Bliss | 17 . December . 2011

This is one of the most beautiful things ever made. (Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro – finale) . Ragnar Kjartansson (Icelandic artist) transformed this moment into a rosary bead. Performa Festival 2011 – New York.

For twelve hours (a couple weeks ago — Nov19) this scene (up to 2’31″) was performed thoroughly staged with a small orchestra (I played violin). (for more, gaggle something like “performa festival ragnar 2011″) Over and over, and over, and o v e r a n d o v e r and o v e r a n d o v e r a n d over a n d over a n d o v e r and again, and again, resetting each time with a lush, petitional D dominant chord. And every so often, stagehands dressed in 18C garb stopped by the pit to offer grapes and brussels sprouts and brrbon and all manner of lovely things. I know it hasn’t been nearly long enough for me to realize the effect of that experience on my general personhood. But. For the [short-term record]. It was, and still is, a beautiful thing. I am forever changed. I’ll leave it there.

Cut to one week later. I got to spend Thanksgiving at my grandmother’s in eastern North Carolina, and that weekend my family canoed (through some tangly muck) to a hidden lake. b l i s s . . . but cold . . . We camped out (with mosquitoes at 5pm and frost on the tent at 5am) and then rowed back to civilization the next day via the Albemarle Sound. We docked at a makeshift peninsula, near some fields –unfortunately, also a place some people dump their trash and furniture. But — some of those people have GREAT VINYL COLLECTIONS. My sister and I (and our dog) rummaged through some of this stuff and found a bag containing a nice collection of classical albums. Including a vintage Deutches Grammaphon record set of The Marriage of Figaro (Fischer-Dieskau/Vogel/Mathis). Yes. The world is an absurd and magical situation.


And so they drove across the country in a dark van. | 28 . November . 2011

Aw… That happened. Filmed out the window of a black Mercedes tour van, driving from Minneapolis to Seattle. A ladybug came along for the ride, just keeping slow time while the highway whipped past. His own little winged victory.

Just got back from a little tour this past month. Thirteen shows in thirteen cities, with A Winged Victory for the Sullen & ACME. And — I totally ridiculously enjoyed every show. Pulling the right sound, feeling the grain of the bow, chewing on salty F-sharps for a long, long time… Love this music. I’ve been following the kranky records catalogue since 2007, when I found myself at a Dead Texan show in Brussels after reading a blurb in La Libre.  Pretty random actually.  But somehow that music just hit me in the right way at the right time.

Some drawings and photos from the voyage:

awvfts tour sketches - philly church2.jpgIMG_1703.JPGIMG_1706.JPGawvfts tour sketches - st louis.jpgIMG_1420.JPGawvfts tour sketches - chicago2.jpgIMG_1447.JPGIMG_1465.JPGIMG_1497.JPGawvfts tour sketches - cincinnati.jpgawvfts tour sketches - new york.jpgIMG_1581.JPGIMG_1584.JPGIMG_1587.JPGIMG_1590.JPGawvfts tour sketches - cincinnati3.jpgawvfts tour sketches - toronto.jpgIMG_1637.JPGawvfts tour sketches - seattle.jpgIMG_1671.JPGIMG_1443.JPGawvfts tour sketches - pittsburgh.jpgIMG_1800.JPGawvfts tour sketches - san francisco2.jpgIMG_1891.JPGawvfts tour sketches - portland.jpgIMG_1866.JPGawvfts tour sketches - san francisco.jpgawvfts tour sketches - chicago.jpgawvfts tour sketches - minneapolis.jpgIMG_1677.JPGawvfts tour sketches - cincinnati4.jpgIMG_1569.JPGIMG_1802.JPGawvfts tour sketches - la.jpg

Someone’s bootleg of the last thing we played at our last show, at the Satellite in LA. (A special rendition of Gavin Bryars’ “Jesus Blood”):

A beautiful short docu film featuring Adam Wiltzie and Montgomery Knott:

