Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
To Study or not to Study?
Should indie pop musicians go to University and study music or not? This week, that, is the question. I’m still reverberating from that “one-man band” article in the New York Times a week or so back. When that paper calls a musician “unabashedly articulate” you wouldn’t normally think they were writing about an indie pop sensation like Final Fantasy. The roots of modern pop music are more on the iconoclastic and anti-establishment side (never mind “sex, drugs and rock and roll”). After all, the Beatles were still learning how to play their instruments when they were already an international sensation.
When I was a student in music school most of the young composers were coming in with a stronger background in rock than in classical. Some had gotten bored with formula driven pop music and were looking for something more substantial. They wanted to create music that would be more complex. New classical was just the thing. It could be as intellectual and intense as you wanted. Studying the classical tradition, usually at a university school of music, was the normal road to follow.
On Sunday I’ve lined up a crop of tracks from musicians who have solid training in classical music, but who’ve turned their talents and creativity to alternative pop music. Alexandre Désilet, Son Lux, Julia Kent, Ólöf Arnalds, and Patrick Wolf all fit this profile, and every week I seem to come across more.
Are they running away from classical music? That seems unlikely. You don’t have to do a lot of research to know that there are pop musicians who get ideas from listening to classical music. PJ Harvey and Elvis Costello are just two who are happy to acknowledge that they listen to new classical music.
What good does it do a would-be pop star to study how Beethoven planned the modulations in his piano sonatas or how Stravinsky used the octatonic scale? I teach in a school of music and I’m not sure of the answer to that question. We seem to be going through one of those major shifts in musical history. They do happen every once in a few hundred years, like when European musicians discovered the joys of writing music for more than one part (that happened during the move from Gregorian Chant to polyphony in the Medieval period). The same kind of shift happened in the Baroque period when classical tonality caught on. In our time we’re moving through the “post-everything” period to the “what the hell do we do now” phase. Our university music schools are mostly stuck in the past, with curricula that haven’t changed much in a hundred years. Yeah, some have added jazz programs, but they’re still mostly butting heads with the required classical courses.
A few years back universities started giving out honorary doctorates to aging pop stars. Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Bono, The Guess Who, Nick Cave and Tom Cochrane are just a few who can now be called Dr. So now that university senates have legitimized pop, how can we continue to indoctrinate our students that classical music is “better” than any other kind of music? Outside my office at Brandon University I have a blurb taken from Parmela Attariwala’s website. We’ve played Parmela’s music on The Signal many times. She’s working on a doctorate in music and her dissertation will be about “the impact of globalization and post-colonialism on contemporary music-making.” She’s asking some pretty tough questions about how our programs should be structured and who should be welcome in the hallways.
This isn’t the first time that this has happened. Sixty years ago classical music performers weren’t welcome in the university. They were trained at independent conservatories. As North American universities grew after the Second World War, classical performers and composers edged their way in and seem to have forgotten that not long ago they were outsiders. Creating us and them camps is mostly destructive. After ten years of studying classical music at university, I had drawn a pretty narrow circle around myself. I thought I knew what music was worth considering and what wasn’t. Then I met Leonard Bernstein and he pretty much trashed my little world. For him, there were only two kinds of music – good and bad. He was just as excited about Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the Kronos Quartet’s arrangement of Jimi Hendrix as he was about the Rite of Spring he was conducting that week.
I can’t help but think that if we look at all the music being made in the world, that we’ll find a crazy amount that’s good, if not great. The mix tape we create at The Signal each week is just a window into the world of “new” music that’s being made outside the boundaries. I think that university music professors need to learn from their students on this one. We’ve fallen too far behind the curve. It’s time to get with the program!
When I was a student in music school most of the young composers were coming in with a stronger background in rock than in classical. Some had gotten bored with formula driven pop music and were looking for something more substantial. They wanted to create music that would be more complex. New classical was just the thing. It could be as intellectual and intense as you wanted. Studying the classical tradition, usually at a university school of music, was the normal road to follow.
On Sunday I’ve lined up a crop of tracks from musicians who have solid training in classical music, but who’ve turned their talents and creativity to alternative pop music. Alexandre Désilet, Son Lux, Julia Kent, Ólöf Arnalds, and Patrick Wolf all fit this profile, and every week I seem to come across more.
Are they running away from classical music? That seems unlikely. You don’t have to do a lot of research to know that there are pop musicians who get ideas from listening to classical music. PJ Harvey and Elvis Costello are just two who are happy to acknowledge that they listen to new classical music.
What good does it do a would-be pop star to study how Beethoven planned the modulations in his piano sonatas or how Stravinsky used the octatonic scale? I teach in a school of music and I’m not sure of the answer to that question. We seem to be going through one of those major shifts in musical history. They do happen every once in a few hundred years, like when European musicians discovered the joys of writing music for more than one part (that happened during the move from Gregorian Chant to polyphony in the Medieval period). The same kind of shift happened in the Baroque period when classical tonality caught on. In our time we’re moving through the “post-everything” period to the “what the hell do we do now” phase. Our university music schools are mostly stuck in the past, with curricula that haven’t changed much in a hundred years. Yeah, some have added jazz programs, but they’re still mostly butting heads with the required classical courses.
