tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540Fri, 25 Oct 2024 08:48:23 +0000the lispsvideo#newmusicalshameless self-promotionmusic is freethe futurecompositionmusical theaterSavoir FaireFUTURITYscience fictiontourartelectronic musicmusictheoryeconomicseventsmp3reviewspeculationnew york timesphotosingularitysoundtheaterinterviewmusical as dramamy friends' showsrandomsongtechnologyAda Lovelacebandsbellblogsconcertconcertsgeniusmashupoperapodcastrevolutionso longsound artstring theoryDouble Dutch Will Take You HigherMathematicsOccupy Wall StreetZoe Boekbinderartificial intelligenceauto-tunedemodorky postel jezelenvironmentjargon is free nowjeremy hoevenaarkodwo eshunlanguageluna loungemattisonmelodicanytimesontologypost-scarcitysecret mommysenryuspacevermillion lieswriting#smallhatAdaLovelaceDay09Bloomfield CollegeBrechtChris DeLaurentiCrispin WebbDave MalloyDeatHatElvis PerkinsJacques AttaliJames RouvelleJohn CageKyleLittle socks pressMarina RosenfeldMolly RiceSalt and SamovarThe Ladybug TransistorZeljko McMullenagent ribbonsalison o'danielancient musicbarack obamaben kamenbluescampccruchris leoclmate changecmjcorey dargelcyberneticscyberpunkdystopia watcheducationgame designglitchimmersive theaterimprovisationintelligencejohn oswaldlabelsloveluke winslow-kingmanifestomcluhanmixtapemusic as dramamy dadnico muhlynoisenonprofitnordic larpnot a reviewparson redheadsparticipatory theaterpedagogyphilosophypoetryprincetonproposalsrecordingsrhythmriaa boycottsadie plantscary mansionshinkoyosohorepspeculative fictionsurveillancesustainabilitysyllabusthe fancythe pipettesthe subway bandtraditionalvague angelsvelvet undergroundvoteworld musicWebsite of composer, lyricist and playwright César Alvarez.http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (César)Blogger202125en-usnoexperimental,music,iPod,mashup,criticism,philoshopy,new,york,composerMusic is Free Now is the (mostly) audio blog of composer César Alvarez. Experimental compositions, improvisations, mashups, conceptual projects, and music from his band The Lisps.Music is Free Now is the (mostly) audio blog of composer César Alvarez. Experimental compositions, improvisations, mashups, conceptual projects, and music from his band The Lisps.César Alvarezcesar@cesaralvarez.netCésar Alvareztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-1509333315081559728Mon, 29 Jun 2020 16:11:00 +00002020-06-29T12:11:19.451-04:00  photo credit: Ben Arons courtesy of Soho Rep/Ars Nova http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2017/10/cesar-alvarez-and-sarah-benson-on-npr.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-7700613464310630938Wed, 27 Sep 2017 02:23:00 +00002017-11-13T14:33:40.091-05:00The American Theater Wing made a mini-documentary about Polyphone, which is a festival for new musicals I founded with Joanna Settle in 2015 at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Watch on Vimeo Watch on YouTubehttp://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2017/09/working-in-theatre-polyphone.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-4887665904248731547Tue, 26 Sep 2017 20:32:00 +00002017-11-13T14:36:19.890-05:00#newmusical#smallhatartnordic larpparticipatory theaterscience fictionIn February 2017 I went to Norway to talk to experimental LARP designers about making a participatory space musical. I got to share a lot of my beliefs about musicals, participatory theater and transforming the civic sphere with art. You can watch: Watch it on YouTube Also check out Lizzie Stark's primer on Nordic Larp HERE.http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2017/09/musical-theatre-of-future.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-8982735930838464699Thu, 09 Mar 2017 16:41:00 +00002017-03-09T11:41:55.989-05:00 Eric Farber and Fred Epstein | Photo by Henry Grossman  Photo by Henry Grossman Photo by Henry Grossman I wrote original music including 4 songs for TFANA's production of The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder. This play summons the eternal story of how humans endure total catastrophe. After working on it for months I feel like I finally arrived at its key insight: that our http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-skin-of-our-teeth-at-theatre-for.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-961196193507670242Thu, 09 Mar 2017 15:38:00 +00002017-03-09T10:38:11.115-05:00 Jenna Rush | Photo by Eric Wolfe Photo by Eric Wolfe Photo by Eric Wolfe NOISE was inspired by a little piece of critical theory, which proposes that music, as the organization of noise, was the earliest expression of civilization. And if music precedes all forms of political economy, it follows that we should be able to make a musical which designs a new and better society. Right?http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2017/03/noise.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-73888953500601536Fri, 19 Aug 2016 20:01:00 +00002016-09-20T11:07:11.992-04:00 photo by Eric Wolfe “The universe doesn’t care if you live. It just doesn’t want you to die as the result of a false impression." The Elementary Spacetime Show Music, Book and Lyrics by César Alvarez Directed by Andrew Neisler Choreography by Sonya Tayeh and Ben Hobbs September 10-24, 2016 Co-presented by The University of the Arts and FringeArts TICKETS AND INFO HERE REVIEWS: Thehttp://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-elementary-spacetime-show.