All I Know³
Information, transmission, modulation, and noise - 3rd Edition

Long before there was an Oracle Corporation, there was The San Francisco Oracle, a visonary and colorful newspaper distributed on the streets of San Francisco and Berkeley, and New York City. And it was in NYC that I saw my very first copy in 1966, and then again in SF on a trip.

I’d never seen anything like it before. The size was like the Village Voice, but it was in brilliant color and graphics.

“The San Francisco Oracle, published in the Haight Ashbury from 1966 to 1968, was one of the most unique and beautiful publications of the ’60s. It is remembered for its extraordinary graphic design by major San Francisco artists, its rainbow colors and the cultural explorations and breakthroughs in its articles, interviews and poetry.”  »Regent Press.

In my mind, The Oracle defined what was happening in San Francisco, which was so different from what was happening in New York City in 1966.

It was one of many things that ultimately led me to move to Berkeley in 1968.

Odd to think that now, 42 years later, I’d be moving from the Sun to the Oracle.

I doubt if the naming of the database company had anything to do with the mythic newspaper of the same name. But it is something to contemplate….

As some of you may be aware, I’ve been a bit preoccupied over the viability of my day job. This week my employer was acquired by a much larger company, and we’ve all been sweating the details. Suffice it to say that today I found out that I am fortunate to have a job in the new company, which hopefully will mean a good stretch of years coming without hearing the word “layoffs” ever again. Well, we can hope.

The emotional and  psychological toll on all workers faced with these events is awful, especially when they drag on for 9 months! And losing so many good people is almost as hard to deal with as a death in the family.

Certainly I’m glad to know that I’m secure in my job going forward. But it is tinged with the pain of knowing what some of my ex-colleagues are now facing.

I only hope that for them this period of limbo is brief.

And, now maybe I can turn my mind back to more interesting things!

 We’re having a string of storms arriving from the Pacific. But they also bring rainbows. Double ones, too.

Today is my birthday .  King Richard II’s too. (1367). Curious.

I’m taking the day off. Going over to Pt Reyes in the morning. Take some pictures. Do some ham radio from my van (will I contact Japan this time? No sunspots.) Maybe take a walk if it’s not raining.

I’ve been getting all these automated emails from websites wishing me a happy birthday. Very strange. “Happy Birthday from blahblah.com”.  Thanks. Really.

A lot to think about. So what is 66 supposed to feel like? Any different than 65? Not really. So far. Can’t tell yet. It was midnight Jan 6th almost four hours ago in New York City. My mother told me I was born around midnight, New York time. So I really can’t judge. But I think I’m the same person I was 30 years ago. A few more aches and pains.

Oddly, so many of my friends seem to have their birthdays around this time as well. In fact, many of my best friends are within the first 3 weeks of January. What’s the significance of that?  I’ve always wondered.

I think we make too much of age, and aging.  Beats the alternative, however.

   This is me right now.

I’ve got my grumpy face on.

The interesting thing about having your birthday in the first week of the year is that my new years  are in synch with everyone’s calendar new year.

But I kinda think everything is going to turn out all right in the end. Don’t know why I feel that way. I’m not an optimist.

We’ll see.

Lately I’ve taken to listening to the Q2 stream from WQXR in New York City. Now that WNYC (the major NPR station in NYC) has taken over the “classical music” station WQXR and made it non-commercial (and changed it’s on-air frequency from 96.3 to 105.9).

The WQXR offers two streams: It’s primary WQXR stream, which is like any classical music station, mostly the usual familiar stuff with lots of mindless chatter. (Why does so-called classical music have to be packaged this way!?)

But the other, alternate stream, which they call Q2, presents “500 years of new music”.  And what you can hear here is quite impressive. Here’s the list of what they’ve played so far today: playlist for 12/31

I don’t know who is programming Q2, but they’re doing a great job. Quite a mix of always interesting and unusual music. So I’ve taken to running the Q2 stream at our house these days. Since I mainly work from home, it’s on nearly all the time (I have replaced the FM tuner in my sound system with a laptop running Ubuntu Linux and streaming internet radio).

