This article contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. Such statements should be clarified or removed. (March 2009)

An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. Derived from the Greek: ἐπίγραμμα epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on – inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia.^[1]

Ancient Greek[link]

The Greek tradition of epigrams began as poems inscribed on votive offerings at sanctuaries – including statues of athletes – and on funerary monuments, for example "Go tell it to the Spartans, passersby...". These original epigrams did the same job as a short prose text might have done, but in verse. Epigram became a literary genre in the Hellenistic period, probably developing out of scholarly collections of inscriptional epigrams.

Though modern epigrams are usually thought of as very short, Greek literary epigram was not always as short as later examples, and the divide between "epigram" and "elegy" is sometimes indistinct (they share a characteristic metre, elegiac couplets); all the same, the origin of the genre in inscription exerted a residual pressure to keep things concise. Many of the characteristic types of literary epigram look back to inscriptional contexts, particularly funerary epigram, which in the Hellenistic era becomes a literary exercise. Other types look instead to the new performative context which epigram acquired at this time, even as it made the move from stone to papyrus: the Greek symposium. Many "sympotic" epigrams combine sympotic and funerary elements – they tell their readers (or listeners) to drink and live for today because life is short.

Epigrams are also thought of as having a "point" – that is, the poem ends in a punchline or satirical twist. By no means do all Greek epigrams behave this way; many are simply descriptive. Epigram is associated with 'point' because the European epigram tradition takes the Latin poet Martial as its principal model; he copied and adapted Greek models (particularly the contemporary poets Lucillius and Nicarchus) selectively and in the process redefined the genre, aligning it with the indigenous Roman tradition of 'satura', hexameter satire, as practised by (among others) his contemporary Juvenal. Greek epigram was actually much more diverse, as the Milan Papyrus now indicates.

A major source for Greek literary epigram is the Greek Anthology, a compilation from the 10th century AD based on older collections. It contains epigrams ranging from the Hellenistic period through the Imperial period and Late Antiquity into the compiler's own Byzantine era – a thousand years of short elegiac texts on every topic under the sun. The Anthology includes one book of Christian epigrams as well as one book of erotic and amorous epigrams called the Μουσα Παιδικη (Mousa Paidike, "The Boyish Muse").

Ancient Roman[link]

Roman epigrams owe much to their Greek predecessors and contemporaries. Roman epigrams, however, were often more satirical than Greek ones, and at times used obscene language for effect. Latin epigrams could be composed as inscriptions or graffiti, such as this one from Pompeii, which exists in several versions and seems from its inexact meter to have been composed by a less educated person. Its content, of course, makes it clear how popular such poems were:

Admiror, O paries, te non cecidisse ruinis

qui tot scriptorum taedia sustineas.

I'm astonished, wall, that you haven't collapsed into ruins,

since you're holding up the weary verse of so many poets.

However, in the literary world, epigrams were most often gifts to patrons or entertaining verse to be published, not inscriptions. Many Roman writers seem to have composed epigrams, including Domitius Marsus, whose collection Cicuta (now lost) was named after the poisonous plant Cicuta for its biting wit, and Lucan, more famous for his epic Pharsalia. Authors whose epigrams survive include Catullus, who wrote both invectives and love epigrams – his poem 85 is one of the latter.

Odi et amo. Quare id faciam fortasse requires.

Nescio, sed fieri sentio, et excrucior.

I hate and I love. Perhaps you ask why I do this.

I know not, but I feel that it is happening, and am tormented greatly.

The master of the Latin epigram, however, is Martial. His technique relies heavily on the satirical poem with a joke in the last line, thus drawing him closer to the modern idea of epigram as a genre. Here he defines his genre against a (probably fictional) critic (in the latter half of 2.77):

Disce quod ignoras: Marsi doctique Pedonis

saepe duplex unum pagina tractat opus.

Non sunt longa quibus nihil est quod demere possis,

sed tu, Cosconi, disticha longa facis.

Learn what you don't know: one work of (Domitius) Marsus or learned Pedo

often stretches out over a doublesided page.

A work isn't long if you can't take anything out of it,

but you, Cosconius, write even a couplet too long.

Another example of an epigram by Martial:

Mentula tam magna est quantus tibi, Papyle, nasus,

ut possis, quotiens arrigis, olfacere.

Your penis is as large as your nose, Papylus,

so you can smell it when it's erect.

Poets known for their epigrams whose work has been lost include Cornificia.

English[link]

In early English literature the short couplet poem was dominated by the poetic epigram and proverb, especially in the translations of the Bible and the Greek and Roman poets. Since 1600, two successive lines of verse that rhyme with each other, known as a couplet featured as a part of the longer sonnet form, most notably in William Shakespeare's sonnets. Sonnet 76 is an excellent example. The two line poetic form as a closed couplet was also used by William Blake in his poem Auguries of Innocence and also by Byron (Don Juan (Byron) XIII); John Gay (Fables); Alexander Pope (An Essay on Man).

In Victorian times the epigram couplet was often used by the prolific American poet Emily Dickinson. Her poem No. 1534 is a typical example of her eleven poetic epigrams. The novelist George Eliot also included couplets throughout her writings. Her best example is in her sequenced sonnet poem entitled Brother and Sister, in which each of the eleven sequenced sonnet ends with a couplet. In her sonnets, the preceding lead-in-line, to the couplet ending of each, could be thought of as a title for the couplet, as is shown in Sonnet VIII of the sequence.

During the early 20th century, the rhymed epigram couplet form developed into a fixed verse image form, with an integral title as the third line. Adelaide Crapsey codified the couplet form into a two line rhymed verse of ten syllables per line with her image couplet poem On Seeing Weather-Beaten Trees, first published in 1915.

