Boston Musica Viva Plays

Boston Musica Viva - Boston Musica Viva Plays

From the liner notes:

The Boston Musica Viva is a professional chamber ensemble, founded in 1969 by Richard Pittman for the performance of 20th century music. In addition to their regular concert series at Harvard, the group tours both in the U.S. and abroad. The core personnel of the group has remained unchanged since its first season.

Joseph Schwantner - Consortium I (1970)

Performers: Paula Robison - flute; William Wrzesien - clarinet; Nancy Cirillo - violin; Marcus Thompson - viola; Bruce Coppock - cello

CONSORTIUM, composed in 1970, is the first in a series of works written especially for the Boston Musica Viva. The Latin title, Consortium, meaning "group", and implying "cooperation" and "participation", relates to the multiple role played by each part of the ensemble. There are two fundamental types of instrumental relationships in the contrasting sections. the first instrumental setting places the winds against the strings; in the second setting each instrument assumes a nearly equal role. (Joseph Schwantner)

Joseph Schwantner - In Aeternum (1973)

Performers: Paul Brittan - flute, alto flute, piano, glass crystals, water gong; William Wrzesien - clarinet, bass clarinet, glass crystals, water gong; Nancy Cirillo - violin, viola, crotales; Jay Humeston - cello, crotales; Dean Anderson - percussion

IN AETERNUM for Cello and IV Players, subtitled Consortium IV, was also written specifically for the Boston Musica Viva. The title, In Aeternum, in Latin means "forever", and relates to a set structure which generates thirty-six pitches in a closed intervallicaly symmetrical cycle or loop with each pitch of the twelve-tone chromatic appearing exactly three times. Some sections of the work present specified measured rhythms and others allow the performers freedom of rhythmic choice, thus permitting a variation of interpretation from performance to performance. (Joseph Schwantner)

Charles Ives - Largo (1901)

Performers: William Wrzesien - clarinet; Nancy Cirillo - violin; Evelyn Zuckerman - piano

The work begins in G major with the piano and violin at the tempo marking of Largo. The clarinet enters at a faster tempo (Andante) and leads into a ragtime section at a faster tempo in which all three instruments play together (Quasi allegretto). This is followed by a longer statement of the Andante section, but for all three instruments. The piece closes with the music of the opening Largo for the violin and piano.

Luciano Berio - O King (1970)

Performers: Elsa Charlston - soprano; Paul Brittan - flute; William Wrzesien - clarinet; Nancy Cirillo - violin; Jay Humeston - cello; Evelyn Zuckerman - piano

O KING was written shortly after the murder of Martin Luther King. The entire text consists of, "O Martin Luther King". For most of the work, the soprano sings only the vowels of the text in what is for the most part a unison line with the five instruments.

Mario Davidovsky - Synchronisms No. 3 (1964)

Performer: Jay Humeston - cello

SYNCHRONISMS NO. 3 for cello and electronic sound was written in 1964 and is one of a series of eight works composed for various combinations of "live instruments" and electronic sounds on tape. The Synchronisms are successful and sensitive integrations of electronic sound and conventional musical sound into a unique and coherent language.

Donald Harris - Ludus II (1973)

Performers: Paul Brittan - flute; William Wrzesien - clarinet; Nancy Cirillo - violin; Jay Humeston - cello; Evelyn Zuckerman - piano

Ludus is the term derived from Latin which refers to Play or games. It was written for the Boston Musica Viva with specific players in mind. Ludus suggests a virtuosity in instrumental writing, an idea that today seems almost more related to timbral investigation than to purely mechanical or technical velocity and difficulty. It has always been my inclination to try to use instruments soloistically even where they are an intricate part of a delicately shaped ensemble fabric. (Donald Harris)

Tracklisting:

Side One

1. Joseph Schwantner - Consortium I {8:31}

2. Joseph Schwantner - In Aeternum {14:52}

Side Two

1. Charles Ives - Largo {5:17}

2. Luciano Berio - O King {4:59}

3. Mario Davidovsky - Synchronisms No. 3 {4:35}

4. Donald Harris - Ludus II {10:19}

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How Our Birds Sing Vol. 1

Hans A. Traber - How Our Birds Sing Vol. 1

This CD has recordings of many different bird species and the liner notes in the booklet briefly explain the details of the bird's songs along with the location of the recordings and for some recordings other background sounds. The liner notes are in English, French and German.

Tracklisting:

1. Garden Warbler {1:21}

2. Blackcap {1:53}

3. Whitethroat {1:28}

4. Lesser Whitethroat {1:53}

5. Grasshopper Warbler {1:32}

6. Marsh Warbler {1:26}

7. Reed Warbler {2:12}

8. Great Reed Warbler {1:33}

9. Icterine Warbler {1:29}

10. Willow Warbler {1:28}

11. Chiffchaff {1:01}

12. Wood Warbler {1:25}

13. Bonelli's Warbler {1:44}

14. Firecrest {1:35}

15. Goldcrest {1:33}

16. Pied Flycatcher {2:19}

17. Song Thrush {1:46}

18. Mistle Thrush {1:25}

19. Blackbird {1:59}

20. Ring Ouzel {2:06}

21. Nightingale {2:04}

22. Redstart {1:28}

23. Black Redstart {1:17}

24. Winchat {2:01}

25. Robin Redbreast {1:51}

26. Wren {1:34}

27. Dunnock {1:24}

28. Skylark {1:24}

29. Woodlark {1:30}

30. Tree Pipit {1:23}

31. Common Swallow {1:57}

32. Sand Martin {0:55}

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Natalie Hinderas Plays Music by Black Composers

various artists compilation - Natalie Hinderas Plays Music by Black Composers

Natalie Hinderas - piano

Album statement:

Our black composers need no apology, no defense, no explanation, no patronising.

