Music From Other Minds

Michael Pisaro is a composer, guitarist, and member of the Wandelweiser Composer’s Ensemble, an international collective of composers and performers dedicated to exploring John Cage’s legacy of silence and its relationship with sound and music.

This program focused on his piece Fields Have Ears (6). Fields Have Ears was originally composed as a solo for guitar and sine tones and premiered in 2010 in Munich. Each time it has been performed since, a new version has been written to incorporate field recordings from the locations of previous performances as well as other sounds Pisaro associates with the history of the piece including turntables, radios, and records. A once simple piece is, in Pisaro’s words, now a “densely layered object that carries its history on its back like a tortoise shell.”

Michael Pisaro was a participant in our series “The Nature of Music,” on Tuesday, May 22, 2018. On that day, Pisaro presented two works, Transparent Cities and asleep, forest, melody, path, and participated in a discussion with Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian on his work.

Playlist:

Composer: Michael Pisaro
Title: Fields Have Ears (6)
Performer(s): Michael Pisaro
Recording title: Fields Have Ears (6)
Record label: Gravity Wave
Catalog number: GW 007

This program, hosted by Other Minds Administrative Director and vocal artist Randall Wong, presented two very different interpretations of the sound of the Arctic.

First is John Luther Adams’s 2007 composition for string quartet The Wind in High Places.  The piece uses only natural harmonics and open strings. It adapts the principles underlying the Aeolian harp, which is played by the wind; it treats the ensemble, in this case New York’s versatile JACK Quartet, as a single 16-string instrument. Throughout its nearly 20 minutes, the players never touch their fingerboards, instead rendering its austere, melancholy melodies with open strings and ghostly harmonics.

The rest of the program was devoted to excerpts from Eskimo, a work released in 1979 by the Bay Area experimental music collective The Residents. This group has done groundbreaking work in the areas of trance, world fusion, electronica, punk, industrial and lounge music. The group has also been credited with being among the originators of performance art and music video. Eskimo tells a story, without relying upon words, of the assimilation of a ritualistic society into consumer culture. This story unfolds as Eskimo fables, a lived experience, set to the grinding of sound effects and music. It is a mind movie rich with detail. Eskimo is, quite literally, a unique experience.

Playlist:

Composer: John Luther Adams
Title: The Wind in High Places
Performer(s): JACK Quartet
Recording title: John Luther Adams: The Wind in High Places
Record label: Cold Blue Music
Catalog number: CB0041

Composer: The Residents
Titles: Eskimo
Performer(s): The Residents
Recording title: Eskimo
Record label: Ralph Records
Catalog number: n/a

It was Michael Nyman who first used the term minimalist in the late 60s to describe the music of Cornelius Cardew. He later described the term to include “any music that works with limited or minimal materials… that maybe uses only a few notes … or that slows the tempo down to two or three notes per minute.”

Piano Preludes have been with us for a very long time, perhaps starting with Bach and his 24, each based on a unique key. But Bach’s Preludes were preludes to fugues. Recently, composers have turned to writing just Preludes… preludes to nothing. Maybe they’re more like Etudes … I don’t know. The neat thing is that Preludes have sequential numbers, avoiding the need for flighty titles that don’t mean much. So that’s good.

We begin with Jeroen van Veen’s 24 Minimal Preludes. Like Bach’s, each is in a different key. Van Veen is renowned in Europe as a pianist specializing in minimalist and avant-garde music, with many recordings, especially of Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, and Simeon ten Holt. And, clearly, his own Preludes have been heavily influenced by the music he champions so often.

We start the program with his Prelude #8, followed by four more from the 24 Minimal Preludes for Piano performed by the composer, Jeroen van Veen.

The young Colombian composer living in Brooklyn, Julian de la Chica, presents a very different approach to minimalism with his 14 Preludes Opus 8. These contrast greatly from what we just heard, and lean dangerously towards being new-agey, were not for the compelling performance by incomparable Lisa Moore in this new release. Here are five of the 14 preludes of Julian de la Chica, performed by Lisa Moore with the composer assisting on synthesizer, and also providing a second pair of hands on piano in one of them.

