ANABlog

Tinariwen, "Chabiba"

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:50:03 PST

What Are We Fighting For?

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:46:47 PST

Obama's candidacy would have never made it past Iowa if he had not made this speech in October of 2002:

I don’t oppose all wars...What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income — to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression.

That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.

What's the principle behind Afghanistan at this point?

Protecting a Chinese copper mine?

Capturing Osama bin Laden?

By his own 2002 criteria, Afghanistan can't be judged as anything but a war of passion and politics at this point, rather than principle and reason.

Hopefully his meditations today on the sacrifices of American citizens in wars of both types will help him realize (as usual) Joe Biden is right.

Click Opera

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:57:44 PST

Via Click Opera

Samuel Barber, "Die Natali, Op. 37"

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:24:41 PST

-- LINER NOTES --

Commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and dedicated to the memory fo Serge and Natalie Koussevitsky, Die Natali was begun in July 1960 and completed that November. The premiere, by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony, took place on 23rd December. As its title suggests, the piece draws on Christmas carols for its thematic ideas, putting them through a series of ingenious harmonic and contrapuntal devices as it does so. After strings and brass have intoned O come, O come, Emmanuel, individual orchestral groups play variations on Lo, how a rose e'er blooming. An extended treatment of We three kings is followed by animated variations on God rest you merry, gentlemen with a brief appearance from Good King Wenceslas, before Silent Night is heard, there are further variations on O come, O come, Emanuel, then, over an ostinato derived from Adeste fideles, the work reaches a culmination with Joy to the world. Silent Night returns to effect a quiet close. -- Richard Whitehouse

Ian Hunter, "You Nearly Did Me In"

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:00:08 PST

Jean Michel Jarre, "Waiting for Cousteau"

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:34:14 PST

jmj

Van Gogh's Letters

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:02:13 PST

You could read all of Vincent van Gogh's letters in the new 6-volume edition which retails at $600.

...or you could read them all for free online at vangoghletters.org. There's even a free iPhone app for people who inexplicably need to access van Gogh's correspondence at all times.

Many of the letters include sketches, like this one to his brother:

"It’s still autumnal weather here — rainy and chilly, but full of atmosphere — especially good for figures, which show a range of tones on the wet streets and roads in which the sky is reflected. It’s what Mauve, above all, does so beautifully time and again.

As a result I’ve been able to do some more to the large watercolour of the crowd of people in front of the lottery office, and I’ve also just started another of the beach, of which this is the composition."

John Zorn, "Femina (Part 3)"

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:06:59 PST

jzf

Extraterrestrial Jesus

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:44:54 PST

After the aliens arrived and announced their intentions in V last night, the first thing we see is two priests arguing over a Vatican pronouncement that the aliens are harmless. The younger priest is skeptical:

"There's not a lot of scripture on the subject...I'm at a loss to explain how God and aliens exist in the same world..."

It was fun to see that theological argument tossed in right off the bat. Science fiction doesn't deal with the issue of Christianity very often, aside from co-opting its plotines (ie Dune). And the Church is not in the habit of addressing such basic sci-fi conundrums as:

If there is intelligent life on other planets, did God have to save them from Original Sin too?

One of the interesting things about alternative religious models like the Urantia book is that they are baby steps towards answering that sort of enormous question. These alternatives are addressing objective facts about the universe that just weren't known when the Bible was written. Genesis simply says that God created the Heavens. There's no talk of solar systems and galaxies, let alone supernovae or black holes. Why would there be? Humans had no knowledge of the Heavens beyond what they could see with their naked eye.

Now we have a healthy sense of just how vast those Heavens are, and it looks less and less plausible that we would be the only Man in it. What are the odds that there are all those suns with all those planets, but only Earth has creatures on it that God so loved that he sent his only Son to save them? Pretty slim.