They need performance. They need to be programmed beside their fellow white composers from Bach to Berio. Hale Smith has said, "Place our music not on all-black programs. We can do that for ourselves, for the benefit of our own people. Place our work on programs with Beethoven, Mozart, Schoenberg, Copland and the current avant-gardists. We don't even have to be called black. When we stand for our bows, that fact will become clear when it should: After the work has made its own impact."

To this end this album is dedicated.

Liner notes by Natalie Hinderas:

R. Nathaniel Dett - In the Bottoms (A Characteristic Suite)

IN THE BOTTOMS is a Suite of five numbers giving pictures of moods or scenes peculiar to Negro life in the river bottoms of the Southern sections of North America. As it is quite possible to describe the traits, habits and customs of a people without using the vernacular, so it is similarly possible to musically portray racial peculiarities without the use of national tunes or folk-songs. "In the Bottoms", then, belongs to that class of music known as "Program music" or "music with a poetic basis."

Thomas H. Kerr, Jr. - Easter Monday Swagger

N: Can you write me a spiritual?

T: Like I can try, sister.

Did I do it?

This written dialogue was penned on the margin of the manuscript of the Scherzino. It was written over the Easter holiday, 1970 and the results justified the sacrifice of a holiday excursion.

Mr. Kerr's wit is again exhibited by another marginal note: A small filet of Soul."

If we put together an Easter Monday Swagger with a Scherzino effect, with Soul quality - I can answer Mr. Kerr's original question with an unqualified, "Yes."

William Grant Still - Three Visions

The piano pieces by Mr. Still, in contrast to the large orchestral works, are enveloped in an intimacy often associated with tone painters. A man whose facial features are delicate with an aura of gentleness, his compositions seem to reflect the nature of their creator.

John W. Work - Scuppernong

The Scuppernong is a river in South Carolina. This region supplied the ethnic flavor for which John Work diligently searched in order to authenticate the folk-sound of the Southern rural Negro.

George Walker - Piano Sonata No. 1

This Sonata was composed in 1953. The first movement is in sonata-allegro form. It makes use of quartal fragments harmonically and melodically. Considerable chromaticism produces a restless quality; but, sections are well-defined. The second movement is a theme and variations. The theme is based on a Kentucky folk song, "Oh Bury Me Beneath the Willow." The third movement has a rondo-like construction. The primary motive is essentially rhythmic and is characterized throughout the movement by octave transpositions. The first of the contrasting themes is also based on a folk song found in Carl Sandburg's "Songbag."

Arthur Cunningham - Engrams'

"I titled this piece "Engrams' " because the sounds are memory tracings. It has no time signature and was composed from a row in three forms ... original, retrograde and mirror of retrograde, and adjusted to please my ear. It progresses from the dark of my mind to the light of reality. It was written during the first week of July 1969."

Stephen A. Chambers - Sound-Gone (A Poetic-Philosophical Sketch)

"Atmospheres-of-sound floating above

and a round segments of

"moving-silence";

A burst of thunder here - another

moment of silence;

(now gone)

A jaunty-precision-like figure in a rapid

motion for a brief sketch;

(now gone)

A veil-like aura-of-sound,

mystifying in its layers

of introspective freedom

(now gone)

A "Sound-Gone" now com-

mences to move (from)

and then (towards) a

space-entity of other

Beings!!

(now gone is the Sound)

Hale Smith - Evocation

"The entire piece derives from the row exposed in the first stave, and in several places has faint but definite rhythmic affinities with jazz phrasing. This doesn't mean that it's supposed to swing - it isn't, but the affinities are there."

Olly Wilson - Piano Piece for Piano and Electronic Sound

The piano has sound capabilities which are being greatly extended today. Through the use of extra-musical devices placed on the strings, sound textures are changed from the normal timbre. It has been an unresolved debate as to whether the piano is basically a melodic or percussive instrument. The solution might be both, based on the produced sound rather than playing methods. Although the strings are struck by hammers, the sound-juxtapositions often are melodic. A pianist equipped with an assortment of touches can coax many types of sounds from the piano, ranging from the most flowing, singing line to a violent, jarring clang.

There are strange mutations of sound in electronic music. Its synthetic characteristic mingled with the diversified tones of the piano can create interesting counterpoint as well as a blend of the two mediums.

Olly Wilson's Piano Piece explores these capabilities with imagination.

The composer, in his performance notes, indicates carefully where keys are to be struck or played in clusters, where strings are to be plucked inside the piano with the fingernail and how the piano is to be prepared with the following items placed inside.

