Piece O' da day

Steve Reich @ 70 and STL Orch performing Berio Sinfonia

2006-10-29T16:40:00.000-06:00

What a great birthday week! I got to attend Steve Reich's birthday celebration. Good pieces and performed well (with the exception of Proverb). I was completely in the wrong about the You Are Variations. I rellay don't like the recording but hearing it live is a completely different experience. The STL winds were spectacular. I've never heard an oboist with such ppp control. THe Synergy vocals while spectacular in their pitch and rhythm I just found them cold. On the otherhand the Berio Sinfonia was AWESOME. Life changing in fact to hear it live and I applaud STL for programming it. You can actually here the spatial seperations Berio creates. Of course Mvt. II and III were the most amazing. I left wishing the third had a little more sarcastic bite however.

Frederic Rzewski: VANGUARD Series UMKC performance

2006-10-15T12:57:00.000-05:00

Wow, been a long time since I've posted. School has been CAR-RAZ-EE. Anywho!!! Frederic Rzewski gave a performance of his own works at UMKC last night. There is no doubting Rzewski's amazing facility at the piano; I've never heard anyone be able to get so much sound out of a piano for such a long time. That being said I definitely like Rzewski's older compositions better than his new ones. The Four Pieces from 1977 were the entirity of the second half and were amazing. His newer aestethic of disorientation and unrelated ideas juxtaposed next to each other in his first half pieces Stop the War!, Dust, and Cadenza were just that series of musical events meant to show off virutosity. Cadenza had a bit more for listeners to grab onto because of it's Beethoven quotes. I know you're supposed to push yourself as a composer to explore other means of expression but I feel Rzewski is taking a path that will dead end into musical drivel.

Emilio Mendoza: RainForest

2006-09-26T12:29:00.000-05:00

I got this CD for free. I was actually pleased at the results. Thank goodness. So I haven't done a percussion ensemble piece yet so Mendoza's RainForest just happened to be on the disc. Nice piece. Not great. Just nice. I did like the woodpecker noises and the general overall low-keyness. So often with percussion ensemble pieces they tend to go super loud because they can. I'm glad Mendoza used restraint. His limited sound palette was also refreshing. He didn't bust out the lithophone or the 1239827149873-octave marimba. So yeah. Not the best piece for percussion ensemble but it would serve as a nice contrast on programs.

Music and Nature Symposium Recap

2006-09-26T12:12:00.000-05:00

So after many many delays at the airport I'm finally back home in KC. The Symposium was great. Everyone was very supportive and the comments and reception was great. Denise von Glahn, Catherine Cole, Theo Cateforis, Rebecca Jemain, and Diane Luchese were exceptionally nice and thoughtful with their critiques and their papers were great as well. I made a new friend Sam who goes to SUNY Buffalo, so that's cool. New friends are always welcome!

Mara Gibson: Vocalis e

2006-09-16T17:48:00.000-05:00

I heard this piece last night at the newEar concert in KC. Utterly stunning. Gibson managed to control the soprano in such a way it was seamlessly blended with the rest of the ensemble (clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, cello) in timbral quality. And brava to Kara Douglas for being able to that! The piece's opening clarinet line ascends gradually upward with the other instruments entering unobtrusively until a massive suspension-resolution section of extreme beauty and wonderful orchestration takes hold. The only fault I found with the piece is it isn't long enough. I was unsatisfied by the ending especailly after the gorgeous sections that came before it.

Magnus Lindberg: Corrente II

2006-09-05T22:23:00.000-05:00

Now even though I'm a Nordo-phile, I really haven't gotten into Magnus Lindberg, which personally I find shocking because I adore Saariaho, Salonen, Kaipainen, and the other Ears Open! folk, but Corrente II may make me change my mind. The opening is great. Very simple yet utterly dark and the utterances of when that material returns is great and recognizable yet changed and altered into more bright sounding passages. The dark rumblings are also tranfered upwards thus giving the whole piece lift. Great piece. I may have to go back and relisten. Oh and oddly enough the piece doesn't have flutes, a tuba and uses sparse percussion.

