Bookmarks for May 29th through June 6th
These are my links for May 29th through June 6th: Circles and Euclidian Rhythms: Off the Grid, a Few Music Makers That Go Round and Round – Music Notation, What is it Good For? How About Humans? – Make: Online | Walled Gardens vs. Makers – “Making, in short, is not about making. Making is [...]
"A Tribute to the Slowness of Anxiety"
My Music for Controllers EP has recieved another thoughtful review via The Muse is Music
“A tribute to the slowness of anxiety, by Instructor of Music at California State University, Fullerton Paul Bailey. His introduction speaks of his distress over the current economic downturn, but the music itself is absolutely timeless.
A quiet, transcendent work, which the composer nearly forgot after concluding it was “a little too minimal.”
(Note to self, spend some time on this site.)
thanks fred!
got a great review of my Music for Controllers EP from marc weidenbaum at disquiet.com
“Probably the sole development that wasn’t a surprise, pleasant or otherwise, was that other musicians would use the Buddha Machine as a tool of self-expression. Among the latest is Paul Bailey, whose recent Music for Controllers album includes several tracks featuring the Buddha Machine (in this case, the Buddha Machine app for the iPhone and iPod Touch). The opening tones on the album’s opening track are familiar, their patient looping like waves brushing up against the shore, albeit in slow motion (MP3). But that’s just the start. Then comes a pitter-patter like some children’s wind-up toy acting up, and a tentative bit of melody that slowly, ever so slowly, over the course of nine minutes, finds a common sensibility with the looping tones, and insinuates its own drone-like hymn. In the process, Bailey manages to do what many Buddha Machine adopters have not, which is to once again relegate the machine to the background.”
are improvisations performed live using ableton live, korg/nanokey, buddha machine and srutibox (iphone), and korg kaossilator
Music for Controllers by paul bailey
Music for Controllers I
created using ableton live, buddha machine (iphone), korg kaossillator and nano-key
Music for Controllers II (coming soon)
Music for Controllers III and Music for Controllers IV
were improvised live using ableton live/ korg/nanokey, buddha machine (iphone), and the korg kaossilator
Music for Controllers V
improvisation post-whatever ableton, buddha machine (iphone), srutibox just-intonation drone
Music for Controllers VI (A Stable Job is an Oxymoron)
this track was based on a field recording i made of my last day of work before my “fall break” at CSUF (a one-week non paid work furlough). a few days later i improvised over the recording of my commute (from highland park to union station) with some materials of an earlier piece i made last spring (not getting fired is the new promotion). when it was finished i felt it was a little too minimal and forgot about it until about a week ago and when i listened to it again i realized it pretty accurately captured my dread of what this financial disaster has become in my life.
interestingly enough on that was the same day on my commute home the conductor on my amtrak route told me that she had lost about 75 daily commuters between san diego and los angeles from a year ago and it was pretty sad how so few of us were left. i know for me there aren’t many part time faculty left in the music department at CSUF and at this point it’s can get pretty depressing whenever i think about all of my friends who are out of work.
probably a little TMI, but yeah… i guess it is a bit dark.
Music for Controllers VI (A Stable Job is an Oxymoron) is spoken word piece based on twitter RSS feeds on the keywords “fired” and “job”. parts of this piece were originally contained in the piece “not getting fired is the new promotion” (2009) and was improvised/performed/composed using ableton live, novation launchpad, korg kaossilator, iphone (buddha machine, srutibox), text-2-speech, and a field recording (zoom H2) of my morning commute (metro goldline from heritage square to union station; los angeles, ca 10/15/2009 (10 min)
are improvisations performed live using ableton live, korg/nanokey, buddha machine and srutibox (iphone), and korg kaossilator
Music for Controllers I
created using ableton live, buddha machine (iphone), korg kaossillator and nano-key
Music for Controllers II (coming soon)
Music for Controllers III and Music for Controllers IV
were improvised live using ableton live/ korg/nanokey, buddha machine (iphone), and the korg kaossilator
Music for Controllers V
improvisation post-whatever ableton, buddha machine (iphone), srutibox just-intonation drone
Music for Controllers VI (A Stable Job is an Oxymoron)
this track was based on a field recording i made of my last day of work before my “fall break” at CSUF (a one-week non paid work furlough). a few days later i improvised over the recording of my commute (from highland park to union station) with some materials of an earlier piece i made last spring (not getting fired is the new promotion). when it was finished i felt it was a little too minimal and forgot about it until about a week ago and when i listened to it again i realized it pretty accurately captured my dread of what this financial disaster has become in my life.
interestingly enough on that was the same day on my commute home the conductor on my amtrak route told me that she had lost about 75 daily commuters between san diego and los angeles from a year ago and it was pretty sad how so few of us were left. i know for me there aren’t many part time faculty left in the music department at CSUF and at this point it’s can get pretty depressing whenever i think about all of my friends who are out of work.
probably a little TMI, but yeah… i guess it is a bit dark.
