When the Toy Piano Is Not a Toy

Here is an album of selections from a live performance of contemporary compositions by Karlheinz Essl performed by classical pianist Víctor Trescolí on toy piano and grand piano and processed by Essl with live-electronics.



The concert was held at New Theatre of the Fine Arts School Alfons Roig at Universitat Politècnica de Valencia. Videos of the performance are on the release page. Below is a work not included in the album.



For more toy piano works, please see the Oddio Overplay article "The Underappreciated Kinderklavier" and associated compilation mix at the Free Music Archive.

Víctor Trescolí | Karlheinz Essl | Audiotalaia Label

Music License: © CC BY-NC-ND
Artist Location: Valencia, Spain and Vienna, Austria

Pierrot Lunaire

In 1884, Pierrot Lunaire: Rondels Bergamasques (Moonstruck Pierrot), a collection of 50 poems by symbolist Belgian poet Albert Giraud was published. The protagonist in the poems is Pierrot, that classic sad clown who dates back to the 16th century. Pierrot ached for the love of Columbine who broke his heart when she ran away with Harlequin. He is such a classic that Pierrot is the inspiration for the white-faced pantomimes in theaters and on city streets for more than 500 years.

Many composers have set the Giraud poems of Pierrot to music. However, it was expressionist composer Arnold Schoenberg who created one of the landmark musical masterpieces of the 20th century with 21 of the poems. His Dreimal Sieben Gedichte Aus Albert Girauds "Pierrot Lunaire" (Three Times Seven Poems From Albert Giraud's "Pierrot Lunaire"), more commonly known as Pierrot Lunaire, Opus 21 or Moonstruck Pierrot, premiered in 1912 in Berlin. Schoenberg used a German translation of the poems for his work.

Schoenberg, leader of the Second Viennese School of musical composition is best known as an atonal pioneer, and Pierrot Lunaire is atonal, but this work predates his famous twelve-tone technique of composition.

The narrator in Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, typically a soprano, sings in the technique of Sprechstimme (spoken voice), an expressionist vocal technique that lives between singing and speaking.

Soprano Jessica Abel performed the difficult Sprechstimme in Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire with Ars Nova Dallas conducted by Jordan Randall Smith at the 2009 Dallas Festival of Modern Music.

The recordings of that performance are available at

NoiseTrade (free, suggested donation) | SoundCloud (stream) | Bandcamp ($4)

The musicians are Jocelyn Goranson on flute/piccolo, Mary Druhan on clarinet/bass clarinet, Veronica Gan on violin/viola, Craig Leffer on cello, and Reuben Allred on piano.

Arnold Schönberg Center | Jordan Randall Smith | Ars Nova Dallas |  Jessica Abel

Music License: all rights reserved
Image: Pierrot, by Mabel Dearmer (1872 - 1915), The Studio (magazine), Volume 11, page 262, 1897. (source)
Artist Location: Dallas, Texas and Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Sound Interpretations Series

The adventurous avant-garde HAZE netlabel has a series of compilations titled Sound Interpretations by contemporary composers and experimental sound artists. Each compilation is inspired by and dedicated to the brilliance of an outstanding 20th century writer.

HAZE writes, "In this project we propose to rethink literary heritage of the 20th century. Over the 2012-2013 years, each month we will release the compilation dedicated to the 12 most outstanding writers of the 20th century."

The most recent collection is dedicated to Jack Kerouac. The eight earlier editions celebrate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, James Joyce, Stephen King, Albert Camus, William Gibson, Franz Kafka, and Julio Cortazar.

There are gems in every collection. Here is an example from the Kafka collection, Kafkaesque Orchestra - Letters to Milena [mp3, 03:04].


Location: Belarus
Music License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0

Compositions For Visual Arts

Works of
Contemporary Composers and  
Experimental Musicians

to enhance exhibitions of

Works by
Contemporary Visual Artists and  
Performance Artists

Lights Out In The Habib Gallery

featuring

Anthony Braxton; Ben Johnston; Bosques De Mi Mente; Christian Wolff; Jared C Balogh; Jonathan Harvey; Larry Polansky; Lee Hyla; Lee Maddeford; Lloyd Rodgers; Mary Ann Roberts; Melvyn Poore; Muhal Richard Abrams; Nick Didkovsky; Sandro Marinoni; Sirius String Quartet; Stephano Roncarlo

license: multiple licenses, please refer to individual tracks for licensing information

cover photograph: Robert S. Donovan (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License)

Erik Satie

Erik Satie was an original, a composer who pushed boundaries and influenced others to do so. Here are traditional and innovative renditions of Satie classics, as well as some readings of Satie's words.

THE TRUE MUSICIAN
by Erik Satie

He grows in wisdom...He is brilliant...He learns to do without
and is prepared to make great sacrifices...enormous sacrifices...
if I may say...His energy is tremendous...
In other words he is prepared for the struggle...and with honesty he shall fight it...

