BMOP Addendum
I found some notes I'd written down about the non-Dreamhouse half of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project concert that Nate & I saw back in May. I meant to post these at some point but never did, so: forthwith.
Evan Ziporyn's Hard Drive, which was often cheesily enjoyable (probably not the composer's intent) but which often overstayed its welcome a bit with its repeating musical fragments. Ziporyn's orchestration seemed off -- the woodwinds didn't do much, the strings got plowed under the brass.
Anthony DeRitis's -- it still makes me squirm to write this -- "concerto for DJ and orchestra," actually titled Devolution, featuring DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid. I actually liked this piece a lot: DeRitis had a great sense of sonority here, with clouds of sound drifting into each other or dissonantly darkening the surface activity of the muisc. Said surface activity usually involved a simple drum-kit beat, some to-do on the digital turntables (courtesy DJ Spooky), and some manner of grooving harmonic drama in the orchestra. The memorable core of the piece is a misjudged attachment of Beethoven's Seventh (the über-poignant Allegretto theme) to aforementioned drum kit; this just sounds lame. For a bit DeRitis overlays a snatch of classical music's other great ostinato, Bolero, which actually works surprisingly well.
It's impossible to describe this piece without making it sound appalling, but it was actually extremely enjoyable & seriously well composed. At least the orchestral parts; I liked DJ Spooky's input too, but I have no idea how much he may have been held back (or not) by the setup.
As a whole, the concert made me think about how far off the orchestral mainstream this stuff is; that's a bad thing, since these pieces were all flawed (not much isn't!) but really vibrant and outgoing in a way that even Adams and Adès aren't. (Adams and Adès being the "mainstream" modernists best known for agglomerating "popular" influences into their work.) Why not bring Gil Rose or someone to a big orchestra for a couple of concerts to play some of this stuff? It's interesting, and no one hears it.
* * * * *
Evan Ziporyn's Hard Drive, which was often cheesily enjoyable (probably not the composer's intent) but which often overstayed its welcome a bit with its repeating musical fragments. Ziporyn's orchestration seemed off -- the woodwinds didn't do much, the strings got plowed under the brass.
Anthony DeRitis's -- it still makes me squirm to write this -- "concerto for DJ and orchestra," actually titled Devolution, featuring DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid. I actually liked this piece a lot: DeRitis had a great sense of sonority here, with clouds of sound drifting into each other or dissonantly darkening the surface activity of the muisc. Said surface activity usually involved a simple drum-kit beat, some to-do on the digital turntables (courtesy DJ Spooky), and some manner of grooving harmonic drama in the orchestra. The memorable core of the piece is a misjudged attachment of Beethoven's Seventh (the über-poignant Allegretto theme) to aforementioned drum kit; this just sounds lame. For a bit DeRitis overlays a snatch of classical music's other great ostinato, Bolero, which actually works surprisingly well.
It's impossible to describe this piece without making it sound appalling, but it was actually extremely enjoyable & seriously well composed. At least the orchestral parts; I liked DJ Spooky's input too, but I have no idea how much he may have been held back (or not) by the setup.
As a whole, the concert made me think about how far off the orchestral mainstream this stuff is; that's a bad thing, since these pieces were all flawed (not much isn't!) but really vibrant and outgoing in a way that even Adams and Adès aren't. (Adams and Adès being the "mainstream" modernists best known for agglomerating "popular" influences into their work.) Why not bring Gil Rose or someone to a big orchestra for a couple of concerts to play some of this stuff? It's interesting, and no one hears it.
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