Australian Music - a video essay

My new video essay, a beginners guide to Australian Classical Music, is out!

In this video in my beginners guide to classical music I talk about Australian classical music for those who may have never listened before.

Playlist of suggested listening (YouTube & Spotify):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsHBMTNbR6edE3f6OgB-lBrxzJvJx_PgR https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5YGpAJNlqFiWxAQdsCqhmq

The composers I mention: Brett Dean, Lisa Illean, Deborah Cheetham, Gurrumul Yunupingu (mentioned album is called Djarimirri), Percy Grainger, Richard Meale, Nigel Butterley, Peter Sculthorpe, Nigel Westlake, Elena Kats-Chernin, Kate Neale, Alfred Hill.

Wagner - a video essay

Richard Wagner's shadow hangs long over the classical music world. Influential for his grand and sprawling operas, Wagner also wrote some highly offensive anti-semitic essays. His music because strongly associated with National Socialism in Germany in the 1930s. So, how do we rectify this with regular performances of his music today?

**trigger warning** this video contains discussion around the antisemitic writings of Richard Wagner, mentions of the National Socialist Workers Party (Nazi Party) and their antisemitic laws and policies during their dictatorial regime.

3:48 - Changing the world

7:46 - "Is Wagner a human being at all?" Friedrich Nietzsche

15:09 - The Michael Jackson effect

Show notes

• Alex Ross interviewed on Sticky notes about new book "Wagnerism" https://stickynotespodcast.libsyn.com...

• Stephen Fry - Wagner and Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlmaE...

• Richard Wagner - Judaism in Music http://jrbooksonline.com/PDF_Books/Ju...

• Lindsay Ellis - Death of the Author https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGn9x...

• Simon Rattle - Leaving Home (talking about "Tristan and Isolde") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQJz7...

• Video excerpt of the Immolation Scene is from 1964 BBC documentary about Sir Georg Solti's recording of the Ring Cycle

Composing - a video essay

I've been composing since I was 10.

Here is a video essay about some things I've learnt and some things I try to do.

0:54 Chapter 1 Thinking & Research

02:54 Chapter 2 Options

06:09 Chapter 3 Writing

11:36 Chapter 4 What's Next?

Some books I suggest:

Harmonielehre by Arnold Schoenberg https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Harmony...

The Study of Orchestration by Samuel Adler https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Notations21 by Theresa Sauer https://www.amazon.com/Notations-21-T...

Music Notation by Gardner Read https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Music featured is my piece "The Nephelai" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNrMP...

Follow me on the interwebs:

WEBSITE: http://www.evanjlawson.com/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/evanjlawson/ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/evan.j.lawson1 SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/evanjlawson

Check out my videos about:

Opera https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GjRS...

Orchestral Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyt_a...

Conducting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTIEF...

New Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzAnn...

Arnold Schoenberg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF-MH...

Beginners guide to new music

Ever wanted to get into new classical music but don't know where to start? Well, I have some recommendations for where to start in the wild and wacky world of new music!

I talk about the below pieces in the context of these works investigating politics (13:25), modern life (17:14), philosophy (20:40) & interdisciplinary genres (24:14).

My suggestions:

13:25 Liza Lim "Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus"

15:34 Julius Eastman "Stay On It"

17:14 John Tavener "The Protecting Vail"

19:25 Steve Reich "City Life'

20:40 Max Richter "On the Nature of Day Light" & "Sleep"

22:37 Toru Takemitsu "From me flows what you call time"

24:14 Michel van der Aa "One"

25:55 Chaya Czernowin "Heart Chamber"

28:41 Du Yun "Tattooed in snow"

Playlist of examples: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

The book I mentioned is “Music After the Fall” by Tim Rutherford-Johnson.

Follow me on the interwebs

WEBSITE: http://www.evanjlawson.com/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/evanjlawson/ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/evan.j.lawson1 SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/evanjlaw

Why should I listen to Arnold Schoenberg's music?

The famous composer Arnold Schoenberg is famous for being dissonant and divisive. But I love his music and you should listen to it!

11:20 Early tonal works Transfigured Night & Gurre-Lieder

12:54 Expressionist works Erwartung, Pierrot Lunaire, 1st Chamber Symphony, 5 Pieces for Orchestra, 3 Piano Pieces Op.11, Second String Quartet

19:19 Dodecaphonic/12 Tone/"A-Tonal" works Suite for Piano, Wind Quintet, 2 Piano Pieces & Moses und Aron

21:44 Works written in USA Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto, Ode to Napoleon, A Survivor from Warsaw, Theme & Variations and Suite for Strings.

Playlist for suggested listening: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

Follow me on the interwebs

WEBSITE: http://www.evanjlawson.com/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/evanjlawson/ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/evan.j.lawson1 SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/evanjlawson

Beginners guide to orchestral music

So, you're interested in knowing some pieces written for orchestra and how orchestral music over time. In this video I have a suggested listening list of orchestral pieces from the renaissance until today! (sorry for the weird angle....)

03:55 Claudio Monteverdi "Prelude to L'Orfeo"

06:51 Johann Sebastian Bach "St. John's Passion"

10:07 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart "Clarinet Concerto"

11:57 Ludwig van Beethoven "Symphony No.3 Eroica"

14:38 Felix Mendelssohn "Symphony No.5 Reformation"

15:55 Johannes Brahms "Symphony No.1"

19:08 Gustav Mahler "Symphony No.4"

21:31 Igor Stravinsky "Rite of Spring"

23:24 Bela Bartok "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta"

25:39 Sofia Gubaidulina "Offertorium"

27:00 Peter Sculthorpe "Earth Cry"

28:04 Bernard Herman "Psycho"

30:48 Unsuk Chin "Manniquin"

Playlist for my suggested listing: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

The video from PianoTV I mentioned (A Beginner's Guide to the Orchestra) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8XQn...

Follow me on the interwebs

WEBSITE: http://www.evanjlawson.com/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/evanjlawson/ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/evan.j.lawson1 SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/evanjlawson