sTRANGE mUSIC

www.strangemusic.com

nEWS
18 NOV 08

Guest Lecture at NYU - Tisch School of the Arts - Film School

An excerpt from a 90 min. guest lecture which demonstrates film scoring techniques using Reason 4.0 as a ReWire device in Pro-Tools 7.4

17 NOV 08

Gerald Thomas Premieres his BlogNovela “O CÃO QUE INSULTAVA MULHERES, KEPLER, THE DOG” via WebCast

Photo: Lenise Pinheiro

On November 13th, Gerald Thomas and the Dry Opera Co. premiered part 1 of his BlogNovela in a live webcast on TV IG.

You can watch a recording of it HERE

Gerald Thomas Apresenta a Primeira Blognovela da Historia
“O CÃO QUE INSULTAVA MULHERES, KEPLER, THE DOG”
Conceito, escrito e dirigido por Gerald Thomas

Com:
Fabiana Gugli
Pancho Capelletti
Duda Mamberti
Anna Americo
Luciana Froes
Simone Martins
Caca Manica

Luz: Caetano Vilela
Som: Claudia Dorei

Produção: Plato Produções (Dora Leão)

Assistência: Ivan Andrade

Realização SESC unidade Av Paulista gravação TV IG

13 NOV 08

COMPLEXO SISTEMA - Video Trailer

Video: Patricia Cividanes

30 OCT 08

Pix from "The Making of...COMPLEXO SISTEMA"

Photos & graphics by Patricia Cividanes

20 OCT 08

New Performance Added to Brazilian Itinerary: Satyrianas 2008 Theater Festival

More details HERE

13 OCT 08

"Evolution?" from the Living Theatre's EUREKA!

From the Living Theatre's multimedia stage production
Edited by Evan True & Eric Olson
Original music by Patrick Grant

05 OCT 08

NYTheatre.com Review of EUREKA! by Mitchell Conway

More photos by Jocelyn Gonzales on FLICKR

Eureka! is a fantastic show, unlike anything I've ever experienced. Whatever I describe in this review will in no way satisfactorily replicate the wonderful experience of this production because it is defined by the audience being a part of it. Being it! This performance is not passively "watched" by its audience. It is created by the performers inviting the audience to be an active part of its creation. Although there is a structure to play, most of the specifics are defined by the audience involvement. Over the period of 75 minutes, a crowd of strangers is transformed into a dynamic group singing, dancing, and celebrating the possibilities for humanity. This is truly The Living Theatre.

Director Judith Malina has fulfilled the concept of the late Hanon Reznikov, to create an interactive play based on Edgar Allan Poe's prose poem, "Eureka." This poem deals with the creation of the universe—the big bang as well as its inevitable destruction. The true beauty of this production comes from the parallel between the universe's creation and our own capacity for creation as people.

The audience enters the theatre and wanders aimlessly about a dimly lit space with tube-like beams crisscrossing the perimeter (designed by Gary Brackett). There is a low hum, and various space-like electronic sounds filling the room. Along the perimeter, the performers are scattered in stillness up among the pipes, the crew is running sound and lights, and a number of cameramen are filming the wandering audience. Two screens on either side of the room show animated imagery combined with the footage of people from the audience. Edgar Allan Poe, played by Anthony Sisco, is seated, staring intently in contemplation through the audience, bathed in a soft red spotlight.

One by one, the performers slowly move from their perches into the floor space. Alexander von Humboldt, played by Silas Inches, emerges tapping a small hammer at various points on the floor and on beams. The repeated metallic click-click-click of his hammer penetrates the low hum distinctly yet delicately. Eventually the performers corral the audience into a tight clump at the center of the space. At this point they begin a low hum. Being so close to people, I could literally feel the humming running through my chest. I was compelled to hum along. The pitch slowly rises, and the performers lead the way raising jiggling hands. As the sound climaxes, the group waving their hands in the air begins to break apart and expand, in a superb recreation of the big bang that the entire audience could feel ring through their bones. This beginning, especially after allowing the time for the audience to become slightly eager in the period of inaction preceding it, was breathtaking.

The first time the audience was asked to speak was when the performers asked what elements we felt like. The periodic table appeared on the screen and performers began by naming their respective elements in the form of a song. But once prompted, "Phosphorus!" one man hollered. "Gold!" a woman exclaimed! After many declared their elements accompanied by a representative gesture, one man excitedly called out "Wind!" as the element he connected with. To which a performer politely said, "Okay, how about Oxygen? Oxygen!"

Similar sections developed, each engaging the audience differently, and progressively asking for more initiation of the action. There was always a gentle invitation, a soft hand against the shoulder, an outreached arm with open eyes looking into mine asking for me to join, and this generosity on the part of the performers is what allowed the audience to become comfortable enough with the situation to become fully engaged in it. There was an environment where we were given the opportunity to give a little bit of ourselves to each other. The performers' fearless giving served as model for how the audience was permitted to treat them and each other.

The effect this had on the members of its audience was in many cases astounding. I watched a man leaning skeptically cross-armed against pillar for much of the beginning of the show, but by the end he was frolicking around the space, singing at full volume, grabbing people he didn't know to frolic and dance with him, and wearing an expression of utter jubilation.

The production was constantly raising questions such as: How does zero become one? Is there any point in living when we know we will end in annihilation? Is not destruction inherent in creation? Poe sporadically recites passages from the prose poem, and Humboldt brings up similarly important queries on the matter of meaning. But the answer was apparent that we were the creators of meaning. We have the possibility to offer our hands to each other and create something greater. We could just as easily wander aimlessly, disconnected, as the audience did at the beginning of the show. But after seeing the possibility of offering a hand to a stranger without fear, we are made aware of what we can create if we are willing. The terrifying void is not worth being afraid of. Emptiness is not merely nothing; it is the potential for something.

The profundity of its interactivity coupled with the grand scope of its content is remarkably intelligent and undoubtedly visionary. This play is personal, social, political, philosophical, spiritual, and a lot of fun. Judith Malina and the Living Theatre have some true wisdom to share in this production. The wisdom that you have the wisdom. You may know the science of the big bang already, but you've never experienced it like this before. - NYTheatre.com

05 SEP 08

Living Theatre to Open 2008-2009 Season with Eureka!

