wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

On Demand

Program Schedule

Topics

New Sounds / March 23, 2005

New Sounds

Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Previous Episode | Next Episode
  • Frank Zappa memorial in Vilnius, Lithuania
    bust of Frank Zappa

    The "Classical" Frank Zappa

    Frank Zappa came to music by Edgar Varèse in his teens and was, according to Pierre Boulez, “hypnotized by [music of] Edgar Varèse.” The influence of this music was not so much that Zappa became a follower of Varèse, but that it stimulated his ambitions to become a composer. On this episode of New Sounds, hear music composed by the late guitarist and innovator, Frank Zappa. Listen to some of his dense and demanding work written for the Ensemble Intercontemporain (and commissioned by Boulez.) Hear The Ensemble Modern, Zappa's "last band," from their recent CD of Zappa’s works, along with brass arrangements of Zappa tunes by the Meridian Arts Ensemble. Plus, Frank Zappa spins Baroque composer Francesco Zappa’s classical pieces on his Synclavier and the Finnish Ensemble Ambrosius plays Zappa's music on Baroque instruments.

PROGRAM #2283, The "Classical" Frank Zappa (First aired 5/12/2004)

ARTIST(S) RECORDING CUT(S) SOURCE
Frank Zappa Hot Rats Peaches En Regalia, excerpt [2:00] Rykodisc #10508** www.rykodisc.com
Ensemble Modern/Frank Zappa Greggery Peccary And Other Persuasions Peaches En Regalia [3:00]
A Pig With Wings [4:30]
Revised Music For Low Budget Orchestra [7:30]
What Will Rumi Do? [1:30]
Night School [5:30] 		RCA Red Seal 82876-59842 www.bmgclassics.com OR direct from EM www.ensemble-modern.com
Ensemble Ambrosius live Night School [4:30] This performance is available for download from Ensemble Ambrosius' site: www.ensembleambrosius.com
There is a recorded version on the Ensemble Ambrosius' record, "The Zappa Album" BIS/Northern Lights 5013, distr. in the USA by Qualiton Imports www.qualiton.com
Francesco Zappa/ arr. Frank Zappa Zappa plays Zappa Trio Sonata #1 [3:00] Barking Pumpkin #74202, reissued on Rykodisc #10546 Available through Available for purchase at Amazon.com*
Ensemble Ambrosius live Uncle Meat [4:00] See above.
Duo Sonare Plays Zappa, Debussy, Albeniz, Piazzola Uncle Meat [2:30] Sound Star-ton #31111, out of print, but try Amazon.de (B0000289GJ ) Info about the Duo at www.duosonare.de
Meridian Arts Ensemble Smart Went Crazy T'mershi Duween [1:39]
Dupree's Paradise [3:00] 		Channel Classics #4192, www.channelclassics.com
OR available through
Available for purchase at Amazon.com*
Fireworks First Tracks Zappa: The Black Page #2 [3:30] Available at cdbaby.com/cd/fireworksmusic01
Info at www.fireworks-ensemble.org

*, ** - Find the recordings you've heard - go to the New Sounds Recordings Information page

Leave a Comment

Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. WNYC reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the WNYC.org Comment Guidelines before posting.

Your comment


* required
The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party.
 
Nico Muhly (www.myspace.com/muhly)

Twitchy Renaissance-Infused Minimalism

New Sounds

From the New Sounds Live concerts at Merkin Hall, Nico Muhly presents a series of new electroacoustic ensemble works, combining “twitchy Minimalism” and Renaissance polyphony. Hear brand-new works from "Mothertongue," along with other works, recorded live.

Robert Moran

In Robert Moran's Kitchen

New Sounds

From October 30, 1989, the infamous "cooking show" with composer/raconteur Robert Moran. Recorded while cooking an Indian dinner in John Schaefer's kitchen, for reasons still not entirely clear. Along the way, we hear an "acoustic" version of Cage's 0:00 - for amplification of chopping vegetables and blender. And don't miss the teary conversation as onions are chopped. View the the recipes.

Michael Hedges and Michael Manring

New Sounds

The incredibly gifted and astonishingly original guitarist Michael Hedges left the planet much too soon in 1997. Avant-folk and ever-entertaining, Hedges made brilliant music with alternate tunings, harmonics and was known for striking the guitar’s body and strings with his fingers, palms and knuckles. His close friend and sometime collaborator, electric bass virtuoso Michael Manring, was a genre-bender, before music writers ever discovered that hyphenated term. He started out in the New Age bins, but moved all over with various projects, including the very first New Age-death-metal-jazz-funk-fusion record, among other things, with his “hyperbass”, (a fretless instrument which makes re-tuning mid-piece a little easier). On this October 10, 1987 edition of New Sounds, the two artists visited and played at the WNYC performance studios.

Duke Ellington - www.dukeellington.com

Caravan Variations

New Sounds

Like camels slogging through the sand, the exotic strains of “Caravan,” by Duke Ellington and his sometime trombonist Juan Tizol (with rarely heard lyrics by Irving Mills), have been played loose, fast, swinging, and/or slow by just about everyone. For this New Sounds program, it’s another of the occasional series of programs of Theme and Variations, where the premise is simple: take a single piece of music and explore what a number of musicians have done with it, through arrangements, deconstructions, and revisions of the original theme. This time around, it’s Duke Ellington’s “Caravan.” Listen to arrangements by Romania’s Fanfare Ciocarlia, Hungary’s Kalman Balogh & The Gipsy Cimbalom Band, the California Guitar Trio, the ska group Hepcat, banjoman Bela Fleck, Lebanese composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, and trumpeter/composer Jon Hassell, among others.

  1. The Brian Lehrer Show: Business Without Borders (10/08/2008)
  2. The Brian Lehrer Show: What’s The Damage? (10/06/2008)
  3. The Brian Lehrer Show: Security Blanket (10/07/2008)
  4. The Leonard Lopate Show: The Price of Style (10/08/2008)
  5. The Leonard Lopate Show: Beyond Chicken Nuggets (10/07/2008)
  6. The Brian Lehrer Show: The End of Oil? (10/10/2008)
  7. The Leonard Lopate Show: North of the Border (10/09/2008)