‘Perfume Of The Instant’ While writers talk of “color commentary,” they actually mean something not that different from what in music we might call great “colorists” among composers. And in world music, Finland’s composers are surely among those most prized for their work in creating sonic “color.” Einojuhani Rautavaara is perhaps chief among the great… Read More
Music For Writers: Playful Andrew Norman
‘Every Now And Then, I Just Want To Throw A Wrench In’ Imagine the orchestra as this sort of complicated 19th-century futurist machine, all moving parts and cogs and gears, and little people. I find that sort of fascinating. But every now and then, I just want to throw a wrench in and see what… Read More
Music For Writers: John Luther Adams – ‘To Become An Aeolian Harp Myself’
‘The Sheer Sensuous Pleasure Of Sound’ Having heard and re-heard the three movements of John Luther Adams’ The Wind in High Places many times in its new recording from Cold Blue Music, I knew exactly what I wanted to ask the composer about it. John Luther Adams His speed. These ineffable tempi. Like Robert Wilson’s… Read More
Music For Writers: When Florent Ghys Watches ‘Télévision’
Forget Your Writing Prompts This is the album of the future, and it’s fast becoming a hit. So says a pert, authoritative voice in the opening of the second track on composer-performer Florent Ghys’ new album Télévision from Cantaloupe Music. It’s called a CD. That’s short for compact disc. The music on one of these is… Read More
Music For Writers: Donnacha Dennehy’s New Chapbook
A Sonic Anthology: The Abstract Gone Narrative There’s a kind of single-composer album that’s a lot like a writer’s collection of short stories or poems. So much of this ilk is the composer Donnacha Dennehy’s new album for RTEthat it arrives without an over-arching title of its own. It’s simply Donnacha Dennehy: Crane/O/The Vandal/Hive. Those… Read More
Music For Writers: The Tidal Grace In Paola Prestini’s ‘Oceanic Verses’
Mapping Her Internal Geography This idea of disparate energies colliding is very much a part of everything I do. I’m interested in energies and styles that don’t necessarily go together and weaving them into a tapestry that to me makes sense. You can hear the singular beauty of Paola Prestini’s weave — and waves — in the newly… Read More
Music For Writers: Cerrone’s ‘Cities’ Of Ancient Urban Mythology
Turn Off The Lights I have to agree with Tony Frankel at Stage and Cinema on this one: Get into your headphones and shut your eyes. Invisible Cities wants to live inside your head. And the darker that place might be, the better. Never in all my travels had I ventured as far as Adelma.… Read More
Music For Writers: New York Polyphony’s Grammy-nominated 'Nowell'
700 Years Of New Music We start from the Medieval carols from England, those are 14th and 15th centuries. We also have Renaissance music from the 15th and 16th centuries. Then we sing some pieces, actually, from the 19th century and 20th century, America. And then from the 21st century. That’s baritone Christopher Dylan Herbert, talking… Read More
Music For Writers: Seeing Through Philip Glass
‘The Trouble With My Career’ Once when I interviewed Philip Glass, he told me: The trouble with my career is I’m finally doing what I want to do. And the reason it’s a problem is that I’m doing it all day long and don’t have time to do anything else. And maybe the most remarkable thing… Read More
Music For Writers: In Not-So-Dire ‘s_traits’
‘A Sentence Swimming In Uncertainty’ A generous and “generative” heart beats at the conceptual center of composer John Supko and media artist Bill Seaman’ssweetly addictive new release, s_traits, on the Cotton Goods label. The work is among the most writerly studies yet in our series on contemporary composition for authors. The work stands, almost imperceptibly, on a vast… Read More