It’s been fun while it lasted, but let’s face the truth: december.org no longer is a source for minimal music and hasn’t been for quite a while.
As of today this site exists for archival purposes only.
Thank you for your visit, and I wholeheartedly recommend any of the other sites in the link section below.
How about this for a fairytale:
Once upon a time a young magician and a young Empress hoped to marry, but her parents forbade the match. Both young people married others. But the magician, Dispacus, hot for revenge against the Empress, whom he wrongly blamed, brought up his only daughter, Tormentilla, on poisons, so that the first man she kissed would die. He knew that the Empress had a son and he planned that his daughter should be the cause of her son’s death.
The Empress, cleverer than he, knew of this and brought up her son, Amaryllus, on antidotes, so that when fate brought the young people together and inevitably made them fall in love, the first kiss was not fatal, though at first it seemed so, for Amaryllus fainted from pure joy. When he was brought home he did nearly die from the pain of being separated from his love.
Eventually the Empress relented and allowed Tormentilla to see him. Amaryllus’s happiness was so great that his mother was touched to the heart. She summoned Dispacus –long a widower as she had long be a widow– and all differences were healed. Not only did he and the Empress marry, but also her ladies-in-waiting married his hobgoblins. The prince, of course, married Tormentilla, while her faithful companion, Angelica, married his friend and squire, Gallanthus. And they all lived happily for ever after.
My four year old son, Henri, is getting rather fond of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Poisoned Kiss –and prefers listening to that rather than watching the telly. And honestly, who am I to go against him?
The Poisoned Kiss
Ralph Vaughan Williams
» buy the album @ amazon UK
Conducted by: Richard Hickox
Performed by: BBC National Orchestra of Wales
By sheer coincidence I’d found out yesterday that the Bijloke had a concert scheduled –that same night– by the Cello Octet Conjunto Ibérico. The fact that the concert hall is only minutes away from where I live, quickly removed any doubt that might have been there re: attending the performance.
The architecture of the building itself is still impressive, though the room acoustics tend to be rather bland (even though a lot of research went into improving this). Last time I’d been there, was for the Kronos Quartet performance on their Nuevo tour (in 2002, see also this entry). From the first notes on, the Cello Octet performance promised to become equally good.
Unfortunately the instruments were electronically amplified, and there was a tape accompanying the cellos to fill in for any missing instruments. Completely unnecessary as the performance and sound of the eight cellos proved to be powerful and diverse enough to handle all melody and rythm, but also a bit annoying since –due to the difference in prerecorded sound and the warmth of the live cellos– this made the tape tracks float in front and superimposed on the rest of the performance. Bit of a shame, really.
Unfortunately things got rather bad during Attack and Fall (from the opera Akhnaten). Even though it might have been the intention of Philip Glass to make the music seem chaotic and overwhelming, the chaos was uncontrolled and the sound cacophonic. Fortunately this was due to a technical error, which was corrected in time for the second part from Akhnaten (after the break).
Apart from that, the performance was very good. The Octet gave prime renditions of e.g. parts from The Secret Agent and the String Quartets, and an overall impressive Funeral of Amenothep (a second piece from Akhnaten). At the end we received an encore, introduced by the charismatic Spanish conductor, Elias Arizcuren (in flawless Dutch, no less): Met zulk een prachtige stemmen kunnen we natuurlijk geen kleine stukjes brengen. Dus u krijgt de hele Funeral opnieuw.
(With such beautiful voices [referring to the seven singers necessary for the bits from Akhnaten] it is quite impossible to perform a smaller piece. Therefore we bring you the entire Funeral again.). Yes, please.
(De Bijloke offers quite a few concerts by contemporary composers. I’ll try to up the frequency of my visits.)
Glass reflections
Cello Octet Conjunto Ibérico
» buy the album @ amazon UK
Conducted by Elias Arizcuren
Cellists: Robert Putowski, Artur Trajko, Kepa de Diego, Atie Aarts, Hanneke van de Bund, Esther Iglesias, Fanny Bray, Mikolaj Palosz
Singers: Astrid Lamers, Ilona Stokvis, Ronald Aijtink, Martijn de Graaf Bierbrauwer, Robert Kops, Bert Visser, Jean-Paul van Spaendonk
Programme included:
Parts from The Secret Agent
Façades
Attack and Fall (from Akhnaten)
-break-
Parts from String Quartets 1 & 2
Symphony for eight
Funeral of Amenhotep (from Akhnaten)
Since so many people come here to find information about Peter Greenaway, I’ve decided to put the basic information back on-line. More might get added, but no guarantees are given.
There is currently a contest on the Michael Nyman website. It’s a simple draw to get two tickets to the RFH concert on Feb 20th. To participate in the draw, simply send an e-mail to sangam@michaelnyman.com, with your full name and contact details.
The contest closes this Friday, Feb 14 (Valentine’s Day !) at 12 CET
To quote: We have great pleasure to announce Michael Nyman’s London premiere of Sangam: The Meeting Point, a collaboration between Michael Nyman and Ieading Indian musicians U Shrinivas and Rajan and Sajan Misra, to coincide with the Warner Classics release of the album.
The contest is open to everybody, but you will be required to reach the RFH by your own means of transportation.
