Totalism

I think the only thing missing from Dennis Cleveland is a brawl between two of the cast members, Jerry Springer inspired. This is an interesting work. The audio on the video clip was poor, but the audio recording gave more insight into Rouse's work, though without the dramatic context. In Soul Train, I can hear Glass's rumbling organ bass lurking beneath the pop-techno veneer. I am glad that composers have sought new interaction with contemporary culture, and this work seems a predecessor to Anna Nicole: The opera by Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Although this work seems to shamelessly use sex as a promotional tool, it seems worthwhile with appealing music and a compelling story that people can relate to. Turnage has a huge output of jazz-influenced works which are very interesting.
  In Listen to This, Alex Ross has a wonderful essay on John Luther Adams. I enjoy the quiet reflection and natural ethos of Dream in White on White. Just as Reich and John (the other) Adams progressed from strict application of minimalist theory into something more Romantic and emotionally affective, Luther Adams seems to be a more evolved and emotionally attached Feldman. Luther Adams takes Feldman's sparse, pensive, and reflective textures but adds elements of rhythm, nature, and snowy landscapes. Although Gann is right that Luther Adams does not match Feldman's mystery or subtlety, his music is much more listenable.

Along the lines of Rouse and Turnage pursuing an interface with popular culture is Michael Daugherty whom is shunned by Gann. Like Andy Warhol, Daugherty has been especially successful at using popular icons as source material, although his work is certainly more accessible than Warhol's.

Daugherty gets a bad rap for selling out, being too basic, or whathaveyou, but the sold out crowd in Nashville means something. In the same vein, Mark-Anthony Turnage's Hammer a Ring on it is literally a Beyonce remix:

David Lang's music is pretty interesting, rhythmically puchy, edgy, often a bit uncomfortable. I especially like Are You Experienced for electric tuba and (mostly wind) ensemble:

Also interesting is the quasi-minimal Increase for mixed ensemble.

Postminimalism

Again we become mired in discussing lables, which are occasionally convenient but always messy. Gann correctly discredits postminimalism definition of as "the amount of intervention the composer makes in the process" as problematic. But his own definition involving audible structure is also troublesome, for in the new works of Glass, which are probably "minimal," the process is increasingly obscured. I think the minimalist school has progressed, like others, from strict expression of youth rebellion toward more complexity. Each composer develops his own techniques which are shaped from his philosophy and musical influences. I see no need for a strict definition of "postminimalism" because everyone after Riley, Glass, and Reich explored new realms opened by their predecessors.
  As a pianist, I knew Duckworth's Tango Dances as an amazing and lively fusion of bluegrass heritage with modernist constructions.Otherwise, this was my first exposure to his music. His works are at once deeply meditative and harmonically stable but more rhythmic than Part. Its lively syncopations and bluesy harmonies are also appealing features to me.
Om Shanti presents many interesting textures within a genuine and powerful work. Giteck's writing is quiet and reflective, making her work more like Arvo Pärt than any other we have studied.
  In The Crack in the Bell one can hear many of Glass's burbling arpeggios and insistently repeating chords with Lentz's very original ideas piled on top. I wish there were a recording with real instruments and quality synthesizers instead of the used car commercial brass section.

  After Duckworth, the rest of the music covered in this chapter is very obscure. Where is Adams!? Adams is THE post-minimalist. Growing directly out of the minimalist tradition, John Adams has developed a Romantic style that continues to evolve.

Gann discusses Adams up to Grand Pianola Music; thereafter Adams went his own way, and it is here that I think things really get interesting . Adams' The Dharma at Big Sur is a fascinating modern study in just tuning and tribute to California (and West coast composers Lou Harrison and Terry Riley). At his program note on the work, Adams discusses his decision to explore just tuning, Jimi Hendrix, and Johnny Hodges, and the blue note.




Adams creatively explores all kinds of minimal techniques (repetition, electronic manipulation) which Tracy Silverman clearly:

  Apart from Adams, I wish Gann would devote time to composers who are very influential, popular, AND were interesting who, though less directly relating to minimalism were discussed only very cursorily: Corigliano, Tower, Rouse (short paragraph), Harbison, Higdon (not mentioned), Daugherty (not mentioned), Zwillich (got a paragraph), etc. He seems to be deliberately avoiding the mainstream/popular.