1. light weight wood ruler with metal edge

2. three 3" diameter metal rings (notebook type)

3. three metal protractors approximately 3 3/4" length

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. R. Nathaniel Dett - In the Bottoms {18:24}

a. Prelude, b. His Song, c. Honey, d. Barcarolle, e. Dance (Juba)

2. Thomas H. Kerr, Jr. - Easter Monday Swagger {4:30}

Side 2

1. William Grant Still - Three Visions {9:47}

1. Dark Horsemen, 2. Summerland, 3. Radiant Pinnacle

2. John W. Work - Scuppernong {7:36}

Side 3

1. George Walker - Sonata No. 1 {15:28}

2. Arthur Cunningham - Engrams' {5:58}

Side 4

1. Stephen A. Chambers - Sound-Gone {10:38}

2. Hale Smith - Evocation {3:08}

3. Olly Wilson - Piano Piece for Piano and Electronic Sounds {10:42}

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Opus One: Number 14

* my apologies for the missing artwork

various artists compilation - Opus One: Number 14

Barbara Kolb - Rebuttal

Performers:

Gary McGee, George Hirner - clarinets

The title for the duet, which Barbara Kolb describes as a dialogue, is the result of a wager made between the composer and a friend. It was her original intent to "disprove" proportional notation through this composition. She lost the bet, gained a respect for the "new" notation, and has been using it ever since.

Leo Kraft - Line Drawings

Performers:

Paul Dunkel - flute
Richard Fitz - percussion

"Line Drawings" was written for Paul Dunkel in January, 1972. The title suggested itself as the piece was being composed. In one sense it refers to the linear nature of the music, in which the melodic line of the flute maintains a sustained dialogue with the percussion instruments. In another sense, the title refers indicates the place of the piece within my oeuvre, which is analogous to the place of a drawing in the output of a painter; on a smaller scale and less formal, but with the essential qualities set forth in a few quick strokes.
Since Paul Dunkel is master of three members of the flute family, I built the overall shape of the music around the contrasts between flute, piccolo, and alto flute. Of the five pieces that comprise line drawings, the first, third, and fifth are written for flute, the second for alto flute, and the fourth for piccolo. The division of labor suggested groupings of tone color within the percussion array. The sounds that keep the alto flute company, for example; are unlike any of the other sounds in the piece, because instead of using drumsticks the percussionist plays with wire brushes. As in many of my recent works, tonal coloring is a point of departure, but only that.
I do enjoy virtuosity in instrumental performance, and, knowing that Paul Dunkel and Richard Fitz would be the performers, I felt quite free to write the most demanding music if that seemed to be where the musical idea wanted to go. I expected that no matter what I wrote, these two colleagues would be able to perform - and project - what I had written. My confidence was amply justified. (Leo Kraft)

Max Schubel - Moonwave

Performer:

Paul Dunkel - flute

In 1969, British flutist Averil Williams asked Max Schubel to compose a short encore piece for solo flute. "Moonwave" was first performed by Ms. Williams in Iceland in the Fall of 1969, and later in London. The composer intended a work that was not difficult, yet virtuosic. Use is made of double stops that can be articulated quietly, usually as consonances. The work is in free meter, leaving many interpretational decisions to the performer.

Ronald Perera - Reflex

Performer:

Ernst Wallfisch - viola; with electronically derived sounds

"Reflex" is a reflection on violist Ernst Wallfisch, who premiered the piece at a Composers' Forum in New York in the Fall of 1973. The title comes from the second section of the piece where the player is asked to play seven fragments of music, responding "as if by reflex" to seven tape cues. Actually the music is full of rather odd-angled reflections on itself, such that little elements of it keep getting re-combined in different ways with previously heard elements. A few details act as reference points: the diminished fifth e up to b flat, the gradually widening vibrato note, the high-pitched tape cluster, the upward four- or five-note pizzicato motif. These are the principal signals for brief forays, digressions and recapitulations which come in interchangeable timbral and gestural guises. The score, which is published by E.C. Schirmer, gives the performer's part in conventional metric notation and the tape part as a series of cues with timings. (Ronald Perera)

David Cope - Cycles

Performers:

James Martin - flute
David Cope - contrabass

"Cycles" (flute and contrabass) was completed in early 1969. The work derives its title from the overlapping 'cyclic' return of materials: motives, timbres, rhythms, dynamics and effects. These sometimes dovetailing and othertimes simultaneously treated materials are in no way 'serialized' but rather are treated intuitively and evolve one from another. This work is in no way graphic or indeterminate in notation but rather is composer-structured throughout.

Tracklisting:

Side A

1. Barbara Kolb - Rebuttal {4:24}

2. Leo Kraft - Line Drawings {12:00}

3. Max Schubel - Moonwave {3:46}

Side B

1. Ronald Perera - Reflex {5:01}

2. David Cope - Cycles {9:59}

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How to Tune the Piano

Dick Sebouh - How to Tune the Piano

released in 1960

This instructional LP, by Dick Sebouh, who has been a professional piano tuner/technician for over 30 years, would come in handy if anyone needed to tune a piano. It gives step-by-step instructions on how to tune the piano. Dick explains how to listen to and recognize beats, how to set the Temperament, how to tune the bass, the treble and how to test the accuracy of musical intervals such as Fifths, Fourths, Major Thirds, etc.

Side 1

1. Beats Set by Tuning Forks {7:17}

2. Beats Set by Piano Strings {5:45}

3. Setting the Temperament {13:10}

Side 2

1. Continuation of Setting the Temperament from side 1 {7:20}

2. Tuning the Bass {3:40}

3. Tuning the Treble and Final Overall Test Playing {12:11}

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Anarchic Harmonies: Frescobaldi | Cage

Stefan Hussong and Mike Svoboda - Anarchic Harmonies: Frescobaldi--Cage

Frescobaldi and Cage. More than three hundred years separate them. Three hundred years of music. Neither rises out of the universal murmuring unaided. Frescobaldi's predecessors are found among the Spanish composers of lute and keyboard music, such as Trabaci, Mayone, and Milan, and in the great Monteverdi. Cage picked up on many things that began in the work of Satie, Ives, and Cowell.

