George Crumb's Black Angels (1970) is probably the only string quartet to have been inspired by the Vietnam War. The work draws from an arsenal of sounds including shouting, chanting, whistling, whispering, gongs, maracas, and crystal glasses. The score bears two inscriptions: in tempore belli (in time of war) and "Finished on Friday the Thirteenth, March, 1970". Black Angels was conceived as a kind of parable on our troubled contemporary world. The numerous quasi-programmatic allusions in the work are therefore symbolic, although the essential polarity -- God versus Devil -- implies more than a purely metaphysical reality. The image of the "black angel" was a conventional device used by early painters to symbolize the fallen angel. The underlying structure of Black Angels is a huge arch-like design which is suspended from the three "Threnody" pieces. The work portrays a voyage of the soul. The three stages of this voyage are Departure (fall from grace), Absence (spiritual annihilation) and Return (redemption). Watch a performance of Black Angels by Arsis4 . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) is one of the greatest, most colorful costume drama, swashbuckler, and romantically-tinged adventures in film history. After the icy restrictions placed on the film industry following the establishment of the Production Code Administration in the mid 1930s, Warner Bros. Studios decided to find relief from censorship by bringing about a renaissance of the historical-costume adventure film, with swordplay, sweeping action, and romantic charm. Although its main star had portrayed a similar role in Captain Blood (1935) with the same dynamic director, Michael Curtiz, this film established 29 year-old Errol Flynn as a dashing, gallant, romantic, impudent but light-hearted, athletic legendary adventure hero - it is THE Errol Flynn picture and the definitive film portraying the Robin Hood legend. The film was expensively mounted (at $2 million, it was the studio's largest budgeted film), and beautifully photographed in glorious and brilliant, three-strip Technicolor. Oscar-winning Erich Wolfgang Korngold (who won his second award for the film music) created the richly orchestrated, lush score that effectively provided the musical backdrop for the action and the rich settings. Watch a scene from this action filled classic . . . this week’s PYTHEAS SIGHTING.

For one week each year, the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts gathers creators and performers of new media arts from around the world to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, USA to showcase their work to the public. Now in its eighth year, the Spark Festival showcases groundbreaking works of music, art, theater, and dance that feature use of new technologies. Spark Festival invites submissions of art, dance, theater, and music works incorporating new media, including electroacoustic concert music, experimental electronica, theatrical and dance works, installations, kinetic sculpture, artbots, video, and other non-traditional genres. Past Spark Festivals have featured a diverse array of guests, including Paul Demarinis, Richard Devine, Alvin Lucier, Morton Subotnick, DJ Spooky ,Wafaa Bilal, Kanta Horio, Scanner, Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts, Phillipe Manoury, Paul Lansky, and others. This coming year, the Spark Festival will take a leave from Minnesota's winter and move to the fall season, taking place from September 28 - October 3, 2010. . . to find out more, visit the current FEATURED NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL.

Totus Tuus (Totally Yours) was a phrase used by Pope Jean-Paul to describe his absolute devotion to the Virgin Mary. Totus Tuus, a hymn to the Virgin Mary, was composed in 1987 by Henryk Górecki in honor of Pope John Paul II's third visit to his homeland of Poland. The choral text is taken from a poem written by Maria Boguslawska. The music is based on chants of the Polish Catholic Church and reflects Górecki's deep love for the Holy Father; and for his country and its musical traditions. Watch a performance of this lush hymn of devotion . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music

David Amram's Triple Concerto (1970) for woodwinds, brass, jazz quintets and orchestra is a groundbreaking and breathtaking piece of music which incorporates jazz, blues, Latin and Middle Eastern idioms into one cohesive whole. The work allows the classical woodwind and brass quintets to shine right alongside the jazz virtuosos who make up Amram's own quintet, all accompanied accompanied by a symphony orchestra. This critically acclaimed composition brings to exuberant life Amram's philosophy of "music without walls". Watch a performance with David Amram conducting and playing as soloist, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

In the words of Carson Cooman, "Gwyneth Walker's work is characterized by a tremendous energy and a strong sense of humor. Even in her most calm and serene pieces, there is a constant undercurrent of energy -- a lifeblood that ties the music together. Many personal stylistic traits appear throughout her work including elements that have often been classified as characteristic of "American music", including the strong rhythmic sense, open sonorities, and influences of rock, jazz, blues, and American folk music. She is strongly in the American tradition of composers such as Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein -- but is a slave to no compositional school or prescribed style. Her music is recognizably her own and thoroughly original". Watch and listen to composer Gwyneth Walker talk about her music and her life . . . our COMPOSER PORTRAIT for the week.

World-renowned Italian composer Nino Rota is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, and the first two films of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy. During his long career, Rota was an extraordinarily prolific composer, producing more than 150 scores for Italian and international films. Alongside this great body film work, he composed twelve operas, seven ballets and dozens of other orchestral, choral and chamber works. The gorgeous aria Oh mio tesor (Oh my darling) is from Rota's comic opera La notte di un nevrastenico (The Night of a Neurasthenic) (1950). Hear a performance by baritone Paolo Drigo, soprano Sabrina Testa, and tenor Young-Hoon . . . the current PYTHEAS EARFUL.

