Music From Other Minds

This program features music written for non-traditional instruments invented by the composer or performer. These invented instruments range from adaptations of familiar instruments to large contraptions that take up an entire room. The program includes Daphne of the Dunes by Harry Partch written for an array of his invented instruments, 342 by Paul Dresher for Quadrachord, Hurdy Grande, and Marimba Lumina, an interview with sound-sculptor and composer Trimpin, and Elemental View by Ellen Fullman, inventor of the Long String Instrument.

Alla Zagaykevych is at the forefront of electroacoustic music in Ukraine. She teaches at the National Music Academy in Kyiv. We’ll hear three pieces by Zagaykevych using recorders, cellos, and electronics. Andrey Kiritchenko is the founder of Nexsound Records and director of the Nexsound Festival. The program features several stylistically diverse pieces by Kiritchenko.

Picturing the Invisible: Focus 1 by soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom comprises eight sparse duets with percussionist Allison Miller, bass player Mark Helias, and Miya Masaoka playing koto. Dutch pianist Wolfert Brederode composed Ruins and Remains in 2018 for piano, string quartet, and percussion, to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.

Born in Vienna in 1900, by the time he was 28 Ernst Krenek was infamous in his native Vienna as part of the modernist avant-garde in Weimar Germany and Austria, along with Kurt Weill, Hans Eisler, and Paul Hindemith, eventually emigrating to the US in 1938. He composed over 240 works including 22 operas, 5 symphonies, and 8 string quartets. With much of his music becoming available on CDs, Richard Friedman presents an introduction to his work.

On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb plays works by Terry Riley, Michael Harrison, C.C. Hennix, Kyle Gann, and La Monte Young for just intonation keyboard instruments.

Tune in Sunday at 8pm to KALW 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area to hear it live.

Microphones are often viewed as neutral, passive tools for solely reproducing acoustic sounds rather than as active devices that are instruments in their own right. The expansion of technology into our everyday lives has made microphones ubiquitous and, according to composer and sound artist Cathy van Eck, these devices are designed to be invisible to the listener, “‘inaudible’ in the final sound result.” Despite this hidden nature of the contemporary, omnipresent microphone, composers and singers use microphones in compositional and structural ways that have had a decisive effect on the writing and performance of music. On this program, we’ll listen to music that centers the microphone as an instrument by Steve Reich, Takehisa Kosugi, Pierre Henry, Diamanda Galás, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Robert Ashley.

This program presents the music of the late French composer Henri Dutilleux. His music spans the entire post-war period from the 1950s into the first years of the 21st century. Born in 1916, he died in 2013 at the age of 96. As you will hear, his style is unique, especially for the period, rejecting the dogma of the more radical elements in the European avant-garde at that time. His works include two symphonies and other works for orchestra, a violin and a cello concerto, as well as chamber and solo music.

This program features minimalist music from Europe. Minimalist music began as a distinctly American style of composition in the 1960s concentrated in California and downtown New York. As its stature grew, this new style, which Michael Nyman describes as “anti-European,” began to have a profound effect on European composers. European composers who adopted minimalist techniques often did so in ways that supported their preexisting aesthetic or political views, resulting in a variety of interpretations. This program includes English composer Michael Nyman’s String Quartet No. 2, Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s De Staat, Belgian composer Karel Goeyvaerts’ Litanie V, and Polish composer Hanna Kulenty’s A Fourth Circle.

On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb plays recordings of virtuoso pianist Marc-André Hamelin ahead of Other Minds’s 30th Anniversary Concert at Littlefield Concert Hall (Mills College at Northeastern University).

Although it is often overshadowed by Los Angeles and San Francisco, California’s Central Valley has a long history of contemporary music. New music in the Valley has mostly been centered around Fresno, the region’s largest city. The program starts with music by Valley natives Charles Amirkhanian and Leslie Bassett, followed by former Fresno State professors David Bates and Arthur C. Berdahl. Also featured are music by composers Jordan De La Sierra, Deborah Kavasch, and Terry Allen, and singers Dorothy Renzi and Helene Joseph-Weil.

For many people, 2022 was a year that can’t end soon enough. Whether you’re glad to leave it behind or just ready a fresh start, there’s nothing like a drone to clear the mind. Assembled from individual parts contributed by musicians across the US, plus France and New Zealand, Drone for the New Year celebrates the new year with all the right notes. Bay Area musicians Lori B Bloustein (voice, guitar), Tom Djll (trumpet, electronics), Andrew Voigt (tenor sax, bass flute, piccolo), and Paul Winstanley (modified electric bass) join 20 other players to create a shimmering, shifting, two hour drone. Produced and mixed by Ed Herrmann.