Cranberry Source, a set of variations for chamber orchestra & rock band, celebrates the 45th anniversary of the Beatles‘ 1967 landmark 45 RPM single “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
This project imagines a set of interconnected musical miniatures as heard through the original’s unique instrumentation, musical forces that combined successfully, and arguably for the first time, the fields of popular, classical, and world music.
That instrumentation, as orchestrated by Beatles’ producer George Martin for the original recording, consists of: 4 trumpets, 2 electric guitars, swarmandel (an Indian zither), piano, mellotron (flutes), timpani, guiro, maracas, tambourine, 3 celli, electric bass guitar, drum kit, and of course, vocals.
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Strawberry Fields Forever
Words and Music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Copyright (c) 1967 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Copyright Renewed
This arrangement (c) 2012 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
All Rights Administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC,
8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203
International Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved
A festival that celebrates the historical interaction between the genres of classical Experimental Music and Progressive Rock since their beginning and into the 21st century.
Spectrum, a recently-opened new-music performance venue in NYC’s Lower East Side, presents the NYX Festival: Three days of music where Experimentalism and Prog Rock merge. Since the last century, these two genres have shared a number of key features: the free use of emerging technologies by way of synthesizers & electronics, ambitious musical structures, asymmetric time signatures and, notably, virtuosic performance involving “traditionally-amplified” electric guitars and their kin as well as “traditionally-acoustic” instruments such as piano. The NYX Festival has a line-up of highly-talented and exciting musicians from NYC and elsewhere. This will be an enjoyable, envelope-expanding experience for participants, both audience and performers alike.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 10from 7:30 PM until midnight, doors open at 7:00 PM, tickets $15
Chapman Stick Night hosted by Greg Howard
Chapman Stick players work in all genres of music: rock, jazz, classical, folk world and experimental. This concert features six top players, from around the East Coast, for five hours of rock, progressive rock, jazz fusion and free improvization. Greg Howard will host the concert and perform throughout the evening.
Created for ROBERT WILSON’s WATERMILL BENEFIT 2002, THE RED NIGHT. Conceived, designed, & directed by ANDREY BARTENEV, original music by PATRICK GRANT (music a.k.a. “INFLUX”), text by CHRISTOPHER KNOWLES, stage managed by SUE JANE STOKER, produced by ROBERT WILSON, performed by the WATERMILL ARTISTS of 2002. http://watermillcenter.org
Music performed by: Patrick Grant (keyboard), Jed Distler (piano), Paul Desilva (organ), Keith Bonner (flute), Thomas P. Oberle (clarinet), Darryl Gregory (trombone), David Simons (percussion), Michael Evans (drums), Alejandra Mahave (viola), Grace Lin (cello), & Mark Steven Brooks (electric bass)
“Seven Years at Sea” LIVE – 5:38
for electric guitar, keyboard & live electronics
Video of “Seven Years at Sea” performed live, shot & edited by Daniel Palkowski (tinted by PG) at Concert #4 of the Composers Concordance Festival 2012, “Electronics,” curated by Milica Paranosic at Gallery MC, NYC. Water video by Carmen Kordas.
With a 28-year history of leading-edge concert production in NYC, Composers Concordance presents The Composers Concordance Festival 2012. This will be a whirlwind of five innovative contemporary music concerts in ten days, including over 40 of NYC’s most distinctive and accomplished composers. This festival spotlights the composer in different contexts, engaging the audience and performer in the creative process, and contending with the dizzying multiplicity of styles within today’s music scene. All the while, Composers Concordance puts a premium on distinguishability, that factor by which we remember and denote individual identity – and it’s that aspect, the distinction and breadth of the composer’s message, on which we’ll chiefly focus.
The first concert, ‘Songs‘, shows the various vocal styles the composer writes songs for. From the traditional western classical soprano and baritone, to the modern pop/r&b diva, to voices of other world cultures that stretch the boundaries of notation and pitch.
