RIP Jorge Reyes; Thanks Matthew Burtner

It came to my attention while preparing this week's playlist that the Mexican musician Jorge Reyes died February 7, 2009, of a heart attack while working at his studio in Mexico City. He was 57. I'm a little embarrassed his passing slipped under my radar for over six months. I discovered Reyes' music in the late '90s when MG was focused more on "ambient" music. Reyes frequently collaborated with such ambient titans as Steve Roach and Robert Rich. I was intrigued with Reyes' fusion of indigenous Mesoamerican music with electronic ambient sounds. Reyes was not afraid to reach for any source of sound and incorporate it into his music. The selection included on the 8/30/09 MG, "El Huarachito" employs flower pots and metallic objects in the mix. Here is a clip of a stage production of Jorge Reyes for his Pre-Columbian style piece "Sacrificio."



I would like to thank Matthew Burtner, Assistant Professor of Composition and Computer Music Associate Director, VCCM, for sending us his latest projects, including the MICE World Tour CD and the "Signal Ruins" DVD. "Sandprints" by MICE (Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble) is scheduled for this week's program. I'll also prepare some excerpts from the audio portion of his DVD for next week. Here is a little more about Dr. Burtner and his musical MICE:

Martian Gardens for 8/30/2009

WMUA FM 91.1
Amherst, Mass. 01003
wmua.org
live webcast

MARTIAN GARDENS
Sundays 21:00--24:00 EDT
Host: Max Shea
online playlists: Martian Gardens blog
email: maxtshea@gmail.com

Program for August 30, 2009

SET ONE
Emmanuel Madan: Freedom Highway
Deep Wireless 2 -- Radio Art Compilation
New Adventures in Sound Art/2005

Charles Amirkhanian: Gold and Spirit
Walking Tune
Starkland/2007

Jorge Antunes: Os Textos
Sinfonia Das Diretas (Symphony of Horns)
Sistrum/2004
conductor: J. Antunes; text: Jose Cunha & TT Catalao; voice: Chico Expedito; chorus: Tonto de Tanto Canto
automobile horn symphony recorded 6/01/1984

SET TWO
Larry Polansky: Canon #12 Doggerel (from 3 New Hampshire Songs)
Four-Voice Canons
Cold Blue Music/2002
The New York Vocal Index, directors: John Potter, William Brooks; Text (abecedarius)from "The Shaker Manifesto, July, 1882," recorded June, 2002, University of York

Barton McLean: Forgotten Shadows (excerpt)
Forgotten Shaddows
New World Records/2000
soprano: Priscilla McLean; text: Thomas Moore, Sir John Stevens, "Oft in the Stilly Night," unidentified tunes by unidentified marching bands, recorded in Petersburg and Cincinnatus, NY

George Crumb: Nobody Knows de trouble I see (trad.)
Complete Crumb Edition Vol. 13 --
American Songbooks II & IV
Bridge Records
soprano: Barbara Ann Martin; Orchestra 2001, conductor: James Freeman
recorded October, 2006, at Swartmore College

Joel Chadabe: Follow Me Sofly (excerpt)
CDCM Computer Music Series Volume 24 #
Centaur Records/1997
percussion: Jan Williams; J. Chadabe: Synclavier; recorded at SUNY Buffalo, November,1984

SET THREE
Louis DuFort: Grain de Sable (1st 1/2)
Materiaux Composes
empreintes DIGITALes/2008

MICE: Sandprints
MICE World Tour
EcoSono/2009
Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble created by Matthew Burtner
sounds on Sandprints: Microphones in the Nambian Desert, performers whistling

The Universal Quartet: Gron Galaske
The Universal Quartet
Blackout Music/2009
Tranderg-Lateef-Rudolph-Osgood;Kasper Trandberg: trumpet; Yusef Lateef: C and Alto Flute, Oboe, Tenor saxophone, bambooo flut, Syrian dobule bamboo flute, Xhosa Overtone Flute, Shanai,moon flute, piano vocal; Kresten Osgood: Drums and Percussion; recorded August, 2008, Copenhagen

Joan La Barbara: Shamansong (excerpt)
Shamonsong
New World Records/1998
voice, percussion, computer, electronic keyboard, synthesizer: Joan La Barbara; hand drums, tar, and dummbeck; cello: Erika Duke Kirkpatrick; gender: Kiristina Melcher; recorded at Diablo Canyon and Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1991, revised 1998, engineered by J. La Barbara and David Dunn

