tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21260886570070899412024-03-13T23:23:46.112-04:00Music As Weapon?music, politics, newspeak, and more.DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-74747150305074621982011-03-15T13:03:00.001-04:002011-03-15T13:03:41.148-04:00Haunt of Last Nightfall (complete video)<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oiP6SJ-UghM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-64468085558877211762010-09-17T11:27:00.005-04:002010-09-17T11:39:17.938-04:00for the momentSo, clearly this blog has fallen on quiet times. It's not that I haven't been writing--well, it's a little bit that I haven't been writing--but more that I just haven't been posting <span style="font-style:italic;">here</span>. Mostly, I've been writing over at Dilettante where I am still, for the next few months, the Digital Composer-in-Residence. So, check out some of my posts <a href="http://dilettantemusic.com/member/dtl/blog">over there</a>. <br /><br />And keep an eye out on your RSS feed, 'cause I'll be back writing here again soon. Lots and lots to announce. In the meantime, here is a video about giving an opossum a pedicure, which is perhaps one of the strangest things I've ever seen. <br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1MRE2K3x-AY?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1MRE2K3x-AY?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-35069057099087852292010-04-20T23:31:00.006-04:002010-04-20T23:36:52.849-04:00from Vinkensport.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/S85yKj-Cu5I/AAAAAAAAAJo/HurfJt_1CD8/s1600/BardOpera_2_24_10_0197.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/S85yKj-Cu5I/AAAAAAAAAJo/HurfJt_1CD8/s400/BardOpera_2_24_10_0197.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5462428923826715538" /></a><br />Tick, Tick, Tick, Tally-tick.DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-37005807625509263302010-04-19T11:08:00.007-04:002010-04-19T12:32:07.630-04:00A Kickstart from HellI am about as far behind on my blog-reading as I am on my blog-writing, so this morning I thought I'd try to get caught up on at least the reading part, starting with the wonderfully-written and frequently updated <span style="font-style:italic;">Hell Mouth</span> blog by John Adams. Part of my reason for starting there was also, to be honest, to kick my blog-writing back into action after too-long of a hiatus. (Every time I complain about being too tired to blog, I have a <a href="http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2010/Jan-Jun10/percussion2503.htm">good friend</a> who puts me in my place by reminding me that John Adams posts thoughtful and substantial posts every three-to-four days. And he's John Adams; a busy guy. I inevitably grumble but concede.)<br /><br />The post that first caught my attention was <a href="http://www.earbox.com/posts/65">this one</a>, about one of my favorite places on earth--Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. I love old cemeteries, and for me, Père-Lachaise is second only to San Michelle's in Venice, which wins out simply because it's literally an island of the dead, and that's pretty creepy. And though San Michelle can boast Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Nono and Ezra Pound among its residents, Père-Lachaise certainly wins out in terms of composer VIPs: Bellini, Bizet, Chausson, Cherubini, Chopin, Dukas, Françaix, Poulenc, and more. And of course there's also Balzac, Proust, and The Lizard King. (Though it should be mentioned that Vienna's Zentralfriedhof, probably wins out in terms of the quality of its VIPs--Beethoven, Brahms, Ligeti, Mozart, Schoenberg, Schubert, and others. Still, it doesn't have the creepy, magical feeling of the other two, and so falls to third place.)<br /><br />Adams's description of the cemetery is really wonderful, but the moment that really struck me was the following passage:<br /><br /><blockquote>We don’t do the pilgrimage to Jim Morrison, but we note with some pleasure that of all the tens of thousands of graves, the one that it is by far and away the most adored, the most visited and the most heaped with flowers and demonstrations of affection is that of a composer, “Fred. Chopin” (as the inscription reads). For all the politicians and wealthy businessmen and puffed up egos that take up room in this seemingly endless cemetery, the ones people gravitate to are those of the artists, and of those, it’s the ones who gave us beauty and a singular awareness of our humanity that receive the most visits. Thus, on this unremarkable weekday afternoon in March with tourist season months away, there is nonethelss a clutch of people clustered around Chopin’s grave, and there is a fresh pile of flowers beneath it.</blockquote><br />I first visited Père-Lachaise when I was 16 years old. I had just decided that I wanted to become a composer, though still had no idea what that really meant, or how I was going to do it. I remember that, in the moment when I first saw Chopin's grave, I was similarly moved. That there must be some deep truth that this man understood, and could share with people; " beauty and a singular awareness of our humanity," as Adams puts it. I think that somewhere in my subconscious this re-affirmed my uninformed teenage decision to be a composer, and that the resonance of this moment has kept me going through times of doubt, fear, writers-block, etc. in the years since.DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-70082118854541280062010-03-16T09:57:00.001-04:002010-03-16T10:04:33.098-04:00Confessions of a WorkaholicThe last few months have been a bit of a whirlwind, which explains why I haven't been able to post here as regularly as I would have liked. That said, I'm happy to report that everything has gone really well. <br /><br />My opera <span style="font-style:italic;">Vinkensport</span> was a success, I think, both as a piece and in terms of its reception. <span style="font-style:italic;">Newspeak<span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://newspeakmuisc.org"></a></span></span>'s residency at Princeton went very well, and only a week later we went into the studio to record our first CD, which was hard work, but very fun, and what I've heard of the tracks sound really great (and heavy!) (Pictures <a href="http://www.newspeakmusic.org/2010/03/pictures-from-our-recording-session/">here</a>.) I just got back from Chicago where I had the privilege to perform <a href="http://automaticheartbreak.com">Corey Dargel</a>'s <span style="font-style:italic;">13 Near-Death Experiences</span> with <a href="http://iceorg.org">ICE</a>. I haven't composed any music since January...