Dominick Argento Letters from Composers - Schumann (1968) . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
Sofia Gubaidulina The Deceitful Face of Hope and of Despair; Sieben Worte (Seven Words) (BIS 1449) . . . it's our FEATURED RECORDING here at Pytheas.
Bright Sheng Uncommon Sense - An Interview with Junia Doan . . . our current COMPOSER PORTRAIT.
Oyvind Torvund Krull Quest (2004) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Showing posts with label Sheng. Bright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sheng. Bright. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Written for Yo Yo Ma, and commissioned by the Pacific Symphony for Dr. George Cheng in honor of his wife Arlene, Bright Sheng's 7 Tunes Heard in China is based on seven folk tunes the composer heard in China: I. Seasons; II. Guessing Song; III. The Little Cabbage; IV. The Drunken Fisherman; V. Diu Diu Dong; VI. Pastoral Ballade; VII. Tibetan Dance. Watch performances of Little Cabbage and Seasons by cellists Nicholas Finch and Jerry Liu . . . this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
Nick Burton writes, "Dziga Vertov’s most famous film, A Man with a Movie Camera (1929), is the ultimate example of his radical documentary style, and while he made the film with the Stalin regime overseeing the project, there is something very subversive at work here. For all it’s imagery of the triumph of Soviet industrialization, the film questions the very nature of the images it portrays. Ostensibly a day in the life of the Soviet Union from early morning to the five o’clock work whistle, the film is an astonishing torrent of images edited in a then experimental, almost avant-garde style of short, rapid edits. The film begins slowly with the silent city being watched over by surreal store mannequins, but as the city comes steadily to life, the rhythms of the editing increase, and the film soon teems with fast images of transportation – trains, street cars, planes come buzzing to life – and with intercut opposing images of people waking – first a well-to-do woman, then a homeless man on a park bench. It’s a simple, effective way of illustrating the dialectics of society, the ebb and flow of life from morning to evening, from birth to death (a real birth is cut with scenes of a funeral). Images here are of machinery and factories, whirring with artificial life dominate, with every gear and lever framed meticulously as if it were abstract art. But with the introduction of the cameraman himself – a newsreel cameraman like Vertov himself whom we see filming from time to time – and of the film’s editor, who we see at several points in the film editing the reels of film, the film becomes more than a simple documentary. Few documentaries are so aware of the manufacturing of images: Indeed there is a scene of the editor intercut with shots of seamstresses, implying that film, like any other industrial product, is processed and controlled – something that doesn’t speak well for the truth of images. And when we see the cameraman behind his camera, we realize that we are seeing a false image; we are seeing a man playing a cameraman whom is himself being filmed. We are at the mercy of the invented reality of cinema, no matter how much objective truth is being offered by its images. Vertov never lets you forget that, before all else, this is cinema". All this, and a score by Michael Nyman . . . our PYTHEAS SIGHTING for the week.
Contemporary music in Norway is a field that combines vibrant activity with a wide international reputation. Besides being innovative creators and performers of composed music, Norway’s younger generation of composers and musicians are also venturing into improvisation, jazz, 'noise' and mixed media arts. There is also a small but growing interest in contemporary fiddle players (see section on Folk music and dance). Notable among contemporary Norwegian composers having achieved international acclaim are Arne Nordheim (b. 1931), Lasse Thoresen (b. 1949), Olav Anton Thommessen (b. 1946), Rolf Wallin (b. 1957), Cecilie Ore (b. 1954), Sven Lyder Kahrs (b. 1959) and Jon Øivind Ness (b. 1968). Young and aspiring Norwegian composers with growing international exposure are Maja S K Ratkje (b. 1973), Eivind Buene (b. 1973) and Lars Petter Hagen (b. 1975). Ratkje and Wallin are the foremost examples of artists combining the roles of composer and performer. Check all this out at Norway Cultural Profile (Cultural Profiles Project) . . . our current FEATURED NEW MUSIC WEBSITE.
Composer Lee Actor has won a number of awards for his compositions, most recently for Redwood Fanfare, which was one of three winners of the 2009 Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra Fanfare Competition, and the Concerto for Horn and Orchestra (2007), which was the First Prize Winner in the 2007 International Horn Society Composition Contest. Watch a performance of Actor's Horn Concerto by hornist Patrick Hughes and the St. Olaf Orchestra . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Nick Burton writes, "Dziga Vertov’s most famous film, A Man with a Movie Camera (1929), is the ultimate example of his radical documentary style, and while he made the film with the Stalin regime overseeing the project, there is something very subversive at work here. For all it’s imagery of the triumph of Soviet industrialization, the film questions the very nature of the images it portrays. Ostensibly a day in the life of the Soviet Union from early morning to the five o’clock work whistle, the film is an astonishing torrent of images edited in a then experimental, almost avant-garde style of short, rapid edits. The film begins slowly with the silent city being watched over by surreal store mannequins, but as the city comes steadily to life, the rhythms of the editing increase, and the film soon teems with fast images of transportation – trains, street cars, planes come buzzing to life – and with intercut opposing images of people waking – first a well-to-do woman, then a homeless man on a park bench. It’s a simple, effective way of illustrating the dialectics of society, the ebb and flow of life from morning to evening, from birth to death (a real birth is cut with scenes of a funeral). Images here are of machinery and factories, whirring with artificial life dominate, with every gear and lever framed meticulously as if it were abstract art. But with the introduction of the cameraman himself – a newsreel cameraman like Vertov himself whom we see filming from time to time – and of the film’s editor, who we see at several points in the film editing the reels of film, the film becomes more than a simple documentary. Few documentaries are so aware of the manufacturing of images: Indeed there is a scene of the editor intercut with shots of seamstresses, implying that film, like any other industrial product, is processed and controlled – something that doesn’t speak well for the truth of images. And when we see the cameraman behind his camera, we realize that we are seeing a false image; we are seeing a man playing a cameraman whom is himself being filmed. We are at the mercy of the invented reality of cinema, no matter how much objective truth is being offered by its images. Vertov never lets you forget that, before all else, this is cinema". All this, and a score by Michael Nyman . . . our PYTHEAS SIGHTING for the week.
