I've heard of Brant for years, Hal, but have never had a chance to witness a concert of his works. Have been listening to his compositions via youtube this morning and would like to experience the spatial positioning in person. I wrote about Lou Harrison on this occasion because the "confluence" articulated by the Post-Classical Ensemble was available to me without major difficulty or expense, and I had been introduced to his music many years ago by two young composers who had studied with LH, Peter Garland and Paul Dresher.
Thanks, Doug & Hal, for assuring me that what I wrote was presentable. I wonder when I revise as much as I did on this occasion.
Barry
On Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:26:09 -0600, Halvard Johnson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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>I've never found Harrison's music all that interesting, actually.
>Too much languorous orientalia for my liking.
>Try Henry Brant.
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Hal
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On Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:17:52 -0600, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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>Despite the difficulties, well caught, Barry. And the explanation, as Hal says: fascinating.
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>I have Seven Pastorales out from the library right now, & have the Elegiac Symphony, but clearly need to track down the Piano Concerto.
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>Doug
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>On Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:21:46 -0600, Halvard Johnson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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>Fascinating, Barry. Thanks.
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>Hal
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>On 2011-03-16, at 7:48 AM, Barry Alpert wrote:
TREAT LOU HARRISON
Built myself a paper world.
Exquisite corpses with Cage & Cunningham.
Read Harry Partch’s book (gift of Virgil Thomson).
Contact made more intimately within sound sources.
Made love with drones in serial music.
Said Cage, “Math of the straight and narrow path”.
Building a cathedral and shipping it to outer space.
Kinetically filled.
Please enter. No dog inside.
Large and rambunctious expansion--
mountains here and hear,
“See what you can make of . . .” [Navaho chants instead]:
Here holiness with innumerable crystalline cells /
airplant Spanish moss asway . . .
Barry Alpert / Silver Spring MD US / 3-16-11 (9:46 AM)
I initially approached the major "American Maverick" composer Lou Harrison by snapping a sequence of 10 Kodak instant photos of him, John Cage, and their patron Betty Freeman relaxing on the grounds of a music festival. Thirty four years passed before I was lucky enough to be within geographical range of the tripartite SUBLIME CONFLUENCE: THE MUSIC OF LOU HARRISON.
http://post-classicalensemble.org/lou-harrison/
After witnessing the useful documentary film, I decided to await additional language which might surface during the two subsequent programs. Overall, a difficult and elongated writing process. I expect a more fluid experience when I work with an audio interview which I’ve just now discovered.
Let me recommend a very strong work by Lou Harrison, his Piano Concerto (1985) in a version featuring Keith Jarrett, for whom it was originally composed on commission:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d85BW_ZUs0
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