Music of Meyer Kupferman

Meyer Kupferman - Music of Meyer Kupferman

Liner notes by Meyer Kupferman

The Celestial City
Gilbert Kalish - pianist, performing live and on pre-recorded tapes

When I composed THE CELESTIAL CITY in 1974 for my dear friend, Gilbert Kalish, I conceived of the work as a concerto for piano and orchestra even though the piece has no orchestra. The tape accompaniment is scored for two tracks of pre-recorded piano, which provide a background that is as imposing and as colorful as an orchestra and that is more flexible. The combined sound of these tightly coordinated pianos creates a contemporary 'SUPERPIANO!' which can dazzle us with its endless displays of astonishing keyboard sonorities and which apparently requires an indefatigable 'six-handed' virtuoso (like Kalish) to operate.

The Garden of My Father's House
Max Pollikoff - violinist; Meyer Kupferman - clarinetist

The piece is a musical ritual, based on a C-sharp drone, or pedal note, that is heard without interruption, across several ranges, throughout the piece. The violin's drone tremolos, often combined with perfect fifths and quarter-tone tunings, imply the key of C-sharp minor. The violin part is always rubato - lyrical, expressive and frequently very passionate. But, most importantly, the violin is always tonal.
The clarinet, on the other hand, is atonal, its pitches drawn from the twelve-tone row that i used to write my Cycles of Infinities. The style of the clarinet is contemporary, using wide-range intervals, biting accents and unusual instrumental effects, including fluttertonguing and quarter-tone trills.
In combining the 'contrasting' roles of the two instruments, I sought to create a musical ritual-game that would draw energy and bits of information from the polarized instruments. The language of the piece calls the listener's attention to the cogent features of both instrumental personalities in a manner that is somewhat similar to the way in which Yiddish combines German and Hebrew. The drone becomes more and more magnetic and begins to join the parts together until they become one in the final C-sharp unison.

Angel Footprints
Max Pollikoff - violinist, performing live and on pre-recorded tapes

ANGEL FOOTPRINTS, commissioned by Max Pollikoff, was completed in 1973. The use of a tape part, consisting of two tracks of pre-recorded violin, continues my experiments with 'mirror' tape procedures begun more than a decade earlier....Much of the focus of the work is on melody, and, in creating the tape parts, I chose to stress similarities, rather than contrasts, among the different lines; for example, strett-like canons are frequently draped around the live violin line.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. The Celestial City {24:52}

Side 2

1. The Garden of My Father's House {8:01}

2. Angel Footprints {18:11}

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Music for Flute & Tape

various artists compilation - Music for Flute & Tape

Karl Korte - Rembrances (1971)

for flute & synthesized processed sound

electronic tape realized at the Studio for Electronic Music, State University of New York at Binghamton

Mario Davidovsky - Synchronisms No. 1 (1962)

for flute & recorded electronic sounds

tape realized at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center

Meyer Kupferman - Superflute (1971)

for flute & tape

Samuel Baron - flute on all pieces


Tracklisting:

Side One

1. Karl Korte - Remembrances {18:54}

Side Two

1. Mario Davidovsky - Synchronisms No. 1 {3:35}

2. Meyer Kupferman - Superflute {12:51}

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Glocken der Heimat: German Church Bells

Glocken der Heimat: German Church Bells

This LP is a presentation of the recorded sounds of bells from churches within Germany. The narration is in German as are the liner notes.
I would like to thank H.C. Earwicker for translating the liner notes. The liner notes provide a small amount of background on each church represented on this album as well as general background information about church bells. The liner notes in German and H.C.'s translation are included in the file. Apparently, this album was put out by German-Americans as my copy was printed in the U.S.A. There's not any other information about this record to be found on the internet.

Here's the background information from H.C.'s translation of the liner notes:

Bells of Home - the bells of our cathedrals and churches in East-, West- and Middle-Germany sounding on this long-playing record direct the thoughts to past times, recollections from the history of these venerable houses of God, but also recollections of one's own experiences, the stations of our lives, to whom the sound of the Bells of Home is closely tied - baptism and benediction, wedding and death, the bell at clerical feasts or in times of trouble as a storm- or firebell.
In older times everybody in town knew if sorrow or joy were the cause when the bells started to ring. But since the bells are set into motion by electric energy and not by human hands, the merry "belern" and "kleppen" (as it was called in older German dialects) has come to an end. The force of the clanging bells can still capture us today, but it has lost a lot of its almost magic powers.
Originally, the casting of bells was practiced by monks in monasteries, but as early as in the 8th Century there were wandering casters. They were going from town to town, producing their work under close observation by the curious and watchful township. By this means, the perilous and costly transportation of the bells could be avoided.
Many legends were woven around the casting of certain bells. The most known is the story of the meddlesome apprentice who casts a bell of his own and is beaten to death by his angered master. Legend also tells of buried and sunken bells. Thus their ringing is said to come out of the earth, out of mountains, out of dark woods and from the depths of the waters. They were buried or sunken for some reason - perhaps because they were not consecrated and therefore flew away at their first ringing, or they got taken by the devil, or because they didn't want to be stolen by enemies and bandits.
Many of these legends are still alive today. Yet many old bells of whose creation and odysseys they tell are gone for a long time. They were molten down in times of war, shattered or carried off.



