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Post by jk on Dec 8, 2023 17:31:41 GMT -5
I heard part one of this remarkable work on Dutch "classical" radio this afternoon. Aleksandra Vrebalov's Missa Supratext features the Kronos Quartet, David Coulter on musical saw and the San Francisco Girls Chorus with Valerie Saint-Agathe conducting: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandra_Vrebalov
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Post by jk on Jan 2, 2024 10:29:51 GMT -5
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alankard
Dude/Dudette
Module-Assembly Smile Hobbyist (MASH)
Posts: 52
Likes: 55
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Post by alankard on Jan 4, 2024 14:25:03 GMT -5
Holy smokes, jk! Just discovering your three Women Composers threads -- clearly a valuable storehouse of information that will take time to approach, let alone grasp. THANK YOU for posting this material.
Not sure it's worth a separate topic: the arresting Anna Meredith "Nautilus" composition brings to mind a term that, given your clear experience with classical music, perhaps you can explain. The term is "agitation" as distinct/separate from the familiar agitato used to indicate a rapid or exciting tempo. I've seen only very infrequent references to agitation as an indicator of a listener's emotional response to a composition, and have yet to find a text that elaborates. I first encountered the term in connection with Vivaldi's Gloria 589, 2nd movement -- the Et in terra pax. In my view the term certainly applies to that passage. If you can shed any light...great! And if you would prefer to respond in a separate thread, I'll happily start one. Thanks
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Post by jk on Jan 4, 2024 17:06:36 GMT -5
Holy smokes, jk! Just discovering your three Women Composers threads -- clearly a valuable storehouse of information that will take time to approach, let alone grasp. THANK YOU for posting this material. Not sure it's worth a separate topic: the arresting Anna Meredith "Nautilus" composition brings to mind a term that, given your clear experience with classical music, perhaps you can explain. The term is "agitation" as distinct/separate from the familiar agitato used to indicate a rapid or exciting tempo. I've seen only very infrequent references to agitation as an indicator of a listener's emotional response to a composition, and have yet to find a text that elaborates. I first encountered the term in connection with Vivaldi's Gloria 589, 2nd movement -- the Et in terra pax. In my view the term certainly applies to that passage. If you can shed any light...great! And if you would prefer to respond in a separate thread, I'll happily start one. Thanks Thank you for your kind words, AK. I often wonder if I'm doing the right thing by giving women composers a thread or threads of their own, when after all, composers are composers. As you probably noticed, the first two threads are locked; this was kindly done at my request after a bizarre incident involving another poster. Now and again I check to see whether videos linked there have been taken down and then hopefully redress it in this third thread. As for your question, looking around I see agitation described almost exclusively as a human condition that music is able to alleviate rather than incite. I may be missing something, of course... I hope you enjoy your exploration of these threads. It's most gratifying to know they haven't been in vain.
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alankard
Dude/Dudette
Module-Assembly Smile Hobbyist (MASH)
Posts: 52
Likes: 55
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Post by alankard on Jan 5, 2024 2:42:05 GMT -5
jk, I'm sorry to hear there was an incident, but surely you're doing the right thing. I've been enjoying the Barbara Strozzi motet, which I wouldn't have done without your impressive work here. But your concerns are understandable, and here are two cents' worth of thoughts: As a non-marginalized person, I value the revelation of (otherwise sidelined or obscured) contributions to the human experience by marginalized people. As a librarian, I bemoan the loss of physical materials from collections due to pragmatic considerations like weeding/storage space and the damaging effects of nature. So as long as there's adequate server space, the availability of such a rich information storehouse is wonderful.
I was able to access the locked threads from the links in the fourth post of this thread. Is that your intent?
Finally, thank you for looking into the "agitation" question. The quest continues!
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Post by jk on Jan 5, 2024 3:35:11 GMT -5
jk, I'm sorry to hear there was an incident, but surely you're doing the right thing. I've been enjoying the Barbara Strozzi motet, which I wouldn't have done without your impressive work here. But your concerns are understandable, and here are two cents' worth of thoughts: As a non-marginalized person, I value the revelation of (otherwise sidelined or obscured) contributions to the human experience by marginalized people. As a librarian, I bemoan the loss of physical materials from collections due to pragmatic considerations like weeding/storage space and the damaging effects of nature. So as long as there's adequate server space, the availability of such a rich information storehouse is wonderful. I was able to access the locked threads from the links in the fourth post of this thread. Is that your intent? Finally, thank you for looking into the "agitation" question. The quest continues! Many thanks for your support -- and your thoughts. My decision to lock those two (clearly an overreaction) was only to stop future posts, so feel free to browse them!
