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Soundcheck

Wednesday, November 06, 2002
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  • Brad Garton

    OK Computer

    Composition students bring to their studies their pop-culture tastes and their love of computer technology, making these plugged-in composers-in-waiting a sizable part of the next generation of music makers. Brad Garton, director of Columbia University’s Computer Music Center, and Donnacha Dennehy, music-technology professor at Trinity College Dublin, discuss how technology has changed the sound of composition and music education. Also weighing in on the topic is Frank Oteri, editor and publisher of the American Music Center's NewMusicBox.org.

Primarily a composer, Donnacha Dennehy does research in computer-assisted synthesis and composition, algorithmic composition, analysis of twentieth-century music, multi-media, politics and modern music, ethnic approaches to rhythm, and classical theories of form and rhythm.
More about Donnacha Dennehy

From degrees in pharmacology and hearing and speech science, to working with local governments in developing noise control programs, Brad Garton has established computer-music studios around the world.
More about Brad Garton

The American Music Center, founded in 1939 by Aaron Copland and five of his contemporaries, has worked to encourage the composition and production of contemporary American classical music. Its web magazine is NewMusicBox.org.
More about the American Music Center’s NewMusicBox.org

audience

Soundcheck Smackdown: When Contemporary Met Classical

Soundcheck

Like vegetables stuck into a delicious meal, contemporary classical music is forced on concert audiences before they are allowed to enjoy their Brahms. So says humorist, critic and author Joe Queenan. Today, Queenan and John Berry, Artistic Director with English National Opera, join us for a Soundcheck Smackdown debate on the merits of contemporary music.

musical clouds

You Are What You Hear

Soundcheck

Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi takes us through some of the most famously botched song lyrics in rock history. We’ll explore why the words we make up are usually more interesting than the real version. Then, listeners confess their favorite and most embarrassing reinvented lyrics.

Leave a comment: Give us your favorite set of misheard lyrics! Were you disappointed when you learned the actual words?

Rosanne Cash and Mark O'Connor

Soundcheck

For her, he was a father. For him, he was a boyhood hero. For the nation, he was an icon. Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash and composer and violinist Mark O'Connor join us to talk about how Johnny Cash has inspired their musical collaboration. And they will play live.

Katy

Soundcheck's Summer Song Poll

Soundcheck

Every year, popular and critical opinion somehow converge to settle on a "summer song." In 2007, it was Rihanna's "Umbrella." The year before, it was "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. The practice stretches back to the very dawn of pop radio. Yet defining the essence of a "summer song" is a bit elusive. We enlist the help of Blender editor at large Lizzy Goodman -- and of our Soundcheck listeners, in an online poll.

Cast your vote: Soundcheck's Summer Song Poll 2008

Can't decide? Check out audio and video clips of the contestants here.

Our blog: John Schaefer asks what makes a good summer song,

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