2/13/08

The Coolest Composer Ever, Ever!

According to Richard Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury News, composer Yu-Hui Chang did something, well, miraculous. In her new concerto, which is

... a work of striking pathos...

she is able to do something so ground-breaking, so mind-boggling that my little head can’t begin to comprehend the level of compositional sophistication that Richard describes. I mean, I’ve heard of composers being able to...

... [evoke] ballrooms and fast sleigh-rides through snowy expanses.

But, Yu-Hui is apparently so far beyond our limited number of dimensions, compositionally, that she is able to turn figurative expressions into actual matter. NASA should hire her.

What is it that she did, you ask?

Hold on. I need to catch my breath. (deep inhale)

Okay. Here it goes. The most coolest thing ever.

In the opening Allegro Vivace, the strings surrounded [the soloist] with the percolations of multiple coffee pots, then became the aerialist’s trampoline.

That’s like nuclear-fission, Voltron cool.
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4 comments:

Erik Loomis said...

The thing about this blog is it tells me about these interesting sounding composers that I don't have the money or knowledge to explore in anything but a most cursory way. Sigh.

Empiricus said...

Thanks erik. I really mean it. This got to me. It is certainly a problem, one that crosses my mind daily. And, for what it's worth, it's a problem for all of us, including the authors. I will make an effort to address your concerns soon, in post/word form.

To everyone (all seven of you): this is why I love the comments section. Especially since this is quite new, we're still working out methodological, ideological and philosophical bugs, of which there are many, to be sure. I just hope we've been entertaining and bitchy enough, while we sort out the issues, which includes erik's lack-of-resource having, but a non-lack-of-inquisitiveness having, which is the same for most of us.

Please stay tuned for a... manifesto? Of sorts.

Aaron said...

Ooh. As a commie liberal fascist pinko, I love manifstos (manifesti? manifestim?).

I agree that the resource-not-having is a problem, but I hope one day to be able to check out most of these composers through the magic of Amazon. I'm certainly better off knowing about them, at least, which mainly I wasn't before.

Sator Arepo said...

Awesome. Thanks guys!