And the whole tour was blessed by the presence of Ken Camden and Tom Meluch (Benoît Pioulard), who opened every show. Here’s some live audio of Ken’s set from our Lincoln Hall show in Chicago; and Tom’s moment of respite during our day off in Portland:


the acoustic path | 30 . September . 2011

It’s open!  The ground is singing up in Massachusetts.  Forever and ever.  Take a weekend and visit sometime…

{ by the way >  Apologies for recent neglect in posting.  It’s been a bit crazy all summer, and especially the last month.  Many rich things with wonderful people.  (Big hugs to all.) }

The most recent event in my little world was the opening of Jane Philbrick’s “The Expanded Field” — an industrial garden project at Mass MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, for short). The piece takes its name from this essay by Rosalind Krauss. Jane is a brilliant, lovely, fearless artist and human being, and it was a total pleasure to work with her on this project.  We collaborated to create an acoustic path that will invite visitors exiting the [planned] Anselm Kiefer exhibit hall to amble through the grasses and experience the new growth among the remnants of an industrial past.  With Jane’s vision in mind, I designed musical fragments which were then recorded by Roomful of Teeth in August and later shaped into a 12-channel piece that is now a permanent installation outside the museum.  { The Acoustic Path by Caroline Shaw & Jane Philbrick, featuring Roomful of Teeth }

Bob Bielecki engineered the burial of nine speakers, about an inch underground, and three embedded in a stone wall.  Below are a few photos from the installation process and from the opening last Saturday.  (I unfortunately was unable to attend but will be taking a quiet trip up there by myself very soon…)


for alicia & andrew | 4 . August . 2011

This has been the summer of late Beethoven 4tets. They’re a staple year-round, and they really are the most amazing creatures ever designed. But there was just something about driving through the hills last month to the sound of Op. 132′s “Heilige dankgesang” (mixed with the hum of my VW jetta)… I’ve been living in 132, 130, and 131 (and an occasional throwback to 74 – mostly for that mindblowing finish to the first mvt) for weeks.

Last week Alicia Doudna and her fiancé Andrew were in a very serious car accident in Michigan. Alicia is a beautiful violinist. She and I played chamber music at Kneisel Hall a while back, and I remember her contagiously fun spirit, addiction to chapstick, and love of the third movement of opus 132. They’re both still unconscious, but music has been played in the intensive care unit every day (including live Bach cello suites — go Mary Ann!). For the past week many of us who know Alicia have been playing and listening to music that reminds us of her.

Alicia, this is for you! (excerpt of Beethoven op132/III — the best part) Rest well, and recover soon.

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daffodils in chelsea | 13 . April . 2011

On my way to rehearsal this afternoon (singing Gavin Bryars at the Guggenheim tomorrow night), I walked past these daffodils. I’m strangely drawn to bright yellow objects. It’s like salt and vinegar, or the sound of a delicately EQ’d Rhodes… Something sensorily awesome about the color yellow.

While black-eyed susans are my all-time favorite flowers, daffodils are somewhere in my top ten. One of the most amazing things about them is their spooky heliophilia, how they all turn one direction for maximum sunlight. Seeing that on the sidewalk in New York seems particularly poignant. There was just something about this scene of daffodils all turned in the same direction, glancing over the iron fence at the traffic on 10th avenue. Like cows in a Gary Larson cartoon, gazing at the country road with a posture and attitude that’s uncannily human.

Also, I know one shouldn’t read during rehearsal… But given the ample tacet time in Bryars’ ambient “Sinking of the Titanic”, I continued my little journey through Kierkegaard’s “Fear and Trembling” — suggested by a friend for consideration for an upcoming (tbd!) music/theater project. Reading that with a live surround-sound soundtrack is pretty spectacular…


concerts À EMPORTER | 9 . April . 2011

Just a few bits from LA BLOGOTHEQUE’s wonderful series of CONCERTS À EMPORTER (capitalization is theirs). I love these short films (by Vincent Moon/Mathieu Saura) and have been following them for a little while. Basic premise is to take a cool musician/band outside or in somebody’s apartment (or cathedral) and see what happens. And just notice things with the camera… Also, here’s Esperanza Spalding’s take on William Blake’s “The Fly” (not filmed by Moon). Blogotheque, please contact Ms. Spalding’s people. I want to see that happen in a chrome-wrapped diner (with a fly or two) somewhere on route 1, or maybe in Paris.