(I have done some <a href="http://www.nycopera.com/calendar/view.aspx?id=12652">orchestrations</a>)...but I did turn in my dissertation. <br /><br />Now, I love what I do...well, I wouldn't say that I "loved" writing the dissertation...and have learned an amazing amount from the diversity of my opportunities, especially from performing the music of other composers. But having just weathered three months of pure craziness does raise the question of how one balances a life like this. Throughout this whole period, as I was constantly unable to attend friend's shows, or see family, or, you know, eat dinner, I kept finding myself softly chanting "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyaanisqatsi">koyaanisqatsi</a>". I definitely felt a sense of imbalance.<br /><br />So far my approach to dealing with periods like this has been: get as much done as you can when you can, never really take too long a break, and sacrifice things like sleep, health, family, etc. Clearly, this is stupid. It's a very undergraduate way of living, and I really can't do it anymore. In fact, I think when you're an adult, the word for this kind of approach is "workaholic," and most things that end in "-<a href="http://www.yourdictionary.com/aholic-suffix">aholic</a>" aren't especially tenable. This, then, is to be my goal moving forward: To continue to produce as much as possible, but not to over-commit or over-extend myself. <br /><br />I'll be sure to let you know how all this goes. But for now, it's off to Baltimore for a run of performances with <a href="http://www.bsomusic.org/main.taf?p=1,37">Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra</a>, and then to plan a donor appreciation event for Newspeak, and write a sax quartet. But then that's it for a while. Really. I promise. I can stop anytime I want. I swear.DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-72297848758016989602010-02-20T00:10:00.002-05:002010-02-20T00:12:48.605-05:00First Digital Composer-in-Residence InterviewOver the next nine months or so, I will be conducting candid interviews with some very exciting creative people, including producer Beth Morrison, composers Ted Hearne, Darcy James Argue, Corey Dargel, Leo Chadburn (aka Simon Bookish), and more. <br /><br />We kick things off with a group interview on the collaborative process with filmmaker Stephen Taylor, librettist Royce Vavrek, and composers Missy Mazzoli, who each have new operas being premiered at the end of the month at Bard Conservatory in New York. The conversation covers questions of influence, style, gender, narrative, technique, process and more.<br /><br />Enjoy!<br /><br /><object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9582090&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9582090&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/9582090">Digital Composer-In-Residence Video Blog #1</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user3211316">digitalcomposerinresidence</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-83065610170967585032010-01-27T20:35:00.005-05:002010-01-28T01:25:19.536-05:00Howard Zinn (1922-2010)I am very sad to hear--amidst so much terrible news from Washington--of the passing of historian Howard Zinn.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/S2DqvJz2JUI/AAAAAAAAAHE/T0dzxBBydpg/s1600-h/zinn.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 243px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/S2DqvJz2JUI/AAAAAAAAAHE/T0dzxBBydpg/s320/zinn.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431599246416946498" /></a><br /><br />Though Zinn is best known for his seminal <span style="font-style:italic;">A People's History of The United States</span>, it is his 1970 book <span style="font-style:italic;">The Politics of History</span> that has had the most profound effect on me. In this book he notes “Historical writings always have some effect on us. It may reinforce our passivity; it may activate us. In any case, the historian cannot choose to be neutral; he writes on a moving train.” <br /><br />Zinn's work is one of the things that activated me, and led me to conclude that, as an artist, I too write on a moving train.DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-83433094934014694262010-01-19T14:04:00.002-05:002010-01-19T14:07:03.110-05:00Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera“So, you like challenges, right?” This is how a phone call from Dawn Upshaw began, approximately 4 months ago. She was looking to commission a short—20-30 minute—opera for the Graduate Vocal Arts program at the Bard Conservatory. I’d worked with these amazing singers last year as part of the Osvaldo Golijov/ Dawn Upshaw Professional Training Workshop, co-presented by Bard and Carnegie Hall, so I knew they were great, and was excited to have the chance to work with them again. And of course, when Dawn Upshaw is asking, there is pretty much only one right answer: yes.<br /><br />So there I was, with four months to write an opera that would premiere in six months. Do I like challenges? Apparently, I do! 2009 ended—and 2010 began—in a sleep-deprived frenzy.<br /><br />First, of course, I needed a libretto. So I contacted my trusted collaborator Royce Vavrek to see a) if he wanted to write one, and b) if he had any ideas for what it could be about. After much discussion and many possibilities being tossed around, he sent me a Wikipedia entry on the strange sport of finch sitting. <br /><br />Finch sitting (or “vinkensport” in Flemish) is a sport that developed in the late 1500s in Flanders. Basically, the competitors sit in front of a caged bird and mark on a tally stick how many times said bird tweets a specific song—called a “susk-e-wiet”—during the course of an hour. Then they do it again—round two—and so on. It’s like golf, but with birds, and more boring.<br /><br />But here’s the thing: people who play it get completely obsessed; or at least it would seem so based on the numerous reports of cheating. These incidents—including someone injecting testosterone into their bird so they'd sing more frequently—were what first drew Royce and me to the subject; made us ask, what is it about the need to win that would push people to such an extent? Especially since—hello—it’s finch sitting! It’s not like we’re talking about the Olympics here.<br /><br />This is ultimately what <span style="font-style:italic;">Vinkensport, of The Finch Opera</span>, is about: why people think they need to win. Some of the characters in the opera just like to win—because winning feels good—while others do it to fill void that they feel in their life. Starting off with these questions/this theme afforded us an opportunity to explore issues of dramatic character in a way he hadn’t been able to in previous collaborations—i.e. the in-progress <span style="font-style:italic;">Dog Days.</span> We get into their lives and experience their joys and sorrows, delusions and all-too-stark realities. Still, at its core, Vinkensport is a comedy. We hope you will laugh.