Tag Archive for ‘Classical’ at elwoodicious

Last night while downloading this month’s allotment from eMusic it dawned on me that my tastes have profoundly shifted in the last four months or so as a good amount of the albums I picked up fall under the “Classical” moniker, well, more accurately it is a sort of experimental Folk meets avant-garde Classical. I’m not really sure what to make of it but in the past year or so I have been finding myself increasingly drawn to acoustical music that sort of falls into the category of minimalism or drones–think Gamelean played on a piano or guitar.

It started late last summer when I stumbled onto Glenn Jones sublime Against Which The Sea Continually Beats, which was the tipping point where I slowly teetered until I tumbled into Steve Reich and David Lang this past December–a strange transition for certain. Usually when I’m out shopping for new music I have a list to work from of artists and albums that were recommended by friends or the media but lately I have been buying in a more free association manner and maybe this is why I’m listening to music so different from my “established taste”.

Free association listening is a liberating experience in that my itch for new, different, and novel is being scratched much more thoroughly. There is something to be said for shutting out the noise of the world, closing your eyes and letting your heart and ears guide you. Some of my most recent discoveries have been so counter-intuitive and have broken me of some deeply held musical prejudice.

Micheal Harrison’s Revelation, as well as being aptly titled, is a perfect example of the breaking of some long held views. Dave Lewis of allmusic writes,

Harrison is regarded as an expert and creative mind in the field of tuning and the possibilities inherent in “just intonation” where the distance between pitches is derived from mathematical formulas rather than from the familiar system of equal temperament used in the tuning of most pianos.

A year ago I held a dim view of alternate tuning schemes and held twelve-tone in a contempt rooted in ignorance. Honestly, I know nothing about tuning beyond a smattering learned in music theory classes I took some sixteen years ago. That combined with my parent’s fervor for the compositions of Bach, Handel, and Mozart ingrained in me a belief that if certain musics do not adhere in some manner to the “Western Canon” that it is potentially flawed or misguided. It is more gray and malleable than it sounds but it boils down to a knee jerk response to hearing instruments commonly associated with Western music working in micro-tonalities and alternate tunings. While I’m being completely honest, I own a copy of Jorgensen’s Tuning which I had bought to complete my ruse of being knowledgeable about the field. Seriously, I have never done more than flip through it. Color me an asshat.

So what is blowing my mind at the moment? The above mentioned Revelation is one. At first listen the piano sounds brittle and woefully out of tune as if it had been sitting neglected in some abandoned schoolhouse being warped by rain, sun, and snow. However, after sinking into its dense clouds and textures I found myself in a place where it made sense. The harmonics that Harrison conjures are at once alien but familiar and as I continue to listen “just intonation” begins to make as much sense as equal temperament.

Following the path of piano music I am currently enamored with Hauschka who I’ve mentioned in passing before. The Prepared Piano is an earlier piece but it too has served to break me of the long held prejudice regarding “prepared” instruments. Before hearing Bertelman’s work my perception of this style was that it had more in common with a bag of hammers and wrenches tumbling down a flight of stairs than with what might be referred to as “music”. I was wrong. This album, along with last year’s Room To Expand is quirky, hypnotic, and beautiful and bears no resemblance to what I thought a prepared piano would sound like.

Additionally, I’m looking forward to digging into Ethel’s Light which at first pass was raw, romantic, and playful as well as getting deeper into Steve Reich’s work with Drumming performed by So Percussion. Maybe these albums will open my mind further and see my ears drift deeper into sounds I have never experienced.

These past weeks Gabriella has been waking up during the witching hour looking for comfort, a bottle, or both and while I don’t mind being wakeful when my body wants rest it can take a toll after awhile. To keep myself steady I’ve been loading up more and more classical music, oddly split between Baroque and Modern with one Jazz album tossed in to keep things off balance. Now, like most things I’m into, I don’t profess to have deep or even cursory knowledge about the subject. I just know what I like.

Gorecki: Symphony No 3 / Three Olden Style Pieces. Damn. I’ve mentioned this album before and it still stands as being one of my favorite pieces to date. Huge cathedrals of sound, aching melodies, and a glacial pace all conspire to create a feeling of wholeness and longing. Perfect for when you need to still your heart after being ripped from sleep by the chilling screams of a one year old looking for a bottle and a diaper change (a resounding endorsement if you ask me).

Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians was one of those “Hmmm, I’ll give it a shot” discoveries that seem to dominate my music purchases. I picked it up around the time as Gorecki and it instantly became one of my preferred late night albums. Reich layers rhythm and harmony like a painter might for texture or a baker for taste and in this composition those layers work together thos generate these long waves of melody that take minutes to unfold and reveal themselves. This is not to say that the music is a series of ponderous standing waves rather it is a breathless construction of rhythm that for me evokes long breezes coursing through tall summer grass.

Tehillim & The Desert Music is another album of Reich compositions that I picked up this past month. The first half of the album features great interplay between vocalists and percussion that possesses a sort of tribal feel that tickles the more reptilian parts of my brain while the latter half features compositions that sound much like the precursor to Music for 18 Musicians. In that regard the album is a little inconsistent if you are listening from beginning to end but each section is fantastic in its own right.

Biber: Soldiers, Gypsies, Farmers and a Night Watchman sees the playlist go for Baroque (…..really, I couldn’t let that slide). Biber is one of my favorite composers from this period as his work is impassioned and raw while making great use of folk traditions of Europe at the time which in many of the pieces leaves his work sounding some 200 years before its time. The attraction here is that the song cycle feels like a tour through a city contemporary to his time from raucous markets and back alleys to the closing of the city gates when all is beginning to lay down for the night.

J.S. Bach on the Lute is a collection of solo pieces performed by Paul Berget. There isn’t much I can say other than Bach is a giant and his work, for me, nearly always satisfies. Now I have always been a sucker for the lute and for the longest time I had wanted to purchase one and try to teach myself but life’s little conspiracies have kept me from it thus far. Berget’s work is a great substitution and it makes a very relaxing and enchanting listen when you are watching the clock round the corner to dawn.

Postcards From Gypsyland is the curveball of the bunch in that it doesn’t lend itself to meditative exercises nor does it possess the more somnolent qualities of the prior albums. Rather it is a toe tapping and feisty collection of Gypsy Jazz that is the perfect for washing the sand out of one’s eyes when their child is up and ready to run around. Think of it as the aural equivalent of Red Bull but without the rot gut. It is a fantastic collection evocative of an era that might have never existed but in romantic writings of people who might wish that it truly was happening and that they were there soul and body.