The Musical Language of David Franzson

July 2, 2013, 1:45 p.m.

What is the nature of the language of music? This question, fundamental to composition from ancient Greek music theory to Serialism, lies at the heart of contemporary music's fractured discourse. Lines have been drawn between different camps-- natural/artificial, absolute/programmatic, grammatical/intuitive, intellectual/emotional-- divisions which often define composers' voices and indeed govern their lives. 

So what is a composer to do when faced with this musical landscape, one which cannot even agree on how a composer communicates with the world?

One answer is to start from scratch. David Brynjar Franzson attempts to do just this: not to privilege any musical act, sound, or compositional element over another, not to assume the universality of music's language, not to inherit the compositional forms of 20th-century Modernsim, but instead to explore the first principles of music's language, to make things in ignorance of what they are. 

"I'm like an alien sending you sequences from one to ten, so that you can hear how I sound-- one day in the future, I'll be able to send you a message." 

Franzson's music rips open the language of music in order to inhabit its most obscure depths, its most complex and unknowable features. To do this, he starts small: often with a small collection of sounds and an even smaller collections of operations to group those sounds together. Far from the abstracted, meta-world of theory, his compositions allow players to embody basic, instinctual elements of the game of musical language, which in Franzson's world progresses by intuitive heuristic, rather than strict rule. 

Listening to one of his compositions for small ensemble, such as longitudinal study #1, one experiences a process of discovery, with a small set of sonic possibilities organically, energetically charged from within the sound-world itself. Instruments are turned into linguistic actors in a miniaturized language-game unbound by systematic grammar, freed to explore and discover the meaning of each sound-action as it happens. 

Franzson's treatment of instruments is highly idiosyncratic, privileging no parameter over another, radically democratizing the sonic possibilities of each performer. In the Negotiation of Context, a series of pieces for piano and other instruments, the sonic elements which constitute his language-game are not necessarily bound to the instrument's physical capabilities, but are rather historically- and physically selected, a broad spectrum of sounds based on heuristics.

Though Franzson's works are couched in the world of analytic philosophy and linguistic theory, the ultimate effect of these works is intuitive, not systematic; they encourage a mode of deep listening, a temporary envelopment in the purely abstract theory of language made real by the purely concrete act of musical performance. Rather than demonstrating the limits of communication through music, Franzson's work heralds the new possibilities of music's intuitive power, interrogating each sonic action as it develops naturally.

Franzson's works can be heard on Carrier Records, a label which he co-founded with Jeff Snyder and Sam Pluta, as well as albums on Spektral and Innova. We're pleased to publish il Dolce far Niente, longitudinal study #1, the Negotiation of Context (A), the Negotiation of Context (C), and Sick Puppy, Sad Puppy (bad puppy, dead puppy) on PSNY. Be on the lookout for more of Franzson's work on PSNY in the near future. 

Christopher Cerrone's Invisible Cities at Los Angeles' Union Station

by Ted Gordon on June 21, 2013, 11:19 a.m.

Los Angeles' Union Station, built in 1939, is one of the last great railway stations in the United States. Its resonant acoustics and beautiful glass ceiling are remnants of an older era of American industry, a faded optimism built on steel, electricity, and the hard work of a city full of laborers. Linked to other Union Stations by rail, it is the gateway for exploration, a poetic marvel on the path across the West coast. An early-20th Century traveller, like Marco Polo, might have seen it as a metonym for an entire city, one made of glass and steel. 

Christopher Cerrone's opera, Invisible Cities, based on the Italo Calvino novel of the same name, has seen several productions in recent years, but none of them has taken place in a space so appropriate to both the novel and to Cerrone's meditative, powerful music. On October 19th, 2013, Invisible Cities will begin its limited run in Los Angeles' Union Station, with a full orchestra and cast, and an audience of 150-- all wearing wireless headphones. The project, co-presented by Los Angeles' avant-garde production group The Industry and the Los Angeles Dance Project, is also sponsored by Sennheiser, who will provide all of the technology needed to bring this remarkable idea for a project into life. 

Cerrone's team have started a Kickstarter to help with the costs of this large-scale, technologically-advanced project. Along with the chance to be a supporter of this cutting-edge project, patrons can also choose from a wide variety of rewards for their donations, including a new song by Cerrone based on the text of the patrons' choice.

Also, for those in New York today, be sure to check out Martha Mooke, electric violist, who will be performing works by Alvin Singleton at the New York Public Library, Riverside Branch as a part of today's Make Music New York festival! Mooke will perform her eponymous Mookestück, written for her by Singleton in 1999. 

News From Ann Cleare and Timothy Andres

by Ted Gordon on June 19, 2013, 12:11 p.m.

Ann Cleare, one of the more recently added composers on our PSNY roster, has recently been awarded the Staubach Honoraria for Composition, a prize awarded by the Darmstadt Summer Course for New Music. Chosen from over 130 applications, Ann Cleare's works were selected for this prestigious prize, which commissions composers to write a new work for one of the Darmstadt's resident ensembles, as well as awarding them a full scholarship for the summer course. Cleare will be writing a new work for the Curious Chamber Players, an avant-garde ensemble from Stockholm, to be premiered in the summer of 2014. Cleare is already working on commissions for Ensemble Nikel and New York's own Yarn/Wire for the 2014 season, so we greatly look forward to her new work in the summer! For an idea of Cleare's ensemble writing, check out a recording of her 2007 work, Dorchadas: 

We're also excited to announce that Timo Andres has written a new string quartet - Early to Rise - which is now available here on PSNY. The most recent in a series of Schumann-inspired pieces, Early to Rise was commissioned by The Library of Congress Dina Koston and Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music and premiered by the Attacca Quartet. 

Timo will also be releasing a new album on Nonesuch Records, entitled Home Stretch. The album will contain Timo's new work, Home Stretch, composed as a companion piece to Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12, as well as his re-invention of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 26 in D, "Coronation", and his Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno, all performed with the Metropolis Chamber Ensemble. Here's a short excerpt of Timo performing his Mozart re-invention with the Metropolis Ensemble in 2011:

Home Stretch will be Timo's second album with Nonesuch; the first, Shy and Mighty, contains pieces for two pianos, including a two-piano version of How Can I Live In Your World Of Ideas?, available on PSNY as a work for solo piano. Other solo piano works available on PSNY include At The River , Sorbet, and It Takes A Long Time To Become A Good Composer.