According to composer Bright Sheng, "the first part of The Stream Flows (1990) is based on a famous Chinese folk song from the southern part of China. The freshness and richness of the tune deeply touched me when I first heard it. Since then I have used it as basic material in several of my works. Here I hope that the resemblance of the timbre and the tone quality of a female folk singer is evoked by the solo violin. The second part is a fast country dance based on a three-note motive". Watch violinist Lynn Chang and dancer Xiao Lin Fan's performance of The Stream Flows . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
In Glyn Pursglove's (MusicWeb International) review of Albany Record's Pure Colors (Albany 785), a collection of works by American composer Judith Lang Zaimont, Pursglove writes, "To describe Judith Lang Zaimont as an academic composer is fair and accurate, provided that one intends the epithet to function simply as a means of pointing to the fact that she has been employed in academia throughout most of her working life. It would be quite wrong, however, to use the phrase "academic composer" if, by its use, one intended any of its pejorative associations. There is nothing dry or pedantic about Zaimont's work; there is no sense that her compositions are technical exercises or that they exist merely for teaching purposes or as demonstrations of one or another theoretical concept. In fact her music . . . is various and undogmatic, inventive and readily approachable, even if it also reveals her extensive technical knowledge. This is a rewarding fifty-five minutes’ worth of music varied in instrumentation and idiom . . . [and] consistently inventive". Check out the album at Pytheas . . . our current FEATURED RECORDING.
"Art and propaganda meet to powerful effect in the 1936 film documentary The Plow That Broke the Plains. Written and directed by Pare Lorentz, it was made (in black & white) by the U.S. government and clearly intended to promote President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, a series of initiatives designed to help the country recover from the Great Depression. Yet that fact detracts not at all from the film's artistry, as the combination of Lorentz's visuals and words and composer Virgil Thomson's music is often quite genuinely transcendent" (Sam Graham/ Amazon.com). Watch the film, in its entirety . . . this week's PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
Olivier Messiaen's six piano miniatures Petites esquisses d'oiseaux (Little Sketches of Birds) from 1985 are magnificently honed sketches that are the quintessence of his particular compositional style. In the words of Messiaen, "birds are probably the greatest musicians that exist in the musical hierarchy of our planet". Hear a performance by pianist Nanae Green of La grive musicienne (The Song Thrush), the fourth of the Petites esquisses d'oiseaux . . . FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Svitlana Azarova is a Ukrainian/Dutch composer, whose music, in the words of Frans Waltmans, " . . . is highly inspired by spiritual and philosophical issues. Sometimes a picture or an incident can inspire her to write a composition. Her pieces, imbued with Slavic soul, are composed in western contemporary fashion, and although rarely minimalistic, she believes that music allows for the best meditation." Watch a performance of her Outvoice, Outstep and Outwalk (2004) by bass clarinetist Stephan Vermeersch . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
Greek composer Alexandros Mouzas studied composition with Theodoros Antoniou, advanced theory with Haris Xanthoudakis and electronic music with Dimitris Kamarotos. Trisha Never Left Home (1999), commissioned by the Athens Concert Hall, is a ballet collaboration with choreographer Konstantinos Michos and the Lathos Kinissi Dance Group. Hear two excerpts from the ballet, Toy and Tango . . . this week's PYTHEAS EARFUL.
Seóirse Bodley is one the most important Irish composers of the older generation and was probably, in the 1960s and 1970s, the most modern voice sounding from Ireland. From three visits to the famous summer courses of new music at Darmstadt (1963-65) he returned to Ireland with an awareness of modern continental trends in music which resulted in many pieces of great complexity. From 1972 he combined these modern influences with elements from Irish traditional music, producing a highly original music of contrasts. His works from the early 1980s return to a more simple language maintaining many qualities of his earlier styles in more subtle reflections. Bodley's case is certainly one of an often misunderstood and, today, far too little recorded composer. Hear Seóirse Bodley talk about his music . . . this week's COMPOSER PORTRAIT.
In 1967, Steve Reich composed Piano Phase, a work for two pianos. It was Reich's first attempt at applying phasing technique to live performance. The two pianists play a rapid twelve-note melodic figure over and over again in unison. As one player precisely keeps the tempo, the other speeds up very slightly until the two parts line up again, but one sixteenth note apart. The second player then resumes the previous tempo. This cycle of speeding up and then locking in continues throughout the piece; the cycle comes full circle three times, the second and third cycles using shorter versions of the initial figure. Watch an unique performance of Piano Phase by pianist Peter Aidu playing 2 pianos! . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Greek composer Alexandros Mouzas studied composition with Theodoros Antoniou, advanced theory with Haris Xanthoudakis and electronic music with Dimitris Kamarotos. Trisha Never Left Home (1999), commissioned by the Athens Concert Hall, is a ballet collaboration with choreographer Konstantinos Michos and the Lathos Kinissi Dance Group. Hear two excerpts from the ballet, Toy and Tango . . . this week's PYTHEAS EARFUL.