Listing of churches in order of presentation on each side:


Side A
St.-Petri-Cathedral in Bremen
Bamberg Cathedral
Maria-Magdelena Church of Breslau
Sankt-Marien Church in Luebeck
Cathedral of Trier
Jakobi Church of Stettin
Freiburg Minster
Cologne Cathedral
Cathedral of Limburg by the Lahn
Kaiserdom (Imperial cathedral) of Speyer
Cathedral of Worms
Cathedral of Erfurt
Minster of Ulm
Cathedral of Magdeburg


Side B
Minster of Aachen
Cathedral of Regensburg
Thomas-Church of Leipzig
Cathedral of Wuerzburg
The Mainz Cathedral
Sankt Peter of Munich
Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin
Sebaldus Church of Nuremberg
Benedictine Abbey Ettal
Cathedral of Koenigsberg
Muenchner Frauenkirche (Munich)

Tracklisting:

Side A

1. side A {18:58}

Side B

1. side B {16:10}

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New Directions in Music 1

Pierre Boulez/Karlheinz Stockhausen - New Directions in Music 1

I didn't mean to go over two weeks without posting anything. Hopefully, I'll be able to resume regular posting. Anyway, I dug out this LP by two familar groundbreaking composers. Enjoy.


Excerpts from the liner notes written by Robert Kraft who conducted the performances on this LP:

Our perfromers were less than wildly enthusiastic about the music at first sight, and even at fifteenth sight they were inclined to invent "lazy dogmas of impossibility" (an early Alpinist quoted in Sir Gavin de Beer's The First Ascent of Mont Blanc). However, the performers now feel that these two pieces are perfectly imagined for their instruments. In fact, the instruments have been used so well and to such effect as to cause every player to regret not having more to play.

Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans maitre for alto voice and six instruments

Performers:

Margery MacKay - alto voice
Arthur Gleghorn - flutist
Milton Thomas - violist
William Kraft - vibraphonist
Dorothy Remsen - xylorimbist
Theodore Norman - guitarist
Walt Goodwin - percussionist (playing bongos, maracas, tambourines, claves, bells, tam-tam, triangle, gong, cymbals, small cymbals)


Though Le Marteau is significant primarily for its own newness, the fact that it brings together two or three diverse strands seems to me almost as important. It is a connecting and tradition-forming work.
...

These are the major composer influences - Webern mostly, Schoenberg for Pierrot Lunaire, Stravinsky in one type of rhythm. Of some part of their music Boulez has made new and significant use. There are other influences and ingredients too, for example, Oriental and Latin American percussion instruments (gongs, maracas, bongos), jazz, the music of Messiaen and Varese.

Le Marteau represents a consolidation and simplification in Boulez's own development, too. It is his first work to have attained a wide success. (Why? Because it is less purely "abstract" than his piano pieces? Because it has a dramatic form and an exotic instrumentation? Because it is comparatively simple to hear and and to follow?)

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Zeitmasse for five woodwinds


Performers:

Arthur Gleghorn - flutist
Donald Muggeridge - oboist
Donald Leake - English-horn player
Donald Christlieb - bassoonist
William Ulyate - clarinetist


Electronic music - Stockhausen's own - is the most obvious influence on the Zeitmasse. In fact, the two kinds of composition ought to be considered side by side. The truth is, however, that I am incompetent to do so and will therefore have to stop at recommending the Zeitmasse to the listener as a piece of musical patterns and designs like any other, with tensions, speeds, progression, successive logic of ideas, form, like any other.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans maitre: Avant "L'Artisanat furieux" {1:28}

2. Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans maitre: Commentaire I de "Bourreaux de solitude" {3:38}

3. Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans maitre: "L'Artisanat furieux" {2:05}

4. Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans maitre: Commentaire II de "Bourreaux de solitude" {3:05}

5. Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans maitre: "Bel edifice et les pressentiments" version premiere {2:48}

6. Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans maitre: "Bourreaux de solitude" {4:16}

7. Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans maitre: Apres "L'Artisanat furieux" {0:49}

8. Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans maitre: Commentaire III de "bourreaux de solitude" {4:31}

9. Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans maitre: "Bel edifice et les pressentiments" double {6:28}

Side 2

1. Karlheinz Stockhausen - Zeitmasse {13:07}

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The Twilight Zone, Volume 1 (of 5)

This LP series was originally released by Varese Sarabande in the US, starting with Volume One in 1983. It was also published in Europe, with identical contents and covers, by Milan.
It features a wide-ranged selection of complete original scores from Rod Serling's groundbreaking Mystery and Science Fiction TV series, produced in the late 50s and early 60s. Besides works from lesser known composers like Nathan Van Cleave and Leonard Rosenman, we get to hear music from such heavyweight maestros as Jerry Goldsmith, who was just getting his career started, and Swiss genius Bernard Herrmann, who had already developed a very strong and unique personal style, writing music for Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, among many others.

Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling

Bound by tight deadlines and even tighter financial limitations, the Twilight Zone composers were nonetheless highly motivated to create characteristic and effective scores with a striking atmosphere of otherwordly eeriness. Utilizing small ensembles of musicians instead of big orchestras, the composers often experimented with unusual instrumentation and electroacoustic/electronic instruments like the Novachord, electronic organs and the Theremin.

Composer Jerry Goldsmith

The first Volume features four scores ranging from hard driving, contrasted suspense and action music to strange arrangements of well-known musical idioms. Be it dramatic, sentimental, romantic - it's all in there. Even the cheap waltz from the 20s.
Remarkable are the Goldsmith (as there is no dialogue in this episode, except for the end, the music is of rare intensity) and the Van Cleave, with its generous use of the Novachord and Theremin.
Liner notes included as image files. Sound quality is so-so, but listenable. It's a rather old transfer from the original records.