SET FOUR
Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble: The Moment's Energy 2
The Moment's Energy
ECM Records/2009
EAS -- trumpet, piccolo trumpet: Peter Evans; sho: Ko Ishikawa; clarinet, bass clarinet, shakuhachi: Ned Rothnenberg; violin, live electronics: Philipp Wachsmann; piano, prepared piano: Agusti Fernandez; double-bass: Barry Guy; percussion, live electronics: Paul Lytton; signal processing: Lawrence Casserly; sample/signal processing: Joel Ryan; computer processing: Walter Prati; live electronics: Richard Barrett, Paul Obermayer; sound projection: Marco Vecchi; recorded November, 2007, at Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, UK

Helmut Lachenmann: Mouvement (-- von der Erstarrung) (exerpt)
Schwankungen am Rand
ECM New Series/2003
Ensemble Modern Orchestra; director: Peter Eotvos; recorded at Frankfurt Radio, November, 1984

Luigi Nono: A Floresta e Jovem e Cheja de Vida (excerpt)
Voices of Protest
Mode Records/2001
sound direction, live mix: Gerard Pape; clarinet: Carol Robinson; soprano solo: Elisabeth Grard; tape performance: trumpet William O. Smith, soprano: Liliana Poli; voices: actresses of The Living Theater; texts assembled by Giovanni Pirelli; choir: Vox Novus; recorded in Paris; texts (selected): Fidel Castro, Frantz Fanon, Patrice Lumumba, Pedro Duno

SET FIVE
David Dunn: Entrainments 2 (excerpt)
Music, Language, and Environment
Innova Recordings/1996
recorded Azalea Glen, Cuyamaca State Park, May 19, 1985; speaking voices: Ronald Robboy,Lizbeth Rymland, Stephen Storer; oscillators: L. Rymland, Dan Schwarz; computer engineering: D. Dunn,
Peter Seibel

Robert Ashley: Automatic Writing (excerpt)
Automatic Writing
Lovely Music, Ltd./1996
synthesizers, electronics, voice: R. Ashley; voice: Mimi Johnson; recorded 1967

Jerry Hunt: Transform (Stream)
Lattice
CRI/1996 (orig.1979)

Jorge Reyes: El Huarachito
El Costumbre
Extreme Records/1993
flower pots: Juan Carlos Lopez; flower pots, metal noises, voice, Tarahumara drum; final Zapateado: Regina Quintero; recorded in El Cuarto de Maquinas, San Luis Patosi, Mexico

SET SIX
Alice Shields: Vegetable Karma (excerpt)
Shenandoah -- Three Electronic Works
Albany Records/2005

Robert Normandeau: Chorus
a. overture
b. Jadaisme
c. Christianisme
d. Islaminisme
Puzzles (DVD
empreintes DIGITALes/2005

Iannis Xenakis: Hibiki Hana Ma (excerpt)
Electronic Works 2
Mode Records/2008

SINGLE PLAY
Noah Creshevsky: Shadow of a Doubt
Favorite Encores
Pogus Productions/2008

--FIN--

Martian Gardens video supplement for 8/23/09

David Rosenboom's rock bands:

PLOTZ!



DR. MiNT


Trailer for "Revenge of the Dead Indians," another DVD on John Cage from Mode Records:


Matthew Burtner's "Mists" as a modern dance score for Nancy Sandercock's "Waltz."



Samples from Robert Voisey's 60 x 60 Choreography project from Vox Novus:





Pop music and animation from Brazilian composer Didier Guigue:

Martian Gardens for 8/23/2009

WMUA FM 91.1
Amherst, Mass. 01003
wmua.org
live webcast

MARTIAN GARDENS
Sundays 21:00--24:00 EDT
Host: Max Shea
online playlists: Martian Gardens blog
email: maxtshea@gmail.com

Program for August 23, 2009

SET ONE
Robert Ashley: Friends II
Dust
Lovely Music, Ltd./2000
voice, text: R. Ashley; electronics, orchestration: Tom Hamilton, "Blue" Gene Tyranny