By the 1930s, the five-line cinquain verse form became widely known in the poetry of the Scottish poet William Soutar. These were originally labelled epigrams but later identified as image cinquains in the style of Adelaide Crapsey. J. V. Cunningham was also a noted writer of epigrams,(a medium suited to a 'short-breathed' person).^[2]

In the last decade of the 20th century the American poet Denis Garrison developed a two-line 17 syllable variation of the image couplet with his Crystalline, where euphony is the key component and a title thereto optional.^[3] An early example of this euphony, in a couplet form can be found in Edmund Spenser's Anacreontic No 1.^[4]

Poetic epigrams[link]

What is an Epigram? A dwarfish whole;

Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Some can gaze and not be sick

But I could never learn the trick.

There's this to say for blood and breath;

They give a man a taste for death.

— A. E. Housman

Little strokes

Fell great oaks.

— Benjamin Franklin

Here lies my wife: here let her lie!

Now she's at rest – and so am I.

— John Dryden

I am His Highness' dog at Kew;

Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

— Alexander Pope

I'm tired of Love: I'm still more tired of Rhyme.

But Money gives me pleasure all the time.

— Hilaire Belloc

I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.

— Nikos Kazantzakis

To define the beautiful is to misunderstand it.

— Charles Robert Anon (Fernando Pessoa)

To be safe on the Fourth,

Don't buy a fifth on the third.

— James H Muehlbauer

This Humanist whom no belief constrained

Grew so broad-minded he was scatter-brained.

— J.V. Cunningham

All things pass

Love and mankind is grass.

— Stevie Smith

Non-poetic epigrams[link]

Occasionally, simple and witty statements, though not poetic per se, may also be considered epigrams. Oscar Wilde's witticisms such as "I can resist everything except temptation" are considered epigrams. e.g. : art lies in concealing art. This shows the epigram's tendency towards paradox. Dorothy Parker's witty one-liners can be considered epigrams. Also, Macdonald Carey's legendary line "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives" can be considered an epigram, as the meaning of life is concisely explained in a simile.

The term is sometimes used for particularly pointed or much-quoted quotations taken from longer works.

See also[link]

• Aphorism
• Category:Epigrammatists
• Epigraph (archeology)
• Epigraph (literature)
• Epitaph
• Wikisource: Epigram

Notes[link]

Epigrammatists[link]

• John Donne
• Ashleigh Brilliant

External links[link]

• The Wiktionary entry for epigram
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Epigram". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Brian John Peter Ferneyhough ( /ˈfɜrnihoʊ/,^[1][2] born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet notation. He has written for many different formations from solo, to chamber works, to orchestral pieces, to opera.

Life[link]

Ferneyhough was born in Coventry and received formal musical training at the Birmingham School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music from 1966–67. His teachers there included Lennox Berkeley, a respected teacher though a conservative figure who preferred the works of French impressionism to the internationalist avant garde.^[3] Ferneyhough was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1968 and moved to mainland Europe to study with Ton de Leeuw in Amsterdam, and later with Klaus Huber in Basel. Between 1973 and 1986 he taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, Germany.

His profile rose in the middle of the 1970s, as the Royan Festival of 1974 saw the premiere of Cassandra's Dream Song, the first of several pieces for solo flute, as well as Missa Brevis, written for 12 singers. In 1975, performances of his work for large ensemble Transit and Time and Motion Study III were given; the former piece being awarded a Koussevitzky prize, the latter performed at the prestigious Donaueschingen festival. In many of these events he was twinned with fellow British composer, Michael Finnissy, whom he became friends with during his student days.^[4] In 1984 he was given the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.^[5]

Between 1987 and 1999 he was Professor of Music at the University of California at San Diego. As of 1999, he is William H. Bonsall Professor in Music at Stanford University. For the 2007–08 academic year, he was appointed Visiting Professor at the Harvard University Department of Music. Between 1978 and 1994 Ferneyhough was a composition lecturer at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse and, since 1990, has directed an annual mastercourse at the Fondation Royaumont in France.

In 2007, Ferneyhough received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for lifetime achievement, which includes a 200,000 Euro cash award.^[6] In 2009 he was appointed foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

Works[link]

Ferneyhough's initial forays into composition were met with little sympathy in England. His submission of Coloratura to the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM) in 1966 was returned, with a suggestion that the oboe part should be scored for clarinet. However, whilst Ferneyhough did find it hard, one source of support came from Hans Swarsenski who saw the same thing happen to Cornelius Cardew; Cardew enjoyed a prestigious continental reputation, but a poor one in his homeland. Swarsenski said of Ferneyhough: 'I've taken on an English composer who is I think is enormously talented. If this doesn't work, this is the last time'. Ferneyhough continued to struggle, but the aforementioned Royan festival marked a breakthrough for Ferneyhough's career.^[7]

From here, Ferneyhough became closely associated with the so-called New Complexity school of composition (indeed, he is often referred to as the "Father of New Complexity"), characterized by its extension of the modernist tendency towards formalization (particularly as in integral serialism)^{[citation needed]}. Ferneyhough's actual compositional approach, however, rejects serialism and other "generative" methods of composing; he prefers instead to use systems only to create material and formal constraints, while their realisation appears to be more spontaneous.^[8] A recurring feature of his works is the use of rhythmic tuplet notation, and layered polyrhythms.^{[citation needed]} Unlike many more formally-inclined composers, Ferneyhough often speaks of his music as being about creating energy and excitement rather than embodying an abstract schema.^{[citation needed]} His pieces rarely use 12-note rows, but do include microtones and frequent use of glissando.^{[citation needed]}

His scores make huge technical demands on performers; sometimes, as in the case of Unity Capsule for solo flute, creating parts that are so detailed they are likely impossible to realize completely.^{[citation needed]} The compositions have, however, attracted a number of advocates, among them the Arditti Quartet, ELISION Ensemble, the members of the Nieuw Ensemble, Ensemble Contrechamps, Ensemble Exposé, Armand Angster, James Avery, Massimiliano Damerini, Arne DeForce, Friedrich Gauwerky, Nicolas Hodges, Mark Knoop, Geoffrey Morris, Ian Pace, Carl Rosman, Harry Spaarnay, and EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble.

