Thursday, September 14th
more
Kaija Saariaho (1952-), Petals (1988; cello and electronics); Imke Frank (cello) and Gary Berger (live electronics), live, Switzerland (Winterthur), 2011
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: classical
2017
Wednesday, September 13th
another take
John Luther Adams (1953-), The Light Within (2007); Late Music Ensemble, live, England (York), 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)
2017
Saturday, September 9th
Need a break from listening to yourself?
Kaija Saariaho (1952-), Nocturne for solo violin (1994)
Alexi Kenney (violin), live, New York, 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
John Ashbery (July 28, 1927-September, 3, 2017)
Whatever we’re dealing with catches us
in mid-reconsideration. It’s beautiful,
my lord, just not made to be repeated,
that’s all.***
It was a moment, what can I say.
—John Ashbery (1927-), “A Breakfast Radish,” “Domani, Dopodomani” (fragments), Breezeway (2015)
2017
Thursday, September 7th
another take
Morton Feldman (1927-1986; MCOTD Hall of Fame), Rothko Chapel (1971); Markus Creed (cond.), SWR Vokalensemble (Vocal Ensemble), et al., live, Germany (Cathedral of Speyer, Schwetzinger), 2017
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday, Art Institute of Chicago
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Cup Decorated with the Figure of a Bathing Girl, 1887-88 (Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist, through September 10th)
*****
reading table
John Ashbery (July 28, 1927-September, 3, 2017)
What will it all be like in five years’ time
when you try to remember?—”For John Clare” (fragment)
2017
Tuesday, September 5th
soundtrack to a dream
John Luther Adams (1953-), The Light Within (2007); Faculty & Fellows, Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Mass., 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
John Ashbery (July 28, 1927-September, 3, 2017)
The bad news is the ship hasn’t arrived;
the good news is it hasn’t left yet.—He Who Loves And Runs Away (fragment; Planisphere, 2009)
*****
random sights
this morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
2017
Thursday, August 24th
never enough
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Prelude No. 15 in D flat major (“Raindrop”); Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), piano
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lagniappe
reading table
dragonfly—
flying two feet,
then two feet more—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
2017
Monday, August 21st
more
Anna Thorvaldsdottir (1977-), In the Light of Air (2013/2014); International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), live, New York, 2014
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Suppose that, for the rest of your listening life, you had two options. One: You could only listen to things you’d never heard before. Two: You could never listen to anything new. Which would you choose?
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, August 14th
This piece, in over forty years of listening, has never—not once—let me down. And this performance, which I encountered last night, is among the strongest I’ve heard.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Suite No. 5 in C minor for Unaccompanied Cello
Mischa Maisky, live, 1991
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lagniappe
reading table
Unable are the Loved to die
For Love is Immortality,
Nay, it is Deity –Unable they that love – to die
For Love reforms Vitality
Into Divinity.—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 951 (Franklin)
2017
Monday, August 7th
Why not begin the week with something beautiful?
John Luther Adams (1953-), In a Treeless Place, Only Snow (1999); Faculty & Fellows, Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Mass., 2016
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Untitled #12, 1977
music clip of the day 