From advertising jingles to a neighbor’s booming subwoofer we are continually surrounded by music. in modern life But what is “music”? Cannot a sound without a “musical” intent nevertheless have a musical element? Consider something as innocuous as taking a shower. If one truly listens to the water steadily pouring overhead, one can sense gravity […]
For several decades starting in the late 1940s, one could frequently find a blind, long-bearded, mysterious figure – cloaked with a horned helmet and spear – surveilling the looming highrise towers of his urban midtown Manhattan kingdom. Dubbed the “Viking of Sixth Avenue”, many passers-by wrote the man off as an eccentric madman best ignored. […]
Far too many people use the terms listening and hearing interchangeably. But in reality, as composer Pauline Oliveros noted, “listening is not the same as hearing and hearing is not the same as listening.” The key distinction between the two is the amount of intentional effort the perceiver puts into understanding their surroundings. Listening requires […]
Much attention – rightfully so – over the last several years has been paid to the Los Angeles improvisational music scene. Shapeshifting multi-instrumentalist Atwood-Ferguson has been at the core of those developments with contributions to over six hundred recordings, including many from his home city. He is even on two of this writer’s favorite releases […]
For centuries, the letter “X” has represented the unknown. On a pirate’s map, crossed diagonals denote some undiscovered treasure. In algebra, students must determine ”X” as an unrevealed variable. In an episode of the Simpsons – a consistent bellwether of Western popular culture over the last three decades – even the imbecilic Homer knows it […]
The alula, sometimes called the bastard wing, is a small but important bone on a bird’s wing that plays an essential role in flight. It is a fitting name for Caroline Davis’ electro-acoustic outings as her use of samples lifts the ensemble from more traditional moorings. But what happens when these appendages are fractured? How […]
It is common for musicians to incorporate recent discoveries – whether the adoption of cutting-edge technology or novel compositional processes – into their works to present a new sound. Far less discussed, however, are cases where artists revisit old conceptions to see how they can forge previously uncharted paths. Anna Webber’s explorations of just intonation […]
While many organizations present contemporary classical music, the International Contemporary Ensemble has stood out since its founding twenty-two years ago. The Ensemble’s success has come largely due to its stated goal of cultivating a musical ecosystem that honors diversity while focusing on equity, belonging, and cultural responsiveness. The organization’s openness and consideration of all musical […]
Far too often, people equate avant-garde expressionism to high-volume proclamations with flurries of notes. To an uninitiated listener, this perspective is understandable when one considers John Coltrane’s sheets of sound, Cecil Taylor’s densely clustered notes, and Peter Brotzmann’s rough, bluesy cries. But an isolated focus lessens the significance of the artists who have made this […]
Often the greatest artists have an identifiable voice. This is not to say their works are identical. Instead, no matter their changed surroundings, a shared identifiable quality continues to reflect their artistic essence. Consider Miles Davis. Birth of the Cool (Columbia, 1957) and On the Corner (Columbia, 1973) could not be more different in both […]
