cartesian nostalgia

from a performers point of view this weekend’s RealNewMusic 2008 festival was one one of those rare events that was a joy to participate in from start to finish. no backstage drama, rivalries, one-upmanship or back handed compliments. walking in to soundcheck and seeing scott mcintosh (pbe partner in crime) playing in john mahr’s group (brother mallard) brought back a wave of nostalgia from when the three of us used to play in csuf’s diverse instrument ensemble (d.i.e.)

also performing sat night was steve moshier’s liquid skin ensemble. both steve and janine livingston (who were members of the original cartesian reunion memorial orchestra ((crmo)) and have been playing together for close to 25 years). this was the first show that we ever played together and i was happy to finally hang out with steve and have a chat longer than a handshake or a online exchange.

thanks again to shane cadman for bringing in another successful year of producing the RNM festival. i also need to thank shane for pushing me to apply for the redcat spring studio. i usually don't have pieces (new and unperformed) that fit those more "official" festivals and thought it would be an interesting experience to write something on a pretty quick deadline for a change. (like many of my movie brethern)

its also worth pointing out (and getting back to the nostalgia) that before becoming the new music impressario that he is today, back in the 80's shane (as well as scott and john) used to play in the illustrious theatre orchestra (ito) that was playing gig’s at royce hall and getting regular airplay on kcrw and kusc (which used to have a great alt-classical radio show hosted by bonnie grice). although i really miss the crmo and the ito, on saturday night it was easy to see and hear that the "carteisan school" is alive and well in all of our groups.

REDCAT spring studio 2008

its been a good run since the middle of april that culminated in two great shows this weekend at REDCAT. for me it was very strange to be backstage without a trombone in my hand (or any instrument at all) it was easier to keep the laptop and kaossillator plugged in onstage, but i found myself actually a bit nervous without anything in my hands.

the path of bringing a piece from an idea to a premier is quite a journey. but at some point you have to go forward with what what you got and see how it works 'live'. on the 2nd night, somewhere in the last third of the requiem i realized that i was asking my vocalists to sing at the a full fortissimo at the top of their range for a good 6 minutes. while i was watching them brilliantly pull this off i knew there was there was a much better way to write this. its funny, before the show i did warn the singers (sylvia desrochers and paul cummings) that were were going to take it up a notch, but their looks of surprise and fierce determination to match our energy level was something i wont forget that soon. the fact that they rose above the limitations of my writing and pulled it off was a testament to the great musicians i get to work with. with all that being said, i'll have time to make those edits when we will be performing it in a few weeks at the shane cadman's REALNEWMUSIC in whittier on June 21st.

there is quite a bit to be happy about and some other great stories that i'll eventually tell (naked curtain call), but after sitting around the house in daze yesterday its time to get back to real life. yesterday i couldn't really answer emails and return phone calls. after you get home from a show you don't really know what to do with yourself. there is nothing that you have to do and nowhere you have to go. one of the things they don't ever tell you is that the creative process can terrorize you other responsibilities and relationships. luckily we have been through this before and my wife deb knew the drill; keep me in clean clothes and fed and we will get through it.

i started the day by filling a trash can just going through the mail that had piled up the last 6 weeks, not to mention my change oil light started blinking about two weeks ago and i haven't even started grading finals exams. all i can say is that i'm really lucky to have the support from my family and by the end of the week i'll be ready to start the process all over again.

the sandbox

after another long day of composing and video editing the wife unit looks over and states "its an addiction, right?" i nod silently in her direction and realize its probably a good time to stop for the day. although we have been married 15 years, i don't think we have had the conversation that followed. composing is something i do, but really this blog is one of my few outlets to "talk" about it. calling it an addiction is probably technically true, but we did agree that over the years i have become more a more functional human being in the process.

i used to be pretty bad and could easily ignore everybody for days trying to get a project started (and i even asked her to leave the house a few times) just so i could write. it seems silly now and i'm pretty embarrassed about it. over time i have learned to trust my instincts and as long as the ideas are flowing i cancel everything else and write until as much and as long as i can.

right now i am in what i call "the sandbox". its the stage when i have a fully realized idea. every morning is another opportunity to 'play'; build new castles, and tear down the old ones that the tide is starting to wreck. its a very satisfying place to be.

first there is the idea (sometimes i sketch them out, or write them down for a later date), and if wake up the next day and still think it is a good idea i'll start to make it real. this is where the most unpleasant and painful part of the process is. until that idea is "real" and becomes a full piece i usually find myself in a focused mad dash to get as much of it on paper as possible.

sometimes the ideas are quick fully formed (life's too short, retrace our steps act II, summerland and principal of sufficient irritation) other times the initial idea seems strong, but somehow the realization feels a little off (fearless leader, retrace our steps act I, myinnersatan).
why and how this happens, i don't know? i think pieces are like kids, and i want to see them all grow up and be successful, but in the end you learn to accept their strengths and weaknesses as part of the human condition. one of the stranger recent developments is that i have noticed that some people have much higher opinions of some of my "kids" than i do. both pieces have had many versions (awkward teen years) and though my group really enjoys performing both, i still flinch and shuffle my feet during various sections.

there is a strange process in which the initial "idea" becomes a composition. all i can say is that it is a gut feeling and you know when it works. sometimes i have to confirm it in rehearsal, but these days my intuition is getting better. this is the problem solving part of the process, a little nip and tuck here and there, from that original idea a universe is implied and i get to live in it for the duration of the creation of the piece. this part is wonderful. you know you are here when you can walk away from the piece and come back in few days and still are interested in the same things. no matter which metaphor i use (playing in the sandbox, living in matrix...) this is very much like a video game where you get to live inside of the world you created.

the next step is taking it rehearsal and seeing how everything translates to the real world. over
time this has become easier and usually have an idea of what will work and where the problems might be. the first few readings are very important and feel that if a group of intelligent adults dont "get it" within a few hours then i really need to look long and hard to answer those "why's?" (that is why i tape all my rehearsals") i think there are two sides to this coin. on one side we reasonably only have 2-3 rehearsals before a show and need to be able to put something out in a short amount of time. if there are problems i know that we can smooth over the initial bumps and i can make some changes over the next few months, but its very important to be able perform the new works in a timely matter so you can always be rotating in new repertoire into the show.

its a strange dichotomy; when i'm writing i'm thinking about performing and when performing i'm thinking about writing. i'm not sure how to turn that switch off and afraid what would happen if i could.

soiveheard #2, wallpaper endangered REPOST

since i can't seem to find this anywhere on the interwebs i will repost this. its from alan rich's new blog (soiveheard.com) which seems to be down...

soiveheard#2 by Alan Rich

Wallpaper Endangered: According to one survey or another, anywhere from 30 to 50,000 people listen to classical music all day. That number can include doctors’ secretaries trapped in their offices (I speak for my friend Addie, prisoner of KUSC) as well as people who just can’t find the on/off switch and have come to regard music as a form of wallpaper. It also includes a large number of people who care what they’re hearing, who value a station that offers the stimulation of music chosen across the broad historical band, including the so-called “difficult” repertory on which the ink may still be wet, or the paper wrinkled after many centuries.

Just as we need more than one critic in town, we need more than one music station. KCSN-FM, the station of Cal State Northridge, is hard to hear in some parts of town; I hear it on one side of my house in West L.A. and less well on the other But their programming is excellent: Martin Perlich’s classical choices during the week, intelligently chosen Bluegrass and other, for me, mind-expanding stuff on weekends. Martin has brought composers onto the station, including young unknowns. As I understand the current crisis at KCSN, Martin’s job is not immediately threatened; other jobs have already been lost, that have given the station its uniqueness, and it looks to me – as someone recently bruised in this whole tragic shrinkage in the realm of culture -- that nobody is safe anymore. The following report from the battleground pretty well sums up the KCSN situation, and you may extrapolate far and wide.

So I hear: In an ominous move officials at Cal State Northridge have taken the unprecedented step of cancelling the Pledge Drive of KCSN-FM, the feisty little public radio station for which they hold the license. The station, which was awarded “Best of LA” by Los Angeles Magazine in 2006, calls itself ÁRTS & ROOTS Radio” offers the most exciting classical music programming in the city (and maybe the country) – often presenting music by living composers as well as an unusually generous amount of 20th century music (as well as ancient music, rare and ‘difficult’ music and daily chats with a broad group of members of the Arts community (cutting-edge composers, musicians, writers, choreographers, filmmakers, playwrights, jazz players, etc. by acclaimed interviewer Martin Perlich (author of The Art of the Interview).

While classical music is presented every weekday 6am – 6pm, weekends are occupied by unique “Roots” programming: “Bluegrass, classical country, singer-songwriter, world music, blues, a 2-hour program devoted to Bob Dylan and more.

Recently University Management, through KCSN’s GM Fred Johnson, fired Les Perry, the station’s best programmer and fundraiser, and other popular shows. The subsequent outcry from listeners and members -- 90% of the station’s operating budget is provided by listener-members -- has caused new Dean Robert Bucker (backed up by CSUN president Jolene Kester and Provost Harry Hellenbrand) to cancel the Pledge Drive out of “sensitivity to ‘the community’ which, responding negatively to the program changes, will negatively affect progress on CSUN’s new $125 million-dollar Valley Performing Arts Center whose groundbreaking was celebrated last week.

Observers believe that in cutting off funding through cancelling the Drive, the University higher-ups have signaled their long-expressed desire to change KCSN’s format – possibily handing off (as KPCC recently did) to large national pubcasting networks like Minnesota Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Radio or a similar entity, leaving Los Angeles with one classical station, whose classical programming is far less enterprising than KCSN’s

CSUN President
Jolene M. Koester
818-677-2121

Jolene.koester@csun.edu

Dean of Arts, Media, and Communication
Wm Robert Bucker
818-677-2426
robert.bucker@csun.edu

CSUN Provost & VP of Academic Affairs
Harry Helenbrand

818-677-2957

harry.hellenbrand@csun.edu

breeding stock

i just heard from martin perlich that next week's pledge-drive at KCSN has been canceled and this probably signals the university wanting to change the format and ship all the programming to a syndicate like minnesota public radio.

most of this town is already run from elsewhere, we have seen how that is working with first the latimes, the the laweekly and now this. for research on my latest piece i have been reading mike davis's prescient 1990 "City of Quartz". the following line stuck in my head this morning and now i know why.

"The steller success of Los Angeles as a real-estate, media and technology mecca is overwhelming its traditional upper classes, diminishing their autonomy and clout. This is not to suggest they are somehow becoming pauperized- indeed they are becoming wealthier-, but rather that they are surrendering power, which is different from mere money, to others strategicially established in the new circuits of lnad monopoly and global finance. LA 2000, despite offical hype about being 'THE city of the 21st century' will largely be an entrepot for megabanks and technology monopolies headquartered elsewhere. It will also continue to be the urban equivalent of the Spanish Main for the corporate buccaneers and nottori-ya from all over the world. Its old WASPish elites, especially, recumbent in their luxury, may linger primarily as consumers, comprafores, or just breeding stock. "

CSUN President
Jolene M. Koester
818-677-2121

Jolene.koester@csun.edu

Dean of Arts, Media, and Communication
Wm Robert Bucker
818-677-2426
robert.bucker@csun.edu

CSUN Provost & VP of Academic Affairs
Harry Helenbrand

818-677-2957

harry.hellenbrand@csun.edu

tagged x2

i'm it. and since i'm done for the night i can play along with this meme...

1. pick up the nearest book.

ok, on my left is my full bookcase... that's shooting fish in the barrel. many a book i could pull show how "serious" i am. (ohh... rameau's treatise on harmony would make me look smart, but i still have yet to read more than a few chapters)

if i go behind me on the right is a bunch of just graded theory 1 papers (much desperation in that pile) and a great book by author latimes writer sam quinones that is obliquely connected to my latest project

(i read the story, wrote the author, i heard the podcast, read his book, and read this article that pointed me to the latimes homicide report)

2. open to page 123
3. find the fifth sentence
4. post the next three sentences
5. tag five people and acknowledge who tagged you

True Tales from Another Mexico: the Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings and the Bronx
by Sam Quinones

And in L.A Zapateco basketball, Zeus Garcia is the high priest. For it he has sacrificed everything, including two knees, two women, and one set of children. For he has bridged divides within his own community.

now i pass this meme elsewhere across the internets and point you towards the following:

john pippin's new blog: sound scenes from his opening post it looks like he will have much to add to the alt-classical discussion.

daniel wolf's impressive green chile metaphor

the rambler has submitted his phd dissertation. those of you not having flashbacks and cold sweats rejoice! the others breath deeply and repeat, "they can't make me edit it anymore"

david ocker has been blogging about his 30 year association with the ICA (Independent Composers Association) and its Second Second Story Concert Series in los angeles

ryan nunes contemplates there is no spoon

and finally.... the latest pbe CD 'Retrace Our Steps' is john schaefer's pick of the week on WNYC. its is still available as free download.

cake for everyone!

shame

its a shame that alan rich was pushed out as the la weekly's classical music critic this week. this is another reason to not read the exceedingly corporate LA Weekly. first they get rid of any real "alternative" political reporting and now this. even when i didn't agree with his conclusions, i appreciate mr. rich's clear and pointed reviews and the context he brings to any concert he attends. his institutional memory of the los angeles music scene cannot be replaced.

what gets me really upset is the way he is being treated, i have seen too many examples of colleagues and friends who have given their live for their "job" being pushed aside and into retirement by the whims of management. by observing how most employers treat their "mature" staff its easy to get an idea of what is in store for us. i think any professional that has put in the years supporting and building the organizations that make up our community should be able to pick the way they want to go out (within reason). i think while many view retirement as a time to play play golf, drink beer and play cards, if Mr. Rich wants to keep writing in his "golden years", then more power to him.