Cage's Forty-Four Harmonies is part of a substantial series of works that Cage wrote between 1974 and 1979. The occasion for the work was the bicentennial of the United States of America, and one of Cage's contributions was Apartment House 1776, which included Fourteen Tunes, Four Marches, and Two Imitations, as well as Forty-Four Harmonies - all works that make use of models taken from the musical traditions of the United States.

Harmonies was written in a situation similar to one Cage had found himself in once before. When he wanted to arrange for two pianos Socrate by Erik Satie, the publisher did not grant permission. Without further ado, he subjected the piece to a reductionist procedure that not only condensed the material taken from Satie into a single melodic line but also used an arbitrary transposition to make its pitches completely unrecognizable.

This time it was the Executive Committee of the Moravian Music Foundation that refused to collaborate. His request to use music by Moravian immigrants was rejected. Here, too, Cage fell back on an elaborate procedure, which can no longer be reconstructed fully, that once again subverts the copyright in an almost anarchistic fashion. Walter Zimmermann has given us extensive and enlightening description of it.

Cage used a procedure with which he had long been experimenting, employing the Chinese book of oracles, the I Ching, to answer questions prepared in advance. According to Zimmermann, the questions were as follows: (1) Which notes of each of the four parts will be retained? (2) Which combinations of the four parts will be retained? (3) Which of the retained notes will be held for how long? He worked through the homophonic Moravian models chord by chord in this way. According to Zimmermann, Cage always made several attempts, finally deciding on, in his own words, "the least interesting" possibility, that is, the constellation that was least reminiscent of traditional harmonic phrasing.

Cage's intention was to push the notes so far apart that they would be free of any reminiscence of the place and historical situation of their origin. In this way they could escape the laws of tradition and yet retain the spirit of harmony. Precisely because of this, as Walter Zimmermann sums it up, what is perhaps the central idea of the American Revolution, the "spirit of independence," which was hidden in the original and only returned in the remainders of the subtraction, could achieve its innermost truth.

Frescobaldi's Canzoni are autonomous instrumental works. The genre grew out of vocal models: first the French chanson and then the Italian madrigal. Their richness of contrast, their juxtaposition of polyphonic and homophonic sections, of changes of tempo and beat, their principle of dialogue of upper and lower registers are all features of the canzone.

The first instrumental pieces that are more than intabulations of chansons begin to appear in the mid-sixteenth century. The canzone finally becomes instrumental in the work of E. Pasquini, who introduced melodic variation of the soggetti to rhythmic variation. Frescobaldi would ultimately develop that principle into the variation canzone. (Rolf W. Stoll)

Tracklisting:

1. Canzona quinta detta la Tromboncina {4:00}

2. Harmony No. 18 {2:24}

3. Harmony No. 26 {0:57}

4. Harmony No. 35 {2:29}

5. Canzon Seconda Basso solo {4:35}

6. Harmony No. 11 {1:03}

7. Harmony No. 14 {0:47}

8. Harmony No. 15 {1:21}

9. Harmony No. 42 {1:41}

10. Canzona prima detta la Bonuisia {3:39}

11. Harmony No. 3 {3:00}

12. Canzon Prima Basso solo {4:23}

13. Harmony No. 38 {4:45}

14. Harmony No. 5 {10:36}

15. Canzona seconda detta la Bernardinia {3:25}

16. Harmony No. 28 {5:51}

17. Harmony No. 19 {3:56}

18. Canzona settima detta la Superba {3:55}

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Sounds of a Tropical Rain Forest in America

Sounds of a Tropical Rain Forest in America

released on LP in 1965

EDIT 12/15/2014: A few years after this was posted, I learned the truth about this record courtesy of an article from the Smithsonian Folkways Magazine which is rather interesting coming from Folkways's official publication. Turns out that this was not recorded anywhere in Peru, it is stitched together from recordings in Panama, Connecticut, the Bronx Zoo and a bathtub somewhere in Manhattan. While it is considered an outstanding example of "sonic fakery", it is also an outstanding example of sonic editing.

This record comprises the background sounds for an American Museum of Natural History exhibition about isolated Indian tribes that lived in the rainforests in eastern Peru.