There are now a good handful of streams to listen to on the internet. Pandora, of course, is still a major resource. It’s great for Jazz and general popular music, but it’s classical library, while still growing, has problems, like too many repeated plays, and not playing an entire work but just single tracks, which makes mince meat of most music.

There’s also CounterStream from the American Music Center which plays a lot of music by composers and performers I’ve never heard of, which is good.

And, there’s sfSound Radio, a local stream of very experimental music, that is always surprising.

But I’m really enjoying Q2.

When I was growing up in New York (1950’s), WQXR, WNYC, WKCR, WNCN, WBAI, were all resources for hearing great music. WQXR eventually declined to become more of a “lifestyle” station, selling the stuff that seems to go with “classical music”. But that’s where I got my musical education. And it’s latest reincarnation, via WNYC, is a blessing.

By the way, the iTunes URL for the Q2 stream is http://wnyc2.streamguys.com:80/

Happy listening.

The song of holy thanks on recovering good health, in the Lydian mode, from Beethoven’s A minor quartet, #15, opus 132 (1825). At the time LvB was completely deaf, and could hear only his own imagination.

I put this here as a source for contemplation on the year ending, and the year to be. May we all recover good health in 2010.

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So today I do have something to blog about, so I’ll come out of hibernation for a few minutes.

I read this morning in the »NY Times that SAAB cars have come to an end.

My very first car was a »SAAB 96. That was in 1969:

I had bought it used from someone in Berkeley. I think it cost me $800. And I drove it all over. Even to Baja.

I loved this car. Not only because it was my very first car, but it fit me very well. And, it was cranky. A two-stroke, three-cylinder engine with a flywheel, you had to put oil in the gas tank before you put in gas, which baffled most garage attendants .. “Are you sure you want to do that?…”  (These were the days before self-serve.) Especially when I drove off in a puff of blue smoke.

When I arrived in Berkeley from New York City in 1968, I really didn’t know how to drive. I bought the car in ‘69 with a friend. I had a learner’s permit, and he taught me how do drive it in the parking lot at Golden Gate Fields (how many people learned to drive in that parking lot?!).  I was 25 and up to then all I had was a motor scooter.

I had the 96 until 1973, when I sold it before moving to London for a year. And when I was in London, I bought a similar car there, altho  it was a newer V4 model and used regular gas. I sold that one when I left London and returned to Berkeley in 1974. And back home I bought a used SAAB station wagon. The first of two, I think.  I’ve had many cars, mostly old used clunkers. But that old 96 was always my favorite.

Once, in 1970, I drove down to San Diego, and on the trip back up to Berkeley the engine froze up on the freeway. I was able to coast to the next off ramp and stopped by the side of the road to call AAA. Amazingly there was a SAAB repair place nearby (I forget where .. someplace north of SD). I had to leave it there and it took almost a month to get it back after they replaced the engine. They were able to find a replacement!

Somewhere in the 70’s SAAB stopped making practical cars and went for the high end, competing with BMW and the rest. I lost interest. My first new car was a Honda, followed by many Toyotas, and finally my current VW Eurovan Camper. I never got the car lust, like my southern California wife. To me a car is just a tool, a mechanical necessity. But sometimes I wish I still had that 96, blue smoke and all.

So yet another memorial, but this time to a car company. RIP SAAB.

I’m finding it harder and hard to find things to blog about. At least just now. This is the part of the year I tend to hibernate .. roll the rock in front of the opening and move to the back of the cave.

Maybe I’ll think of something, but don’t expect much for a few weeks, ’til the whole thing blows over and the sun returns.

Season’s greeting.

December is turning out to be the cruelest month.

We’ve already been stunned with:

Thomas Hoving, Remaker of the Met, Dies at 78

Mr. Hoving transformed the Metropolitan Museum of Art during his tumultuous decade-long tenure as director.

