Ultimate Concept: Deconstructing Matmos
10/1/2008

Matmos (a.k.a. M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel) sits at an intersection where musique concrète, experimental improv, electronic, and pop sensibilities freely rub elbows. Schmidt and Daniel are masters of building music out of seemingly non-musical elements and ideas—a rat in a cage, rhinoplasty, the life of Patricia Highsmith—and the theory behind their work often reads like a twisted science fair project. But while the music may be built on a library of extra-musical intent, you don't need to know anything about that.

Rhys Chatham: Secret Agent
9/1/2008

Rhys Chatham's Crimson Grail, originally scored for 400 guitars and reduced to 200 for its outdoor American premiere (which due to a rainstorm never happened), is the culmination of a unique musical path that is part punk rock, part contemporary classical music, yet somehow neither.

Gloria Coates: Beyond the Spheres
8/1/2008

For Gloria Coates, artistic expression is a spiritual necessity. She has great interest and significant participation in painting, architecture, theater, poetry, and singing—but it is through composing that she taps into a wellspring of abstracted emotionality that the others cannot reach. Whatever the veiled expressions of her work may be, there is an undoubted emotional richness present, which if not concretely knowable is at least viscerally felt by the audience. Canons constructed of quartertones and glissandos evoke gloomy instability, but also unearthly beauty.

Christopher Rouse: Going to Eleven
7/1/2008

When most people think of the music of Christopher Rouse, the first thing they probably think of is how loud it is. And indeed, the visceral power of rock has influenced his over-the-top compositional sensibility. But not everything Rouse writes is completely in your face. Rather, his is a music which carefully balances extremes. Rouse believes music should have a sense of urgency and that the listener needs to bring a certain urgency to the experience of hearing it, too.

June in Buffalo
6/1/2008

June in Buffalo is all about a multiplicity of opinions and aesthetic approaches, all implausibly united by the student-participants' and faculty composers' unquestionable passion for the art of modern composition. It's not about holding hands and singing "Kum Ba Yah." But those open to such an experience will probably glean more wisdom from the festival than those more inclined to stick with what they know. It's one of the most important music festivals in the country dedicated entirely to contemporary music. Find out how the festival fosters young, freethinking composers, not disciples.