A few years back universities started giving out honorary doctorates to aging pop stars. Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Bono, The Guess Who, Nick Cave and Tom Cochrane are just a few who can now be called Dr. So now that university senates have legitimized pop, how can we continue to indoctrinate our students that classical music is “better” than any other kind of music? Outside my office at Brandon University I have a blurb taken from Parmela Attariwala’s website. We’ve played Parmela’s music on The Signal many times. She’s working on a doctorate in music and her dissertation will be about “the impact of globalization and post-colonialism on contemporary music-making.” She’s asking some pretty tough questions about how our programs should be structured and who should be welcome in the hallways.
This isn’t the first time that this has happened. Sixty years ago classical music performers weren’t welcome in the university. They were trained at independent conservatories. As North American universities grew after the Second World War, classical performers and composers edged their way in and seem to have forgotten that not long ago they were outsiders. Creating us and them camps is mostly destructive. After ten years of studying classical music at university, I had drawn a pretty narrow circle around myself. I thought I knew what music was worth considering and what wasn’t. Then I met Leonard Bernstein and he pretty much trashed my little world. For him, there were only two kinds of music – good and bad. He was just as excited about Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the Kronos Quartet’s arrangement of Jimi Hendrix as he was about the Rite of Spring he was conducting that week.
I can’t help but think that if we look at all the music being made in the world, that we’ll find a crazy amount that’s good, if not great. The mix tape we create at The Signal each week is just a window into the world of “new” music that’s being made outside the boundaries. I think that university music professors need to learn from their students on this one. We’ve fallen too far behind the curve. It’s time to get with the program!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
May 30, 31 & June 1st
The Signal with Pat Carrabré- Friday May 30, 2008
Be sure to have a box of tissues on hand tonight when Pat plays a heart-wrenching concert by Ms Julie Doiron woven through all three hours. Pat will also swirl the sounds of cello iconoclast Matt Haimovitz while sampling his work over the years. There will be a full hour of la musique francais and Pat will spin the sounds of Mr. Gnome, T-Bone Burnett, and Lucky Dragons.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Saturday, May 31, 2008
Pat puts the cinematic existential sounds of Montreal’s Bob and Bill into high rotation tonight. In concert the acclaimed violinist Rolf Schulte and pianist James Winn take on the dust and wind etched work of three prairie composers; ALLAN GORDON BELL, DIANA MCINTOSH and MICHAEL MATTHEWS. There will also be a seven-inch give away that has The Constantines and Feist reveling in Dolly Parton.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Sunday, June 1, 2008
Tonight join Pat at ringside when two generations of composers go head to head for avant-guard supremacy. Young classically trained whippersnappers like Alexandre Desilet and Julia Kent who crossed into pop take on the old guard like Andrew P. MacDonald and Paul Dolden who crossed over from rock and roll. Tonight’s concert features work by a heavy weight contender from the old guard: Canadian-Argentinean composer alcides lanza. He is infamous for marathon concerts and juggling electronic sounds with almost everything. Tonight’s Sunday soundtrack feature will be music from the dark Danish film- After the Wedding.
Be sure to have a box of tissues on hand tonight when Pat plays a heart-wrenching concert by Ms Julie Doiron woven through all three hours. Pat will also swirl the sounds of cello iconoclast Matt Haimovitz while sampling his work over the years. There will be a full hour of la musique francais and Pat will spin the sounds of Mr. Gnome, T-Bone Burnett, and Lucky Dragons.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Saturday, May 31, 2008
Pat puts the cinematic existential sounds of Montreal’s Bob and Bill into high rotation tonight. In concert the acclaimed violinist Rolf Schulte and pianist James Winn take on the dust and wind etched work of three prairie composers; ALLAN GORDON BELL, DIANA MCINTOSH and MICHAEL MATTHEWS. There will also be a seven-inch give away that has The Constantines and Feist reveling in Dolly Parton.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Sunday, June 1, 2008
Tonight join Pat at ringside when two generations of composers go head to head for avant-guard supremacy. Young classically trained whippersnappers like Alexandre Desilet and Julia Kent who crossed into pop take on the old guard like Andrew P. MacDonald and Paul Dolden who crossed over from rock and roll. Tonight’s concert features work by a heavy weight contender from the old guard: Canadian-Argentinean composer alcides lanza. He is infamous for marathon concerts and juggling electronic sounds with almost everything. Tonight’s Sunday soundtrack feature will be music from the dark Danish film- After the Wedding.
Friday, May 23, 2008
I can’t image where the world of music would be without technology. And I don’t just mean how we listen to music. I’m thinking about how it’s made. So much of what creative musicians do these days couldn’t happen without help from technology. I read an article about Final Fantasy (Owen Pallet) in the New York Times last weekend. It describes him as he’s testing out a computer program he wrote to coordinate the sound of his violin through a group of daisy-chained amplifiers. Owen usually performs as a one-man band, using technology to create a full sound all on his own. An amazing number of musicians perform that way. This weekend we hear from Mad Eskimo, Lucky Dragons, Jay Bharadia and Culture Reject, to name just a few. We wouldn’t be able to hear any of that music if it wasn’t for these new technologies.
