing "I'll Be Seeing You in All the Old Familar Places" over the top of Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto— http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcuxVggc5FI
-Get an idea for the theatricality of "Cloudburst"— http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5lolF-7jKM

Enjoy!

Music or confusion!@#%?

Music or confusion?
Sitting in the class these past few weeks have been very interesting to my ears. I haven't really listened to much 'avant-garde' music in years. I remember when I was an undergraduate student in NC listening to composers such as Schoenberg, Berg, and Weber and really wondering what was happening to music??!! It was really different to my ears back then. Having grown up in a rural area, I was exposed to basically pop music, some country, and bluegrass. When I entered college my 'classical' exposure to music was greatly enhanced. And then I heard Schoenberg. Oh my goodness...what happened?! After being exposed to that music for a bit, then along came Cage. I remember listening to it with amusement, wondering what had happened. It was totally different from what I had listened to in the past. My inexperienced mind (and ears) couldn't quite comprehend it all. Being the introvert that I was back then, I kept quiet about it. After all, I was "from the hills!" :)Years later I have come to be more tolerant and willing to listen to different (or as our class indicates...innovative) music. Some of it can be quite challenging to listen to. Some of it I would even question whether to classify it as music or as experiments with sound. Back in high school I took an electronic music class. This was the time when synthesizers did not have labels such as "piano, bass, strings, etc." The synthesizers looked more like small scientific instruments with the labels "sine wave, algorhithm, frequency, etc." We also experimented with taped sounds, loops....very different from the Yahama DX7 synthesizers (I'm showing my age here). Anyway, I knew about experimenting with sounds. But did it make it music? I would say that during that particular class I was more of a noise maker (or creator) than that of an innovative music maker. I was really just in the stage of just trying to figure out different things. So I suppose that's what a lot of composers are doing, especially the experimenters whose 'musical' creations are just trying to expand the bounds of music and sound. I've been intrigued by their process, and with their thinking.So I suppose my whole purpose of writing this blog is to think aloud why/how some 'innovative' composers' musics sound like music and some composers' musics sound like 'sound.' It does help me to hear/read what the composer has to say about his/her piece of music. That bit of insight does help in the digesting and, hopefully, in the appreciation of his/her work. Knowing about the music and the composer's intent really helps me to understand what he/she is accomplishing. I may not love it, but at least I understand it better.

Dadaism

During our last class I heard a term. A term I had heard before, but ever had the opportunity to explore its meaning. That term is Dadaism. So here is the breakdown of what I found out.
I discovered is that it is not something so easily defined but rather an entire cultural movement in reaction to world war I. Its origins are a little mixed up as well. While some believe it is a nonsensical word others believe it comes from the Russian da, da meaning yes, yes. Still others assert that it comes from a random selection in a French dictionary, where the word dada means hobby.
I learned that this artistic movement mostly affected the visual arts but did (a little later) have an impact on music and poetry. These arts were anti-war and included demonstrations and gatherings. One interesting idea I came across was that the art was “anti-art” or art that makes fun of serious art.
In music specifically, not much is said about Dadaism until it begins to fade. Although I did find a brief entry in Wikipedia, which mentions Kurt Schwitters, Erwin Schulhoff, Hans Heusser and Albert Savinio. It also stated that some members of les six attended Dada gatherings.
Around the beginning of WW2, the French Dadaists were fading and serialism was taking hold. Hitler persecuted those who participated in what he called degenerate art. As a result most European Dadaist moved to the US to avoid persecution.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Spring break and… still Cage

Well, too bad Spring break is over… I had a great time and was able to do a lot of simple things that are hard to do during class time. For example, my husband and I were able to paint the baby’s bedroom… it looks really cute. We also rested, played, visited with other friends, and talked about Cage… I think I finally digested and concluded my thoughts on him, so here it is:
I never really liked Cage, but I knew so little about him that I decided I would give it a try and use this opportunity in class to explore him more. As hard as it is I tried to put my “preconception” on him aside and make a completely new reading of this polemic, should I say, figure. I was excited about being happily surprised with what I would learn about him and prepared to humbly say “I was so wrong!” Very disappointing… It turned out that the more I learned about him, the lesser I liked it.

