An Announcement about Reposts

I know it's been a long while between new posts. Unfortunately, this post won't have anything new available as DrEyescope and I are very busy with our careers and various projects nowadays. I do not know when there will be anything new here. This post is about addressing reposts.

I just found out that ADrive is planning to discontinue its services for free accounts on November 16. (I also found out it was announced in September, but I haven't checked my email in a while.) That means that ADrive will be deleting all free accounts and all the files that are in those free accounts. It happens that I am one of those folks with a free account. I put in a lot of time over the past year or two reuploading a lot of files to ADrive so that they will stay up for a long time. All of those files will be gone on November 16 because ADrive wants to charge people for the privilege of using its services. It's a profit-making business foremost so I understand that's the way it has to be. However, it would have been great if it could grandfather the free accounts by letting them stay while not accepting any more free users since free users helped it by trying it and perhaps also helped to persuade more people to use it. I do not wish to sign up for a premium account with them therefore I will be finished with ADrive on November 16 as far as I am concerned.

If you have not yet gotten any or some older files, now is the time to grab everything you want while you can. Due to lack of time, I have not been able to keep up with what file-sharing services/cloud services/filehosters are out there. Just about all of the familiar names from the first generation in that industry (e.g. Rapidshare, Zshare, Badongo, etc.) are gone. The only ones I can name off the top of my head right now are Mega and Zippyshare. Anyone is welcome to offer suggestions of what to use.

I do not know what I will do or use after Nov. 16. It's likely there will be a lot of dead links here. I hardly have time nowadays to tend to this blog much less do a bunch of reups. As I already said, get them while you still can.

Dec. 9, 2015 UPDATE: The ADrive links are still active for the moment. Apparently, ADrive pushed back the date. I just found out that it said it will permanently delete all free accounts on January 1, 2016. If you still haven't got what you want, you still have some time left.

Lutoslawski, Penderecki, Cage, Mayuzumi: String Quartets

LaSalle Quartet - Lutoslawski, Penderecki, Cage, Mayuzumi: String Quartets

CD released in 1987

LaSalle Quartet:

Walter Levin - 1st violin
Henry Meyer - 2nd violin
Peter Kamnitzer - viola
Jack Kirstein - cello

The string quartet was one of the supreme achievements of an age when music came nearest to the nature of speech, an age when themes could be stated and discussed in a language that was both rich and clear. It was a conversational medium for a conversational art, and so successful as such that it has survived into a time of musical confusion enough to eliminate any possibility of Haydnesque discourse. Hence the problem which these four quartets (not to mention those of T.S. Eliot) all address: how to use a naturally discursive medium when the foundations of the language have fallen. All dating from 1949-64, these are quartets in which the first violin can no longer speak to the cello and expect to be understood.
The most drastic, radically opposed reactions to this linguistic disintegration are those of Cage and Lutoslawski, the one making the quartet into a single instrument to play "a melodic line without accompaniment", the other writing alienation into his music so that "each player performs his part as though he were alone". If harmonious counterpoint is not possible any more, then these are the obvious alternatives, of monody and of a polyphony of independent voices. The other two works here bear witness to the same dissolution - the Penderecki in its abundance of previously marginal effects, the Mayuzumi by having the players sit as far apart as possible on the platform - but both find ways to retain a more progressive continuity, in contrast with Cage's stasis and Lutoslawski's elusive fluidity. (Paul Griffiths)

tracks 1-4 originally released on LP in 1968
tracks 5-8 originally released on LP in 1976

Tracklisting:

1.  String Quartet: Introductory Movement  {8:29}
composed by Witold Lutoslawski, 1964

2.  String Quartet: Main Movement  {15:15}
composed by Witold Lutoslawski, 1964

3.  Quartetto per archi  {7:03}
composed by Krzysztof Penderecki, 1960

4.  Prelude for String Quartet  {11:10}
composed by Toshiro Mayuzumi, 1961

5.  String Quartet in Four Parts: Quietly flowing along  {4:18}
tracks 5-8 composed by John Cage, 1950

6.  String Quartet in Four Parts: Slowly rocking  {4:57}

7.  String Quartet in Four Parts: Nearly stationary  {10:38}

8.  String Quartet in Four Parts: Quodlibet  {1:33}

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La légende d'Eer

Iannis Xenakis - La légende d'Eer

CD released 2003

La légende d'Eer (diatope) 8-channel electronic tape

Played by Electronic Studio Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln

From the back cover:

Minimalist and wild, incisive and graphic, La légende d'Eer unfolds to the rhythm of the crackling of merging timbres in ductile electronic sound. Associated with a lighting device calling for one thousand six hundred and eighty flashes and four lasers, their beams reflected by four hundred mirrors, La légende d'Eer, ('Diatope') is an aural and visual experience - an epic score, a gesture of light and sound, in which the listener is invited to immerse himself in the 'corps sonore', as the composer suggests: 'I was thinking of someone in the middle of an Ocean. The elements are all around him, sometimes raging, sometimes calm.'

From a rough Google Translate translation of the liner notes:

Composed in 1977, The Legend of Eer is one of the longest electroacoustic scores of Iannis Xenakis.
To date, the composer wrote fourteen works of this kind, many of which have been designed in relation to the site of their release. For some, like Persepolis or Mycenae Alpha, this is a historic site open which was invested; for others, such as The Legend of Eer, Iannis Xenakis also imagine the place as a framework has broadcast. Imagine the place - in this case to the square in front of the Beaubourg Centre Georges Pompidou - and the band and light device that are associated with it Diatope meet the terms of a variety of polytope, a term that the composer used to denominate its musical and light installations. The Diatope Beaubourg represents a culmination in the series polytopes. In the inside of a shell whose plans were traces the composer, one thousand six hundred and eighty flashes are willing and four hundred mirrors variously reflect the rays of four lasers, and eleven speakers. In this show, the music and the lights are independent. The bright interventions and the course crees by displacements of lights are automated programs, but the meetings that occur with music - fixed, too, in its development - are fortuitous and each has different diffusion.

From notes by Richard Toop:

La Légende d'Eer [1977] marks a further stage in the alliance of music and architecture. In an interview to be found at the very end of Olivier Revault d'Allonnes' 1975 book on Les Polytopes, Xenakis is asked where he would like to locate his next 'spectacle', and he replies: "In the heavens and on the earth. Perhaps at Bonn or Paris (in the Beaubourg square). Remember the Myth of Er the Pamphylian (Plato's Republic, Book 10) and his column of light. As well as Poimandres (Hermes Trismegistus' Hermetics, Book 1), and the 'illuminations', the revelations of the Byzantine ascetics up to Gregory Palamas. As well as those of the Chinese and Japanese buddhists (Zen)."

In practice, it was the 'Beaubourg vision' that came good: Xenakis was asked to create a new 'polytope' on the square outside the Pompidou Centre, to celebrate the opening of the latter in 1978 (in the event, the premiere had to be delayed for several months). Though the resulting Diatope picked up some architectural threads from the Philips Pavilion of two decades before, there was at least one significant difference: here, for the first time, Xenakis was creating a space and the music for it, hand in hand, and seeking an architectural form (based on hyperbolic paraboloids) equally amenable to the reflexion of light and sound.

