30 March 2011

The premiere Byzantine episode of the Komodo Dragon Show features fanciful recreations of unheard music, along with chant of the Greek Catholic Melkite Church. That's this Wednesday from 8-11am CT on 101.5 in Winnipeg and http://www.umfm.com/listenonline/ in the stream.


Set #1 - 8:00am - 9:30am

Gregorio Paniagua - director, Atrium Musicae de Madrid
Harmonia mundi, HMA 1901015
52:39
(Dig that anacrusis, surely a friend of Agnes Day and Gloria Mundy. Ancient Greek music reconstructed from "scattered fragments of still existing papyrus." Marble columns, too. "Performing the ancient compositions also meant the reconstruction of an arsenal of ancient instruments." The Atrium Musicae subsequently disbanded.)

2. Traditional: What Do You Want, Death? (pre-Byzantine, before 4th century)
3:42

3. Traditional: Lament by the Dead (pre-Byzantine)
4:01

4. First Stasimon from Euripedes' Tragedy Orestes (c. 408 BCE)
3:35

5. Traditional: As Many Leaves As a Tree Has (pre-Byzantine)
9:24

Tracks 2-5
Christodoulos Halaris - researcher, orchestrator & conductor,
OP & PO Orchestra
Hellenic Elegies Vol.1: Antiquity, Middle-Ages, Post-Byzantine Period
Orata, ORM 4012
(Ancient Greek laments, "funeral odes (or songs) that were included in the ritual of the burial of the dead.")

Set #2 - 9:30am - 11:00am

6. Passion & Resurrection (rec. 1989)
Chant Byzantin
Harmonia mundi, HMX 2908063
51:25
(A telescoped presentation of Holy Week in the Melkite Church, sung in Arabic and Greek. My sense is that these selections are a little "theatricalized," more performance-oriented than worship-oriented.)

7. Ioannis Koukouzelis: A Kratima Called "Dance" (14th century)
15:42
("This excellent work either is composed in support of a ballet performance or inspired by theatrical music." Not everyone agrees: "[O]bscene music... used on the stage." A strip-club music equivalent.)

8. Ioannis Koukouzelis: "Voulgarikon": A Musical Work Bulgarian Style (14th century)
3:35
(How they do it in Sofia. A work in the "Bulgarian" style,
reflective of the cosmopolitanism of the Byzantine Empire.)

Tracks 7-8
Christodoulos Halaris - researcher, orchestrator & conductor, OP & PO Orchestra
Byzantine Maïstores: Ioannis Koukouzelis Vol.1
Orata, BMKOUK 001
(I always thought that Koukouzelis, the saint-composer's surname, was an onomatopoeia of the avian kind, referring to a bird with reprehensible child-rearing methods, but apparently he was named after his answer to the question: What have you eaten today? Answer: κουκία καί ζέλία (beans 'n peas).

This last part is an Academic Show-n-Tell. We are a university after all. Reconstructing music from ancient fragments requires faithfulness to the primary sources, but not too much: Otherwise it's a dry exercise in painting by numbers. Here we have two interpretations of the same choral song from Euripedes' play Orestes.)

9. Anakrousis. Orestes Stasimo (c. 408 BCE)
Gregorio Paniagua - director, Atrium Musicae de Madrid
Musique de la Grèce antique
Harmonia mundi, HMA 1901015
3:06
(That burst of noise is the anacrusis, a sonic reset that clears the stage for the music to follow.)

10. First Stasimon from Euripedes' Tragedy Orestes (c. 408 BCE)
Christodoulos Halaris - researcher, orchestrator & conductor,
OP & PO Orchestra
Hellenic Elegies Vol.1: Antiquity, Middle-Ages, Post-Byzantine Period
Orata, ORM 4012
3:35


(Epitaph for Seikolos is the oldest extant, complete, notated musical composition, dating from around 200 BCE-100 CE.)

11. Epitaphe de Seikilos (200 BCE-100 CE)
Gregorio Paniagua - director, Atrium Musicae de Madrid
Musique de la Grèce antique
Harmonia mundi, HMA 1901015
1:51
(Paniagua is partial to a leaner sound, with silences standing in as the "mortar" holding fragments together.)

