The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Here are the world premieres of the sixth and seventh pieces of “pandemic music” commissioned by the U.S. Library of Congress
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By Jacob Stockinger
The project has is now heading towards it end.
Last week was when the world premieres of the 10 short pieces — written for the U.S. Library of Congress’ “Boccaccio Project” — started going public and began being posted on various social media sites as well as the Internet.
This week will see the last five compositions and complete the project.
One performance is released each weekday night starting at 8 p.m. EDT.
The project, funded by the federal government, is intended to capture some aspect of the unique culture brought about by the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19.
The first piece was “Sequestered Thoughts,” a solo piano work by composed Damien Sneed and performed by Jeremy Jordan.
The second was “shadow of a difference/falling” by composer Richard Drehoff Jr. and solo oboist Andrew Nogal of the Grossman Ensemble.
The third was “Intuit – a way to stay in the world” for solo cello composed by Miya Masaoka and performed by Kathryn Bates of the Del Sol String Quartet.
The first three were featured in two postings on this blog last week. Here are links:
The fourth and fifth pieces were premiered last Thursday and Friday, bringing the project to the half way point before the Summer Solstice, Father’s Day and Make Music Madison weekend.
They were posted on this past Monday. Here is a link:
The fourth work is “Bridges,” a solo piano work composed by Cliff Eidelman and performed at home by Jenny Lin. The title refers to the composer’s focus on finding bridges from the coronavirus pandemic to normal life.
The fifth piece is “Hello World” by composer by Erin Rogers, an exploratory work for solo flute, and is performed by Erin Lesser of the Wet Ink Ensemble.
And now the second half of premieres has started.
The sixth piece is “1462 Willard Street,” composed for solo viola by Luciano Chessa (below top, in a photo by Melesia Nunez) and performed by Charlton Lee (below bottom, in a photo by RJ Muna) of the Del Sol String Quartet.
The address refers to a place in San Francisco where the composer was staying on March 16, 2020 – the day the city enacted orders to stay at home because of the pandemic.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/chessa-lee.html
The seventh piece, premiered last night, is “Olcott Park” for solo piano composed by Aaron Travers (below top, in a photo by James Matthew Daniel) and performed by Daniel Pesca (below bottom, in a photo by Jay Morthland) of the Grossman Ensemble.
It is a recollection of the forest and birds the composer knows in a park near his home but which he hasn’t’ visited much during the pandemic.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/travers-pesca.html
On the same page as the performance you can read what the composer and sometimes the performer have to say about the new work and what it strives to mean or express.
You can use links to go to the past performances and premieres.
You can also follow links on the bottom of the page to see more information about both the composer and the performer, and to general background of the project.
If you would like some more background, along with some commentary and questions from The Ear, go to https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/classical-music-the-library-of-congress-has-commissioned-new-music-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-you-can-listen-to-the-premieres-from-this-monday-june-15-through-june-28/
What do you think of the individual pieces?
Do you have one or more favorites?
What do you think of the project?
How successful is it?
Will you like to hear more of the commissioned music?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #AaronTravers, #AndrewNogal, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoccaccioProject, #CliffEidelman, #CommissionedMusic, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #DamienSneed, #DanielPesca, #DelSolQuartet, #DelSolStringQuartet, #ErinLesser, #ErinRogers, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Father'sDay, #FederalGovernment, #GrossmanEnsemble, #InstrumentalMusic, #JacobStockinger, #JennyLin, #JeremyJordan, #KathrynBates, #LibraryofCongress, #LucianoChessa, #MakeMusicDay, #MakeMusicMadison, #MiyaMasaoaka, #NewMusic, #NormalLife, #OboeMusic, #OlcottPark, #RichardDrehoffJr., #SanFrancisco, #Self-Isolation, #SocialMedia, #Stayathome, #StringQuartet, #SummerSolstice, #TheEar, #TheU.S., #WetInkEnsemble, #WilliamStreet, #WorldPremiere, Aaron Travers, American, Andrew Nogal, bird, blog, Boccaccio Project, Boccacio, bridge, capture, Cello, city, Cliff Eidelman, commission, complete, composer, Composition, Congress, coronavirus, culture, Damien Sneed, Daniel Pesca, date, day, Del Sol Quartet, Del Sol String Quartet, difference, Erin Lesser, erin rogers, Facebook, fathers day, favorite, federal, federal government, fifth, flute, flutist, forest, forward, fourth, fund, government, Grossman Ensemble, half way, halfway, hello, Home, individual, instrumental, Intuit, isolation, Jacob Stockinger, Jenny Lin, Jeremy Jordan, Kathryn Bates, library, Library of Congress, life, like, link, Luciano Chessa, Make Music Day, Make Music Madison, Miya Masaoka, New Music, night, normal, Oboe, Olcott Park, one, pandemic, Park, perform, performance, Pianist, Piano, piece, place, post, posting, premiere, project, Richard Drehoff Jr., San Francisco, second, seventh, shadow, share, sixth, social media, solo, stay at home, String quartet, successful, summer, Summer solstice, tag, The Ear, think, third, trees, two, U.S., unique, week, weekday, weekend, Wet Ink Ensemble, Willard Street, work, world, world premiere
Classical music: Here are the world premieres of the second and third pieces of “pandemic music” commissioned by the U.S. Library of Congress
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
It has started.
