more
Morton Feldman (1926-1987, MCOTD Hall of Fame), For Philip Guston (1984); Either/OR (Richard Carrick, piano/celesta; Margaret Lancaster, flutes; David Shively, percussion), live, Philadelphia, 2015
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lagniappe
reading table
flitting butterfly–
every corner of my hut
is inspected—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
more
Hamiet Bluiett (baritone saxophone, clarinet, flute, voice), William Parker (bass, doson gouni, shakuhachi), Hamid Drake (drums, voice), live, New York, 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
Three bowls of stew
and you feel
rich after all—Yosa Buson (1716-1783), translated from Japanese by W.S. Merwin and Takako Lento
MCOTD Hall of Fame
Morton Feldman (1926-1987), For Philip Guston (1984), excerpt; Claire Chase (flute, alto flute, piccolo), Steven Schick (percussion), Sarah Rothenberg (piano, celesta), live, Houston (Rothko Chapel), 2014
MCOTD Hall of Fame
Henry Threadgill (1944-, composer, alto saxophonist, flutist, bandleader, 2016 Pulitzer Prize winner), playing and talking, 2010
Entering his sound-world isn’t hard. What’s hard is leaving.
Tristan Murail (1947-), La Barque mystique, 1993
This is a sound-world I’d be happy to inhabit all day.
Anna Thorvaldsdóttir (1977-), Ró (2013); Esbjerg Ensemble, live
MCOTD Hall of Fame
Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Durations I (1960); Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, live
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)
sounds of Chicago
Ralph Shapey (1921-2003), Three for Six (1979); Oerknal!, live, Netherlands (The Hague, Amsterdam) 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
He ate and drank the precious Words—
His Spirit grew robust—
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was Dust—
He danced along the dingy Days
And this Bequest of Wings
Was but a Book—What Liberty
A loosened spirit brings——Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 1593 (Franklin)
MCOTD Hall of Famer—and, as of yesterday, Pulitzer Prize Winner.
Henry Threadgill’s Zooid
Live, Poland (Warsaw), 2011
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Live, New York, 2013
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Live, Washington, D.C., 2013
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
All music is classical music, you know. I don’t put up boundaries on music.
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Of course I started out in an ethnic community, with the blues and church music and jazz. But that was just one place to start. You read fiction then you start reading nonfiction! You start reading biographies and scientific accounts. It doesn’t change where you came from. It just broadens it. That’s what we do, we keep building on the foundation where we come from. You don’t lose it, you just keep building on it.
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I think we’ve gotten used to the dissonant, so it’s not even dissonant any more.
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[W]e have no control over anything but what we do. I just try to stay hopeful: I don’t want to get too pessimistic about anything.
—Henry Threadgill, The Guardian, 4/18/16
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the beat goes on
2,300 posts—and counting.
Something to wash over you.
John Luther Adams (1953-), The Light Within (2007); New Music Detroit, live, Detroit, 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
spring rain—
the uneaten ducks
are quacking—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
music clip of the day 