In a typically exuberant 1959 lecture-demonstration on the creative process, entitled Thinking Twice, composer Stefan Wolpe warned: "Form must be ripped endlessly open and self-renewed by interacting extremes of opposites. One is where one directs oneself to be. On the back of a bird, inside of an apple dancing on the sun's ray, speaking to Machaut [the 14th century composer], and holding the skeleton's hand of the incredible Cezanne - there is what there was and what there isn't is also. Don't get backed too much into a reality that has fashioned your senses with too many realistic claims. When art promises you this sort of reliability, this sort of prognostic security, drop it. It is good to know how not to know how much one is knowing. One should know about all the structures of fantasy and all the fantasies of structures, and mix suprise and enigma, magic and shock, intelligence and abandon, form and antiform."  Watch a performance of Stefan Wolpe's Form for Piano (1959) played by pianist Christopher Czaja Sager . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

If you are familiar with film maker/claymationist extraordinaire Bruce Bickford, you know that he specializes in a unique variation of surrealist animation, made famous in the Frank Zappa films Baby Snakes, The Dub Room Special and The Amazing Mr.Bickford. After breaking with Zappa, Bickford went on to create his magnum opus, Prometheus' Garden, and then dissolved into obscurity, feverishly working in solitude for some 25 years on perpetually evolving personal projects. He is also the subject of the award-winning documentary Monster Road. Gazing in awe at the vastness of his unseen work, I can't help but wonder if the majority of it might never see the light of day. He seems more interested in creating than finding an audience, which flies in the face of everything I previously surmised about the artistic impulse. Here was one that seemingly enjoys the act of creating, more than the result or the accolades of his achievement. Either that, or it's simply compulsion. Bruce Bickford may be notoriously lackadaisical about getting his work out there, but make no mistake; he's been incessantly building a vast library of work for himself outside of the public eye. He seems to have no qualms about exposing it, he's simply waiting for someone to show an interest. [from Erik Van Horn's blog Sinisthesia] . . . Watch an excerpt from The Amazing Mr. Bickford (1987) with music by Frank Zappa [his piece Dupree's Paradise] . . . it's our PYTHEAS SIGHTING for the week.

Tobias Fischer (at Tokafi.com) writes: "So, what constitutes the groove in the first place? To most, it’s the inexplicable part, the moment, when a "simple beat" turns into something bigger, better, brighter, when it suddenly lifts off into the sky and melts into the clouds. The groove is what makes you jump up, quit thinking, move your body and "shake that thing". Yet this mighty tool, which has been ubiquitious in charts and clubs all over the planet and, to a certain degree, even in the concert halls, has been noticeable absent from 21st century "serious" music. Why? "That’s an interesting question which invites a multitude of answers", composer Gernot Wolfgang says, "But I think at the core of the issue is, that for a long time a large majority within the classical and contemporary concert music world - conductors, musicians, critics, academics, record executives, radio hosts and the like - viewed groove-oriented music [like pop, rock & roll, jazz and world music] as inferior. Their dislike of the perceived simplicity in melody, harmony, form and rhythm translated into the exclusion of virtual all elements - including grooves - from contemporary concert music. Groove-oriented music was simply considered not to be intellectually high-brow enough and was only accepted in pops programs." Still, the inspiration for Common Ground stems from various sources and they don’t always have to do with Jazz or Pop music alone. Wolfgang openly admits his admiration for the work of Lutoslawski, Penderecki, Britten, Webern, John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Markus Lindberg . . . and yet it might be interesting to shortly have a look at another archetypical musician of the last half-century, who probably emancipated the groove more than anyone else to understand Wolfgang’s point: James Brown." Listen to a performance of Gernot Wolfgang's Common Ground, Igor at Last (2004) . . . it's one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS.

American-born but now living in Austria, Nancy Van de Vate is known internationally for her orchestral, solo, and chamber music and is most famous for her Pulitzer Prize-nominated operas All Quiet on the Western Front and Where the Cross is Made. In 2005, Where the Cross is Made also was the winner of the National Opera Association's biennial competition for new chamber operas. Van de Vate has composed more than 130 works in virtually all forms, earning eight Pulitzer Prize and five Grawemeyer Award nominations. Her 26 orchestral works include Chernobyl, which was nominated for a 1989 Koussevitsky International Record Award. Van de Vate founded the International League of Women Composers in 1975 and supports the work of women composers with the Nancy Van de Vate International Composition Prize. She also includes many works by women composers on her Vienna Modern Masters label, an international recording company which she co-founded in 1990. Listen to a performance of Nancy van de Vate's Dark Nebulae (1981) played by the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra, Krakow with Szymon Kawalla conducting . . . it's this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.