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Category: classical

2012

Wednesday, 7/25/12

Suppose that, for the rest of your life, you could listen to only one piece of music.

What would you choose?

Morton Feldman (1926-1987), For Bunita Marcus (1985)
Hildegard Kleeb, piano (1994)

Another take? Here. And here.

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

[Morton Feldman and I] were driving back from some place in New England where a concert had been given. He is a large man and falls asleep easily. Out of a sound sleep, he awoke to say, “Now that things are so simple, there’s so much to do.” And then he went back to sleep.

—John Cage, in Silence: Lectures and Writings by John Cage (1961)

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2012

Tuesday, 7/24/12

George Lewis (1952-), “Will to Adorn” (2011)
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Chicago, 2012

[W]hen writing “The Will To Adorn,” Lewis was especially “interested in this idea of adornment—color, color, color everywhere.” The piece represents Lewis’ current musical goal to get “more color energy into the pieces.”

—Joe Bucciero, Columbia Spectator, 11/10/11

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

In February, when I left this concert, which took place on a Sunday afternoon at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, I felt both exhilarated and wistful. This performance, which had been such a joy to hear, I would never be able to experience again. Or so I thought, until, just the other day, I discovered this recording online. Young people, many of them, anyway, would see nothing remarkable in being able, thanks to the ’net, to return to a musical experience whenever, and wherever, you want. To me it seems a small miracle.

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reading table

I was trying to assert myself as the man in the house, taking charge of things no one could control.

—Richard Ford, Canada (2012)

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2012

Monday, 7/23/12

Monday, n. the day the weekly tide of confusion rolls in.

How about something simple?

John Cage (1912-1992), Six Melodies (for violin and keyboard; dedicated to Josef & Anni Albers), 1950; Annelie Gahl (violin) & Klaus Lang (electric piano), 2010

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2012

Saturday, 7/21/12

Johann Sebastian Bach, Air on the G String (adapted from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, 2nd Mvt.), Friedrich Gulda, piano, 1980s (?)

(Yeah, that’s Chick Corea at 2:57.)

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

This would make a helluva blurb:

Bach’s music is the only argument proving the creation of the Universe cannot be regarded a complete failure.

—Emil Cioran

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2012

Thursday, 7/12/12

If, someday, Björk invites you over for tea, don’t be surprised if she wants to show you this.

Martha Argerich, at home with then-husband conductor Charles Dutoit, Switzerland (near Lausanne), 1972

‘Recently I have been guilty of watching a lot of YouTube,’ Björk says. She’s been exploring Martha Argerich (1972 home movies) . . .

—Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise (blog), 11/13/11

*****

Happy Birthday, Suzanne!

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2012

Wednesday, 6/27/12

Karlheinz Stockhausen, Wach (excerpt)
The Ensemble for Intuitive Music Weimar
Live (rehearsal), Austria (Klosterneuberg), 2009

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Would I want to listen to this every day?

Nah.

But I don’t feel like listening to Junior Wells every day either.

Why shouldn’t our music be as various as our days?

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2012

Tuesday, 6/19/12

Turn it off: cellphone, email, Twitter—the whole modern rot.

Let this, and nothing else, surround you.

Frederic Chopin, Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27, No. 2
Martha Argerich (piano), live, Germany (Saarbrücken), 1972

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

In the right hands there are no notes—only mysteries.

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reading table

Then I considered the spiritual bread that a newspaper constitutes, still warm and moist as it emerges from the press and the morning mist in which it has been delivered at crack of dawn to the housemaids who take it to their masters with a bowl of milk, this miraculous loaf, multiplied ten-thousandfold and yet unique, which stays unchanged for everyone while proliferating across every threshold.

—Marcel Proust, The Fugitive (translated from French by Peter Collier)

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2012

Saturday, 6/9/12

Spirits need a lift?

Consider this: how much wonderful music—more than a lifetime’s worth—waits to be heard for the first time.

Morton Feldman, For Philip Guston (1984)*

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

More Feldman?

Here.

Here. 

And here.

Here. 

And here. And here. And here.

Here. 

And here.

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Q. This is a tough question, but what would be your five Desert Island disks?

John Luther Adams: I’d want music I could live inside for a long time; music that’s complex and enigmatic enough that there’s always something new to discover. Off the top of my head, my choices might be . . .

One of Morton Feldman’s major works, probably the Second String Quartet. Or maybe For Philip Guston.

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*For piano, celesta, piccolo, flute, alto flute, glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, chimes.

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2012

Saturday, 5/26/12

John Luther Adams, “Red Arc/Blue Veil” (excerpt)
Live, University of Kentucky, 2008
Clint Davis, piano
Charlie Olvera, vibraphone, crotales
Jason Corder, Jordan Munson, video

(Originally posted on 2/10/11.)

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

One of the functions of music is to remind us how much more beautiful the world is than it needs to be.

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2012

Thursday, 5/24/12

A high school girl in Reykjavik, an old man in Prague, a grieving widow in Sydney: no matter who you are, no matter where you are, these sounds are just a click away.

Franz Schubert, Piano Sonatas D. 958 (C minor), 959 (A major), 960 (B-flat major); Alfred Brendel, piano*

One of the delights of doing this blog is imagining the lives of the folks who stop by. In the past few days, for instance, there’ve been visitors from Germany, Netherlands, France, Syria, and Italy; Lithuania, Sweden, United Kingdom, and Mexico; Greece, New Zealand, Belgium, Israel, and Ethiopia; Colombia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Spain; Mongolia, Argentina, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Singapore, and the United States. To all: Welcome!

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*Here, courtesy of YouTube, is more detailed information about the program:

Sonata in C minor, D. 958

I Allegro
II Adagio
III Menuetto: Allegro — Trio
IV Allegro

Sonata in A major, D. 959
I Allegro
II Andantino
III Scherzo: Allegro vivace — Trio: Un poco più lento
IV Rondo. Allegretto — Presto

Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960
I Molto moderato
II Andante sostenuto
III Scherzo: Allegro vivace con delicatezza — Trio
IV Allegro, ma non troppo — Presto

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