Vittoro Giannini: Symphony No. 3

2006-09-01T20:55:00.000-05:00

I absolutely adore this piece. Not because it was one of the few pieces that I actually wanted to practice (the oboe licks in the 4th movement are KILLER) but Giannini's control over chromatic harmony is astoundingly lush. This recording is also the first that I've heard that I feel the third movement is as it should be. Both the recordings by Dallas and Eastman take it way to fast so it's always on the verge of lossing control and actually there are audible mistakes. So congrats to Tom Bennett and the University of Houston Wind Ensemble for actually playing the third movement Allegretto as marked and having a clear delinitation of the 2 against 3 in a 1 pattern. I just wish the piccolo player wasn't so present on the recording, thank goodness they are in tune! The oboe melody in the second movement is strikingly simple yet engaging and modernly melancholic. The first movement is very bandy, but hey I'd rather play this piece from the late 1950's than anything Creston or John Barnes Chance wrote for band.

Jakov Jakoulov: Viola Sonata

2006-08-29T09:21:00.000-05:00

I mean come on, the composer's name just screams awesomeness. This is a dark dark brooding piece, but then again what Viola Sonata isn't. SO no points for not breaking with tradtion. But the lines are crisp and the glissandi aren't cheap added effect-- they add to the mournful conglomeration. I like the piano part for its incessantness; it's as equally dark as the viola part. I found the fast two outer movements for successful than the slow inner movement. The rhythmic playfulness of the middle movement was charming though and the sul pont technique was used effectively as coloration.

David Dzubay: Ra!

2006-08-24T22:23:00.000-05:00

I've come across Dzubay's name a lot so I thought I should finally listen to his music. I know I should have done so sooner as he's on faculty at Indiana and stuff. I started with Snake Alley. It was kind of interesting to see an American use Asian influence instead of the other way around. The piece was fine until the so blatant folk song section I almost had to shut if off. Ra! is much more satisfying as a whole. The brass marimba/percussion opening is a great lick without settling into the atrocities of a Swearingen ostinato. It's Stravinskian in it's little English horn ritual dance motif yet there is a bite and more forward motion in this piece. Very enjoyable and Dzubay manages to create an unboring band texture. And yay for super low trombones!

Lowell Liebermann: Nocturne #3

2006-08-23T16:14:00.000-05:00

So yes school has started and as such I've been totally totally busy/crazy. Yes that's one word because the busy-ness keeps you from realizing you're actuallying going crazy. ANY WHO. Auditions were today for Musica Nova WHEE! I like this day,;I got to hear someone audition with Ligeti! totally cool. So yeah today's piece. Liebermann's Nocturne #3. Tricky little piece and a great piece to use for sight reading (which was its purpose). The constant 16th note inner line make it very telling if the pianist has tempo issues and the upper note melodic line requires a delicate touch. So yeah I can't say I like the piece (because honestly I've never heard it) but I appreciate it for its functionality. I do like Gargoyles for it's over-the-top-iness.

California E.A.R. Unit Composer Residency and Workshop

2006-08-14T11:00:00.000-05:00

This past week was fantastic. As my second time working with the E.A.R. Unit at Arcosanti, I felt like I knew what to expect, but this time around it was even more fun. The new additions, Daphne, Phil, and Eric are top-notch players and not to mention amazing people and the returning members Vicki, Amy, and Dorothy continue to be some of my most favorite people in the world. And the composers! Wow--the 8 of us actually got along and enjoyed each other's company and music. There were a ton of hi-jinx, scorpions, pool shenanigans, and laughter, not to mention downing a couple of 40's. WHEE! My piece, Banshee Reels went really well. I used three air horns in it so i was expecting audience laughter which did happen. Thank goodness I didn't kill Paolo Soleri, the 80-some year old architect of Acrosanti with their loudness. I also got to conduct two pieces: Chris Biggs' spiky and clipping Special Anxieties and Keith Kirchoff's Piano Quartet. What a mind-f*** of a piece. It's canonic but everyone is playing different tempi. Very hard but very rewarding especially since the canons actually are audible. The other pieces were Michael Miller's demented and driving Cows, Mei-Fang Lin's multimovement progressive and stunning French-titled quintet, Jen Wang's static and serenely beautiful piece for violion, cello, clarinet, and flute (it reminded me a lot of Giya Kancheli's work), Elizabeth Kelly's academic yet enjoyably groovy Blue Maze and Nathan Strumpff's Volkswagen Hobo for baritone and sextet- very New York downtown meets Tom Waits/James Brown. So cheers to all my new friends. We'll be seeing each other again soon and I miss you already.

