piano seat failure
bravo to all lrg and pbe. great show last night. the performance covered all the things that you want to have on a good night. we had a stress free soundcheck, great dinner hang and pre-show group text message to pbe alum (srf in the nyc), that was topped off with a great show. its [...]
monday mid-day musicianship gripe
why are we still teaching four part dictation? to answer this i think you first have to ask where did it come from. after two years of trying to teach the “traditional” musicianship curriculum (and failing), i thought a little research on the history of these classes would be useful. from my brief survey (only [...]
friends and family
just got back from playing our first private party/wedding reception for the illustrious trumpet player andrew duncan (cat hair ensemble, the wedding’s off). playing shows for other musicians and their families is always fun, and this night didn’t disappoint. parking was hilarious, once we dropped of the equipment it was a few shuttle trips up [...]
quandry
as you can see the blog is mostly empty these days, but its not because of a pause in my schedule, but mostly because i like to write to help organize my thoughts. these days most of my pbe time is taken up recording and mixing which does not lend itself to blog friendly posts. [...]
after the darkness comes the light
sorry for the long absence. as you can tell i didn’t really feel like posting much for quite some time. some were personal reasons some were professional. overall i needed a break from myself. although the blog has been silent, life goes on. the group is doing fine and we are pretty far into recording [...]
past and future (good times)
thanks again to all who came out to last night. its great to play for such a big and enthusiastic crowd. where else can you see somebody serenade a ikea lamp, alt-classical garage band and band with balloon bass? thanks again to dorian wood and unpopable for their unique and wonderful performances. because of the [...]
new wine in old bottles
since our last performance at whittier college we have added a new guitarist (bruce gallego) and workshopped some new new tunes. i have updated a piece that i wrote a year ago (myinnersatan), and arranged one of michael nyman’s more lively chaconne’s from the movie the draughtsman’s contract.(eye for optical theory) my good friend and [...]
island of broken toys
the pbe has been going through some personnel changes this summer. we just added a new guitarist (bruce gallego) and are working in another vibe player (ryan nunes) so that carl can play bass when matt or john are not available. it was one year ago that i started experimenting with having a variable ensemble, [...]
RealNewMusic Review: Tim Mangan/OC Register (2006)
tim mangan (oc register) has a well written review of our performances at the realnewmusic festival. his descriptions of the evening and performances were spot-on. it was not one of our better shows, but i’m real proud of how the group handled it. in the middle of the show we ran into a buzz saw, on some nights a tear like that can ruin the rest of the evening but we ended with a strong performance of my modular piece 11/25/05.
i’m pretty dissapointed at my reaction to the performance (more introverted than extroverted). i talked it out and know that every night is not going to be perfect. my drug of choice is a good show and nothing puts me in fowl mood than falling short. on a performance like saturday night’s i have to find ways to temper my frustration. i’m really happy with the direction of the group and wouldn’t change a thing. being able to write, rehearse and perform is a great alternative to the infinite sadness of life.
tonight we are playing at the scene in glendale around 9pm with pruitt igoe and the hearers. what could be better than having a drink with the pbe?
mention the blog and get free ringtones!
btw…tim is also a blogger. you can view his latest pictures and comments of the construction of the orange county center for the performing arts new segerstrom hall.
d.i.e. all-stars
our current lineup is very special because we all are alumni of the d.i.e. (diverse instrument ensemble) at csuf. next year many of them will be leaving for grad school so i asked them to play with the pbe for this show. they are all too talented to hang around southern california much longer and [...]
the freight train theory of history
the results of the my latest compositions are starting to take shape. one of these new pieces (fearless leader) represents a new direction for my music. ligeti’s death got me thinking about his famous quote:
“Now there is no taboo; everything is allowed. But one cannot simply go back to tonality, it’s not the way. We must find a way of neither going back nor continuing the avant-garde. I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I want to escape.”
i think his point isn’t really about the rejection of tonality or the acceptance of the avant guard, but the idea that once you choose to follow freight train theory of history, to progress you must reject something else to move forward (ernest krenek in the ockeghem bio).
