#2979: The Art of Gliding

This New Sounds focuses on a certain sliding noise - that spooky scrape, that insistent siren, the glissando (comes from the Italianized French, glisser, to glide.) For this program, we'll hear a number of works which feature sliding on the unfretted strings of a cello, including a piece by California-born, now Cologne-based Jay Schwartz. Schwartz's "Music for 12 Cellos" sometimes strays into the overtone spectrum, sometimes swirls into low roars and drones, then sounds urgent sirens which finally disappear into cloudless climbs. We'll then hear music by Lois V Vierk, who in her piece "Red Shift" (for electric guitar, synthesizer, cello, and percussion), also rocks the glissando, sliding from somber, spare beginnings into a near-operatic frenzy. Plus, listen to Michael Gordon's electronically amped-up "Industry" with its call for a "tube screamer" which helps to distort the glissandi, and chase that with Arvo Pärt's "Fratres" for 12 cellos.

PROGRAM #2979, The Art of Glide (First aired on Thurs. 9-10-09)

ARTIST(S)	RECORDING	CUT(S)	SOURCE
Lois V. Vierk	Beneath the River	Red Shift, excerpt [1:00]	Tzadik 7056 www.tzadik.com
Maya Beiser	Bang on a Can Industry	Michael Gordon: Industry [10:25]	Sony 66483 Out of print. Reissued on Cantaloupe 21010 www.cantaloupemusic.com
Arvo Pärt	Tabula Rasa	Fratres (for 12 Cellos) [11:58]	ECM 1275 www.ecmrecords.com
Jay Schwartz	Deutscher Musikrat Edition Zeitgenossische Musik	Jay Schwartz: Music for 12 cellos [16:05]	Wergo 6572 www.wergo.de
Lois V. Vierk	Beneath the River	Red Shift [12:16] River Beneath the River, excerpt [1:30]	See above.