The Urantia book is an attempt to adapt Christianity to this modern cosmology. It functions a lot like the old Disney idea of multiplane animation, where multiple layers of visual information are combined to form a richly detailed composite image. Underneath all that Urantian nonsense about Nebadon and local universe administration is the original narrative of the Judeo-Christian scriptures, like a matte painting.

In a lot of ways, the Bible had it coming, because those scriptures actually lay the precedent for a variation like the Urantia book. Even in the very first book of Genesis, we have multiple versions of the Creation story. In the New Testament, Jesus' life is told no less than four different times, and in four very different ways. (John's Jesus wouldn't recognize Mark's if they met each other on the street!)

The reason for including 4 different gospels (including 2 contradictory birth stories) is to enhance the study of the central mystery of Christ's existence. The 4 distinct versions of Christ's life add up to a richer portrait of a figure so complex and compelling that a lifetime is not enough to fully comprehend him.

So as crazy as the Urantia book seems at face value, sending Christ (Michael) to not just Earth but seven other planets, it's actually working out the same basic spiritual problems of existence that the Bible is. It's hard to completely dismiss a theology which has the well-being of humanity at heart.

Martial Solal Newdecaband, "Incoercible"

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:27:09 PST

Harry Partch Interview

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:02:07 PST

A Closet of Curiosity posted an interesting interview with Harry Partch. The conversation covers a lot of ground, like the fact that he doesn't consider Delusion of the Fury to be an opera because his musicians are onstage with painted bellies. He sees 'opera' as an Italianate term, although he wouldn't mind being lumped into the same operatic category as Mussorgsky (good man). Partch also says that 'according to Bell Laboratories' the average ear can distinguish 600 pitches in an octave.

The interviewer also meets Partch at the theater where Delusion of the Fury is being premiered and catches the horrendous collapse of a kithara on tape, which brings the interview to an end.

Mike Bloomberg Has Us Over a Barrel

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:41:41 PST

Bloomberg's latest ad has the requisite dulcet soundtrack as he recounts all the good that he's done for the city. We see smiling kids going to school, smiling fishmongers and construction workers, and then for less than a second, we see this cop cuffing someone on the hood of a car.

It's an inadvertent metaphor (or perhaps a subliminal reminder) of the position Bloomberg has the city in. We're powerless to resist voting him in to an illegitimate 3rd term. No one seriously thinks Bill Thompson would do a good job as mayor (not even Bill Thompson). So we're stuck with a billionaire who couldn't find another political opening to fill, and in true New York fashion, we quietly resign ourselves to the inevitable.

Alban Berg

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:13:22 PST

String Quartet, op. 3
Alban Berg Quartett

II. Langsam
II. Mässige Viertel

Violin Concerto
Kölner Rundfunk Sinfonie-Orchester, conducted by Hiroshi Wakasugi, violin by Ulf Hoelscher

Drei Orchesterstucke, op. 6
Kölner Rundfunk Sinfonie-Orchester, conducted by Hiroshi Wakasugi

AGP151

Baldassare Gallupi, "Laetatus sum"

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:54:57 PDT

(Psalm 122)

Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi: In domum Domini ibimus.
Stantes erant pedes nostri, in atriis tuis Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, quae aedificatur ut civitas: cujus participatio ejus in idipsum.
Illuc enim ascenderunt tribus, tribus Domini, testimonium Israel ad confitendum nomini Domini.
Quia illic sederunt sedes in judicio, sedes super domum David.
Rogate quae ad pacem sunt Jerusalem: et abundantia diligentibus te.

Fiat pax in virtute tua: et abundantia in turribus tuis.

Propter fratres meos et proximos meos, loquebar pacem de te:
Propter domum Domini Dei nostri, quaesivi bona tibi.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

I was glad when they said unto me : We will go into the house of the Lord.
Our feet shall stand in thy gates : O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is built as a city : that is at unity in itself.
For thither the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord : to testify unto Israel, to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord.
For there is the seat of judgement : even the seat of the house of David.
O pray for the peace of Jerusalem : they shall prosper that love thee.

