The sixth movement of Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphonie presents an interesting lesson in melody, harmony and scoring, if we can step beyond the usual comments on birdsong, modes of limited transposition and the Ondes Martenot – important topics that are easy to write about but fall short of getting at a central essence of this musical experience. Taken alone, the melody has a 1940s pop … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2016
Black Mountain Trio
I won't find myself in Columbia SC this week, but if you do, check out the Black Mountain Trio concert there this Wednesday evening. They will be playing my piano trio from 1998, Dirges and Dances. Nice to see an old work getting a new hearing. I wrote about the piece here. Details about the concert here. Though I can't make it, I understand Beethoven and Dvorák will be … [Read more...]
non-linear
Many of the most interesting developments in musical form over the last few decades have featured explorations in non-linear progression. Influenced in part by the implications of Relativity theory, but equally by the ease with which filmed narrative can shift us back and forth in time, composers have sought ways to manipulate notions of linear time, finding lovely juxtapositions and surprising … [Read more...]