orchestra21

Jerry was the orchestra director at my high school in California and one of the coolest teachers I’ve ever had. Now that he is retired and happily free of the mania we upstart musicians brought upon him he’s getting around to recording several of his symphonic works.

One of the pieces slated for taping, American Journey, was among the first things I ever conducted and offered me a formative experience in preparing a contemporary score alongside its composer. As a result I have insider knowledge of just how much this project could use your support – that early performance commenced with the orchestra falling apart and most definitely did not leave Jerry with much of a reference recording!

[Ancillary lessons: Successful conducting careers can emerge from inauspicious beginnings, and composers – especially if they are your mentors – may be willing to talk to you even after you butcher their work onstage.]

GPOYW Seeing the world [and its four-legged inhabitants] through his eyes EDITION

If you haven’t already grabbed Big Beautiful Dark and Scary from Bang on a Can’s 25th anniversary website not to worry – it is still available for free download. Absolutely worth it for the fun listening, if not to add to the wonderful commentary stream occasioned by the album’s offering. So far the highlight for me is new work from Dirty Projectors music director [and fellow Yale grad] David Longstreth – three tight, beat-driven tunes including this head nodder, Instructional Video.

Real talk from Charles Ives, parting with the Pulitzer Prize money he was awarded for the Third Symphony in 1947; half went to Lou Harrison, who had only recently conducted the premiere of the piece. The fact that Ives could afford the bravado hardly diminishes his trademark badassery.

[via wwnorton]

I shared this on Twitter and Facebook a few weeks ago and got a nice response. At the time I wasn’t aware that the version I linked to [and others elsewhere] had been cropped. So here it is again in the original wide aspect – a delightful and dizzying meeting of music and motion:

The music is from the 4th movement of Ferdinand Ries’ Second Symphony, and was animated for the Zurich Chamber Orchestra by virtual republic.

[Update: The video’s designers have recently posted the video to Vimeo as well]

I fear Marco Arment may be right about SOPA and its ilk. I know he’s right about the big studios and the MPAA.

Busted! Composer Bernard Hermann caught snoozing by Alfred Hitchcock on the set of Psycho.

[via oldhollywood]