The title, The Legend of Eer, comes from the final pages of Plato's The Republic. Since so much of Xenakis' musical thinking has links back to his wartime experiences - to the mass movements of people and machines in the darkness, and to the extraordinary play of searchlights over cities under bombardment - it's hard to overlook Nouritza Matossian's parallel between the fate of Er, whose body returns to life after ten days, and that of Xenakis, who was initially assumed to be unsaveable after sustaining severe facial wounds. However, Xenakis insists he was "not inspired by the legend" and though he appended parts of Plato's text to his notes for the first performance (significantly omitting the passage on the Harmony of the Spheres!), he gave equal emphasis to other texts: Pascal contemplating Infinity in his Pensées, Hermes Trismegistus, and Jean-Paul Richter, as well as a recent [1976] Scientific American article by Robert P. Kirschner on supernovas.

Tracklisting:

1.  La legende d'Eer  {45:24}

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Afternoon in Amsterdam

Afternoon in Amsterdam

released on LP

featuring Gavioli Draaiorgel "Jupiter"
recorded in Holland

From the liner notes:

The subtle pastel coloring of the aged buildings reflected in the canals' calm water; the incredible cleanliness of the worn sidewalks and streets; the happy sounds emanating from the big and colorful hand-cranked barrel organs along the Kalverstraat: these are Amsterdam in the sun-covered afternoons of any season, any year.

Music is important in the Netherlands. Amid the heavy traffic of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, and Scheveningen - traffic made difficult by the unending procession of bicycles and pint-sized motor cars - and in the green, soft, tranquil settings of rural Holland, one hears some sort of music no matter how early or late the hour. Radio Hilversum, the progressive, government-operated station, beams music to all of Europe through the day and night, and rarely do the concerts and operettas at Grote Zaal and Stadsschouwburg fail to attract turn-away audiences. Records are fast-selling items in the music stores, much as they are in North America; only a few weeks separate the arrival of a new pop tune on the American and Dutch hit parades.

The music contained here is like no other music anywhere. There are organs on every continent, but only in the Netherlands are there barrel organs like the massive but movable "Gavioli Draaiorgel Jupiter" instrument heard in this album. The astounding variety of pleasant sounds it produces are achived by a sort of paper folder, or book, whose leaves have, with unbelievable ingenuity, been carefully perforated to produce music when exposed to air pressure. The air, of course, is provided by the powerful organist patiently turning the heavy metal wheel at the organ's side. Another man stands near, collecting voluntary fees from the passersby; at intervals they trade chores. The guilders pile up for the two men, Everybody is happy.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1.  Afternoon Songs: Amsterdam; On the Old Lindencanal; By Us in the Jordaan; Oh Saberdyosia  {3:03}

2.  Afternoon Songs: The Perl of the Jordaan; At the Foot of the Old Water Tower; The Condemned House  {3:02}

3.  Dutch Waltzes: Hand in Hand; Nobody Like You; On Saturday Afternoon  {2:55}

4.  Dutch Marches: King Football; KLM March; Stadium March  {2:51}

5.  Between Tunnel and Maas Bridge: Always Ships are Coming; Ketelbinkie; Were You Born at Rotterdam; By the Maas  {3:04}

6.  Between Tunnel and Maas Bridge: The Flag of Rotterdam; Anchors Aweigh; Great Rotterdam  {3:00}

Side 2

1.  Dutch Towns: Just Give Me Amsterdam; My Own Rotterdam; There is Only One Den Haag  {1:53}

2.  Dutch Tangos: I Like Holland; Ole Guapa  {2:24}

3.  Sea Songs: The Song of the Sea; Seaman, Oh Seaman; On the Turbulent Waves  {2:13}

4.  Dutch South African Songs: Sarie Marais; Mama, I'd Like to Have a Husband; The Little Shoemaker  {2:18}

5.  Star Songs: Just Look at the Stars Tonight; At Night by Starlight; When Stars are Twinkling in the Sky  {2:29}

6.  Dutch Mill Songs: The Mill at the Brook; Greetje from the Polder; There Near the Mill  {2:37}

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Black Angels

The Cikada Quartet - Black Angels

released on CD in 1995

recorded at the Academy of Music, Oslo, Norway: March 25-27, 1994


The Cikada Quartet:
Henrik Hannisdal - violin
Odd Hannisdal - violin
Marek Konstantynowicz - viola
Morten Hannisdal - violoncello


tracks 1-13 Black Angels composed by George Crumb

tracks 14-16 String Quartet Op. 28 composed by Anton Webern

tracks 17-18 String Quartet composed by Witold Lutoslawski

George Crumb - Black Angels

The score of Black Angels is inscribed in tempore belli, "in time of war." In 1970 that meant the Vietnam War and Crumb was later to explain that the work was "conceived as a kind of parable on our troubled contemporary world". There are aspects of Black Angels which can be construed as making oblique reference to that particular conflict: the vivid "electric insects", the liquid sonorities which form a gentle quasi-oriental backdrop, even the surrealistic juxtaposition of the two. But the work is not "about" Vietnam, nor even war itself, although it can certainly be interpreted as an anti-war statement. In Crumb's own words the "parable" is told in terms of "a voyage of the soul. The three stages of this voyage are: Departure (fall from grace), Absence (spiritual annihilation) and Return (redemption)". This mystical programme is underpinned by "the essential polarity - God versus the Devil", giving rise to a number of musical (and non-musical) allusions. In Black Angels, Crumb's preoccupation with some of the techniques and principles of the medieval age, characteristic of much of his work, is greatly in evidence. But the most immediate impression is that of its highly individual and graphic timbral effects. The Quartet is amplified, the use of an electrified quartet to heighten expressiveness rather than to manipulate the sound pre-dating the the recent trend for doing so by some twenty years. The work is also a catalogue of ingenious string techniques and requires each of the players to double on various percussion instruments from the more usual (maracas and tam-tams, the latter being bowed as well as struck) to the more outre (water-tuned crystal glasses and solid glass rods).

Anton Webern - String Quartet Op. 28

If Webern's Quartet was not actually written "in time of war" it was certainly written in circumstances not far removed, the Nazi Anschluss leading to the conducting appointment Webern had held with Austrian Radio since 1927 being "liquidated" in 1938, the year in which Op. 28 was completed. Webern had already begun sketching the Quartet when a commission arrived from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, the American patron who also commissioned Schoenberg's third and fourth quartets, giving Webern the welcome opportunity to accept it for a work he had already commenced.

"The worse it gets the more responsible our task", Webern once wrote about the conflict into which his country was forced, yet nothing could be further from Crumb's extrovert response to the world around him than this supreme example of "pure", abstract music. (Ironically and tragically Webern was to suffer more than most composers because of the "time of war", killed by an American soldier days after the end of the Second World War in what was probably a case of mistaken identity.) The very sound of the work is austere - no harmonics or col legno effects (found in other compositions by Webern), let alone the pyrotechnics of Crumb's piece.

There is, therefore, minimal distraction from the "primacy of pitch" and the twelve-tone technique which articulates it. Webern's compositional development had followed a parallel path to that of his mentor and teacher, Schoenberg, the rich late-romanticism of his early work giving way to the atonality of the years around the First World War and the fully fledged serialism he was ultimately to adopt. By the late 1930s this in Webern's hands had become a fascination with canons, palindromes and symmetry, not as in Crumb's work for symbolic or expressive reasons, but as a means of creating even greater musical integration.

