Kyong Mee Choi, The Eternal Tao, DVD

We are in a mystical zone one more time today. A Taoist opera may not be the stuff of extraordinary action and drama, partially because Taoism has a "do nothing with a purpose" intent at times. Here in the 21st Century, after 100 years of modernism, we don't tend to find that off-putting, at least those who have been exposed to the arts of today in any measure of constancy.

Kyong Mee Choi has created such a work, The Eternal Tao, which combines voices and instruments with electronics, video, dance and enhanced lighting. A DVD of the opera has just become available (Ravello 7866) making it possible to see and hear the complete multimedia presentation.

The music has flow, microscopic detail and at times long clusters of sound that have some relation to works of Ligeti, Xenakis, and Penderecki. The music is not quite as abrasively avant and dissonant as some of the works by those mentioned above, but instead concentrates on oft-times mysteriously floating clouds of sound, other times slightly more pointed sound events that overlap.

The music seems well enough performed and the content of the libretto has to do with Lao Tze's masterwork, the Tao Te Ching. Slow movements of dancers, moody lighting, video juxtapositions of sometimes simple images--a piece of fruit for example--layer over the stage images of dance, the presence and performance of multiple and solo singers, the performance of the orchestra in the foreground. Multiple camera angles overlap at times creating a less literal video image than sheer documentary videos might strive for.

My main quibble with the video is that it is sometimes because of those various image collages difficult to get a feel for what the person in the audience (this is live) might actually be seeing. It is also for the same reason hard to gauge the immediate effect of the dancers on the audience, what the body of dancers look like from the spectator's panoramic glance. So in that sense I find it a little difficult to evaluate the full impact of the dances. They seem to be somewhat integrated, slow gestural movements that fit in with the multifaceted impossibility of describing or representing the Tao.

I will say this: the music/libretto portion of the opera works well. I suppose an actual seat in the performance arena would give me a better idea of the full effect. There are some things a TV screen can't quite represent. Perhaps that is the point?

Anyway, musically/contentually this is of genuine interest! I look forward to hearing more of Kyong Mee Choi and experiencing this opera again.

Sonograms: A Compilation of Modern Music from Eastern Europe and Germany

...and speaking of mysticism, as we did yesterday, here is a modern/postmodern offering that has some of that as well.

Specifically, we have a compilation produced by Heiner Stadler for his Labor Records of some singular modern music--out on LP years ago (the '70s) and now reissued with additional material. Sonograms (Labor 7090) has an unusual mix of compositions for recorders, solo piano, and one for string quartet. The composers are, especially for the early '70s when the LP version was first issued, a mixture of the pretty obscure to the well-known, Xenakis, Part, Gheorghi Arnaoudov, Pawel Szymanski, Walter Steffens, and Georgi Minchev, the latter with a five part solo piano work for which the album is named ("Sonograms").

Other than Walter Steffens's turbulent string quartet "Ecstacy," the music alternatingly features Angela Tosheva on piano and Benedikta Bonitz on recorder(s). Both show themselves in a very good light.

There is mysticism (Arvo Part) and all kinds of modernist, pomo, and avant-old-new strains.

There are some real finds here, such as Szymanski's highly singular "Two Studies" for piano, for example, which has a sound all its own. And Arvo Part's "Arbos" in a recorder ensemble version is irresistible.

If you want a real change from the ordinary, Sonograms provides it with a very rangy selection of music for today. I find the whole thing very captivating.

Andrew McPherson, Secrets of Antikythera

The later modern concert world has perhaps less of the mysterious as a theme than might have been the case in the romantic-early-mid-modern era. Scriabin, Ives, Messiaen and Crumb come to mind.

But then there is Andrew McPherson. His Secrets of Antikythera (Innova 842) is an excellent return to the mysterious. With a nicely preliminary solo viola piece, "Kinematic," setting the stage, he jumps into a first short piece and then a long multi-sectioned one (the title work) for magnetic resonator piano (the first work also includes cello). It's a conventional piano miked, the signal threaded through a magnetic resonator electronic device. If you know Charles Dodge's Earth's Magnetic Field, an electronic music work out in the later '60s, you know the sound. It is very rich and mystically mellow. Add the conventional piano sound to that and it gets very interesting.

The piano part is quite involved, and often suitably resonant in itself. The ghosts of Scriabin and Messiaen and spirit of Crumb haunt the music a bit but there is very strong individuality to be heard and marvelous piano writing.

It's rather glorious music, very much its own secret mood and musically profound. If you are as I am a lover of the modern piano as grand narrator (Messaien) of a mystery story, this will get you very happy. McPherson boosts the piano repertoire with a major thrust forward on this one. And Ryan MacEvoy McCullough gives a fabulous performance. Highly recommended!

Ludvig Irgens Jensen, Symphonic Works

Another (to me) new composer on the docket, Norway's Ludvig Irgens Jensen (1894-1969) and a collection of his Symphonic Works (CPO 777347-2 2-CDs). Conductor Eivand Aadland leads the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra convincingly, making a case for Jensen on most attractive terms.

This is Nordic symphonic music that doesn't so much follow Grieg, Sibelius or Nielson as strike out on a similar path. It's music that has a little of the mystery of the North, whatever that means, and lots of very logically and expressively pleasing orchestral music.

