Piece for Ligeti

As well Ligeti was influenced by Conlon Nancarrow , writing the piano piece's "Vertige",
Conlon himself wrote a mechanical piano piece as a tribute to Ligeti for his 65th birthday.

*****

"Dear Mr. Ligeti: About six months ago I was advised from Germany that they were sending me three records of your music. They just arrived. I am overwhelmed. Thanks for having them sent. For some time I have been very flattered by the things you have been saying about my music. Of course I knew that you were a famous composer, but I had not heard a note of your music. Well, now I have, and am very impressed. I haven't felt such excitement since Bartok and Stravinsky. By the way, are the String Quartets published? I would like to see the scores. I understand that you will be at the ISCM festival in Graz. I look forward to seeing you. Best regards, Conlon Nancarrow."
(a message from Nancarrows to Ligeti - 30 june 1982)

"Dear Mr. Nancarrow, thank you so much for your letter, it is the greatest pleasure for me. Since I know your music (i.e. since summer 1980 when I heard the first two records of your Studies) I love your music more than any other music of a now living composer. Since then I got also the third record and a number of scores published by Mr. Garland both in Soundings and separately. It's very hard to get your records in Europe, therefore -- I hope you don't object -- I made a great number of tape copies for friends, so your Studies reached even some East European countries.... I didn't know your address until your letter came...I'm very happy to meet you in Graz... I have the honour to introduce your music at the ISCM festival and I look very much foreward for this event and for your personal presence there... ' (a Ligeti's letter to Nancarrow - 20 august 1982)

Scratch music

    Cornelius Cardew & the Scratch Orchestra (circa 1970) - courtesy of Victor Schonfield' s archive

The Scratch Orchestra grew out of a series of public classes in experimental music that Cornelius Cardew and other composers had been running in London in the late 1960s. These began at the Anti-University on Rivington Street and then at Morley College, a workers education centre set up in the 19th Century. It was here that the original members of the Scratch Orchestra first came together Cardew, Michael Parson, Howard Skempton and people attending their classes. The foundation of the Orchestra was officially announced in June 1969 through the publication in the Musical Times of ‘'A Scratch Orchestra: draft constitution'’ written by Cardew. The constitution defines the Orchestra as "a large number of enthusiasts pooling their resources (not primarily material resources) and assembling for action (music-making, performance, edification)". Membership was open to anyone, regardless of musical ability. Many visual artists, such as Stefan Szczelkun, joined and they brought with them an interest and experience of art happenings and urban intervention works. Through these, and more conventional concerts, the Orchestra aimed to function in the public sphere presenting works developed by the group. The constitution outlined various forms of activity that the Orchestra would follow in creating these. One of the most important activities was the writing of ‘Scratch Music’. Each member of the Orchestra had a notebook, or "Scratchbook", in which they would write small works that
could be combined into larger ensemble pieces. The constitution emphasises that these Scratch Music pieces should be an active process of experimentation with different notational forms: verbal, graphic, musical, collage, etc... By 1972 a clearly defined process for the development of Scratch Music had emerged. Each piece was originally performed by its author, the scores were then exchanged and performed by other Orchestra members, providing a kind of ‘peer review’ critique of the pieces.
"Scratchers" were asked to write no more than one new piece per day, but encouraged to keep a ‘regular turnover’, so that there was a tight feedback loop between writing and performing.

Cornelius Cardew talking about the Scratch Orchestra

...here...

courtesy of Ubu Web

 

The Dead C

 

Superb live of The Dead C in the "Sonic Protest festival" in Paris

with 

Bruce Russell, guitar

Michael Morley, guitar & vocals

Robbie Yeats, drums

and another extract of the same concert  <<<here>>>

Sky

The seminal new-zealander trio "The Dead C" made up of members Bruce Russell, Michael Morley and Robbie Yeats will be for a "Sonic protest concert" in La Dynamo in Pantin next wenesday 17 april.

The Dead C, the experimental band otherwise "Sonic Youth" would have never exist.

Bruce Russell who created Xpressway record label and then the famous record label "Corpus Hermeticum"  wrote an excellent book around sound and noise titled "Left-handed blows - Writing on sound 1993-2009"

& a Bruce's  radiophonic work for Kunstradio in Vienna <<<here>>>

Roomfull of teeth

"Roomfull of teeth" is an american vocal octet founded in 2009 by Brad Wells.
They try to re-build the new vocal music of this XXI th century.
In the continuity of the Glass's scores for voices.
Creating a new repertoire without borders, they integrate all different technicals they learned as the Tuvan and Inuit throat's singing as well the yodeling.

Jew's harp

A piece of Jew's harp by my friend David Coulter
at LimeWharf's Kitchen Experiment 01 'Eat The World', 13-03-2013
Enjoy!