From the monthly archives:
My readers last ran into M & C last year with The Hippy Wedding, Part 1 and 2. A year later, they are in town and are hosting a party for their friends here in Los Angeles (they live in Washington D.C.). For the record, neither M or C are hippies. Their parents are. There [...]
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Richard Lewis concludes his extensive analysis of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Klavierstuck I:”
An aesthetic of randomness is what governs almost all the compositional decisions made in this piece. The composer has chosen his pitches using a system of hexachords and distributed them in far apart octaves in order that they may sound random. He has disposed dynamic [...]
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Just back from dinner with Lester and Devra Breslow. Devra commissioned me three years ago to compose THE BALLAD OF PAPA LESTER which I sang for him on his 90th birthday with and electro-acoustic backup I did using Logic. Lester is now 93, Devra is, well, I don’t know, 20 or 30 years younger. Maybe [...]
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Our plumber of the last 5 years has been Izi, and his company is called Izi does it. I have no idea what his name is in reality, Isadore I presume, but who knows. He is a short Brooklyn Jew, pudgy, is a heavy smoker, is very funny, has movie star glasses (more like goggles), [...]
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Last night we went to dinner with Angie, her sister, and Clark. It is a terrific restaurant (”BLD” whiich stands for breakfast lunch and dinner) but it’s one that you have to yell at each other to be heard. This, as a trend I’m happy to report, seems to be falling out of favor in [...]
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Crosby, Still, Nash and Young perform a Stephen Stills song from their first album “You don’t have to Cry” on the Tom Jones Show (London 1970).
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My dear young man, don’t take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It’s quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that’s all. …
[Emperor Joseph II; from "Amadeus"]
A question composers have to answer for themselves is “how much music shall I compose in my life?” Some of us feel compelled to crank it [...]
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From the Coen Brothers classic film “O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU?” here is “Man of Constant Sorrow” by the so-called Soggy Bottom Boys featuring George Clooney as the lead singer. The video is taken from the movie, so if you’ve never seen it (rent it!), you’ll get a nice little overview of many of the [...]
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This just in from Chad and Michael who have twins. They are considering buying coming out insurance: just in case.
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I’ve tended to like the softer side of the Rolling Stones, like this video of “Lady Jane.” The competition with the Beatles was very real in those days. I seem to remember that this was their answer to the Beatles’ “Yesterday.” I’m not postitive what the plucked instrument is, but it looks like an electric [...]
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