Gerhard Stabler's Modern String Orchestra Work "Zeichen"

Post 509. Who's counting really? I did neglect to note post 500, though. So we mark the progression at this juncture. The blogs do in part document my personal odyssey through the world of "serious" music today and I have come out of it thus far with a profound respect and appreciation for those artists and their institutional supporters and abettors who trudge onward in spite of all obstacles. This time we live in may not be ideal for the music makers of substance. But I believe it will be seen as an important, creative epoch in terms of musical results. Much worthy music is coming into the world, like orphans abandoned at the doorsteps of foundling-homes in times where there may be little sympathy at large for the abundance of unwanted guests. So here's to the creators and their helpmates. May they prosper! And to that dedicated group of listeners, you readers! You make it possible.

Gerhard Stabler comes center stage now, one of those creators of note in the world we speak of. His Zeichen (Navona 5839) is a twenty-minute EP devoted to an interesting work (of the same name) for string orchestra (capably performed by the Moravian Philharmonic under Vit Micka).

His composition has the singularity of high modernist aesthetics reworked and rethought for the present-day sensibility. That means to say that his string writing takes advantage of the innovations in sectional string-sound production once considered experimental. The orchestra executes passages played with the stick side of the bow, plus more conventional bowing techniques but at the fingerboard or at the bridge. This gives the three movement work a greater variety of sound color and timbre.

The disk comes with enhancements, including a detailed booklet and several of Stabler's scores.

Aside from that Stabler's work has the appeal of sonic sensuality and creative sound narrative flow. It is a work that will certainly give the modernist contingent of listeners much satisfaction. That includes me.

Markus Reuter's "Todmorden 513:" Algorithmic Poetics

Markus Reuter has created an hour-long piece for ten players based on the algorithmic trans- formation, extension and reordering of musical material. He calls the work Todmorden 513. That the work is the product of some sophisticated methodological approaches is not uninteresting. But I've stayed away from that at this point to concentrate on a deep listening of the work.

And having done this I come up for air to write up what I am feeling as I hear it. First off I must say that this is a continuously flowing sound world of great beauty and great mystery. It has the long formed horizontal quality of the best ambient works of our age. And at the same time it has a logically unfolding quality and structure that brings it into the "serious work" category. I am tempted to add "whatever that means," but I think those who devote any time to the new music world we live in will understand. This is music of substance, not just mood.

It is music that has a four-dimensional feel to it. There are varying degrees of density and depth, transparency and opacity. It is lyrical without being directly manipulative of the melodic cells usually associated with such lyricism. Long tones and shorter bursts work together to create a universe of sound that has real poignancy. It is music of a different sort of consonance, a long float in an anechoic chamber of tones, added tones, and sound colors of enduring sprawl.

I would venture to say that this is an important work. How important I will leave to others to decide.

Go to http://www.todmorden513.com to find out how to get access to this music.

Anthony De Mare and "Speak:" Text-Sound-Song Artistry

Anthony De Mare, pianist, vocalist, dramatist, story-teller, is one-in-a-million. He realizes works that call upon his considerable talents to enact compositional dramas in a quasi-sprechstimme way. He narrates, sings, recites, provides vocal-sound elements and accompanies himself on the piano, all at the same time. You can hear it to good advantage on his definitive album Speak! The Singing-Speaking Pianist (Innova 241).

These are performance pieces composed by the likes of Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, Frederic Rzewski, and three others.

The coordination and masterful execution of vocalise, singing, exclamatory assertion and pianistic punctuation is nothing short of extraordinary.

This fellow is very good! The pieces have enough in the way of music, story and pacing that time goes by quite quickly. And it is time spent to good use. In a way, this is the thinking person's Broadway, the hipster's alternative to opera, the musical equivalent of a very dynamic poetry reading, theater for those jaded with the usual claptrap.

It's a trip that you will very much enjoy if you have an open mind.

Three Modern Works by Harold Meltzer

Harold Meltzer, born in Brooklyn New York in 1966, has a lyrical logic to his music. He notes that he has been influenced by Stravinsky's Agon, and when you listen to his music you understand how. There are melodic cells that occur and recur in his pieces and they can be contrasting or similar, depending. And like middle-late Stravinsky those cells can vary stylistically. Meltzer's cells are lyrically memorable and the music flows with an ordered logic that pleases the aural mind's eye.

This is what I have gleaned from listening to a new Naxos (8.559660) release of four chamber works he composed in the past decade: "Brion," "Two Songs from Silas Marner," "Sindbad," and "Exiles."

"Brion" is a chamber gem, with vivid writing for guitar, mandolin, winds and strings. It's 18 minutes of musical bliss, well worth the price of admission. In fact it is all worthwhile.

"Sindbad," for violin, cello, piano, and John Shirley-Quirk as narrator, is an exception however, for reasons that have nothing to do with the music per se. It runs almost 30 minutes and the actual instrumental music parts are quite interesting. Now I suppose I should say straight off that recitation rather leaves me cold. If it's part of an opera and moves the plot along I can understand; otherwise I find very few things that can be said are worth saying rather than singing. Shakespeare, fine. The Gettysburg Address, again fine. "Sindbad" is a rather amusing story, but it does not hold its own as worth declaiming in its own right. Now that's not to take away from the text itself, or the music that goes along with it. I'll admit it is a personal prejudice I have. I didn't like it.

But the songs and the chamber pieces are very engaging, well crafted, inspired. And the performances sound quite good. Hearing this CD, I want to hear more from Harold Meltzer. He has something going.

The Music of Michael Daugherty II

Michael Daugherty's music seems to be widely performed on the concert circuit these days. Perhaps that's so for two reasons: a.) His music is accessible in a kind of Populist way. And his eclecticism helps his music sound a bit as if you've heard it before, somewhere. b.) His music often uses as launching points literal themes that are not stuffy or academic. (Mind you, I have nothing against stuffy and academic, either.)

One can certainly see both of these factors at work in a second Naxos release devoted to his orchestral music. On it we find Giancarlo Guerrero conducting the Nashville Symphony in spirited performances of two works that span a period beginning in 1988 and ending in 2007.

The first piece, Metropolis Symphony (1988-93), celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first Superman comics with a substantial orchestral work. Daugherty states in the liner notes that the symphony is a "musical response to the myth of Superman." Like very well received works in the standard repertoire, The Planets and Symphony Fantastique come to mind (and like the latter, interestingly there are quotations from Dies Irae), the listener is given a concrete handle on the music via accessible subject matter.

This alone would not not be sufficient to make the Metropolis Symphony worth your listening time. Daugherty's masterful orchestrational talents shine throughout the work. It's bright, colorful, even exciting music that comes to vivid life on the aural soundstage of this CD.

The same can be said of the more recent (2007) work Deus Ex Machina for Piano and Orchestra. This time the jumping off point is the world of trains. In keeping with the inspiration for this work, the music here has a bit more power and sensory-motor bite than the Metropolis Symphony. Terrence Wilson performs the part of the Machina piano protagonist with drive and masterful execution. This is music of great motion and the piano seems like the locomotive that drags the orchestra along, sometimes at a furious clip.

Anyone looking for orchestral showcase works that convert the vast sonoric resources of the modern symphony orchestra into bright digital sound will welcome this recording. There is exhilaration and much pleasure to be had!