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Category: viola

Wednesday, December 7th

Sometimes I want to hear something that will quicken my pulse; sometimes I want something that will slow it—like this, for instance, which I heard the other night in Chicago, played by the group for whom it was written (a.pe.ri.od.ic). One sound . . . another . . . another . . .

Jürg Frey (1953-), Fragile Balance (2014), excerpt; Ensemble Grizzana (Jürg Frey, clarinet; Mira Benjamin, violin; Richard Craig, flute; Emma Richards, viola; Philip Thomas, piano; Seth Woods, cello); 2015


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lagniappe

reading table

Winter seclusion—
sitting propped against
the same worn post

—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill (The Sound of Water: Haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, and Other Poets)

Tuesday, September 13th

Sometimes, in the middle of the night, if sleep leaves and doesn’t return, I’ll put one of these on repeat, softly.

Morton Feldman (1926-1987, MCOTD Hall of Fame), Piano and String Quartet (1985); Aki Takahashi and Kronos Quartet, 1993


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John Luther Adams (1953-), The Farthest Place (2001), 2002


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random sights

other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)

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Tuesday, July 5th

All that holiday noise—BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!—leave you with a hangover?

Here’s the perfect antidote.

Morton Feldman (1926-1987, MCOTD Hall of Fame), Piano and String Quartet, 1985; Aki Takahashi and Kronos Quartet, 1993


(Taking a break—back in a while.)

Thursday, June 23rd

Music offers what airlines don’t—time travel.

Anton Webern (1883-1945), Langsamer Satz (1905)
Faust Quartet


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art beat

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004)

henri_cartier_bresson_photography_paris_birds_5

 

Saturday, April 30th

This is a sound-world I’d be happy to inhabit all day.

Anna Thorvaldsdóttir (1977-), Ró (2013); Esbjerg Ensemble, live

Monday, April 25th

Thank God—or Whatever—for the Unfamiliar.

Mark Barden (1980-), Nocturne (2013); Mivos Quartet, live, New York, 2013

Saturday, April 9th

So bleak, so beautiful—like life.

Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), Viola Concerto (1985), live, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Valery Gergiev, cond.), Yuri Bashmet (viola)

#1


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lagniappe

art beat

Bruce Davidson (1933-), Palisades, N.J., 1958

1958 USA. Cirque. USA. Palisades, New Jersey. 1958. The Dwarf. Image send to Greg Kucera (Transaction : 632060012511250000) © Bruce Davidson / Magnum Photos

Wednesday, April 6th

sounds of New York

Oliver Lake and the FLUX String Quartet, live, New York, 2014

Saturday, March 12th

more

Gérard Grisey (1946-1998), Les espaces acoustiques, I-III (1974-76); Ensemble Intercontemporain, live, Paris, 2013


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lagniappe

random thoughts

How many things can go wrong with the human body?

Saturday, March 5th

This sound-world I could inhabit, happily, all weekend.

Gérard Grisey (1946-1998), Vortex Temporum (1994-96)
Ensemble Sonorama, live, Argentina (Buenos Aires), 2013


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lagniappe

reading table

When we recognize we ‘think again’
without knowing what or if
we thought before.

—Rae Armantrout, “Fusion,” excerpt (New Yorker, 3/7/16)