Carter Pann: Dance Partita

2006-08-03T15:20:00.000-05:00

Carter Pann's Dance Partita is a fun menagery of stylistic hodge-podge. You can definitely hear the Michigan influence in terms of tight counterpoint. His ability to shift in and out of styles (baroque, folk, jazz) makes for a fun piece. The only down fall I feel is the solo harpischord movement. I understand to placement (a la a Brandenburg Concerto on crack) but the rest of the movements are so wonderfully orchestrated I just feel it's slightly out of place. The "Pas d'eclectique" is musical humor at its best as is the drunken piano in the folk song section. It reminded me of the evil German drinking song in Hindemith's English Horn Sonata. The recording is also very well-conceived. With a piece like this the orchestra had to be able to switch styles instantly and the Brno State Philharmonic was quite adept at it.

Jacob ter Veldhuis: Paradiso

2006-07-29T16:37:00.000-05:00

Phew. Well after my 42+ hours of driving I'm finally back home in KC with the puppy. He did not enjoy the ride but he soldiered on. Very proud of him. Anyway. I felt I should review one of my standby piece that I just happen to grab on every roadtrip. Jacob ter Veldhuis' Dante-based Paradiso is one of those pieces that just bathes you sound, whether it be the blathering of an evangelical preacher, Chet Baker's drug adled musings, and a Meg Ryan-esque fake orgasm movement. While extremely-kitschy in points, sublimely beautiful in others, and laugh out loud funny in some the piece is UBER-tonal. No tritones or seventh here yet he manages to avoid the cliche saccharineness of New Age dregs. Claron McFadden is AMAZING and her coloratura is definitely shown off. Thomas Allen is amazing as well and I actually like how the recording catches him struggling for range in the early movements. It shows a sense of humanity and raw emotion that in a piece for orchestra, video, electronics, female choir, and the two vocal soloist definitely needs. By the way. Skip the video. It loses a lot in translation, maybe Dutch people understand it but I just found it disturbingly odd and unfocused.

Margaret Brouwer: Light

2006-07-19T09:15:00.000-05:00

Margaret Brouwer has a gift for approachable academic music although at times, some the pieces on this disc, Light included, lapse into cliche as the need to be taken more "seriously" inevitably just ends up leaving me dissatisfied. Light, for Peirrot-esque ensemble (with perc and harpsichord instead of piano) begins beautifully with quotes of Hildegard. The first movement is lush with hints of edgy-ness. The second movement with its shimmering tremolos and glissandi is much more modern and yet there is sense of humanity about it, almost as if Beat Furrer was interested in some pitch based materials. All this beautiful craftmanship is broken down in the third movement where bad text just ruins the overall piece. It's from a physics lecture on atoms. The music however is great. Sixteenth notes abound but the text just distracts from all that came before it. Dr. Brouwer's Naxos CD is great as is her Clarinet Quintet which has yet to be recorded. Light would be right up there if the text was just eliminated from the last movement.