Seóirse Bodley is one the most important Irish composers of the older generation and was probably, in the 1960s and 1970s, the most modern voice sounding from Ireland. From three visits to the famous summer courses of new music at Darmstadt (1963-65) he returned to Ireland with an awareness of modern continental trends in music which resulted in many pieces of great complexity. From 1972 he combined these modern influences with elements from Irish traditional music, producing a highly original music of contrasts. His works from the early 1980s return to a more simple language maintaining many qualities of his earlier styles in more subtle reflections. Bodley's case is certainly one of an often misunderstood and, today, far too little recorded composer. Hear Seóirse Bodley talk about his music . . . this week's COMPOSER PORTRAIT.
In 1967, Steve Reich composed Piano Phase, a work for two pianos. It was Reich's first attempt at applying phasing technique to live performance. The two pianists play a rapid twelve-note melodic figure over and over again in unison. As one player precisely keeps the tempo, the other speeds up very slightly until the two parts line up again, but one sixteenth note apart. The second player then resumes the previous tempo. This cycle of speeding up and then locking in continues throughout the piece; the cycle comes full circle three times, the second and third cycles using shorter versions of the initial figure. Watch an unique performance of Piano Phase by pianist Peter Aidu playing 2 pianos! . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Earl Kim's song cycle Now and Then (1981), for soprano, flute, harp and viola, is a terse meditation on the fragility of life. The composer writes: "The texts - by Beckett, Chekhov, and Yeats - which I finally settled on cover a range of poetic images dealing with the death of friends, the innocence and vulnerability of daffodils, the loneliness of one's final moment, and Chekhov's prophetic image of an earth which for thousands of years has borne no living creature." Hear a performance of Roundelay from Now and Then ... this week's Pytheas Earful.
David Hurwitz of Classics Today writes, "In case you haven't heard, Nikolai Kapustin writes jazz in classical forms. In other words it's all notated, but stylistically it's also the real deal. He has completely internalized the idiom in the same way that Bartók did Eastern European folk music, and the result betrays no trace of "hybridism" or incompatibility of structure and content. This shouldn't really come as a surprise. Kapustin was trained in the great Russian piano tradition, and the American jazz line is really the only other independent school of equally virtuosic keyboard playing/composition that has arisen since. Whether we're talking about Art Tatum or Scriabin, Medtner or Oscar Peterson, Rachmaninov or Gershwin, Kapustin knows them all and his own music shows it." ... check it out at our FEATURED RECORDING at Pytheas.
"The success of Jane Austen on the silver screen has led to a sudden outpouring of movies based on classic literature. The flood includes new features from the works of William Shakespeare, Henry James, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Henry James. Suddenly, all the novels we were forced to read in high school and college English classes are being filmed. In "Portrait of a Lady", the first motion picture adaptation of James' beloved classic, director Jane Campion presents a stark contrast to the light-and-sunny Jane Austen movies. Although it examines some of the same issues as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma, the perspective is much darker. Those expecting a light romance from Portrait of a Lady are in for a rude awakening". (James Berardinelli, Reel Reviews). Renowned film composer Wojciech Kilar has scored the film with brooding and luscious music. Hear and watch and excerpt entitled The Kiss (our apologies for the Italian dialog dubbing!) . . . this week's PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
Deborah Lohse's dance piece Monogrammed (2008) (with music by David Lang) features 14 dancers in a three-part work that deals with materialism, grief and lots of flour. Monogrammed asks the question, "What would you give up in order to bring back the one you love?", and contrasts rapid-fire text with movement that suspends time. In this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES, the ad hoc Ballet company continues its exploration of the evocative place where classical dance collides with the avant-garde.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
David Hurwitz of Classics Today writes, "In case you haven't heard, Nikolai Kapustin writes jazz in classical forms. In other words it's all notated, but stylistically it's also the real deal. He has completely internalized the idiom in the same way that Bartók did Eastern European folk music, and the result betrays no trace of "hybridism" or incompatibility of structure and content. This shouldn't really come as a surprise. Kapustin was trained in the great Russian piano tradition, and the American jazz line is really the only other independent school of equally virtuosic keyboard playing/composition that has arisen since. Whether we're talking about Art Tatum or Scriabin, Medtner or Oscar Peterson, Rachmaninov or Gershwin, Kapustin knows them all and his own music shows it." ... check it out at our FEATURED RECORDING at Pytheas.
