Wednesday, May 2nd
string quartet festival
day two
Lawrence Wilde (aka Yuri Boguinia), String Quartet No. 3 (“Wilted Jasmine,” 2016); JACK Quartet, live
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lagniappe
random sights
other night, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: cello
2018
2018
Tuesday, May 1st
string quartet festival
day one
Like painting, the string quartet endures. Composers keep finding new colors.
Thomas Adès (1971-), Arcadiana (1994)
Danish String Quartet, live, New York, 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2018
Tuesday, April 24th
More beauty?
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), String Quartet in F major (1903); Sacconi Quartet, live, London, 2015
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lagniappe
reading table
The snow is melting
and the village is flooded
with children.—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by Robert Haas)
2018
Monday, March 26th
How many composers do so much with so little?
Anton Webern, Three Little Pieces for Cello and Piano, op. 11 (1914); Juliane Trémoulet (cello), Vincent Planès (piano), live, France (Pau), 2016
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lagniappe
random thoughts
The door is never locked.
2018
Thursday, February 22nd
more
Julius Eastman (1940-1990), Stay on It (1973), live, Switchboard Music Festival, San Francisco, 2016*
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lagniappe
random thoughts
The paper clip in my desk drawer will outlive me.
*****
*Annie Phillips, bass clarinet; Jeff Anderle, clarinet; Aram Shelton, alto saxophone; Alisa Rose, violin; Hannah Addario-Berry, cello; Helen Newby, cello; Dominique Leone, piano; Mark Clifford, vibraphone; Jordan Glenn, drums.
2018
Monday, February 19th
In a country that continues to coarsen, delicacy grows ever more precious.
John Luther Adams (1953-), there is no one, not even the wind (2017); Emerald City Music, live (world premiere), Seattle, 9/15/17
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2018
Thursday, February 15th
sounds of Iceland
Gyða Valtýsdóttir, “Imago,” live, Iceland (Seltjarnarnes), 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2018
Thursday, February 8th
another take
Once I enter this world I never want to leave.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987; MCOTD Hall of Fame), Piano and String Quartet (1985); Musica Nova Consort, live, Israel (Tel Aviv), 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
Going home,
the horse stumbles
in the winter wind.—Yosa Buson, 1716-1784 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
2018
Thursday, January 25th
never enough
If I could play like this, I’d never stand up.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, Prelude; Eva Lymenstull (baroque cello), 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
I like this story from the N.Y. Times—a composition by a child in the third grade: ‘I told my little brother that when you die you cannot breathe and he did not say a word. He just kept on playing.’
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), Letter to Robert Lowell, September 8, 1948
2018
Wednesday, January 24th
sounds of New York
Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die (JB, trumpet, compositions; Tomeka Reid, cello; Jason Ajemian, bass; Chad Taylor, drums), live, New York (Rye Bar, Brooklyn), 2016
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Improvised music is like basketball: a great player makes everybody better.
*****
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