Music for Controllers VI (A Stable Job is an Oxymoron) is spoken word piece based on twitter RSS feeds on the keywords “fired” and “job”. parts of this piece were originally contained in the piece “not getting fired is the new promotion” (2009) and was improvised/performed/composed using ableton live, novation launchpad, korg kaossilator, iphone (buddha machine, srutibox), text-2-speech, and a field recording (zoom H2) of my morning commute (metro goldline from heritage square to union station; los angeles, ca 10/15/2009 (10 min)
Music for Controllers by paul bailey
My Early iPad Review
so far the iPad has been a pretty interesting and although i’ve had only for a week i think it’s still to early to tell on how useful a mobile device it will become. instead of trying to read the tea leaves of what it might become, i’m going to break it down in some smaller chunks:
Things I Like
- great to read magazine length multimedia content on the interwebs
- i also prefer it as a newsreader and really a perfect couch computer
- great for viewing photo slideshows and movies
- at the end of the day it shines as a media consumption device
Limitations
- not really great for content creation
- iWork is buggy, editing rich text documents without a mouse is a pain (although it’s been shown you can easily hack a Bluetooth mouse)
- it’s a pain in the ass to type on (in relation i prefer to type much more on my iphone) i have pretty big hands and i have to peck out words one letter at a time
- using it with a bluetooth keyboard makes you miss the mouse even more
- no good Twitter client yet (twitterific is ok, wish they had echofon)
- to heavy to read comforably in bed or on the couch
- iBooks are too expensive. no reason not to continue using amazon and their very good kindle app for the Ipad
- multitasking would make many programs much more useful (textexpander, pastebot, 1password)
- screen glare is a problem, although works better in landscape
- not many must have iPad specific app yet (i assume this will change by the end of the summer once developers have adequate time to create and test their iPad specific apps)
iPad vs. iPhone
- after using it for a week i was surprised to discover that my iPhone is better for messaging and typing short notes and email. i think the form factor of the IPad makes it really a tweener mobile device. to big to do the basic mobile tasks, and not robust enough to do more than basic word processing.
- on the other hand i have found when teathering to my iPhone it makes the iPhone/iPad combination very compelling. one device for the mobile bits and a more robust device for the larger more complex tasks (reading, basic word processing, basic music composition/improvisation)
- like i said above i prefer to day most text entry on the iPhone. the iPad is too big and heavy to even write a long email.
My Favorite iPad Apps
- Instapaper i use basically as a tool to read most of the content i find interesting on the interwebs. it’s fundamental function is to strip out all the excess pictures and adverts to leave you with a text only version of whatever article/blog you were wanting to read
- simplenote is my basic plain-text word processor on the iPad and iPhone. i’m using it right now to write this article. the best thing about it is that it easily syncs between any mobile device your desktops. kinda like what google docs and pages should eventually be doing. although i used to be a big evernote user, the ease of use and the quick syncing has made simplenote my main tool to keep jot down quick notes on the go
- comiczeal is a very simple and effective pdf/comic reader. and have finally been able to enjoy reading graphic novels on my ipad
- Todo i have been using todo on the iphone for quite a while and it’s Ipad cousin is well worth the upgrade. i wish they would eventually have an OSX version (like things), but i’m very happy with the iPad and Iphone versions
iPad Case
Netflix
Kindle iPad app
- i really like that you can easily sync books and share your bookmarks and annotations publicly. i find that it’s to heavy for reading for long periods of time and think my kindle 2 overall is a better bookreader. i also noticed today that it doesn’t have the % read line at the bottom of each page, which for some strange reason i seem to prefer.
iPad apps that show promise
SkyGrid
- it’s kind of a curated newsreader. i don’t have any clear idea how it works, but if i just want to catch up on the news it’s great place to start. i wish it had instapaper support or would let me open another browser to save an article for later, but for now all you can really do is email a link to yourself.
textexpander, pastebot, and 1password
- i’m starting to use these more and more between my macbook/iphone/ipad and i can see them becoming more useful when multitasking comes to OS 4 later this summer (and they release an iPad specific app)
iPad as a Music Controller
PatternMusic
- so far it’s the most interesting music performance app. it’s a pattern based looper (similar to the session view side of ableton live) one of the great things about it is that it starts to show the possibilities of using the ipad as a stand alone musical instrument (instead of just a controller) right now its sound pallete is limited and would be great if it offered midi out and the ability to internally record it’s own performances
ChipPad
- mp3 based sequencer in which you launch your own loops. it offers an interesting alternative to the session view and arrangement views in ableton live
Electrify
- seems like a ipad specific version of the Electribe/Groovebox, andcould be useful, but still haven’t figured out how to make it sing
Eliss
- really not a music controller, but a interesting generative music game that was pretty cool on the iphone, but is much cooler (b/c of the bigger size) on the iPad
also if you haven’t tried this out for your iphone/ipad, your really should.
"Relegate the Machine to the Background"
got a great review of my Music for Controllers EP from marc weidenbaum at disquiet.com
“Probably the sole development that wasn’t a surprise, pleasant or otherwise, was that other musicians would use the Buddha Machine as a tool of self-expression. Among the latest is Paul Bailey, whose recent Music for Controllers album includes several tracks featuring the Buddha Machine (in this case, the Buddha Machine app for the iPhone and iPod Touch). The opening tones on the album’s opening track are familiar, their patient looping like waves brushing up against the shore, albeit in slow motion (MP3). But that’s just the start. Then comes a pitter-patter like some children’s wind-up toy acting up, and a tentative bit of melody that slowly, ever so slowly, over the course of nine minutes, finds a common sensibility with the looping tones, and insinuates its own drone-like hymn. In the process, Bailey manages to do what many Buddha Machine adopters have not, which is to once again relegate the machine to the background.”
