Mauricio Raúl Kagel (1931 - 2008) - New & Newer Music

Many so-called serious-music devotees could be accurately described, in Daniel Dennett's terminology, as not believing in serious-music (God); but believing rather that they ought to believe in serious-music (God). Now serious-music devotees are most often not serial-music devotees. They may get to Mahler, but not beyond. That's alright as far as is goes. There's a hell of a lot of great music between Guillaume de Machaut and Gustav Mahler.
     The above is what I started with, what I started to say, a couple of days ago. I've been obsessed lately with, among other things, the Julliard String Quartet's early mono recordings of the Vienna Trinity - Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. I've also been listening to Mauricio Raúl Kagel, the headliner of this post, Stockhausen, and Boulez. I've been reading Paul Griffiths' (my modern music tutor) The Substance of Things Heard. (Speaking of quartets, I'm re-reading Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet.)
     I discovered a very interesting blog yesterday that treats music and recordings in a very interesting manner. Its called The High Pony Tail. Its link appears on the sidebar. Later I hope to complete what I started to say herein. Until then a great deal of reading and listening are required of me.

Newer Music - Runnin' It Down

My New and Newer Music listening project has gotten off to a very slow start. I've tried to get down with Louis Andriessen's music; but I've not yet experienced a break through into this composer's world. Most of my home listening involves chamber music or at most chamber orchestras - massive orchestral works aren't often played; exceptions are Wagner, Mahler, Schoenberg, Berg, Stockhausen.... But I'm a chamber music person, a Basie or Ellington sized ensemble is enough for me.

     I was excited to have the opportunity to audition Louis Andriessen's string quartets as performed by the Schoenberg Quartet. The results were not impressive to my ears. I must admit that it appeared to me that Andriessen was not entirely committed to composing string quartets. The Quartet in two movements (1957) is the work of an eighteen year old composer. Its straight-ahead string quartet writing, and not remarkable in any way. I was most looking forward to the Charlie Parker inspired quartet, Facing Death (1990). It incorporates elements of Parker's Ornithology. While it's obviously a labor of love, for Parker and bebop's creators; the quartet's performance took a few measures to get into the music, but after the ensemble caught fire the music after the halting beginning actually sounded exciting - the way bebop sounded. After four or five auditions, I did not dislike Facing Death (as I had on previous hearings). Is this the composition of a stone-minimalist composer? Let's see. Let's call this?

     There's plenty of melodic repetition, tastes of droning, cranked-up harmonic shots near the end of the piece. Characteristic properties of minimalism, yea? I am amused at myself in having to admit that after five of six hearings I liked Andriessen's Facing Death! First couple of hearings I hated it. This minimalist stance of mine - my droning, micro-changing attitude, from a hater to a liker - regarding  Andriessen's quartet exemplifies a fundamental critical principle of mine.

     In order to apprehend an unfamiliar musical work one  must attend to the work over a course of repeated hearings. The great former music writer for The New Yorker Andrew Porter outlined his requirements for reviewing performances of new music as follows: a copy of the score, a pen-light with which to follow the score during the performance, and a tape of the performance.

     So it's not too much to require of ourselves when facing new music to submit to repeated hearings.  

New and Newer Music - The Usual Suspects and Others

 Among the music that I listened to recently were works for clarinet and small orchestra by Elliott Carter, his Clarinet Concerto and John Adams, his Gnarly Buttons. I am a long-time admirer of Elliott Carter's music, his string quartets, piano sonatas, Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello & Harpsichord, Double Concerto..... I do not admire John Adams' Shaker Loops or his Gnarly Buttons. Adams' music is too slick for me. I can understand why he has his devotees - the music is well-crafted, has catchy titles, flag waving American stuff. But it's not for me; it has surface meaning at best, virtuosity without a center, an M & M candy without the good stuff inside. The Adams' works that I know are too simple-sounding. I have the same problems with Philip Glass's music.
     Many years ago I heard the Philip Glass Ensemble perform at the Detroit Institute of Arts. It was a spellbinding event for me - soprano saxophones, electric pianos and organ, sound projection. Indian ragas and Coltrane elements. Wow! The surface of an M & M candy tastes fine; but after you're done with it, you wish there were more to the candy as a whole.
     I have a number of new and newer CDs to audition. What I propose to do over the coming weeks is listen to some of these CDs each day and blog about what I think I have heard. I'll listen to them and see if there's anything happening.
     The usual suspects. Among the 28 compact discs are multiple discs featuring the works of Mauricio Raúl Kagel (1931 - 2008) and Wolfgang Rihm (*1952) and single discs devoted to the compositions of George Crumb (*1929), Brian Ferneyhough (*1943), and Louis Andriessen (*1939). These are composers with whom I am most familiar.
     The others. There are included in the 28-CD set 29 composers with whom I've had no listening contact. I like surprises, in Whitney Balliett's phrase, I like "the sound of surprise". So I hope there are many sonic surprises encoded in these compact discs!
     Now must bounce to the listening. I'll report what I think I've heard tomorrow.
     Cheers.

