THE OTHER PIANO
Morton Subotnick's The Other Piano for piano and live electronics sees its performance on Saturday March 8 at the hands of pianist Kathleen SupovŽ with the composer himself performing the live electronics. The electronic element in The Other Piano is more precisely described as real-time sound processing. The processing is an improvised space "painting" of the piano sound as it is being performed. The piano music is precisely notated while the improvised processing is guided by a set of instructions for each of the work's four movements, giving each movement its own distinct musical character. All concerts at the Other Minds Festival take place at Kanbar Hall in the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco from Thursday, March 6 through Saturday, March 8.
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THEN NOW AND FOREVER
Morton Subotnick's new work for clarinet, violin and piano, Then and Now and Forever, had its world premiere at the Martha's Vineyard Festival on August 11. The premiere was an acoustic performance of the piece, but in its expanded form the trio features real time sound processing via laptop computer, becoming the newest in a series of pieces which expand on Subotnick's development of the electronic ghost box in the 1970's. Like Subotnick's epic work for solo piano and electronics The Other Piano, the electronic element of the trio is more aptly described as improvised "space painting" of the live instruments, as the computer captures, transforms and plays back the result live in performance. The trio is in one continuous movement with several sections which return in subtle varied utterances. The premiere performance of Then and Now and Forever featured musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra: pianist Delores Stevens, clarinetist Anthony McGill and violinist Nancy Wu.
SKY OF CLOUDLESS SULFUR
"A Sky of Cloudless Sulphur" (1978) was originally recorded quadrophonically. The "director's cut" was then released in a regular stereo version, but for the DVD version of this release, the multi-channel sound is available for the first time, and this, also in the CD version, is the first time the first part of "A Sky of Cloudless Sulphur" is heard, since Nonesuch only released the second part ("Dance") on vinyl, paired with "After the Butterfly".