12. Seikylus' Epitaph (200 BCE-100 CE)
Christodoulos Halaris - researcher, orchestrator & conductor,
OP & PO Orchestra
Hellenic Elegies Vol.1: Antiquity, Middle-Ages, Post-Byzantine Period
Orata, ORM 4012
2:09
(Halaris prefers a continuous, thicker texture. And that plodding, out-of-tune bass zither(?) makes his orchestra feel like a raucous pre-Byzantine pick-up band.)

13. Jack Walrath: Epitaph for Seikolos (rec. 25-26 June 1992)
Jack Walrath - trumpet, Larry Willis - piano
Portraits in Ivory & Brass
Mapleshade Productions, 02032
4:25
(With the knocks and resonance inside the piano, Walrath's realization evokes something of the ancient mysteries.)

Where to buy CDs featured on today's show:
Musique de la Grèce antique - CD Universe
Hellenic Elegies Vol.1 - CDBaby
Chant Byzantin - CD Universe
Ioannis Koukouzelis Vol.1 - CDBaby
Jack Walrath - CD Universe

23 March 2011

I slept this morning through my hydraulis. Today's episode will air next week.

16 March 2011

On today's 11th annual St. Patrick's Day Special I serve up music for Samuel Beckett, on James Joyce, and by that great Irishman Dmitri Shostakovich. Join me for a whiskey breakfast this Wednesday from 8-11am Central Time on 101.5 in Winnipeg, http://www.umfm.com/ in the stream. Note the green and orange non-sectarian reconciliation bird.

i. Van Morrison: The Contract-Breaking Sessions (rec. 1967)
Van Morrison - vocals & guitar
Celebrities... at Their Worst Vol. 3.1: Van Morrison: The Contract-Breaking Sessions
Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God, DEC-27
(For the next three hours chance operations will determine the number and placement of unkind cuts from Van Morrison's contractual obligation album. Follow the results live on Twitter @vonwichert.)

Set #1 - 8:00am - 9:00am

1. Morton Feldman: For Samuel Beckett (1987)
Roland Kluttig - conductor, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin
CPO, 999 647-2
43:17
(Chandelier music. "Four layers clearly form the fabric of this music: a doubled woodwind quartet, a muted brass septet, a string quintet also arrayed with mutes, and in between a harp-piano-vibraphone trio." "Sound blocks, sometimes blurred, sometimes clearly contoured, in changing degrees of sharpness and blurredness.")

Set #2 - 9:00am - 10:00am

2. John Cage: Roaratorio: An Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake (1979)
John Cage - speaker, Joe Heaney - singer, Seamus Ennis - uillean pipes, Paddy Glackin - fiddle, Matt Malloy - flute, Peadher Mercier - bodhran, Mell Mercier - bodhran
Mode Records, 28/29
60:09
(Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerrronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk! A soundscape of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. More details here.)

Set #3 - 10:00am - 11:00am

3. V/Vm [Leyland James Kirby]: Dimitri Shostakovich: The Missing Symphony (2003)
V/Vm Test Records, VVMTCD10
47:21
(Here's one of those "Why didn't I think of it first?" moments. "All fifteen Dimitri Shostakovich symphonies were downloaded digitally into a lap-top computer. The mean average in seconds of every symphony was worked out as being 2842 seconds. Each symphony dependant on length was either stretched* or compressed to that length and then layered on top of each other to create a unique classical piece." 2842 seconds are 47 minutes, 22 seconds, divided into four equal movements of 710.5 seconds (11 minutes, 51 seconds) each. Conclusion: the din of an infernal factory forging manacles for the 20th century.)

Where to buy CDs featured on today's show:
Morton Feldman - CD Universe
John Cage - CD Universe

09 March 2011

More 'boe. The oboe presents with a pungent tone thanks to its double reed and conical bore. You don't want to be one of those, do you? Then tune into the broadcast this Wednesday from 8-11am CT on 101.5 in Winnipeg, http://www.umfm.com/listenonline in the stream.

Set #1 - 8:00am - 9:00am

†1. Chaiti dhun
13:04
(A folk tune customarily played during "the first month of the Hindu calendar, which in Western terms straddles March and April...")

2. Iran: Musiques du Golfe Persique
Saeid Shanbehzadeh - ney-e-anbân [bagpipes], ney jafti [double flute] & ney mouro [Mouro's ney, i.e. one fashioned by instrument-maker named Morteza]; Naghib Shanbehzadeh - tombak & tempo [goblet drum]; Mahmoud Bardâkania - dammam [large drum]; Abdollah Moghateli Motlagh - voice
Buda Records, 3017925
49:28

(By "Golfe Persique" he encompasses "the old Indian Ocean trade route that went from Africa to the coasts of Yemen and from the Oman Sultante to Iran, then carried on eastwards as far as the Indian province of Gujarat." Of course that's sandwiched between China and Mediterranean Europe on the greater Silk Road, about which I have blogged previously.)