     Addendum - 9/2/11

     Pierre Boulez, in a recent interview, remarks on the music of Philip Glass and John Adams as follows:

The minimalism of Philip Glass and Steve Reich is "interesting for five minutes", says Boulez contemptuously. "But it represents creative exhaustion. If you spend a whole piece repeating just one chord [as Glass tends to do] it's like being in a red room, and staying in it for your whole life.

Finally you want to say, could you please change something." The music of John Adams, whose terrorist opera The Death of Klinghoffer is currently being proudly trailed by the Coliseum, is "just movie-music". But isn't Adams's music a direct reaction to the music of Boulez? "If so, it's an infantile reaction. Music like that you can prepare in one rehearsal, put it in a concert, and everybody is satisfied. And two days later, nobody remembers it."

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/pierre-boulez-ray-of-light-or-lord-of-the-dark-side-discuss-2296306.html

"How does it feel in the swing?" - That Hammond B-3 Thing

I had the good fortune to hear Don Pullen on the Hammond B-3 organ as part of David Murray's group in Ann Arbor, Michigan many years ago. In my previous Friedrich Gulda post, I mentioned that Gulda had performed with the organist Barbara Dennerlein. Aside from her appearance on Gulda's Mozart No End and the Paradise Band Sony CDs, I hadn't any deep impressions of her Hammond B-3 artistry.
      Since I hadn't quite finished with what I had to say about Friedrich Gulda and related subjects, I thought I'd see (and hear) what Barbara Dennerlein had to say on YouTube - see the links herein. The Dennerlein YouTube clip featuring the organ, tenor saxophone and drums reminded me of David Murray's group that I heard in Ann Arbor (where else!) featuring the greatly missed Don Pullen on the Hammond B-3 organ. One organ-thing led to others.
      I resisted organ music during my formative years. Then I heard the fabulous Hammond B-3 master Jimmy Smith in the mid-1960s at the 20 Grand Club in Detroit. Imagine J. S. Bach improvising on a great organ in Weimar (circa 1714). Jimmy Smith was one of the most magical musicians that I have ever heard - and I've been involved as a devotee in a lot of music magic and wizardry. The thing about playing a Hammond B-3 is that one has to use one's arms, fingers, and both feet. This creates a dance vibe immediately. And Smith's sublime ballad artistry is on a par with that of that master of masters, Milt Jackson of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Smith and Jackson are bebop-masters, masters of swing. Paul Berliner in his book Thinking Jazz writes,

Within the musician's scale of values, rhythmic aspects of performance are fundamental. "One of the most obvious aspects of the music to people who know jazz," observes Chuck Israels, "is: How does it feel in the swing? These are things that are very subtle and that jazz musicians appreciate in a particular way. [244]

      There are certainly swing elements in the Beethoven piano sonatas, in Bach, in Bartok, in Schoenberg - listen to the Julliard Quartet's mono performance of Schoenberg's 1st String Quartet, one of the most intense swinging things we'll ever hear. I've heard Bud Powell in Beethoven and Bartok in Max Roach's double-quartet. So all of this great music is just that: It's great music.
      Friedrich Gulda, one of the great 'classical' pianists of the 20th Century, understood where music greatness resides. It resides in the music and not in the music-labels. Music-making is a performance-art - great music resides in performances of music. [One might even think of the art of painting as performance-art, as recordings - how many takes were there before the final take that we know as the Mona Lisa, and was it the final take?] There may never be another musician like Friedrich Gulda. But I hope there are some classically-trained cats in hats out there.
      In the mean time, thank goodness, there's also Oliver Lake's Organ Quartet - the link appears below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcT2HE5agiE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYP7Mxss3_U&feature=BFa&list=PL05818E4F3CB74566&index=22

