Urbis, Manchester 2006

Patty at OboeInsight has the tip of the iceberg on this newflash. Here’s some of the remaining 9/10ths.

The Guardian reports that, “[Thom] Yorke is one of 11 musicians - among them Simon Tong from Gorillaz, John Maclean of the Beta Band and Gabriel Prokofiev, grandson of the Russian composer - who have contributed to the classical remix album Cortical Songs, released this month on Nonclassical. Yorke et al have remixed an original work for string ensemble and solo violin by musician and physicist John Matthias and sound designer and producer Nick Ryan.

According to Prokofiev: ‘This is a way of searching for new sounds and direction in music. Yorke’s remix in particular - the first he has ever done of a classical work - is really adventurous and avant garde.’ ”

Here’s the track listing from the back of the album courtesy of Prokofiev the Younger’s mySpace page:

And, in case you were wondering, cortical is the adjectival form of cortex, which is the outer layer of your brain, coming from the Latin for bark. (think trees, not dogs) If you’ve got access to academic journals and the ability to wade through some pretty heavy medicalese, you may find [Ikegaya Y, Aaron G. "Synfire chains and cortical songs: temporal modules of cortical activity". Science. 2004 Apr 23;304(5670):523-4] to be useful. Since Miss Mussel has neither of those, she’s hoping for liner notes that explain everything with words containing three or less syllables.

According to Pitchfork Media, Cortical Songs the composition is, “a process-oriented piece in which players are prompted to play based on the firings of a small computer-simulated brain.”

It this the first truly intellectual music then?
Only one way to find out. Watch this space.

Alex Ross writes about Tan Dun with a little more finesse that this bivalve can muster on the subject.

“Tan quickly gravitated to New York’s downtown scene, particularly to the world of John Cage. By combining Cage’s chance processes and natural noises with plush Romantic melodies, Tan concocted a kind of crowd-pleasing avant-gardism.

In March, at the Egg, he demonstrated that sensibility with a concert of “Organic Music,” with the China Youth Symphony; in “Paper Concerto” and “Water Concerto,” the Japanese percussionist Haruka Fujii crinkled paper and swished water in amplified bowls and other receptacles. In a further feat of packaging, Tan relates this music to shamanistic rituals of Hunan province, where he grew up. With such deft gestures of fusion, Tan has satisfied a Western craving for authentic-seeming, folklore-based music.”

[...]

“In the West, our situation as composers is very sad,” Chen Qigang told me. “In the nineteen-fifties, we lost command of the field, not just because popular composers took over but because we ceded the terrain. We ‘developed’ to the point where we no longer knew anything about the art of writing melody. We had a kind of nonexistence in musical life.” Nodding to his Olympics experience, he added, “Now I understand how hard it is to compose a cheery little song.”

No composer has embraced that challenge as eagerly as Tan Dun, whose submission to the Olympic ceremony is a radically bathetic pop ballad entitled “One World, One Dream.” Conceived in league with the songwriter and producer David Foster, Tan’s song has been recorded by Andrea Bocelli, the platinum-selling crossover tenor, and Zhang Liangying, another competitor from the 2005 “Super Girl” contest. “You are me and I am you,” they sing together, in English. Unfortunately, they don’t go on to say, “I am the walrus.”

Sonata in D major, Op. 10, No. 3 (1796-98)
Presto
Largo e mesto
Menuetto: Allegro
Rondo: Allegro

The D major sonata is regarded by most critics as the finest of the Op 10 set. Music historian Ernest Walker wrote that ‘the individuality of style is absolute and unchallenged, the structure of all the movements is mature and flawless.’ The movements are rigorously constructed and are a good mix of Beethoven’s emerging personal style and the prevailing Classical style of Haydn and Mozart. The opening Presto features sudden dynamic changes that would soon become typically Beethovenian.

While Mozart and Haydn et al, wrote music that always had a twinkle in its eye, Beethoven made his name peddling tragedy and melodrama. The second movement, according to Beethoven, “expresses a melancholic state of mind… [portraying] every subtle shade, every phase of melancholy.” No other composer manages to portray such soul-destroying heartbreak in as few notes as Beethoven. The darkness abates somewhat in the gently optimistic scherzo and is forgotten completely in the almost joyful rondo finale.

SURPRISED BY BEAUTY: MINIMALISM IN CHORAL MUSIC Brave Records 2007
Boston Secession | Jane Ring Frank, director

• GAVIN BRYARS: And so ended Kant’s travelling in this world
• ARVO PÄRT: The Beatitudes
• RUTH LOMON: “Transport”, from Testimony of Witnesses
• WILLIAM DUCKWORTH: Selections from Southern Harmony
• WILLIAM WALKER: Selections from The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion (bonus tracks)

LISTEN | BUY THE ALBUM
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Sticklers would say the secondary part of the disc’s title is misleading, since only two of the works recorded would fit in alongside the works of Reich and company. Thirty seconds into the disc, however, it is very obvious that the first part of the title is exactly right.

Surprised By Beauty is Boston Secession’s second major CD release and it is a carefully thought out, meticulously performed sophomore effort. The choir, comprised of 25 voices, was formed in 1996 by director Jane Ring Franks and specializes in ultra-transparent, non-vibrating sound typical of Anglican church choirs.

On occasion, groups of singers has such great sound they could sing a grocery list and it would still be a worthwhile performance. On the first track, Gavin Bryers And so ended Kant’s traveling in this world, Boston Secession does nearly that. The piece is set to the speech rhythms of an account detailing philosopher Immanuel Kant’s last journey out of his house.

The Beatitudes, written by Arvo Part in 1990, was second of the two pieces that can truly be categorized as minimalist. On this track, The Secession achieves with ease the sound that most chamber choirs, professional or otherwise, merely lust after.

Ruth Lomon’s oratorio Testimony of Witnesses was the only letdown on this disc. Transport is just one movement of the piece and it suffered somewhat from being out of context. It was like coming in halfway through Siegfried and trying to get to grips with everything in seven minutes.

William Duckworth’s re-arrangements of traditional shape note songs are mesmerizing. The choir lengthened their vowels and sang a little more nasally to give the songs some colour; a nice touch. In Duckworth’s hands, the added in bits of plainchant and twiddling with the harmony don’t obscure with the melody but rather enhance it to the point that you would think the songs always sounded like that. The bonus tracks provide a glimpse into Duckworth’s source material, the 1835 hymnal Southern Harmony.

An expertly written set of notes created by Dr Robert Fink was the icing on the cake.

Recommended.