[clockwise from top-left: Annie Clark, Moriarty, Esperanza Spalding, Kong Nay] Click the little “expand” icon on each one to view full-screen.



toothyear’d’s | 25 . March . 2011

It’s over a month ago, which in interweb news is an eonothem. But today’s release of the mind-blowingly maquillé’d musick video from Tune-Yards (below) was a good reminder to post some photos and the Brooklyn Vegan review from the Roomful of Teeth concert [with Caleb Burhans, Bill Brittelle, and said wildly inspiring yard of Tunes, on Feb 19 in Merkin, as part of Ecstatic].

Some photos here (click for full-size)

and a full album of David Andrako’s beautiful photography from the concert

Merrill (tUnE-yArDs) [apostrophe S] video of “Bizness”:
dance. pyramid. yes.
and butoh?

Brooklyn Vegan review and a bootleggy video of “Hatari” from the show:


Bailey House PSA | 18 . March . 2011

Nice project for Neon Lighthouse productions last month — music for their PSA video for the Bailey House, an organization providing stable living situations for people living with HIV and AIDS in New York. I wrote and mixed some bits of musick for the Franklin Quartet:


Musick for 18+ | 16 . March . 2011

This is what it looks like to record Music for 18. Last week, from my “Voice 2″ chair behind the clarinets.  Focused fun.  with Signal — Troy, NY — March 2011

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And this is what it sounds like (er, rehearsal via iphone recorder):

Thanks to all involved in Signal for a rich week with this epic piece of music. I’ll never forget the performance at EMPAC Saturday night — something very special. Then we did two shows at LPR on Sunday, with Steve himself sliding things up and down at the soundboard. Here he is, saying a few words about the work:


the Teeth + tUnE-yArDs | 8 . February . 2011

A little peek into what’s in store on Feb 19 in New York. Nab those tickets now… It’s gonna be a fun show. I feel very lucky to make musick with these folks.

I just got back from a short trip to St. Louis, where Roomful of Teeth performed new works by Bill, Caleb, and Merrill (along with a few “olde” things by Rinde, Judd, and me), on the beautiful campus of Principia College. We’ll be up at Williams College next week, working with some students there and prepping for the Merkin Hall show on February 19. For those of you wondering what this whole Teeth thing is about — come on by. We won’t bite. (ohhhh, groannnn, was that too much?)


mta pizz | 1 . February . 2011

On a break from finishing a piece before an approaching deadline.  This video/site is making the rounds today. Is it hypnotic, or am I just tired?
Note from Alexander Chen »  Conductor turns the New York subway system into an interactive string instrument. Using the MTA’s actual subway schedule, the piece begins in realtime by spawning trains which departed in the last minute, then continues accelerating through a 24 hour loop. The visuals are based on Massimo Vignelli’s 1972 diagram.
Hilarious that he ripped the cello pizz from freesound.org!


milton babbitt (1916-2011) | 30 . January . 2011

I’ve been an absolute hermit the last three days, seeing almost no one, enjoying the stunning double blizzard from inside my cozy Princeton gradpad by the lake — and trying to muster up the courage to finish a paper on modern Gesualdo covers and a piece (Daguerreotype II?) for the Brentano Quartet. Finally this morning, after eating my second meal of roasted potatoes (with rosemary) and soy sauce — because that’s about all that’s left in the cupboard — it became clear that I’d need to find a shovel, find my car, and seek more nutritious rations… Two hours to dig this baby out… Later this afternoon my quartet (the Franklins) came down from the big city to rehearse Bartok 4, which still blows my mind in its demand for folksy lilt, guttural oration, and an expressive interpretation of equal temperament — all while not falling off the effing ridiculous 4/4 wagon!!

Sometime today, just a few miles from here, probably this morning while I was knee-deep in snow, Milton Babbitt passed away. I never got a chance to meet him, although I’m now adrift somewhere in his broad legacy. I’m not sure we would have been best friends, but I really wish I could have talked to him sometime.

