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Recent Posts
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Most Beguiling Cookbook
- What’s New for the 13th of April: Anthony Bourdain in print and video; Calexico, Giant Sand and related music; new recordings of ragas, Nordic songs, and vocal jazz, ‘The Night They Drive Old Dixie Down’ performed by The Band
- A Kinrowan Story: We Lost The Cheshire Cat
- What’s New for the 30th of March: Space Opera by Niven & Pournell, Arkady Martine, C. J. Cherryh, Elizabeth Bear, Simon Jimenez and more; Kage reads for us ‘The Empress of Mars’, a novella she wrote; a grab bag of music including new Buryat folk music; The Ukrainians; live music from the Scottish band Iron Horse; Gail Simone graphic novels; Farscape; and of course chocolate
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Our Rooms
- What’s New of 16th of March: A variety of mysteries; some new Scottish music by an old band, new jazz, and splendid archival reviews; ballads in graphic novel form; and chocolate in Paris
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Pub Ghoulies
- What’s New of 2nd of March: Kibbles and Bits including ghostly stories, the Hotel California, music picked by Gary of course
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Quotes that aren’t
- What’s New for the 16th of February: Books by and about Bob Dylan, and music by Dylan and others; plus some new world music and jazz
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Unreliable Narrators
- What’s New for the 2nd of February: All about the Oz books, green man lore, and gargoyles; Baltic polyphony, East-West ambient psychedelia, and a grab bag of other music
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Knit One, Purl Two
- What’s New for the 19th of January: Go Ahead, Be Pleasantly Surprised At What’s Here
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Ancients and Venerables of Guild of St. Nicholas
- What’s New for the 5th of January: A look back at books Gary reviewed in 2024; some seasonally appropriate Nordic music and a little new jazz
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Biscuits
- What’s New for the 22nd of December: A Solstice Story, Crow Girls, Scrooge, Marley, Elizabeth I, Revels and more festive holiday reading; The Lion in Winter on stage and screen; Jethro Tull, Steeleye Span, Christine Lavin, swinging jazz and more holiday sounds
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Fireplaces
- What’s New for the 8th of December: Elizabeth Bear fiction; some holiday related offerings including new music from The Unthanks, Americana tinged jazz, Polar Express, and more
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Eggnog
- What’s New for the 24th of November: Norwegian winter holiday music, archival jazz, new roots music from around Europe, and more; books and what not about things fictional & medæival
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Pudding
- What’s New for the 10th of November: a grab bag of books from our favorite authors; Richard Thompson and Stephane Grappelli on film; music from all over; and comfort food
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Brandy (A Letter to Tessa)
- What’s New for the 27th of October: The Byrds Live, Trader Joe’s Organic Hot Cocoa Mix, Some Excellent Music Reviews, Folkmanis Puppets of an Autumnal Nature, The Mouse Guard begins…
- A Kinrowan Estate story: All The World’s A Stage
- What’s New for the 13th of October: Elizabeth Bear tends a pot of turkey stock, Groot and Rocket Raccoon, A Video and Fiction set in India, Tasty music reviews, and music from Irish trad band Clannad
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Autumn is Here (A Letter to Anna)
- What’s New for the 29th of September: Louisiana’s Lost Bayou Ramblers, live music by Kathryn Tickell, Ottawa based urban fantasies by Charles de Lint, Norwegian saxophonist Karl Seglem, Gus on the Estate Kitchen garden and other Autumnal matters
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Tag Archives: contemporary music
Philip Glass and Beni Montresor’s The Witches of Venice
The Witches of Venice, with a score by Philip Glass and libretto by Beni Montresor, based on Montresor’s children’s book of the same title, was commissioned by Teatro alla Scala and premiered there in 1995. It’s a fairy tale, with … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged contemporary music, opera
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Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach
Robert Wilson, Philip Glass’ collaborator on Einstein on the Beach, noted that until that work hit the boards, theater was bound by literature. Thinking on it, he’s pretty much right: stage plays, opera, even film were constrained by a narrative … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged contemporary music, minimalism, opera
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Philip Glass’ Akhnaten
Akhnaten is the third of Philip Glass’ “portrait” operas, the three works based on historical figures who transformed the thinking of their times through their vision and ideas. Akhnaten’s claim to fame is that he introduced the idea of “god” … Continue reading
Philip Glass’ Itaipu/The Canyon
Program music has a fairly long history, going back at least to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (which was actually composed as separate concertos, but let’s not be picky). Among contemporary composers, perhaps the most notable for writing program music is … Continue reading
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, Op. 47, Chamber Symphony for String Orchestra, Op. 110a
When I was first making my acquaintance with the range of the twentieth-century “classical” canon, the Shostakovich Fifth was the penultimate achievement of Soviet music. Shostakovich, although a loyal Soviet citizen, was also an artist, which is a breed not … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged contemporary music, modernism
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Arvo Pärt’s Da Pacem
The music of Arvo Pärt, one of the best known contemporary composers, is something I’ve always found attractive. From my first recording of Passio, which was, believe it or not, my beach music for a whole summer way back when, … Continue reading
Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Canto di speranza
West German composer Bernd Alois Zimmerman is one of those unclassifiable artists whose style progressed through what seems to be the normal twentieth-century pattern: neoclassicism, atonality and the twelve-tone row of Schoenberg, serialism, and finally a kind of polyglot style … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged contemporary music
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Terry Riley’s Requiem for Adam
Terry Riley’s Requiem for Adam was written as a memorial to Adam Harrington, son of David Harrington, first violinist of Kronos Quartet. Adam died suddenly at the age of 16 while walking with his family on Mt. Diablo, near San … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged American music, contemporary music
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Thomas Barth’s Beyond Black & White
It is sometimes very difficult to get past the packaging of recordings to the substance (if there is substance, which is not always the case), particularly when dealing with new age music (“new age” being one of those categories we … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged contemporary music, new age
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Leonard Bernstein, The Original Jacket Collection: Bernstein Conducts Bernstein
I’ve mentioned before that there are vanishingly few orchestra conductors in the twentieth century whose names have become household words. There are, if anything, even fewer composers who have achieved that degree of notoriety. Leonard Bernstein is all of the … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged contemporary music
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