#4848, American Music Inspired by Gamelans
Hear five American composers whose music grows out of Indonesian-inspired sounds. There’s music by American composer Lou Harrison, and some of his work for the combination of western instruments with Javanese-style gamelan, featuring pianist Sarah Cahill, and Gamelan Galak Tika. Then, hear synthesizer music with shades of Balinese gamelan and arresting tunings by electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos, from her album, Beauty in the Beast. Listen also to music for retuned sampling keyboard based on an Indonesian scale from the late accordionist, sound experimenter, and innovator Pauline Oliveros.
Hear a collaborative work featuring gamelan and contemporary string quartet from American composer Brian Baumbusch. It’s for “American gamelan” instruments, based on various instruments from the Balinese gamelan tradition - designed, tuned, and built by Baumbusch- and the “new music superheroes” JACK Quartet, (Boston Globe.) Also, listen to a microtonal etude by the late Chicago new music composer Easley Blackwood Jr., arranged for acoustic instruments by Matthew Sheeran (yes, Ed Sheeran’s brother.) Orchestral players recorded notes in a booth, which were then retuned by Sheeran and mix engineer Brian Bolger - some with 23 notes to the octave - using the pitch correction program Melodyne, (NY Times.) Hear the striking and surprising results. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4848, American Music Inspired by Gamelans (First aired 2/16/2024)
ARTIST: Various Artists
WORK: Gamelan Gon Kebjar: Hudjan Mas [1:11]
RECORDING: Explorer Series: Indonesia- Bali: Golden Rain
SOURCE: Nonesuch
INFO: nonesuch.com/albums/bali-golden-rain
ARTIST: Sarah Cahill / Gamelan Galak Tika with Evan Ziporyn, Jody Diamond
WORK: Lou Harrison: Concerto for Piano and Javanese Gamelan, Finale [5:28]
RECORDING: Lou Harrison: Concerto for Piano with Javanese Gamelan
SOURCE: Cleveland Museum of Art Achived Edition
INFO: Available at AppleMusic, Amazon.com, Spotify, YouTube
ARTIST: Wendy Carlos
WORK: Poem for Bali [17:11]
RECORDING: Beauty in the Beast
SOURCE: Audion Records / East Side Digital ESD 81552
INFO: Available at Amazon.com | wendycarlos.com
ARTIST: Easley Blackwood Jr/Arr Matthew Sheeran
WORK: 23 notes. Allegro moderato from Twelve Microtonal Etudes, Op. 28 arranged for acoustic instruments [3:59]
RECORDING: Acoustic Microtonal
SOURCE: Cedille Records
INFO: cedillerecords.org/albums/acoustic-microtonal/
ARTIST: Pauline Oliveros
WORK: Lion's Tale [8:41]
RECORDING: CDCM Computer Music Vol. 7, iEAR studios at RPI
SOURCE: Centaur #2047
INFO: Try Discogs.com
ARTIST: Nata Swara, JACK Quartet
WORK: Brian Baumbusch: Hydrogen(2)Oxygen : III Oxygen (Aqua) [5:27]
RECORDING: Brian Baumbusch: Chemistry for Gamelan and String Quartet
SOURCE: New World Records
INFO: newworldrecords.org