Erasure in the Cultural Avant Garde

I applaud Witesell's treading into dangerous waters in is insightful essay White Noise: Race and Erasure in the Cultural Avant-Garde. This is obviously a topic fraught with issues and he generally handled it well. He made statements of gross overgeneralizing which made me uncomfortable, but there was always some truth contained within. Overall, I found it an extremely engaging and interesting work.
There is a lot of provocative content here and I will present some of my reactions.

Whitesell does not completely deal with the issue of European cultural colonization which I wish he would have fleshed out more fully. Western music, like our historical military exploits, does seek to appropriate foreign cultures and annex them into our cultural fabric. Though America is typically viewed as the "melting pot," America is hardly the only country to look elsewhere for inspiration and material, and I view this practice, of which Whitesell implies criticism, as healthy and emblematic of the greater globilization taking place right now.  And this regeneration by looking out is what we do. It keeps things fresh. Perhaps not back to the Medieval ages, but since the modern era composers have looked outside their natural surroundings, whether to folk song or to foreign lands. This is part of what makes the tradition so great. Yes, in It's Gonna Rain, black is subsumed into white, but composers have always taken source materials and given them interface with their own cultural traditions. It might have less value and relevance if Reich had taken something white and somehow made it black.

This fascination with nothingness keeps reoccurring throughout the movement and is philosophically troubling to me. Clearly a reaction against the horrors of war, I wonder what the ultimate emotional effect is of removing all the cultural relations that give meaning to art. If you are constantly rejecting and invalidating, what are you building? How is your art helping people, or revealing beauty, or healing, if all it seeks is the desolate wasteland of emptiness?
  The author could have pointed out the mininalists' rejection of the fully textured and nuanced orchestral palate in favor of the "whiteness" of the minimalist ensemble.

I like the author's focus on the minimalists' rejection of decadence in search of purity. This seems to echo Schoenberg, who also reacted against corruption and harmonic degeneration (of the diminished seventh) chord by exploring serialism; instead of searching for a transcendent meaning or spiritual transparency, Schoenberg found a rich and logical progression from Romanticism. Schoenberg was concerned with improvement, the very concept of which Cage and the minimalists rejected.

With the minimalists' rejection of content, doesn't the process become the content? So it's impossible to have art without content? Even Cage's random processes seem to fill a void by their strict procedures.

Musically, Whitesell focuses on the work of Reich and Glass who are the most popular minimalists. Perhaps these two composers were the most popular and successful of the school because they exploited momentum. Those that rejected rhythmic momentum seem tedious to me. Thus, Reich and Glass include temporal goals (despite a glacial speed), but without the hierarchical structure of Romanticism (Schenker).


 I was particularly troubled by the author's extended discussion on the premise of aspiration as a deep-seated trait that characterizes people of European heritage. While I see what Richard Dyer is getting at, this is an impossibly complex, over-generalized, and unfair statement. It is insulting (and racist?) to claim that Africans are inherently not concerned with striving for betterment. Perhaps the European tradition has taken this characteristic to an extreme? If one were to play along with this clain, where does this leave the Tiger Mom and the stereotype of hyper-competition of Asian-Americans? While Americans descending from slaves surely carry some legacy of subjugation, this postulation of aspiration as white is insulting and cannot possibly hold up under any objective scrutiny.
  Unfortunately though, in current American cultural stereotypes, whiteness probably can be equated with driven aspiration. This is deeply troubling, and one is pressed to ask, why is this? Are all humans equally programmed to be driven toward aspiration and the Europeans simply progressed to the stage of military and cultural imperialism soonest? For a fascinating discussion on cultural progression of civilizations, check out Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.

The author mentions "the emergence of a new kind of flatness..." which makes me think of Thomas Friedman's epic reading of the modern age. Watch him discussing political flatness here: http://mit.tv/zBz6IQ.
     Whitesell's essay was written in 2001, on the brink of what I consider to be the age of the internet, a post-postmodern age. I wondered if the author would have any update on his essay given the current trends of increasing impersonality in an online world.
    All this talk of white and black leaves me wondering where has grey gone? In the age of "You're with us or you're against us," nuance and compromise (any grey are) seem to be increasingly overlooked in favor of simple and convenient answers. The internet has been incredibly empowering to the world's powerless, but when everyone has a loudspeaker, one must really shout to be heard and provoke to be remembered.

