The Loose Filter Project

Pandora's excellent podcasts

I'm sure many of you already use the fantastic online music streaming site Pandora (and if you don't, get over there ASAP and have some fun--we first posted about it a while ago), but you may not have discovered their excellent, original podcasts.  

You can listen to one on hip hop hooks, or maybe learn what pedal point is, or listen to a discussion about the marriage of classical and jazz, learn about IDM and glitch or metric modulation.  A really excellent pile of podcasts, download a couple and give them a listen during your commute this week!

The Oral History of American Music

From Yale University, the Oral History of American Music Project is an amazing resource of primary and secondary source recordings of and about American musicians:

Would you like to hear Aaron Copland describe how "Appalachian Spring" was named? or John Cage on mushrooms and musical form? or Lou Harrison on the influence of Balinese Gamelan on American music? or--almost any significant composer of the last 100 years on a multitude of subjects?--then OHAM is the place to be! About 1800 audio and video recordings make up this unique and valuable collection at Yale University.

Oral History of American Music (OHAM) is the only ongoing project in the field of music dedicated to the collection and preservation of oral and video memoirs in the voices of the creative musicians of our century. It is a special kind of history, one that captures sights and sounds and recreates the spontaneity of a moment in time. The sound of a voice is an immediate link to the past--gestures, speech patterns, laughter--these are vivid reminders of the unique qualities of a personality, and they reflect the atmosphere of his or her time and place in history.

You have to go to Yale to have access to everything, but you can get audio excerpts and a few excellent podcasts here.  I recommend starting with this podcast about Charles Ives, featuring clips of interviews with friends, family, and colleagues.  It's an excellent listen (several more podcasts available for download here).

Let's program a concert

NEW Podcast: We  brainstorm an ideal show and in the process discuss some of the things conductors consider when programming a concert.  Click here  to listen or download.

Ear Tease: Grainger, Unexpected

New Podcast!  In this podcast, part of the 'ear tease' series, we take a look at the composer Percy Grainger.  Much beloved as a composer for wind band, Grainger's large orchestral works are seldom heard, but exhibit all of the outstanding elements of his craft.  We give a listen to his In A Nutshell suite.

Click here to listen or download.

Interested?  Visit this fan page or the Percy Grainger Society page for lots more information.

The Naxos page, with links to recordings.  A video clip of Grainger at the piano.

Ear tease: Michael Daugherty and Pop Culture

It's a pop culture potpourri from American composer Michael Daugherty, as we look at some of his early works and their relationship to popular culture.  This podcast features excerpts from Le Tombeau de Liberace, Dead Elvis, and Desi.   Click here to listen to or download Ear Tease: Michael Daugherty and Pop Culture.

Click here for Daugherty's website, where you can find program notes and recording info.

Recordings of MD's music can be perused here (via Amazon.com).

Here's an extensive interview at NewMusicBox.  Enjoy!

Ear tease: Yo Shakespeare

New podcast!  In the first of a new series, we present snapshot looks at interesting music and composers.  This episode features Michael Gordon's piece Yo Shakespeare. 

Click here to listen to or download Ear Tease: Yo Shakespeare.

For more: 

• Michael Gordon's bio at the Bang on a Can website

Ives and a new, American music

NEW PODCAST: Our latest podcast features Charles Ives, the iconoclastic American musical pioneer who blazed a third way between the seemingly conflicting worlds of popular and concert music. First in a series exploring a reframing of American concert music--an idea central to the Loose Filter Project--this episode features a close look at Ives' fantastic early work Country Band March, emphasizing his compositional craft and his free embrace and use of vernacular music.

Click here to listen to or download Ives and a new, American music.

Reposting podcasts 2: Brahms & Steve Thomas

A personal look at the composer and his music by pianist and professor Stephen R. Thomas, including excerpts and a performance from the Op. 118 (No.4). His commentary is lively and engaging, and the examples, where he deconstructs some of the music to illustrate specific elements of Brahms' writing and expression, are extremely interesting. A very enjoyable look at this monumental composer---a great quote from our conversation:

"[Brahms] has something which I also admire in Mozart, you know, and that's less is more. Every note is the right note, and that's what makes it great."

Download Brahms & Steve Thomas

Reposting podcasts 1: In conversation with Mason Bates

The LF Project recently presented a great concert collaboration with composer/DJ Mason Bates, and we had a chance to sit and talk with this tremendously talented young composer about his work, the state of concert music in general, and the importance of substance (and much more!).

Part One

Part Two

Podcast: Conducting & Beethoven

The decisions and role of a conductor are not always obvious to listeners, even avid ones.

In this podcast, we contrast two recordings of Beethoven's epic Symphony No. 5 as a point of departure to talk about the kinds of decisions conductors have to make, and some of what their role is. Good stuff, featuring two remarkable recent recordings of the Beethoven.

Download Conducting & Beethoven