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-8311842121372370670Tue, 24 Nov 2015 20:14:00 +00002016-07-27T12:15:52.832-04:00 Sometimes you come up with an idea, and you work on it for eight years. And a bunch of wonderful people start to believe in you, and help you, and it grows and grows and grows. And you see it slowly turn into the thing that you always wanted it to be. It is an incredible feeling. When you finally see it fully-formed it makes all the heartaches, stomach aches, and difficulties you http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2015/11/futurity.htmlcesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-1122094477426660142Fri, 13 Mar 2015 01:42:00 +00002015-03-12T21:43:52.693-04:00   This is a song from my episode of Washeteria: A site specific, immersive theater piece for children. Louisa Thompson designed a fantastical laundromat inside an former auto parts store in Brooklyn. I wrote a mini-musical for the piece. My episode (Directed by the luminous Annie Tippe) is called Consuela and the Great Genie of The Laundry Bag. It's about a woman trapped inside a http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2015/03/washeteria.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-1330844461962172902Tue, 14 Oct 2014 21:27:00 +00002014-10-14T17:29:10.321-04:00 "Truth is a matter of the imagination" - Ursula K Le Guin Image Credit - The Left Hand of Darkness by David Lane I recently read Ursula K Le Guin's legendary novel The Left Hand of Darkness. In the introduction she lays out a really compelling meditation on the role of science fiction in culture.  As we are ever more altered by our technology, it bears repeating that the http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2014/10/ursula-k-le-guin-on-science-fiction.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-6477483343059015282Fri, 26 Sep 2014 06:10:00 +00002017-11-13T14:39:07.892-05:00 The Universe is a Small Hat is a multiplayer immersive musical that tells the story of a space colony leaving earth in order to devise a more rational society. I've been developing this piece for two years now, and it isn't quite like anything I've ever created or experienced. Part game, part performance, part social experiment, part Utopian concept album, part party. We can't make the piece http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-universe-is-small-hat-babycastles.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-4248352488752938930Fri, 26 Sep 2014 05:42:00 +00002014-09-26T01:43:30.156-04:00compositiondemonytimessohorep From left, Chris Myers, Danny Wolohan and Amber Gray. Credit Pavel Antonov  Composing for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' An Octoroon at Soho Rep this past spring was one of the most exhilarating artistic experiences of my life. The song I wrote for the end was meant to be a moment of healing or reflection after the intense discomfort and insane melodrama that the play intentionally http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2014/09/an-octoroon.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-8830201667966497792Tue, 16 Jul 2013 23:08:00 +00002014-09-26T02:10:57.627-04:00#newmusicalauto-tunegame designimmersive theatermusical as dramanew york timespost-scarcityscience fictiontheaterEngineering meaningful participatory theater. Photos by Nora Mericicki from the Berkeley Rep Ground Floor workshop/playtest June 21, 2013.  The Witness Training. Safiya Fredericks (background) as The Founder and audience member/colonist Melissa Nigro During my time in The Civilians R and D Group and the Berkeley Rep Ground Floor Program I have been studying how to turn the http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-universe-is-small-hat.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-7113300557394511764Wed, 15 May 2013 03:34:00 +00002013-05-15T10:22:11.166-04:00#newmusicalconcertDave Malloymusical as dramamusical theaternot a reviewoperasongtheater14 Reasons I Love Dave Malloy's Opera based on War and Peace. Phillipa Soo as Natasha in NATASHA PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, Photo By Chad Batka You get perogies and vodka. Dave uses bass clarinet, english horn, and gut rumbling club music all in the same piece. One scene inside of the opera is a hilarious parody of an opera. A bunch of the actors, and almost all of the http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2013/05/natasha-pierre-and-great-comet-1812.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-1982712995475755478Mon, 01 Apr 2013 17:05:00 +00002013-04-01T13:05:23.304-04:00 The Lisps and I are featured in the April 2013 cover story of American Theatre Magazine. The article, by Rob Weinert-Kendt, offers some nuanced insight into the emerging musical. Here's an excerpt: It’s a funny thing, what’s happened to the word “musical.” Like “novel,” this simple adjective has grown into a giant noun encompassing an entire art form. But even as the term has inflated, http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2013/04/its-better-with-band.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-5781789212985595986Sun, 03 Feb 2013 20:24:00 +00002013-05-14T23:15:43.170-04:00#newmusicalBrechtcompositionmusical as dramamusical theatershameless self-promotionthe lisps It's been an absolute revelation working with the cast and creative team on this show. I wrote 7 songs for the production and the other members of the Lisps will be on stage rocking every night. Here's a demo/download of one of my songs from the show: La MaMa presents the Foundry Theatre production of  Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan. Directed by Lear http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-good-person-of-szechwan.