This is the week when the world premieres of the 10 short pieces — written for the Library of Congress’ “Boccaccio Project” — started going public and began being posted on various social media sites as well as the Internet.
One performance is released each weekday night starting at 8 p.m. EDT.
The project is a way to capture some of the unique culture brought about by the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19.
The first was “Sequestered Thoughts,” a solo piano work by composer Damien Sneed and performed by Jeremy Jordan. You can hear it in the post preceding this one.
Now it’s on to two new ones.
The second piece in the series is the 4-1/2 minutes “shadow of a difference/falling” by composer Richard Drehoff Jr. (below top, in a photo by James Matthew Daniel) and solo oboist Andrew Nogal (below bottom, in a photo by Jay Morthland) of the Grossman Ensemble.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/drehoff-nogal.html
The third work is the three-minute “Intuit – (a way to stay in the world)” by Miya Masaoka (below top, in a photo by Heika no koto) performed by solo cellist Kathryn Bates (below bottom) of the Del Sol String Quartet.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/masaoka-bates.html
On the same page as the performance video, you can read what the composer and sometimes the performer have to say about the new work and what the music strives to mean or express.
You can also go to past performances and premieres.
You can follow links on the bottom of the page to see more information about both the composer and the performer, and to general background of the project.
If you would like some more background, along with some commentary and questions from The Ear, go to https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/classical-music-the-library-of-congress-has-commissioned-new-music-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-you-can-listen-to-the-premieres-from-this-monday-june-15-through-june-28/
What do you think of the pieces?
What do you think of the project?
Woud you like to hear more of the commissioned music?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: The Library of Congress has commissioned new music about the coronavirus pandemic. You can listen to the world premieres from this Monday, June 15, through June 26
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
The U.S. Library of Congress (LOC, exterior is below top and interior is below bottom) has started a new artistic project relevant to a public health crisis in both a historical era and the current times.
The LOC has commissioned 10 different short works, experienced in 10 different performance videos recorded at their homes — that pertain to the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19 from American composers and performers.
It is called The Boccaccio Project after the Renaissance poet Giovanni Boccaccio (below), a 14th-century Italian writer who wrote “The Decameron,” a series of stories told by 10 people who fled from Florence, Italy, to find refuge in the countryside during the Black Plague.
The musical works will start being premiered on weekdays this coming Monday, June 15, at the Library of Congress website. The works will also be broadcast on social media including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The website, which now has a complete list of performers and works, will soon have a complete schedule of world premieres, running on weekdays from Monday, June 15, to Friday, June 26. Then the manuscripts will be transferred to the LOC archives.
Here is a link: https://loc.gov/item/prn-20-038/
Many of the names will be unfamiliar to the general public. But an excellent story about the background and genesis of the project, including music samples, can be found on National Public Radio (NPR), which aired the story Friday morning.
Here is a link to that 7-minute story (if you listen to it rather than read it, you will hear samples of the music): https://www.npr.org/2020/06/12/875325958/a-new-library-of-congress-project-commissions-music-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic
And here are some of the participants, who are noteworthy for their ethnic and geographic diversity:
Flutronix (below) includes flutist Allison Loggins-Hull, left, and composer Nathalie Joachim.
The work by composer Luciano Chessa (below top) will be performed by violist Charlton Lee (below bottom), of the Del Sol Quartet:
And the work by Damien Sneed (below top) work will be performed by Jeremy Jordan (below bottom):
The new project strikes The Ear as a terrific and timely undertaking — the musical equivalent of the photographic project, funded and staffed by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during The Great Depression of the 1930s. That project yielded enduring masterpieces by such eminent photographers as Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans.
But several questions arise.
How much did the project cost?
Will the general public be able to get copies of and rights to these works to perform? One assumes yes, since it is a public project funded with public money.
And will this project give rise to similar projects in other countries that are also battling the pandemic? New art – literature, films, painting, dance and so on — arising from new circumstances seems like something that is indeed worth the undertaking.
Listen to them.
What works stand out for you?