1 Marius Constant: Main Title Theme
2 Jerry Goldsmith: The Invaders (1961)
3 Nathan Van Cleave: Perchance To Dream (1959)
4 Bernard Herrmann: Walking Distance (1959)
5 Franz Waxman: The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine (1959)
6 Marius Constant End Title Theme

[may or may not be reposted]

Another Kondo + a new HCE mix

This, from CoC visitor Tom7865 in the comments section of my post with chamber music from Jo Kondo:

posted this a while ago...

Jo Kondo self titled album (3 works) - vinyl LP rip (cp2 records-cp2/11).
... never released as CD and not available except in the darkest reaches of a few major university libraries......

1. "standing" performed by sound space "ark"
2. "sight rhythmics" performed by aki takahashi, piano
3. "under the umbrella" performed by nexus

soundspace "ark" founded in 1972 by aki takahashi (piano), hiroshi koizumi (flute), and yasunori yamaguchi (percussion) with additional members ayako shinozaki (harp) and yoshiaki suzuki (clarinet) added in 1976.

nexus performers were bob becker, bill cahn, robin engelman, russ hartenberger and john wyre. aki takahashi- piano

http://rapidshare.com/files/14188871/jo_kondo.rar

enjoy (tom7865)

Thanks, Tom7865!

***

Over on Hush! Caution! Echoland! there's a new mix out - "Pastorale" - give it a try, if you like what you're getting from "A Closet of Cursiosities".

Not so much of my own music in there - just two outtake tracks of electronics and bamboo percussion in the middle section and, closing the mix, "Pastorale 1", shimmering guitars all over.

You'll hear Nobukazu Takemura, as well as Toru Takemitsu, along with the light-generated music by Jacques Dudon (thanks to Continuo), two tracks by Burial, and a lovely tune from the Dutch 70s prog band Kayak. A piece of neo-primitive ritual music by an early Psychic TV leads into Synaulia's semi-authentic recreation of ancient Roman music. And much more...

China: Folk Instrumental Traditions

various artists compilation - China: Folk Instrumental Traditions

From the liner notes:

Both in imperial times and under the People's Republic of China, the popular culture of China has persistently been neglected in favour of official, elite culture. The confucian values of the imperial age have been replaced in modern times by the domination of a new elite, stressing urban, professional, secular, and Party-sponsored music-making: meanwhile the music still performed by folk musicians throughout the Chinese countryside is often ignored. The search for an unchanged ancient music may still be tempting in a country with such a venerable history: but if there are no living fossils, we also need to rid ourselves of the idea that tradition has been thoroughly destroyed in modern times.

Instrumental music is only one aspect of Chinese music: folk-song, opera, and ballad-telling are also rich living treasures. This series concentrates on ensemble music, whose contexts are often ceremonial or religious. (Recordings of the solo instrumental traditions are already quite accessible, such as the plucked zithers qin and zheng, and the plucked lute pipa.)




Although the living folk music of China remained largely unknown outside China until fieldwork began to be possible for foreigners in the mid-1980s, the Chinese themselves showed great energy in collection from the 1940s. While commercial recordings of opera and urban professional instrumental arrangements have long been common, very few recordings of folk instrumental music have ever been issued.

The Music Research Institute (MRI) of the Chinese Academy of Arts in Beijing preserves China's most comprehensive archive of recordings of traditional Chinese music, recorded in the field since 1949. The former Director of the MRI, Yang Yinliu (1899-1984), was not only the leading scholar of ancient Chinese music history, but a fine performer and an ethnomusicologist much concerned to document living traditons. He himself made many field-recordings of great folk musicians, often with his cousin and lifelong companion Cao Anhe. Some of these recordings are included for their musical and historical value, despite their less than ideal recording quality.


This series is a tribute to Yang Yinliu and the unsung Chinese collectors who strove to document the heritage in conditions which have often been most adverse, economically, logistically, and politically. It is the story of nearly fifty years of Chinese fieldwork, covering many of the major genres of Han Chinese instrumental music. Although most genres resumed in the 1980s and can still be heard in China now, this set includes some outstanding recordings from before the Cultural Revolution, when traditions were still thriving and some venerable folk musicians were in their prime.

Tracklisting:

CD I North China

1. Hua Family Shawm Band - Shuilong yin (Shanxi) {7:58}

2. Xu Zeng and former monks from Beijing temples - Xiao Huayan (Temple de
Zhihua) {2:49}

3. Hu Yusheng Ensemble - Yu furong (Hebei) [extract] {8:20}

4. Liu Yuanqing Shawm Band - Batiao long (Liaoning) [extract] {5:56}

5. Xu Yousheng Ensemble - Pu'an zhou suite (Shanxi) [extract] {7:19}

6. An Laixu Ensemble - Suite, ouverture (Xi'an) {7:33}

7. An Laixu Ensemble - Suite, section finale (Xi'an) {11:47}

8. Feng Mingxian Ensemble - Xiao Kaimen (Shandong) {3:42}

9. Li Guangfu Ensemble - Tai huajiao (Shandong) {9:07}

CD II South China

1. Zhu Qinfu Ensemble - Yifeng shu (Shifan gu, Jiangsu) {8:14}

2. Zhu Qinfu Ensemble - Xia xifeng (Shifan luogu, Jiangsu) {15:41}

3. Huang Qingquan Ensemble - Choudian zhuyan (Longchui, Quanzhou) {10:48}

4. Huang Qingquan Ensemble - Desheng ling (Longchui, Quanzhou) {8:27}

5. Shantou Folk Music and Performing Arts Troupe - Liuyao jin (Chaozhou)
{5:10}

6. Shantou Folk Music and Performing Arts Troupe - Liuqing niang (Chaozhou)
{4:00}

7. Shantou Folk Music and Performing Arts Troupe - Fan Lihua pozhen
(Chaozhou) {6:02}

8. Yi Zizhong, Song Hong and Song Yuwen - Shuangsheng hen (Cantonese music)
{2:57}

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Karnak Temples: Thebes of the Hundred Gates