Mr. Ross beat me to it, but I’ll post this anyway. Some MMDG folks rocking out to Ethan Iverson’s take on Babbitt’s Semi-Simple Variations (here’s the original).
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Decker’s [& Verdi's] La Traviata | 28 . January . 2011

Oh — P.S.! (Or Pre-S.!) Happy birthday, Mozart! (Er, technically that was a few hours ago — Jan 27.) Here’s a luscious bit of K.387, recently recorded by the Franklin Quartet.

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The first opera I ever saw was a traveling company’s production of La Traviata, in Wright Auditorium in Greenville, North Carolina, when I was about ten. At intermission, my dad (a pulmonologist), told me what was wrong with Violetta (tuberculosis probably) and hinted that she wouldn’t make it through the end of the evening (indeed she didn’t). It was the saddest show I’d ever seen. And some of the most beautiful music. For about a year after that, I would every night program the same eight or nine tracks of my parents’ Traviata album (DG, Kleiber with Cotrubas/Domingo/Milnes) into a little cd boombox, volume down low. I still remember part of that series: 1, 2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 (I always programmed the same set: overture, a couple rollicking party numbers, and then skip the soggy stuff to get to the tragic duets in the second act). There’s just something about that music and story that got to me, and still does. Last week I got to see Willy Decker’s new “lone red dress” production at the Met (and, of course, I cried right around track 16). This show is gorgeous. It’s great to have a set and staging that are assertive without being overbearing. Like a strong, solid frame, without the tacky embroidered genre scene. I’ll leave it there. Sob. Joy.

[Here's an ambient clip from the 66th St subway platform last week, featuring Germont's "De Provenza il mar" and Violetta's "Sempre libera".]

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Every night at the 66th Street Lincoln Center subway stop, there’s a musician who plays the themes of that evening’s shows — usually opera tunes, but I think he covers the Avery Fisher fare as well (does anyone remember hearing Ligeti’s Grand Macabre last spring?). It’s really impressive that he adjusts his set list every day, and I often wonder if anyone notices, or if concertgoers remembered the music they’d just heard well enough to recognize it played on a sax or flute. (I did this a couple evenings outside Covent Garden back in 2005, but only a couple of people recognized my awkward solo violin renditions of Ariadne auf Naxos. …Danny Boy raked in way more cash.)

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remembering Steve Bodner | 12 . January . 2011

A snapshot of the beginnings of an early summer evening in Williamstown, Massachusetts, 2009 — one of the first days of the Teeth.  He’s up on the steps, taking a moment amid the Everything.  We’ll miss you, Steve. 
[ Williams College memorial page here ]


On tv Yule Logs, and merrye merrye | 24 . December . 2010

Home in North Carolina — hanging out with the fam, catching up on some reading for stuff coming up (Aeneid Book VI, a bunch of Irish poets, William Carlos Williams, and essays from a Cartier-Bresson retrospective), and watching all the Seinfeld episodes that have accumulated in that great estuary that is TiVo.

But maybe the most amazing thing discovered over vacation: VIRTUAL YULE LOGS ON YOUTUBE.  This is insane. I love it. I’ve watched most of the volunteered fireplace pieces available on youtube/vimeo now, and I’ve temporarily adopted “Fireplace on a rainy day HD 1280×720” as my ambient soundtrack. There are a lot of pleasant videos, but few really achieve that close-mic’d authentic sound quality of a real fireplace (note to yule log genre directors: reverb expands virtual space, defies intimacy, and is therefore not cozy).  And many videos include the unthinkable — non-diegetic music (e.g. Pachelbel, or diatonic Casio arpeggiations). But below is my favorite youtube fireplace — it’s consistent, clear, and comforting. And yes, I realize how ridiculous this is. But kind of amazing, right?