Zoltán Kodály set a new standard of virtuosity with his fiendishly difficult Sonata for Solo Cello written in 1915. The great Hungarian cellist Janos Starker performs the Sonata's last movement with stunning ease and power; a thrilling experience you won't long forget . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music

Paul Griffiths writes about Elliott Carter's Oboe Concerto (1987), "Expressing what the composer has called 'widely varying, mercurial moods,' the oboe sings from one end of this work to the other. Its songs are seconded by a concertino group of four violas plus a percussionist, while the main orchestra (still chamber-sized) 'opposes their flighty changes with a more regular series of ideas, usually on the serious side, sometimes bursting out dramatically'. The piece broadly follows the usual fast-slow-fast pattern of concertos, with the soloist challenged in the 'slow movement' by the trombone — but not for long before oboistic playfulness and expressivity win through. Paul Sacher commissioned the work for Heinz Holliger, who gave the first performances at the time of the composer’s eightieth birthday." Watch a performance by oboist Nicholas Daniel and the BBC Symphony Orchestra . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

This week Hubert Culot (MusicWeb International) reviews an RTE Lyric recording of orchestral music by Irish composer Seóirse Bodley . . . "Although he is one of the most distinguished Irish composers of his generation, Seóirse Bodley's music is still largely under-represented in recordings - so, this release is most welcome. The three works recorded here [A Small White Cloud Drifts Over Ireland (1976), Chamber Symphony No. 1 (1964) and the Symphony No. 2 (1980)] span some fifteen years of his long and busy composing life, thus shedding light on his stylistic progress over these years. These recordings from the RTÉ’s archives are excellent and so are the performances. This beautifully produced release is most welcome for Bodley's music has been neglected for too many years. It is to be hoped that more will follow. This music is far too good to be ignored . . ." Read more of this review and hear excerpts from this RTE Lyric recording . . . it's our FEATURED RECORDING for the week.

Newspeak is an eight-piece amplified ensemble working under the direction of composer David T. Little and clarinetist Eileen Mack. Named after the thought-limiting language in George Orwell’s 1984, Newspeak explores the grey area where art and politics mix. Through their programming, performances, and commissions, they seek to reconsider, redefine, and ultimately reclaim the notion of socially engaged music and its place in contemporary society. Embedding elements of a rock band into a classical new music ensemble, Newspeak confronts the boundaries between the classical and the rock traditions. Check them out . . . the current FEATURED ENSEMBLE at Pytheas.

Fratres (1977/1980) is one of Arvo Part's signature works from the early days of what he calls his "tintinnabuli style" (after the Latin word for 'small bells'). The work is based on recurrent harmonic progressions and rhythmic cycles that are reminiscent of the 14th-century isorhythmic motet (the most famous composer of the genre was Guillaume de Machaut). The structural backbone of Pärt’s work is provided by a sequence of rhythmic units arranged in successive groups of 7, 9, and 11, respectively. Each repeat is modified in some way so that the work becomes something like a set of variations. Watch a performance by violinist Vadim Repin and pianist Nikolai Lugansky . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music

Da Jeong Choi is currently a teaching fellow in the Division of Composition Studies and the Division of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology at the University of North Texas, Denton. Her works have been widely performed throughout Asia, America and, most recently, Europe. Top of the Mountain (2009) for trumpet and two percussionists consists of seven movements, each with its own unique character. According to the composer, "the formal division is articulated by tempo, textural, timbral, and rhythmic contrast; however, musical coherence is derived primarily from such conventional procedures as motivic development." Watch a performance of the first movement of Top of the Mountain by John Holt, Christopher Deane and Mark Ford . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

Two (2009), Deborah Lohse's acclaimed dance piece, is a poignant work to a commissioned score by composer Stefan Weisman. Roslyn Sulcas of The New York Times writes that the work highlights "Ms. Lohse's gifts for creating theatrical atmosphere." Watch Emily SoRelle Adams and Emery LeCrone perform the work . . . our DANSES PYTHEUSES for the week.

Poland has been the source of some of the most startlingly fresh musical ideas over the last fifty years, like an artistic phoenix rising from a dark depression that might well have daunted a lesser nation. Above all, it has preserved a religious vitality which has flourished in its output of sacred music since the establishment of a stable democracy in 1989. Among the younger composers to shine a bright musical light is Pawel Lukaszewski, born in 1960, and following in the footsteps of older figures of a generation earlier like Henryk Gorecki and Arvo Part. Well know and respected for his choral works, Lukaszewski has also written for orchestra, chamber ensembles and soloists and electroacoustic media. Hear a performance of Part I of his String Quartet No. 3 (2004) . . . the current PYTHEAS EARFUL.

Ken Ueno (winner of the 2006-2007 Rome Prize) is a composer and vocalist whose wide range of innovative works have been thrilling audiences around the world. Informed by his experience as an electric guitarist and overtone singer, his music fuses the culture of Japanese underground electronic music with an awareness of European modernism. In an effort to feature inherent qualities of sound such as beatings, overtones, and artifacts of production noise, Ueno’s music is often amplified and uses electronics. The dramatic discourse of his music is based on the juxtaposition of extremes: visceral energy versus contemplative repose, hyperactivity versus stillness - he engages with multiple modes of music making. Hear Ueno's music at its essence in a performance of Shiroi Ishi (2001) by the world famous vocal quartet the Hilliard Ensemble . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music

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

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

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