Bang on a Can
Encyclopedia
Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted classical music
organization based in New York City
. It was founded in 1987 by three American
composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe
, David Lang
, and Michael Gordon
. It is a major force in the presentation of new concert music, and has presented hundreds of musical events worldwide.
Winter Garden Atrium
in New York City.
Among the many Bang on a Can events were performances by John Cage
, premieres of Glenn Branca
’s epic symphonies for massed electric guitars, and fully staged operas of Harry Partch
, featuring the composer's original instruments.
In 2002, Bang on a Can began the yearly Summer Institute of Music , a program at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA)
for young composers and performers. This program is sometimes referred to by the nickname "Banglewood" in reference to the nearby, but far more traditional Tanglewood Music Festival
.
The three artistic directors occasionally collaborate by jointly composing a large work, often without revealing which sections each contributed. Examples include:
, Terry Riley
, Michael Nyman
, John Adams
, Somei Satoh
, Iva Bittová
, Roberto Carnevale
, Ornette Coleman
, Donnacha Dennehy
and Bun-Ching Lam
. In 1998 the organization began the People's Commissioning Fund which supports the creation of new musical compositions by pooling contributions from numerous member-commissioners whose donations range from $5 to $5,000. To date, this fund has commissioned:
Bang on a Can is associated with the whimsical SPIT Orchestra, and a pre-eminent chamber ensemble, the Bang on a Can All-Stars which in 2005 was named "Ensemble of the Year" by the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts. The personnel and instrumentation of the Bang on a Can All-Stars is Evan Ziporyn
, clarinet
and saxophone
; Mark Stewart
, electric guitar
; Ashley Bathgate, cello
; Robert Black
, double bass
; Vicky Chow, keyboards
; and David Cossin, percussion.
, Phil Kline
, Alarm Will Sound
, Icebreaker
, Ethel
, Gutbucket, R. Luke DuBois
, and Don Byron
.
Below is a partial discography of released works performed by Bang on a Can or Bang on a Can All-Stars.
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
organization based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It was founded in 1987 by three American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe is an American composer. She was born in Philadelphia, holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Princeton and Yale, and currently works in New York. Wolfe's music is rhythmically vigorous and often clangorously dissonant...
, David Lang
David Lang (composer)
David Lang is an American composer living in New York City. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion.-Biography:...
, and Michael Gordon
Michael Gordon (composer)
Michael Gordon is an American composer and co-founder of the Bang on a Can festival and ensemble. His music is associated with the genres of totalism and post-minimalism.-Early life:...
. It is a major force in the presentation of new concert music, and has presented hundreds of musical events worldwide.
Notable performances
Bang On A Can is perhaps best known for its Marathon Concerts during which an eclectic mix of pieces are performed in succession over the course of many hours while audience members, who are encouraged to maintain a "jeans-and-tee-shirt informality," are welcome to come and go as they please. For the twentieth anniversary of their Marathon Concerts, Bang on a Can presented twenty-six hours of uninterrupted music at the World Financial CenterWorld Financial Center
The World Financial Center is a complex of buildings across West Street from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan in New York City, overlooking the Hudson River. This complex is home to offices of companies including Merrill Lynch, RBC Capital Markets, Nomura Group, the Wall Street...
Winter Garden Atrium
Winter Garden Atrium
The Winter Garden Atrium is a 10-story glass-vaulted pavilion on Vesey Street in New York City's World Financial Center. Originally constructed in 1988, and substantially rebuilt in 2002, the Atrium houses various plants, trees and flowers, and shops...
in New York City.
Among the many Bang on a Can events were performances by John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, premieres of Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca is an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. In 2008 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.-Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s:Branca...
’s epic symphonies for massed electric guitars, and fully staged operas of Harry Partch
Harry Partch
Harry Partch was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.-Early...
, featuring the composer's original instruments.
In 2002, Bang on a Can began the yearly Summer Institute of Music , a program at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA)
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, commonly referred to as MASS MoCA, is a museum in a converted factory building located in North Adams, Massachusetts, USA. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing arts in the country.MASS MoCA opened with 19...
for young composers and performers. This program is sometimes referred to by the nickname "Banglewood" in reference to the nearby, but far more traditional Tanglewood Music Festival
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...
.
