Recent Additions: Simfony #13 (1941) by Lou Harrison 8 Feb 2010, 11:57 pm

"Simfony #13 shows an approach and orchestration similar to much of Harrison's other percussion work up until that time. Harrison would plot out the possibilities of rhythmic patterns and durations, and use them in composing the little rhythmicles (Harrison's term for the small phrases in his percussion work) and the longer formal elements used to construct his works. This facilitated the always lyrical feature of Harrison's writing, even for percussion.

Recent Additions: Ryoanji (1983-1985) by John Cage 22 Jan 2010, 4:41 pm

"Ryoanji is named after the famous Zen garden in Kyoto, Japan, consisting of raked sand in which are set a number of rocks. Cage suggests that the percussion part may be thought of as the sand and the solos as the rocks. The percussion part consists of a series of pulses without any discernible pattern. The music for the solos appears as a series of shapes, which were created using actual rocks (which Cage was fond of collecting) as templates."

Recent Additions: Frozen Horizon (1998) by Karen Tanaka 29 Oct 2009, 1:12 pm

"The idea of Frozen Horizon is based on the landscape of Harstad, the city on one of the fjord islands in northern Norway ... Extreme climate conditions prevail during the winter, when darkness lasts all day without any sunlight. One can see northern lights like hallucinations. Beyond the icy earth's surface, the frozen sea spreads towards a curved boundary line between the sea and the dark sky. Time passes slowly there."

Current Feature: Contemporary Music from Oregon 28 Sep 2009, 4:24 pm

A selection of Oregonian musicmaking from the past 70 years. Contemporary classical music in Oregon abounds in its two largest cities, Portland and Eugene. Portland is home to a number of adventurous music groups, many comprised of members of the resident Oregon Symphony. Eugene's new music activity centers around the University of Oregon School of Music and its accomplished faculty composers and musicians.

Recent Additions: Sonata for Guitar and Piano (1995) by Charles Wuorinen 19 Aug 2009, 3:18 pm

"In the early 1990's Wuorinen collaborated with Benoit Mandelbrot in a presentation at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Mandelbrot emphasized the use of fractals as 'realistic and useful models of many phenomena in the real world. Natural fractals include the shapes of mountains, coastlines, and river basins; the structures of plants, blood vessels, and lungs; the clustering of galaxies; and Brownian motion.' Wuorinen showed how music is fractal, and how he seeks to work in sympathy with music's fractal nature."

Recent Additions: Tibetan Tunes (2007) by Chen Yi 30 Jul 2009, 2:47 pm

"Tibetan Tunes for violin, cello, and piano (2007) harks back to Chen's days at [Beijing] Central Conservatory, where folk songs were a key part of musical education. 'During the Cultural Revolution, many of these songs were still around, but they had been turned into revolutionary songs with lyrics about Chairman Mao,' she says. 'By the time we were at conservatory, we could go back to some of our original texts.'"

Recent Additions: Wilde, Symphony for Baritone and Orchestra (1990/1995) by Charles Fussell 17 Jun 2009, 1:54 pm

"Fussell has called Wilde a symphony that wants to be an opera, as it is operatic both in scope and construction. Librettist Will Graham, a frequent collaborator, crafted a text that weaves together excerpts of Wilde's writings, letters, and poetry along with original material. It is in the format of letters to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, a device which not only gives access to Wilde's thoughts but also allows Wilde to narrate his own actions. It also allows the many facets of Wilde's life to be telescoped into a single day in the first movement."

Recent Additions: Piano Sonata No. 4 (1985) by George Walker 29 May 2009, 2:33 pm

The first movement is composed in modified sonata form, with the opening declamatory theme later fragmented in the middle section and recapitulated toward the end. Marked tranquillo, the second movement begins with the theme stated in retrograde and proceeds into an agitated rondo with contrasting sections, the second of which softly quotes a fragment of the spiritual "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child."

Recent Additions: Visual Abstract (2002) by Pierre Jalbert 16 Apr 2009, 8:28 pm

"Each of the three movements of Visual Abstract was inspired by a visual image. The first uses the image of a tolling bell, and also its sound -- a loud attack followed by a decay -- and its sound backwards -- a large crescendo followed by an accented note. The second movement ... was inspired specifically by Borromini's dome at the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome, which to me evokes a sense of infinity and timelessness. The third movement uses the image of a group of dancers creating an energetic choreography."

