| Elodie Lauten: Recent Reviews 2005-08 | ||
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The Death
of Don Juan
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In the current world of modern composition, no movement has been more influential than minimalism. With the canon of bona fide first-generation minimalism set almost in stone with the big four (La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass), not much is left undiscovered. However, much less examined is minimalism’s second generation, with composers from across the globe who used the musical tools fleshed out by the first generation as starting points for the exploration of their own ideas. Elodie Lauten’s little-known 1985 piece, The Death of Don Juan, now rescued from obscurity by Austin label Unseen Worlds, is one such work, and a powerful one at that. A mixture of instrumental and vocal movements, the work stitches together various textures and compositional approaches into a complete two-act opera with an abstract, poetic libretto about the classic Don Juan archetype seeking redemption upon his death. The album’s main tool is the Fairlight synthesizer, a then-cutting edge digital sampling keyboard/computer unit (famously used in the same era by musicians like Herbie Hancock, Kate Bush and Prince), which is utilized by Lauten as a tool for looping and sound manipulation, resulting in a form of Reich/Glass-influenced digital composition that sounds much like recent advancements in electronic music, especially minimalist-informed artists like Nobukazu Takemura. The extent that these advanced musical ideas are fully realized is stunning here. Instead of sounding like embryonic versions of music to come, Lauten’s musical language is fully formed to the extent that it sounds completely contemporary — no easy feat for a classical work. Plus, Lauten uses cutting-edge technical equipment of the time in a way that extends beyond simple experimentation into territory that is not only creative but also highly evocative, a feat only fully achieved in 1980s minimalism by Steve Reich with his piece “Different Trains,” which also utilized primitive sampling technology. It’s undeniable, listening to the album from the 2008 vantage point, that Lauten was mining new areas of musical expression that wouldn’t be fully discovered for decades to come. Oddly, much of the renewed interest in the album likely comes from the presence of endlessly fascinating musical figure (and recent indie media darling) Arthur Russell, though Russell’s contributions to the piece are a mere portion of musical universe of the album. The opening to “Vision” could very well be from the sessions of World of Echo, Russell’s monolithic song cycle for solo cello/voice/echo effects, until the track morphs into interlocking Fairlight loops of hammered zithers and harpsichord atop cello and guitar improvisation. Russell’s distinct plaintive vocal style appears throughout the album as the tenor voice of Don Juan, overlapped with Lauten’s own alto to form a kind of male/female vocal exchange that is rarely seen in Russell’s work. From a musical standpoint, Lauten’s electronic processes are the most interesting and engaging part of the work. Lauten uses the Fairlight to deconstruct: interlocking loops are created by playing musical fragments at different speeds simultaneously, creating a pulsating, kaleidoscopic world from brief moments in musical time. On “Duel,” two brief notes from Russell’s cello are sped up, slowed down and overlapped within the stereo field to construct a whole six-minute piece where the sample seems to fold out into a whole orchestra. On “Don Juan Enlightened,” trombone, harpsichord and vocal drones are stitched together to create a continuously sliding soundscape. Though these processes are a walk in the park with today’s music editing software, Lauten’s process was likely very time consuming, as Lauten re-programmed the Fairlight herself, using a complex system of matrix grids to digitally organize the structure of the piece. These repeating, layered fragments form a bed for subtle improvisations for instruments like Russell’s cello and Lauten’s electric lyre that stray from the repeated patterns just enough to break up their predetermined digital nature, resulting in a healthy balance between order and improvisational freedom. All in all the result is a complete experimental work of opera that doesn’t seem much like an experiment, and even less like an opera — instead we get a multi-faceted, thoughtful slice of modern composition and a high point for second-wave minimalism. |
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The Death
of Don Juan Other
Music - Digital Music Store |
EXCLUSIVE ADVANCE RELEASE! Elodie Lauten's groundbreaking avant-opera, The Death of Don Juan, finally sees its first reissue in digital form. Hailed in 1985 by WNYC as one of the top 10 albums of that year, and more recently by Kyle Gann, as well as Alan Licht who pronounced the work as "one of the great lost experimental records of the '80s," this New York-based (by way of Paris) composer infused her neoclassical training with minimalism and microtonality (Lauten studied under LaMonte Young, Marian Zazeela and Pandit Pran Nath) and created a seminal piece of music that is both meditative and mystical, reminding the listener equally of Tangerine Dream, Steve Reich and Arvo Part. It's truly captivating from the outset, with the opener's hypnotic, Riley-esque poly-rhythms of harpsichord, trine (her custom made electric lyre) and Arthur Russell's cello which slowly unfolds into the Eastern-influenced "Vision" whose floating delayed guitar work is reminiscent of Manuel Gottsching. The album then goes in a more haunting direction with Lauten and soprano Randi Larowitz singing and speaking in several languages over semi-improvised arrangements of wind instruments including Peter Zummo on trombone -- Russell even makes a vocal appearance on "Death of a Woman." Although Lauten developed much of The Death of Don Juan on a Fairlight synthesizer, the work resonates with human emotion and remains contemporary to this day. An essential introduction to a pioneering voice of post-minimalism. Highly recommended! Max Gray