i think there is a third way. innovation for the sake of something new can lead empty art. my new works are influenced by performance considerations than by artistic innovation. not anything i’m doing is new or cutting edge, but the combinations of these ideas are a practical matter and a response to the limitations of performance and rehearsal i have faced for the past three years.
the pieces are written in c score, to be played by an indeterminate size ensemble so that we are able to adjust the orchestration for each group that gets together to play.
these pieces also have an indeterminacy of parts, form and orchestration. they can be realized in a performance in a precomposed fashion in which all the parts are assigned and the piece unfolds in a specific manner.
yet we also can create a version so that in some sections the musicians can choose which lines to play and even change the form and internal repetition structure from show to show.
somehow the idea of opening up the score for future “customization” makes more sense to me these days. i can think of many examples of similar ideas (duke ellington, charles mingus, terry riley, cornelius cardew…) but this is more an solution to a specific problem.
in rehearsal the early realizations of this have been powerful. it changes the power structure of an ensemble; for us to make music you have to go beyond just playing what is on the page. decisions are made and agreed upon with the ensemble that really matter in performance. how do we want this to unfold? what is the best way to get to the center of this music? where is this piece going? so far many of the “happy accidents” have made the music much stronger. there is such a difference when everybody is when they are given freedom to choose and interact than when they are assigned a specific role.
three years ago i created this ensemble with an idea of an specific instrumentation that i was interested in working with. now i have turned around 180 degrees. its all about having a group a people that want to get together and make music on a consistent basis because we have to express ourselves through the communal nature of rehearsal and performance. the size of the ensemble can expand and contract based on our busy schedules, a only moderately balanced quorum is needed to put on a show. in a very early review, i hope these “adjustments” to my process have freed my ensemble to create music in a more creative and collaborative way and perform in far more often in the future. fto!
REALNEWMUSIC FESTIVAL, SATURDAY JUNE 24TH
TOTAL EARCANDY: PBE’s LATEST FLASH-BASED MUSIC COMPOSITIONS ADDS SWEET FLAVOR TO DIGITAL MUSIC COLLECTION. June 9th 2006 Expanding on its line of acoustic and digital music,the Paul Bailey Ensemble today announced a new series compositions designed sure to be a feast for the ears as well as the eyes and come in such tasty colors [...]
(still on hiatus)
next show:
realnewmusic festival
sat, june 24th
8pm
(whittier college)
the scene bar
with the hearers and pruitt igoe
monday, june 26th
9pm
also…
corey dargel has released his new cd less famous than you
the reviews are very good.
minimalist jukebox part IV, minimalism is dead!
minimalism is dead! long live minimalism! i couldn’t help thinking this during the final minimalist jukebox festival concert featuring the music of john adams and philip glass. the evening started off on a high note with a very convincing concert reduction of glass’s opera akhnaten. the piece represented high minimalism at its best scored for [...]
minimalist jukebox part III, terry riley
last night i got hear terry riley at the getty center. the first half featured his string trio and string quartet performed by the calder quartet who are currently in residency at julliard.
i hadn’t been planning to see the concert, mostly because of all the music being performed in the festival i knew this concert wasn’t featuring the any of terry’s sting music that i was most interested in. particularly cadenza on a plain and salome dances for peace. so when my friend j. michael walker called and asked if i wanted to go, i figured it was good karma to take him up on the offer.
in terms of artistic achievement the first half of the concert (string quartet and trio) really deserves little mention. i cannot figure out two things:
- why this music was programmed?
- who’s idea was it to have the calder quartet play it?
the first half of the concert resulted in a deep retrospective to show his development through two pieces; a boulez-influenced graduate thesis (string trio 1961) to the early lamont young/doug leedy influenced composition(string quartet, 1960).
because of the lack of any program notes, i’m not sure how many people in the audience came prepared with how these pieces related to the evening.
if riley’s name hadn’t been on the program, i’m sure many in the audience wouldn’t have any idea that the music was written by the same man.
using that same fuzzy logic, i guess since the first half featured music by riley written in his 20′s it only made sense to have musicians in their 20′s play it. the result reminded me of too many undergraduate composers forums i have attended. and i assume they came pretty close to reminding terry of his student days back in berkeley.