The performance of an Art demands complete self-denial...
...It was not meant as a joke what I just said...about sacrifices...
The Music makes heavy demands upon those who want to
devote themselves in it...This is what I have wanted you to call your attention to...

A true musician must subordinate himself his Art;
...he must place himself above human suffering;
...he must draw courage from within
...and only from within.

:: Various Artists - Satie In White Robes
a compilation of some versions of Satie compositions shared at the FMA

license: varies by track

:: Barbagallo - Plays Satie Barbagallo performs the classics by Erik Satie in Gymnopédies (1888) and Gnossiennes (1890). The latter are the more interesting in this set. Arranged, performed, recorded, and mixed by Carlo Barbagallo. license: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

:: Chad Crouch: Satie: Rearranged Furniture Music Crouch's own arrangements and performances, especially focused on the piano with some other instrumentation and field recordings. This album includes Satie's Sarabande series.  license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial

:: B.L.Underwood - Tribute to Erik Satie  Underwood performs Satie classics on a Korg Wavestation and Akai S5000 sampler. His version of "Je Tu Veux" is almost ethereal. license: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK

:: Pierre Laniau - Erik Satie Pieces Pour Guitare Laniau performs guitar renditions of a broader scope of Satie's work. license: uncertain, assumed all rights reserved      

:: Howard Hersh - Selected Writings and Music of Erik Satie [1968] "The selections, which seem to be taken from assorted lectures, essays, and perhaps diary entries are both whimsical and enlightening. Subjects vary from his love for cabbage soup (only surpassed by his love of his mother); a schedule of activities; a list of his preferred diet (only white foods); comments on the education system of France; as well as the admission that he never married for a fear of being cuckold and the belief that no woman could understand him. In the second half of the program we hear Satie’s comments on critics and animals; ruminates on his heritage and lifestyle; as well as a description of the purpose of furniture music. Satie was known to be a bit of an eccentric and these brief insights from his own pen do nothing to disabuse the listener of that impression. The readings are interspersed with unidentified selection of piano music, also by Satie." license: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0    

:: Anna Carol Dudley (soprano) and Nathan Schwartz (piano) - Selected Songs by Erik Satie [1969] Howard Hersh introduces this set of Satie songs "with a sprinkling of Satie’s solo piano music and a song cycle by his friend Claude Debussy included for added seasoning. Although Satie is perhaps best known for his serene works for solo piano as well as his many dramatic works, he also produced a selection of song cycles and cabaret songs. While motivated by the fees such popular songs demanded in turn of the 20th century Paris Satie did not stint on the quality, and his cabaret songs are still as delightful to the ear as when they were first performed in the cafes of the French capital. For this program the performers are Anna Carol Dudley, soprano and Nathan Schwartz, piano." license: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

The Impressionists

25 recordings of works by Impressionists

A free compilation of 25 recordings of works by Impressionist composers

Impressionism

Impressionism in music was a movement in European classical music, mainly in France, which appeared in the late nineteenth century and continued into the beginning of the twentieth century. Similarly to its precursor in the visual arts, musical impressionism focuses on a suggestion and an atmosphere rather than on a strong emotion or the depiction of a story as in program music. Musical impressionism occurred as a reaction to the excesses of the Romantic era....

Impressionist composers

Musical impressionism was based in France by the French composer Claude Debussy. He and Maurice Ravel were generally considered to be the two "great" impressionists.

Ernest Fanelli was claimed to have innovated the style, though his works were unperformed before 1912. Some important precursors of musical impressionism include works by Chopin, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Chabrier, and Grieg.

The French composer Maurice Duruflé is sometimes said to be "the Ravel of the organ" and is clearly inspired by both Ravel and Debussy in several of his compositions, most notably perhaps the Sicilliene of the Suite pour orgue, op. 5. A Duruflé biography edited by Ronald Ebrecht is even titled "The last Impressionist".

Impressionism has also influenced at least some of the music of Isaac Albéniz, John Alden Carpenter, Frederick Delius, Paul Dukas, Manuel de Falla, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, and Ottorino Respighi....

 

music licenses: see individual tracks  text source: Wikipedia  image: Nymphéas (Seerosen), c 1915, by Claude Monet (1840–1926)  

Obscure Records (1975-78)

"Obscure Records was a U.K. record label which existed from 1975 to 1978. It was created and run by Brian Eno, who also produced the albums. Ten albums were issued in the series. Most have detailed liner notes on their back covers, analyzing the compositions and providing a biography of the composer, in a format typical of classical music albums, and much of the material can be regarded as 20th century classical music. The label provided a venue for experimental music, and its association with Eno gave increased public exposure to its composers and musicians." more

Avant-garde archive Ubuweb shares selections from the entire Obscure catalog of classics.