I suggest that if the LA Times can rethink the "forced buyout" of the esteemed Al Martinez, then LA Weekly should consider the same for Mr. Rich.



btw... how did we get to a point that a majority of our print media is being dictated by bean counters in chicago and phoenix? at least southland publishing is getting it done.

learning a new instrument

this spring continues to be a steady progression of ups and downs. the flu was a 5 week body blow to start the year and this past week (welcome spring!) allergies have been kicking my ass.

that all being said, i'm finally back to my routine of transcribing, writing and arranging except this time (instead of pencil and paper) i'm using my laptop (ableton live/macbook pro/midi keyboard) as my primary instrument. the purpose of putting aside the pencil and paper and transcribing music by ear (using the keyboard and recording directly into the software) i'm forcing myself to figure out how to recreate the sounds i'm hearing (and in the process figure out its strengths and weaknesses of the software). its interesting that this process of transcription is a a much more tactile experience you would think (instead figuring out a passage by playing it and then writing it down), by performing (while recording and then looping) each element of a piece, its a more viseral process that feels quite different and opens up my ears in some new ways. it also gives me an idea of how i can use this technology in a live performance.



what initially has got me so excited about this setup is the ability to perform modular pieces like Terry Riley's Rainbow Over Curved Air, Rweski's Les Moutons de Panurge or my Prinicple of Sufficient Irritation, looping live performances from a laptop and midi keyboard (instead of the racks of pedals) the end result is an electronic instrument that functions as a very flexible continuo.

another problem with performing electronically is that the instrument choices are limiting also. right now there are really two main choices... either a keyboard (which is not especially bad, but doesn't give you all the options that the technology implies) or a midi pad controllers.



i'm really intereted in korg's new kaossilator "dyanmic phase synthesizer" which is basically an x/y graph style melodic sound generator. i'm (and others i think) are still searching for a simple and intuitive interface so that you can perform live. some recent examples are the monome and yamaha's tenori-on.

obviously some of the issues that comes up with using any looping instrument is its ability to be performed with other instruments. by seeing some local bands using pedals and laptops i finally think the technology has caught up to what was in the air in the late 60's and 70's. ninja academy is a good example of a two-person rock band that has one of the most virtuosic examples of looping live instruments that i have seen. i'll be going into rehearsal with this new setup and should get a better idea of what works for me by trial and error. i've setup a twitter feed on the right to post impressions and snippets along the way.

the sausage factory

as you can see on the right side of my blog i have decided to start twittering my new project. so far i’m about 2 weeks into getting my chops back after spending the last 8 months editing, recording, and promotion of my retrace our steps EP and life's too short CD. the whole process that doesn’t really lend itself to creativity and i find it practically impossible to work on new pieces while recording, editing, mixing and promoting my older ones. so now as i’m winding down the promotion i’m getting ready to start a new project by each day transcribing some music that interests me.

the goal of this is to shed some light on the sausage factory and to make the complex simple by keeping a journal of the my process. twitter makes the most sense for just jotting down what i might be doing on any given day. blog posts like this are more to organize the “big picture”(like right now) and give some insight, but my main intent is to document how i get things done. hopefully by shedding a little light i can encourage others to share their own “dark arts” of composing. (i'm sure if you asked 50 composers what they do you will probably get 50 answers).

composers are a strange bunch. i can hang out with my mused friends and we swap our successes and failures, but i have found that composers are not really type of people to hang out and talk shop. we like to dish on the politics and philosophy that surround art music, but i think its like we each think we are guarding the secrets to our own personal alchemy and are afraid to expose our process to to the masses for fear that me might get called out for being a fraud. its too bad, the sharing of ideas, strategies, techniques and “best practices” is a great way to pass on the tools of our craft, yet the most common transmission of this information is only to our private students and not to each other. for me to fill this void, i have made up for this by gravitating to a small group assorted writers, artists and filmmakers that i try to hang out with on a weekly basis.

so here are some of background details about this project. i’m setting off in a new direction by changing my process up a bit. i’m writing music for a side project that is going to embrace my more electronic tendencies. i listen to quite a bit of it and am interested in the possibilities of what it can offer.

the first step started during the fall i have been making playlists of quite a bit of electronic music that i like and have been transcribing a piece a day over the last 2 weeks. i have mainly been figuring out how to make these sounds and timbres using my laptop as an instrument. right now its more of a performance based process, instead of transcribing a piece on paper, i am performing it and looping using the laptop (ableton live/macbookpro). so far i'm getting an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of using a laptop in live performance and what a ensemble would look and sound like that blends acoustic and electronic instruments.

the first project i’m working on is a deconstruction of david toub’s this piece intentionally left blank. the main reason of doing a deconstruction is quite simple, i want to get a handle on the technology with a piece i know really well (and like) and play around in its universe. i already have “deconstructed” the piece to its basic harmonic units/gestures and i’m going to turn them into loops that i can perform on my laptop (think a terry riley solo performance using modern technology) i figure as i get used to the technology i'll start to write more "original's", but i figure i better walk before i run (and right now i'm crawling).

fake old new world

just listened to the kpcc (los angeles) zocalo podcast that featured uber architect thom mayne. like most discussions the interesting quotes start in the last five minutes (about 46:38). enjoy...

we are living in a time where the majority of people (maybe even some of you) prefer to live in fake french provincial or tudor or fake phony second rate spanish and it's like damn its the 21st century.

did you realize that modern architecture started 100 years ago?

what's the point, its a symbol what are you symbolizing? that the 19th's century was interesting? or the 18th or the 17th or whatever the fuck you think it is?

there isn't a whole lot of interest in forward progress here. there is a huge notion that we are somehow comfortable in living in this fake old new world that somehow has something to do with some idea of status, what it has to do with is that your dead already. you literally died. if your brain isn't operating if you aren't living in today, if you haven't got problems then why wake up?

if you talk to across the board to architects then the discussion centers around why aren't more people interested in the present and exploring what it means to be alive in the 21st century and how that effects living and how your environment is an extension of your creative potential...

what's so interesting about living in some dead architecture that didn't die for no reason?

on top of it its a copy of a bad fake, its layers of stuff that's even hard to perceive.

no you can't

"there is a creed stuck into the founding documents that denied the destiny of a nation"

"now the hopes of the little girl who goes to private school in newport are the same as the dreams of the boy who parties in the clubs of la"

"we are not as divided as our portfolio's suggest"

"we love this nation and together we will stop this nonsense about writing the next great chapter in the american story with three words...

no you can't"

leaderless fear?

the pbe hiatus is finally over. in rehearsal tonight we realized that 3 months was the longest break we have ever taken since we started in 2002. i'm glad to be back to it preparing for a club show at mr. t's bowl (our favorite venue) on feb 20th. we are very fortunate to have john mahr covering keyboards during eric hendrikson's personal leave.

reh went well tonight, we started in on quite a bit of music that we haven't performed that much and ended up with quite a bit more music then we can use. so far the setlist is starting to look something like this:

chaconne, john brenner (great modular piece)
bonedance, lloyd rodgers
fearless leader, pb
life's too short, pb (tentative, 2 of 3 singers confirmed...)
national anthem, radiohead (cover)

this spring we are also working on adding doug hein's orlando and john brenner's leaderless fear to our repertoire. one thing that i have noticed about programming is that a concert of 5 or more pieces by most any composer can be a real drag (especially mine). i try and not program more than 2-3 of my own pieces, and when planning this show it became clear that when you pick the top 1-2 pieces from a variety of composers it quickly can become a pretty exceptional show.

anyhow, its great to be back in the game and with last night's great rehearsal i can get up to the mountains for a few days in much better state of mind. school starts in a week and our budget has been slashed 10%, so i sure hope i still have some classes to teach. (remember life's meant to be endured not enjoyed)

so while i'm away please help yourself to any or all the following;

retrace our steps

its new, it fun, and free!****

and its an secular oratorio based on texts gertrude stein, guy debord and jenny bitner. while i was making it, i decided that it would be much more interesting and informative to have a graphic libretto instead of program notes. it was such an obvious idea and was surprised to find that nobody else seems to be doing this. so check it out and let me know what you think.

retrace our steps, act 1

retrace our steps, act 2

retrace our steps, act 3

retrace our steps, act 4

assorted live performances from fall 07

life's too short (092507)

fearless leader (lacc, 100207)

11/25/05 (with real quiet, 102507)

you can also support the pbe by purchasing our first album; music from summerland (2002)

download full album ($5) google checkout or paypal

(****at least for you early adopters. i'm trying something new and going to give this one away until CD#3 comes out (life's too short, fall 08). i think giving away the new stuff and selling the back catalog isn't a bad idea. so try it out and if you like it, i bet you might like my previous CD music from summerland)

the composer's ear?

this week i was interested in reading marc grant's newmusicbox article titled, How Good is Your Ear (part 1). grant uses as a starting point out gunther schuller's seven skills necessary of a conductor's ear:

1) harmony; 2) pitch and intonation; 3) dynamics; 4) timbre; 5) rhythm and articulation; 6) balance and orchestrational aspects; 7) line and continuity. (For composers, I would add memory as attribute 8.)

It was interesting to me that the article and the following discussion organized around a composers (and conductors) ability to hear mistakes in his/her work. obviously error detection is a primary skill that any musician (and composer) needs in their toolkit, but i think the study of harmony (along with counterpoint and form) is still the most easily misunderstood skills in composition.

i would suggest that a great starting point for a composer to develop their ear is to transcribe their 10 favorite pieces. for me i stumbled upon this quite by accident. many of my favorite pieces are not easily available (mostly because they are rentals like philip glass's einstein on the beach), and the process of transcribing them by ear, i not only understood their harmonies, but got a deeper understanding what makes them tick. (here are just a few.... how is the form and phrasing developed? what role does the orchestration play, and how does the counterpoint affect the harmony? how is the form related to the harmony)

after a while you develop a muscle memory for the aesthetics of a piece, then you develop a deep understanding of why certain choices were made, not just an understanding of what chords and harmonies were used. then by studying a variety of works by a certain composer (or style), you can live in the logic of that musical universe that they have created and start to make distinctions between common practice and the interesting twists and techniques that great composers employ.

besides composing and performing, transcription is what has brought me a deeper understanding and enjoyment of the music that i love. the act of writing it down is much more than the "study" of a piece and i feel that the process of transcribing music is more like having a conversation with the original composer. the point when you really know a composer's work is when you feel like you finish their pieces for them, but the best part is when you find something that you never thought of and you can't put it out of your mind.

Life (We Cannot Retrace Our Steps)

my long life, my long life



RETRACE OUR STEPS is essentially a secular oratorio; a collection of thoughts, feelings, and opinions about modern life (consumerism, idealism, and alienation)
Traditionally oratorios functioned as a musical sermon, coordinated to biblical calendar to enhance the worship service. by setting these conflicting themes in a non-narrative format allows the contradictions and grey areas to become illuminated.

Instead of creating an “official” set of PROGRAM NOTES to accompany this recording (like the ones you are reading right now) I decided that a GRAPHIC LIBRETTO would far better bridge the gap between the trepidation many people feel today when listening to ART MUSIC (music meant for contemplation)

listen and download RETRACE OUR STEPS I-IV:
retrace our steps, act I
retrace our steps, act II
retrace our steps, act III
retrace our steps, act IV

download graphic libretto

download graphic libretto and retrace our steps mp3's (66mb zip file)

do you know?

in my long life

do you know
because I tell you so,
or do you know, do you know



retrace our steps, act IV>

not to what i won

I was a martyr all my life
not to what i won
but what was done

in my long life

in my long life, in my long life
life is strife

unfolding of the universe

man’s appropriation of his own nature
is at the same time his grasp of the unfolding of the universe



retrace our steps, act III

unfolding

estrangement between man and man

the spectacle is materially the expression of the separation and estrangement between
man and man.

retrace our steps, act III

download mp3

behind the masks of total choice

I am not a genuine pamphleteer
I have nothing to say. I have nothing to write...
If I had something to say, I would be the first to say it
loudly, outrageously, and articulately...

Behind the masks of total choice
different forms of the same alienation confront each other
all of them built on real contradictions, which are repressed



retace our steps, act II
total choice

fall 07 del.icio.us links

fall notable reads (things you might have missed and are worth checking out)

Music That Thinks Outside the Chamber, Anne Midgette
"For Gil Morgenstern, a violinist and concert presenter, the epiphany came when an acquaintance informed him that the two most boring words in the English language were “chamber music."
her suggestion: alternative classical? i wish i would have thought of that.

It's Time For 'The Talk', Holly Mulcahy
helping students prepare for a career in music with their eyes wide open.

Making a Living, Greg Sandow
what does a post-classical career look like?

Philip Glass: 25 Years after 'Einstein On The Beach', (Frank Oteri interviews)
from 2001... gotta love the interwebs

Critical Point: Web first, blogging, and newsprint, Tim Mangan OC Register
interesting snapshot of how journalism and music criticism is changing

Minimalism as Political Stance, Kyle Gann
Kyle makes a great point about the joys of learning and performing minimalist and "process" pieces

Here's the problem, (re: Richard Taruskin), Marc Geelhoad
"But the larger point here, it seems to me, is that we've now progressed from The Crisis of Classical Music, to The Saving of Classical Music, to Criticism of The Saving of Classical Music"

Like exegesis with that?, David Patrick Stearns
"2 new-music concerts show perils of over-explaining." sometime a rose is a rose is a rose

Mark Twain's plans to compete with copyright "pirates" (in 1906), Ken Fisher
"Twain feared that publishers would continue to print his works without paying him, and thus they'd continue to rake in the dough while his heirs got none."

