New Music’s Most Unpronounceable Title

I’ve put up on PostClassic Radio a rare old Wergo recording of one of my favorite works: Çogluotobusisletmesi by the irrepressible Clarence Barlow. The title is in Turkish, and has something to do with an autobus, and there are two versions: one electronic and this one, played on piano by the formidable Herbert Henck. Barlow is an important English/Indian/German composer of tremendous wit and invention, and very little of his music is available commercially. This record was, once, and to my knowledge it has never made it to CD. The most incredible thing I ever heard Barlow do was play a piece on a Disklavier that was a theme and variations based on (what chutzpah!) the theme from Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 111 (on which Beethoven had written his own rather impressive variations). Barlow played for awhile, and then the piano, computer-driven, started adding its own notes. Barlow eventually got up and walked away, and the piano continued without him. Brilliant music, stunning theater. If I ever get my hands on a recording of that, you’ll be the first to hear it with me.

Other new stuff now up: music for digital piano by John Holland, Endless Bummer by Art Jarvinen, a lovely, almost motionless orchestra piece by Michael Pisaro, and a couple of amazing pieces by a young Japanese woman composer, Mica Nozawa. Sometimes it takes a full completion of the playlist loop for the new pieces to come up, and so some pieces may not be available in the first 12 or so hours I say they are. Meanwhile, there’s plenty to listen to. I’ve got more than 90 pieces in rotation, and I’ve been subtracting a couple and adding a couple every day. I don’t know how fast I should go in that process, how many listeners are beginning to hear the same things over and over. Feedback is appreciated.

UPDATE: Responding to my headline, Antonio Celaya informs me of a choral piece by Anders Hillborg entitled, Muocdaeyiywcoum. Ouch!