One of the most interesting genres of the last few years is the remix. Sampling and sequencing software make it all possible. Radiohead recently opened a site where anyone could submit their own remix of the song Nude, from their album In Rainbows. A whopping 2252 remixes were submitted. That’s a whole lot of people who were willing to pay to download the stems (individual strands of music) and tweak the sounds to come up with their own vision of the song. How much better than karaoke is that!
On Sunday night I’ll be playing a piece by Frank Zappa. He was an early adopter – someone who jumps on board at the beginning of a new technology and rides the rocky road of system crashes and programming bugs. His instrument of choice was the Synclavier. It was one of the first big jumps forward in computer-aided composition, sound sampling and FM synthesis. When I was a graduate student, I was lucky enough to work on a Synclavier II at the University of Western Ontario. It had a 20 Megabyte hard drive (my phone currently has 4 gigabytes) that wasn’t very robust. If you were in too much of a hurry and closed the door to our studio quickly, the hard drive crashed and whoever was working had to re-boot and start all over again. This was before computers could really produce graphic notation for music (something that composers take for granted these days, the same way we all use word processors). I was particularly interested in trying to use the computer to help write music. At the time, I was obsessing over a musical language that could be described with a mathematical formula. The computing power of the Synclavier could run the calculations and play a passage I had designed. That way I could try things out in the same way I would improvise at the piano, but I didn’t have to stop and calculate a bunch of numbers.
On Saturday night we’ll play some music by the Icelandic composer Kjartan Olafsson. He’s deeply involved in computer-assisted composition. He’s even written a computer program, called CALMUS, that helps solve compositional problems as they come up during the process of writing music. A lot of indie pop groups and laptop musicians are using a program called GarageBand. It can set up beats and loop patterns of notes and chords, so you can improvise over top.
It used to be that only the rich or those attached to big Universities could have access to the computing power needed to do anything useful with technology in their music. Now almost anyone can set up a home studio and let their imagination run wild. Another Icelandic musician, Mugison, was in our Studio a few weeks back and he was telling me about how he worked for almost a year on one piece – all on his home computer – only to trash what he’d done and go with a studio session of that song with his band. Computers are very useful tools, but the don’t generally save on creative time.
Saturday night we’ll also hear a track from Paul Linklater. His new double CD and bonus EP are out on the Jibcut label. The whole purpose of that project is to elevate the aesthetic of DIY music, which usually involves recording directly to a laptop.
We live in a time of extremes. On one hand there’s a group of happy DIY knob twiddlers, exerting total control over the music they make in their basements and bedrooms. On the other side we have high-end studios, where sophisticated production teams work in tandem with multiple creators with the objective being to produce something that’s more than the sum of the parts.
Either way, those of us who like our music to be unique and unexpected end up the winners.
One of the most interesting genres of the last few years is the remix. Sampling and sequencing software make it all possible. Radiohead recently opened a site where anyone could submit their own remix of the song Nude, from their album In Rainbows. A whopping 2252 remixes were submitted. That’s a whole lot of people who were willing to pay to download the stems (individual strands of music) and tweak the sounds to come up with their own vision of the song. How much better than karaoke is that!
On Sunday night I’ll be playing a piece by Frank Zappa. He was an early adopter – someone who jumps on board at the beginning of a new technology and rides the rocky road of system crashes and programming bugs. His instrument of choice was the Synclavier. It was one of the first big jumps forward in computer-aided composition, sound sampling and FM synthesis. When I was a graduate student, I was lucky enough to work on a Synclavier II at the University of Western Ontario. It had a 20 Megabyte hard drive (my phone currently has 4 gigabytes) that wasn’t very robust. If you were in too much of a hurry and closed the door to our studio quickly, the hard drive crashed and whoever was working had to re-boot and start all over again. This was before computers could really produce graphic notation for music (something that composers take for granted these days, the same way we all use word processors). I was particularly interested in trying to use the computer to help write music. At the time, I was obsessing over a musical language that could be described with a mathematical formula. The computing power of the Synclavier could run the calculations and play a passage I had designed. That way I could try things out in the same way I would improvise at the piano, but I didn’t have to stop and calculate a bunch of numbers.
On Saturday night we’ll play some music by the Icelandic composer Kjartan Olafsson. He’s deeply involved in computer-assisted composition. He’s even written a computer program, called CALMUS, that helps solve compositional problems as they come up during the process of writing music. A lot of indie pop groups and laptop musicians are using a program called GarageBand. It can set up beats and loop patterns of notes and chords, so you can improvise over top.
It used to be that only the rich or those attached to big Universities could have access to the computing power needed to do anything useful with technology in their music. Now almost anyone can set up a home studio and let their imagination run wild. Another Icelandic musician, Mugison, was in our Studio a few weeks back and he was telling me about how he worked for almost a year on one piece – all on his home computer – only to trash what he’d done and go with a studio session of that song with his band. Computers are very useful tools, but the don’t generally save on creative time.
