Big Sur

Big Sur

cassette released in 1995

For this post, we'll stay on the California coast. This recording is of the ocean waves on the shores of Big Sur and the birds that inhabit the area.

BIG SUR is that portion of Northern California that is so spectacular, it attracts millions of tourists each year.
It is a 30-mile stretch that has been called "a garden spot on earth." People are drawn to Big Sur by the natural wonder of mountains meeting the sea and sky. The grandeur of the land and sea and the magnificence of the Pacific Ocean make this a must-see place to visit. (from the liner notes)
Tracklisting:

1. Big Sur {28:03}

Note: both sides of the cassette are the same

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Riegger/Luening/McPhee

Riegger/Luening/McPhee - Riegger/Luening/McPhee

Fantasy and Fugue for Orchestra and Organ; Op. 10 (1963)

composed by Wallingford Riegger

performed by Polish National Radio Orchestra, Jan Krenz - conductor

recorded by Polski Nagrania, Poland

The FANTASY AND FUGUE was originally designated on the cover of the manuscript score as "Atonal" - but this was scratched out (possibly with the thought of chicken-hearted conductors and even more timid audiences). The opening section of the music is an extended Sostenuto 6/8 episode in which the organ plays an important coloristic and harmonic role. Incipient dance elements make their appearance in a 5/8 Scherzando. A slowing of tempo paves the way for the fugue, in which the strings lead off (Allegro-12/8).

Riegger wrote "This is far from being a purely theoretical fugue. Each of the three subjects has been conceived for a particular choir of the orchestra, one being for strings, one for woodwinds, and one for brass, an arrangement which, however, does not preclude an occasional shift of roles. When the fugue is fairly well under way, an atonal and many-voiced chorale is announced, phrase by phrase in the violins - pianissimo - while the fugal themes continue their sharply rhythmic progress. After a brief interim the chorale reappears in inverted form, still in the background, played this time by the brass and woodwinds, the fugue continuing restlessly in many kinds of stretti. Meanwhile the organ weaves into the polyphonic texture, threading its way among the higher woodwinds or lower strings, but not asserting itself positively till near the close, where against the fortissimo agitation of the entire orchestra it intones the broad strains of the chorale, overwhelming the warring rhythms of strings, winds, and percussion, as eventually cosmic forces must dominate over humanity's ceaseless striving."

Synthesis for Orchestra and Electronic Sound (1960)

composed by Otto Luening

performed by Hessian Radio Symphony Orchestra, David Van Vactor - conductor

synchronized at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, New York City

Luening's career as a composer is marked by ceaseless creativity - his compositions number well over 200 - by a refined simplicity of style that has come to be recognized as "American" and by an enthusiastic pursuit of unusual media, among them the use of the tape recorder to modify and transmute "natural" sounds and the creation of synthetic musical sounds directly on tape.

Composing directly on magnetic tape was a development of the mid-1950s, and synthesizing musical sounds for this medium by sophisticated electronic devices has since become a familiar activity in the world's musical centers. Mr. Luening's SYNTHESIS FOR ORCHESTRA AND ELECTRONIC SOUND combines structures made on the R.C.A. Synthesizer with structures made of sounds produced by cruder machines - the strings, winds and skins of the 19th century symphony orchestra. It was commissioned in 1960 by Broadcast Music, Inc., for its 20th anniversary, and the composer conducted its premiere with the Erie Philharmonic in 1965 on the occasion of that organization's 50th anniversary.

The music begins with purely orchestral sounds, which proceed in a mood of almost primitive innocence until they are superseded by purely electronic sounds - some of them not at all "pure" in the high fidelity sense - which are in the concert hall produced by a tape recorder playing through a loudspeaker. The electronic sounds are eventually joined by the percussion section, causing the music to evolve from an atmosphere of concerto-like polarization, in which the orchestra provides the dramatic statements and the tape the lyrical and sometimes playful comments, to one of harmony.

Nocturne (1958)

composed by Colin McPhee

performed by Hessian Radio Symphony Orchestra, David Van Vactor - conductor

Colin McPhee was best known to American audiences as a musical exoticist during a period when exoticism was less then fashionable. This reputation resulted from the composer's visit to the island of Bali and his residence there from 1931 to 1939, during which he became expert in clangorous music of Indonesia. Several of his subsequent compositions were in Balinese style, creating an imaginative use of the Western orchestra the chiming sounds of the gamelan. The most famous of these works is his TABUH-TABUHAN (1936), a three movement piece of symphonic proportions. Another is the NOCTURNE recorded here.