Robert Ashley: O Mesopotamia
Concrete
Lovely Music, Ltd./2008
voices: Sam Ashley, Thomas Buckner, Jacqueline Humbert; Joan La Barbara; electronics, orchestration:
R. Ashley, Tom Hamilton; text: R. Ashley

Laurie Anderson:
a. Night in Baghdad
b. Speak My Language
Bright Red/Tight Rope
Warner Bros./1994
accordion: Guy Klucevsek; percussion: Cyro Baptista; guitar: Gary Leonard, Jamie West-Oram; keyboards: Peter Scherer; bass: Greg Cohen, drums: Greg Cohen; keyboards, treatments: Brian Eno; lyrics, vocals, violin, keyboards: L. Anderson

SINGLE PLAY
John Cage: Overpopulation and Art & Royanji
From Zero (DVD)
Mode Records/2004 (1995)
text, voice: J. Cage; soprano: Isabelle Ganz; percussion: Michael Pugliese;
lecture delivered at Stanford University, January 1992

SINGLE PLAY
David Rosenboom: Section VI (Culture) -- PLOTZ! and Dr. MiNT
How Much Better If Plymouth Rock Had Landed on the Pilgrims
New World Records/2009
for Double Rock Bands (PLOTZ! and Dr. MiNT)
electric basses: Tony DiGennaro, Sam Minaie; electric guitars: Alex Noice, Jake Vossler, trumpet and arrangement: Daniel Rosenboom; piano: David Rosenboom; alto saxophone: Gavin Templeton; electric guitar: Jake Vossler; drums: Caleb Dolister, Austin Wrinkle; baritone saxophone: Brian Walsh; live performance: 10/26/08, CalArts

SET TWO
Jonty Harrison: Rock 'n' Roll (from ReCycle)
Environs (DVD)
empreintes DIGITALes/2007

Sarah Peebles: 10 Below
Deep Wireless 6 -- Radio Art Compilation #
New Adventures in Sound Art/2009

Matthew Burtner: Mists
Portals of Distortion
Innova Recordings/1999

Matthew Burtner: Spectral for 0
The Art of the Virtual Rhythmicon #
Innova Recordings/2006

SET THREE
Robert Normandeau: Puzzle
Puzzles (DVD)
empreintes DIGITALes/2005

The Hub: Peyote
Boundary Layer
Tzadik/2008
computers: John Bischoff, Tim Perkis, Mark Trayle

Peter V. Swendsen: Field
60 x 60 -- 2004/2005 #
Vox Novus/2007

Lynn Job: Lily
60 x 60 -- 2004/2005 #
Vox Novus/2007

Amy Knoles: Bird Scream
2x10x10x10+1
Echograph Records/2001
text: Michael Tobias

Karl Korte: Birds of Aotearoa
Extensions -- A retrospective of electro-acoustic compositions
Centaur Records/1998

SET FOUR
Ellen Band: Closet Bird (excerpt)
90% Post Consumer Sound
XI Records/2000

David Dunn: Mimus Polyglottos
Music, Language and Environment
Innova Recordings/1996

Ricardo Dal Farra: ...Due Giorni Dopo
Travels of the Spider -- Electroacoustic Music from Argentina #
Pogus Productions/1998

Didier Guigue: Loupe-enfermoir
Electroacoustic Music of Brazil Vol. III #
Brazilian Society of Electroacoustic Music/2004
contrabassoon: Flavio Lopes de Figueiredo, Jr.

SINGLE PLAY
Paul Lansky: Memory Pages
More Than Idle Chatter
Bridge Records/1994
voice, text: Hannah McKay

--fin--

Martian Gardens for 08/16/09

WMUA FM 91.1
Amherst, Mass. 01003
wmua.org
live webcast

MARTIAN GARDENS
Sundays 21:00--24:00 EDT
Host: Max Shea
online playlists: Martian Gardens blog
email: maxtshea@gmail.com

Program for August 16, 2009

SINGLE PLAY
Judith Shatin: Three Summers Heat--

a. Just Now the Sea-Green Banners Fly
b. Just Now the Early Peach is Red
c. It's Midsummer and Too Hot to Walk
d. Summer Earth is Windless. Heat Still Presses
e. Light Clothes! Few Clothes!
f. I Remember Desire like White Light
g. I Raise my Head to Look at T'ung Trees