‘The Composers Play Composers Marathon‘ shows the composer as a performer of his or her own music. A common practice in baroque, classical and romantic periods but rarer in the mid 20th century. Toward the end of the century and into the new 21st century, the art of the composer-as-performer is re-emerging, and on this marathon we hear no fewer than 27 composers interpreting their own works.
‘New Blues‘ asks the composer to show his or her compositional skill and voice in this very particular genre that influenced so much of the music in the 20th century. With the 100-year anniversary of the first publication of a blues piece by W.C. Handy, we look at how the 21st century composer is influenced by this style.
The development of technology was quick in the 20th century, and it inspired composers to create brand new timbres and sonorities with the possibilities electronic manipulation of sound provided. We see what the 21st century composer has to offer to progress further the art of computers, amplifiers, and circuits in the ‘Electronics‘ concert of the festival.
With the final concert: ‘Ensemble‘, we witness the composer in an ensemble setting, performing each others’ music. The ensemble in question is the Composers Concordance Ensemble (which is the ensemble-in-residence at William Paterson University), made up of the directors of comp cord as well as regular performers and composers associated with the group.
NOTE: There will be a press conference before the first performance on January 27th, at 5:30pm at The Turtle Bay Music School. Members of the press are invited to attend and learn more about the festival. RSVP: composersconcordancerecords@gmail.com
Festival Schedule:
I. SONGS
Composers Celebrate the Diversity of Song Part of the Turtle Bay Visiting Artist Series
January 27th at 6:30pm
Turtle Bay Music School
Em Lee Concert Hall
244 East 52nd St, NYC
(212) 753-8811 http://www.tbms.org/ Admission: Free
Composers: Cody Brown, Dan Cooper, Charles Coleman, Luis Cobo, Duke Ellington/Pritsker, Milica Paranosic, Gene Pritsker, and Bob Rodriguez
Performers: Bobby Avey, Gernot Bernroider, Cody Brown, John Clark, Charles Coleman, Dan Cooper, Mat Fieldes, Laura Kay, Taka Kigawa, Milica Paranosic, Edmundo Ramirez, Chanda Rule, Sean Satin, and Keve Wilson
II. MARATHON The 3rd Annual Composers Play Composers Marathon
Composers Performing Their Own Music January 29th at 7pm
Composer/Performers: Cristian Amigo, Loop B, Dan Barrett, Eve Beglarian, Svjetlana Bukvich-Nichols, Peter Breiner, David Chesky, Luis Cobo, Valerie Coleman, Dan Cooper, Jed Distler, Patrick Grant, Franz Hackl, Sara Holtzschue, Peter Jarvis, Andrew M. Lee, Peri Mauer, Daniel Palkowski, Milica Paranosic, Gene Pritsker, David Saperstein, Larry Simon, David Soldier, Rubens Salles, Eleonor Sandresky, Ezequiel Viñao, and Michael Wolff
III. NEW BLUES Marking 100 Years of the Blues
Composers Bring the Genre into the 21st Century
Performed by The International Street Cannibals Ensemble January 31st at 9pm
Composers: Dan Barrett, John Clark, Dan Cooper, Glenn Cornett, Patrick Grant, Robert Johnson, Earl Maneein, Milica Paranosic, Gene Pritsker, and Joseph Pehrson
Performers: Dan Barrett, Lynn Bechtold, John Clark, Dan Cooper, Glenn Cornett, Glenn Cornett, Jennifer DeVore, Patrick Grant, Earl Maneein, Cesare Papetti, Milica Paranosic, Gene Pritsker, and Malik Work
IV. ELECTRONICS
Music for Electronics and Electro-Acoustic Ensemble
Composers Working with New Media February 3rd at 8pm
Gallery MC
549 West 52nd Street, 8th Floor
(bet. 10th & 11th Ave), NYC
(212) 581-1966 http://www.gallerymc.org/h/ Admission: $10
Composers: Loop B, Lynn Bechtold, Glenn Cornett, Dan Cooper, Dinu Ghezzo, Patrick Grant, Lainie Fefferman, Franz Hackl, Mari Kimura, Daniel Palkowski, Milica Paranosic/Joel Chadabe, Gene Pritsker, and Eric Somers
Performers: Loop B, Glenn Cornett, Lynn Bechtold, Gene Pritsker, Daniel Palkowski, Lainie Fefferman, Peter Christian Hall, Mari Kimura, Milica Paranosic, and Franz Hackl