the second half of the concert was much more enjoyable. riley performed improvisations of much of the music he is known for. one of the first improvisations featured much of the repetitive patterns intermixed with a jazz standards (i’m fuzzy on my titles), coltrane influenced voice leading, with a little stride and ragtime piano thrown in. i’m sure the intent was a musical lecture (in the best spirit) to show the influences and relationships between all of the music he loves. i know many “important” composers wouldn’t dare show their “bag of tricks” that readily in public, but it only points to greatness of an artist when he/she is willing to show you what is behind the curtain.
oh yeah, on the last encore he played a improvised version of salome dances that i’ll never forget.
thanks terry,
paul
minimalist jukebox part II, Glenn Branca
last night the long lines of leather and colored hair resembled saturday night at my local club mr. t’s bowl than disney hall.
i kinda chuckled to myself as i passed this sign as i entered disney hall
performed on
tonight’s program
is amplified
should you need
earplugs, they are
available from
our ushers
yeah right, just an public service announcement to cover themselves if the bluehairs complained.
….wrong
it was loud, not just musically loud or rock concert loud, but performance art loud.
i’m not really sure if i witnessed a music concert or an art installation. after settling and watching the pure spectacle of 100 guitarists onstage (well maybe 84 according to ryan at losanjealous) i closed my eyes and let the sound take me over. i soon felt like i was hallucinating and layers of my skin were separating from my face. not in painful physical sort of way, but in that all so special private existential crisis.
after the initial sound explosion, eventually my body and ears adapted to the performance, which mostly consisted of more of the same wave after wave of strumming. after a while i realized branca had no intention of using any contrasts in dynamics to create any tension. he tried to get them to play soft in a few sections, but how about inserting a tacet here and there for greater effect? he did vary the tempos between the four mvts. labeled march, anthem, drive, and vengeance.
the sound was like nothing i had heard before, not really any discernable pitch but mostly the physical sensation air and noise being pushed through the amps. the main (and i think only) performance technique being used was a fast tremolo.
no chords, notes or lines being played at all during the evening. since each guitar was being treated as a single note percussion instrument the result was more akin to listening to rhythmic counterpoint rounds passed through the ensemble.
the setup for the evening was pretty simple, each guitarist brought his/her own amp that was pointed straight up toward the ceiling. scanning the program notes the branca organized the “guitar orchestra” similar to ATBB ( alto, tenor, baritone, bass) chorus with the alto guitar strings tuned to B or E(in octaves), tenor guitars tuned to G (in octaves), and the bass guitars tuned to normally. the ensemble was split into 25 different parts and one drummer. on paper this at least implied the attempt at orchestration. in reality the orchestration elements seemed to resemble a more modular approach to composition and orchestration (terry riley).
the descriptions of this concert and the new samuel l. jackson movie both have one thing in common.
minimalist jukebox, part I
this past saturday night i attended what was the first of the five concerts (that i’m going to) in the minimalist jukebox festival taking place here in los angeles. i had mixed feelings for the evening, mostly because the first night featured steve reich. its not that i don’t like his music, but that i like it a great deal. variations for winds, strings and keyboards, and three movements for orchestra were the first two minimalist pieces that was introduced to. having to wait almost 20 years to hear them live is pretty bittersweet and sums up my feelings about much of this festival.
since i’m not a critic i’m not going try and organize my thoughts into a complete narrative and instead share them as they come:
flipping through my program i found it curious that their fearless leader esa-pekka salonen declined to conduct anything in this festival. i know he needs to travel and guest conduct to promote himself, but is conducting beethoven’s 5th one more time that important?
update: its been pointed out to me that essa pekka was premiering a new opera by kaaja sarajaho in paris this week.
overall the performance was transcendent. the tempos of both the variations and three movements were a bit on the slow side for my taste, but the effect in the variations was very similar to watching the sun come up. reich is minimalist with a capital M, giving each section of the orchestra only one job to do. the strings and brass are the sustain, the woodwinds and keyboards are the ostinato machine.
the hall is still not very good match for any amplified music (reich seems to come off the worst), but the amplified keyboards in the first half were the most successful blend that i had heard.
the crowd was pretty light with many of the subscription seats empty and i really despise having to sit in the dark during concerts.
