I was honoured to play the original acoustic version of Shawn Bell’s “Currents II” as part of this video concert organized by my former teacher William Beauvais. It premiered on Feb 7. My performance appears at 19:30 but the whole video is of course great:
https://youtu.be/as0Rp7mlKdY?t=1171
I just finished recording my video and audio for my part in what is going to be a virtual guitar orchestra for a new piece by a Seattle composer at the virtual version of the 21st Century Guitar Festival that will take place Mar 22-26: http://www.21cguitar.com. Definitely an interesting way to work and an interesting piece. Looking forward to seeing how it goes.
Thanks to Vancouver New Music for including “S(h)immer” on this playlist of solo guitar music:
A solo performance I recorded of material from Electric Currents will premiere on Youtube at 7:15 tonight at the link below, featuring picture-in-picture during pieces with pedal work. Mel Coughlin did a great job with lighting and cameras:
I was interviewed by Trevor Babb about Electric Currents and my background with the guitar for his Contemporary Guitar Blog last weekend. I was a bit nervous and fidgeted and stammered like someone who has been locked down for months but it was a good time:
My new album Electric Currents is now available for pre-order ahead of the Jan 15 release date on Bandcamp and iTunes (with an explicit content warning!).
Bandcamp: https://sundarsubramanian.bandcamp.com/album/electric-currents
iTunes: https://music.apple.com/…/electric-currents/1546131711
Electric Currents will be released internationally for sales and streaming on Jan 15. Pre-orders will be available via iTunes and most likely Bandcamp as of tomorrow, Jan 8.
I’ve been writing little analytical posts or random theoretical musings on Twitter on and off and have been thinking it might be a good use of this space to put some of these thoughts here.
I was just working on the Bach chorale BWV 38.6 with a student on the weekend:
Score: https://www.bach-chorales.com/BWV0038_6.htm
Audio: https://open.spotify.com/track/6tgIyDZKQ3i4G2kOMNR7Q2?si=I13lPCy_RgWqYfY9pn6MqQ
Text: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale085-Eng3.htm
It’s probably the most dramatic example I’ve seen of a chorale where Bach has tried to graft a functional harmonization onto a modal hymn melody. The melody is very obviously in E Phrygian but Bach has harmonized it in A minor despite the fact that only the third phrase of the melody lends itself at all to a tonal centre on A. The hymn melody begins on a B and ends on an E. Gs are always natural in the melody but often raised to G# in the harmony parts to make the harmonization function in A minor. The first, second, and final (!) phrases all end with half cadences on E (V in A minor). The third is the only one that ends with an authentic cadence. The fourth modulates to G, which is obviously the relative major of E minor but is an unusual key change for a piece that is otherwise in A minor. I’m not sure it even works completely but it is interesting that we get the only authentic cadence in the home key on (trans) “He alone is the good shepherd”; we also get an authentic cadence in G on “who can free Israel” but are denied resolution on “although there is much sin among us” and “from all his sins”.
Sarah Albu and Vergil Sharkya – Intoxidation
Alien Radio (François Houle, James Meger, Joe Sorbara) – Clichés, Vol. 1
Aziz Balouch – Sufi Hispano-Pakistani
William Beauvais – Faces in the Stone
Blue Öyster Cult – The Symbol Remains
Deep Purple – Whoosh!
Alabaster dePlume – To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1
Dezron Douglas & Brandee Younger – Force Majeure
Benjamin Dwyer – what is the word
Marta Forsberg – New Love Music
Horse Lords – The Common Task
Internet Celebrities – celebs
Kaatarya – Toda Historiá pela Frente
Okkyung Lee – Yeo-Neun
Liza Lim – Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus
Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl – Artlessly Falling
Christian Mason/ensemble recherche – Zwischen den Sternen
The Nels Cline Singers – Share the Wealth
Michael Olatuja – Lagos Pepper Soup
Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin kynsi
Owen Pallett – Island
Steve Palmer – Useful Histories
Tony Price – Interview/Discount
Linda Catlin Smith/Mia Cooper/Joachim Roewer/William Butt – Meadow
Nick Storring – My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell
SUMAC – May You Be Held
Victory Over the Sun – A Tessitura of Transfiguration
Dan Weiss – Natural Selection
Young Jesus – Welcome to Conceptual Beach
John Zorn/Julian Lage/Bill Frisell/Gyan Riley – Virtue
