"Music, a mysterious form of time," says a famous line by the poet Jorge-Luis Borges. The work of Ramon Lazkano originates in this basic dimension of music. The way his pieces progress and the gradual "erosion" of the elements linking them (a process of erosion that demands a certain materiality of the sound, which thus becomes its most striking characteristic) make allusion to how we understand and sense the passage of time, how wear and tear set in, leading to the inevitable but unimaginable end of everything it contains. The progression of his pieces "enables us to grasp our own passage towards death." Since music is time, every time we listen brings us one step nearer the ultimate end. Lazkano is a contemporary Spanish Basque composer whose works have been played around the globe, played both by him and by some of the most prestigious orchestras in the world. He is currently professor of orchestration at the Higher Academy of Music of the Basque Country "Musikene." Listen to Ramon Lazkano's Wintersonnenwende (2005) performed by Trío Arbós and Neopercusión . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

The music of American composer David T. Little has been described as "dramatically wild…rustling, raunchy and eclectic," showing "real imagination" by New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini, and his work "completely gripped" New Yorker critic Alex Ross: "every bad-ass new-music ensemble in the city will want to play him." Little’s highly theatrical, often political work draws upon his experience as a rock drummer, and fuses classical and popular idioms to dramatic effect. His music has been performed throughout the world - including in Dresden, London, Edinburgh, LA, Montreal, and at the Tanglewood, Aspen, MATA and Cabrillo Festivals - by such performers as the London Sinfonietta, eighth blackbird, So Percussion, ensemble courage, Dither, NOW Ensemble, PRISM Quartet, the New World Symphony, American Opera Projects, and many others. He has received awards and recognition from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Meet The Composer, the American Music Center, the Harvey Gaul Competition, BMI, and ASCAP, and has received commissions from Carnegie Hall, the Baltimore Symphony, the Albany Symphony, the New World Symphony, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the University of Michigan, and Dawn Upshaw’s Vocal Arts program at the Bard Conservatory. Watch Witness in Sound, an interview with David T. Little at NewMusicBox . . . it's our FEATURED COMPOSER for the week.

Thea Musgrave's Narcissus (1987) was written for four American flautists, in response to a commission from the National Endowment for the Arts. The composer has subsequently arranged the work for solo clarinet specially for F.Gerald Errante. It is intended as a concert work but it can also be performed as a ballet for two dancers (Narcissus and His Reflection). The work follows the myth of Narcissus closely: the "live" flute taking the part of Narcissus and the echo effects produced by the digital delay system evoking Narcissus' reflection. Perhaps the story is best summed up in the quotation from Hermann Melville's Moby Dick: 'And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life...' Listen to a performance of Thea Musgrave's Narcissus (1987) played by flutist Carolyn Keyes . . . it's one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS for the week.

Lee Hyla's music is profoundly individual. Its extremes of expression are all unmistakable facets of one wide-ranging musical personality. Hyla has fashioned a personal language capable of both the simple, exquisitely polished opening of his String Quartet No. 3 and the raw Jerry Lee Lewis-like riffs in his Piano Concerto No. 2. This Jekyll-and-Hyde nature is to some extent the natural consequence of a musical background informed equally by classical music, improvisation, and rock-and-roll. The diversity of his background and the way it finds an outlet in the music may explain why his music appeals to a variety of listeners, including both uptown and downtown audiences. Appealing though it is, the music is not cynically ingratiating: Hyla consistently shies away from emulating the commercial end of each of these musics. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Hyla actually was a practicing rocker (as well as an accomplished new-music keyboardist and improviser), and has an insider's knowledge of rock's glories and limitations. What he brings from rock is its energy, and, on occasion, its brute power and rhythmic sensibilities, so different from those of jazz and classical music. From his classical training he brings a gift for musical organization and, unapologetically, a modernist aesthetic; from jazz, a melodic and gestural language that he separates from its traditional harmonic underpinnings. All of this makes for very listening indeed: Hyla's music is always direct, its drama visceral, its organic unity palpable (Eric Moe/New World Records). Watch a performance of Lee Hyla's Ciao, Manhattan (1990) played by counter)induction . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.