On the birthday of Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), here’s my first Telemann album, with Concentus Musicus of Denmark, purchased around 1982. If I’m not mistaken, it was actually issued in 1965. It sure does look like it. This got me thinking about Nonesuch Records’ characteristically groovy cover art from the era. How many of these do you remember?
Tag: Nonesuch Records
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Subotnick’s Silver Apples electronic music pioneer
I remember hearing this for the first time in the middle of the night, broadcast by Henry Varlack on WFLN in Philadelphia. As you can imagine, I never forgot it. It’s the first piece of electronic music specifically commissioned by a record label (Nonesuch Records). This is from back in the day when Nonesuch was Nonesuch, and synthesizers were synthesizers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G1hRNLlYpg
Happy birthday, Morton Subotnick, pioneering composer of the cult classic “Silver Apples of the Moon.”
Morton Subotnick: The Mad Scientist in the Laboratory of the Ecstatic Moment:
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Robert Moran Featured Composer Datebook
Robert Moran is featured on today’s “Composers Datebook.”
https://www.yourclassical.org/programs/composers-datebook/episodes/2020/02/13
Moran happened to be in Buffalo one summer when he sat down at the piano and in about 20 minutes came up with a waltz he thought sounded an awful lot like Maurice Ravel. This prompted him to call his friend, Robert Helps. He told Helps he had just written this piece of music and asked, rhetorically, “Does anyone write waltzes anymore?” Helps was astonished, as, he confessed, he had just completed a waltz himself.
This was the start of “The Waltz Project,” for which Moran approached a number of his composer-colleagues to contribute. Some didn’t have the time, others had exclusive contracts that barred their participation. Those who could – including such unlikely bedfellows as Philip Glass, Milton Babbitt, Lou Harrison, Roger Sessions, Joan Tower, John Cage, and Virgil Thomson – had their contributions recorded by Nonesuch Records. These were released on an LP that is still much sought-after by collectors.
Robert Moran’s “Waltz. In Memoriam Maurice Ravel”
His orchestration of Philip Glass’ “Modern Love Waltz”
The original Nonesuch LP and its 17 composers:
https://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Waltz-Project-17-Contemporary-Waltzes-For-Piano/release/1223767This must be a sign from the cosmos, as Bob and I are supposed to have lunch today!
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