Arnold Dreyblatt: Lapse

2006-07-18T09:43:00.000-05:00

Those New York Downtown composers seem to breed like rabbits. With plugged-in bass, guitar, strings, and percussion heavy compositions they run the risk of all sounding very similar and personally I don't find a lot of their compositions holding my interest (My former oboe professor is probably cursing my name as he loves 'em). Arnold Dreyblatt's Lapse is nothing earth-shaking or ground-breaking. If you like David Lang, Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon you'll probably like this whole recording. Lapse and Meantime were my favorites on the album. Lapse starts off as a kind of Honky-Tonk rock song and in about 4 seconds is into a gamelan-esque microtonal polyphony. I had higher hopes for the piece as a whole from the introduction but instead it just ended up sounding like everything else on the CD. About 7 minutes in (after the break) the coda section is like if Radiohead, Mantle Hood, Louis Andriessen, and David Lang had a demented love child. So applause for the first 4 seconds and the last 40, yawn for the rest.

Leo Brouwer: Guitar Concerto No. 5 "Helsinki"

2006-07-12T00:37:00.000-05:00

I first became acquaited with one of Leo Brouwer's works in undergrad during my orchestration class. Brouwer is like a god ot guitarist but not very common to those outside of that world. I do find it strange that this Cuban composer is writing a piece called Helsinki but I guess jsut by naming the city where the premiere is save a lot of trouble coming up with titles. The piece is not the most memorable, even though there are some nice wind lines. The second and third movements are better than the first although Brouwer relies a bit to heavily on pedals. I prefer his more moody and darker Concerto elegiaco, the string writing is fantastic. The solo guitar works on Naxos are also well worth sampling.

Michael Colgrass: Snow Walker

2006-07-10T22:13:00.000-05:00

HA! AWESOME! Colgrass is one of the composers that is hard to wrap your head around. His works range from the cerebral Deja Vu to the racous Urban Requiem and Wings of the Nagual. Snow Walker a concerto for organ and orchestra is program music that just plain works. A solo horn (I think) imitates a wolf call and the flurry of snow is represented very effectively by trills and tremolos and scales, but it is in his orchestration that these elements actually place the listener in the Arctic. Organ Concertos are a rare breed and I feel Colgrass does the instrument justice. I feel the Poulenc is too gentle and the Leifs' is a bit heavy-handed but Colgrass' is the right blend of full-stop assualt to the sublime. I'm glad I purchased this CD on a whim.

Lee Hartman: Banshee Reels

2006-07-08T12:07:00.000-05:00

No, I'm not going to say how awesome my own piece is but I just wanted you to now that it has been finished! WHEE! The premiere will be on August 12 at ARCOSANTI by the California E.A.R. Unit. I'm excited. It's scored for alto flute/piccolo, clarinet, percussion, violin, and cello.

Mary Jane Leach: Tricky Pan

2006-07-08T11:53:00.000-05:00

So I checked this cd out because I'm looking for some new music rep to do with our countertenor Doug (I really want to avoid the Wuorinen at all costs!!) So I got Ms. Leach's CD. On it Tricky Pan is the piece for countertenor and electronics. Unfortunately I found the electronic portion to be what I call "unnessary electronics" in otherwords there was nothing done in the electronic portion of the piece that could not be done live by humans. I understand her choice of using 8 recorded countertenors (with one live countertenor) because to find 8 countertenors in one place who can blend is about as likely as me singing countertenor (not very likely) . I found myself wishing the piece had been richer in changes of textures benefitting the interesting text instead Ms. Leach chose and almost Taize underpinning of the pre-recorded voices under a somewhat blues inflected solo line. At almost 10 minutes that can lead to aural fatigue. I listened to some of the other works on the CD, nothing was tremendously ear-catchingly different, but Ms. Leach writes within an approachable style. Her Song of Sorrows and O Magna Vasti Cresta are exceptionally beautiful. My search continues for a countertenor piece. So far top on my list is the Jennifer Margaret Barker L'Amour but the instrumentation is tricky...

David Chesky: Flute Concerto

2006-07-06T14:04:00.000-05:00

So I did not mean in my last post to bash clapping in a piece. So I've selected a piece that contains "tasteful" clapping. So the Flute Concerto is pretty rad. Jeffrey Khaner plays extremely well and the ensemble is supertight. The piece is almsot crystaline in it's excellence. So David Chesky. I'm a fan.

