The piece began when I opened the door in the common room to the outside. The near-silent airtightness of the inside was broken by the immediate roaring of the waves and rushing of the wind. Location-wise and pitch-wise, the waves were on the bottom and the wind was on the top. The frequencies that made…
The World Music Created: “Waiting For the End”
A series of short fiction pieces continuing the stories told in concept albums. This week’s article is a continuation of last week’s article inspired by Linkin Park’s “Waiting for the End.”1 “I’m going to the Yards today,” Liam announces over breakfast. Nathan looks up sharply. “Don’t look at me like that, you know our life…
The World Music Created: “MNSTR”
A continuation of “MNSTR”. 100 Years Later… Andrew has witnessed too many lifetimes, but this by far was his favorite because he’d helped build it. He remembered its beginning quite clearly. The start of the end went like this: Bones and his crew go into the hospital first, eliminate the major threat, and ghost Andrew…
The World Music Created: “MNSTR”
The first beating of footsteps behind Andrew quickens his heart, but they sound pretty far away, so he keeps his pace. The second pair ignites fear and Andrew briefly considers taking off in a run when a hand comes in contact with his shoulder. His head spins as he’s pinned face-first against the cool brick…
Improvisational Music & Deep Listening at Lawrence
Last weekend, Sept. 23 and 24, Improvisational LU, a two-day music festival fo-cusing on improvised music and deep listening was hosted by senior Sam Genualdi and junior Izzy Yellen. The purpose of the festival was to highlight an underrepresented genre as well as to give students who are not in the Conservatory a chance to…
Meditations on Music: ImprovationaLU
After an incredibly moving, inspiring and dense weekend of listening to live improvised music, I have to boil it all down to about 900 words. I want to write several hundred words on each of the nine concerts, but at the same time, I want to let each show stand on its own and speak…
Huun Huur Tu performs Tuvan music
Lawrence University is fortunate to host a variety of guest musicians from around the world each year. To begin the 2016-2017 World Music Concert Series, the famous Tuvan ensemble Huun Huur Tu performed traditional Tuvan folk music, incorporating ancient instrumental and vocal techniques. Huun Huur Tu has performed all around the world since the early…
Iggy Azalea’s sophmore album complete success
Azalea’s sophomore studio release is an impressive demonstration of her rap and compositional abilities. The album is composed of mostly solid standalone tracks. Azalea delivers lyrically and pairs most of her raps with impressive backing melodies. Further, her use of guest artists is on point throughout the album, and the collaborations often foreshadow new chart…
Lawrence hosts MIDSEM conference
Lawrence hosted the annual meeting of the Midwest Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology (MIDSEM) this past weekend, Friday, Apr. 4 through Sunday, Apr. 6. The conference was held mainly in the Music-Drama Center and WCC, and included world music workshops, academic paper presentations and panels, a keynote speaker and musical performances. Although the Society…
Choir concert provides a preview of the upcoming ACDA performances
In total, Viking Chorale, Cantala and Concert Choir, under the co-direction of Professors Phillip A. Swan and Stephen M. Sieck, performed 19 pieces in more than seven languages, all in less than two hours, in our very own Memorial Chapel. In other words, the choir concert on Friday, Feb. 28 was impressive in many ways.…