Stephen Toulmin, a Philosopher and Educator, Dies at 87

Mr. Toulmin was an influential philosopher who conducted inquiries into ethics, science and moral reasoning and developed a new approach to analyzing arguments.

Paul A. Samuelson, Economist, Dies at 94

Paul A. Samuelson, the first American Nobel laureate in economics and the foremost academic economist of the 20th century, died Sunday at his home in Belmont, Mass.

Now comes the word that local photographer Larry Sultan has passed away

Larry Sultan, California Photographer, Dies at 63

Mr. Sultan was a highly influential California photographer whose 1977 collaboration, “Evidence” became a watershed in the history of art photography.

63!!

Cruel month, indeed.

Other Minds 15

Gyan Riley

Other Minds, in cooperation with the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Eugene and Elinor Friend Center for the Arts of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, is proud to announce that the following artists will be featured at the 15th Other Minds Music Festival (OM 15), March 4-6, 2010, in San Francisco.

Natasha Barrett (Norway)
Lisa Bielawa (USA)
Chou Wen-chung (China/USA)
Jürg Frey (Switzerland)
Tom Johnson (France)
Kidd Jordan (USA)
Carla Kihlstedt (USA)
Pawel Mykietyn (Poland)
Gyan Riley (USA)

This year’s Festival will bring to the Bay Area three highly influential senior composers:

* Perhaps the first modern Chinese composer to emigrate to the US, Chou Wen-chung became the founder of a movement for contemporary Chinese music, and counted among his students Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Tan Dun, Bright Sheng, Ge Gan-ru (OM 9), and Chinary Ung (OM 14).

* Kidd Jordan of New Orleans organized the first World Saxophone Quartet, and in 2005 received knighthood from the Republic of France.

* From 1972 to 1982, composer Tom Johnson was also one of the most influential new music critics in the US, writing brilliant reviews for the Village Voice of emerging “other minds” of the day such as Frederic Rzewski (OM 3), Pauline Oliveros (OM 8), La Monte Young (OM 3), Meredith Monk (OM 1), Philip Glass (OM 1), and Paul Dresher (OM 4).

These new music stalwarts will be joined by local talents Gyan Riley and Carla Kihlstedt, Bay Area ex-pat Lisa Bielawa, Switzerland’s radical minimalist Jürg Frey, Poland’s rising star, Pawel Mykietyn, and Natasha Barrett, an electroacoustic and acousmatic sound installation composer from Norway. Performers will include ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Quatuor Bozzini, the Del Sol String Quartet, and Eva-Maria Zimmermann (piano).

The January 2010 issue of Linux Journal is devoted to Ham Radio!

There’s a lot of software out there for amateur radio applications. But up to now most of it has been for Windows PCs. Which is strange, because amateur radio is really about doing things yourself, outside the box. For which Linux and the whole Open Source movement seems a natural. In fact, the lead article in the January issue of Linux Journal calls amateur radio the “first open source project”.

I just hope more ham radio software migrates over to Linux. I hate seeing some really exciting ham radio apps offered Windows-only. More and more apps are appearing for the Mac, which also seems more natural than Windows.

For example there are some really good apps for learning and exercising Morse Code. But most of the best are still on the PC/Windows. So I have to keep one system around with Win/XP just to run those apps. This is silly. I bet if the apps were written in Java they could run on any system.

Lets see more Linux apps out there.

One of my favorite bookstores, Elliot Bay Books in Seattle, is NOT closing (phew!). It’s just moving across town.

As we watch some iconic bookstores fail and close, it’s encouraging to hear that some are doing better than can be expected.

Here’s the whole story from the owner, Peter Aaron:

December 10, 2009

      After many weeks of speculation about the future of The Elliott Bay Book Company, I am now able to confirm that the book store will be moving to a new location on Capitol Hill in the spring of next year.

