A Little Hardcore, Pre-Solstice Lightning Music

It is time, before I forget, to document a few of the pieces of music that I heard in the Bay Area this past week. In no particular order:

Excerpts from Leonard Bernstein's "Trouble in Tahiti" and John Adams's "Gnarly Buttons" on the ARTS philanthropic arts broadcast network. (My mother does not believe that this free television arts service is not shown in Washington, D.C. ... And "Gnarly Buttons" is one of my favorite Adams's works, if not my favorite) ... Stravinsky's "Ode" and Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms" and Ravel's "Daphnis" on the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus's delayed broadcast on KDFC - FM. (I had partially timed our visit so that I could hear the delayed broadcast of the subsequently cancelled Stravinsky "Threni".) ... Live Tibetan and world music chanting from the Tibet Festival at Live Oak Park, North Berkeley ... The first act of the Ricardo Muti DVD of the 1986 La Scala production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, which Joseph Kerman recommended as his preferred version. I enjoyed it and look forward to watching the rest, soon. ... Walter di Maria's 28 minute soundtrack to his beautiful 1969 experimental film "Hardcore" set in the wonderfully colorful Black Rock desert of Nevada. ... Various ambient music and warblings at the Yuerba Beuna Center for the Arts ... and sea lions ... and the historic Tilden Park Carousel. ... Cannon shot at Fort Ross (Fort Rus) State Park, north of Jenner ... Not located: the Codornices waterfall. ... And later, I listened to Colin Matthew's Fourth Sonata [1975], which seems to have had a huge impact on John Adams just after he composed his "Shaker Loops" [1978]. That Sonata was apparently influenced by early Steve Reich and Terry Riley ... and Jean Sibelius. Matthews studied with Arnold Whittall and the late Nicholas Maw. His later music sounds more like Birtwistle.

'Cricket music' [1964] and 'Ocean music' [1968] by sculptor and composer Walter de Maria

Oral history interview with Walter De Maria, 1972 Oct. 4

Header credit: From Oakland's historic Mountain View Cemetary. Copyright controlled.