Based on the prose poem by Edgar Allan Poe

Performances are on Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 4 p.m. Tickets will be $20 with a discounted ticket of $15 for students, seniors andmilitary. The production involves audience interaction, so there are no seats and each performance can only accommodate 50 people.

The Living Theatre will begin its 2008-2009 season with the limited run of Judith Malina and Hanon Reznikov's Eureka!, based on an Edgar Allan Poe essay about the origin of the Universe.

Previews begin on Saturday, September 27, 2008 and will officially open on Wednesday, October 1. The production is directed by Judith Malina and features an original score by Patrick Grant.

Published in 1847, the "Prose Poem," as Poe called it, lays out with astonishing forethought what has since come to be called the Big Bang Theory. The Living Theatre has adapted Poe's text to a theatrical form, which will provide the audience with an awareness of participating actively in the creation of the universe and realize the parallel between the development of the elements of the cosmos and our own human development.

Eureka! was conceived and written by Hanon Reznikov when he read Poe's text - but he did not live to finish the task. Judith Malina, his collaborator and the director of the play completed the script.

The purpose of the play is to provide the audience with a sense of empowerment. By participating in the creation of the known universe we communicate the possibility of creating a more harmonious social structure. 'Eureka!' joins nearly one hundred Living Theatre productions created since 1951, all of which seek to expand our knowledge of the universe.

The cast of Eureka! features Anthony Sisco as Edgar Allan Poe, Silas Inches as Alexander von Humboldt, Gene Ardor, Yasemin Ozumerzifon, Eric Olson, Maia Larraz, Erin Downhour, Natalia De Campo, Kennedy Yanko, Enoch Wu, Katherine Nook, Isaac Scranton, Eitan Brigantonelli, and you the audience.

The Assistant Director is Brad Burgess. Set & Lighting Designer is Gary Brackett, Technical Direction is by Evan True. Choreography is by Gene Ardor.

Curious? Stop by! Here's our rehearsal schedule.

Other links:
Eureka! at TheaterMania
Eureka! at BroadwayWorld

For further information, visit www.livingtheatre.org

01 SEP 08

The DX Synthony Orchestra - 1985/86

Yes, I was very influenced by all those electronic classical albums that were so prevalent when I was a teen. When I could finally afford the gear, I made some realizations of my own as etudes and Xmas presents in ‘85 - ‘86.

Just wanted to share now that they’re digitized.

-PG

To listen: http://www.strangemusic.com/dxsynth.html

29 JUL 08

Patricia McKenna 1937-2008

Patricia E. McKenna, beloved mother, political activist and supporter of the arts, aged 70, formerly of Huntington Woods, Birmingham and Troy, Michigan, passed away in the arms of her children on July 29, 2008 in Tucson, AZ.

The daughter of Irish immigrant Patrick McKenna and Michigan native Helen Keene, she attended the Kingswood Cranbrook School and graduated in 1959 from Denison University in Ohio with a BA in Theatre and English. Her marriage in 1961 to Detroit police officer Gordon “Buck” Grant produced three children: Patrick Grant (1963), Daniel (1969) [Stacey] Grant, and Gael (1971) [Michael] Giles. Patricia and Gordon divorced in 1974.

Patricia’s many talents and interests were reflected in her multi-faceted career. Amongst the positions and activities she held were: model for the International Car Shows held in Detroit, investigative journalist for the Detroit News, director/actress of amateur theater for the Ridgedale Players in Pleasant Ridge, private investigator for a retired FBI agent (she obtained a degree in Law Enforcement and Protection from Mercy College in 1978), talent booking agent (clients included incipient comedian Tim Allen), and assisting the administration of McKenna Industries Inc., an automotive model making firm established by her late father. She was accepted as a member in the American Academy of Certified Geniuses in 1987.

In the last two decades of her life she lived in the American southwest (NM and AZ) where she wrote poetry and plays, articles for the local newspapers, fought corruption in her local government, helped youths with substance abuse problems and sponsored local immigrant families.

She will be lovingly remembered by her children and grandchildren Courtney, Meghan and Grant Thomas, her brother Michael McKenna of West Bloomfield, her nephews Mick - (Eulalia and family), Brian and niece, Stephanie. Her body will be cremated and a memorial service will be held in the greater Detroit area in Spring 2009.

17 JUL 08

Studio Museum in Harlem Opening

14 JUL 08

Original Music for a Kehinde Wiley Video at The Studio Museum in Harlem

The World Stage: Africa, Lagos ~ Dakar is Kehinde Wiley’s (b. 1977) first solo exhibition at The Studio Museum in Harlem (July 17-October 26, 2008) and features ten new paintings from his multinational “The World Stage” series. Wiley is known for his stylized paintings of young, urban African-American men in poses borrowed from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European figurative paintings, a practice he started in the early 2000s while an artist in residence at the Studio Museum. Over the last two years, Wiley has expanded his project by living and working abroad; he temporarily relocates to different countries and opens satellite studios to become familiar with local culture, history and art. His “The World Stage” series is the result of these travels.

For the exhibition, Patrick Grant added original music to a promotional video showing the process behind the creation of these paintings. The direct link to the video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq8Yr-Se7mc

More info at: http://www.studiomuseum.org/
Time Out New York article HERE

11 JUL 08

A Commission to Score a New Theater Piece in São Paolo, Brazil

COMPLEXO SISTEMA
de Enfraquecimento da Sensibilidade

based on the writings & philosophies of
Edgar Morin & Gilles Deleuze

Written & Directed by Ruy Filho
Performed by the Cia. de Teatro Antro Exposto

São Paolo, Brazil
Premiering November 2008

=============================================

04 JUL 08

On Becoming a Recurring Character in Director GERALD THOMAS' Blog Novella

I've been many things in my day but now I'm a recurring character in theater director Gerald Thomas' BlogNovela. The blog is based in Brazil so it is in Portugeuese, of course. My character speaks it a lot more fluently that I do in reality, by far, but I am learning it in preparation for performances there later this year. Until then I'm at the mercy of BabelFish translation software and the convoluted communications it produces (Até lá I' m na mercê do software da tradução de BabelFish e das comunicações que complicado produz). See?

