Re. The first track on this album: Keeril Makan - Dream Lightly - for electric guitar & orchestra - "In Dream Lightly, we are placed in a world that is beautifully paralyzed, or perhaps paralyzed by beauty. The music does not move; it has fallen asleep but is not aware of it. It is stuck in a continual repetition of similar thoughts, slightly changing and rearranging them, cast in subtly changing environments.
The guitarist almost always plays harmonicsnotes produced by lightly touching the string at certain points to create sounds that sound higher and more fragile than ordinary pitches. The world of harmonics hovers above the guitar, oftentimes slightly, but purposefully, out of tune with instruments played in a conventional manner. The traditional tuning of the orchestra reflects a desire to move forward, to be able to modulate, and is a compromise between this desire and the way vibrating strings and air columns naturally work. The tuning of harmonics is derived from the open string; it is a static world, complete unto itself.
The piece explores the dissonance that exists between the harmonics on different strings of the guitar, as well as between the tuning of the guitars harmonics and the tuning of the orchestra. All of the music is derived from or in response to the guitar. It is not a concerto in the traditional sense, as the soloist and the orchestra are not antagonists. Rather, it is as if the orchestra exists inside of the guitarists head, helping, supporting, and coloring. There is a passage where the guitarist gently strums the instrument, not playing harmonics. Whether this is a moment of clarity or a deeper sleep is uncertain. After this, the music returns to its initial thoughts but eventually pushes forward, whether to wakefulness or deeper slumber, is again uncertain."
- From the linernotes @ American Composers Orchestra homepage:
Re. track 2: Evan Ziporyn - Big Grenadilla - for bass clarinet & orchestra
- "Big Grenadilla is my second bass clarinet and large ensemble work: previously, I composed and performed Drill for bass clarinet and wind ensemble, casting myself in the role of drill sergeant, leading the troops through a vigorous basic training.
Bass clarinet is the instrument I know best, thrust into my hands in high school, and never far from me since. Its a life partner, and I write for it as I would write for another musician, ideally using my music to reveal the instruments own physical and spiritual character. In practical terms, the vocabulary of the music is contoured to the acoustic characteristics of the horn, rather than the other way around. Grenadilla is a dense, strong dark wood that is often mistaken for ebony. It is the primary wood for many instruments, including the bass clarinet, whose bottom joint alone is a single piece 30 inches in length. 60 years ago, Woody Herman premiered Stravinskys pocket-sized Ebony Concerto. Title aside, I claim no conscious connection to this masterpiece, but simply bow my head in homage."
- Evan Ziporyn.
@Doofy - Thank you. sir, those are awesome finds, and I do not in this age of awesomeness use the word ever unless I really mean it. Between those and my Oscar Peterson Complete Mercury/Clef project I'll be busy well into 2013. Going to use the Amazon page to start on the long tracks from this monster as soon as I can -
Feeling the Verve, baby.
About a year ago I started writing an article for MiG about the song Little Wing (Hendrix etc) So I am playing through about 8 or 10 versions of the song to see if I can get the article going again. At the moment Aynsley Lister's version is playing, soon up will be Eric Clapton, The Corrs and Nigel Kennedy amongst others.
Re. The amazing track 3 of this album: Fred Ho - When the Real Dragons Fly! - for baritone saxophone & orchestra - "The title of this work is based on a traditional Chinese folksong used to say farewell. When the Real Dragons Fly! is a farewell to obstructionists and gatekeepers who prevent the real creative forces in humanity. It is a liberation songallowing people whove been held down, blockaded, obstructed, disappeared, marginalized, and ignored to fly and soar. It is dedicated to all imaginative forces that want to work together to bring about human liberationtrying to free humanity from slavish consumption of both unneeded material items as well as foolish items.
This is my first outing with a traditional Western-European orchestra. Ive written for unique ensembles involving western instruments before but never had an interest in writing for standard configurations of Western-European genres.
This performer-composer relationship allows me to use an extreme amount of extended techniques and improvisation and keep the orchestra more defined in their standard practices. The time and long-term relationship required for developing any sort of improvisatory relationship with the orchestra is nearly impossible, so I have approached this from the point of view of letting myself explore the cosmos, and I am the foil. Any good composer can use the forces they have and develop an architectural plan and ground strategy that is suitable for the capacity of the players. For example, writing for cross-culture instruments (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) you must understand the abilities of all those instruments, the architecture, etc., and you have to know their characteristics, capabilities, and capacities. With this architectural planas with any multi-cultural endeavoryou must know the elements you are dealing with and respect them. You must add your own creativity and imagination to stretch them but know they cant become what they are not. They are what they are."
- Fred Ho
Comments
One of my students asked me if I liked the Weepies. Been a while since Be My Thrill came out, I really enjoyed their sound.