Recently, he has started writing works which allude to past composers; his Dum transisset are based on Elizabethan composer Christopher Tye's works for viol.^{[citation needed]} In addition, the fourth string quartet references Schönberg.^{[citation needed]} One of his latest works, an opera, Shadowtime, with a libretto by Charles Bernstein, and based on the life of the German philosopher Walter Benjamin, was premiered in Munich on 25 May 2004, and recorded in 2005 for CD release in 2006. As is usual for Ferneyhough's works, the opera received mixed reviews.^[9][10][11] In addition, the production was picketed by a group called Militant Esthetix over the treatment of and association with Walter Benjamin, amongst other things.^[12]

Ferneyhough uses the software packages OpenMusic, PatchWork (PW) and the PatchWork successor PWGL.^[13]

Selected works[link]

Some works at Sound and Music include score samples

• Carceri d'Invenzione I for fl,ob,2cl,bn, hn,tpt,trb,euphonium, 1perc, pf, 2vn,va,vc,db [1121, 1111.2111] (1982) (analysis, score sample)
  (inspired by the "Carceri d'Invenzione by Giambattista Piranesi).
• Kurze Schatten II for solo guitar (1989) (essay, analysis, analysis, score sample)
• Bone Alphabet for solo percussion (1991) (score sample)
• Allgebrah for oboe and 9 solo strings (1996) (score sample)
• Incipits for solo viola, obbligato percussion and six instruments (1996)
• Unsichtbare Farben for violin (1999) (score sample)
• The Doctrine of Similarity for Chorus (SATB), 3 Clarinets, Violin, Piano and Percussion (2000) (score sample)
• Etudes Transcendantales (1985)
• Shadowtime (1999–2004), premiered at the Munich Biennale
• 5th String Quartet (2006)
• Plötzlichkeit for large orchestra (2006)
• Chronos-Aion for large ensemble (2007–8)
• Dum transisset I–IV for string quartet (2007)
• Exordium for string quartet (2008)
• Renvoi/Shards for quarter-tone guitar and vibraphone (2008)

Press quotations[link]

Ferneyhough has been called "the most controversial composer of his generation".^[14] "In the same year [1974], the performance of several of his works at the Royan Festival established Ferneyhough as one of the most brilliant and controversial figures of a new generation of composers".^[15] "Brian Femeyhough may well be one of the most important composers to emerge from the latter half of this century. Simultaneously famous and infamous, he is a controversial figure of world renown, bent on making the most out of music."^[16]

Positive/Neutral[link]

the superbly accomplished duettists Bruno Canino and Antonio Ballista rendered a service by opening their Wigmore Hall recital last night with Brian Ferneyhough’s Sonata for Two Pianos, first heard in 1967.

Ferneyhough combined an excellent ear for instrumental timbre with a keen structural sense. Extremes of dynamics, register and density characterize his textures, which are sustained by the constant transformation and elaboration of diverse rhythmic and harmonic cells, the expansion and contraction of which always holds the attention.

These harmonic and rhythmic elements appear singly but later interlock, are superimposed, and are finally broken up in a coda where the textural and structural density is gradually relaxed. And as the razor-edge precision of this performance made clear, Ferneyhough’s Sonata also succeeds as sheer sound, and releases considerable dramatic force through its exciting accumulations of energy, registral contrast and rhythmic complexity.^[17]

Few musical experiences can rival the first acquaintance with a major item of new music, especially when it is by a composer more often spoken about than performed. Such is Brian Ferneyhough, who last night conducted the London Sinfonietta in the premiere here of his Transit, an extended piece for vocal sextet and orchestra. … Transit is no less elaborate in texture and intellectual conception than earlier works by Ferneyhough known to me: its modus operandi is metaphysical (he is a disciple of Klaus Huber) yet dramatic and sonorous, too. The rich contrapuntal invention is clarified by shapely decorative melodic line, and the transition from two sorts of music, by mutual interference, to a third sort of sensuously as well as dialectically communicated. Concentration at either level is rewarded.^[18]

Funerailles had a way of convincing listeners that all these divergencies travel in a common direction, that they meet at key junctures and acknowledge a commonality. Mr. Ferneyhough's notation is maddeningly precise for musicians trying to coordinate its oppositions, but he does manage to reconcile the aimless with the carefully aimed and to do so with convincing irony.^[19]

Carceri d'Invenzione III (Prison of Invention III)—in which a red-hot clarinet solo sparks a whirlwind of fire that burns itself out to leave ashes of alto flute and percussion—is Mr. Ferneyhough's closest approach to the sound world of his compatriot Harrison Birtwistle: it is imposing and gradual, though figured with furious activity typical of its composer. … And La Chute d'Icare (The Fall of Icarus) is a gem. Listen to the star bursts of tuned percussion and string glissandos around the romping soloist at the start, or to the way the energy of the cadenza breaks out from the solo instrument in a spurt of piccolo. This is a rare noise these days: the exhilaration of discovery.^[20]

