9:30
Kyle Gann - the Planets
"No one could be more aware than I am of the foolhardiness of competing with Gustav Holst. My justification for writing my own such piece is this: music has not progressed since Holst, in the sense of having improved, the new superceding the old - but astrology has. The ushering in of "free will astrology" by composer-astrologer Dane Rudhyar and others in the mid-20th century has replaced the old view of astrology as implacable fate with a new one of psychological process. At the same time, through the advent of minimalism, music itself has become more capable of embodying gradual and transformational process. Where Holst had melodies suggestive of traditional planetary forces, I have processes that mirror our current understanding of how those forces operate. My Planets may be better, may be worse, but their raison d'etre is that they are more suggestive of contemporary astrology than Holst's. This was sufficient reason to update. " Kyle Gann
KYLE GANN: The Planets
Relache Ensemble
Meyer Media LLC
Michael Norris - Volti
"L-systems are a way of modelling recursive processes in the real world: the way a plant can develop from a set of simple (well, relatively simple...) instructions contained within the seed, and, using a process of recursion, can grow an extremely complex organism. In music, we can use these ideas to govern any particular musical parameter - here I use it to control form. Each little motivic cell is, if you like, a branch, and the whole piece (the tree) is created from these little branches, the order of which is governed by some simple rules, and then recursed to create the complex structure you hear." - Michael Norris
NORRIS: Volti
Jian Liu (pno), New Zealand SO/ Hamish McKeich
RNZ
Michael Norris Photo: Supplied
MOTTE: Bathhouse, from the album Strange Dreams
Anita Clark (voice, vln), Indira Force (synth)
Private Recording
11:05 Relevant Tones: Contemporary Vinyl
Old is new again as composers and performers return to the LP format for their latest releases. We’re dusting off our record player to feature a variety of new music released on vinyl including works by Bryce Dessner and Frank Zappa; performances by Brooklyn Rider, Yarn/Wire, and Kronos Quartet. (WFMT)