CDCM Computer Music Series Volume 29#
Music from VCCM: Virginia Center for Computer Music--
University of Virginia
Centaur Records/1999
soprano: Susan Narucki; text: Tzu Yeh; recorded at Taplin Auditorium, Princeton University, August, 1998

SET ONE
Morton Subotnick: A Sky of Cloudless Sulphur -- Opening
Volume 1: Electronic Works
Mode Records/2001

Pierre Schaeffer: Le triedre fertile
a. Impromptu
b. Strette
L'oeuvre Musicale
Electronic Music Foundation/1998
performance: L'Ancien Conservatoire, Paris, 12/17/76

SINGLE PLAY
John Cage: 23 Seconds on John Cage (from 19 Questions)
From Zero (DVD)
Mode Records/2004 (orig. 1995)
voice, text, stopwatch: J. Cage

SET TWO
Le Tuan Hung: Journey into the Light
60 x 60 2006-2007 #
Vox Novus/2008

Eldad Tsabary: One Minute Under God
ibid.

Lynn Job: Lake House Letter
ibid.

Richard Desilets: Telegram from Space
Deep Wireless 6 -- Radio Art Compilation #
New Adventures in Sound Art/2009

Robert Voisey: Sagittarius
60 x 60 2006-2007 #
Vox Novus/2008

Colby Leider: Veni Creator Spiritus
Sonic Circuits V #
Innova Recordings/1997

Alain Thibault: from OUT
a. God's Greatest Gift
b. OUT-Realite
Volt
empreintes DIGITALes/1990
voice sample: Ronald Reagan; realized 1985 at the Fairlight Studio, University of Montreal

SINGLE PLAY
Marcelle Deschenes: Lux
petits Big Bangs (DVD)
empreintes DIGITALes/2006
voice: Gael Andrews; texts: Robert Oppenheimer; Ernest Rutherford;George Bernard Shaw; Immanuel Kant; Renee Bourassa; sound samples: A. Thibault -- "OUT," "Quarks' Muzik," M. Deschenes -- "deUS irae"; realized 1985 at Bruit Blanc Studio, Montreal

SINGLE PLAY
John Cage: 24 Seconds on Ronald Reagan (from 19 Questions)
From Zero (DVD)
Mode Records/2004 (orig. 1995)
voice, text, stopwatch: J. Cage

SINGLE PLAY
Arie Shapira: We are heading, Hiroshima, Towards the Rising Sun
Selected Compositions 1971-1995
Arie Shapira/1996
Ensemble Neue Pegnitzschaefer of Nuremberg, conductor: Jeffrey Burns; narrator/singer: Gil Alon; text: "New Dawn" by Robert Penn Warren, Hebrew translation: Moshe Dor; recorded at the Akademie Der Kunst, Berlin, November, 1993

SET THREE
Somei Satoh: Burning Meditation
From the Depth of Silence
Mode Records/2004
The Janacek Philharmonic; conductor: Petr Kotik; baritone: Thomas Buckner; text: Kazuko Shiraishi; recorded at Philharmonic Hall, Ostrava, Czech Republic, 7/07/2003

Halim El Dabh: Meditation in White Sound
Crossing Into the Electric Magnetic
Without Fear/2001

SET FOUR
Jody Diamond: Sabbath Bride
In That Bright World -- Music for Javanese Gamelan
New World Records/2009
Musicians from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Surakarta, voice: J. Diamond; text: traditional Shabbat hymn

Barbara Benary: Sun on Snow III
Sun on Snow
New World Records/2006
soprano, percussion: Phyllis Clark; violin: B. Benary; clarinet: Daniel Goode; soprano saxophone:
Jon Gibson; concertina: Jody Kruskal; marimba: Chris Nappi; electric guitar: Nick Didkovsky; recorded November, 2005, at the Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City

--fin--

Martian Gardens for 8/09/2009

WMUA FM 91.1
Amherst, Mass. 01003
wmua.org
live webcast

MARTIAN GARDENS
Sundays 21:00--24:00 EDT
Host: Max Shea
online playlists: Martian Gardens blog
email: maxtshea@gmail.com

