36 posts tagged “music”
Bumping this back up to the top in Jan. 2009 for Chinese New Year's. It's that good.
After a long search for available music from remote tribes in South China such as the Wa Tribe and Miao People, I was rewarded with the discovery of a CD available from Wind Records in Taiwan.
BLACK PEARLS Product ID：TCD-5232
- Producer：LIU Jian & WANG Xu-dong
- Composer：LIU Jian
- Performers：CHOU Ke-chi & HU Zhi-ping
- Vocal Leaders：CHIANG Deng & LIU Jian
Other Peoples call them the Eastern Indians, but they call themselves Black Pearls. Where the south of China, Burma and Thailand meet, there is this legendary living Wa Tribe that is physically strong, emotionally pure and peculiarly talented in music.
Touched by the myth, Liu Jian blends Wa music with modern ideas to create a mystical, gallant and innovative masterpiece. Tribal vocals, Chinese male and female vocals, various ethnic, Chinese and western instruments all interweave to bring forth a grandeur harmony, a magical charm, and a loving connection of various peoples of the world.
I've been given an "Editor's Review," and with assistance from two other Wikipedians, I've learned a good deal about both Wikipedia and encyclopedic writing.
This is the biography as of December 8, 2008.
(All but the external and citation links take you to Wikipedia)
Sarah Cahill (pianist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sarah Cahill, an American pianist born in Washington, D.C., is a long-time resident of Berkeley, California. She is best known for performances of new works, many of them written for her. Cahill has also established a reputation as a writer on music and as a radio-show host.
Background
Born into a musical and academic family in Washington, D.C., at the age of five Sarah Cahill moved to California when her father, James Cahill became Professor of Chinese Art History at U. C. Berkeley. [1] Her father owned an extensive collection of records, including rare historical recordings of composers and pianists such as Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Bartok, Artur Schnabel, Walter Gieseking and Clara Haskil.
Cahill began her formal piano studies at the age of six, and at seven
she began studying with Sharon Mann. By twelve she was performing
concertos with several local orchestras. At sixteen she was invited to Sommermusikwochen, a chamber music festival in Trogen, Switzerland where she played Bach’s D major Toccata. Skipping her final year of high school she went directly to the San Francisco Conservatory where Adams composed China Gates for her. She finished her academic studies at the University of Michigan where she continued her musical training with Theodore Lettvin.
Cahill has written music reviews for Gramophone Explorations, Historical Performance, ClassicsToday.com, Grove’s Dictionary and other international publications, and liner notes for recordings by John Adams, Terry Riley, and others. In 1985 she became the music critic for the East Bay Express and has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Village Voice Literary Supplement, and others.
Biography
Cahill is a renowned performer of new American music who has commissioned, premiered and recorded numerous works for solo piano. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Compositions dedicated to her include John Adams’ China Gates, Frederic Rzewski’s Snippets 2, Pauline Oliveros’ Quintuplets Play Pen, and Kyle Gann's Private Dances and On Reading Emerson. She has also premiered works by Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Evan Ziporyn, Julia Wolfe, Ingram Marshall, Ursula Mamlok, George Lewis, Leo Ornstein and many others.
In late 2008 and 2009 Cahill developed and performed a new project known under two titles A Sweeter Music, and Notes on the War: The Piano Protests, where she asked composers for piano music on the subject of peace. The second title was printed in the New York Times, but was not Cahill's original title. [7][8] Commissioned composers include Preben Antonsen, Michael Byron, Paul Dresher, Ingram Marshall, Jerome Kitzke, Mamoru Fujieda, Kyle Gann, Peter Garland, Phil Kline, Jerome Kitzke, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Larry Polansky, Bernice Johnson Reagon, The Residents, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski and Carl Stone.
Projects developed previously by Cahill include Playdate, a group of commissioned pieces about childhood combined with classical works; the commission of an evening of new scores for four hands by Terry Riley, performed with pianist Joseph Kubera; and a concert of recent Italian music, featuring premieres by Luciano Chessa, Andrea Morricone, and others. [9]
Another of Cahill's projects is Bay Area Pianists, an organization she founded in 1993. In 1996, in association with New Music Bay Area, Cahill created the annual Garden of Memory walk-through concert at the Julia Morgan-designed Chapel of the Chimes wherein audience members move through the environment with new music ensembles performing simultaneously throughout the spaces. [10] In 2003 she co-curated the Berkeley Edge Fest at Cal Performances.
As a radio personality Cahill has hosted weekly radio shows on the classical and contemporary music scenes on both KPFA 94.1FM in Berkeley, where her program was cited as "One of the 100 Best Things in the Bay Area" by Citysearch magazine, and on KALW 91.7FM in San Francisco.