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Vinkensport, of The Finch Opera</span> will be premiered on February 26th at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College alongside a new version of my dear friend Missy Mazzoli’s haunting <span style="font-style:italic;">Song From the Uproar</span>, and <span style="font-style:italic;">L'enfant et les sortilèges </span>by some guy named Maurice Ravel. James Bagwell will conduct all three operas, and Dan Rigazzi will direct the fully-staged productions...(which, as far as I know, will all involve puppets!)DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-71316348906755420822009-12-22T02:37:00.006-05:002009-12-22T07:33:47.245-05:00Oi To The WorldI just posted a file over at the <a href="http://dilettantemusic.com/member/dtl/blog/happy-holidays">Dilettante Blog</a>; one of my favorite holiday songs: Tchaikovsky's <span style="font-style:italic;">Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies</span>, as performed by <a href="http://www.vandals.com">The Vandals</a>. <br /><br />Back in 1996, when I was still a high schooler, The Vandals released a Christmas record called "Oi To The World." I happened to randomly pick it up, and fell instantly in love with it. It's been a holiday tradition for me ever since. <br /><br />This year, I'm in Australia for the holidays, and completely forgot to pack it! Lucky for me, the whole record seems to have been uploaded in gloriously poor quality to YouTube in one of those weird I'm-really-an-audio-file-in-disguise-since-there's-no-real-video-to-see-here files. Regardless I'm glad to have found it, and I thought I'd post a track or two here.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VMJLCg2YKjk&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VMJLCg2YKjk&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />You might already know this song. No Doubt covered this track a number of years ago, skanking it up as they do, but I definitely prefer this original. And if you like this, the whole record seems to be up. My favorites: "Nothing's Going To Ruin My Holiday,""Thanx for Nothing," and "Hang Myself From The Tree," which totally has a Tuba solo! Their cover of "Here I Am, Lord" is also pretty amazing. (The easily offended might want to stay <span style="font-style:italic;">far</span> away from C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S, and some others, which should be clear from the titles.)<br /><br />But what sort of lefty curmudgeon would I be if I didn't post the delightful rant against commercialism, "I Don't Believe in Santa Claus"?<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/y8X0sYpENco&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/y8X0sYpENco&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Happy Holidays All!DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-11063933853057990792009-12-19T01:04:00.003-05:002009-12-22T11:02:14.593-05:00Amen, Part 2Watched that video in Part 1? Good. So, moving on.<br /><br />As a composer, the idea of intellectual property is a complex one. I am all for giving stuff away for free, but ultimately, I have to survive. Survival takes money, money takes work, and my work is writing music. But I also see the very real harm that can be done to culture when numbers start being crunched inside of office buildings, and when the people crunching these numbers—most of whom have no business dictating culture at all—start deciding what is culturally allowable. This is one of the things that I like about <a href="http://creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons</a>; it allows the artist to decide upfront how their work is to be used, and the number crunchers, theoretically, stay out of it. Controlling the means of (re)production, you might say.<br /> <br />Well, as you know from watching the video in the previous post, The Winstons would have benefited greatly from Creative Commons licensing. When “electronica” went mainstream and started making money, everyone wanted a cut of it. In the end, the artists got nothing, but some random music companies--who seem to have just stolen the samples (but had good lawyers I guess)--ended up making a bundle. Keep it classy, music industry. Ultimately, the question is: what was the cultural value of the Amen break (or any other samples) remaining free of charge, and, in the end did the good outweigh the damage?<br /> <br />I don't have a specific answer to this question, but it does bring us to our discussion of <a href="http://www.ubu.com">UbuWeb</a>. Do you know about this amazing thing? UbuWeb is anti-corporate utopian Internet hub full of amazing avant-garde treats. It’s like the best college radio station you’ve ever heard, and it never goes off the air. On-demand pirate radio for the “aughties.” It was founded in 1996 by a bunch of crazies—(and who doesn’t love crazies?!)—and all materials up there are entirely free for your listening/reading/viewing pleasure. Also, they haven’t asked permission to post any of it.<br /> <br />As they say on the site: “Nothing is for sale on UbuWeb. It's all free. We know it's a hard idea to get used to, but there's no lush gift shop waiting for you at the end of this museum.” (Having visited many of the amazing museums in London when I was there for the DCR concert, I definitely appreciate this analogy.) But wait. Hold up. Say what? So—they upload this stuff, without asking permission, then give it away for free? How is that possible? Well I guess in a utopian sense, the question would be: why would it not be possible? But really, here’s the deal:<br /><br />“If it's out of print, we feel it's fair game. Or if something is in print, yet absurdly priced or insanely hard to procure, we'll take a chance on it. But if it's in print and available to all, we won't touch it. The last thing we'd want to do is to take the meager amount of money out of the pockets of those releasing generally poorly-selling materials of the avant-garde. UbuWeb functions as a distribution center for hard-to-find, out-of-print and obscure materials, transferred digitally to the web. Our scanning, say, an historical concrete poem in no way detracts from the physical value of that object in the real world; in fact, it probably enhances it. Either way, we don't care: EBay is full of wonderful physical artifacts, most of them worth a lot of money.”<br /><br />Legal speaking, they can say that they are for educational purposes, which is true. (I actually downloaded the copy of Cardew’s out-of-print Stockhausen Serves Imperialism for my dissertation research form Ubu…speaking of crazies.) But really, the bottom line is, as they say, if they had to "get permission from everyone on UbuWeb, there would be no UbuWeb.” And how terrible would that be?! (I’ll tell you. It would be awful. Life would be exponentially more boring.)<br /> <br />As UbuWeb co-founder Kenny Goldsmith says “As long as we stay within the margins of culture, we're pretty much safe. When we occasionally dip our toe into the more profitable or mainstream side of the avant-garde, do we get slapped around.” (Sound familiar? No one cared about the use of samples, until people realized they could get rich off of it!)