Set #2 - 9:00am - 10:00am

3. Italie du Nord-Ouest: Traditions du piffero (rec. 1994)
Stefano Valla - piffero [double reed] & voice, Franco Guglielmetti - accordion
Silex mosaïque, Y225219
60:33
(This may prove to be something of an endurance test in the timbre department. I am endeavouring to mitigate. I've rearranged the order of tracks from longest to shortest.)

Set #3 - 10:00am - 11:00am

4. Side B from Gagaku: The Imperial Court Music of Japan
Kyoto Imperial Court Music Orchestra
Lyrichord, LYRCD 7126
21:55
(A hold-over from last week's shô: That would be Side B of the original LP release.)

†5. Thumri in Raga Bhairavi
13:10

†Tracks 1 & 5 (rec. 1962)
Vilayat Khan - sitar, Bismillah Khan - shehnai [double-reed], Shanta Prasad - tabla
Inspiration: India: Duets for Sitar, Surbahar, Shehnai
EMI, 7243 5 65881 2 7

6. Frédéric Chopin: Etude in E-flat major Op.10 No.6 (1830)
Arranged by Leszek Możdżer
4:49

7. Frédéric Chopin: Mazurka in D major Op.33 No.2 (1838)*
Arranged by Leszek Możdżer & Madjid Khaladj
4:49

Tracks 6-7 (rec. 1999)
Leszek Możdżer - piano, *Madjid Khaladj - tombak
Impressions on Chopin
Näive, V5229
(I understand we are celebrating Chopin's 201st this year.)

Where to buy CDs featured on today's show:
Saeid Shanbehzadeh - CD Universe
Kyoto Imperial Court Music Orchestra - CD Universe
Impressions on Chopin - CD Universe

02 March 2011

Oboes, ill winds that no-one – except the masters – blows good. That's demonstrated this Wednesday from 8-11am Central Time on 101.5 in Winnipeg, http://www.umfm.com/listenonline in the stream.

Set #1 - 8:00am - 9:30am

1. Side A from Gagaku: The Imperial Court Music of Japan
Kyoto Imperial Court Music Orchestra
Lyrichord, LYRCD 7126
20:36
(That would be Side A of the original LP release. You've got your sho [mouth organ], hichiriki [double-reed], fue [flute], biwa [lute], koto [zither], kakko [small drum], taiko [large drum], and shoko [bell] which together form the orchestra of the Japanese Imperial Court. The music is neither sweet nor soothing: Its strident melodies (cf. oboe) and microtonal inflections have a hard-edged elegance and suggest an ancient ritual frozen in time.)

2. The Music of Lorestân, Iran (rec. 1993)
Shahmirza Morâdi - sornâ [double-reed], Rezâ Morâdi - dohol [double-headed drum]
Nimbus Records, NI 5397
77:74
(Lorestân is a province of south-west Iran, which until the late 20th century was populated largely by nomadic peoples. "In societies with an oral tradition, like that of Lorestân, historical and even geographical tales are passed on through poetry, storytelling and also through songs and sung poems. The history of Lorestân is especially recounted and concentrated in the music of its people." The subjects are, not surprisingly, love and war. This week it's love's turn.)

Set #2 - 9:30am - 11:00am

3. Tale Ognenovski: Concert for Clarinet No.1
Tale Ognenovski - clarinet, reed pipe, small bagpipe & zourla [double-reed]; Stevan Ognenovski - drum
29:21
("The most beautiful and the most difficult Clarinet Concerto of all time." All parents believe their children are the prettiest.)

4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major K.622 (1791)
Arranged by Tale Ognenovski
Tale Ognenovski - clarinets, Stevan Ognenovski - drum
38:21
(What would Mozart do? Why, transcribe his masterpiece for two clarinets and drum, that's what.)

Tracks 3-4 (rec. 2005)
Tale Ognenovski: Mozart & Ognenovski Clarinet Concertos
Independent Records, IR37223

Where to buy CDs featured on today's show:
Kyoto Imperial Court Music Orchestra - CD Universe
Shahmirza Morâdi - CD Universe
Tale Ognenovski - CDBaby