This Week in Classical Music-June 27, 2010

by: Randy Kinkel

June 27, 2010

A New Book on the Horizon for John Adams

( Phoenix, AZ )

This Week in Classical Music 6/27/10

It’s This Week in Classical Music, an update on what’s happening in the classical music world; I’m Randy Kinkel.

American Composer John Adams is writing a book. In a recent conversation with Washington Post Writer Philip Kennicott, Adams reveals, “"My publisher asked me for a book of essays about how we listen to music," …"I realized that the best way to do this was through fiction. My character is a kind of composer, but he's not a composer like me. He's very much the image of what a “serious” composer should be." By "serious" composer, Adams refers to the kind of intellectual, math-minded composer who reigned supreme in music academies 30 or 40 years ago. His novel's composer/protagonist has a son who is a rock-and-roller, resulting in conflict that Adams describes as "That bitter antipathy between generations, the collision of culture in this country." Adams currently has several musical irons in the fire; a new movie, “I am Love” (soon coming to a theater near you) prominently features his piece “Shaker Loops” in the soundtrack (during a steamy love scene no less). He also writes a blog, “Hell Mouth”, which he describes as “a blog about music (mostly contemporary), literature (mostly good), politics (mostly pernicious) and culture (mostly American). Here’s a link. http://www.earbox.com/posts.
Here’s the Post story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/17/AR2010061705996.html?wprss=rss_print/style

Want to find out what’s happening at the Hollywood bowl this summer? There’s an app for that… the LA Philharmonic has launched its second iphone application, The free app offers a comprehensive view of the season's shows and artists and lets users to buy tickets and add concerts to a favorites list and receive reminders and special announcements. The "Hollywood Bowl" application also explains how to get there by car or shuttle and what to do once there. On phones with GPS the app there’s driving directions and seat locations; it even shows you the nearest restrooms, concessions and picnic areas. App users also can view Bowl-related videos and a fan photo gallery to which they can submit their own pictures.
An L.A. Philharmonic spokeswoman says the application, which was developed by Santa Monica-based MeemleLabs, is available for all Android phones and iPhones and is compatible with iOS 4 -- Apple's new mobile operating system. It will be available for BlackBerrys and the mobile web starting in July. Here’s the story from the Los Angeles Times: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/06/hollywood-bowl-gets-its-own-smartphone-app.html

For more on these and other items and events, go to the website, kbaq.org; find us on Facebook and Twitter, be listening each week at this time for another update; and join me every weekday at noon for The Mozart Buffet, an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries. I’m Randy Kinkel for “This week in Classical Music” on 89.5 KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.