Thursday, November 21st
One-word review: Wow!
Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), String Quartet No. 3, 1st movt.; Danish String Quartet, live (studio), Seattle, 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: violin
2019
Tuesday, November 12th
sounds of Haiti and Chicago
Nathalie Joachim (vocals, electronics) with Spektral Quartet, “Papa Loco” (trad.), live (studio), New York, published 10/29/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
She cries. Oh no. Oh no no no.
—Eimear McBride, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing
2019
Thursday, October 31st
never enough
Bela Bartok (1881-1945), String Quartet No. 4 in C major (1928); Quatuor Ebène, live, France (Wissembourg), 2013
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Domestic as
an empty shopping cart
parked on a ledge
above a freeway.—Rae Armantrout (1947-), from “Hang On” (New Yorker, 10/21/19)
2019
Thursday, October 24th
can’t wait
They’re playing Sunday afternoon at Chicago’s Symphony Center—Beethoven, Shostakovich, Franck, Kurtág.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Scherzo (from F-A-E Sonata); Christian Tetzlaff (1966-, violin), Lars Vogt (1970-, piano), live, Germany (Bremen), 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Wednesday, October 23rd
Ever feel a hunger for less?
Jürg Frey (1953-), Ephemeral Constructions (2015-2016); Erik Carlson (violin), Jürg Frey (clarinet), Greg Stuart (percussion), University of South Carolina Experimental Music Workshop (Greg Stuart, director), 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
a solitary
crow on a bare branch—
autumn evening—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
2019
Tuesday, October 22nd
sounds of New York
Jason Kao Hwang (1957-), If We Live in Forgetfulness, We Die in a Dream (2011); Momenta Quartet, live, New York, 2012
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
If you have some photos of yourself when you were four or eight or twelve or fifteen, hold them up against the mirror. Are you the four-year-old, the eight-year-old, the fifteen-year-old, the twenty-five-year-old, or the one who is looking into the mirror, or all of them? If you are all of them, then by now you must be thousands of different people.
—Ayya Khema (1923-1997), Being Nobody, Going Nowhere: Meditations on the Buddhist Path (1987)
2019
Monday, October 21st
Why not begin the week with something new?
Nathalie Joachim (vocals, flute, electronics) with the Spektral Quartet and a Haitian children’s choir (recorded), “Suite pou Dantan: Prelid” (Fanm d’Ayiti [Women of Haiti]), 10/8/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Thursday, October 3rd
sounds of Ukraine
day four
How about something quiet, delicate, beautiful?
Valentin Silvestrov (1937-), Post-scriptum (1990); Movses Pogossian (violin), Alexei Lubimov (piano), live, Los Angeles, 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
Floating on a Marsh
by Wang Wei (701-61), translated from Chinese by David Young
Autumn
the sky huge and clear
the marsh miles from farms and houses
overjoyed by the cranes
standing around the sandbars
the mountains above the clouds in the distance
this water
utterly still
in the dusk
the white moon overhead
I let my boat drift free tonight
I can’t go home.
2019
Tuesday, September 17th
sounds of New York
day two
Sam Pluta (1979-), Broken Symmetries (2011-12); Wet Ink Ensemble (Sam Pluta, electronics; Joshua Modney, violin; Erin Lesser, piccolo; Alex Mincek, tenor saxophone; Eric Wubbels, piano; Ian Antonio, percussion), live, New York, 2016
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Bellwood, Ill.
2019
Monday, September 16th
sounds of New York
day one
Jason Kao Hwang Human Rites Trio (JKH, compositions, violin, viola; Ken Filiano, bass; Andrew Drury, drums), live, New York, 7/16/19
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lagniappe
reading table
Today is very nothing like / Any other day that once soared / In this place.
—W.S. Graham (1918-1986), from “The Don Brown Route”
music clip of the day 