In This issue #9 we highlight 4 artists and some significant works

Joy Division

Closer is the second and final studio album by the English rock band Joy Division, released on 18 July 1980 by Factory Records two months after the death of their lead singer and lyricist, Ian Curtis. In retrospect, this powerful, solemn piece of work seems to point straight at singer Ian Curtis’s suicide. The band’s reverberating mesh of minor-key lines and Curtis’s bass voice are gloomy enough on their own, and attention to the words reveals references to blacker-than-black stories by JG Ballard and Joseph Conrad

Compared to their previous album, Unknown Pleasures, this release incorporates more synthesizers and features a more complex sound. The album continues to be influential and appears in modern media. After the album’s release, the surviving members formed New Order

 

wadada leo Smith

 With America’s National Parks, the visionary composer and trumpeter offers another epic collection, a six-movement suite inspired by the scenic splendour, historic legacy, and political controversies of the country’s public landscapes. Movements in the suite celebrate individual national parks as well as noteworthy musical thinkers. The quartet, Pianist Anthony Davis, bassist John Lindberg and drummer Pheeroan akLaff are joined by cellist Ashley Walters, affording the composer and bandleader new melodic and coloristic possibilities. “The cello as a lead voice with the trumpet is magnificent,” Smith says, “but when you look at the possibilities for melodic formation with the trumpet, the cello, the piano and the bass, that’s paradise for a composer and for a performer.”

Paul Hindemith

Konzertmusik, Op. 50 (Concert Music for Brass and Strings) is a significant orchestral work commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930. It is known for its exploration of instrumental timbres, structural sophistication, and a contrapuntal style. Part I features a bold brass theme against energetic string counterpoint. Part II is characterized by a lively fugue dominated by the strings, with brass interjections. A middle section highlights the viola before returning to the contrapuntal material.  

                                                                

 

Symphony: Mathis der Maler (Matthias the Painter), composed in 1934, is one of the most significant orchestral works of the 20th century. It was derived from his opera of the same name, which tells the story of the Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald and his struggle for artistic integrity during the German Peasants’ War. Grünewald’s internal struggle reflects in the three movements of the symphony, each inspired by paintings from the famed Isenheim Altarpiece: 1. Angelic Concert – a heavenly depiction of angels singing at the birth of Christ. 2. Entombment – a moving portrayal of Christ’s burial. 3. The Temptation of Saint Anthony – a vivid musical battle representing the tension between creative expression and external adversities. Der Schwanendreher (1935) is a cornerstone of the viola concerto repertoire, famously composed during a period of intense political tension in Nazi Germany. Hindemith, a virtuoso violist himself, premiered the work in Amsterdam on 14 November 1935. The concerto is often called the “Concerto after Old Folk Songs” because each movement is based on German folk melodies from the 15th to 17th centuries: Hindemith scored the work for a small wind section and a string section that

Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber (1943) is one of the most celebrated orchestral works of the 20th century. Written shortly after the composer emigrated to the United States, it transformed obscure 19th-century melodies into a virtuosic “American symphony” filled with jazz-inflected harmonies and brilliant orchestration. Hindemith took themes from Weber’s piano duets and incidental music, preserving the melodies almost exactly but “metamorphosing” the harmony, rhythm, and structure. I. Allegro – A confident and aggressive march with East European flavour.  Turandot, Scherzo – A whimsical and delicate movement with a distinct oriental flavour. The middle section features the brass, woodwind, and percussion sections in turn. Andantino – This slow movement closes with an elaborate bit of counterpoint for the flute, which has been said to resemble bird song.

Marsch – Possibly the best-known movement, it opens with a set of fanfares. The original theme was meant to be a funeral march; Hindemith doubles the tempo to give the previously morbid tune a jaunty, catchy feel.

 

 

Symphony in E-flat (1940) is a major orchestral work written shortly after the composer emigrated to the United States. It is celebrated for its neo-classical structure, heroic energy, and intricate counterpoint. 

 

Holly herndon

Platform is the second studio album by American electronic producer Holly Herndon, released on May 19, 2015, via 4AD. The album received wide critical acclaim upon its release, highly regarded for its forward-thinking fusion of experimental electronic music, dance rhythms, and pop structures. The album explores how to engage with technology in a positive way, viewing the laptop as a “hyper-emotional instrument”. Tracks like “Home” directly address the NSA revelations, using echoey vocals and bass thuds to create an atmosphere of being watched. Herndon used a patch to record her own web browser audio, incorporating sounds like email notifications, Skype conversations, and pop-up ad speech into her compositions. Drowned in Sound wrote that “at once Herndon’s most accessible and most adventurous record, this is digital age avant-garde sound art put through a pop prism, and it’s all the more exciting as a result.” Heather Phares of AllMusic described the album as “nuanced in how it combines political, technological and structural and ideological concepts.”  