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The Death
of Don Juan Sequenza21 |
This is a reissue of an LP from 1985 of Lauten’s seminal postminimalist
work, and it’s a pleasure to hear after all these years. While technically
an opera (or rather, a “neo-opera”) in the same way that Glass’s Einstein
is an opera, The Death of Don Juan is perhaps best described as a multimedia
happening. In the end, it doesn’t matter what one calls it—the music
is pretty compelling and the performance is definitive. The libretto
was written by Elodie Lauten and relates to “timeless Don Juan archetype
(staged asan unseen character, screen character or a multiple) facing
death in the form of a woman, with a complex emotional, sexual, political
and spiritual subtext that addresses concerns of our time.” The music
is programmed from a matrix created by Lauten (The Scale of Number Seven),
but I’m not sure any of this is critical to experiencing the music. So
what does the music sound like? Some of it reminded me of the best of
Laurie Spiegel, and even part of Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, while
other parts sounded like nothing else. In the end, however, the music
defies description since it doesn’t fall into a neat package. And that’s
to its credit—this is music to be listened to and experienced. I suspect
that the work comes across differently in live performance, since it is
an opera, after all. However, the music is very remarkable on its own,
and I recommend anyone interested in minimalist or postminimalist music
pick up this album. |
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Tango
Tellus reissue
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‘Tango’, #16 in the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine series, offers the unexpected pairing of contemporary downtown NY composers with vintage tango songs. It works though, contributors avoiding mimicry and impersonation, and the essence of tango being retaken by participants as slow, melodramatic songs, with added gusto and drama. Tango is merely a dotted line here, serving as rough guidelines to participants eager to emancipate themselves from any popular format, while seeking the intense, gripping mood of tango. I assume the complex choreography of this dance also appealed to the Tellus team as a kind of stage play, as they had always been interested in music theater, radio plays, radio art, etc. Tango is personified here by the legendary argentinian singer Carlos Gardel (1890-1935) with a couple of 78s from the 1930s, and by the late Jo Basile, aka Joss Baselli, a french bal musette accordion player from Paris 1950s-1960s. The latter got some fame in the US in 1958, when touring the country accompagnying french singer Patachou. His solo LPs on Audio Fidelity label then became big sellers in the US. His accordion playing on side B is typical french musette, though he was born in Italy. The ‘Tango’ Tellus tape was edited by the Harvestworks board (namely: Claudia Gould, Carol Parkinson & Joseph Nechvatal), but it seems engineer Gerald Lindahl contributed more than technical production and his input might be notable. A member of the Harvestworks organisation, Gerald Lindahl curated several Tellus cassettes (like number 5-6) in the 1980s. A noted singer as well, he regularly performed in NY during the 1980s, and was a member of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) in 1991. Some of the cassette strongest tracks on ‘Tango’ are solo piano recordings, the apt instrument to convey the south-american blue mood. A student of LaMonte Young during the 1980s, Paris-born Elodie Lauten (b1950) writes and improvise microtonal music on real instruments as well as electronics. Her solo piano improvisation ‘Tango’ is build on subtle microtonal chords and a poignant sadness which feels very Argentinian to this listener. Another solo piano track is the amazing live recording of Robert Sheff on piano, tape and keyboards. The song start like an ordinary piano melody before morphing into Cassiber-like synth+drum machine avant instrumental duo. For a one man performance, this interplay is quite phenomenal. Robert Scheff (b1945, Texas) is better known as NY just intonation blues composer ‘Blue Gene Tyranny’, also well known for his music reviews, for the All Musics Guide, for instance. And then the Christopher Berg is an extended, paced, semi-detached piano piece in Franz Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage mood, that is Europe late 19th c. romantic era. Of course, this beautiful piano piece is cued with the superb Fast Forward steel drum extravaganza, a rythmic and exotic affair. The epic track of ubiquitous David Garland ‘Play Within A Play’ is already known to this blog’s readers, since it was also part of 1986 Alchemy Magazine cassette (see previous post), and still an impressive mix of imaginative arrangements and cabaret-like atmosphere, thanks to the lively participation of Cinnie Cole and Zeena Parkins. Molly Elder is an unfamiliar name to me. Hercontribution to Tango is an all keyboards track in pre-illbient urban paranoia mood, a kind of surrealist film soundtrack. Matthew Nash contributes two charming keyboard vignettes. The ‘minuette’ is a variation of tango – something to do with french menuet? The Chris DeBlasio is an actual tango for piano and baritone voice. The compilers chosed to cue in the Keeler track (real name Keith Keeler Walsh), a barrage of drum machine and industrial keyboards preset sounds. Quite a shock, especially when what follows is another Carlos Gardel song. Mader concludes with a real tango, complete with spanish guitar. |
