The most stable chord, traditional teaching tells us, is the root position triad – the one with the fundamental on the bottom. A more elusive arrangement puts the third of the chord in the bass – nice for subverting the obvious hierarchy of the root. That leaves the 64 chord, meaning a triad with the fifth in the bass. Traditional teaching tells us this chord requires special treatment. It … [Read more...]
Archives for 2017
Political Dispatches
Caught the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) exhibition Dispatches this weekend. Dispatches was mounted just before the 2016 election; in its own words it “includes a survey of works from 2010 - present and launches a series of commissions, or "dispatches" on current events and the critical issues of our time.” Works exploring environmentalism, the war in Syria and the 2016 … [Read more...]
The Composition Program of My Dreams
When I was an undergraduate student, I won a prize that got me a reading session with the school orchestra. I showed up for the session and discovered that one of the professors had decided to use the time to get a reading of a piece he had written. I got five minutes at the end of the session. The orchestra got through the first 20 measures of my piece, a work I had spent the better part of … [Read more...]
eighth blackbird
We have eighth blackbird in residence this week, stimulating us with their sharp and sparkling brand of new music. On Wednesday, they recorded music by some of our student composers, last night they played a vibrant program of works by Andres, Muhly, McGowan, Hearne and Dessner. Today they are presenting a seminar on building a career in contemporary chamber music and giving master classes and … [Read more...]
Nine for Four with Prism Quartet
In 2009 I heard the Prism Quartet play Pagine, a set of arrangements by Salvatore Sciarrino of works spanning several centuries. I was taken with suppleness of the ensemble, its ability to adapt itself to widely divergent styles. I was also struck by the license Sciarrino took in collecting vastly different works into a single set, a license that fit nicely with my view of music. The … [Read more...]