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtVMNKLkbTs&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98XyM-Fbx1k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra4kYAYCdeI&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUW9iwcwEKY

Friedrich Gulda Jazz-man (1930 - 2000)

What is a jazz-man? How does one pick out a jazz-man? Are there identity criteria for jazz-men and jazz-women?, for jazz-persons? A jazz-person is a person who wears a hat or a cap when he or she performs music. Yes, Bucket-head would fall under the  heading jazz-person, even though he wears a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket on his head when he performs. (Did anyone see Bucket-head on PBS's Austin City Limits with Pharoah Sanders and Hamid Drake?)
   Friedrich Gulda wore his jazz-man's cap when he performed Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart. He wore this emblem of honor when he conversed at the piano with the great musicians of the remote and recent past - the aforementioned trio of composer-performers and today's composer-performers:  Miles Davis, Horace Silver, Chick Corea, Herbie Handcock, Barbara Dennerlein, Cecil Taylor and other creative master-musicians.
   This morning I'm listening to Gulda's Bach, The Well-tempered Clavier Bk I & II (1972-73 4-Philips CDs). Gulda's wonderful Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas are available as budget-priced Brilliant Classics CDs. 
   To my ears Friedrich Gulda's most swinging recordings are the Beethoven: Complete works for cello & piano on DGG that he recorded with another favorite musician of mine, cellist Pierre Fournier. According to the DGG notes, Gulda suggested to Fournier that his Beethoven might be somewhat too 'French', to this Fournier replied, "My playing wasn't too 'French' for Schnabel." With that exchange, Gulda and Fournier became instant friends.
   Fifteen years or so ago, I was listening to The Ohio State University's 'public' radio station WOSU-FM. WOSU reckons itself to be a 'classical music' radio station - these are scary-quotes not exactly scare or raised eyebrow quotes. Anyway, that day the DJ played John Coltrane's recording of his composition Alabama. After playing Coltrane's recording the DJ apologized to the station's listeners for departing from the station's professed-fund-raising-format. I called the station's programming director, and suggested to her that station should apologize, not for playing Coltrane; but for playing Classical Top 40 bits and pieces all day. Needless to say WOSU is still Top 40. Tune in to Columbia University's Great Radio Station instead. See its link on the sidebar.
   Friedrich Gulda was one of the great pianists and musicians of the 20th Century. Classical Music Radio Stations - especially stations representing public universities! - should take a Gulda or Ellington stance, presenting both European and American music, letting the music take its listeners. Public radio, except in rare instances, has resigned from any Enlightenment Project.
   Classical music, ah yes! - Coltrane, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Friedrich Gulda in his cap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFXL4J-oKw4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaCErlW-3p8


 
    

Reading, Writing and Music

ON NOT BEING ABLE TO READ
I cannot read and listen to music. I can write while listening to music. What happens when I set out to write is that music helps me to get into the writing. But once I'm into it I can turn the music off or not.
   But on a daily basis I need a certain amount of music. Music makes my life flow better. I think that I could do without television all together; except for college football - Go Blue!


