New Music

[rojo]

This thread is to discuss any new and recent music being composed, presented or performed. (Music not composed or performed by the poster. We have another forum here for that.) This includes recordings and concerts.

I thought that this list of performances sounded interesting. Eight works were commissioned and presented each by a different soloist; works written by eight different composers. An entertaining evening, I would guess; something for almost everyone?

http://www.scena.org/brand/brand.asp...html?ref=music

[methodistgirl]

Sorry I can't log into New York Times. I don't belong to their forum like
this one. Here I always know where I'm at. I would like to know a little
more about it.
judy tooley

[rojo]

Can you not see the article when you click on the link, Judy?

[some guy]

I've been having a lot of fun recently buying Stradivarius CDs. They have a series called "times future," which is mostly (but only mostly) living Italian composers, famous people like Dallapiccola and Donatoni, and less famous (but no less interesting) people like Ivan Fedele and Javier Torres Maldonado.

Indeed, so consistent has been the quality of the people they've selected to record, that I've just been buying CDs in the "times future" series whether I've heard of the composer before (Brian Ferneyhough) or not (Luca Francesconi). One particularly enjoyable one for me is a 2CD set of four pieces by Nicola Sani called, collectively, elements: Wassererinnerungen for bass flute and electronics, Windstille for contrabass flute (yow!), organ, and electronics, Terra for percussion and electronics, and Con fuoco for hyperbass flute (double yow!!) and electronics.

The hyperbass flute, designed by Roberto Fabbriciani and built especially for this piece, is the largest flute in the world.

[Corno Dolce]

Hi some guy,

I looked up that hyperbass flute on google images and webpages - really fascinating. Methinks the word "hyperbass" is a misnomer since the lowest range of that hyperbass is below human hearing, thusly the correct nomenclature should be "Infrabass" - the term "infra" coming from infrasound.

Here's an article about infrasound:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound

Cheers,

CD

[some guy]

Hey Corno, I didn't name the thing, the designer did. And only the very bottom of its range is beyond our range of hearing.

Still, it's not only cool looking, but wicked cool sounding. The whole piece is really rich and gorgeous. That Fabbriciani disc on col legno looks like it might be pretty interesting, too. That's a whole CD of hyperbass flute and electronics.

[Corno Dolce]

Hi some guy,

Sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable - it certainly was not my intention. As an organist I utilise frequencies from 32 Hz to 8 Hz on the pedal keyboard so I'm a fan of low frequencies. yes, I liked the low frequency sound of that "hyperbass" flute. Insofar as infrasound on a stringed instrument is concerned I shall reveal to you a maker in Italy of the Octobasse. A sub-subcontrabass upright bass:

http://www.antoniodattis.it/galleria/liuteria/index.htm


Cheers,

CD

[some guy]

Low frequencies are the best, it's true!

I was recently at a concert of Daniel Menche and Zbigniew Karkowski, among others. 70 percent for the ears (plugged for safety's sake), 30 percent for the feet and butt (for those of us sitting down, anyway).

Octobasses look very majestic. (But where are the sound clips? Not that mp3s would do those bad boys justice!)

[Corno Dolce]

Hi some guy,

I wish there were sound clips of Octobasses - I gues one would need to contact Mr. Nicola Moneta in Milan - He has his own Octobasse and has played much symphonic repertoire with it. I think he could be persuaded to provide a sound clip or two or three. Here's his email:

nicocto@libero.it

Cheers,

CD

[Fretless]

Sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable - it certainly was not my intention. As an organist I utilise frequencies from 32 Hz to 8 Hz on the pedal keyboard so I'm a fan of low frequencies.

It sounds like you're getting uncomfortably close to the infamous "Brown Note" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note. You don't want any unfortunate accidents during services!

The orchestra I play with regularly programs new music. Tomorrow we are doing a brand new commissioned work by Daniel Kellogg entitled "La Luz" for choir and orchestra that is quite nice. We've done a lot of music by Jennifer Higdon as well. We performed both of the recent works off of this disc: Rainbow Body, and Theofanidis was there to comment on our rehearsal when we did Rainbow Body. I'm proud of the fact that in our little Midwestern area we've done a lot of new stuff, though our attendance doesn't benefit that much from it.