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| Piano
Soundtracks, 4Tay New Music Box, 2005 Molly Sheridan |
Buy
this CD Lauten has plenty of large-scale compositions on her resume, but there is much to be said for looking to the intimate and often confessional quality of solo work performed by the composer, when it's available, for a more complete vision of the artist. The stress of caring for her ill mother in Paris (during which the piece was developed) seems to have poured itself quite directly into this composition, an uneasy waterfall of notes which, poetically enough, includes reference to an old nursery rhyme. Lauten is no stranger to a keyboard, and her performance on this recording showcases that talent. —MS |
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OrfReo, 4Tay American
Record Guide |
Marshall Coid (Ray Johnson), Charlotte Surkin(Lethe), Meredith Borden (Persephone, Crow), Peter Castaldi (Lion); The Queen's ChamberBand/ Rudolph Palmer-4-Tay 11-30 minutes OrfReo(2004) is a short musical theater piece by Elodie Lauten (composer of Waking in NewYork, a theater piece about Allen Ginsberg, S/O2003). Her subject is the artist Ray Johnson,who drowned mysteriously off the coast ofLong Island in 1995. (He was the subject of John Waters's memorable 2002 documentary How to Draw a Bunny.) This is a semi-staged rehearsal of the work, set on the stage of Merkin Concert Hall in New York in front of an audience. The video is rather amateurishly produced, the music decently played and sung by these professional New York performers. Ms Lauten's piece is in neo-baroque mode, her small ensemble of flute, oboe, and strings supplied with expert continuo by harpsichordist Elaine Comparone and enthusiastic onstage conducting by Rudolph Palmer. Lauten's harmonies drift all over the map with her patented outer-space voice-leading-an ideal match for the thoroughly strange dramatic proceedings. Orfeo/Ray Johnson (Orf-Ray-o), in search of his beloved Beatrice (why not?), must cross the river Lethe (sung by dramatic mezzo Surkin). "Sing, Orfreo!", the river commands. Persephone appears in the form of a Crow (coloratura Borden): "Death is the only emperor of ice cream!", she chirps virtuosically. "You'll drown!", she warns. "Ray Johnson committed suicide by drowning!" Beatrice, as it turns out, is also Elodie (Lauten). Orfreo will free them both from hell. He is led offstage. The end. Subtitled 'The Orphic Death of Ray Johnson', the piece is simply too delightfully bizarre to criticize too much. The star of the show is countertenor Coid, who plays deceased artist Johnson attempting to cross the river. (Those who have seen the film men-tioned above might find it hard to imagine Mr Johnson as a countertenor, but remember he is simultaneously composer Lauten in this scenario.) Coid is of creamy voice and commanding presence; the spectacle is without a doubt something to see. This is essentially a memento of a performance of a piece not likely to be duplicated in the near future, so if you have an interest in this composer's unusual work you will want to investigate this release. I found it fun. No extras, short playing time. |
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Orfreo
DVD, 4Tay Fanfare
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Elodie Lauten has been described as “a well-known unknown” and “a fixture of the New York scene.” Hers is not a name that seems to have travelled over to the U.K., but it was fascinating to receive this short opera. There are no accompanying notes to the physical DVD received, but a visit to www.elodielauten.net sorts that out. A full libretto is included online, plus commentary. This is a concert performance, with singers using music and with a black strip of cloth representing the river. The instrumentation is for string quartet, double bass, flute, and oboe. Lauten uses a Baroque template for her sound world here, which is remarkably effective. In a short space, Lauren says a lot, making the mysterious suicide of the artist Ray Johnson a point of departure (the work’s subtitle is “The Orphic Death of Ray Johnson”). Apparently a documentary, it consists only of the performance of June 2, 2004, at Merkin Concert Hall. Marshall Coid has a strong countertenor voice as Orf(r)eo. A shame the lighting, as rendered on the DVD, is rather inconsistent. He almost disappears into the blackness as he sings “What am I to do?” As Eurydice, Beatrice, and Persephone, Meredith Borden delightfully hams up her parts without negating the possibility of tenderness. Her opening lines swoop magnificently, and Borden responds with impressive pitching. Peter Castaldi’s bass-baritone is marvelously focused. In fact, all parts are dispatched with aplomb and more than a hint of affection for this appealing little piece. Charlotte Surkin is an imposing Lethe, especially when she asserts, “I want all men to sing to my rhythm.” Lauten has provided here a diverting little piece whose economy of means and expression is entirely praiseworthy. More, the piece seemed to get better and better each time I experienced it.