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Post by jk on Jan 5, 2024 13:49:25 GMT -5
To briefly retread old ground (and reinstate a video that went missing at an earlier thread): I remember clearly the moment (I must have been five or six at the time) when my father told me that the music then playing on the radio had been written by a woman! This came as quite a shock to my innocent ears, perhaps even more so than the time he told me that the English contralto Kathleen Ferrier, whose otherworldly solo version of "Blow The Wind Southerly" was then filling the room, had recently died... I seem to recall that the piece by the woman composer in question (I was told her name was Chaminade) had a violin in it, which means it might have been one of her two Piano Trios, in G minor (1880) and A minor (1886) respectively. Although Cécile Chaminade (1857–1944) wrote mainly for her own instrument, the piano, either solo or in combination, I've chosen one of her rare pieces for orchestra (I'm in need of slightly larger forces after my sojourn in the Baroque era). Callirhoë, a "Ballet Symphonique" of which this is the "Prelude", was written in 1888, the year one of my favourite painters, Giorgio de Chirico, was born: nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9cile_Chaminade
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Post by jk on Jan 8, 2024 16:52:29 GMT -5
Errollyn Wallen (born 1958) deserves a little more attention than she has had so far in this thread. The piece of hers I heard today "combines Latin American-influenced words and music with contemporary composition. Focusing on the subject of death, Are You Worried About the Rising Cost of Funerals? weaves together powerful swinging rhythms with gospel style embellishments. The texts display a wide range of characters and deal with different perspectives on death while avoiding an angry or morose approach." [ Source] Ms Wallen wrote both the words and music of this work, inspired by a local council leaflet displayed in a window. This is the fifth and last part, "End of My Days": And so to the end of time This life is surely come Now embrace me one more time.
And so to the dark I throng No tears will fall on me All is done and all is gone.
Joy, Bliss, Now.
No doubt to the winds My tatters fly, This shambling heart turns to dust And so shine, Shine without faith.
Joy, Bliss now, Now.
Joy, Bliss Gone desire now, Gone hope.
And so, And so shine, Shine without faith.[ Source] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errollyn_Wallen
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Post by jk on Jan 15, 2024 16:04:52 GMT -5
These two works by composers I hadn't heard of before were played on Dutch radio this evening within 20 minutes of each other. Both are represented here by their third movement. The pianist and composer Jeanne Leleu (1898–1979) was a child prodigy who in 1910 took part in the first performance of Ravel's Ma mère l'oye aged eleven. This is part three, "Allegro", from her Quatuor pour violon, alto, violoncelle et piano, played by Alexandre Pascal, Léa Hennino, Heloïse Luzzati and Célia Oneto Bensaid respectively: The Walls of Ancient Bukhara (1973, revised 1988) by the Uzbek composer Dilorom Saidaminova (born 1943) takes its inspiration from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. From it, this is "Tomb of Ismail Samani", performed by her fellow countryman Behzod Abduraimov:
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Post by jk on Jan 30, 2024 15:46:28 GMT -5
This Sunday's episode of Podium Klassiek, the only Dutch TV music show of any value, included this mesmerizing piano piece, The Homeless Wanderer, by the Ethiopian composer, pianist and nun Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou (1923–2023), whom I'd never heard of before then. Born Yewubdar Guèbrou, her music has been described as melodic blues piano with rhythmically complex phrasing. Her life story (see her wiki) would make a tremendous feature film. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emahoy_Tsegu%C3%A9-Maryam_Gu%C3%A8brou
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Post by jk on Jul 9, 2024 8:39:21 GMT -5
I got to the American musician and composer Elaine Fine (born 1959) by way of the viola thread. There is viola music by her on YouTube, some even played by the composer, but I found this piece, High Speed Rail for string orchestra, more engaging: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Fine
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Post by jk on Aug 3, 2024 4:15:00 GMT -5
Clémence de Grandval (born Marie Félicie Clémence de Reiset, 1828–1907) is another woman composer to publish works under a pseudonym, in her case because of her social position as Vicomtesse de Grandval. Her not inconsiderable oeuvre includes many works for oboe, not the most favoured solo instrument in the Romantic era. From her Oboe Concerto in D minor, Op. 7 (date unknown), this is the first movement: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cl%C3%A9mence_de_Grandval
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Post by jk on Aug 17, 2024 7:05:34 GMT -5
The English pianist, conductor and composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor (1903–1998) is the daughter of the better-known composer and conductor Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, although her music has been undergoing something of a revival in recent years. The three-movement Sussex Landscape, Op. 27 was written in 1936. It is receiving its third performance this millennium during this year's BBC Proms (Sunday, August 18). I. Largo: II. Lento e molto tranquillo: III. Largo - Maestoso: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avril_Coleridge-Taylor
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Post by jk on Aug 20, 2024 3:23:41 GMT -5
I heard this choral gem on Dutch classical radio this morning by the Bulgarian-British composer Dobrinka Tabakova (born 1980). Turn Our Captivity, O Lord was specially commissioned for the "Choral Pilgrimage 2023 – A Watchful Gaze". It is sung here by The Sixteen under their conductor Harry Christophers: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobrinka_Tabakova
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Post by jk on Aug 26, 2024 8:38:29 GMT -5
Looking in vain for a very recent BBC commission from the Finnish-American composer Lara Poe for the 2024 Proms called Laulut maaseudulta (Songs from the Countryside), I bumped into this extraordinary piece by Ms Poe for large chamber ensemble written to accompany some hair-raising footage from Buster Keaton's 1923 film Our Hospitality: Killian Farrell, conductor Allison Parramore, flute Joo Bin Yi, oboe Morgan Davidson, bassoon Maxwell Stein, french horn Jacob Mezera, trombone Chloe Tula, harp Anna Luisa Volkwein, violin I Jinu Suk, violin II Alaina Rea, viola Graham Cullen, violoncello Maggie Cox, contrabass www.larapoe.com/bio-long
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