Two short Ferneyhough pieces were on the program, and neither was a problem for the uninitiated listener. One, Coloratura, for oboe and piano, was almost exactly what you would expect: florid writing for the oboe given an exciting performance. The other work, Mnemosyne for solo bass flute and additional bass flutes prerecorded on tape, was more interesting. It got deep into the lush, velvety sonorities of an extraordinary instrument we almost never hear. It moved slowly but was full of interesting texture and sound.^[21]

A day submerged in Ferneyhough's music leaves one's ears quite reborn. The Diotima Quartet took the lunchtime stage for the compact, brief Second String Quartet and the compact but extended set of Sonatas for String Quartet. Supple and spirited, these tightly controlled but loving performances teased out the translucent beauty of these works. First performed in 1967, the Sonatas transformed Ferneyhough's reputation, and the Diotimas made it easy to hear why. The painstakingly prepared main concert heard the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins in Ferneyhough's two orchestral scores to date: Plotzlichkeit, from 2006, and La Terre Est un Homme. … Sandwiched between them were the third Carceri d'Invenzione, a Pandora's box of delights for chamber ensemble, and the Missa Brevis performed by the BBC Singers, led by James Morgan. Plotzlichkeit['s] … exploration of recherche textures and flashed colour spectrums is both beautiful and thrilling. La Terre, monumental in its intensity and magnificent in its sheer chutzpah, projects a seething macrocosm of souls struggling against the odds to grace mere survival with meaning. With the BBCSO at their committed, inspirational best, Ferneyhough's violent cry against the void has been answered at last.^[22]

It was the moment we had been waiting for. Brian Ferneyhough's La terre est un homme, his succès de scandale of the 1970s, had not been performed for 30 years.… Legends had grown up around it—how musicians at the premiere had defaced their scores, how the second performance under Claudio Abbado was a mess. La terre est un homme had come to define who Ferneyhough was: the last Modernist, an unreconstructed devotee of density and complexity. And yet here was the BBCSO under Martyn Brabbins making perfect sense of it. Worse sins have been committed in the name of Modernism than this cauldron of quasi-choate shudders and shimmers, welling up with untamed energy as if from the very centre of the earth. Was it right that a 90-piece orchestra should devote five days of rehearsal to just 50 minutes of music? If the purpose of subsidy is to finance art that is not commercially viable, the answer must be "yes". The value of this Ferneyhough focus was to show not just that his music has become easier to play, but that it embodies more tradition, fluency and beauty than inherited opinion suggests.^[23]

Massive tidal waves of pent-up energy have to be controlled—or perhaps surfed, for there is an exhilaration in confronting these awesome sonic structures. There’s an aesthetic pleasure to be had too, not in terms of agreeable sonorities—though Ferneyhough’s music is richly and subtly textured—but in the complexity and originality of its soundworld. It frequently aspires, moreover, to the transcendental, even in a work such as Carceri d’Invenzione III, which pits itself against the prison walls of Piranesi’s famous etchings, seeking always to stretch the limits of the imagination. Ferneyhough also stretches the limitations of his performers, nowhere more so than in Plötzlichkeit, receiving its UK premiere. Consisting of over 100 small cells, with nothing in the way of systematic patterning or development to aid the ear, the latter score achieves the sudden inspiration of its title by constantly generating new, unpredictable material.^[24]

Brian Ferneyhough’s complex String Quartet No 6 gave the listener far more to chew on. At the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in November it seemed shorter, friendlier too. But you could still appreciate Ferneyhough’s game of plunging us into a dense jungle, then giving the vegetation more room to breathe. There’s unison playing at one point, and a cadenza from the first violinist, Irvine Arditti. Even with these simplifications our ears stayed under strain; worth it, though, for the composer’s magic sculpting of textures and gestures in a volatile world.^[25]

Negative/Neutral[link]

Ferneyhough's obsession with "model"-making itself results, inevitably, in the erection of a surrogate-metaphysics, a substitute universe of the artist's own making, and reflecting primarily his own arbitrary flights of ego-whim. (Fanfare, Volume 3 (1980), Issues 4-6, p. 86)^{[Full citation needed]}

Musicologist Peter Franklin commented of Ferneyhough in 1985: "whose works, and whose commentaries upon them, show every sign of synthesizing a final ne plus ultra of orthodox avant-garde conservatism"^[26]

The name of Brian Ferneyhough, who in the 1970s was England’s most prominent export to the heartland of modernist Europe and in the eighties consolidated a reputation as spiritual leader of the ’new complexity’, seems even today to be a byword for all that is best and worst about hard-line musical modernism. … Ferneyhough’s risks may have seemed too great at times, his compositional solutions failing to live up to his stimulating, endlessly questing diagnosis of the problems as a highly engaging public speaker, self-confident and articulate.^[27]

Brian Ferneyhough is one of the last of this school of people who go with simple arithmetic ideas rather than a musical score – we call them blackboard composers. Their forum is in the classroom, talking about the music.^[28]

His article, "Form, Figure, Style—an intermediate assessment," is as impenetrable as the title. What is an "intermediate assessment"? From Ferneyhough' s prose style it would appear to be jargon, wordiness, vague abstractions, and pretentious prose. Consider, for example, the following sentence, which seems like a mish-mash of structuralist theory: "One conceivable approach to a provisional resolution of the dilemma might be a renewed concentration on, and redefinition of, the term style itself: in particular, it seems vital to focus attention more intensively on the diachronic features of stylistic formation, since this alone promises a salutary counterbalance to views of style which concentrate on the simultaneity of diverse physiognomic features in some historically referential, but apparently extrahistorically utopian subjectivism."^[29]

