What is Colin Listening to this Month? - July 2021
To me, equally important to my own works is promoting the works of others and cultivating interest in new music. To this end, I felt it would be nice to do a monthly series in which I share five pieces of music I can’t get enough of. Nothing is off limits here - while I primarily want to focus my efforts on sharing the works of my contemporaries in the world of classical music, if I feel a different genre or older work is adding something to my life in a given month I will certainly highlight it on this blog. Let’s kick it off with what I’ve been listening to in July!
1. Julius Eastman - Femenine (1974)
There is a beautiful quote from Julius Eastman I often think about: “What I want to achieve is to be what I am to the fullest: Black to the fullest, a musician to the fullest, and a homosexual to the fullest.” To me, Femenine is the ultimate encapsulation of this notion. While his angstier piano series (a quick Google search should explain why I do not feel comfortable using the title) consists of perhaps his most celebrated works - which are all dense, mysterious masterpieces - Femenine is the piece of his that speaks to me the most. It unfolds over a joyous 70 minutes with a theme of only two notes, played by the vibraphone throughout the entire work as other instruments gradually join in with their own takes on the theme and improvisations. It’s a particularly fitting work for the summer; the constant sleigh bells are like the chirping of cicadas and the density of the textures is an enveloping humidity.
Femenine is one of my favorite musical works of all time and in my estimation Julius Eastman achieved what he wanted to - and so much more.
Note - this is the first recording of the work I heard and the one that made me fall in love with it, but the ensemble wild Up has recently released an album of what may be the definitive recording of this masterpiece. It is available on Spotify.
2. Yaz Lancaster - Neutral Objects (2020)
Yaz Lancaster is a name I’ve seen more and more often with each passing year, and with Neutral Objects I can very clearly see why. They are one of the most exciting young American composers and I will certainly be following their career as a rabid fan.
Neutral Objects is a hazy, dreamlike work for string quartet. Each note and gesture carries such emotional weight, yet it is simultaneously weightless. Lancaster’s use of microtones is very accessible and utterly beautiful. It’s a rare work in which I feel every note, harmonic, gesture, and especially extended technique is placed exactly right. It’s a pretty flawless three minutes that leaves me craving more.
3. Lou Harrison - Symphony no. 4, Mvt. 4 - Three Coyote Stories (1990)
I do feel the need to add a caveat to this piece - its appropriation of Javanese gamelan traditions and Navajo stories (Lou Harrison was white) is, at best, questionable and at worst, objectionable. The reason I feel marginally comfortable including it is twofold: 1) I do think Harrison approaches this material from a place of genuine admiration and fascination and 2) the stories told are so beautiful and the way Harrison tells them through music is practically transcendental.
I won’t touch on the conundrum of white American composers incorporating and imitating the music and instruments of other cultures (though I see it as an unavoidable consequence of globalization), because others more qualified have written more thoroughly on it than I can. What I will say is that the musical material of this work is, to my ears, some of the most engaging and dreamlike beauty I’ve encountered and I can’t pretend it didn’t have a massive impact on me the first time I heard it.
It’s perhaps the definition of a guilty pleasure, but this piece has inspired me to learn more about Indigenous folktales and religions and to seek out more music by Indigenous composers that tell these stories from a deeper place. In my estimation, that’s worth something.
4. Arturo Márquez - Danzón no. 2 (1994)
This is easily the most well known work on this list, but I hope I can introduce at least one person to it who has never had the absolute pleasure of listening to it. This is just one of the most invigorating, fun, and easy to love pieces of music I’ve ever encountered. It’s usually my go-to rebuttal to the notion that “classical” music is boring.
It has an unbelievably catchy theme, infectious rhythm, and gorgeous orchestration. Danzon no. 2 is one of those pieces that just speaks for itself, so I’m going to stop trying to describe how good it is and let it do exactly that.
Alondra de la Parra’s conducting here just adds another layer of energy to this already vibrant work!
5. Michael Torke - Being (2020)
At last we come to this, the piece of music that I have had on repeat more than any other. Michael Torke’s Being encapsulates everything I love about music - it’s optimistic and joyful, yet carries an undercurrent of yearning. The orchestration is so colorful, every note is exactly right, the emotional journey is breathless - it is a truly flawless piece of music and I cannot get enough of it. There are precious few pieces of this length that I can listen to in their entirety on a whim, and this is one of them. It’s utterly spectacular.