DFD was known for singing Schubert. This recording is one of the deepest cuts of the Schubert lieder and it’s the only song for which Schubert also wrote the text. Fittingly the translation means “Farewell”. Of all of Schubert’s great and important songs, this 1:47 is my favorite.

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Let me just say that while Denk is writing about an experience with a piece of Classical Music, what he’s really writing about is art and life. All concert reviewers take note.

This is required reading.

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In an epic chat [full text] with David MacDonald I learned about a new (to me) method of experiencing music in which the music is all in your head. This is Cage taken to the next level. Well, today, while pruning my wildly overgrown RSS feeds I read this article about Cage’s music that concluded with a paragraph about David Dunn’s Purposeful Listening in Complex States of Time. This piece is akin to, if not exactly, what David MacDonald described to me.

The piece is a virtuosic composition for solo listener. I played/listened (???) to the first couple bars. I love it.

Plus, the score is beautiful.

I don’t think this idea needs to be confined to silent pieces. I could see this idea working for audience and musicians where the audience is directed to listen to certain areas in the hall, frequencies, or whatever while a score that is crafted to enhance the audience experience is performed. Not only does this idea engage an audience in a way that is badly needed; but, it also translates to a recorded at-home performance. The latter opens an opportunity for a composer to sell copies of the score to the audience as well as the performing ensemble, which addresses yet another problem of within classical music.

German artist Markus Reugels specializes in high-speed and macro photography. By isolating the basslines from techno tracks, Markus captured these incredible (and brief) moments of explosive colour.

These are beautiful and interesting. I wish there were audio samples.

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Going into the anechoic chamber at Harvard University, I expected to hear no sound at all, because it was a room made as silent as possible. But in that room I heard two sounds. And I was so surprised that I went to the engineer in charge … and said, There’s something wrong, there’re two sounds in that room, and he said describe them, and I did, one was high and one was low, and he said, the high one was my nervous system … and the low one was my blood circulating. So I realized that … I was making music unintentionally continuously.¹

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As I sit here working on importing a forty-gallon bin of CDs before I ship them off to the great CD bin in the sky (Amazon), I’m confronted with my complete collection of Michael Brecker’s catalog. Until tonight I’ve had mp3 versions of Brecker’s music in my iTunes. I owned the CDs and I knew I could just pull them out at any time. Those are the thoughts from a man of days gone by. I don’t “pull them out” because CDs are a hassle. I don’t even have a disc player (of any kind) in my stereo system any more.

The future of recorded music is bits and bytes, not atoms. I am shameful that I have been missing more than half of the bits of my most revered musician.

So, snicker as you will. Michael Brecker isn’t coming back. What’s left of him is in these artifacts. And I don’t want to miss another bit.

Re: my point from the chat-room on SoundNotion 61. Writing better about music can only make music better.

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So although they call this the “2012 Biennial Conference of the North American Saxophone Alliance,” what they really have here is a festival of contemporary music (albeit a saxophone-centric one). After all, what else would you call a four-day music event that involves multiple venues, dozens of concerts, top-notch performances of solo, chamber, and concert music by world-class players, and no less than 76 (!) world premieres?

This is, to my knowledge, the first time that a major music news outlet has covered the biennial saxophone conference.¹ Lias forewent my performance to hike in the northern Phoenix mountains, a travesty for which I am willing to forgive, because he covered so many of my friends and colleagues from Michigan State University. I hope he makes it out to the next one!

Read the series:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3 (MISSING!)
• Final Day

The Goldbergs are a fool’s errand attempted by the greatest genius of all time.

He has a point.

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