On this New Sounds, hear some unconventional piano works, including some amplified piano in a work by Charles Ives, “Serenity” as played by Jenny Q Chai from a collection of works, “New York Love Songs.”  Also from that same record, a work by Taiwanese composer Ashley Wang, involving digital piano.  Plus, from a new recording, listen to Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Piano and Javanese Gamelan.  The piano has been retuned to “play nicely” with the gamelan tunings in this world premiere recording featuring Gamelan Pacifica and pianist Adrienne Varner.  That and more.

Composer/guitarist John Schneider brings his microtonal guitars into the studio, to play his “Tombeau for Lou Harrison,” on this New Sounds.  Also, there's music by Lou Harrison for just intonation guitar, inspired by the Baroque era.

This New Sounds brings music by Canadian composer Vivian Fung inspired Indonesian gamelan, along with other works by westerners that look to that archipelago’s music.  Fung, on her record, "Dreamscapes,” draws on the fast interlocking rhythms of Balinese gamelan and to a degree - John Cage’s prepared piano- to create an eerie soundworld on “Glimpses.”

For this New Sounds, a look at the loner iconoclastic American maverick composers who have set the stage for New Sounds.  We'll hear music from composer (and insurance businessman) Charles Ives, and something by John Cage, the sound-experimenter and subscriber to chance. (We won't hear his most notorious piece, 4'33" - it just doesn't work on the radio.)  

In this 1997 New Sounds with host John Schaefer, Lou Harrison talks about composing for the Indonesian gamelan, the associated complexities of intonation and his recollections of instrument building and experimentation with fellow West Coast maverick, Harry Partch. 

Das war schön! (That was nice!) by the Norwegian composer Rolf Wallin invokes themes by Mozart, drawing on birdsong, freemasonry and parental innuendo in a five-movement concerto for percussion and orchestra. According to the composer’s program notes, the title refers to Mozart’s reaction to his caged bird being able to sing the main theme of the final movement of his 17th piano concerto, although with two small mistakes.

Composer/guitarist John Schneider brings his microtonal guitars into the studio, to play his “Tombeau for Lou Harrison,” on this New Sounds.  Also, there's music by Lou Harrison for just intonation guitar, inspired by the Baroque era.

Musical reminders that troubles between the West and the Middle East are not new – Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI present their mammoth project "Jerusalem."  Also on this New Sounds program, Thomas Binkley’s Studio Der Fruehen Musik plays music of the Crusades, Lou Harrison’s "Variations" play with another melody about Jerusalem and the Crusades; and more.

Musical reminders that troubles between the West and the Middle East are not new – Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI present their mammoth project "Jerusalem."  Also on this New Sounds program, Thomas Binkley’s Studio Der Fruehen Musik plays music of the Crusades, Lou Harrison’s "Variations" play with another melody about Jerusalem and the Crusades; and more.