Persian Surgery Dervishes, Terry Riley (1972)
Persian Surgery Dervishes, Terry Riley (May 24 1972)
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Persian Surgery Dervishes is a minimalist recording of two live solo electric organ concerts, the first held in Los Angeles on (18 April 1971) and the second in Paris on (24 May 1972), by avant-garde minimalist composer Terry Riley (see also “A Rainbow in Curved Air” and “In C” inter alia). The two very different performances of the same composition “Persian Surgery Dervishes” are meant to show the importance of improvisation in Riley’s music. Riley plays a modified Yamaha electric organ tuned in just intonation.
The original double-record version was released by legendary French label Shandar, then republished by Mantra Records, first, and Dunya Records later. There existed also a single-record version, also on Shandar, containing just the Paris concert, which had been sponsored by the label itself.
Parts of this album served as soundtrack for a French film released in 1973, named “La chute d’un corps” and directed by a renowned French columnist,Michel Polac”
Send Me Your Money, Chris Burden (1979)
Send Me Your Money, Chris Burden (1979)
The artist asks the listeners to imagine sending him money. Broadcast on KPFK, Close Radio, (recorded live) March 21, 1979, 55 min. 45 sec.
Ground Machine, (After Purcell) Lloyd Rodgers (1984)
Ground Machine (After Purcell), Lloyd Rodgers (1984)
performed by the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra
this groundbreaking group featured compositions by Michael Bayer, Chuck Estes, Douglas Hein, William Houston, Steve Moshier, Frank Riddick, and Lloyd Rodgers. at various times, the orchestra featured musicians Jannine Livingston, harpsichord; John Glenn, bass; Lloyd Rodgers, clarinet and keyboard; Douglas Hein, acoustic guitar; Diana Halpern, violin; Joeseph Goodman, violin; and Michael Baer, violincello
http://www.lloydrodgers.com/
Douglas Leedy: Entropical Paradise (1968)
Douglas Leedy: Entropical Paradise (1968)
six sonic environments created on the moog synthesizer and buchla modular electronic music system
Tracklist (right click to download)
A Entropical Paradise I 20:14
B Entropical Paradise II 20:28
C White Landscape 20:00
D The Harmonarium 19:40
E Star Engine 21:00
F Doria 20:50
notes by douglas leedy
“entropical paradise is different in concept, execution and purpose from most recordings of music. in fact, it isn’t intended as music at all, but as sound, as acoustical environmental “programming” which should be heard but not necessarily listened to. (you may listen to it, however, as music, if you like.)
each record side is the result of a different “program” governing in a random way decisions of pitch, amplitude, duration and to a certain extent timbre, and each creates a different atmosphere when it is played. you may find some sides pleasant, others not, and your reaction may depend on external circumstances – the time of day, where you are, whose company you are in, and so on. you may play the records to your taste – in any order, loudly or softly, a whole side or just a part. if you want more than the twenty-or-so minutes per side and you have an automatic turntable, you may be able to set the mechanism to play one record again and again.
these audio environments, once programmed and set in motion on the moog and buchla electronic music systems, could theoretically run continuously but without repetition indefinitely. that is, the programs are non-repetitive since certain random characteristics have been introduced (owing to limitations of the equipment used, a small portion of several programs had to be realized manually.) there are many analogies in nature to this type of programming, and in fact it is the operation of nature after which these sound environments are patterned. one analogy is the breaking of waves upon an ocean shore: there is an endless succession of waves, and yet each wave is different, even unique. so constant repetition and constant change are one organic process.
entropy is what life and art are said to be continually battling – the inexorable tendency of forces everywhere in the universe, including those within our own bodies, to grow uniform, to come to rest, to achieve a state of equilibrium, to reach the final perfect calm of all things. a paradise, but for whom?
i won’t attempt to describe in words, other than the titles, any of the six environments, since experiencing them makes description unnecessary. two programs, however, were influenced by personal readings in science fiction: “the harmonarium” was suggested by the creatures of which kurt vonnegut, jr., wrote in “the sirens of titan,” creatures who lived in huge underground caverns on the planet mercury and fed upon that planet’s musical vibrations. the creation of “star engine” brought back to my mind c. s. lewis’s sci-fi novel, “out of the star planet.”
the sounds on these records were made by the moog synthesizer and the buchla modular electronic music system of the electronic music studio at the university of california, los angeles. because of the nature of this recording, no attempt has been made to eliminate or reduce electronic background noises such as hiss, hum and occasional unexpected transients. these are ordinarily considered a plague in recording, but here they function as an integral part of the recorded experience.
i am indebted to chris shelton and wadley j. brood for technical assistance, and to the same two and gerald strang, steve soomil, craig buhler, ken yapkowitz, dennis matthews and bob richardson for inspiration, encouragement, cooperation, and for the free sharing of ideas and enthusiasm that has taken place at the ucla electronic music studio. though they may be unaware of it, they have all contributed a great deal to these recordings.”