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2004, Fletcher Copp, who knew Ray Johnson well, wrote about Orfreo: |
Michael
Andre, Man's Fate, Ray Johnson |
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An
Interview with Soundofcities.com
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HS: Dear Elodie, At first, congratulations for winning the Princeton Award?... This is only the last of many Awards you won since the beginning of the 80’s. Does this one have some special meaning to you? EL: Actually it wasn’t anything like an award, I was just a guest on the WPRB Princeton 21st Century 24-hour Music Marathon on December 28-29, but I was honored to have been chosen among so many fine composers… HS: It looks like you are starting the big actions in the 2008. There are preparations to put the “Waking in New York” again on the stage. (Together with Benedicte Ardiley and Rafael DeStella.) Please could you tell us something more about this work? EL: Waking in New York is a very special piece. It started when I approached Allen Ginsberg about a libretto… I wanted a piece about New York, and he selected a set of poems for me to set to music. A few months later he passed away… and the piece took on a new meaning as a kind of memorial to the great poet – who I had met in the seventies when I first came to New York--quite coincidentally I must say: I joined an all-girl rock band that was actually his own backup band when he did readings, as he liked to sing and was quite a good singer. I lived in his apartment for several months and he taught me many things: how to appreciate New York, how to be compassionate and tolerant, what a mantra is and how it is practiced, and how spirituality does not have to be bigotry. He was a father figure for me and an unofficial mentor. All of those memories of my youth came back when I wrote the piece. The most unusual aspect of it is that, unlike most of the settings of Ginsberg’s poetry (and there have been many, including Hydrogen Jukebox by Philip Glass) it is a melodic setting not a narrative-over-music type setting. Every word is sung, even the most unlikely… as the stream-of consciousness writing goes from the mundane to the sublime. This is a very special work and even though it has been presented so far four times, it was never fully staged. So I very much look forward to the time when the piece will receive its real premiere. HS: Where are you getting so much energy and the inspiration to do all of this? EL: The music gives me energy, it is healing in and of itself, and it helps me deal with the other areas of my life. HS: Your music is very peaceful and thought-out, or let’s better say meditative. There is always some esoteric touch in your works and it looks like this is also a huge part of your motor. What is the philosophy behind your work? EL: I think music connects with people’s hearts and souls way beyond mere entertainment. There is almost the possibility of enlightenment through music. Making music comes with a responsibility towards others and towards the environment. What kind of wave do we project, as composers? Universal harmony, being in tune with the earth (through the earth tone, the frequency corresponding to the earth’s rotation), even if it means playing at a slower tempo… not showing off how fast you can play. From a strictly aesthetic standpoint, I think I belong to postmodernism –I love modern elements like technology but I also like to include old elements such as the Baroque instruments or the classic modal scales of raga music. HS: Is there any music which is inspiring You the most? EL: The one I am working on at the time… just kidding. I am all-inclusive: I love the Velvet Underground, Bach’s cantatas, African drumming, Soft Machine, LaMonte Young, all the minimalists, Eno, R&B, Muddy Waters, the list is too long… so many different kinds of music… and most of my contemporaries also I love. HS: What do you think about the latest development in the technology, and specially in connection with the music? EL: Ever since they’ve been available I have been working with synthesizers. I have not for one minute ceased to love them. Next year I am scheduled to have access to the new microtonal synthesizer designed by the American Festival of Microtonal Music and write a piece for it. This is a prototype and I look forward to working with it. I have also experimented with designing instruments, such as the Trine, an electro-acoustic lyre which enabled me to lay out custom microtonal scales, and allowed some degree of sound processing through amplification. I am fascinated by the new instruments designed at MIT, the ones that kids can play. A dream of mine is to work with someone who can help me design a truly new instrument that would make use of the interactivity that is available on the internet. HS: Are You using any software? EL: For music I use Finale mostly. The new version is set up with the Garritan sound library and that is pretty workable. I used to export my midi files into Reason but with the Finale 2007-08 I don’t need to do that any more. For web and art I use Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Quark, InDesign, Illustrator. I also use Excel for certain scores and visual purposes. For synthesis I do not use software I have a couple of good Korg synthesizers and I like to play with my hands on the keys or the knobs so there is space for some spontaneity, some intuitive process. HS: You have written a few operas until now. Where is Your love for the opera coming from? EL: I always loved theatre but opera came as an acquired taste. Maybe from seeing the Who’s rock opera Tommy at the Isle of Wight festival… I took opera voice lessons, and later I had Indian music lessons which are so completely different in terms of vocal sound… Once I got through my first opera The Death of Don Juan I couldn’t wait to write another one… Every opera marks a high point in my life. It is so involving and exciting. I love to work with certain singers – for some weird reason I hear their exact timbres playing in my head when I compose. I really like to know the voice I am writing for. I hope I get to do maybe one or two more operas in my lifetime. They’re a real long haul. HS: How it came You left the Europe? EL: At the time – early 70s - coming to New York was fascinating. It’s not that I left Europe: I adopted, I embraced New York City. And then I couldn’t go back. HS: What are Your plans for the next future? EL: This year I will be going to the West Coast for a premiere by the Seattle Chamber Players featured in ‘Classics of Downtown’, a program curated by Kyle Gann. In May, Downtown Music Productions will premiere a chamber work at St Marks Church in New York. For the fall I have two large-scale projects but they are at preliminary stages of planning right now. HS: Dear Elodie, Thanks for this interview. EL: Thank you so very much, Henry, for your interest in my work.