Witold Lutoslawski - String Quartet

"The tempo is approximate as are all rhythmical values. Each performer should play his part as though he were alone... As the vertical result of the juxtaposition of the four parts of this work is not completely fixed, there can be no score." Lutoslawski's indications in his String Quartet, written in 1964 for a commission from Swedish Radio, mark the logical culmination of the trend for using aleatoric (random) procedures which had started with his Jeux venitiens of 1961 and characterised the works of his middle period (Paroles tissees, Symphony No.2, Livre pour orchestre). It was in 1960 that Lutoslawski heard John Cage's Piano Concerto and it was this which brought to his attention the potential of using chance as a compositional technique. So, the String Quartet takes the form of a series of "mobiles", varying in length from a few seconds to as long as a couple of minutes, within which "particular players perform their parts quite independently of each other. They have to decide separately about the length of pauses and about the way of treating ritenutos and accelerandos". The transition from one section to another is realized in various ways and sometimes requires a fairly complex system of signals between the players.

However, how does this square with a composer who wrote, "I firmly believe in a clear delineation of duties between composer and performers, and I have no wish to surrender even the smallest part of my claim to authorship of even the shortest passage of music which I have written"? How can he claim in the String Quartet that "if each performer strictly follows the instructions in the parts, nothing could happen which has not been foreseen by the composer"?

Lutoslawski himself has explained this apparent contradiction in what he has said or written of the Quartet on a number of occasions. "It is not a question of diversity between performances; nor is it a question of the element of surprise; nor of freeing myself from a part of the responsibility for the work and placing it on the performers." It is clear that whilst Cage may have been a catalyst in Lutoslawski's embracing of the possibilities of chance techniques, his aesthetics and his use of aleatoricism provided no deeper influence than that. "The aim of my endeavours has been merely to attain a definite sound result. This result is impossible to attain in any other way especially as regards rhythm and expression." (Nicholas Rampley)

Tracklisting:

Departure

1.  Black Angels: Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects  {1:22}

2.  Black Angels: Sounds of Bones and Flutes  {0:44}

3.  Black Angels: Lost Bells  {0:56}

4.  Black Angels: Devil-Music  {1:38}

5.  Black Angels: Danse Macabre  {1:03}

6.  Black Angels: Pavana Lachrymae  {1:02}

Absence

7.  Black Angels: Threnody II: Black Angels  {2:50}

8.  Black Angels: Sarabanda de la muerte oscura  {1:00}

9.  Black Angels: Lost Bells, Echo  {1:17}

Return

10. Black Angels: God-Music  {3:22}

11. Black Angels: Ancient Voices  {1:02}

12. Black Angels: Ancient Voices, Echo  {0:21}

13. Black Angels: Threnody III: Night of the Electric Insects  {3:50}


14. String Quartet Op. 28: Massig  {3:36}

15. String Quartet Op. 28: Gemahlich  {1:43}

16. String Quartet Op. 28: Sehr Fliessend  {2:36}

17. String Quartet: Introductory Movement  {9:57}

18. String Quartet: Main Movement  {16:23}

(MP1) or (FL1)

The Music of Lou Harrison

Lou Harrison - The Music of Lou Harrison

released on CD in 1991, originally released on vinyl in 1971

tracks 1-7 performed by the Oakland Youth Orchestra, Robert Hughes - conductor

tracks 8-11 performed by Beverly Bellows

tracks 12-13 performed by Lou Harrison

tracks 14-16 performed by William Bouton - violin along with Richard Dee - cheng, William Colvig - sheng and fang-hsiang, Lou Harrison - piri, Helen Rifas - harp

Pacifika Rondo

Pacifika Rondo was written for the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii and received its premiere there in May 1963. Each movement refers to a section of the Pacific Basin except for the sixth, which is a protest against the bomb and its contamination and destruction of Pacific Life.
"The Family of the Court" largely refers to Korea and its court life; "Play of the Dolphins" is in a sense mid-ocean music and the sound of the psalteries suggests the movement of waves and the dancing of dolphins.
"Lotus" is a tribute to Buddhism, a 'temple' piece; "In Sequoia's Shade" refers to California, particularly to its colonial days. The fifth movement (an 'Homage to Carlos Chavez') looks to Mexico and Netzahualcoyotl, the Aztec emperor, a king of great wisdom and goodness. "From the Dragon Pool" refers to the Sinitic Area and particularly China in which the dragon is considered benevolent.
I have been told to try several of the ways in which I think classic Asian musics might of themselves, and together, evolve in the future, and have combined instruments of several ethnics directly for musical expression.
In composing Pacifika Rondo I have thought, with love, around the circle of the Pacific.  (Lou Harrison)

Four Pieces for Harp

These are occasional works. The Serenade was written in a letter to Frank Wigglesworth, for him, when he was learning guitar in Rome, and it was originally for that instrument. Beverly's Troubadour Piece was first composed at a party in which Bob Hughes, Jerry Neff and I wrote little pieces for Beverly Bellows to play (at once) on my now troubadour model harp. Again, the harp solo from Music for Bill and Me is from a group of pieces for my friend William Colvig and me to play. Avalokiteshvara is from a larger work celebrating the Amitabha trinity - in it the Bodhisattva is heard as it were in a "nimbus" of bells. (Lou Harrison)

Two Pieces for Psaltery

I composed my Psalter Sonata (my first piece for psaltery) after studying the instrument with Liang Tsai Ping, the great Chinese chong-master, to whom the piece is dedicated. One actually could see "one and a quarter moons" in the sky of Mars, and this piece was written to entertain Robert Hughes.  (Lou Harrison)

Music for Violin with Various Instruments
European, Asian & African

Composed for Gary Beswick, who gave its first performance at San Jose State College in 1967. The whole round world of musics and instruments lives around us. I am interested in a "transethnic," a planetary music.  (Lou Harrison)

Tracklisting:

1. Pacifika Rondo: The Family of the Court  {5:18}

2. Pacifika Rondo: A Play of Dolphins  {4:12}

3. Pacifika Rondo: Lotus  {2:52}

4. Pacifika Rondo: In Sequoia's Shade  {2:26}

5. Pacifika Rondo: Netzahuaucoyoti Builds a Pyramid  {2:22}

6. Pacifika Rondo: A Hatred of the Filthy Bomb  {2:53}

7. Pacifika Rondo: From the Dragon Pool  {4:03}

8. Four Pieces for Harp: Serenade for Frank Wigglesworth  {1:54}

9. Four Pieces for Harp: Beverly's Troubador Piece  {1:32}

10. Four Pieces for Harp: From Music for Bill and Me  {3:21}

11. Four Pieces for Harp: Avalokiteshvara  {2:23}

12. Two Pieces for Psaltery: Psalter Sonata  {2:32}

13. Two Pieces for Psaltery: The Garden at One and a Quarter Moons  {2:40}

14. Music for Violin with Various Instruments: Allegro Vigoroso  {3:17}

15. Music for Violin with Various Instruments: Largo  {4:19}

16. Music for Violin with Various Instruments: Allegro Moderato  {3:08}

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Domaines

Pierre Boulez - Domaines

reissued on CD in 1988, original release date 1971 (likely copied from a vinyl copy)

performed by Ensemble Musique Vivante under the direction of Diego Masson

clarinet solo: Michel Portal

...originally intended for solo clarinet when it was premiered in 1968. Two years later, Pierre Boulez adopted a circular arrangement made up of six instrumental units, with the clarinet as the sixth of these. The result is a structure in two large sections - original and mirror - directly derived from the dialogue between 'the protagonists' (in this case, Michel Portal) and each of the groups of instruments. (notes taken from 2001 reissue)

Tracklisting:

1. Premiere Partie  {15:38}

2. Seconde Partie  {14:38}

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More Updates Including a New Twitter Account

Hello to all. I recently finished reuploading several posts. They're listed on the "Updates" page.