The Mixed Meters Music Manifesto, David Ocker
"1. I lost my faith in new music years ago. Also my respect for certain "important" composers."

podcasts
Ed Burns on Creating 'The Wire', Fresh Air, Terry Gross
"The breadth and ambition of "The Wire" are unrivaled and that taken cumulatively over the course of a season -- any season -- it's an astonishing display of writing, acting and storytelling that must be considered alongside the best literature and filmmakers" Slate
this show lines up too closely with my experiences teaching in los angeles city schools, thankfully back on the air this spring

movies
Southland Tales, (Mahnola Dargis, NYT review)
"Richard Kelly’s funny, audacious, messy and feverishly inspired look at America and its discontents"

books
The Road, Cormac McCcarthy
a father and son's journey in post apocalyptic world (happy stuff)

The Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell
great book on how things "tip"


and...

a christmas wish from dr. pete

stockhausen served imperialism

in the spirit of cornelius cardew's 1974 polemic, stockhausen serves imperialism, on his former teacher, nemesis, and the newly dead (in the true spirit of the title of this blog) karlheinz stockhausen , 1928-2007, i put forward david ocker's more very personal mixed manifesto on "new music"

1. I lost my faith in new music years ago. Also my respect for certain "important" composers.
2. I did not lose my interest in new music although I expected to.
3. Living with this faithless interest has become the central issue of my middle-age creative musicianship.
4. I believe music can and should be challenging and involving and beautiful and provocative without being ponderous or academic.
5. There is a certain existential tension between these ideas and the way I earn my living: as a copyist of new pieces by "important" composers.
6. I no longer enjoy attending concerts. Exceptions do occur.
7. I prefer listening to recordings. iPod is good.
8. My time is limited. Life is short.
9. I feel fully qualified to predict from the music I already know whether I will enjoy music I haven't heard yet. You can't listen to everything. You have to have favorites. If you don't like something, say so.
10. The "important" centers of new music are in New York and Europe. California is the boonies and our new music scene is vastly underdeveloped for our size and economic clout.
11. What hapens in the centers of new music has become of only minor passing interest to me.
12. The New Music Pie is fixed in size. Maybe it's even shrinking. That would make new music a negative sum game
13. New music programming is more often based on the "importance" rather than the talent of the composers.
14. Recent programming by the Monday Evening Concerts and the Green Umbrella has disappointed me as overly Eurocentric.
15. Although I may not enjoy or attend new music concerts I support them and hope for their success. I once found them useful and others still do.
16. I enjoy "making up" music. I never refer to myself as a "composer" without adding the adjective "failed".
17. The choice between spending my time making up my own music and attending a concert of music by composers from traditions for which I have little tolerance or enthusiasm is easy.
18. I want my music to derive as much as possible from my immediate surroundings and culture at the current moment. Starbucks is the perfect metaphor for this.
19. Every piece of music should have elements immediately appreciable by any listener, from novice through professional.
20. I enjoy giving my pieces misleading titles.
21. Music is a fundamentally an abstract art and should avoid the overuse of lyrics.
22. I want my music to be unpredictable.
23. I have no interest in being part of an established musical movement or tradition, even as I am probably falling into the traps associated with certain California Maverick composers.
24. I have no reason, desire or ability to express the eternal verities through my music. Indeed, I doubt eternal verities are eternal, veritable or even expressible through music.
25. I've learned as much from negative examples and bad teaching as from positive and good.
26. I want to personally enjoy the acts of writing my music and listening to it later.
27. Writing about my music is difficult for me. I would like people who hear my music to enjoy it without having to read about it.
28. I can no longer say I've never written a manifesto.

because they are dead theme song
orlando, he dead
(just add karlheinz to the lyric's)
composed, doug hein
performed, cartesian reunion memorial orchestra

Orlando, Orlando, he dead, he dead, Orlando, he dead.

Josquin, Johann, Amadeus, Ludwig, they dead, they dead, all them guys they dead.

Buddy H., Brian J., Mama C. Karen C., they dead, they dead, all them guys, the dead.

La, la, la …

And when your dead your dead forever,

forever, forever, forever

You don’t go live no more,

no more, no more, no more.

You be dead more long than live

‘Cuz when your dead your dead forever,

Forever, forever, forever.

Some day me be dead,

Some day you be dead,

Some day me be dead,

Some day you be dead,

All us guys

We dead

La, la, la ….

tranquil center of misery

I wake up in the middle of the night in a sweat. I am gripped by the knowledge that I have nothing to say-That even if I could write a pamphlet everyone in the world would see, I would fail.

...the spectacle is nothing more than an image of happy unification surrounded by desolation and fear at the tranquil center of misery.



program notes
retrace our steps, act II

could the correct words make a difference in someone's life?

i wonder: if written in the correct order, could the correct words make a difference in someone's life?

what hides under the spectacular oppositions is a unity of misery.



retrace our steps, act 2
text, jenny bitner and guy debord

do you know you will burn in hell if you don't change your ways?

I am intrigued by the belief that a pamphlet could change a life. I remember those given to me with the images of a man burning amid fiery flames, and inside: "Change your life. Do you know you will burn in hell if you don't change your ways?"

what hides under the spectacular oppositions is a unity of misery.



retrace our steps, act 2
text jenny bitner (the pamphleteer) and guy debord (society of the spectacle)

ever more separated from his world

I wonder if such a pamphlet is possible, and what it could say.

separated from his product, man himself produces all the details of his world with ever-increasing power, and thus finds himself ever more separated from his world.

I am trying to devise the perfect pamphlet

I am trying to devise the perfect pamphlet, a pamphlet that if given to enough people could change the world.

In societies where modern conditions of productions prevail, all life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles.

retrace our steps, act 2
text jenny bitner and guy debord

retrace our steps, act 1

we cannot retrace our steps
going forward may be the same as going backwards.
we cannot retrace our steps, retrace our steps.
All my long life, all my life, we do not retrace our steps, all my long life, but...

(a silence, a long silence)

but-we do not retrace our steps,
all my long life, and her,
here we are her, in marble and gold,
did I say gold, yes I said gold, in marble and gold and where-

(silence)

where is where.
in my long life of effort and strife, dear life, life is strife,
in my long life it will not come and go,
i tell you so, it will stay in the pay but...


retrace our steps, act 1
text.gertrude stein
p.bailey 2005

life is strife

where is where.
In my long life of effort and strife, dear life, life is strife,
in my long life it will not come and go,
I tell you so, it will stay in the pay but...


retrace our steps, act 1
text.gertrude stein
p.bailey 2005

in marble and gold and where-

(a silence, a long silence)

but... -we do not retrace our steps,
all my long life, and her,
here we are her, in marble and gold,
did I say gold, yes I said gold, in marble and gold and where-

retrace our steps, act 1
text gertrude stein
p.bailey 2005

photo (eric richardson)

going forward may be the same as going backwards

we cannot retrace our steps
going forward may be the same as going backwards.
we cannot retrace our steps, retrace our steps.
all my long life, all my life, we do not retrace our steps, all my long life, but...


retrace our steps, act 1
text.gertrude stein
p.bailey 2005

two birds with one stone

one of the great reasons of living in los angeles is sheer amount of interesting things to do. if i had the time (unfortunately i do not) i could have attended two readings of books that have simultaneously found their way to my nightstand. its some pretty great scheduling that both oliver sacks and alex ross are speaking at the la public library within a day of each other.

last night oliver sacks spoke on his book: musicophilia: tales of music and the brain. the amazon link has some good video and his interview with terry gross is available on the fresh air podcast

alex ross is also speaking thursday (10/25/07) night about his book the rest is noise: listening to music in the 20th century.

i didn't feel so bad once i found out that both events were sold out and standing room only. hopefully they will make podcast available of the discussions. so far i have been enjoying reading both of these books.

as a side note, in the 10/17 la weekly owen pallet (toronto-based musician who has created arrangements for indie artists arcade fire, bloc party and beirut...) in a group panel throws a little whoop-ass toward alex with this retort:

PALLETT: I’m going to come clean. When I think of new classical music, I feel like I need a cup of coffee and an Advil. I write it, listen to it and enjoy it, but honestly, I don’t think that any classical-music form — except the opera — has relevance to a large audience anymore. It’s retrogressive, but also totally intoxicating. Really, who needs an audience when we have our private little concerts to bask in our own technical virtuosity? Show off some idiomatic oboe writing? Why not?

But seriously, I love new classical music, but the world prefers Amy Winehouse, and so do I. New classical composers are fighting an uphill battle for any sort of relevance: trying to make any headway against the huge volume of amazing pop music out there, and also, trying to reinvent forms and ensemble choices that have existed for centuries.

This whole exchange we’ve had seems ?to have been geared toward “opening pop ears up to new classical music,” but this is a very old-guard conceit. I think that the quicker young classical musicians stop writing chamber music and symphonies, and instead start making albums, the better. Sorry we’re butting heads! I hate being so cantankerous to strangers, but that’s all for now.

in general would agree with most everything he said. although i should point out that i wasn't too impressed with his instrumental "arrangements" for the arcade fire at their hollywood bowl show in sept. his combination of unison baritone horn, french horn and violin inspired my wife to comment "too bad the band has to bring their girlfriends on tour"

on the other hand i really enjoy all the energy that alex puts into writing about the ever growing classical music online community, but i see why his efforts to bring music the masses by way of writing about the mostly dead (in his book) are not my most important reading. i think it is interesting to note that if you compare the contents of his book to michael nyman's experimental music not much has changed since 1974. (more on that another time)

admittedly, i am prejudging his arguments before reading the book (or judging a book by its metaphorical cover), but my intuition says that train has already left the station. its easy to say that when a tune from lcd soundsystem means more to me than what is playing at my local concert hall i think there its fair to ask "the rest is noise?"

congestion pricing

my late summer read was james surowiecki's the wisdom of crowds which describes how crowds (large numbers of independent people who share a common interest or goal) when left to their own devices seem to make pretty intelligent decisions and how gives some descriptions about they arrive at them. also later in the the book he gives some interesting examples of how governments have tried to change the path of the herd. after reading about singapore's traffic incentive plan led me to reconsider how I grade and assess my musicianship students. basically they(the govt) increase the price of diving in the city center at peak traffic times during they day. if there is heavy traffic you can expect to pay 10x the regular toll to encourage you to drive an alternative route.

overall the musicianship classes are going very well and i have much of it already organized the way i like. each class is divided up into 4-5 segments in which the students sing diatonic sequences, harmonic patterns, melodies as well as play simple folk songs in all 12 keys. so about 90% of the time the class is singing either individually, in groups of 2-3 or as a whole. the biggest problem is the 'congestion' that arises from testing. many of the skills i teach are really a pass or fail type proposition. i already ask students who do poorly to retest later until they can really do the skill to combat laziness i have reserved the 'A' grade for the first test, but still want to encourage improvement. like most classes it only gets harder and after a while it becomes almost impossible to advance after a certain point unless a student is consistently working on the material.

the problem with having 4-5 'test' days during the semester is the amount class time spent on individual assessment. my plan is to try and alleviate this with 'congestion' grading. The students already have a subject calendar, those who go early will get extra points. 2 weeks ahead even more. i'll still teach at the same pace, but i bet enough will take me up on the offer so that class doesn't have to drag to a halt for testing.

how wonderful is brian ferneyhough?

so this is the post where i'm supposed to give you some special reason to come to our next show on tuesday september 25th. i just got back from a really great rehearsal and ready to start spreading the propaganda.

with the traffic in southern cal i know it takes a special kind of person to drive anywhere after a long day of work. the real question is why is this concert worth attending? first off we are sharing the concert with the new kids on the block of new music (NKOTBNM or as they liked to be called real quiet) the nyc based chamber group is making its first los angeles/oc appearance the just released their new album tight sweater (featuring the music of marc mellits)which is pretty frakkin' great. besides mellits music they are playing music of phil kline, and annie gosfield.

as for the pbe. i'm kinda surprised that we are even playing this show. last may it looked like curtains for the us, carl, ryan and bruce would all be leaving the pbe after graduation. thankfully bruce decided to stay for the time being and our original bass player matt menaged moved back into town this summer. this lineup is a powerhouse and has gelled quite nicely. i'd say its pbe 3.o.

so what about the show? or as they used to say "where's the beef?"our goals are very consistent and simple. we want to entertain you, we want to make you think and we want to have a great time performing music that we wouldn't get to play anywhere else. entertainment wise, its the strongest set we have yet played. as a show its got something for everybody; garage band jam's, covers, vocal fun and some modular improvisation. so go ahead see for yourself...

cheap admiration-
its technically a harmonic deconstruction of johann pezel's sonata ciacona in B. its a great introduction to what we do and always lets the audience know we are more garage band than chamber group.

fearless leader-
this tune has had more versions than a cat has lives. it started very unsuccessfully as an ambitious modular experiment that failed miserably in a live reviewed performance at whittier college (thanks again to the oc register's tim mangan for a really polite review of that debacle). over time it became more of an orchestration study. its not a perfect piece, but at the time i think i was creatively blocked and i looked at finishing it as a challenge to overcome. i keep asking the group if they want to take it out of the set, but they seem to like it more than me.

eye for optical theory
this probably has to be one of my favorite michael nyman tunes. i have never been able to find a score of it, so one summer i decided to write it down. its based on a repeated ground bass (kind of like fearless leader) and about halfway through i realized his "trick" is that he only was using combination of about 8-9 repeated melodies. my version plays on this and i just started with my sheet of melodies and hooked them together like lego's to make my own version. in last nights rehearsal i added a call and response introduction where our keyboard player eric plays one of the antecedent licks and we play its consequent answer. we play this game until he wants to start the piece and then plays the first line in octaves to let us know to go on. its fun way to bring a little life to one of our fluffier pieces. i also strongly feel that a night of any one composers music can be pretty exhausting. a little nyman along the way sets up the rest of the show really well.

life's too short
this is the showpiece of the night. its one of the few compositions that i have written that came out effortlessly fully composed and orchestrated. in our first rehearsal we played it head to toe without stopping once. its a pretty damn good piece and i'm still couldn't tell you how i wrote it. what is it about? self actualization through nihilism, nietzsche meet tony robbins. its in english. you will be able to understand the text. its over the top. its funny. its in your face.

in many ways i think its a conceptually a reaction of going to a very well performed master chorale concert in which all the music was by american composers but none of it was in english. everything was well written and orchestrated, but the concept of having your audience sit and listen to some "secret code" was insane. scanning the crowd from the back row of disney hall this performances seemed more dehumanizing as the evening wore on. the audience wanted to like it, and seemed desperate to connect with the music. (it was beautiful) but what kind of conversation goes on for an two hours in a variety of assorted foriegn languages? sitting in the audience felt like a strange ritual listening to an evening of recently composed choral music without theater or narrative.

anytime you add vocalists to anything its like hearding cats. on most nights the energy they add to an instrumental show can be hard to control. when they come on stage its easy for me to forget my job (the cues and conducting) because i really love to hear them sing. over time i realized that once i get them to the middle of most pieces we loosen up and have a lot of fun on the back end.

