My article “Reconstructing November,” detailing the process of coming up with a performance score for Dennis Johnson’s epic 1959 piano piece, has just appeared in the journal American Music. I prefer not to repost it on the blog; it contains hardly any more information than I’ve already posted here, here, here, here, and here. It’s available through JSTOR, or will be soon, I guess, for those who have access to that through their schools. This issue of American Music, by the way, is chock full of experimentalism: aside from myself, Maria Cizmic has an article on Cowell’s under-explored piece The Banshee, Zachary Lyman interviews Johnny Reinhard about his controversial completion of the Ives Universe Symphony, David Nicholls’s witty article on the Ultramodernists’ influence on Cage (which I heard him deliver ten years ago) finally appears, and there’s even a review of my Cage book by Branden Joseph, author of a wonderful Tony Conrad book, and a review by Brett Boutwell of John Brackett’s John Zorn: Tradition and Transgression – which quotes me! Whew.
November Again, in December
December 1, 2010 by
But to the point: In the body of my own article, I promised to make available a recording of the public performance that Sarah Cahill and I gave in Kansas City on Sept. 6, 2009. It’s now up here, four hours and 29 minutes long.
Thanks so much for posting this!
Thanks for posting this recording. Now if I can only find 4.5 hours to relax and enjoy it.
Thank you so much for posting this Kyall. I missed the final concert at the Conference last year because I had to catch my flight back to Lexington, KY. The conference was such an incredible experience for me, to converse, listen, and really experience Minimalist music. An opportunity of a lifetime…hopefully to be repeated next year in Leuven.
KG replies: It was one of the high points of my life too.
Thanks Kyle-been waiting for this for awhile. I listen to your original performance quite a bit, as November is among my favorite works. Wish Dennis Johnson had composed more, given how incredible this piece is.
Part 2 doesn’t work after about 10 minutes. I would love to hear the piece, but part 2 of the audio is broken. Just a heads up!
KG replies: Fixed, I think, thanks. Let me know if not.