I am considering no longer using the "Updates" page instead posting updates on a new Twitter account I created for the blog. It may be a better way to keep up with updates rather than remembering to check the "Updates" page. It may also be a little more efficient for me and DrEyescope as we don't have to reupload from several to many posts at one time. It's been difficult finding time to reupload much less post nowadays. Just one could be reuploaded and an update will appear in a short amount of time.

The "Updates" page will probably be changed to an open forum for requests and general comments.

About the Twitter account: Tweets will mostly be updates of old and new posts along with maybe links to some stuff we think is interesting. We'll see how it goes. I realize it has been a few years since I last posted any new tweets in my personal Twitter account, but I thought I would give it another try.

Some More Updates for Old Posts

I hope everyone is enjoying the Ratchet Orchestra, Marshall Allen and Danny Ray Thompson concert. I would like to thank DrEyescope for sharing it here. It's one of those concerts that I wish I could have been there in person.

I reuploaded a lot of the old posts, this time focusing on the avant-garde/modern classical and electro-acoustic records. I still have some more to reupload. Hopefully, I can get them up very soon. If you missed them the first time, now is another chance to grab them. They're all listed on the Updates page.

UPDATE (Aug. 4, 2014): I reuploaded some more posts and there's more on the way.

UPDATE (Aug. 17, 2014): More posts have been reuploaded. Also, sad to say, the links to the Ratchet Orchestra concert had to be taken down.

UPDATE (Aug. 25, 2014): DrEyescope reupped a few of his posts recently. They're all listed on the Updates page.

UPDATE (Sept. 2, 2014): I fulfilled a few requests and added reuploads of some other posts that have been neglected for too long.

Ratchet Orchestra with Marshall Allen and Danny Ray Thompson

As a small number of you out there know, I am a part-time musician.
Living where I do, I get the chance to play with some pretty incredible musicians, both those who live here and those who pass through.

I have been playing with the Ratchet Orchestra, an ever-changing monster led by Contrabassist Nicolas Caloia, for about 20 years now, and this past May 15 we were all honored to play with two long-standing members of the Sun Ra ("insert name here") Arkestra.

Marshall Allen has been playing with the Arkestra since 1958 (and leading it since the death of John Gilmore).
Danny Ray Thompson ("Pico" to his friends) has been a member since 1967.
These two fine gentlemen joined with the Ratchet Orchestra to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Sun Ra's arrival on Planet Earth.

The music heard here is a sort of "Suite" arranged by Nicolas Caloia, comprised  almost exclusively of Sun Ra compositions, some heard in something like a standard presentation, while others have been fractured and overlayed with other themes and material and may be unrecognizable to all but the most ardent Sun Ra fanatics.

In any case, I believe that this is some very fine, exciting and beautiful music and deserves to be heard and (I hope) enjoyed by fans of Sun Ra and visitors to the Closet of Curiosities.

Marshall Allen and Danny Ray Thompson with Ratchet Orchestra
Festival International de Musique Actuelle, Victoriaville
May 15, 2014

THE BOARD MIX/ZOOM BOOTLEG

They Dwell on Other Planes/We Must Not Say No To Ourselves
Eve
Thither and Yon
Discipline No. 15
El Is A Sound of Joy
El Victor
Love on A Faraway Planet/Life is Splendid/Angels and Demons
The Shadow World
Fate in A Pleasant Mood/Life is Splendid/We'll Wait for You/Space is the Place

Marshall Allen :alto saxophone, evi, voice
Pico : flute
Lori Freedman : clarinets, wx7, voice
Ida Toninato : bassoon, baritone saxophone
Damian Nisenson : saxophones, shenai
Yves Charuest : alto saxophone
Jason Sharp : bass saxophone, flute
Ellwood Epps : trumpet
Scott Thomson : trombone
Jacques Gravel : bass trombone, tympani
Joshua Zubot : violin
Guido Del Fabbro : violin, recorder
James Annett : viola
Chris Burns : guitar, voice
Guillaume Dostaler : piano, JX3P
Ken Doolittle : percussion, voice
Michel Bonneau : percussion
John Heward : drums
Isaiah Ceccarelli : drums, tympani
Nicolas Caloia : doublebass, maxikorg, arrangements


Nic Caloia also has a site where you can download, stream and purchase other music and video (and etc) which you may very well also enjoy.
If you like this concert, visit his page
and go nuts.

 (Sorry, links removed.)

Bird Songs in Your Garden

Arthur A. Allen and Peter Paul Kellogg - Bird Songs in Your Garden

book and accompanying 10" record released in 1961

Produced by Peter Paul Kellogg and Arthur A. Allen from recordings made for the Cornell Library of Natural Sounds.

List of species included in book and record:

Wood Pewee, Cardinal, Robin, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Catbird, Scarlet Tanager, Song Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Red-eyed Vireo, Wood Thrush, Veery, Cedar Waxwing, Brown-headed Cowbird, Blue Jay, Rufous-sided Towhee, Baltimore Oriole, Orchard Oriole, Purple Finch, Yellow-shafted Flicker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Kingbird, Phoebe, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Black-billed Cuckoo, Screech Owl

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1.  Bird Songs in Your Garden side 1  {12:48}

commentary by Arthur A. Allen

Side 2

1.  Bird Songs in Your Garden side 2  {13:11}

The songs of 25 birds unannounced but identified on side 1

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Meditations sur le mystere de la Sainte Trinite

Olivier Messiaen - Meditations sur le mystere de la Sainte Trinite

released on a 2-LP set in 1973 by Musical Heritage Society (same as 1972 release on Erato)

performed by Olivier Messiaen himself

Organ used on this recording is that of the Church of Sainte Trinite, Paris.

Composed in 1969, the mystical Meditations sur le mystere de la Sainte Trinite (Meditations on the Mystery of the Holy Trinity) is made up of 9 pieces or meditations that reflect on an attribute of the Trinity. The Meditations contain bird songs, plainsong, quotations from Thomas Aqunias's Summa Thelogica, deci-talas (Hindu rhythms). The liner notes include Messiaen's own musical and theological analysis on the music that helps in understanding the music. Also in the liner notes, Messiaen explains his attempt at creating a musical language called communicable language that is incorporated in the music.
Messiaen's version is the only one that I have listened to in its entirety. I'm not sure if it is the essential version although since it's performed by the man himself, it probably should be. The performance and the recording itself is great. I am welcome, of course, to any other suggestions.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1.  Meditation No. 1  {8:15}

2.  Meditation No. 2  {11:37}

Side 2

1.  Meditation No. 3  {2:19}

2.  Meditation No. 4  {6:30}

3.  Meditation No. 5  {11:18}

Side 3

1.  Meditation No. 6  {8:30}

2.  Meditation No. 7  {6:27}

Side 4

1.  Meditation No. 8  {10:39}

2.  Meditation No. 9  {9:38}

(1) (2)

Hall Overton / Lester Trimble - Split Release (CRI 1972)

Notes (reprinted in spite of the fact that I find them really rather annoying) excerpted from the back cover (included).