Without further adooo, Happy Yuleness to all…

Also worth checking out: “Yule Log” (Directors Commentary) and of course the 1966 original Yule Log for television.
Avoid: “Kaminfeuer von OfenBernd” (it starts out simply, but then Meditation from Thais makes its appearance) and “Video Fireplace (The Original)” (this is a LOOP! inauthentic! an embarrassment to the entire yule log video industry)


4 quartets in 4 days & a wordless Messiah | 14 . December . 2010

Funny twist — last year around this time, I wrote about being a freelance violinist during the holidays, which usually involves Handel and/or Tchaikovsky. In my case, my Messiah gig was in a nice little town I’d never been to, off the Northeast Corridor NJTransit line. Now I live there! And am doing something totally different!?

I’m not sure I have the proper receptors for whatever musical molecule saturates the brain and signals you’ve-heard-this-so-many-times-it-makes-you-nauseous. I love playing Handel’s Messiah. Same with Nutcracker. Staple cash cows of December — love love love them. But I know that this music can have a nauseating effect on those who’ve done one too many Hallelujahs or Waltz of the Snowflakes. (The only time I’ve ever been asked by the ballet instructor to change what I was playing for a class was when I thought the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy might be cute for a set of tendues. FAUX-PAS. DEATH STARE. It was like bringing up someone’s horrible past relationship, negating years of therapy and fad diets.) I discovered Sunday that I also still adore K.525 (otherwise known as “eine kleine OMG”). By contrast, my love for that jangly 1948 Leroy Anderson holiday number is about 67% camp, and that music may forever smell to me like cinnamon scented candles and plastic wrap. DeLiteful.

(Speaking of camp, or not camp, and Nutcracker — it’s looking like I won’t be able to catch a single show of the Hard Nut, due to full schedule stuffs this week. Sad face. But instead I get to play Corelli and Bach and Vivaldi with great friends, and record string tracks for these folks — Pearl and the Beard! And write some new music!)

Caleb and I were lamenting our lack of Messiahs this year, when we realized that Steve Reich’s Music for 18 was kind of filling that place, in a beautiful and amazing way. We sang it (with Martha and Mellissa) on Thursday in Alice Tully, as guest vocal quartet with Juilliard’s Axiom Ensemble. There’s something wrong and awkward about describing that experience in words here, so I won’t. But, you know. Music for 18. It’s like Messiah, but without words and tempo changes, right? Anyway, I got to work with the composer face to face, which usually doesn’t happen with Handel.

Following the Reich concert came three consecutive days of quartet playing, with three entirely different groups, for three very different venues. Friday night was Schulhoff’s Fünf Stücke (1924), with the Franklin Quartet in Morse Hall at Juilliard, for Eli’s final doctoral recital (congrats!). Saturday night was a wedding gig at the fancy schmancy Yale Club in Manhattan, with the N@than H@le Quartet, featuring everything from Beethoven Op. 18 to Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”. Sunday afternoon was a really wonderful performance for kids with autism, at the Staten Island JCC, with the Hudson Quartet. (Everyone please check out Robert’s great project!)

Last — I’m a little wrapped up in a couple of pieces I’m writing, or planning, for the spring. Very exciting. I think I’ve probably listened to this ritornello from the second act of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas over a bajillion times.

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I’m doing something with that progression for a project with string quartet and singer, with some Rhodes and harpsichord woven in. Here’s Purcell, all gussied up in vintage garb.

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And here are a couple of bits for a related string quartet piece I’m cooking up, generously read here by the Brentanos:

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yep — human beings and music | 3 . December . 2010

Sometimes I get a little tiny bit too into something, and then I listen to/watch it over and over until I realize I need to have my life back. Nathan sent me this, with the subject line reading “i effing love human beings”. JOY.

And just for kicks, here are a few other things I’ve been gorging on like sweet potato fries. (Lots of NJ Transit hours lately — which means more snuggle time with my headphones and favorite musicks.)

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gesualdo, edible landscaping, and a big drum | 13 . November . 2010

Excerpt of Gesualdo’s “Tu m’uccidi, o crudele” (1611), followed by the parallel excerpt of Sciarrino’s orchestration (1999?). Old musick! New musick! Yeah!