Ferneyhough talked about the disruption of time and the structure of emblems as if they were as straightforward as, perhaps, the choice of form or the biographical impulse behind composition. He sounded either delusional or extremely pretentious, and indeed there were snickers in the audience. ... While his music could never be said to "sound nice", though, it arguably creates a space for rich reflection. … Ferneyhough's own Carceri d'Invenzione I was nearly incomprehensible to this listener. …^[30]

Brian Ferneyhough … His programme notes suggested that he might even have forgotten his mother tongue. "This multiplicity largely undermines the spirit of the original autonomous 'time slice' principle, leading to a sort of mirrored or negative hierarchy of material and form conveying a qualitative reformulation of the work's initial conceptual environment." Eh? … I came with open ears. I read and listened. I listened and read. Yet I came away from this performance defeated. Bafflement refused to give way to any enlightenment. I could make neither head nor tail of Ferneyhough's 20-minute work. I tried following the tiny fragments and their fleetingly intriguing textural journeys. At times the work seemed to be making sense as a mini-Mahlerian canvas full of intense collisions and sharp changes of tack. But it was all in vain. I was flummoxed in the face of what seemed like a starry sky of discombobulating chaos.^[31]

[...] Brian Ferneyhough's Time and Motion Study II, for example. Here the main purpose seems to be an exhaustive examination of how far the performer can be driven by noise and impossible scoring before he is broken down and destroyed. In this sense it is an ugly and de-humanising piece. It exemplifies the way in which the composer-musician relationship can be pushed, and the antithesis of the aspirations associated with contemporary improvised music; yet (to my anger) such pieces generally acquire more credibility as 'works of art'^[32]

Anybody who was unfortunate enough to have sat through Ferneyhough's disastrous 'opera' Shadowtime a few years ago may be relieved to hear that the composer has salvaged something from the wreckage. [...] Les Froissements d'Ailes de Gabriel, is taken from Shadowtime, it is one of the extended interludes [...] The piece is the least successful on the disc, but there is still plenty of interest here, particularly the timbres and instrumental effects. In general, though, it seems that the rambling incoherence and lack of structural focus that plagues Ferneyhough's opera is as evident in the excerpts as it is in the complete work.^[11]

Bibliography[link]

• Boros, James, and Richard Toop (eds.). The Collected Writings of Brian Ferneyhough. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1995. Review by Ian Pace
• Bortz, Graziela. Rhythm in the music of Brian Ferneyhough, Michael Finnissy, and Arthur Kampela : a guide for performers. Ph.D. Thesis, City University of New York, 2003.
• Duncan, Stuart. "Re-complexifying the Function(s) of Notation in the Music of Brian Ferneyhough and the “New Complexity”. Perspectives of New Music 48, no. 1 (Winter 2010): 136–72.
• Ferneyhough, Brian. Brian Ferneyhough by Brian Ferneyhough. Paris: L'Age d'homme OCLC 21274317 (French)
• Pace, Ian. [Review:] "Brian Femeyhough, Collected Writings, edited by James Boros and Richard Toop. Harwood Academic Publishers; Ferneyhough: String Quartet No. 4; Kurze Schatten II ; Trittico per G. S.; Terrain, Arditti String Quartet with Brenda Mitchell (sop); Magnus Andersson (gtr); Stefano Scodanibbi (db); Irvine Arditti (vln) with ASKO Ensemble c. Jonathan Nott. Disques Montaigne MO 7 82029. Ferneyhough: Prometheus; La Chute D'Icare; On Stellar Magnitudes; Superscriptio; Carceri d'Invezione III. Luisa Castellani (voice); Felix Renggli (fl); Ernesto Molinari (cl); Ensemble Contrechamps c. Giorgio Bernasconi, Zsolt Nagy, Emilio Pomarico. ACCORD 205772". Tempo new series, no. 203 (January 1998): 45–48, 50–52.
• Rosser, Peter. "Brian Ferneyhough and the 'Avant-Garde Experience': Benjaminian Tropes in Funérailles". Perspectives of New Music 48, no. 2 (Summer 2010):114–51.
• Schick, Steven. "Developing an Interpretive Context: Learning Brian Ferneyhough's Bone Alphabet" (Subscription Access). Perspectives of New Music 32, no. 1 (Winter, 1994): 132–53.
• Tadday, Ulrich (ed.). "Brian Ferneyhough". Munich: Edition Text+Kritik in Richard Boorberg Verlag, 2008. (German)
• Toop, Richard. "Brian Ferneyhough's Lemma-Icon-Epigram". Perspectives of New Music 28, no. 2 (Summer, 1990): 52–100.
• Toop, Richard. "'Prima le Parole…' (On the Sketches for Ferneyhough's Carceri d'invenzione I–III)". Perspectives of New Music 32, no. 1 (Winter, 1994): 154–75.
• Whittall, Arnold. "Connections and Constellations". The Musical Times 144, no. 1883 (Summer): 23–32.
• Williams, Alastair. "Adorno and the Semantics of Modernism". Perspectives of New Music 37, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 1–22.

