Ustad Alauddin Khan & Ritwik Ghatak

Autour de la figure principale d'Ustad Alauddin Khan, fondateur de l'école Maihar Gharana et un des professeurs de musique les plus connus de la musique classique indienne:

mettant en vedette le jeune Ravi Shankar ainsi que d'autres musiciens et membres de sa famille, ce film rare a été réalisé par Ritwik Gatak, célèbre acteur, dramaturge et cinéaste bengali, d'obédience communiste et profondément marqué par l'exode subie par lui et sa famille en 1947, année de la Partition des Indes.

 

Around the main figure of Ustad Alauddin Khan, founder of the Maihar Gharana school as one of the most wellknowned music teacher of  indian classical music. Featuring the young Ravi Shankar as well other famous musicians and members of his family, this rare movie was directed by Ritwik Gatak, the famous bengali movie maker.

  

 

& un portrait de Ritwik Gatak  

this post was originally published in 2014

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Un portrait de György Ligeti

 

Un excellent film documentaire autour du paysage musical du compositeur György Ligeti, à travers un voyage en train où il raconte son enfance, la folie nazie et le soulèvement de Budapest qui ont précédé son exil, mais aussi bien sûr, sa musique. Ce film réalisé par Michel Follin (pour la Sept devenue plus tard Arte) a été récompensé en 1994 par le Grand Prix de la SACEM dans la catégorie du documentaire de création musicale. Il éclaire parfaitement l'itinéraire artistique de ce compositeur hors-pair à travers ce voyage ferroviaire pendant lequel Ligeti évoque son histoire.

The Hungarian composer György Ligeti's biography typifies the displaced cosmopolitan, truly at home only in the international community of music. Appropriately enough, this revealing film portrait of his life and music has a train journey as its central metaphor, with Ligeti gazing through the window onto the changing middle-European landscape. His music - innovative, complex, brilliantly eclectic - accompanies his reflections and memories. 

 

 

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Liquid History

"Liquid History for solo violin and electronics" is a piece created by the english composer Jasmine Morris. 

 

"The mud is able to preserve any object that falls in there and some of the artefacts that wash up on shore are so well kept that they appear as if they were only thrown into the river a couple of days ago. At low tide, the Thames becomes the largest open air archeological site in London. I am fascinated by how these artefacts from different centuries are submerged together. Mudlarkers have found pieces of Roman pottery or coins, prehistoric remains and skulls as well as a Mesolithic handaxe, all morphing into the liquid history of the Thames."

 

This piece, listenable here, was commissioned by Nick Luscombe, a British Radio DJ who has presented for the likes of XFM and BBC 6. Liquid History will be part of his project, Musicity which is a leading global agency for music and architecture.

 

 

 

 

Jasmine Morris is a BBC Young Composer awarded and gained a full BAME Scholarship at the Royal College of Music under tutelage of Simon Holt. Another of her works is titled  "Melanesia for solo violin" . It was part of the HeadOn photography Festival, in Australia, with the context of collaborations between composers and photographers. 

Jasmine choose Aline Smithson.

 

  

 

 

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Aline Smithson pic

 

& an excerpt of "Astrophilia", her amazing last album featuring performances from the Tippett Quartet, vocalist Mieko Shimizu and Swedish folk musician and ethnographer Per Runberg:

 

"Hel"

 

 

 

 

II..<<O>>..II

Motus

Motus: interjection Invitation faite à quelqu'un de garder le silence. synon. chut! silence!
Invitation done to someone to keep silent. 

 

John Amila est un des pseudonymes de Jean Meckert (1910-1995) , écrivain à la sensibilité libertaire au parcours de vie difficile.

                 are you deaf?

         or just mute?

 

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Les heures qui s'enfuient...

 "Mortuos plango : vivos voco" est une remarquable composition de 1980 pour sons concrets traités par ordinateur du compositeur anglais Jonathan Harvey. Commandée par l'IRCAM, cette pièce est composée à partir de sons de la grande cloche ténor de la cathédrale de Winchester  et du chant du fils du compositeur. La cloche d'une grande puissance porte en inscription : "Horas avolantes mortuos plango: vivos ad preces voco".

