Modern and Contemporary

Muses Nine - Eight American Composers Plus One Pianist
Becky Billock
Independent n/a www.beckybillock.org

Notable Women - Trios by Today's Female Composers
Lincoln Trio
Cedille CDR 90000126

Are you in need of a musical boost? There is a multitude of musical inspiration to be found in these two new releases featuring the music of American women composers performed by American artists.

Becky Billock is quite simply a great pianist. She specializes in women’s music and it shows. Her choice of repertoire on “Muses Nine” was written across the entire 20th and 21st centuries. Amy Beach’s 1903 work Scottish Legend is an original melody that draws heavily from lilts and tunes of folk music. Emma Lou Diemers’ 1979 Toccata for Piano is a modern masterpiece of rhythmic nuance. Lots of diverse styles are juxtaposed in Libby Larsen’s Mephisto Rag where the composer has the virtuosic pianist jump through technical hoops as Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz is musically turned upside down while a later ragtime style is introduced. Billock knows her material and her grasp of style and rhythm makes this an unforgettable listening experience.

There are more diverse works by women composers for piano, violin and cello trio in “Notable Women.” The Lincoln Trio is a world class chamber group. Desiree Ruhstrat (violin), David Cunliffe (cello) and Marta Aznavoorian (piano) are all accomplished ensemble musicians. Their musicality is put to the test in Lera Auerbach’s Trio where the melancholy ideas are performed with haunting expertise. Stacy Garrop’s Seven is a unique work which the composer explains drew its inspiration from Anne Sexton’s poem Seven Times, and the Borg from television’s Star Trek Voyager. Extended piano techniques create futuristic effects while fast-paced passages maintain one’s interest long after the work has ended. Excellent works by Jennifer Higdon, Laura Elise Schwendinger, Augusta Read Thomas and Joan Tower are also performed with spirit.

“Notable Women” and “Muses Nine” belong in your CD collection as positive examples of the talent of American women composers and the performers who choose to play them.

From Here On Out
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra; Edwin Outwater
Analekta AN 2 9992

These are challenging times for the classical music recording industry and it’s rare that a smaller label will produce a CD of music by three relatively unknown composers. Yet that’s just what Analekta has done on this disc titled “From Here on Out,” featuring music by Nico Muhly, Jonny Greenwood, and Richard Reed Parry, performed by the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony under the direction of Edwin Outwater.

The piece From Here on Out by American-born composer Nico Muhly came about as the result of collaboration with the French dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied whose love of Bach and love of repeated notes both played a part in the creative process. The result was music decidedly neo-classical in sprit, with quirky, energetic rhythms contrasting with long expansive lines.

In total contrast is Popcorn Superhet Receiver written by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. Despite Greenwood’s rock background, his compositional style here is decidedly contemporary, in this case involving glissando strings, microtonal clusters and the use of an Ondes Martenot. The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony has no difficulties in mastering the textural and rhythmic complexities of the score, proof indeed that this ensemble is equally at home with 21st century music as it is with more traditional repertoire.

The most intriguing music in this collection is undoubtedly Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry’s For Heart, Breath and Orchestra, a musical depiction of the heart and breath rates of the human body. The piece was especially commissioned by the K-WSO, and rounds out an intriguing CD of music you probably won’t hear elsewhere. Kudos to both the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and Analekta for pushing the envelope!

Undercurrents - Contact performs the music of Jordan Nobles
Contact Contemporary Music
Redshift Records TK 242 www.redshiftmusic.org

On Toronto-based ensemble Contact’s excellent debut recording of music by Canadian composer Jordan Nobles, instrumental tones are pure, performer interactions retain focus and the recording team headed by Denis Tougas is superb. The meditative cast of Nobles’ music suggests retreat, even relaxation. But below the minimalist surface sheen, a certain unease of mood draws the listener’s attention and anticipation. Rhythms, melodic shapes and tone colours concentrate and shift our responses in surprising ways.

Both composer and Contact players, directed by Jerry Pergolesi, contribute to the musical content. They take up confidently the challenge of pieces that offer considerable freedom in the order and the qualities of musical events. Simulacrum, in which a melody circulates between instruments, and Stasis, an open-form work where long tones enter and exit without a fixed plan, are particularly successful examples. There is also an element of randomness in Grace, where musicians exercise choice in the presentation of grace-note (ornamental) patterns.

There are other musical processes, sometimes identified in titles: interacting metric patterns in Ostinati; tempo shift in Temporal Waves, featuring Rob MacDonald on multi-tracked guitar; and in Undercurrents, crablike motion up through ascending triads. The latter procedure occurs also in Stones Under Water for piano, played by Allison Wiebe. I look forward to much more from Nobles and from Contact members including also Sarah Fraser Raff, violin, Mary Katherine Finch, cello, Wallace Halladay, saxophones, and Peter Pavlovsky, double bass, joined here by Emma Elkinson, flute.

MC Maguire - Nothing Left to Destroy
Benjamin Bowman; Douglas Stewart; MC Maguire
Innova 813 www.innova.mu

Once upon a time on the musical planet inhabited by wall-of-sound composer MC Maguire there must have been a catastrophic explosion, scattering the treasures of civilization together with all the cast-off junk of consumerism and the fallout of post-modern warfare. Through the blasted landscape come the remaining voices of humanity, represented on this latest Maguire release by violinist Ben Bowman and flutist Doug Stewart. The CD is called “Nothing Left to Destroy,” and for those interested in references, consider his choice of artist for the jacket: uber bad-boy Istvan Kantor.

Maguire’s works are massively layered and require repeated listenings for one to begin to sort the material out. His is a creative imagination that never seems to lack for material inspiration. Consider the sonic blast-scape of the first track, The Discofication of the Mongols. He references a contemporary icon (nay, cliché), the lonely herdsman with the iPod, to explain his thematic material. If I can decipher nothing else in his liner note explaining the piece’s structure, I can at least appreciate what he means about the loss of indigenous culture, and when you hear Bowman’s gorgeous violin playing drowned by the eventually overpowering disco beat, you understand the intent of the piece. Along the way you’ll want to listen for anything you recognize. “Paul is dead” in retrograde inversion might even be there.

Track two is somewhat shorter and much sweeter. S’Wonderful (that the man I love watches over me) is more homage than lament, remixing three Gershwin songs and quotes lifted from depression-era cinema. Stewart’s flute wanders lonely as a drunken Ginger Rogers, one busted high heel, still dancing with her imaginary Fred. Again, I want to hear the instrumentalist but lose him too often as he ducks behind the scenery. In fact, the critique that feels almost to miss the point is that Maguire’s sonic default setting is too often on “stun.” Regardless, the results are without a doubt stunning and worth the listen.