      The past two years have been a difficult, painful period of exploring and evaluating possibilities in an attempt to determine what would be best—and necessary—to ensure the long-term health and vitality of the store. And while the thought, and the practicalities, of moving from the site and the locale which have been home for the past 36 years are daunting to say the least, I am convinced that this upcoming relocation will afford us the best opportunity to remain, and further develop as a thriving enterprise….

Read the rest on the Elliot Bay Books website ->

We wish them the best of luck!

Hard to believe, but I just finished producing the 200th MUSIC FROM OTHER MINDS program and put it in the mail to KALW across the bay in San Francisco for Friday’s broadcast (December 11, 11pm PST KALW 91.7).

Little did I know when we started this series on KALW in January 2005 that it would go this far. So here we are, about to begin our fifth year!

It’s still fun. And I’m still discovering new music.

Friday’s program features some releases from 2009, and starts with a preview of a release that will be available in January from Michigan-based OgreOgress - a premiere recording and first radio broadcast of the Bardo Sonata by Alan Hovhaness, performed by Paul Hersey. And there’s also music by Ingram Marshall, David Simons, Christopher Roberts, and Morton Feldman.

200!

So far we’ve broadcast over 600 pieces of music from nearly 250 composers:

John Luther Adams, Peter Adriaansz, Charles Amirkhanian, Beth Anderson, George Antheil, Mark Applebaum, Larry Austin, Richard Ayres, Milton Babbitt, Alexander Balanescu, Billy Bang, Jean Barraqué, David Beardsley, Dan Becker, David Behrman, Barbara Benary, Cathy Berberian, Luciano Berio, Johanna Beyer, Iva Bittová, Marc Blitzstein, Mark Blitzstein, David Borden, Pierre Boulez, Tim Brady, Henry Brant, Martin Bresnick, Chris Brown, Earle Brown, Galen Brown, Ryan Brown, Gavin Bryars, Michael Byron, John Cage, Cesar Camarero, Edmund Campion, Elliott Carter, Friedrich Cerha, Philip Corner, Mildred Couper, Henry Cowell, Rick Cox, Ruth Crawford, Alvin Curran, Roland Dahinden, Maria DeAlvear, Eric de, Donnacha Dennehy, Dennis DeSantis, Francis Dhomont, Kui Dong, William Duckworth, John Duncan, Henri Dutilleux, Julius Eastman, Brian Eno, Robert Erickson, Daniel David, Morton Feldman, Luc Ferrari, Michael Jon, Gordon Fitzell, Jim Fox, Dominic Frasca, Fred Frith, Ellen Fullman, Kyle Gann, Peter Garland, Anthony Genge, Philip Glass, Vladimir Godar, Manuel Goettsching, Malcom Goldstein, Daniel Goode, Michael Gordon, Gerard Grisey, Sofia Gubaidulina, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Barry Guy, Lars-Petter Hagen, Cristobal Halffter, Frode Haltli, Mark Hand, Lou Harrison, Michael Harrison, Lejaren Hiller, Hirokazu Hiraishi, Christopher Hobbs, Heinz Holliger, Bryan Hollon, Eleanor Hovda, Alan Hovhaness, Melissa Hui, Charles Ives, Richard James, Leos Janacek, Dobromila Jaskot, Joan Jeanrenaud, Ben Johnston, Klaus Jorgensen, Dan Joseph, Mauricio Kagel, Elena Kats-Chernin, Mari Kimura, Guy Klucevsek, Charles Koechlin, Jo Kondo, Drew Krause, Hanna Kulenty, György Kurtag, David Lang, Thomas Larcher, Elodie Lauten, Daniel Lentz, Tania León, Arthur Levering, Jorge Liderman, György Ligeti, Pierre-Yves Mace, Bruno Maderna, David Mahler, Keeril Makan, Philippe Manoury, Tigran Mansurian, Igor Markevitch, Ingram Marshall, Steve Martland, Janis Mattox, Toshiro Mayuzumi, Colin McPhee, Marc Mellits, Olivier Messiaen,  Olivier Messiaen, Chris Miller, Jeff Morris, Stephen Mosko, Marjan Mozetich, Hyo-Shin Na, Conlon Nancarrow, The Necks, Olga Neuwrith, Phill Niblock, Per Nørgård, Michael Nyman, Pauline Oliveros, Erik Ona, Leo Ornstein, Hans Otte, Gerard Pape, Arvo Pärt, Harry Partch, Gerard Pesson, Steve Peters, Larry Polansky, Jonathan Pontier, Wendy Prezament, Alwynne Pritchard, Serge Prokofiev, John Prokop, Horatiu Radulescu, Maja Ratkje, Belinda Reynolds, Roger Reynolds, Eric Richards, Wolfgang Rihm, Terry Riley, Jean-Claude Risset, Curtis Roads, Christopher Roberts, Neil Rolnick, Ned Rorem, Daniel Bernard, Loren Rush, Jeffrey Ryan, Frederic Rzewski, Franco Saint, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Eleanor Sandresky, Somei Satoh, Giacinto Scelsi, R. Murray, Dieter Schnebel, John Schneider, Arnold Schoenberg, Phillip Schroeder, Stephen Scott, Peter Sculthorpe, Ralph Shapey, John Mark, Wayne Siegel, Valentin Silvestrov, David Simons, Charles Smith, Chas Smith, Linda Catlin, Ronald Bruce, Wadada Leo, Alessandro Solbiati, Bent Sørensen, Ann Southam, Robert W., Karlheinz Stockhausen, Markus Stockhausen, Carl Stone, Igor Stravinsky, Morton Subotnick, Mari Takano, Toru Takemitsu, Karen Tanaka, James Tenney, Michael Tenzer, Terre Thaemlitz, David Toub, Jason Treuting, Sachito Tsurumi, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Frances-Marie Uitti, Edgard Varese, Giovanni Verrando, Serge Verstockt, Claude Vivier, Kevin Volans, Zachary Watkins, Francis White, Ian Wilson, Erling Wold, Christian Wolff, Stefan Wolpe, Iannis Xenakis, Carolyn Yarnell, Chen Yi, Frank Zappa, Hervé Zénouda, Walter Zimmermann, Evan Ziporyn, Agata Zubel