Saturday night we’ll also hear a track from Paul Linklater. His new double CD and bonus EP are out on the Jibcut label. The whole purpose of that project is to elevate the aesthetic of DIY music, which usually involves recording directly to a laptop.
We live in a time of extremes. On one hand there’s a group of happy DIY knob twiddlers, exerting total control over the music they make in their basements and bedrooms. On the other side we have high-end studios, where sophisticated production teams work in tandem with multiple creators with the objective being to produce something that’s more than the sum of the parts.
Either way, those of us who like our music to be unique and unexpected end up the winners.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
May 23, 24, 25
The Signal with Pat Carrabré- Friday May 23, 2008
This evening sparks will fly on The Signal during a live concert recording featuring the dynamic song skills of Lily Frost. Pat dips into the dark waters of Nick Cave’s career then brightens things up with a little music by, for and about Robots. Also music by Jean Martin, aMute and E.S.L.’s take on Venus in Furs.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Saturday, May 24, 2008
Tonight on The Signal Pat will be playing music from Iceland featuring the premiere of an acoustic Signal session by Icelandic singer songwriter Mugison. There will also be a CD giveaway: a tribute to Montreal’s Snailhouse - you can’t win if you don’t listen. Pat also dips into multiple tracks from a new CD by Toronto’s electronic - international - folk - soul - protest music band: Lal. All that plus music by Tinariwen.
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The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Sunday, May 25, 2008
No it is not in your head- tonight on the Signal: Incessant Bells – with the Bergmann Piano Duo recorded at Calgary’s Grand Theatre, featuring a reinterpretation of that classic black-light special: Tubular Bells. The night remains prog-tacular when Pat features multiple tracks from the Rheostatics’ penned soundtrack- Whale Music. There will also be more man-boy friendly music from Brian Eno, Danny Elfman, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and yes, Zappa. So get out your D&D dice and let 'em roll.
This evening sparks will fly on The Signal during a live concert recording featuring the dynamic song skills of Lily Frost. Pat dips into the dark waters of Nick Cave’s career then brightens things up with a little music by, for and about Robots. Also music by Jean Martin, aMute and E.S.L.’s take on Venus in Furs.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Saturday, May 24, 2008
Tonight on The Signal Pat will be playing music from Iceland featuring the premiere of an acoustic Signal session by Icelandic singer songwriter Mugison. There will also be a CD giveaway: a tribute to Montreal’s Snailhouse - you can’t win if you don’t listen. Pat also dips into multiple tracks from a new CD by Toronto’s electronic - international - folk - soul - protest music band: Lal. All that plus music by Tinariwen.
View Larger Map
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Sunday, May 25, 2008
No it is not in your head- tonight on the Signal: Incessant Bells – with the Bergmann Piano Duo recorded at Calgary’s Grand Theatre, featuring a reinterpretation of that classic black-light special: Tubular Bells. The night remains prog-tacular when Pat features multiple tracks from the Rheostatics’ penned soundtrack- Whale Music. There will also be more man-boy friendly music from Brian Eno, Danny Elfman, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and yes, Zappa. So get out your D&D dice and let 'em roll.
Friday, May 16, 2008
The Path to Creativity
A few years back I was an airport person, logging too many nights in hotels and thinking as much about management styles as I was about music. One day while I was waiting for a plane, browsing through the airport bookstore, I came across Patricia Pitcher’s Artists, Craftsman and Technocrats. In my opinion, it’s a brilliant piece of work that really puts creativity into context. Dr. Pitcher traced the life of a big company and found that the number of truly creative people – the ones who came up with the new ideas – were few and far between. She also came to the conclusion that maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. People with that kind of creativity are unpredictable and not always good at bringing those ideas into reality. It was the “craftsman,” the ones who had worked their way up in the business, who had the practical understanding of what would work. They could take those new ideas and figure out how to make them fly. Fortunately for me, I was creative enough to be able to segue my way out of University administration and into the position of Composer-in-Residence with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. That led to one of the most creative periods in my life.
It was around that time that I was asked to be a guest speaker at the Canadian Arts Summit and my topic was supposed to be creativity. As I thought more about the whole concept, I came to the conclusion that context is everything, that the creative mind works best coming up with solutions to limitations. For an audience at a classical symphony orchestra concert, Anders Hillborg’s Rap Notes might be a stunning revelation. To a hip-hop audience, it might sound a bit cheesy, or even lame, and they might not get the reference to Mozart in the last section, which to me, is an amazing post-modern stroke of genius. On Saturday night we’ll be sampling music from an Art of Time Ensemble concert, where Artistic Director Andrew Burashko asked some of his favorite singer-songwriters to get inspired by Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet. If you just heard David Wall’s piece What’s On My Plate out of the context of that concert, you would likely think the words were funny, but when you know the melody he uses from the Schumann its hilarious.