Thomas McIntosh and Emmanuel Maden (the user): Symphony #2 for Dot Matrix Printers (1999)
Thomas McIntosh and Emmanuel Maden (the user): Symphony #2 for Dot Matrix Printers (1999)
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“The Symphony for dot matrix printers is a work which transforms obsolete office technology into an instrument for musical performance. The Symphony focuses the listener’s attention on a nearly forgotten technology: the dot-matrix printer. Specifically, it employs the noises the printers make as the sole sound source for a musical composition. Leaving the constituent elements untouched, the process imposes a new order upon them, reorganizing the sounds along a musical structure. Dot matrix printers are thus turned into musical ‘instruments’, while a computer network system, typical of a contemporary office, is employed as the ‘orchestra’ used to play them. The orchestra is ‘conducted’ by a network server which reads from a composed ‘score’. Each of the printers plays from a different ‘part’ comprised of rhythms and pitches made up of letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks and other characters. [The User] uses ASCII textfiles to compose, orchestrate, and synchronize sonorous and densely textured, rhythmically-driven music. During the half hour performance, the sounds are amplified and broadcast over a sound system. The audience is also presented with live images of the sound sources: the motions of the mechanisms, rollers and gears are captured using miniature video cameras installed inside the printers and projected onto large screens.”
Ward McLain:The Wind Harp (1972)
Ward Mclain:The Wind Harp (1972)
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“The Wind Harp” was a 1972 sculpture by Ward McLain, an aeolian harp.
I picked up the double album in a 2nd hand shop in the early 80s. This record, together with “Pagan Muzak” by NON (aka Boyd Rice), permanently changed the way that I listened to and thought about music. I had previously been very rigid in my thinking and thought of music as something which you “pushed” out into the world through force of will, yet here was something different, a sculpture played by the wind which transcended human composition (apart of course from the choice of string tuning and the choice of edit).”
(curated and notes by Alan Morse Davies)
Ward Mclain: The Wind Harp (via Discogs)
Boyd Rice/NON: Pagan Muzak (1978)
www.boydrice.com
Steve Moshier: Shakeout (1981)
Steve Moshier: Shakeout (1981)
performed by the legendary Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra (1979-1992):
this groundbreaking group featured compositions by Michael Bayer, Chuck Estes, Douglas Hein, William Houston, Steve Moshier, Frank Riddick, and Lloyd Rodgers. at various times, the orchestra featured musicians Jannine Livingston, harpsichord; John Glenn, bass; Lloyd Rodgers, clarinet and keyboard; Douglas Hein, acoustic guitar; Diana Halpern, violin; Joeseph Goodman, violin; and Michael Baer, violincello
Steve Moshier Website
Mikel Rouse-Dennis Cleveland/Madison Square (1996)
Mikel Rouse-Dennis Cleveland/Madison Square (1996) (mp3)
“Dennis Cleveland is a multimedia opera that is set entirely on a television talk show in the late 20th century. It is the second opera in a Trilogy that consists of Failing Kansas, an opera based on the events surrounding the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas and inspired by the examination of those events in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and The End Of Cinematics an opera that explores the nature of corporate entertainment.
The host, Dennis Cleveland, is the catalyst and provacatour of the opera, as well as the vehicle through which the story of the opera is told. The various soloists (placed in the audience) and chorus (guests that appear on stage) are linked together by the talk show host. As befits the current obsession with confessional talk shows, the content of the story evolves through the constant interaction of Dennis Cleveland and his guests. Though the guests appear to be telling their own stories, stories of lost love,obsession, crimes and regrets, what soon becomes clear is that they are telling the story of Dennis Cleveland as well.
Dennis Cleveland uses the live tape talk show format as its model while subverting the structure of this format through a series of cleverly disguised motifs. Like the various talk shows that abound worldwide,the audience and the stage become one under constant unrelenting television studio lighting. Live videoof audience reactions and the inclusion of actors in theaudience as well as trained singers and soloistscomplete a staging that offers a new way of looking at opera.
