WKCR New Music Playlists: May 2007

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Afternoon New Music 5/29/07: Iannis Xenakis (5/29/22-2/4/01)

All Compositions by Iannis Xenakis

Title: Metastasis
Date: 1953-4
Performer: French National Radio Orchestra (directed by Maurice Le Roux)

Title: Pithoprakta
Date: 1955-6
Performer: French National Radio Orchestra (directed by Maurice Le Roux)

Title: Achorripsis
Date: 1956-7
Performer: Paris Instrumental Ensemble for Contemporary Music (conducted by Konstantin Simonovitch)

Title: Concret PH
Date: 1958
Performer: Xenakis on 4-channel tape

Title: Herma
Date: 1960
Performer: Claude Helffer - Solo Piano

Title: Eonta
Date: 1963
Performer: Paris Instrumental Ensemble for Contemporary Music (conducted by Konstantin Simonovitch; Yuji Takahashi - Solo Piano)

Title: ST/4
Date: 1962
Performer: Arditti String Quartet

Title: Nomos Alpha
Date: 1966
Performer: Rohan de Saram - Solo Cello

Title: Synaphai
Date: 1969
Performer: New Philharmonia Orchestra (conducted by Elgar Howarth; Geoffrey Douglas Madge - Solo Piano)

Title: Aurora
Date: 1971
Performer: New Philharmonia Orchestra (conducted by Elgar Howarth)

Title: Mists
Date: 1980
Performer: Claude Helffer - Solo Piano

Title: Tetras
Date: 1983
Performer: Arditti String Quartet

Title: Akea
Date: 1986
Performer: Claude Helffet + Arditti String Quartet

Title: Rebonds "B" & "A"
Date: 1987-9
Performer: Robert McEwan - Percussion Solo

Title: Bohor
Date: 1962
Performer: Xenakis Tape Piece

Host: Marlow Davis

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Afternoon New Music

1)Artist: Helena Gough
Album: with what remain
Label: entr'acte

2)Artist: Martin Clarke
Album: Slides
Label: oem records

3)Artist: Pierre Alexander Tremblay
Album: Alter Ego
Label: empreinte DIGITales

4) [iks]
Album: inner whatever
Label: ORA

Host: Sam Pluta

Monday, May 14, 2007

Afternoon New Music 5/14/07

We featured a long conversation with Petr Kotik, director of the S.E.M. Ensemble, about new music, modernist composers, large-scale form, John Cage at Darmstadt and an upcoming concert at Carnegie Hall,

Between interview segments we heard a variety of pieces:

1)Artist: Tristan Murail
Title: Mémoire/Erosion
Performed by the S.E.M. Ensemble
Label: not commercially available

2)Artist: Karlheinz Stockhausen
Title: Gruppen for 3 orchestras
Album: Gruppen/Carre,
conducted by Stockhausen, Maderna and Gielen
Label: Deutsche Grammophon LP (now available on a CD from Stockhausen Verlag)

3)Artist: Richard Strauss
Title: Metamorphosen
Album: Death and Transfiguration and Metamorphosen,
performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, cond. Ormandy
Label: EMI

4) Artist: Iannis Xenakis
Title: Palimpsest
performed by the S.E.M. Ensemble
Label: not commercially available

5) Artist: John Cage
Title: Atlas Eclipticalis & Winter Music
performed by the Janácek Philharmonic Orchestra
with David Tudor, piano and cond. Petr Kotik
Label: Asphodel Records

6) Artist: Petr Kotik
Title: Many Many Women (excerpt)
performed by the S.E.M. Ensemble
Label: Mode LP

Host: Brian Kane

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Live Constructions - An Hour With Michael Ibrahim

1)Artist: Michael Ibrahim
Live performances of: Scelsi, Neti, Burhans, Bach, and Berio

Host: Sam Pluta

Monday, May 7, 2007

Afternoon New Music 5/7/07

First, we began by listening to an entire CDs worth of Chaya Czernowin.