Recent Additions: Threads (2002) by Keeril Makan 3 Apr 2009, 11:48 pm

"Threads extends the sonic boundaries of the violin and bass clarinet by combining their timbres with digitally modified samples of viola, bass clarinet, electric guitar, vibraphone and bass. A bowed and distorted electric guitar is the sonic glue that holds together the acoustic and electroacoustic sound worlds. Time is suspended throughout."

Recent Additions: 1987 (2008) by Anna Clyne 10 Mar 2009, 4:31 pm

"Memories tucked away and tangled in threads of beads in the corner of her glass box."

Recent Additions: St. Francis preaches to the birds (2005) by Lewis Nielson 24 Feb 2009, 4:23 pm

"While I do not intend any kind of direct correlation, the actual legend of St. Francis and his sermons to the birds ... can provide, by way of analogy, some approaches to the workings of the piece ... Whether or not one believes other aspects of the St. Francis legend, it's clear that he sought to hold the birds' attention, and that they were as eager to understand him as he them. Equally, as he listened to them he took away knowledge of a kind that resists codification while being very meaningful to him."

Exploded View #2: David Holzman on Ralph Shapey's 21 Variations 6 Feb 2009, 2:54 pm

Pianist David Holzman takes on the music of Ralph Shapey, offering an inside view of his 21 Variations (1978) and exploring its connections to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Messiaen. Second in an ongoing series of educational podcasts produced by Art of the States.

Recent Additions: Piano Sonata (1945-1946/1982) by Elliott Carter 29 Jan 2009, 4:23 pm

"On the face of it, the 23-minute two-movement structure Carter completed in 1946, with the support of a Guggenheim Award, was milder in idiom than either the austere, hard-bitten Copland or the chromatically rampaging Barber, let alone the transcendentally dissonant Ives. Yet in its underlying concept and the clear-headedness with which it was realized, it was arguably the most radical of all."

Recent Additions: East of the Beach (1980) by Robert Erickson 14 Jan 2009, 5:13 pm

"The first section uses composite attacks to occasionally mask the identity of the instruments involved. The second has two long passages of what I call simultaneous variation, the variants of the theme producing at time a sort of 'not quite counterpoint.' The final section is hocketed throughout, to make a texture of broken instrumental color behind the long-lined melodies."

Recent Additions: For Irving Lippel (2004) by John Link 7 Jan 2009, 4:21 pm

"For Irving Lippel was composed in 2004 for The Irving Lippel Project, a duo consisting of percussionist Jeffrey Irving and guitarist Daniel Lippel. The piece is a fantasia that explores the remarkably rich and suggestive combination of vibraphone and guitar. It is dedicated to Jeff and Dan with thanks for their wonderful musicianship."

Recent Additions: Festino (1994) by Mario Davidovsky 29 Dec 2008, 3:58 pm

"Festino is an ideal window into Mario Davidovsky's style. It contains all of the facets of his characteristic voice: rhythmic ingenuity, constant equalization of extreme expressive worlds, flaunted expectations, and an internal identity struggle within the piece."

Recent Additions: Icons (1984) by James Primosch 19 Dec 2008, 6:23 pm

"The title refers to passages in a book by Madeleine L'Engle entitled Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (1980). In this book, the author speaks of the calling of artists to form 'icons of the true.' The following excerpt from the book appears in the score: 'In art we are once again able to do all the things we have forgotten; we are able to walk on water; we speak to the angels who call us; we move, unfettered, among the stars.'"

Recent Additions: Mood (1918) by Carl Ruggles 3 Dec 2008, 6:10 pm

"Our world is young
Young, and of measure passing bound
Infinite are the heights to climb
The depths to sound."

Recent Additions: To Wake the Dead (1978) by Stephen Albert 27 Oct 2008, 5:17 pm

"To Wake the Dead is based on excerpts from Finnegans Wake (1939) by James Joyce. Joyce's work is infamous for being one of literature's most challenging, if not incomprehensible, novels ... The music of the cycle is largely based on the only tune that Joyce includes in Finnegans Wake. It is quoted in its entirety in the opening of the second movement, where it is given a music-box setting to Joyce's version of 'Humpty Dumpty.'"

Recent Additions: Multiplication Virtuelle (2004) by Mei-Fang Lin 22 Oct 2008, 2:30 pm

"Multiplication Virtuelle is a musical work written for solo percussionist performing on a wide array of pitched and non-pitched acoustic instruments. Audio signals taken from microphones placed in close proximity to each instrument are used to control a real-time computer-based electroacoustic component. The percussionist plays and interacts with the electronic part that is triggered by the percussion attacks."