Peace be within thy walls : and plenteousness within thy palaces.

For my brethren and companions' sakes : I will wish thee prosperity.
Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God : I will seek to do thee good.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

"Geamparalele"

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:41:44 PDT

Robert Erickson, "Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra" (1954)

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:20:31 PDT

-- LINER NOTES --

In his own music, Erickson initially worked in a style influenced by the contemporary European masters that held his fascination, including Berg and Schoenberg as well as Krenek. Although he was never really a serialist, the twelve-tone method colored his harmonic language and contrapuntal textures. His early works, such as the Introduction and Allegro for orchestra, the Piano Sonata, and the String Quartet No. 1, reveal a strong respect for the traditions of his predecessors. The expressionistic, rhapsodic Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra, the earliest piece on this program, employs motivic retrograde and inversion and other such techniques not exclusive to but frequently encountered in the twelve-tone method. In fact we can find similar techniques in Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1, written more than a decade before the development of the twelve-tone method. This piece seems to stand as a particular model for the Fantasy: the harmonic and melodic sonority of the perfect fourth, which dominates Erickson’s piece, is prevalent in Schoenberg’s seminal post-tonal work.

Erickson wrote the Fantasy in 1954, partly as a reaction to the death of his Park House mentor Frank
Kearney. Ernst Krenek led the premiere with the Hamburg Radio Symphony in Hamburg later that year, and it was quickly taken up by the San Francisco Symphony. In a single movement of about fifteen minutes’duration, the piece can be seen as three big sections, A-B-A. An opening recitative in slow and free tempo, the cello well in the foreground with light accompaniment, primarily in the orchestra strings, takes about a third of the piece. The second section, although not always propulsive in its meter, is marked “Fast and Intense” at the start. The soloist for the most part keeps to the tempos established by the orchestra, which has a far more active and colorful role than in the first part. The final section is a return to the opening mood, but with far greater participation from the large and colorful orchestra.

The Fantasy was one of the first works Erickson wrote upon arriving in San Francisco, and it arguably hailed the end of a period of reliance on older models. By the end of the 1950s Erickson was deeply involved in the kinds of theatrical and perceptual experimentation of which John Cage was the most famous instigator. The use of technology in music, including pre-recorded and live electronic sound, was a part of many of concerts presented by Erickson and his San Francisco Conservatory colleagues. Erickson, fascinated by sound of any kind, built chiming sound sculptures that grew seemingly of their own volition and constantly tested materials for their use in new pieces, sometimes working with ancient or traditional tuning systems. Cardinitas ’68 was written for some of these hand-assembled instruments. Improvisational passages and graphic notation opened the door to a high degree of trust in Erickson’s many performing colleagues. Particularly notable in his works of the 1960s are the Concerto for Piano and Seven Instruments, a thorny, frenetic modernist work from 1963 that includes improvisation but otherwise bears comparison to Berg’s Chamber Concerto; Ricercar à 5 for trombone with four tracks of pre-recorded trombone, written for Stuart Dempster; and Ricercar à 3, a similar work for double bass written for Bertram Turetzky. The large-scale orchestra work Sirens and Other Flyers III loomed in the middle of the decade; his Pacific Sirens (1969) for orchestra incorporates pre-recorded and manipulated ocean sounds.—Robert Kirzinger

Robert Kirzinger is an active composer who writes frequently for the Boston Symphony Orchestra program book and is editor of the program book for the annual Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music.

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:12:39 PDT

Speaking of Modern Artists...

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:07:57 PDT

Christie's is selling a few Jasper Johns that belonged to Merce Cunningham & John Cage on November 11th. The sale will benefit Merce's trust, and you can peruse the Johns here.

(Stubbs' book could just have easily been titled Why People Get Jasper Johns But Don't Get John Cage, no?)

A Tantalizing Argument

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:07:43 PDT

While reviewing David Stubbs' Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen, Philip Ball offers up a truly tantalizing explanation for the phenomenon:

...the understanding of the cognitive mechanisms of music that has emerged in recent years implies that it is not enough to tell ingrates bemused by Stockhausen to try harder.

