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!
Category: Postclassical
I Am Somewhere
For most of my life, I have been someone who was for the most part visibly, identifiably mixed race black, but lacking any other evidence of my ethnicity — biological relatives, genealogy, language, cultural items or history — beyond an adoption file that listed me as “Negroid.” I had no roots. I knew that my… Continue reading I Am Somewhere
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
Kenza’s 40 Days
Our daughter has been with us 40 days, which is a significant milestone in Islam. The number 40 appears a great deal in the literature of all the Abrahamic religions. “Fourths + Fifths” is the first movement of the three-movement work Kenza (2012). It is structured around a sequence of six diatonic modes, each associated… Continue reading Kenza’s 40 Days
Best of 2011/2012
The past 24 months have been full of wonderful blessings and have witnessed the happiest period of my life so far. Alhamdulillah, for all that has been given. It thus seems fitting to me, in doing a best of list, to look at the last two years as a whole. Here’s what has brought (re)new(ed)ness… Continue reading Best of 2011/2012
Anni
Anni is for solo piano in three movements; the first and last a prelude and postlude, respectively, to the longer and more developed middle. I have posted the audio for this movement only. The key of the second movement is ambiguous during the opening chorale, then settles into A major/F-sharp minor. It is based around… Continue reading Anni
EL MAHBOOB 