Composer Lawrence Dillon writes about his new piece Poke (2011): "Poke, subtitled 'a bagatelle on anti-social media', is scored for cello and double bass, with a running (spoken) dialogue between the two musicians as they play - an argument taking place across various social media. Over the course of the piece, the two 'text', 'friend' and 'like' one another with increasing fury, as their virtual exchanges completely obliterate their real lives in a comic turn on the dark underbelly of our online politesse." Watch a performance of Lawrence Dillon's Poke played by the duo Low & Lower - Brooks Whitehouse, cello, and Paul Sharpe, double bass . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

Phil Kline makes music in many genres and contexts, from experimental electronics and sound installations to songs, choral, theater, chamber and orchestral music. Raised in Akron, Ohio, he came to New York to study English Literature and music at Columbia. After graduation, he became part of the downtown New York arts scene: founding the rock band The Del-Byzanteens with Jim Jarmusch and James Nares, collaborating with Nan Goldin, and playing guitar in the notorious Glenn Branca Ensemble. His early compositions grew out of his solo performance art and often used boombox tape players as a medium, most notably Bachman’s Warbler for harmonicas and twelve tape loops (1992), and the Christmas piece Unsilent Night, which debuted in the streets of Greenwich Village in 1992 and is now performed annually in dozens of cities around the world. Other compositions include Zippo Songs, a song cycle based on poems Vietnam vets inscribed on their Zippo lighters, The Blue Room and Other Stories, written for string quartet Ethel, and Exquisite Corpses, commissioned by the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Watch and listen to Phil Kline talk about his life and his music . . . it's our COMPOSER PORTRAIT for the week.

Tadeusz Baird began to study composition during the German occupation of Poland during World War II. After the war (1947-51) he continued his studies with Piotr Rytel and Piotr Perkowski at the State College of Music (now the Music Academy) in Warsaw. He was one of the initiators and creators of the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music, first held in 1956. In 1974 he began to teach composition at the State College of Music/Music Academy in Warsaw; then promoted to full professor, and becoming head of the composition department in 1977. Baird won numerous distinctions for his achievements in Poland and abroad, and among Polish composers of contemporary music, Baird's music is distinguishable for the deep respect he retained for tradition. This is manifested in his highly subtle referencing of the music of past ages – he demonstrated special admiration for Romantic, Baroque, and Renaissance music. The composer rendered his own compositions archaic by using early melodic phrases, but nevertheless created works that are highly effective in less tangible spheres – through emotion, impression, expression. His precisely and meticulously structured chords ring with exceptional beauty and his juxtaposition of musical timbres demonstrates unparalleled taste. Far from abandoning a modern compositional language, he rather deftly combined it with traditional musical elements. The entirety of Baird's music is very strongly lyrical, a trait that is most clearly manifested in the fully developed melodic lines, which are song-like in the best sense of the term [Thanks to culture.pl for these notes]. Listen to a performance of Tadeusz Baird's Epiphany Music (1963) . . . it's one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS for the week.

From notes by composer Andrzej Panufnik: "My Second String Quartet is an abstract work, with no literary programme. However, the idea behind it is very personal and is connected with a memorable experience from my childhood. When I was 7 or 8 years old, on holiday in the country, my favorite pastime was to put my ear to the wooden telegraph poles and listen to sounds produced by the wires vibrating in the wind. After a while I became convinced that I was listening to real music - which retrospectively I think was my first experience of the creative process, as for the first time I made use of my musical imagination. When I came to compose my Second String Quartet, I decided I would try to draw upon those childhood fantasies, allowing them to suggest to me both design and musical material. The work is composed in one continuous movement, and is based on two cells only: a tetrad (4-note cell) and a triad (3-note cell) with all their reflections and transpositions. It is almost like a secret code, as if the message perhaps was written not with words, but with squares and triangles replacing ordinary letters. Although I have designed a framework with  a most rigorous structure, my main intention was to compose a fantasy-poem, with real musical substance, and to convey to the listener some of the mysterious messages which I used to over-hear in my imagination from the telegraph poles. The work starts exactly as I remember from my childhood: from total silence, through to a hardly audible chord (tetrad), gradually transformed into melodic lines, which weave throughout the work into various shades of poetical expression, returning finally to the first chord, which eventually dissolves into silence. Listen to a performance of Andrzej Panufnik's StringQuartet No. 2, subtitled "Messages" (1980) played by the Chilingirian Quartet . . . it's this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.