lucid, adj. translucent, pellucid, clear. E.g., Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians.
Steve Reich (1936-), Music for 18 Musicians (1974-76)
Ensemble Intercontemporain with Synergy Vocals, live, Paris, 2014
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the door latch
rusting scarlet . . .
winter rain—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue
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random sights
this morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), The Art of Fugue (excerpts)
Glenn Gould (1932-1982), piano
Has anyone played Bach—or anything else—more searchingly?
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Partita No. 4 in D major
Glenn Gould (1932-1982), piano
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Musicians wrestle everywhere –
—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #229 (Franklin)
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Nocturne in E flat (Op. 55, No. 2); Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948), piano, 1936
The Friedman performance of Chopin’s E flat Nocturne (Op. 55, No. 2) is considered by many to be the greatest single recorded performance of any Chopin nocturne.
The more kinds of music you love, the more chances you have to make wonderful discoveries, as happened yesterday when I heard this for the first time (Oberon Ensemble, Art Institute of Chicago).
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor; Martha Argerich (piano); Gidon Kremer (violin), Yuri Bashmet (viola), Mischa Maisky (cello), 2001
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You don’t hear the sound; you go into the sound—you and the sound become one.
—Seung Sahn, Only Don’t Know
sounds of Chicago
Some things last. Nearly forty years ago, I co-produced this track, while working at Alligator Records. It remains one of my favorites. The hour was late. The lights had been turned down. But the tape kept rolling.
Carey Bell’s Blues Harp Band, “Woman In Trouble”
Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 1, 1978
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Here’s more of Carey, years later (2000, Switzerland [Bern]).
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Palais de Mari (1986); Aki Takahashi, piano
Today Feldman enters the MCOTD Hall of Fame, joining saxophonists Von Freeman and Henry Threadgill, trumpeter Lester Bowie, poets John Berryman and William Bronk and Wislawa Szymborska, photographer Helen Levitt, and gospel singer Dorothy Love Coates.
More Sergio.
Sergio Fiorentino (1927-1998), live (master class), Italy (Bertinoro)
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This morning I breakfasted sumptuously and with delight, but one ought not to utter statements like this so loudly in an era when delicate persons have the most indelicate heaps of cares piled upon their shoulders.
—Robert Walser (1878-1956), “Hodler’s Beech Forest,” translated from German by Susan Bernofsky (Looking at Pictures, 2015)
I never tire of these tiny, gemlike pieces.
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), 24 Preludes (1835-1839); Sergio Fiorentino (1927-1998), piano, 1959
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Awake at night—
the sound of the water jar
cracking in the cold.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Robert Hass
music clip of the day 