U. Utah Phillips, 1935-2008

More soon...

New Life Goal

If I can continue to write pieces that make performers look this rockstar, I will die a very happy composer.

James Bobick singing Soldier Songs at the sitzprobe for VOX 2008. Photo (c) Jane Kung for New York City Opera

post-Vox tidbits

Many Thanks to Peter Matthews at Feast of Music for the kind words about the recent performance of Soldier Songs at Vox. There are some interesting bits about the piece that I thought I would mention here, just to provide a little background.

In his post, Pete talks about the final song heard at Vox, Two Marines. Like all the movements of Soldier Songs, Two Marines is based on a true story, although it is unique among the movements, in that the story was not culled from the interviews I conducted. Rather, it is based on a news story I heard in 2004 about Carlos Arredondo. I won't recount the story here, but you should check it out. Suffice it to say, it moved me deeply.

At the end of Two Marines, a quotation emerges on the piccolo, glockenspiel, and toy piano. A lot of people seem to think that they know the song was, but no one's quite guessed it yet. The song is, in fact, a World War One protest song, from 1915, called "I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier." I included this quotation, first for what it brings to the subtext of Two Marines, but also for its suggestion that protest has always been as much a part of war as fighting, killing, dying, and mourning.

You can listen to the original here, in all it's crackly glory.


Photo (c) Carol Rosegg for New York City Opera

A fun game (with not-so-shocking results)

Good State

Bad State*

"Really?" State

*Originally from a Melly's Blog Post

"Modern musical technique is for use. ...

... The revolutionary composer inherits it, it is his jumping-off place. He should no more scrap it than a socialist society should scrap a machine because its functioning in a bourgeois system meant abuse or persecution or unemployment. ... I am as aware as anybody that the new music of the masses is not going to be the music of Schönberg or Stravinsky or Hindemith. But they were preparing the way. ... That they were unconsciously preparing the way, beginning something whose counterparts and possibilities they did not dream of, was none of their business. It is distinctly ours, who appraise them in order to use them; who digest in order to eliminate, but also to absorb."

- Marc Blitzstein, 1936

mp3s at wnyc

Terrance McKnight over at WNYC Fm has a recent post about the assorted Rzewski happenings around the city last week. Included in the post are live recordings of Newspeak playing Coming Together and The Price of Oil. I am listening to it now, and all I can think is: Mellissa Hughes is pretty bad-ass. Having seen her in a number of contexts over the last year, I am totally convinced.

The recordings up on WNYC are live, so, you know, there is some noise in there, but you get the idea. I am really happy with our version of Coming Together, but man, The Price of Oil is as ugly as, well, the price of oil. I wish the drums were louder in the recording for this latter piece. Not because I love drums...although I do love loud drums--something I hope to write about at some point--but rather because I know that in the space, the drums were REALLY loud, so I feel like you, the on-line listener, might not be getting the full, painful, effect.

Anyway, try to imagine really loud drums as you listen.

(And special thanks to Terrance McKnight for all his helping in bring our show to life!)

***Update: The video component has now been added to the page linked to above.***

meme.

Well, it's happened. I've been memed. Many thanks to Steve Smith for the much appreciate blogospheric exposure.

Here is where I explain the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

Here is where I follow said rules:

"The lackeys that entered the office were five or six in number and the men in the shop were helpless onlookers while the scuffle went on, as their slightest move was met with a gun pressed to their ribs, no one being able to raise a hand, contrary to what the papers say. Ricardo and Enrique were literally dragged to a waiting auto, a block away, Enrique bleeding profusely from head to foot. The comrades were called yesterday for preliminary hearing, but not being yet represented by a lawyer, they refused to plead."

from A Letter from Maria Magon to Alexander Berkman
Life of an Anarchist: The Alexander Berkman Reader

And my tagged five:

Melly's Blog Mellissa keeps it real.


thank you campaign, Andrea has assured me that the posting hiatus will soon end. Judd also contributes.


ACB, So we all know that she's fantastic. You should read her blog.


Ted, Concert reports and posts on new pieces and various projects. Also, a fantastic picture of JC (no, not that JC) Check it.


The Motion Sick, Boston indie rockers, ex-band mates, d-list celebrity stalkers, occasional advice columns.

*So, apparently I don't read ACB's blog enough to know that she has been now hit thrice with this thing. Shame on me. So in this light I offer her an out, should she want it, and off as a fine replacement, Judd.

of Fred and Ted.

Ted, who I didn't know had a blog until just now, has an accurate telling of our show Friday night. And let me just say, if you thought listening to that conversation was strange...trying being in the middle of it! There were seriously points where I had no idea what was going on! Birds were singing; cats were purring; impersonations were being done. It was totally surreal.

The conversation itself has apparently become known as "the most tense and uncomfortable twenty minutes in the history of concert going." (...and the concert on the whole was also called "controversial," in addition to the "innovative" New York Magazine gave us in their listing. - Awesome.) This is not a quotation from anyone in particular, but rather one culled from assorted buzz, and while it is no doubt hyperbolic, I can't help but wonder if, from a concert going experience, this is a good thing.