<br /> <br />He continues: “Are we crazy? Yes. Are we exposing ourselves to great risk? Yes. Could we get screwed? Yes. What we're doing is clearly wrong, and we wouldn't have a foot to stand on in the court of law. But we think the good greatly outweighs any damage. ... UbuWeb can be construed as the Robin Hood of the avant-garde, but instead of taking from one and giving to the other, we feel that in the end, we're giving to all.”<br /><br />The good outweighs any damage, indeed. I respect that they are taking a stand like this and saying: "you know what people? The world will be a better place if we upload this totally insane sound art piece, so we’re just going to do it.” If we need anything right now, it’s for the world to be a little bit better!DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-21096534088582809592009-12-03T01:01:00.001-05:002009-12-19T01:04:27.400-05:00Amen, Part 1Recently, the NYC percussionist and all-around-nice-guy Chris Thompson posted a really great video on Twitter. (Maybe on Facebook too, not sure.) It’s all about the “Amen break.” As the narrator Nate Harrison says, the Amen Beak is “a ubiquitous piece of the pop culture soundscape” In other words, even if you think you don't know it, you probably do. <br /><br />The Amen, as he explains, was originally a drum break from a song called Amen, Brother, by The Winstons. This track was released as a B-side in 1969. The A-side, Color Him, Father won a Grammy. Amen, Brother, on the other hand, was pretty much forgotten. Until… well, you’ll see. Although it’s a little long (especially by YouTube and/or viral video standards), and can sometimes feel a bit like sitting in university lecture, it nonetheless provides an interesting history on the beat, played by the late drummer Gregory C. Coleman. <br /><br />Almost more importantly, though, it offers an analysis of the legal and ethical issues behind the use of this break as a sample--and sampling in general—including a pretty direct attack on capitalism and its propensity for cultural co-optation. (Teh invisable hand iz steelin ur ideas; makin money off ov ur werk.) Following this, he makes a case for the use of Creative Commons licensing—which if you don’t know about you should totally check out here.<br /> <br />There is a part two to all this, but how 'bout watch the video first. Deal?<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5SaFTm2bcac&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5SaFTm2bcac&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-35447442056201268082009-11-16T01:56:00.003-05:002009-11-16T10:03:22.000-05:00Tosca's KissI'm starting to work on a new (short) opera (more on that soon) so have been trolling the internet for the past few days looking for good performances, inspiration, etc. Then tonight, composer <a href="http://www.seangriffin.com">Sean Griffin</a> posted this this video to his Facebook page. I can't thank him enough. I've sort of fallen in love with it. I reminds me a little bit of my <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FYLkBcJBys">favorite scene</a> in Jim Jarmusch's <span style="font-style:italic;">Coffee and Cigarettes</span>.<br /><br />The scene (as the description says): "Filmed by at the Casa Verdi, these old long-retired stars re-enact the scene of Tosca killing Scarpia. After that they do a bit from "Rigoletto" Act 2, scene 4. Then the soprano Sara Scuderi listens to her old record of "Vissi d'arte" from Puccini's "Tosca" and comments."<br /><br />Just watch. Especially from 3:10 to the end. So good.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iyOZ778oU3U&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iyOZ778oU3U&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-47514096428342093972009-11-15T23:27:00.001-05:002009-11-16T10:03:49.449-05:00The Wild Beast StirsAnyone who's been out to Valencia, CA to experience The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in person knows that it's a special place. There's a strict freedom of expression rule—there's a clothing-optional situation in effect, an unspoken look-the-other-way policy regarding certain substances, and little or no regulation of self-expression via graffiti. In a lot of ways, it's the Wild West, and that can be a very good thing for art-making.<br /><br />Well, they've recently built a brand new concert hall. Inside sources tell me that it's not quite ready for the public yet—still working on some landscaping around the space—but that the building itself is pretty great. While few on the outside would have been shocked if they'd named it "The James Tenney Memorial Concert Hall"—or something like that—that's just not CalArts' style. Quite to the contrary, they've named it "The Wild Beast."<br /><br />As this article mentioned, CalArts seems on the surface to just like naming its spaces after animals, cf. REDCAT. But as the CalArts site reports, it actually has very little to do with animals, at least not of the four-legged variety: "The new music pavilion has been named The Wild Beast by lead donor Abby Sher in honor of composer Morton Feldman's metaphor for mystery of sound and silence from which the vibrant of music emerges." According to illustrations, a sign outside the hall will display Feldman's words: "I am interested in how this wild beast lives in the jungle, not in the zoo." (My source suggests that this sign might not actually be erected, which would be a tragic shame. The sentiment stands all the same, I suppose.) <br /><br />But what's the space like? How does it sound? From what I can tell (and have heard) it looks and sounds great, and is extremely versatile. But don't take my word for it! Watch this video for the proof:<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0HLUekGqMg4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0HLUekGqMg4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-11686081078530901472009-11-12T21:54:00.005-05:002009-11-12T23:39:58.593-05:00...is the Digital Composer-in-Residence.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/Svzivfw6_EI/AAAAAAAAAG4/c7RzxSStPms/s1600-h/david_little_1986.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 148px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/Svzivfw6_EI/AAAAAAAAAG4/c7RzxSStPms/s320/david_little_1986.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403442958546172994" /></a>So, the votes are in, and I've be chosen (elected?) as the first Digital Composer-in-Residence on <a href="http://dilettantemusic.com/">DilettanteMusic.com</a>. As part of this new job, I'll be blogging a lot over there--(probably more than here!)