From the sexual conquests in the Catalogue Aria of Mozart’s Don Giovanni – so many in Italy, so many in France - to the Lost Objects detailed in the Bang on Can work of the same name; to every stop on the F train in the NYC subway system in a work by Michael Gordon, sung by the Young People’s Chorus of New York, or “The Talk” that many Black parents have with their kids in the Joseph C. Phillips, Jr. a mono-opera, The Grey Land, hear “list songs”.
Hear Michael Gordon's Every Stop on the F Train, a setting of the names of every subway station along the F-train line, as sung by the Young People’s Chorus of New York, conducted by Francisco J. Núñez from their album Transient Glory III. Also, listen to music from the oratorio, “Lost Objects,” a collaborative work between the Bang on a Can composers and the writer Deborah Artman, featuring the Baroque ensemble Concerto Köln and DJ Spooky. The work is a meditation on the theme of loss, as it lists and makes connections between other lost things; objects as mundane as a sock or umbrella to things like one's memory, a species of animal, or the language of a people.
Then, an excerpt from The Grey Land by Joseph C. Phillips Jr. and his ensemble Numinous – the work is a mono-opera about being Black in America. Hear “Don’t”, which is “The Talk” that many Black parents have to have with their teenage sons (“Don’t dress gangsta/Don’t put your hands in your pockets”).
There’s also music by Gilroy Mere (aka Oliver Cherer), from his 2017 album, The Green Line, which lists of bus stops on a bygone route that would take Londoners to the countryside of Sussex and Kent. Then, listen to composer Paul Lansky’s work detailing the things in a woman’s handbag. Plus, music by Meredith Monk, and her “Memory Song”, along with work by Tangerine Dream from the 1980’s where an actress is chanting, in Russian, the names of the continents of the world and pleading to end the threat of "limited" nuclear war, (Wikipedia). - Caryn Havlik
Program #4739, List Songs (First aired 4/12/23)
ARTIST: Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, bass; Orchestra del Teatro di Torino; Gianandrea Noseda, conductor
WORK: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Don Giovanni K. 527: Madamina, il catalogo e questo [1:20]
RECORDING: History of Classical Music in 24 Hours
SOURCE: Deutsche Grammophon
INFO: deutschegrammophon.com
ARTIST: Paul Lansky feat. Hannah Mackay
WORK: Paul Lansky: Things She Carried [5:59]
RECORDING: Things She Carried
SOURCE: Bridge Records
INFO: bridgerecords.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Concerto Köln, Bang on a Can Lost Objects Ensemble, DJ Spooky
WORK: Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe: I lost a sock [8:03]
RECORDING: Lost Objects
SOURCE: Teldec 84107
INFO: Available at Arkiv Music
ARTIST: Meredith Monk
WORK: Memory Song [6:43]
RECORDING: Do You Be
SOURCE: ECM #1336
INFO: ecmrecords.com
ARTIST: Rebecca L Hargrove, soprano; Joseph C. Phillips Jr. and Numinous
WORK: Joseph C. Phillips Jr.: Don't [3:44]
RECORDING: The Grey Land
SOURCE: New Amsterdam Records
INFO: numinous.bandcamp.com | newamrecords.com
ARTIST: Vangelis
WORK: Albedo 0.39 [4:22]
RECORDING: Albedo 0.39
SOURCE: Windham Hill Records, Reissued BMG
INFO: Available at Amazon.com or on Spotify
ARTIST: Tangerine Dream
WORK: Kiew Mission [4:47]
RECORDING: Exit
SOURCE: Virgin
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, AppleMusic, YouTube, and Spotify
ARTIST: Gilroy Mere
WORK: Dunroamin' [5:00]
RECORDING: The Green Line
SOURCE: Clay Pipe Music
INFO: gilroymere.bandcamp.com/album/the-green-line
ARTIST: Young People's Chorus of New York, cond. Francisco Nunez
WORK: Michael Gordon: Every Stop on the F Train [7:24]
RECORDING: Transient Glory III
SOURCE: Cantaloupe Music
INFO: cantaloupemusic.com