 

 

Classical Album

Paul Hindemith

Konzertmusik Für Streichorchester Und Blechbläser, Op. 50 Part 1
Konzertmusik Für Streichorchester Und Blechbläser, Op. 50 Part 2
Symphonie Mathis der Maler 1. Engelkonzert
Symphonie Mathis der Maler 2. Grablegung
Symphonie Mathis der Maler 3. Versuchung des heiligen Antonius
Der Schwanendreher – 1. Zwischen Berg und…
Der Schwanendreher – 2. Nun laube, Lindlein…
Der Schwanendreher – 3. Der Gutzgauch auf dem…
Der Schwanendreher – 4. Variationen Seid ihr…
Symphonic Metamorphoses – I. Allegro
Symphonic Metamorphoses – II. Turandot, Scherzo. Moderato –
Symphonic Metamorphoses – III. Andantino
Symphonic Metamorphoses – IV. Marsch
Symphony in E-Flat Major- I. Sehr lebhaft
Symphony in E-Flat Major- II. Sehr langsam
Symphony in E-Flat Major- III. Lebhaft
Symphony in E-Flat Major- IV. Mäßig schnelle Halbe

Jazz Album

wadada leo smith

New Orleans The National Culture Park USA 1718
Eileen Jackson Southern,1920-2002 A Literary National Park
Yellowstone The First National Park and the Spirit of America
The Mississippi River Dark and Deep Dreams Flow the River – a National Memorial Park c. 5000 BC
Sequoia Kings Canyon National Parks
Yosemite The Glaciers, the Falls, the Wells and the Valley of Goodwill 1890

 

woman with bright neon make up and her eyes closed under blue light holding headset

electronic Album

holly Herndon

Interference
Chorus
Unequal
Morning Sun
Locker Leak
An Exit
Lonely At The Top
DAO
Home
New Ways To Love

 

Rock Album

Joy division

Atrocity exhibition
Isolation
Passover
Colony
A means to an End
Heart and Soul
Twenty Four Hours
The Eternal
Decades

 

To The Forum
Return to Blog

in further issues we will continue to Bring you the music of Popular genres to listen, review and evaluate. issue #10 (coming soon) features Bon Iver, nils Frahm, GoGo Penguin and Bright Sheng

NOTES

Sound quality is important and some streaming services will offer superior sound quality. We do encourage you to purchase albums from good online record stores. alternatively, stream the music of favoured artists from those better online streaming services.

paul Hindemith – Konzertmusik, Op. 50 / Symphony: Mathis der Maler / Der Schwanendreher – Label : Deutsche Grammophon : Symphony in E-flat / Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber  – Label : Columbia Masterworks

Wadada Leo smith – America’s national Parks – Label : Cuneiform

Holly Herndon – Platform – Label : 4AD

Joy Division – Closer – Label : factory Records

 

It is helpful to research the artist, using sources like Wikipedia , Music Magazine Reviews (Pitchfork, Rolling stone, NME etc.,) Artist Websites, etc…

A synopsis of the life and music of this Issue’s featured artists appears below.

This Week’s Artists

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (born December 18, 1941) is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the field of creative music. As an improvisor-composer, Smith has studied a variety of music cultures (African, Japanese, Indonesian, European and American) .

wadada leo Smith

Smith was born in Leland, Mississippi, United States. He started out playing drums, mellophone, and French horn before he settled on the trumpet. He played in various R&B groups. In the 60s, he joined the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and formed the trio Creative Construction Company (or CCC) with saxophonist Anthony Braxton and violinist Leroy Jenkins. His work frequently engages with themes of civil rights, universal human rights, and spiritual peace. He participated in a number of landmark recordings associated with the AACM. Smith has performed and recorded with a wide variety of musicians over the years. With a discography of over 100 albums, significant projects include: Divine Love (1978): A seminal early recording on ECM that showcases his expansive, luminous sound. Ten Freedom Summers (2012) A massive 4-CD box set inspired by the American civil rights movement. .

 

to fully express this music, he has developed an original theory and notation system for jazz and world music which he calls Ankhrasmation. Smith has used this original symbolic language for music notation. His scores often resemble visual art and are designed to provide performers with a framework that allows for fresh individual expression during every performance.At the age of 84, Smith has shown no sign of slowing down. He’s released 15 albums this decade. His most recent collaborative album Defiant Life, with pianist Vijay Iyer released on ECM Records. Others include  America’s National Parks (2016): An acclaimed suite exploring the natural and cultural history of the U.S. Park system. Rosa Parks: Pure Love (2019): An oratorio dedicated to the civil rights icon

Holly Herndon (born 1980) is an American composer, musician, and sound artist known for her pioneering work at the intersection of electronic music, artificial intelligence (AI), and decentralized technology. Based in Berlin, she holds a PhD from Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), where she researched the ethics and aesthetics of AI in music. 