Ultimately, the narrative is derived from the libretto, which follows Dennis Cleveland through a myriad of encounters chronicling the promise of salvation through popular culture. There is an Elmer Gantry like quality to the host and his reality, particularly the late 20th century phenomenon of television ritual as a replacement of ceremony previously associated with religion. Thus, the ritual is enforced in real time as the opera progresses and it soon becomes apparent that the audience exists in Dennis Cleveland’s future: that of the ultimate voyeur, the T.V. talk show host.”
-1996 Mikel Rouse
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikel-Rouse/37175686542
Upcoming Dec 7 & 9—11, 2010, 7:30pm
NY Premiere
Gravity Radio
Part of the 2010 Next Wave Festival
Landscaping for Privacy-Eve Beglarian (1995)
Landscaping for Privacy-Eve Beglarian (1995)
“was written in August-September 1995 for twisted tutu (Kathleen Supové, keyboards and Eve Beglarian, vocals) while we were in residence at the Bellagio Center in Italy under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation. The poem is by Linda Norton. The keyboard part was written to be played using the arpeggiator function of a synth keyboard, sort of like a new convertible with an automatic transmission. I tried to capture the fragile elation urban types feel at driving out of the city on a beautiful Saturday morning in spring.”
A recording of Landscaping for Privacy is on the CD Tell the Birds and also on the compilation CRI Emergency Music.
Landscaping for Privacy is May 30th in Eve’s ongoing project A Book of Days.
Libretto
The hedges along the parkway, the trees, the trees–
They sashay, they nearly genuflect, they breathe.
It’s good to breathe; it’s good to get away in summer,
It makes you feel clean. The city, the squalor, the mess,
That’s what’s killing us. Did I tell you about the rat
I saw in the subway last night? It had a swollen belly
And no fear, it went right for a transvestite in heels!
Enough; I know; not here, not now; I should relax,
Shut up, let go. Oh, yes, Long Island’s very fresh and nice;
Do they have rats out here, or just field mice? And I forget,
What do people do with themselves in the suburbs?
The streets are empty, the lawns unused. If I lived here,
I’d spread out, I’d hang a hammock, I’d keep sheep,
I’d dig a well. I’d build hummocks to my own
Specs, I’d be positively pastoral.But you’re right, of course. Of course, you’re right.
I couldn’t keep sheep, there’s probably an ordinance,
They’d shoot me for ruining property values.
But what’s property, anyway? Years ago
I read about a pillar of roses in an English garden
And so I own it, I have the deed by heart.
Speaking of which, pull over, look,
Here’s a surprise for you. Check out my bicep.
Do you like my new tattoo?What do you mean, “What is it, did it hurt?”
It’s a miniature gazebo! Of course it hurt!
Note the incredible detail, the wicked craftsmanship.
See–it’s a garden pagoda for me and you,
With ivy, and grass, and a snake in the grass.
Hey, what are you doing? Oh yes, that’s good,
Yes, kiss it and make it better. Because
It did hurt a bit. In fact, it hurt like hell
(Remember that night when you touched me
And I yelled?)OK, let’s drive, let’s tour the hydrangeas
And the lawns. What could be more suggestive
Than a grassy mattress? Maybe that TV glowing
In a darkened den, shades nearly drawn.
Slow down, slow down–that’s strange: a sick room,
A suburban tomb, on a day like this,
With the clouds all starched and bustling
In a Disney sky. Look, they have a gazebo, too,
Jam-packed with rusted rakes and trash.If I had their lawn I’d soak it and sun bathe on it,
I’d sleep out under the stars, I’d walk to the mall
And strap a sack of fertilizer to my back and hike
All the way home. We’ve lived in the city far too long,
Yes, that’s what’s killing us. That, and this monument
To love we lug, this brick inscribed FOREVER.
Let’s let it sink. Let’s kiss. Give me the wheel,
I’ll drive so you can look at clouds.“All clouds are clocks,” bulldozing time.
Do you remember who said that?
A pauper? A philosopher?
Well, he was right,
Those pretty clouds are bullies–Bouffant armada,
Fluffy but cruel,
Ushering last days for many.