Below is an excerpt from my first appearance in the novella, a musical one...

You can follow the storyline as each episode gets published on Thomas' blog HERE.

01 JUL 08

A Collaboration with Nigerian Musicians

Ogunyemi "Titus" Oladimeji, a violist from Lagos, Nigeria (pictured above on the left), has initiated a project with Patrick Grant for string quartet. Titus and musicians have been recording and collecting local songs from their region and are presenting them to PG as the musical material from which new compositions will be written. This group has presented the African premieres of other works by Grant in 2007, amongst them Hip-Hop Experience and are currently working on Children at War (see below) and a quartet arrangement of Three Choral Pieces in Latin.

More details TBA

22 JUN 08

"Children at War - 1988" - Music for Strings

SONYC: String Orchestra of New York City performs "Children at War - 1988" at ComposerCollaborative's Music for a Change, part of the city-wide Make Music New York festival, June 21, 2008.

Premiered at The New Theater, this is a Cold War piece written for Protean Forms Collective’s Spring ‘88 New Works Festival. It was the last summer of Reagan’s Presidency, New Wave was old, nuclear holocaust television dramas were the entertainment, and the events that led up to the Tompkins Square Park Riots were brewing. Musically, the piece uses that age-old pentatonic (Eastern scale) taunt used by children in many cultures (c-A-d-c-A) as a sonic commentary on the inherent childishness of violence. This is placed in various formations and textures against minimalist rhythms and harmonies (Western) prevalent in New York City in the late 80s.

See pictures from the full day's event HERE.

16 JUN 08

APEIROPHOBIA - a fantasy concept album

For summer 2008, Patrick Grant has signed a deal to compose and produce a fantasy concept album for children of all ages, APEIROPHOBIA, with the Australian MC Larry Trevelyan. Part contemporary hip-hop and part orchestral soundtrack, it is about a young witch who is terrified of infinity itself. She casts a spell to eradicate infinity's existence without first contemplating the consequences that follow.

More details TBA

06 JUN 08

PG to Sound Design & Mix for New Documentary About 80s Band KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS

"Kid Creole and My Coconuts" is a new documentary by producer, director and "Mama Coconut" Adriana Kaegi about the rise and fall and rise again of the 80s multicultural tropical funk machine "Kid Creole and the Coconuts" called by many "the best live band in the world."

Kid Creole and the Coconuts are an American musical group created and led by August Darnell. Their music incorporates styles like big band jazz, disco, and in particular Caribbean/Latin American salsa. The Coconuts are a glamorous trio of female backing vocalists whose lineup has changed throughout the years. Darnell began producing for other artists before adopting the name Kid Creole (from the Elvis Presley film King Creole) in 1980, and forming The Coconuts, a trio of female backing vocalist/dancers, including his wife Adriana Kaegi, and a band including his associate vibraphone player Andy Hernandez aka Coati Mundi, who served as co-leader as well as musical director and arranger.

One of their standout works was Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places, a concept album matched with a New York Public Theatre stage production; it received rave reviews, and Darnell was recognized as a clever lyricist and astute composer, arranger and producer.

The documentary features concert footage, never-before-seen home movies, and a new interview/commentary with producer and ex-coconut Kaegi with "The Punk Professor" Vivien Goldman. The movie is edited by Peter Shelton.

For more iNFO, go to the "Kid Creole and My Coconuts" documentary's official web site HERE.

01 JUN 08

WHITNEY BIENNIAL BROADCAST - Transistor Radio Theatre - May 31

Storefront studio at 941 Madison Avenue

Running original music & sound design cues off of LIVE 7 into the board

Foley crew and actors

Transistor Radio Theatre w/ producer Sigi Arnejo (center)

21 MAY 08

Three Choral Pieces in Latin Completed

the guidonian hand

Whew. Just finished some choral music in Latin no less that was commissioned by Bruce Barrett who just loves music from 1350-1750. This was a real switch for me. Good thing I remembered that modal counterpoint book I read during breaks when I drove a car service back in ‘86!

It's all pretty foreboding yet otherworldly sounding stuff and a couple of centuries behind the times even though there's plenty of 21st century rule breaking going on that fed my interest in doing it. It'll be hard for all but a few folks to catch any of the genre-hopping mash-ups going on here because it’s bouncing around stylistically anywhere between 1350 and 1750 though I did throw in plenty of contemporary twists and turns.

The real trick is to see if it can get a performance or better yet, to get a recording. THEN it might sound like something, that is, with the human expression that an acappella vocal group would bring to it.

Any inquiries are welcome.

THREE CHORAL PIECES IN LATIN (2008)
SATB chorus
music by Patrick Grant
text by Bruce Barrett

Full Score in PDF - 788 kb

More iNFO and text HERE

19 MAY 08

"JACKTOWN": a very B-Movie from 1962 starring my grandfather, Gordon Grant, as Lefty the prison inmate

I've heard legend of this movie in my family since I was a kid but never saw it because it came out before I was born. Even then, my grandfather died when I was an infant so I never knew him let alone could I recall what his voice sounded like etc. Now, with everything it seems available on DVD, I was able to finally see him in action. Wow, what a big and burly dude he was though by all accounts he was real teddy bear of a man (much unlike Lefty seen here) and much loved by family and community.

In this drama, a punk is caught messing around with a 15-year-old girl in the back seat of his car, gets arrested for statutory rape and is sentenced to Southern Michigan Prison. There he is cared for by the kindly warden who lets him tend his beloved garden. Their friendship is destroyed when the warden's daughter falls for the young convict. During a prison riot, the boy escapes and is concealed by his lover. Eventually he turns himself in. His girl promises to wait for him. The film was shot on location and includes actual newsreel footage of the prison's 1952 riots. Directed by William Martin.