Pulsations is the last in Overton's considerable catalogue and is probably the work that most perfectly fuses his own equal and opposite musical loves, concert music and jazz. In his words, it "explores various aspects of rhythm. Instead of avoiding the pulse, my intention was to write music based largely on a strong, steady beat." This is not, however, the primitive pulse of the typical jazz band but ranges from "straight-ahead propulsion, lag beat, silent beat, free time and doubling"". The moderately knowing listener will recognize characteristic jazz figures, along with others that are subtler, more deeply imbedded in the musical texture,  and also more personal to Overton.
In addition to its specific jazz references, Pulsations sometimes achieves a strange and dreamlike atmosphere that seems to represent the unworldly aspects of the jazz scene.
The work is dedicated to Thelonious Monk, the eminent jazz pianist,who is one of the many jazz people Overton worked closely with. It was commissioned by The Ensemble of New York.

The Ensemble; Dennis Russell Davies,conductor

In Praise Of Diplomacy And Common Sense  has been described as "a sonic happening", "an hallucinatory montage", "an ironic sequence." It has been compared to sections of James Joyce's Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake.
To evoke such observations it would seem to be a new and unusual kind of theatre- one might call it "spatial sonic theatre"- which seeks through techniques of musical and verbal overlapping and interpenetration, to evoke the realities of a dramatic event and simultaneously, to make a philosophical comment upon them.
The composer writes:
"The libretto is a montage of news items culled mostly over an eight-day period from the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time magazine, and Life magazine. It presents the simultaneous spectacles of a bloddy uprising in the Congo, the release of the Warren Report on the assassination of John F Kennedy, violent anti-American demonstrations in Egypt, a threatening contretemps between the USA and the Soviet Union in the United Nations, and other examples of human cruelty and intransigence displaying an apparent absence of true diplomacy or common sense from the national and international arena."

The Ensemble; Dennis Russell Davies,conductor; Richard Frisch,baritone

























Hall Overton- Pulsations (17:42)

Lester Trimble- In Praise Of Diplomacy And Common Sense (14:51)


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Sun Ra Arkestra- Media Dreams (Saturn Records,1978)

Sun Ra Arkestra- Media Dreams


Here's the last of my Saturn Records, which I am posting to celebrate the 90th birthday today of Marshall Allen, alto saxophonist and electronic wind instrument player, current leader of the Sun Ra Arkestra- still going strong!

On a personal note:
I had the opportunity to play with Marshall Allen on the 15th in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Sun Ra's birth. Also in attendance was Danny Ray Thompson, playing flute on this occasion, and I had a very fine time, one high point being at the rehearsal where Marshall took the mic and a few of us had a sing-along, Arkestra-style, to the tune of Fate In A Pleasant Mood, which Marshall also seemed to enjoy very much.
 
Marshall has a penchant for saying things like- "You've gotta do what you can while you can with what you've got", and "You've got to take hold of this one life"; things you hear often enough nowadays.
But when you consider that, the day after playing this gig with the Ratchet Orchestra, Marshall and Danny were off to Italy, and from there all around Europe,to Turkey, Japan, Croatia, and all with only a day's rest here and there (see Sunraarkestra.com for the tour dates) you know this man LIVES by these words.I have little doubt that it is precisely this attitude which is at least partially responsible for his amazing energy and longevity.

I can only say "keep saying what you've got to say while you can say it" , and
"Happy Birthday, Marshall Allen!"

About the record:
This is a weird one,
MysterRa plays a keyboard with an "auto-arpeggio" feature (a2) and gets downright goofy with it, getting it to arpeggiate clusters and the like.
There is also some very celestial synthesizer work (a1,a3) and piano (b2) and a couple of fine solos from John Gilmore on Tenor (a2,b2) and Michael Ray on funky Trumpet (a2).
Altogether a very fine and varied record, from Bop and Ballad to the outer limits, and with good sound quality and presence.

Sun Ra Arkestra- Media Dreams

a1- Saturn Research (3:10)

a2- Constellation (13:52)

a3- Yera Of The Sun (4:39)

b1- Media Dreams (13:54)

b2- Twigs At Twilight (7:30)

b3- An Unknowneth Love (4:43)
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Sun Ra And His Omniverse Jet-Set Arkestra-Journey Stars Beyond (Saturn 1981)

Today is Sun Ra's 100th birthday.

Here is another of the Saturn Records which Ra and the Arkestra released independently.
These records are very often entirely unique, with the hand-made artwork sometimes being silk-screened stickers, sometimes magic-marker scribbles, and sometimes both or neither.
This one, as you can see, has magic-marker scribbles on the front cover and on one side of the l.p. center label, which I have presumed is side one.
Both center labels bear the suffix "b" after the serial number, which is almost certainly* the recording date: 72881- July 28th, 1981.
 
On the one occasion when I met Sun Ra, I brought this and my other two Saturn Records (and a postcard of Saturn) and asked him to sign them.
He said "These record covers are meant to be looked at under different colored lights" just as I was pulling out a bunch of different colored large-tipped felt markers, so I said "choose your colors, then".
Thus the very pale blue signature on the back: Le Sun Ra.
(These, along with a signed copy of The Residents' "Mark Of The Mole" are among my most treasured records- not for sale at any price).

Anyway- I have not split the tracks on this record, which alternate between solo synthesizer improvisations and duos with trombone or trumpet, and (on side two) an extended solo with a brief Arkestra explosion as well as an hilarious moment of commentary on Ra's excursions by (I think) John Gilmore and the rest of the band.

From what I can glean from info about the cd release of (among other concurrent work) side two of this l.p. by the Art Yard label, the personnel
(not all of whom are heard on this l.p) is:

Sun Ra And His Omniverse Jet-Set Arkestra:

Sun Ra { synth, organ, vocals }
John Gilmore { tenor sax, percussion, vocals }
Marshall Allen { alto sax, percussion }
Michael Ray { trumpet, vocals }
Danny Thompson { baritone sax, flute, percussion }
Noel Scott { alto sax, vocals }
June Tyson { vocals }
Tyrone Hill { trombone, vocals }
Eloe Omoe { bass clarinet }
Craig Harris  { drums }
Tommy “Bugs” Hunter { drums }
Al Evans { flugelhorn }
Jaribu Shahid { bass }
Samarai Celestial  { drums }
Vincent Chancey { french horn }
Francisco “Ali” Mora { drums, percussion }
Tani Tabbal { drums, percussion }
Bright Moments { congas }
The Bell Brothers { bells }
John Ore { bass }
James Jacson { vocals,  Ancient Egyptian
Infinity Lightning Drum }

Recorded at the Detroit Jazz Center**

(*note: It may be the production or release date and not the recording date-info on this and similar matters is often sketchy or downright contradictory.)

(**The date problem makes this uncertain.)

Put on your Outer-Space
flac
jacket!

Repost News

I re-upped a lot of stuff recently including most of the requests. They're all listed on the "Updates about Old Posts" page. I'll take care of the remaining requests soon. Also, new posts are forthcoming.

The Moog Strikes Bach

Hans Wurman - The Moog Strikes Bach...To Say Nothing of Chopin, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Paganini and Prokofieff

LP released in 1969

This is one of those "switched-on" (classical music performed using Moogs or other synthesizer) LPs that were released on the coattails of the popularity of Walter (Wendy) Carlos's Switched-On Bach record. I often find these hit-or-miss. The LP featured in this post is one that I enjoy more than most of the others.
I'm sure this has made the rounds on various blogs in the past (as can be said for almost everything nowadays). I found this copy a couple of months ago. I thought perhaps this could brought back in circulation.

