I always feel bad making a big deal out of a composer right after he dies. If I knew in advance, I’d make a big deal out of each one just before he died. (Don’t any of you write and tell me you’re not feeling well. I’ll need a note from a doctor.) It’s always made me happy that, a few months before he died, I called Morton Feldman, in print, the Greatest Living Composer, and he saw it. But even had I known in advance that Lucky Mosko (1947-2005) was going to die at 58, who knew he was that old already? I had never heard Mosko’s … [Read more...]
Metametric?
A helpful reader with a fake e-mail address has written in to accuse me of "writing myself into history" by including myself in the discussion of totalist music in my previous post. Lest there be any further confusion: This is my own personal blog, which I am not paid to write. While I do not knowingly publish falsehoods here, I may sometimes cast myself in a favorable light. The blog is not intended to replace scholarly musical reference works. If you would like to read scholarly accounts of the totalist movement that make no reference to me, … [Read more...]
Rules of the Word Game
We call Monet’s Rouen Cathedral an Impressionist painting. Imagine a skeptic challenging this statement. “Let us put the painting under a microscope,” he says, “analyze it, and determine once and for all whether it is actually Impressionist.” Can we go along with his experiment and prove him wrong? No; more appropriate to say, paraphrasing Wittgenstein, that this skeptic doesn’t understand the rules of the word game we’re playing. I don’t know whether it’s symptomatic of the decline of culture, but it seems that most people … [Read more...]
Advertising Claims
Amazon is now listing my new book as available. As a special treat for all those who HATE it when I talk about Downtown music, the book is titled: Music Downtown! Amazon's editorial review is beyond flattering: "As provocative as Lester Bangs's rock writing and as uncompromising as Nat Hentoff's jazz and blues work" - Whoa! Hyperbole indeed. But oddly, they continue, "Although he regrets that some of his longer pieces are not included...." That's not true. All my worthwhile long pieces from the Voice are in the book, including my 1994 interview … [Read more...]
Executive Decision Made
I'm sitting here writing an article about the composer Melissa Hui. I'm engulfed in Hui, drowning in Hui, can't see the forest for the Hui's, and I finally say to myself, "Gann, look: you need a new composer-of-the-month for Postclassic Radio anyway. Why not Hui?" Why not indeed. So if you ever wonder how executive decisions get made here at Postclassic Radio, that's pretty much the gist of it. The most recurring word in Melissa Hui's titles is "still," and there's a real stillness to her music, even when it's fast or bumptious, that's quite … [Read more...]
How to Tell When You’ve Made It as a Composer…
http://www.mcphee.com/items/11507.html UPDATE: Steve Layton informs me that Bach's not the only one: http://www.presspop.com/en/shop/archer_prewitt/moog_doll.html … [Read more...]
Totalism as a New Rhythmic Paradigm
My post on the postclassical paradigm for meter, though it dealt with Janacek, was particularly relevant to progressive music of the last 20 years. The tendency to think about meter as quantity, without heirarchical subdivisions of the measure, was avidly developed by the composers who were part of the totalist movement of the 1980s and ‘90s: Mikel Rouse, Michael Gordon, John Luther Adams, Art Jarvinen, Ben Neill, Evan Ziporyn, Tim Brady, Diana Meckley, David First, Larry Polansky, myself, arguably Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham, and a few … [Read more...]

Recent Comments
mclaren on Ives, Caught Between Two Caricatures
Once again we get a high-octane musician slamming a composer for producing "naïve" work. And what, I ask you, is...Bob Gilmore on Ives, Caught Between Two Caricatures
Agreed. I love Ives 1, terrific piece. But I'd have to say my favourite of all the symphonies is the...M. on Ives, Caught Between Two Caricatures
Mr. Plush has already written, in his first sentence, what I would have liked to. Consider it seconded.Bill B on Ives, Caught Between Two Caricatures
You can hear it without going to it. The concert is streamed live over WQXR, as are all of...Vincent Plush on Ives, Caught Between Two Caricatures
Kyle, you have just reminded us (as if we needed reminding) why we regard you as one of the most...Steven Ledbetter on Minimalism Invented in England, It Turns Out
Sullivan did, indeed, brilliantly solve the problem set him by Gilbert's lyric, but he didn't find it easy. In fact...Paul Schleuse on Minimalism Invented in England, It Turns Out
The additive process is clearly there, but the harmony isn't really static. The alternation between D and D maj7/sus4 is...Gene on Minimalism Invented in England, It Turns Out
"Das Rheingold" opens with six minutes of tonic, not dominant. KG replies: But after six minutes of E-flat the curtain opens...Juhani Nuorvala on Minimalism Invented in England, It Turns Out
The minimalist I'm most reminded of by that Gilbert and Sullivan piece is Tom Johnson. - For additive process, there's...Ian Stewart on Minimalism Invented in England, It Turns Out
For additive precedents there is also the the folk song "Green Grow the Rushes, O". I also believe that the big...