Music for Controllers by paul bailey
i actually found out about the buddha machine from reading marc’s blog and in the back of my mind i was wondering what he would think. it’s not actually posted on this site yet (it’s been a busy spring), but you can find it at archive.org (via blacksquare netlabel)
David Simon’s Treme Reviewed (Slate.com)
roy patterson of slate makes the point that david simon’s HBO show “Treme” has a lot in common with robert altman’s “Nashville” and after watching the first two episodes i’d have to say that isn’t a bad thing.
This is the prelude to a story about music and community courting comparison to Robert Altman‘s Nashville. It has the same looseness and kaleidoscopic focus. It has a similar tolerance for contradictions and a commitment to getting the big picture by concentrating on the small details. The rock star who, playing himself, shows up at a jazz club functions much like Julie Christie and Elliott Gould do in the Altman movie, as mirrors where the audience catches the reflection of the central characters’ feelings on fame. And, most tellingly, an early moment in Treme finds a naive British reporter poking at the setting. But where Altman’s viewpoint shares something with the Brit interloper’s, Simon sides forcefully with the home team, tacitly expressing more than a little sympathy for the steaming conspiracy theorist who tries to toss the journalist over a levee. This is all in all an ambitious way to launch a TV show, and Simon makes it look like a cakewalk.
the world could always use more music (and altman)
Soundcloud.com
Soundcloud.com is a new social network for music creators that is conceptually very interesting and worth checking out. What Soundcloud is and isn’t: Soundcloud isn’t a site to build a new audience. yeah there might be some bleeding edge enthusiasts who come looking for great undiscovered tracks, but in essence its a place to build [...]
anne midgette promises the moon
A.M. updates her original post and expands her confusing alt-classical umbrella to include most everybody
anne can call it whatever she wants, but the commissioned, academic music they have to play is always going to be toothless and banal.
the big problem about article’s like this is that it promises the moon (yet again), and pulls out the rug on the those more adventurous early adopters who pay decent money to catch “the new music scene” which in turn makes it harder for me to get people to come out to my shows.
just to be clear i’m not saying the groups mentioned in these articles are poor performers or all the music the play is shite, but i’m very clearly pointing out at any one of their concerts you do have to suffer through at least 1-2 commissioned pieces they must play to “pay the bills” and keep the grants coming in. the audience has no idea that this pay to play is going on (it’s just like selling prime shelf space at the supermarket to the highest bidder) and yet comes away from the whole experience wondering if they must be stupid b/c they “didn’t quite understand the music”
on the other hand…
thank goodness most kids today don’t read the paper
p
Koyaanisqatsi 1, Hollywood Bowl 0
since i’m not a real critic i’ll just post my observations about philip glass‘s concert at the hollywood bowl from last night. but there are a few qualifications i have to get out of the way first.
the bowl is one of my favorite venues to see a show, but i have always avoided going to the ‘classical’ nights b/c i’m not so excited about seeing a pickup orchestra (or what amounts to the 3rd string of the LA Phil), but when i heard that they were going to perform Koyannsqatsi i was pretty intrigued how they program other music around it. i don’t go to enough symphony concerts to know if this is common but they played a pretty short first half (25 min? maybe) ofthe ‘lighter fair’ (selections of PG’s movie and opera music) on the first half and a pretty complete (i think the consensus is there might have been a few small cuts) 90 minute version of Koyaanisqatsi on the 2nd half.
1st half (PG Ensemble)
Opening (PG piano solo), Facades, Spaceship from Einstein on the Beach
- PG isn’t a great piano player, but his musicianship comes through. i think its what yoda would sound like if he played piano (in a good way!)
- the sound wasn’t that great (keyboards vs. woodwinds). it took much too long for the sound engineer to ‘dial it in’. and reinforced my assumption that he/she didn’t give a shit and had an agenda. i also assume a monitor or two was out on the stage because the saxes were having intonation problems and from my experience the worst thing in the world is to be playing a big venue through a PA and you can’t hear yourself in the monitors.
- using a cut down group has lots of orchestration limitations. off the top of my head listening to them play ‘spaceship’ is with the keyboard heavy, the eight person ensemble doesn’t really do the music justice. there are many financial limitations to touring, but i’m not really a fan of their solution. listening to the performance i had to smile thinking of my keyboard player eric hendrickson, like the PGE and SRE i have attempted to solve orchestration problems in a similar manner (which puts eric in quite a pickle attempting to play some very non-idiomatic parts). we have had many discussions on how hard and uncomfortable it makes him feel and i wish he could have heard the show because they PGE players were having similar problems. (i know its schadenfreude, but schadenfreude with much admiration) i think eric would walk away from last nights show with a new perspective and feeling pretty good about what i put him through. (eric you are the man!)
2nd half
- the PGE performed much better, most of the balance problems were fixed
- full orchestra was a waste of money. at its core Koyaanisqatsi is a piece for brass and the PGE, expanding it to full orchestra seemed like a marketing gimmick. the most engaging sections (especially during ‘the grid’ they were silent. overall they probably played 25% of the piece and when they played i don’t see that it added much the film.
- when the strings did play i think they sandbagged their parts. from my box seats the bowings didn’t look together (we was bumped our previous seats b/c of the film projection and were offered a box, yeah!)
- the brass players didn’t fare that much better. maybe they didn’t like michael reisman’s conducting (it looked pretty clear from where i was sitting) and were pitching a fit. they were consistently behind on the upbeats and many of the hemiola’s were pretty sluggish also. on the other had it could have been a monitor situation on the stage, but i was pretty disappointed how sloppy the orchestra played. on the other hand the master chorale sounded great (other than being a bit muddy on their diction the vocal counterpoint was clear and consistent)
- i think the film that was shown was mostly complete. it felt like there were some small cuts, but i couldn’t exactly place them.