We are witnessing the birth of a new instrument - awesome to contemplate. The Piano, with all the inspiration it provided for composers in the 100 years after its invention, is so limited compared to the Synthesizer that one cannot even hazard a guess as to what effect the latter will have on the course of composition and performance in years to come. (Hans Wurman)

Hans Wurman is a classically trained musician, a pianist basically, but also an organist, cellist and conductor. His musical interests range wide, and perhaps the best demonstration of the fact is that, at this writing, he is both director of musical activities for one of the large Chicago religious organizations and music director of the Chicago company of the hit revue "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris." He has the classical musician's discipline coupled with the popular musician's imagination and flexibility.
...
The music chosen for this disc consists mainly of transcriptions, but it also includes a composition written specifically for the occasion.
Chopin's "Black Key" Etude (the right-hand part is played entirely on the black keys of the piano in the original) retains all its fleet-fingered charm as the Moog adds a light countermelody to the rapid melodic line. The Wurman Mooged version of Mozart's Turkish March (originally the final movement of the Sonata in A, K. 331, for piano) brings us the added dimension of bell and percussion effects (created synthetically), such as Mozart and Beethoven used in some of the "Turkish" music they wrote. The Rachmaninoff Vocalise was originally a wordless vocal piece, later transcribed by the composer for strings and since by many others for many combinations of instruments. Note how the Moog can alter the tone character of the melodic line as it moves along. Next comes the Prokofieff Prelude, Op. 12, No. 7, a piece originally written for piano or harp; those glissandos in the middle section of this charming, all-too-seldom-heard piece have never before had quite the treatment that Wurman brings to them!
Hans Wurman speaks of his Variations on the Paganini theme as having been specifically composed for Moog and four-track recorder. In writing them he joins such illustrious company as Liszt, Brahms, Schumann, Rachmaninoff and the contemporaries Blacher and Lutoslawski, all of whom have composed variations on the same theme, itself originally written as the basis for a set of variations in the last of Paganini's 24 unaccompanied violin caprices.
The towering Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, no doubt the best-known of the composer's organ pieces, here receives a performance which particularly displays both the performer's and the instrument's improvisatory capabilities in its concluding pages. The final selection is Mozart's delightful serenade, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, heard in adventurous new sounds that give transparency to the four voices, originally written as string parts.
It's marvelous music, imaginatively realized and beautifully played. And it's great fun, too.  (Norman Pellegrini from the liner notes)

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1.  ''Black Key'' Etude, Op. 10, No. 5  {1:33}
Chopin

2.  Turkish March  {3:22}
Mozart

3.  Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14  {6:17}
Rachmaninoff

4.  Prelude, Op. 12, No. 7  {1:54}
Prokofieff

5.  Thirteen Variations on a Theme of Paganini  {10:04}
Wurman

Side 2

1.  Toccata and Fugue in D Minor  {7:15}
Bach

2.  Eine kleine Nachtmusik: I. Allegro  {5:23}
Mozart

3.  Eine kleine Nachtmusik: II. Romanze: Andante  {5:36}
Mozart

4.  Eine kleine Nachtmusik: III. Menuetto: Allegretto  {2:27}
Mozart

5.  Eine kleine Nachtmusik: IV. Rondo: Allegro  {2:48}
Mozart

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Arpa Paraguaya

Jorge Gurascier - Arpa Paraguaya

LP released in 1971

Unfortunately, there is not any useful information to be found about Jorge Gurascier or this particular LP. No liner notes have been provided by the label. All I can say is that if you enjoyed the Paraguayan Harp, Vol. 2 post from last year, you'll enjoy this one.

Tracklisting:

Side A

1.  Pajaro Campana  {4:23}

2.  Canto del Reservista  {3:41}

3.  Rodriquez Pena  {2:03}

4.  Misionera  {3:11}

5.  Que Sera de Ti  {3:30}

6.  Asuncion  {3:10}

Side B

1.  Tren Lechero  {3:06}

2.  Sueno Otonal  {3:47}

3.  Cascada  {3:55}

4.  India  {3:48}

5.  Virgencita de Caacupe  {2:23}

6.  Mis Noches Sin Ti  {3:36}

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Frog Talk

NorthSound - Frog Talk

CD released in 1990

I figured it was time for an actual new post. As usual, my time lately has been occupied by real life. But, hopefully, I can find time to post a little more often as well as re-up more material. I do promise that there will be another new post within the next few days. BTW, check the "Updates about Old Posts" page. I re-upped several posts earlier today.

It's been a long while and long overdue since frogs have last made an appearance. It's as a good time as any since winter is almost over (here in the northern half of the planet).

Since the beginning of time, a nightly chorus of frogs has heralded warm-weathered evenings in the wilderness. The chirps, peeps, and deep-bellied croaks create an auditory enchantment with the power to soothe. The orchestration of a gathering of frogs is not only a delight to the ear, but an indication of the natural evolution of the day. As Thoreau commented: "They would begin to sing almost with as much precision as a clock ... every evening."

Immerse yourself in a serene northwoods chorus of wood frogs, leopard frogs, and spring peepers! These are the same sounds that lulled you to sleep on camping, canoeing, or hiking forays into the wild. These are sounds that have been with humankind since the beginning of time. If you long for tranquility, let the ancient sounds of a spring evening soothe your soul.  (from the liner notes)

Tracklisting:

1.  [track 1]  {29:18}

2.  [track 2]  {29:12}

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CAPAC Musical Portraits #3

Here is another installment in the CAPAC Musical Portrait series posts.

This one features the Larry Lake record missing from the post of January 14,2013 (featuring the work of the other members of the Canadian Electronic Music Ensemble).At the time of that post, I was missing the record from the sleeve and I promised to post it if I ever found it.

Well,it's been a stretch but, (ahem)-
PRESTO! here it is- compliments (once again) of my father, who is much better these days at finding records than I am.

He is also responsible for finding the other two records in this post; part of a collection of some 60 or so Musical Portraits which he managed to find. These were among the duplicates,many of which he sent to me.

Thanks, Daddy-O!

I focused my attention here on records containing electronic music although acoustic instruments are also in evidence, both in the Bruce W Pennycook and in the Rudolf Komorous.

Larry Lake- Musical Portrait QC-1287
 
a1-Sonata (excerpt)
 
a2-Face (excerpt)

b1-Le Bord Du Son (excerpt)

b2- Cavatina (excerpt)


Bruce W Pennycook- Musical Portrait  (Series 3) QCS-1497

a1-gr,RR (excerpt)

b1-August Suite No 3; Intermezzo

b2- Three Complaints for Flute* and Countertenor
3- The Trouble With Geraniums

b3- Three Miniatures for Harp Flute and Clarinet
2- In Strict Tempo

b4- The Yonge Street Variations No 1 and 2

*(Note-The trouble with "The Trouble With Geraniums" is that the Flute is much too Guitar).-Dr E


Rudolf  Komorous- Musical Portrait QCS-1192

a1-York/1967/ (excerpt)

a2-part of a canon from Anatomy Of Melancholy/1974

b1-Rossi/1974-75/ (excerpt)

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FYI

FYI-in case you were wondering:
I know I haven't posted much lately-(an understatement if ever I heard one!), and it seems like all of my Rapidshare links of the past two years are now dead.
I'll post this (above) on a site which has proven relatively trustworthy so far (though not without its own inevitable drawbacks) but I'm not sure if they will be more or less dependable in the future...
That said, I plan to begin posting again with a little more frequency, but I also wonder how many of you may want re-uploads of past posts instead.Not many requests have come in, (and I haven't even filled any of those yet).
With the wretched state of the filehosting sites and the depressing uncertainty I feel toward them as a result, I wonder whether it's worth trusting any of them enough to make the effort.

