The Revolution Will Not Be Autotuned

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.

Listen HERE:

– Patrick Grant

May Daze

Here’s a look back at the performances from last week:


Photos from:
Bruka Band Meets Composers Concordance – May 10, 2011 at MC Gallery, NYC. Featuring Bruka Band’s Milica Paranosic, Margaret Lancaster, Jonathan Zalben, Rubens Sales, Richard Manoia, Cesare Papetti and Peter Christian Hall; and Composers Concordance’s Dan Cooper, Gene Pritsker, Dan Barret, Patrick Grant, and Lynn Bechtold.
Vermicelli: A Concert of Multiple Cellos – Presented by International Street Cannibals – May 15, 2011 at St Mark’s Church-On-the Bowery, NYC
Music from: “Firearms” from Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms by Patrick Grant (premiere)

Below is another selection from the music of Patrick Grant, a second piece which premiered at “VermiCelli – a concert of multiple cellos” last week:


“DEATH” from Pestilence, War, Famine, & Death
for cello quartet by Patrick Grant

Performed by Eric Edberg, Tish Edens, Dan Barrett, & Leo Grinhauz
Choreography & dance by Megan Sipe
Video artwork by Arman Armand Fernandez (1928-2005)

Score & parts at peppergreenmedia.com/​PWFD.html
(c) 2011 Peppergreen Media (ASCAP)

Composers Play Composers Marathon – NYC

An audio-slideshow message from co-directors of Composers Concordance Records:


video editing: J. Gonzales – audio editing: P. Grant

Composers Concordance’s 2nd Annual
COMPOSERS PLAY COMPOSERS MARATHON
January 30th at Club Drom, NYC

music & performances by:

Gene Pritsker, Dan Cooper, Patrick Grant, David Morneau, Robert Voisey, Kevin James, Peter Jarvis, Dave Taylor, John Clark, Jay Rozen, Hayes Greenfield, Valerie Coleman, Lynn Bechtold, Robert Dick, Franz Hackl, Milica Paranosic, Arthur Kampela, David Claman

CLUB DROM
85 Avenue A
(b/w 5th & 6th)
New York, NY
(212) 777-1157
http://www.dromnyc.com

$20 at door includes one drink

Read the PRESS RELEASE

– Patrick Grant

Lofty Sounds: Site Singing Traditions in NYC

I met Sig Rosen at the Composers Concordance Records label launch party at St. Marks Church in The East Village late last autumn. He’s known those folks for a while, especially in this case, because vocalist Patricia Sonego had just performed my “Thou Art Translated (Knot)” with me and dancer Megan Sipe at the event.

Things being as they are these days, we became friends on Facebook and, noting his interests on his info page, I saw that Medieval and Renaissance vocal music was one of his passions. His interest stems back to the Renaissance Chorus of New York, a group founded by Harold Brown in the early 1950s.

I decided to send him a link to my site which houses a 20 minute vocal suite I created in 2008 as a commission from medieval music enthusiast (and the work’s librettist) Bruce Barrett, my (uncharacteristic) “Three Choral Pieces in Latin.”

From here, Sig told me all about the vocal groups and overlapping subsets that he has been a part of for years. He asked, would I be interested in having one of these groups, the Friday Night Singers (led by Marge Naughton), do a reading of these pieces I wrote? Of course I would!

Normally, they meet uptown but, due to seasonal flu, the owner of that loft could not do it on January 14, the night we set up. Instead, we met in Chelsea at the loft of John Hetland, director of the Renaissance Street Singers, who was gracious to let us all meet there and sing through not only my pieces, but also a few of his great choral transcriptions of which he has created volumes.

This audio slideshow is a bit of conversation with Sig Rosen from that night:

Audio and pictures by Jocelyn Gonzales.

– Patrick Grant

BIG BANG on 10/10/10

BIG BANG


BIG BANG
Composed & directed by Patrick Grant
Text by Patrick Grant and Charles Liu with Brian Schwartz

Performed by Patrick Grant Group: Patrick Grant, Kathleen Supove, Marija Ilic, & John Ferrari
Charles Liu, narrator

Technical assistance: Erick Gonzales & Jocelyn Gonzales
Performed May 21, 2006 on the One-Two-Three-GO! New Music Concert Series, NYC
Video editing and post-production 2010

BIG BANG was commissioned by the CUNY Graduate Center Science & the Arts performance series in NYC, an initiative of the Science Outreach Series, presenting programs in theatre, art, music, and dance that bridge the worlds of art and science. Supported in part by the National Science Foundation and the Lounsbery Foundation. For further information on Science & the Arts at: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/sciart/

Complete project info at: http://www.strangemusic.com/BigBang.htm

© 2006 Patrick Grant/sTRANGEmUSIC
http://www.strangemusic.com

===============================================

BIG BANG

1. Prologue

2. Running the Film in Reverse

3. The Quantum Gravity Era

4. The Big Bang

5. The Universe Takes Shape

6. Formation of Basic Elements

7. The Radiation Era

8. Beginning the Era of Matter Domination

9. Birth of Stars and Galaxies

10. Earliest Life

11. Homo Sapiens Evolve


12. The Stellar Era Ends


13. Epilogue

– Patrick Grant

Antonin Artaud: tHE pHILOSOPHER’S sTONE

This is posted in observance of Antonin Artaud (Sept. 4, 1896) – playwright, poet, actor, visionary.

