Meredith Monk

[ardcarp]

A short piece (Fields/Clouds?) was played on Breakfast this morning, accompanied by the announcement that MM had won a prize of $250,000 for her contributions to something or other. Well if I could earn that by concocting a rather simple piece out of a repetitive motif I'd be happy.

I guess I'll get some stick for this post!

[ahinton]

A short piece (Fields/Clouds?) was played on Breakfast this morning, accompanied by the announcement that MM had won a prize of $250,000 for her contributions to something or other. Well if I could earn that by concocting a rather simple piece out of a repetitive motif I'd be happy.

I guess I'll get some stick for this post!

Not from me, you won't! - or at least not unless and until what that prize relates to her having done...

[Richard Barrett]

A short piece (Fields/Clouds?) was played on Breakfast this morning, accompanied by the announcement that MM had won a prize of $250,000 for her contributions to something or other. Well if I could earn that by concocting a rather simple piece out of a repetitive motif I'd be happy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/a...e.html?mcubz=0

Obviously she was not awarded this prize for "concocting a rather simple piece out of a repetitive motif" but for several decades of creative and innovative work as composer and performer, of which of course some atypical but necessarily brief and innocuous offcut would be chosen to accompany an announcement on a programme like that. How could you possibly think otherwise?

[Quarky]

A short piece (Fields/Clouds?) was played on Breakfast this morning, accompanied by the announcement that MM had won a prize of $250,000 for her contributions to something or other. Well if I could earn that by concocting a rather simple piece out of a repetitive motif I'd be happy.

I guess I'll get some stick for this post!

Thanks for posting this ardcarp. I was wondering what to listen to next.

Meredith Monk was the subject of a COTW: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04fyj6t

Stick Around!

[ahinton]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/a...e.html?mcubz=0

Obviously she was not awarded this prize for "concocting a rather simple piece out of a repetitive motif" but for several decades of creative and innovative work as composer and performer, of which of course some atypical but necessarily brief and innocuous offcut would be chosen to accompany an announcement on a programme like that. How could you possibly think otherwise?

This doesn't surprise me at all, but thanks for the link which I'd not seen. I happen personally not to care for such as I've heard of her work (not that this is relevant to anything here) but a quarter of a million US dollars is not a small amount of money and had in this instance to be for something far more substantial than merely "concocting a rather simple piece out of a repetitive motif". She has forged her personal path with courage, conviction and consistency (as one could say about her very different compatriot Elliott Carter) and merits due recognition for that.

[DracoM]

Elliott Carter gets the prize way, way, way ahead of MM for my money, tho' I agree it's not $250k

[ahinton]

Elliott Carter gets the prize way, way, way ahead of MM for my money, tho' I agree it's not $250k

Can't disagree with that!

[Richard Barrett]

Elliott Carter gets the prize way, way, way ahead of MM for my money, tho' I agree it's not $250k

I imagine that this prize is intended for artists much further away from the mainstream than Carter, whatever one might think of their respective merits. Although I'm not really sure what the rationale is behind throwing a quarter of a million at someone who's already successful, when dividing it into five or even ten and using it to support artists who are struggling to keep going would seem a fairer way to spend the money. But that's showbiz.

[ardcarp]

Although I'm not really sure what the rationale is behind throwing a quarter of a million at someone who's already successful, when dividing it into five or even ten and using it to support artists who are struggling to keep going would seem a fairer way to spend the money.

Agree with that!


I'm just listening to the CotW podcast now. I guess you probably have to see MM as a performance artist to 'get' her.

[Richard Barrett]

I'm just listening to the CotW podcast now. I guess you probably have to see MM as a performance artist to 'get' her.

My first experience of her music was the Dolmen Music album, the title track of which (taking up a whole side of the LP) I found, and still find, completely captivating, it's a piece composed "on" the idiosyncrasies of the members of her vocal ensemble, in exactly the way a choreographer will work with particular dancers' bodies. Subsequently I attended a performance at the Almeida Theatre which somehow didn't strike home in the same way. The rest of her work I don't know so well, but I find much of it really memorable and all of it deeply felt.

[MrGongGong]

I imagine that this prize is intended for artists much further away from the mainstream than Carter, whatever one might think of their respective merits. Although I'm not really sure what the rationale is behind throwing a quarter of a million at someone who's already successful when dividing it into five or even ten and using it to support artists who are struggling to keep going would seem a fairer way to spend the money. But that's showbiz.

I've long been an enthusiast and she has created some wonderful work (some of the duos's on Facing North as well as the seminal Dolmen Muisc for example). Though, like Richard, I have also had a disappointing experience when going to see one of her gigs. Last time I looked she was engaged with creating a young voices ensemble to carry on her work which, although admirable, seemed to me to be doing one of the things that artists like her were reacting against?

She was also responsible for one of the funniest comments on a Woman's Hour interview. When asked why her work always featured the female voice she replied with something like "I'm a woman, it's the only one I have".

[Bryn]

7.00 pm this Tuesday at the Performance Space, City University.

[Padraig]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAQcja-vFQ4

I hope this pleases some people. You Tube has just now presented it to me.

[edashtav]

I find Meredith Monk's works both fascinating and absorbing. They are often described as avant-garde but I'm left wondering why because her output is accessible and never recondite. Maybe, critics recognise that her genre-busting iconoclasm keeps her ahead of her contemporaries. Sometimes, critics group her with musical minimalism but that descriptor fits badly for her poly-valent creations feel organic and deeply felt, certainly not the creations of an over-riding algorithm or machine. Because she strides with confidence and élan between the silos of many art forms, it strikes me that her works test the knowledge and breadth of expertise of many critics: in fact I find most critiques of her work to be superficial and unenlightening.

[Richard Barrett]

Sometimes, critics group her with musical minimalism but that descriptor fits badly for her poly-valent creations feel organic and deeply felt, certainly not the creations of an over-riding algorithm or machine.

To be fair, that could be said about for example Terry Riley and many other composers whose work is said to fall under that heading. Where I would be somewhat critical of MM's music is that her use of instruments is quite rudimentary compared to her work with voices, so that instruments in her work generally seem to have a rather simplistic supporting role. Also, I prefer her work (and anyone else's for that matter) when it's not moving between genres but creating one of its own. For both of these reasons I've always gravitated most towards her music for vocal ensembles like Dolmen Music, which really doesn't sound like anything else at all.