Nonetheless, above is a post which I hope you will enjoy, whoever and wherever you are, and I hope you continue to have a Happy Holiday.

Best wishes from myself AND on behalf of our indefatigable host,
grey calx.

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

(Well, maybe not EXACTLY today, but close enough)
...that Uncle Willie closed up shop at UWEB; the  Residents fan club.

While I regret not having taken advantage of all of the "members only" Residents cd's offered there, I can still look back with some satisfaction for having taken advantage of the pool of like-minded musical minds to be found among the members there.

Ca. early 1992 I sent the following letter to Uncle Willie:

The result was a musical project which had 10 musicians (plus one who could substitute for any participant unable to maintain the strict schedule), each initiating a four-track cassette which would be sent around its own particular route, reaching all the participants twice, each person adding his or her part anywhere on the cassette (a total of 4:30 - 9:00 each time,(depending on the speed of the recorder). Each person thus had equal time and equal opportunity to choose whether to work alone (building up all 4 tracks alone), or adding their own part(s) to any existing part(s) played by anyone else,wherever and whenever an empty track allowed.

I received a number of letters (remember letters?) from respondents who wrote too late to join the project, one of which contained a very interesting cassette.(Many of the respondents sent me cassettes of their music). I thought it a shame that he could not participate in the "Buddy Project", and so I asked him if he would like to collaborate with me and one other Buddy whose music I found similar enough to inspire the idea of doing a side project of Christmas music.

This project took the name of BooDooRoo X-Mas.

It had 3 cassettes making the rounds of we three until they were full.
Boo recorded at regular or double speed
Doo recorded at double speed
Roo recorded at regular speed.

this created the unusual situation where only one of the participants (Boo) could actually hear the music made by the other two at the proper speed, while Roo heard Doo's music at half-speed
and Doo heard Roo's music at double speed.

It also created a situation where the mixdowns made by each of us sounded distinctly different, not only because of the preferential musical choices of each of us, but because of this speed discrepancy.

This is a selection chosen from the mixdowns made by Roo (about one half of the total music), in which Doo is heard usually as the slow,low sounds in the mix, Roo at regular speed, and Boo at either, depending on whose part he considered the primary focus when he added his part.

Boo is: Boojer Golder, later Foe Foe Foe Foe Foe. (Canada)
Doo is: Dr. Eyescope (Canada)
Roo is: Kim Kangaroo (Belgium)

Hope you enjoy it.
Merry Christmas Too All, and to All a Good Night.

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P.S. Be forewarned that the music here is distinctly LOW-FI.

Chamber Concerto/Ringing Changes

Charles Wuorinen - Chamber Concerto/Ringing Changes

released on LP in 1971

I'm glad that I am able to have a new post in what has been a few months.

Chamber Concerto

composed in 1963 for cello and 10 players

Fred Sherry - cello

The Group for Contemporary Music:

Harvey Sollberger - flute
Josef Marx - oboe and English horn
Jack Kreiselman - clarinet and bass clarinet
Donald MacCourt - bassoon
Jeanne Benjamin - violin
John Graham - viola
Alvin Brehm - double-bass
Robert Miller - piano
Raymond DesRoches, Richard Fitz, Claire Heldrich - percussion

Charles Wuorinen - conductor

The Cello Concerto was composed over the first six months of 1963 for the Group for Contemporary Music, which Harvey Sollberger and I had founded the previous spring. It was premiered in January of 1964 by the Group at Columbia University, with Robert Martin as soloist and Arthur Bloom conducting.
The external design of the work divides it into five connected movements, each of which casts the soloist in a different light. In the first, his role is conventionally bravura, and this is what separates him from his accompaniment. In the second (barring short interludes in which he does not participate), he plays the lead voice in a four-part canon; the other three voices are divided between the two groups of accompanying instruments, so that each group has only six pitch-classes in its vocabulary. The cello here is unique in its ability to utter all twelve. In the third movement, the soloist asserts himself by initiating events, which are then reflected elsewhere in the ensemble ... The fourth movement sees the cello as leader of a concertante group drawn from the larger ensemble, which varies in instrumentation at each appearance. Behind the relatively fast music of the soloist and his immediate friends is a slow-moving background ... The final movement offers a summary of all these solo-ensemble relations, for along with other transformations, it is a retrograde of the entire work, first at four times the original speed, then twice, then undiminished, and finally, for the very last notes, augmented.
The cello is accompanied by a divided ensemble, and occasionally you can hear the music localized in one group or the other; there is, however, no overt or consistent antiphony between the two. To the right as we face the cello are flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, violin, and viola; to the left are piano, contrabass, and percussion (in this recording divided among three players, rather than the two called for in the score). (Charles Wuorinen)

Ringing Changes

composed in 1969-1970 for percussion ensemble

The New Jersey Percussion Ensemble:

Raymond Des Roches - director

Joseph Passaro - vibraphone and timpani
Marty Martini, Louis Oddo - vibraphone
Dean Poulsen, Eugene McBride - piano
Ken Hosley, Donald Mari - drums
Matthew Patuto - brakedrums
Doreen Holmes - almglocken
Michael Moscariello - cymbals
Vincent Potuto, Jr. - tamtams
James Pugliese - string drum and chimes

Charles Wuorinen - conductor

Ringing Changes was composed in 1969 and '70 for the excellent ensemble of student percussionists founded and directed by Raymond DesRoches, the group that performs it here. The work is in a single long movement, and is - somewhat like the Concerto - based on a continuous polyphonic skeleton which lies beneath the sonic surface of the work, and which generates the moment-to-moment continuity. Here the music is divided between pitched and non-pitched voices, and a basic four-voice polyphony is disposed with two voices given to pitched instruments - mainly piano four-hands and vibraphones - and two ("noise" or relative-pitch) given with various alternations and duplications to sets of 12 metal instruments, 12 drums, 6 cymbals, and 4 tamtams. An occasional inflectional role is performed by a string drum, and at the end chimes and timpani appear.  (Charles Wuorinen)

Tracklisting:

Side One

1. Chamber Concerto  {18:05}

Side Two

1. Ringing Changes  {16:50}

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The Music of Cheops

Steve Douglas - The Music of Cheops

released on LP in 1976

I found another LP where the music was too recorded in the Great Pyramid. I thought the Paul Horn - Inside the Great Pyramid was the only album of its kind. Now I wonder if there were more albums recorded in the Great Pyramid and if so, how many.

Throughout most of his career, Steve Douglas (1938-1993) has been a session musician playing sax on recordings of some of the biggest names and notables in pop and rock music including The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Duane Eddy, The Righteous Brothers, The Ramones, etc. Douglas was a part of hit maker Phil Spector's "Wrecking Crew", a group of session musicians Spector used for his sessions. Douglas was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 in the Sideman category.