It was seeing Matthew Barney’s film Drawing Restraint 9 that got me going again on this topic. Barney uses this idea of working against resistance to challenge creativity. I must admit that I went to see the movie because Bjork wrote the music and I am playing some of it on our Soundtrack Sunday feature this week. I’m not usually a huge fan of performance art and this film has to be one of the biggest scale performance pieces ever mounted. Its part of a whole series based on the idea of working against resistance, just like athletes uses resistance training to improve their performance. Looking at history, it’s hard to argue with the concept. Beethoven struggled against his deafness to create some of the most amazing music ever written. The new classical composers who came out of the repressive Soviet regime, like Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Arvo Pärt and others, overcame official restrictions to develop individual styles and establish several new artistic movements. The whole idea of indie rock is based on groups fighting to play outside the stylistic boundaries set by the recording industry. We kick Friday’s show off with No Friend Oh! from the new Xiu Xiu disc. They’ve made a career out of exploring society’s forbidden topics, like alternate sexual orientations and suicide.
Up to this point in world history, there has generally been an official artistic voice. All others have usually been silenced, sometimes forcefully. It’s only been a relatively short period of time since music by women has been openly celebrated. On Friday night we’ll spend some time sampling the musical evolution of Veda Hille. Her unique view of the world pulls in sounds and concepts that challenge us to hear and think differently.
The last few generations have pushed against Society’s restraints and that has led to an unparalleled time of creativity in contemporary music. I know a lot of people are worried about where things are going in the music and media business, afraid of total collapse. But I say bring it on. Our inherent creativity will find a solution to the limitations of the current situation. Great, interesting music is being written in all genres and there is an audience out there hoping to hear it. The problem is making the connection. This music is not always easy to find. Let me invited you to make The Signal your happy place, where you can come and test out some new artists. We are doing what we can get overcome the contextual restraints.
It was around that time that I was asked to be a guest speaker at the Canadian Arts Summit and my topic was supposed to be creativity. As I thought more about the whole concept, I came to the conclusion that context is everything, that the creative mind works best coming up with solutions to limitations. For an audience at a classical symphony orchestra concert, Anders Hillborg’s Rap Notes might be a stunning revelation. To a hip-hop audience, it might sound a bit cheesy, or even lame, and they might not get the reference to Mozart in the last section, which to me, is an amazing post-modern stroke of genius. On Saturday night we’ll be sampling music from an Art of Time Ensemble concert, where Artistic Director Andrew Burashko asked some of his favorite singer-songwriters to get inspired by Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet. If you just heard David Wall’s piece What’s On My Plate out of the context of that concert, you would likely think the words were funny, but when you know the melody he uses from the Schumann its hilarious.
It was seeing Matthew Barney’s film Drawing Restraint 9 that got me going again on this topic. Barney uses this idea of working against resistance to challenge creativity. I must admit that I went to see the movie because Bjork wrote the music and I am playing some of it on our Soundtrack Sunday feature this week. I’m not usually a huge fan of performance art and this film has to be one of the biggest scale performance pieces ever mounted. Its part of a whole series based on the idea of working against resistance, just like athletes uses resistance training to improve their performance. Looking at history, it’s hard to argue with the concept. Beethoven struggled against his deafness to create some of the most amazing music ever written. The new classical composers who came out of the repressive Soviet regime, like Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Arvo Pärt and others, overcame official restrictions to develop individual styles and establish several new artistic movements. The whole idea of indie rock is based on groups fighting to play outside the stylistic boundaries set by the recording industry. We kick Friday’s show off with No Friend Oh! from the new Xiu Xiu disc. They’ve made a career out of exploring society’s forbidden topics, like alternate sexual orientations and suicide.
Up to this point in world history, there has generally been an official artistic voice. All others have usually been silenced, sometimes forcefully. It’s only been a relatively short period of time since music by women has been openly celebrated. On Friday night we’ll spend some time sampling the musical evolution of Veda Hille. Her unique view of the world pulls in sounds and concepts that challenge us to hear and think differently.
The last few generations have pushed against Society’s restraints and that has led to an unparalleled time of creativity in contemporary music. I know a lot of people are worried about where things are going in the music and media business, afraid of total collapse. But I say bring it on. Our inherent creativity will find a solution to the limitations of the current situation. Great, interesting music is being written in all genres and there is an audience out there hoping to hear it. The problem is making the connection. This music is not always easy to find. Let me invited you to make The Signal your happy place, where you can come and test out some new artists. We are doing what we can get overcome the contextual restraints.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
May 16,17,18
The Signal with Pat Carrabré- Friday May 16, 2008
Tonight the Signal features a quirky little hoedown with a live session from Toronto’s Sunparlour Players, so gussy up. Pat will also take a gander at the incredible and varied musical career of Veda Hille. Just when you are ready to call it a night the dust refuses to settle when new music from Portishead, Xiu Xiu, the Cinematic Orchestra and Hanna Hukelberg takes a spin. So grab your partner and listen up.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Saturday, May 17, 2008
Tonight Pat puts a new collaboration by Jazz musicians Scott Thomson and Lori Freedman into high rotation. That same CD titled PLUMB, will also be offered up as a loot-bag give away. You can’t win if you don’t listen. In concert from Toronto the constantly stylish Art of Time Ensemble with interpretations and inspiration courtesy of Schumann. Some of the guests will include Justin Rutledge, Andy Maize, John Southworth and Kyrie Kristmanson. Pat will also spin cds from Ayal Senior, Julia Kent, and The Inhabitants.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Sunday, May 18, 2008
Tonight there will be no moderation when Pat dips into the Bjork composed soundtrack for Mathew Barney’s epic art film: Drawing Restraint Nine. Pat will also listen in on the Canadian performances recorded live at this year’s prestigious Eckhardt-Gramatté new music competition. Hear Canada's newest voices: competition winner Kristin Mueller-Heaslip also sings with the Parkdale Revolutionary Orchestra. And Vania Chan volunteered the winning performance of "Involuntary Love Songs" by Vancouver composer Jocelyn Morlock. Other Canadian gems are by Claude Vivier, John Greer, and Jose Evangelista. Plus there will be new music from the Silver Mount Zion Orchestra and Meredith Monk.
