This 'n' That; NMS, Sat 8/6/19; 10:00pm

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Caroline Shaw (b1982): Limestone and felt (2012, for Viola & 'cello - Nathan Schram and Andrew Yee from the Attacca 4tet)

Jan-Peter de Graaff (b1992): Café de nuit (2017 - BBCSO/Jac van Steen)

Kirsty Devaney (b1990): Root (2015, for flexible ensemble, here played by BCMG Next & Thallein Ensemble conducted by Michael Colebey)

Sophie Lacaze (b1963): Après avoir contemplé la lune (2011 - BBCSO/Pierre-André Valade)

Mesias Maiguashca (b1938): Nemos Orgel (1972-90, for organ & electronics, performed at the Only Connect Festival of Sound in Stavanger, Norway a fortnight ago by Lauren Redhead (organ) & Alistair Zaldua (live electronics)

Catherine Lamb (b1982): Parallaxis Forma (2016 - Ensemble neoN)

Plus news about the first releases from the new Birmingham Record Company, chiefly focussing on the work of Michael Wolters (b1971), but with a disc devoted to Joe Cutler (b1968) ...

https://www.nmcrec.co.uk/birmingham-record-company

... and Richard Youngs (b1966) talks about his favourite spoon.

Kate Molleson enthuses.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005shj

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Many of the works featured are already available elsewhere should anyone wish to listen in advance of the programme:

Caroline Shaw's Limestone & Felt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQlcyXacUrc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFwUn_-fHBk

de Graaff's Café de Nuit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n48pB8C6Obc

A version of Delaney's Root:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCa8wVSQgWE

Maiguashca's Nemos Orgel (with score - this might not be the version to be broadcast, as that involved "live electronics" rather than the "tonband" referred to here):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV5KOJFaTkE

Lamb's Parallaxis Forma (with score):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAN3yCtlkf0

[edashtav]

Thanks, ferney. I must get into the rhythm of listening to NMS... in the winter months MotD rules our household.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks, ferney. I must get into the rhythm of listening to NMS... in the winter months MotD rules our household.

Well - you can follow the score on some of those youTube videos, ed.

Gosh - that coat you're holding: I have one just like it.



Oh.


I see ....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The good thing - the really good thing about the New Music Show is that it seems to be focussing every week on Music from (to use feeble adspeak) "the fringes" of current Musical activities: none of that sense of "Well, this could be broadcast earlier in the day without upsetting any but the most timid of horses" that I felt after some Hear & Now broadcasts. 5/6 works in this week's Show have been written in the past 8 years (and Maiguashca's work from 30 years ago has the compensatory feature that it sounds more recent than de Graaff's). This is something I'd been craving for decades.


But ... the presentation. The insistence of both Tom Service and Kate Molleson to go through the Comment Banks of approval with each piece, making clear how everything has impressed them so much without actually offering any insight into the Music itself, so that it appears as if the only pretext for broadcasting it was to provide them with an opportunity to let us know what their reactions to it were. I know it's meant to be "accommodating", and give listeners a starting point for their own reactions - but, unlike on internet Forums like this one - where reactions are shared between people, and strongly opposing reactions can be engaged - it just seems "bossy" ... and intrusive; getting in the way of the Music that's supposedly the main focus. The Music itself is (or should be) the starting point for my own reactions, not my reactions to the presenters' reactions.

It is making listening Live to the programme as broadcast an unpleasant experience for me - and one I am increasingly avoiding, favouring the editing possibilities that the i-Player affords.

[Quarky]

The good thing - the really good thing about the New Music Show is that it seems to be focussing every week on Music from (to use feeble adspeak) "the fringes" of current Musical activities: none of that sense of "Well, this could be broadcast earlier in the day without upsetting any but the most timid of horses" that I felt after some Hear & Now broadcasts. 5/6 works in this week's Show have been written in the past 8 years (and Maiguashca's work from 30 years ago has the compensatory feature that it sounds more recent than de Graaff's). This is something I'd been craving for decades.


But ... the presentation. The insistence of both Tom Service and Kate Molleson to go through the Comment Banks of approval with each piece, making clear how everything has impressed them so much without actually offering any insight into the Music itself, so that it appears as if the only pretext for broadcasting it was to provide them with an opportunity to let us know what their reactions to it were. I know it's meant to be "accommodating", and give listeners a starting point for their own reactions - but, unlike on internet Forums like this one - where reactions are shared between people, and strongly opposing reactions can be engaged - it just seems "bossy" ... and intrusive; getting in the way of the Music that's supposedly the main focus. The Music itself is (or should be) the starting point for my own reactions, not my reactions to the presenters' reactions.

It is making listening Live to the programme as broadcast an unpleasant experience for me - and one I am increasingly avoiding, favouring the editing possibilities that the i-Player affords.

Agreed totally, ferney.

The good thing as far as I am concerned is that it made me listen to other sources of contemporary music. They might not be as intellectually stimulating as Rebecca Saunders, but good enough to make a pleasant listening experience.

As regards the presenters, TS in particular, I'm working on switching off mentally during the spoken parts, unless there is good reason to listen, for example an interview with a composer. As a hardened R3 listener, I'm well accustomed to not listening to presenters I don't enjoy (most of them!)

[MrGongGong]

Some good things there
Thanks for reminding me to listen

always up for a bit of spoon discussion

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Orbitones-Spoon-Harps-Bellowphones/release/449833

or even

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6PH7a4RptU&frags=pl%2Cwn

or even

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I9L1aF6kiM&frags=pl%2Cwn