This is on a just released CD from Irreverence Group Music. We hope to hear more from this young composer.

Playlist:

Composer: Jeroen van Veen
Titles: Prélude Nr. 8 In F# Minor; Prélude Nr. 14 In E Flat Minor; Prélude Nr. 16 In B Flat Minor; Prélude Nr. 17 In A Flat; Prélude Nr. 18 In F Minor
Performer(s): Jeroen van Veen, piano
Recording title: Minimal Piano Collection, Volumes I-IX
Record label: Brilliiant Classics
Catalog number: 8551

Composer: Julian de la Chica
Titles: Preludes, Op. 8: No. 6, 7, 10, 12, 13
Performer(s): Lisa Moore, piano
Recording title: Lisa Moore – de la Chica, Preludes Opus 8
Record label: Irreverence Group Music
Catalog number: IGM-018

There was a time when the name Karlheinz Stockhausen on a concert program would raise fear and loathing among audiences and performers alike. Stockhausen, along with Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, and others led the European avant garde in the 1950s and 60s.

By 1962, Stockhausen had already established himself as a major force in music, including the new field of electronic music. His works for large orchestras and smaller ensembles, percussion, electronic tape, and the ten Klavierstücke, are masterpieces of that era. Stockhausen’s compositional techniques were unique, utilizing formal metamusical schemas that dictated the score and the performance, and many of his works extended musical notation.

Tonight, we’ll hear one of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s truly gigantic works – Momente, in the version from 1965, recently remastered and rereleased on a Wergo CD. Stockhausen developed the formal scheme for Momente in 1961 on a commission from the West German Radio. There are three groups of Moments, that concentrate on Melody, Sound, and Duration, along with indeterminate moments that tend to cancel out these three groups, or at least that’s what is intended.

The structure of the work is complex, and the inspiration for many graduate theses and papers. Suffice it to say that each moment is interchangeable and organized beforehand for a particular performance by the conductor.

But you don’t need to know much about these compositional details to experience the work. When the 1965 performance was released on Wergo and Nonesuch in 1967, nothing like it had been heard before. And for Nonesuch records, known mostly for music by Baroque composers like Vivaldi and Handel, it was quite a sensational act.

When I first heard the recording back then I thought I had been dropped into some strange cult ritual that is probably still going on. Considering the times, this was a remarkable and ground-breaking work.

The 1965 version of Momente, which is for soprano, four choirs, and 13 instruments, featured the then 29 year old opera soprano Martina Arroyo, Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky playing Hammond and Lowrey organs, the Cologne Radio choir, and instrumentalists from the Cologne radio symphony orchestra, all under the direction of the composer, Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Links:

A detailed analysis of Momente can be found here, and continues here.

Luc Ferrari’s documentary about Stockhausen and Momente, including footage from rehearsals (mostly in French) can be viewed on YouTube. There is an English transcript of the film here.

Playlist:

Composer: Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)
Title: Momente (version 1965) for soprano, 4 choirs, 13 instruments
Performer(s): Marina Arroyo, Soprano; Aloys Kontarsky, Hammond Organ; Alfons Kontarsky, Lowrey Organ; Cologne Radio Choir; Members of the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra; Karlheinz Stockhausen, conductor.
Recording title: Momente
Record label: Wergo
Catalog number: WER 67742

This week’s program features the radio debut of Michael Jones, the Development Assistant here at Other Minds, and soon to be a graduate student in music performance at the University of California at San Diego. Jones will be presenting compositions written by American composers of Chinese ancestry, including Vivian Fung, Lei Liang, and David Macbride (whose mother is Chinese). The work presented here shows a desire to combine elements of both Western and Asian musical heritage into their expressive new compositions.

