Elizabeth Kennedy Bayer

aM Lab

ekbayer — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:15:17 +0000

Make some music!

No posting- you’ll have to go to the site to see for yourself!

Racter Songs

ekbayer — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:03:22 +0000

Last night Josh Hill (who needs to get a website!) presented a song cycle with text from The Policeman’s Beard is Half Constructed, a book of prose written by a computer program in the early 80s.

The following texts were presented:

More than iron, more than lead, more than gold I need electricity.
I need it more than I need lamb or pork or lettuce or cucumber.
I need it for my dreams.

He is quiet. He is Paul, the man I chant about, and he is
quiet because his pants are very long. His pants are long
and his vest is short. He sings at morning and at night,
Is this not comical and unfortunate? I fantasize that Paul
is both happy and unhappy, and I think that he sings because
his pants are long. And his vest indubitably is short.

And here are some of my favorites:

I gave a man a coat. I gave a woman a brassiere.
I gave myself and electric current. We all were
happy and full of delight. Take the coat from the
man and remove the brassiere from the woman and take
the electric current from me and we will be sad
and full of anguish.

Bills sings to Sarah. Sarah sings to Bill. Perhaps they
will do dangerous things together. They may eat lamb or stroke
each other. They may chant of their difficulties and their
happiness. They have love but they also have typewriters.
That is interesting.

I find the whole thing- and the song cycle- amazing.

Welcome back!

ekbayer — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:42:57 +0000

So it’s been a very, very, VERY long time since I posted last. And yes, it is 3:30 or so in the AM, but I fell asleep earlier and should be up and at ‘em for the organ masterclass tomorrow at 10:30 with composer Margaret Sandresky. I haven’t read anything about her yet- but Devon said it would be fun.

Anyway, I bought my first scotch yesterday. A Balvenie double wood 12 year- only drinking scotch one time before this, we are still getting to know each other. Anyway, it’s in celebration of a phone call I received yesterday. In May, I will have my first choral work (One Day When It’s Winter) performed in New York (state)!! More details to come!!

Right now, however, I am enjoying a Don Q and coke. It is quite delicious.

The thesis is slow-going, I still have a guitar miniature to write, one more summer program application to finish, comps March 27, I really need to officially quit my part-time job, buy plane tickets for things (more to come!!) and several other things that Don isn’t allowing me to remember at the moment.

Last note: everyone watch 3Sheets. It’s amazing.

Keep listening,
-e

Peanuts Gallery

ekbayer — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:09:53 +0000

I just discovered Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Peanuts Gallery for piano and orchestra. I have to share because it’s so ridiculously adorable. Each of the six movements comes in between 2 and 3 minutes making for a 15 minute piece. It begins with Schroeder’s Beethoven Fantasy, a bright, exuberant fanfare of course heavily quoting Beethoven and featuring the piano. Next is Lullaby for Linus, Snoopy does the Samba (can picture Snoopy and Animal from the Muppets side by side on this one), Charlie Brown’s Lament, Lucy Freaks Out and finally Peppermint Patty and Marcie Lead the Parade. The recording I am listening to right now was performed by the Florida State University Symphony (ETZ is currently their composer in residence). The piece was completed in 1997 and was featured on PBS in 2006. Like most of her work, it has been widely performed and has continued to gain popularity over the past several years.

Short, sweet and well worth a listen.

from the Theodore Presser Co. website:

Zwilich has been the subject of two cartoons in the late Charles Schulz’s celebrated Peanuts® series. The first cartoon, in which the Peanuts® characters attend the premiere of Ms. Zwilich’s Concerto for Flute, set off a chain of events which led eventually to the completion of Zwilich’s Peanuts® Gallery for piano and orchestra, which was also featured in Schulz’s comic strip. Peanuts® Gallery, which Ms. Zwilich wrote for a 1997 Carnegie Hall children’s concert, went on to become the basis of the second PBS documentary to feature her music (the first, “The Gardens: Birth of a Symphony”, featured Symphony No. 4 “The Gardens”). The acclaimed “Peanuts® Gallery” special has aired hundreds of times nationwide since its 2006 PBS debut, and will be rebroadcast during the 2007-2008 season.

A New Man

ekbayer — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:26:40 +0000

I’m very glad my office mate, Kurt of Kurticus.com, reminded me to stop by the Freshman Composition Seminar today. Composer Jonathan Newman is present today speaking about his chamber work, The Vinyl 6. He describes it as “…a Pierrot ensemble gone bad.”. But bad in a good way. The tune is lively, fun and interesting all the way through as Newman takes us on a stylistic journey through the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Look, Listen and Enjoy!

Darwin Electro-Opera

ekbayer — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:55:45 +0000

Listen to the whole thing here until Feb. 2nd. Written by Swedish bro/sis duo The Knife and commissioned by Hotel Pro Forma.

Here is a clip:

Postage

ekbayer — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:41:51 +0000

3 contests later and roughly $80 poorer, I don’t really feel like I have accomplished much. Editing always makes me feel uncreative and boring. I need to re-start my thesis. But that probably won’t happen until after the production of Dreaming Darwin- which you all should see, BTW!!

Bang on a Video

ekbayer — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:36:37 +0000

No, I am not talking about porn. I just discovered that Bang on a Can has their own Vimeo channel (are they called channels?). I just watched this piece for multiple basses and Obama.

Music for Multiple Basses, and the President of the United States from Bang on a Can on Vimeo.

8bb will totally play your stuff!

ekbayer — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:44:24 +0000

What: Musci10 Festival
Application fee: $35
Airfare and lodging will be covered up to $2000… airfare to Switzerland!!
Deadline: Feb 1st- that’s a receipt deadline, so mail now!

Book of Days

ekbayer — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:41:38 +0000

I was looking around on the interwebs, and which checking on the site of Meredith Monk, I noticed that she has a Book of Days project. Well, so does Eve Beglarian. Time to learn.

Meredith Monk’s Book of Days is a film project from 1988. Meredith directed and wrote the score for this project. Her website states:

BOOK OF DAYS is a film about time, drawing parallels between the Middle Ages, a time of war, plague and fear of the Apocalypse, with our modern times of racial and religious conflict, AIDs, and the fear of nuclear annihilation.

Here is a quick clip.

Looks like you just need to see the entire thing. : ) I’ll see if the ASU library has it and get back to you. (small amount of time passes) Of course we don’t. Anyone want to loan me $25?

And now, Eve. Her project is writing and/or assigning older pieces for every day of the year. Anyway, I encourage you to look around on her site. I think there is audio and a PDF score available for all of her works. I encourage you to listen to Robin Redbreat and Landscaping for Privacy (it’s my favorite!).