Christopher Theofanidis: Rainbow Body

2006-07-04T11:34:00.000-05:00

Well it's the Fourth or as my housemates and I call it, "Save the dogs from the fireworks and the Republicans," so I guess I should profile an American piece. So I was running through in my head all the possibilities that I would like to mention but was having trouble picking a piece because most of the American composers I listen are gay-gay-gay-gay-gay and that doesn't fit in with the current grossness in office so I decided to pick the gayest piece written by a straight man. Thus: Rainbow Body by Christopher Theofanidis. Chris Theofanidis is one of the nicest guys and if you ever a chance to met him, do so. He's a gem of awesomeness. ANYWHO! As the only straight man on a CD of homosexuality (Barber & Copland- supergay; Higdon- amazing lesbian) Rainbow Body is an orchestrated reimagining of a Hildegard von Bingen chant. If you want the real chant you can get it on Anonymous 4's cd Origin of Fire (even though I'm sure there are more performance practice accurate renditions somewhere). Well it's a very crowd appealing-piece. The score actually contains an ad lib clapping and cheering section to express elated joy. I think that novelty effect is unneccassary as the piece is a Respighi-esque grandiose bombast of orchestral fortitude. I'm glad Spano chose not to do the clapping. I still get the feeling this is a really good band piece for orchesta, but hey sometimes you need that and you jsut want to be bathed in glorious sound. The piece also won the MasterPrize in England and the cd almost sweep the classical Grammys. So you should buy this CD. The Barber is the best recording I've ever heard. Higdon and Theofanidis make for a great pairing. The Copland is great too but i really don't think the world needed another Appalachian Spring recording.

Slacking

2006-06-29T19:41:00.000-05:00

So I'm sorry that I've been slacking but I've been trying to finish a piece for the California E.A.R. Unit that is due on the 1st. YIKES. When it's done I'll be back. I think that's a threat.

Andrzej Panufnik: Sinfonia sacra

2006-06-27T12:19:00.000-05:00

HOLY CRAP. This is a piece that needs to get played!! Talk about a roof raiser. If audiences aren't standing by the end of this piece I don't know what will move them. In a quasi-concerto-for-orchestra setting, Panufnik (definitely not a household name, but he did compose a piece for the BSO Centennial), the first movement is a collection of Visions ranging from stereophonic angelic trumpet fanfares, to the descending not pitched percussion to a gorgeous string chorale, to a unison orchestra devilish toccata. The second movement Hymn starts off with string harmonics and eventually and evenly and well-pacedly.... lead back to the brass fanfares over massive chords. UTTERLY GORGEOUS! Yes the brass parts are killer but everything else is very playable even by university orchestras.

David Del Tredici: Child Alice - Part I "In Memory of a Summer Day"

2006-06-26T11:26:00.000-05:00

Ugh. Why are the Pulitzer Prize pieces usually dreary bastions of academia? Of course there are exceptions, Appalachian Spring, Vanessa, Barber Piano Concerto, Stucky Concerto for Orchestra No. 2. But ugh. I do agree that Del Tredici deserved a Pultizer, just not for this piece. Final Alice is much more clever and refined in its variation technique. Much like John Adams deserved it for Death of Klinghoffer or Nixon in China and not that schlock of Transmigration of Souls. Did I enjoy the piece? Well the recording was good-ish and St. Louis sounded great, but I feel the piece never really let loose. It always seemed on the verge of awesomeness and just never quite achieved it. So. Skip this one (especially with the CD running around $98 because it's LONG OOP, and instead head over to your library and listen to Final Alice with Barbara Hendricks on LP. MUCH better even with all the cuts in the recording. Oh btw. Naxos SHOULD WITHOUT A DOUBT record the entire Alice Series. If they can record the Bolcom Songs of Innonence and Experience they can do this project. I know it's easier said than done but since these recording are long out of print and rife in their Wagnerian scope I think there is a market for it.