NOCTURNE for chamber orchestra, was commissioned by the Contemporary Music Society and had its premiere in the Metropolitan Museum of Art under the direction of Leopold Stokowski. It is in one movement and has been described as impressionistic, modal and of deliberate exoticism.

Fantasia for Organ (1929)

composed by Otto Luening

performed by Ralph Kneeream

Recorded in St. Paul's Chapel, Columbia University

FANTASIA FOR ORGAN states its theme in deep and strong accents, of almost passacaglia-like effect. It passes to a section of relative tranquillity and the third and more contrapuntal section is prepared by a pedal note above which the higher parts break away in a true mood of fantasy. (Carter Harman from the liner notes)

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Wallingford Riegger - Fantasy and Fugue for Orchestra and Organ {19:29}

Side 2

1. Otto Luening - Synthesis for Orchestra and Electronic Sound {7:47}

2. Colin McPhee - Nocturne {7:09}

3. Otto Luening - Fantasia for Organ {6:30}

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Capriccio/Concertino

Leos Janacek - Capriccio/Concertino

LP released in 1965

Performers:

Hilde Somer - piano
Caramoor Festival Orchestra: Julius Rudel - conductor, Claude Monteux - flute, Raymond Crisara - trumpet, Adel Sanchez - trumpet, Robert Hauck - trombone, Abraham Pearlstein - trombone, Robert Wright - trombone, John Swallow - tuba, Joseph Schor - violin, Secondo Proto - violin, Julian Barber - viola, George Silfies - clarinet, Reohey Nakagawa - bassoon, Brooks Tillotson - French horn

Capriccio for Piano Left Hand and Chamber Orchestra

Movements: 1. Allegro 2. Adagio 3. Allegretto 4. Andante

instruments: piano only played with left hand, flute (piccolo), 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba

Between June and October 1926, one year after the Concertino [more info below] and at the same time as the Glagolitic Mass, Janacek wrote a work which presented him with a further opportunity for solving the pattern of a concertino in his own way. This was his Capriccio for piano for the left hand and wind ensemble - flute (alternating piccolo), two trumpets, tenor tuba (usually replaced by a bass) and three trombones. Janacek wrote this work at the request of the pianist Otakar Hollmann who, having been wounded in the First World War, could use only his left hand. Hollmann made similar requests to other Czech composers, e.g., Bohuslav Martinu, who wrote for him his Divertimento for the left hand. Janacek had, at first, refused Hollmann's request, but the idea gave him no peace and, on November 11th, 1926, he wrote to Hollmann telling him that the Capriccio was finished. He added: "You know, to write merely for the left hand would have been childishly gratuitous. More reasons were necessary; subjective and objective. When all these were present and clashed, the work came into existence." Thus Janacek composed a Czech counterpart to the four compositions written for the Pianist Prince Paul Wittgenstein (who had suffered in the same way) at almost exactly the same time by Ravel and Prokofiev who wrote concertos for the left hand, and Richard Struass who composed his Parergon to the Sinfonia Domestica (1925) and Panathenean Procession (1926-27).

What were these "objective and subjective" reasons which induced Janacek to change his mind and compose this work? From the objective point of view, the most important reason was certianly that having written the Concertino he found he had not fully explored the many possibilities offered by this genre. As for the subjective reasons, Jarmil Burghauser, in his preface to the published score, assumes that Janacek "was certainly inspired by the unyielding energy of a man who, although maimed in war, did not give up his intended career as a pianist, and this not in the sense of acrobatics but as a serious artist. This defiance (the work was originally to have been called Defiance) and the clash with the drastic realities of war and its aftermath, form the spiritual contents of the work. This is emphasized by the instrumentation mainly for the hard sounding brass instruments, and the general mood of gloom and nostalgia. It is the reverse of the joyful Sinfonietta with which it is linked, however, by its military descent. Thus Janacek's Capriccio may be regarded as a protest against the senselessness and horrors of war while the piano may be said to personify a victim of war who continues to wage an untiring struggle."

The Capriccio, although for a long time one of Janacek's least performed works, is in no way inferior to his masterpieces - except perhaps for some of the sound values, and this may be due to the unusual technique. (from the liner notes)

Concertino for Piano and Chamber Orchestra

Movements: 1. Moderato 2. Piu Mosso 3. Con Moto 4. Allegro

instruments: piano, 2 violins, viola, 2 clarinets, French horn, bassoon

Janacek, in his next work, gave ample proof that his honorary doctorate was not going to have the slightest effect on his composing, especially since it was of a type which might very easily have been academic - a piano concerto.

