This is a data file intended for use in an RSS reader. http://artofthestates.org Art of the States: listen to new music from the US Copyright 2002-2010 Art of the States en-us Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:44:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/images/popup_logo.gif http://artofthestates.org http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=394 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:44:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=394 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=393 Anea is an invented name for a music-crystal modeled on an ionic crystal [a crystal with a lattice of ions held together by electrostatic interaction] ... The five pieces on this series are each a concise and concentrated focus on a singular physical gesture. Close examination of the gesture reveals the strange physical laws of the world in which the gesture exists, and the body performing it." ]]> Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:33:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=393 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=392 Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:05:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=392 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=392 the soadie waste ... takes its title from an old dance hall in Rutherglen, on the outskirts of Glasgow [Scotland]. 'The soadie waste' was the local name for the TA [Territorial Army] social club, and was built on the wasteland of an old chemical factory. It is said that residual fumes from below would seep through the floorboards during a hot dance session." ]]> Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:44:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=391 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=390 hsieh i in Chinese ink paintings: The open space untouched by the brush is where the ideas are." ]]> Mon, 24 May 2010 11:19:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=390 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=383 Double Music uses 'found' instruments, brake drums and thunder sheets, and other easily obtainable (at that time) and exotic instruments, including cowbells, water buffalo bells, sleigh bells, sistrums, gongs, and tam-tams ... [It] also includes a water gong -- a small gong raised and lowered into a tub of water while played, bending its tone. John Cage had discovered the water gong while providing music for the University of California, Los Angeles swimming team." ]]> Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:19:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=383 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=384 Imaginary Landscape series. In Imaginary Landscape No. 2 (1942), one performer plays a coil of wire that is amplified by attaching it to a phonograph tonearm (this was a sound Cage discovered from his work with radio sound-effects men)." ]]> Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:32:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=384 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=385 Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:56:00 PST http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=385 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=386 May Rain was written for my friend William Weaver to sing. The beautiful poem is one from a sequence titled From Alba Hill by the wonderful Elsa Gidlow. It first appeared in the very early 1930's and currently is printed in her Sapphic Songs: Seventeen to Seventy (Diana Press, 1976)." ]]> Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:46:00 PST http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=386 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=387 Rest, set to poetry of Catherine Riegger (daughter of American composer Wallingford Riegger), was composed in 1933 and published in 1938 in the periodical that Cowell founded, New Music, now out of print but readily available in many libraries. The songs were likely premiered for San Francisco's New Music Society by Radiana Pazmor, a leading California contemporary music proponent who was known for her performances of music of Charles Ives." ]]> Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:46:00 PST http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=387 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=388 Simfony #13 shows an approach and orchestration similar to much of Harrison's other percussion work up until that time. Harrison would plot out the possibilities of rhythmic patterns and durations, and use them in composing the little rhythmicles (Harrison's term for the small phrases in his percussion work) and the longer formal elements used to construct his works. This facilitated the always lyrical feature of Harrison's writing, even for percussion. ]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:57:00 PST http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=388 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=389 Ryoanji is named after the famous Zen garden in Kyoto, Japan, consisting of raked sand in which are set a number of rocks. Cage suggests that the percussion part may be thought of as the sand and the solos as the rocks. The percussion part consists of a series of pulses without any discernible pattern. The music for the solos appears as a series of shapes, which were created using actual rocks (which Cage was fond of collecting) as templates." ]]> Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:41:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=389 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=382 Frozen Horizon is based on the landscape of Harstad, the city on one of the fjord islands in northern Norway ... Extreme climate conditions prevail during the winter, when darkness lasts all day without any sunlight. One can see northern lights like hallucinations. Beyond the icy earth's surface, the frozen sea spreads towards a curved boundary line between the sea and the dark sky. Time passes slowly there." ]]> Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:12:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=382 http://artofthestates.org/feature.html Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:24:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/feature.html http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=379 Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:18:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=379 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=380 Tibetan Tunes for violin, cello, and piano (2007) harks back to Chen's days at [Beijing] Central Conservatory, where folk songs were a key part of musical education. 'During the Cultural Revolution, many of these songs were still around, but they had been turned into revolutionary songs with lyrics about Chairman Mao,' she says. 'By the time we were at conservatory, we could go back to some of our original texts.'" ]]> Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:47:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=380 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=378 Wilde a symphony that wants to be an opera, as it is operatic both in scope and construction. Librettist Will Graham, a frequent collaborator, crafted a text that weaves together excerpts of Wilde's writings, letters, and poetry along with original material. It is in the format of letters to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, a device which not only gives access to Wilde's thoughts but also allows Wilde to narrate his own actions. It also allows the many facets of Wilde's life to be telescoped into a single day in the first movement." ]]> Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:54:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=378 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=377 tranquillo, the second movement begins with the theme stated in retrograde and proceeds into an agitated rondo with contrasting sections, the second of which softly quotes a fragment of the spiritual "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child." ]]> Fri, 29 May 2009 11:33:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=377 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=376 Visual Abstract was inspired by a visual image. The first uses the image of a tolling bell, and also its sound -- a loud attack followed by a decay -- and its sound backwards -- a large crescendo followed by an accented note. The second movement ... was inspired specifically by Borromini's dome at the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome, which to me evokes a sense of infinity and timelessness. The third movement uses the image of a group of dancers creating an energetic choreography." ]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:28:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=376 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=375 Threads extends the sonic boundaries of the violin and bass clarinet by combining their timbres with digitally modified samples of viola, bass clarinet, electric guitar, vibraphone and bass. A bowed and distorted electric guitar is the sonic glue that holds together the acoustic and electroacoustic sound worlds. Time is suspended throughout." ]]> Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:48:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=375 http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=369 Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:31:00 PDT http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=369