Tonight the Signal features a quirky little hoedown with a live session from Toronto’s Sunparlour Players, so gussy up. Pat will also take a gander at the incredible and varied musical career of Veda Hille. Just when you are ready to call it a night the dust refuses to settle when new music from Portishead, Xiu Xiu, the Cinematic Orchestra and Hanna Hukelberg takes a spin. So grab your partner and listen up.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Saturday, May 17, 2008
Tonight Pat puts a new collaboration by Jazz musicians Scott Thomson and Lori Freedman into high rotation. That same CD titled PLUMB, will also be offered up as a loot-bag give away. You can’t win if you don’t listen. In concert from Toronto the constantly stylish Art of Time Ensemble with interpretations and inspiration courtesy of Schumann. Some of the guests will include Justin Rutledge, Andy Maize, John Southworth and Kyrie Kristmanson. Pat will also spin cds from Ayal Senior, Julia Kent, and The Inhabitants.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Sunday, May 18, 2008
Tonight there will be no moderation when Pat dips into the Bjork composed soundtrack for Mathew Barney’s epic art film: Drawing Restraint Nine. Pat will also listen in on the Canadian performances recorded live at this year’s prestigious Eckhardt-Gramatté new music competition. Hear Canada's newest voices: competition winner Kristin Mueller-Heaslip also sings with the Parkdale Revolutionary Orchestra. And Vania Chan volunteered the winning performance of "Involuntary Love Songs" by Vancouver composer Jocelyn Morlock. Other Canadian gems are by Claude Vivier, John Greer, and Jose Evangelista. Plus there will be new music from the Silver Mount Zion Orchestra and Meredith Monk.
Friday, May 9, 2008
For me, it’s the listening and the seeing that count.
There’s a strong link between music and the visual arts. French Impressionism found its realization in the paintings of Monet and the music of Debussy. American minimalism evolved in the music of Steve Reich and the paintings of Frank Stella. Found objects started showing up in the visual arts around the same time that found sounds or samples insinuated their way into contemporary music. This Friday, May 9th, The Signal spends most of the evening lining up music that’s been influenced by or makes a reference to the visual arts.
Some people’s creativity is both aural and visual. Arnold Schoenberg wasn’t just a ground breaking avant-garde composer, he was also a member of the Blaue Reiter group of painters. The legendary folk singer Joni Mitchell’s painting has taken up more of her creative energy as the years have passed and Temple Bates and Amy Bowles from Pony Da Look split their creativity between music and the visual arts. A recent show at the Whippersnapper Gallery in Toronto showcased the visual work of a number of Canadian indie-rockers, from Buck 65 to Chad VanGaalen.
Some composers are just inspired by the visual arts. Gunther Schuller used his Seven Studies on Themes by Paul Klee as a platform to bring jazz into new classical music in the late 50s. Harry Freedman gave up his dream of being a visual artist, but wrote quite a few major works inspired by paintings and his friends who were painters, including Harold Town. The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s new Composer-in-Residence, Vincent Ho has tried to transmute the emotion of the visual medium into music in his Nighthawks (interpreting the famous painting by Edward Hopper) and Four Paintings by Leestemaker – we’ll hear the second movement on the show.
Is it possible to convey the same emotions or sensations that can be expressed with visuals in the temporal dimensions of sound? I’m not sure that’s answerable, given the current state of scientific research. But I don’t think there’s any question that all of the different art forms try to express the spirit of their times. And in our diverse age, there are many simultaneously existing aesthetics. The ultra polished and DIY often appear side by side. We value the pure emotion of Kyrie Kristmanson singing a cappella in her Song for a Blackwind and we’re thrilled by the total control that comes through in Cornelius’s Fit Song (The Books Eat White Paint Remix). The extremes of the virtuoso and the naïve seem to attract us. Perhaps it’s the non-verbal nature of most music and visual art that allows them to take in the same territory. We desperately need the grey area that exists beyond language, so we can indulge in our own creativity –interpreting what we hear and see, putting our own kind of order on the world around us.
