Month: November 2014

“The Source”: New Oratorio about WikiLeaks

Continuing with the topic of scandals and current events as topic for dramatic musical works—here is a piece on NPR about a new oratorio to premiere at the Brooklyn Academy based on the WikiLeaks debacle. Before there was the story of whistle blower Edward Snowden, there was Chelsea Manning and her disclosure of military documents to WikiLeaks. Now there is composer Ted Hearnes and a new oratorio using these documents as well as the identity struggles of Manning due to his sex change.

Submitted by Ricardo Lorenz

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A Computer Scientist on Bach

Last week on “On Being,” Krista Tippett interviewed Bernard Chazelle, who is Eugene Higgins Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. Some of his approaches to listening, thoughts, and insights about the music of Bach were fascinating.

Bernard Chazelle on “On Being” with Krista Tippett

Chazelle also keeps a fairly extensive blog on music. I haven’t explored all of it yet, but here it is!

Bernard Chazelle’s Blog

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Online Orchestration Manual

Here’s a great resource for those who don’t feel like spending your life’s fortune on the Kennan, White, or Forsyth texts. Best of all, this online database contains audio files that exemplify various orchestral scoring techniques from the repertoire. Very cool!

This site is part of a larger project called “The Sound Exchange,” that makes orchestral resources available online. The project is headed up by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen (whose music has come up, variously, in studio class, and was featured prominently in a recent iPad advertisement)

Be sure to supplement your open-source learning diet with generous portions of IMSLP scores of Stravinsky, Rimsky, Mahler, Holst, and Vaughan-Williams, Bartók, and/or Lutosławski (just kidding, Lutosławski isn’t on IMSLP).

Submitted by Ben Montgomery

Submitted by Ben Montgomery

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