--so why not head over and check it out? My <a href="http://www.dilettantemusic.com/member/dtl/blog/what-are-you-going-do-all-those-1s-and-0s">first post</a> went up this morning, and there will be more to follow soon!DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-1158410821442551652009-10-17T16:37:00.010-04:002009-10-17T18:32:53.233-04:00Dilettante MusicSo, some breaking news from across the pond: I have been chosen as one of three finalists in the <a href="www.dilettantemusic.com">Dilettante Music</a> Digital Composer-in-Residence competition. (The other two are <a href="http://www.chiayuhsu.com/">Chiayu</a>, a Taiwanese composer studying at Duke, and <a href="http://www.aarongervais.com/">Aaron Gervais</a>, a fellow composer/drummer from Canada.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/StpF-tfJaAI/AAAAAAAAAGw/41UaKDHm-LU/s1600-h/dilettante.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/StpF-tfJaAI/AAAAAAAAAGw/41UaKDHm-LU/s320/dilettante.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393700447394031618" /></a><br />As part of the competition, the London Sinfonietta has <a href="http://twitpic.com/l8yzm">recorded</a> my submitted piece, <span style="font-style:italic;">1986</span>, and starting on October 20th, the polls will be open for the people (that's you!) to choose the 2010 Digital Composer-in-Residence. The polls will be closed and the winners announced on November 5th, culminating in a live performance of all of the works by the <a href="http://www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk/">London Sinfonietta</a> that night at Wilton’s Music Hall in London. Check out the event listing <a href="http://dilettantemusic.com/event/41506">here</a>, and keep an eye on the Dilettante <a href="http://dilettantemusic.com/discuss/blog">blog</a> for more information.<br /><br />This morning, there was a feature on the competition on BBC3's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n6ykk">Music Matters</a>, which you can listen to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00n6ykk">here</a> for the next seven days. It includes clips of all three finalist's works—all very different—as well as (earlier in the show) very interesting interviews with the Bang On A Can composers, Steve Martland, and a feature on <span style="font-style:italic;">In C.</span> <br /><br />Watch this space for more updates on interviews, podcasts, etc., as well as information on how you can vote!DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-70860822490766938262009-10-07T12:17:00.015-04:002009-10-07T13:26:57.604-04:00On Speaking SoftlySorry things have been so quiet over here for the past few months. In addition to my dissertation--which is going well, but definitely still-going--I've been writing a lot of music, and getting ready for the season, which now feels very much in full swing. <a href="http://www.newspeakmusic.org/">Newspeak</a> just got things going last night for our Oct 29 show at <a href="http://www.thestonenyc.com/">The Stone</a>, and before that I was participating in a mini-residency at the <a href="http://www.music.umich.edu/index.htm">University of Michigan</a> in Ann Arbor, where I gave a talk to the grad composers, coached the percussion ensemble, and had a piece performed (amazingly!) by the UM Symphony Band under Michael Haithcock. <br /><br />Kicking off the season was the launch party of <a href="http://coteriedowntown.org/home.html">The Coterie</a>, a new opera company founded by my wonderful Librettist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royce_Vavrek">Royce</a>, and a stellar performance of Speak Softly by <a href="http://www.linec3.com/">Line C3</a> as part of the New Amsterdam Records new <a href="http://www.archipelagoseries.com/">Archipelago</a> series at Galapagos. Here's the video:<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/R1R4-hVIyVc&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/R1R4-hVIyVc&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />Aren't they great?!<br /><br />Anyway, I will try harder to stay on top of this blog, but please be patient if every now and then I <span style="font-style:italic;">clearly</span> phone it in by posting an "interesting quote" that I <span style="font-style:italic;">clearly</span> dug up while doing dissertation research. (Anyone up for some Clement Greenberg?) Seriously, though, there are some (as yet unannounced) things that will definitely make appearances in this space, so I promise to only phone it in on occasion.<br /><br />Happy Autumn!DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-68911146459285636602009-07-01T17:39:00.019-04:002009-07-02T15:18:34.015-04:00Painting Yourself Into a Corner<a href="http://danielstephenjohnson.blogspot.com/">Dan Johnson</a> has an excellent account of the Ojai Festival over on his blog. Recently brought to my attention by the ever-observant (and also-excellent account giver!) <a href="http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2009/jan-jun09/mata0304.htm">Jeff Edelstein</a>, the festival sounded utterly fantastic, with <a href="http://eighthblackbird.com/">great</a> <a href="http://www.quartetnewgeneration.de/en/?#168">performers</a> and <a href="http://stevenmackey.com/">pieces</a>. I am very envious that Dan was able to attend. (And <span style="font-style:italic;">Bravi</span> to eighth blackbird for their deft curation!) But I have to say I have a slight beef with something he said.<br /><br /> In his review of Louis Andriessen’s <span style="font-style:italic;">Worker’s Union</span>, Dan says:<br /><blockquote>Now, "political" music is a funny thing—Andriessen's Marxist ideology paints him into a corner (...) Andriessen's a Marxist, so he wants to cast off decadent bourgeois concert-hall culture in favor of brash, vernacular idioms, but on the other hand he doesn't want to embrace popular/commercial culture. So he troubles his clear forms and pulses with <span style="font-style:italic;">épater-le-bourgeois </span>dissonance, intensity and duration.</blockquote><br />This statement is really interesting to me, but also a little confusing. I’m currently writing my dissertation on political music, and just wrote a few pages on Andriessen, so maybe this is not a fair debate—dissertation research versus well-done concert review—but I have a difficult time understanding how Andriessen’s Marxism has painted him into a corner. <br><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Worker’s Union</span> was written in 1975, in the middle of what was a sort of “early period” for Andriessen’s political work. During this period, Andriessen’s political music fell into two main categories. The first is a form of <span style="font-style:italic;">gebrauchmusik</span> intended for use at political rallies. This included vocal music—<span style="font-style:italic;">Volkslied</span> (1971) and <span style="font-style:italic;">Dat gebeurt in Vietnam</span> (“This is happening in Vietnam”), both of which contained “collaborative chanting” intended to “express collective solidarity,”—as well as instrumental music, like <span style="font-style:italic;">De Volharding</span> (1972) and <span style="font-style:italic;">Worker’s Union</span> (1975), which present repetition and “collective unison” instrumental textures as a metaphor to encourage perseverance in pursuit of a political cause.