- there were some new musical sections (brass fanfare opening to “the grid”)
- the simplest musical and video elements worked the best (keyboard and spinning rocket at the end)
- it was nice to see godfrey reggio come up for the curtain call, i was half expecting to see ron fricke (but after all it is hollywood and the cinematographer never gets to do that do they?)
overall
- i wonder if the orchestra was added mainly for marketing purposes?
- thought it was very intersting that the show was mostly pot free and didn’t smell it till the way out(everybody i know claims they first watched it high in their parent’s basement)
- there are still many hassles coordinating electronic and acoustic instruments in performance. you would think that in a venue like the hollywood bowl the mix wouldn’t sound like a college new music concert
- listening to the show solidified my confidence in playing with a group of musicians over time. having your music playedbby the equivalent of a touring broadway show, its hard not to miss the inherent limitations which are compounded by the pickup orchestra playing music not in their repertoire. i’m sure they sound 100x better playing the old warhorses, but concerts like this are never going to be a full and satisfying experience.
- it also makes me question why i paid $65 for a ticket to have a pickup orchestra play film music badly. and the sound engineer not dial in a performance till the 2nd half
despite all my complaints and gripes i have to say the performance of Koyaanisqatsi was amazing. the piece transcended the performance and mesmerized the crowd. unlike many concerts at the bowl the rolling of wine bottles down the aisle actually diminished as the concert progressed. initially the audience was a little goofy and distracted became engaged and drawn in as the evening went on. it was interesting that the simplest music and film was the final section ‘prophesies’ was the most effective (which was lightly scored solo keyboard and video of the Atlas-Centaur launch explosion in 1972).
for me the music/film combination that is koyaanisqatsi has stood as a high water mark of what art music and film should be and it was great to see that it could transcend and transform a venue like the hollywood bowl.
Retrace Our Steps (Emusic Review/John Schaefer)
i was very happy to see that WNYC’s John Schaefer wrote a great review of Retrace Our Steps for the E-Music website.*
“Composer Paul Bailey winningly describes his ensemble as an “alt-classical garage band.” With 4 singers (two of whom also speak), strings, winds, piano, electric guitar, vibes, and electric bass, it’s as good a description as any. Retrace Our Steps is his “secular oratorio in 4 acts,” and while the opening notes of Act I and of Act IV sound like they might have come from Arnold Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night, the dominant musical references are to Philip Glass and Michael Nyman. Bailey’s pulsing, tonal chamber music is married to texts by Gertrude Stein, Guy Debord and Jenny Bitner. All four acts are highly rhythmic affairs, but each has its own character: Act I insistent, Act IV a more reflective cousin (a neat trick since the rhythm seems to be the same); Act II with a stinging electric guitar part leading the way; Act III with an elegant combination of vibes and rocking strings and guitar. Rather than providing a narrative in a traditional oratorio sense, Bailey gives us a series of aural snapshots dealing with isolation, alienation, and the irony of modern communication (that when it is so easy to communicate, it is still so hard to communicate effectively). A further irony is that this message is carried by some immediately accessible music; if the message is that instrumental rock and new classical music are not so far apart, that message comes through loud and clear.”
and last week WNYC recently replayed the original show that featured my music.
*i’m not sure what is going on but it looks like Act II hasn’t been uploaded properly on the emusic site. If you have had problems and have downloaded an incomplete track please email me and besides giving you a link to Act II, i’ll also be happy to send you a special “surprise”.
and of course you can download the whole album right here for free at anytime
Retrace Our Steps, Act 1
Retrace Our Steps, Act 2
Retrace Our Steps, Act 3
Retrace Our Steps, Act 4
(download graphic libretto)
(download Graphic Libretto and Mp3′s)
Really??
“Heard around the world moments before Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of The United States of America, Air and Simple Gifts is now available for sale exclusively through iTunes. The piece, written by American composer John Williams for the Inaugauration (sic) of Barack Obama, premiered in Washington, DC, and on simultaneous broadcasts around the world in a performance by Yo-Yo Ma, Anthony McGill, Itzhak Perlman and Gabriela Montero.
Since January 20th, we have received a multitude of requests to purchase the piece performed by the quartet at President Obama’s inauguration. We are now pleased to make available “Air and Simple Gifts” exclusively on iTunes.Below please find the press release and link to listen to Air and Simple Gifts for your review. Please let me know if you would like to set up contests or features on this release.
If you decide to cover this, I would greatly appreciate you forwarding me a link to the coverage.”
All the best,
DanaMUSIC FROM PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION
RELEASED ON SONY MASTERWORKS
YO-YO MA JOINED BY ITZHAK PERLMAN, GABRIELA MONTERO & ANTHONY MCGILL IN NEW WORK – AIR AND SIMPLE GIFTS – WRITTEN ESPECIALLY FOR BARACK OBAMA’S INAUGURATION BY JOHN WILLIAMS
AIR AND SIMPLE GIFTS AVAILABLE FEBRUARY 11, 2009
Air and Simple Gifts, the classical work composed to celebrate the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States, has been released on Sony Masterworks via iTunes. The work, written especially for the talents of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill by the American composer John Williams, was first heard at noon on January 20, 2009, by millions of people around the globe, as Barack Obama officially became President. The recording of Air and Simple Gifts is available to the public on February 11, 2009.