The amount of fodder in Whitesell's article for weeks of discussion is testament to the power of music. I am grateful to him for thoughtfully raising important questions presented in the music that are unfortunately sidestepped by people like Paul Simon seeking easy listening and easy feeling.

the movements age

I'd like to start this post with a paraphrase from the prologue to Listen to This by Alex Ross. He makes the very interesting point that all music becomes classical in the end. Jazz and rock have both progressed through similar stages in fast pace:
Phase 1: Youth rebellion. Satchmo, Duke, Jelly Roll Morton. I'll add Elvis and the like.
Phase 2: Romanticism. Bourgeois pomp of swing band. I would add Mingus as the apex of high Romanticism in jazz, Stadium rock.
Phase 3: Artists rebel against bourgeois image, echoing classical modernism. Stravinsky, Charlie Parker, punk rock.
Phase 4: a vanguard loses touch with the masses and becomes a self-contained avant garde. Babbitt, free jazz, Zappa.
Phase 5: Retrenchment. Wynton, del Tredici, Barber launch a neo-Romantic idealization of the past, but efforts are too late to restore the art to the mainstream. Countless rock bands from the 60s and 70s continue to tour and fill arenas, reminiscing in lost moments of the audience's youth.

I have found all this very illuminating.


One of Zappa's last concerts, on tour in Barcelona. Full concert:

In the remainder of this post I would like to share some more experimental songs.
Rush's Cygnus X-1 features many unusual time signatures

There is a huge and flourishing experimental indie rock scene, of which I know basically nothing. The very interesting band Neptune is doing some unusual experimentation with soundscapes and invented instruments. Check it out!!



Taken from their website, Neptune writes:
"Neptune's origins trace to 1994 as a sculpture project by Boston artist/musician Jason Sanford, who forged the band's haphazard guitars and reluctant drums from scrap steel and found objects.  Seven lineups, twenty-three releases and hundreds of instruments later, the band continues to wrench its sound spatter on self-built instruments to often confounded audiences around the world."

Moving to the totally mainstream, I particularly enjoy Dave Matthews Band for its intelligent construction and complicated structures."
Dreaming Tree is in 7/8,

#34 is a really off-balance 9/8

What meter is Let You Down?

Saucers by Ozric Tentacles is also extremely metrically irregular.

Dream Theatre did some very experimental works. The Dance of Eternity is a true tone poem, orchestrally scored, with significant motivic development within a creative soundscape.

dialogues with jazz and pop

I have known Mingus' work for years. Though considering it too rambunctious for my daily listening pleasure, I've always recognized his genius. Mingus' music is always powerful, brilliantly constructed (even as jazz). The work I have most associated with him is Pithecanthropus Erectus:

My favorite part from Black Saint is the Track C Group Dancers. There is an incredibly mournful wailing as passionate and affecting as anything.
  Although I have always been aware of Brian Eno, this was my first opportunity to spend some time with his music.

In Dark Trees could have been composed by Reich. Slow moving harmonies, repeated motives, subtle color shifts.

Music for Airports is totally ambient, owes lots of slowly shifting textures to LaMonte Young and paving the way for trendy clothing stores at the mall.
Interesting that rock has ascended high maturity of appealing to intellect and begun to descend again as the movement loses electricity of its youth.

In Laurie Anderson (especially Superman) I hear contemporary rage Imogen Heap-- voice encoder, soft lyricism, creative textures.

In Guitar Trio, I hear rockers writing minimalism. I wonder what Steve Reich thinks? This music lacks coherent structure perceivable in Reich and Glass, but is somewhat interesting nonetheless.

Drastic Classicism might be the better work, more timbral contrast. This work also seems to possess a more coherent form than the Guitar Trio.
Angel Moves too fast to See fascinating video documenting some of its production. I can hear so many of Terry Riley's procedures wedded to infectious beat and freedom of rock.

