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Colleagues' music that moves me now.

Tom Jobim "Águas Março" (The Waters of March)

11/29/2018

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The epitome and genius of cool, in my book, is António Carlos Jobim (aka Tom Jobim). He is cool, in the superficial sense, because of his personal affect: well-educated, urbanity, humor, nonchalance, understated, Brazilian in the 60s. He invented cool in the 60s. Watch this video of him and Sinatra -- who is cool and who wants to be cool?
More interesting to me, is his more substantial and lasting cool. He melds together a sophisticated harmonic language with simple (sometimes monotonous) melodies; pessimism (no other word will do) and frustrated desires is his tone; love, life, society, and humanity is his poetic inspiration.
This particular song (The Waters of March) captures his essence more than any of dozens of remarkable songs. Pessimism and hope woven together in lyric and harmony. Ah. Jobim.
A stick, a stone
It's the end of the road
It's the rest of a stump
It's a little alone

It's a sliver of glass
It is life, it's the sun
It is night, it is death
It's a trap, it's a gun

The oak when it blooms
A fox in the brush
A knot in the wood
The song of a thrush

The wood of the wind
A cliff, a fall
A scratch, a lump
It is nothing at all

It's the wind blowing free
It's the end of the slope
It's a beam, it's a void
It's a hunch, it's a hope

And the river bank talks
Of the waters of March
It's the end of the strain
The joy in your heart

The foot, the ground
The flesh and the bone
The beat of the road
A slingshot's stone

A fish, a flash
A silvery glow
A fight, a bet
The range of a bow

The bed of the well
The end of the line
The dismay in the face
It's a loss, it's a find

A spear, a spike
A point, a nail
A drip, a drop
The end of the tale

A truckload of bricks
In the soft morning light
The shot of a gun
In the dead of the night

A mile, a must
A thrust, a bump
It's a girl, it's a rhyme
It's a cold, it's the mumps

The plan of the house
The body in bed
And the car that got stuck
It's the mud, it's the mud

Afloat, adrift
A flight, a wing
A hawk, a quail
The promise of spring

And the riverbank talks
Of the waters of March
It's the promise of life
It's the joy in your heart

A stick, a stone
It's the end of the road
It's the rest of a stump
It's a little alone

A snake, a stick
It is John, it is Joe
It's a thorn in your hand
And a cut in your toe

A point, a grain
A bee, a bite
A blink, a buzzard
A sudden stroke of night

A pin, a needle
A sting, a pain
A snail, a riddle
A wasp, a stain

A pass in the mountains
A horse and a mule
In the distance the shelves
Rode three shadows of blue

And the riverbank talks
Of the waters of March
It's the promise of life
In your heart, in your heart
​
A stick, a stone
The end of the road
The rest of a stump
A lonesome road

A sliver of glass
A life, the sun
A knife, a death
The end of the run

And the riverbank talks
Of the waters of March
It's the end of all strain
It's the joy in your heart
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PINK FLOYD Careful with that Axe, Eugene

11/27/2018

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Pink Floyd's album, "ummagumma" has a song about an axe murderer and a song inspired by electronic music ("Several Species..."). After the racket and horror, this sweet bird song á la Leonard Cohen calms the waters until comedy strikes. Listen.
Lesson for my ears: synchcopation of affect.
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GRACYNA BACIEWICZ String Quartet No. 7

11/27/2018

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Gracyna Baciewicz is one of those composers that I believe other composers already know. After she passed away in 1969, I was afraid her music would become lost (up until recently).
Her Quartet #7 really speaks to me with great vigor, an unflinching stare, powerful theatricality, clarity of expression, the long view. ​I love this music.
​Lesson: No energy is ever lost. Do your best.
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ERIC RADLOFF & MIA MINICHIELLO Shine

11/27/2018

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"Shine" is a song by the now-former Bear Attack. Co-written by Eric Radloff and Mia Minichiello. Eric is a colleague at Junior Composers. He's a former student but is now a colleague. I love the stickiness of the melody and the production elements "Shine" with great power pop.
I've met Eric's significant other, Jenna, and I think an earlier, simpler demo version of this song is very strong -- many times the demo carries more authentic, unvarnished appeal to me than the "produced" sound of the final version..Some mornings, I wake to this song playing in ear (a strong endorsement) because the ear always nose.
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NICO MUHLY ​Drones, Variations, Ornaments

11/27/2018

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A colleague suggested an Irish ensemble's recording to me (thank you, Robert Rumbolz). I listened to it and was mesmerized by this piece by Nico Muhly. 
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NAHRE SOL I Love You Bye

11/27/2018

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Young musicians aren't young for very long. They grow and age and gain experience and begin to attract an audience just by "doing" what musicians do. An example that I'm watching right now is a young woman who uses the stage name, Nahre Sol. Her name in reality is Alice Hwang.
She is a pianist and composer and member of a trio of musicians that put on recitals in Toronto. 
Their name is Happenstance. Read more about the group and about Alice, here. I like how she is doing what she is doing. Her music is very attractive to my ear. Her work reminds me of the act of musicking (See Christopher Small's book of the same name). The ideas are very pianistic and remind me also of Christopher O'Riley's re-working of RadioHead.
Does the fact that one reminds you of another (previous) person's work make the new work derivative? I wonder if we should care at all about this question but I've heard it used in a dismissive way in music panel discussions and board rooms when describing an artist's music. I believe "derivative" is meant to be mean and critical. It makes one sound smart. It is nothing less than musical assassination. (I know this is a provocative use of language. It is meant to be.)
No creative work is possible in a vacuum. There are no original ideas, just unique applications of ideas that have been around the world, for a very long time. The world is becoming smaller and more inter-connected; we are always learning and borrowing from each other. All the time. Creative people know that they are performing a magic trick; we pass ourselves off as unique and as sprung from the brow of Orpheus. But it ain't so. We learn from each other and exchange music ideas every day. Our invention contributes to the next person's contributions which is a contribution to the next person's...and so.
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LOU HARRISON Suite for violin, piano and small orchestra

