DRAM News

Contributed by Nate Wooley

Starting in the late 1950s, drone started to make its way into American classical music, tied in neatly with the beginnings of the minimalist movement of the same era. Starting with the music of Lamonte Young, Tony Conrad, Marian Zazeela, Angus MacLise and John Cale of the Theater of Eternal Music, drone, and especially using slow changes in microtonal tunings, became fertile ground for composition, separate from the treatment of silence and repetition by Morton Feldman, or the rhythmic propulsion of Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

Contributed by Nate Wooley*

The term “downtown music” or “downtown jazz” refers to a style of music originating in the Lower East Side of Manhattan starting in the late 1970s.  “Downtown” was used to separate this brash new music from its “uptown”, more sedate counterpart and to underscore the cross pollination between the composers and improvisors of "downtown" jazz with the underground punk scene simultaneously flowering in the same neighborhood. 

Notes and Selections

by Adam Shanley

President, Ethos New Music Society at SUNY, Fredonia

1.)  Charles Ives – “Three Quarter-tone Pieces: III. Chorale”
From - The Unknown Ives, Vol. 2 - NWR80618

The May 12, 2008 issue of The New Yorker features an article on the inimitable composer John Luther Adams, many of whose works are featured in DRAM from the New World, Mode, and Cold Blue labels.

Writer Alex Ross states, "[Adams is] one of the most original musical thinkers of the new century. At the age of fifty-five, he is perhaps the chief standard-bearer of American experimental music, of the tradition of solitary sonic tinkering that began on the West Coast almost a century ago and gained new strength after the Second World War, when John Cage and Morton Feldman created supreme abstractions in musical form.

Click below to access the complete article or to read an excerpt with links to some of Adams' works discussed in the article.

Composer Henry Brant died Saturday, April 26 at his home in Santa Barbara, California. In honor of the life of this extraordinary composer, DRAM highlights his life and works.

Composer and music critic Kyle Gann described Brant as follows. Brant was "a visionary of Ivesian imagination... the leading pioneer of spatial music, music played by ensembles separated by wide distances. If he remains a rather obscure name, it is only because his music...is so difficult to organize and record that few have a chance to experience it."

Click on any of the links below to learn more about Henry Brant or to listen to examples of his music.

With winter's thaw and new buds appearing on the trees, DRAM offers a selection of works dedicated to the spring season. The works here are drawn from a wide array of composers, time periods and styles, from the ancient Bean Song of the Natchez Indians to Kitty Brazelton's eclectic composition Come Spring! composed in 1996.

Click on a link below to listen to a selection or read the associated liner notes.

Dominic Argento - Songs About Spring
This song cycle for soprano and piano is a setting of five poems by E.E. Cummings on the theme of spring, full of vivid, brilliant, joyful, childlike imagery.

Apple has just released a Quicktime update that resolves the streaming issues raised with v. 7.4.1.

You can download the new version (v7.4.5) at the following URL's:

For Windows: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime745forwindows.html

For Mac Tiger:  http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime745fortiger.html

For Mac Panther: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime745forpanther.html

Please update your institution's machines if you're continuing to have streaming problems, or if you no longer wish to run the older version, v.7.3.1.

In honor of Women’s History Month, DRAM would like to highlight some of the many talented female musicians and composers in the DRAM catalogue.

Click on any of the links below to view the liner notes or listen to the associated album.

Many of these exceptional artists feature on numerous recordings within DRAM. We hope that the list below, far from exhaustive, will serve as an entry point into the oeuvres of these artists and their peers, awakening curiosities and fostering further appreciation of, and exposure to, women in music.

There is a bug in two recent Quicktime plug-ins, versions 7.2 and 7.4.1. With these versions of Quicktime, DRAM participants may find themselves unable to stream music from DRAM, or their browsers may crash after closing their pop-up player window.

In recognition of Black History Month, DRAM seeks to highlight the recordings of some of the many extraordinary black musicians and composers in our collection.

Please click on any of the links below to listen to the associated recording or read the liner notes.

Deep River: Songs and Spirituals of Harry T. Burleigh
Oral Moses - bass-baritone

Black Manhattan: Theater and Dance Music of James Reese Europe, Will Marion Cook, and Members of the Legendary Clef Club