Perspectives of New Music articles from January 1997

Perspectives of New Music archives from January 1997

For Richard Swift. (tribute to musician, composer and scholar on his 70th birthday)
January 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION We are delighted to offer the following collection of essays and music in tribute to Richard Swift, on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. By the diversity of these offerings we hope to give some indication, however...

Not only rows in Richard Swift's 'Roses Only.' (musical piece by composer Richard Swift)
January 1, 1997... In late May of 1993, I received a package from Richard Swift including a letter, the score of his song cycle, Roses Only, and a tape of the premiere performance by Susan Narucki, soprano, and D. Kern Holoman conducting the UCD Symphony...

Banqueting with the emperor 'Desiderata' in honor of Richard Swift.
January 1, 1997... 1. Art is the objectification of desire - a desire only trivially libidinous (although, metaphorically, thoroughly so) - not a question of truth, but of reality. The aesthetic object is wholly and authentically. 2. Music lies less in the sounds...

On association, realization, and form in Richard Swift's 'Things of August.' (1985 musical piece by composer)
January 1, 1997... Richard Swift's Things of August (1985) is a piece for piano solo, dedicated to Milton Babbitt for his seventieth year.(1) Roughly ten minutes in duration, it divides into three substantial sections, each with its own tempo and character. These...

History and archetypes. (composer/musician Richard Swift)
January 1, 1997... If you were fortunate enough to have access to the household of Dorothy and Dick Swift in the mid-nineteen fifties you didn't need Prozac. You could cheer up, instead, on wit and delight and laughter, and on an appreciation of the ridiculous that...

The horrors of identification: Reich's 'Different Trains.' (composition by musician Steve Reich)
January 1, 1997... Fifteen hundred persons had been travelling by train for several days and nights: there were eighty people in each coach. All had to lie on top of their luggage, the few remnants of their personal possessions. The carriages were so full that only...

Modal formations and transformations in the first movement of Chou Wen-Chung's 'Metaphors.' (composer and his musical piece)
January 1, 1997... This paper(1) examines the applications of Yijing principles in the first movement of Chou Wen-chung's Metaphors, written for wind symphony orchestra in 1960.(2) The piece occupies a unique position in the composer's development, for it...

From experimental music to musical experiment.
January 1, 1997... With its adoption of modern technology, music enters new and complex relationships with the society to which it belongs. Both specialized scientific research and the economy of mass media become directly entangled with the practice of music...

Interpreting music durationally: a set-theory approach to rhythm.
January 1, 1997... Among musical attributes rhythm is one of the most basic; it is the means by which we measure music's "movement in time" and also informs our understanding of melody, harmony, and even tonality itself. We typically express rhythm in terms of...

Robert Moevs's 'Heptachronon' for solo cello. (musical work by composer)
January 1, 1997... Aligned directly in the post-Webern atonal tradition, Robert Moevs's music tends toward concise, exquisite statements. His chamber music works, particularly of the period in which Heptachronon was written - that is, roughly speaking, the late...