The three artistic directors occasionally collaborate by jointly composing a large work, often without revealing which sections each contributed. Examples include:
- The Carbon Copy Building - a "comic book opera" with words and drawings by MacArthur GrantMacArthur FoundationThe John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Based in Chicago but supporting non-profit organizations that work in 60 countries, MacArthur has awarded more than US$4 billion since its inception in 1978...
recipient Ben KatchorBen KatchorBen Katchor is an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. He has contributed comics and drawings to The New Yorker and The New York Times...
. It was the winner of the 2000 Obie AwardObie AwardThe Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
for Best New American Work. - Lost Objects - a contemporary oratorio, with a libretto by Deborah Artman. It is a fusion of baroque musicBaroque musicBaroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
and modern soundscapes, rendered in performance by the original instruments ensemble Concerto Köln with four electronic instruments, three solo vocalists, a choir, and a live remixRemixA remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
generated by DJ SpookyDJ SpookyPaul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...
. - The New Yorkers - a staged multimedia concert with additional contributions by filmmakers and visual artists including: Ben Katchor, Bill MorrisonBill Morrison (director)Bill Morrison is a New York-based filmmaker and artist, best known for his experimental collage film Decasia . He is a member of Ridge Theater and the founder of Hypnotic Pictures...
, Doug AitkenDoug Aitken-Early life and career:Doug Aitken was born in Redondo Beach, California in 1968. In 1987, he initially studied magazine illustration with Philip Hays at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena before graduating in Fine Arts in 1991. He moved to New York in 1994 where he had his first solo...
, and William WegmanWilliam Wegman (photographer)William Wegman is an artist best known for creating series of compositions involving dogs, primarily his own Weimaraners in various costumes and poses.-Life and career:...
. - Shelter - a multi-media work that in the words of librettist Deborah Artman, "evokes the power and threat of nature, the soaring frontier promise contained in the framing of a new house, the pure aesthetic beauty of blueprints, the sweet architecture of sound and the uneasy vulnerability that underlies even the safety of our sleep."
People's Commissioning Fund
Bang on a Can has commissioned and premiered pieces by composers including Steve ReichSteve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, Terry Riley
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
, Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
, John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
, Somei Satoh
Somei Satoh
Somei Satoh is a Japanese composer.In the post-Takemitsu era, Somei Satoh is a Japanese composer of contemporary traditional music ....
, Iva Bittová
Iva Bittová
Iva Bittová is a Czech avant-garde violinist, singer and composer. She began her career as an actress in the mid 1970s, appearing in several Czech feature films, but switched to playing violin and singing in the early 1980s. She started recording in 1986 and by 1990 her unique vocal and...
, Roberto Carnevale
Roberto Carnevale
Roberto Carnevale is an Italian composer, pianist and conductor.- Biography and career :Born in Catania, he started studying piano at the age of seven. He took a degree in Arts at the University of Catania and he attended the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena...
, Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
, Donnacha Dennehy
Donnacha Dennehy
,Donnacha Dennehy is a composer, born in Dublin in 1970. He gained his secondary education in Templeogue College, Dublin. He studied Music at Trinity College, Dublin and later pursued graduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign...
and Bun-Ching Lam
Bun-Ching Lam
Lam Bun-Ching is a composer, pianist, and conductor.She holds a B.A. degree in piano performance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong . She obtained a scholarship from the University of California at San Diego, where she studied composition with Bernard Rands, Robert Erickson, Roger Reynolds,...
. In 1998 the organization began the People's Commissioning Fund which supports the creation of new musical compositions by pooling contributions from numerous member-commissioners whose donations range from $5 to $5,000. To date, this fund has commissioned:
- 1998 Virgil MoorefieldVirgil MoorefieldVirgil Moorefield is a composer and intermedia artist. Moorefield's work focuses primarily on live acoustic performance, electronic processing of acoustic signals, and live visual music . CDs of his composer-led ensembles have been released on several labels, including Tzadik, Cuneiform, and Innova...
, Pamela ZPamela ZPamela Z is an American composer, performer, and audio artist who works primarily with her voice and live electronic processing.-Music career:...