Egyptian Organisation of Antiquities -- Sound and Light - Karnak Temples: Thebes of the Hundred Gates

This is a 2 LP set from the Egyptian Organisation of Antiquities within the Ministry of Culture and Information. I've dug this one up a few months ago along with many other items from which a few other LPs from that haul have been posted in this blog earlier in the year. This release is basically an audio presentation or documentary about temples in the Karnak complex in Luxor, Egypt. The presentation on these 2 LPs is not dry as the script for the material is engaging and the narrators keep it interesting throughout the program. There are musical cues that last for a few seconds which serve as transitions from topic to topic. There are many websites that have the same or updated information about the Karnak temples such as this one, but back when this 2 LP set was made, it probably was one of the few sources of information about the Karnak temples. The LP set is also a neat educational tool.




The LP sides are called faces instead of sides.

Tracklisting:

LP1

Face 1

1. Part 1 {16:40}

Face 2

1. Part 2 {17:50}

LP2

Face 1

1. Part 3 {18:00}

Face 2

1. Part 4 {16:09}

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Sumatra: Batak Music

various artists compilation - Sumatra: Batak Music

Instruments used:

tracks 1-2: 2 drums, oboe (sarunei), 2 gongs

tracks 3-6: 6 tuned drums, oboe (sarune), 4 gongs, metal plate

tracks 7-12: 2 clarinets, flute, 2 lutes, xylophone, metal plate

tracks 13-14: 7 tuned drums, oboe (sarunei), 4 gongs

tracks 15-16: 2 drums, oboe (sarunei), 4 gongs

Excerpts from the liner notes:

The magnificent landscapes in northern Sumatra, around Lake Toba, are the homeland of the Batak people. These include the Toba, the Karo, the Simalungun, the Pakpak, the Angkola and the Mandailing. The Karo live to the north of Lake Toba, the Pakpak to the west and northwest, and the Simalungun to the east, between Pematang Siantar and the lake; while the Toba, who are the most numerous, have settled in two groups: one around the southern half of the lake, and the other on the large island, Samosir, in the middle of the lake. Further south are the Angkota/Mandailing.

.....

The instrumental music is called gondang (Toba), gendang (Karo) or gonrang (Simalungun), all these terms derived from Malay gendang: <>. In terms of rhythmic structure, gondang music belongs to one of the most complex musical genres of Southeast Asia. The acoustic conception of these pieces, intended to be played outdoors, is based on a combination of drums, gongs, and an oboe called sarune (Toba) or sarunei (Karo, Simalungun). In the other Malay regions, this combination was a part of the representation of traditional power. The differences in gondang sarune music among the various Batak groups may be seen mainly in the number of drums and gongs, as well as in the nature and size of the instruments. Thus, the Karo people use the smallest oboe model (approximately 10 to 12 inches long), the Toba possess the largest model of the oboe (measuring 25 to 27 inches long), and the Simalungun have the narrowest.

Along with these quite official groups, there also exists a simpler form of this music, generally played at home with string instruments (substituted for the gongs, from the point of view of musical structure) and other instruments such as the xylophone, flutes and clarinets (gondang hasapi).

Tracklisting:

1. Gendang Lima Sedalanen - Music for Adat Festivals {12:14}

2. Gendang Lima Sedalanen - Ceremonial Music with a Guru Sibaso {6:57}

3. Gondang Sabangunan - Gondang Bane Bulan {2:33}

4. Gondang Sabangunan - Gondang Si Boru Uluan {3:19}

5. Gondang Sabangunan - Gondang Pangelek-elek ni jujungan ro {7:47}

6. Gondang Sabangunan - Gondang Marundur-undur {5:01}

7. Gondang Hasapi - Gondang Debata Sori {2:11}

8. Gondang Hasapi - Gondang Lahat-lahat ni horbo {3:17}

9. Gondang Hasapi - Gondang Sikklan tali {2:56}

10. Gondang Hasapi - Gondang Situan Gading {4:25}

11. Gondang Hasapi - Andung-andung parsirangan {6:19}

12. Gondang Hasapi - Gondang Sigarar jambar {3:50}

13. Gonrang Sipitu-Pitu - Imbou manibung {3:04}

14. Gonrang Sipitu-Pitu - Boniala sahala gual {1:56}

15. Gonrang Sidua-Dua - Sayur matua (funeral music) {3:06}

16. Gonrang Sidua-Dua - Haro-haro {2:13}

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John Cage - String Quartet (1950)

John Cage - String Quartet

From the LP Modern American Music Series [ML 4495 Columbia]

Performers:

New Music String Quartet: B. Erle, M. Rdimondi - violins; W. Trampler - viola; C. Adam - cello

Great to be back from hiatus. Posts from me will still be sporadic as I still have obligations to deal with offline. Yes, I am currently looking for employment as my temp job or what the company likes to call a contract position ended. With inflation going at a rapid rate here in the US, I need money more than ever to pay the rent and bills while hoping that there is a little spending money left over for records. However, I'll be trying to ease my way back into the flow of posting here.

Also, hopefully, I will have a cool-looking banner in place soon at the blog's header where the blog title is placed. I just haven't had enough time to get around to it, plus I am not adept at graphic design. I'm also contemplating a few minor template changes.

Another thing to mention. Why no comments on the last post (Midsummer Nights)? Surely, someone out there was moved by it. [UPDATE: Never mind about that.]