(The complete list is on the website.)

(Portland, OR)

Back from a week in Portland, and a few days in Seattle. This time I drove up, and back. Almost 1800 miles round trip. Snow on Mt Shasta and the Siskiyou Pass at 4310 ft. And rain. Made for some interesting driving.

Here are two images to contrast my pictures of Berlin from the previous post. These were taken by Tim Haley last month.

 New Improved Checkpoint Charlie

The Berlin Wall came down twenty years ago today. Here are some pictures I took of the wall 34 years ago (1975):

Checkpoint Charlie (May 1975)

Many bombed-out buildings were left standing for decades by the DDR, perhaps as a reminder. My 1910 Baedeker says that Friedrichstrasse.. “is flanked with handsome and substantial business-houses, including the retail depots of several important breweries.” I have been unable to identify these two buildings, which I believe were on Friedrichstrasse. At least the restaurant Schweizerhaus on the right seemed to still be functioning. (May 1975)

As far as I can tell, none of this remains today.

Brandenburg Gate, from East Berlin looking into the West. The wall is just beyond the pillars.

More pix from 1975 at http://www.rchrd.com/photo/archives/1975/ 

A few years ago the last time the Yankess were in the
playoffs — and LOST to Cleveland — I said I was giving up on them
after a lifetime of being a Yankee. Come on,
I was BORN in the Bronx after all.

But tonight all is forgiven!
The Yankees won the Pennant (as we used to call it)
and are going to the Series on Wednesday!

Truly, once a Yankee,
always a Yankee.

File this under shameless self-promotion, but one of my photo images, from 1971, made it today’s Photo District News Photo of the Day!

 http://www.pdnphotooftheday.com/2009/10/2436

More at All I’ve Seen.    More from 1971 here.

