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Sorry not to have posted any music until now.
I'm usually much better about it.
Problem is, it takes a lot of time to do it right. But, so?
Anyhow, let me know if you listen to any of these.
I got my own self curious now.
New York School meets No-Wave:
Silence of The Idealist Grid
vs.
Din of The Death Machine
Morton Feldman
(1926 - 1987)
Rothko Chapel 3
Piano and Strings (pages 29 - 42)
For John Cage (0:00 - 9:59)
A perfect evocation
"Rothko Chapel" was composed for the dedication of the de Menil chapel, for which Mark Rothko created some of his final paintings. The space, in Houston TX, is a downtown quiet space, for contemplation, with only the dark colorfields of Rothko's work as a visual point of focus. The work here is a very beautiful and equally dark counterpoint to those canvases, evocative of both the sense of visual diffusion as well as the inner mystery they seem to conceal within their colorfields. Sometimes seeming like some mysterious shrouded procession, at other times like a distant call to prayer, and with a recurrant vocal figure of a solo voice, evoking a sense of both innocence and encantory devotion, the piece is one of Feldman's shortest but most powerful. And the version performed here is excellent, with very precise yet human performance characteristics...which is just what's required, as a rule, to make Feldman's music 'work'.
Ambient Beauty
Rothko Chapel, written to be played in the famous Houston space, is a wonderful piece, one that should win new converts to the Feldman cause. It isn't daunting in length, like many later Feldman pieces, yet it retains the sonic beauty and delicacy of instrumental color that makes Feldman unique. The piece is also remarkably tonal, unlike many other Feldman works. The gorgeous hushed soprano solo sounds like a distant call to prayer. Feldman talks in the liner notes of the influence of Hebrew cantilation and you can hear it, although it is much more distant than most cantilation. This work is an example of the best kind of ambient music. It is endlessly fascinating, and yet seems to have a physical presence that does not depend on your concentration. You can listen intently or just let the sound wash over you.
Glenn Branca
(b. 1948)
Symphony No. 3
(Gloria)
Second Movement
Symphony No. 6
(Devil Choirs at The Gates of Heaven)
First Movement
Absolute sh*t
I've heard so many people tout Glenn Branca as the single most important artist in the past 2 decades. That's a pretty loft claim to live up to. Laughably, he falls ENTIRELY short. This is amassed, dissonant ("out-of-tune" would be the more appropriate phrase here), amusical GARBAGE. What Branca has composed here is utter crap, and the crappiness of the music itself is only augmented by the musicians involved with performing it, in particular, Stephan Wiscerth's awful drumming. I understand that Thurston Moore, Lee Renaldo, Michael Gira, and (less importantly) Page Hamilton have all played with him, but do not let that fool you -- Branca's music is completely unredeeming, humorless, and pretentious to the point of ridiculousness. Don't be fooled!
Puh-lease!
To call Branca a composer is like calling someone's nose-picking Art. He is without a doubt the most talentless, the most uninteresting, the most humorless tertiary affiliate of the music scene, a man comfortable neither in the world of progressive rock (he has no rhythm, no chops, no ear) nor that of serious, i.e., classical music (he has no understanding of composition--I doubt he even knows how the circle of five works). It really doesn't matter how many guitarists he's got for this particular recording. They all sound terrible because the music Braca "wrote" is terrible. Just one monotonous strum on all six strings after another, with no rhyme or reason. You can do this with your kid brother and his twelve-year-old buddies anytime of the day in the luxury of your own basement. And you'll have more fun listening to the result taped on your beat-up radio afterward.
Sorry not to have posted any music until now.
I'm usually much better about it.
Problem is, it takes a lot of time to do it right. But, so?
Anyhow, let me know if you listen to any of these.
I got my own self curious now.
New York School meets No-Wave:
Silence of The Idealist Grid
vs.
Din of The Death Machine
Morton Feldman
(1926 - 1987)
Rothko Chapel 3
Piano and Strings (pages 29 - 42)
For John Cage (0:00 - 9:59)
A perfect evocation
"Rothko Chapel" was composed for the dedication of the de Menil chapel, for which Mark Rothko created some of his final paintings. The space, in Houston TX, is a downtown quiet space, for contemplation, with only the dark colorfields of Rothko's work as a visual point of focus. The work here is a very beautiful and equally dark counterpoint to those canvases, evocative of both the sense of visual diffusion as well as the inner mystery they seem to conceal within their colorfields. Sometimes seeming like some mysterious shrouded procession, at other times like a distant call to prayer, and with a recurrant vocal figure of a solo voice, evoking a sense of both innocence and encantory devotion, the piece is one of Feldman's shortest but most powerful. And the version performed here is excellent, with very precise yet human performance characteristics...which is just what's required, as a rule, to make Feldman's music 'work'.
Ambient Beauty
Rothko Chapel, written to be played in the famous Houston space, is a wonderful piece, one that should win new converts to the Feldman cause. It isn't daunting in length, like many later Feldman pieces, yet it retains the sonic beauty and delicacy of instrumental color that makes Feldman unique. The piece is also remarkably tonal, unlike many other Feldman works. The gorgeous hushed soprano solo sounds like a distant call to prayer. Feldman talks in the liner notes of the influence of Hebrew cantilation and you can hear it, although it is much more distant than most cantilation. This work is an example of the best kind of ambient music. It is endlessly fascinating, and yet seems to have a physical presence that does not depend on your concentration. You can listen intently or just let the sound wash over you.
Glenn Branca
(b. 1948)
Symphony No. 3
(Gloria)
Second Movement
Symphony No. 6
(Devil Choirs at The Gates of Heaven)
First Movement
Absolute sh*t
I've heard so many people tout Glenn Branca as the single most important artist in the past 2 decades. That's a pretty loft claim to live up to. Laughably, he falls ENTIRELY short. This is amassed, dissonant ("out-of-tune" would be the more appropriate phrase here), amusical GARBAGE. What Branca has composed here is utter crap, and the crappiness of the music itself is only augmented by the musicians involved with performing it, in particular, Stephan Wiscerth's awful drumming. I understand that Thurston Moore, Lee Renaldo, Michael Gira, and (less importantly) Page Hamilton have all played with him, but do not let that fool you -- Branca's music is completely unredeeming, humorless, and pretentious to the point of ridiculousness. Don't be fooled!
Puh-lease!
To call Branca a composer is like calling someone's nose-picking Art. He is without a doubt the most talentless, the most uninteresting, the most humorless tertiary affiliate of the music scene, a man comfortable neither in the world of progressive rock (he has no rhythm, no chops, no ear) nor that of serious, i.e., classical music (he has no understanding of composition--I doubt he even knows how the circle of five works). It really doesn't matter how many guitarists he's got for this particular recording. They all sound terrible because the music Braca "wrote" is terrible. Just one monotonous strum on all six strings after another, with no rhyme or reason. You can do this with your kid brother and his twelve-year-old buddies anytime of the day in the luxury of your own basement. And you'll have more fun listening to the result taped on your beat-up radio afterward.