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Introduction
to the program by
Kyle Gann |
Tonight's concert is devoted to composers who were part of that scene, and whose music would have been called in the 1980s new music, or Downtown music, and that today might be called "postclassical" music. Calling us "classics," I think, is to suggest that we are all, as one might say, "of a certain age," and have been around too long to be considered "emerging" composers like the ones you heard last night. But this music so split itself off from classical music that in many respects the scene itself is still emerging, as a genre of music that is neither classical, pop, nor jazz, somewhat in between but not entirely that either. Since the cohesion of this scene was at least as much social as defined by any inherent musical principles, I want to emphasize in my descriptions the kind of connections each composer had to the scene. Elodie Lauten came to Manhattan from France in 1970, lived and performed with the poet Allen Ginsburg, shaved her head before it was hip, studied with the reclusive minimalist guru La Monte Young, and performed as singer for a rock band called Flaming Youth. In 1986 she put out a recording of a dark, mysterious feminist opera The Death of Don Juan, which seemed like the logical next step after minimalism, and which is just now being reissued on CD. I reviewed The Death of Don Juan enthusiastically in the Chicago Reader, and when I got a job at the Village Voice later that year, Elodie was one of the first people I wrote about and the first people I looked up. She has continued to come out with a new theater work every few years, some of them with Baroque music ensemble, some incorporating Broadway and gospel style, but all suffused with mysticism. She also performs as an improviser, using a system of correspondences between harmonies and nature that she calls the Gaia Matrix. One of her operas I reviewed, whose title was simply Existence, had no humans on stage, just a softly mumbling television.
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DOWNTOWN
AND MIDTOWN |
A few notable postminimalist composers are Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe (collectively Bang on a Can), Janice Giteck, Elodie Lauten, Kyle Gann, Ingram Marshall, and William Duckworth. So-called "midtown" composers include John Corigliano, Mark Adamo, Christopher Rouse, Joan Tower, and John Harbison. Representatives of "New Complexity" include Brian Ferneyhough, James Dillon, and Michael Finnissy, whose music branches out in many unexpected directions. Ned Rorem is a link to an older mid-century Franco-American style; some of his most recent works, notably the opera Our Town, are his strongest. Elliott Carter, the godfather of American modernism, plans to celebrate his hundredth birthday in 2008, and he shows no signs of slowing down. Four young composers worthy of note are Anna Clyne, Nico Muhly, Judd Greenstein, and the unclassifiable Corey Dargel
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Living
American composers!
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A stunning weekend festival by Seattle Chamber Players demonstrates the great vitality of contemporary classical music. And also how much Seattle lags the West Coast in serving up such excitement.....With exaggerated gestures and frenzied bowings, Elodie Lauten's Scene from 0.02 (The Two-Cents Opera) started as a postmodern meditation on the art of performance. But the originality of her voice quickly emerged as she led us to an emotional space almost unrecognizable in terrifying hyperawareness."
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News
from the Third Angle |
15 Composers, 10 World Premieres. Here in the Northwest, the
final days of January 2008 were a classical music Aurora Borealis. With
its all-black walls, floor, and ceiling, Seattle's Studio Theater building
was the metaphorical dark sky out of which sparks of sound and ideas shot
through the air like color thunderbolts. Two music critics selected the
composers: Alex Ross from The New Yorker and Kyle Gann, Associate Professor
of Music from Bard College (and Village Voice music critic from 1986-2005).
The 13 composers chosen flew to Seattle to showcase their compositions
in all-day seminars and evening concerts. Ross and Gann also gave pre-concert
talks, led post-concert discussions, and talked about their books: The
Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Ross and Music Downtown
by Gann. Occupying the free zone were Samuel Taylor's caffeine-soaked
film, "The End of New Music" (quoted in The New York Times), and an engaging
new composition by Seattle-based composer, Seth Kinsky. A Morton Feldman
Marathon, held the last day of the festival, marked the 20th anniversary
of the composer's death. Day 1--World(s) in Collision platformed Alex
Ross' selection of emerging composers, all under 40: Alexandra Gardner,
Anna Clyne, Mason Bates, Judd Greenstein, Max Giteck Duykers, Nico Muhly,
and William Brittelle. Never heard of these inventive folks? You will.