This record is somewhat a challenge and an experiment. In order to show every day life of a people that "adapt life in a hostile environment", who "live untouched today by white man's civilization", not only did the visual exhibit have to be "complete material manifestation" of a native culture but the sounds of the "environment" had to be projected both as to truth and actuality and to the proper dynamic and frequency of sound as heard at different times of the day during the two predominent seasons of the year.
...
Parrots, cicadas, black howler monkeys, toucan, macaw, were the predominant animals heard. Jaguars were hunted but these animals seldom make noise. Rains are sudden and come racing across the top of the forest leaves and can be heard from a distance and sounds like a drum beating from afar.
...
Animals behave in the following manner in a rain forest. The first sounds heard were: at dawn, birds every two to three seconds; then monkeys between seven to eight A.M., then a mixture of bird and monkey noises. Until noon sounds are interspersed with long periods of silence. At noon there is more noise as animals gather food for lunch. Parrots fly in flocks at intervals of perhaps the following order: 1 -1,2,3; 1 -1,2,3,4; -1, between ten A.M. and four P.M. screeching bark of monkeys is one to two seconds apart. Sounds are heard at a distance of one-third of a mile. Animals, like human beings in the tropics, have a siesta in the afternoon with little sounds going on. From five to eight P.M. there is more activity when the toad and cricket take over. In the middle of the day the guan cackles. Toucan is heard from ten-thirty A.M. to three P.M.; tinamou late in the day, after six P.M.; monkey chatter all day; dove or pigeon sounds early in the morning. Bell bird is heard at dark; peep of tree toad before rain. Rain sounds like drum-like surf, drips and slaps. After the rains trees fall. During the rains little goes on. Late evening or before rain fish jump.
...
As a dramatic presentation, and because enough sounds were available it was decided that the approach would be - for every hour of the day from one to two minutes of sound would be used on the record. Thus in sixteen minutes of play an idealized condition was possible in depicting a dawn to dusk period. (Moses Asch)


Tracklisting:

Side I

1. The Dry Season {11:58}
Cricket and Dove; Violaceous Jay; Black Howler Monkeys; Parrot; Swainson Toucan; Cicadas; Great Rufus Motmot; Cicada, Spotted Chachalaca, Great Tinamou, Wattled Guan, Red Wattled Curassow; Toucan and Jay; Monkey Chatter; Toucan Barbetes; Flock of Parrots; Waglers' Toucan; Macaw Talk, with Crickets; Crested Guans in Thunderstorm; Chestnut Headed Tinamou and Crickets

Side II

1. The Rainy Season {13:06}
Crickets and Parakeet; Crickets and Mourning Dove; Small Tree Toad; Peepers; Flight of Parrots; Giant Toad (Bufo Marinus); Many Toads; Rain Sequence with Crickets and Toads; Three Wattled Bell Bird; Black Howler Monkeys; Tree Fall with Screaming Monkeys, Parrots and Macaw; Tree Toad; Big Toad

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Bardo

Peter Michael Hamel - Bardo

Peter Michael Hamel - pipe organ, electric organ, synthesizer

Ulrich Kraus - synthesizer

released in 1981

*refer to the prior post for a background on Peter Michael Hamel

Tracklisting:

1. Bardo {26:32}

2. Dorian Dervishes {21:49}

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Colours of Time

Peter Michael Hamel - Colours of Time

Peter Michael Hamel and Ulrich Kraus - electric organ, synthesizer

released in 1980

The organ sound on this album was most likely inspired by Terry Riley's Persian Surgery Dervishes.

Peter Michael Hamel (born in Munich, 15 July 1947) is a German composer. His works have been associated with the Minimalist style of composition, and in the late 1970s with the New Simplicity movement.

Peter Michael Hamel ranks as one of the better known and successful German composers of his generation. He studied musical composition, psychology and sociology in Munich and Berlin with teachers including Günter Bialas and Carl Dahlhaus. He then attended workshops with Karlheinz Stockhausen and continued his education abroad, spending several extensive periods in Asia. Hamel has entered into an intensive engagement with musical cultures from outside Europe, especially Indian classical music. He has drawn inspiration from Asian philosophies and from encounters with the works of Jean Gebser and C.G.Jung in order to present music that seeks to make itself accessible to the listener through meditation and self-exploration. Also he worked and studied with American composers such as John Cage, Morton Feldman and Terry Riley.

In 1970, he founded "Between", an international group dedicated to improvisational music with whom he made several records on the Intuition/Wergo label and in 1978 in Munich, he founded the Freies Musikzentrum, an institute for musical education and therapy. In 1976, his book "Through Music to the Self" was published, obtaining wide circulation in Europe and the U.S.

In 1997, he succeeded György Ligeti as professor for composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. His orchestra and chamber music is published by Schott, Bärenreiter and E.R.P./Celestial Harmonies. He has composed four operas; many pieces for orchestra (e.g., "Gestalt"); violin and piano concertos; spiritual compositions for soprano, choirs and orchestra (e.g., "Missa"); "Shoah" (a radio-composition about the Holocaust); a number of chamber-music compositions (including four string quartets); and is in demand as a performing artist (piano, prepared piano, pipe organ, voice and live-electronics). His first symphony was premiered by Sergiu Celibidache in 1988; his second symphony had its first performance in Munich on April 29th, 2008 with the Munich Philharmonic. In 2007 Hamel's "Of the Sound of life" for pianist Roger Woodward was published by Celestial Harmonies. (Wikipedia)

Tracklisting:

1. Colours of Time (Part 1) {22:30}

2. Colours of Time (Part 2) {18:03}

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It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest

The Fugs - It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest

Band lineup on this album:

Ed Sanders - vocals

Ken Weaver - vocals, drums, routines

Tuli Kupferberg - vocals, futution

Ken Pine - guitar, vocals

Charles Larkey - bass

Bob Mason - drums

The music on this LP is wide ranging including folk, psychedelic, country, orchestral arrangements, Gregorian chants. There's even some nice songs to sing along to. Overall with the various styles, the music is well done and the clever humor on this album makes this LP enjoyable.