Now on to the subject of this post which is John Cage's "String Quartet" which is my now-favorite piece of music for this particular instrumental configuration. My copy has some noticeable vinyl crackle, but I think it enhances the music and Cage may have appreciated that as well.

Information from the liner notes:

John Cage's String Quartet, composed in 1950, marks a return on the part of the composer to writing for conventional instruments after a period of doing experimental compositions for percussion instruments and the "prepared piano."
The first movement of this four movement work was written in Paris and in it the composer has attempted to express something of the feeling of life there, with suggestions of Satie for whom Mr. Cage has great admiration. The remaining three movements were written in New York City, and in the second movement in particular, the composer believes, there is a consciousness of a return to New York. Mr. Cage further explains that the four movements of the work are, in a sense, like the seasons, the first movement being Summer, the second Fall, the third Winter, and the fourth Spring with its evocation of popular street tunes.
The composer is conscious of the fact that his interest in Oriental philosophy has been an influence on the Quartet, with its movement toward stillness and tranquility. The third movement which is nearly stationary is the center of the work, says Mr. Cage.

Tracklisting:

1. String Quartet: First Movement: Quietly flowing along {4:41}

2. String Quartet: Second Movement: Slowly rocking {4:45}

3. String Quartet: Third Movement: Nearly Stationary {11:00}

4. String Quartet: Fourth Movement: Quodlibet {1:24}

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Midsummer Nights

by Bernie Krause & Ruth Happel

Here's a nice one for the weekend, continuing our ongoing series with posts of nature and environmental recordings. If you want to give yourself a special treat, listen to "Midsummer Nights" at night, in a darkened room, putting your player on "repeat". A wonderful experience.

While many may not have heard of Bernie Krause, they surely have heard his work. He's a synthesizer pioneer who worked with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and who has contributed to the soundtracks for "Apocalypse Now" and other major movies, Krause is also the world's most accomplished student and recorder of natural sound, with a veritable truckload of interesting releases on labels like "Wild Sanctuary" and "Miramar". He has recorded gorillas at Diane Fosse's camp in Rwanda, orangutans in Sumatra, polar bears in Alaska, and ants in the desert of the American Southwest. I you want to dive deeper into this subject, I highly recommend his book "Into a Wild Sanctuary: A Life in Music and Natural Sound", widely available in an easily affordable edition.

Nycticorax nycticorax - Night Heron

Track 1 East: 30:02
A barred owl, eastern screech owl and night heron punctuate the evening chorus of crickets and cicadas of the Adirondack Mountains in the Eastern United States. Recording by Ruth Happel.

Song of the Screech Owl

Track 2 West: 30:31
Bullfrogs and a great horned owl sing solo against the rhythmic pulse of the insect chorus in the Cascade Mountains of Northern California. Recording by Bernie Krause.

Great Horned Owl

The first cut, recorded in the Adirondacks by Ruth Happel, espresses an evening biophony characteristic of an Eastern U.S. soundscape after night-fall. Compare the cricket rhythms, textures, and sonorities with those recorded in the West by Bernie Krause in the Cascade Mountains of Northern California. Many think of evening sounds in a generalized way. Yet, careful listening tells a very different story. This recording is a perfect example of biophonies that reveal a sense of place beyond the typical visual experiences humans normally encounter. The eastern evening biophony recorded by Happel (cut 1) represents a particular spot whose voice can be heard nowhere else on the planet. The cricket orchestra defines it in much the same way one can discern the difference between the music of Bach and that of the Beatles. Likewise, the Krause recording (Cut 2), is a perfect definition of that particular territory, replete with bullfrogs and an occasional distant great-horned owl. Yet, both cuts evoke a clear sense of time - an evening special to those creatures, human and non-human, alike, who occupy the same respective habitats. (Bernie Krause)

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Pierluigi Billone: Mani.Long (2001)

performed by the Klangforum Wien:

Anette Bik, Gunde Jäch-Micko: violin

Andreas Eberle: trombone

Markus Deuter: oboe, English horn

Lorelei Dowling: bassoon

Sasa Dragovic: trumpet

Uli Fussenegger: double bass

Martin Homann, Pascal Pons, Adam Weisman: percussion

Benedikt Leitner, Andreas Lindenbaum: cello

Ernesto Molinari: bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet

Florian Mueller: piano, celesta

Dimitrios Polisoidis: viola

Gerald Preinfalk: alto saxophone

Christoph Walder: horn

Bernhard Zachhuber: bass clarinet
Conducted by Johannes Kalitzke

Most of Billone's works that I've heard until now (the most recent being the 70-minute long "1+1=1" for two bass clarinets from 2006, released on the KAIROS label) strike me as very intense and graphic affairs with strong visual qualities. Even the extremely fierce and violent sound-sculpting in "Iti Ke Mi" for viola solo (1995) retains an aura of archaic beauty that draws the listener into the sounds. This music reminds me very much of Morton Feldman's notion of sounds having lifes of their own, and a main task of the composer is letting the sounds be themselves and not disturbing them. For me, this also applies to the more stretched-out and landscapey "Mani.Long".H.C.E.

"Mani.Long", by Pierluigi Billone (who was born in 1960 and studied with, amongst others, Helmut Lachenmann), is a 45 minute piece for 18 piece ensemble, which, like his earlier "Mani.Giacometti", references sculpture - in this case that of Bristol's Richard Long, whose work often consists of arranging whatever he finds on long, lonely walks into simple linear forms.

