The Well-Tempered Ear
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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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: 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/
Tags: #AmazingGrace, #AmericanAcademyofArtsandLetters, #AmericanMusic, #ASCAPaward, #BanffCanada, #BanffCentrefortheArts, #BenJohnston, #CabrilloFestival, #CommissionedMusic, #ContemporaryArtsFestivals, #CulturalDiversity, #DeemsTaylorAward, #DelSolQuartet, #EmergingComposers, #ExperimentalMusic, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #FolkMelody, #GuggenheimFellowship, #HarryPartch, #HymnMusic, #KennedyCenter, #KeplerQuartet, #LibraryofCongress, #LivingComposer, #LivingComposers, #MadisonWisconsin, #MicroTonalMusic, #MilwaukeeWisconsin, #MusicCommission, #NationalGalleryofArt, #NewMusic, #NewWorldMusic, #NonesuchRecords, #OtherMindsFestival, #RenownedComposers, #SanFrancisco, #SantaFeOpera, #SymphonySpace, #TheNewYorkTImes, #UniversityofIllinois-Champaign-Urbana, #UniversityofIllinoisPress, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsinPress, #WorldPremiere, adventurous, Amazing Grace, America, American, American Academy of Arts and Letters, annual, Art, Arts, ASCAP, Banff Center for the Arts, Ben Johnston, Canada, Cello, Chamber music, champion, Classical music, collaboration, commission, Compact Disc, composer, contemporaries, cultural, dedication, Deems Taylor, diligent, diversity, doctorate, event, experimental, festival, First Unitarian Society of Madison, folk melody, Folk music, free, Genesis, Guggenheim Fellowship, Harry Partch, honorary, hymn, induction, Jacob Stockinger, Kennedy Center, Kepler Quartet, Library of Congress, living, Madison, mentor, microtonal, Milwaukee, Monday night, Music, National Gallery of Art, New Music, New York Times, Nonesuch Records, pioneer, pioneering, popular, premiere, programming, recital, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Area, seminal, service, subversive, Teacher, theme, U.S., United States, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, University of Illinois Press, University of Wisconsin Press, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Percussion quartet Clocks in Motion gives world premieres of two works by UW-Madison composers Laura Schwendinger and Joseph Koykkar this Friday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
Performing world premieres of new compositions by Laura Schwendinger and Joseph Koykkar, Madison’s premiere percussion quartet, Clocks in Motion (below, in a photo by Strom Strandell) will present an evening of experimental new music at the First Unitarian Society of Madison on this Friday, Nov. 11, at 7:30 p.m.
The Atrium Auditorium at 900 University Bay Drive is a stunning piece of architecture (below in a photo by Zane Williams) attached to the historic Meeting House designed by the great architect Frank Lloyd Wright and will provide a wonderful setting for this concert.
Included in this program is the first-ever performance of a new composition, Aviary, by UW-Madison composer Laura Schwendinger (below). Schwendinger’s composition, written for the members of Clocks in Motion plus piano, is a sound tapestry of imaginary bird songs.
Clocks in Motion will also premiere a new composition by composer Joseph Koykkar (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) entitled Time in Transcendence. Written specifically for Clocks in Motion, Koykkar makes use of the group’s hand-made microtonal percussion instruments and a myriad of drums and keyboard instruments.
Clocks in Motion will also perform “Workers Union” by Louis Andriessen, Mallet Quartet by Steve Reich and “Gravity” by Marc Mellitus. (You can hear Clocks in Motion perform “Gravity” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
This event is supported by Dane Arts.
Admission is $15 for the general public, $5 for Students with valid ID. Cash or credit cards are accepted.
BACKGROUND
Hailed as “nothing short of remarkable” (ClevelandClassical.com) and “the most exciting addition to Madison’s classical music scene” (Isthmus), Clocks in Motion is a percussion quartet that performs new music, builds many of its own instruments, and breaks down the boundaries of the traditional concert program.
Formed in 2011, Clocks in Motion is quickly becoming a major artistic force in today’s contemporary music scene. Among its many recent and upcoming engagements, the group served as performers at the Interlochen Arts Academy (Michigan), The Stone (New York), The Overture Center for the Arts, Casper College (Wyoming), University of Michigan, Baldwin-Wallace University (Ohio), The University of North Carolina-Pembroke and The Ewell Concert Series (Virginia).
Clocks in Motion members are Matthew Coley, Kyle Flens, Sean Kleve and Andrew Veit.
Find out more at www.clocksinmotionpercussion.com
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