<br><br />The second category of Andriessen’s political music—the techniques of which would follow him forward out of the 70s and into the 80s and beyond—explored deeper philosophical underpinnings associated with the struggle against fascism—including the dialectically-minded <span style="font-style:italic;">Il Duce</span> (1973), <span style="font-style:italic;">Il Principie</span> (1973-74), and <span style="font-style:italic;">De Staat</span> (1973-76), a triptych. These works draw inspiration from Brecht’s notion of “a-social models,” presenting problematic texts by Machiavelli, Mussolini, and Plato to teach the audience (via example) now not to behave. These utilize a dialectic that is Marxian, rather than Hegelian, and so (as Everett tells us) “the opposing forces of the conflict are transformed into an aspect of a new contradiction.” This type of thinking—as well as the lessons learned from work on Brecht and Eisler’s <span style="font-style:italic;">Die Maßnahme</span> in 1972—solidified issues for Andriessen that extended beyond the mere protest pieces he was writing in the early/mid-70s. <br><br />So, there’s that. But I also don’t understand Dan’s claim that Andriessen didn’t want to embrace popular/commercial culture, granted this could be a matter of semantics. (What is “embrace”? What is “popular”?) For me the <span style="font-style:italic;">Orkest de Volharding</span> embodies Andriessen’s political ideal of this period. Among other things, this group closed the gap between high and low culture by integrating instruments and techniques used in rock and jazz music—like electric guitar, and jazz articulation. It brought its revolutionary music into alternative performance spaces, like factories, schools, political rallies, and community centers. It served as an evolutionary step in a lineage from Cardew’s <span style="font-style:italic;">Scratch Orchestra</span>, and Rzewski’s <span style="font-style:italic;">Musica Elletronica Viva</span>, both important political ensembles from the late 1960s.<br><br />As for the notion of the <span style="font-style:italic;">épater-le-bourgeois</span>, I think there is something to this, and I like the connection that Dan makes on this front. But I am less certain that the dissonance in <span style="font-style:italic;">Worker’s Union</span> is a matter of merely wanting to shock the bourgeoisie—though that was probably part of it—as much as it is a by-product of the way the piece is constructed—i.e. as with the <span style="font-style:italic;">Scratch Orchestra:</span> not necessarily intended to be played by “experts” but rather, by anyone who would be willing to put in the time and effort. That is, anyone with the courage and will to serve “the cause” can serve the cause.<br><br />Often, when people think of political music, they imagine a ranty obnoxious preaching-to-the-converted sort of drivel. And there is a certainly a lot of that out there. (Cardew alone could fill several concert programs worth of music that would tell you how awesome Mao is and why everything else is an atrocity.) But Andriessen isn’t really like that, and I wonder if as a result he sometimes gets a bad wrap—if, for example, people expect something more direct from him and if, when it's not delivered, these same people feel some odd sense of disappointment. (And I am not suggesting that this is the case for Dan, rather stating a broader observation.)<br><br />With the exception of the very early pieces<span style="font-style:italic;">—Reconstructie, Dat gebeurt in Vietnam, </span>etc.—Andriessen’s music is political on a higher level than just a propagandistic message. Even within this early period we start to see this. Of <span style="font-style:italic;">De Staat</span>, he says “I wrote <span style="font-style:italic;">De Staat</span> as a contribution to the debate about the relationship of music to politics.” This is not smash-the-state propaganda. This is political philosophy. If one is expecting propaganda, or one wants to be served a composition that is easily digestible in one sitting, then one will probably be disappointed with Andriessen’s political work—or, in my opinion, with any political work worth its salt.<br><br />Dan cites an interesting <a href="http://www.echo.ucla.edu/Volume6-Issue2/reviews/bloch.html">book review</a> by Gregory Bloch, who observes:<br /><blockquote><br />Adlington suggests that a fascinating study would be to compare Andriessen with another deeply political composer, whose politics play out not only in his works but also in his approach to performers and institutions: Cornelius Cardew. The comparison is particularly instructive here, since much of Cardew’s music (like Andriessen’s worst music) is characterized precisely by a lack of ambivalence, a univocality that is, in the end, both an aesthetic and political failing.<br /></blockquote>This univocality, which I think can be found in Andriessen's earlier works, is what ultimately makes that kind of preachy political music many have come to expect. But Andriessen, through his understanding of Marxist dialectics, has been able to escape this. So it just doesn’t make sense to me to say that Marxism has painted Andriessen into a corner. With all due respect to a fine review from an interesting writer, for my money, Marxism <span style="font-style:italic;">liberated</span> Andriessen.DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-4278334642877696002009-05-19T11:10:00.003-04:002009-05-19T11:15:10.276-04:00Trusting the Market"Be wary when you hear about the glories of the market system. The market system is what we’ve had. Let the market decide, they say. The government mustn’t give people free health care; let the market decide.<br /><br />Which is what the market has been doing—and that’s why we have forty-eight million people without health care. The market has decided that. Leave things to the market, and there are two million people homeless. Leave things to the market, and there are millions and millions of people who can’t pay their rent. Leave things to the market, and there are thirty-five million people who go hungry."<br /><br /> - Howard Zinn, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/democracy/140035?page=1">Changing Obama's Military Mindset</a>DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-86003096047890381712009-05-17T16:13:00.007-04:002009-05-17T17:07:05.816-04:00Sunday Morning Trepanation<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/ShB2_rXctdI/AAAAAAAAAGg/-EPCJjtlre0/s1600-h/After_Jheronimus_Bosch_Removing_the_Rocks_from_the_Head.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 319px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/ShB2_rXctdI/AAAAAAAAAGg/-EPCJjtlre0/s320/After_Jheronimus_Bosch_Removing_the_Rocks_from_the_Head.