"The eternally young old man from Brno surprised us on Saturday with a work which was, once again, a revelation. The title: Concertino - for piano, two violins, viola, clarinet, horn and bassoon. As can be seen the scoring itself is pure Janacek, a fact which is even more pointedly stressed in the music (the piano cadenza in the third movement seems reminiscent of the old concertos). Not a symphony with piano, but a suite which might have been entitled, Nature.

"Thus it is clear that the Concertino belongs to the world of The Cunning Little Vixen while the Quartet could be coupled with Katya Kabanova. Janacek's melodies are excitingly new and highly original, sometimes being based on a minor scale with a raised fourth (the main themes of the first, second and to a certain extent the third movements) or on the whole tone scale which has, however, when used by Janacek, quite a different colour than when used by Debussy. The same may be said of Janacek's melodic progressions based on the chords of four or five fourths - equally dear to Debussy. Janacek's rhythms, sometimes slow, sometimes dancing, either primly or with abandon, deserve a complete study of their own. The same may be said for his original and yet perfectly worked-out instrumentation which he knows so well how to gradate by, in the first movement, adding only horns to the piano, in the second, only the clarinet, and only from the end of that movement using the whole ensemble. No wonder that the success of the new work was quite exceptional. Everyone in the audience felt that this was the first spring day of the year."

With these words I tried to express the unforgettable impression made by this work, in an article in Ceskoslovenska republika published after the first Prague performance of this Concertino for piano and chamber ensemble. Janacek wrote it in the spring of 1925 in the heart of his native Hukvaldy country, finishing it on April 29th. (from the liner notes)

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Capriccio: Allegro {5:03}

2. Capriccio: Adagio {5:22}

3. Capriccio: Allegretto {3:37}

4. Capriccio: Andante {5:46}

Side 2

1. Concertino: Moderato {5:27}

2. Concertino: Piu Mosso {3:08}

3. Concertino: Con Moto {3:16}

4. Concertino: Allegro {4:06}

(1) or (1) [links coming back soon, (1/22/2012)]

Rain in the Redwood Forest

Nature Recordings - Rain in the Redwood Forest

cassette released in 1986

As the title says, this is a recording of a rain shower in the forest in the Redwood National and State Parks in northern California. The forest is home to the world's tallest trees.

The other side of the cassette is "Thunderstorm in the Big Sur Mountains" posted last week.

Tracklisting:

1. Rain in the Redwood Forest {43:23}

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Colors

Ornette Coleman and Joachim Kuhn - Colors

Recorded during the 20th Anniversary Leipziger JazzTage on August 31, 1996 at the Leipzig Opera.

Ornette Coleman - alto saxophone, trumpet, violin
Joachim Kuhn - piano

For Ornette Coleman, Colors is yet another step into new territory by an artist whose four decades in the public eye and ear have been marked by an astonishing capacity for growth and change, and by an insatiable desire to cross all national, cultural and stylistic borders - and to bring together musicians and musics from widely disparate backgrounds.
For Ornette's collaborator on this collection, the brilliant pianist Joachim Kuhn, Colors is the realization of a lifelong dream. Like so many musicians who grew up in the latter part of this waning century, Kuhn's world was forever changed when he was exposed to the revelatory sound that came to be known as Free Jazz, and particularly the work of Ornette Coleman. Born in Leipzig, Germany in 1944, the classically trained Kuhn became enraptured with the thrill of improvisation at a very early age, forming his first jazz group when he was 12, and deciding to devote himself wholly to jazz shortly thereafter. By the age of 14, he was performing frequently with his older brother, clarinetist Rolf Kuhn. Joachim had already been deeply affected by the work of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, when he first heard about the music of Ornette Coleman. As he recalls it, "I heard some people mention his name, and they said 'This guy plays without chord changes.' And I said, 'Wow, this is someone I have to hear!" Kuhn says that his first contact with Ornette's music, on such albums as The Shape of Jazz To Come and This Is Our Music, "changed everything for me... it was those records that encouraged me to play free music."
...
The collaboration between these kindred spirits came about by happy accident, as Kuhn remembers: "My agent, Genevieve Peyregne, happened to meet Ornette, and played him some of my records." It wasn't long thereafter that Ornette - who has worked with only a handful of pianists in his career - contacted Joachim, inviting him to perform in a duo setting at a concert in the historic arena in Verona, Italy in the summer of 1996. Kuhn accepted instantly, and returned the compliment by inviting Ornette to join him in a performance in the pianist's hometown of Leipzig that same summer. It is the latter performance that is captured on Colors.
Joachim reports that the personal and musical rapport between the two musicians was immediately evident, and that the cultural chasm that would seem to separate them was nowhere to be seen: "Even though he came from the other side of the world - musically and geographically - we found out quite quickly that it was not difficult to play together... He had written 12 new tunes especially for these performances, and by the time we played in Leipzig, we were very comfortable with the music and with each other, and it sounds really spontaneous." (from the liner notes by Gary Lambert)