The first thing that really bothers me is his lack of consistence. His statements sound contradictory, irrational, and unreasonable. For example, he once said "You can become narrow minded, literally, by only liking certain things and disliking others, but you can become open-minded, literally, by giving up your likes and dislikes and becoming interested in things." Kostelanetz 1988, 231, but later on he says that “When I hear what we call music, it seems to me that someone is talking, and talking about his feelings or about his ideas of relationships, but when I hear traffic, the sound of traffic… I don’t have the feeling that anyone is talking, I have the feeling that sound is acting and I love the activity of sound. What it does is it gets louder and quieter, and it gets higher and lower, and it gets longer and shorter, it does all those things which I am completely satisfied with that, I don’t need sound to talk to me.” Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcHnL7aS64Y). First of all, what is left of a person that has no likes or dislikes? Is that possible? If it was, is he trying to say that he is open-minded because he is interested in things when he writes his music, but at the same time he is writing them based on his likes and dislikes? I don’t understand it…

What is the pattern in Cage music? (and this is a very, very honest question since I really don’t know that much about it). I believe you are all familiar with the name of American painter Jackson Pollock. The movie/documentary “Who the … is Pollock?” tells the story of a women who believes she had purchased, accidentally, one of Pollock’s works. Her challenge is to prove the originality of the piece since this work has not been listed among the other paintings of Pollock and it has no signature. Pollock’s dripping and pouring techniques, which is so random and totally object of the chance, have such a unique pattern that it gives enough material for the expertise to dwell on the subject for several years. I keep thinking if one would be able to identify a “lost” work of Cage…

Susan and I were talking and I think we came up with a better label for Cage, instead of ‘composer’ we should just call him an ‘experimentalist.’ All he did was to play with sounds, experiment them, and I enjoy it, as an experiment. Taking 4’33’’ for an example, the principle of it is that the music is in everywhere and is made by every and anything; great sound experience, but one should not claim it as his/her own music/composition because this is the music (if one wants to call it this way) of the environment. I think that to claim one thigh which is not yours as being your is considered plagiarism ☺

At the end of the story I think Cage was really a great entertainer. I thought I would have my baby when we watched “Water Walk” in class. I was laughing so hard that I started to feel bad that I was enjoying the performance so much in that way (I still can’t decided if I liked the “duck squeaking” better that the “pressure-pan-manipulation” – all amazing!!!!) but I decided to take Cage’s own words “I consider laughter preferable to tears” youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSulycqZH-U) and indulge myself with an extraordinary time with that performance!!!!!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building


I’m getting to that stage in my learning this semester where things are starting to make a lot more sense. I’m able to compare the various innovations of American composers and I can identify time periods and specific historical events with their developments in twentieth century music. Often in class, I play very simple ‘word association games’ with myself to make sure I’m still on the ball. Just a snippet…

Ives – Concord, insurance, four musical traditions, quotations, masculinity
Griffes – Debussy
Varese – French, tape recorder, Ionization, Poem electronique
Cowell – polystylism, American 5, inside piano
Partch – new instruments, 43 pitches, talking/singing
Nancarrow – prepared piano, Mexico
Harrison – bang on anything

And when I’m feeling super challenged, I try to find random connections:

Back to resonant sounds:  
Partch new instruments Young  retuning piano
New 43 pitches pure sine waves, drones
Day jobs outside music:  
Ives insurance Griffes teacher
Deep spirituality:  
Cage dadism Young Fluxus
‘Father of electronic music’: Nancarrow
‘Father of minimalism’: Young
Alternative tuning: Young, Harrison, Nancarrow, Partch, Riley

But all that aside, I HAD TO SHARE my most recent memorable American experience with you. On Saturday night I found myself in a small church hall in Harrodsburg with my husband and in-laws. No, I wasn’t at a ‘revival’! I was witnessing my first Elvis impersonator concert. Dressed from head to toe in a bejeweled white jump-suite with bling on every finger, I was serenaded by The King himself singing I can’t help falling in-love with you. Not really knowing a lot of the tunes, I found my mind wondering back to class discussions…. Innovators, traditions, and American music…..So I thought I would consult my newly acquainted associate, Kyle Gann and see if he had ANYTHING to say about Elvis Presley and his influence on shaping American music. Sure enough, I stumbled on an article written in the New York Times by Bernard Holland upon the release of American Music in the Twentieth Century.