principle of sufficient irritation (11/25/05)
this is probably or favorite piece. its written in a modular style with a variety pre-composed melodic syncopated and ostinato lines. (terry riley's in C is the most famous example). overall its more similar to the improvisational process used in tv shows like curb your enthusiasm or any of christopher guest's wonderful movies. the piece has a very clear beginning middle and end and we all know our responsibilities in each section. for instance i play some melody in the first section, lead the group into the canon in the middle, and play ostinatos in the third. how and what i'll play i can choose every night. over time there are happy accidents that turn the piece in new directions. each new player that comes in also brings their own personality into the piece. one of the good things about 11/25 is that its got a nice rhythmic/melodic turn when it we start moving from the submediant to the tonic moving from a hard charging 6/8 to 3/4. (and back to the original opening statement) while it serves as a very energetic totem that no matter how the evening is going that once we get rolling towards that 'turn' its a very simple engine that creates quite a lot of energy. some nights we even feel like we can levitate the stage during this section which is the whole reason i got into this racket.

are you sold yet? still skeptical? i know i have been to more bad new music concerts than i count. please don't hold that against me. i hated them also. how about if i sweeten the deal with a guarantee (of course i can't really afford to give you a money back offer... i'm only public employee) if you don't like the show i'll buy you a beer, i just don't want to hear about how wonderful brian ferneyhough is.

back to school part II, transcription tips

get the music in your ear, sing it back to yourself, play it on your primary instrument and then try and write it down.

focus on what you hear well, most people hear either the soprano or bass lines the best.

work on one part or element at a time. if you are transcribing a pop tune, try and write down the form or harmony first. then go back to get the melody.

by having the harmony you can sometimes deduce the notes you are having trouble with through basic analysis. visa versa, the having the melody down cold can help you figure out the harmony also.

its pretty hard at the beginning. try to work consistently every day. if you can only transcribe for 15 min a day a first no problem. you shouldn't keep working if you get tired or have a headache. my ears are horrible when i am tired. for me its something i do when i first wakeup in the morning.

along those lines some days your ears just don't work. don't worry its normal. come back the next day and it all will be well.

work in small chunks, get 4 bars and then move on.

use a good rewind, computer based programs like itunes work very well. transcribing directly from a cd can be problematic. they don't like short rewinds.

pick something you like, life's too short.

back to school edition

do something musical every day
learn your language
transcribe by ear
analyze pieces you like
some pieces (your favorites) you will want to know everything about
keep on the lookout for things that make you go hmmm.
why does it catch your interest? what makes it different from the other pieces?
you might just focus on one element (form, harmony, melody, orchestration, counterpoint, rhythm...)

wash, rinse, repeat

upgrade

i got a somewhat surprising phone call from a friend this weekend wondering how i liked my new iPhone. most people know i am a gadget phreak, but i have to say i was never really interested in this phone. i have a great phone gadget (treo 680) that does everything that i need. i'm not sure if the iphone is anything revolutionary at all, i think the real technological advances are with the mobile google applications. the mobile gmail and google maps (amazing for local traffic updates) have democratized online access so that most anybody can have access to a wide variety of information on the home computer, laptop or cell phone. you don't need an iphone to run these programs, most any cellphone will do.

until recently, the 60 gig ipod was probably the most important piece of technology that i have ever owned. the ability to categorize my library and keep easily updateable playlists with notes (through the lyrics tabs). allowed me to have a pretty detailed and sophisticated process for transcribing and categorizing music. since scores are not usually available of most music i am interested in, the ability to easily transcribe a part on the fly (usually during my commute on the train between fullerton and los angeles), jot some notes down (notation, harmony and function) and easily categorize these gestures for later thoughts. over the last few years the ipod has been a great tool that has allowed me to transcribe, analyze and contemplate great deal of music. which in essence comes down to; why is this gesture interesting to me? how does it function? and how does it fit in overall to my aesthetic?

but lets back to the phone call, i'm sure he called looking for my verdict on the Iphone, but i guess the real story is that i did upgrade to the latest apple 'gadget' this past week, and i think its far more revolutionary to musicians and composers. right now the new macbooks and macbook pro laptops are just as fast and powerful as any computer in a high end recording studio. these recent technological advances (by apple and others) have allowed me to upgrade my studio and purchase almost everything that i could ever need at a very affordable price point. 5 years ago when i recorded my first cd, about $6,000 bought me barely enough technology to record my music in a studio and mix it at home.

G4 desktop computer $3500 (866mgh, 2 GB ram)
50 GB hard drive $500
828 recording interface $850
M-Audio nearfield monitors and stands $750
6 channel headphone amp $225
Digital Performer DAW $350

this did a pretty good job getting me going and i kept my costs lower by recording in the studio, mixing at home (but i had to go back to the studio for the final mixdown which my computer could not handle). of course every 5 years the technology doubles (thank you moore's law). not only has the cost of the system gone down (as it has doubled in power) all the other equipment needed to record on my own has come down enough where i have been able to buy all i need to record, mix and master any recording on my own. now for just under $5,000 i have a full fledged recording studio.

MacBook Pro $1999 (2GB, 2.12GHZ)
500GB HD $250

Digi 002 recording interface $650 used
Vinteck Dual 72 preamp $1400, 2 channel chinese copy of the Neve 1272 preamp.
Gator 6U rolling rack, $125.
Rode NT5 stereo microphone pair $200, to record vibes and used overheads
Studio Projects C3 large diaphragm condenser mic $325,
(chinese U87 clone, good on clarinet and some voices)
Cascade Fathead Ribbon Mic $160, (trombone/brass mic, and some vocal)
Shure SM57 dynamic cardaroid mic $100 (electric guitar)

as you can see $5000 now buys the whole studio. I'm sure a few tapehead/bitheads are jumping up and down screaming about about all the inexpensive chinese gear i'm using, but its amazing what you can get running it through low cost mic through a great (chinese copy) preamp. if you are on budget like me, i think spending the money on the preamp has to be the priority. one reason its been so hard to finish my cd retrace our steps is the high cost of the studio time, but now at least i have the peace of mind to know that money isn't going to get in the way of finishing a project.

lets get back to our MacBook Pro (or even MacBook***). not only you have the same computing power of a high end studio, but it only weighs 5 lbs. now i can drag my gear anywhere to get the recording. i can record guitar and bass direct at your house and use that nice vocal booth at your school to record that vocal part. schlepping my gear now is only a laptop bag and a rolling rack. and is powerful enough to add all the bells and whistles (plugins) to do the final mixing and mastering later anywhere i want (at home any other nice studio that is available after hours for free)

of course the daunting part of this is learning the whole new skill set to do this; mic placement, room sound, equalization... (the dark arts of recording). i know that some people will always have a problem these recordings might not be as polished and professional (its easy to spend thousands of dollars going down that rabbit hole), but i have learned that the point really is to first capture a great performance, and with good ears the technology keeps getting easier to make a decent recording. if i can do it, so can everybody else. using this technology as a means to an end means that we don't have to wait in line (hat-in-hand) begging for grants, awards and other table scraps to record and share our compositions and performances to a wider audience.







***just a note for those of you considering the MacBook, i almost purchased it and from what i can tell it would be just as good (for recording audio) as the MacBook pro right now. the biggest reason i got the pro was because i could to upgrade the ram to 4GB. you can never have too much ram, and because i don't think i will be able to afford another computer for at least 4 years). what pushed me over the edge was with the extra $100 academic discount (the Macbook is only $100 off) and the 2GB of ram standard on the MacBook Pro put the price difference between the 13' MacBook and 15' Macbook Pro at $300.

mother tongue

just to start this off on the right foot let me point out that i really like going to la master chorale concerts. i'm really glad they tackle so much new music and i thought the concert was very well performed. i'm not sure why i'm so snippy about this gig, but here are my comments, take them with a grain of salt if you wish.

the organ cadenzas in james macmillan's Magnificat sounded like the would work better for a chamber orchestra. this was the first of many cadenzas during the evening that went on too long. i figure if you are going to write one, they should either get the 'essence' of the instrument or illustrate the performers unique 'personality' these did neither. a cadenza is kind of like the circus train stopping in your neighborhood, either the elephants will do something cool or just crap on the side of the tracks.

i liked eve belgairan's persian influenced composition (sang) much better than i thought i was going to. she wrote for the persian santur (72 string hammered dulcimer) and daf and tombek (persian percussion) as continuo instruments in a western style. so while i really enjoyed the performance i wounder what we would think of an brass quintet hired to play iranian folk songs? i know this work was presented to be a 'cultural exchange', but it feels a pretty colonial and imperialistic to me.

my anticipated 'highlight' of the evening was to finally hear arvo part's te deum live. i have listened to the piece over the years and wondered if i would like it more live. i think its a primer in great writing for a chorus and strings, but have never been able to listen to it in one sitting. thursday's performance was no different. disney hall makes a great frame for the piece. the sound of the aeolian harp (prerecorded) was amazing, but i found myself getting bored listening to his endless re-orchestrations of similar material.

the best thing is that this concert crystalized my thoughts about writing for chorus. so... what kind of conversation goes on for an two hours in a variety of assorted foriegn languages? sitting in the audience felt like a strange ritual listening to an evening of recently composed choral music without theater or narrative has to be some really fucking great art music or i can't buy it. what does it say about composers (mcmillian and belgarian are british and american) who choose to write in a language in which the audience will not be able to follow along? i don't get it, and it feels like a big dodge to not write in the mother tongue of our audience. this has always been a slow burn with me, and i'm not saying everything should be in english, but somewhere in the middle part's te deum it was easy to see from the back of disney hall that we all were listening to very well orchestrated aesthetic experience in which the 120 member los angeles master chorale had much to sing about and nothing to say.

addendum, 061007

i don't have anything inherently against 'absolute' vocal music. its just i think it all boils down to the presence or absence of a narrative structure. i think when you choose a text that is in another language/not recognizable then you must have other strategies to connect to your audience. if the purpose of art music is to reflect upon the human condition (at least its mine) then this night's performance clearly illustrates why our audiences still have problems connecting to 'new' music.

vacation?

i guess this past week i have been adjusting to what many people would call "vacation". its been a bit disorienting because for the first time in a long while i don't have anything that i have to do until i go back to work in late august. i still have the retrace cd to finish mixing and i'm 75% done with my next one. with no summer gigs and the short term future of the pbe unclear, it seems easy to step out of the never-ending cycle of composing, rehearsing and performing (at least for this summer), and see what its is like to be "normal" again. already this week i read a book (p.k. dick's the game players of titan) , started to catch up on reading the last two months of the new yorker, and have endured my wife's looks of derision and pity while planting myself on the couch playing video games (halo 3 beta). usually i would feel quite a bit of anxiety without having a piece to write or concert to plan. what the hell, a few months of vacation never hurt anybody? (gulp)

that was a great show yesterday, here are some of the highlights:

1. my apologies for sending bruce gallego (pbe guitar) on unexpected tour of east-la trying to find the gallery
2. i was surprised that kathy hargraves (dangerous curve gallery owner) was able to kick a film shoot off her street because they didn't have the proper permits (especially on a sunday in downtown la). later we paid the price when the rent-a-cops and production trucks continually circled the gallery trying to disrupt the show. only in la
3. its been real fun having nicole baker (mezzo-diva/musicologist) premier both retrace our steps and life's too short. if you are to study music history you might as well make it also.
4. david borden should send john marr and norm weston a case of beer for all the hard work they have done performing his music. its hard to believe that this was only their 3rd show.
5. we have good recordings and videos from the show, give me a few weeks for them to find their way online.
6. the life's too short premier felt like a 3rd or 4th performance. i was able to make quite a few small edits that cleaned up much of the piece.

i know i mentioned that we are going on hiatus because the possible departures of carl and/or bruce. i was surprised and encouraged by the immediate concerned reactions about when we will perform life's too short again. don't worry, i'm really happy with it and hope to perform it again soon (maybe july and/or sept) i can see keeping things going if for a few more shows to tie things up, but adding new members is a lot like dating. i have enjoyed playing with this group so much (carl, bruce, eric, and scott) that i can't see replacing anybody.

i'm not done with this performing thing, i still plan to perform and put a group out there, just not called the pbe. who knows maybe it will be laptop and cowbell, but one way or another this is what i do. i can't survive without it.

the next two weeks i'm locking carl and bruce in the studio to record our playlist from the last two years. then back into the studio for the final cleanup mixing and mastering of retrace our steps. the graphic libretto for retrace is also coming along fine and jared and i should be able to finish it this summer. its been a busy year and there is just is not enough time to get everything done. now its time to finish these recording projects. it will be great when we everybody can hear the results of the last two years.

Do you like artsy experimental but are tired of John Zorn wannabes?

its a show week, final exams and student teacher fun at csuf so not much time for blogging.

btw... we just got a nice plug in whitehot magazine for sunday's show at dangerous curve in downtown la . i especially like the log-line.

Tired of going to the opera house? Tired of the concert hall setting? Don’t like to dress up nice and act pretentious? Do you like artsy experimental but are tired of John Zorn wannabes?

jump

monday morning quarterback

csuf's d.i.e. had a pretty good show last wed night in which we premiered david toub's piece this piece intentionally left blank. i thought it was a very effective composition and pretty good first performance. enjoy the mp3.

this performance represented the best of social networking and was made possible by david having a well designed website with scores and mp3's. he also is very smart by having some pieces in open c score that are easily adapted to any instrumentation (most pbe music is written this way) which is the point of the diverse instrument ensemble.

anyway ,it was a challenging but fun piece to play and great example of the exchange of ideas by making your music public. i look forward to playing more of music like this and encourage others to follow.

