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Comment on The “Classical” music biz – Dead Again? I Think Not. by Sean Hickey

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:02 GMT

Yes, I'm surprised we're still talking about this topic too. Thanks to Andy for taking it on. There's still a lot of classical music fans that cling to the glory days. Well, if you're a fan of music in all of its forms, especially new music of any kind, the glory days are now.

Comment on State of Our Union? by Arthur Cundy

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:00 GMT

I appreciate with art rock experience back in the 8O's – those that later on moved to scored music. Also those that are post-minimalist in orientation

Comment on State of Our Union? by Paul Muller

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:57 GMT

Most Hopeful: The ability of any 12 musicians with similar artistic goals – even when dispersed over the entire planet – to form a community of common interests via the web.

Comment on Listening list for emerging composers by Chris Becker

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:57 GMT

Charles Mingus – Self Portrait in Three Colors, Haitian Fight Song, and Open Letter To Duke.

Diamanda Galas – Wild Women With Steak Knives, The Divine Punishment, You Must Be Certain Of The Devil

John Zorn – Cobra, Speedfreaks, Forbidden Fruit

Mingus for counterpoint, harmonic and rhythmic invention, and melodic development. His compositions sort of look backwards and forwards simultaneously. It's amazing to me that one composer wrote all three of those pieces – but open up and study the Mingus Fakebook and your mind will be completely blown.

Zorn for his groundbreaking use of improvisation in a composed context. Cobra is an incredibly ground breaking piece for improvisers – as important as “In C” in IMHO. In much of Zorn's early work, music is pushed to a point of being near noise but only just so. Speedfreaks for how it is paced, its overall compositional arc (not sure how else to say it), and again how it sits on the razor's edge of profundity and hilarity (noise/music).

Galas is an vital composer/performer that more students should be aware of. Her music is crucial and uncompromising and still (IMHO) misunderstood in much of the U.S. The scope of her vocal and compositional technique is very inspiring.

Comment on Listening list for emerging composers by Lainie Fefferman

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:49 GMT

i picked each of mine to show young composers some tool or method of thinking i find valuable (like a way of dealing with speech in the toch, or excessive constraint in pitch material in the ligeti, or mathematical process in the johnson, hocketing in the andriessen, etc..). it is a very personal list, though — it's by no means a thorough, unbiased survey of the century.

Comment on Listening list for emerging composers by david toub

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:48 GMT

I picked my list (and it was hard to pare down) based on what I considered to be pretty significant and diverse works from the past 50 years or so. There is no objective rationale for my list-it's admittedly totally subjective and your mileage will vary.