Radical Glass Music #5

The Radical Glass Music series (#1|#2|#3|#4) collects examples of creative use of glass in music from contemporary composers or sound artists, with emphasis on 18th century-type spirit of discovery and magical sounds. Healing properties are not forgotten, as this kind of music is remarkably suitable during a headache, for instance, as this writer experienced!

01 Edgardo Rudnitzky & Jorge Macchi Twilight (20:32)
02 Yatri Highland Muse (4:19)
03 Steve Roden Bell Is The Truth (Berlin) (16:04)
04 Josef Anton Riedl Glas-Spiele (excerpt) (11:59)
05 Federico Fellini E La Nave Va (2:25)
06 Gunner Møller Pedersen Glasmusik II (15:14)
07 Russell Leach & Don Campau Glass Source (2:27)

Total time 73:00
Compiled by Continuo, 2011
Photo: Man Ray, Ce que manque à nous tous, 1969 (source)

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01 Edgardo Rudnitzky & Jorge Macchi Twilight (20:32)

Commissioned by the Centre for Studies of Surrealism and its Legacies, Twilight was a 2006 performance for glass armonica and Max/MSP software, by contemporary artists Rudnitzky & Macchi, part of the former’s Light Music series. In this serene, dense accumulation of glass sounds, a computer playback system interacts with the armonica player, Alasdair Malloy. Sound file from this page.

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02 Yatri Highland Muse (4:19)

Yatri is Canadian pianist Kathryn Taussig’s 1996 glass armonica project. Her instrument was build by Gerhard Finkenbeiner, who famously build German interpret Bruno Hoffman‘s armonica in the early 1980s, thus contributing to a revival of 18th century glass music. Sound file from website.

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03 Steve Roden Bell Is The Truth (Berlin) (16:04)

This soundtrack to a film installation is based on light bulbs and bells sound samples, reconfigured by Steve Roden into a hypnagogic soundscape of tintinabulating and resonating sounds. From the 2003 CD on Semishigure/ Bottrop-Boy. Unrelated picture above from Roden’s Fulgurites 2004 installation.

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04 Josef Anton Riedl Glas-Spiele (excerpt) (11:59)

One of the two existing versions of Glas-Spiele, or Glass Games, 1974-77, a collective composition for glass tubes exploring the percussive properties of glass. From #8 of the Zeitgenössische Musik In Der Bundesrepublik Deutschland series of LPs. Performers include: Florian Tielebier-Langenscheidt, Johannes Göhl, Lorenzo Ferrero, Michael Hirsch, Robyn Schulkowsky and Stefan Gabanyi, under the direction of Riedl. Source: Avant Garde Project #1.

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05 Federico Fellini E La Nave Va… (2:25)

In this famous scene from Fellini’s film E La Nave Va… (1983), a group of musicians and conductors seem to improvise on Franz Schubert’s Six Moments Musicaux No.3, 1828, originally for solo piano. One source claims the music was recorded by virtuoso glass player Bruno Hoffman and arranged by Nino Rota. Glass music doesn’t come more magical than this. Sound from DVD.

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06 Gunner Møller Pedersen Glasmusik II (15:14)

In 1991, Danish composer Perdersen was commissioned a piece for the Ebeltoft Glass Museum, to be played as a permanent installation in the museum’s rooms. The glass sound samples and programming were produced at the Danish Institute of Electro-acoustic Music in Aarhus and premiered in the museum in 1993. From the 1994 Winter Garden CD.

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07 Russell Leach & Don Campau Glass Source (2:27)

On their 2011 Inside/Outside project, Californians Russel Leach (l) and Don Campau (r) use a variety of small percussion, traditional instruments and sampler to create exquisite otherworldly tracks with exotic resonances typical from West Coast musicians. Their instrumentation includes glass percussion and ringing glass, as is the case on this unreleased track from the same sessions. Thanks to Don for this one.

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