Long's observations on his work are worth quoting: "[..] My first work made by walking, in 1967, was a straight line in a grass field, which was also my own path, going 'nowhere'. Walking also enabled me to extend the boundaries of sculpture, which now had the potential to be de-constructed in the space and time of walking long distances. Sculpture could now be about place as well as material and form. [..] Over the years these sculptures have explored some of the variables of transience, permanence, visibility or recognition. A sculpture may be moved, dispersed, carried. Stones can be used as markers of time or distance, or exist as parts of a huge, yet anonymous, sculpture. On a mountain walk a sculpture could be made above the clouds, perhaps in a remote region, bringing an imaginative freedom about how, or where, art can be made in the world."

... The first impression one has of Billone's work is that it is as austere and hard to track down as some of the mountainous regions where Long has chosen to create his art ...
Subsequent listenings, however, reveal a plethora of tiny details and nuances, which, like Long's stones, serve as both temporal and structural indicators. The music is predominantly quiet (though unremittingly tense), and its heartbeat remains slow until things suddenly go ballistic with barely four minutes to go. This extraordinary explosion redefines all that has gone before, and inevitably conditions all one's future listenings to the work, like that famous fortissimo drum roll in Morton Feldman's "For Frank O'Hara". "Mani.Long" is a challenging landscape for performers and listeners alike, but it's well worth the journey there, and you will want to go back.Dan Warburton

***

[…] Here, every detail can mean a brightening difference, a noteworthy connection, the foundation of a building, the identification of an experience already made by others, a complementary part, a surprise worth considering, a non-repeatable state, overstepping the boundaries of notation; in this sense, there are no insignificant aspects […]
Pierluigi Billone

[maybe reposted soon]

Jo Kondo: Chamber Music

Beautiful intimate chamber music, a little on the abstract side, and deeply poetic.

1 Walk (1976)
2 An Elder's Hocket (1979)
3 Pendulums (1990)
4 Aquarelle (1990)
5 Winsen Dance Step (1995)
6 Duo (1982)
7 Words (1986)
8 An Insular Style (1980)

Ensemble L'Art Pour L'Art:

Matthias Kaul - percussion

Hartmut Leistritz - piano

Nele B. Nelle - clarinet

Eva Pressl - harp

Astrid Schmeling - flute

Michael Schröder - guitar, conductor

Jo Kondo, in his liner notes:The eight pieces recorded here have been written over a span of 20 years, from 1976 to 1995. Being as they are small in scale, they might not be considered the most representative among my works, but can serve to show the main characteristics of my compositional style, both in its consistency and variety. Be that what it may, my attitude as a composer shies away from any kind of monumentalism, bent on achieving grandiose accomplishments by writing only big scale works.

My compositional style in the seventies was based to a large extent on what I called "Sen no ongaku" ("linear music"), a music composed in such a way that the whole structure derives from a single melodic line. And I found that the hocket-like timbral shifting among the ensemble members was a very useful technique for that style of composing.

...
The only piece on this CD not meant for a chamber ensemble is "Pendulums", for solo percussion... However, although written to be performed by only one player, this work qualifies as chamber music, since it is not soloistic in the conventional sense. The solist has to play an "ensemble", so to speak, of marimba, vibraphone, steel drum, six cow bells, two bongos, tom tom, and bass drum. 


... a few months before "Pendulum", I wrote "Aquarelle", a duo for percussion and piano. ... In this composition my primary concern was to point out both the subtle differences and similarities between the timbral qualities of vibraphone and piano. For that purpose I treated both instruments alternately, creating between them a very slow rocking rhythm.

"Winsen Dance Step", a trio for flute, guitar and vibraphone ... represents my latest way of writing for chamber ensemble. This is an extension of the "Sen no ongaku" style, with increased complexity in texture, sonority and rhythmic structure, but retaining somehow the simplicity found in the original style of the seventies. ... Characterized by an ever changing meter and very irregular rhythm, this work is certainly not a dance, but an abstract piece of music with the added connotation that rhythmic music always inherits something from the inner nature of dance.

... I am interested in words more than in sentences, in sentences more than in paragraphs, in paragraphs more than in a whole page. Thus, it could be said that in music I am more concerned with each sound than with the phrases they create. ...


After several months of quiet life in Vancouver Island, I came back in 1980 to my home island, Japan, and wrote "An Insular Style" ... This piece also shares the linear character of many of my compositions, written almost entirely as a single, continuous melodic line... But at the same time, this piece can be considered rather exceptional (...) due to the following two points: 1) The melody line is more clearly articulated and less abstract than in most of my works. Its melodic contour or phrase structure appears to be closer to conventional melodic writing, and therefore more accessible to the listener. 2) Harmony, although not supporting the melody line in a traditional sense, but just "shadowing" that line to give it some coloring, is more unambiguously tonal than usual. Altogether, "An Insular Style" may sound much like a folk tune from an (imaginary) island.

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Environments Disc 8

I'm going to go on hiatus for probably the next two weeks. This will be my last post for a while. I have matters to attend to in real life. Unlike the last time I went on hiatus last year, I promise to try to be sure it's actually two weeks instead of three months this time. I'm sure my cohorts H.C. and Telvin will have something delightful for you while I'm away. Meanwhile, enjoy this Sunday post.