“The important events in American music do seem to share a common formula: put two old and very different things on a collision course, and something new often appears. In rock-and roll, black power meets white power (Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry)”

Kyall also wrote a very interesting insert on his blog in 2007 http://www.artsjournal.com/popcorn/2007/09/remembering_elvis.html

But the purpose of me including this is really to explore more of the historical context in which the composers we have focused operated. It's easier for me to recall dates when I have relevant associations with them. Several very significant events that closely preceded the innovations of Partch, Young, and Cage included the influence of European composers domiciling in the USA, the resistance of American public to hear music of Germany and Italy post World War 2, and the patriotism of the American audience, to name just a few. Of course there is also the influence of spirituality, Vietnam, and Freudian thought. All of these can be associated with at least one of the composers we have studied so far and definitely makes it easier for me to understand the context of their work.

I can’t help thinking that perhaps there is a stronger association between developments in genres such as Rock and Roll and Blues with “twentieth century classical music” (for lack of a better term). Perhaps, if anyone else reads this blog, they could shed some light on this for me.

P.S
Thank you to all of you for listening so intently to my presentation last week. That was without a doubt, one of the scariest things I’ve done this year. And now that it’s over, I can continue on my journey of discovering the music of La Monte Young without the pressure of a looming presentation. I am truly fascinated by the man and his music. Thank you to you Dr. Brunner for instigating my journey…
Have a fantastic Spring break Ya'all!!!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Rhythm in Pulse-less Music: Thoughts on Varese

Hey another post! Yes, I am determined to be productive this week. So I thought I’d blog about Varese even though we brought him up weeks ago. Oh well, I hope you find this thought stirring anyway. Last week in MUS 676, post tonal theory, was article presentation week, and if you know me at all, you know I get a little nervous about public presentations. And I’m going into education. . .hmmm.

Anyway, I presented on an article by Elizabeth West Marvin entitled “ The Perception of Rhythm in Non-Tonal Music: Rhythmic Contours in the Music of Edgar Varese.” Marvin is an interesting character. On top of being a theory professor she also has a secondary appointment in the University of Rochester’s Brain and Cognitive Sciences department. Much of her work deals with musical cognition.

Nearly every piece in Western tonal music and much of Western non-tonal music has a beat as an essential part of its structure. However, much of twentieth century Western music has an increasingly ambiguous sense of pulse. It is interesting to wonder how the ear perceives rhythm in a pulse-less framework. Because, according to certain psychologists I can’t cite right now, listeners accustomed to Western music perceive rhythm as the division of a steady beat or the addition of multiple beats. In non-pulse music, what we would call rhythm could actually be treated as series of durations. If this is the case, it questions the role of traditional rhythmic notation in music such as Varese’s Density 21.5 and Octandre. Even this non-beat music has to be performed with some sort of micro-pulse in mind so that the durations are accurate. The conductor or performer usually determines this micro-pulse. However, the listener’s aural perception of the music probably does not pick up on these smaller subdivisions: oh, the limitations of the human brain.


Most of the structural analysis of atonal music has been based on pitches and pc sets. Little analysis has been done on rhythm and duration succession as a marker of form in atonal music. The rest of the article goes on to analyze Density 21.5. It’s too much to talk about in this blog entry, and frankly, I don’t think I’d do it justice. If you want to read the article, it’s available on JSTOR, and the title is “ The Perception of Rhythm in Non-Tonal Music: Rhythmic Contours in the Music of Edgar Varese.” The reason I mention this article is that Marvin brings up several questions that reflect our discussion of tradition versus innovation. For example:

If we write outside the confines of a temporal pulse, does that change the audience’s perception of the music?

Rhythmic contours are much more difficult to aurally perceive than melodic contours. Does it make sense then to organize the structure of a piece around temporal values if the audience won’t pick up on it?

