Alex Ross, music critic for the New Yorker, thinks that he has found a great new composer. There's only one catch: this composer doesn't even know how to read or write music. (Did I mention she's also a kitten?):
It is risky to attempt an analysis of such an intricate musical conception after only a few auditions, but I am ready to hail this fluffy young composer's work as a captivating and utterly fresh synthesis of late twentieth-century minimalist tendencies with the chromatic language of canonical European modernism.
I can definitely hear the Schoenbergian influences. Watch the full composition (and creative process) on You Tube.
More like this
Some chess problems are the equivalent of a big, Thanksgiving dinner. They have numerous variations and complex strategy. And that's fine, if a big dinner is what you want.
This week we shall continue our look at helpmates. The problem below was composed by Zivko Janevski in 2011. It calls for helpmate in two, with three solutions:
The German composer Beethoven, considered one of the most gifted composers of all time, died inexplicably at the age of 57 in 1827. He had been quite sick in the months leading up to his death, and in the past few years, research has determined that Beethoven likely died of lead poisoning.
Friday Not-So-Random Five
Watching key depressions vis a vis pitch, I have to cast doubt on the entire enterprise, though the Kitty in question is indeed a major cutie. Perhaps as much or more to the point is Why Cats Paint. I have the book http://www.amazon.com/Why-Cats-Paint-Theory-Aesthetics/dp/0898156122
and could just about believe that it was not a put-on till I discovered a complementary book, with complementary authors,
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Paint-Cats-Ethics-Aesthetics/dp/1580082718
My skepticism wrt feline aesthetics (though I love them dearly) does not interfere with my rather firm opinions about giving our primate cousins the vote. I don't know about gibbons, but would not want to be accused of species-ism.