"now " and "then"

last night was a great example of what i find frustrating in undergraduate comp forums. i know that composition is one of the "black arts" of teaching, so i am really not here to throw stones at students our students. all of the pieces were very well prepared and performed (except for one piece that was so bad i thought was performance art), but it always frustrates me hearing pieces from young composers that sound 100-200 years old. may i strongly suggest that they you spend more time listening the "now" instead of the "then". you can reject it all of it if you want, but you should have a good idea of a majority of the art music composed in the last 30 years.

when i was in kansas, my first teacher, walter mays, did me the biggest favor by forcing upon me long listening lists in place of any actually writing. by keeping my away from the pencil he did me the best teaching possible for a very young and naive student and i was quite happy when i found a group of living composers that excited me. he started me in the 1970's and pushed forward, and then we jumped back starting with pierrot lunaire and filled in the gaps through the 60's. overall it gave me a sense of place and i have had many years to think about how i fit in to it.

we can evaluate our compositions in many ways; is it idiomatic and well orchestrated? does it have a consistent logic or musical universe that it resides? even if all those things are in place i'm not sure how writing in the "ars antiqua" style is a useful artistic exercise unless it is somehow connected to the now. i think it is one thing to write music that sounds like chopin and quite another to distill what makes chopin's music interesting and apply that to your own art. the journey to figure out how we fit the "now" and "then" into our own personal narrative is just as important as any pen and paper "technique" we can acquire.

looking for you

shane cadman (illustrious theatre orchestra/new music impresario) is looking for an southern california based “art music” composer/performer (solo or ensemble) to perform for approximately 30 minutes on his realnewmusicfestival in whittier on june 23rd. More info can be found at www.realnewmusic.com, or can also contact him for more info.

when i was helping shane look for a group to fill the spot it made me think of a post my blogging neighbor david ocker who recently wrote:

So I wonder, does new music really "live" in Los Angeles - or does it just manage to survive? Our vast metropolis never seemed conducive to a small, intense, creative forward-looking musical scene. It doesn't seem so now. I fear it never will.

SoCal is a nice place to live if you like dim sum or soba noodles or Korean seafood pancakes or tacos al carbon. We have lots of sun and lots of green plants. You'd like that. We also have lots of isolation from places where new music seems to actually matter to people. This is a huge boon to us. We can keep tabs via the Internet on all you other guys as you do important stuff.

i guess the question really is do we have a "scene" or not. i think there are a few points to consider:

when trying to make a list of socal based new music ensembles i realized that only the Californa E.A.R. unit, XTET, Lloyd Rodgers Group and the Vinnie Golia Large Ensemble have been performing for more than 10 years, so i think the argument can be made that the recent additions look promising. (i'll probably incorporate this list as a good reference page on the website. and please contact me if you would like to be added.)

Brother Mallard/John Mahr
California E.A.R Unit
Counterpoint Culture/Jon Brenner
Ensemble Green/Lynn Vartan
Liquid Skin Ensemble/Steve Moshier
Lloyd Rodgers Group
Paul Bailey Ensemble
Mladi Chamber Orchestra
Nimbus Ensemble/Young Riddle
Robin Cox Ensemble
Vinnie Golia Large Ensemble
Xtet

another problem that we face (in los angeles) is that many of the best and brightest still make the pilgrimage to nyc. i personally have had two friends move (soon to be three) to compose and perform, but i can also name many great musicians who have moved here from new york and the east coast for the steady and more lucrative movie work. sara thornblade, victor lawrence, shalini vijayian, keve wilson, and samuel fischer are just a few of a longer list that i have had the pleasure to meet and perform with in the last five years.*

after five years of actively observing our "scene" i think one of our biggest problems is that our performances are too few and far between to catch the traction needed to gain critical mass.
the importance of any "scene" is measured by the interactions between composers, musicians and the audience, but i still find the most interesting ideas online in our small but growing community, although these conversations that have their limitations and cannot make up for "being there". getting out and seeing concerts and watching how other ensembles perform is very important also.

if you look at rock/alternative band that makes it up to national a national touring status there is inevitably 3-4 bands left back at the "scene" that they came from. consistent performing, sharing of ideas and the interaction of these audiences is why a band "makes it". this is probably the biggest reason i switched to running a smaller ensemble so we could rehearse weekly and perform monthly. overall its led to a much higher satisfaction in the ensemble, but of course there is a substantial sacrifice from being away from family.

what does this add up to? i think we still have a ways to go in los angeles (although i'm a glass is half full person). finding sympathetic venues and drawing a steady crowds (more than friends and family) are the battleground for any new music ensemble. i'm very lucky to have a great group of performers that are willing to sacrifice so much of their time to keep this show on the road and i'm looking forward to writing and performing with them for the next 30 years.

*i think there is another point to be made in a future post about how the film music consumes much of the air in los angeles. every time i meet a new musician they inevitably have a sidekic/boyfriend/girlfriend that has moved out here to try their luck at film composing. i get the feeling that a generation of talented composers has gotten lost playing the three-card monty game that is hollywood.

friday the 13th

over the years the undergraduate composition recital has been something that i avoid like the plague. i'm sure many of of you have not so fond memories of the dramas surrounding these recitals that were doomed before the downbeat. with that being said i'm proud to report that yesterday (friday the 13th, 2007) the very rare happened. Carl Stronach (pbe bassist) put together a superb undergraduate composition recital in which:


the musicians were well rehearsed
the musicians were paid
the composer performed in a variety of his pieces
there was no crying or yelling beforehand

and

he composed a wide variety of wonderful music

all of the pieces worked well (string trio, just intonation harpsichord solo, broken consort, percussion and organ duet) and had a real center to them.

i would even venture to say that these pieces are the first strong steps in developing his own voice (which is of course the goal for any undergrad recital) but i reality is so rare. most of the time the undergrad recital is a success if the students write decently playable/idiomatic music in an imitative style. it was obvious that carl's music is more than that. look forward to hearing his broken consort piece (anxiety on the eve of apocalypse) added to our repertoire in time for our may 20th gallery show.

congrats! bravo!

will the last one out please turn off the lights?

i have been enjoying the very interesting and civil musings on "non-death of classical music" at daniel wolf's renewable music blog. i wish i had more time to post about this but here is my 2 cents.

is it possible that the definition of "classical music" is more of a description of an musical social status?

i think the space between "art music" and "classical music" has never been wider,

what is classical music? (from the naxos website)

Any attempt to define what is meant literally by the term 'classical' music is fraught with difficulty. How does one encapsulate in just a few words a musical tradition which encompasses such infinite varieties of style and expression, from the monastic intonings of Gregorian chant to the laid-back jazz inflections of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, from the elegant poise of Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik to the despairing, heightened emotionalism of Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" Symphony? One is treading on very dangerous ground indeed if one pre-supposes that it is simply 'superior' to other musical types such as popular, jazz, rock and the like, let alone the music of other cultures.

In general 'popular' music may be as clear in expression as the longer examples of 'classical' music. One important difference, however, lies in the logical connection that exists in 'classical ' music between the beginning and end, with the latter a logical extension and development of the former. 'Popular' music, on the other hand, tends to present its material without development, the music ending when interest is exhausted.

Sadly, whilst 'classical' music is socially undivisive in itself, it has unfortunately become associated in most people's minds with the intellectual elite. Even now, and with certain honourable exceptions, the attending of a 'live' concert can be an intimidating (not to say costly) experience for the uninitiated, especially in that most jealously guarded of establishments, the opera house. The wonderful thing about the technological age in which we live, and particularly the advent of the compact disc, is that we can bypass all irrelevant social and intellectual pretence, and enjoy in the comfort of our own home (often at far less cost) some of the finest music ever composed.

i'm not sure that helped? the harvard dictionary doesn't help much either.

in popular music, art or "serious" music as opposed to popular music.

ok... they take the same tack saying what classical music isn't, and the best part is they don't define either art music or serious music.

so what does classical music mean to you?

i bet each of our definitions tells us more about differences than our similarities. over time i think its meaning has shifted to imply a musical social status. its easy to see many examples of classical music being used to anything "upmarket". i also see parents pushing their young children into piano and violin lessons in hopes of them achieving higher social status through music. it is also interesting to note that my former principal and headmaster's vision for the music program was to create an orchestra. they both strongly felt (in their own unique way) that the orchestra would bring a certain cachet to the school, even though the student interest was limited and the program would be mostly symbolic.

does the mean "classical music" is dead? maybe it has just lost its meaning as its institutions have become irrelevant?

horse sense

last saturday was the 2nd rehearsal of life's too short which focused on the having the group sing and play. its clear now that hubris got the best of me. my idea was to use the ensemble as a greek chorus to accompany the soloist and to rotate the orchestration so that 2 or 3 players would be available to sing at any time. in my mind i could see it clearly, and it was not for lack of effort of the ensemble that it was a failure. (thanks guys for trying without any complaints) of course now i really feel like a loser. it seems lately i have been working out many of my "technical problems" in previous pieces. much of the counterpoint and orchestration from my long suffering fearless leader led to a much cleaner and clearer instrumental continuo in life's too short, and i already can see how to solve this problem of having the ensemble do some singing and i still might have them sing at the end, but overall its clearly not the right type of piece for this. while i'm flogging myself over this i thinks its valid to point out that i knew there was a pretty chance that it wouldn't work, but i have a pretty stubborn side that has to follow through to the gruesome end to prove the point. my grandfather called this horse sense and it would have been damn well easier to get kicked in the head when i was younger.

best laid plans

i'm back from a working spring break here in lala land. just finished booking a few shows through may and i'm back to working on the vocal piece i started in the fall (life's too short). the original version was quickly improvised using the abelton live software program. its a very powerful looping program/sequencer that passed my bullshit test by letting me easily create live realizations of modular pieces like terry riley's in c and lloyd rodgers the swing.

initially i had been using the program to help organize the spoken parts of the libretto, but on the third or fourth session i started recording my improvisations which became the form i am currently using.

i was excited by the power of the technology (i still am using it to improvise how gestures unfold). the main drawback of using this technology quickly became that my improvisation left little space (aesthetic, not rhythmic) for the vocal lines. later attempts to add them in seemed pretty silly and forced. sometimes you get lucky and there leaving certain elements to chance serendipitously work out, but this time i had to admit it was a compositional square peg in a round hole.

so version one was thrown into the trash... (it worked great as spoken word performance art though) but i must have saved up some good karma, because the new version is all that and a bag of chips. last wednesday we had our first instrumental sightreading and it almost played itself. this time the vocal parts slipped right into place without a fight.

the libretto is another pastiche text (like retrace our steps), and is a collaboration with my good friend john sinclair who helped me cobble together a conversation between nietzsche and a friend of ours. here is a first taste of a spot near the opening, enjoy.

n.
this is life as you live it
now and have lived it
you will have to live again and again
times without number
and there will be nothing new in it

f.
to those people who have made a difference in your life
you can do anything you want, because god wills it
you can do anything you want, whether god likes it or not
you can tell GOD what to do

n.
but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh
and all the unspeakable small and great in your life
must return to you and everything in the same series and sequence

f.
life’s too short
and you’re shorter than life
life’s too short to remember how to be who you are
i haven’t heard from you
have you heard from you?

(as you can see they are not really listening to each other. probably more like talking at each other)

because i can't be beethoven

i'm taking a quick break from a very fruitful writing session on my new vocal piece (life's too short)((yikes, serendipitous irony alert!!)) rehearsal starts tomorrow, more to come later.


okay, quickly i was scanning my newsreader and can't believe i missed parris patton's great performance art last weekend at the dangerous curve gallery. link to lovely linda's review at the losanjealous blog and original the because i can't be beethoven site.




piano hacks unite! bravo! bravo!









pictures from losanjealous.com

newmusicland

daniel wolf cannily points the limitations and travails about having a blog and dialogue it spawns.

Personally, I think that Newmusicland is a microeconomy (or a series of microeconomies within a microeconomy) without much real at stake. Sure, there are prizes to win and teaching gigs to hand out, but in the end, it's a bloody struggle over bloody nothing, or a mad rush for crumbs (thanks to Joyce and Feldman), and even with the "best" resume and connections the distribution of laurels and better day jobs ultimately involves a large factor of the arbitrary. Establishing a public musical identity as a composer means taking a strong position, having strong opinions, and saying through our music in a very public way that I like this and (implicitly) not that. But are our strong opinions only to be placed in public in the form of our music, and not our words? When we switch to words, do we suddenly have a license to duck and cover?

i think its good to point out the drawbacks of blogging: everything we say online probably won't get us a better job and will most likely be used against us someday, and yes sometimes our online discussions probably amount to a hill of beans, but for those of us who remember the time before the internet, any information about newmusic was limted at best.

growing up in kansas i had little connection to newmusic or artmusic at all until college, but these days i first hear about somebody online much earlier than hear about it on "the street" . hopefully our ramblings give an accurate (although sometimes myopic) portrayal of the 'zeitgeist' in which we live. as i pointed out recently i am lucky to be a part of the southern california "cartesian school", but i also appreciate that our online newmusicland community that has connected me to people like daniel wolf, corey dargel, jeff harrington, and david toub (and a cast of others on my blogroll...now this is where the internet is like a big reacharound) just this weekend got into a emusic frenzy because of david toub's extensive mp3 link dump (david, i especially thank you for introducing me to real quiet, marc mellits, and steve layton)

like any community, it is only as vital as those who participate and there will always be more "lurkers" than than commentators. so far our little club seems to be pretty open to a wide variety of art and ideas, and we have mostly stayed away from throwing rocks at each other. (except a recent minor stoning of christopher rouse).

good ideas do crop up online, the recent discussion of open study scores has prompted me to start editing posting my own music. this semester at CSUF, the diverse instrument ensemble (d.i.e) has enjoyed rehearsing and is planning to perform of david toub’s online scores (when a 65 yr old faculty member brings a piece to rehearsal from the internet you know its having some effect). like fantasy baseball there is always going to be arguments about who the hero’s and villains are, but by telling these stories and sharing our experiences through our newmusicland microcommunity gives meaning to our strange and pitiful existence.

overall i am always interested in reading about people who are doing. reading about those who are actively involved in their community whether it be musiciology, kazoo training, writing ya fiction or grip work is much more interesting than passively consuming some of the latest feel good claptrap. everyday its easy to feel like we are faced with the 'faculty cafeteria' problem, surrounded by disgruntled who are forever complaining about how the young are fracking up our lives. by turning off the noise and joining a club (ferret blogs anyone?) our online microcommunities can serve as to channel the best of our collective ideas, creations and experiences.