Tracklisting:

1. Faxing {5:43}

2. House of Stained Glass {7:07}

3. Refills {9:02}

4. Story Writing {10:21}

5. Three Ways to One {8:54}

6. Passion Cultures {8:41}

7. Night Plans {10:01}

8. Cyber Cyber {5:46}

(1) or (1) (2) or (2) [links coming back soon, (1/22/2012)]

Terminal Velocity

Icebreaker - Terminal Velocity

CD released in 1994

Icebreaker are:

James Poke - flute, piccolo, pan-pipes, wind-synthesizer
Katherine Pendry - flute, piccolo, pan-pipes, alto flute
Richard Craig - alto & tenor saxes, bass clarinet
Catherine Shrubshall - soprano, alto & baritone saxes
Emma Fowler - soprano, alto & baritone saxes
John Godfrey - electric guitar, keyboards
Damian le Gassick - keyboards
Tom Armstrong - keyboards
Tracey Goldsmith - accordion
Joanna Parker - violin, keyboards
Audrey Riley - cello, electric cello
Robert Millett - percussion
James Woodrow - electric guitars
Pete Wilson - bass guitars

James Poke - artistic director
John Godfrey - musical director
Ian Mellish - fixer, roadie & accordion button-pusher

with
Alex Neal - percussion
Graham Cole - percussion

This recording was made in the Henry Wood Hall, London, 19-21 September 1993, using DECCA-modified Neumann M50, Neumann TLM 170, Schoeps MK4 and Neumann KM84 microphones and Yamaha SY77, Korg M3R, Emu Systems Proteus 1, Emu Systems Proteus 2, Roland S770 and Roland S750 keyboards. It was remixed digitally on the Neve Capricorn, Penthouse Studio, at Abbey Road, 10-12 November 1993, and at the Decca Recording Centre, 15-16 November 1993 and was monitored on B & W loudspeakers.

Since the formation of Icebreaker in 1989 critics have searched hard for a label to attach to the band and its music. Icebreaker's frenetic energy, visceral but undanceable rhythms, searing virtuosity, confrontational, blasting volume and dynamic stage presence have all contributed to a musical image which cuts across established categories.
Initially, the musicians came together under James Poke and John Godfrey to play music by the 'bad boy' of Dutch music, Louis Andriessen, music widely performed and hugely influential in his native Holland but scarcely known at that time in Britain. Icebreaker's sound evolved from Andriessen's Hoketus, written for the ensemble of that name which he founded in the mid-1970s and scored for four keyboards and two each of panpipes, saxophones, congas, and bass guitars. What appealed about Andriessen was his sidestepping of both the scented-candle aura of American minimalism and the Angst-ridden confusion of much 'serious' contemporary music in favour of a hard-edged rhythmic idiom - uncompromisingly loud, heavy on winds, keyboards and percussion, and distinguished by a clarity of thought and expression. His work is represented on this recording by de Snelheid, originally written for symphony orchestra but arranged by Poke (with Andriessen's enthusiastic approval) for the current Icebreaker line-up.
...
For better or worse, there is something very English about Icebreaker. Not so much the familiar English virtues of restraint and understatement, but rather the manic humour of Monty Python: screwed-up, not terribly house-trained, at times rather loutish. As one reviewer put it, Icebreaker 'don't just - in the language of cocktail parties - break the ice; they smash up the furniture as well'. Titles such as Godfrey's Euthanasia and Garden Implements or Le Gassick's Mad Legs in a Sack show an irreverent attitude to the posturings and the decent etiquette of the contemporary music establishment, and are thoroughly irrelevant to the pieces themselves. And yet Icebreaker's irreverence does not extend to the music they perform, as witnessed by the sheer intensity and relentless perfectionism of their rehearsal process. What has emerged is a band with an aesthetic agenda as subtle as a sledgehammer, and a penchant for music that is irresponsibly loud, relentlessly hyper, fast, edgy, irritating, like an itch that won't go away. The short but fiendish violin cadenza that ends Evol is an example: a gesture of exasperation, a final dissipation of the frustrations and accumulated tensions in the piece.
Icebreaker's creative discomfort is provoked by their ambivalent attitude to just about every musical language around: the result is music that helps define a number of existing borders in the act of crossing them. Cutting through all the ambivalence is an insistence on rhythmic and harmonic material tensile enough to withstand the demands they make in selecting new repertory. (Bob Gilmore)
Tracklisting:

1. Yo Shakespeare {10:45}
composed by Michael Gordon

2. de Snelheid {16:28}
composed by Louis Andriessen (arranged by James Poke)

3. The Archangel Trip {15:57}
composed by Gavin Bryars

4. Evol {8:06}
composed by Damian le Gassick

5. Slow Movement {23:38}
composed by David Lang

(1) or (1) (2) or (2) [links coming back soon, (1/22/2012)]

Voice of the Whale/Night of the Four Moons

George Crumb - Voice of the Whale/Night of the Four Moons

LP released in 1974

Voice of the Whale (Vox Balaenae) for three masked players

Vocalise (...for the beginning of time)
Variations on Sea-Time: Sea-theme->Archeozoic (Var. I)->Proterozoic (Var. II)->Paleozoic (Var. III)->Mesozoic (Var. IV)->Cenozoic (Var. V)
Sea-Nocturne (...for the end of time)

Performers:

Aeolian Chamber Players: Erich Graf - flute; Walter Ponce - piano; Jerry Grossman - cello and antique cymbals

Recorded under the supervision of the composer.

Voice of the Whale (Vox Balaenae), composed in 1971 for the New York Camerata, is scored for flute, cello, and piano (all amplified in concert performance). The work was inspired by the singing of the humpback whale, a tape recording of which I had heard two or three years previously. Each of the three performers is required to wear a black half-mask (or visor-mask). The masks, by effacing the sense of human projection, are intended to represent, symbolically, the powerful impersonal forces of nature (i.e. nature dehumanized). I have also suggested that the work be performed under a deep-blue stage lighting.
The form of Voice of the Whale is a simple three-part design, consisting of a prologue, a set of variations named after the geological eras, and an epilogue. (George Crumb)

Night of the Four Moons

(based on fragments from Federico Garcia Lorca)

I - La luna esta muerta, muerta...
(The moon is dead, dead...)
II - Cuando sale la luna...
(When the moon rises...)
III - Otro Adan oscuro esta sonando...
(Another obscure Adam dreams...)
IV - Huje luna, luna, luna!...
(Run away moon, moon, moon!...)

Performers:

Jan DeGaetani - mezzo-soprano
Aeolian Chamber Players: Lewis Kaplan - banjo; Erich Graf - alto flute and piccolo; Paul Tobias - cello
Raymond DesRoches - percussion

Night of the Four Moons, commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Players, was composed in 1969 during the Apollo 11 flight (July 16-24). The work is scored for alto (or mezzo-soprano), alto flute (doubling piccolo), banjo, electric cello, and percussion. The percussion includes Tibetan prayer stones, Japanese Kabuki blocks, alto African thumb piano (mbira), and Chinese temple gong in addition to the more usual vibraphone, crotales, tambourine, bongo drums, suspended cymbal and tamtam. The singer is also required to play finger cymbals, castanets, glockenspiel and tamtam.
I suppose that Night of the Four Moons is really an "occasional" work, since its inception was an artistic response to an external event. The texts - extracts drawn from the poems of Federico Garcia Lorca - symbolize my own rather ambivalent feelings vis-a-vis Apollo 11. The texts of the third and fourth songs seemed strikingly prophetic! (George Crumb)

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Voice of the Whale {19:59}
Side 2

1. Night of the Four Moons: I. La luna esta muerta, muerta... {2:34}

2. Night of the Four Moons: II. Cuando sale la luna... {3:28}

3. Night of the Four Moons: III. Otro Adan oscuro esta sonando... {2:48}

4. Night of the Four Moons: IV. Huje luna, luna, luna!... {8:20}

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Thunderstorm in the Big Sur Mountains

Thunderstorm in the Big Sur Mountains

cassette released in 1986

It's good to be back. Not only that, also the nature/environmental sounds posts have been overdue for some time.

On the other side of the cassette is "Rain in the Redwood Forest" which will be posted next week.

Enjoy your time in the storm at Big Sur (in the comfort of whatever shelter you have, of course).

Tracklisting:

1. Thunderstorm in the Big Sur Mountains {44:05}

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