1)Artist: Chaya Czernowin
Album: Shu Hai Practices Javelin
Label: Mode Records

Tracks:
Six miniatures and a simultaneous song (1998)
Shu Hai mitamen behatalat kidon (1996-7)
Shu Hai in an orchestral setting (2000-1)

Then, we heard about two-thirds of Stephen Vitiello making sounds from photocells.

2)Artist: Stephen Vitiello
Album: Bright and Dusty Things
Label: New Albion

For the big finish, one of my absolute favorite David Tudor recordings.

3)Artist: David Tudor
Title: Neural Synthesis #6
Album: Neural Synthesis
Label: Lovely Music

Host: Brian Kane

WKCR's New Music Programs

Afternoon New Music
Monday-Wednesday, 3-6pm

Acting upon the wisdom of composer and educator Bill Dixon, our daytime new music programming presents "a constant examination of the best examples". Seminal new music works are featured as part of a focused thematic program, or of an eclectic mix of sounds.

Transfigured Night
Tuesday and Thursday, 1-5am, and Saturday, 2-6am

Our infamous overnight explorations into the world of new music, Transfigured Night rewards our late night listeners with a wide range of sounds. The department's longest show (4 hours), it also provides an opportunity to hear extended pieces in their entirety.

Live Constructions
Sunday, 10-11pm

This weekly program features a live in-studio performance or a performance pre-recorded specially for the show. Past guests / featured artists include: Merzbow, Solmania, Terry Riley, Flux Information Sciences, Farmer's Manual, Pita, William Hooker, John Zorn, Lois V Vierk.

Visit the Live Constructions archive.

About WKCR's New Music Department

The term 'new music' dates back at least to 1925, when The New Music Society of California, organized by Henry Cowell, held its first concert. The announcement bill for this concert contained a statement of the society's aim: "To present musical works embodying the most progressive tendencies of this age, and disseminate the new musical ideas". Although situated over seventy five years in the future and on the other side of the continent, WKCR's New Music department is, nonetheless, aptly served by this statement of purpose. The New Music department presents alternative approaches to music, with or without reference to a familiar tradition (such as jazz or classical music).

Over the years, the New Music department has presented several groundbreaking festivals, radio marathons of considerable duration which pay tribute to and carefully examine specific artists, movements, or schools. We hope that by listing these festivals we will aid your understanding of our concept of new music.

Fred Frith - 1983

Karlheinz Stockhausen - 1984

Harry Partch - 1985

John Cage - 1992 (N.B. In 1987, Cage used WKCR's studio as his extended musical instrument. Station DJs passed him opera records from which he played random excerpts while manipulating all the other sound variables controllable from the studio.)

Evan Parker - 1994

Noise - 1997

Electronic Music - 1998

Peter Kowald - 2002

Luciano Berio - 2003

Harry Partch / Terry Riley - 2003

Derek Bailey - 2006

Even as far back as the 1950's and 60's, WKCR had links to the world new music, through the pioneering electroacoustic composers of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center -- men such as Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Leuning. It was not until the 70's, however, that WKCR's commitment to new music crystallized. The efforts of the late Taylor Storer in creating the New Music Distribution Service helped to create a synergistic relationship between avant-garde performance and recorded artifact. The scene had been created, and WKCR's New Music Department was part of the back bone of its distribution channel to the listening public.

The New Music department also played a role in the establishment of what is known today as the New York Downtown Scene consisting of such composers/performers as John Zorn and Zeena Parkins. Many of Zorn's early compositions, indeed the majority of his Games works, which exhaustively explored the possibilities of improvised music, were recorded in the studios of WKCR. To this day, an interdependence exists between the new music scene and the radio station. Through live performances and interviews, artists are able to share their latest work with the listening community. Through special broadcasts and focus programs, the history of the new music as well as its most current incarnations are constantly on display for the curious and the connoisseur alike. In essence, the New Music department is a lifeline for the community.

Inspiring artists - Philip Glass used to tune in during his stint as a taxi driver - as well as exposing them, informing listeners as well as challenging them, WKCR remains a unique source for the consistent and focused examination of musical innovation in and beyond New York City.

WKCR New Music Playlists