Scale of the Day: E Flat Pythagorean Octotonic-2 - Ionian Mode - mapped to the Square-root-of-2

The E Flat Pythagorean Octotonic-2 - Ionian Mode - mapped to the Square-root-of-2 - Scale.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Pythagorean Octotonic-2 - Mixolydian Mode

The E Flat Pythagorean Octotonic-2 - Mixolydian Mode - Scale. The 32/27 minor third and 16/9 minor seventh are the two utonal members that make this particular tuning "Mixolydian."

HurdAudio Rotation: Improvised Hits and Misses

Curlew: Gussie. 2003. Roaratorio: Roar 05.

Recorded live at Gus Lucky's Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, July 10, 2001

George Cartwright: alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Davey Williams: electric guitar
Chris Parker: piano
Fred Chalenor: electric bass
Bruce Golden: percussion and such

A limited edition vinyl-only release of Curlew launching into unfettered free improvisation. Part of the aural appeal of Curlew is the tight arrangements featuring aggressive smears and suggestions of what the musicians (who have morphed so much over the years, only George Cartwright is the constant) are capable of once the restraints are lifted. Unsurprisingly, under the full freedom allowed in these recording there remains the musical discipline and spatial generosity characteristic of Curlew's arrangements. Equally unsurprising is the allure of the sound of interaction between these players. While perhaps not the definitive documentation of the Curlew experience, it is a substantive one.

Don Byron: Romance With The Unseen. 1999. Blue Note Records: 7243 4 99545 2 6.

Don Byron: clarinet
Bill Frisell: guitar
Drew Gress: bass
Jack DeJohnette: drums

Ah, Don Byron. Such an effortlessly gifted sound on clarinet. Throw in a quartet that includes Bill Frisell on guitar - another figure with a sound these ears have grown hopelessly addicted to - and you come away with an understated masterpiece. The stylistic and creative sensibilities of these players is so comfortable that the revolutionary details of their playing barely makes a ripple on this recording. But focusing the ears reveals a recording worth coming back to time and again. Great melodic lines. Some find shredding from Frisell. A great take on Herbie Hancock's "One Finger Snap." And a clarinet sound that earns its place at the center of this sound with each spin.

Albert Ayler: New Grass. 1968 (re-released in 2005). Impulse: A-9175.

Albert Ayler: tenor saxophone, recitation, vocals, whistling
Bill Folwell: electric bass
Burt Collins: trumpet
Joe Newman: trumpet
Garnett Brown: trombone
Seldon Powell: flute, tenor saxophone
Buddy Lucas: baritone saxophone
Bert DeCoteaux: arrangements, conductor
Call Cobbs: electric harpsichord, piano, organ
Bernard Purdie: drums
Rose Marie McCoy: vocal
Mary Maria Parks: vocals

A cautionary tale of what happens when a great artist bends their vision in an attempt to arrive where they imagine their audience (or audience yet to be realized) wants them to arrive. Albert Ayler's insistence that this is an expression of where he was at the time he recorded it - a time different from where he had been before - his openly stated hope that "you enjoy this record" speaks toward the intent where the music should be. New Grass is a fascinating document and an artistic disappointment. The need to "rock" providing heavy chains and shackles against Ayler's soaring spirit. His vocals providing far less voice than his tenor saxophone playing.

Indestructible Frailty

Modern Masters @ An Die Musik, Baltimore, MD
Friday, March 6, 2009

Carrie Rose: flute, movement, voice
Christie Finn: soprano voice
Sylvia Smith: percussion, piano, voice

In Hours Like These by Stuart Saunders Smith
Books of Flutes by Stuart Saunders Smith
Family Portraits: Delbert by Stuart Saunders Smith
Rose: by Stuart Saunders Smith
The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs by John Cage
Nowth Upon Nacht by John Cage
A Flower by John Cage
The Year Begins To Be Ripe by John Cage
High Flyer by Robert Erickson
Mureau by John Cage

Through exposed words - often teetering between meaning and sound - and the unassuming expression of humanity in the music of Smith, Cage and Erickson unfolded through a sequence of quiet pieces that hovered within an imagined stillness. A stillness that the city of Baltimore appeared determined to bend toward its own character through an unusually intense barrage of urban noise filtering into the isolated space of An Die Musik. Persistent pounding, guttural engines bereft of mufflers, wailing sirens and passing helicopters attempted to intrude into these unassuming soundscapes. And each was in turn absorbed into the stillness and Cage-like acceptance of all sounds regardless of intent. Expression of honest frailty at ease within a world of forces and powers.