Cahill investigated the impact early 20th-century American modernists had on the composers of her time and explored these influences in concert programs at the Miller Theater at Columbia University, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Galapagos Art Space in New York City, Spoleto Festival USA, the Phillips Collection, the Freer Gallery (part of the Smithsonian Piano 300 gala), and at the Other Minds festival in San Francisco. She has also performed at the Nuovi Spazi Musicali festival at the American Academy in Rome, the Santa Fe New Music Series, and at the Pacific Crossings Festival in Tokyo, Japan.
Cahill is married to the filmmaker John Sanborn; together they are raising their daughter Miranda.
Selected discography
- Miroirs and Gaspard de la Nuit by Maurice Ravel (2002) New Albion #NA096
- New Music: Piano Compositions by Henry Cowell (2003) New Albion #NA103
- Long Night by Kyle Gann (2005) Cold Blue #CB0019
References
- ^ a b Snap, Martin. Tribute to a teacher: Show honors art historian. Oakland Tribune. 2007-04-27. URL:http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20070427/ai_n19063655. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5cjqMy5LE)
- ^ Kosman, Joshua. Avant-garde concert melds laptop, traditional piano fare. San Francisco Chronicle. 2008-12-01. Page E11. URL:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/11/05/DDGDJ9LL7P1.DTL. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5ckhkBQXI)
- ^ Butts, Mickey. A Séance for the Ear. San Francisco Classical Voice. 2007-02-27. URL:http://www.sfcv.org/arts_revs/otherminds2_2_27_07.php. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5ckizshVg)
- ^ Alburger, Mark. The Attraction of the New. San Francisco Classical Voice. 2008-12-01. URL:http://www.sfcv.org/arts_revs/noevalley_1_30_07.php. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5cklipKcf)
- ^ Kuderna, Jerry. Contemporary Cantabile. San Francisco Classical Voice. 2006-05-09. URL:http://www.sfcv.org/arts_revs/cahill_5_9_06.php. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5ckppTLYT)
- ^ Ross, Alex. Dreams and séances. The New Yorker. 2005-11-01. URL:http://www.therestisnoise.com/2005/11/i_just_had_an_a.html. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5ckhqwqB2)
- ^ Mike, SF. Sarah Cahill's Sweeter Music. sfciviccenter.blogspot.com. 2008-09-13. URL:http://sfciviccenter.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah-cahills-sweeter-music.html. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5cjrp0pkE)
- ^ Kozinn, Allan. When Downtown Comes Uptown. The New York Times. 2008-09-07. Page AR69, New York edition. URL:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/arts/music/07kozi.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink. Accessed: 2008-12-01.
- ^ The Petaluma Post. Three Dance Palace Evenings Feature Storytelling And Fun. The Petaluma Post. 2005-01-01. URL:http://www.petalumapost.com/Jan%2005%20Galleys/04.pdf. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5cjuxX8Rs)
- ^ Kosman, Joshua. Chapel of the Chimes a natural fit for a musical game of hide-and-seek. San Francisco Chronicle. 2007-06-19. Page D1. URL:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/19/DDG47QGA4R1.DTL. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5cjvokDrt)
External links
- Sarah Cahill's website
- Sarah Cahill is a New Albion artist
- "Berkeley Edge Fest". Retrieved on March 25, 2007.
TED Talk - John Q. Walker
In his TED presentation, you will see John Q. Walker demonstrate his "performance re-creation" technology to an uncritical, naïve audience.
This is not about the music or the musicians. It is about a fetish for dead, perfect things reproduced with ultimate fidelity for your greedy, selfish pleasure. Making music is a thing of the past, and your music needs are fulfilled by corporations who pander to this fetish for profit. You faithfully purchase the regurgitated masterworks, and listen to them on your hi-fidelity entertainment system.
Meanwhile, Glenn Gould and Art Tatum haven't given their permission for this use. That is to say, owning the rights means one doesn't need, their permission.
You pay a premium to the rights holders and they can continue to hold the monopoly forever. Pay close attention to what John Q Walker says during the TED talk.
Not many people are going to fork over $50,000 to buy a Yamaha Disklavier to listen to piano music.
Copyright is forever. Public Domain be damned. Lock the vaults, add minor value to the works, and presto you have another monopoly for another century.