I mean, why shouldn't there be moments of tension at events like these? I am honestly pretty tired of everything being so nice all the time, because, you know what, that's fakery. I secretly love it when these "old coots" as C>T> called them, like Rzewski and even Andriessen are interviewed, and just sort of give the interviewer hell. I have learned, through spending time with both of these gents, that this apparent aggression is really just a high level intellectual discourse, where you speak your mind, freely, disagree openly, and then move on to the bar. Passion lives neatly alongside detachment. For example, for however much we disagreed during our talk, Frederic was lovely and grateful after the show, as well as the next morning when I saw him. (Oh, and hey Park Central Hotel: get your act together! You are a drunken mess! But I digress...)

And to be honest, when you call an event "Which Side Are You On? - Music By, For, and Against Frederic Rzewski" - you are sort of inviting confrontation. As for Frederic talking through the second half, what can you do? I think that that's one of the things that we relinquished when we left the strictly-classical world. Ted hits is just right in his post actually. And it's not like you couldn't hear the music over it. Trust me, you could. It was loud. I just hope that the recording doesn't pick that up in Ted's piece, which has some wonderfully delicate bits.

As for his notion that there are no boundaries to be obliterated, I'll save that for my forthcoming New Amsterdam post. All I will say for now is that I cannot imagine Rzewski's The Price of Oil, or really many of the pieces in our rep at a classical venue. Not that we wouldn't love to play there. I just suspect that these venues might just not know what to do with us. I feel like we'd be too loud for their resonant spaces and they'd want us to turn down. (We've been there before...) Plus, where would they place us in their elaborate marketing schemes?! Either way, I guess time will tell on this one.

One Nation Under Dog...(groan.)

But seriously, sometimes I can't help but think that we'd be better off...




if the Bush Family's Scottish Terrier, Barney, were running things.

How Last Night Began...

So last night, Newspeak presented a concert of music "by, for, and against" Frederic Rzewski. Frederic was in attendance, and was to participate in a discussion/interview with Terrance McKnight from WNYC and me just before intermission. While the whole evening was a hit I'd say, it started off curiously, so I thought I would recount it here.

Me: Hi Frederic! Thanks for coming!

Frederic: Bronstein!

Me: Excuse me?

Frederic: Bronstein! You know?

Me: [blank stare]

Frederic: Bronstein, pen name: Trotsky! You look like Trotsky!

Me: Oh, right. Of course. I do?

Frederic: Yes, you do!

Me: Oh, okay. Well, awesome. Thanks! (?) Should we talk about the interview...?

(...more to come)

All Carter, All The Time

Wow. So, I am all for celebrating important figures in music--even those whose music I don't particularly care for--but THIS just seems so far over the top I can barely stand it!

I mean, yes, Eliot Carter is 100 years old. And yes, that's something special. And yes, he is an important composer, many would argue. But really? 10 concerts in 4 days? Really?! That seems like the kind of thing that almost no human being on earth could tolerate; even the composer himself!

Now, I am not trying to be all down on Carter's music. It is true, that his thing is not my thing, but that's not the point. Carter is clearly a bad-ass, and he is fully deserving of a centennial celebration. Really, the issue here is with the programming. This is a lot of music by one person to hear in so short a time.

I always look forward to seeing what's on the docket for the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music each summer. Mostly, I find that it's not quite my thing--it often leaning toward the Carter end of the spectrum--but I still like finding out about composers I hadn't known before, and occasionally hearing something really fantastic. (And when I was a fellow there I heard performances that changed my life, for sure!) But this is really disappointing to me in that regard. It's just so monochromatic, in a way. (No pun intended.)

Oh well, good thing there is some diversity going on elsewhere in the region around the same time. I'll be there, you can be sure, and not long after will be playing a special summer show with Newspeak here. So if you aren't in the mood for ten million hours of Mr. Carter's music, you should come to one or both of those. At least there is still a reason to get out of the city and hit the Berkshires!

Whew! I was afraid my seersucker would have to go unworn this summer!

May 1st: No Peace No Work!

EM just sent me a great story about west coast dock workers who are sick of this war--along with 81 percent of Americans--and are doing something about it. The article says: "The (union's) motion (to protest) called (the war) an imperial action for oil in which the lives of working-class youth and Iraqi civilians were being wasted and declared May Day a "no peace, no work" holiday. Angered after supporting Democrats who received a mandate to end the war but who now continue to fund it, longshoremen decided to exercise their political power on the docks."

Right on. It's nice to see that normal people are getting involved in this, the way it ought to be. It's one thing when you see a bunch of feel-good hippies protesting the war, or east coast intelligentsia, but these are dock workers! Straight up dock workers. Right on! As they say above, these folks have political power, and know how to use it.

The other thing that I find interesting though, is that this extends beyond party politics. These folks are upset with the Democrats, and rightfully so! Could this be the straw the breaks the camel's back? Could this be end beginning of the end of the two-party system? John thinks so. I'll reserve judgement.

