Archives for 2016

Straddlers of the 20th and 21st centuries have witnessed a remarkable shift in human-made devices.  For ages, contraptions have been devised and refined based on ancient principles: the lever, the gear, the axle.  Now many of these mechanical artifacts have been replaced by digital, and still more operate in a hybrid universe, marrying mechanical and digital principles, sometimes awkwardly, … [Read more...]

I’m off to Seattle this week for a couple performances of Resonance by the Seattle Chamber Music Society (SCMS).  Resonance is scored for violin and three cellos, and I’m really fortunate to have an outstanding group playing it: James Ehnes on violin and cellists Robert deMaine, Edward Arron and Jeremy Turner.  Resonance is dedicated to the memory of cellist Toby Saks. I met Toby, the … [Read more...]

Pierre Boulez’s passing last month brought back memories of what a giant he was in his prime.  He certainly gave the generations that followed a complex heritage.  I really can’t imagine what it must have been like to be one of his contemporaries.  A bit like running for president the same year Donald Trump decided to get his name on the ballot. Boulez was a terrific composer who exerted a huge … [Read more...]

The sixth movement of Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphonie presents an interesting lesson in melody, harmony and scoring, if we can step beyond the usual comments on birdsong, modes of limited transposition and the Ondes Martenot – important topics that are easy to write about but fall short of getting at a central essence of this musical experience. Taken alone, the melody has a 1940s pop … [Read more...]

I won't find myself in Columbia SC this week, but if you do, check out the Black Mountain Trio concert there this Wednesday evening.  They will be playing my piano trio from 1998, Dirges and Dances.  Nice to see an old work getting a new hearing.  I wrote about the piece here.  Details about the concert here. Though I can't make it, I understand Beethoven and Dvorák will be … [Read more...]

Many of the most interesting developments in musical form over the last few decades have featured explorations in non-linear progression.  Influenced in part by the implications of Relativity theory, but equally by the ease with which filmed narrative can shift us back and forth in time, composers have sought ways to manipulate notions of linear time, finding lovely juxtapositions and surprising … [Read more...]