All of the compositions were full of imaginative, exploratory ideas, conceived
with the razor-sharp intelligence that Ross himself has. And the Seattle
Chamber Players performed each piece with flawless, clean tones. Interesting
though, that the older and mostly white-haired composers selected by Kyle
Gann on Day 2 let loose more than Alex Ross's Day 1 composers under 40.
The younger group with their exposure to punk, hip hop, and cell phone
ring tones, might well have been the wild ones, but their music revealed
the polite reserve of years spent in compositional training. Check out
the music on their web sites. You'll find plenty of pyrotechnic magic
there-from both groups. Day 2--Classics of Downtown. Kyle Gann's
post-Minimalist composers: Gann himself, Elodie Lauten, Janice
Giteck, John Luther Adams, Eve Beglarian, and William Duckworth--all over
40 with a flair for adventure--have produced stacks of CDs. Seattle's
Merrill Wright Stage came alive with pumped-up electronics, swirling
soundscapes, ghostly echoes, and unexpected rhythms. Again, the Seattle
Chamber Players performed, this time with gusto among a tangle of wires,
computers, synthesizers, and subwoofers on the stage. Who said classical
music is dead? It's very much alive and well.
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Elodie
Lauten Alan
Licht |
This is one of the great lost experimental records of the 80s. Lauten has been around since the 70s, going back and forth between Paris and New York. THE DEATH OF DON JUAN is an opera, in the avant garde sense, but I honestly prefer it to any of Robert Ashley’s operas or the Philip Glass ones (except EINSTEIN). There’s a Fairlight on most of the record, but fear not, as you would never know that it dates from 80s. The first two tracks sound like Joe Jones meets Glass or Steve Reich, with harpsichords, trine (an electric lyre that Lauten invented) and Arthur Russell’s cello. “Death As A Shadow” recalls Meredith Monk’s “Turtle Dreams” but is even more haunting and doomy. Russell’s vocal on “Death As A Woman” even reminds me of MOONDOG 2 and sounds unlike any of his other work. Even the libretto is fab-A+. | |
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THE LIST:
Most influential works of the last three decades - 90s: Elodie Lauten - Waking in New York Sequenza21.com |
George Crumb: Ancient Voices of Children (1970) John Cage: Songbooks (1970) Gyorgi Ligeti: Chamber Concerto (1970) George Crumb: Black Angels (1970) Karlheinz Stockhausen: Mantra (1970) Elliott Carter: String Quartet No. 3 (1971) Tom Johnson: An Hour for Piano (1971) George Crumb: Vox Balanae (1971) Steve Reich: Drumming (1971) Philip Glass: Music in Twelve Parts (1971-1974) Morton Feldman: Rothko Chapel (1972) Gyorgi Ligeti: Double Concerto (1972) Charles Amirkhanian: Just (1972) Andres Jolivet: Violin Concerto (1972) Peter Maxwell Davies: Hymn to St. Magnus (1972) George Rochberg: String Quartet No. 3 (1972) Frederic Rzewski: Coming Together (1972) Luciano Berio: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1972-73) Louis Andriessen: De Staat (1972-76) Helmut Lachenmann: Gran Torso (1972-88) Ben Johnston: String Quartet No. 4, "Amazing Grace" (1973) Leonard Bernstein: Mass (1973) Per Norgard: Turn (1973) Steve Reich: Music for Mallet instruments, Voices, and Organ (1973) Gyorgi Ligeti: San Francisco Polyphony (1973-74) Brian Ferneyhough: Unity Capsule (1973-76) Luciano Berio: Points on the Curve to Find (1974) Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 15 (1974) Peter Maxwell Davies: Ave Maris Stella (1975) Per Norgard: Symphony No. 3 (1975) Frederic Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated (1975) Henri Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit (1976) David del Tredici: Final Alice (1976) Philip Glass: Einstein on the Beach (1976) John Williams: Star Wars (1977) Henri Dutilleux: Timbres, espaces, mouvement (1977) Peter Maxwell Davies: A Mirror of Whitening Light (1977) Sofia Gubaidulina: Duo-Sonata (1977) Joseph Schwantner: Aftertones of Infinity (1978) John Adams: Shaker Loops (1978) Morton Feldman: Why Patterns? (1978) Tristan Murail: Treize couleurs du soleil couchant (1978) Robert Ashley: Perfect Lives (1978) William Duckworth: The Time Curve Preludes (1978-79) Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Chamber Symphony (1979) Judith Weir: King Harald's Saga (1979) Philip Glass: Satyagraha (1980) Sofia Gubaidalina: Offetorium (1980) James Sellars: Chanson Dada (1980) Joan Tower: Petroushskates (1980) James Dillon: Spleen (1980) Harold Budd/Brian Eno: The Plateaux of Mirror (1980) Conlon Nancarrow: Studies Nos. 40, 41, 47, 48 (1980s) Laurie Anderson: O Superman (1981) Ezra Sims: Phenomena (1981) Jaco Pastorius: Word of Mouth (1981) La Monte Young: The Well-Tuned Piano (1981) Judith Weir: Thread! (1981) Peter Maxwell Davies: Image Reflection Shadow (1982) Steve Reich: Tehillim (1982) Michael Finnissy: Banumbirr (1982) Anderzej Panufnik: Arbor Cosmica (1983) Oliver Knussen: Where the Wild Things Are (1983) Steve Reich: The Desert Music (1983) Salvatore Sciarrino: Macbeth (1983) Witold Lutoslawski: Symphony No. 3 (1983) Morton Feldman: For Philip Guston (1984) Salvatore Sciarrino: Hermes (1984) Peter Maxwell Davies: Symphony No. 3 (1984) Harrison Birtwhistle: The Mask of Orpheus (1984) Arvo Part: Te Deum (1984) Louis Andriessen: De Stijl (1984-85) Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet (1985) Judith Weir: The Consolations of Scholarship (1985) John Adams: Harmonielehre (1985) Gyorgi Ligeti: Piano Concerto (1985-88) Gyorgi Ligeti: Piano Etudes (1985-1990) Daniel Lentz: The Crack in the Bell (1986) Per Norgard: Lin (1986) Laurie Anderson: Home of the Brave (1986) Michael Finnissy: String Trio (1986) Witold Lutoslawski: Chain 3 (1986) Janice Giteck: Om Shanti (1986) Harrison Birtwhistle: Earth Dances (1986) Carl Stone: Shing Kee (1986) Iannis Xenakis: Keqrops (1986) Morton Feldman: For Samuel Beckett (1987) Galina Ustvolskaya: Symphony No. 4 "Prayer" (1987) Lois V Vierk: Simoon (1987) Gyorgi Kurtag: Quasi una fantasia (1987) Toru Takemitsu: Twill by Twilight (1988) Wolfgang Rihm: Depart (1988) Larry Polansky: Lonesome Road: The Crawford Variations (1988-89) David Rakowski: Piano Etudes (1988-) Bunita Marcus: Adam and Eve (1989) Lee Hyla: String Quartet No. 3 (1989) Art Jarvinen: Murphy-Nights (1989) Gyorgi Ligeti: Violin Concerto (1990) John Cage: Four2 (1990) Iannis Xenakis: Knephas (1990) Pauline Oliveros: Crone Music (1990) Martin Bresnick: Opere della Musica Povera (1990-99) Julia Wolfe: Four Marys (1991) John Cage: Five3 (1991) Robert Ashley: Improvement (1991) Milton Babbitt: Mehr Du (1991) John Adams: The Death of Klinghoffer (1991) Meredith Monk: Atlas (1991) Judith Weir: I Broke Off a Golden Branch (1991) Frederic Rzewski: De Profundis (1991) John Adams: Chamber Symphony (1992) Magnus Lindberg: Clarinet Quintet (1992) Conrad Cummings: Photo Op (1992) John Cage: Fifty-Eight (1992) David Lang: Cheating, Lying, Stealing (1993) Milton Babbitt: String Quartet No. 6 (1993) David First: Jade Screen Test Dreams of Renting Wings (1993) Michael Daugherty: Metropolis Symphony (1993) Elliott Carter: Symphonia (1993-96) Magnus Lindberg: Aura (1994) Olivier Messiaen: Eclairs sur l'Au-Dela (1994) Milton Babbitt: Triad (1994) Gyorgi Kurtag: Stele (1994) Mikel Rouse: Failing Kansas (1995) Michael Gordon: Trance (1995) Eve Beglarian: Landscaping for Privacy (1995) Mikel Rouse: Dennis Cleveland (1996) Gerard Grisey: Vortex temporum (1996) Tobias Picker: Emmeline (1996) Tan Dun: Marco Polo (1996) Michael Finnissy: Seventeen Immortal Homosexual Poets (1997) Thomas Ades: Powder Her Face (1997) Sofia Gubaidulina: Canticle of the Sun (1997) Michael Finnissy: Multiple Forms of Constraint (1997) Pierre Boulez: Sur incises (1998) John Luther Adams: In the White Silence (1998) Beat Furrer: Still (1998) Mark Adamo: Little Women (1998) Elodie Lauten: Waking in New York (1999) Toshio Hosokawa: Koto-uta (1999) Louis Andriessen: Writing to Vermeer (1999) The Magnetic Fields (aka Stephin Merritt): 69 LOVE SONGS (the album) (1999) Kaija Saariaho: L'amour de loin (2000) Frederic Rzewski: Pocket Symphony (2000) Osvaldo Golijov: La Pasión según San Marcos (2000) Michael Gordon: Decasia (2001) Michael Harrison: Revelation (2001) Chocolate Genius (aka Marc Anthony Thompson): Godmusic (2001) Peter Maxwell Davies: Naxos Quartets (2002-05) John Luther Adams: The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies (2002) John Corigliano: Circus Maximus (2004) So there it is. Have you memorized them all? Now for some questions. Are there too many pieces on this list? I don't think so. There are many, many composers out there doing wonderful work. Is it possible we missed some? No question in my mind. We're doing a little better than the Pulitzer Prize, but this list just scratches the surface. Is this list biased? You bet. I can think of a number of prominent people born in the 1930s in particular who have been left off. Anybody remember an interview a few weeks ago in the NYTimes with James Levine and a couple of composers? Won't find their names here. Among established composers with prominent careers in 1970-2005, don't look for Mario Davidovsky, Alfred