the amplification became most disconcerting during tehillim (although better than the premier performance of you are) the vocalists were amplified through the house and made the orchestra seem weak and feeble. its like listening to your headphones only with only the treble. after a while i got used to it, but the hand percussion(clapping and shakers) couldn’t compete. i would have changed all of the clapping to claves to get a better ictus and tighten up the ensemble on stage.
i think the best solution is to keep all amplification limited to amps or a small pa on the stage. then the sounds at least match and blend with the ensemble. this worked much better with the keyboard and amp grant gershon used to accompany meredith monk and the master chorale on sunday night.
synergy vocals gave a fine performance, especially once the soprano (amy haworth?) voice warmed up, but the opening and closing syncopation counterpoint sounded pretty muddy.
their outfits didn’t quite match the evening, when they came out in spangled tops the first thing i thought was swingle singers. once i read their bio, i understood that is were their founder is from.
the final result? i was under whelmed, but i cannot really fault the performers. if this music hadn’t been a part of my dna i would have probably been thrilled. the memory is usually better than the moment.
sunday night was an infinitely better. it started off with grant gershon’s customary introduction to the evenings music. his descriptions are clear and simple to the point that even my mother would be interested in attending the concert. the mood was more upbeat than saturday, the crowd almost full and the house lights were on just enough to read the program.
both part’s works the beatitudes and by the waters of bablyon we sat and wept accent all the best elements of disney hall. even though i’m basically agnostic, the organ and chorus of the beatitudes probably point to some kind of intelligent design.
i didn’t know what to expect of the meredith monk pieces that followed. i hadn’t seen her perform live before (although i had the chance) and most opinions were that she was a minor minimalist, probably a few rungs below reich, glass and riley. i had listened to some of her music in school and more recently from ubuweb , but you have to see it live to get it.
it was the most human musical performance i have attended, but let me digress a little.
overall i enjoy disney hall for its architecture and great acoustics for “classical” music performances. it is a cathedral of and for music that most of the time overwhelms the performers who cannot quite rise above the building they are performing in. sometimes it even has that tomblike quality of what it must have felt like being buried alive with the pharaoh in the pyramids. “hey this sucks being buried alive, but the architecture is grand”
so with all that being said, meredith’s monks music was the first performance to surpass the architecture (that i have seen). she adapted her movement and music to fit the master chorale vocalists and it came off very well. i usually hate any movement with vocals. peter sellars staging and movement in john adams el nino was not the worst, but was very similar to the choreography you can see with any high school colorguard/flag team in competition. monk’s movement brought out inherent repetitions and patterns and destroyed the high art concept of ensemble. there wasn’t an orchestra or chorus on the stage, only people expressing themselves through movement and voice. i just kick myself for not seeing her live earlier. mea culpa!
after the incredible first half, i knew the second half was the compromise of the evening. i’m sure not many people would consider michael torke a minimalist in any sense, only that his music is rhythmic and toe-tapping. my wife started singing along to magnificent seven during his copeland-esque introduction to the book of proverbs. in terms of orchestration, a maximalist would be a better description (but not a totalist in the definition of kyle gann). my main gripes with torke’s work was the orchestrational blinders he must use while composing. did he want to write an orchestra piece or a sax quartet with string accompaniment? the filigree transitions either are very poorly written or show a lack of interest in the actual performance of the work. it looked like the audience was confused also, there were probably 10-15 walkouts during the piece and yet it received the largest applause and standing ovation with two curtain calls.
although my wife was pretty upset after the second half (this is the first concert she ever left burning mad, mostly because of the second half music was not anywhere as good at what preceded it), i’m not sure why anybody would walkout during the torke, especially after the sitting through the part or monk? maybe they are the same people who leave the dodger games after the 7th inning to beat traffic?
next: tonight i’m off to see my guitarist dave kurutz perform the glenn branca
purcell's bitch
anyway, what do you think of the title. i overheard somebody talking a little shit about me the other day. mumbled something that my music was bad purcell. i took it as a compliment. now i want to write something to make it official.