Visual projections: Carmen Kordas
V. ENSEMBLE Composers Performing within an Ensemble
The Composers Concordance Ensemble at William Paterson University February 6th at 7pm
William Paterson University
300 Pompton Road Wayne, NJ
(973) 720-2315 http://www.wpunj.edu/ Admission: $5
Composers: John Cage, Dan Cooper, Robert Dick, Patrick Hardish, Peter Jarvis, Otto Luening, Milica Paranosic, Joseph Pehrson, and Gene Pritsker
Performers: Dan Barrett, Lynn Bechtold, Robert Dick, Peter Jarvis, Milica Paranosic, Gene Pritsker, and Michiyo Suzuki
Brazilan theater quarterly ANTRO POSITIVO contains a composer profile on pp. 40-41 in its latest edition. Texts were contributed by Maria Pessino and Tom Walker.
This week on Public Radio International’s STUDIO 360:
I speak with Jon Pareles, chief pop music critic for the NY Times, about the History of Audio Effects in Pop Music over the last 60 years in a segment hosted by Kurt Andersen and produced by Jocelyn Gonzales.
Locally, it airs in New York City on Saturdays at 4 PM on WNYC 93.9 FM. National times for the week will vary on PRI’s affiliates.
Here’s a link where it’s available as a stream or as a podcast. Check it out if you can. Thx.
Here’s a New York Times write-up of the Tilted Axes guitar parade, along with reviews of some of the other parades that were a part of Make Music Winter in NYC – Marching to Their Own Drummers:
‘TILTED AXES’
“I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 22 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” a passerby said as Patrick Grant and his small platoon of electric guitarists and percussionists filed into St. Mark’s Church on East 10th Street. The musicians — roughly 20, with guitars plugged into miniature, battery-powered Danelectro amplifiers — had just finished a circuitous 85-minute journey from Rivington Guitars, on East Fourth Street, through the East Village, around Union Square Park, and on to the church, playing Mr. Grant’s insistently upbeat “Tilted Axes” as they walked.
The procession proved a fascinating barometer of New Yorkers’ tolerance for mild artistic eccentricity. Most people whose paths the ensemble crossed either smiled and stopped to watch, or scarcely glanced at the players, as if a parade of amplified guitarists was something you were likely to see at any time here.
A few happenstance listeners clapped to the rhythms of Mr. Grant’s piece — a series of simple, repeated chord progressions, to which a few players contributed spicy lead lines — and others joined the parade. No one seemed impatient or put out. And many a cellphone was drawn to document the performance.
Mr. Grant and his colleagues — among them, the guitarists Larry Simon, Angela Babin, Alex Baxter, Cristian Amigo and Nick Didkovsky — ended the piece inside the church after circling its auditorium a handful of times. They probably could have played for another 85 minutes, but on a signal from Mr. Grant, they produced a final, briskly strummed cathartic chord and settled in for what he called the “afterglow party.” – ALLAN KOZINN
For a brief glimpse of Tilted Axes, here’s video from along the parade route:
Make Music New York founder Aaron Friedman has said that Make Music Winter was inspired by Phil Kline‘s annual boombox parade Unsilent Night, which was performed this year on December 17. Kline’s piece Peregrine made its American debut at Make Music Winter, a musical procession which began at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, and made its way through Park Slope to JJ Byrne Park.
Unsilent Night is a neighborhood institution here in the East Village, many I know have been a part of it at one time or another. I’ll end with a video profile of the yearly event from 2008 and thank Unsilent Night for being such a wonderful inspiration for the musicians who participated in Make Music Winter:
The MMiXdown 