Uneasy sounds for an uneasy world.
Iancu Dumitrescu (1944-), Hyperspectres for doublebasses, cellos, and percussion, live, Paris, 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow / And leaden-eyed despairs
—John Keats (1795-1821), “Ode to a Nightingale”
More cello.
Marcos Balter (1974-), Memoria (2007); Katinka Kleijn, live, Brazil (Manaus), 2014
lagniappe
reading table
. . . and the mystery itself is the gateway to perception.
—Lao Tzu (c. 5th cent. B.C.), Tao Te Ching, translated from Chinese by Sam Hamill
More cello.
Anna Thorvaldsdottir (1977-), Transitions (2014); Michael Nicolas, live, Chicago, 2015
lagniappe
reading table
Let Emily sing for you because she cannot pray . . .
—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), letter to cousins Louis and Frances Norcross (on the death of their father), 1863
I can’t think of a finer way to begin the week.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Cello Suite No. 6, excerpt (Allemande); Natalia Gutman (1942-), live, Moscow, 1987
old school
Dynamic Revelators (Wichita, Ks.), “Holding On,” live, Gurdon, Ark., c. 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
We have to live out our precise experimentation.
—John Ashbery (1927-), “Breezeway” (Breezeway, 2015)
only rock ‘n’ roll
Tenement, live, Philadelphia, 2012
sounds of Iceland
Anna Thorvaldsdottir (1977-), In the Light of Air, first movt. (“Luminance”); International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), live, Iceland (Reykjavik), 2014
sounds of joy
Instant Composers Pool (ICP) Orchestra, “Lavoro” (S. Bergin, borrowing from “Moten Swing”), live, Amsterdam, 2013
Joyful? Yes. But sad, too. Pianist (and cofounder) Misha Mengelberg’s encroaching dementia, which has since sidelined him altogether, provides a poignant counterpoint.
riveting
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 32; Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997), live, Moscow, 1975
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lagniappe
reading table
Everyone’s journey
through this world is the same,
so I won’t complain.
Here on the plains of Nasu,
I place my trust in the dew.—Sōgi (1421-1502), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
sounds of 1926
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Prelude No. 15 (“Raindrop”); Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948), piano, 1926
*****
Bessie Smith (1894-1937), “Young Woman’s Blues,” 1926
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lagniappe
reading table
Whatever it is,
I cannot understand it,
although gratitude
stubbornly overcomes me
until I’m reduced to tears.—Saigyō (1118-1190), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
music clip of the day 