Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Terry Riley

  • Terry Riley Turns 90 Minimalist Music Pioneer

    Terry Riley Turns 90 Minimalist Music Pioneer

    Terry Riley is 90-years-old today.

    Riley’s music may not be everyone’s cup of “tea” (or cannabis, as the case may be), but there’s no denying his influence on the development of Minimalism, progressive rock, and the avant-garde.

    Riley himself has acknowledged his debt to Indian singer Pran Nath. The composer made a number of trips to India to study with and accompany Nath. He returned to share his experiences, teaching Indian classical music at Mills College. Riley has also cited the influence of John Cage and contemporary jazz artists, such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Bill Evans.

    Already in the 1950s, Riley began experimenting with looped tape and time-lag techniques. He also composed using just intonation and microtones. His electronic album “A Rainbow in Curved Air” (released in 1969) became something of a landmark, attracting musicians from across a variety of genres.

    Riley’s best-known work is probably “In C,” often credited as the first widely-acknowledged Minimalist composition. The piece was given its premiere at the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1964, by an ensemble that included Steve Reich, Jon Gibson, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, and Morton Subotnick, among others.

    Much ink has been spilled – and acid dropped – over Riley’s music.

    Happy birthday, Terry Riley!

    Vibrant performance of hypnotic “In C”

    Landmark Columbia Records release

    “A Rainbow in Curved Air”

    Riley at Holland Festival, with interview, 1977

    Riley’s trippy website

    http://terryriley.net/

    Recent advice from the composer. Terry looking great at 87.

    Like that? Here’s more.

  • Terry Riley at 85 Minimalist Music Pioneer

    Terry Riley at 85 Minimalist Music Pioneer

    Terry Riley is 85 years-old today.

    Riley’s music may not be everyone’s cup of “tea” (or cannabis, as the case may be), but there’s no denying his influence on the development of Minimalism, progressive rock, and the avant-garde.

    Riley himself has acknowledged his debt to Indian singer Pran Nath. The composer made a number of trips to India to study with and accompany Nath. He returned to share his experiences, teaching Indian classical music at Mills College. Riley has also cited the influence of John Cage and contemporary jazz artists, such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Bill Evans.

    Already in the 1950s, Riley began experimenting with looped tape and time-lag techniques. He also composed using just intonation and microtones. His electronic album “A Rainbow in Curved Air” (released in 1969) became something of a landmark, attracting musicians from across a variety of genres.

    Riley’s best-known work is probably “In C,” often credited as the first widely-acknowledged Minimalist composition. The piece was given its premiere at the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1964, by an ensemble that included Steve Reich, Jon Gibson, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, and Morton Subotnick, among others.

    Much ink has been spilled – and acid dropped – over Riley’s music.

    Happy birthday, Terry Riley!

    “In C”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpYBhX0UH04

    “A Rainbow in Curved Air”

    Riley at Holland Festival, with interview, 1977

    Riley’s trippy website
    http://terryriley.net/

  • So Percussion Summer Institute Princeton

    So Percussion Summer Institute Princeton

    It’s the “Just So Story” that Kipling never wrote.

    So Percussion will oversee its annual So Percussion Summer Institute (SoSI) in Princeton, July 10-24. The town’s streets, public spaces and concert venues will be alive with exciting rhythmic and timbral combinations, in performances at the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Matthews Theater, Albert Hinds Plaza, Princeton Public Library, Princeton Record Exchange, and Small World Coffee. All events are free and open to the public.

    SoSI will celebrate 15 years of new works for percussion quartet, involving college-age composers and performers from all over the world in an intensive two-week chamber music seminar. Many of the pieces to be performed were developed with faculty from Princeton University Department of Music.

    For the third year, So Percussion will be closely assisted by Andrea Mazzariello in developing a curriculum of writing for percussion, readings of composer’s pieces and interactions with Princeton faculty, graduate students and special guests.

    Highlights will include performances of Terry Riley’s “In C” at Princeton Public Library (July 18, 7 p.m.) and a concert made up of So commissions, including works by Steve Reich, David Lang, and Princeton composers Steven Mackey, Paul Lansky and Dan Trueman, at the Lewis Center (July 23, 7 p.m.).

    I do my best to drum up some interest in my article in today’s Trenton Times:

    http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/07/classical_music_so_percussion_1.html

  • WPRB: Birthdays, Riley, and Remembering Schuller

    WPRB: Birthdays, Riley, and Remembering Schuller

    Already entering my fourth week at WRPB Princeton, and I am grappling with the slavish adherence to birthdays. Obviously being on only once a week, I can’t celebrate everyone, and with my over-reliance on the “major” figures, much music by worthy composers has been passing me by. Failing to acknowledge retired Princeton professor Paul Lansky last Thursday (whose birthday fell on the actual day, no less) may have been the proverbial last straw.

    Be that as it may, we’ll touch on what we can tomorrow, though perhaps downplaying the birthday angle more in favor of interesting programming. So we will have music of Terry Riley, who turns 80 today. We’ll also have a work by the impish Kurt Schwertsik, whom I had the privilege to interview at a concert held at Austrian Cultural Forum New York a few years back. Schwertsik turns 80 tomorrow.

    Of course, we’ll remember Gunther Schuller, who died earlier this week. And, I don’t know, maybe I’ll even drop in a little James Horner, though I’m planning a more extensive memorial for “Picture Perfect,” to air on http://www.wwfm.org on July 3 at 6 p.m. ET.

    Daniel Spalding, music director of the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra, will drop by around 10:00 to talk a bit about his orchestra and its appearance in a free concert at Mercer County Park Pavilion, Sunday at 7:30 p.m., as part of this year’s Freedom Fest.

    And yes, I’ll be sure to include something by Lansky, since I happen to like his music. I’m reluctant to promise too much and then not deliver, but trust me when I say that I’ll play what I can.

    Keep it classy with Classic Ross Amico, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 a.m., at WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com.

    PHOTO: Keeping it classy with Kurt Schwertsik

Tag Cloud

Aaron Copland (92) Beethoven (94) Composer (114) Conductor (84) Film Music (105) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (94) John Williams (178) KWAX (227) Leonard Bernstein (98) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (120) Opera (194) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (102) Radio (86) Ralph Vaughan Williams (83) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (268) Vaughan Williams (97) WPRB (396) WWFM (881)

DON’T MISS A BEAT

You’re always welcomed to read my daily dispatches here or on social media, where you can comment and we will be in conversation! But also, please subscribe here to receive direct e-mails either daily or weekly. Thank you always for reading and commenting!

Choose whether to receive one e-mail per day, or one per week:

RECENT POSTS