Scene 1: Gordon Grant (Lefty) and Richard Meade (Frankie).

Scene 2: Again with Gordon Grant (Lefty) and Richard Meade (Frankie).

07 MAY 08

HIP-HOP EXPERIENCE THE HIGHLIGHT OF A YOUNG EIGHT CONCERT IN SEATTLE

The Young Eight, America's only professional touring string octet and led by Seattle U Director of Chamber and Instrumental Music, Quinton Morris, knocked 'em dead with a performance of one of the Hip-Hop Experience series that I created for Kehinde Wiley from hip-hop themes. The Seattle University Spectator writes:

The night peaked with the performance of "Hip Hop Experience I." Four performers returned to the stage wearing black dress shoes, jeans and either a collared shirt and blazer or blouse, to unanimously declare, "One-two-three!" before playing Outkast's "Hey Ya."

The Young Eight transitioned smoothly into Beyonce's "Crazy in Love," invoking a few chuckles and many grins. They continued into a plethora of hip-hop hits including Salt-n-Pepa's "Push It" and The Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps." The Eight performed with their whole bodies. With each glide of the bow, their upper bodies rocked into and out of the note and their faces winced and furrowed with concentration.

Read the full review from the Seattle University Spectator HERE.

03 MAY 08

The Death of Hanon Reznikov (1950-2008)

Very sad news. Writer, performer and director Hanon Reznikov, husband of Living Theatre co-founder Judith Malina, died today of complications from a stroke suffered on April 13. I worked and collaborated with him on many projects since 1990 and I will miss him deeply.

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MP3: Scene 7 from The Zero Method
performed by Hanon Reznikov (author) and Judith Malina
Recorded from an Italian radio broadcast, 1992.

"Whereof I cannot speak, thereof I must remain silent" - Ludwig Wittgenstein

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"Don't speak of death or wounds or melancholy things. Change the discourse if you can."
- Rule 62 from "110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation," text attributed to George Washington and adapted for the stage by Hanon Reznikov, 1991.

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MP3: Five Songs from "THE RULES OF CIVILITY" - 5'51"
music for 2 singers, flute, oboe, trumpet, 2 horns, timpani, organ, harpsichord & strings

This is a section from a scene of the chamber opera based upon text by George Washington who, as a teen, wrote 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation. The scoring is for 13 period instruments from the 18th century and reflects the highly baroque and antiquated nature of, these often hilarious, rules. These particular five songs are all of the ones that deal with how to eat at the table and, in the opera, are used as a dark counterpoint to a staging that depicts the horrors of war by Hanon Reznikov of the Living Theatre. The singers are Joanie Fritz Zosike, mezzo-soprano, and Robert Hieger, tenor.

PDF Score - 51 pp - 1.8 MB

1. Don't sit at the head of the table unless it is your proper place or if the master of the house wishes it. It is the decent thing to do to give anyone at table a meal. Try to help others unless your master desires it not.

2. Pay attention when others talk at the table. Don't lay your arm but only your hand on the table. Keep your fingers clean and when dirty wipe them on a napkin.

3. Don't eat in the street or in the house out of season. Don't eat too leisurely or too hastily. Don't spit, don't scratch, don't cough or blow your nose except when really necessary. Don't cut your bread with a greasy knife.

4. Don't put your food in your mouth with a knife. Don't stare while you are eating. Don't put another bite of food in until the first bite is finished (gone) and do not talk when your mouth is full.

5. Don't get angry at the table no matter what should happen especially if there are strangers present you should put on a cheerful face. Good humor makes one dish of food a feast.

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21 APR 08

THE MODERN 'TIL MIDNIGHT: Hip-Hop Experience VI in Fort Worth, April 18
a co-commision of the Modern Museum of Fort Worth, Kehinde Wiley Studio, & Deitch Projects

The Chancellor Seguier on Horseback (2005) currently on view at the Modern Museum Fort Worth
Collection of Jean Pigozzi, Geneva

PG introducing the Trimble Tech HS Marching Band before the performance of Focus Fort Worth: Hip-Hop Experience VI, a sTRANGEmUSIC mash-up of Fanfare for the Common Man, Buffalo Soldier, War, Jesus Walks, Golddigger, Crazy in Love, Gangsta Paradise, Ridin' Dirty, Good Life, Umbrella, My Humps, Push It, Low, Stronger, and Don't Stop the Music.

Black faces are rarely seen on the walls of art museums. Contemporary painter Kehinde Wiley is singlehandedly changing that. His paintings that marry historical portraits of popes, emperors and saints and replace the decrepit old white guys with handsome young African-American men in the same poses are changing the demographics of art-museum representation.

Three of his large, arresting portraits of street toughs dressed in sagging jeans and hoodies posed on horses like conquering heroes are hanging on the walls of Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. It's one of the most dynamic "Focus" shows in the Modern's history.

Wiley's subjects look down from the walls with imperious expression. On the street, they would look dangerous, but on canvas, the proud bearing and haughtiness mimics that of the original sitters. No one is reaching out to this disenfranchised group to include them in the art canon the way Wiley does.

For his Texas debut, Wiley chose three of his monumental equestrian works. Their titles reference three obscure original works titled Colonel Platoff on his Charger, Prince Tommaso Francesco of Savoy and The Chancellor Seguier on Horseback.

At a museum party Friday night they were greeted with fanfare provided by the Trimble Tech Marching Band...This is typical of a Wiley first night; he includes the musical preferences of his sitters played by musicians their age. "I like to have fun with my shows," Wiley said in a National Public Radio interview, "to get rid of the high seriousness with the art."

The Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, TX

NOTE: ensembles interested in scores & parts to this and other mash-ups of the hip-hop experience created for Kehinde Wiley (for string quartet, baroque ensemble, marching band, etc.) please inquire by sending an email to: iNFO@strangemusic.com.

