Mario Verlangieri, guitar

On Thursday, April 7th, I joined some of our fellow composition students in attending a Junior Recital at Cal State San Bernardino just up the road a bit. The student was a guitarist named Mario Verlangieri. All in all, Mario performed seven pieces for classical guitar. While there were some good moments in each of the pieces individually, as a whole, there was not a lot of variety during the recital. Many of the pieces seem to bleed into the next and after a short time, I'd completely lost track of what piece we were currently hearing performed. What I enjoyed most was a section of one of the middle pieces that used a lot of harmonics on the guitar. It was a nice change for a while. I think the harmonics of the guitar are too often neglected as most pieces for the classical guitar don't do much to try to stray from it's usual style and sound. I left this performance with a new appreciation and understanding for how useful and exciting it can be to challenge performers to try new things that are not typical of their instrument's usual roll. The classical guitar needs more variety, even if only to keep the audience from getting a bit sleepy during junior recitals.

-Bryce Doubravsky

Creepy Opera Set

Hey all,

heres a creepy opera set being constructed in Australia.

as they say, a picture is worth.....

http://gizmodo.com/#!5791623/the-worlds-creepiest-opera-is-still-under-construction

Concert Review

Ensemble Green, March 5th 2011

This was the first chamber music performance I have seen that was not connected with the LA Phil in some way (aka Green Umbrella or RedCat), and I have to say I was quite impressed. I had never heard any of the pieces before, and the performers were spectacular. It was incredibly uplifting to see such great music performed so well by an ensemble I have never heard of (not that it is saying anything, just that it wasn't eighth blackbird or the Kronos Quartet). The Concord Sonata was absolutely stunning! It really reminded me of what a total badass Ives is. It is hard to believe someone was writing stuff like that in the nineteen-teens and twenties. Oh and lets not forget Suter's piece. All brown-nosing aside, it is the best string quartet piece I have heard live. Hands down.

All in all, there was one rather disappointing aspect of the performance, and that was the attendance. Excluding the composers, there were less than 10 people in the audience if I recall correctly. Now I know it was a small venue and it probably wasn't ever expected to sell out or anything, but I was very disappointed at the turn out. I don't want to sound Schuller-y, but this is some of the best performed chamber music I have ever heard, but where were all the people?! Is it because you have to have some sort of intelectual understanding of the music to appreciate it that everyone there had some background in musical study? Are people too lazy to care? What does this mean for me and my future career as a composer? Should I be trying to cater to bigger, broader audiences? Or do I say f**k it and write what I want? It really hits me hard to see music like this fall into the cracks...but what can we do about it?!

Concert Review

Concert Review: LA Phil Green Umbrella, April 5^th

This Tuesday I saw the LA Phil perform works by Ades, Ligeti, Nancarrow, and Francisco Coll.The first piece was called Concert Paraphrase on ‘Powder Her Face’ performed by Thomas Ades on solo piano. What I found most interesting about the piece was the mixing between tonality, chromatic harmony, and what appeared to me as serialism. Many sections of the piece were strongly ambiguous as to what the tonal center was (I dare not say atonal) and others seemed to be based around complex harmonies. Then there were moments of classic tonality. At one point there was even a perfect authentic cadence. What made the piece nice was the fact that every section flowed into the next quite well. Hearing that PAC was unexpected, but it wasn’t out of nowhere. I could tell there was a very subtle lead into it.

The Ligeti piece was possibly my favorite of the night, tied with the Nancarrow. It was titled Sippal, dobbal, nadihegeduvel (With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles) and performed by four percussionists and a mezzo-soprano. The entire piece was broken into seven movements, each one very quick and concise. The percussion was very interesting, at some points there were three marimbas being played simultaneously. Gongs and an abundance of cymbals and other unpitched items added lots of interesting color. The vocals were very strange, speaking another language or even jibberish at times it seemed. While at many times it seemed close to frightening, the vocalist also had many points that were comical. Overall, I describe the piece as captivatingly strange.

Probably my favorite performance was the Nancarrow. Thomas Ades arranged studies 6 and 7 to be performed by two pianos. There was also a video for each study, which featured an extensive and less-than-interesting array of squares and triangles. I had heard these studies before, the original recordings on player piano, and was excited to see human beings try to replicate it. I think the performers did very well. It was impossible for me to notice if they were playing perfectly, especially the rhythm, but it didn’t seem like they missed anything. I’d really like to see the score and find out how the arrangement was created, because I know that Nancarrow used precise ratios to compose the rhythm of the pieces. Both studies were very fun to watch, especially no. 7, with its blazingly fast ending.