If we are going to write music without pulse, should we abandon tradition rhythmic notation since it doesn’t seem to serve the music?

How do we practice and perform non-beat rhythms or durations?

What is the point of using rhythmic complexities that are impossible to process aurally?

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

shameless plugs

hey everyone, didn't get a chance to go over this in class, but here ya go:

Thursday, IUPUI Telematic Ensemble, 730 SCFA RH

Sunday, March 22, 730 PM, recital hall- my last solo recital, featuring music of...American Innovators!!!!!!!

Program to include 3 works by David Lang, 2 by Chris Adler who will be here in April, a Riq improv by me (Egyptian tambourine), traditional Cuban music, a work by Christopher Deane (faculty at UNT), something weird by a Swedish Guy, and a premiere of a new work by Tylla!!!! Musical Guests include Brad, Ben, and Brian Nozny. Show up. Really. It'll be cool, none of it is too far out of the box.

March 25- 730 PM, Recital Hall- world music concert. support Dr. Kwon in her new endeavors, so she sticks around! Brad, Ben, and I will be playing a marimba trio inspired by Balinese Gamelan. If you've never heard it, it will blow your mind. Also, more Cuban music (the same actually), Korean Ensemble, Chinese Ensemble, etc.

April 4- concert hall, 7 pm, Zakir Hussain and the killer Santoor guy- seriously, this will be the most ridiculous display of virtuosity you are ever likely to see in Singletary. They haven't sold many tickets yet so get them while you can still get killer seats.

April 5, 3 PM, concert hall- UK Percussion Ensemble. Special Guest Christopher Adler. We will premiere his new percussion quintet Pines Long Slept in Sunshine, which I have organized an international consortium to help make happen. Cool piece, very very very very difficult. Also, a piece by my hand drumming class, something by some guy in Texas, another piece by another guy in Texas (another UNT faculty member) featuring Andy Bliss on vibraphone. A piece by norwegian composer Rolf Wallin that is based on fractals, but in a very different way than JLA, and a piece by John Cage that was discovered LAST YEAR.

good stuff coming up, please some support.

Have a good break.

El Nino

John Adams Oratorio El Nino is a fascinating work unlike any of his other large scale vocal oriented works. His three operas draw upon story lines indigenous to the twentieth century. Despite the political intrigue that could potentially be generated from some of the story lines, Adams has taken an objective interpretive approach to the different stories, portraying the events as close to the way they occurred while minimizing his personal viewpoint of the situation.

In El Nino, Adams draws upon 2700 years of literature that deals with the Birth of Christ. Here, his texts range from the prophet Isaiah in the eight century BC to the 1960s and the Mexican author Rosario Castellanos. The texts for this work are in three different languages: Latin, Spanish, and English (as mentioned in the previous blog post, Adams actually learned the Spanish language while writing this work in order to be able to more effectively set the Spanish texts to Music.)

The outline of the events for this story follow the Biblical accounts in the four gospels. Divided into two parts, the oratorio lasts approximately two hours and incorporates orchestra, SATB chorus and children's chorus. The world premiere of El Nino took place at the Théâtre du Chatelet on December 15, 2000 in Paris. The American premiere occurred January 11, 2001 at Davies Hall, San Francisco. The following is a list of the intended instrumentation for performance:

Orchestra
2 flutes (1&2=picc)
2 oboes (2=Cor anglais)
2 clarinets (2=bass clar)
2 bassoons (2nd =contra)
3 horns
3 trombones
2 steel string guitars
1 harp
piano (=celesta)
keyboard sampler (=celesta)
3 percussion (glock, almglocken, crotales, chimes, gongs)
Strings
14 Violins
6 Violas
6 Cellos
4 Contrabasses


While the Messiah by Handel would be an obvious work which El Nino could be compared to, it has some significant textual differences. Handel used only texts within the accepted Biblical Canon (in the Bible, there are 66 books that are accepted as "canonical" with 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament). In Adams work, not only does he draw upon contemporary Mexican texts, but also drew upon the writings of Martin Luther and the New Testament Apocrypha (the New Testament Apocrypha were writings that were rejected by the early church fathers as being uninspired and are not included among the 27 books of the New Testament.)