"The success of Jane Austen on the silver screen has led to a sudden outpouring of movies based on classic literature. The flood includes new features from the works of William Shakespeare, Henry James, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Henry James. Suddenly, all the novels we were forced to read in high school and college English classes are being filmed. In "Portrait of a Lady", the first motion picture adaptation of James' beloved classic, director Jane Campion presents a stark contrast to the light-and-sunny Jane Austen movies. Although it examines some of the same issues as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma, the perspective is much darker. Those expecting a light romance from Portrait of a Lady are in for a rude awakening". (James Berardinelli, Reel Reviews). Renowned film composer Wojciech Kilar has scored the film with brooding and luscious music. Hear and watch and excerpt entitled The Kiss (our apologies for the Italian dialog dubbing!) . . . this week's PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
Deborah Lohse's dance piece Monogrammed (2008) (with music by David Lang) features 14 dancers in a three-part work that deals with materialism, grief and lots of flour. Monogrammed asks the question, "What would you give up in order to bring back the one you love?", and contrasts rapid-fire text with movement that suspends time. In this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES, the ad hoc Ballet company continues its exploration of the evocative place where classical dance collides with the avant-garde.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
"Here, in a nutshell," Carl Nielsen wrote, "is what I demand of all art: opposing forces which meet and glow, appearing one but remaining two, embracing and caressing like rippling water over pebbles, yet never actually touching and breaking the delicate interplay." That is the spirit of his Flute Concerto of 1926. Watch a performance of this often joyous work by flutist Ulla Miilmann . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
Stephen Paulus is one of America’s most talented composers, having achieved notable success with performances of operas as well as works for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles and piano. As a composer for the stage, he has been most closely associated with the Opera Theater of St. Louis, which commissioned and premiered The Village Singer (1979), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1982, based on James M. Cain’s novel) and The Woodlanders (1985, after Thomas Hardy). He has received commissions from such noted ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Cleveland Quartet. He was a co-founder in 1973 of the Minnesota Composers Forum, and is also a member of the Board of Directors of ASCAP and co-founder and a current Board Vice President of the American Composers Forum, the largest composer service organization in the world. Hear him talk about his life and works with Alison Young of Minnesota Public Radio . . . our current COMPOSER PORTRAIT at Pytheas.
German born Hans Zimmer has composed music for over 100 films, including such Hollywood blockbusters as the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Gladiator, The Lion King, The Dark Knight and most recently Sherlock Holmes. Notable in his work is his integration of electronic music sounds with traditional orchestral arrangements. Hear part of his score for director Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code (2006) . . . this week's PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
According to composer Michael Colgrass, Old Churches (2000) was one of the most challenging pieces he can remember writing. His goal was to create music that was interesting, expressive and demanding, yet playable by students in the early stages of performing on their instruments and who are also unfamiliar with modern music techniques. His solution was to write a work based on Gregorian chant. The chant unfolds through call and response patterns. One instrument intones a musical idea, then the rest of the group responds by playing it back. This musical conversation continues throughout the piece. Hear a performance of Michael Colgrass' Old Churches . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Stephen Paulus is one of America’s most talented composers, having achieved notable success with performances of operas as well as works for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles and piano. As a composer for the stage, he has been most closely associated with the Opera Theater of St. Louis, which commissioned and premiered The Village Singer (1979), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1982, based on James M. Cain’s novel) and The Woodlanders (1985, after Thomas Hardy). He has received commissions from such noted ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Cleveland Quartet. He was a co-founder in 1973 of the Minnesota Composers Forum, and is also a member of the Board of Directors of ASCAP and co-founder and a current Board Vice President of the American Composers Forum, the largest composer service organization in the world. Hear him talk about his life and works with Alison Young of Minnesota Public Radio . . . our current COMPOSER PORTRAIT at Pytheas.