This is the tune-al lyricism that could well translate into popularity--though it is not "light" music, other than the presence of sunshine and shadow.

Aadland allows the music to breathe, to glow, to come into our lives with a friendly countenance. It seems like an excellent antidote for a frigid winter, or the compliment of a lovely spring. You get the idea? Very Nice.

Andrew May, Imaginary Friends: Music for Instruments and Computer

By now the history of compositions for computer and conventional instruments is pretty long, over 60 years give or take, Varese's Deserts from 1950 or so being the first important work that comes to mind.

And after that many years being exposed to electronic music, and its entrance into the pop world in various guises, we no longer find it so much an exotic world. I can remember nightly newscasts on TV as a kid that took advantage of sometimes crude computer themes as part of their sign off/sign off. It was the cutting edge of sonority and a sign of the space age, though often enough there wasn't much substance, musically speaking.

The world of classical-modernism spawned some masterpieces over the years and I need not rehearse them. Suffice to say it is an integral part of the contemporary scene now.

Enter composer Andrew May and his album Imaginary Friends (Ravello 7861). It groups together seven of his works for instruments and computer, all of solid modernist construction, seamless integration of acoustic and electric sounds, and high musical interest.

This is his first release and I must say I am pleased and impressed with his knack for creating works that display orchestrally complex sound worlds. There are five works for a single instrument and computer sounds: piano, clarinet, 5-string electric violin and two for flute, respectively. There is one for two clarinets and electronics, and a final, longish work for electronics and chamber ensemble.

May convinces, sounds contemporary without attaching to any particular stylistic school, and gives the lover of the new much to hear and appreciate.

Andrew May? Recommended listening.

Particle Ensemble, Thomas Buckner, J D Parran, Earl Howard, Mari Kimura

Today another interesting item that falls somewhere between new music (concert), avant improvisation and electro-acoustic music. It's a good one from Mutable Music's download or disk series, by the Particle Ensemble (Self-Titled).

The ensemble features Thomas Buckner, baritone vocalist, who has made something of a name for himself (deservedly so) as being a fulcrum point in the improv/avant classical nexus that has been developing in new directions recently. Avant reedist J D Parran appears here on the bass sax, alto flute, bamboo flute and mbira. Mari Kimura is on violin, and Earl Howard provides the electronics and performs on saxello.

The album is in three parts, beginning with Howard's "Frond", followed by J D Parran's "Pundititus", and concluding with Earl and Tom's "Duo Improvisation." These are live concert recordings.

The music is filled with ambiance without being the equivalent of a mood ring. Buckner's unique vocal style and excellence in both pre-planned and improvisational realms is a critical part of what goes on. J D Parran creates parts with care, a keen ear and a rich pallet of timbres. He varies between "free" sounding reedwork and more compositional lines with ease. Earl Howard brings in electronics that integrate well with the instruments yet provide complex and evocative timbres. Mari Kimura fits in with a flittingly yet communicatively free conciseness for the first work.

This is music that brings rewards for concentrated listening. The full quartet, trio and duo segments all fill the musical ear with complexity and space, narrative thrust and expressive push. The music flows more than floods. It is not without energy yet it is not energy music. It has classical parceling and improvisational interjectability.

It is highly engrossing and yet accessible on a basic level, avant without an avant aggressivity. It partakes of the sensibilities of classic AACM work and the horizontal qualities of improvisational Stockhausen, yet sounds like neither.

Excellent! I would recommend you hear this if you want to explore what good things are being done in the interstices between avant classical and avant jazz.

Copy and paste this URL in your browser for more information and to order the music: http://mutablemusic.com/mm/particleinfo

Dimensions: Works for String Orchestra

The reason of course that string quartets adapted to string orchestra sound a certain way, sometimes not as well as music originally conceived for the larger ensemble, is that the sonic universe is different. One ideally writes for the string orchestra differently than for the string quartet. The presence of contrabasses and the masses of strings makes something sound ravishing that might not sound as well for the quartet.

Take for example Barber's well-loved Adagio. It has a sensuousness that the orchestra brings to it that you do not get (in the same way) for quartet.

The new collection Dimensions: Works for String Orchestra (Navona 5895) capitalizes on that sonarity in a series of eight modern-era works, mostly by relatively less-known composers.

The exception is Debussy's "Maid with the Flaxen Hair," which sounds quite lovely here. Otherwise there are works by Gregory Hutter, Louis Babin, Reynard Burns, Andrew March, Rudy Konfuss, and Daniel Burwasser, played by a variety of orchestras and conductors, all sounding well.

This is predominantly modern tonal territory, impressionist and neo-impressionist, or in other words sumptuous but not bloated, showing a sensuousness without lengthiness, and the presence of musical daylight.

I mentioned earlier Barber's Adagio, and there is a fair amount of music here that has a similar kind of hushed sprawl, long sustained lines, things that string orchestras sound especially good at realizing. There are some pieces/movements that get lively as well, so there is a good pace to the disk.

It is a very pleasant listen. It is music of substance that will nevertheless appeal to a large audience if they get a chance to hear it. Nicely done!