We’ll hear some new approaches to orchestral, choral, and chamber music on this New Sounds.  Listen for conventional classical instruments with overdubs, processed orchestral music with an electronic sheen, gentle glowing choral music, classical music ringtones, and hi-tech as applied to chamber music. 

The minimalist driving repetitive sound of Nico Muhly's work, "Mothertongue," looks to rock music, with electric bass and keyboards as part of the chamber music instrumentation.  We’ll hear both "Hress" and "Monster."  Then sample the 3-part choral work, "The Ecstasies Above" by English composer Tarik o’Regan, based on a poem by Edgar Allen Poe.  There’s some nod to the so-called mystics, yet there’s also a rhythmic drive to the work – with no electronic effects.  Plus,  a bit of an opera from John Adams, based on a south Indian fairy tale, "A Flowering Tree," and music for acoustic steel string guitar, paired with overdubbed violins by David Pritchard.  All this and much more.

PROGRAM # 2830, New Approaches to Orchestral and Chamber Music (First aired on Thursday, July 31, 2008)