Air and Simple Gifts is the first classical quartet to be played at a Presidential inauguration. Williams based the piece on the familiar nineteenth-century Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts” by Joseph Brackett. The source piece is famous for its appearance in Aaron Copland’s score for the ballet Appalachian Spring. Williams chose the selection knowing that Copland is one of President Obama’s favorite classical composers.
“We are thrilled to be able to make this historic piece of music available to the public as a special memento of the inauguration,” commented Alex Miller, General Manager of Sony Masterworks and the Victor label. “The public’s response to Air and Simple Gifts was as immediate and dramatic as the occasion itself, and captured the optimism and hope of the nation at a pivotal moment in America’s history.”
“I was deeply honored to be invited to participate in the Presidential inauguration with Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill and Gabriela Montero,” Yo-Yo Ma stated. “I am thrilled that this composition by John Williams, which so beautifully expressed the magnitude and emotion of the occasion, can continue to inspire people everywhere.”
Yo-Yo Ma has been enjoying one of the most successful recordings of his illustrious 30-year career with Sony Masterworks. The release of Songs of Joy & Peace debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Classical Overall and Classical Crossover Charts and reached #20 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, Ma’s highest position ever. It also had the unusual distinction of selling more recordings in one week than any other in the history of his recording career.
Yo-Yo Ma is a world-renowned cellist, educator, and ambassador for the arts. His awards include the Avery Fisher Prize, the Glenn Gould Prize, and the National Medal of the Arts. Appointed a CultureConnect Ambassador by the United States Department of State in 2002, Yo-Yo Ma has met with, trained, and mentored thousands of students worldwide. In 2006, Secretary General Kofi Annan named him a U.N. Messenger of Peace, and in 2007 Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon extended his appointment.
Sony Classical, RCA Red Seal and deutsche harmonia mundi are labels of SONY MASTERWORKS. For e-mail updates and information regarding Sony Classical, RCA Red Seal and deutsche harmonia mundi artists, promotions, tours and repertoire, please visit Sony Masterworks
updated 1:10pm
sony music’s dana saltzman replied to my email this morning.
Thank you Paul. It is always good for us to stay in touch with what people are saying. We will always have people who love and people who hate the music that we release. I am glad that people have forums to speak their mind, but I do have to say, we have had such a large demand for this track that Yo-Yo’s site crashed from a high volume of traffic.
All the best,
Dana
Dana Saltzman
Sony Music Commercial Music Group
Manager, Digital Marketing
550 Madison Avenue # 1671
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cartesian nostalgia
from a performers point of view this weekend’s RealNewMusic 2008 festival was one one of those rare events that was a joy to participate in from start to finish. no backstage drama, rivalries, one-upmanship or back handed compliments. walking in to soundcheck and seeing scott mcintosh (pbe partner in crime) playing in john mahr’s group [...]
shame
its a shame that alan rich was pushed out as the la weekly’s classical music critic this week. this is another reason to not read the exceedingly corporate LA Weekly. first they get rid of any real “alternative” political reporting and now this. even when i didn’t agree with his conclusions, i appreciate mr. rich’s clear and pointed reviews and the context he brings to any concert he attends. his institutional memory of the los angeles music scene cannot be replaced.
what gets me really upset is the way he is being treated, i have seen too many examples of colleagues and friends who have given their live for their “job” being pushed aside and into retirement by the whims of management. by observing how most employers treat their “mature” staff its easy to get an idea of what is in store for us. i think any professional that has put in the years supporting and building the organizations that make up our community should be able to pick the way they want to go out (within reason). i think while many view retirement as a time to play play golf, drink beer and play cards, if Mr. Rich wants to keep writing in his “golden years”, then more power to him.
I suggest that if the LA Times can rethink the “forced buyout” of the esteemed Al Martinez, then LA Weekly should consider the same for Mr. Rich.
btw… how did we get to a point that a majority of our print media is being dictated by bean counters in chicago and phoenix? at least southland publishing is getting it done.
access to the audience
kyle gann’s recent post that quoted cornelius cardew got me thinking about this whole alt-classical thing.
“access to [the] audience (the artist’s real means of production) is controlled by the state.”
for the past 5 years playing and composing outside the mainstream has had a lot of advantages:
1. i write what i want and for who i want
2. the time from composition to rehearsal is usually a matter of days
3. i get everything played that i write (the good and the bad)
4. i perform with who i want and where i want
cardew’s statement implies that gaining access to the concert halls (the means of production which is controlled by the state) is the primary path to gaining access to the audience. while i prefer to play in non-traditional venues it has some limitations:
1. concert halls are definitely not a priority, but it is any art music composers main access to press and reviews. its kinda ironic that we don’t really matter until we play a concert hall though our best shows and crowds are occur in the alt-venues.
2. playing in clubs works the best, but in los angeles the problem isn’t about finding a place to play, but to find other groups who share a similar aesthetic sensibility to put on a decent show. booking a show can easily devolve into a vaudeville act.
3. galleries can be great place to play, but if they don’t already host musical events getting an audience to come out to a new venue takes time.
