Each week, Tyler Kline journeys into new territory and demystifies the music of living composers on Modern Notebook. Listen for a wide variety of exciting music that engages and inspires, along with the stories behind each piece and the latest releases from today’s contemporary classical artists. Discover what’s in store on Modern Notebook, every Sunday night from 8 to 10 on Classical WSMR.
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Photo: composer Marc Mellits./Photo courtesy of the artist.On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Some events seem to happen by chance — but still leave a lasting impact, from moment to moment, measure to measure. That idea is at the heart of Marc Mellits’ “Discrete Structures,” a set of miniature movements that connect and complete each other in surprising ways, drawn from shared musical material and personal moments of serendipity.Then: The trombone is often cast as the Big Bad Wolf or the Clown. But in Jonathan Dove’s “Stargazer,” it becomes something else entirely — a stargazer, searching the night sky while the orchestra shimmers around it, with subtle threads of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star woven throughout. -
Photo credit: Titilayo Ayangade.On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: What does it mean to have a voice, to be able to question whether we are truly understood when we speak, and what occurs when we remain silent? Composer Andrea Casarrubios explores these questions through her piece for cello and percussion, “Speechless.” It’s music that requires the performers to embark on a playful yet desperate search for answers pertaining to the power of voice.Then: Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s work “Ubique” lives on the border between enigmatic lyricism and atmospheric distortion. She says that it’s music inspired by the notion of being everywhere at the same time, an enveloping omnipresence, while simultaneously focusing on details within the density of each particle. And she achieves this across an 11-part, 45-minute work for flute, piano, and two cellos.
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On this week’s Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Molly Joyce’s piece Unity explores the similarities and differences between the clarinet and saxophone across two movements. It was also written to incorporate sound descriptions for the purposes of accessibility and artistry of the music.Then: hear pieces by Baljinder Sekhon, Ge Gan-Ru, and others; plus, music for violin and electronics by Pamela Z called “Four Movements,” which explores different sounds generated by long delay lines and granular synthesis. -
Coming up on the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline, we are celebrating the fifth anniversary of the program’s launch! Tune in for an array of pieces that highlight the full spectrum of contemporary music, including pieces by James Grant, Sky Macklay, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Salvatore Sciarrino, Fumiko Miyachi, and Annie Clark..Then, listen for high-energy pieces by Beat Furrer and Tyondai Braxton; an acapella work by Ken Ueno; and microtonal string quartet music by Ben Jonhston. -
On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Violinist Rachel Lee Priday has a new album called Fluid Dynamics, created in collaboration with six composers and an oceanographer. On this week’s program, listen for new music by Paul Wiancko from this collection of pieces.Then: Denmark’s Kronborg Castle has been immortalized as Elsinore in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and you can hear a work by Brett Dean that imagines moving from room to room in this castle. It’s titled Rooms of Elsinore, scored for viola and piano. -
This week on Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: hear pieces by Keyla Orozco, Maeve Gilchrist, and others. And, music for steel pan and wind quintet by Andy Akiho, titled “BeLonging.”Plus: When it was time for composer Gabriel Erkoreka to write his first piano concerto, he figured he would put a bit of himself into it: after all, the piano is his primary instrument. But he found other ways to do it: born under the sun sign of Pisces, he decided to draw on the symbolism of Pisces as the inspiration for this piece. -
On this week’s Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: The writing of Emily Dickinson has long inspired composers to set her words to music, and we’ll hear a work by Jennifer Jolley that features three poems by Dickinson. It’s music for soprano, flute, and guitar that weaves in and out of moods, somber, to bright, to free.Then: it’s solo violin music by Scott Wollschleger titled Secret Machine No. 7. It’s music that draws on the composer’s typical glitchy soundworlds, but notably, asks the violin to detune one string and use a metal mute to produce delicate, yet clear, noises. -
On this week’s Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline, we’ll hear a work by Takuma Itoh for shakuhachi and chamber ensemble called Faded Aura, and pieces by David Lang and Helen Grime. Plus, a new work by composer-pianist Beyza Yazgan titled “Question.”Then: Eleanor Alberga’s first symphony is music inspired by geology and the makings of a planet. It’s called “Strata,” and over the course of the piece, the composer travels through the different layers of the Earth - growing more imaginative the deeper we go. -
Coming up on the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Pianist Michael Mizrahi has a new album out titled “Dreamspace,” and it’s a collection of music for solo piano intended to give space for dreaming. We’ll share a selection from the album, as well as pieces by Laurie San Martin, Jeffrey Mumford, and others.Then, composer John Mackey says that he sees the saxophone as essentially a brass instrument: it’s made of metal, yet it uses wood to produce sound. We’ll hear a Soprano Saxophone Concerto by Mackey that draws on the physical materials of a saxophone as musical inspiration. -
On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: “Imagine preparing to board a sailboat at dawn. The water is completely calm. There is hardly a sound except the occasional early morning birdcall and sound of a ripple breaking on the shore.” These perfect words were written by composer Margaret Brouwer to accompany her piece, “The Art of Sailing at Dawn.”Then: The interplay of piccolo trumpet and ambient soundscape is the focal point of Orlando Jacinto Garcia’s work “Resonating Color Fields.” It’s music where, with each ascending gesture of the trumpet, new colors in the electronics swirl to life to create an ever-evolving texture. -
Coming up on Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Music of life, love, and loss is coming up on the next Modern Notebook, with a work by Anna Clyne composed for her mother called “Witihin Her Arms.” It is music for strings that interweaves to form a lament that is not unlike music from the English Renaissance.Then, Tyler is joined by pianist Eunmi Ko for a discussion about her latest album, “12 Views on Life,” and music by Han Hitchen and Soobin Lee. -
This week on Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: hear music by Bianca Gismonti performed by pianist Andree-Ann Deschenes, as well as pieces by Danielle Eva Schwob and Ariana Grande.. And, a work by Gabriel Vicens titled “El Mattoral.”Then: Weather becomes the main character in the text set by Christopher Cerrone in his work Beaufort Scales - which takes its name from the 19th Century measuring system for wind and waves. Interestingly, the scale is also quite poetic and forms the backbone of Cerrone’s piece. -
On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Microfictions [volume 1] is a set of six miniatures for string quartet composed by Caroline Shaw, in which each movement is presented in tandem with bite-size microstories written for Twitter by T.R. Darling.Then: The music of Stuart Saunders Smith can be described as “unique, eclectic, often esoteric, and always full of surprises.” We pay tribute to Smith, who we lost last month at the age of 76. -
John Cage was one of - if not the - most influential composers of the 20th century, and while he was not a minimalist composer, his work “In a Landscape” could be seen a precursor to minimalist music.
