Yesterday, we premiered Jamie Block's music video for "Show You Mine" from his new album White Caps on the Hudson. Today we have a guest post from Jamie called "How We Listen," which nicely connects with our mission.
Good afternoon Dig Nation. I spent the morning digging through the interwebs admiring videos from one of my favorite female singer/songwriters Laura Gibson when I found a new video for her beautiful song Milk-Heavy, Pollen-Eyed. The song is from her album La Grande which can be purchased here.
Regardless, watching this video set me off on a bit of a diatribe about the clarinet that starts at Laura Gibson and weaves through Glenn Miller, Eric Dolphy, and the Low Anthem. Read on for lots of clarinet laden music listening and then hit up the comments section to let us know what your favorite song featuring the instrument is. You dig?
Read on...Recently, friend of the Dig as well as badass free thinking cellist for The Ballroom Thieves Rachel Gawell sent me a video she shot of the Sirius Quartet performing a composition entitled Spidey Falls. The piece was written by Fung Chern Hwei who is also the first violinist in the quartet. The additional members of the ensemble are Jeremy Harman, Gregor Huebner, and Ronald Lawrence.
In his astounding biography, Fung Chern Hwei writes that although he is a traditionally classically trained violinist, he grew up deeply influenced by Chinese pop, Indian Bollywood tunes, Malay dance music, and in his younger years even took to imitating the sounds of the electric guitar and saxophone on his violin. With this in mind, I have always believed that one of the major components necessary for success in the field of classical music in the 21st century is a breadth of language. Truly successful musicians are the ones who are not limited by their language or technique, only their creativity. Nevertheless, it is sometimes the case that trained musicians will sacrifice language on behalf of technique and become compartmentalized in their thinking and ability to compose or improvise. This is not Fung Chern Hwei. This is not Spidey Falls, and this is absolutely not the Sirius Quartet.
Read on for my full thoughts concerning, the quartet and the composition. You dig?
Read on...
Listening to Charles Mingus is my definition of a cathartic experience. I can name only a few artists whose music can cut to the core of me in the same way that his does. It is an earthy, roots-based, bawdy expression of life's emotional range - rapture, euphoria, despair, contemplation, anger, indignation, desire, and on and on.
It's not just the melodies and harmonies that accomplish this, it's the human element of performance personality that solidifies these ideas. It is the musical gestures and shapes. It is the way his musicians embraced production noise as a tool of expression. It is the way the community of performers in the band didn't hold back if they felt compelled to yell, or sing, or vocalize in any capacity during a set. It is an expression of life. Sometimes it is sloppy, seemingly disorganized, and even cacophonous, but Mingus's pen had a direct line to his soul, and his musicians performed with every ounce of vim and vigor they could muster.
Read on for my full thoughts.
Read on...
Sadly, the seminal American composer Elliott Carter died last week in his New York City home; he was 103 years old. In his wake, Carter left an insurmountable number of compositions which earned him not only the accolades of every single significant composer, historian, and scholar of the previous two centuries, but also a Pulitzer prize.
His compositional language was daunting, abstract, highly academic, and sometimes seemed to dare his listeners to explore the outermost regions of their ear's endurance. I loved the music of Elliott Carter for this very reason. Hearing his music for the first time was like having a blanket pulled away from a sound world I never even knew existed. Nevertheless, in my time with TWD I have written only one article regarding Elliott Carter - and the remarkable thing is that it was from this June, when he was still premiering new works.
With this in mind, classical guitarist and friend of the Dig Brian has written a lovely and eloquent piece regarding the life and career of Elliott Carter. Read on for his thoughts as well as a video of Ursula Oppens performing Elliott Carter's Retrouvailles for solo piano. You dig?
Read on...
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