My daughter Viva (above) had her post-grad story told in an article about grads now living at home in today’s SF Chronicle.

To the Chron story ->

Last week  we took a quick trip to New England to see friends and the colors. We were near Kent, CT, and drove up route 7 to Cornwall Bridge and the Housatonic Meadows State Park, where we stopped to take a walk along the Housatonic River.

I was especially curious to see the Housatonic River because of Charles Ives and his Three Places in New England, the third of which is titled The Housatonic at Stockbridge.  Turns out Stockbridge is in the Berkshires (MA). Still, I had my chance to create my own Housatonic at Cornwall Bridge.

About Ives’ Housatonic, Wikipedia says:

This piece was inspired by a walk that Ives took with his newly-married wife, Harmony, in June 1908. Their honeymoon had been a hiking trip in western Massachusetts and Connecticut. They enjoyed the experience so much that they chose to go back to the Berkshires the very next weekend. Whilst there they took a walk by the Housatonic River near Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Ives recalled:

“We walked in the meadows along the river, and heard the distant singing from the church across the river. The mist had not entirely left the river bed, and the colors, the running water, the banks and elm trees were something that one would always remember.”

More…

Ives later transcribed the orchestral piece as one of his 114 Songs in 1921 after a poem by Robert Underwood Johnson:

The Housatonic at Stockbridge

Contented river in thy dreamy realm
The cloudy willow and the plumy elm:
Thou beautiful! from ev’ry dreamy hill
What eye but wanders with thee at thy will.

Contented river! And yet overshy
To mask thy beauty from the eager eye;
Hast thou a thought to hide from field and town?
In some deep current of the sunlit brown.

Ah! there’s a restive ripple,
And kind the swift red leaves
September’s firstlings faster drift;
Wouldst thou away, dear stream?

Come, whisper near!
I also of much resting have a fear;
Let me tomorrow thy companion be,
By fall and shallow to the adventurous sea!

Here it is with Jan de Gaetani soprano:  

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Last night we went to the much anticipated world stage permiere performance of Evan Ziporyn’s A HOUSE IN BALI in Berkeley.

And I was not disappointed. It was a major accomplishment, bringing together Balinese dancers, actors, Balinese ensemble Gamelan Salukat, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and a trio of exceptional singers.

Ziporyn’s music was outstanding in its counterplay between western and Balinese styles, and the music he composed for the on-stage gamelan was exciting. Musically, this was a very enjoyable event.

I wish I could say the same for the staging, which combined live video with a cramped set that attempted to show the house Colin McPhee built for himself in Bali. I found the video arbitrary and distracting, and not helpful in making it easier to understand the plot, which telescopes in time four major events that in real time occur over the 7 years McPhee spent in Bali: McPhee’s coming to Bali after rejecting a dull life in Paris, his disastrous attempt to build his house and the confrontation with local customs,  his relationship and mentoring of a Balinese boy (Samphi), and his eventual departure from paradise.

The video was shot in real time by stationary cameras on stage and by cameramen moving anachronistically thru the set. But the imagery most of the time made no sense, and for a long period the only image on the large overhead screen was McPhee’s bed. I failed to get the point.  After that I tried to ignore the video screen as much as possible. That wasn’t easy.

Still the music, and the dancing, were most exciting, and I found myself anticipating the next solo by the gamelan, which played with amazing gusto and flash. Which, perhaps, is another inherent problem when mixing musical cultures… that the new and fresh sounds (here, the gamelan) overpowered the familiar new music ensemble of violin, cello, electric guitar, vibraphone, piano, and bass, and at times was much more interesting.

The singers (Marc Molomot as McPhee, Anne Harley as Margaret Mead, and Timur Bekbosunov as Walter Spies) were excellent, altho their over-amplified voices sounded harsh and unnatural (but I have a natural aversion to amplification).

