Radio show 2009 March 31

Less commentary today, for whatever reason. As ever, liveblogging the show, as best possible. I'll be late with some posts, and have an entire opera planned, so there will be little commentary at times.

• Maritime Rites: World Music - Wadada Leo Smith -- Wadada Leo Smith -- Alvin Curran: Maritime Rites
  Splatted trumpet on top of the foghorns that characterize and form the basis (anchor? bad pun) of Alvin Curran's fabulous and phenomenal album. I just love the way the trumpet comes in to complete foghorn chords, which are more chord-like in this track than on any other of the tracks on the album. I played a bunch of this last week - Read up on that show if you want to hear about other Alvin Curran collaborations.
  
• The Cave - Act 1 (Part I) -- Steve Reich -- Steve Reich: Works: 1965-1995
  
• The Cave - Act 1 (Part II)
  
• The Cave - Act 2 (Part II)
  
• The Cave - Act 3 (Part I)
  Four parts of Steve Reich's "The Cave," all on the topic of "Who is Abraham?" The interesting point for this western ear is the emphasis of the Islamic story on Abraham being Muslim. Well, of course, I can see that, and I can see how conflicts can arise out of that... and that's what makes it interesting. Right? I'm not sure if I like the way the music matches the speaking of the various people. I find it a bit of a gimmick, in the long run, though there are funny examples of it (someone gave Sarah Palin the treatment during the election, from her Katie Couric interview inanities). In this case, it's consistent with other works Reich has done (Different Trains has a lot of this, too), but it still isn't my favorite method of conveying voice. Now, when he starts sampling it a bit, building chords out of it, bridging chords from one speech to the next, it does get more interesting...
  
• Bye Bye Butterfly - Pauline Oliveros -- Pauline Oliveros -- New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media: Women In Electr
  What the fuck?! This is both hideous sine wave generated electronic screeching noise sitting right where it's uncomfortable and some opera playing in the background being distorted and overplayed, so that the high tones are feeding back and it's almost grating on the ears. Totally bizarre. I have typically liked Oliveros on accordion and less on electronics. This is getting close to being too much.
  
• Drumming (Part IV) -- Steve Reich -- Steve Reich: Works: 1965-1995
  This is blissful joy, rhythms pumping along, metametric material at its best. A great ending to a great piece.
  
• New York Social Life -- Laurie Anderson -- New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media: Women In Electronic Music
  What the?! This is a totally weird, early Laurie Anderson piece. It's a stupid story, banal, with her using a little vocoder material to fake other people calling her on the phone. It's all about loneliness and not listening to each other and the distance between people. Being conceptual music, it has a section about people not talking, not listening, the distance between people. The subject of the piece is, circularly, the subject of the piece.
  
• Instruments: III. Whole Steps - Rik Albani -- Rik Albani, Arthur Russell, Bill Ruyle, Peter Zummo -- Peter Zummo: Zummo With An X
  Boy, this is almost annoying, and I like it a lot. (Written much later, after the piece is over... not much detail left.)
  
• Elodie Lauten -- The Death of Don Juan
  I'm playing the whole opera. Read more about it here and there and at Pitchfork (!! but it's a great review). Arthur Russel (who was on the Peter Zummo earlier) sings and plays cello, and Kyle Gann wrote liner notes and has been praising it for decades. Elodie Lauten's own website has more information.