This is what I would guess is some sort of manifesto that makes up the liner notes (this indicates what one can expect on this album):

ONWARD EARTHLINGS
We wax weary of the tadpole smegma served to us as the primal data of the nations on Earth. In the face of a world led by a command generation of savage Honko-Cossack marauder pirates poisoning our air, murdering our youth and defiling our ethics, we declare our continuing commitment to the possibility of a benign civilization and the absolute right of each man on earth to 1) a guaranteed grope, 2) land and money, 3) longevity, 4) happiness, 5) freedom, 6) supplies for his art, 7) sheep. We wave the banners of these god-lit principles even now while Dom Dom Doom marches in waving a carrot and in the dreams of war lords mutant fruit flies devour syrup-coated telephone poles. Somehow great slurgul-slurguls of glee, humor, horniness, and peacecraft can still escape our lips, for you, for us, for the love that can spurt and flow from the surfaces of song and poetry. The benevolent city of ivory colored grope spires is our vision. And all of us, all lovers and drooling ministrels aboard the Chariots of the Abyss, bend back into the terror, take knowledge of the City of Love we wish to create, flash it the big fist, and spew onward, attempting radiance, into the skush. Onward! Grope for peace. Love the Earth. We have escaped the crone drivel. Up against the wall.

Tracklisting:

Side One

1. Crystal Liaison {3:05}

2. Ramses II is Dead, My Love {2:45}

3. Burial Waltz {2:22}

4. Wide Wide River {2:48}

5. Life is Strange {2:31}

Side Two

1. Johnny Pissoff Meets the Red Angel {4:29}

2. Marijuana {1:35}

3. Leprechaun {0:11}

4. When the Mode of the Music Changes {3:54}

5. Whimpers from the Jello {0:21}

6. The Divine Toe (Part I) {0:37}

7. We're Both Dead Now, Alice {0:15}

8. Life is Funny {0:14}

9. Grope Need (Part I)/Tuli, Visited by the Ghost of Plontinus/More Grope Need (Grope Need-Part II) {0:38}

10. Robinson Crusoe {0:17}

11. Claude Pelieu and J. J. Lebel Discuss the Early Verlaine Bread Crust Fragments {4:23}

12. The National Haiku Contest {0:24}

13. The Divine Toe (Part II) {0:47}

14. Irene {1:09}

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Tenderness Junction

The Fugs - Tenderness Junction

Band lineup on this album:

Ken Weaver - vocals, drums

Ed Sanders - vocals

Tuli Kupferberg - vocals, erectorine

Charles Larkey - bass

Dan Kootch - guitar, electric violin, percussion, vocals

Ken Pine - guitar, mouth harp, organ, occilator, vocals

Allen Ginsberg appears on "Hare Krishna".

The Fugs are an underground rock band from the 1960s that is considered to be legendary. Their most acclaimed records include their first two albums which can be found on the nets if one puts in a little time to dig around. The band made their satirical and poetic socio-political chaotic folk-rock music on their first two albums and they were probably the first band to include profanity and explicit sexual references. Afterwards, the Fugs jumped to the majors and developed a more polished sound where their songwriting was improved, but the lyrics were still satirical and intellectually witty. This post and the following post features The Fugs more polished period. By the way, the LPs featured were briefly reissued as LPs in a limited supply and they are also now only available on expensive box sets. If you're interested in checking these out (which is different from what's been posted on this blog lately), I'm sure you don't mind dealing with vinyl noise.

Tracklisting:

Side A

1. Turn On/Tune In/Drop Out {4:33}

2. Knock Knock {4:13}

3. The Garden is Open {6:00}

4. Wet Dream {3:15}

5. Hare Krishna {3:12}

Side B

1. Exorcising the Evil Spirits from the Pentagon October 21, 1967 {3:10}

2. War Song {5:17}

3. Dover Beach {3:53}

4. Fingers of the Sun {2:17}

5. Aphrodite Mass {8:17}

I. Litany of the Street Grope; II. Genuflection at the Temple of Squack; III. Petals in the Sea; IV. Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite; V. Homage to Throb Thrills

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The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie

The Camarata Contemporary Chamber Orchestra - The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie

released on LP in 1972

featuring the Moog Synthesizer

Notes relating to the title:

Music Mystically Inspired

Satie was convinced that he was a spirit working under the direct guidance of some medieval cleric whose fanatical piety he had inherited from beyond the grave.

This producer is convinced that he is also a spirit working under the direct guidance of Erik Satie, whose eccentricities and mysticisms have guided him throughout the making of this LP.

FURTHER PROOF:

A.) The arranger felt the actual presence of Satie in the room with him while he was scoring. (Erik's spirit would hover around the room and, at times, reach over his shoulder and guide his pencil along the score page, shouting directions in his ear "B flat not B natural, you dummy!") His worst moment was when he added bars to Satie's barless music . . . (the arranger in this case cannot having scored any of the pieces in the LP.)

B.) The presence and guidance of Satie's spirit was never more felt than in the programming and playing of the Moog synthesizer. All the wave forms, modulation mixes, oscillations and permutations have never been duplicated since, and the Moog player, who was entirely unfamiliar with the instrument at the time, has no recollection of having done the album whatsoever!!!!!!

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE BY SATIE:

M. Erik Satie was born in Honfleur (Calvados) on May 17, 1866. He is considered to be the strangest musician of our time. He classes himself among the "fantasists" who are, in his opinion, "highly respectable people. . . .

My humor reembles that of Cromwell.

I also owe much to Christopher Columbus, because the American "spirit" has occasionally tapped me on the shoulder and I have been delighted to feel its ironically glacial bite.