References[link]

External links[link]

Biographical

• Info at Brian Ferneyhough's publisher, Edition Peters – includes biography, works and selected discography
• Info at Stanford University Department of Music
• Living Composers Project

Interviews

• Interview (SOSPESO)
• Open questions for Brian Ferneyhough (also applicable to other composers of our day) – turned into an interview, since Ferneyhough replied (Stanford IP address...)
• NewMusicBox cover: Brian Ferneyhough in conversation with Molly Sheridan, July 22, 2005 (video excerpts from NewMusicBox)
• An Interview with Brian Ferneyhough by Felipe Ribeiro, James Correa, Catarina Domenici (Search Journal for New Music and Culture; Summer 2009)

Articles

• The Experience of Complexity by Larson Powell (Search Journal for New Music and Culture; Summer 2010)

Films

• Electric Chair Music / Time & Motion Study II; (film by Colin Still, cello: Neil Heyde, electronics: Paul Archbold)

Other

• Brian Ferneyhough wins 2007 Siemens Prize for Music
• Excerpts from sound archives of Ferneyhough's works.
• (French) A biography of Brian Ferneyhough, from IRCAM's website.
• Brian Ferneyhough at the Open Directory Project

Tomas Tranströmer
Tranströmer in 2008
Born	Tomas Gösta Tranströmer (1931-04-15) 15 April 1931 (age 81) Stockholm, Sweden
Occupation	Poet, psychologist
Nationality	Swedish
Period	1954-
Notable work(s)	The Half-Finished Heaven Windows and Stones Baltics For the Living and the Dead The Sorrow Gondola
Notable award(s)	Nobel Prize in Literature 2011
Spouse(s)	Monika Bladh

Tomas Gösta Tranströmer (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈtʊːmas ˈjœsˈta ˈtrɑːnˈstrœmər]; born 15 April 1931) is a Swedish poet, psychologist and translator. His poems capture the long Swedish winters, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature.^[1] Tranströmer's work is also characterized by a sense of mystery and wonder underlying the routine of everyday life, a quality which often gives his poems a religious dimension.^[2] Indeed, he has been described as a Christian poet.^[3]

Tranströmer is acclaimed as one of the most important Scandinavian writers since the Second World War. Critics have praised his poetry for its accessibility, even in translation.^[1] His poetry has been translated into over 60 languages.^[1] He is the recipient of the 1990 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature.^[4]

Life and work[link]

Early life[link]

Tranströmer was born in Stockholm in 1931 and raised by his mother, a schoolteacher, following her divorce from his father.^[4][5] He received his secondary education at the Södra Latin School in Stockholm, where he began writing poetry. In addition to selected journal publications, his first collection of poems, 17 Poems was published in 1954. He continued his education at Stockholm University, graduating as a psychologist in 1956 with additional studies in history, religion, and literature.^[4] Between 1960 and 1966, Tranströmer split his time between working as a psychologist at the Roxtuna center for juvenile offenders and writing poetry.^[4]

Poetry[link]

Tranströmer is considered to be one of the "most influential Scandinavian poet[s] of recent decades".^[4] Tranströmer has published 15 collected works over his career, which has been translated into over 60 languages.^[4] An English translation by Robin Fulton of his entire body of work, New Collected Poems, was published in the UK in 1987 and expanded in 1997. Following the publication of The Great Enigma, Fulton's edition was further expanded into The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems, published in the US in 2006 and as an updated edition of New Collected Poems^[6] in the UK in 2011. He published a short autobiography, Minnena ser mig (The Memories see me), in 1993.

During the 1950s, Tranströmer became close friends with poet Robert Bly. The two corresponded frequently, and Bly would translate Tranströmer's poems into English. Bonniers, Tranströmer's publisher, released Air Mail, a work consisting of Tranströmer and Bly's mail, in 2001.^[4] The Syrian poet Adunis helped spread Tranströmer's fame in the Arab world, accompanying him on readings.^[7]

Tranströmer (right) with Iraqi-Swedish artist Modhir Ahmed, 2007

In the 1970s, other poets accused Tranströmer of being detached from his own age, since he did not deal overtly with social and political issues in his poems and novels. His work, though, lies within and further develops the Modernist and Expressionist/Surrealist language of 20th century poetry; his clear, seemingly simple pictures from everyday life and nature in particular reveals a mystic insight to the universal aspects of the human mind. A poem of his was read at Anna Lindh's memorial service in 2003.^[8]

Tranströmer went to Bhopal immediately after the gas tragedy in 1984, and alongside Indian poets such as K. Satchidanandan, took part in a poetry reading session outside.^[9]

Tranströmer suffered a stroke in 1990 that left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak; however, he would continue to write and publish poetry through the early 2000s. His latest original work, The Great Enigma, was published in 2004.

Music[link]

Tranströmer has played the piano throughout his life; after his stroke, which paralysed the right side of his body, he taught himself to play with only with his left hand. He often said that the playing was a way for him to continue living after the stroke.^[10][11][5]

Many composers and musicians have worked with his poems. The New European Ensemble commissioned the young Swedish composer Benjamin Staern for a song cycle based on poems from The Grief Gondola.^[12] The piece was premièred in 2010 in both the composer's and the poet's presence. Other composers who have worked with Tomas Tranströmer's poems include Jan Garbarek and Sven-David Sandström.^[13] In 2011 he was elected honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music for his contribution to music.^{[citation needed]}

List of works[link]

Books of poetry

• 17 Poems (17 dikter), Bonniers, 1954
• Secrets on the Way (Hemligheter på vägen), Bonnier, 1958
• The Half-Finished Heaven (Den halvfärdiga himlen), Bonnier, 1962
• Bells and Tracks (Klanger och spår), Bonnier, 1966
• Seeing in the Dark (Mörkerseende), Författarförlaget, 1970
• Paths (Stigar), Författarförlaget, 1973, ISBN 978-91-7054-110-0
• Baltics (Östersjöar), Bonnier, 1974
• The Truthbarrier (Sanningsbarriären), Bonnier, 1978, ISBN 978-91-0-043684-1
• The Wild Market Square (Det vilda torget) Bonnier, 1983, ISBN 978-91-0-046048-8
• For the Living and the Dead (För levande och döda), Bonnier, 1989
• The Sorrow Gondola (Sorgegondolen), Bonnier, 1996, ISBN 978-91-0-056232-8
• Prison (Fängelse), Edition Edda, 2001 (from 1959), ISBN 978-91-89352-10-0
• The Great Enigma (Den stora gåtan), Bonnier, 2004, ISBN 978-91-0-010310-1