*one of the my main internet conundrums is that there are ferret (we are new ferret parents) and lego train blogs, but i cannot figure out for the life of me why the music education community is so empty. maybe it is all because edwin gordon's sound before symbol theories have become reality?

the cartesian reunion "school" (a short history of a long tradition 1979-present)

Although I have decided to at least temporarily continue to make my music available, I am entirely finished with the music establishment. No mainstream American music institution will be permitted to perform my work (Not that there's much chance of it anyway). Why? Because it's a rigged game and because it's run by the elite; the same people who profit from dead Iraqi women and children. Some of the same people who stage terror attacks. Am I saying that, for instance, Esa-Pekka Solonen is a terrorist? No, but I am saying he works for terrorists, among others. I don't want that job.Publish

william houston- socal composer/music director/bomb thrower

the above statement could sound like sour grapes from a bitter artist who has not been 'anointed' by the mainstream. knowing a little about our little antisocial 'club' can put this bomb-throwing statement into a proper context.

in any type of music making, being an independent/alternative artist means that we don't accept the status quo. "the content of the media (composition/creation) is irrelevant, the form of the medium is what changes our consciousness." marshall mcluhan's statement that the medium is the message means as much today as when it was first thrown (1964) into the public discourse. technology makes it possible to freely bypass the 'official' delivery systems of art music (through bittorrent, youtube, myspace, and blogs like this), while we freely compose, perform and distribute our compositions and performances however we like.

unlike some students who sit in the back of the class quietly waiting to be called on, we do not wait. our current situation hearkens back to an outdated patronage system based on control and that expects everybody to know their place. today, for most composers, getting music performed means that the music is submitted for approval by committee. in this world musicians are expected to audition for the privilege to perform. some of us have chosen the alternate path, the path less traveled (and of course less profitable).

everybody knows where the 'money' (though not easy money) is. if you play by their rules you can be in their club. we have chosen to bypass the 'approved' media of the art music delivery system (concert hall and orchestra). we have chosen to form our own institutions, and perform in our own venues. i'm proud to be a member of this loose collective of southern californians that have been composing and performing an alternative/art music that has been largely undocumented for almost 30 years.

as you can see below, our little 'club' has grown over the years to make music for our own ensembles on our own terms. now it should be easy to see the teeth behind Bill Houston's words. Starting in 1979 the founding members of the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra (Michael Bayer, Chuck Estes, Douglas Hein, William Houston, Steve Moshier, Frank Riddick, and Lloyd Rodgers) have blazed a trail through many actions and few words, lending force to the credo: "say little, do much." when every once in a while one of them pops into the zeitgeist with something to say, we might want to listen.

a short history of southern california new music ensemble-based composer collectives

Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra (1979-1992)
this groundbreaking group featured compositions by Michael Bayer, Chuck Estes, Douglas Hein, William Houston, Steve Moshier, Frank Riddick, and Lloyd Rodgers. at various times, the orchestra featured musicians Jannine Livingston, harpsichord; John Glenn, bass; Lloyd Rodgers, clarinet and keyboard; Douglas Hein, acoustic guitar; Diana Halpern, violin; Joeseph Goodman, violin; and Michael Baer, violincello

Domes (1987-1990)

performance orchestra featuring the works of Jeff Fairbanks, Mary Thompson, Michael Coleman, Alysse Sanner, Chris Tardif, Martin Tardif, and Stuart Miller. featuring performers William Houston, vocals; Martin Tardif, electric bass; Dave Black, string bass; Steve LaCoste, flute; Jeff Fairbanks and Steve LaCoste, percussion; Joe Bouchard, guitars; Brian Beshore, violin; Eric Berkqvist, bass trombone; Diane Barkauskas, accordion/keyboard; and William Houston, keyboard.

William Houston Ensemble (1988)
Alan Lechusza, saxes; Diane Barkauskas, accordion; and William Houston, keyboard.

Illustrious Theatre Orchestra (1992-1999)
Shane Cadman, Paul Greenhaw, John Hoover (composers); Shane Cadman, tenor saxophone, keyboard; Christine Dietrich, vocals; Paul Greenhaw, keyboard; John Hoover, baritone sax; Scott Mcintosh, clarinet; Douglas Fairbanks, keyboard; and others.

Liquid Skin Ensemble/Steve Moshier (1998-present)
Steve Moshier, vibes; John Glenn, bass; Jannine Livingston, keyboard; and others

Lloyd Rodgers Group (1993-present)

Lloyd Rodgers, keyboard; John Glenn, bass guitar; Bruno Cilloniz, vibes and percussion; Gary Hung, violin; Mellisa Rodgers, trumpet; and Luigi Cilloniz, marimba and percussion. other members have included Sean Ferguson, electric guitar; and Paul Greenhaw, vibes

Music Action Corps (2001-2003)
composer collective featuring the music of Sean Ferguson, electric guitar; Matt Menaged, bass guitar; Bruno Cilloniz, vibes and percussion; Jeremy Reinbolt, vibes and percussion; and Eric Hendrickson, keyboard

paulbaileyensemble (2002-present)
featuring works by Paul Bailey and other composers, living and dead, performed by Scott Mcintosh, clarinet; Carl Stronach, bass guitar/vibes; Bruce Gallegos, electric guitar; Ryan Nunes, vibes; Eric Hendrickson, keyboard. other members include Sean Ferguson, electric guitar; Matt Menaged, bass guitar; Nelson Ojeda, keyboard; Bruno Cilloniz, vibes; Sam Formicola, violin; Sam Fisher, violin; Shalini Vijayan, violin; Feranado Vela, viola; and Christopher Searight, bari sax. vocalists include Nicole Baker, Nike St. Clair, Susan Taylor Mills, Karen Hogle, Sean Mcdermott, and Paul Cummings.

Counterpoint Culture/Jon Brenner (2005-present)
Yemila Alvarez, flute; Xico Castaño, clarinet; Mike Lasserre, saxophone; Dave Kurutz, guitar; Carl Stronach, percussion; and Jon Brenner, electric bass.

Paul Greenhaw Duo (2006-present, nyc)
Paul Greenhaw and Sean Ferguson, keyboards

Diverse Instrument Ensemble (D.I.E, 1992-present)

A California State University Fullerton chamber ensemble (the barbarians are at the gates) founded by Lloyd Rodgers to serve as an alternative outlet for all of the university's musicians to receive chamber ensemble training through exposure to a wide variety of great music by (mostly) dead composers. over the years the d.i.e has become a de facto training ground for many of these composers and ensembles. d.i.e alumni include:

Yemila Alvarez, Paul Bailey, Jon Brenner, Bruno Cilloniz, Luigi Cilloniz, Sean Ferguson, Paul Greenhaw, Eric Hendrickson, Gary Hung, Mike Lasserre, Scott McInstosh, Ryan Nunes, Veronica Paez, Melissa Rodgers, Carl Stronach, and Nicole Baker (faculty guest soloist) and Jennifer Cheek, Flute/Piccolo 1992 - 2005

my apologies to any who have been omitted. please feel free to send your corrections and comments along

weddings and funerals

i think i had my 20yr hs reunion last night? i'm still not quite sure how to process it?

last night we shared a show with a long forgotten friend (from kansas) that turned out to be much more than i ever expected. you only expect to run into people like this at weddings and funerals.

my 20yr hs reunion is this summer and my old friend marc tweed asked to play a show with us on his west coast tour with his band the hearers. my hs experience wasn't the worst, but since my family only lived in kansas city for a few years, i haven't had any reason to go back. last night i ran into 8? 10? 12? people that i went to high school with, and many of them now live here in los angeles.

for the last 16 yrs i have lived in los angeles and never met anybody from kansas and in one night i see them all. one classmate (michael lichtenauer) i sat next to in my high school music theory class is a 2-time grammy award winning vocalist and sings with all my friends in the master chorale! another classmate is a jpl scientist who lives right down the street in glendale!! i shared a show with people i played with in a middle school garage band over 20 years ago!!! wtf???

on top of all that, one of my earliest high school students showed up last night***. she is now the same age as when i taught her (25) and we talked over the long path from high school to adulthood. introducing her to my band and my old high school classmates was a surreal combination of all three parts of my life; past, present and future.

that is the best type of reunion i could have ever had. fto!

myself with marc tweed of the hearers.
i played in my first garage band with him in middle school

updates and miscellania:

1. we got a good recording of 11/25/05 from saturday night, enjoy.
   
2. needless to say monday nights show was much better than saturday night. we met some great bands. i barely got to hear the candyland riots, but everybody said they were fun.
   
3. pictures from the scene are now online.
   
4. if i can edit the video so it looks a little better i should be able to upload parts of the show. (i don't think you want the parts where the camera is bouncing up and down because of the dancing)
5. tim mangan(oc register) is giving us a nice writeup on his blog.
   

***the jmhs students i taught from 95-99 will probably be my most peronal and proudest achievement of my teaching career (long story, more on that another time)

dusk in nyc

nyc1 038,
originally uploaded by pbe.

its been a great week in nyc. its great how a forced break from lesson plans and composing puts things in perspective. things that seemed like big problems now seem much smaller now.

its probably because i spent most of the break working on the new cd. many of our sessions went well, a few stumbled and the push to get a first mix done was only partially successful. the mixing process was hampered because we realized when the tenor/bass parts are mixed well together they class with the vocal parts and when they are adjusted to the vocals they clash with each other giving the piece no real low end. when i get back we can fix it and it really now looks like a molehill on my vacation. the fact that we are almost done recording and pretty close to being done editing is really great, but more on that later...

vacation is good, visiting my former guitarist sean and other assorted friends in town. blogofriend drew mcmanus and blogocomposofriend alex shapiro will be in town later in the week for the chamber music america conference. if our schedules line up i might be able to see both of them. my wife is coming into town on friday to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary on friday the 13th. are we doomed? probably not.

monday morning todo list 11/14/05

monday morning todo list

send out emails for this sunday's gig
send out final email confirming tonights rehearsal 10pm @csuf (tomorrow mornings classes should be sooo fun)
make breakfast, play ball with javi
buy amtrack ticket for tues+thurs
practice
practice/organize sightsinging/solfege/eartrain for tomorrows lecture
edit musiced lecture on teaching strategies
(teaching pre-service teachers strategies about teaching is surreal
finish cd's for sunday's gig
edit presspack for spring gigs
gym
email vocalists about upcoming recording session
walk javi
make lunch for tomorrow
10pm pbe rehearsal -finally the cheese
no cheese


ever feel like a mouse in a maze?


p.s. can't stop looking into the light... can't turn away...the spectacle consumes all

Some things never change

The old musicians side more with Reason, but the new with the Ear...

Musicians of the past, we know, chose two judges in music: Reason and the Ear.

The choice would be correct since both are indispensable to music; yet, because of the use of these two concomitants, the present cannot reconcile with the past, and in this the past is blamed for two errors.

First, it wrongly classed the two judges and placed the Ear, the sovereign of music, below the rank of Reason or would divide its commanding authority with the latter. Whereupon the blameless Ear must immediately cede half of its monarchical domain...

In those innocent times (in which one knew nothing of present-day good taste and brilliance in music, and every simple harmony seemed beautiful) they thought Reason could be put to no better use than the creation of supposedly learned and speculative artificialities of note writing.

Therefore, they began on the one hand to measure out theoretically innocent notes according to mathematical scales and with the help of the proportioned yardstick, and on the other hand, to place these notes in musical practice on the staves (almost as if they were on a rack) and to pull and stretch them, to turn them upside down, to repeat and to change their positions, until finally from the latter resulted a practice with an overwhelming number of unnecessary instances of contrapuntal eye-music and from the former resulted a theory with amassed metaphysical contemplations of emotion and Reason.

Thus, one no longer had cause to ask if music sounded well or pleased the listener, but rather if it looked good on paper. In this way, the visual imperceptibly gained the most in music and used the authority of imprudent reason only to cover its own lust for power. Consequently, the suppressed Ear was tyrannized so long that finally it hid behind table and chairs to await from the distance the condescending, merciful glance of its usurpatores regmi (ratio and visus).

This grave injustice to the musical sovereign, the Ear, has been reprehended more by present-day musicians than by those of the past. They have begun vigorously to understand the many absurd and preposterous principles of the past and to form completely new ideas about the noble art of music unlike those of the learned ignoramuses. Above all, they return to the oppressed Ear the sovereignty of its realm; they displace reason from its judicial duties and give it to the Ear, no as Domino or co-regent, but as an intelligent minister and counselor with the absolute mandate to warn its master (the occasionally deceived Ear, if indeed deceived can be spoken of) of every false step; but otherwise, Reason differs in opinion, it must serve (the Ear) with complete obedience and employ all of its skill, not for the visual appearance on paper, but to give the Ear the satisfaction of an absolute ruler...

The (art of) painting is for the eye, music, however for the ear. Similarly, food is for the taste and flowers for the smell. Would it not be ridiculous to say the dinner was especially good because it smelled good, even though it was disagreeable to the taste and stomach?...

As we must now admit unanimously that our Finis musices is to stir the affections and to delight the ear, the true Objectum musices, it follows that we must establish all our musical rules according to the Ear. And in this Frau Vernunfft (that superintelligent ratio) will have her hands full, even more than we can imagine in our times...