Syntonic Research, Inc. - Environments Disc 8

Unfortunately, I won't have the pleasure of going on a sailboat on the high seas during my time away from here. The closest that I'll get to that experience is through this record. The folks at Syntonic Research, Inc. say that this particular disc is the first one to present a "moving" environmental sound ("Wood-Masted Sailboat"). It's almost like a simulation where the room that the listener is present in would feel that the room has been transformed into a deck of a sailboat out on the water where it's bobbing up and down. Fortunately, Dramamine is not needed when listening to the record, I don't think.
"Country Stream" may be my personal favorite environmental sounds recording. The sound of the flowing water is well recorded and arouses tranquility of course along with there being bird songs and insect hums in the background. This truly is a beautiful recording and is nice to feel that I'm lying beside a stream away from the city, but actually I'm in my air-conditioned room lying on my bed. There are these devices that has sounds of flowing water, rain, wind, etc. where a button is pushed to play the chosen sound. Sometime two years ago, I've seen these being available for purchase at The Sharper Image (which by the way the company recently filed for bankruptcy, then went out of business). I've tried this device, but the sounds don't quite do it for me. These Environments records are far superior in sound quality (provided the records are in VG+ or better condition) and in providing a better listening experience. "Country Stream" beats any gadget and just about any other recording with flowing water, IMO.

Tracklisting:

SIDE ONE

1. Wood-Masted Sailboat {29:41}

SIDE TWO

1. Country Stream {29:38}

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The Deep Listening Band -Troglodyte's Delight (1990)

The earth holds mysteries, and they are composed of movement and stillness. The sounds from below the surface are of particular interest to the Deep Listening Band. During early June of 1989, members of the Deep Listening Band explored the sound properties of The Tarpaper Cave in Rosendale, New York in a special underground concert and recording.

To me, this recording represents a unique fusion of "environmental" and "intuitive" music, a really enchanting experience.

Vocalist and electronics specialist Panaiotis: "We really wanted, as a group, to become an aspect of the cave. During the recording, and the concert, we were responding to the cave... (the idea being) to listen to the cave, and then, as the group participated, to respond to each other as well."

The Deep Listening Band spent a week in the cave preparing for the concert. Panaiotis used this time exploring different areas to find acoustic "hot spots, where things really blossom and resonate." ...
Where Panaiotis recalls the incessant and omnipresent mosquitoes of The Tarpaper Cave, trombonist Stuart Dempster remembers "the capriciousness of the lighting... mists blowing down with changes in the weather... it was like Valhalla from time to time..."
Stuart Dempster - trombone, didjeridu / Pauline Oliveros - accordion, voice, whistles / Panaiotis - voice
Guest artists: Fritz Hauser - percussion / Julie Lyon Balliett - voice

1 Cave Water

2 Quarry Query

3 Cannery Row

4 After Dinner With The Trogs

5 Rain Delay

6 Trog Arena

7 Cave Water

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More Hykes: Harmonic Meditations

In the comments section of my post with David Hykes' "Harmonic Meetings" I just discovered a message by Closet of Curiosities visitor Vaubu, who very generously uploaded a rip of "Harmonic Meditations" by David Hykes, for us & you to enjoy. Thanks a lot, Vaubu, and welcome in the "Hall of Fame of the Closet of Curiosities".

David Hykes: Harmonic Meditations (2005)


The disc features music from three different sources. The “Harmonic Meditations” were recorded in “The Cistern”, an empty 2 million gallon underground water reservoir in Washington state. “The Silent Ground” was premiered at the re-inaugural concert at the Winter Garden atrium, opposite Ground Zero. The last two pieces were taken from the film
“Travellers and Magicians” by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

... Refining further what has become a personal and significant contemporary, contemplative music, Hykes explores Harmonic Chant, a complete musical language he has been mastering for decades. This skill allows singers to explore the inherent harmonic ornamentation present in producing an identifiable fundamental vocal note. By manipulating the normally untapped resonance of the human voice, singers are able to make audible two or three tones simultaneously. ... Deep resonating drones, full-throated chants and controlled wispy whistling overtones ring out individually in turn, then combine to become one ethereal sonic body. This is more than harmonious textural drone music as throughout, heavenly melodies inevitably rise out of the shifting overtones.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this music is how the listener attempts to associate the sound with the source which, while emanating from people, is often perceived of as unearthly. Performed in reverberation sensitive architectural spaces, Hykes' music benefits from the acoustics of large cathedrals, church sanctuaries and underground caverns. These unique spaces seem to compound the sound of each voice by providing a resonance that brings out the otherwise subtle overtones.

(Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END, June 30 , 2005)

01 Unity Meditation One
02 Trio Meditation One
03 Unity Meditation Two
04 Trio Meditation Two
05 Unity Meditation Three
06 Trio Meditation Three
07 Unity Meditation Four
08 The Silent Ground
09 Times to the True
10 Special Times Three

Robert Mann - percussion, voices
Joel Bluestein, Timothy Hill - voices
Peter Biffin - dobro, E-bow
Bruno Caillat - percussion, zarb
David Hykes - keyboards, voices, bells, breathing
Tony Lewis - percussion, tabla

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And - over at GD's highly bookmarkable "Crystal Vibrations" blog

http://crystalvibrations.blogspot.com

you can get Mr. Hykes early release "Hearing Solar Winds". Highly recommended.

Nagaswaram Woodwind Melodies

Sheik Chinna Moulana - Nagaswaram Woodwind Melodies

The Nagaswaram is a woodwind instrument believed to be over 800 years old. It is a double reed instrument similar to the western oboe. It is considered to be an instrument of auspiciousness and celebration.