I enjoyed Gann's illuminating discussion of jazz vs. classical in which he boils the distinction down to the role of the performer. This is getting at a frequent lament of mine, that classical performances too often sound alike because the role of the individual is so subverted.

I find Braxton's compositions very interesting, especially 40B. Their jazzy nature seem to make them more accessible despite the dissonant and pointalistic textures. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a recording of the Composition no. 95 for two pianos.

Braxton talking about his 12 + 1tet. The diversity of his output is amazing, ranging from the freely avant garde (above) to hip standards like Body and Soul (below).

I don't think Schuller's music is poorly constructed, and I applaud his efforts to cross genres. However, I think there are better composers, and his work does not generally speak strongly to me. I think it's unfortunate that he had to write that essay to defend his work. There are certainly things to be learned from each side studying the other.

Electronic music goes high art

If Gann explores the early and middle periods of eletronic music, the genre seems to have reached a high point. Most of the music of Chapter 10 seems to be electronic music in the formative stages, twinkles of greatness, but lots of searching, like early symphonies of Sammartini.



I will dedicate this post mostly to exploration of the very popular young composer Mason Bates:
  Bates is a DJ/composer who seeks to replicate electronic sounds with acoustic instruments. He hit the scene big as composer for the Youtube Symphony. He has been in residence with San Fransisco Symphony and Chicago. His music builds on dance beats, his music shifts smoothly frequently and maintains interest, often exploring subtle colors. Often performing electronics on stage (in T shirt), he certainly represents electronic music reaching high brow.

His major splash, Mothership by the Youtube Symphony with star improvisations:


Bates talking (in his voice exactly like Owen Wilson) on technology and mass transmission:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=livy1_GDFzQ

Most interesting: A collaborative remix of the Ligeti sonata and groovy at Le Poisson Rouge with electronics.

A piece with some really interesting colors and textures performed by the Detroit Symphony:

Bates is not on stage, but you can easily imagine him in the back working on his laptop.


Finally, piece for DJ and band which is very frequently performed:

His music is really accessible and holds a broad appeal. Unless he continues to innovate, his music risks being to much alike. He has several pieces for band and electronics which are performed frequently. Of course, his music really is just beats with interesting colors... I still like it.

The New Romanticism?

Lots going on here tonight. How to begin to reflect on the colossal scope of this chapter? So much is lumped together but I should talk about Rzewski because I was only familiar with his piece for 8th Blackbird, Pocket Symphony.

Wow. I just spent the past hour listening to Rzewski's People United and am so glad I did, especially with the score available.

What an amazing piece. There is something here for everyone! I love the unified narrative structure that unfolds through various different idioms, jazz, atonal fragments, minimal, Romanticism. He is so creative, developing ideas satisfactorily then moving on at the perfect time, giving each variation a sense of closure within a larger hierarchical structure. The form makes total sense, and I feel various degrees of fulfillment as the work unfolds. I was skeptical during the very Les Mis-like theme (harmonies are like the standard All The Things You Are), but just as in Beethoven, the more comprehensible and memorable the theme, the greater flexibility afforded.

There is lots of Paganini and Rachmaninov in the Romantic virtuosity, but that helps make this work seem really accessible to a large concert-going public. Especially the piano recital crowd who does not expect to hear anything written after 1890. Given its length, this would require incredible stamina of the performer.
There is so much interesting music in this work! Dazzling colors, cool effects, driving rhythms that appeal on a physical level. Staggering beauty, savage brutality.
Maybe I just like it because it's simple enough for me to understand.

Interestingly, Rzewski seems to have uploaded many of his own scores to IMSLP. He has a piece, Satyrica, for jazz combo and band, but I can not find any information on it beyond a decent recording [here]. This work is over an hour and seems less interesting although I did not get all the way through.

I wonder, does a composer make his work stronger by including a political agenda? Or does this weaken the music, or distract from its power?

The Gann text is suddenly conversational, blatantly presenting his opinions along with bad jokes. 
I think the entire New Romanticism term is more problematic than even minimalism was. I think what Gann really means is Music That More People Like to Listen To era.