4. of course there is no money playing these alt-venues, and the freedom that i have to write our own shows and work out my material on a consistent basis (like any rock band or standup comedian)
5. if i wanted to have a paying “career” as a composer then my options of “making a living” are all clearly controlled by the state. if i took this path i would have to embrace the “work for hire” attitude and become a plumbers of art music taking whatever commissions and projects that came my way.
there are some pretty obvious limitations to the whole alt-classical thing. this is not a path you choose to pay the bills. i was lucky to learn early when i was playing at disney that making money doing your art can be highly problematic and have embraced the model as composer as musician and educator (much like bach and vivaldi).
these days we might have the we have the power to self publish, record and perform our own music.
southland tales
what a wonderful mess of a film!
what if you took a story by of philip k. dick (not the hollywood versions of his stories, but a story like ubik with all the paranoia and dark humor left in), combined with the surrealism of buñuel (much more zany than david lynch) and topped off with amazing visual set pieces inspired by matthew barney. add the star spangled banner sung in spanish by the wonderful rebeka del rio with the section quartet. the lip-sync dance number with justin timberlake of the killer’s “all these things that i’ve done” (i’ve got soul/ but I’m not a soldier) is almost worth the $7 matinée ticket.
did i mention that there is a commercial of simulated suv intercourse? (the link is to hand drawn animation, the real thing is in the movie)
there are sections that feel taped together where richard kelly (donnie darko) builds a scene with inspired montage of visuals and music (his use of the pixies wave of mutilation left me breathless) only to fall apart in the transition to the next scene. also the fine line between surrealism and stupidity is crossed many times in the dialogue. what seemed like a great idea on set (the rock mumbling to himself while touching his fingers together) comes off like a john waters bit in pink flamingos. but i’ll still defend it, its worth seeing and look forward to the day when kelly gets his technique and storytelling down to write a movie everybody else can enjoy. manohla dargis (nytimes) sums it up better than i ever could:
Even so, I would rather watch a young filmmaker like Mr. Kelly reach beyond the obvious, push past his and the audience’s comfort zones, than follow the example of the Coens and elegantly art-direct yet one more murder for your viewing pleasure and mine. Certainly “Southland Tales” has more ideas, visual and intellectual, in a single scene than most American independent films have in their entirety, though that perhaps goes without saying.
ohh yeah… sarah michelle gellar (singer/actress/pornstar krystanow) singing teen horniness is not a crime. i don’t think it actually is in the movie more than 30 seconds, but the song is spot on.
"Paul Bailey Ensemble at home in Fullerton" OC Register-Tim Mangan (2007)
thanks again to all of you who made our “home” show at csuf on tuesday night. it turned out to be a great evening; nice crowd, saw some old friends and made a few new ones. i’m kinda short on words today and humbled by tim mangan’s very thoughtful review of us in the oc register.
http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/music-bailey-composer-1852433-three-one
“On the FAQ page of the Paul Bailey Ensemble’s Web site (paulbaileyensemble.org) the group is dubbed an “alternative-classical garage band.” One wonders what that is until one hears it and wonders no longer. It’s a good description. This is a flexibly sized chamber ensemble, locally based, made up of friends and colleagues who have mostly studied at Cal State Fullerton. Tuesday night’s incarnation of the group, when it performed at Meng Concert Hall on campus, included an electric guitar, electric bass, keyboards, clarinet and trombone (the last played by the composer himself, Paul Bailey). It makes a funky, gritty sound, but it also capable of a warm euphony.
I would say that Bailey’s music is minimalist, with the proviso that the composer himself, like so many minimalists, doesn’t like that label. His favorite composers, though, include the minimalists Michael Nyman, Glass, Reich and Riley, as well as Satie, Monteverdi, Bach and Palestrina. His own music combines a minimalist’s interest in repetition, motion and simple harmony with Baroque bass lines. In fact, the passacaglia, a set of variations on a repeated melodic bass line, popular with Baroque composers, is Bailey’s preferred metier.
This style was perhaps most explicit in the opening number, “Cheap Admiration,” written in 2005 and based on a work by the 17th century composer Johann Pezel. A fuzz guitar got a little rhythmic riff going, a Baroque progression with a syncopated groove, and the other instruments joined in, layering and interweaving lines, spinning, turning and floating.
Bailey’s music doesn’t put on airs. It’s easy to listen to and to understand the first time. The composer seems to take joy in the simple motion of music, in plain harmonies and melodic scraps as ordinary as do re mi. The fascination comes from hearing it all spin around and work itself out, like a load of mixed laundry in a dryer, or flames in a fireplace.
His music does express something, though. His “Fearless Leader” had a Glassian hypnotic melancholy, a growing in tension, then release. “Eye for Optical Theory,” based on a Nyman theme, scampered along quickly and jazzily and was decorated with soulful trombone scoops.
“Life’s Too Short,” the second of an eventual trilogy, added three vocalists, who talked and keened a dryly witty, existential text, made more so by both its matter-of-fact repetition, lyrical limning and uneven meter. The trilogy’s finale will be “Life’s Too Long.”
The New York-based trio Real Quiet (cello, piano, percussion) were guests on the program and joined the PBE for Bailey’s “Principal of Sufficient Irritation,” a piece that features a short ostinato riff tossed all around like a hot potato. The work morphs and builds (at one point finding itself in a quasi Bo Diddley groove) and is one of the composer’s most ambitious and engrossing.
On its own Real Quiet added three pieces, by Annie Gosfield, Phil Kline and Marc Mellits. Somehow, I found these pieces, accomplished and polished though they were, less satisfying, perhaps because they took themselves so seriously. Gosfield’s “Wild Pitch” encompassed aggressive allegros, lonely dreams and quarter-tone decoration. Kline’s “The Last Buffalo,” a three-movement homage to Hunter Thompson, juxtaposed long-arched cello solos with a motoric central movement in a heavy tread. The three of the four movements performed of Mellits’ “Tight Sweater” seemed mere etudes in hopping and grinding minimalism.