Johann David Heinichen, Der General-Bass in der Composition (Dresden, 1728)

d.i.e.

i been sitting around mulling over sunday's setlist for the last couple of days. around wednesday i realized that we had enough music for two sets, only one of them worked well so i decided to let the 2nd set breath a little by adding some of erik satie's short pieces from his sports and divertisments. my first experience was playing satie (as well as machut, biber, terry riley, and vivaldi) was at csuf in the diverse instrument ensemble created by lloyd rodgers. it was first affectionally known as the scratch orchestra (based on cornelius cardew), but the university rejected the ensemble title for the course catalogue . eventually the students have settled on the shorthand version; d.i.e.

although i have many influences as a composer, performing in this group was probably my most important musical and intellectual experience.

the philosphy of the group revolves around these ideas

just because they are dead, it doesn't mean their music has to be also.

should great repertoire be only performed by the "approved" instrumentation?

is history really a one-way train in which only the future holds the best and most beautiful music?

are the "classics" only written for the orchestra?

unlike cardew's scratchers (whose anarchist politics were probably more important than the music they performed) the main reason for our group was to rescue and perform music from the "dustbin of history" with the musicians we had available. this could have easily become a joke (and i wince when some groups "goof" on the classics), but we always played what was on the page (making musical realizations not arrangements). of course not all music (classical and romantic) works well in this format, but many medieval, renaissance, baroque and postmodern compositions fit the ensesemble quite well.

i realized that unlike most commercial and orchestral playing that i was doing (playing trombone in an orchestra is like being joey in friends, you come in and say something stupid to move the story along). i had to come up with interesting ways to fit into the ensemble's texture. i used a variety of mutes, strange mouthpieces and i once played a sackbut to cover the alto(viola) line in the pergolesi stabat mater. the music was full of challenges again and the repertoire was endless.

to bring this all together, playing satie on sunday night will bring a small part of our past onto the stage. back then erik, scott, sean(now in the nyc), and i had no idea where this would be going, but for each of us the excitement we talked about the music and rehearsals we had really set the tone to the music we make and perform today. its good to know when i need subs d.i.e. is the first place i look. i know that they will be a flexible musician who is ready to try anything and doesn't need the approval of the status quo.

its all about distribution

over the weekend the la times music critic marc swed takes a tour of the counties major orchestras and makes the point that they all have one thing in common, they play inspired performances and engage their audience in interesting pre and post concert dialogue. swed also downplays the "old wine and in new bottles" marketing rhetoric and "music man" gimmicks of "specially programmed pda's", single's nights and video game concerts that orchestral managers are using these days to sell tickets. after sampling the best most of their performances, he points out there is no easy formula for success. "...big is not necessarily better. Fresh is better. Engaged is better. Rapport between orchestra and audience is better. Leading is better than following."

maybe the problem isn't just poor marketing and uninspired playing? much has been said about this summers less than inspired movie season, but what would happen if hollywood programmed movies like many orchestras? we probably would have been fed revivals of jaws, jurassic park, and star wars all summer (oh look how well that is selling) and would have to watch another new directors cut again of "classic films" (inspired performance). even if a night featured one of my favorite films, i'm pretty sure i wouldn't want to fight the traffic and parking when i could stay at home and watch the dvd. the current audience that is left to attend orchestra concerts reminds me of my baseball friends who obsess over their trading cards and statistics of their hero's who have long since retired.

the real problem is all about content. how many new compositions are performed each year that are as strong artistically as chinatown or the godfather, or as contemporary and fresh as miranda july's me you and everyone you know. the film industry has its own problems and have its share of trash, but there are still many more diamonds in the rough that come out every couple of months. the most anticipated new work coming out this fall is john adam's new opera dr. atomic which you can only see in san francisco. how long till anybody else can see it? will it ever have other performances? when you compare the promise of the current technology and with the reality of the classical musical world. its all about exposure. how many of these great "inspired" performances has anybody seen? how many people have seen a philip glass opera? the inability of arts organizations and composers to create easily accessible video recordings of their performances is probably the main reason the tradition is dying.

technology is now all about distribution. the new generation of file sharing programs like bitcomet and azureus make it easy share anything that can be digitally encoded online (books, radio, music, tv and movies). although most of the press focus on piracy, the free flow and dissemination of ideas is the true revolution. artists are bypassing traditional outlets like of newspapers, bookstores, tv, and radio to promote and share their creations online. blogs and podcasts have made it available for musicians and composers to discuss their creative process and send it directly to their audience.

luckily for us we don't have to wait around anymore for the orchestra to heal itself. technology has made it possible for us to to bypass "limited channels of classical music presentation" and make our own path.

paul bailey, musician/composer/teacher

paul bailey, musician/composer,
originally uploaded by pbailey.

name: b. paul bailey
occupation(s): musican/composer/teacher, viewpoint school, california state university fullerton (adjunct)
training: wichita state university, csuf, school of hard knocks (PhD candidate)
current projects: pbe@cerritos center
upcoming concerts: 1/19/05 cerritos center, 3/19/05 @ave 50 studio
favorite performance(s): 05 cerritos, 98 moorpark college, 88 madison
what i do outside of music: is there anything else? counterpoint, play ball with javi
favorite movies: current- sideways, steve zissou; adaptation, live and die in la
music currently listening to: interpol, eels, strokes, stupid, michael nyman string quartets, mikel rouse-dennis cleveland, monteverdi, coronation of poppea and the book 8 madrigals of war and love
favorite reading: what'™s the matter with kansas- thomas frank, best american non-required
reading-dave eggers, survivor-chuck palahniuk, satie the bohemian-steven moore whiting,
stravinsky-robert craft, j.s. bach-christof wolff, hakim bey, guy debord
favorite art: joe coleman, robert williams, sas christian, coop, the pizz, glen barr, jamie zacarias (thanks, your art makes life bearable)
you moved the pot before the coffee stopped brewing, do you smell the mountains or the burro: no coffee for me, but on bad days i smell the burro
schoenberg or stravinsky: stravinsky, because he lived life to the fullest and was an a**hole (i mean artist)
glass or reich: nyman
paper or plastic: double bagged paper please.
when did you join the pbe: the night i went to srf'€™s graduate recital and heard his amazing music, i knew that performing would never be enough.

there must be something in the air

there must be something in the air, or i'm in a real hypersensitive place. many of my favorite bloggers are musing on some really intersting topics. so many, that my head hurts and wish the earth's rotation would slow to ponder them more.

uTopianTurtleTop blogs about critics condencension. i especially agree with his thoughts on critic as cultural gatekeeper.

and the next thought was -- bingo. It’s not just music critics who can be condescending to their subjects. The problem is an inherent potential pitfall to all journalism. I had been aware of this but had forgotten it, as I’d been brooding on my critical “turn-offs” in recent days -- Chuck Klosterman’s habitual condescension to musicians, Greil Marcus’s opposite assumption that music is an esoteric mystery religion of which only a select few mysteriously annointed musicians are worthy. Marcus can be very condescending to musicians whom he seeks to cast to outer darkness, which appears to be most of them. As the self-appointed doorkeeper of his religious mysteries, he remains outside the mystery himself, and he can be positively hostile in his insistence that ordinary listeners and readers aren’t anywhere close to getting in the door. We’re somewhere out in the forsaken, graceless fields. Marcus portrays himself as at least within watching distance of the ceremonies -- close enough to lip read, but not enough to hear.

greg sandow posts about the realities of opera seria performance practice.

Then, I said, we could look at opera's past, at the way opera seria was performed in 18th century Italy. We imagine that Baroque music was restrained and dignified, but nothing could be further from the truth. Because, I said, nobody would believe me if I described in my own words what opera seria was like, I quoted Richard Taruskin, from his new, formidable, and feisty Oxford History of Western Music. Here's some of what Taruskin says:

The liberties singers were expected to take with the written music, and had to take or lose all respect, would be thought a virtually inconceivably desecration today. But that was the very least of it. [One castrato] was actually arrested and imprisoned…for "disturbing the other performers, acting in a manner bordering on lasciviousness (on stage) with one of the female singers, conversing with the spectators in the boxes from the stage, ironically echoing whichever member of the company was singing an aria"…

[The] audience…was famed throughout Europe for its sublime inattention.… [As one writer reports] "noise levels astonished diarists from abroad, nobility arrived with servants who cooked who meals, talked, played [at cards[, and relieved themselves in the antechambers that stood in back of each lavish box.…

There is no comparable genre in classical music today. The modern counterpart of the opera seria castrato is the improvising jazz ("scat") or pop singer.…However inattentive during recitatives…the audience sprang to attention when the primo uomo held forth, egging him on with applause and spontaneous shots of encouragement at each vocal feat.

I wasn't saying all this to make a sensation, I said. Instead I wanted to suggest that if opera was more like this today, then things would be better for composers. Opera would be more informal and more contemporary. It would be more popular; there would be much more of it; and no matter how populist the operatic mainstream might be, there would be plenty of room on the fringes for art (just as there is in pop music today).

jeff harrington at beepsnort blogs about the idea of musical legitmacy. what is it today that says you "made it"? sales, prizes, press, good reviews? can the freedom of the net and consumer culture coexist?

Two worlds are colliding. The net music world, with its assumptions of popular validity and sharing, typically beyond fair use standards, and the old music world, with its hierarchies, promotional methodologies and assumptions about fat paybacks. I believe, of course, as an early net music adopter, that the net music world is destined to win; one can't fight free music; the net will encompass everything at some point and become the global library.

So we're fighting for what now? Sales as a symbol of legitimacy? Print reviews or awards as a symbol of quality? That is bordering on pointless now. A write up now, a feature in say, Computer Music Journal or even Rolling Stone haha would produce in my life nothing. I've heard that even Putlitzer prizes now no longer guarantee a string of commissions.

Without the metric of the sale, legitimacy has become the playground of the elites. In the contemporary classical world, its increasingly reverting back to the playground of the idle rich. I don't believe its unconnected to point out that the first composer of my generation to win the incredibly prestigious Grawemeyer prize (first awards went to Ligeti, Lutoslawski and Takemitsu) is coincidentally a multi-millionaire, George Tsontakis. I'm not sure how it helped; he's a good composer IMO, but I am absolutely certain that without his fortune he'd likely be in the same boat as the rest of us poor mugs. Nowhere. The rich have to hide their connectedness or their privilege would be exposed. And the rich, still control, to an astonishing degree the playing field that we play on, when we engage the real world. Another reason the real music world, within the arts, is crumbling. We want a world without favorites. We want a world that rewards attentiveness not mere connectedness. We want a world where what I say to my bud matters, that artist X does in fact rock even though he's a poor shmuck working at Kinko's during the day.

its nice to know that we are all fighting the same dragons.

this is a composer's blog

this is a composer’s blog, so i guess i should be writing about composing. on the other hand, i'm a pretty lucky guy. it’s very important to write music and be able to have it played immediately in rehearsal. the feedback of the group (nonverbal and verbal) gives me confirmation on the level of success of the various sections. i always go into a reading with a general idea of what may not work and why, and i am usually surprised by other sections that come out better and/or worse than i predicted. every once in while a piece comes out almost whole, i would argue those are the special ones. they seem to be the pieces you like most. part of being any type of artist is the realization that we don’t do that all the time, if we are lucky we get to kick out a few good ones. i could talk about technique (and probably put you right to sleep), but (for me) the process of creating a piece of music encompasses the full range of emotions.

the initial step of choosing the elements the piece has/deals with is the hardest. (forest covington/the muse at sunset is dealing with this right now. kudos for being brave enough to muse on your innermost thoughts to the blogosphere). i end up having to create some boundaries the piece just to get me started; harmonic structure; form; instrumentation, gestures, logic games, counterpoint...

the next part is pure heaven.

once created my boundaries (it’s probably better to call this a musical universe, up is down, and left is right) i get to live there for a while and play with all the possibilities. break the rules, create new ones, change my mind, and admit I was too ambitious, surprise myself with some happy coincidences. it’s kind of like a musical version of sim city. as this process moves along the piece takes on a life of its own. there is a point where it’s not a creative venture anymore, but a practical one where i equip it for life on its own. what’s the best way to score it for my group? is that section really playable? should i really make the strings play in 5 flats to setup that great enharmonic relationship later in the piece? the practical composer (and voice of my mentor) voice rises from a slow burn to intense vertigo.

the last part rehearsing, performing and promoting. it’s what i spend 2/3 of my time doing. the overall composing/rehearsing promoting/performing process comes out to probably 90% perspiration, 10% inspiration and 10% pure joy. this weekend was one of those times that was all perspiration. more on that later..

other notes

fellow bloggers devin hurd and robert gable comment on my ginger or mary anne pop culture logic. i never said you had to answer either or. both make interesting and thoughtful points at hurdaudio and aworks.

my wife deb and i celebrated our 12^th wedding anniversary on saturday. i was happy to make it through the day without any pbe related projects or crisis. two years ago, i promised (won’t do that again) that there would be no distractions and ended up making phone calls to get a vibraphone sub on my way to dinner. thank goodness she loves me.

should have known that what started out as a relaxing sunday would quickly became a nightmare. there was a mix-up with my copyist and instead of leisurely binding the new vocal scores, i had 1 ½ hours to finish 3 hours of work, i frantically added the text to the new act 1 score, created a very rough draft and only had time to bring two barely readable copies so i could open the gallery before my vocalists got there (i was almost out of ink, note to self need to keep more on hand). the rest of the scores were loose, but had been properly proofread and were error free. the whole mess probably cost us about an extra 25 minutes in a 2 hour rehearsal. luckily there were no major errors and the new parts were useful enough to tell me that the act I changes were good. we are having an ensemble only rehearsal tomorrow night. i hope for that to be smoother, but we are having these biblical rainstorms...

phyrric victory

most of my friends are talking about how we are going to get through the next four years. i hope it is that simple. i'm really concerned about how easily people have been manipulated by the empty 'family values' rhetoric. i'm getting the idea its a new spin on an old game.

i have been reading "it can't happen here" by sinclair lewis, and have been struck by the parallels to today.

are we descending into fascism?

quick update... we are

i had a talk with my old music teacher in kansas before the election. he is a very reasonable guy and i was struck about how upset he was about abortion and the media. there wasn't anything to talk about after his initial statement of:

the media sucks
i can't vote for anybody who supports abortion
and
how can you hold bush responsible for the missing weapons?

when i left kansas in 89, i always thought it was a progressive state. no matter what people were much more tolerant and accepting of social issues than i was used to (compared to indiana and oklahoma other stops along the way in my childhood), there was less racism and more tolerance for social issues.

in what's the matter with kansas (which i now have to read), thomas frank makes the case that reasonable progressives have been manipulated by wedge issues to embrace an archconservative political agenda.
at the end of the day the republicans have created a "constant moral revolution" that always promises and never delivers.

also currently reading chain of command by seymour hersh.
don't know where to start on this book. it seems the less politically motivated, and more a documentation of what really is going on with the neocons.
if you keep up with the new yorker, harpers, or even read the newspaper you probably have heard many of these incidents mentioned. the book gives more details, and starts to connect the dots. if his observations and experiences are true, we are really forked.
like in a roman empire sort of way.
we might eventually be a new footnote for pyrrhic victory.

a mentor of mine said this reminded him of when nixon won in 68.

we cannot retrace our steps
going forward is the same as going backward...
gs

see change?

today my wife deb and i volunteered to hang flyers telling voters where their polling place is. our area was the neighboring community of south pasadena (pasadena lite?) that generally is a staunch republican stronghold. we were pretty surprised to see only a single sign supporting bush, and most streets were blanketed with kerry signs. for a place that tickets you if you put have a for sale sign in the yard, a sign of things to come?

wash, rinse, repeat

although there is so much work surrounding concerts can be overwhelming(rehearsals, press releases, setups, sound checks....) i find myself reflecting on what is all of this about.
last week leading up to our concert in long beach it hit me.

it's all very simple.