This is from the site, where they address "Labels and Studios" (emphasis mine)
The Diversity of Copyright Laws
The USA has strong copyright laws; sound recordings essentially don't go into the public domain until well into the 21st century. But, in the European Union (EU), for example, recordings go into the public domain 50 years after their first release. Small recording companies in the EU already re-issue CDs of historical mono recordings in volume. That's been a small concern to the labels, but in 2006 the situation gets troubling. 1956 was the start of early stereo, which is how we still listen nowadays. Starting in 2006, the "good stuff" from 1956 forward starts going into the public domain. Year by year, labels will lose European rights to the most prized, profitable recordings in their archives. With global retailing, CDs made in the EU are readily available anywhere.
The way around this is to create new, highly-desirable music recordings, which establish a new copyright. A modern re-recording can be a premium product, protected with the latest Digital Rights Management (DRM). For a modern re-recording to be acceptable to discerning jazz, classical, and pop listeners, it must be faithful, note-perfect, and identical to the original performance. That’s our business.
Where to begin? The fact that copyright isn't forever is troubling to these people. These people are not musicians as much as they are businessmen, audio and software engineers and technologists.
"Faithful, note-perfect and identical" doesn't describe most live performances. Perhaps he is referring to re-recording of studio performances. Either way, he's uniquely positioned to make sure that the "public domain" of mid-century works never happens, those who resist are turned into "pirates."
Musicians not needed. Live performance not needed. Perfection is the standard, and very few humans make the grade. iPod. iGod. Don't you feel special "owning" all this music? Yes, it's yours! At least until the device breaks, the DRM expires, or the format is no longer supported. Then you can look forward to the next trendy offerings from the corporations. Perhaps smell-o-vision and 3d moving imagery to accompany the music.
I'll cut to the chase: Music Piracy leads to Homelessness or forced participation in Corporate Awareness Campaigns.
This has a sort of retro-scare chic, but it's no "Duck and Cover."
Is this the first Astroturf campaign to use Comics to push messages to youngsters? Hardly. But if this is the best they can do, someone deserves to get fired, in my opinion.
I suggest they spend their filthy lucre on a PR campaign that tries to make them seem less like a Mafia Conspiracy.
Flight of the Conchords is a musical comedy duo from Wellington, New Zealand. Official Site.
Flight of the Conchords: HBO Series.
Flight of the Conchords: on Wikipedia.
Flight of the Conchords: Google Video search.
Jay Smooth's videos are found at the Official Site and on YouTube.
Regarding his recent video I can think of nothing else to say but WORD!
On second thought, I'll add that the Dance Hall genre and Jamaica have a lot of baggage also.
The musical comedy duo Rhett & Link are at the Official Site and on YouTube.
Evidently, they are live every Thursday night at 9 p.m. EST, 6 p.m. PST.
Previously, they quickly whipped up a ditty about Ze Frank's Colorwars.
Rhett is no longer dating Miss Scarlett.
Copy of the letter I sent to Cory Doctorow, Lawrence Lessig, Amber MacArthur, Leo Laporte, Colette Vogele, and CBC's Search Engine radio program:
The International Music Score Library Project was a repository of more than 15,000 musical scores that are in the public domain here in Canada. I was forced to close the site due to circumstance after receiving lawsuit threats from music publishers that do not want the public domain to exist.
The immediate threat was from Universal Edition, a publisher in Austria. Whereas copyright in Canada lasts until 50 years after the author's death, copyright in Austria lasts 20 years longer. Universal Edition threatened to sue me, perhaps in Canada or perhaps in Austria, for violating Austrian law. There is no reason why Austrian law should apply to this site in Canada, but as a student I did not have the resources to resist even an absurd threat from a company with money to pay lawyers to attack music.
I greatly thank Richard M. Stallman for his support in this matter, and for his offer and help in writing this summary introduction (something that I had neglected).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7074786.stm
As the BBC article states further on,
I haven't seen this covered at all in the press with the exception of the BBC article cited above.
I thought someone might report more on this ongoing saga...
Update: from the Michael Geist Blog:
IMSLP On the Way Back
CBC's Search Engine notes that the International Music Score Library Project, which I wrote about last year, is planning to relaunch this summer.
Update:
It has been confirmed that IMSLP will be online again on July 1st, 2008 at 12AM EST. In the meanwhile, much work remains to be done, and I will be setting up branch projects before then. I will update this page with any news.
In celebration of the Supreme Court of California's recent ruling.
If I were Leni Riefenstahl I'd be on the payroll of some nasty conservative PR firm or another. Keep in mind I made this ad before Hurricane Katrina.
It was also before the Bush PR hacks tried to hijack the whole "World War II" thing. I did see that one coming.
Too bad I don't have a corollary for Earthquake Defense!