–Linda Norton
Douglas Hein: Orlando, He Dead (1985)
Douglas Hein: Orlando, He Dead (1985)
Orlando, Orlando, he dead, he dead, Orlando, he dead.Josquin, Johann, Amadeus, Ludwig, they dead, they dead, all them guys they dead.Buddy H., Brian J., Mama C. Karen C., they dead, they dead, all them guys, the dead.La, la, la …And when your dead your dead forever,forever, forever, foreverYou don’t go live no more,no more, no more, no more.You be dead more long than live‘Cuz when your dead your dead forever,Forever, forever, forever.Some day me be dead,Some day you be dead,Some day me be dead,Some day you be dead,All us guysWe deadLa, la, la ….
performed by the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra
this groundbreaking group featured compositions by Michael Bayer, Chuck Estes, Douglas Hein, William Houston, Steve Moshier, Frank Riddick, and Lloyd Rodgers. at various times, the orchestra featured musicians Jannine Livingston, harpsichord; John Glenn, bass; Lloyd Rodgers, clarinet and keyboard; Douglas Hein, acoustic guitar; Diana Halpern, violin; Joeseph Goodman, violin; and Michael Baer, violincello
DJ Wolf at renewable music (June 2005)
“Sometimes the internet is a wonderful place. Composer Paul Bailey has just put up an mp3 of Doug Hein’s Orlando he dead, one of my favorite pieces from the repertoire of the legendary Cartesian Memorial Reunion Orchestra (a semi-situationist, semi-electric chamber ensemble in the grand style of LA in the 80’s). Hein’s piece is one of the few vocal works in the Cartesian ’s repertoire, with the only lyric I know of that meaningfully includes both Orlando di Lasso and Mama Cass. It’s also one of the very few genuinely funny works of recent modern music. But more importantly, it’s an example of exquisite counterpoint and near-counterpoint and fake renaissancery.”
text and music by Douglas M. Hein
curated by Paul Bailey
Michael Nyman: An Eye for Optical Theory (1982)
Michael Nyman: An Eye for Optical Theory (1982)
Originally composed for the Peter Greenaway film The Draughtsman’s Contract based on a round attributed by William Croft. performed and arranged by the PBE (Paul Bailey Ensemble)
curated by paul bailey
Lloyd Rodgers – Draw Me A Sheep (1986)
Lloyd Rodgers: Draw Me A Sheep (1968)
from the “the little prince” (a ballet in two acts)
performed by the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra
curated by Jim Perkins
Terry Riley: In C (1964)
performed by PBE and LANME Live at Columbia College
“In C is a semi-aleatoric musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for any number of people, although he suggests “a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work”[1]. It is a response to the abstract academic serialist techniques used by composers in the mid-twentieth century and is often cited as the first minimalist composition.”
Frederic Rzewski: Coming Together (1970)
Frederic Rzewski: Coming Together (1970)
performed by Group 180 (Hungary)
“The design of “Coming Together” is simple, even minimal: Steve ben Israel reads and rereads one of Sam Melville’s letters from Attica over a jazzy, repetitious vamp. Yet the result is political art as expressive and accessible as Guernica. In ben Israel’s interpretation, Melville’s prison years have made him both visionary and mad, and the torment of his incarceration is rendered more vivid by the nagging intensity of the music. The other side features a less inspiring political piece and a percussion composition, each likable but not compelling, but that’s a cavil. “Coming Together” is amazing. A-”
curated via Paul Bailey (via ubuweb)
Frank Riddick: Nea Praxis
performed by: Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra (1979-1992)
this groundbreaking group featured compositions by Michael Bayer, Chuck Estes, Douglas Hein, William Houston, Steve Moshier, Frank Riddick, and Lloyd Rodgers. at various times, the orchestra featured musicians Jannine Livingston, harpsichord; John Glenn, bass; Lloyd Rodgers, clarinet and keyboard; Douglas Hein, acoustic guitar; Diana Halpern, violin; Joeseph Goodman, violin; and Michael Baer, violincello
curated by: paul bailey
William Houston: …fulfillment (1982)
from an email by William Houston:
“As I recall, I was listening to a lot of Bruckner at the time. The piece was also influenced by a Michael Bayer piece which I can’t recall the name of at the moment. Maybe Lloyd (Rodgers) remembers. Anyway, the piece was originally called “I Can’t Get no Fulfillment” which words we would occasionally sing in concert (I think). It’s been a long time…”
Michael Bayer: Law and Order (1983)
Michael Bayer: Law and Order (1983)
law and order is based on a 1983 event in which artists sprayed political slogans over advertisements in the new york city subway and was originally performed ad-nausea by the cartesian reunion memorial orchestra (1982-1988)
Steve Moshier: Shadow Boy (1981)
Steve Moshier: Shadow Boy (1981)
“the cartesian reunion memorial orchestra (crmo) was formed in 1979 by 8 composer/performers to spread joy and happiness to the musical world. the ensemble, the major autonomous collective in los angeles, performed over 100 concerts from 1979-1992 throughout so. cal. collaborating with major dance companies, theatre groups and performance artists. this historic compilation of studio recordings captures the power and essence of the seminal ensemble and the energy that was in LA in the 80′s”
Douglas Hein: Orlando He Dead (1985)
from renewable music (June 2005)
“Sometimes the internet is a wonderful place. Composer Paul Bailey has just put up an mp3 of Doug Hein’s Orlando he dead, one of my favorite pieces from the repertoire of the legendary Cartesian Memorial Reunion Orchestra (a semi-situationist, semi-electric chamber ensemble in the grand style of LA in the 80′s). Hein’s piece is one of the few vocal works in the Cartesian ‘s repertoire, with the only lyric I know of that meaningfully includes both Orlando di Lasso and Mama Cass. It’s also one of the very few genuinely funny works of recent modern music. But more importantly, it’s an example of exquisite counterpoint and near-counterpoint and fake renaissancery.”
Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra (1979-1992)
this groundbreaking group featured compositions by Michael Bayer, Chuck Estes, Douglas Hein, William Houston, Steve Moshier, Frank Riddick, and Lloyd Rodgers. at various times, the orchestra featured musicians Jannine Livingston, harpsichord; John Glenn, bass; Lloyd Rodgers, clarinet and keyboard; Douglas Hein, acoustic guitar; Diana Halpern, violin; Joeseph Goodman, violin; and Michael Baer, violincello
Doug Leedy: The Leaves Be Green (1975)
Leedy: The Leaves Be Green
for solo harpsichord, played by Margret Gries on an instrument made by Owen Daly. Brett Campbell of The Eugene Weekly recently wrote
Oregon teems with artists of national significance who should be better known than they are but are content to maintain a low-key existence here in paradise. One is Douglas Leedy, the Portland-born composer who was right there at the inception of minimalism with his University of California classmates LaMonte Young and Terry Riley in the early 1960s. Like Riley, he also studied Indian music and went onto found the electronic music studio at UCLA and make some of the earliest major synthesizer recordings. Following the example of fellow Portland native Lou Harrison, Leedy made important contributions to the study of musical tuning and was a pioneer in the early music revival, founding one of the West’s finest ensembles, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, still going stronger than ever a quarter century on. In recent decades, he’s studied the music and culture of classical Greece, crafting compositions and tuning systems that attempt to recreate its lost arts. As composer, scholar and performer, then, Leedy has been a pioneer in the 20th century’s most salubrious musical developments — minimalism, the return of beautiful natural tunings (instead of the compromised 12-tone equal temperament that, alas, still dominates most Western music), world music, electronic music and early music. Yet this trail blazing West Coast musical figure lives quietly in Western Oregon, lacking (as far as I know) even that imprimatur of modern artistic existence, a web page or MySpace.
from Renewable Music (Daniel Wolf)
“Here’s another reminder that the roots of the music that is widely called “minimal” are broader than the received history. Before the term minimalism came into play, terms like “static” or “repetitive” were more commonly in use, and especially among a loose cadre of west coast musicians, including students at Berkeley and in San Francisco (in particular, those who studied with Robert Erickson, William Denney, and Darius Milhaud). Douglas Leedy was a classmate of Riley and Young at UC Berkeley, but did not have their background in Jazz. A hornist, singer, and keyboard player, his interests turned more towards early western music and, later, to South Indian classical music. An accomplished classicist, he has also made a deep exploration of ancient Greek and Latin literature and the music much of it once carried. Leedy’s The Leaves Be Green (1975) is a particularly rich example of this other minimal tradition, connecting to the virtuoso early English keyboard music, as well as through extended pedal points, repetition, and subtle microrhythmic variations to South Indian music and to the music of his contemporaries. The pure major thirds of meantone tuning are also an essential feature of this music.”
A PDF file of the entire score is available here. (Largish file)
Lloyd Rodgers: The Swing (1979)
Lloyd Rodgers: The Swing (1979)
from the black book/the swing 13 (performed by the Lloyd Rodgers Group 2002)
Lloyd Rodgers: The Swing (1979)
from the black book/the swing 13, performed by the Lloyd Rodgers Group (2002)
John Glenn, Electric Bass, Sean Ferguson, Electric Guitar, Bruno Cilloniz, Vibraphone, and LLoyd Rodgers, Keyboard
The Swing was originally composed for the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra and is based on Erik Satie’s Le Balancoire from Sports et Divertissements