its my friday and i already got a good start on my weekend by skipping my train this morning to get a few hours of writing before i drove into work at the last minute. its funny but i know its”writing time” where i’m a little pissed off about it. my good friend ryan kelly used to say it best. “my day job is getting in the way of my personal life”
that all being said, losing yourself in teaching classes is a good thing. i’m really happy with teaching this semester. i think i’ve made some good adjustments and there is much less stress than fall. next week my music ed students will be finishing up teaching 4 weeks of 4th grade music. you probably wouldn’t think it, but 4th grade is the ultimate music teaching experience. they are at the perfect place to be introduced to music performance (remember the recorder?). they also are a lot more honest and open (concrete stage of development) to good and bad teaching sequences and strategies. they will really let you know if they don’t think you are doing a good job. its a really great experience (and somewhat painful) for the pre-credential teachers. i’m really proud how the kept their heads up and took their first steps at teaching. it wasn’t always pretty, but now they have a sense of what the future is so now they can start focusing what the first years of teaching will really be like.
the women’s music festival last week was very interesting. it was fun to see ethel perform some great music and swap some stories in the world’s worst hotel bar afterwards. marc swed evidently liked it, although i’m not sure if he ever has aesthetically criticized much. its great that he is such a supporter and good writer about new music, but sometimes i wonder if we are at the same concert. my luck i’ll be the first one to really feel his wrath. oh well, what do they say… any press is good press. btw… it was mentioned in swed’s review that our vocal department doesn’t want meredith monk to give a clinic. wtf??? kinda too late, i think they can already hear her on tv.
i also just found another good one here
(click on the watch button after the flash introduction)
that's the way its supposed to go
sunday’s show was a blast. thanks to all of you who made it across town to venice to see the pbe. thanks to my great vocalists who gave an incredible performance with only one rehearsal thanks to nicole and the “continuo” who just keeps getting tighter and more fun to play with. the show was [...]
Retrace Our Steps (2005), Background and Influences
i started assembling the librettro for retrace our steps at the end of my grad school experience sometime in spring of 03. i had never written any vocal music and was encouraged by vocalist nicole baker (who is on the faculty at csuf) to write her a piece.
background
i not really a “word” guy and have never been able to remember lyrics from any song, but writing for how the voice sounds was of course really appealing… duh.
influences
at the time i was writing retrace i was coming out of my grad school experience and had been studying major large scale works that represented composers at the top of their game. after studying monteverdi’s coronation of poppea, bach’s goldberg variations, and glass’s einstein on the beach i had been blown away by the amazing artistic and contemplative music that each had written. these pieces really make it for me as a listening experience, but to dissect them and understand how they are organized and the logic used to create them was very humbling. did i feel that my first vocal piece attain those goals? not really, but after writing large amounts of consumable music i really wanted to play in a different sandbox.
during this time i was also very taken with my friend and mental collaborator sean ferguson’s great piece society of the spectacle (2000?). watching its first performance was an electrifying experience and really motivated me to get off my ass and write. there are many similarities to both pieces (that should be discussed further) and we have had some great nights discussing my “plagiarism” of his work (the penultimate line in both of our pieces is plagiarism is necessary). the best thing of sean’s spectacle that i stole was the way he used levels of obliqueness to create meaning in his text . although i think philip glass’s non-narrative work einstein on the beach is the most important work written in the last 50 years, i do have one conceptual gripe with him and a few others. the non-narrative obliqueness of the text for three+ hours is a little much for my friends to endure. (i know… mtv generation) sean solved this problem beautifully by creating a non-narrative composition whose subject is vague and oblique (consumerism/alienation) and used levels of obliqueness to delay the first direct statement to the audience 3/4 of the way through his piece. he then retreats back into a more oblique setting of his libretto, leaving through the same rabbit hole he entered.
this was going to be my solution also… i could present a subject drama (oratorio) that contained a politically aggressive message by setting the text using various levels of obliqueness to obscure my “message”. as the piece unfolded it would i would come out of the rabbit hole and “get to my point” and then immediately retreat into the symbols and layers of the assembled text.
in short, i had a strong message to convey, but didn’t want to the performance to become “preachy” by dealing with the libretto in a direct fashion.
nyc winter break 06
i’m back and finally settling down from my nyc vacation. this year the wife finally traveled with me and we crammed a whole lot into the trip. she is in grad school for the next 3 years and i know we might not get any extended vacation for quite a while.