01 MAR 08

Capoiera NYC: Sound Design for Rockstar Energy Drink by dGoMedia

Here's a capoiera-themed promo by dGoMedia for Rockstar Energy Drink that I worked on last week. Amongst other elements (like recording the traffic on the FDR out of my studio window), that's 18 tracks of me clapping my hands off to match the energy of the featured dancer/athlete/fighters.

Director: Chris Zonnas, Producer: Donn Gobin, Editor: Matt Grzan/DV8R Post

15 FEB 08

New Commission for Music at the Modern Museum in Fort Worth, TX

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Kehinde Wiley Studio & Deitch Projects have commissioned Patrick Grant to create live music for large ensemble especially for the opening gala on the night of April 18th.

FOCUS: Kehinde Wiley
Exhibition April 19–May 25, 2008

Kehinde Wiley creates larger-than-life-size portraits that mix historical Western European painting styles such as French Romanticism, Rococo, and Baroque with images from contemporary urban streets. The resulting monumental works are painted in Wiley’s characteristic, flamboyant style and presented in ornate gold frames. While the artist evokes important and highly recognizable paintings from the past, he replaces those works’ elite white sitters with African-American men.

Modern Art Museum-Fort Worth
3200 Darnell St
Fort Worth, TX 76107
(817) 738-9215

More details

01 FEB 08

Found on Web: International Strange Music Day - August 24

Wow. I've been kidding around about this since I founded Strange Music in 1998. And now it's a news item on the web, so it must be real! So, let's say that this Sunday, August 24, 2008 will be the First Annual Strange Music Marathon? With composers and musicians of all kinds from all over? Yeah, I like the sound of it. Anyway, August needs a holiday for those of us without summer homes...

More details TBA

Living Theatre logo created by Jean Cocteau

The Living Theatre (19-21 Clinton St.) will extend its production of Maudie & Jane, an adaptation of The Diary of Jane Somers, starring Judith Malina as Maudie and with Monica Hunken taking over the role of Jane, in which an old bag lady seduces a high-profile fashion editor into taking care of her. The production will now run until March 9. The official opening was on December 7. Hanon Reznikov Directs.

The Assistant Director is Brad Burgess. Set & Lighting Designer is Gary Brackett, and music is by Patrick Grant.

Covering ethnic communities in your city is one thing. Covering your city from an immigrant perspective is something else altogether. Through training and mentoring immigrant journalists, the Feet in 2 Worlds project brings new voices into the discussions of immigration, globalization and transnational culture. The award-winning program gives public radio listeners a unique window into the lives of immigrant communities while at the same time helping immigrant journalists advance their careers. We also sponsor town hall events on issues of critical importance to immigrants, and help public radio stations around the nation work with ethnic media in their local communities.

The musical ins & outs of these podcasts are by Patrick Grant with performers John Ferrari and Don Vitsentzos.

01 JAN 08

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

21 DEC 07

sTRANGE mUSIC Closed for the Holidays

sTRANGEmUSIC will be closed from Friday, December 21, 2007 until Wednesday, January 2, 2008.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

05 DEC 07

LIVING GAMELAN - MP3s & Photos

LIVING GAMELAN: Music about Theater & Politics
December 2, 3 & 4, 2007
The Living Theatre, 21 Clinton Street, New York, NY
Free Workshops, Open Rehearsals, Concert Performance

Funded in part through Meet The Composer's MetLife Creative Connections program and through public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.

Satchidananda by Peter Max

An original musical score for a documentary based on the life and teachings of
Swami Satchidananda

Satchidananda (1914–2002) was an Indian religious figure who gained fame and followers in the West, especially in the United States.

After serving his guru in India for many years, in 1966 he visited New York City at the request of a U.S. disciple, the artist Peter Max. Soon after his initial visit, Swamiji, as he was known to disciples, formally moved to the United States and became a citizen. From his new home he spread his teachings of yoga and enlightenment.

Satchidananda first came to public attention as the opening speaker at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in 1969. Over the years he wrote numerous books and gave hundreds of lectures. He also ordained a number of western disciples into the holy order of sanyasa. He was the founder of the Integral Yoga Institute,and in 1986 opened the LOTUS, the Light of Truth Universal Shrine at Yogaville in Buckingham, Virginia.

Satchidananda's better-known disciples included Alice Coltrane, Allen Ginsberg, Jeff Goldblum, Carole King and Scott Shaw. Guitarist John Fahey spent some time living in Yogaville, and endorsed the ideals of Integral Yoga, even going so far as to dedicate his 1973 album Fare Forward Voyagers to Satchidananda. Even Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo grew up in Yogaville.

A video documentary by Stories to Remember
in association with Integral Yoga Multimedia

Produced & Directed by Joshua M. Greene and Shiva Kumar
Music composed & produced by Patrick Grant

Additional musicians:
Prakash - vocals
John Ferrari - percussion
Steve Murphy - drums & vocals
Godfrey Townsend - e. guitar, e. bass & vocals
Don Vitsentzos - e. sitar & e. guitar

Kehinde Wiley and Artware Editions are collaborating to recreate a late-French rococo mantle clock with matching candlesticks.

Like Wiley’s paintings, this traditionally-styled clock will synthesize historical and vernacular references through several surprising updates: the classical figures, or putti, traditionally shown supporting the timepiece, will be replaced with urban African American men in contemporary clothing.

While the exterior of the gilded bronze clock will be recreated with exacting attention to authenticity, it will contrast with the modernized inner-workings of the clock that incorporate a classically rearranged version by Patrick Grant of the Salt-N-Pepa hip-hop song, “Push It,” in collaboration with and sung by the brilliant contemporary performer, Shequida.

At each hour, a fragment of the song will play, and at noon and midnight the song will play in its entirety. Historically aesthetically accurate, but also blinged out, this clock will explore the intersection of power, identity, and luxury.