Program for August 9, 2009

SET ONE
Ursula Mamlok: Haiku Settings
I. So cold are the waves
II. When a nightingale sang
III. A leaf is falling
IV. A tree frog softly begins
V. How cool the green hay smells
Music of Ursula Mamlok, Vol. 1
Bridge Records/2009
soprano: Tony Arnold; flute: Claire Chase; texts: I. Basho, II. Jurin, III. Ransetsu, IV. Rogetsu, V. Boncho

Ursula Mamlok: Stray Birds
Chamber Works of Ursula Mamlok
CRI/2002 (orig. 1972-1984)
soprano: Phyllis Bryn-Julson; flute: Harvey Sollberger; cello: Fred Sherry; text: Rabindanath Tagore

SINGLE PLAY
Morton Feldman: Crippled Symmetry (disc B, region 1)
Crippled Symmetry
Bridge Records/1999
The California EAR Unit -- flutes: Dorothy Stone; percussion: Arthur Jarvinen; piano, celeste: Vicki Ray

SINGLE PLAY
Joshua Fineberg: Broken Symmetries
Empreintes, Veils, and Shards
Mode Records/2009
Ensemble Fa; conductor: Dominique My; recorded at IRCAM, 5/23/05

SET TWO
The Music Improvisation Company: Dragon Path
The Music Improvisation Company
ECM Records/Polydor/1974 (orig.1970)
electric guitar: Derek Bailey; soprano saxophone: Evan Parker; live electronics: Hugh Davies; percussion: Jamie Muir; recorded August, 1970, at Merstham Studios, London

Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble: The Moment's Energy, Part 1
The Moment's Energy
ECM Records/2009
EAS -- trumpet, piccolo trumpet: Peter Evans; sho: Ko Ishikawa; clarinet, bass clarinet, shakuhachi: Ned Rothnenberg; violin, live electronics: Philipp Wachsmann; piano, prepared piano: Agusti Fernandez; double-bass: Barry Guy; percussion, live electronics: Paul Lytton; signal processing: Lawrence Casserly; sample/signal processing: Joel Ryan; computer processing: Walter Prati; live electronics: Richard Barrett, Paul Obermayer; sound projection: Marco Vecchi; recorded November, 2007, at Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, UK

SET THREE
David Rosenboom: Section I (essential tension to universe)
How Much Better If Plymouth Rock Had Landed On The Pilgrims (1969-71)
New World Records/2009
cellos: Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick; recorded at CalArts, 10/11/08

Philip Mantione:
a. T=2.7k - Beginning - Excerpt 1
b. T=2.7k - Ending - Excerpt 2
It's ALIVE! - Philip Mantione in Santa Fe
Philip Mantione/2009
trumpet: Ron Helman; interactive computer devices: P. Mantione; video: Alysse Stephanian, recorded October, 2008, Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe

Biosphere: Chukhung
Substrata
All Saints/1997

Tim Hodgkinson: Shhh
Pragma
ReR USA/1998

SINGLE PLAY
Theodore Lotis: Underwater Theories
Epoque de L'eau
empreintes DIGITALes/2008

SET FOUR
Barton McLean: Visions of a Summer Night (excerpts)
a. A Little Night Music (Eine Kleine...)
b. Demons of the Night
CDCM Computer Music Series, Volume 7 # --
iEAR Studios at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Centaur Records/1990

Priscilla McLean: Archangels (from Invisible Chariots)
The McLean Mix & The Golden Age of Electronic Music
CRI/1997

SET FIVE
Alexandra Gardner: Tourmaline
Luminoso
Innova Recordings/2006
saxophone: Xelo Gino

Gyorgy Ligeti: Artikulation
(six works)
Wergo/1988

--fin--

Merce Cunningham supplement

These are some examples of work of the late choreographer Merce Cunningham, who died on July 26 at the age of 90. Of the hundreds of artists I include on Martian Gardens, none is more significant to the world of organized sound Martian Garden celebrates than John Cage. Perhaps no other artist was more significant in Cage's life than Merce Cunningham. The relationship between, both professional and personal, lasted from 1942, when Cage met the young dancer, Merce, at the Cornish School in Seattle until Cage's death, a half century later, in 1992. Thus, I honor Cunningham's life, and that of Cage as well, with an extended supplement.













This is footage of Cage and Cunningham in Soho back in 1974. The quality of the audio and video is suboptimal, but the value of the film is immeasurable. A big thank you to whoever posted it on Youtube.