1. write good music
2. play great
   
3. put people in the seats

wash, rinse, repeat

Peering Into Classical Music’s Future

Drew McManus talks about a possible future of classical music and the orchestra. he seems to be the only critic who has connected the dots of audience size, attendance and expenses. he also points out that besides these big problems, the orchestra has stopped having any cultural signifigance.

"But there are a few facts which can’t be ignored. The current decline in active participation has directly influenced how much classical music’s impact has on the overall American cultural consciousness. So even with the increase in revenue from sources such as federal and private philanthropic funds you still have to have a certain level of the population interested in what you do in order to justify your existence."

given the state of art music these days i figure that those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, but... as you can see in my blog, it is easy to find many symptoms of the poor health of classical music and the orchestra. the discussion that comes up when i talk about this with my orchestra friends is a general agreement of the problems facing the orchestra and the following questions; if the audience is not sticking around for 'classical music' these days, what is next?

social networking in music

one of the best things about having a ipod is the ability to manage and track the music you listen to. now you can share your listening habits and discover new music.

music mobs is a true social networking sight where you upload your itunes library and then it will give you the names and playlists of other people who you share musical tastes with. so far i am really impressed with some of the new music i have found, and seeing the variety of tastes many people have. i always have thought that i would find people listening to radiohead, bach, michael nyman, richard james all on the same playlist. now i know it really happens.

the internet itunes registry is also a great site. it is setup to document your playlist and give you graphs and tools to give you more info about your listening habits.

here is the breakdown of the tools:

last import
tracks
artists
genres
diversity of tracks
total time
total listening hours
average track length
average rating
number of ratings

both of these are just the tip of the iceberg. it looks like social networking is just another tool that connects us to useful information.

cheers!!

canary in the coal mine?

i usually don't like to post twice a day, but anne midgette from the ny times posted her review of the critical conversation blog/event at artsjournal.com

i almost got up and cheered when i read this enlightened quote.

'The discussion offered fantastic food for thought, and everyone seemed to enjoy taking part. For one thing, it wasn't like what most of us do as critics. In fact, one wonders how much discussions of new music have to do with the classical music world today: a collection of fundamentally conservative institutions in which predominantly old music is presented and received in reverential, churchly silence and new music, for better or worse, is too often something to sit through.

Many critics deplore this situation and are deeply invested in encouraging contemporary performances from classical institutions. We beat the drum about the need for more new work, trying to encourage it when it comes, pointing at every young face around us as evidence of the longed-for audience of the future. We hope to convince people like my friend, potential Tan Dun listeners, that there is something here for them. In essence, we're demanding of classical music that it be a living art.

But focusing as we do on the larger institutions, we're not necessarily keeping abreast of the latest trends in composition ourselves. Sure, there are many composers who write music for the orchestras, chamber ensembles and opera companies that we cover. But are they really the future of the field?"

does a review of a discussion about postmodern/postclassical music change anything?

probably not... but could it be another example of the "canary in the coal mine"!!

uncomfortable party conversations

rehearsal tonight, and a party today for the avenue 50 studio where i rehearse. they are celebrating their new nonprofit status, which is a big step for them. congratulations kathy! ave 50 is a great gallery that deals with outsider and underground art.

so whenever i am at a party and kathy introduces me around as her "composer friend" we always do that uncomfortable dance, of what do i call my music. this is usually how it breaks down:

kathy-here is my friend paul i was telling you about, he rehearses at the studio and writes some great music.

kathy friend-nice to meet you paul, what kind of music do you write? i would love to hear it.

paul- postmodern, minimalist, really in the style of philip glass and steve reich.
(which my stuff sounds nothing like, but it is related in the red-haired stepchild sort of way. but by dropping these names at least they know i am not finding my inner god through stockhausen or berio)

kathy friend-(blank stare, has no idea who philip glass and steve reich are) .... you mean experimental music?

paul-(at this time I am usually embarrassed, because now there is not much to do as we play marco polo with new music references)

this conversation brings up the point of the never-ending battle of terminology, defining yourself before they define you.

so in a zarlino sort of way, here is my roundup of dictionary of the latest music classification terminology/slang:

experimental
i cringe when i hear this term. the improviser community won this one, although i think it is phyrric. i picture a mixed ensemble playing a 45 minute improvised meditation on the architectural structure of the schindler house

postmodern
we have been going steady for a year or two. to me it means music that is not modernist, it also refers to music that might have minimalist tendencies but is a bigger club than just the minimalists. i think others have no idea what it means, and wonder if i am a metrosexual.

postclassic
a term by kyle gann that i am getting more comfortable with. a little simpler than postmodern, i think i might try it out. since most people still define "art" music as "classic" this might be easier. but is mis-refering classical music any better?

nonpop
i read this recently in the Kalvos and Damian's New Music Bazaar radio show description. i like it.
non pop. not pop.
it doesn't really describe a lot of the music being written by my friends or myself, but is still a pretty cool description, a good example of simple is better.

art music
not really a useful description, but i use it to describe the purpose of the music. i think most people don't realize that there are other types music than popular music.
i usually explain that art music is music meant to be contemplated, and it is not immediately disposable and should have a shelf life more than a month.
this doesn't mean that my music does not have entertainment qualities, but hopefully there is a little more "there, there".
some art music has pop qualities and some pop music has art qualities, and some just does suck.

i think it is just as important on how people define you as you define yourself. i will take it a sign that this music is gaining ground when i see the terminology firm to only one or two classifications.

internet radio

i'm stuck cleaning the house today for tonight's poker party with some old students from john marshall high school (now in mid-20's and not members of the slacker generation). i decided to give internet radio a try again and found some great stations that have made the house cleaning not so miserable.

iridian radio and music mavericks have made the afternoon pretty enjoyable. much of the music i had heard before, but really enjoyed listening to harold budd's the oak of the golden dreams and terry riley's poppy nogood.

THE NEXT BIG THING

I'm back from taking a few weeks of "summer break" to catch up with family and friends on the east coast. Its fun to visit them, but its nice to be home.

So I have been following the very interesting group blog ArtsJournal: Critical Conversation that asks the somewhat wordy question :

...Now we are in a period when no particular musical idea seems to represent our age, and it appears that for the moment – at least on the surface – that there is no obvious direction music is going. So the question is: what is the next chapter in the historical conversation of musical ideas, and where are the seeds of those ideas planted?

Or

What is the next big thing?

The blog makes for great reading and should not be missed, but has devolved into a discussion of semantics. needless to say a very entertaining discussion on semantics.

Since the arguments are so far along, I am not sure if it makes any sense to join the fun, but I would like to pull back a little bit and point out a few directions that I think are important.

So what is the next big thing? (I hope this doesn't turn out like a horiscope prediction)

Well I think it probably will not have anything to do with the modern orchestra, but I think calling it dead is as just as passe as calling religion dead. It was a popular view in the late 60's but doesn't mean anything anymore. Maybe it probably should move into the museum with where we can visit it when we want to remember the "good ole days"

With that being said, i think a smaller, more mobile group (like the paul bailey ensemble ) that combines electronic, wind and string intruments is a good solution. It allows a more reasonable financial circumstance to create music. It deals with instruments that are readily available in most communities, and can be easily copied, expanded, and improved upon. The idea that a violin, electric guitar and trombone can make music in the same room is now possible because of amplification.

The real revolution is in the medium, if you change the method of delivery, you get a different audience. Maybe the laptop, dj heads are what is next. But I really think the thing that makes any of this work is the people. A great artist adapts and creates within his surroundings. A piece that transcends its medium and then when you see it being imitated by all the wannabe's !! wammo !! THE NEXT BIG THING.

Until then, I am here to plant my flag somewhere between Peri and Monteverdi and continue soldiering on.

minimalist/postmodern listening list

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What to listen to? That is the question!

I'm going to try and keep the descriptions brief and let you decide for yourself. Hopefully there will be something new for you to check out. Of course the following are just my opinions, so if you think something is missing, please let me know.

The songs are in no particular order. They are linked to Amazon, and if you are lucky some sites (like itunes) are selling them as mp3's these days.


Philip Glass
Einstein on the Beach
non-narrative opera, seminal work, not as repetitive as you might think, probably a bit much for my friends, but if you can make it through it you will be rewarded with one of the most beautiful endings of a opera.

Koyaanaisqatsi
kind of a Einstein on the Beach Light, a great introduction to PG, get the DVD and CD

Michael Nyman
The Essential Michael Nyman Band is a great starting point to his film music

String Quartets, 2-4, written for amplified string quartet, my favorite recent quartets, it would be great to hear them played in live in the US.

Steve Reich
Desert Music
great vocal piece, text is in english, very easy to understand and relate to
music for 18 musicians
Reich sets up a huge musical machine process and leads the instruments through the journey. It still sound like it could have been written yesterday.

Terry Riley
In C
probably the most important minimalist work, Riley brought modular impovisation to the art music world, In C is a composition of motives that musician can perform at his own pace. The result is an amazing revolution in improvisation.

Instead of improvisation being based on a rote language as in jazz, Riley gives the musicians the 'licks' to play and lets them use their musicianship to create their own performance. Hence, any musician can sit down and play the music, the true art comes from the precompositional harmonic and melodic strategies created by the composer.

This is not the best recording, but if you ever see an advertisement for this piece being played live, GO SEE IT!!!
A Rainbow of Curved Air
very unique, deals with non-traditional tunings, riley uses technology to create endless loops and be a one-man improvisatory band

John Adams
Harmonium
I heard the LA Master Chroral(and my wonderful vocalist friends Nicole Baker, Susan Taylor Mills, and Nike St. Clair, perform this for their first concert at Disney Hall. This is one of the first pieces that I "got" in my 20's. I took my wife to the concert and after the first half she was really impressed by the Bobby Mcferrin piece. I thought it was nice, but told her to wait until the second half. She and the audience "got" the Adams piece so much that they started applauding about 3 minutes before the "real" ending. You gotta love LA.

Lloyd Rodgers
Unless you are a student at Cal State Fullerton you probably have not heard of Lloyd. To me (and a very biased person) he is as important as anybody listed above. His ensemble the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra was a mainstay in the 1980's in Los Angeles, but never achieved the type of exposure that they deserved. Since the group disbanded in 1990, he changed gears completely and created a tighter ensemble of electric guitar, electric bass, vibes and keyboard. The amount of quality music that Lloyd has written and performed over the last 30 years is mind-blowing. Hopefully as well as sharing my music I can share lloyd's as well. I will try to post some of his music and let you in on the best-kept secret I know of. You can start with the music from the Little Prince, a chamber ballet/opera for choreographer Raiford Rodgers and the Los Angeles Chamber Ballet.


There are definitely other composers I have not mentioned, and other pieces by the above group. Like all lists it's incomplete. The music that I listed I have either performed or seen live. That is probably the most important way to appreciate any music, which is also the biggest problem about this music. You can't really go out and see it performed that much. It probably isn't played on the radio at all, I know I stopped listening to 'classical radio' long ago because they only play music of 'dead people'.

Come to think about it, this is the other part of the problem, how can any music survive and gain a footing? It must have exposure in the marketplace through live performance, and radio airplay. Since this type of music has a very limited footprint in either, I am not surprised that most people cannot name a living postmodern composer.

I guess that is what the internet is supposed to help.

Over time we will find out if the internet has the power to help savvy listeners find the music they like and help composers/musicians find that audience?

We shall see.

pb

What hell is going on with classical music?

Yeah, what about it? I think one of the problems is the definition of it. Let's say you like some music you hear, it's not pop music, it doesn't sound like Bach or Mozart, it probably could have been written the last few years. What do you call it? How do you describe it to your friends?

uh... I heard this song and it was cool. I think it sounded like that... you know, uh....

I usually find myself listening some version of this conversation talking to friends and family. How can we describe something that we cannot categorize? The language we are using cannot adequately describe the new music that we listen too. This probably comes from a few different problems.

1. Classical Music.

Does this actually describe anything? It has become such a generic term for artsy music for anything can be called classical music. Ignoring the fact that it is a historical term that describes a period of time, it is probably the most abused term for describing music. If you think about it there really are only 3 types of music that are out there, art, pop, and folk. Every genre is really just a subcategory. What are there functions? Quoting very loosely from the harvard dictionary of music,

art-music meant to be contemplated, played by professionals, listen to by an audience

pop-music for enjoyment, played by professionals, listened to by an audience

folk-music meant for ritual and ceremony, no audience, everybody participates

Obviously there are many crossovers in these categories but wouldn't it be easier to define music by it's purpose and function. Classical music is really art music, a music that is meant to be listened to, contemplated, reviewed, critiqued and criticized. I think the audience needs to realize a that concert does not function like a magazine or a summer movie blockbuster. It is more like a good book, art film, or nice meal. Everyday life is filled with entertainment and simple diversion. I look at the concerts I put on as the latter. Still a nice diversion from daily life, but something that you can contemplate and come back to.

next up... the nuclear bomb and 'modern music'

sheepheads

hello to all,

this blog is my daily musings about creating music, running a ensemble and trying to be a human being in los angeles.

today is a good example... i met with a record producer (Ronan Chris Murphy), not to promote my music, but to get some advice about what I am doing. Ronan has a very successful history making records with groups prog-rock groups like King Crimson...
www.venetowest.com Anyhow we both have in common a love of the minimalist/ postmodern music of Philip Glass, Steve Reich , Terry Riley, and Michael Nyman. Its not that often you meet somebody who is in the music business that has similar tastes as well as can talk in detail about the obscure ravi shankar/philip glass movie score in 1968.

So we went out to lunch and I was hoping(as I usually am) for some great insight to my music and how to promote it better. I sure got it (although I wasn't really looking for something this hard). Essentially, Ronan explained that art music(my new term to explain any music to be contemplated (look it up in the harvard dictionary) is like taking a friend to eat sheep head. You see your Icelandic friend and your afghan friends chewing down, but you can't really bring yourself to try it. Once you take a bite, it is delicious, but how do you get girlfriend to try it on a date? That is the problem for "art" music these days. The people that come to the concerts usually enjoy them, but how do we get them to love sheep head.

there are other main problems about art music today, but first up is getting people to love sheep head