Douglas also plays the flute which he does on this album in addition to the sax. The Music of Cheops was recorded on February 10, 14, and 15, 1976, all during at night. Douglas composed and played all the music in the King's Chamber, a room that is 34 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 19 feet high. From listening to the record, the room sounds like an awe-inspiring acoustic space where the echoes give the music an otherworldly sound, a sound that probably could only be achieved in such as space as the King's Chamber.
His Rock & Roll Hall of Fame bio actually mentions this album. According to the notes in his bio, Douglas wanted to keep a low profile because of health problems in the early 1970s. Apparently, he didn't record many sessions during that time. He recorded his own music. Curiously, his bio does not mention what other albums he released. The Music of Cheops sounds like something that Douglas made just for himself, the kind of music he wanted to play. It seems like he wanted to get away or needed to get away from the intense environment of the music industry. It's meditative serene music similar to Paul Horn's, but Douglas is more free flowing. His music goes in different directions and he does more to take advantage of the space by exploring and producing more sounds from his instruments. He also was there before Horn by a few months.

Tracklisting:

The Pyramid [side 1]

1.  Pharoah's Piper  {4:34}

2.  Impressions from the IVth Dynasty: A. Pyramid Power  {1:44}

3.  Impressions from the IVth Dynasty: B. Nubian Lament  {1:32}

4.  Impressions from the IVth Dynasty: C. Flight of Horus  {0:57}

5.  Impressions from the IVth Dynasty: D. Reflections Along the Nile  {4:00}

6.  Impressions from the IVth Dynasty: E. Procession  {2:18}

The Sphinx [side 2]

1.  Time Capsule - 1976 A.D. - 2860 B.C.  {1:54}

2.  Meditations at Luxor  {5:47}

3.  Journey from Atlantis  {8:09}

4.  Ascent  {0:54}

Disclaimer: I was unable to erase a lot of crackle and surface noise on side 1. I am seeking a better copy. If I ever find one or able to get a hold of one, I'll re-rip side 1. At least, you'll know what the music is like. I think my rips of side 2 sound fine.
Update: In the comments section, there is a link to my files that have been cleaned of most of the noise on side 1.

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African Tribal Dances

various artists compilation - African Tribal Dances

released on LP

From the liner notes:

"The greatest free show on earth!" These words were used by an overseas visitor to Africa to describe the African Tribal Dances heard on this hi-fi recording made on the Witwatersrand. Every Sunday morning various mines take the turn in presenting to the public, visitors in particular, a cross section of the dancing of the tribes employed on the mines. These people come from many parts of Africa and use the dances as a form of exercise and a means of retaining their identity. The excitement is intense and it can certainly be described as the greatest free show on earth!

Technical notes:

These recordings were made with the camera in mind; the movement of sound in the recording follows the most likely camera requirements. To achieve this effect 6 Neumann microphones were suspended over the dance arena resulting in the best possible pick-up of the action taking place. This is a complete transistorised recording, a special 6 channel mixer being used in conjunction with a Nagra transistorised recording. The recordings were made by Alan D. Boyle and the recording lasting approximately 36 minutes was edited from 3 hours of tape to bring you the best sounds of each group participating.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1.  Mzingili - untitled  {4:02}

2.  Nguni - untitled  {2:36}

3.  Bapedi - untitled  {1:59}

4.  Bakwenas (Bechuanas) - untitled  {1:59}

5.  Whistling Bechuanas (Balete) - untitled  {3:01}

6.  Hlubi - untitled  {3:09}

7.  Batswa (Shangaan from Nyambane) - untitled  {3:03}

Side 2

1.  Mchopi - untitled  {3:04}

2.  Amakway (Shangaan Choir) - untitled  {1:49}

3.  Amakwenkwe (Xhosa) - untitled  {2:04}

4.  Pondo - untitled  {2:27}

5.  Baca (Gumboot Dancers) - untitled  {3:11}

6.  Bacas Umzimkulu - untitled  {2:51}

7.  Barotse - untitled  {2:31}

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Steel Rails Under Thundering Skys

Brad Miller - Steel Rails Under Thundering Skys

released on cassette in 1972

Recordings of steam engine trains with thunderstorms in the background (or were the storms mixed in?). Brad Miller first started out recording trains. Those recordings were on several albums including this one. He later founded The Mystic Moods Orchestra and Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, both of which he is most remembered for.

There are supposed to be separate tracks, but they were mixed together. Separating them would have been disruptive so I made the decision to rip each side as one track. It sounds coherent which I'm sure was the intention. The trains recorded are mentioned below in the tracklisting.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1.  Steel Rails Under Thundering Skys side 1  {20:08}
No. 1702 2-8-0 Reader Railroad, Reader, Arkansas ; No. 11 2-6-2 Reader Railroad, Reader, Arkansas ; No. 8444 4-8-4 Union Pacific Railroad, Denver, Colorado ; No. 34 2-8-2 Sierra Railroad, Jamestown, California

Side 2

1.  Steel Rails Under Thundering Skys side 2  {21:01}
No. 759 2-8-4 Steamtown Foundation, Bellows Falls, Vermont (ex-Nickle Plate) ; No. 28 2-8-0 Sierra Railroad, Jamestown, California ; No. 2102 4-8-4 Steam Tours inc. (ex-Reading Railroad), Roncevert, West Virginia ; No. 1246 4-6-2 Steamtown Foundation, Bellows Falls, Vermont (ex-Canadian Pacific) ; No. 1278 4-6-2 Steamtown Foundation, Bellows Falls, Vermont (ex-Canadian Pacific) ; No. 4449 4-8-4 Amerian Freedom Train Foundation (ex-Southern Pacific GS4) ; No. 36 2-8-2 White Mountain Scenic Railway, McNary, Arizona (ex-Sierra Railroad)

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Music Box Opera

[music boxes] - Music Box Opera

released on cassette in 1989

I found this tape with Mechanical Opera on one of my shopping trips, therefore making this a companion to the prior post. This will be the last "music box" post here for some time.

From the liner notes:

A native of northeastern Italy, Rita Ford came to the United States when she was six. She spent her childhood and young womanhood on Fisher's Island, New York and in Hartford, Connecticut. She was graduated as a registered nurse when she was 19 and worked in that capacity, as well as that of social worker, for a number of years in Hartford. When she moved to New York upon her marriage in the 1930s, she started to visit antique galleries and shops and to collect in a small way. It was when her husband became incapacitated that she turned to the antique field professionally. Occasionally, when purchasing a group of antique items, a music box would come her way. She gradually developed such an interest in them that about 30 years ago she decided to specialize exclusively in the purchase, sale, and repair of music boxes, and now owns the only such all-music box shop in the country (in New York City).

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1.  Semiramide: Overture  {4:02}
composed by Gioacchino Rossini

2.  Mystery Piece: Belosi Celeh  {3:46}
composed by Gioacchino Rossini

3.  The Barber of Seville: Overture  {3:45}
composed by Gioacchino Rossini

4.  The Barber of Seville: Una Voce Poco Fa  {3:45}
composed by Gioacchino Rossini

5.  La traviata: Libiamo  {4:15}
composed by Giuseppe Verdi

6.  Carmen [excerpt]  {4:20}
composed by Georges Bizet

7.  Faust [excerpt]  {4:17}
composed by Charles Gounod

Side 2

1.  Cavalleria rusticana [excerpt]  {4:16}
composed by Pietro Mascagni

2.  Der Freischutz [excerpt]  {5:44}
composed by Carl Maria von Weber

3.  Don Giovanni [excerpt]  {5:35}
composed by Wolfgang A. Mozart

4.  Die lustige Witwe [excerpt]  {2:24}
composed by Franz Lehar

5.  Die Walkure [excerpt]  {2:36}
composed by Richard Wagner

6.  Rigoletto [excerpt]  {2:40}
composed by Giuseppe Verdi

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