Music From Other Minds

Tonight’s program starts with a short recording of the Gamelan music played in the royal courts of Java. Hopefully a fitting way to set the mood for our theme, the Gamelan and percussion music of one of our great contemporary American composers, Lou Harrison. Many of Harrison’s gamelan pieces used instruments he co-designed and built with his life partner, William Colvig. One of these was called “Gamelan Si Betty,” named in honor of the art and music patron Betty Freeman. We’ll play a number of the works Harrison wrote for gamelan and solo instruments, and also some of his work for percussion ensembles, which feature the use of unorthodox percussion instruments such as automobile brake drums.

This program features a new release from Other Minds, Effigy by Brian Baumbusch, with two pieces that reflect Baumbusch’s interest in world music and complex rhythms. Kings was written in 2017 to commemorate Lou Harrison’s centennial. Isotropes was composed in 2020 and explores seemingly impossible rhythms. We’ll also hear Don Freund’s Ukrainian Fantasy, with solo violin and pre-recorded Ukrainian folk music; Holographic Universe for solo violin and orchestra by Gloria Coates; and Jennifer Koh performing Kaija Saariaho’s violin concerto Graal Théâtre. A tribute to pianola virtuoso Rex Lawson rounds out the show. We’ll hear Lawson’s performance of Les Noces by Stravinsky – an alternate version composed by Stravinsky himself.

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Tonight’s broadcast will present a rare tape preserved in the Other Minds Archives: a concert of Reich’s music recorded at the opening of the Art Museum of the University of California, Berkeley in November 1970. The recording was originally aired on KPFA, Pacifica Radio, in 1970, and the announcer was Richard Friedman, who also hosted Music from Other Minds for many years. These were four early works by Steve Reich: Four Organs (1970), My Name Is (1967), Piano Phase (1967), and Phase Patterns (1970). After the archival tape, we’ll listen to one of Reich’s most well-loved works, Music for 18 Musicians (1976), the ECM Records version, released in 1978.

On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb plays electronic works by John McGuire and Maggi Payne, a piano concerto by Beth Anderson, an electroacoustic portrait by Phillip Bimstein, a solo cello work by Éliane Radigue, and dances for violins and rattle by Peter Garland in celebration of his 70th Birthday.

Julia Wolfe grew up in Pennsylvania and has a love for Appalachian music and folklore. Steel Hammer draws on the music of Appalachia and emphasizes the differences in the various John Henry stories. There are many different versions of the story, but John Henry is always a steel driving man, and meets his death with a hammer in his hand. Steel Hammer is performed by vocalists Trio Mediaeval and the Bang on a Can All Stars. We’ll also hear excerpts from Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music, and Ken Thomson’s Perpetual for bass clarinet and string quartet performed the JACK Quartet and Ken Thomson.

On this Music from Other Minds, an archival rebroadcast of Charles Amirkhanian’s 1980 interview with Éliane Radigue, who celebrated her 90th birthday on January 24th of this year.

Tune in to hear live in-studio performances of Chry-ptus and the world premiere of parts one and three of Tryptic. Also on the program, conversations with the composer about her use of time in her work, her work with Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, and her thoughts on electronic music in the concert hall.

Tonight, we’ll feature two very long works by one of the spiritual fathers of modern experimental music, John Cage (1912-1992). We begin with a composition from 1963 called Variations IV. We’ll listen to both sides of the vinyl record that contains volume 2 of the over 6 hours of recordings from this site specific work, executed by Cage and his collaborator David Tudor, in an art gallery in Los Angeles. Next, we’ll play a 70-minute recording of Cage’s Electronic Music for Piano (1964), made in 2018 by Tania Chen, with collaborators Thurston Moore, John Leidecker, and David Toop. PLEASE TAKE NOTE: This interpretation has huge jumps in volume and many long passages of complete silence, some up to 3 minutes long. Of course, the drama of the volume shifts and the suspense of the silences are part of what makes this such an interesting work. Be prepared.

On this Music from Other Minds, a celebration of the life and work of John Adams ahead of his 75th birthday on Tuesday, February 15th. Featured on the program are recordings of his work for orchestra, opera, chamber ensembles, solo piano, and as conductor.

On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb explores the many approaches to electronic music. Tune in for collage-based compositions of Gordon Mumma and John Oswald (Plunderphonics), the interactive electronics of David Behrman, analog works by Victoria Shen and John Bischoff, electro-reinforced sound poetry by Enzo Minarelli, improvised electronics with drums by Laurie Spiegel, and the kitchen sink with Pauline Oliveros.

This program presents improvised music. The first hour features music from Chicago. A piano solo by Jim Baker and a track by Extraordinary Popular Delusions is followed by four performances from Experimental Sound Studio – a piano / bassoon duet with Wayne Horvitz and Sara Schoenbeck; a tenor sax solo by Ingrid Laubrock; LaDonna Smith playing violin and viola; and a solo by Norwegian pianist Håvard Wiik.

The second hour opens with an alto sax solo by Jack Wright, then a piece by Tender Buttons. Phil Dadson, an instrument designer from New Zealand, is joined by Paul Winstanley and Tom Nunn at the Headlands Center for the Arts in which an entire building is played as an instrument. The show ends with a shakuhachi solo by Douglas Ewart.