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A couple of weeks ago I had my second go at a baffling, beautiful, and fiendishly awkward piece by Salvatore Sciarrino, Le voci sottovetro.  My first meeting with the piece was in September, as a violinist, with Red Light‘s concert at Symphony Space — nearly picking my nose in 99th position, to achieve Sciarrino’s very particular timbral desire for his re-orchestration of four Gesualdo madrigals (the aforementioned technical difficulty was in the first of these, “Gagliarda del Principe di Venosa”).  After getting over myself and my performer-side pet peeves about string writing, I started to fall in love with this piece.  I was already in love with Gesualdo madrigals in general (so thorny and bizarre and soupy…), and I’m now getting into Sciarrino’s timbral imagination…

My second meeting with the piece was last month with Alarm Will Sound, during a residency at the Mondavi Center in Davis, California.  Though this time as the singer.  I’m still trying to figure out how to negotiate the palette of colors available across a given range (in this case a smokey low F# to floaty high G).  The voice is WEIRD, and amazing…  Singing Sciarrino was so fun, because I felt like it was totally okay that I’m not a hefty singer with great bel canto technique.  Like a bass clarinet playing up high ppp, or a violin up in 99th position on the D string, I’m a little awkward, but I’m trying new colors in my instrument.  Thanks, Sal.

Here’s the Sacramento review of the whole concert (and I got a shout-out).

Totally unrelated — but back in September I saw So Percussion play in Philadelphia. As always, I loved them (they did part of Paul Lansky’s Threads). A few days later, while on the train, I made this little doodle, based on a thought I’d had: “In another life, I played a very big drum.” Basically, I kind of wish I was a percussionist… This cartoon could also probably be called “tribute to so percussion, near the secaucus station” –

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And finally, something delightful from the Nederlands Dans Theater.


alcestis, babinagar, yellow ochre, and homemade films | 22 . October . 2010

Yay fall . . . I find it completely absurd and bizarre and amazing to look up and see a tree full of bright yellow leaves — especially when it’s cutting against a sky so bright blue it smells like a new buick.

Friday night I had the enormous pleasure to sing with Elliot Cole, Doug and Brad Balliett, and harpist Allegra Lilly — in a living room in upper Manhattan. E, D & B performed Brad’s The Rake’s Progress, as The Oracle Hysterical — a name which captures the crazy, brilliant, sprawling project in so many ways. Then I sang the voice of Alcestis, in Doug’s song cycle which is dangerously catchy and reminds me of the golden swing of old 1940s songsheets. We closed with Elliot’s Babinagar, a sensitive and epic cycle (I don’t know why I’m using that word — but it’s evocatively Schubertian) chronicling, in intimate vignettes, the Afghan story of Babinagar and Khastakumar. It was a totally beautiful evening, with a close crowd gathered in a New York apartment, just listening to stories and music. More to come, I’m sure. (More info on the music via the nested links above.)

Yesterday in a seminar, a vimeo film was brought up, relating to something I had just shown. I watched it today, and then I watched everything else this self-taught animated filmmaker (Brent Green) has done. I can’t describe it. Below is “Gravity was everywhere back then”. It’s just wonderful, and dark, and creative, and compellingly hand-crafted. And the story — listen –

And here is another impressive, expressive, personal film project, by Beth Portnoy. I made some music for it, but it is nothing compared to the spirit of Beth’s effort and creativity with making this, and the huge spirit of the project.


noise bytes, and is bytten | 13 . October . 2010

For years I’ve drooled over a pair of noise-cancelling headphones made famous by late-night infomercials and full-page fancy magazine ads. Time and a colleague’s sincere and colorful recommendation led me to finally part with the cash — and this past weekend they escorted me through train and plane, illuminating bits of my favorite voyaging music, high and low, in frequency, fidelity, and Art.