In an interview about this work, Adams points out that he was brought up in the New England Unitarian tradition, and was influenced by the works of the transcendentalists, Emerson, and Thoreau. Because of this perspective of the upbringing, his interpretations of the events surrounding them tend to be less on the textual fidelity to the events outlined in the gospels, but more towards the moral teachings that they fostered. This, he points out, is due to a antisuperntatural worldview espoused by the above writers. They tended towards an interpretational scheme that allowed them to allegorize and moralize the content rather than accept everything at face value.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A Contrast of the Adams

Today in class we examined the compositions of John Luther Adams. I will admit that I do not have a great deal of exposure to his music, but I appreciated the relative simplicity of his ideas and how he was able to generate such magnificent works.

John Adams has a compositional style that has some striking similarities with that of John Luther Adams. Much of his compositional output has been described as being spatially oriented, somewhat like the music of John Luther Adams. A good example of this can be seen in the first act of The Death of Klinghoffer. As the music progresses, the music has a feeling of progressing towards the listener spatially, before slowly receding away.

In addition, both Adams are located on the West Coast. John Luther Adams (as Kyle pointed out today) is a resident of Alaska, Whereas John Adams resides in California. Both draw upon nature for their sources of inspiration. John Luther Adams is able to witness the rugged terrain of the Arctic regions. John Adams does much of his compositional work in a cabin located on an undeveloped homestead that allows him to get close to nature.

However, there is one very noticeable difference in their works which accounts for the immense popularity of John Adams. John Luther Adams moved to Alaska to get away from the congested regions of California and escape to the wilderness terrain. John Adams does escape to the Wilderness, but has continued to live in California for over three decades, traveling to conduct concerts worldwide.

There is another element in John Adams music that I touched on last week. That element is the American aspect. John Luther Adams writes music that depicts the region of Alaska in which he lives. It is wonderful, yet at the same time it is only regional in compass. John Adams music, on the other hand, explores much of not only our country or continent, but the entirety of the Americas.

The three operas and oratorio that Adams has written emphasize this great diversity. Nixon in China describes the visit of President Richard Nixon to China in the 1970's. The Death of Klinghoffer focuses on the murder of an American Jew, as well as the tensions associated with Jews and Palestinians, not only in the middle East, but also in the entire world. The oratorio El Nino depicts the Birth of Christ, but instead it presents it in the context of having occurred in Mexico (some of the texts used are Spanish. While writing this oratorio, Adams learned to read and speak Spanish.) Doctor Atomic explores the nuclear experiments in the Southwest during World War II, as well as the cultural environment that surrounded such a tense ordeal.

There are a great deal of other works that John Adams has written which reflect many of these same qualities. John Adams, as has been seen throughout the last few weeks (and I will discuss tomorrow in a post which will examine El Nino) writes music that is directed towards an audience, but it is an international one.

I love the music of John Luther Adams. It has a gothic feeling to it which makes it awe inspiring to listen to. Yet due to the fact that he has made an attempt to get away from the more populated regions of the world and John Adams willingness to not only live there but also travel extensively and maintain a metropolitan career, his music has caught on.

It is a shame though. I love John Adams music, but the music of John Luther Adams is immensely creative and deserves to get much more recognition in concert halls. Thank you again Kyle for sharing information about John Luther Adams. Hopefully, one day, his music will gain the notoriety among concert goers it deserves.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

John Cage


I love John Cage’s music. Probably the first several pieces of his music that I’ve heard are not too much in the “Zen” concept in yet. I think that hearing this first makes it easier for me to accept whatever kind of music he wrote later. Perhaps I don’t like some of his later works as much as the earlier things, but I still can find a way to appreciate what he had done. Some of the percussion works that he wrote have become standard repertoire for many percussion groups. I remember that I really liked his music and had a great impression of his musical designs when I first listened to it. Here is a link to one of my favorite works: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yGPAUcWyUU ). I also love the prepared piano sound a lot. The piece that Brad played for us on youtube was awesome. Of course, I’m not a “Cage” expert, but the music that I heard so far…I like it.