Glass Canyon by Marielle V. Jacobsons
Keeril Makan - Dream Lightly - for electric guitar & orchestra
- "In Dream Lightly, we are placed in a world that is beautifully paralyzed, or perhaps paralyzed by beauty. The music does not move; it has fallen asleep but is not aware of it. It is stuck in a continual repetition of similar thoughts, slightly changing and rearranging them, cast in subtly changing environments.
The guitarist almost always plays harmonicsnotes produced by lightly touching the string at certain points to create sounds that sound higher and more fragile than ordinary pitches. The world of harmonics hovers above the guitar, oftentimes slightly, but purposefully, out of tune with instruments played in a conventional manner. The traditional tuning of the orchestra reflects a desire to move forward, to be able to modulate, and is a compromise between this desire and the way vibrating strings and air columns naturally work. The tuning of harmonics is derived from the open string; it is a static world, complete unto itself.
The piece explores the dissonance that exists between the harmonics on different strings of the guitar, as well as between the tuning of the guitars harmonics and the tuning of the orchestra. All of the music is derived from or in response to the guitar. It is not a concerto in the traditional sense, as the soloist and the orchestra are not antagonists. Rather, it is as if the orchestra exists inside of the guitarists head, helping, supporting, and coloring. There is a passage where the guitarist gently strums the instrument, not playing harmonics. Whether this is a moment of clarity or a deeper sleep is uncertain. After this, the music returns to its initial thoughts but eventually pushes forward, whether to wakefulness or deeper slumber, is again uncertain."
- From the linernotes @ American Composers Orchestra homepage:
Evan Ziporyn - Big Grenadilla - for bass clarinet & orchestra
- "Big Grenadilla is my second bass clarinet and large ensemble work: previously, I composed and performed Drill for bass clarinet and wind ensemble, casting myself in the role of drill sergeant, leading the troops through a vigorous basic training.
Bass clarinet is the instrument I know best, thrust into my hands in high school, and never far from me since. Its a life partner, and I write for it as I would write for another musician, ideally using my music to reveal the instruments own physical and spiritual character. In practical terms, the vocabulary of the music is contoured to the acoustic characteristics of the horn, rather than the other way around. Grenadilla is a dense, strong dark wood that is often mistaken for ebony. It is the primary wood for many instruments, including the bass clarinet, whose bottom joint alone is a single piece 30 inches in length. 60 years ago, Woody Herman premiered Stravinskys pocket-sized Ebony Concerto. Title aside, I claim no conscious connection to this masterpiece, but simply bow my head in homage."
- Evan Ziporyn.
Feeling the Verve, baby.
- Thanks amclark2 !
Thanks Jonah for this week's Jazz Pick of the Week. Note - if you download from emusic the tagging is wrong for artist and album title!
Guvera.
Craig
My second download from Jonah's Jazz Picks this week
G.
Craig
G.
Craig
Guv. Gen 1
Streamin'
FRIDAY
Fred Ho - When the Real Dragons Fly! - for baritone saxophone & orchestra
- "The title of this work is based on a traditional Chinese folksong used to say farewell. When the Real Dragons Fly! is a farewell to obstructionists and gatekeepers who prevent the real creative forces in humanity. It is a liberation songallowing people whove been held down, blockaded, obstructed, disappeared, marginalized, and ignored to fly and soar. It is dedicated to all imaginative forces that want to work together to bring about human liberationtrying to free humanity from slavish consumption of both unneeded material items as well as foolish items.
This is my first outing with a traditional Western-European orchestra. Ive written for unique ensembles involving western instruments before but never had an interest in writing for standard configurations of Western-European genres.
This performer-composer relationship allows me to use an extreme amount of extended techniques and improvisation and keep the orchestra more defined in their standard practices. The time and long-term relationship required for developing any sort of improvisatory relationship with the orchestra is nearly impossible, so I have approached this from the point of view of letting myself explore the cosmos, and I am the foil. Any good composer can use the forces they have and develop an architectural plan and ground strategy that is suitable for the capacity of the players. For example, writing for cross-culture instruments (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) you must understand the abilities of all those instruments, the architecture, etc., and you have to know their characteristics, capabilities, and capacities. With this architectural planas with any multi-cultural endeavoryou must know the elements you are dealing with and respect them. You must add your own creativity and imagination to stretch them but know they cant become what they are not. They are what they are."
- Fred Ho
Emeralds
Streaming @ Guv. Ryoji Ikeda - Dataplex. Sounds a lot like its cover.
G.(osh this is good!)
And thanks GP for pointing this out, and for that above too; I was just listening to this thinking I need to check if they have any Ryoji Ikeda.