the first few weeks of the new year is a pretty light time for music, but i was lucky to catch corey dargel’s performance of his new piece “removable parts” at the here performance space. as my friend sean says “he really has his coffee cup”
i was interested to see him perform live. the irony that flowed freely during the performance works much better in his lyrics than the banter between songs. i really admire his ability to create a sonic pallete for each song. his strength comes from a real unique and subtle instrumental settings of his lyrics.
added note-
i just realized the main difference between corey’s songs and those of overly “celebrated” arrangements of jon brion and wilco is that corey understands he doesn’t need to throw the kitchen sink in with the soup. the “studio” bands that obsess on the fetish commodity of adding arcane and strange muscial sounds to create an musical interest are only trading on musical pastiche. i.e. the arrangements end up making no sense in live performance. at first glance corey’s songs seem to live in this world of artifice, but actually are the real deal and are their own world.
other musical performances were mostly uninspiring sets at the lower east side clubs. standing around in my winter coat with an eight dollar beer really sucks. i didn’t find the diamond in the rough like the last trip, but i’ll still drag my ass out in search of the band that can string more than two good songs together.
the rest of the trip was divided by days making the tour of the local museums (the whitney is still my favorite) , dance and theatre. after a few puzzling nights this fall trying to understand los angeles wunderkind ken roht’s theatre hijinks, i decided to try out some of ny’s finest “experimental theater” without getting into too much detail i came away with similar observations but no real understanding of these “avant-guard/elitist” spectacles.
- all of the performances i attended had moments where many people were laughing at nothing in particular. was it nervous laughter?
- if richard foreman is making a statement against the “avant-guard/elitist” perspective by using its theatrical language, how isn’t this another “avant-guard/elitist” statement? it all seems to be commentary about artistic battles that were fought 20 years ago and have no meaning anymore. i think everybody who cared picked up their toys and have gone home.
- i have seen a lot of “shadow acting” where one character mimes behind the person currently speaking to accent various phrases in monologue. it is kind of a strange counterpoint, but i have to seen it often enough to say… enough now, it really doesn’t add anything and is obviously cliche on both coasts.
- dressing up in leather and chains to be edgy and hip isn’t working anymore.
- can i say again how scary it is to see 35 people laugh at nothing in particular?
i guess i know what it feels like to be a music neophyte going to a “modern music” concert. all of these productions were well reviewed and higly recommend (except corey who gave me the heads up on richard foreman). i think i’m pretty “with-it” and felt like i forgot my secret decoder ring for each performance. if anyone would care to explain what i’m missing or offer alternative productions i should see, i would be happy to try them out (in los angeles), but after this debacle i haven’t a clue where to start next.
i did take my wife to broadway with only mixed results. she had a real desire to see wicked (which after buying tickets online and applying for a new american express card to save $100 still cost me more than a few days of salary), and we both kinda enjoyed it but not at the prices we paid. it was one of those shows where for the character motivations to work out you had to forget everything that happened two scenes earlier. its probably best for teenage girls.
avenue q the best of any show i have seen in quite a while. best puppet sex ever!!! (although my violinist sam fisher prefers the uncut dvd versions in team america-world police) broadway may get pretty sappy, but its still intesting to see the new tricks in set design, choreography and costumes before they get watered down on their respective national tours. no matter if it is musical theatre or opera its not easy moving people around while singing and there are staging/design/choreography tricks to be learned from any show. i also really like how small the theatres are. tickets are expensive, but there really are not any bad seats.
status quo?
over this break i have been doing lesson plans for my spring eartraining and theory classes. as i sketched my classes out i realized that my goals were becoming much different than in the past. i wasn’t worried about what i am supposed to teach, but really concentrated to what skills i think our students [...]
R+R
some people thing break is about rest and relaxation, but i think its all about rehearsal and recording. rehearsal went well today. we started sifting through a wide variety of music that we might “cover”this spring. we looked at music composed by lasso, bach, satie, rodgers, as well as one of my new modular pieces. [...]
winter break
the semester is over, but i still have final papers to grade and a lot lesson planning to do before over the break. i’m teaching an advanced fundamentals class and its been pretty long since i thought about what “advanced fundamentals” is. the department has some general guidelines of where they should be able to [...]