Playlist:

Composer: Vivian Fung
Title: Glimpses for Solo Prepared Piano
Performer(s): Conor Hanick
Recording title: Dreamscapes
Record label: Naxos Canadian Classics
Catalog number: 8.573009

Composer: Lei Liang
Title: Luminous
Performer(s): Mark Dresser w/the Palimpsest Ensemble conducted by Steven Schick
Recording title: Lei Liang – Luminous
Record label: New World Records
Catalog number: 80784

Composer: David Macbride
Title: Bells of Remembrance
Performer(s): David Macbride and Benjamin Toth
Recording title: A Special Light
Record label: Innova Records
Catalog number: 886

Composer: David Macbride
Title: Klung
Performer(s): Gene Koshinski, Tim Broscious, and Bill Solomon
Recording title: Gene Koshinski – Klung
Record label: Equilibrium Records
Catalog number: EQ91

Composer: David Macbride
Title: For Watson Morris
Performer(s): David Macbride
Recording title: In Passing
Record label: Albany Records
Catalog number: TROY677

This program was devoted to the beautiful 1976 composition by Steve Reich, who then was turning 40 years old: Music For 18 Musicians. As Reich is now double that age, we thought it was time to take a look back at a turning point in his career that widened his audience and set a new standard for minimalist expression.

This 56 minute work, played by the composer’s own ensemble, is based on eleven chords, heard at the beginning and the end of the piece. Reich, a percussionist, previously had dealt primarily in rhythmic structures but paid less attention to harmony. But now in this work, a new generosity of spirit is evident. The first five minutes of the piece has more harmonic movement than any other work of his to that date.

Playlist:

Composer: Steve Reich
Title: Music For 18 Musicians
Performer(s): Steve Reich Ensemble
Recording title: Music For 18 Musicians
Record label: ECM Records
Catalog number: ECM 1129

Sound poetry, dating back over 100 years, is the focus of Other Minds Music Festival 23, titled “Sound Poetry: The Wages of Syntax.” Participants include such charismatic poets and composers as Anne Waldman, Aram Saroyan, Clark Coolidge with composer Alvin Curran from Rome, virtuoso performer Jaap Blonk from the Netherlands, Enzo Minarelli from Italy, and Beat poet Michael McClure—just a few of the many voices to be heard over a 6-day extravaganza, Monday April 9th through Saturday April 14th, at ODC Theater in San Francisco.

In program 510, Charles Amirkhanian introduces some rare gems such as the 1958 takeoff on Elvis Presley’s Don’t Be Cruel, transformed into abstract language by Maurice Lemaitre into Lettre Rock. Anne Waldman holds forth with her striking, shamanistic Synoptic Microcosmos, and Clark Coolidge, performs his syntax attack, The Very Idea. Brion Gysin, Ernst Toch, and Gertrude Stein/Virgil Thomson are highlighted, and Italian sound poet Enzo Minarelli pays homage to the Pope in Cultpppoem.

Playlist:

Composer: Ernst Toch
Title: Geographical Fugue, from Spoken Word Suite (1930, English language version)
Performer(s): Smoke & Mirror Percussion Ensemble
Recording title: Vanish
Record label: Yarlung Records
Catalog number: 15195

Composer: Virgil Thomson
Title: Capital Capitals (1927, text by Gertrude Stein from 1917)
Performer(s): Joseph Crawford, Clyde S. Turner, tenors; Joseph James, baritone; William C. Smith, bass; Virgil Thomson, piano
Recording title: Composer-Critics of the New York Herald Tribune
Record label: Other Minds Records
Catalog number: OM1024-2

Composer: Clark Coolidge
Title: The Very Idea (2015)
Performer(s): Coolidge, reader; Devin Brahja Waldman, alto sax; Thurston Moore, guitar
Recording title: Tiny People Having a Meeting
Record label: Fast Speaking Music
Catalog number:

Composer: Anne Waldman
Title: Synoptic Microcosmos (2015)
Performer(s): Anne Waldman, reader; Thurston Moore, guitar
Recording title: Tiny People Having a Meeting
Record label: Fast Speaking Music
Catalog number:

Composer: Brion Gysin
Title: No Poets Don’t Own Words; I Am This Painter
Performer(s): Brion Gysin, reader
Recording title: Recordings 1960-1981
Record label: Perdition Plastics
Catalog number: PER 004

