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New Sounds

Tuesday, September 19, 2006
  • Nexus Percussion Ensemble
    Nexus Percussion Ensemble

    Percussion Paintings

    Listen to works for percussion ensemble that depict natural phenomena, including meteor showers, animals, and others on this edition of New Sounds. Hear Wendy Mae Chambers' work “Night of the Shooting Stars,” which is a tone poem for 16 percussionists inspired by The Leonids meteor shower of November 2001, and calls for unusual instrumentation, including Jack-in-the Boxes, key chains, conch shells, sleigh bells, slide whistles, and audience participation on siren whistles. Also, the Nexus Percussion Ensemble plays William Cahn’s work “Fauna,” where melodic marimba lines are punctuated by drum kit fills, coupled with rhythmic animal ambience, rainsticks, z well-placed lion’s roar, and the distinctive hoot of quica. Plus, there’s music featuring the first lady of percussion, Evelyn Glennie, and more.

PROGRAM # 2438 Percussion Pictures (First aired on Tues. 7/12/05)

ARTIST(S)

RECORDING

CUT(S)

SOURCE

Nexus

Live, Merkin Hall 11/13/89

William Cahn: Fauna [13:30]

This performance not commercially available, but the piece appears on “Nexus Now”/Nexus CD 10262.
Available at www.nexuspercussion.com

Wendy Mae Chambers

Private recording

Night of the Shooting Stars [25:00]

Not yet released, but see
www.wendymae.com for info.

Michael Daugherty, Evelyn Glennie

UFO

??? [6:00]

Klavier #11121**
www.klavier-records.com*

Dafos (M. Hart et al)

Dafos

Dry Sands of the Desert, excerpt [3:00]

Reference #RR12.
R re-released on Rykodisc, #10108
www.rykodisc.com

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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.

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.

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New Sounds

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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.