German born Hans Zimmer has composed music for over 100 films, including such Hollywood blockbusters as the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Gladiator, The Lion King, The Dark Knight and most recently Sherlock Holmes. Notable in his work is his integration of electronic music sounds with traditional orchestral arrangements. Hear part of his score for director Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code (2006) . . . this week's PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
According to composer Michael Colgrass, Old Churches (2000) was one of the most challenging pieces he can remember writing. His goal was to create music that was interesting, expressive and demanding, yet playable by students in the early stages of performing on their instruments and who are also unfamiliar with modern music techniques. His solution was to write a work based on Gregorian chant. The chant unfolds through call and response patterns. One instrument intones a musical idea, then the rest of the group responds by playing it back. This musical conversation continues throughout the piece. Hear a performance of Michael Colgrass' Old Churches . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Friday, January 1, 2010
Walt Whitman's A Jubilant Song describes "the joy of my spirit - it is uncaged - it darts like lightning!", and Norman Dello Joio's 1945 setting of this text for chorus and piano furnishes an exciting and challenging outing for any chorus. With its frequent time changes, syncopations, and pantonal harmonies the work is an excellent exponent of the mid-century Americana style. Watch a performance by The Festival Singers of Florida directed by Dr. Kevin Fenton . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
Ann Southam is one of Canada's first prominent women composers. When she came of age as a composer, in the 1960s, it was comparatively uncommon for women to be recognized in the field of music composition. She was on the vanguard of a generation that profoundly and positively changed the landscape and social mechanics of contemporary Canadian music. Southam, an avowed feminist, proudly - and even provocatively - incorporated this change in her music. Eve Egoyan and Gayle Young observe that for Southam, ". . . there is a close connection between composing for or playing the piano and other forms of work done by hand, such as weaving, that reflect the nature of traditional women's work - repetitive, life-sustaining, requiring time and patience. But through it all, runs a thread of questioning." Hear the composer talk about her life and work as part of the Canadian Music Centre's The Composer's Chair series . . . this week's COMPOSER PORTRAIT.
In our current Pytheas THOUGHT & IDEA composer Tan Dun and Brett Campbell (of Andante.com) discuss the importance of ritual and theater in musical performance -- and just how H2O became central to his work. Have a read at Tan Dun Talks on Water.
Krzysztof Penderecki's style has changed over the years and in many ways his later works appear more conventional. An overview of his choral works reveals three distinct periods: the earliest works embody a style of tone clusters, sighs and whispers. The material is all evanescence, textures and hints of motifs. Works from the 1980s (a second period) all seem to emphasise the importance of texture and contrast, but a neo-renaissance polyphony takes the place of the sighs and whispers, though clusters remain important. This neo-renaissance style takes polyphonic outlines but mixes them with a more modern harmonic language, making the pieces more angular and less comfortable. Finally, in his most recent works, Penderecki's style approaches the most conventional, having traditional outlines and sounding like a folk-song arrangement. His Credo (1998) fits this last period. Hear a performance FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES by Student´s Choir of Licenciatura en Dirección Coral of Universidad de los Andes directed by Hector Moy.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Ann Southam is one of Canada's first prominent women composers. When she came of age as a composer, in the 1960s, it was comparatively uncommon for women to be recognized in the field of music composition. She was on the vanguard of a generation that profoundly and positively changed the landscape and social mechanics of contemporary Canadian music. Southam, an avowed feminist, proudly - and even provocatively - incorporated this change in her music. Eve Egoyan and Gayle Young observe that for Southam, ". . . there is a close connection between composing for or playing the piano and other forms of work done by hand, such as weaving, that reflect the nature of traditional women's work - repetitive, life-sustaining, requiring time and patience. But through it all, runs a thread of questioning." Hear the composer talk about her life and work as part of the Canadian Music Centre's The Composer's Chair series . . . this week's COMPOSER PORTRAIT.
In our current Pytheas THOUGHT & IDEA composer Tan Dun and Brett Campbell (of Andante.com) discuss the importance of ritual and theater in musical performance -- and just how H2O became central to his work. Have a read at Tan Dun Talks on Water.
Krzysztof Penderecki's style has changed over the years and in many ways his later works appear more conventional. An overview of his choral works reveals three distinct periods: the earliest works embody a style of tone clusters, sighs and whispers. The material is all evanescence, textures and hints of motifs. Works from the 1980s (a second period) all seem to emphasise the importance of texture and contrast, but a neo-renaissance polyphony takes the place of the sighs and whispers, though clusters remain important. This neo-renaissance style takes polyphonic outlines but mixes them with a more modern harmonic language, making the pieces more angular and less comfortable. Finally, in his most recent works, Penderecki's style approaches the most conventional, having traditional outlines and sounding like a folk-song arrangement. His Credo (1998) fits this last period. Hear a performance FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES by Student´s Choir of Licenciatura en Dirección Coral of Universidad de los Andes directed by Hector Moy.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
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