Composer: Enzo Minarelli
Title: Cultpppoem
Performer(s): Enzo Minarelli, voice
Recording title: Coralmente me stesso
Record label:
Catalog number:

Composer: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Title: Bombardimento di Adrianopoli
Performer(s): Marinetti, voice (recorded 1935)
Recording title: historical recording

Composer: Jackson Mac Low
Title: Free Gatha 1 And Free Gatha 2
Performer(s): Jackson Mac Low & Ann Tardos – voices
Recording title: Open Secrets
Record label: Experimental Intermedia
Catalog number: XI 110

Composer: Maurice Lemaitre
Title: Lettre Rock
Performer(s): Maurice Lemaitre, voice
Recording title: Le Lettrisme
Record label: Columbia (France)
Catalog number: ESRF 1171

Composer: Jaap Blonk
Title: Yapping at the Moon
Performer(s): Jaap Blonk, voice
Recording title: Songs of Little Sleep
Record label: Bandcamp Release
Catalog number:

Sound poetry, dating back over 100 years, is the focus of Other Minds Music Festival 23, titled “Sound Poetry: The Wages of Syntax.” Participants include such charismatic poets and composers as Anne Waldman, Aram Saroyan, Clark Coolidge with composer Alvin Curran from Rome, virtuoso performer Jaap Blonk from the Netherlands, Enzo Minarelli from Italy, and Beat poet Michael McClure—just a few of the many voices to be heard over a 6-day extravaganza, Monday April 9th through Saturday April 14th, at ODC Theater in San Francisco.

In program 509 Music From Other Minds, Charles Amirkhanian presents examples of sound poetry and text-sound composition by outsider figures—poets, composers—artists from all disciplines—experimenting with the intermedium between literature and music.

Playlist:

Composer: Silvia Matheus
Title: Phoneme (2006)
Performer(s): Silvia Matheus, synthesizer
Recording title: Private Recording

Composer: Mark Applebaum
Title: Three Unlikely Corporate Sponsorships – Nestlé (2016)
Performer(s): Mark Applebaum, voice
Recording title: Speed Dating
Record label: Innova
Catalog number: 996

Composer: Henri Chopin
Title: Définition des Lettres Suivantes (1975)
Performer(s): Henri Chopin, voice
Recording title: Text-Sound Compositions: A Stockholm Festival
Record label: Fylkingen
Catalog number: 1024

Composer: Lily Greenham
Title: Friction (1973)
Performer(s): Lily Greenham, voice and electronics
Recording title: Lingual Music
Record label: Paradigm Discs
Catalog number: PD 22

Composer: Beth Anderson
Title: Torero Piece (1973)
Performer(s): Beth Anderson, voice
Recording title: 10+2: 12 American Text Sound Pieces
Record label: Other Minds Records
Catalog number: OM 1006-2

Composer: Charles Amirkhanian
Title: Dog of Stravinsky (1982)
Performer(s): Charles Amirkhanian, tape
Recording title: Mental Radio
Record label: New World Records
Catalog number: NWCRL523

Composer: Susan Stone
Title: Ruby
Performer(s): Susan Stone, voice
Recording title: House With A View (private recording)

Composer: Sheila Davies
Title: What is the Matter in Amy Glennon? (1988)
Performer(s): Barney Jones, Gregory Whitehead, Pierce MacKenzie, Fran Smith, Amy X Neuburg, Shiela Davies – voices
Recording title: Transmissions From Broadcast Artists
Record label: ¿What Next? Recordings
Catalog number: WN0013

Many composers were if not directly influenced at least intrigued by the pattern music of Philip Glass and Steve Reich coming out of New York City in the 70s. One was the late Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt, who created a Dutch version of minimalism.

ten Holt was interested mainly in the process, especially with his pieces for multiple performers … two, four, six, even 8 pianos. But processes that the listener need not be aware of to appreciate. It’s odd to recall that at the time, this music was denounced as insipid cult music. And yet the audience for it continues to grow. You can find performances of ten Holt’s music performed in odd places such as train stations and airports in Europe on youtube.