Accompanists:

S. Kasim - Nagaswaram

S. Subramaniam and M. Rajendran - Thavil

G. Nagarajan - Sruti Box and Thalam

From Wikipedia:

Sheik Chinna Moulana [1924-1999] was born into a musical family whose ancestry goes back to Sheik Nabi Sahib of Sattalur. He received his initial training from his father, Kasim Sahib, and later from vidwan Adam Sahib of Chilakalooripeta. He received further training in the tanjore style of playing under the Nachiarkoil brothers, Rajan and Dorai Kannu.
Chinna Moulana was a childhood admirer of T.N. Rajarathnam Pillai, and in later years emulated Pillai's approach to the nagaswaram.
He gave his first performance in 1960 in Tamil Nadu, India and quickly gained renown.
Chinna Moula was known to be a devout follower of the Hindu deity Ranganatha, which lead him to reside in the pilgrim city of Srirangam. In Srirangam he founded the Sarada Nagaswara Sangeeta Ashram, a school for aspiring nagaswaram players. Notable students of the ashram were his own grandsons Babu, Pedda Kasim and Chinna Kasim, as well as Mahaboob Subani and Kalishabi Mahaboob.
Among his many awards are the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi award (1976) and the Sangeetha Kalanidhi title (1998).

Tracklisting:

1. Sri Ganapathi {7:23}

2. Theratheeyaga {4:18}

3. Marivere Gathi {12:49}

4. Jaya Jaya Padmanabha {6:26}

5. Bhaja Re Manasa {15:09}

6. Sevikkavendumayya {4:25}

7. Enna Thavam {6:01}

8. Apadhuru Ku (Javali) {4:53}

9. Vandhe Vasudevam {8:39}

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Urania UR 134 [percussion]

various artists compilation - Urania UR 134

*That's not actually the title of this release, I don't think as this LP didn't have a title. It just posted the names of the compositions on the cover. I named the title myself as it is easier for me to manage and organize in my collection.

Ballet Mechanique composed by George Antheil; performed by the Los Angeles Contemporary Music Ensemble

Instruments: Four Pianos, two Xylophones, Glockenspiel, Timpani, Tenor and Bass Drums, Military Drum, Gong, Triangle, Cymbal, Woodblock, Large and Small Airplane Propeller, Large and Small Electric Bell

From the liner notes:

Percussion music - music expressed through rhythm instead of melody and harmony, suggesting endless variations of movement - is one of the manifestations of our restless times. It does not seem surprising, therefore, that an art form exploring the intrinsic melodiousness of drums and cymbals has become an accepted means of our musical expression. But in 1924, when the late George Antheil wrote his Ballet Mechanique, he was considered an iconoclast, an audacious experimenter. As he explained much later, the ballet was not meant to glorify the beauty and precision of machines, as was erroneously charged; it represented his personal effort to escape "the iron grip of the tonal principle" and the straightjacket of the old forms - a goal that Schoenberg and Stravinsky also had pursued each in his own special Way.
When he wrote the ballet, Antheil was developing a new principle of musical construction, based on rhythm alone. He called it "time-space" and compared it with a canvas on which tunes and chords were applied like colors and shapes. He wrote the ballet originally for an abstract motion picture, but then rewrote it for the concert hall, heard it performed in Paris (1926) and New York (1927), and made a final revision in 1954. The version on this record includes a recording of an airplane engine, two doorbells of different sizes, and four pianos (replacing the original pianolas) on which occasional tone clusters are banged with the palm of the hand. The three part piece, played without a pause, has been dubbed a "mechanistic dance of life." According to Antheil, its spiritual outline is an interpretation of the "barbaric and mystic splendor of modern civilization - mathematics of the universe in which the abstraction of 'the human soul' lives."

Sketch for Percussion composed by Ronald LoPresti; performed by the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble

Instruments: Xylophone, Marimba, Celeste, Timpani, Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Gong, Piano, Triangle, Suspended Cymbal

Next comes a work by Ronald LoPresti, of Williamstown, Massachusetts, who was 23 years old and had won considerable recognition with compositions along conventional lines, when his Sketch for Percussion won first prize in the annual contest at the Eastman School of Music, in 1956. Within the single movement of this work, contrasts are achieved by pitting delicate sounds of celeste, marimba, and piano against the clamor of xylophones, drums, gongs, triangles and cymbals.

Toccata for Percussion Instruments composed by Carlos Chavez; performed by the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble

Instruments: Xylophone, Side Drums, Indian Drums, Tenor & Bass Drums, Bells, Suspended Cymbals, Timpani, Large & Small Gongs, Chimes, Claves, Maraca

Side Two opens with a three-part Toccata for Percussion Instruments by Carlos Chavez, Mexico's most eminent musical personality. It has been described as the most academic percussion work written so far; "intellectual rather than primitive" was the concensus of opinion after its premiere in Cincinnati, 1950, despite the lavish use of Indian drums and various kinds of metallic sounds suggesting the Mexicans' predilection for bells. With the perfectionism that distinguishes all his work, the composer leaves nothing to improvisation; even the pause between the last two movements is a measured rest, just long enough to indicate the change of mood.

October Mountain composed by Alan Hovhannes; performed by the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble

Instruments: Marimba, Glockenspiel, Timpani, Tenor & Bass Drums, Gong, Tam-Tam

October Mountain by Alan Hovhannes was written in 1942, while this prolific composer was a student at Tanglewood, after having burned about 1000 earlier compositions. A New Englander of Armenian parentage, a teacher at the Boston Conservatory, he has won a considerable following by the original blending of Oriental, Indian and Armenian features which gives his style an enchanting exotic flavor. The work is in five parts, three of which are dominated by the marimba, which gives a peculiar tinge to the monodic chant that is a characteristic element in Armenian music.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. George Antheil - Ballet Mechanique {17:34}

2. Ronald LoPresti - Sketch for Percussion {3:11}

Side 2

1. Carlos Chavez - Toccata for Percussion Instruments {10:56}

2. Alan Hovhannes - October Mountain {7:11}

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