#4268: New Music with a Social Conscience
For this New Sounds, listen to three works with social or political ideas in mind. There’s music by the gifted composer Julius Eastman, along with works by Rzewski and Andriessen.
Hear music from 1973 by the trailblazing Julius Eastman, a gay, African-American, New York downtown composer who looked to disco hits and pop progressions in some of his music. Hear relentless riffs that devolve into a clangorous riot before fading into meditative waves in Eastman’s work called “Stay On It,” from a new recording by Chicago-based Eighth Blackbird, Will Oldham, and Bryce Dessner.
Also, listen to music by American composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski composed in the wake of the 1971 prison riots in upstate New York. “Coming Together,” scored for narrator and open ensemble is a churning, seething work filled with anger about injustice. The piece is based on a letter by Sam Melville, one of the leaders of the Attica riots, who was shot and killed.
Then, from the Dutch composer/pianist and teacher Louis Andriessen, listen to a portion of his large-scale work inspired by and based on Plato’s Republic. It's Andriessen's De Staat which might contain elements of clangorous Balinese gamelan, jazz, minimalism, and Stravinsky.
ARTIST: Yasin Bey and Brooklyn Philharmonic; Alan Pierson, cond.
WORK: Frederic Rzewski: Coming Together [1:58]
RECORDING: New Sounds Live, 10/12/2011 at the (then) World Financial Center’s Winter Garden
SOURCE/INFO: This performance not commercially available.
ARTIST: Eighth Blackbird, Will Oldham, Bryce Dessner
WORK: Julius Eastman: Stay On It [16:27]
RECORDING: When We Are Inhuman
SOURCE: 37d03d Records
INFO: Due out August 30
ARTIST: Yasiin Bey and Brooklyn Philharmonic; Alan Pierson, cond.
WORK: Frederic Rzewski: Coming Together [18:21]
RECORDING: New Sounds Live, 10/12/2011 at the (then) World Financial Center’s Winter Garden
SOURCE/INFO: This performance not commercially available.
ARTIST: Schoenberg Ensemble, Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor
WORK: Louis Andriessen: De Staat, opening [9:58]
RECORDING: De Staat
SOURCE: Nonesuch 79251
INFO: nonesuch.com