So even tho I have some reservations, I still can marvel at the accomplishment .. that it happened at all. I only hope that this work gets enough performances so that it can be gradually fine tuned. But, as we all know, works that involve so many diverse and special forces are somewhat doomed to few rare performances after the premiere. I only hope that Evan and company are able to interest and involve local gamelans to the work and guarantee future performances. I would love to see this again. But maybe without the video.

Still, two bravos and congratulations to all who worked so hard to put this on, and to Cal Performances for making it happen!

Sometime in the early 1970’s , Charles Amirkhanian and I were so taken by Luc Ferrari’s “Presque Rien”, a tape recording made at the seashore in Yugoslavia, that we started thinking about gathering field recordings made by our listeners at places around the world. We sent out letters to radio stations, composers, and artists around the world encouraging them to take their tape recorders out into their local environments and just record the ambient sounds that surround them. And then mail in the recordings to KPFA in Berkeley.

We took these recordings and made a series of radio programs out of them. They were fascinating back then, they’re even more fascinating now.

And, you can hear almost all of them now on RadiOM.org

Here’s one of them from 1970 featuring recordings of ambient environments made by listeners and friends in Frankfurt, Germany; Yogoslavia; Atlanta, Georgia; Aptos, California; Berkeley, California; San Francisco, California; and Greece.:

You think good music on the radio is going from bad to worse in this country, just take a look at what’s happening in Holland, where good, serious music on the radio (and the internet) has been something we’ve all held for years as an example of what radio should be like.

As from coming November, the Concertzender will no longer be on air. NPO (Netherlands Public Broadcaster) has decided to shut down the Concertzender. The majority of the current programming of the Concertzender will not have a radio-output anymore.

Reason: the Concertzender as it is now, does not fit into the public broadcaster’s radio-policy anymore.

On top of that the current budget will be cut next year with 40% to 300.000 euro.
The Concertzender is shocked and speechless with this decision, since it will have a bigger impact than just ending a radiostation. The Concertzender was founded 25 years ago to provide for a radioservice that should focus on the music instead of commercials or dj’s.

Since then, musicians, composers, music-lovers, bands and orchestras make their contribution to our programs.  If we make a mistake, they correct us immediately and without compassion. But also they tell us how they appreciate the programs and how they value the absence of commercials and news-breaks.
The production method is unique for the past 25 years; a musical army of volunteers provide for a rich source of music and live-recordings that find their way to a faithful audience.

The Concertzender makes a difference by presenting musical originality and authenticity and by combining several kinds of music: thus presenting a musical surprise.
This formula seemed to be able to last for years… that is to say- at least 25!
We feel defeated by the idea that all this will end. It is typically Concertzender to consider all options to continue broadcasting anyway. We have a long history in surviving near-death situations.

So if you know of an asylum for a radiostation that is to become extinct, please let us know!
Until then - now more then ever - we invite you to enjoy our programs now that you still can! We are speechless with the devastating decision on our radiostation, but fortunately the music still speaks for itself…

I’m speechless too!   Concertzender.nl

Composer Leon Kirchner died this week. He was 90 and lived in NYC. He  taught at UC Berkeley and Harvard, and studied with Arnold Schoenberg.

He taught many composers who came to public acclaim in the 1960’s-90’s.

Jeremy Denk has a farewell on his blog, Think Denk.

More at Sequenza 21.

Update: John Adams has written a recollection of his teacher on New Music Box.

Evan Ziporyn has an article about bringing the opera to Bali, and it’s on »New Music Box , and the page includes a link to a 40 minute excerpt from the opera!

So the question really is: why perform this opera in Bali, particularly once the economy went south and our funding shriveled? The subject itself demanded it: Colin McPhee left Bali in 1938 in part because, as he said, “I will always remain the outsider.” He never came back, though in his absence he became woven into the fabric of Balinese culture, deeply influencing not just Westerners like myself, but also many Balinese scholars and musicians, in a variety of ways. In Bali, heroes and ancestors are enshrined in house temples, inscribed into paintings, and invigorated anew through performance. I felt McPhee deserved the same treatment. I think of myself as one of McPhee’s spiritual descendants—part of an ongoing line of Westerners who follow in his footsteps, a composer coming to Bali to study gamelan, and then spending the rest of my life figuring out what it has to do with my own music. So from the beginning this felt like dharma, a duty I needed to at least try to fulfill.