More details TBA

23 OCT 07

hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III in Chicago

Quinton I. Morris, violin, Mariana Green-Hill, violin, Tyrone Tidwell,
viola, Chala Yancy, violin, Monica Davis, Violin,Dawn M. Smith,
viola, Ryan Murphy, cello, Tahirah Whittington, cello

The Young Eight will perform their mix of hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III at Northeastern University in Chicago on November 16th. The music was created through co-commissions of Kehinde Wiley Studio, Deitch Projects, & Roberts & Tilton Gallery, and The Columbus Museum of Art

More iNFO HERE

15 OCT 07

01. Main Title & The Accident
02. Hospital
03. Nine Months Later
04. Daily Living (Gnossienne No. 3.5)
05. Baiting the Trap
06. Going for a Drive

Total Running: 8'48"

Part Two

07. Cemetery
08. Hitchhiker No. 3
09. Unsuspecting Victim
10. Under the Knife
11. Evening Prayer
12. New Day to Face
13. End Title

Total Running: 7'45"

Patrick Grant & Marija Ilic - keyboards, John Ferrari - drums & percussion, with Keith Bonner - flute, Thomas P. Oberle - clarinet, Darryl Gregory - trombone, Martha Mooke - viola, Maxine Neumann - cello, David Simons - theremin & percussion, Dominic Frasca - electric guitar, Mark Steven Brooks - electric bass, and Alexandra Montano - voice

11 OCT 07

Doris Lessing Wins the Nobel Prize in Literature 2007

"that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny"

Doris Lessing is, amongst many other works, the author of The Diary of Jane Somers, the writings upon which the play Maudie and Jane is based.

The play, with Judith Malina and Pat Russell, directed by Hanon Reznikov with lights and design by Gary Brackett and incidental music by Patrick Grant, opens on November 21 at the Living Theatre (recipient of two Obie Awards in 2007) in NYC.

More iNFO HERE

01 OCT 07

Web Stats for the Third Quarter

Almost 28,000 vistors in the months of July to September. Wow.

01 OCT 07

Rainha Mentira / Queen Liar plays in Argentina

The play, with music by Patrick Grant & Edson Secco, plays the Festival Internacional de Teatro MERCOSUR in Cordoba, Argentina.

More iNFO and an interview with the director/writer Gerald Thomas can be found on his blog HERE.

01 SEP 07

Meet the Composer awards grants for performances including "tHE pHILOSOPHER'S sTONE" and workshops

This event made possible through support from MetLife Creative Connections

The Living Theatre will host the new music repertory ensemble Gamelan Son of Lion who will feature works by Patrick Grant, Daniel Goode, David Demnitz. The composers will participate in half-hour pre-concert discussions, open rehearsals and workshops. All events will be free and open to the public (concert admission by donation). There will be an open rehearsal on December 2, and on December 3-4 there will be free community gamelan workshops, a spiraling introduction to gamelan performance practice and rhythmic structure.

Patrick Grant produces his tone-poem for gamelan based on a scenario, tHE pHILOSOPHER'S sTONE, by Antonin Artaud (1931).

http://www.linkstew.org/1998/05/313/

Adieu à Elvire Braunschweig 1922-2007

I was very saddened to have heard the news of the passing of Elvire, a friend and an original board member of Strange Music Inc...

Adieu à Elvire Braunschweig

Elvire Braunschweig-Krémis est subitement décédée à son domicile en Suisse le 5 août 2007.

Elle avait fondé avec son mari, Philippe Braunschweig, le Prix de Lausanne en 1972.

Elvire Braunschweig possédait à la fois la rigueur et la souplesse - qualités essentielles pour le ballet - qui lui permettaient d’avoir la clairvoyance nécessaire pour encourager les jeunes artistes qui, à ses yeux, avaient de l’avenir, tout en amenant les autres à affronter la réalité.

Souvent, au cours des 35 années d’existence du Prix de Lausanne, elle a pris sous son aile des jeunes danseurs et danseuses démunis mais dont elle percevait le talent, et ces jeunes sont grâce à elle devenus de grands artistes.

Officiellement retirée depuis dix ans du Prix de Lausanne, Elvire Braunschweig continuait cependant de s’intéresser de très près au développement de cette institution. Elle assistait régulièrement aux séances du conseil en tant que membre d’honneur, et elle ne manquait aucune épreuve du concours.

Elvire Braunschweig continuera de vivre dans son œuvre en faveur des jeunes danseurs et danseuses, et dans le cœur de celles et ceux qui l’ont connue et appréciée.

Lausanne, le 8 août 2007

http://www.danse-light-magazine.com/spip.php?article232

Le Prix de Lausanne est orphelin

Elvire Braunschweig, 85 ans, cofondatrice du Prix de Lausanne, est subitement décédée à son domicile veveysan. Vivant en parfaite osmose depuis 55 ans, le couple Braunschweig a fortement marqué le développement de la danse en Suisse. A Philippe, le leadership ; à Elvire, l’influence qu’autorisait une riche expérience artistique. C’est d’ailleurs dans le studio de danse de Madame Sedova, à Nice, que le jeune Chaux-de-fonnier, alors étudiant à l’EPFZ, et Elvira Kremis, Russe blanche établie sur la Côte d’Azur, s’étaient rencontrés en juin 1950. Leur mariage, deux ans plus tard, puis la naissance de leur premier enfant, mirent prématurément fin à une prometteuse carrière chorégraphique. De ces brillantes saisons au Ballet de Vichy, notamment, elle conserva d’inaltérables amitiés, à commencer par celle de Maurice Béjart.

Par la suite, un long séjour à New York, puis de nombreux voyages autour du monde permirent au couple Braunschweig de nouer et d’entretenir des liens étroits avec la fine fleur de la danse internationale, de Rosella Hightower à Yvette Chauviré. La connaissance de la langue et de la culture russes qu’avait Elvire favorisa l’ouverture à l’Est du Prix de Lausanne. Plusieurs graines d’étoile, en provenance de ce qui était alors le bloc soviétique, n’ont pas oublié son accueil, sa générosité et son soutien indéfectible. Katarzyna Gdaniec, co-directrice de la compagnie Linga, à Pully, après avoir brillé chez Béjart, est de celles-là.