Contemporary music in Norway is a field that combines vibrant activity with a wide international reputation. Besides being innovative creators and performers of composed music, Norway’s younger generation of composers and musicians are also venturing into improvisation, jazz, 'noise' and mixed media arts. There is also a small but growing interest in contemporary fiddle players (see section on Folk music and dance). Notable among contemporary Norwegian composers having achieved international acclaim are Arne Nordheim (b. 1931), Lasse Thoresen (b. 1949), Olav Anton Thommessen (b. 1946), Rolf Wallin (b. 1957), Cecilie Ore (b. 1954), Sven Lyder Kahrs (b. 1959) and Jon Øivind Ness (b. 1968). Young and aspiring Norwegian composers with growing international exposure are Maja S K Ratkje (b. 1973), Eivind Buene (b. 1973) and Lars Petter Hagen (b. 1975). Ratkje and Wallin are the foremost examples of artists combining the roles of composer and performer. Check all this out at Norway Cultural Profile (Cultural Profiles Project) . . . our current FEATURED NEW MUSIC WEBSITE.
Composer Lee Actor has won a number of awards for his compositions, most recently for Redwood Fanfare, which was one of three winners of the 2009 Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra Fanfare Competition, and the Concerto for Horn and Orchestra (2007), which was the First Prize Winner in the 2007 International Horn Society Composition Contest. Watch a performance of Actor's Horn Concerto by hornist Patrick Hughes and the St. Olaf Orchestra . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Thursday, January 28, 2010
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
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
Friday, October 9, 2009
From the folks over at Bad Assembly: "György Ligeti composed Artikulation in 1958 and recorded it at the Studio of Electronic Music of the West German Radio in Cologne. The piece predates the modern analog synthesizers of the late 60’s and early 70’s – the sound sources are a combination of generated sound and tape manipulation. When you hear it you can’t help but think of R2D2, and yet Artikulation was written 20 years before Star Wars was released. Twelve years after Ligeti recorded the piece, Rainer Wehinger created an "aural score" for it. The liner notes from Ligeti's score provide an explanation for what’s going on in the music: "The piece is called Artikulation because in this sense an artificial language is articulated: question and answer, high and low voices, polyglot speaking and interruptions, impulsive outbreaks and humor, charring and whispering". To realize this in a score, Wehinger used a timeline measured in seconds, and used shapes and colors instead of notes on a staff. He used dots for impulses and combs for noise. He used different colors to represent variations in timbre and pitch". Have a look and listen - György Ligeti's Artikulation (1958) with "aural score" by Rainer Wehinger . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
"It's impossible to discuss twentieth-century music without touching upon Stravinsky's best-known work (Le Sacre du Printemps/The Rite of Spring - 1913) to some extent. Indeed, the twentieth century's long list of masterpieces would have been inconceivable if not for this forty-minute work that ruffled many feathers at its debut". (Paul-John Ramos: Stravinsky's Le Sacre at 90, Classical Net). Watch a performance choreographed in 1959 by the great Maurice Béjart ... our current DANSES PYTHEUSES.
Check out what Phil Muse of Sequenza21 is talking about ... "The scintillating performance by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz - a longtime champion of contemporary music - of four works by Bright Sheng shows clearly why this composer is a great favorite among present-day musicians. He has a penchant for treating traditional instruments of the orchestra in non-traditional ways that today’s generation of young musicians find stimulating and challenging. And his rhythmic vocabulary will keep everyone (the audience included) on their toes" ... this week's FEATURED RECORDING. Then read Vivien Schweitzer's (The New York Times) article about Bright Sheng's life and works - Intrepid Journey Leads to Ambitious Works - our FEATURED THOUGHT & IDEA this week at Pytheas.
And what more can be said about the most controversial piece of contemporary music there is - John Cage's 4' 33" (1952). I think it's just best to have a listen with a friend and speak your mind ... experience it at FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
"It's impossible to discuss twentieth-century music without touching upon Stravinsky's best-known work (Le Sacre du Printemps/The Rite of Spring - 1913) to some extent. Indeed, the twentieth century's long list of masterpieces would have been inconceivable if not for this forty-minute work that ruffled many feathers at its debut". (Paul-John Ramos: Stravinsky's Le Sacre at 90, Classical Net). Watch a performance choreographed in 1959 by the great Maurice Béjart ... our current DANSES PYTHEUSES.
Check out what Phil Muse of Sequenza21 is talking about ... "The scintillating performance by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz - a longtime champion of contemporary music - of four works by Bright Sheng shows clearly why this composer is a great favorite among present-day musicians. He has a penchant for treating traditional instruments of the orchestra in non-traditional ways that today’s generation of young musicians find stimulating and challenging. And his rhythmic vocabulary will keep everyone (the audience included) on their toes" ... this week's FEATURED RECORDING. Then read Vivien Schweitzer's (The New York Times) article about Bright Sheng's life and works - Intrepid Journey Leads to Ambitious Works - our FEATURED THOUGHT & IDEA this week at Pytheas.
And what more can be said about the most controversial piece of contemporary music there is - John Cage's 4' 33" (1952). I think it's just best to have a listen with a friend and speak your mind ... experience it at FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
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