I think to be able to appreciate his later work, after his influence from “Zen” through Japanese scholar Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, we probably should look at the meaning of “Zen. This would give us more ideas of why his later work sounds the way it does. I’m not an expert of Zen Buddhism, either. But where I grew up there is a lot of influence from Buddhism. Here is the Wikipedia definition of Zen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen . This might be one reason that I find John Cage’s works more accessible.

Meditation is the core concept for Zen. Generally, they think that the language or words will set up the boundaries of the thoughts. You have to use your body and mind to feel it. This also is reflected to the language, art, and music in Asian culture. Notice that the Chinese painting has fewer details than western style. Maybe just a few figures are present, but they carry the concepts or the thoughts from the artist. The artist might try to express the idea for a story, a poem, or a secret through a simple figure and leave a lot of room for people’s imagination.

For music, the spirituality is always more important than the details in the composition by Asian composers. That doesn’t mean that the details are abandoned, but if the players only focus on forms, notes, harmonies, and so on… He/she is missing the most important elements. Because the spiritual is hard to write down in words or in notation, so you have to “feel” and “think” about it. It is more focused on how to present the music to the listener.

Maybe 4’33” is too much for the people who don’t know a lot about Cage before they hear it. It is just like me not knowing much about Nancarrow’s music before. The first time I heard his music was the player piano composition. My first response was “I don’t like that at all” and I don’t understand why he was so important before I went a step further to hear his other compositions.

I don’t think that I would be able to argue for or give a new or better definition of “music” but I am just sharing my ideas of how I appreciate Cage’s music. If you are looking for melody, harmonic, sonata form, or any traditional composition techniques, you might be going to the wrong direction if you want to know John Cage’s later works.

ipod: left turn

OK, I wanted to do the ipod thing. Crashed and Burned, it wasn't pretty (come on, someone get the movie quote...). So I want to take it in a different direction.

Put up 5 evocative or provocative titles of pieces, songs, whatever, on your ipod. Don't list the artist. Mine will mostly come from my art music collection since that's what I can think through relatively quickly. The challenge to the reader, assuming they have no clue who the music is from, is to ponder the following questions, then either post your responses (brief?) with your list, or else just sit in the dark alone and ponder quietly:

1) What would this music sound like? What sort of performing forces would be necessary?
2) Who could write music that would sound as the title would suggest? What is the sort of musical and cultural background of such a composer/artist/group/entity?
3) What is the audience for a music like this and what sort of reactions may they have to your imagined sonic result based on the title you have given them?

If you know something on the list, you obviously are not allowed to think about it! In a quite particular order undiscernible to you the viewer:

1) G-Spot Tornado (OK, that it is Zappa is relatively obvious, but I'm hoping most of you don't know what the piece sounds like)
2) The Immesurable Space of Tones
3) Onomatopoeia
4) Like Igor Stravinsky crossed with Thelonius Monk
5) Yo Shakespeare

beyond the pale

We established on the day 1 that we couldn't get to everything we "needed" to. sure enough, we are succeeding admirably. =) There are literally hundreds of composers I could name who we won't get to, won't find out why their music is neat, cool, provocative, or important. We will be fortunate enough to scratch the surface of the 20 or so we will get to, though, most of us will have at least heard of some of these folks, meaning that there is only so much 'newness' to them (though how one can cease to find something new in Cage or Ives or Zappa I can't fathom).

That end, and roughly relating to my upcoming lecture on John Luther Adams, I would like to open this particular thread as a means of cataloging literature that may be useful to anyone who wishes to know some of these composers further. My initial list will be mostly works written by the composers themselves, but with the proviso that these works are usually the single best or most important examples of the written word through which to approach the aesthetic basis of the music we have studied. With the exception of just one or two on this initial list, these are the books I've read, books that have profoundly influenced my knowledge and perception of my musical education and the way I see the musical world these days. Anyone interested in any of the composers listed is obviously highly recommended to check the appropriate book(s) out.

Kyle Gann- Writings from the Village Voice
Alex Ross- The Rest is Noise
Steven Schick- The Percussionist's Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams
Harry Partch- Genesis of a Music
Henry Cowell- New Musical Resources
Charles Ives- Essays before a Sonata
John Cage- Soundings
Lou Harrison- Musical Primer
John Luther Adams- Winter Music
Morton Feldman- Give my Regards to 8th Street
Steve Reich- Writings on Music, 2000 ed.