Syracuse Music and Nature Symposium

2006-06-25T16:25:00.000-05:00

Good News! I just received word that I'll present my first presentable paper at the Syracuse Music and Nature Symposium in September! WHEE! My topic is a chapter from my thesis and it focuses on Hekla by Jon Leifs, one of the world's loudest musical compositions. It depicts (very effectively) the Icelandic volcano Hekla! WHEE!

Kalevi Aho: Symphony No. 2

2006-06-23T15:09:00.000-05:00

Holy Counterpoint Batman. I'm so jealous. I find it fantastic when 20th-21st composers can still use meaningful counterpoint to create pieces of crystalline proportion and exactness. Today most preeminent Finnish symphonist is great at achieving this. Symphony No. 2 had flashes of Sibelius 2 for me because of the brass heavy chordal passages with trumpets and trombones blaring. But the quasi-fugual presto sections are brilliant and the climatic E-flat clarinet solo, A clarinet and bass clarinet riffs post climax are almost blissful release. It's a shame Maestro Aho isn't played more in the States. His Flute Concerto was just played in Minnesota but the National Symphony Orchestra declined to premiere his (by all written accounts, wonderful) Contrabassoon Concerto. I'm glad that Bis is recording the Complete Aho, and with Lahti (his home orchestra) and Vanska the efforts are well worth a listen. Check out the piccolo high D-flats. SCARY and the intonation is just off enough to make it blood-curdling but I believe that's the composer's intent.

YAY! Congrats!

2006-06-22T10:26:00.000-05:00

The trifecta of awesomeness is now complete. Three of my dear friends have procured jobs in the cutthroat music higher education business. Congrats Jason, Brian, and Misti!

Miklos Rozsa: Sinfonia concertante

2006-06-20T21:57:00.000-05:00

So not technically what I call new music since Rozsa's dead and all and the piece was written in the 60's, but I just stumbled across this piece by accident and thought I should write about it. Sure it's very hollywood-inspired with great melodies. Rozsa wrote the scores for Ben Hur and stuff. My introduction to Rozsa was his Viola Concerto which I had the extreme good fortune of hearing Roberto Diaz (current president of Curtis Institute) play with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Holy crap. jaw dropping. Anyway, the three-movement Sinfonia concertante is a delight. The first movement is very Hollywood melody-driven but as beholding to Rozsa's Hungarian roots it's subtle shifting meters and displaced accents make it more enjoyable than say John William's concert fare.... BLAH. The second movement Theme and variations is simply gorgeous with lush harmonies. The theme is worthy of variations (my favorite is the 6th). It's sort of like if Vaughan Williams was Hungarian and ... not boring. The third movement makes up for the lack of harmonic interest in the first and has a few surprising clashes in this mostly tonal work. It's also the whirling dervish you'd expect. Too bad this recording is OOP, cause it's very good (better than most Koch stuff) but I think there is a new one on CPO but I haven't heard it.

Bezhad Ranjbaran: Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra

2006-06-19T10:08:00.000-05:00

First of all why is this CD called the American Cello. Samuel Barber is the only American on it! True Drs. Chen and Ranjbaran currently live in the US and according to the liner notes "they were each born in countries where they suffered the lack of freedoms that American's hold dear." Shouldn't the CD be called American Spirit or something like that. But I guess in today's world we'd have to throw in some Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith or Keith Urban medleys for effect, ugh. Anywho, bad titles aside...

The Iranian-born Ranjbaran's Cello Concerto is less successful than his gorgeous Persian Trilogy. The sonics of the CD don't help either, I'm sure there are some glistening passages that didn't translate well because of the poor engineering (kinda shocking coming from the VA Symphony with Falletta). Shame on you Albany. Based on Thomas Jefferson quotes this Neo-romantic romp through cello technique fits nicely on top of the very accompanimental orchestral parts. I would have liked to have heard more integration. The second movement is worth a listen but still very much solo w/ accompaniment. Skip this piece (and CD) and instead listen to Ranjbaran's Persian Trilogy on Delos.