I feel really guilty about cancelling out the world’s ambient and serendipitous noise, which I think is a beautiful part of the travelling experience. But sometimes, when a lot of miles are being covered on a regular basis, it’s nice to cool down the ambiance and retreat to a more controlled audiotexture… That said, I always take off my headphones when passing a street performer, out of curiosity and reverence…

A few snips and bippets of my ears this weekend > >

I was introduced to the Rachmaninov Vespers last year, unknowingly, via my occasional Sunday morning alto sub folder at Trinity Wall Street (thanks to Steven Fox).  It is gorgeous, rich, dark, Russian a cappella.

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These next two artists I’m seating next to each other.  I think they could have a cool conversation, with little (ok, maybe some) introduction needed.  Both I love, very dearly.  In order: Paul Lansky’s “Chatter of Pins” and Tune-Yards’ (Merrill Garbus) “Little Tiger”.

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Another pairing — and several more good dinner conversations.  Robert Mealy and Isabel Faust.  Gesualdo and Bach.  Renaissance band (King’s Noyse) and solo violin (Faust).  Galliard and Loure.

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top ten melodic B-flats evrrrr | 24 . September . 2010

A little update here of some recent happenevents and miscellaneous bon bons of the past month –

First — I just love this (below). As someone pointed out to me, that’s got to be one of the best B-flats ever. Definitely top ten. Jonny lives in New Haven and makes beautiful music. (And he put this video up a few weeks ago.)

I just started school this week. No new saddle shoes or backpack this time, but I did get a fresh new tetanus immunization! The people here are amazing and inspiring, and it’s hard to sleep — so much to do and make…

Red Light kicked off on Monday at Symphony Space (Leonard Nimoy Thalia — can we just call it the Spock Room?). Nice Kozinn review in the Times. We played some modern[ist] takes on c[C]lassical music. Sciarrino recolored Gesualdo (Voci Sottovetro, 1999); Liam Robinson played around with Ligeti & others; and Scott Wollschlager, Chris Cerrone & Vince Raikhel took on a Mozart piano concerto (#9). (Ssh – Timo Andres even made a secret appearance in a de-re-elecronstructed recording of the slow mvt.)

The Bang on a Can Marathon in Philadelphia was super fun. All 12 hrs of it! Signal presented Lang/Wolfe/Gordon’s Shelter. We’ve got a recording of that coming out on Cantaloupe sometime soon. I’ve heard it sounds pretty sweet…

Last – I owe the wonderfully energetic pianist/percussionist Danny Holt $4.90 for my breakfast this morning, when I had no cash, like a loser.  His fun album “Fast Jump” can be purchased on itunes.  Some cool david lang memory pieces on there.


you were listening to K-T-R-U Houston 91.7fm | 27 . August . 2010

Okay. I’m not going to get all 19-yr-old-emotional-college-vegetarian-tom’s-of-maine-john-cage-peace-t-shirt-activist about this — Rice University selling off KTRU (student-run station) to KUHF.  But, Alma Mater, please — that was a little bit tacky.

I have, til now, had relatively few pangs of nostalgia for my college days — which I recall being sort of exuberantly stressful, exciting, and confusing.  But the recent announcement about KTRU reminded me of some real good old days behind a microphone in a musty studio lined with cd’s and records by bands whose names often involved jungle animals or some extraterrestrial metaphor.  I was possibly the least knowledgeable dj to walk through its bumper-sticker-smothered doors — but I did leave there with some vague knowledge of a vast array of composers/bands/artists.  Like Steve Reich. I only later learned that “that endless piece with people tapping on wood” (my parents often listened in online to my Saturday afternoon show) was something famous, called “Music for Pieces of Wood”, written in 1973. And like Bang on a Can.  And Gavin Bryars.  And Brian Eno.  And Pauline Oliveiros, John Zorn, Louis Andriessen, Lou Harrison, Ingram Marshall — and lots of Harry Partch.

I also remember playing, late at night during my rookie graveyard shift, several tracks of what was known at KTRU as “the balloon music cd” — one guy, one tenor balloon, one hour of melodic flatulence.  Hm…  In retrospect, that was probably a little too experimental for 50,000 watts of power, broadcasting to millions across the Houston metropolitan area…

Just found all my old playsheets, still online!! Amazing! Apparently the first track I ever played was “Little Atlas Heavyweight” by The Ex, on their album Dizzy Spells… What?