Glass and Monk

I have long enjoyed Glass' music but am struggling right now with Einstein on a conceptual level. How is it drama if there is no drama? How is there poignant and meaningful marriage of the text and drama if there is nothing really happening on stage? Does a bed rising over 20 minutes or some spaceship landing count as plot? 
  I've been long acquainted with the peculiarities of Einstein's music and form, but getting to know Akhnaten was a real joy. Glass has clearly progressed quite a ways from Einstein in terms of expression (dare I say it?) and this music connects with me. Perhaps this relates to the subject matter at hand, a more traditional operatic concept. Glass' ability to totally transform his communicative style really speaks to his compositional skill. Moreover, there is text in the vernacular. The music is really Romantic and accessible, at times seeming to channel Purcell and others of the baroque. The absence of violins makes the affair darker and more ominous.
The Act II Scene 4 hymn is especially Romantic, adopting the clear architecture of a classical aria in stretched out form. The music is lush throughout and Glass builds a melodic structure in the accompaniment by stringing together well-used scalar gestures.
To me, the most powerful music is at the beginning: Scene 1: Funeral of Akhnaten's father Amenhotep III. Of course multitasking while listening, this entire track demanded my full attention. Rhythmically propulsive from its beginning, this music varies rhythmically or melodically just quickly enough to keep me interested. Again, Glass has definitely softened his aesthetic from the uncompromising adventure of Einstein, but absolutely progressed toward a higher and more refined art. Its form is so clear and feels natural and satisfying, and I feel rewarded at being able to see the composer's trajectory as the work progresses. Glass' orchestrations are wonderful and creative, always shifting color just when it is needed.  On more listening, I feel more of Barber's neo-Romanticism permeating this work than Cagean conceptualism...
  Monk's Atlas is much more natural and earthy than Glass and Reich. Her voice is smooth and beautiful, and the music has a certain softness of smooth velvet. Other Worlds Revealed seems to create a new klangfarbenmelodie of explosive consonants ringing around the room. Her work is certainly creative.

Minimalism!

What a relief! Finally.

"content suggests form"
"complete control." Boulez and Babbit!
accepted results of processes, like Cage. But I think his point that Cage's processes can't be heard by the listener. I would also add that Cage was likely not thinking of what the result would sound like, while Reich clearly is. This surely has some influence on the accessibility of Reich's music. Process and the resultant music are one artistic being, the result being that Reich's music would probably be considered more musical.
Reich's music connects with me in part because he is considering the psychological and emotive byproducts of his composition. Cage, like Babbit, seems to display a cold indifference to how the sounds make someone feel.
Emotive content is also remarkable given the rigidity of its construction.

Piano Phase was a work that I never had much interest in. However, my recent survey of progressive American music gave it a new context and I now find the slow process really fascinating.
Reich's later music (and Glass's) has always captivated me. Something about the clean lines and objective clarity always always appealed to me aesthetically in a way that decadent late Romanticism has not. Perhaps these characteristics are just more in line with my personality, not often volatile and given to excess turbulence.

The most remarkable part of Eight Lines, a piece I have loved for some time, is its clear form. I don't know if chance operations were part of its construction, but every part, beginning, middle, and end, has a special emotional character whose non-narrative progression seems so perfectly natural and right. I think Gann hits on the power of Reich's music as physical, involving the body with regular rhythmic motion that is very appealing. Young's work is fine, but it doesn't appeal to me in a physical way where I feel involved, like Reich.


Very memorably, I went with a few friends this fall to hear the Syracuse contemporary music ensemble perform Music for 18 Musicians, long one of my favorites. Of course, I had never experienced a live performance, and I was excited for the opportunity.
It was a really interesting experience, both personally, and observing the audience. The work is 56 minutes. There was a good sized audience at the downtown art museum of diverse age representation. Surely, everyone there had some idea what they were in for, but their response was telling nonetheless. The music began, and after about thirty minutes, coughs and excessive chair shifting exposed a noticable frustration, but by the last twenty minutes, the composition's arc seemed to take its designed effect and people were lulled into a mesmerized trance. Although the audience was not visibly asleep, the music was undeniably powerful, allowing each listener to experience a wide variety of emotive states.

