Bowers/DeMars/Stockhausen – Zeitgeist New Music Library

January 3, 2015January 6, 2021

Stacey Bowers: Pattern Study #2

PATTERN STUDY #2 by Stacey Bowers, dedicated to the Blackearth Percussion Group, was written in 1976. The score is a set of several melodic patterns, to be played in any order, repeated as often as desired, and used as a basis for improvisation. The form emerges from the resultant improvisation.

Stacey Bowers was born in 1952 in Wisconsin, USA. Early in his career he was a percussionist and pianist with the Blackearth Percussion Group and held teaching positions at Northern Illinois University and the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music. He is currently an executive with Woodstock Percussion, Inc., based in the New York Hudson Valley.

PATTERN STUDY #2 appears on Zeitgeist’s album BOWERS/DEMARS/STOCKHAUSEN; originally released 1980, re-released 2015.

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January 3, 2015January 6, 2021

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Set Sail for the Sun

Set Sail for the Sun (1968)
by Karlheinz Stockhausen

SET SAIL FOR THE SUN by Karlheinz Stockhausen is from the set Aus den Sieben Tagen, written in May of 1968 in California. It is realized from verbal instructions rather than a traditional notation. Continue reading “Karlheinz Stockhausen: Set Sail for the Sun”

January 3, 2015January 6, 2021

James DeMars: Premonitions of Christopher Colmbus

Premonitions of Christopher Columbus (1979)
by James DeMars

PREMONITIONS of CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS by James DeMars was premiered by Zeitgeist at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in October of 1979. This recording uses five musicians playing alto saxophone, two pianos, tablas, marimba, cymbals, and a tam tam. The form is similar to that of the Moroccan “nuba” tradition, in which a pulse gradually emerges to support melodic material. The eclectic blend of idioms and sonorities produces a paradoxical “state of being” as each gesture draws forward. Continue reading “James DeMars: Premonitions of Christopher Colmbus”