Other

• Memories Look at Me (Minnena ser mig), Bonnier, 1993 - prose memoir ISBN 978-91-0-055716-4
• Air Mail: Brev 1964-1990, Bonnier, 2001 - correspondence with Robert Bly ISBN 978-91-0-057384-3
• Galleriet: Reflected in Vecka nr.II (2007) – an artist book by Modhir Ahmed

Selected books in English translation

• Twenty Poems tr. Robert Bly (Seventies Press, 1970)^[14]
• Windows and Stones tr. May Swenson & Leif Sjoberg, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972, ISBN 978-0-8229-3241-3
• Baltics tr. Samuel Charters, Oyez, Berkeley, 1975; Oasis Books, 1980, ISBN 978-0-903375-51-1
• Selected Poems, translator Robin Fulton, Ardis Publishers, 1981, ISBN 978-0-88233-462-2
• Collected Poems, Translator Robin Fulton, Bloodaxe Books, 1987, ISBN 978-1-85224-023-3
• Tomas Tranströmer: Selected Poems, 1954–1986, Editor Robert Hass, Publisher Ecco Press, 1987 ISBN 978-0-88001-113-6
• Sorrow Gondola: Sorgegondolen tr. Robin Fulton, Dufour Editions, 1994, ISBN 978-1-873790-48-9; Dufour Editions, Incorporated, 1997, ISBN 978-0-8023-9070-7
• New Collected Poems tr. Robin Fulton, Bloodaxe Books, 1997, ISBN 978-1-85224-413-2
• Selected Poems Transtromer, Translator May Swenson, Eric Sellin, HarperCollins, 1999, ISBN 978-0-88001-403-8
• The Half-Finished Heaven tr. Robert Bly, Graywolf Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1-55597-351-3
• The Deleted World tr. Robin Robertson, Enitharmon Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-904634-48-5; Enitharmon Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-904634-51-5
• The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems. Translator Robin Fulton. New Directions. 2006. ISBN 978-0-8112-1672-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=r_t4QO2Ub5YC&printsec=frontcover&dq=tomas+transtr%C3%B6mer+poems&hl=en&ei=WeiNTvaICKPj0QGj1OU_&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• The Sorrow Gondola tr. Michael McGriff and Mikaela Grassl, Green Integer, 2010, ISBN 978-1-933382-44-9
• The Deleted World tr. Robin Robertson, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011
• New Collected Poems tr. Robin Fulton, expanded edition Bloodaxe Books, 2011, ISBN 978-1-85224-413-2

Awards and honours[link]

• 1966: Bellmanpriset (Bellmanpriset) (Sweden)
• 1981: Petrarca-Preis (Germany)
• 1990: Neustadt International Prize for Literature (US) ^[15]
• 1990: Nordic Council Literature Prize, for For the Living and the Dead (Nordic countries)
• 1991: Swedish Academy Nordic Prize (Sweden)
• 1992: Horst Bienek Prize for Poetry (Horst-Bienek-Preis für Lyrik) (Germany)
• 1996: Augustpriset, for Sorgegondolen (Sweden)
• 2003: Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath (Macedonia)
• 2007: The Griffin Trust, Lifetime Recognition Award (Griffin Poetry Prize) (Canada)
• 2011: Title of Professor (Swedish: Professors namn), granted by the Cabinet of Sweden (Sweden)^[16][17]
• 2011: Nobel Prize for Literature (Sweden)

Other awards include the Övralid Prize, the Petrarca-Preis in Germany and the Swedish Award from International Poetry Forum.

Nobel Prize in Literature, 2011[link]

Tranströmer was announced as the recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature.^[4][5] He was the 108th winner of the award and the first Swede to win since 1974.^[8][18][19] Tranströmer had been considered a perennial frontrunner for the award in years past, with reporters waiting near his residence on the day of the announcement in prior years.^[20] The Swedish Academy revealed that he had been nominated every single year since 1993.^[20]

Tranströmer's wife, Monica, said he had been notified by telephone four minutes before the announcement was made.^[21] The Nobel Committee stated that Tranströmer's work received the prize “because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality."^[4] His wife, Monica, accepted the prize on 10 December 2011.^[22]

Permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Peter Englund said, "He's been writing poetry since 1951 when he made his debut. And has quite a small production, really. He's writing about big questions. He's writing about death, he's writing about history and memory, and nature."^[20][23] Prime Minister of Sweden Fredrik Reinfeldt said he was ”happy and proud” at the news of Tranströmer's achievement.^[24] Meanwhile, international response to the award has been mixed.^[25] The prize announcement led to the immediate reissuing of at least two volumes of Tranströmer's poetry.^[26][27]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tomas Tranströmer

• Official Website of Tomas Tranströmer
• Tomas Tranströmer´s Selection of Poems
• Biography on Pegasos
• Biography and Poems on Poets.org
• Biographical profile on Bloodaxe Books website
• Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition tribute, including audio and video clips
• 28 haiku from "The Great Mystery" translated by Anatoly Kudryavitsky, with his essay on Tranströmer
• Sorrow Gondola translated by Patty Crane, with essay by David Wojahn, letter from Jean Valentine, and more in Blackbird, Spring 2011, Vol. 10, No. 1.
• Poems in English translation at Samizdat
• Poetry Fix video on Tranströmer
• Landscape with Suns
• The Guardian: Tomas Tranströmer 'surprised' by Nobel prize for literature - video interview
• "Wonderful Centipedes: The Poetry of Tomas Tranströmer", Niklas Schiöler, Berfrois, 12 October 2011