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-8421409708743242264Sun, 23 Sep 2012 20:50:00 +00002013-05-14T23:16:06.244-04:00 Image by Emily Orling After years of sweat, love, heartburn and emotional upheaval we've finally carved this joyful and unwieldy beast onto actual vinyl. Come out and enjoy heaps of recriminating banter and cacophonous merriment as we tell you the unlikely story of a Civil War soldier trying to save the world with a steam powered super brain. We are even going to cart out some of thehttp://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2012/09/album-release.html1cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-2016598264316226780Thu, 24 May 2012 19:35:00 +00002012-05-24T15:35:13.134-04:00ancient musicelectronic musicmusic is freeontologyvideoworld musicHere are 3 videos that have been hacking my own thoughts about music. All of them have a distinctive non-western approach to melody, harmony and rhythm, and they are each incredibly catchy. My jazz training has given me a feeling that chord changes are "the bones" of a song, but the more I look outside of western music the more I realize how melodic and rhythmic exploration inside of more static http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2012/05/ancient-music-for-future.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-6453770299144124920Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:16:00 +00002012-02-14T22:16:34.915-05:00#newmusicalAda Lovelaceartificial intelligenceeventsFUTURITYshameless self-promotiontheater Tickets and show times HERE http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2012/02/world-premiere.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-6829566409724191514Sat, 03 Dec 2011 15:10:00 +00002013-05-14T23:18:08.731-04:00 Hedwig Illustration by Alex Kittle "It is nonsense to say what a musical should or should not be. It should be anything it wants to be, and if you don't like it you don't have to go to it. There is only one absolutely indispensable element that a musical must have. It must have music. And there is only one thing that it has to be – it has to be good."  - Oscar Hammerstein II*  http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-defense-of-musical.html2cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-4998940664770440153Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:30:00 +00002011-12-04T13:38:42.247-05:00#newmusicalcampdorky postmusical theaterrecordingstheater I listened to all of these cast albums in about a month. Here's a 6-word observation about each one. 1. Sweeney Todd - (Angela Lansbury, Len Cariou) - This musical is a masterpiece. Period. 2. Sweeney Todd - (Michael Cerveris, Patti LuPone) - Stripping it down is often best. 3. Urinetown - Songs should approach narrative more obliquely. 4. Avenue Q - The most obvious things are http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2011/11/27-cast-albums-six-words-each.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-2368866999784091566Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:10:00 +00002013-05-14T23:20:13.548-04:00#newmusicalAda LovelaceFUTURITYmusical theatershameless self-promotion FUTURITY at HERE by Sam Hough Dear Friends, Family, and Readers, Since 2007 I've been working on a musical called FUTURITY. Some of you have seen it and many of you have heard me yammering on about it. In a few months it will World Premiere and run for 5 weeks at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA. This is a HUMUNGOUS deal for me, my band, and everyone that's been working on the http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2011/11/this-machine-creates-peace.html0cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-5186664538876996164Sun, 13 Nov 2011 20:23:00 +00002011-11-19T10:38:44.668-05:00economicselectronic musicMathematicsmusic is freeontology Photo Cred This is a podcast by Marcus Schmickler "Is it possible to approach developments in music by its relationships with money? Can we gain insight into societies by means of their relationship to music? Music serves as a mirror, as a prophecy for society because it reflects developments faster than anything that materializes.  There is an obvious simultaneity between music and http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2011/11/ontology-of-vibration-economics-music.html1cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-2043522211915249974Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:52:00 +00002013-05-14T23:18:27.809-04:00#newmusicalmusic as dramamusical theateroperascience fictionspeculative fictionthe futuretheater photo of Via Galactica by John Michael Cox Musicals: Rocky Horror Show by Richard O'Brien (1972) Via Galactica by Christopher Gore, Judith Ross and Galt MacDermot (1972) Time by Dave Clark, David Soames, Jeff Daniels, and David Pomeranz (1986) Starmites by Barry Keating and Stuart Ross (1987) Return to the Forbidden Planet by Bob Carlton (1989) Metropolis by Joe Brooks and http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2011/11/list-of-sci-fi-musicals-operas-and.html2cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795540.post-3254543260417554519Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:26:00 +00002015-06-03T15:42:55.092-04:00Bloomfield Collegeeducationelectronic musicpedagogysyllabus Student group - Fara Enclave (photo by César Alvarez) In 2008 I was asked to teach a single course in the Music Tech division of the Creative Arts and Technology Department at Bloomfield College called "Digital Audio Engineering 1." I approached the class as a composer, producer and sound artist assuming that most of my students would be primarily interested in figuring out the http://musicisfreenow.blogspot.com/2011/10/alternative-pedagogy-for-21st-century.html3cesar@cesaralvarez.net (César Alvarez)