Death by Cello

This author is making his paper much less accessible to me by using so many huge and either invented or complicated words. He very frustratingly explains parts of theory at length in academic speak, and then restates it in more plain vocabulary.

Why would Cage lend so much assistance in a performance if he detested Moorman's procedure? That photograph was 1963, I guess before he had become estranged artistically from Moorman. But since they had a working relationship, could Cage not convince her of his aesthetic wishes?

Cage seemed to be trying to escape cultural connections, yet Moorman linked Cage's work with political and social controversy. But Moorman's incorporation of recorded people and natural sounds seems to be in line with Cage's sonic explorations. Indeed, Moorman is becoming more creative in 1965. Human cello. Far more theatrical than Cage would have approved of. Cage also would never have incorporated recordings of jazz and pop.

Why should performances always be the same? Should not our performance evolve as we live with a work and grow aesthetically? Unfortunately, Moorman is deviating from the composer's wishes. Why is this such a problem? She has lived with the work much more than Cage, and if Cage is so dependent on the performer to realize his somewhat indeterminate work, why should the artist not have more of a say in its execution? Moorman relished the opportunity to engage more creatively with Cage's work.

I find it interesting that Moorman and Paik cannot escape the political strain of the 1960s and incorporate war association and violence to either deal with the stresses or make some political statement. Cage is criticized for his distance from the divisive political issues of the day, but Moorman and Paik were forcing him into a dialogue with society.

I just have to wonder, Why the absurdity? Just to enjoy the spectacle of scandal? On the Opera sextronique and "taboo-breaking art." Is this the next step in a natural progression of composers who sought to break boundaries? Were Gesualdo, Beethoven, and Stravinsky trying to be deliberately provocative? More likely, the scandal of their work was the result of the music's shock, and not shock just for shock's value. But in breaking rules of artistic convention, Moorman seems in line with the arc of composers to this point. While Cage's explorations are mostly sonic, Moorman is transforming the piece by seeking to violate the audience.

The Moorman/Paik production is much more culturally relevant than Cage's work. Interesting that as her performances became more flamboyant, said every work is a collaboration between her and the composer, a fact which many composers do not seem to acknowledge.

As Cage redefined the performer's physical relationship to the cello, Moorman just extended the concept, in dialogue with her political sympathies.

Interesting point that nudity had always been accepted art, so why can't she play her cello nude? This boundary certainly has broken down since the 60s.

Responding to the music, I think Chromatic Canon is the most interesting. I like the process moving from consonant to dissonant and back to consonant, and Tenney has designed each repeated cell to have a slightly different feel and sound; the addition of a single new tone has a major effect, and their progression is transfixing. Also remarkable is the way the final harmony of F# slowly emerges from the din; there is an amazing sense of release when it becomes obvious that this is the point of arrival.

Otherwise I am having some trouble with the experimentalist movement. I'm not getting into the spirit of shocking audiences beyond their wildest expectations of what music or art should be, nor the absurd conceptualism. Perhaps I am having trouble letting go of my narrative structures and am too impatient to enjoy some of these works; or perhaps these works just go beyond my interest.

HPSCHD - moving toward a world without conductors

Virgil Thomson wrote that Cage, unlike Wagner, emphasized show business. I would counter that Wagner also deployed show business with his lavish designs and self-promotion of a cult-like following, all of which is good for sales. I believe Thomson mislabels Cage's intent as "production of ecstasy." While this is surely Wagner's goal, it seems Cage would have eschewed such a heightened emotional state.

My question of the Brechtian separation of media is how do they form a cohesive whole if they were conceived totally independently? I guess this situation could function as a collage does functions as a work of art. Perhaps the very frame of my question refutes Copeland's claim that the Wagnerian model of integration is not dominant today.

Art to prepare way for utopia. Makes sense that the American view of anarchy would downplay the socialist aspect in favor of individualism.

Cage engages in the age-old discussion of faith in technology. Has life improved since the Industrial Revolution? His optimistic faith had a large part in shaping his politics and aesthetic.