What do you think of the project?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #14thCentury, #AllisonLoggins-Hull, #AmericanComposer, #BlackPlague, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BloomingtonIndiana, #ChamberMusic, #CharltonLee, #ChicagoIllinois, #ClassicalMusician, #CommissionedMusic, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #CulturalDiversity, #DamienSneed, #DelSolQuartet, #DelSolStringQuartet, #DorotheaLange, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FarmSecurityAdministration, #GiovanniBoccaccio, #GreatDepression, #JacobStockinger, #JeremyJordan, #LibraryofCongress, #LucianoChessa, #NaionalPublicRadio, #NathalieJoachim, #NewMusic, #NewYorkCity, #OnlineConcert, #PerformingArts, #PublicHealth, #RecordedMusic, #SanFrancisco, #SocialMedia, #StringMusic, #StringQuartet, #TheDecameron, #TheEar, #TheRenaissance, #TheU.S., #U.S.Government, #VisualArts, #WalkerEvans, #WindMusic, #WorldPremiere, #YouTubevideo, 10, 14th century, 1930s, air, Allison Loggins-Hull, America, American, archive, arise, Arts, Audio, background, battle, Black Plague, blog, Bloomington, Boccaccio, Broadcast, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, Charlton Lee, Chicago, circumstances, classicalmusic, commission, complete, composer, copy, coronavirus, countries, country, countryside, Damien Sneed, dance, Del Sol Quartet, Del Sol String Quartet, depression, diversity, Dorothea Lange, eminent, enduring, equivalent, era, ethnic, excellent, exterior, Facebook, Farm Security Administration, film, flautist, Florence, flute, flutist, Flutronix, forward, Friday, FSA, funded, general, Genesis, geographic, Giovanni Boccaccio, government, Great Depression, historical, History, Home, Indiana, interior, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Jordan, Joachim, Library of Congress, like, link, list, listen, literture, LOC, Luciano Chessa, manuscript, masterpiece, minute, Monday, money, morning, Music, Musician, name, Nathalie Joachim, National Public Radio, new, New Music, New York City, noteworthy, NPR, Oboe, oboist, online, painting, pandemic, participant, People, performer, Performing arts, photography, Pianist, Piano, poet, premiere, premieres, project, public, Public health, Quartet, read, recorded, refuge, Renaissance, rights, sample, San Francisco, schedule, series, share, short, social media, something, staff\, start, stay at home, stories, string music, String quartet, tag, ten, terrific, The Decameron, The Ear, timely, transfer, Tweet, Twitter, U.S., undertaking, unfamiliar, United States, video, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, visual arts, vocal music, Walker Evans, Website, weekday, wind music, work, works, world, world premiere, worth, Writer, yes, yield, YouTube
Classical music: A FREE recital by the Del Sol string quartet on Monday night honors pioneering composer Ben Johnston
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has been asked to post the following announcement:
The San Francisco-based ensemble the Del Sol Quartet will give a FREE public recital on Monday night, May 21, in Madison in honor of pioneer composer, teacher and mentor Ben Johnston (below).
For more information about the composer, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Johnston_(composer)
The recital is on the occasion of Johnston’s upcoming induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters: https://artsandletters.org/pressrelease/2018-newly-elected-members/
This FREE performance will be held in the new Atrium Auditorium (below, in a photo by Zane Williams) of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, on Monday night at 7 p.m.
The program will feature Johnston’s two most popular string quartets: the Fourth Quartet (based on the beloved theme “Amazing Grace”); and the Tenth Quartet (also based on a popular folk melody). In addition there will be works by some of Johnston’s contemporaries. (You can hear the Fourth Quartet of Ben Johnston in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Johnston, 92, has made his home in the Madison area for the past 11 years, where he continues to advance the field of microtonal music composition and performance, most notably initiated in the U.S. by music legend Harry Partch, with whom Johnston studied for several years. Partch’s seminal work, “Genesis of Music,” was first published in Madison by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1949.
Winner of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, Johnston spent most of his career at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He had a significant role in some of the Contemporary Arts Festivals, which were annual events in the 1960s. His service, as composition teacher and mentor there, led to an honorary doctorate from that institution. He is also the author of “Maximum Clarity,” published by the University of Illinois Press.
Hailed by New York Times critic Mark Swed as “probably [America‘s] most subversive composer …able to make both radical thinking and avant-garde techniques sound invariably gracious,”Johnston’s diligent dedication recently resulted in the release of the third CD by the Milwaukee-based Kepler Quartet https://www.keplerquartet.com/ on the New World Music label https://www.newworldmusic.com/
The three CD series encompasses all of Johnston’s string quartets and took 14 years of painstaking collaboration to bring to fruition, receiving high acclaim internationally. Johnston has been well-known in experimental music circles since his second quartet came out on Nonesuch Records in 1969.
Hailed by Gramophone as “masters of all musical things they survey” and two-time winner of the top Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the Del Sol String Quartet shares living music with an ever-growing community of adventurous listeners.
Del Sol (below) was founded in 1992 at Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada and is recognized as a “vigorous champion of living composers,” focusing on music that reflects the cultural diversity of the community, advocating works by both world-renowned and emerging composers, and collaborating across disciplines. Del Sol has commissioned and premiered over 100 works by a diverse range of composers.
The Quartet has performed on prominent concert series nationwide, including the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, Symphony Space, Cabrillo Festival, Other Minds Festival, and Santa Fe Opera.
The quartet conducts an active educational program in the San Francisco Bay Area, in addition to regular residencies at universities and music schools across the country.”
For more information, go to: http://delsolquartet.com/
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