But then came the grand finale, Frederic Rzewski’s 1969 “Les Moutons de Panurge,” which requires a touch of explanation. Both ensembles joined in for this ebullient gambit, written for “any number of musicians.” “Panurge” consists of a single melodic line of 65 notes which the players are instructed to perform in additive fashion, first 1, then 1-2, then 1-2-3, and so on until the end. They begin together but invariably get off, the composer instructing, “if you get lost, stay lost.” Also, the tempo continuously accelerates. The result is a kind of mad “Row, row, row your boat,” of canons gone wild and off track, of “Bolero” on steroids.
It’s not mayhem, though, the instructions providing for the relentless rewinding of the melody with a single note added to it each time; the listener is in a space where the music dances around him like so many bouncing atoms. To my knowledge, there’s not another piece quite like “Panurge” and these musicians had rollicking good fun with it. So did we.”
how wonderful is brian ferneyhough?
so this is the post where i’m supposed to give you some special reason to come to our next show on tuesday september 25th. i just got back from a really great rehearsal and ready to start spreading the propaganda.
with the traffic in southern cal i know it takes a special kind of person to drive anywhere after a long day of work. the real question is why is this concert worth attending? first off we are sharing the concert with the new kids on the block of new music (NKOTBNM or as they liked to be called real quiet) the nyc based chamber group is making its first los angeles/oc appearance the just released their new album tight sweater (featuring the music of marc mellits)which is pretty frakkin’ great. besides mellits music they are playing music of phil kline, and annie gosfield.
as for the pbe. i’m kinda surprised that we are even playing this show. last may it looked like curtains for the us, carl, ryan and bruce would all be leaving the pbe after graduation. thankfully bruce decided to stay for the time being and our original bass player matt menaged moved back into town this summer. this lineup is a powerhouse and has gelled quite nicely. i’d say its pbe 3.o.
so what about the show? or as they used to say “where’s the beef?”our goals are very consistent and simple. we want to entertain you, we want to make you think and we want to have a great time performing music that we wouldn’t get to play anywhere else. entertainment wise, its the strongest set we have yet played. as a show its got something for everybody; garage band jam’s, covers, vocal fun and some modular improvisation. so go ahead see for yourself…
cheap admiration-
its technically a harmonic deconstruction of johann pezel’s sonata ciacona in B. its a great introduction to what we do and always lets the audience know we are more garage band than chamber group.
fearless leader-
this tune has had more versions than a cat has lives. it started very unsuccessfully as an ambitious modular experiment that failed miserably in a live reviewed performance at whittier college (thanks again to the oc register’s tim mangan for a really polite review of that debacle). over time it became more of an orchestration study. its not a perfect piece, but at the time i think i was creatively blocked and i looked at finishing it as a challenge to overcome. i keep asking the group if they want to take it out of the set, but they seem to like it more than me.
eye for optical theory
this probably has to be one of my favorite michael nyman tunes. i have never been able to find a score of it, so one summer i decided to write it down. its based on a repeated ground bass (kind of like fearless leader) and about halfway through i realized his “trick” is that he only was using combination of about 8-9 repeated melodies. my version plays on this and i just started with my sheet of melodies and hooked them together like lego’s to make my own version. in last nights rehearsal i added a call and response introduction where our keyboard player eric plays one of the antecedent licks and we play its consequent answer. we play this game until he wants to start the piece and then plays the first line in octaves to let us know to go on. its fun way to bring a little life to one of our fluffier pieces. i also strongly feel that a night of any one composers music can be pretty exhausting. a little nyman along the way sets up the rest of the show really well.
life’s too short
this is the showpiece of the night. its one of the few compositions that i have written that came out effortlessly fully composed and orchestrated. in our first rehearsal we played it head to toe without stopping once. its a pretty damn good piece and i’m still couldn’t tell you how i wrote it. what is it about? self actualization through nihilism, nietzsche meet tony robbins. its in english. you will be able to understand the text. its over the top. its funny. its in your face.
in many ways i think its a conceptually a reaction of going to a very well performed master chorale concert in which all the music was by american composers but none of it was in english. everything was well written and orchestrated, but the concept of having your audience sit and listen to some “secret code” was insane. scanning the crowd from the back row of disney hall this performances seemed more dehumanizing as the evening wore on. the audience wanted to like it, and seemed desperate to connect with the music. (it was beautiful) but what kind of conversation goes on for an two hours in a variety of assorted foriegn languages? sitting in the audience felt like a strange ritual listening to an evening of recently composed choral music without theater or narrative.
anytime you add vocalists to anything its like hearding cats. on most nights the energy they add to an instrumental show can be hard to control. when they come on stage its easy for me to forget my job (the cues and conducting) because i really love to hear them sing. over time i realized that once i get them to the middle of most pieces we loosen up and have a lot of fun on the back end.