If anyone associated with Rice admin happens upon this post — please don’t sell that broadcast tower. I know you will anyway, but please don’t be so tacky about it, telling me it’s to fund “a new food service venture”. KTRU is a really meaningful project, to many people — and I would rather have Harry Partch than a better salad bar. Love, Caroline ’04

Speaking of cool new music in Houston, happening this Saturday Best wishes, Ted — and thanks for giving us all such a great work.


“larded onto Bach music” | 10 . August . 2010

Delightful use of the word “lard” in the NYTimes (8/8).  Alistair Macaulay: “The same three dancers delivered Hans van Manen’s ‘Solo’: each solo is a rapid and silly string of whimsically cute effects larded onto Bach music.”

First though, the work in question — (different performers):

So. I remember seeing this piece done at Ailey a few years ago, and I thought it was good, and beautifully danced (heart clifton brown).  But a little bit frustrating.  The crisp alignment with the music’s phrasing was inconsistent, and departures from it seemed kind of random.  I went back and found Macaulay’s review (12/3/07), in which he says more or less the same thing as the Colorado review:  “Mr. van Manen does give each dancer individualized material, though they have too many consciously quirky flourishes of head and arms and a too relentlessly left-right tick-tock phrasing to become serious”.  (I had a few other issues, as usual, with the production’s treatment of music.  Issue #1: a recording of the piece was used — even though it would only need a solo player; #2: the recording artist wasn’t mentioned in the program; #3: the music was listed as “Johann Sebastian Bach”, rather than the more informative “Corrente and Double from Partita No. 1 in b minor, 1720″. )

I watched Benjamin Millepied/Olivier Simola’s ciaccona (film) again the other day, and I actually liked it even more this time.  It’s not always wedded to the underlying harmonic structure, but it seems like it’s sensitive to something larger than that.  Here’s part 2 — the gut-wrenching section in D major…

Another recent find is a Forsythe version of the ciaccona, of which there’s not a complete version online. Here’s an excerpt from the end of “Steptext” (1985), and also a bit of the chaconne nested in his larger tanztheaterish work “Artifact” (1984) – excerpted here by a Dutch tv clip (see 1:40).

These are three really different approaches, to Bach, to ballet vocabulary, to theatrical appropriation of ye olde musicke, to ways of presenting dance (stage or screen), and to technical virtuosity.  I’m most interested these days in confronting and understanding that appropriation and perception of ye olde musicke, especially in modern dance.  The kind of thing where suddenly some (gorgeous, brilliant, complex) Schubert piano sonata comes on, and everyone is supposed to feel nostalgic and cry, but it could just as easily have been a Louis Jullien ditty, as far as the dramatic effect and intention were concerned…

As for Bach solo violin partitas in particular — I’m working on a couple of ideas with these myself, over the summer.  They’re pretty dorky, but fun little side projects.  To be continued…

And yes, I do wish Mark Morris had choreographed the B minor partita. Maybe some day.


schnapshotz | 9 . August . 2010

A few annotated photos from June/July…

- Roomful of Teeth residency at Mass MoCA
- recording Bang on a Can’s Shelter in New York
- working at EMIA in Kent, CT
- misc


Big W, little Y | 5 . August . 2010

I found this while researching Bessie Smith — for a future project involving Mellissa, Martha, and consecutive üümlauts.  One of my favorite songs, by one of my favorite [living] singers, adapted by — yes, again — Sesame Street.

Speaking of Yodel…

In other news, living it up monastically in the Berkshire foothills, accompanying grand jetés and coccyx balances at Earl Mosley’s dance institute in Kent, CT. Lots of little homemade projects in the works — to be revealed later… On the drive up, I had a Proustian moment, with the windows rolled down and the smell of slow-smoked barbeque peeling over the slope of route 22 heading north. My brother had just delivered a pulled pork feast for the 4th of July in North Carolina, so I couldn’t help turning in to Big W’s, just south of Wingdale, NY. The biggest sandwich I’ve ever eaten — behold:


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