Olga Neuwirth's "Torsion"  Olga Neuwirth's Torsion (2002) for bassoon, ensemble and tape is a mindblowingly virtuosic piece and a catalogue of every extended technique possible on the instrument: circular breathing, multiphonics, microtonality, etc. The tape part generally amplifies the breath-like characteristics of the bassoon part, but the climax of the work occurs as the tape suddenly presents an authentic recording of 1920s klezmer music on clarinet, a touch very representative of the Austrian Neuwirth, who has generally followed in Helmut Lachenmann's style of musique concrete instrumentale, but never lost her love for cabaret [note thanks to Christopher Culver, Amazon.com]. Watch a performance of Olga Neuwirth's Torsion with bassoonist Adrian Morejon and the Talea Ensemble, James Baker, conducting  . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

Nir Shalev (at the blog Commentary Track) writes about Martin Scorsese's 1999 film Bringing Out the Dead: "This is my personal favorite Martin Scorsese film and it boasts a terrific performance from Nicolas Cage, who performs with realism instead of being over-expressionist, terrific performances from the rest of the cast, and a terrific soundtrack that contains popular songs from the 1970s to the 1990s - as well as an original score by the great Elmer Bernstein. There are a lot of different feelings that we go through from having even a single viewing of the film. This isn't a plot-driven film, but a character-centered piece that contains a beginning, middle, and an end, and a raw infinite emotion that grows with every viewing." Watch an excerpt from Bringing Out the Dead - the film's end, and end credits, underlain with Elmer Bernstein's moving score . . . it's our PYTHEAS SIGHTING.

Although a late bloomer, Italian composer Goffredo Petrassi developed into one of Italy's most significant composers of the mid to late twentieth century. Launching his career in the 1930s with music on par with contemporary works by Hindemith and Stravinsky, Petrassi eventually became interested in certain twelve-tone techniques without casting his lot with the serialists. His music is dynamic and colorful, although emotionally reserved by the standards of his countrymen. He first gained notice as a composer in 1932 with his prize winning Partita for orchestra. He focused on orchestral music through most of the 1930s, in 1934 completing the first of his signature works, the eight Concertos for Orchestra. Around this time, Petrassi also turned his attention to choral music, melding polyphony with modern harmony in such works as Salmo IX (1936) and his Magnificat (1940). Unlike most Italian composers up to that time, Petrassi had little interest in theater music, aside from four minor incidental scores and nine film scores. From the late 1950s on Petrassi's music became increasingly athematic, concentrating on timbral effects using short patterns of intervals, particularly in a series of solo and chamber works from 1969 through 1981 [note thanks to James Reel, AllMusic]. Listen to a performance of Goffredo Petrassis Fanfare per tre trombe in do (1944; rev. 1976) . . . it's one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS for the week.

Leslie Gerber asks: "What the heck is a Heckelphone? As you might guess from hearing that it's played by an oboist, it's a double-reed instrument pitched lower than an oboe and higher than a bassoon, invented at the turn of the century. It never became popular, and aside from Paul Hindemith's Trio you'll probably never hear another one. It's well known that Hindemith spent a great deal of compositional effort to write works for instruments that do not have much contemporary repertoire. Listen to his efforts for the rarely heard Heckelphone in his Heckelphone Trio, op. 47 (1928) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

On January 19, 1936 Paul Hindemith travelled to London, intending to play his viola concerto Der Schwanendreher, with Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This was to be the British premiere of the work. However, just before midnight on January 20th, King George V died. The following day, from 11 am to 5 pm, Hindemith sat in an office made available to him by the BBC and wrote Trauermusik (Funeral Music/Mourning Music) in homage to the late king. It, too, was written for viola and orchestra and was performed that evening in a live broadcast from a BBC radio studio, with Boult conducting and the composer as soloist. The work consists of four very short movements, last of which is the heart of the work. In it Hindemith quotes the chorale Vor deinem Thron Tret ich hiermit (Here I stand before Thy throne). Though Hindemith was unaware of it at the time, the tune was also very familiar in England as Old 100th, to the words All creatures that on Earth do dwell. Watch a performance by the magnificent violist Yuri Bashmet with the Soloists of Moscow . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.


Our FEATURED THOUGHT & IDEA for the week is a conversation between Korean-German composer Isang Yun and Bruce Duffie (at bruceduffie.com). Here's how things start . . . "Bruce Duffie: Let me start out with an easy question - Where is music going today? Isang Yun: I don't think anyone can really answer this question, myself included. I can say for myself that my music is becoming more understandable, and I find a quality of human sympathy is becoming more prevalent in it. BD: Is this something being added now that was missing earlier, or is it an outgrowth of the way your music has been going all these years? Yun: It's part of a natural process, and I've just noticed it through observation. This is a process that started about ten yeas ago and I think it will be at least another ten years before it is fully developed. BD: Did something specific happen at that point ten years ago to make this change? Yun: My experience of the personal side and political area in Korea happened twenty years ago, and it took ten years for me to be able to translate these experiences into my music. I think today our world very badly needs music that brings us closer together, particularly because there are so many grave problems that people everywhere are having to deal with. In order to be able to articulate these problems in art, we need a great deal of musical understanding . . ." Read more at Pytheas.

For Stefan Wolpe (1986) is among American composer Morton Feldman's last works; one of many dedicated to composers, painters, and writers he admired. Written for chorus and two vibraphones, the work alternates between choral sonorities and instrumental passages, creating a series of refrains which at first seem like simple repetitions, but which in fact change and expand gradually over the piece's thirty minutes. Described by Feldman as "crippled symmetry," this technique was inspired by the slight alterations in repeating patterns he observed in oriental carpets. Hear a performance of Feldman's For Stefan Wolpe . . . one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS for the week.

In 1940, when Thornton Wilder's Our Town was about to become a film, the Hollywood producer Sol Lesser asked Aaron Copland to compose the music. Copland admired Wilder, and when he heard that Our Town had been written mostly at the MacDowell Colony and that Grovers Corners was patterned after the town of Peterborough, N. H., where Copland had composed several works, the combination was too much for the composer to resist. After Our Town was successfully released, Copland arranged about 10 minutes of the film score into an orchestral suite and adapted some excerpts for piano. Watch a performance of the piano excerpt Conversation by the Soda Fountain from Our Town (1940) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

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