I feel totally inept to write on HPSCHD without experiencing the work firsthand. Apparently the work was performed at the Concertgebouw in Bruges in 2010, a performance for which they specifically asked the audience to keep their cell phones on. Unfortunately, I can not find any reviews about how the work was received by current audiences.

The biggest challenge for me to understand and enjoy Cage's work (and others' in this vein) is escaping the need to assign value judgements, locate a narrative, and decipher what the composer is trying to communicate.




                         Wagner                                          Cage
                       show business                                  show business and promotion
                       hypnotize, fog senses                       critical distance
media             synthesis                                          individuality and independence
Audience       Private, uniform, personal               individual, self-determined, shared with others
experience     isolated, intoxicated dulling of senses          community, perception and response
response         unified                                             diverse
content           determined, fixed, structure            free, participatory
                       exclusive                                          inclusive
composer       control, emotive                              offering, helpful, providing materials for use
                       narrative, goal-oriented                  non-narrative
                       "shared spiritual bath"
politics           racist baggage                                 Silence on race (baggage?)
                       technology                                      technology
                       synthesis of media                          "Global village" bridging cultures
                      culmination of high modern            continuation of high modern
                       elitism, walled off from society      elitism, walled off from society (less so)
             view of art as preparing social change     view of art as preparing social change
                          

Oboe adventure

I know we were supposed to blog tonight about our notational system, but I was not going to start composing or designing anything remotely artistic until I had an instrument to write for.

I have decided to pursue a reed aerophone made of repurposed straws. I did not have an used ones on hand, but they could be easily washed and reused, especially as the reed which is short.

The most difficult part of making the instrument was creating a reed that would produce a stable, consistent, and resonant sound without slipping into overtones. The plastic is pretty temperamental and the triangular table must be cut exactly right. Determining the amount of plastic and the angle of the cut was an issue. You can see the cut which I found to be best.

  The best reed produced a loud, high, and steady crow. Of course, learning to produce a good sound once I had a decent reed was another obstacle. I had to address proper air control, form a proper embouchure. After 90 minutes of playing my instrument, I understand the plight of oboists! Additionally, I am learning how to work on and maintain my reeds by systematically opening and closing it to produce the best sound.

I made a family of reeds, and each has its own properties.

Next came cutting straw lengths to form the body of the instrument.

 Lengths can be combined by slitting the end and inserting it into the next one. Above is a lead pipe of two six-inch straws.

The last step in making my instrument was the tone-whole region. First I made two identically-tuned lengths. While one served as my permanent instrument, I progressively cut pieces off the second, tuned it, and marked the length on the first to note where I should cut tone wholes. After I had a whole octave marked, I cut the whole with a hole-punch. Unfortunately, several wholes were too close together for my fingers to completely cover, so I was forced to more creatively consider their placement. Additionally, I need to apply significant pressure to cover the tone wholes and balance was an issue with a flimsy plastic.

After some careful thought, I cut a new length shown above with several wholes on the bottom. While I can now cover every whole, I can also balance fingers above to securely hold the instrument.
  The final issues now for me to master are reed control and fingering. The reed is still unstable and, depending on placement, embouchure pressure, and air speed, I can manipulate the pitch almost a major sixth. This is probably caused by cheap materials! The most stable pitch is usually almost the highest possible. Fingering is an issue, not just for pitch, but for physical stability. The tube likes to roll and bend due to the pressure I apply to cover the wholes, so I have been inventing creative fingerings to maintain stability.
  Its range, when producing its fullest sound, is an octave, comprising a poorly-tuned major scale. Alternate fingerings can produce additional tones.

Here is the whole complete instrument:

I can insert and number of lead pipes to increase the length. The shortest instrument is the most reliable, but longer lengths produce a warmer, less obnoxious tone. I might make a consort of straw oboes!!
  With its excellent projection, my instrument will be ideal for outdoor performance.

Feldman and the New York school

"There was a deity in my life, and that deity was sound."

