Sleeping Giant on WQXR

by Ted Gordon on Jan. 11, 2012, 4:52 p.m.

In case any of you missed it, the members of the illustrious Sleeping Giant collective took over "Hammered!" on WQXR's Q2 for the entire month of December. (And if you're not familiar with these gentle giants, they are: Timothy Andres, Robert Honstein, Jacob Cooper, Chris Cerrone, Andrew Norman, and Ted Hearne.) Timothy Andres hosted and performed his own music, as well as music by the other Sleepy G's, and the show was hosted by each composer in turn during the week.

Much of the music featured was by the Sleeping Giant composers, including PSNY composers Timo Andres and Chris Cerrone. But the programming also ran the gamut of contemporary piano composers: Arvo Paert, Thomas Ades, Morton Feldman, Gyorgy Ligeti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alex Mincek, Adrian Knight, Scott Wollschleger, and Beat Furrer. Phew!

You can stream all episodes from WQXR's website. Here's the full recording of Alex Mincek's "Stems", which aired on the December 15th episode:

Fred Lerdahl’s String Quartets Now Available on PSNY

by Ted Gordon on Dec. 13, 2011, 12:06 p.m.

It's been an exciting month-and-a-half here at PSNY since our launch - and we're not letting the cold weather hold us back. We have been adding more and more works to our catalogue, and we're extremely proud to announce that all three of Fred Lerdahl's string quartets are now available!

Lerdahl writes:

"The First Quartet takes the form of 15 geometrically expanding variations...Its sequel, the Second Quartet, continues the expansion with two more variations of 9 and 13 minutes. The Third Quartet constitutes in its entirety a last expanded variation. At the same time, it interposes reminiscences from the two earlier quartets."

Listening to these quartets (and I would suggest you do so by checking out the recent complete recording on Bridge Records) is both an aural and an intellectual investigation into our emotional response to musical form. Starting from the first chord of the first quartet, and going until the last variation of the third, one can hear Lerdahl's tonal theory in practice, a rich exploration of the possibilities of the string quartet. All three works can be programmed in sequence or performed separately. 

Here's the first part of the first quartet, which sets the precedent for the following two works:

These quartets will make a great holiday present to the Violist in your life! (See what I did there?) 

Theory in Practice

by Ted Gordon on Nov. 30, 2011, 4:54 p.m.

Well, it looks like the legitimacy of digital sheet music has finally been made official: Daniel Wakin's article in the New York Times has brought the practice of reading music from a screen, rather than paper, to readers across the world. It's something we've been pushing for from the start, and something that many of our composers and performers of their work have been doing for a good while now. 

When we launched, Nicholas Kitchen of the Borromeo String Quartet was nice enough to give us some excellent praise: "[PSNY] expands and builds upon the already-productive synergy among players, composers, and publishers, strengthening the necessary structure for musical partnerships.  Expanding the medium to the readable and changeable form of computer files will amplify the collaboration, and open countless doors for all of us."

And if you haven't seen how the Borromeo Quartet uses technology, here's a clip from a live broadcast on WNYC (consider this our plug for Beethoven Awareness Month!:

Chamber music is a natural fit for digital editions: a solo performer can easily read music from an iPad or any other tablet or laptop. Our composer Timo Andres has been an early advocate of the practice - he can often be seen performing with an iPad perched on the piano, turning pages with a nifty pedal. Here he is performing "At The River" at the Bang on a Can Festival in 2011:

(Photo by Jon Hurd on flickr)

And of course, several of our composers have been incorporating technology and non-paper notation for years: Morton Subotnick and Alvin Singleton, for example. 

Reading music from a screen, like reading a book from a screen, might not be for everyone, and of course we offer print-on-demand editions of all of our works. But for the adventurous, digital music is becoming an increasingly appealing solution.