Schnittke, Lou Harrison, Iannis Xenakis, Sofia Gubaidalina, Toru Takemitsu or William Bolcom either. We're also missing a lot of the composers who are getting the majority of orchestral commissions these days. And don't tell me they don't have any influence, because there are hundreds of other composers trying to imitate those career paths, even if they won't admit it. Do numbers matter? The most represented composer is Peter Maxwell Davies, with five entries. John Adams, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Gyorgi Ligeti, Steve Reich and Judith Weir have four each. All of these composers are very important, but I'm thinking these numbers are only of qualified interest -- they might be a bit skewed by individual enthusiasms to be really significant of the largest trends. But numbers are what they are. Is there a connection between length and impact? I don't know all of the works on this list, but of the ones I know, very few are under 10 minutes, and many are over 30 minutes. Is length an appropriate measure of importance? What is influence? I asked What new works changed the way composers thought about composing from 1970 to 2005. Several people answered with the pieces that had influenced them most. But there are two kinds of influence: there is the piece that changes how you think about music, and there is the piece that reinforces the viewpoint you already hold. No matter how conservative or progressive we may be, we all respond to both types of influence, and I believe that a lot of the pieces that ended up on this list -- both conservative and progressive -- fall into the latter category, even though I was specifically asking for the former. Actually, there is a third kind of influence, which we all experience as well: the piece that has a negative impact on us, as in, Wow, I never want to write anything like that! How many of these works have you heard? My score is 37, which is exactly one third. Gives me a great reason to go on living, just knowing that all those life-changing works are still out there for me to experience. What's next? You tell me. Hope this list is of some use/interest to you. posted by Lawrence Dillon |
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The
Many Sides of Elodie Lauten Kyle
Gann |
Postminimalist, neoclassicist, meditationist, New Ageist, improviser, jazzer, opera composer, Elodie Lauten is one of the most Protean composers of recent years, with many sides to her personality, but they all sound like her. I think of her a little as the female Terry Riley, though her music is a little more muted in tone, and more recognizably hers regardless of genre than Terry's sometimes is. In making her January's composer of the month on Postclassic Radio, I tried to include something from all sides. Two long works I've posted in their entirety: her opera The Death of Don Juan from the mid-1980s, and her quasi-oratorio Waking in New York from the late '90s, based on poems by her friend Allan Ginsberg (and selected by him for that purpose before he died). The Death of Don Juan epitomizes what I think of as her quintessential mystical style, while Waking in New York has more of a pop sensibility, with singers drawn from Broadway, gospel, and operatic idioms. I've always told Elodie that Waking in New York reminds me of Erik Satie's masterpiece Socrate in its impassive melodies over kaleidoscopically changing harmonies, and I've added the first movement of the latter work to the playlist for comparison. (Socrate strikes me as a seminal postclassic work anyway, even if it was written in 1917.) The overture to Lauten's brand-new opera Orfreo (that's not a typo: the subtitle is "The Orphic death of Ray Johnson") demonstrates how Baroque she can sound when working with classical instruments like harpsichord, as do two lovely excerpts from her large-scale cantata Deus ex Machina. Three movements from her synthesizer improvisation Tronik Involutions show her at her most sparklingly cosmic - New Age, you might dismiss it as, but more richly textured and more harmonically motionless than any New Age music I've ever heard. And I'll continue adding some of the early pieces from which I first knew her work, the early piano pieces and Concerto for Piano with Orchestral Memory. I've also put up one movement from Variations on the Orange Cycle played by pianist Lois Svard, a haunting, Riley-ish, reconstructed improvisation, and someday I'll post the entire piece. It takes at least this much music to demonstrate the tremendous range of Lauten's universalist imagination. | |
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