Holly Herndon

Holly Herndon was born in 1980 and raised in Johnson City, Tennessee. As a teenager, she spent several years living in Berlin on a high school exchange program, absorbed in the city’s dance and techno scene, she got her start experimenting with club music. When Herndon returned to the United States she began studying electronic music at Mills College in Oakland, California. receiving her MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media. At school she focused on laptop performance, and she currently does most of her composing via laptop. In 2012, she was a doctoral candidate in composition at Stanford University. With that her PhD program behind her, she pursued a music career internationally. Herndon moved from California back to Berlin. Herndon’s music often includes human singing voices (including her own), is primarily computer-based, and regularly uses the visual programming language Max/MSP to create custom instruments and vocal processes. She has released music on the labels RVNG Intl. and 4AD.  She lives with her partner and frequent collaborator, Mat Dryhurst.

Every Holly Herndon album comes with a concept. Her first, Movement, was inspired by the notion that “the laptop is the most intimate instrument.” The experimental collection of songs was made up of sounds of bodies in motion — a cut-and-pasted sigh, a hand brushing up against another.

Her second album,  Platform (2015), furthered that narrative; using sousveillance technology, the recording of an activity by a member of the public, rather than a person or organisation in authority. The technology was developed by Dryhurst called Net Concrete, Herndon spied on her digital self. Platform was a critical success, and in the years since it was released, conversations surrounding online privacy have become more urgent.  With each consecutive album, Herndon has brought more collaborators into her process. For PROTO, she assembled an electronic pop choir that included both human and AI voices, with Spawn.an AI program created by Herndon and Mat Dryhurst trained to replicate human voices, featuring throughout

Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) was a versatile German-American composer, violist, and educator who became a central figure in 20th-century music. Initially a “bad boy” of the avant-garde, he later championed Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) and Neoclassicism, seeking to bridge the gap between performers and audiences through functional music. 

paul Hindemith

Born in 1895. His early life in Frankfurt am Main was marked by financial struggles and a strict upbringing, which influenced his artistic development. Despite a challenging childhood, he demonstrated exceptional musical talent, studying violin at the Hoch Conservatory and eventually becoming a notable violist. Hindemith’s career took off in the post-World War I period, during which he gained recognition for his compositions and performances, particularly with the Amar Quartet. His music evolved from experimental works to a neoclassic style characterized by tonal roots and a neo-Baroque contrapuntal texture (music with two or more independent, equally important melodies weaving together, creating a rich, thick sound where no single melody dominates) reminiscent of Johann Sebastian Bach. Hindemith’s professional good fortune gradually began to change when the Nazi Party came to power in 1933. His music was held in low esteem by the Nazi authorities, who viewed it as decadent. Hindemith, reluctant to abandon the country of his birth, initially attempted to work within the repressive guidelines of the Third Reich.

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In 1935, he accepted an invitation by the Turkish government to reorganize the music and music education systems in that country. Another career move saw him spend a brief time in Switzerland. In 1940, he went to the United States, where he was to remain for the next thirteen years, where he became a legendary professor at Yale University and a U.S. citizen. After moving to the United States, he continued to compose influential works, including the celebrated “Symphonic Metamorphosis” and “Ludus Tonalis.” Throughout his life, In 1953, he returned to Switzerland and taught at the University of Zürich until his retirement. he emphasized the idea of “Gebrauchsmusik,” or functional music, aiming to create accessible music for performers of varying skill levels. Hindemith’s legacy is marked by his dual roles as a composer and educator, reflecting a deep commitment to bridging the gap between composers and audiences. He passed away in 1963, leaving behind a rich and diverse body of work that continues to resonate in the music world today

Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist, guitarist and lyricist Ian Curtis, guitarist and keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris.

Joy Division

While Joy Division’s first recordings were heavily influenced by early punk rock, they soon developed a sparse sound and style that made them one of the pioneering groups of the post-punk genre. Their self-released 1978 debut EP An Ideal for Living drew the attention of the Manchester television personality Tony Wilson, who signed them to his independent label Factory Records. Their debut album Unknown Pleasures, recorded with producer Martin Hannett, was released in 1979. Curtis struggled with personal problems, including a failing marriage, depression, and epilepsy. As the band’s popularity grew, Curtis’s health condition made it increasingly difficult for him to perform; he occasionally experienced seizures on stage. He died by suicide on the eve of what would have been the band’s first North American tour in May 1980, aged 23. Joy Division’s second and final album, Closer, was released two months later; it and the single “Love Will Tear Us Apart” became their highest-charting releases

Critic Simon Reynolds observed how the band’s originality only “really became apparent as the songs got slower”, and their music took on a “sparse” quality. According to music critic Jon Savage, “Joy Division were not punk but they were directly inspired by its energy.”. Curtis was the band’s sole lyricist. He typically composed his lyrics in a notebook, independently of the eventual music to evolve.] The music itself was largely written by Sumner and Hook as the group jammed during rehearsals. Curtis’s imagery and word choice often referenced “coldness, pressure, darkness, crisis, failure, collapse, loss of control”. Despite their short career, Joy Division have exerted a wide-reaching influence and achieved widespread critical acclaim.