Wednesday, March 4th
alone
Joy Guidry (bassoon, electronics, compositions), “Dear June A Letter to my Father,” “You’ve Done What You Can,” “Praise & Worship,” published 2/27/26
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Illinois
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: bassoon
2023
Wednesday, December 13th
sounds of New York
Marty Erlich: Dark Woods/Bright Sparks (Marty Ehrlich [1955-], woodwinds, compositions; Ron Horton, trumpet; Sara Schoenbeck, bassoon; Erik Friedlander, cello; Matt Pavolka, bass; Satoshi Takahashi, percussion; Erica Hunt, words), live, New York, 12/10/23
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
Even now there are places where a thought might grow—
—Derek Mahon (1941-2020), from “A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford”
2023
Tuesday, March 21st
Complex? Yes. But its complexity is matched by its clarity. It breathes.
Milton Babbitt (1916-2011), Composition for Twelve Instruments (1948, rev. 1954): Ensemble conducted by Ralph Shapey (1921-2002), 1962
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2021
Monday, September 20th
sounds of New York
last night, Brooklyn: Daniel Carter (reeds), Claire De Brunner (bassoon), Aron Namewirth (guitar), Adam Caine (bass), Jeff Pearring (alto saxophone)
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2020
Monday, August 24th
Why not begin the week with something beautiful?
Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble and Alarm Will Sound, “Anthem” (M. Monk), published 8/22/20
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, outside Chicago
2017
Saturday, August 19th
mysterious, adj. Exciting wonder, curiosity, or surprise while baffling efforts to comprehend or identify. E.g., Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Sequences.
Anna Thorvaldsdottir (1977-), Sequences (bass flute, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, contrabassoon), 2016; International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), live, New York, 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
in the big rain
gushing down
little butterfly—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
2017
Monday, February 6th
not the same old stuff
Dana Jessen (bassoon), Points Against Fields (Sam Pluta), live, Chicago, 2016
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
So many sounds, made by so many people, we’ll never hear, no matter how much we listen.
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random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2015
Wednesday, January 14th
sounds of Chicago (day two)
Sometimes encountering a new piece of music can turn your whole day around, which is what happened to me the other day when I bumped into this.
Georg Friedrich Haas (1953-), In Vain (2000)
Ensemble Dal Niente, live, Chicago, 2013
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Claude Monet (1840-1926), Cliff Walk at Pourville (1882)
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Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Seascape (1879)
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random thoughts
Eyes taste paintings no less than mouths taste food.
2013
Wednesday, October 2nd
love it or hate it
Anthony Braxton 12+1tet, Composition 355, live, Italy (Venice), 2012
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Anthony, a MacArthur “genius” award winner (1994) and professor at Wesleyan University, talks about this and that:
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music can take us places we’ve never been before, if we’re willing to listen to sounds we’ve never heard before.
2013
Tuesday, April 30th
one thing after
another after another
after another after another after . . .
John Cage (1912-1992), Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1958); Variable Geometry (Jean-Phillippe Calvin, director), live, London, 2011
A performance like this can go wrong in so many ways. This one, to these ears, works wonderfully. Momentum, tautness, immediacy—it has them all.
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Everything we do is music.
music clip of the day 