Being in the Plato Flow
A week or so ago I was entirely in the Plato flow. Plato was making sense to me again. I could, I thought, discern Plato’s strategies; I could see where his arguments were headed; I was aware of his dramatic intentions. I had read Plato many times since my first encounter with him in college. But this time I was fully aware of his music; I knew what tunes he had called; I followed the chord-changes his tunes were based on.
   We’re all aware that Plato had a place for almost anything one could imagine in one’s philosophy. What seems quite strange to those not in Plato’s flow is ‘his‘ stance on poetry and the arts. In 1999 the eminent Plato and Aristotle scholar Myles Burnyeat gave seminars and talks at Ohio State University. After one of Professor Burnyeat’s talks on Plato, I asked him a naive (an amateur’s) question about a remark that he made in his talk that appeared the me (amateur that I was) at odds with something of his that I had read in The London Review of Books. I can’t remember the 1999 question that I put to Professor Burnyeat, and I’ll get to his answer and how he straightened me out in a minute. But first I’ll note something that I’ve noticed in recent years about philosophy department talks by visiting philosophers. There is very little in the way of argument.
   In the fabulous 1960s philosophy department talks absolutely bloody affairs - killing-fields of argumentation. Not all of the visiting philosopher-firemen were taken in by the young Edmund Gettier’s and Robert Sleigh’s and the more senior Richard Cartwright’s and Hector Castaneda’s counterexamples and 'helpful' explications - "Professor Geach you can't really be about asserting that anyone throughout the history of mankind worshiped the same God - you can't mean that can you?'' Geach might have replied, "Thank you Dr. Gettier. I'll make a note of that". While this exchange is going on, Professor Geach's wife, the eminent philosopher, G. E. M. Anscombe is sitting there smoking a cigar. Some like A. J. Ayer just turned up their noses, as Jelly Roll Morton might have done, suggesting that his interlocutor was rather like foul-air, something that needed to be let out. Other visiting philosophers were utterly destroyed on these cutting-session occasions.
   As I alluded to above a typical scene goes like this.  A philosopher reads a paper. An interlocutor might express discomfort with the presenting philosopher’s view, remarking something in the way of, “I’m worried by your view that Xs are really Ys, that propositions are really ordered pairs” or some such thing. Then the presenter says, “Oh?” and the department chairman says “Drinks will be served”, and everyone in the room thinks, “Cool”.
   Professor Burnyeat gave his talk on Plato and I, an utter amateur, was the only one who asked him a question! One of the department members said to me, “I thought you were going in another direction with your question.” He perhaps should have entered the conversation that I was having with Professor Burnyeat.

   Professor Burnyeat replied to my question (whatever it was), as best that I can remember, as follows. During Plato’s time (429 - 347 BCE) the Rupert Murdocks - news media moguls - were the poets, the Homers, the dramatists. What worried Plato according to Burnyeat was the early exposure of the young to the news and propaganda of the day and of the past. We have the same problem today with television, movies, and the internet. So Plato was in favor of censorship of the ‘news’ as transmitted by the poets. Being naive about this aspect of Plato’s views, I hadn’t thought about censorship very much; except to think that it was strange of Plato to propose censorship in any case. It’s Plato’s strangeness, dramatic power, illumination of both sides of an issue, and his powerful arguments for and against an issue that draws me to him. 
   Today it's not only the young who should be spared the lies and propaganda of Fox News and others but our so-called adult news gathers too. I've suggested where to find the news in these pages previously.   

High School Reunion, What?

Last weekend I attended the Highland Park (Michigan) High School 50-ish class Reunion - Classes 1959 thru 1963. It was very well organized and well attended - the dinner was sold-out. As a consequence it was very enjoyable. This was my first (and certainly my last) reunion.
     Highland Park had a great school system when I was a student. It was a fabulous city to grow up in - the population was about 50,000, the ratio of automobiles to students was about 1:6 (unlike today's ratio of 1:1), we walked everywhere. Basketball was the game of choice (soccer?, no way) and we played in the summer from noon until the sun set. After sundown, it was Carlings Black Label Jumbo beers, cigarettes, and 'manly' talk. Precious!

Reading and Listening to Plato

I've been attending to Plato lately - Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Republic in the Tom Griffith translations. I've also been peeking into some of the scholarly doings - Grote, Burnyeat, Santas, Fine (among others). So much for what I've been doing and thinking about. I hope to Blog on about my Plato soundings in the future, but not soon.
     My Plato preoccupation has precluded my usual music obsessions. But Plato directs my very limited music listening to the string quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven and to Mozart's and Beethoven's piano sonatas - the wonderful-jazzman Friedrich Gulda CDs. I had started a blog-post on these music-matters, but Plato stopped me.
     Plato stops me here too.