‘Dreaming Of Music For There Wasn’t An Instrument’ When you listen to Bryce Dessner’s newly released recording of Music For Wood And Strings, you’re hearing sounds unprecedented in our experience. The “chord stick” is an instrument created by Aron Sanchez, half the team of Buke and Gase. While you might not think that Dessner, widely known… Read More
Music For Writers: The Pettersson Legacy Of Fire And Ice
‘When Inspiration Flows’ The opening tone — lonely and anticipatory — is the last serene moment of the late Allan Pettersson’s Symphony No. 4. Whether he has his strings rush up to a precipice and hold while the woodwinds dither on the edge — or sends whole sections of his orchestra chasing each other, repeating… Read More
Music For Writers: The Colorist Kaija Saariaho’s ‘Instants’ Of Love
‘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: Martin Bresnick And The Terrible Beauty Of Sorrow
‘We Will Always Sing Such Songs Of Longing’ Each time I visited, my grandmother wept bitterly about the murder of her parents, her brother, her two sisters, and all their children. Can a child comfort a grandmother, a grandfather? I became a witness, a musician, and a composer. Martin Bresnick is a native New Yorker.… Read More