His music is written in the most superior style and enables us to understand why the subtle composer is justified in declaring: "Before writing a work I walk around it several times accompanied by myself."

This is what the Master has to say about his pieces: "It is clear that the Deflated, the Insignificant, and the Puffed-up will not appreciate these works. Let them swallow their beards! Let them dance on their own stomachs!"

An artist must regulate his life. Here is a timetable of my daily acts:

I rise at 7:18.

Am inspired from 10:23 to 11:47.

I lunch at 12:11 and leave the table at 12:14. A healthy horse-back ride

around my domain follows from 1:19 P.M. to 2:35 P.M.

Another bout of inspiration from 3:12 to 4:07 P.M.

From 5:00 to 6:47 P.M., various occupations (fencing, reflection,

immobility, visitations, contemplation, dexterity, swimming and

natation [the contemplation of one's navel]).

Dinner is served at 7:16 and finished at 7:20 P.M.

Afterward from 8:09 to 9:59 symphonic readings, out loud,

of course.

I go to bed regularly at 10:37 P.M. Once a week I wake up

(on Tuesdays) with a start at 3:14 A.M.

My only nourishment consists of food that is white: eggs, sugar

and shredded bones, the fat of dead animals, salt, cocoanuts, chicken

cooked in white water, moldy fruit, rice, turnips, sausage in

camphor, pastry, cheese (the white varieties, of course), cotton salad,

and certain kinds of fish, without their skins.

I breathe carefully (a little at a time), and dance very rarely. When

walking, I hold my ribs and look steadily behind me.

My expression is very serious. When I laugh, it is unintentional and

I always apologize, very politely.

I sleep with only one eye closed, very profoundly. My bed is round,

with a hole in it for my head to go through. Every hour a servant

takes my temperature and gives me another.

For a long time I have subscribed to a fashion magazine. I wear

white socks and white vest, along with a velvet coat, soft felt hat and

flowing tie (which is partially hidden by my beard), and on my

nose, I wear my pince-nez, of course.

My doctor explains himself: "Smoke, my friend. Otherwise someone

else will smoke in your place."

Tracklisting:

Side One

1. Chapters Turned Every Which Way {4:49}

2. Sketches and Exasperations of a Big Boob Made of Wood {4:52}

3. Childhood Dream of Pantagruel/Forbidden Games of Gargantua {3:32}

4. Flabby Preludes (For a Dog) {3:13}

5. Three Distinguished Waltzes of a Disgusted "Dandy" {3:05}

Side Two

1. Five Grins or Mona Lisa's Moustache {4:14}

2. Sports & Amusements {14:12}

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Eastmontage

various artists compilation - Eastmontage

released in 1969

To be honest, the first track "Eastmontage" is the main reason I am posting this album. "Eastmontage" is a musique concrete piece by Hilton Keaton Jones who was a student at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester and graduate assistant at the time he created "Eastmontage". "Eastmontage" is the entire first side of the LP. The second side of the LP includes performances by student groups. Half of the second side has works by Eastman alumni including notably Chuck Mangione and the other half is by big names such as Bach, Rachmaninoff and Strauss.
It's not that there's anything wrong with the classical favorites, but side two maybe would be more interesting if there were works by the likes of Earle Brown and Luciano Berio for example or at least include only works by the alumni. Some of my visitors would undoubtedly enjoy side two more than I would. Anyway, this LP was primarily for Eastman alumni which would explain the variety of styles.

The Eastman School of Music has a reputation as one of the top music schools in the United States. Here's the liner notes that explain the purpose of this album: Since you spent some of the most important years of your life at the Eastman School of Music, you will have a special appreciation for many of the sounds included in Hilton Jones' composition which was written especially for this recording. These are the sounds of Eastman today: sounds of busy, talented music students and dedicated teachers. The short performances by several of our outstanding student ensembles are sound evidence that the traditional excellence identified with Eastman performers for nearly half a century is alive and well ... and living in Rochester [New York].
Today's Eastman School student is a part of a strong tradition of excellence in every area of music education. He is selected from an impressive number of applicants drawn from all over America. He studies in an atmosphere of intense dedication to his art. His curriculum includes broad opportunities in the humanities in addition to applied music study and sound theoretical training. Among his listeners are artist performers and scholars internationally known for their contributions to the world of music.
Like every educational institution, Eastman is undergoing change: new additions to the faculty and administrative staff, new efforts in the public relations and development areas, new and revised programs of instruction, new facilities for study and research, new opportunities for the study of contemporary music and the never-ending search for improvement of our curricula are some of these areas of change.
Through this recording, prepared especially for Eastman School Alumni, we sincerely hope that a bit of the excitement of the School will help to convey our enthusiasm for the important task of educating the musician of tomorrow here at the Eastman School of Music.


