Modern Notebook

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face has dazzled audiences for three decades. Its vivid Dances have long been part of the orchestral repertoire — but the composer’s revised Three-piece Suite has never had a commercial release. Now, in its anniversary year, that moment has come.Then: Modern Notebook pays tribute to the late Sofia Gubaidulina, who passed away in March 2025. Her Triple Concerto explores three forces in music — attraction, repulsion, and the energy that binds them — all unfolding in a work of cosmic balance and depth.

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Good and evil, reality and illusion — composer Melia Watras explores these intertwined opposites in “Doppelgänger Dances.” The piece plays with musical doubles and variations, drawn from her earlier composition William Wilson, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting tale of duality.Then: “Still Leaning Towards This Machine” — that’s the subtitle of Rune Glerup’s Clarinet Quintet, a piece shaped by influences from Beethoven and Boulez to Beckett and Bukowski. Across three movements, it shimmers with tension, breathes with stillness, and pulses with restless energy, blending acoustic and electronic textures.

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Called a “dream group” by The New York Times after just one concert, the ensemble Owls brings together members of Kronos Quartet and acclaimed soloists. Their debut album Rare Birds is built on joy, curiosity, and experimentation — ending with a 14-minute celebration of minimalism and 5/4 rhythm by Terry Riley.Then: A single chord for viola grew into something unexpected for composer Karin Rehnqvist — a piano improvisation, then an electronic voice that sounded like the sea. In her piece “I thought the sea would sing to me,” she explores the viola’s depths, from the warmth of the C string to shimmering quarter tones and playful musical gestures.

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.

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.

On this week’s Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: The reinterpretation of Korean folk music is one of composer Jean Ahn’s lifelong pursuits, and she does this through maintaining the essence of a folk song–like the original tune–and allowing it to juxtapose and contrast with her non-Korean musical background. The result is a fascinating reimagining of three folk songs collected under Ahn’s solo piano work, “Folksong Revisited.”Then: listen for music by Grace Ann Lee performed by violinist Teagan Faran, as well as saxophone quartet music by Niki Harlafti. And a pair of pieces featuring solo cello, including the Legend of Sigh by Gity Razaz for Cello and Electronics, and a work by Britta Bystrom titled “Figures at the Seaside.”

Coming up on the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: The concept of “drishti” has become known in the West through the practice of yoga. It describes a focused gaze, usually on a single point. Reena Esmail’s solo violin work of the same name also has “drishti;” a series of miniature movements interconnected by a focused note in the form of a high E harmonic.Then: Amy Beth Kirsten’s saxophone quartet work “avalanche lily” is music inspired by the Wyoming countryside, with movements specifically named after regional wildflowers. It’s a work that weaves through bluesy harmonies, pops, shrieks, and squeals, chant-like moments that smear across pitch contours, and a kind of prismatic architecture across it’s five movements.

Coming up on the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Quijotadas” takes its name from the Spanish word for extravagant delusions wrought in the Quixotic spirit. It’s inspired by what many consider to be the first modern novel – dating back to the 16th century – telling the tale of a nobleman who undertakes absurd adventures in pursuit of romance.Then: Tyler will be joined by composer Chihchun Chi-Sun Lee, who has been commissioned for a new work by the Tampa-based group Contemporary Art Music Project. A 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, Lee’s work often blends East Asian traditional instruments with Western Classical ensembles.

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.