[Corno Dolce]

Hi fretless,

Yeah, you're darn right - it would be so easy for me to create the "brown note" sound field or "bowel disruptor" sequence

Cheers,

CD

[some guy]

This thread is to discuss any new and recent music being composed, presented or performed.

Another difficulty this thread may run into, rojo (I would not have predicted the brown note digression), is that most classical listeners' concert experiences are largely if not wholly in concert halls. But the recently written musics one is most likely to hear in concert halls (particularly in the symphony type concert halls) are not going to be noticeably new in any way but date. Not to say that they're bad, or that they're not pleasant to listen to, at least once. But the edgier, more various, new musics have been leaving concert halls for other venues for several decades now. Living rooms, coffee shops, bars, hotel lobbies, rooms in palaces and consulates, and so forth. (Hmmm. Sounds like pre-Beethoven times, doesn't it?)

Anyway, if people are gonna be able to contribute to this thread in any informative way (not to deprecate humor in any way--I deny that!), you're gonna have to get members of this board to get out of the symphony halls and into the rooms where new music is being played. Not sure how to go about that on a forum, except by saying that the stuff is out there, go get it!!

Next best thing is recordings, of course. And that takes more cash than concert tickets. So.... But, for what it's worth, here are some other labels where you'll find new music of a fairly consistently high quality and variety:

col legno
cpo
Wergo
Cybele
empreintes DIGITALes
Ground Fault

many of these do older music, too, but there's naught wrong wit' that.

there are also several series:

Musik in Deutschland (distributed by BMG) presents music written between (roughly) 1950 and 2000 that was performed in Germany. It's mostly German music, but only mostly. You'll find Italians and Americans and French and so forth on these CDs.

Donaueschinger Musiktage and Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (both on col legno) chronicle the two festivals identified, one in Donauesching and one in Darmstadt. Again, both international. And there's the likewise international festival in Bourges (which I'll be going to for the third year in a row, yow!), which is chronicled on discs which used to be distributed by Harmonia Mundi, but which now can (only?) be purchased from www.imeb.net). Or you can go to the festival and buy them there.

There's plenty more. More than plenty. But that's only for adventurous people with lots of money. There are a lot of ways to find new music online, of course. There are two places that have collected a fair amount: the Art of the States site and the iConcerts site. (i-Concerts with the hyphen is something other.)

Enjoy!

[Corno Dolce]

Hi some guy,

FWIW, I live in a community where there is alot of "cross-pollinated" music styles. My friends and I usually go to a small restaurants where the latest crop of graduates from the University Music Faculty ply their wares in performances, recordings and sheet music sales. So, yes I do get "exposed" to the latest thinking and performance styles. Thanx for the link, the Bourges event and the ideas you have set forth.

Sometimes I have this premonition that because of the preponderance of mass-marketed pop, rock, rap and other heavily marketed musics, the new music of which you speak is hardly given any attention.

Carry on...

CD

[some guy]

I live in a community where there is alot of "cross-pollinated" music styles. My friends and I usually go to a small restaurants where the latest crop of graduates from the University Music Faculty ply their wares in performances, recordings and sheet music sales.

Excellent! And while pop musics certainly get the lion's share of media attention (American Idol for live electronics performers? That would be sweet!!), I think most people live in communities where there is a lot of new music. Portland, OR, where I am, certainly has a lot of it, but any place where there is a university is going to have some new music. And not just universities. An important contributor to new music activity in Kansas City, for instance, is the Kansas City Kansas Community College.

[methodistgirl]

Wow! What a bass fiddle! It actually dwarf the guy who was playing
the big instrument. What possess someone to make such a big double
bass. The thing was as big as the church's pipe organ. And I have
seen fiddles no bigger than my hand. I can say "Ah a little fiddle big
enough for a two year old.
judy tooley