Tim Rutherford-Johnson's Blog, page 6

Lim and Nono chronological playlists

I suppose as a nascent hobby I’ve started putting together chronological, bingeable playlists of composers’ outputs on Spotify. So far I’ve done this in connection with something I’ve been reading and/or writing about. My first one, for the music of Luigi Nono, was inspired by a review I was writing of Nostalgia for the Future, University … Continue reading Lim and Nono chronological playlists →

Never throw away

From theatre, film and game composer Matthew Reid comes an amusing story: Reid was pleased to discover that a movement from his orchestral work Intervals was included in a recent official Spotify playlist of new classical releases, sequenced between excerpts from Act III of Siegfried and ‘Torna ai felici di’ from Puccini’s Le villi.  Reid’s Intervals is … Continue reading Never throw away →

Borough New Music comes to an end

I was sad to read this morning that the excellent Borough New Music series has had to come to end. Over three seasons, artistic director Clare Simmonds and her team have put on a remarkable 72 lunchtime concerts in St George the Martyr Church, featuring 254 composers, 122 performers and 88 premieres. Although the stars never … Continue reading Borough New Music comes to an end →

Notes from the London Music Fund’s annual fundraiser

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the London Music Fund‘s annual fundraising lunch at the May Fair Hotel in London. The London Music Fund (formerly the Mayor of London’s Fund for Young Musicians) supports musically gifted children from low income families across London. It does so by providing scholarships to children who primary schools … Continue reading Notes from the London Music Fund’s annual fundraiser →

ComposHER: Celebrating women media composers

We talk about it a lot, but it’s not only concert music that has a problem with gender equality. Of the 250 top-grossing films in the US last year, 94% of them were scored by men according to a study by Martha M. Lauzen. A recent New York Times story drew further attention to the … Continue reading ComposHER: Celebrating women media composers →

Music after the Fall: Spotify playlists

A couple of days ago I discovered – via Twitter, where else? – that people have been making Spotify playlists out of Music after the Fall. Among those people is Andrew Tholl (@andrewtholl), violinist, drummer, composer and co-founder of the excellent populist records, who has made chapter-by-chapter lists for use in classes at UC Santa Barbara. … Continue reading Music after the Fall: Spotify playlists →

Short review: Jane Antonia Cornish: Constellations (innova/Bandcamp)

Although I don’t write CD reviews here as much as I once did, I do still get sent things from time to time. Leafing through the pile this evening I came upon this CD of Constellations, a suite of pieces for piano, strings and electronics by the English-born, New York resident composer Jane Antonia Cornish. … Continue reading Short review: Jane Antonia Cornish: Constellations (innova/Bandcamp) →

LCMF 2018: A Sound Map of the Hudson River

I wasn’t prepared, when I walked in to the installation of Annea Lockwood’s A Sound Map of the Hudson River (1982) at LCMF, for how familiar it would be. After all, this is a giant field recording of the most ambient, neutral of all sounds, running water; as ordinary and as ignorable as traffic noise. Yet … Continue reading LCMF 2018: A Sound Map of the Hudson River →

Chris Mann, 1949–2018

Very sad to learn this morning (via Michael Schell @cribbageforum) of the death of the Australian-American composer, poet and performer Chris Mann. I first came across Mann’s compositional performance poetry, and his unique voice, through the old NMA tapes, back when they were still available as free downloads via Rainer Linz’s website. (They have been … Continue reading Chris Mann, 1949–2018 →

Another (Musical) Minimalism

In Edinburgh recently to catch my annual dose of the Fringe, I stopped in at the Book Festival bookshop, where I picked up a copy of Another Minimalism: Art after California Light and Space by Melissa E. Feldman. Essentially an extended catalogue essay written to accompany the 2015–16 exhibition of the same name at Edinburgh’s … Continue reading Another (Musical) Minimalism →