Sounds Like Now
A blog by saxophonist Brian Sacawa
Archive for Composers
May 26, 2005 at 10:59 am · Filed under Blog: Spring 05, Composers, New Music
Ken Ueno’s one of my favorite composers and a good friend. Here are a couple quotes from an interview he gave recently:
“There isn’t as much potential for financial rewards [in classical music] as in pop music. But, there is the potential satisfaction that one had lived an uncompromising life of art in having created the music that one wanted to make unencumbered artistically by the demands of consumerist tastes.”
“I think the two most important developments [in the field of composing] will be: 1) the further integration of live, real-time computer processing into compositional performance practice; and 2) the proliferation of non-traditional instrumental groups, including an increased participation of the composer as performer. I would like to see my main instrument, the electric guitar, come into its own as a concert instrument with new pieces that incorporate it in both chamber music and orchestral contexts. Additionally, I hope that in the future New Music will come out of the shadows of being a sub-category of Classical music and become an independent movement.”
Read the entire interview here. And don’t miss the world premiere of his new concerto for biwa, shakuhachi, and orchestra at tomorrow night’s BMOP concert.
Update: Read Ken’s program notes and BMOP interview about Kaze-no-Oka (’Hill of the Winds’).
May 8, 2005 at 11:46 am · Filed under Blog: Spring 05, Composers, New Music
Anne Midgette’s got a great profile of composer James Tenney, whom she refers to as the “Zeilg” of American contemporary music, in today’s New York Times. Tenney will be honored with concerts celebrating his 70th birthday today at The Project Room and May 11 at the Whitney Museum of Art at Altria. Also check out the preview over at Sequenza21.
May 5, 2005 at 2:11 pm · Filed under Blog: Spring 05, Composers, New Music
Alex Ross amends his recent review of Harry Partch’s Oedipus and directs us to some great Partch resources, including Danlee Mitchell’s Harry Partch Foundation and Innova Recordings’ series of recordings. Another wonderful resource is available from American Mavericks, where you can learn more about Partch’s instruments, listen to Partch talk about the instruments, read some of his essays, and even have a go at performing on the instruments themselves.
April 11, 2005 at 3:42 pm · Filed under Blog: Spring 05, Composers, New Music
I had an interesting experience tonight. A famous composer invited me over to his house to play through a baritone saxophone piece that he’d been commissioned to write. Of course, I agreed to help out because how often does a famous composer ask for my assistance? When I arrived the score was there for me to play through—no dynamics or articulations. As I sight-read through the piece, the famous composer marked in my articulations and asked for my advice on how to make certain lines more idiomatic for the instrument. I thought that this was wonderful. There have certainly been times that I’d wished a composer had consulted me before sending a score along (i.e. the saxophone can’t play a low Ab below the staff). It was a bit of a laborious process but completely worth the effort.
As we worked through the piece, I showed the famous composer some things that the saxophone could do that he wasn’t aware of, like playing higher than the orchestration books say it can. He liked this and made several lines go higher. I played a slap-tongue for him, which he also liked. He then hastily composed a new section of the piece on the spot that incorporated the slap-tongue. The new section was actually pretty happening—kind of a call-and-response between the low register of the saxophone and the upper register.
However, when we finally got to the end of the piece, I realized that there was no end of the piece. The famous composer hadn’t quite finished it yet. So I sat there and played through the famous composer’s ideas, reading his shorthand and transposing at sight. It was kind of fun at first, but after four hours I felt quite drained. I was basically serving as a playback that was more real-sounding than a MIDI patch. I’m not upset—he paid me for my time, after all—but I sure didn’t think that I’d be that involved in the composition process. And the piece isn’t even for me!
In other news: You’ve got to feel George Hincapie’s pain. He got beat in the final sprint today by Tom Boonen at Paris-Roubaix, the most famous one-day race on the professional cycling calendar. Phil Liggett is the best call in sports.
April 6, 2005 at 12:17 am · Filed under Blog: Spring 05, Composers, Experimental
There’s a neat animated analysis of Cornelius Cardew’s Treatise available as part of the Block Museum’s Pictures of Music exhibition.
Thanks to Jerry Bowles, Steve Hicken, and Tim Johnson for the shout-outs.
April 4, 2005 at 3:21 pm · Filed under Blog: Spring 05, Composers, Interviews, New Music
This month’s edition of NewMusicBox is out with a science theme. And who better to talk about science and music than Alvin Lucier. Frank Oteri’s got an interview with Mr. Lucier, in which he addresses the topics of not fitting in, science vs. art, and unlearning and keeping an open mind, among other things. There are even video excerpts to watch. J. Mark Scearce’s article on the ethics of an education has Lawrence Dillon and the gang talking over at Sequenza21. And my friend, composer Keeril Makan, has an essay about a graduate seminar he conducted that dealt with the role of funding in contemporary music’s development in the United States.