I’ve given up worrying about the technicalities of this debate. There’s just too much good music and art to experience. For me, it’s the listening and the seeing that count.
Some people’s creativity is both aural and visual. Arnold Schoenberg wasn’t just a ground breaking avant-garde composer, he was also a member of the Blaue Reiter group of painters. The legendary folk singer Joni Mitchell’s painting has taken up more of her creative energy as the years have passed and Temple Bates and Amy Bowles from Pony Da Look split their creativity between music and the visual arts. A recent show at the Whippersnapper Gallery in Toronto showcased the visual work of a number of Canadian indie-rockers, from Buck 65 to Chad VanGaalen.
Some composers are just inspired by the visual arts. Gunther Schuller used his Seven Studies on Themes by Paul Klee as a platform to bring jazz into new classical music in the late 50s. Harry Freedman gave up his dream of being a visual artist, but wrote quite a few major works inspired by paintings and his friends who were painters, including Harold Town. The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s new Composer-in-Residence, Vincent Ho has tried to transmute the emotion of the visual medium into music in his Nighthawks (interpreting the famous painting by Edward Hopper) and Four Paintings by Leestemaker – we’ll hear the second movement on the show.
Is it possible to convey the same emotions or sensations that can be expressed with visuals in the temporal dimensions of sound? I’m not sure that’s answerable, given the current state of scientific research. But I don’t think there’s any question that all of the different art forms try to express the spirit of their times. And in our diverse age, there are many simultaneously existing aesthetics. The ultra polished and DIY often appear side by side. We value the pure emotion of Kyrie Kristmanson singing a cappella in her Song for a Blackwind and we’re thrilled by the total control that comes through in Cornelius’s Fit Song (The Books Eat White Paint Remix). The extremes of the virtuoso and the naïve seem to attract us. Perhaps it’s the non-verbal nature of most music and visual art that allows them to take in the same territory. We desperately need the grey area that exists beyond language, so we can indulge in our own creativity –interpreting what we hear and see, putting our own kind of order on the world around us.
I’ve given up worrying about the technicalities of this debate. There’s just too much good music and art to experience. For me, it’s the listening and the seeing that count.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
May 9, 10, 11
The Signal with Pat Carrabré- Friday May 9, 2008
Get out your eyeliner, tonight Pat delves into the multifaceted Jaz Coleman- composer, keyboardist and lead singer for England’s Killing Joke. The sounds of Winnipeg’s Christine Fellows will also get spun along with Cornelius, Vincent Ho, and Don Byron. In concert from Toronto the sweet collision of two distinctive pianists: Canada’s John kameel Farah and Germany’s Hauschka.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Saturday, May 10, 2008
Electronics, guitars, ballads and improvisation are put under the microscope tonight when Pat slips Eric Cheneaux’s new CD into high rotation. If you tune in you might also walk away with a loot-bag full of Ghost Bees. In concert from Kitchener ‘s Open Ears Festival work by Peter Hannan and Linda Catlin Smith that challenges and embraces the idea of orchestra. All this wrapped in a burrito of Four Tet, Ween, Gavin Bryars and Bell Orchestre with extra sour cream.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Sunday, May 11, 2008
This evening Pat tips his hat to Winnipeg’s Nuna Now Icelandic Festival with music from Mugison, Sigur Ros and Kyrie Kristmanson. For Soundtrack Sunday Pat slips on his backpack and follows the musical path led by the globe trotting Oscar winner Babel. The Signal also stops in on Toronto’s New Music Concerts for a live recording of work by Chris Paul Harman, Juan Trigos, Alice Ho and So Jeong Ahn and Rodney Sharman. Don’t forget your water filter.
Get out your eyeliner, tonight Pat delves into the multifaceted Jaz Coleman- composer, keyboardist and lead singer for England’s Killing Joke. The sounds of Winnipeg’s Christine Fellows will also get spun along with Cornelius, Vincent Ho, and Don Byron. In concert from Toronto the sweet collision of two distinctive pianists: Canada’s John kameel Farah and Germany’s Hauschka.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Saturday, May 10, 2008
Electronics, guitars, ballads and improvisation are put under the microscope tonight when Pat slips Eric Cheneaux’s new CD into high rotation. If you tune in you might also walk away with a loot-bag full of Ghost Bees. In concert from Kitchener ‘s Open Ears Festival work by Peter Hannan and Linda Catlin Smith that challenges and embraces the idea of orchestra. All this wrapped in a burrito of Four Tet, Ween, Gavin Bryars and Bell Orchestre with extra sour cream.
The Signal with Pat Carrabré - Sunday, May 11, 2008
This evening Pat tips his hat to Winnipeg’s Nuna Now Icelandic Festival with music from Mugison, Sigur Ros and Kyrie Kristmanson. For Soundtrack Sunday Pat slips on his backpack and follows the musical path led by the globe trotting Oscar winner Babel. The Signal also stops in on Toronto’s New Music Concerts for a live recording of work by Chris Paul Harman, Juan Trigos, Alice Ho and So Jeong Ahn and Rodney Sharman. Don’t forget your water filter.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Music Monday
Music Monday is on its way this coming week. It’s a big celebration of how music enriches our lives, with a special focus on music in the schools. I’m not generally a fan of our public education system. It seems to me that the emphasis is too often placed on conformity and obedience – not on developing the skills to help you learn on your own or the desire to challenge conventional wisdom and search out the new. After all, an educated population isn’t so easy to control!
