FOR THE SEASON: The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007)
This acclaimed, readable narrative of 20th Century music serves as a backbone for appreciating the development of today’s new music, and is the subject of SFNM Artistic Director John Kennedy’s fall lecture series “Beyond the Noise”, presented in conjunction with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
OCTOBER 18 CONCERT: Americas: Essays on American Music and Culture 1973-80, by Peter Garland (Soundings Press, 1982)
A beautiful and eloquent consideration of experimental American composers by a featured composer on our October concert. Garland reveals a visionary view of cultural transformations and the emergence of a “post-classical” aesthetic. Out of print – but available through public libraries – or call us to borrow!
NOVEMBER 16 CONCERT: The Walk, by William deBuys (Trinity University Press, 2007)
New Mexico author William deBuys composed the introductory essay for Marthanne Verbit’s new CD “Endangered”, which is the featured music on this concert paying heed to the perils facing the environment. The Walk is deBuys’ most recent book, with meditations addressing both personal and environmental issues, and with great sensitivity to being close to the earth here in New Mexico. The Walk has been said to “describe hope in terms of mountain and sky, river and pine, mindfulness and love”.
DECEMBER 11 CONCERT: Essays Before a Sonata, by Charles Ives (Available in several different editions, but we recommend: Three Classics in the Aesthetic of Music, 1962).
A literary accompaniment to the Concord Sonata performed on this concert, Ives preferred the audience to read the text first. With passages on Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, this is Ives’ most mature analysis of his aesthetic.
The Heart of Thoreau's Journals, ed. Odell Shepard (Dover, 1961)
A wonderful compendium of many of the best moments in Henry David Thoreau’s journals, the subject of text for the John Cage work on the concert, Lecture on the Weather.
Lecture on the Weather, by John Cage. (CF Peters Music, copyright material). These texts by Cage and Thoreau are performed during the work, but are simultaneously mixed and sometimes hard to follow. Email us for a copyright release form and we can provide you with an authorized copy.
More to come. Visit our blog to post your thoughts and other suggestions!