This is of course just the tip of the iceberg. Other great places to read writings that I return to frequently include Peter Garland's Soundings journal from the 70s (a bunch of which we have upstairs) and back issues of Perspectives of New Music. The memorial issue on James Tenney is absolutely fabulous and includes writings or works from many of the people listed above.

If you have others, throw em up! I read. I want to read more.

Friday, March 6, 2009

New York Phil and other random thoughts

My husband surprised me with one ticket to hear the New York Philharmonic orchestra in Danville on Thursday night. I was so excited! Orchestras of this caliber were only ever accessible to me on cd back in South Africa. As a student, we would talk about what American orchestras we would hear first if any of us were given the opportunity. Over the past 2 years, I have experience more than I could ever have imagined.

So after 6 weeks of listening solely to American 20th century music, I was finally going to soothe my ears with the music of Berlioz, Schumann, and Mussorsky, or so I thought. As the orchestra walked on stage I felt a sense of relief in the tradition of this incredible medium and as the overture began, I was amazed at the depth in the simple unison passages of the various sections. It was then that I realized I was listening differently than I ever had before.

Perhaps the instrumental innovations of Partch made me appreciate the nine double basses on stage. The seemingly random sounds of Cage and Christian Wolff helped me to appreciate the simplicity of Schumann. And I began to think about all the discussions we had in class. Having read a lot about minimalism on my own the past weeks and the impact of the well-known and not so well-known composers thereon, I had to ask myself why they would abandon their traditions. I think you were defiantly right Evan, in saying that many of the composers of the time were “seeking for meaning and questioning everything about existence”. Their music defiantly seems to be rationalizable that way.

After interval, Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ (an orchestral excerpt I know frontwards and backwards in my tuba studies over the past 10 years). This magnificent work was surely going to help me put all this ‘American Innovator thought’ out of my head so that I could just enjoy the performance…there I go thinking again! I was completely and utterly disappointed. Not by the New York Philharmonic orchestras performance itself, but by the music. It was predictable, every chord, every sound, even the cheap climax at the end of ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’. My only explanation is that the listening I have done recently has demanded more from my ears than I had previously anticipated and that the familiar sounds of the classical and romantic composers were now almost disappointing. I’m sure that will change again with time, as I believe music is evolutionary within every individual. But until then, I am less inclined to allow my ears to get too comfortable again with “traditional sounds”.

At the end, the little old lady sitting next to me asked me ‘what did you think of the performance?’. I instinctly but politely answered ‘from what perspective would you like?’. I didn’t elaborate to her but I was consumed by the ideas we’ve thrown around the room and the blog about various composer’s views. If ‘noise can connect us to the present moment’ as Dr. Brunner said, then I was defiantly not connected. I could not escape the batter in my head thinking whether from Cage’s perspective, the coughing and shuffling around me during the performance all added to my experience.
I did not give a standing ovation (although I rarely do as I sincerely believe that these are reserved for exceptional performances, and not simply something one ‘does’). But I clapped in sincere appreciation and left feeling disappointed. Perhaps in that brief moment I experienced just a little of what some of the innovative composers we have been studying, felt. The need for something more, something different. Or perhaps I’m giving myself way too much credit.

I do know this for sure, I am more excited about experiencing 4’33 live (Brad, the onus is on you to pull through with this one). LaMonte Young is giving a performance of his Raga Sundara in the Dream House (a continuous electronic sound environment in luminous fields of colored light) at the Guggenheim in New York next week, I would give my front teeth to see that! And in studying LaMonte Young (whom I will try to share with you on Tuesday) it has allowed me to experience music on a completely different plain.

If you get a chance, listen to LaMonte Young’s Drift Study 31 1 69 http://ubu.artmob.ca/sound/aspen/mp3/drift.mp3. Is this really music? I’ll try to shed some light on it on Tuesday…oh the pressure!!!

Did this blog make any sense? It did in my head. Sound familiar?