I do know first hand how important a good music teacher can be. With the talented students you never really have to worry about teaching them – from my experience, they mostly learn on their own. But they do need support. You have to open a few doors, help them to keep asking the right questions and be there when they doubt themselves.
I don’t know Michel Gonneville personally, but he must be a great teacher. I do know one of his former students - André Ristic - and André is a great example of the kind of unique musical voice we like to celebrate on the Signal. He’s developed a personal language that easily handles all the contradictions and “isms” in our modern musical world. He always seems to be challenging himself and us with new ideas and new technologies. We’ll hear music from both Michel and André on Sunday night in a live concert recording from Toronto’s New Music Concerts. They put together a program of music by Michel and some of his former students – including Nicolas Gilbert, Benoit Coté, Charles-Antoine Frechette, Maxime McKinley, and Frans Ben Callado.
Frans Ben Callado is supposedly the only student ever expelled from the Conservatoire de Musique de Montreal. That type of distinction fits in better with the indie side of our musical world. Moby is the focus for our vertical tasting this weekend. He dropped out of College to pursue his musical dream and so did Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood. I hope that same fate doesn’t fall on Will Curry and the Country French. They’re all students in the music program at Wilfred Laurier and on Saturday night we’ll hear a tune from their first album.
Will Curry and the Country French.
Success is great and it’s very seductive if it comes early. But if it puts you out there too soon, before you’ve had time to fill up your tool kit and find your own creative centre, then you risk having a very short career. In the end it’s all about balance. You have to have new ideas, which are usually messy – and you need to develop the craft to do something with them.
Over the last year, we’ve done a series of city and region profiles on the Signal. And in every region we seem to have great places that support the development of young musical talent. Some are formal institutions, like Mount Royal College in Calgary (full disclosure here, my daughter’s a student there). I was amazed to hear so many Alberta musicians give credit to the environment there as they were finding their feet. Some are Festivals with long standing workshops, like the Creative Music Workshop that Jerry Granelli does at the Atlantic Jazz Festival in Halifax. I know that Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal’s Generation project has been a jumping off point for quite a few careers – and the list goes on (sorry I can’t mention them all).
So in the lead up to Music Monday, we salute all those who support the development of musical talent in our country whether it’s the elementary school teacher who inspires you to open up your mouth and sing for the very first time or the experienced Professor who’s read all the books in the library.
I do know first hand how important a good music teacher can be. With the talented students you never really have to worry about teaching them – from my experience, they mostly learn on their own. But they do need support. You have to open a few doors, help them to keep asking the right questions and be there when they doubt themselves.
I don’t know Michel Gonneville personally, but he must be a great teacher. I do know one of his former students - André Ristic - and André is a great example of the kind of unique musical voice we like to celebrate on the Signal. He’s developed a personal language that easily handles all the contradictions and “isms” in our modern musical world. He always seems to be challenging himself and us with new ideas and new technologies. We’ll hear music from both Michel and André on Sunday night in a live concert recording from Toronto’s New Music Concerts. They put together a program of music by Michel and some of his former students – including Nicolas Gilbert, Benoit Coté, Charles-Antoine Frechette, Maxime McKinley, and Frans Ben Callado.
Frans Ben Callado is supposedly the only student ever expelled from the Conservatoire de Musique de Montreal. That type of distinction fits in better with the indie side of our musical world. Moby is the focus for our vertical tasting this weekend. He dropped out of College to pursue his musical dream and so did Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood. I hope that same fate doesn’t fall on Will Curry and the Country French. They’re all students in the music program at Wilfred Laurier and on Saturday night we’ll hear a tune from their first album.
Will Curry and the Country French.
Success is great and it’s very seductive if it comes early. But if it puts you out there too soon, before you’ve had time to fill up your tool kit and find your own creative centre, then you risk having a very short career. In the end it’s all about balance. You have to have new ideas, which are usually messy – and you need to develop the craft to do something with them.
Over the last year, we’ve done a series of city and region profiles on the Signal. And in every region we seem to have great places that support the development of young musical talent. Some are formal institutions, like Mount Royal College in Calgary (full disclosure here, my daughter’s a student there). I was amazed to hear so many Alberta musicians give credit to the environment there as they were finding their feet. Some are Festivals with long standing workshops, like the Creative Music Workshop that Jerry Granelli does at the Atlantic Jazz Festival in Halifax. I know that Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal’s Generation project has been a jumping off point for quite a few careers – and the list goes on (sorry I can’t mention them all).
So in the lead up to Music Monday, we salute all those who support the development of musical talent in our country whether it’s the elementary school teacher who inspires you to open up your mouth and sing for the very first time or the experienced Professor who’s read all the books in the library.
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