Nouveaux horizons

Partie prenante dans toutes les entreprises artistiques de son mari, Elvire Braunschweig aurait pu vivre difficilement la décision de ce dernier de se retirer, l’âge venu, de la présidence du Béjart Ballet Lausanne, puis du Prix. La peinture lui ouvrit de nouveaux horizons. A la surprise générale, elle se découvrit une palette des plus imaginatives, riche de rythmes et de couleurs, dont témoignent deux expositions à la galerie Nelly L’Eplattenier, à Lausanne.

Mais la danse restait la première de ses préoccupations, avec sa famille. Une famille dispersée : ses deux enfants, Valerie Filipovna et Georgik, vivent respectivement à New York et Paris. Et ses deux petits-fils, à Washington et Los Angeles. La mort a d’ailleurs saisi Elvire à la veille d’un voyage en Bielo-Russie où elle comptait retrouver de lointains cousins.

http://www.prixdelausanne.org/pdf/SadNews2.pdf

05 AUG 07

Reviews for Rainha Mentira / Queen Liar from São Paolo, Brazil

"Queen Liar" is a total Wagnerian spectacle! What a soundtrack! What lighting! A 'dry opera' with the raw musicality of this eddy of words and images that is the world in which we live! I loved it!
- Evaldo Mocarzel (filmmaker & former cultural editor of the Estado de Sao Paulo - Aug. 9, 2007)

Rainha Mentira / Queen Liar
A new play by GERALD THOMAS
& The Dry Opera Company

Original music by
Patrick GRANT & Edson SECCO

Com Fabiana Gugli, Fábio Pinheiro, Pancho Cappeletti e Anna Américo

Read the reviews at Gerald Thomas' blog HERE

21 JUL 07

hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE - Charts & Parts

"...the third piece was arranged in such a colorful manner that it was even difficult for some of the younger audience members to tell which song belonged to which Grammy-winning artist." - June 5, 2007 - The Jibsheet

Kehinde Wiley, The Three Graces, 2005

hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III
permutations on hip-hop themes 4 string quartet+
(optional flute, harpsichord/piano& double bass)
by Patrick GRANT
2005-2006

Created through co-commissions of Kehinde Wiley Studio, Deitch Projects, Roberts & Tilton Gallery, and the Columbus Museum of Art

PDF Charts & Parts

=====================================================================================

As an extension of his exhibitions and events throughout 2005 & 2006, the artist Kehinde Wiley, with Deitch Projects, Roberts & Tilton Gallery and the Columbus Museum commissioned hip-hop inspired classical & baroque music productions for me to create and organize for his openings. Performers have included Shequida, the West Village Quartet & Ensemble, the Young Eight, and the Malcolm X. Shabazz High School Marching Band as well as Patrick Grant Group and other ensembles outside the context of Wiley's events.

In order to keep it, you have to give it away: I've decided to post some early incarnations from the series partly due to public curiosity regarding the work (I even found out about some unauthorized performances!) but mostly with how I went about transforming the CD audio we know into readable music to be performed. Also, it's due to the fact that I'm now working on bigger and better hip-hop-hybrids and they've become my focus. Plus, it's good that these earlier pieces start getting around some more. The public response at every performance has been great.

In selecting the material for this particular instrumental suite much care was put into selecting pieces that could more or less be easily identified by the musical content alone when the rap vocal is not present, and with more than a fistful of original hooks and grooves running throughout the mix to hold it together. A lot of figurations had to be invented to make up for the lack of percussion though body sounds like clapping, stomping and finger snapping have always been welcome in my performances.

The scores and parts presented are Urtext Editions, very much like a score by Bach, that is, without dynamics, articulations and idiomatic embellishments like grace notes and glissandi. These, as in the Baroque and Classical eras, were always left up to the descretion of the performers and worked out in the rehearsal process if not extemporaneously, a very similar performance practice that lives on today in the contemporary music scene of Downtown New York City and other urban hotbeds of creativity where the ideas are coming so fast that it just doesn't make any sense to waste time writing these kinds of details down. At least that's what they say.

Besides, it does enable every performer and every performance to find their unique way through the notes. Especially when I'm part of the performance, it's just much faster to call things out as they're discovered especially when working in forms and styles that have no classical origin.

Also, all the sections presented here are modular, just like a set list, and may be moved around, edited, cut and pasted as to the performing ensemble's need and to match whatever particular flow they wish to project. Any re-ordering of the movements is acceptable.

Not one of the above mentioned performances ever did, nor was meant to, stick hard and fast to the printed page. The movements are numbered then, not for order, but for reference. In a way, they're more jazz charts than actual scores if one wants to take them that way, although they do stay within the margins of certain classical techniques. It's a mood of conviviality not too far from Terry Riley's "In C," although that piece doesn't allow re-ordering.

So, though the instruments used here may be antique, hip-hop is not, and this music should be adapted to the feel of the venue and to the spirit of the performers. Thus, any reordering will be referred to as a "mix," i.e. "hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE - The Imaginary Quartet Mix" - etc. - by Patrick Grant, to use an example. This also keeps a parallel with DJ culture and acknowledges the contributions of the performing ensemble.

I do look forward to performances of this work and others from the series (i.e. Historical Black Music Roller Coaster) taking place in the upcoming season. Stay tuned for nEWS of other scores from this series being posted as soon as I can make them available.

Thanks again to Kehinde for getting the ball rolling.

Patrick GRANT
NYC

For hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III Charts & Parts click HERE

18 JUL 07

SERVER PROBLEMS or "Dare Thou Goest in the Machine?"

I deeply regret the problems caused by a new and problematic server in NJ to all those on my mailing list though I'll man-up and take responsibility if a human face need be attached. It is not a virus. Breathe easy. It is a sTRANGE loop that was caused by the changing of a simple setting that an unpersoned machine couldn't handle due to something that must have hit it at its end. Still don't know exactly what that was except that it was benign although extremely annoying.

In all fairness to all those involved, the mailing list server is currently being dismantled, PERMANENTLY, and I will be starting afresh when the season resumes in September. I was due for a change anyway, like so many things this year.

BTW: If you've received spam from others on the list, your email was never compromised. It was a function of a "Reply to All" feature of the list which is now, like all its features, inert.