"Je compte les heures qui s'enfuient, je pleure les morts: j'appelle les vivants à la prière"

"Fasciné par l’exploration du timbre à l’aide des outils numériques, Jonathan Harvey a utilisé deux matériaux concrets dans "Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco" : le son d’une cloche et une voix d’enfant. Conçue pour support-fixe, cette œuvre de 1980 est devenue un grand classique de la musique informatique." Bruno Bossis

Plusieurs outils informatiques ont été utilisés pour cette composition: FFT (Fast Fourier Transform), Music V, Chant. Pour les amateurs, de très nombreux détails des différents  processus  mis en oeuvre, ainsi que des éléments audio constitutifs à découvrir sur le site Brahms-Ressources.IRCAM

 

 Cloches synthétiques de la première section (d’après un document préparatoire du compositeur)

 

“I think John Palmer has created something unique with this project. As well as a comprehensive essay, usefully placing Harvey’s work in a range of musical, technological and social contexts, there is the most expert, precise and illuminating post facto graphic score I have yet seen of an acousmatic piece of music, derived from close and informed listening...” Martin Butler, Professor of Music, University of Sussex, UK.

 

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March

Tomas Fujiwara's Triple Double  music  is an original project with compositions for double trio. The orchestra is leaded by Tomas Fujiwara, drummer and composer located in Brooklyn (NYC)  who uses to collaborate with esteemed singular artists as Mary Halvorson, Matana Roberts, Tomeka Reid, as well as John Zorn & Anthony Braxton. 

Their new issue was recorded December 2019 at "Firehouse 12".

jazz, ballade, swing, noise,

 

 

Tomas Fujiwara Triple Double

Tomas Fujiwara - Drums & Vibraphone
Gerald Cleaver - Drums
Mary Halvorson - Guitar
Brandon Seabrook - Guitar
Ralph Alessi - Trumpet
Taylor Ho Bynum - Cornet  

 

to listen and buy HERE

"Pack Up, Coming For You" 

 

 &

an amazing drummers' duo

 

 

II III II III II III II III II III II III II III  

Woodwind Quintet

 The work of the Berlin based composer Sophia Jani lives across influences of various artists of all times and nations: from Bach and Schubert to the European and American avant-garde of the 20th and 21st century, to avant-pop artists like Björk and Ryuichi Sakamoto, or electronic music producers such as Tim Hecker, Laurel Halo or Skee Mask. In this way, she creates music that spans a dramaturgical arc while suspending any sense of time - calm, powerful, elegant, dance-like.

 

Woodwind quintet N°1

"Traditionally, when writing for a woodwind quintet, each instrument is assigned a specific function within the group. I was interested in breaking with these conventions and distributing the same elements equally throughout the ensemble. My idea was to create a pulsating process that changes over time, almost unnoticeable for the listener, until the piece ends up in a completely different place as it started." S.J.

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a review of "Music as a mirror" , her debut album, HERE

ILLLLLLLLOUOLLLLLLLLLI

Round Table on Modern Art

 

The Western Round Table on Modern Art.

San Francisco, April 8, 9 and 10, 1949.

The object of the Round Table was to bring a representation of the best informed opinion of the time to bear on questions about art today (1949). 

with  George Boas (Moderator): philosopher; John Hopkins University; Trustee, Baltimore Museum of Art. Gregory Bateson: cultural anthropologist, lecturer, authority on Bali and New Guinea. Kenneth Burke: literary critic, philosopher, novelist. Marcel Duchamp: artist. Alfred Frankenstein: critic; music and art editor, San Francisco Chronicle. Robert Goldwater: critic and art historian; Associate Professor of Art, Queens College. Darius Milhaud: composer and conductor. Andrew C. Richie: art historian and critic. Mark Tobey: artist. Frank Lloyd Wright: architect &  Arnold Schönberg: composer.

 

Marcel Duchamp & Gregory Bateson

 

Three sessions were scheduled for the first two days; an unscheduled fourth session was added the third day at the request of some participants. The second session was open by invitation to the public and to members of the San Francisco Art Association; the three other sessions were closed.

 

recordings,  images  &  transcript

Schönberg was unable to participate in the round table discussion, and instead recorded part of his contribution on his Webster Wire Recorder.

 

thanks to UBU web for these documents

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