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The Rest is Noise: The Playlist
Posted on March 1, 2021 Leave a Comment
The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross’s 2007 Pulitzer Prize-nominated tome, remains one of the most impressive and convincing books on twentieth-century music. I recently finished reading through it a second time (the first was during my undergrad) and instantly fell in love with it all over again. Using cultural history, biography, style history, and analysis […]
Rethinking the Concert Hall – Part 4: Programming (New Music)
Posted on February 1, 2021 2 Comments
This is the fourth and final installment of my multiple-part series. You can read the previous parts here, here, and here. On December 20, 1973, Aaron Copland made a guest appearance on the public television series Day at Night. Within this wide-ranging and lively discussion, one particularly fascinating exchange occurs when the interviewer, James Day, inquires about Copland’s contemporary musical language: James Day: […]
R.I.P. Christopher Rouse (1949-2019)
Posted on September 30, 2019 Leave a Comment
On September 21, 2019, the classical music world bade a sad farewell to Christopher Rouse, one of America’s most esteemed contemporary composers. Winner of numerous awards—including the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for his Trombone Concerto—Rouse’s compositions reflect a vast and sophisticated musical palette, treading confidently between ear-shattering dissonances (heard in his jaw-dropping tone poem Gorgon) and […]