“We do not mean to bore the audience to death with transcendental cosmic preoccupations. Audiences are not interested in whether there are profound clues to the show’s thought and action, since in general this does not concern them. But these must still be there and that concerns us.” – Antonin Artaud

tHE
pHiLOSOPHER’S sTONE

a tone-poem for gamelan, strings, and 2 synthesizers by Patrick GRANT after a scenario by Antonin ARTAUD (La Pierre Philosophale – 1931), commissioned by the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble 2003

Introduction

Antonin Artaud

Project Description

The Scenario

Theatre of Cruelty Manifesto

Artaud and the Balinese Theatre

An Analysis of “The Philosopher’s Stone”

The Picasso Connection

===========================================

tHE pHILOSOPHER’S sTONE
music for gamelan, strings, and 2 synthesizers – 2003

PDF Score – 120 pp – 8 MB

===========================================

hOME

www.strangemusic.com

H2Opus: First Rehearsal for Make Music New York 2010

Here’s a slideshow from the first rehearsal of H20pus: Fluid Soundscapes for Multiple Composers, a special performance produced by Patrick Grant for Make Music New York taking place on Monday June 21, 2010 at Waterside Plaza, 23rd Street & The East River, from 7PM – 9PM.

In these photos from June 15: Composers Dan Cooper, Gene Pritsker, Joseph Pehrson, Kamala Sankaram & Patrick Grant with performers Kathleen Supove, Marija Ilic and Lynn Bechtold. Drummer/percussionist John Ferrari will join in beginning rehearsal No. 2.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “H20pus: First Rehearsal for Make Musi…“, posted with vodpod

Pieces on the Program:

Lonely Ride Coney Island – Patrick Grant
Prudendurance Wet –
Joseph Pehrson
Wading for Bait Man –
Patrick Grant 
Water Possessed 4-
Gene Pritsker
Sounds of Sirens –
Patrick Grant
Lucid Intervals –
Patrick Grant
Deep Time 2-
Gene Pritsker
Solstice Bells –
Dan Cooper
Pilgrim –
Kamala Sankaram
Fishbowl – Dan Cooper
Design –
Dan Cooper

– Jocelyn

Kamala Sankaram: Squeezebox and Vox

She’s come a long way from glee club.  Arriving in New York City hoping to one day tread the boards on Broadway, composer/performer/accordionista Kamala Sankaram instead discovered Philip Glass and Steve Reich, and then developed into an eclectic and theatrical new music composer.

A trained soprano, Kamala’s primary compositional tools are voice, accordion and electronics. She’s collaborated or performed with the likes of Philip Glass Ensemble, The Wooster Group, Phil Kline, Daniel S. Goode, Death Comet Crew and The Albany Symphony Orchestra. Her work’s been featured at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, the Lucerne Festival, and the Music with a View Festival at the Flea Theater. As lead vocalist and songwriter for the band Squeezebox, self-described as “the bastard child of Kurt Weill and Portishead”, she’s been bringing noir-ish chamber electronica to the stage. Listen to Squeezebox at this link.

Composer/performer Patrick Grant sat down to chat with Kamala Sanakaram about her musical roots and her current work in this video:

Kamala created the music for the multimedia musical, Sounding at HERE Arts Center, based on Henrik Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea. Her melodic rock compositions propelled audiences into the past memories and inner turmoil of a washed up rock star mourning the loss of a child. Kamala remains at HERE as an artist in residence, where she is working on a multimedia chamber opera called Miranda: “Pop-opera meets Reality TV…where the audience becomes detective, judge, and jury for an unsolved murder. An innovative mix of original music inspired by hip-hop, tango, Baroque counterpoint, and Hindustani classical ragas, Miranda is set during the live taping of a hit Court TV show.”

You can see a clip of Miranda right HERE.

We’re so pleased that Kamala Sankaram is joining us for H2Opus, Fluid Soundscapes by Multiple Composers, an event produced by Patrick Grant & Special Guests for Make Music New York 2010. This special free outdoor performance takes place at Waterside Plaza NYC, 23rd Street & The East River, Monday, June 21, 2010, 7PM – 9PM.

H2Opus will feature music and performances by:
Patrick Grant – composer/keyboard/electric guitar
Kamala Sankaram – composer/voice/accordian
Gene Pritsker – composer/electric guitar
Joseph Pehrson – composer/keyboard
Dan Cooper – composer/electric bass
John Ferrari – drums & marimba
Kathleen Supove – keyboard
Lynn Bechtold – violin
Marija Ilic – keyboard

More info HERE

– Jocelyn