An excerpt of my review of the Nonesuch album for I Care If You Listen; full version available with a subscription.
Category: Postclassical
I Care If You Listen – FLUX Quartet Records Feldman’s String Quartet No. 1
Here’s my review of FLUX Quartet’s recording of Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No. 1, Structures and Three Pieces, over at I Care If You Listen.
I Care If You Listen – Hamelin performs Feldman
I’m delighted to share my debut piece for the excellent contemporary classical magazine I Care If You Listen. It’s a review of Marc-André Hamelin’s performance of Morton Feldman’s For Bunita Marcus at the 21C Music Festival in May. Have a look and let me know what you think!
Remi, for Piano
Today marks the seventh birthday of my older child, Aderemi. In the year of her birth I wrote a three-movement work for piano which takes the short form of her name as its title. The music is diatonic, in the key of C major/A minor throughout. It has a childlike quality to it and is… Continue reading Remi, for Piano
Best of 2013
Eve Egoyan – 5 Philip Glass – Visitors Kuniko Kato – Cantus R. Andrew Lee – November Laura Mvula – Sing to the Moon Omar – The Man Quadron – Avalanche Thundercat – Apocalypse Hans Zimmer – Man of Steel Best archive/reissue: Sly and the Family Stone – Higher!
Not the Gospel According to John Adams
I’m not sure what art does. I know that it’s possible to imagine life without it. Anyone’s life would be horribly impoverished without art. Yet, it seems to me that if you really want to help people and improve their lives, the most efficient thing to do is to go right to the real issues,… Continue reading Not the Gospel According to John Adams
Birthday Music
Today would have been the 85th birthday of my father Samuel Lawrence (Larry) Russell. He died two months short of his 65th, so this year is also the twentieth anniversary of his passing. Although as a transracial adoptee I have travelled on an outlying cultural path from that of my adoptive family, they are the original… Continue reading Birthday Music
Steve Reich Keys, a Mixtape, Vol. 2
Steve Reich has often described the role of keys and chord cycles in his compositions. This retrospective treats Reich’s oeuvre as a meta-cycle of chords, using harmonic mixing to match tracks whose endpoints share a common key or subset of pitches. Vol. 2 focuses on Reich’s earlier, longer pieces, and includes most of his major… Continue reading Steve Reich Keys, a Mixtape, Vol. 2
Quarter-Tone Study
This piece was composed and recorded when I was a student at York University, most likely a partial result of attending the late James Tenney’s course on the music of Charles Ives and hearing the latter composer’s Three Quarter-Tone Pieces. Although I took the time to prepare a neat modular score (see below), my involvement… Continue reading Quarter-Tone Study
Queen Peace
Today is Philip Glass’ birthday, my birthday and also the birthday of my first child, Aderemi. In honour of the last celebrant, I’m posting a piece from a suite I wrote for her in the year of her birth. Aderemi is a Yoruba name and translates “the crown brings peace.” This is a very simple,… Continue reading Queen Peace
EL MAHBOOB 