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 the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: tune in for music for flute and guitar by Johanny Navarro titled Bambulea, along with pieces by Sara Jacovino and Shulamit Ran. Plus, this work by Chen Yi titled “Romance and Dance.”Then: The transformation of light throughout a forest and the way it filters through trees serves as the core inspiration for Emilie Cecilia LeBel’s piece “pale forms in uncommon light.” She notes that as an observer standing in the forest, the light doesn’t seem to move at first… but then, over hours, days, months, years, one realizes that light is constantly moving. -
Coming up on the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Imagine taking a short walk through a New York City neighborhood, and hearing all the different sounds: sounds of the city’s energy, the multicultural aural palette of its inhabitants, strains of English consort, samba, swing, and techno. On this week’s show, we’ll hear a work by Jessie Montgomery titled “Coincident Dances,” which captures all of this and more.Then: Composer Errollyn Wallen recounts that her Cello Concerto took some time to write, and likens the process to something like being a sculptor – as if she was chiselling out notes from a lump of granite to produce the music. However, despite this rocky metaphor, the result is actually quite lyrical and flowing, and even emotional. -
On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: listen for a pair of artsongs by Jeremiah Evans, as well as works by David Sanford, Ayanna Woods, and others. Plus, a dance suite by Anthony R. Green called “The Green Double” that draws on Black history, Massachusetts history, and western classical music history.Then: David Baker is perhaps best known for his impacts within the jazz world, having written over 70 pedagogical books on jazz improvisation, arranging, and composition… just to name a few topics. He was also no stranger to contemporary classical music, and on the next Modern Notebook, we’ll hear his Sonata for Violin and Piano. -
Coming up on the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: hear a Piano Quintet by Adolphus Hailstork that pays homage to the city where he established his career as a composer: Detroit. And throughout the first three movements of the work, the composer describes the city with movement titles like “Detroit Grit,” “Detroit Nocturne,” and “Detroit Rise.”Then: Greek mythology has proven to be a constant source of fascination and inspiration for composer Eleanor Alberga. And her interest in the subject matter may be most evident in her work for orchestra, “Mythologies,” in which each movement serves as a portrait of a figure from Greek and Roman mythology. -
On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Life cycles, carbon reclamation, our last universal common ancestor, black hole collissions… these are just a few topics that would inspire Nokthula Ngwenyama to compose her string quartet, “Flow.” And the common thread she discovered – and evokes musically – is that there is a common flow to our existence tying us to a universal energy.Plus: What good is art in the remembrance of pain?This question is what guided Barron Ryan when composing his piano trio “There Arises Light in the Darkness.” It’s music meant to assure all who grieve that someone else understands their pain… that despite suffering, there is still a reason for hope. -
Coming up on the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Reza Vali’s music is rooted is the traditional timbres and scales of Iranian folk music, and while his “Persian Suite No. 2” is no different, it’s cast in a more approachable manner. Scored for flute, piano, and string quintet, it uses Western scales and less complex rhythms to evoke the style of Persian folk song.Then: A blending of chant, natural processes, and echoes of Beethoven come together in Helena Tulve’s “Humming in my Bones.” Encompassing a sound world of prepared piano and other unusual techniques, it’s music that moves at a nearly geological slowness. -
On this week’s Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: tune in for music that explores hymnody, heavenly sounds, earthly wonders, and simple pleasures, with a work by Nathan Hudson titled “God.” And in this piece, Hudson adapts the short story of the same name by Ben Loory.Then: Christopher Stark’s “The Language of Landscapes” explores our relationship with nature across four musical scenes guided by the friction and/or harmony created by synthetic and natural objects. In fact, the music makes use of found discarded objects, field-collected environmental recordings, and live electronic processing in order to make commentary on our wastefulness and resourcefulness. -
On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: tune in for music for violin and piano by Platon Buravicky titled “Angel’s Gaze,” and pieces by Margaret Brouwer and Gabriela Ortiz. And a work for brass by Lillian Yee titled “Miracles of the Human Condition.”Then: Composer Alexandre David says that he has always had a funny relationship with music as a listener, sometimes coldly analyziing it, and other times, allowing himself to be completely inhabited by it. We’ll hear a work of David’s titled “Photogrammes,” which explores this idea through musical transformation. -
On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Much like a crystal, composer Linda Leimane says that there is a dual nature to sound: that it can be simultaneously “beautiful and ornamental,” as well as “hard and durable.” Tune in for Leimane’s “Crystal” for solo piano, a work which builds itself up from repeating gestures to a thrilling dramatic structure.Then: In the Buddhist tradition that composer India Gailey grew up in, the late founder spoke of “joining heaven, earth, and humanity.” Gailey saw this phrase as containing multitudes: that one could balance tender sadness with the light of compassion, unitiing vision and practicality, and letting go of dualism to integrate with the elements. These ideas would go on to inspire their work, “Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth.” -
On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: composer Juri Seo says that her solo violin work “One” embraces the “duality of time,” as both a flowing and static phenomenon. It’s music cast in 12 movements, each one representing the months in a calendar year.Then: The Earth is 4.5 billion years old – a length of time that, if compressed to 46 minutes, the existence of humans would only last 25 milliseconds. This is the basis of “An Atlas of Deep Time” by John Luther Adams, a work which the composer says is grounded in his desire to “hear the older, deeper resonances of the earth.” -
On this week’s Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: we conclude our series of special wintertime programming, with music that evokes holiday season, including Dai Fujikura’s “Ghost of Christmas;” pieces that draws upon peace by Kimberly R. Osberg, Errollyn Wallen, and Jessie Montgomery; and songs of the advent by Owain Park and Kerensa Briggs. -
We celebrate the winter solstice. Listen for works inspired by the season from composers like Kitty Xiao, Lou Harrison and Melissa Hui, as well as pieces by Akemi Naito and Gifrants. Plus, “Winter Moons” by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate.