This music is best appreciated if you take the time to listen carefully, very carefully. If you make the effort to hear the shifting elements in the fore- and background and the very sudden appearance of new patterns, you will experience something quite unique and rewarding. If you can muster the concentration to listen intensely you will be rewarded in unexpected ways. To appreciate this music fully requires the greatest concentration from the listener as well as performer.

Most of Simeon ten Holt’s works can go on for indeterminate length. Some are two or three or more hours long, so it was hard to find characteristic pieces that will fit in our hour. Tonight we’ll hear two of the four published Solodowveldanses, Solo Devil Dances, numbers 3 and 4, composed in 1990 and 96. And they are really devilish.

Playlist:

Composer: Simeon ten Holt
Title: Soloduiveldans III (1990)
Performer(s): Kees Wieringa, piano
Recording title: Simeon ten Holt: Highlights
Record label: Composers Voice
Catalog number: CVCD 137

Composer: Simeon ten Holt
Title: Soloduiveldans IV (1998)
Performer(s): Jeroen van Veen, piano
Recording title: Simeon ten Holt: Highlights
Record label: Composers Voice
Catalog number: CVCD 137

On this program, Richard Friedman presents two composers that were personal discoveries resulting from doing these programs over the past 10+ years: Hans Otte and Ann Southam.

Playlist:

Composer: Hans Otte
Title: Das Buch der Klänge (1979-82), #10, #2, #5
Performer(s): Hans Otte, piano
Recording title: Das Buch der Klänge
Record label: Celestial Harmonies
Catalog number: 12069

Composer: Ann Southam
Title: Glass Houses (1981): # 1, 9
Performer(s): Christina Petrowska Quilico, piano
Recording title: Glass Houses Revisited
Record label: Centredisques
Catalog number: CMCCD 16511

Composer: Ann Southam
Title: Fiddle Creek; Fidget Creek; Noisy River
Performer(s): Christina Petrowska Quilico, piano
Recording title: Pond Life
Record label: Centredisques
Catalog number: CMCCD 14109

Playlist:

Composer: Morton Feldman
Title: The Viola in My Life (1971)
Performer(s): Cikada Ensemble, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Christian Eggen, cond.
Recording title: The Viola in My Life
Record label: ECM Records
Catalog number: ECM 1798

Composer: Morton Feldman
Title: I Met Heine on Rue Fürstenberg (1971)
Performer(s): Ensemble Récherche
Recording title: Morton Feldman: Routine Investigations…
Record label: Disques Montaigne (now Naive Records)
Catalog number: None available

Playlist:

Composer: Iannis Xenakis
Title: Tracées (1987) for large orchestra
Performer(s): Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Arturo Tamayo cond.
Recording title: Iannis Xenakis: Oeuvres Pour Orchestre
Record label: Timpani Records
Catalog number: 5C1177

Composer: Iannis Xenakis
Title: Linaia-Agon (1972) for trombone, horn, tuba
Performer(s): Group 7090
Recording title: Xenakis in Het Orgelpark
Record label: Orgelpark Records
Catalog number: 011

Composer: Iannis Xenakis
Title: Ata (1987) for large orchestra
Performer(s): Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Arturo Tamayo cond.
Recording title: Iannis Xenakis: Oeuvres Pour Orchestre
Record label: Timpani Records
Catalog number: 5C1177

Composer: Iannis Xenakis
Title: Gmeeoorh (1974) for pipe organ
Performer(s): Jan Hage, Verschueren Organ, Orgelpark, Amsterdam
Recording title: Xenakis in Het Orgelpark
Record label: Orgelpark Records
Catalog number: 011

Playlist:

Composer: Alvin Curran
Title: For Cornelius (1982, revised 1990)
Performer(s): Yvar Mikhashoff, piano
Recording title: Yvar Mikhashoff plays Alvin Curran: Piano Works
Record label: Mode Records
Catalog number: mode 49

Composer: Henri Dutilleux
Title: Figures de résonances (1970/76)
Performer(s): Robert Levin & Ya-Fei Chuang, pianos
Recording title: Henri Dutilleux: De l’ombre et de silence
Record label: ECM Records
Catalog number: ECM 2105