The next piece was Piedras, Op. 11 written by Francisco Coll, who apparently is younger than Scott. This one went right over my head to be honest. I didn’t quite follow exactly what the intentions of the composer were, and didn’t really get anything out of it. There was some interesting orchestration happening, but I couldn’t find anything that didn’t confuse the hell out of me.

Closing the concert was another piece written by Thomas Ades, who also conducted the work. It was called Concerto Conciso, Op. 18 which I thought was a funny title for such a long piece of music. What I liked most about it was the percussion. There were two percussionists, each with a very interesting setup. One had mounted guiro, a gong, lots of cymbals and much more. The other had an equally extensive set, including snare, cowbell and what looked like a small rock. He hit the rock with a hard xylophone stick, which made a metronome-like sound; it was interesting. What I thought was most interesting however, was the fact that the entire piece (I believe) was in 4/4 time. I’m not entirely sure, but I never saw the conductor beat any pattern other than four. Much like the some of the Schuller we analyzed, the rhythmic complexity was solely created with internal subdivisions, rather than meter changes.

Summer program at Brevard...

See here for information; deadline for applying is March 1st.

Ravel Piano Concerto

Hey All, over the weekend I played a concert with the Inland Valley Symphony. On the concert was Debussy's 'Prelude to an Afternoon Faun', Pictures at an Exhibition and Ravel's 'Piano Concerto". The Piano concerto was awesome. An upcoming Piano star from USC named Ryan McCullough was the featured soloist. He recently received an invitation to play with the L.A. Phil. He is wickedly talented. He placed 2nd in last year's World Piano Competetion. What makes all of this even more impressive is that he is only a first year master's. crazy!
Even though the piece was debuted in 1932, it still sounds very modern. The 1st movement opens with a whip crack. The piece has a Spainish influence and elements of Jazz. I could clearly hear references to Gershwin in the second half of the movement. the 1st movement is very quirky. there are lots of solo interjections by the trumpet and piccolo and Eb clarinet. During the performance I found myself thinking that this piece doesn't sound like Ravel, or at least in the way he is normally thought of. The piece sounds like a happier version of Shastocovich.
The 2nd movement begins with an extended, unaccompanied piano solo. It has a Mozartian vibe to it, although Mozart would have not this type of tonal language. It shifts through different tonalities with ease and sounds familiar.
The 3rd movement is like a stream train that just keeps on going. To say the piano part is difficult would be an understatement. The orchestration takes on this, almost, carnivalistic character. It is very cool. --If you have not heard this piece then check it out--
In May my good freind Kate Prestia-Schaubb will be performing the 'Concerto For Piccolo', By Lowell Liebermann. The work was composed in 1996 and premiered by the New Jersey symphony and featured Jan Gippo (the piece is also dedicated to her). I have listened to Kate practice the work and it shows a side of the piccolo that is all encompoassing. It doesn't play to our common conceptions about the piccolo as only playing high or playing bird calls.
I know that the concert takes place during the may term and will not count for a paper write-up but this piece is worth checking out.

Extended techniques for piano...

The Colorado College Bowed Piano Ensemble is one of the coolest new music groups around.  My teacher at Texas, Dan Welcher, told me about them when I was a doctoral student.  I love their recordings, and since some of you have been talking about extended techniques for piano, I thought I'd share this.  Composer and Colorado College professor Stephen Scott created the ensemble.  Make sure you check out the video of his work-- really stunning.

Links for the NYT article on Mark Anthony Turnage's new opera and the Nico Muhly interview on Here and Now

Prof. Baber handed me the print version of this article at lunch-- here's the link. Mark Anthony Turnage (of "Three Screaming Popes" fame for you upperclassmen) has written an opera for Covent Garden that is based on Anna Nicole Smith.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/arts/music/13anna.html

It's a good read.

Here's the link to the Nico Muhly interview from NPR I was talking about last week as well.

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2011/02/10/composer-nico-muhly

If you somehow thought that commercial music was only good for film, jingles, and video games......

Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions Releases Inception – The App Featuring “Augmented Sound to Induce Dreams”

I'm a tiny bit jealous........

UK Kids Learn the Music Biz With New Pop4Schools Program