principle of sufficient irritation (11/25/05)
this is probably or favorite piece. its written in a modular style with a variety pre-composed melodic syncopated and ostinato lines. (terry riley’s in C is the most famous example). overall its more similar to the improvisational process used in tv shows like curb your enthusiasm or any of christopher guest’s wonderful movies. the piece has a very clear beginning middle and end and we all know our responsibilities in each section. for instance i play some melody in the first section, lead the group into the canon in the middle, and play ostinatos in the third. how and what i’ll play i can choose every night. over time there are happy accidents that turn the piece in new directions. each new player that comes in also brings their own personality into the piece. one of the good things about 11/25 is that its got a nice rhythmic/melodic turn when it we start moving from the submediant to the tonic moving from a hard charging 6/8 to 3/4. (and back to the original opening statement) while it serves as a very energetic totem that no matter how the evening is going that once we get rolling towards that ‘turn’ its a very simple engine that creates quite a lot of energy. some nights we even feel like we can levitate the stage during this section which is the whole reason i got into th
yle=”font-size:100%;”>is racket.
are you sold yet? still skeptical? i know i have been to more bad new music concerts than i count. please don’t hold that against me. i hated them also. how about if i sweeten the deal with a guarantee (of course i can’t really afford to give you a money back offer… i’m only public employee) if you don’t like the show i’ll buy you a beer, i just don’t want to hear about how wonderful brian ferneyhough is.
monday morning quarterback
d.i.e. had a pretty good show last wed night in which we premiered david toub’s piece this piece intentionally left blank. i thought it was a very effective composition and pretty good first performance. enjoy the mp3 mp3.
this performance represented the best of social networking and was made possible by david having a well designed website with scores and mp3′s. he also is very smart by having some pieces in open c score that are easily adapted to any instrumentation (most pbe music is written this way) which is the point of the diverse instrument ensemble.
anyway ,it was a challenging but fun piece to play and great example of the exchange of ideas by making your music public. i look forward to playing more of music like this and encourage others to follow.
because i can't be beethoven
i’m taking a quick break from a very fruitful writing session on my new vocal piece (life’s too short)((yikes, serendipitous irony alert!!)) rehearsal starts tomorrow, more to come later.
okay, quickly i was scanning my newsreader and can’t believe i missed parris patton’s great performance art last weekend at the dangerous curve gallery. link to lovely linda’s review at the losanjealous blog and original the because i can’t be beethoven site.
piano hacks unite! bravo! bravo!
pictures from losanjealous.com
how things change
the last few days have been great to step aside from performing to catch up with my friends artistic work. i realize its been quite a while since i have been in the ‘audience’ and have more than observed that life doesn’t stop even though you haven’t been paying much attention.
highland park galleries
since the pbe has been rehearsing on sat nights and i have been unable to make any of the nela 2nd saturday’s gallery openings since the summer. what used to be a few galleries has grown to a full fledged scene which make a great evening stumbling around the neighborhood.
the private gallery of clare graham (mirrors) really caught my eye tonight. in what used to be a old grocery store and roller rink was one of the most interesting private galleries i have ever seen (ok, i haven’t seen much but who needs museums when you have a space like that)
i also really enjoyed fellow arroyo arts collective member/den mother suzanne siegle’s collection of women’s slips that depict a my favorite emotions (yearning, regret, deception…)
theatre in la
fri night was spent watching my friend’s nova jacobs and john sinclair’s short plays performed by the theatre of note company in hollywood. i freely admit that i haven’t attended much theatre in la and my limited attempts to find good theatre have mostly been unsuccessful.
this production of 10 short one-acts was an unsuspected diversion. the show, a lick and a promise, did have its requisite ‘theatre’ aftertaste, but did have a few diamonds and the acting was much better than i expected.
my main complaint of 99 seat theatre is the two dimensional conversations that pass as dialogue. both john and nova’s productions were very natural and conversational. nova goes right for the carotid artery and doesn’t let up. her audience and her character’s don’t get a pass and no lessons are learned. john’s scene plays the other way, using what could pass as situational comedy a grandmother and her grandson make limited attempts to communicate, but without bending over for the easy jokes. mom and grandson are both lucky to get home with only hurt feelings.
don’t get me wrong, i enjoyed the other shorts, i just like mine with a little less ‘theatre’ flavoring. the audience was rolling in the aisles all evening. i look forward to see how these pieces age over the 6 week run and plan to take my wife before it closes.
upcoming projects
as for the pbe i could still use a few bands for our nov and dec shows, but other than that playing once a month has its benefits. over the last few weeks i find myself much more productive and have been able to write a first draft of my next big work. i hesitate to call it a vocal piece because in the past few days its started to become a film. we are going into rehearsal of the instrumental parts next week. i’m looking forward to workshopping it on our november show at mr. t’s (sun, nov 12th). by dec we should be able to add vocals and video and if all goes well the full premier should be at csuf in march.
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!
d.i.e. (diverse intstrument ensemble), 051706
may 17 2006
california state university, fullerton
recital hall
folias echa para mi senora dona tarobilla de carallanos-1650
andrea falconiero
de plus en plus
gilles binchois
douglas law, countertenor
from 125 “contrapunti” on a cantus firmus-1540
constano festa
counterpoint 23
counterpoint 27
counterpoint 88
conterto I re minore per 2 oboe, archi e cembalo-1715
antonio vivaldi
la deploration de johan okeghem-1500
josquin despres
douglas law-countertenor, veronica paez-oboe, brian madigan-ebass, pam gadaire-eguitar, ryan nunes-vibraphone and marimba, michael lassarre-alto sax, carl stronach-vibraphone and marimba, esther li-keyboard, scott mcintosh-clarinet and bass clarinet, xico castano, clarinet, paul bailey-trombone, lloyd rodgers, conductor
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.
