orchestra21

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.

The intrepid new music collective is offering its double album Big Beautiful Dark and Scary for download in exchange for a memory of your encounter with BOAC’s work or just a statement of interest.

[via @alexrossmusic]

If rare vinyl recordings of avant garde and experimental music are your thing – or you just happen to have a predilection for diminished sixths – you will definitely want to spend some time sampling the downloads at this blog.

[via @moderncomp]

Brandi Carlile – Before It Breaks [download]
Brandi Carlile Band & the Seattle Symphony
Live at Benaroya Hall

Over the past few years I’ve participated in several orchestral performances featuring indie bands, among them two amazing gigs with Seattle native Brandi Carlile. Last fall just a few weeks after appearing with us at the WCFSO Brandi recorded the same show with her hometown orchestra. If you aren’t already familiar with this fabulous young singer-songwriter the new concert album offers a great opportunity to get to know her work.

Debussy – Printemps, Modéré
WCFSO – March 2011

‘The slow, laborious birth of beings and things in nature, and then their blossoming outward and upward, and finally a burst of joy at being reborn to new life.’

Music for the arrival of spring, as described by its youthful composer in 1877.

Copland – Appalachian Spring, Moderato [like a prayer]
Baltimore School for the Arts Chamber Players

One of my favorite moments in music, the prayerful closing of Aaron Copland’s score for Appalachian Spring. This is the first in a series of posts about the piece ahead of my presentation of its original thirteen-instrument version this Saturday.

[Here is a direct download of the entire recording excerpted above; more on the BSA Chamber Players in an earlier post.]

Looking to tighten up your desktop with some high culture and sharp design? Grab a free collection of modernist arts advertisements reformatted into wallpapers by Network Osaka. This one is based on a famous poster created by Swiss design luminary Armin Hofmann for a 1959 Basel performance of Adam’s Giselle.

[via Beautiful and Useful]