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336896394778949074" /></a><br />This morning I attended a rehearsal of the new music group <a href="http://transitnewmusic.com/">TRANSIT</a>, who will present the NY Premiere of my <span style="font-style:italic;">Sunday Morning Trepanation</span> at the <a href="http://www.gershwinhotel.com/english/site1.html">Gerswhin Hotel</a> on May 21st at 8. The group sounded great--great great great players--but the rehearsal itself was a rather strange experience for me. <span style="font-style:italic;">SMT</span> is a piece that feels somewhat distant from where I am today, though I still really like it. Clarinetist Sara Budde--who played a very recent piece of mind with NOW Ensemble--even commented: "<span style="font-style:italic;">This</span> is by the same guy who wrote <span style="font-style:italic;">Spalding Gray</span>?" It's as if I was visiting a relative I hadn't seen for a long time. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Sunday Morning Trepanation</span> was composed seven years ago while I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan. The piece, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/05/17/040517crmu_music?currentPage=2">"equates contemporary religion with the drilling of holes in the skull,</a>" and is full of brutal sonic images: grinding, crushing, drilling; mangled hymns, contorted plainchant. (I was not very subtle at 23!)<br /><br />But it was very interesting to hear what musical elements I have retained or lost from that period; to hear "early Little," or whatever. For example, I'm still very interested in drama and dramatic pacing, use similar harmonic shades, mixing tonality and atonality somewhat freely, and still have certain orchestration preferences (vibes, e-bow), etc. But then there are the elements I've dropped, mostly to do with style rather than substance: giant time signatures in the score, a suspect interest in complexity which, though I think it works compositionally, now seems like an odd attempt to "sound modern". I guess the heart of the matter is that the core of my music isn't all that different that it was 7 years ago, it's just changed in its surface and in its details. It put on a new coat; got some sensible shoes.<br /><br />Anyway, if you're interested you can listen to the piece <a href="http://www.davidtlittle.com/audio/01%20Sunday%20Morning%20Trepanation%20(2002)%202.mp3">here</a>. (Careful, there are some pretty drastic volume levels!) And be sure to check out <a href="http://transitnewmusic.com/">Transit</a> on the 21st. It sounds like it is going to be a really interesting show--with music by Angelica Negron, Matt McBane, Daniel Wohl and others.DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-31432536284352303152009-04-28T09:07:00.005-04:002009-07-02T15:23:43.016-04:00Jello sings the blues.<blockquote> <br />"I saw the Berlin Wall go up and watched Vietnam being fought on TV every night. And my parents, rather than shield me from reality the way some many other Eisenhower-generation parents did to their kids, tried to explain to me what was going on and why they felt it was bad for cops with dogs to be hosing down civil rights demonstrators in Selma, Alabama. My dad actually drove me through the slums of Detroit one time to show me why people were rioting in the cities. <br /><br />So when people around me complain-- you know. 'Why don't you ever write any personal stuff? We want to hear some personal stuff. We want to hear the real you.'--I tell them that this is basically what comes out of me. This is <span style="font-style:italic;">my</span> way of singing the blues."<br /><br />-Jello Biafra, Option Magazine, 1991 <br /><br /><br /></blockquote>DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-68137511101798073642009-04-27T10:48:00.009-04:002009-04-27T15:11:37.891-04:00my boyfriend's back? - a monday morning web meander.While wandering around Flickr, looking for free, creative commons images to use in the design for my new <a href="http://squarecandydesign.com/">website</a> (stay tuned!), I came across this gem:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/SfXOUY4BzhI/AAAAAAAAAGI/iRWnvoO6OE8/s1600-h/1885877263_1dea6065d6_b.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/SfXOUY4BzhI/AAAAAAAAAGI/iRWnvoO6OE8/s400/1885877263_1dea6065d6_b.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329392583733005842" /></a><br /><br />Which, as the title of this post suggests, reminded me of The Angel's 1964 hit <span style="font-style:italic;">My Boyfriend's Back</span>. ["My boyfriend, Revolution, is back, and you're going to be in trouble."] Which, given the creepy quasi-chivalrous vibe --(knight in shining armor?)--reminded me of this song, first introduced to me by Andrew Tholl:<br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/f20Oz9Yr_So&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/f20Oz9Yr_So&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Which lead me to ask: When will Marilyn Manson cover this song? I mean, it would be absolutely perfect.<br /><br />(Stay tuned for a complete theory of the transformative application of persona in the cover songs of Marilyn Manson, which I swear I will write about someday....once I finally finish my dissertation.)DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-73351511450358484332009-04-22T11:54:00.011-04:002009-04-22T12:53:07.299-04:00Susan Boyle / Martin Tanner<a href="http://www.feministing.com/archives/014975.html">Feministing</a> has an interesting, if ultimately bleak, analysis of <a href="http://www.susan-boyle.com/">Susan Boyle's</a> recent triumph on <span style="font-style:italic;">Britain's Got Talent</span>. The Boyle Situation suggests a trend from that show: the person-everyone-thinks-will-suck-based-largely/solely-on-how-they-look, who then blows the audience out of the water. (Remember <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA">Paul Potts</a>?) <br /><br />This is likely done for ratings--everyone loves an "underdog". But at a deeper level, it frames things in a way that accentuates the "ugly" so that it can be all the more moving then it is finally accepted by the "beautiful" on the basis of merit. (They really play it up in the edit room, showing shots of Boyle chomping on a doughnut before the show, complete with "fat kid" underscoring.) And the hosts are totally up front about it--Amanda Whatever calling Potts "a lump of coal" that can be <span style="font-style:italic;">transformed</span> into a diamond. And it's okay for them to do this, the editing tells us, because, based on the reactions in the crowd <span style="font-style:italic;"> it's just what everyone was thinking anyway.