Composer: Alvin Curran
Title: From The Last Acts of Julian Beck (1985):  2 – He Meets His Maker on Upper Broadway; 3 – Walks Into “Paradise Now”
Performer(s): Yvar Mikhashoff, piano
Recording title: Yvar Mikhashoff plays Alvin Curran: Piano Works
Record label: Mode Records
Catalog number: mode 49

John Luther Adams’ new string quartet, Everything That Rises was recently released on Cold Blue Music. Commissioned by SFJAZZ and the JACK Quartet, Everything That Rises is an ever-in-motion virtuosic just-intonation work built of a series of 16 ascending musical “clouds.” Its pitches are derived from the harmonics of the piece’s subsonic fundamental tone (C0).

The composer writes: “Everything That Rises, my fourth string quartet, grew out of Sila: The Breath of the World—a concert-length choral/orchestral work I composed on a rising series of 16 harmonic clouds. This music traverses that same territory, but in a much more melodic way. Each musician is a soloist, playing throughout. Time floats and the lines spin out, always rising, in acoustically perfect intervals that grow progressively smaller as they spiral upward…until the music dissolves into the soft noise of the bows, sighing.”

Playlist:

Composer: John Luther Adams
Title: Everything That Rises
Performer(s): JACK Quartet
Recording title: Everything That Rises
Record label: Cold Blue Music
Catalog number: CB0051
Link: Composer web site

Recently we have been exploring the legacy of the last century’s avant-garde – Edgard Varése, Luciano Berio, Iannis Xenakis and John Cage. Tonight our focus is on French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, who passed away two years ago at age 90. Boulez’s influence throughout the last half of the 20th Century was significant. Much of the new music written over the past 60 years has either been influenced by or in reaction to his music.

Paul Griffiths writes that “Pierre Boulez’s music belongs in the energetic state of a trapped bang, where ideas can have implications that run on through great lengths of composed time, through many decades in the composers career, and indeed, through our own lives, after we’ve heard them.”

Playlist:

Composer: Pierre Boulez
Title: Notations 1-4 (1945)
Performer(s): Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Recording title: …explosante-fixe…
Record label: Deutsche Grammophon GmbH
Catalog number: 0289 477 5385 8

Composer: Pierre Boulez
Title: Notations 1-4 (1945)
Performer(s): Daniel Barenboim and the Orchestre de Paris
Recording title: Notations 1-4 / Rituel / Messagesquisse
Record label: Erato
Catalog number: 2292-45493-2

Composer: Pierre Boulez
Title: Sur Incises
Performer(s): Jean-Guihen Queyras/Hae-Sun Kang/Ensemble Intercontemporain/Pierre Boulez
Recording title: Boulez: Sur Incises
Record label: Deutsche Grammophon GmbH
Catalog number: 0289 463 4752 2

Composer: Pierre Boulez
Title: Notations 8-12
Performer(s): Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Recording title: …explosante-fixe…
Record label: Deutsche Grammophon GmbH
Catalog number: 0289 477 5385 8

Early and rarely heard piano pieces by John Cage, performed by Steffen Schleiermacher, from a compilation set called John Cage, Complete Piano Music.

Playlist:

Composer: John Cage
Title: Experience (1944)
Performer(s): Steffen Schleiermacher
Recording title: John Cage: Complete Piano Music
Record label: Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm
Catalog number: MDG 613 1731-2

Composer: John Cage
Title: A Book of Music for 2 pianos (1944) – Part 1
Performer(s): Steffen Schleiermacher
Recording title: John Cage: Complete Piano Music
Record label: Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm
Catalog number: MDG 613 1731-2

Composer: John Cage
Title: Solo for Piano (1958)
Performer(s): Steffen Schleiermacher
Recording title: John Cage: Complete Piano Music
Record label: Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm
Catalog number: MDG 613 1731-2

Composer: John Cage
Title: Music for Marcel Duchamp (1947)
Performer(s): Steffen Schleiermacher
Recording title: John Cage: Complete Piano Music
Record label: Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm
Catalog number: MDG 613 1731-2