Divine Captives

Summoned up by seeing Martha Argerich play recently: In that way Vinteuil’s phrase, like some theme, say, in Tristan, which represents to us also a certain emotional accretion, had espoused our mortal state, had endued ...

Iannis Xenakis: Free Stochastic Music By Computer

J.M. Coetzee: Diary of a Bad Year

This is the third book in a series that began with Elizabeth Costello and continued with Slow Man. These books are fundamentally about being a writer who has won the Nobel Prize. Perhaps Coetzee keeps ...

Harry Partch: Delusion of the Fury

I never thought I’d get the chance to see Partch’s Delusion of the Fury. The Japan Society’s production is the first since the premiere almost 40 years ago, and I get the feeling there’s not ...

Yasushi Utsonomia

From the notes to Jon The Dog meets Mad Scientist Utsunomia : I believe that place cannot be separated from performance and sound as a factor in music. Until quite recently, it was necessary to ...

Sviatoslav Richter: Musical Strict Constructionist

It is at once ridiculous and absolutely fitting that Richter was an originalist (i.e., a believer in the original intent of the composer) in his views on music: Following an absolutely frightful concert that I ...

The Fifth Horseman is Fear