An artist should not go one way only. It's like in a maze, a labyrinth—you can't move in a straight line. You have to go left, right, maybe two steps back, then search forward. That's what it's like in the life of the artist. | | | | Krzysztof Penderecki rehearsing at the Konzerthaus Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Nov. 23, 1997.
(Archie Kent/ullstein bild/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | “An artist should not go one way only. It's like in a maze, a labyrinth—you can't move in a straight line. You have to go left, right, maybe two steps back, then search forward. That's what it's like in the life of the artist.”
| | | | | | rantnrave:// Stay. The. F***. At. Home. In the past 36 hours, Covid-19 has taken the lives of JOE DIFFIE, the beloved honky-tonk throwback who was a staple of '90s country radio, and ALAN MERRILL, a journeyman rocker and songwriter whose name you may not know but whose work you certainly do. JOHN PRINE has been hospitalized since Thursday and "his situation is critical," his family says. TOM RUSH announced Sunday he has tested positive. Make them angels from Montgomery and stay the f*** at home if you have even the slightest choice... KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI, as it happens, got a negative test result for the virus shortly before he died Sunday after a long illness. Penderecki was one of the 20th century's great composers, a musical visionary and a bridger of worlds. A certain type of rock and electronic musician has always been drawn to his work, as has a certain type of filmmaker, usually for the avant-garde—and deeply emotional—compositions from early in his career in which, under the influence of early electronic music, he manipulated strings almost beyond recognition. The effect could be haunting; WILLIAM FRIEDKIN made good use of his music in THE EXORCIST, as did STANLEY KUBRICK in THE SHINING. But Penderecki eventually turned his back on his early work in favor of a Romantic style. "How long can you do it?" he once said of his titanic and groundbreaking "THRENODY FOR THE VICTIMS OF HIROSHIMA." "If you go one step farther, you will destroy the instrument. I almost did." He never quite got cozy with strings and other orchestral instruments in more traditional settings, though; he invented at least one new instrument, the tubaphone, and wished that engineers would come up with others. It was long past time, he thought, for new tools. He was acclaimed in later years for his compositions for the human voice, which he called "the most beautiful instrument ever created," while actively reaching out to humans both inside and outside the classical academy. "Listening to classical music is like reading philosophy books; not everybody has to do it," he told a Polish interviewer. "Music is not for everybody." And yet he went out of his way, repeatedly, to bring it to more people than many of his peers. RIP... Good citizens: RIHANNA (let's up that to *great* citizen) has donated $5 million to coronavirus relief efforts through her CLARA LIONEL FOUNDATION, as well as donating badly needed personal protective equipment to New York State... JAMES TAYLOR and his wife, KIM, gave $1 million to MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL... MARIAH CAREY, BILLIE EILISH, the BACKSTREET BOYS and DEMI LOVATO were among the performers in IHEARTRADIO's "LIVING ROOM CONCERT FOR AMERICA" fundraiser Sunday night on FOX, which was formatted as a series of INSTAGRAMISH home performances, complete with guest appearances by TIM MCGRAW's and BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG's dogs, and which was adorable... Elsewhere in isolation, TIERRA WHACK collaborates with ALANIS MORISSETTE via sample, and MICHAEL STIPE collaborates with the NATIONAL's AARON DESSNER via laptop... RIP also RAY MANTILLA, JAN HOWARD, BOB ANDY, GERARD SCHURMANN and CY TUCKER.
| | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | | | | | prop me up beside the jukebox (if i die) | |  | Rock And Roll Globe | | The city struggles with/without live music as clubs and musicians pick up the pieces of a cancelled SXSW. | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | Record retailers across L.A. worry that with stores shuttered, Record Store Day cancelled and no influx of used vinyl to buy and sell, business prospects are bleak. | | | |  | Talkhouse | | John Colpitts talks to musicians from China, Italy, and South Korea about life in lockdown, and what the hell we’re going to do next. | | | |  | Variety | | In a post-modern world, he was the perfect old-school hillbilly singer. | | | |  | The New York Times | | Mr. Penderecki’s modernist compositions turned up in films like “The Exorcist” and influenced a generation of edgy rock musicians. | | | |  | Billboard | | Vinyl album sales continue to shine. | | | |  | Stereogum | | Few elements of modern life have changed indie more than the prevalence of social media has. | | | |  | The Washington Post | | The orchestra’s 96 musicians will receive their last paychecks on April 3. | | | |  | The Undefeated | | A roundtable of NBA in-house deejays: DJ Poizon Ivy, Sir Foster, DJ T. Gray and DJ D Sharp. | | | |  | Chris Morris's Wasted Space | | It is either a feat of extraordinary prescience or an accident of fate that Bob Dylan's “Murder Most Foul,” about the loss of a president who to many represented a beacon of hope for America, was released as our citizens are bunkered in their homes, as another president’s every horrific, soulless action pushes the country closer to the abyss, as the national clock ticks closer to midnight. | | | | | | | if the devil danced (in empty pockets) | | | The New York Times | | Local stations have cut down on D.J.s coming to the studio, but playlists and personalities are holding strong as small stations get a chance to build bigger audiences. | | | |  | The Guardian | | Bright and irresistible, K-pop provides the beat to South Korea’s youth culture. But behind the perfect smiles and dance routines are tales of sexism and abuse. | | | | | The Washington Post | | The bass virtuoso says he was forced to get in tune with himself while grappling with alcohol addiction and the deaths of his friends. | | | | | Billboard | | Coachella moved to fall first, and other festivals are following its lead. Can the season sustain them all? | | | | | Variety | | While it might seem counterintuitive that music streams would decline at a time when so many Americans were ordered to stay home, data-savvy label executives were neither startled nor concerned by the 7.6% drop in plays that happened in the March 13-19 tracking week. | | | |  | The Song Sommelier | | The world is suddenly dealing with something strange and unprecedented. As society presses pause, the Song Sommelier blog will examine the role of music and listening in our lives and how a once in a lifetime pandemic could shape the ears and minds of audiences across the planet. | | | |  | Artist Rights Watch | | It has been patently obvious from the first discussions of the Mechanical Licensing Collective several years ago that transitioning from a century of song-by-song licensing was going to be a highly costly and highly complex process. | | | | | The Guardian | | Having failed to match the success of their 2001 debut, New York’s coolest band had petered out. How did they come back with a brilliant new record - and designs for electric bikes? | | | |  | Very Smart Brothas | | Like a lot of black men who grew up in the ’90s, hip-hop is the soundtrack for my life and has been for as long as I can remember. I can remember “borrowing” cassette tapes from my older sister-she had a new music plug in high school-dubbing them, and sneaking them back into her room before she noticed. | | | |  | WQXR | | The legendary Polish composer joins Phil Kline in the studio to discuss his inspirations, the development of his musical voice, growing up under the shadow of Stalinism and the next stage of his career. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | Performed by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Antoni Wit. | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
