5 Jan 2019

Sound Lounge: Eno as Collaborator; Jellyman excavates Monteverdi; Contemporary classical accordion

From Sound Lounge, 9:40 pm on 5 January 2019

9:40

Brian Eno: Eno As Collaborator (Part 4 of 6)

Thomas Goss explores the many collaborations Eno has had with eclectic rockers including David Bowie, John Cale, Robert Fripp, and David Byrne. (RNZ)

Brian Eno and David Bowie circa 1978

Brian Eno and David Bowie circa 1978 Photo: supplied

Reuben Jellyman's excavation of 17th century music by Monteverdi

Reuben Jelleyman

Reuben Jelleyman Photo: Supplied by SOUNZ

'Summer 2016/17: listening to Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610), mostly in the evenings just before I fall asleep.'

On approaching the NZSO NYO 2017 commission I started to envisage a work like the sorting of blurry musical fragments of recollection in my memory and things I was listening to. True to the way many composers admit to conceiving a new work while listening to an old one, I was finding new music amidst a very old, grand creation, viz. Monteverdi's Vespers.

My work Vespro 2017 can be seen in many analogies: but perhaps best being the restoration of an old building, where old stone buttresses mesh with glass and steel. You can excavate shards of the Vespers in the very fabric of the work; but you can also very clearly see it amidst the central structures. And so in being, the work is an entirely new imagination; an evening prayer; a dream. - Reuben Jelleyman

REUBEN JELLEYMAN: Vespro
New Zealand SO National Youth Orchestra/James MacMillan
RNZ

Jonathan Besser - Turn

Jonathan Besser and Bravura recording Turn in 2005

Jonathan Besser and Bravura recording Turn in 2005 Photo: Rattle Records

For this recording, producers Jonathan Besser and Steve Garden sought to create a sound that was very ‘open’ in its structural architecture and sonic textures. While the pieces on Turn were designed to sound composed, they offered enormous scope for collective improvisation. The group recorded each piece just moments after seeing the scores for the first time, encouraging a greater degree of spontaneity. Over many years, Bravura have developed an intuitive appreciation of each other’s musical sensitivities, so this approach played to their collective strength.

The title, Turn, alludes to more than just compositional structure, as a stylistic arc through folk, jazz, and classical terrain ultimately arrives at a sound that is itself curvaceous, gentle, feminine, and poignant.

JONATHAN BESSER: A Selection from the album Turn
Bravura
RATTLE RAT D013

11:05 Relevant Tones: The Accordion

Once relegated solely to the status of folk instrument, the accordion is being used more and more by composers around the world in a stunning variety of different musical contexts. We'll feature music for this storied instrument and talk to a few of the composers about how it inspired them. (WFMT)

Relevant Tones - The Accordion

Relevant Tones - The Accordion Photo: Supplied