11/27/2018

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Lou Harrison was a Eusonian composer. He disliked the term "American" because it improperly consolidated two continents' cultures in naming one country. But to consider him a cranky PC-er would be to misunderstand the pure joy he found in exploring and celebrating musical cultures on every continent. 
Ironically, his repertoire - his legacy - may become controversial because it can be heard to appropriate those very cultures he embraced. Lou and his colleagues, including Henry Cowell and John Cage and Steve Reich, built their musical catalogues around the inspiration they've taken from "world musics." Their repertoires can be seen as an "appropriation" which often happens when White, privileged, male composers adapt and profit from the musical sounds and practices of non-White cultures.
This uniquely evocative and sumptuous suite for violin, piano and small orchestra is exhibit A. It is one of my favorite pieces by Lou. I came to know Lou's music while working for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Dennis Russell Davies was the music director and championed Lou's music before and after leading the ensemble.
​The piece evokes the meter changes and the ostinati of gamelan music, pentatonic scales, melodic parallels at the 4th and 5th and the minimization of Western musical development. To Western ears, it can be heard as "oriental." To uninformed ears it can be heard as appropriation.
Lou Harrison, this incredibly important composer, this Eusonian and world composer who was a generous and enthusiastic advocate for many cultures, may become the victim of deliberate suppression as a result of our new and widely held, cultural, world-view. The important role Lou played in awakening musicians to each other's presence may have the unintended consequence of limiting awareness of his music. That would be a cultural crime, I think.
Long live Lou Harrison! Long live the intersections between West and East, North and South! May Lou's music draw these worlds together for ages to come.
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MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA You Know You Know

11/27/2018

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Each of these virtuosi are given license to improvise with 24 eighth note beats in Dorian mode. Freedom within tight constraints is the secret to good improvisations. This is what I have enjoyed most in my work with Paris1919, a band led by Chris Strouth. We are by no means as accomplished as these people (John McLaughlin - guitar; Jan Hammer - keyboards; Jerry Goodman - violin; Rick Laird - bass; Billy Cobham - drums) but they are our heroes. In their day, the Mahavishnu Orchestra was the popularizer of high-octane improvisation in mixed meters and octatonic scales. I have been listening to a number of young bands online testing their wings in this same mix of approaches (now nearly 50 years old!).
I'm fascinated with composing for virtuosi. Making a performance that looks and sounds nearly impossible while at the same time making it completely routine to execute is one of the great challenges for any composer. It is a magic trick well-worth the effort. And once an audience understands the trick it only adds to the enjoyment.
So, enjoy 1971. You know you know.
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ANTON REICHA Etude Nr. 1

11/27/2018

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"Anton (Antonín, Antoine) Reicha (Rejcha) (26 February 1770 – 28 May 1836) was a Czech-born, later naturalized French composer. A contemporary and lifelong friend of Beethoven, he is now best remembered for his substantial early contributions to the wind quintet literature and his role as teacher of pupils including Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz and César Franck. He was also an accomplished theorist, and wrote several treatises on various aspects of composition. Some of his theoretical work dealt with experimental methods of composition, which he applied in a variety of works such as fugues and études for piano and string quartet.
None of the advanced ideas he advocated in the most radical of his music and writings, such as polyrhythm, polytonality and microtonal music, were accepted or employed by other nineteenth-century composers. Due to Reicha's unwillingness to have his music published (like Michael Haydn before him), he fell into obscurity soon after his death and his life and work have yet to be intensively studied."
Thus, Wikipedia provides some context. I found this music on a recent NYTimes playlist and article by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim. Somehow I'm reminded of Thom Yorke's latest music coming out this Fall with a simple (and yet deeply-felt) piano. Simple is good. Deeply-felt to this listener is even better and what this blog is all about.

"The number of works I finished in Vienna is astonishing. Once started, my verve and imagination were indefatigable. Ideas came to me so rapidly it was often difficult to set them down without losing some of them. I always had a great penchant for doing the unusual in composition. When writing in an original vein, my creative faculties and spirit seemed keener than when following the precepts of my predecessors."
Anton Reicha
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Bill Evans in rehearsal for TV

11/27/2018

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In this fascinating clip, we can see and hear how Mr Evans and bassist Eddie Gomez work out their "improvisation" for the TV director. We can see how musicking is happening. I so appreciate this documentation of a rehearsal because it dispels the idea that jazz is just made up on the spot. There is certainly freedom of interpretation in jazz and Mr Evans, trained as a composer, took liberties in a performance. BUT there is so much that is planned and rehearsed prior to performance. 
And Bill Evans' music is inspired and continues to influence musicians in all genres to this very day. Love this music.
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    Composer Randall Davidson creates music, and performs, produces, and promotes music of others. This blog is an annotated, virtual playlist of the music that he loves and that he calls "sticky" (aka memorable​).

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  • Home
  • Boys Art Music
    • Choir & Songs
    • Chamber music
    • Keyboard works
    • Large Ensemble
    • Garrison Keillor repertoire
    • Opera, Dance, Theater
  • Composer | Producer | Performer
  • Teacher & Advocate
  • Moving Company | blog
    • Working | blog
  • Contact
  • Products