</span> <br /><br />I am not really qualified to get into this topic in any actual depth, but I wonder: to what degree is this a matter of the tension within an insider/outsider dichotomy? I dated someone once who used to boast that she'd "performed at Carnegie Hall." And while this was factually true, the performance took place in the context of Carnegie as a <span style="font-style:italic;">rental</span> space, not as a presenting institution. I say this not to criticize, but rather to illuminate the dichotomy. For her, there really was no difference between Carnegie Hall and "Carnegie Hall," but for anyone who "knows better" there clearly is. <br /><br />To bring it back to <span style="font-style:italic;">BGT</span>: if you are an outsider like this, then--like Potts and Boyle--you might just not understand "how it works." (You might think Carnegie is "Carnegie".) You thereby might "do things wrong"--by insider standards--like wear the "wrong shoes" or "have bad hair" or whatever other socially prescribed nonsense. In some cases, this extends even to the point of having no clue as to what constitutes "good music," which we're fed regularly on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qkas9mlMgE">American Idol</a>. (Idle?)<br /><br />Anyway, on some level the whole situation reminds me of this song by the late Harry Chapin, about a cleaner from the Midwest, who decides to make a go of it and try to have a professional singing career. As a young musician, I thought often about the distinction he makes between music-as-life and music-as-livelihood. Check it out:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/79fkir9alzA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/79fkir9alzA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-69823445047051261312009-04-21T14:22:00.006-04:002009-04-21T14:40:17.924-04:00entrancedSo, I know it's been said elsewhere, but I have to hand it to <a href="http://www.artsjournal.com/lifesapitch/2009/04/fun-and-games.html">Life's a Pitch</a> for putting together a pretty brilliant/fun PR activity to promote the performance of Michael Gordon's <span style="font-style:italic;">Trance</span> coming up tomorrow at LPR. (Though she notes that it was actually Michael Gordon's idea!) Some <a href="http://www.newspeakmusic.org/">Newspeak</a> <a href="http://www.myspace.com/taylorlevine">regulars</a> will be <a href="http://www.calebburhans.com/">playing</a>, and EM and I will there to embrace the work's wondrous pummeling.DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-11055910956471900772009-04-20T15:54:00.003-04:002009-04-20T16:02:18.653-04:00Slow and SteadyCongratulations to Steve Reich, whose Double Sextet was just awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Double Sextet was commissioned by eighth blackbird, and was premiered by them at the University of Richmond last March. The NYC premiere took place at Carnegie Zankel Hall on April 17, 2008, exactly one year before the first annual New Music Bake Sale.DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2126088657007089941.post-1074525698406388542009-04-20T12:35:00.018-04:002009-04-20T22:53:57.020-04:00Welcome / Bake Sale / Brooklyn PhilWelcome to new readers arriving here here via <a href="http://createquity.blogspot.com">Createquity</a>, and many thanks to Mr. Moss for the kind shout-out. As for the note that this blog is infrequently updated, I'd like to restate my on-going promise to post more often. If the last few months are any indication, this may be a bit of a losing battle, but to willfully misquote Orwell's Boxer, I re-affirm: I will try harder.<br /><br />So a few things have been going on. Some excellent and some not so excellent; and both, oddly, in Brooklyn. First the not-so-great: I just read that the Brooklyn Philharmonic has not only <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aGLSdroOWaSQ">canceled the rest of this season, but ALL of next season's programming</a>. They've been in the news a lot recently, since they are also being sued by Nathan Currier over what seems to have been a rather unpleasant situation all around. (And one on which I will take no sides, though am tickled to read posts by <a href="http://www.artsjournal.com/lifesapitch/2009/04/just-when-you-think-youve-hear.html#comments">those who will!)</a><br /><br />This is a sad thing, obviously, but the Brooklyn Phil is one of those arts organizations that was destined to get slammed by this economic disaster greed-fest. <a href="http://andrewandrewdotcom.com/">AA</a> and I were recently talking about this; how the groups to survive this recession/depression will be the mammoth groups and the small-DIY groups. The mid-sized groups will be the ones with the greatest likelihood of going under. The large groups are so--ahem--well-endowed, that they can weather anything, while the smaller groups live on basically nothing as it is--and generally have little or no staff to support--so they too will survive. <br /><br />And speaking of small-DIY organizations, now for the good news: New Music Bake Sale! <a href="http://www.newspeakmusic.org">Newspeak</a> and <a href="http://ensembledesade.com/">Ensemble de Sade</a> have been working like mad for the last four months or so to present the <a href="http://www.newmusicbakesale.org/">First Annual New Music Bake Sale</a>. And I am pleased to report: we actually pulled it off! And not only that, but it was great, far exceeding our expectations!<br /><br />This was a union of the small and DIY, and I really mean union. There were groups of all aesthetic varieties, and there was--to be blunt--no bullshit. There was none of the old, storied uptown/downtown nonsense. There was no competitiveness. There were just people who love new music enough to work <span style="font-style:italic;">really</span> hard at it, for little or no money, on a regular basis for a long time. It was a diverse but amazingly supportive vibe. As James Holt mentioned in his kind addendum over at<a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/index.php/1126"> Sequenza 21</a>--"we're all in this together." Another <a href="http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/8742">blog</a> noted that "everyone at the tables was charming, friendly, convivial," saying that it was "like a modern day Woodstock minus the mud and the rain." <br /><br />And I think this is sort of a great way to think about it. Woodstock had Hendrix, Sly Stone, Sha Na Na, and CSN&Y. We had Newspeak, Talea Ensemble, Red Light New Music, So Percussion, Wet Ink, and Dither (and, like 20 others). All at the same event. All very different. All equally supportive. I think it says something powerful about the current DIY generation, and about the sense of community we embrace. Not to get ahead of myself here, but maybe this is how/why we'll ultimately survive. At least I hope so.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/SezZSUFQ53I/AAAAAAAAAF4/aO21Dvl5GgI/s1600-h/6a00d8341c4fb353ef01156f327057970c-pi.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6HX1Uz6eHQI/SezZSUFQ53I/AAAAAAAAAF4/aO21Dvl5GgI/s320/6a00d8341c4fb353ef01156f327057970c-pi.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326871367924115314" /></a><br /><br />Photo from <a href="http://www.feastofmusic.com">Feast of Music</a>.DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11675490178570009564noreply@blogger.com0