Obscure No. 1: The Sinking of the Titanic – Gavin Bryars (1975)
Obscure No. 2: Ensemble Pieces – Christopher Hobbs, John Adams, Gavin Bryars (1975)
Obscure No. 3: Discreet Music – Brian Eno (1975)
Obscure No. 4: New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments – Max Eastley, David Toop (1975)
Obscure No. 5: Voices and Instruments – Jan Steele, John Cage (1976)
Obscure No. 6: Decay Music – Michael Nyman (1976)
Obscure No. 7: Music from the Penguin Café – Members of the Penguin Café Orchestra (1976)
Obscure No. 8: Machine Music – John White, Gavin Bryars (1978)
Obscure No. 9: Irma – an opera by Tom Phillips, music by Gavin Bryars, libretto by Fred Orton (1978)
Obscure No. 10: The Pavilion of Dreams – Harold Budd (1978)

Lee Maddeford, busiest composer in Switzerland

"Eros and Psyche" is one of many Maddeford compositions available at the FMA

In Switzerland there lives a very busy composer, director, performer whose talent seems boundless. That man is Lee Maddeford and he is as at home with composing orchestral works as with children's music. Mr. Maddeford is a marvel with gypsy jazz, chamber music, cabaret and choral works, brass and woodwind ensembles, piano duets, soundtracks, and theatre music. One additional remarkable thing about the man: he is kind enough to share his work with you with Creative Commons licensing. As of this posting, there are several of his releases at the Free Music Archive, including INSTRUMENTALS 1 Les Gauchers Orchestra and Les Gauchers Quintet, AN ASTRAL FABLE and THE JUGGLERS SUITE with l'Ensemble de Cuivres Valaisan, and EROS ET PSYCHE with the Choeur Calliope. This playlist offers selections from each of those releases.

My Russian Bride, a Nutcracker Reworking

Did you know that Tchaikovsky didn't like the score he composed for THE NUTCRACKER ballet? Yeah, for starters, he didn't even want the job. Evidently he made too many concessions for the ballet producers and didn't feel it was true to his original concepts and nowhere near as good as his last ballet score, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY.
Isn't that remarkable when so many movements from the composition are instantly recognizable classical masterpieces?

Now, let's say that more than 100 years later we give his score a Tim Burton - Danny Elfman - PDQ Bach treatment. Not talking HOOKED ON CLASSICS here; instead, reworking the whole composition and giving it some bounce, bleeps, bloops, and even more music box charm*. This is exactly what Lanark, our friend in Argentina, has done on MY RUSSIAN BRIDE, now available on the Free Music Archive. One can't help but wonder what the old boy Tchaikovsky would think of this reworking.

Lanark has a passion and a gift for reworking classical pieces. This is one of his earliest, if not the first, releases of his deconstruction and reconstruction of classical works. It is especially fun in winter when we are most likely to hear THE NUTCRACKER SUITE.

Here's hoping this charming little electronic music box from Lanark brings you joy this season and all year.

Download MY RUSSIAN BRIDE Here's a taste:



* The original score got its music box charm from the celesta (pronounced chelesta, ch as in cello), an idiophone that strikes metal rods via a keyboard. It is one of the most wonderfully otherworldly sounding instruments ever created. In fact, the name of this 1886 invention is derived from its "celestial" sound.

Here's a great audio piece on the celesta from NPR.

Tuesday's Dozen

Steam Powered Preservation Society a non-profit, electronic library dedicated to the preservation of Americana music [country, string, bluegrass, folk]	Wandering Ear a promising netlabel dedicated to releasing field recordings from around the world, making for great fieldtrips for the imagination [field]	Mombojó a fantastic, young, DIY, Brazilian pop group who is earning a name for themselves as an independent with free releases [pop, rock, indie, Brazil]]
Quarkspace - Drop psychedelia in the spaced out Pink Floyd vein, this third studio CD address cons of consumerism, so the band gives this one for free [psych, pop, rock]	Vic Bondi iconic guitarist singer- songwriter for Articles of Faith, Jones Very, Alloy, Report Suspicious Activity and Weatherman [punk, hardcore, rock]	aitänna77 Mikel Martínez of Spain treats classic instruments with digital tools resulting in "kind of lo-fi folk with a pop feeling, ambient touch and weird structures."
Carl Hu charming writing and performances from gifted and remarkably humble pianist and composer [classical]	Sylvain Bouix live clarinet performances from doctor at Harvard Psychiatry Neuro Imaging Lab and the Lab of Math in Imaging [classical]	Children of the Drone Exeter, UK-based improvisational collective with a pleasing collection of recordings [experimental]
Dwelling of Duels at VGMix game soundtrack competitions, main instrument hand played and other tracks can be programmed [soundtrack]	Free Band Music John Thompson shares recordings and scores of his arrangements and originals of band music on his site for free [marching band, concert band]	Marcel Cuypers Dutch multi- instrumentalist, predom clarinetist, shares works from his diverse prog, neoclassical and art groups [varied]

We've Lost Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen
22 August 1928 - 5 December 2007

official website

Aries for Trumpet & Electronic Music (Beginning)
Thinki 1997 for Flute from CD 57- Kathinka Pasveer, Flute
Gruppen for 3 Orchestras 1955-57 (at 9)