![]() That atmosphere encompasses such otherwise disparate creations as Scott Worthington’s “Prism,” for solo double bass Michael Pisaro’s “A Mist Is a Collection of Points,” for piano, percussion, and sine waves and Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “In the Light of Air,” for instrumental ensemble. Instead, they suggest an ominous stasis, an unstable stillness. Sonic landscapes shimmer before one’s ears, but they are too irregular and restless to be classified as minimalist or ambient. ![]() Many of these works have an intangible quality in common, one that’s hard to name. Generally, it was a formidable year for new music-so much so that my ten notable recordings are entirely contemporary, with dead composers demoted to the honorable-mention category. Sharon is still in the early stage of his career what he will do next is hard to imagine. River-will linger in the memories of those who witnessed them. The set pieces that they created-a trumpet and a trombone sounding from the roofs of warehouses musicians and dancers wending their way through the Bradbury Building a soprano singing in a Jeep that rode alongside the L.A. Six principal composers, of various stylistic backgrounds, lent their voices to the project, revelling in possibilities of mobile, outdoor, antiphonal, and participatory performance. What set it apart from everything else I saw this year was the immense originality of Yuval Sharon’s conception. The piece presented below, SEQ TRANSIT PARAMMERS, was conceived with the intention of the player collaborating creatively by performing compositional tasks to determine the direction of the music, à la Cage, Brown, and Tudor-”a kind of toolkit for real-time interactive composition,” writes the composer in the liner notes.“Hopscotch,” the "mobile opera" that occupied Los Angeles this fall, left me sufficiently awestruck that I contemplated giving it three places on the following list-one for each of the routes that snaked through the city, carrying audiences in small groups. The six pieces were written between 19, and feature the composer himself playing three of the works, while the others are performed by contemporary music pianist superheroes Frederic Rzewski, Aki Takahashi, and Ursula Oppens. Specifically, technology is used to extend the range of the acoustic piano and to introduce textural complexities that exceed the ability of normal human performance. Piano music is the focus of this album from interactive electronic and computer music pioneer Richard Teitelbaum. Performed by: Richard Teitelbaum, Ursula Oppens, Aki Takahashi, Frederic Rzewski The restless instrumental textures emit long metallic sonic tails that ripple and swirl throughout the open spaces of the music, wrapping a diaphanous film of electronic counterpoint around the soundscape. The electronic part is derived from modeling the spectral content of the acoustic instruments, creating transformed electroacoustic “images” of the instruments, a bit like the distortions that happen in funhouse mirrors. Scored for clarinet, violin, cello, vibraphone, and computer, Arrell uses the story of Narcissus as a creative stepping-stone. Performed by: Boston Musica Viva, Clayton State Chorale, Sonic Generator, Jacob Greenberg, Lisa Leong, and Amy Williams.Ĭhris Arrell’s bustling echo electric, performed by Sonic Generator, is one of five absorbing works on a portrait CD of the composer’s music. As pristinely produced as this recording is, don’t miss a chance to hear Chase perform these works live-her performances are riveting, and just as tight as those on the album. The various sized flutes snowball upon themselves in all of the other works on the disc: the multiple linearities we know from Steve Reich and Philip Glass fragile, gauzy layers of texture from Marcos Balter laser-focused swimming with sine waves from Alvin Lucier and they even transform into a noisy heavy metal guitar in Mario Diaz de León’s Luciform for flute and electronics. Varése’s 1936 work Density 21.3 serves as the springboard, and from there she explores many definitions of density in music. The newest album by flutist and leader of ICE, Claire Chase, uses the concept of density as an overarching theme.
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