I have a couple of fears about this event, however. Mainly: government's don't like their docks closed. And you can see what they do the people who try to stop them here. (Thanks to FR for sending that along!) Will the government bring out the tear gas and water cannons, or this terrifying thing? Maybe it will all be peaceful: the president will invoke the Taft-Hartley Act, and everyone will go back to work. But what if they don't? What if they won't?

I don't know. Something tells me if this gets to a level seen in the video above, there will be a lot more people upset about it then when they lock up hippies. (Hell, I'd like to lock up a hippies every now and then!) Longshoreman are the people. I think it's hard to argue that point. Hippies, Punks, whatever, are a cultural other. If you oppress the longshoremen, you oppress the people. And, from all I have seen--and based on the very founding of this country--the people don't like to be oppressed.

Though maybe I am wrong. The article goes on to say that "At the start of the war in Iraq, hundreds of protesters demonstrated on the Oakland docks, and longshoremen honored their picket lines. Without warning, police in riot gear opened fire with so-called less-than-lethal weapons, shooting protesters and longshoremen alike with wooden dowels, rubber bullets, pellet bags, concussion grenades and tear gas. A U.N. Human Rights Commission investigator characterized the Oakland police attack as "the most violent" against anti-war protesters in the United States." Were people up in arms then? Not that I can recall, no.

So it all comes down to solidarity, I guess. Who will stand with these workers? And who among them will refuse to yield? "There is power in a union," the song says, and "And injury to one, is an injury to all." But above all you need solidarity. Will all of this "all" stand together?

Indeed.

One Cold Dead Hand? Check.

Sorry. Is that horribly disrespectful? Probably. Sorry about that. But you know, someone had to say it, and I am sure I'm not the first, nor will I be the last.

Heston at a Civil Rights Rally, 1963
But yes, it's true. Charlton Heston is dead at 84. I mean, it's a sad thing of course, when people die and I am sorry for his family and loved ones. I am not so heartless, after all. (I mean, how could I be both heartless and bleeding-heart?) But with someone like Heston, who seems to have gone through a drastic political shift, one is almost forced to examine the situation with a certain degree of, um, distance. I think that there must have been some sort of major event in his life that caused him to make these drastic changes. But I'm not sure what it is. Let's look at the "facts" shall we?*

Before this mystery event, Heston:

Heston with Brando and Belafonte, Civil Rights Rally, 1963

* Campaigned for Stevenson in 1956 and JFK in 1960.
* Fought against segregation.
* Marched with Dr. King in 1963.
* Called for support for the Johnson Gun Control Act of 1968.
* Opposed the Vietnam War.

But then, something happened, and after this mystery event, he:

white men, white house, brown suits: the 80s
* Voted for Richard Nixon in 1972.
* Opposed affirmative action in the 1980s.
* Began to support "gun rights" ( "From My Cold Dead Hand")
* Spoke out against free speech in the Ice-T "Cop Killer" incident.
* Shifted from Democratic to Republican.
* Opposed reproductive rights.
* Campaigned for Reagan and both Bushes. (good job there, chief)

So, i mean. What is up with this?! I know that people change--I am thinking actually of the major change in composer George Rochberg's music after the death of his son--but this seems like a complete replacement of principles!

Thoughts here? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?


*(All of these "facts" were pulled from Wikipedia, so, you know, feel free to write with corrections and such, or check there for citations).

The (anti) King of the (anti) Avant-Garde?

Thanks to Alex for the kind words about my Still Life with Tank and iPod from Soldier Songs in a (by now semi-) recent interview in The Onion's A.V. Club. One of the on-line readers seemed to have a problem with the fact that my music was not avant enough, and decided to comment to that effect. Then, just now, I noticed that, on the wonderful On An Overgrown Path, the title caption for the blog reads "Avant-garde is French for bullshit. " The quotation is from John Lennon. To be honest, I sort of agree.

I'm not really a fan, I have to say. Most "avant-garde" music (whatever that even means anymore!) sort of makes me tired and/or gives me a headache. Not that I have a problem with other people liking it. I just don't like it, and frankly, I think that's fine. I find the avant-garde especially hard to take when one considers the problematic, often-elitist, and, according to Neil Nehring fear-based aesthetic judgments that walk hand-in-hand with that particular demarcation, especially when it is an avant-garde that stems from modernism. But we'll get to that another time. (Seriously, we will.)

But it was nice to get a little hate. (I mean, I usually get so much love all the time! ) A good friend (and apparently also my biographer!) suggested to me that it's just the tip of that iceberg, and I don't doubt it.

And speaking of John Lennon, did you all catch Matt Marks' super fantastic arrangement of The Beatles' Revolution No. 9 for Alarm Will Sound? I hope you did! It's really quite great. (Sorry, I know this is old news, but I've been pretty busy lately.) AWS is going to be playing it again at the Bang on a Can Marathon--which I will unfortunately have to miss--and hopefully many times more. You should be sure to catch it.

Matt is a really great musician who is responsible, in whole or in part, for many of my favorite things of late, often sharing awesomeness duty with another favorite among my collaborators.

Check him out.

Do it.