…read the entire article.

While researching the Music From Other Minds programs I’m producing in preparation for Evan Ziporyn’s A HOUSE IN BALI (see earlier posts below), I came across this from Colin McPhee’s book:

I was a young composer, recently back in New York after student days in Paris, and the past two years had been filled with composing and the business of getting performances. It was quite by accident that I had heard the few gramophone records that were to change my life completely, bringing me out here in search of something quite indefinablemusic or experience, I could not at this moment say.

The records had been made in Bali, and the clear, metallic sounds of the music were like the stirring of a thousand bells, delicate, confused, with a sensuous charm, a mystery that was quite overpowering. I begged to keep the records for a few days, and as I played them over and over I became more and more enchanted with the sound. Who were the musicians? I wondered. How had this music come about? Above all, how was it possible, in this late day, for such a music to have been able to survive?

I returned the records, but I could not forget them.

As I read this, I wondered if any of the recordings McPhee refers to are available somewhere. It would be interesting to be able to present the sounds that he heard and found unforgettable.

Well, they are available. In 2001 World Arbiter Records in New York City released THE ROOTS OF GAMELAN, and it’s now available on iTunes! It includes many of the 1928 (lo fi 78 rpm) recordings made in Bali that McPhee heard in New York City in 1929 that led him to embark on a voyage to Bali. The CD also includes performances recorded in 1941 of McPhee’s transcriptions of Balinese ceremonial music for two pianos, and two for piano and flute. The pianists are McPhee and Benjamin Britten, and the flutist the famous virtuoso Georges Barrere.

So I went further into the World Arbiter catalog on iTunes and found the 1952 DANCES OF BALI, featuring the gamelan of Peliatan, which McPhee mentions in his book and help rebuild in the 1930’s, along with the master Balinese composer of gamelan,  I Wayan Lotring. The “fi” is much better in this recording.

I’ve been re-reading McPhee’s book and now to hear those recordings and the sound of the gamelan Peliatan that he talks about  is really exciting.  I’ll include some of these recordings in the next two radio broadcasts.

UPDATE: The folks at World Arbiter Records tell me that they are about to re-issue THE ROOTS OF GAMELAN with improved fidelity transfers and additional content. Stay tuned.

Colin McPhee’s 1947 memoir, A HOUSE IN BALI, long out of print, can be downloaded in full from the internet archive as a single PDF file.

This wonderful book is really worth reading.

Cal performances has announced a number of free public events at U.C. Berkeley leading up to the performances of Evan Ziporyn’s A HOUSE IN BALI:

Education/Community Events
Campus and Community Residency
Sept 18-26, 2009

Composer Colloquium
Fri, Sept 18, 3-4:30 pm, 125 Morrison Hall
Composer Evan Ziporyn — UC Berkeley Ph.D, Bang On A Can All-Stars member, and MIT Professor — talks about his work.

Balinese Dance Demonstration
Mon, Sept 21, 5:30-7 pm, Hertz Hall
Dancer-choreographer Dewi Kadek Aryani and dancer Desak Made Suarti Laksmi demonstrate Balinese dance forms.

Gamelan Master Class
Tue, Sept 22, 5:30-7 pm, 250 Morrison Hall
Musicians of the Balinese ensemble Gamelan Salukat coach UC Berkeley students in the Gamelan program at the Department of Music. Observers are welcome.

Crossing Cultures: Behind the Scenes
Artist Talk
Fri, Sept 25, 4-5:30 pm, Zellerbach Hall Lobby Mezzanine
Evan Ziporyn discusses the challenges of creating a staged work with artists of vastly different training and cultural experiences, with a brief look at a rehearsal in progress.

More info at Cal Performances’ website.