Sofia Gubaidulina: Offertorium

2006-06-18T16:20:00.000-05:00

Sofia Gubaidulina is one of those composers that I'm "supposed" to like (other composers who fall in this category are Ned Rorem and Toru Takemitsu, among others). But over all I find her music just... blah. I jokingly call her Sofia Goes-"blah-blah-blah." Thankfully Offertorium is her most played and recognizable piece because IMO it's by far the best. It's not insufferable like In the Beginning There Was Rhythm or as draggy and dreary as the Concerto for Viola, which unfortunately shares a CD with one of my favorite Viola Concertos (the Kancheli). Although FAR too long (35 minutes) the piece is cohesive even (in spite of?) the klangfarben sections. Her build up of tonal clusters are grand and she uses them effectively. The big pay off comes with the horn rips (you'll know it when you hear it) and at around 24 minutes to the end, with orchestral unison E's followed by a lush hymn section with demonic harp (can a harp be demonic? apparently so, when paired with tam-tam, chimes and low piano). So is it worth the first 24 minutes to get to the last eleven? Overall yes. Her thematic treatments are pretty tight with most ending gestures finding their genesis in the earlier portions of the piece. The cadenza is also great by I feel it occurs too early in the piece. So listen from the beginning and hang on till the last 3rd--it's worth it.

Harrison Birtwistle: Earth Dances

2006-06-17T11:27:00.000-05:00

As if the introduction didn't scare you away here is my first critique. Yes Birtwistle has said to the annoyance of many new music composers that he doesn't care about his audience. Well screw that. You can still enjoy his music much like you can still enjoy Wagner even after he was co-opted by Hitler. Music is music. Blah. Anyway.

EARTH DANCES!

Wow. So I heard this piece before when I first bought the CD about 3 years ago. Wow. Talk about collecting dust on my shelf. Not my most enjoyable listen. Yesterday I checked out the score to Earth Dances from the Library and what a totally different musical experience. It's probably due to the fact that I've been exposed to a lot more music recently. I enjoyed the piece much better on this second listen. Aside from fantastic playing from Cleveland (under Dohnanyi) especially the winds and percussion, the piece is an orchestrational jewel/nightmare. This dichotomy is present in that the poor violins are in a 30 part divide. YIKES. But the parts in and of themselves are very playable (like some of the Boulez Notations). The massive string divides and independent wind parts provide for a very thick texture but the composite and doublings are such that everything is perceivable. I especially enjoy the upper winds holding F-sharps for what seems like an eternity while their lower counterparts playing serpentine lines. Another great moment is created in the strings on these pulsating glissando passages. The entrances are staggered such that a tam-tam like effect is achieved--great sound!

Earth Dances is a piece to listen for orchestration and study. It won't make the blue hairs happy, but the more adventuresome audience should find enough moments to hold their interest. It's a more current Le sacra, but more difficult technically. At 36 minutes I feel the piece is a collection of well-orchestrated moments with the long sustained tones as the unifying factor.

Introduction

2006-06-17T11:17:00.000-05:00

I know, I know. Pretension abound! I've decided to listen to a new piece every day and post my thoughts about it. Some of these pieces I have listened to before, but now I'll do some analytical listening. I'll be focusing on pieces written post-1945. My buddy Bill said one of his friends calls new music "Bink-bonck." Certainly that is a very worthwhile assessment of a lot of Post WWII music, but most definitely can't apply to everything currently being written. I'll try to be varied in my approaches but understand I am a composer and I am drawn to certain types of music so I'm gonna break out of my comfort zone in my first critique. My goals is to be completely subjective so please don't be offended if I dislike a piece you happen to love. I'm also not claiming to get everything that happens in a piece in one listen. These are just first impressions.

Hopefully you'll enjoy!

Lee