, Dan PlonseyDan PlonseyDan Plonsey is a jazz saxophonist, popularly labeled as a free jazz musician. -Career:... - 2000 Marc MellitsMarc MellitsMarc Mellits is an American composer and musician.Mellits was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He studied at the Eastman School of Music from 1984 to 1988, the Yale School of Music from 1989 to 1991, Cornell University from 1991 to 1996, and at Tanglewood in the summer of 1997...
, Edward Ruchalski, Miya MasaokaMiya MasaokaMiya Masaoka is an American musician and composer who performs on the 17-string Japanese koto zither, often augmenting it with string preparations and electronic triggers...
, Toby Twining - 2001 Jeffrey Brooks, Sussan DeyhimSussan DeyhimSussan Deyhim is an Iranian singer, composer and dancer.Born in Tehran, her career began as a dancer with Iran's Pars National Ballet company...
, James FeiJames FeiJames Cheng Ting Fei is a composer and performer working in the fields of contemporary classical music and electronic music. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area...
, Keeril Makan - 2002 Eve BeglarianEve BeglarianEve Beglarian is a contemporary American composer, performer and audio producer of Armenian descent...
, John KingJohn King-Politics:*John King, 1st Baron Kingston , Irish peer*John King, 3rd Baron Kingston , Irish peer*John King, 2nd Baron King , English MP and peer...
, Matthew ShippMatthew ShippMatthew Shipp is an American pianist, composer and bandleader.Shipp was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and began playing piano at six years old. His mother was a friend of trumpeter Clifford Brown.... - 2003 Annea LockwoodAnnea LockwoodAnnea Lockwood is a New Zealand born American composer. She taught electronic music at Vassar College. Her work often involves recordings of natural found sounds...
, Ingram MarshallIngram MarshallIngram Marshall is an American composer and a former student of Vladimir Ussachevsky and Morton Subotnick. Son of Bernice Douglas and Harry Reinhard Marshall, Sr. He was a talented soprano in the Boy's Choir at the Mt. Vernon Community Church, and was influenced early by noted music instructor,...
, Thurston MooreThurston MooreThurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label... - 2005 Cynthia Hopkins, Carla KihlstedtCarla KihlstedtCarla Kihlstedt is an American violinist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist from Lancaster, Pennsylvania currently living in Oakland, California....
, J.G. Thirlwell - 2006 Yoav Gal, Annie GosfieldAnnie GosfieldAnnie Gosfield is a New York composer who specializes in using detuned or out of tune samples and industrial noises. Her work often contains improvisation and frequently uses extended techniques and/or altered musical instruments...
, John Hollenbeck - 2007 Stefan Weisman, Joshua Penman, Lukas LigetiLukas LigetiLukas Ligeti is a composer and percussionist. His work incorporates elements of jazz, contemporary classical, and various world musics.- Background :...
- 2008 Tristan PerichTristan PerichTristan Perich is a contemporary composer and sound artist from New York City focused on electronic one bit sound.Perich composed a series of compositions as well as sound art installations with 1 bit electronics, which Perich describes as being music that never has more than one bit of information...
, Erdem HelvaciogluErdem HelvaciogluErdem Helvacioglu is an electronic musician from Turkey. He has collaborated with artists Mick Karn, Kevin Moore, John Wilson, Kazuya Ishigami, and Saadet Turkoz. In addition to his work as an electronic musician, Erdem also composes music for theatre, film and multimedia productions, and produces...
, Ken Thomson - 2009 Lee RanaldoLee RanaldoLee M. Ranaldo is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth...
, Kate MooreKate MooreKate Moore was an American lighthouse keeper noted for the longevity of her tenure. The daughter of Stephen Moore, keeper of the Fayerweather Island Light in Connecticut since 1817, she gradually took over his duties as he became ill; she was not formally appointed keeper, however, until after...
, Lok Yin Tang, David Longstreth (of Dirty ProjectorsDirty ProjectorsThe Dirty Projectors aka David Longstreth includes Amber Coffman , Angel Deradoorian , Brian McOmber , Nat Baldwin , and Haley Dekle during live performances...
)
Bang on a Can is associated with the whimsical SPIT Orchestra, and a pre-eminent chamber ensemble, the Bang on a Can All-Stars which in 2005 was named "Ensemble of the Year" by the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts. The personnel and instrumentation of the Bang on a Can All-Stars is Evan Ziporyn
Evan Ziporyn
Evan Ziporyn is an American composer of post-minimalist music and music for Balinese gamelans. He plays the clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, and metallophone, borrowing from classical music, avant-garde, and jazz...
, clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
; Mark Stewart
Mark Stewart (guitarist)
Mark Stewart is a New York City-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer and instrument designer.He has been a member of the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, Steve Reich and Musicians, Zeena Parkins' Gangster Band, and Arnold Dreyblatt's Orchestra of Excited Strings, and is a founding member of the...
, electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
; Ashley Bathgate, cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
; Robert Black
Robert Black (bassist)
Robert Black is an East Coast-based double bassist, electric bassist, improvisor and educator.A student of the legendary Gary Karr, Black has performed with the Hartford Symphony, the Ciompi and Miami String Quartets and the orchestras of the Monadock and Moab Festivals. He is a founding member of...
, double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
; Vicky Chow, keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
; and David Cossin, percussion.
Recordings
In the past, Bang on a Can released recordings on Composers Recordings Inc. (CRI), Sony Classical, Point Music (Universal), and Nonesuch, but now the majority of its recordings are found on its own record label, Cantaloupe Music. In addition to releasing works by Gordon, Wolfe, and Lang, the label releases CDs of music by composers and musical groups affiliated with the organization, including Evan ZiporynEvan Ziporyn
Evan Ziporyn is an American composer of post-minimalist music and music for Balinese gamelans. He plays the clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, and metallophone, borrowing from classical music, avant-garde, and jazz...
, Phil Kline
Phil Kline
Phil Kline is an American composer. After graduating from Columbia University with a degree in English Literature, he formed the New York No Wave band The Del-Byzanteens in the early 1980s with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and painter James Nares, collaborated with photographer Nan Goldin on the...
, Alarm Will Sound
Alarm Will Sound
Alarm Will Sound is a 20-member chamber orchestra that focuses on recordings and performances of contemporary music. Its performances have been described as "equal parts exuberance, nonchalance, and virtuosity" by the Financial Times and as "a triumph of ensemble playing" by the San Francisco...
, Icebreaker
Icebreaker (band)
Icebreaker is a UK-based new music ensemble founded by James Poke and John Godfrey. The group have established themselves as one of the UK's leading new music interpreters specializing particularly in post-minimal and "totalist" repertoire. They always play amplified and have a reputation for...
, Ethel
Ethel (string quartet)
ETHEL is a New York based string quartet that was co-founded in 1998 by Ralph Farris, viola; Dorothy Lawson, cello; Todd Reynolds, violin; and Mary Rowell, violin. Unlike most string quartets, ETHEL plays with amplification and integrates improvisation into its performances...
, Gutbucket, R. Luke DuBois
R. Luke DuBois
Roger Luke DuBois is an American composer, performer, conceptual new media artist, programmer, record producer and pedagogue based in New York City.-Biography:...
, and Don Byron
Don Byron
Don Byron is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. He primarily plays clarinet, but has also used bass clarinet and saxophones....
.
Below is a partial discography of released works performed by Bang on a Can or Bang on a Can All-Stars.
Bang on a Can discography
- 2001: In CIn CIn C is a semi-aleatoric musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for any number of people, although he suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work"...
(composed by Terry RileyTerry RileyTerrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
) - 2002: Classics
- 2002: Gigantic Dancing Human Machine (composed by Louis AndriessenLouis AndriessenLouis Andriessen is a Dutch composer and pianist based in Amsterdam. He teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague...
) - 2006: The Carbon Copy Building
- 2006: A Ballad For Many
- 2008: Music for Airports (Live) (composed by Brian EnoBrian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
)
Bang on a Can All-Stars discography
- 1992: Live Vol. 1
- 1993: Live Vol. 2
- 1994: Live Vol. 3
- 1995: Industry
- 1997: Lost Objects
- 1998: Music for AirportsMusic for AirportsAmbient 1: Music for Airports is an ambient album by Brian Eno released in 1978.-Overview:Music for Airports was the first of four albums released in Eno's "Ambient" series, a term which he coined to differentiate his minimalistic approach to the album's material and "the products of the various...
(composed by Brian Eno) - 2001: Renegade Heaven
- 2004: Bang on a Can Meets Kyaw Kyaw Naing