Modern Notebook

On this week’s Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline, tune in for a special lineup of pieces chosen just in time for Halloween! We’ll be getting spooky, with music about ghosts and ghost stories, pieces that will cast a spell on you, and selections that draw inspiration from horror genres.

On this week’s Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Dai Wei’s piece “Honeycomb” is music born out of her own observations of a beehive outside her bedroom window. Stuck inside during the COVID-19 lockdowns, she would watch bees come and go, and later learned how bees passed nectar to one another to form a honeycomb–and this natural process went on to inspire the construction of this piece.Then: hear music by Akshaya Avril Tucker for trumpet and saxophone, and a piece by Sean William Calhoun called “Plasmonic Mirror.” And a guitar quartet by João Luiz titled “Three Brazilian Pieces,” which serves as a musical portrait of three forms of expression from his native country.

Coming up on this week’s Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: When the Apollo Chamber Players approached Adolphus Hailstork to compose a new piece, they specifically requested that he base his composition on material representing his heritage in some way. So, he chose to quote his favorite spiritual, “Deep River,” and crafted a rhapsody for string quartet from that material.You can hear that piece, plus: A combination of old and new ideas inspired Jüri Reinvere’s orchestral work, “On the Ship of Fools.” On one hand, it draws on Sebastian Brant’s 1494 satirical work “Ship of Fools,” but on the other hand… Reinvere cites the deception found on today’s social media as our own modern “Ship of Fools.”

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: There’s an old Japanese tale about friendship and loss called Hanasaka Jiisan, which tells the story of an old man who lives with his best friend, a dog that possesses a magical power to find hidden treasure. Tune in for music for oboe, bassoon, and piano by Sato Matsui inspired by this tale.Then: it’s music that serves as a reminder of hope and that times move fast, with a piece by Sarah Lianne Lewis called “Letting the Light In.” It’s a work inspired by her experience of becoming a new mother… watching rays of morning light emerge from the inky darkness of nighttime.

Coming up on this week’s Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: hear expansive, meditative music with a piece by Marti Epstein titled “Swirl.” It’s a work that opens with a circular gesture that ascends higher and higher, and proceeds to examine fragmentary musical material through the lens of sonic memory.Then: The word “Symphonies” comes from the Greek word meaning to “sound together,” which adds another layer of meaning and context to Nova Pon’s “Symphonies of Mother and Child.” This is intensely personal music, inspired by her bond with her child - but also explores broader themes like love and loss, attachment and interconnection, and time and transcience.

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Wēpan is the Old English word for “weeping.” It’s also the name of this piece by Tina Davidson scored for piano quintet - a work that explores metallic preparations in the piano mixed with evocative sliding gestures in the strings.Then: Gazing at the night sky has been a source of bewilderment and inspiration for millenia - and invitation to discern patterns and seek their meaning. It’s music inspired by the stars by Gerardo Dirié composed for viola da gamba and bass clarinet titled Noctuary Duos.

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.