Flying Lotus
Background information
Also known as	Flying Lotus FlyLo Juno Leed
Born	(1983-10-07) October 7, 1983 (age 28)
Origin	Los Angeles, California United States
Genres	Electronic, experimental
Occupations	Musician Record Producer Filmmaker Record Label Owner
Instruments	Computer, Turntables, Sampler, Drum Machine, Synthesizer, Keyboards, Multi-instrumentalist
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Warp, Brainfeeder, Plug Research
Associated acts	Thundercat FLYamSAM Alice Coltrane Ravi Coltrane Thom Yorke Laura Darlington Gonjasufi
Website	flying-lotus.com, brainfeedersite.com
Notable instruments
Reason Ableton Live

Flying Lotus (born Steven Ellison) is an experimental multi-genre music producer from Winnetka, California. His debut album, 1983, was released on Plug Research Records in 2006.^[1] He produced much of the bumper music on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block,^[2] for which he is uncredited, and he also contributed remixes for fellow Plug Research artists including Mia Doi Todd. He is often referred to as FlyLo by fans and critics. His grandmother was songwriter Marilyn McLeod. He is the great-nephew of the late Alice Coltrane, whose husband was John Coltrane. He is also the cousin of musician Ravi Coltrane.^[3]

Music career[link]

In 2007, he announced that he signed with Warp Records.^[4] Following his Warp debut, the six-track Reset EP, he quickly became one of the label’s cornerstone artists and released his second album, titled Los Angeles, on June 10, 2008. In 2008, Flying Lotus also remixed "Reckoner" from Radiohead's album In Rainbows.^[5] His third album, Cosmogramma, was released on May 3, 2010, in the UK and May 4, 2010, in the US.^[6] In January 2011, Cosmogramma won in the Dance/Electronica Album category in the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards.^[7]

Recently, Flying Lotus collaborated with the Ann Arbor Film Festival in the performance of a live scoring of the 1962 avant-garde film Heaven and Earth Magic.^[8] In a post-viewing interview with the audience, Flying Lotus said that he was unsure whether or not a recording of the performance (or a recreation of it) would be publicly released, but he would be enthusiastic toward similar projects in the future. He was chosen by Battles to perform at the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival that it co-curates in December 2011 in Minehead, England.^[9]

In January 2011, Flying Lotus won the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards for his video "MmmHmm" in the Short-Form Video category.^[10] Flying Lotus will be collaborating with R&B singer Erykah Badu on new material for her next album.^[11] In August 2011, Flying Lotus announced a multimedia project with filmmaker Miwa Matreyek, which is to be titled The Mapping of Countries Yet to Come.^[12] It is currently rumored that Flying Lotus plans to remix one of Radiohead's songs from The King of Limbs.^[13]

Discography[link]

Demos[link]

• 2005: July Heat

Note: Various unofficial Flying Lotus demos leaked by fans are sometimes mistaken as official Flying Lotus releases, such as "Raw Cartoons."^[14]

Albums[link]

EPs and Misc[link]

12-inch singles[link]

• 2006: Pink Sun EP (12", EP) My Room Is White (Flying Lotus Remix) - Plug Research
• 2008: Cool Out (12") Lost (Flying Lotus Remix) - Hyperdub
• 2008: Dive EP (12", EP) Blank Blue (Flying Lotus Remix) - Ubiquity Records
• 2008: Get Dirty EP (12", EP) Game Over (Flying Lotus Remix) - Ghostly International
• 2008: Natural Selection (Flying Lotus' Cleanse Mix) / Vancouver (2562's Puur Natuur Dub) (12")
• 2008: Woebegone (CD, Single, Promo) Woebegone (Flying Lotus Remix) - Ninja Tune

Production[link]

• 2008: José James - Park Bench People (on the track "Visions of Violet")
• 2009: Declaime - Whole Wide World
• 2010: José James - Blackmagic
• 2010: Gonjasufi - A Sufi and a Killer (on the track "Ancestors")
• 2010: Mike Bigga - Adult Swim Singles Program (on the track "Swimming")
• 2011: Thundercat - The Golden Age of Apocalypse
• 2011: Blu - 'NoYork! (on the tracks "Doin’ Nothin", "Everything Ok" and "Doin’ Something"
• 2012: "Lately" and "Lamented" on the Hodgy Beats Untitled EP

Collaborations[link]

• 2008: One for Pep Pep (Remix) (Tim and Eric Awesome Record, Great Songs)
• 2008: Testament (w/ Gonjasufi)
• 2009: Bootleg Beats (w/ Samiyam)^[17]
• 2010: ...And The World Laughs With You^[18][19] (w/ Thom Yorke)
• 2011: Kryon (w/ Kode9 & the Spaceape)^[20]
• 2011: Group Tea (w/ Matthewdavid)^[21]
• 2011: Lost (w/ King Midas Sound) ^[22]
• 2011: Live (w/ Hodgy Beats & Mike G of OFWGKTA)

Mixes[link]

• 2011: Lover's Melt (Stones Throw Podcast)
• 2011: Lover's Melt Pt. 2 (Brainfeeder Podcast)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Brainfeeder
• Official Online Game
• Warp Records
• Plug Research
• RBMA Radio On Demand - Sonar Sessions 2007 - Flying Lotus (Warp/Plug Research, Los Angeles)
• Sept 2007 Interview with L.A. Record
• Interview (2007)
• Los Angeles Review (2008)
• New Yorker profile by Sasha Frere-Jones
• Flying Lotus “BRAINFEEDER RADIO” Part 2 at Dublab