April 1, 2005 at 11:02 pm · Filed under Blog: Fall 05, Composers, New Music, Pop Culture
Is it me, or is Steve Jobs channeling John Cage? Apple’s ad campaign for the new iPod shuffle reads like PR for Cage’s ideals–”Give chance a chance,” “Life is random,” “Enjoy uncertainty.” Too bad Cage didn’t have Apple’s marketing machine.
March 27, 2005 at 9:29 pm · Filed under Blog: Spring 05, Composers, Interviews, New Music, Performers
Great article in today’s New York Times. An interview by Daniel Wakin with James Levine, John Harbison, and Charles Wuorinen. It’s a polite conversation despite Wakin’s attempt to provoke an argument between Harbison and Wuorinen over the latter’s statement in 1979 that tonality has been replaced by the 12-tone system and that no serious composer would write in the tonal idiom. (Alex Ross has more on that exchange.)
In an article filled with lots of great opinions and ideas, James Levine has one of the best:
The best I can do for an audience is give them what I’m sincerely passionate about. If I try to give them something I think they want that I don’t want, we just have a sterile result.
Wiser words could not have been spoken. I firmly believe that you can "sell" any kind of music to any kind of audience. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to like it, but they’ll be able to tell that you certainly do and that means something. It might even effect their perception of the work. One of the nicest comments I’ve received about a performance was from the sometimes controversial David Salvage, who in his review of my New York recital said, "to find a performer who gives both Glass and Wuorinen everything he’s got, is just sensational." David can be a hard man to please and I’d like to think that my passion for those works helped him enjoy them both–even if he might have been inclined to enjoy one less than the other.
The interview gives you a pretty clear sense of each man’s personality and one thing is clear–Mr. Harbison sees the world through rose-colored glasses:
We both went through times where we might have come into a big orchestra, and there’d be quite a chill blowing through the room. Going to any orchestra now, you’re not going to be greeted by that kind of thing.
Now I wouldn’t go that far.
March 22, 2005 at 1:56 pm · Filed under Blog: Spring 05, Composers
In the composer-as-critic debate, some moments of clarity from Alex Ross and Elodie Lauten.
March 21, 2005 at 3:40 pm · Filed under Blog: Spring 05, Composers, New Music, Theater
I braved the elements Thursday night to catch a performance of Robert Lepage’s one-man show the far side of the moon (2000) at the Power Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of the University of Michigan. I’m glad I went. Yves Jacques was sensational. And there was a score by Laurie Anderson.
the far side of the moon tells the story of Philippe, a man who is coping with both the recent loss of his mother and the estrangement of his only sibling (his younger brother André). Philippe is a university student, who is presenting his Ph.D. thesis proposal for the third time after having it rejected twice before. The subject of Philippe’s thesis is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), a Soviet rocket pioneer who proposed building an elevator that would take humans into space so they could observe the Earth. This fanatical idea, which Philippe endorses (although he proposes building it on the far side of the moon so we wouldn’t, or rather couldn’t, look at the Earth) along with the Soviet-American “space race,” the SETI program (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), and memories from childhood and adolescence frame Philippe’s journey, which seeks to answer the fundamental question, “Are we alone?”
Anderson’s score is out of this world. It serves as the perfect compliment to the sense of lonliness and melocholy projected throughout the performance. Her textures range from middle-eastern sounding violin lines played above an ambient electronic drone, barren electronic landscapes, and desconstructed funk. The music during the plane sequence as Philippe flies to Moscow was particularly stirring. This is vintage Laurie Anderson–sublimely beautiful and moving. It gave me goosebumps. In addition to Anderson’s score, there’s also music by Led Zepplin, John Coltrane (”Naima”), and Beethoven (yes, the “Moonlight” sonata).
My only complaint is that UMS billed the show as a companion of sorts to The Elephant Vanishes: “If you loved last fall’s production of The Elephant Vanishes, you won’t want to miss the far side of the moon.” I did love last fall’s production of The Elephant Vanishes, except that it’s very different from the far side of the moon. Elephant, which is based on three short stories by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami, is a technical and multimedia marvel. The opening sequence, meant to evoke the chaos and complexity of postmodern life in Tokyo, was simply breathtaking. I’d never seen anything quite like it and was almost in tears. Quite the contrary, far side doesn’t have any of the high-tech wizardry that makes Elephant such eye candy–all the projected video is old archival footage of Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts; there are cheap puppets; and nobody tries to hide any of this. Yet the story is every bit as gripping and moving. But because of the advertising, it took me about 30 minutes to settle into far side’s rhythm. Once I did settle in though, I was transported.
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