Once again, my deepest regrets. I'm sure it's not my idea, or more importantly, your idea of how to start a day! Whew. Give me strength...

PG*
NYC
09:59 EDT

UPDATE 11:30 PM

Whatta day. Looks like it's over and that the server has queued and spewed about all it can do.

My deepest regrets again for hitting the button that sent a server going crazy. I did everything I could as fast as I could do take care of it. A special mention to the fine folks at WAMU FM-Radio in Washington, D.C. and to all Dianes everywhere who seemed to have beared the major brunt of this technological misadventure.

HOW IT HAPPENED

1. I, the list-owner, tried to send out an announcement.

2. It bounced back to me saying that only the list-owner had permission to do that (?)

3. I went to my server's settings page and changed it so that it would accept postings from anybody to see if my announcement would go through that way. It did. I changed the setting back to what it was, postings from list-owner only. Still, that was weird why it did that.

4. I went to bed then, at 1:30 AM

5. Right away, automatic responses started coming in, while I was logged-off, notably from WAMU-FM in Wash., D.C. These went out to everybody on the list.

6. People, understandably irate, responded to be taken off the list. These too went out to the list initiating more responses to be taken off, etc. etc. etc.

7. The telephone calls start coming in at 6:15 AM and the general opinion, if one were to have taken a poll, was that I was the assh*le du jour.

8. I logged-on and went back to the settings page. It was set to "Accept postings from list-owner only." But I had changed it back! I tried to do so again. It wouldn't budge. It and all other settings on the page were, and are still, jammed, broken, NFG. F--k!

9. Even more people now, as the Western world awoke, and even more understandably irate, responded to be taken off the list. These too went out to the list initiating more responses to be taken off, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

10. My only recourse was to go to the one page of the list-serve that was working, the list itself, and unsubscribe everybody. But that took forever. The system was so jammed with everything going on it was taking forever for it to load. I knew it was looping but couldn't stop it until, after an hour, I eventually could get into it.

11. So, everyone's unsubscribed from my list. That's cool, that's the price one pays. BUT STILL, the server had to spew out all the data from this strange loop that had been created and that was stuck in the queue. It was a matter of letting it run out. AND IT HAS.

* * * * * * * *

Oh, and did I mention that the person who had been in charge of the server died two years ago and left in running in perpetuo without any contact information? I've been coasting ever since sans problem until now. Truly, that's the ghost in my machine until I can change my situation (asap). May he rest in piece.

So, enjoy being off the list. When I do start one up again, it will be up to the subscriber's descretion whether to join or not via my web site. Fair enough.

All my best,
-Patrick*

15 JUL 07

Young and Hip and Classical, Too

hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE performed by The Young Eight
w/ LIVE WEBCASTS on WSU Internet Radio

The Young Eight, an African-American string octet, plays a new kind of concert this week at Chamber Music at the Barn
July 15, 2007 By Chris Schull - The Wichita Eagle

Audiences have learned to accept more than straight classical music at Chamber Music at the Barn - July 18, 19 & 20

The Barn will take another step away from the classical music mainstream at concerts Wednesday through Friday at the Barn at Prairie Pines when it presents hip-hop music -- hit songs by Beyonce, 50 Cent, Kanye West and others arranged as string quartets. The hip-hop quartets are part of an adventurous, innovative program to be played by guest artists The Young Eight, a string octet of young African-American string players. The ensemble will also present two new octets by young composers and the classical "Lyric for Strings" by George Walker and "Introduction and Allegro" by Edward Elgar.

Though they are bringing new twists to classical concerts, playing hip-hop quartets is no gimmick for the musicians in the Young Eight. "We did not want to sound like classical musicians trying to play hip hop," said Quinton Morris, the group's founder and artistic director. "We didn't want to sound like we were trying to be hip. We just wanted to be us. "We're the Young Eight. We're all in our 20s and early 30s" -- serious musicians in tune with all aspects of the musical culture around them.

Morris, 29, founded the Young Eight in 2002 during his senior year at the North Carolina School of the Arts. The groundwork for the ensemble was laid during a career development class. The ensemble's membership was filled by friends and friends-of-friends -- violinists, violists and cellists from many of America's top music schools. "The day after I graduated was our first concert," Morris said. "I managed in six weeks to do all the fundraising and marketing. That was my first step into the music biz."

Morris' decision to form a string octet was calculated. "There's a bunch of string quartets out here and there are gobs of piano trios out here -- why not do something different?" Morris said. Since that first concert in 2002, Morris has helped steer the Young Eight toward greater prominence. Last year, the group initiated a competition to inspire young composers to write pieces for string octet.

During its performances this week at the Barn, the Young Eight will perform the winning pieces, each about five minutes long --"African Rhapsody" by Michael Mikulka and "Conch Shells Memories" by Robert Tanner. "Both pieces are really cute and humorous," Morris said. "They are not the kind of contemporary pieces that people will frown upon and say, 'Oh, god, it's another 'new' work.' "These are young composers and you can hear the youthfulness in the music. And I think we do an excellent job of displaying that on stage."

Besides playing concerts, the Young Eight presents many workshops and music camps for young musicians. On Friday, they'll work with African-American students enrolled in the Northeast Area Strings Academy of Wichita. "We stress academics a lot to our students," Morris said. "We tell them it is not good enough to just be talented; you have to be smart as well."

The Young Eight's performances this week of "hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III" -- hip hop hits arranged for strings by Patrick Grant -- is intended to interest young people who are into today's pop music. "Ensembles all the time are looking for ways to build audiences, to get kids more interested and involved in classical music," Morris said. "Well, the way that you do that is by being able to bring something (into concerts) that they know and can relate to. "That is how we are able to get kids so involved in classical music. We're able to play Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn but also 50 Cent 'In Da Club' and make it sound like it is off of the radio. And kids love it."

Morris' musical ideas are gaining momentum -- and paying dividends. Morris recently accepted a position as assistant professor of music at Seattle University. The Young Eight will be artists-in-residence there.

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