There are certainly parallels in the way we make sense of acoustic and visual information. Chief among these rules are the “Gestalt principles” identified by a group of German-based psychologists in the early 20th century. These are a series of implicit mental rules that help people to make good guesses at how to interpret complex sensory stimuli by grouping them together. We make assumptions about continuity, for example: the aeroplane that flies into a cloud is the same one that flies out the other side. We group objects that look similar, or that are close together. Although the Gestalt principles are not foolproof, they make the world more comprehensible. Both in sound and in vision, the ability to interpret sensory data this way must have had evolutionary benefits. -- Philip Ball

That's a nifty argument, which immediately brings to mind Steve Martin, of all people.

In his recent memoir about his stand-up career, Martin explained how he set about doing precisely what Ball describes. Instead of delivering jokes with punchlines that cued the audience to laugh, he deliberately tried to avoid a punchline for as long as possible. His idea was simply to keep the audience's tension so high as they looked for a punchline to laugh at that they'd start to laugh at anything. His act got so big that he ended up doing balloon animals in stadiums like a jerk. You can abandon Gestalt principles and still make a killing.

And come to think of it, Stockhausen was selling out venues all over the world in his prime. The dude walked away from his rock star status to write Licht, which highlights the critical blind spot of all these endless arguments about the problems with new music:

taste

An old professor of mine was fond of relating a horror story from the board meetings of a chamber orchestra he founded. One of the trustees insisted that the orchestra not play Schubert. No matter how my professor tried to explain the importance of Schubert and the absurdity of an orchestra eschewing his music, the trustee was insistent.

Those kinds of divisions exist all over classical music. I inherited a distaste for Mahler from my mother, which I didn't shake until I was in grad school. At any classical music concert, you'll find people who can't stand Wagner or think Bach is dry, and if you go further afield, even the most popular classics leave the general public totally unmoved.

There are no hard and fast rules for taste. Popularity gaps can be both big and small. Many fans of popular music would consider gangsta rap and hardcore metal to be 'noise'. One could just as readily hear a Garth Brooks fan say that they don't 'get' why anyone would like George Jones.

Plenty of people 'get' Stockhausen. The assumption that if Stockhausen had written in the style of Mozart or Beethoven he would have been more widely understood is specious. It's a nice way to sell books and perpetuate academic debates. Sadly, it's also often a crutch by performers to not engage with their audience.

I'm not ready to say that all this theorizing is tiresome, but it does strike me as wide of the mark. The market for contemporary classical music in the Stockhausen vein has established itself as small but devoted, akin to some sub-genre of indie rock or jazz. I'm not sure why people keep banging their heads against the wall over why it's not more popular. It's doing just fine.

Architeuthis Walks On Land, "Four Min Twenty-Seven Sec"

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:01:51 PDT

awol

Obama At Hiroshima

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:50:20 PDT

Two competing perspectives from Japan:

Obama, as U.S. president, does not have to, and should not, visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If he does, then Japanese leaders must at least pay official visits to Pearl Harbor to apologize for killing innocent civilians there and for actually starting the war. -- MASANOBU SAITO

If Obama were to speak from Hiroshima (as no other sitting U.S. president ever has), this would allow the entire world to imagine a future no longer held hostage by fears of cold war, nuclear winter, or nuclear terrorism. As Obama has stated, political will and support for a nuclear-free world first requires imagination. An address from Hiroshima would be bold, historic and compelling.

Obama's groundbreaking April 5 speech in Prague — mentioned by many speakers at memorial events in Nagasaki and Hiroshima this past summer and widely reported in the Japanese media — shows just how closely attuned he is to the essence of Hiroshima's viewpoint -- JOHN EINARSEN

While I agree with the first author that Obama has no obligation to go to Hiroshima, a visit there certainly wouldn't require reciprocation by Japanese leaders. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not morally equivalent to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and moral equivalency is well beside the point.

