This was done by Jesus Contreras and Hannah Manfredi as a music and video collaboration. The story is about a little girl that wakes up to find herself in Mexico. She meets a young boy named Salvador who is on his way to sell mangos at the market. She doesn’t know whether she is still sleeping or awake. The animation and artwork was done by Hannah Manfredi, who also supplies the voice in the narration. Interesting enough, the music and vocals were completed before the animation was shot. All of the music was realized in Live You may need to go directly to the video on Youtube if you have trouble reading the subtitles. This is the direct link to it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uVREtfM1AL4

Karlheinz Stockhausen who just passed away, would probably be best known for being listed on the Beatles St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album (check your liner notes for where he is on the cover). But he was a modernist composer who was at the forefront of the serialist and electronic music in the 50’s, 60’s, and into the 70’s. He would also unfortunately be remembered for his controversial comments about the September 11 attacks in which he alleged to have said the attacks were “works of art”. As to whether he said it or not, it is possible he did. But in doing so, you would have to first understand the man himself and more importantly, his music for context. More importantly, that he would’ve not said to be sympathetic to the attackers in any shape or form. Rather, he was a consummate composer in which everything in the world was filtered through his ears (and eyes) as music.

This piece was originally written in 1924 by the American composer George Antheil (1900-1959) as a musical accompaniment to the film of the same name by Dudley Murphy and Fernand Léger. This version was realized at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. on March 12 2006 with the music edited and programmed by Paul D. Lehrman.

This is the sixth piano etude by György Ligeti (1923-2006) In 2005, I got to see all 18 etudes for piano performed by Chris Taylor at Hertz Hall (UC Berkeley).
~Juice

The music was composed by Gÿorgy Ligeti from 1958 to ‘59. Not much is known about the video, but makes for a great mini-horror video.

The first piece of music i heard by composer Arvo Part was Tabula Rasa, which still stands most likely as my favorite. He is a minimalist composer, who creates deeply emotional music from sometimes seemingly simple interactions. This clip is from the documentary 24 Preludes for a Fugue released in 2005 and is chock full of intimate moments in which you get to see the sort of meditation and thought he puts into the music. It’s generally the kind of music you want to dedicate some amount of time to fully enjoy. It builds and swells usually from very quiet to occasionally quite raucous and lovely. Watch this clip and if you are the slightest bit intrigued, I’d recommend Tabula Rasa as a starting point.

Arvo Part: Tabula Rasa

Arvo Part: 24 Preludes for a Fugue

This cat will whup your ass and take some names in an accordion death match. My dad was always bummed out that his parents forced him to learn the accordion as a kid, he gave it up with aspirations of becoming the next Keith Richards I think. If he had followed through on it, and devoted a maniacal amount of time and focus to it, perhaps he could have achieved the level of play of a Alexander Dmitriev…however due to the allure of rock and roll we will never know…rock on dad.

Korsakov - Flight of the bumble bee - by Alexander Dmitriev:

So i stumbled upon this video at the GetLoFi site, and decided to keep spreading it further across this digital wasteland. It is an old video clip of John Cage performing a piece titled “Water Walk”…because “It has water, and I walk”. It’s too bad people are laughing all through it so you can’t really hear what’s going on, but it is really cool to see as it is definitely a piece that is improved by the live performance of it. It is great to see him work, and watch how he has it all somewhat precisely timed out which i guess makes it a classical piece as opposed to pure improve jazz…in which case he could walk around doing whatever the heck he wanted (or could he!). I guess at the time period it was necessary to have the timing in order to validate it even as music? Do you think the story about the Unions plugging in the radios is real? It is really interesting how the whole show is spun as comedy with the announcer really walking the line close to insulting him…and yet here is one of the most influential composers of the 20th century perhaps. His response to the inquiry about people laughing is really charming, obviously a very engaging intelligent fellow with a good sense of humor.

John Cage: Early performance Water Walk

The video apparently surfaced here at the most excellent: WFMU Blog

Max Richter has a long history of working with modern classical themes and electronic musicians, most notably the Future Sound of London. His piano playing and programming skills were put to use collaborating on their release “The Isness”. His latest solo release on FatCat records showcases his natural talent for melody, and simple classical themes. Fans of Arvo Part and Henry Goreki will find this CD especially satisfying.

MP3 Sample: : Hear More

Link to: Max Richter on Itunes