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Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler has come to be regarded as a modern parable about the plight of the artist in the midst of social unrest and political restrictions. In Mathis der Maler, Hindemith violated some of the principles of music composition that the Nazi regime had already legislated for the Reich and thus, by extension, set himself up for the same kind of criticism as the protagonist of the work. Not a roman a clef or any sort of thinly disguised autobiography, the opera serves a dual purpose in portraying the story found in the libretto and also in serving as a kind of socio-political commentary that would not be lost on the censors. —Opera Today

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Just as Concert for Piano and Orchestra was perhaps the major Cage work of the 50s and Sonatas and Interludes for the 40s, so the performance of his Atlas Eclipticalis played to a critical acclaim in the 60s. To this day, however, one might wonder whether it's really all that necessary to sit down and concentrate furiously all the way through, or simply let the mind wander ("if the mind wanders, let it", as the composer once famously wrote). But even if you choose to spin this while you busy yourself with other more mundane tasks like picking mushrooms or consulting the I Ching, the occasional clashes of thundering percussions will soon shake you out of musical slumber.

In our ever increasingly vast realm of computer-generated and computer-reproduced compositions, we neglect the fact that music in general, and voice in particular, is something done by the body; it is, by and large, a corporeal activity. However, there is, among certain composers and performers (from both the classical and popular worlds), a continuing pocket of resistance to this trend and perhaps no figure better represents that heterogeneous contingency than Meredith Monk. This recording is an excellent introduction to Monk's work. The Vocal Ensemble sounds wonderfully inventive and exciting throughout and the material on this CD includes some of Monk's finest shorter pieces. "Scared Song", the first track, presents a representative example of her imaginative use of repetition and variation. Other highlights include "Panda Chant II" and "Memory Song".

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"I found Cohen's work intensely beautiful, personal and inspiring. Six years in the making, our stars are finally aligned. For me, this is both a departure from my past work and a fulfillment of an artistic dream." Philip Glass

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Frederic Rzewski's musical languages cover the full range of contemporary techniques, from 12-tone and densely pounded clusters to several varieties of Minimalism, but his work virtually always draws its energy from an intense dramatic sense. The ensemble Eighth Blackbird illuminates that quality most vividly in the harrowing "Coming Together" (1971), based on a letter of Sam Melville, a prisoner killed in the rioting at Attica.

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Ingram Marshall (b.1942) is a composer who refuses to be categorised. He feels strongly that too many convenient ‘tags’ are placed upon artists simply to make discussions of art easier; he resists attempts to lump him together with minimalists (itself a term purloined from the visual arts), downtowners, New Romanticists or the "California School". In fact he is on record as saying, 'I hope my music is remembered for its personality rather than its style or historical position … I feel strongly now that music always points to something else, has other meanings, and in that sense I am an ‘ expressivist’' These comments are interesting in the light of the present disc, which probably represents the best of his current aesthetic. —Tony Haywood

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Featuring Kronos Quartet and The Theatre of Voices, this disc shows us Ingram Marshall at his eclectic best, and although his mode of expression has been fashionable in American contemporary music for some time, the pieces on this CD show us the most human and accessible face of this expression.

Most of Alexander Mosolov's music is filled with raging passion and dark colors, sadness, despair, longing, resignation, no resolution, and no triumph. Mosolov's reputation in the West rested, until quite recently, on a handful of orchestral works, in particular the 1928 Zavod (in English, The Iron Foundry) which Stokowski championed and Toscanini introduced to New York audiences, and whose hammering rhythms cast the composer as the "machine music" man, the very embodiment of Russian Constructivism. The characterization worked against Mosolov in his own, troubled, lifetime and has continued to obscure the diversity of his music.

The primary aim of ONCE’s founders—Robert Ashley, Gordon Mumma, George Cacioppo, Roger Reynolds, and Donald Scavarda—was to create a forum for the presentation of cutting-edge music. To this end they were phenomenally successful. Performers and composers—whether little-known or renowned—embraced the endeavor, demanding almost nothing in return. Perhaps most important, however, ONCE acted as a creative stimulus for its organizers. Scavarda describes the adventure as an explosion of pent-up energy: “Suddenly we could write anything we wanted and have it heard.” And they did. The ONCE composers—and many guest artists—wrote a host of new works, some experimental, others more traditional.

This album is dedicated to those who are inclined to branch out and explore new sounds but are hesitant to make the leap of faith. As a world-class percussionist, Evelyn Glennie's complex and meaty nature will appeal to the open-minded, and its moodiness and overall proficiency make it worthwhile for anyone else. Moods vary from dark and brooding to exhilarating and light (but never in-between, and always with an avant-garde edge). Not for all tastes for sure, but a compelling listen nonetheless.

On a lesser note, I regret to inform you that all my previous publications have gone up in flames with the demise of FTP2Share. This is a repost of one of the previous publications. Enjoy!

John Cage is one of the giants of 20th century contemporary music. His composing, performing and philosophy are intertwined, and Cage has influenced innumerable composers and performers in classical, jazz and rock music. Cage has made a life's work out of music-as-sound and sound-as-music. This disc is a re-release of two albums from the mid-'60s of pieces Cage wrote in the late 1930s. Yuji Takahashi (himself a composer) plays "sonatas" for "prepared piano," an innovation by either Cage or Henry Cowell, where the piano has small objects inserted within to alter the sound. These pieces are short and sparse, with the piano producing tones similar to an mbira (African thumb piano) or a koto. The music is reminiscent of Erik Satie's piano music, but darker and more percussive, with a haunting, questing quality. Cage, with his (then) radical conceptions, "liberated" the piano from all the established notions of how it should sound, and open it―and music in general―to limitless possibilities.

The labyrinth-like density of the counterpoint juxtaposed by the complexity of the thematic relationships and the extraordinary logic with which everything is developed from the opening bar was ever to be the recurring theme of the la nuova scuola di Vienna. Yet the appeal behind their respective masterpiece is derived from the tension created by the co-existence of the bold and passionate contents and the self-effacing rigor of the form, the concentrated thematic invention and the austerely meditative lyricism. The expressive intensity of their work clearly reflects the tastes of the first decade of the 20th century.