I'm more inclined to agree with the second author. A visit to those sites would underscore his seriousness about abolishing nuclear weapons. (It would also prompt howls of indignation from the right that every time Obama goes overseas he apologizes for America, but they'll do that no matter what.)

Automatic Composing

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:01:22 PDT

Just in time for Halloween, Cryptonymus has posted this wonderful 3-disc set of creepy stuff at Allegory of Allergies.

It concludes with a healthy dose of Rosemary Brown, who claimed to be a medium for dead composers. In this interview, she says that Schubert is the only one who revises his music when he works with her and that Liszt communicated a piece to her in front of three witnesses from the BBC. The piece is titled Grübelei, and Brown says that it took a while to learn because it's in F-sharp, with one hand playing in 5/4 while the other plays in 3/2.

Halloween Wonder Cabinet @ NYU

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:27:28 PDT

L. Ron, Lover of Ascots

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:45:38 PDT

Nothing says 'Follow Me' like good neckwear:

Part I

Part II

Part III

Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Michael's Journey Around the World"

noreply@blogger.com (ANABlog) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:23:02 PDT

The video of musikFabrik's 2008 production of Michael's Journey Around the World has been posted to YouTube, and it's well worth watching. WDR did an admirable job of capturing the overpacked visuals, but the DVD still represents only a fraction of what the audience was seeing.

Admittedly, my focus was on playing my part, but every time we performed this, I was noticing new things in the production. When I got the DVD earlier this year, I saw even more elements that I was completely unaware of from my seat in the orchestra. Like so much of Stockhausen's music, it helps to watch this video multiple times.

By way of introduction, it's probably enough to say that Michael's Journey Around the World is Act II of Thursday from Stockhausen's seven-opera cycle Light. The Michael in question is from the Urantia book, which is a sci-fi retelling of the Bible. Michael is required to incarnate on seven different planets in the universe, and Earth (Urantia) is the final planet, where he fulfills his destiny. While he is incarnated on Earth, he is known as Jesus, and therein his story overlaps with the Gospels.

Stockhausen characterizes the protagonists of Light through multiple means. Sometimes they appear as a mime, other times as a singer, sometimes as an instrumentalist. Sometimes as all three. In this Act, Michael is portrayed only by the trumpet. Instead of the original spinning globe from the La Scala production, the soloist (Marco Blaauw) is hoisted through the first half in a crane, and his travels are depicted through video projections.

Part 1: Michael's arrival on earth. He plays a short melody to describe himself and then begins his journey around the world. There are seven stops in his journey. After his first stop, where he interacts with the alto flute, he crosses the Atlantic and heads to New York. musikFabrik couldn't resist a reference to Stockhausen's misinterpreted comments on 9/11; so, Michael's arrival in NYC is quite memorable:

Part II: Michael's journey continues on stops 3 through 5, and the clarinet jesters make their first appearance. They are mocking whatever they see. They cleverly repurpose whatever music they hear and turn it into a joke. The end of this clip features the most extreme crane work of the entire production. As Marco has to play 5-octave glissandi, the crane has him playing from all manner of angles. At one point, he's almost completely upside down.

Part III: Michael's journey concludes at stop 7. He hears the rising 3rd motif of Eve and shouts "Halt", bringing the rotation of the earth to a stop. The music from here to the end takes on a very static character as time is literally suspended. He plays to the offstage basset-horn which represents Eve, trying to find her.

Part IV: Michael continues his search for Eve. He meets a bass player and they exchange gestures. Finally, Eve appears onstage and the two perform a sort of mating dance, exchanging gestures just as Michael did with the bass player. This time, however, they grow more and more in sync. The clarinetists return at the end of the clip to mock Michael & Eve.

Part V: The clarinetists are dispatched by a trombone duo in a mock Crucifixion. Michael & Eve appear above the stage, floating up to Heaven. Their musical gestures finally intertwine into one unified statement in the form of an enormously long trill.