I’ve received the new album yesterday, and I’m hoping to give you a short review soon.
new releases coming soon. with the buzz on most of these already starting Q3 of last year, it’s nearly there. kronos quartet, steve reich, philip glass, michael nyman and gavin bryars all have records for us up their sleeve to be released this spring (or even as soon as february).
information and releases from the Kronos Quartet’s 30th anniversary (cfr under 30 project announcement and call for scores and the review in the san francisco chronicle).
steve reich’s three tales. on that note i’d love to have a dvd release of the cave. from what i understand, a vhs release was talked about, but dismissed by beryl korot (his wife and video-artist). while i understand that the 3d was really important for the cave, it might be a real asset to have this on dvd (surely the possibility of multiple camera angles must appeal to ms korot?).
(see also pop matters for more information about three tales)
philip glass: la belle et la b√çte: announced to be released this spring on criterion. let’s hope is region free.
michael nyman’s sangam. at last something new –well, we’ve been spoiled with facing goya already, but this looks like the upside-down violin (michael nyman band live in concert, 1999), only better.
gavin bryars new (availability of) releases biped (BCGBCD02), lockerbie memorial concert (BCGBCD03), all ten of a man in a room, gambling (BCGBCD04) on his own label gbrecords. thanks to a deal with new note distribution most of his albums will now also sell via e.g. amazon. (i personally can’t wait for all ten pieces of a man in a room, gambling
a new michael nyman album, entitled sangam: michael nyman meets indian masters is forthcoming in february. sounds very promising to me (something new !?).
you can check it out in the mn discography or preorder it via amazon uk.
early voice is very different from a descent into the maelstrÀÜm. i had a really hard time listening to over 50 minutes of another look at harmony, part 4. regular readers might know that i am very fond of sound pattern phasing (and other variations on a theme). unfortunately the two pieces on early voice, dating from the early seventies, sound very flat and monotonous.
not that i doubt its value in a historical perspective, but that is where it ends. this type of work marks the early stages of minimalism, and makes way for stronger compositions such as music in 12 parts. this is hinted at multiple times in the short text in the inlay:
The repeating patterns of “Music for Voices” were assembled into an informal score which divided the performers into pairs. In this performance eight people sat in a circle facing inwards. Each singer’s part rose and fell in volume in a regular pattern and the entry of each voice coincided with the dynamic peak of its partner. The use of solfage as text for the unaccompanied vocal parts is a hint as to what is coming later in “Music in 12 Parts” and the groundbreaking “Einstein on the Beach”. The handclapping heard on this recording is Philip Galss signaling to the performers when to start the next pattern.
and about another look at harmony:
This piece marks the arrival of harmonic motion but not a departure from the structural concerns and rhythmic intricacy of the earlier works -leading us right up to the watershed, “Einstein on The Beach”.
(it was abit awkward mentioning this since i have yet to listen to einstein on the beach. i’ll repent soon.)
from a historical perspective is an important asset in the collection of a real philip glass fan. but for a regular listener it’s way past its bedtime now.
orange mountain music brings older philip glass music. i didn’t know that beforehand –i’m the kind of guy that doesn’t read manuals either. while listening to a descent into the maelstrom i kept thinking this would have been been great music in the eighties. and how it seemed like the album could have been entitled glass meets vangelis. or how it came that all of a sudden glass was influenced by wim mertens. and why we had yet another variation of the same theme.
coming home, i finally read the text from the booklet
In 1986 Mr. Glass was commissioned by the Australian Dance Theatre to create and bring a piece to the Adelaide Festival of Arts in Adelaide, Australia. he chose to write a piece based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story “A Descent into the MaelstrÀÜm” and invited his collaborators to participate.
so there you have it, for once my intuition was right.
This compelling piece of music premiered in March, 1986 at the Adelaide Festival of Arts and was only performed by the Philip Glass Ensemble during the week of the festival in Australia. Consequently, it has had very little exposure to Philip Glass’ audience, although there have been bootleg recordings available on the internet.
even though no official recording of a descent into the maelstrÀÜm wasn’t made available we’ve been exposed to the melody numerous times. i have to say that i particularly like this version, in spite (?) of its distinct eighties sound.
it had been a while since i’d ordered cds via the internet. there was however no way that i could get the glass cd from his ourange mountain music label localy, rather limiting my options. i chose to order via amazon us (since amazon uk didn’t have the items available at the time i ordered them).
and lo and behold, after more than a month i today received my shipment of 2 glass cds (descent into the maelstrÀÜm and early voice), and one reich (tehillim / the desert music).
total cost: 61.93 USD (58.78 EUR). or so you think:
add to that 14.97 EUR VAT
add to that 2.12 EUR import tax
add to that 8.68 EUR presentation costs
which amounts to 84.55 EUR or 28.18 EUR per CD
(currently they are available through amazon uk, for a total of 42.21 UKP (64.22 EUR). they would have arrived here sooner too.)
it’s no longer cheaper to order cds via the internet. and it’s been like that for a while. i can get almost everything through local stores (mostly fnac), and the cost is rarely higher than if i’d ordered on-line (with shipping costs etc added). no more us stores for me.