Tracklisting:

Side One

1. Hilton Kean Jones - Eastmontage {13:31}

Side Two

1. Peter Mennin - Canzona {4:42}
performed by Eastman Wind Ensemble

2. Gordon Peters - The Swords of Moda-Ling {6:02}
performed by Eastman Percussion Ensemble

3. Johann Strauss - Champagne Song from "Die Fledermaus" {2:34}
performed by Eastman Opera Theatre and Eastman School Symphony Orchestra

4. Chuck Mangione - Boy with Toys {2:43}
performed by Eastman Jazz Ensemble

5. J. S. Bach - Contrapunctus XIV from "Die Kunst der Fuge" {3:18}
performed by Eastman Trombone Choir

6. Sergei Rachmaninoff - conclusion of Mvt. IV (Allegro Vivace) from the Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Opus 27 {5:42}
performed by Eastman Philharmonia

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American Contemporary CRI SD 438

various artists compilation - American Contemporary CRI SD 438

Lejaren Hiller - A Portfolio for Diverse Performers and Tape (1974)

Performers: Gregg Smith Singers; Gregg Smith - conductor

tape parts realized at the Experimental Studio, Polish National Radio, Warsaw

"A Portfolio" ... was commissioned by Polskie Radio, warsaw, Poland. The tapes were made in the Studio Eksperimentalne of Polskie Radio in 1973-74 and the performance materials were completed later that year with the help of a faculty fellowship from the Research Foundation of the State University of New York.

"A Portfolio" ... is a composition for up to 10 performers of any sort accompanied by four stereo tapes (8 channels). It is in one long movement, in a completely symmetrical arch form which reaches its climax exactly halfway through. The four tapes are a "Timing Tape" containing voices and a strike tone marking each 32-second period of the score, a "Harmony Tape" containing a prolonged harmonic progression from Eb to A, a "Bell Tape" containing sum and difference tones arranged in peals by change ringing and a "Canon Tape" meant to be interleaved with the performers' music. The voices on the "Timing Tape" are Amanda Hiller and David Hiller, aged 9 and 8 in 1973.

The performers' materials are derived from the composer's previous 50 compositions, starting with "Piano Sonata No. 1" of 1946 and ending with "Six Easy Pieces for Violin and Piano" of 1974. Each performer receives five sheets of music (plus music for an Introduction and a Coda) which are abstractions of a page or so of the earlier pieces devoid of key signatures, tempi, expression marks, tessitura, etc. The performer may perform the sheets in any order, but must make the music performable and expressive and in accord with the harmonic plan.

"A Portfolio" ... was premiered at the Warsaw Autumn in 1974, where it created a storm of controversy. Other performances have taken place in Reykjavik, The Hague and Middelburg, Holland, Rome, Cologne and Santos, Brazil, as well as in the U.S. The first all-vocal performance was by the Gregg Smith Singers in New York City in 1978, and it is this realization of the work that is recorded here. (Lejaren Hiller)

Rolv Yttrehus - Quintet (1973)

Performers: Members of Speculum Musicae (Benjamin Hudson, violin; Virgil Blackwell, clarinet; Michael Parloff, flute; Jerry Grossman, cello; Ursula Oppens, piano); Donald Palma, conductor

The "Quintet" was first performed in Town Hall in 1974 by the Da Capo Chamber Players. The work may be divided in six sections as follows: 1) Exposition in two parts; the first fast, the second slow. 2) Entrance of the bass clarinet whose sinister character causes the other instruments - especially the piccolo - to scamper about frantically. It plays a four-note motive in large note values which has a quasi-isorhythmic function. Eventually the piccolo joins the bass clarinet in canon. When all of this turmoil has worked itself out, the music settles down to a more quiet character. The last four notes of the bass clarinet are the first four notes of the 3) Recapitulation. 4) Grand Canon at the inversion between the violin and the cello serves as a cantus firmus for the more jagged and feroce material of the other instruments. 5) Climax, with the piano as a dramatic virtuoso instrument. 6) Coda, with an expressive conjunct-motion melody in the violin and other instruments. The flute settles down to a low B, the music thinning out and coming to a cadence over this pedal point. (Rolv Yttrehus)

David Maslanka - Three Pieces for Clarinet and Piano (1975)

Performers: Phillip Rehfeldt - clarinet; Barney Childs - piano

"Three Pieces" was commissioned in 1974 by Phillip Rehfeldt and Barney Childs for their Clarinet and Friend series. It was completed in 1975 and has since been widely performed.

The first piece is understated - elliptical, secretive, willful. Spidery, sparse textures of the beginning and end surround a central episode of denser, more tonally-oriented material. The piece embodies altogether a deliberate contrary juxtaposition of clarinet and piano.

The second piece, marked aggressive, explosive, is a rough, raucous, bursting movement giving the impression of improvisation, though with the exception of one small section, it is entirely composed. Again there is a deliberate separation of clarinet and piano material. The effect is of two musics occupying roughly the same space but having very little to do with each other. The underlying tonal orientation of the whole piece begins to emerge in the piano writing.

Number three follows with only brief pause. It is a gentle reconciliation of forces leading to a chorale-like passage with clarinet and piano in rhythmic lockstep. There follows a gradual revelation of the key of C# major and a long, ethereal coda for piano alone. (David Maslanka)

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Lejaren Hiller - A Portfolio for Diverse Performers and Tape {21:58}

Side 2

1. Rolv Yttrehus - Quintet {12:27}

2. David Maslanka - Three Pieces for Clarinet and Piano (1) {5:23}

3. David Maslanka - Three Pieces for Clarinet and Piano (2) {2:35}

4. David Maslanka - Three Pieces for Clarinet and Piano (3) {6:45}

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Amazon Rainforest

Amazon Rainforest

The back cover says: As the tropical rainfall gives way to the gentle call of exotic birds, this Amazon Rainforest comes alive with sounds. The cascading rain sets the stage for Nature's Best Symphony.

Let the beautiful sounds of mother nature in harmony soothe your body and soul.

Tracklisting:

1. Amazon Rainforest {61:14}

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