 
In the article Feldman brings up the discussion of the derivation of art. Of course, all artists are influenced by all the developments across the genres of art up to the present, but certain artists were more original than others. Originality for its own sake is not artful, but new developments revealing some new realm of greatness certainly are important steps of "progress." And many associated with the New York school were, in fact, incredibly original. Cage, Feldman, Pollock, Rothko, Newmann, all pioneered new dimensions of moving expression. Unfortunately for Feldman, with fame comes the analytical microscope, and he rejects any need to justify his work by historical or cultural context in favor of an admirable desire of self-expression. He wrote what he did because that was who he was. But while he does not need to justify his ideas, Feldman should acknowledge his place in the cultural context; Mallarme and Kafka might indeed shed some light on the circumstances that created Feldman the person, who in turn created these quiet sounds.
  Regarding an academic appointment, Feldman never fit the mold and should not be surprised he was not scooped up by the conservative institutional establishment.


Morton Feldman is unquestionably the composer of the twentieth century most interested in color and this dimension forms the primary point of interest in his music for me. Like his mentor Varese, Feldman sought to let the audience experience the raw qualities of sound. Feldman took his mentor's sound sculpting to a whole new level in outrageously sparse textures.
  The King of Denmark is an especially explicit exploration of timbre, as that is really all there is. Patiently unfolding, Feldman lets sounds unfold in space, carefully arranged to make an impact on the listener. To me, Feldman is unleashing the expressive power of timbre, savoring the unique color of each instrument in a spiritual experience. This work is captivating and I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the next color to wash over me, and it teaches me to quiet my mind and be patient. A multi-percussion instrumentation is the ideal vehicle for Feldman's expression-- the visual element adds an additional dimension.
  To me, piece for four pianos is less successful in my mind because there are so few timbres.

Feldman's Rothko's Chapel is an especially profound and reflective work. Feldman's patient and sparse style seems especially appropriate for an elegy. The silences in this piece are so much a part of the suffering and struggle being expressed. Sparse chords and dissonant splashes are punctuated by agonizing silences. I can see Rothko's hazy floating fogs of color in the choir's wordless dissonance.
There is a magical moment at the end when the viola plays a lamenting song with shocking lyricism, sounding vaguely Jewish, modal, happy, and sad. Perhaps Feldman is recomposing a funeral service. The tortured dissonances and silences of the piece have been resolved as Feldman turns spiritually upward.

I watched the end of this performance several times, transfixed by the way in which the agonizing soprano notes hanging in the air pass into the hazy fog of vocal dissonance, giving way to the vibraphone and viola lament. Twenty-four minutes into the work, this relief is totally revelatory and spiritual; Feldman's good friend is allowed to release the pains of this world, lays in peace with his ancestors, and ascends in the mist.

According to Cage, he and Feldman met in the lobby during a Carnegie Hall performance by the New York Philharmonic while the two were avoiding a performance of Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances. Sounds right.

I have only experienced one performance of Feldman, and this was last year by a chamber ensemble. Really, my only response was boredom, probably because I was not receiving the experience I was expecting. His music is very patient and requires the listener to reflect and experience the quiet colors as sound.

cage influences pt 4

Barnett Newman: Concorde, 1949

 

Newman shares many characteristics with Rothko: neat, clean lines separating two or three colors in several shades.

Mark Rothko - White Center (1950)

Rothko: No. 3/No. 13 (Magenta, Black, Green on Orange), 1949

Going though many styles, including expressionism and surrealism, Rothko in his mature style "multiform" style is my favorite of this school. Something about his use of bright colors and hazy blends gives a feel of energized ecstasy. The fields seem to levitate like different oils in a bottle, mingling uncomfortably but unable to mix.

 These artists each have their own style, but together they sought to redefine art by throwing out all expectations, just as Cage would do. I think that some comparison of the visual realm to Cage is fair because all these artists shared the avant garde ideals of revising expectations. But the sleek minimalism of Rothko and Newman seem to have more aesthetically to do with Reich's cool repetition than Cage's works. Aesthetically, Cage's music shares the most with Pollock, who it seems was the most interested in the process side of the art.

Obviously Cage's interest zen and other Eastern realms were hugely influential on his chance operations.

cage influences pt 3

Willem de Kooning: Pink Angels, 1945

In contrast to Pollock's brash and uncompromising randomness, you can see a warm side of de Kooning in this work.

de Kooning: Woman and Bicycle, 1952. 

A more typical work of the artist: post-Picasso abstraction.