In Hours Like These began the evening with a soft setting of Vladimir Mayakovsky's suicide note. A poem of painful solitude set to voice and orchestral bells that expresses loss and peace through subtle intensity. From this opening the evening took turns toward and away from voice and instrument as a carriers of concrete meaning.

The four John Cage songs were performed as a single set for voice and piano as percussion instrument. Sylvia Smith lightly tapping the closed instrument - or violently slamming it shut at the onset of Nowth Upon Nacht - as Cage's witty settings of James Joyce and Henry David Thoreau drew sounds and ideas from the voice with light recourse to extended technique. Chirstie Finn's intonation was remarkable through these pieces.

Carrie Rose presented passionate interpretations of solo flute compositions. Book of Flutes featured carefully selected excerpts from a larger set of writings by Stuart Smith Smith while Robert Erickson's High Flyer deftly worked in spoken and whipsered consonants and vowel sounds as a ripple of voice-like sounds within the flute textures.

Scale of the Day: D Chromatic 1% narrow

The D Chromatic 1% narrow Scale. This one could be thought of as 1188-cents divided into 12 equal parts.

Scale of the Day: D Chromatic 2% wide

The D Chromatic 2% wide Scale. Just a slight, deliberately "out-of-tune" tweak on the standard intonation.

Berio-ed by the Mob

Mobtown Modern: Sequenzathon (almost) the complete Seqenzas (1958 - 2002) @ The Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Luciano Berio's Sequenzas

Sequenza I (1958)

Marcia Kamper: flute

Sequenza II (1963)

Jacqueline Pollauf: harp

Sequenza III (1965)

Julieanne Klein: soprano

Sequenza V (1965)

Daniel Blacksburg: trombone

Sequenza VI (1967)

Wendy Richman: viola

Sequenza VIIa (1969)

Emily Madsen: oboe

Sequenza VIII (1976)

Gabriela Diaz: violin

Sequenza IXb (1981)

Brian Sacawa: alto saxophone

Sequenza X (1984)

Dolf Kamper: trumpet in C

Sequenza XI (1987 - 88)

Benjamin Beirs: guitar

Sequenza XIII (1995)

Lidia Kaminska: accordion

Sequenza XIV (2002)

Nathan Bontrager: cello

Down in the main gallery space of the Contemporary Museum the chairs were set, the blank wall cleared for the video machinations of Guy Werner as music stands held copious amounts of white pages for a multi-course feast of Berio's solo works.  Performer after performer bringing their most intense stare upon pages as the eyes consumed virtuosic scores from start to finish with music that often strained the limits of instrument and virtuosity.  What emerged from the saturation of rich and dissonant works was an odd mix of unwavering intensity against a maturing compositional force.  The characteristic voice of this fascinating Italian composer became clearer as each work charted his chronological progress as an artist.  The overlap of ideas steadily becoming more apparent against the contrasting textures found in the long string of pieces.  The endurance run through the dense thickness of difficult works offering many rewards.  The appeal drawing Mobtown Modern to take an extended presentation of this music becoming clear with each soloist.

The consistency of performances was striking.  Each meeting the challenges presented on the score while bringing out the impressive musicality Berio invested in these compositions.  The stark, ferociously plucked harp strings and pedal work of Sequenza II offered an early glimpse into the physicality, and near aerobic feats later realized in Sequenza XIII for accordion.  The dramatic gestures and theater of Sequenza III for soprano voice setting up nicely for Dan Blacksburg's colorful clown attire in Sequenza V for trombone.

Following up her outstanding performance of Giacinto Scelsi's Mantos III from last January Wendy Richman presented a spellbinding interpretation of Sequenza VI with an aggressive performance of a piece that nearly saws the neck off of the viola with thrilling sonic results.  Brian Sacawa made the demands of Sequenza IXb into a passionate - at times plaintive - voice for a sound that carves moments of sustained human frailty within a jagged, forceful sonic language.  And there were still more moments of impressively virtuosic feats that reinforced that sense of passion and grit in all the late Sequenzas.

The final Sequenza XIV for cello made a sharp turn toward realizing snippets of softly realized grooves as Nathan Bontrager's fingers struck the body of the cello to vibrate the fingered strings.  Moments of softness sliced by a piece that stripped several strands from the bow over the course of this performance of Berio's final installment of a lifelong body of solo works.  The phrases clearly echoing ideas explored earlier in the evening on guitar, trumpet or violin.  Berio's sensibilities having crystallized into something recognizable by the end of this experience.