A BRIEF HISTORY OF ORGANIZED RELIGION IN SOUND

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs MAX REGER MEETS TIMOTHY LEARY by Gary Lloyd Noland (January 22nd, 2023). For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

MAX REGER MEETS TIMOTHY LEARY

I made a pact with my Facebook friend, composer Allan Segall, to exchange titles for pieces. I provided him with a title and a new piece of his emerged within a day or two. With all the projects I have been involved in lately, it took me several months to fulfill my end of the bargain. I finally asked him for a title a couple weeks ago (on January 9th, 2024, to be precise) and he provided me with the title of this brand new piece (completed on January 23rd, 2024), which I am happy to include amongst a growing portfolio of holiday pieces. The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble (consisting of the composer and his five anagrammatic alter egos) performs WHEN XMAS ORNAMENTS GO ROGUE. For more information on me, please visit my website at: garynolandcomposer.com

WHEN XMAS ORNAMENTS GO ROGUE

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs THANK HEAVENS IT WAS ONLY A DREAM! WAIT, WHAT? by Gary Lloyd Noland (January 26th, 2024). For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

THANK HEAVENS IT WAS ONLY A DREAM! WAIT, WHAT?

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble—consisting of the composer and his five anagrammatic alter egos (Orlan Doy Glandly, Darnold Olly Yang, Lon Gaylord Dylan, Dolly Gray Landon, Arnold Day Longly)—performs I CAN'T COME UP WITH A TITLE FOR THIS PIECE, Op. 155, No. 6, by Gary Lloyd Noland (January 29th, 2024). For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

I CAN'T COME UP WITH A TITLE FOR THIS PIECE, Op. 155, No. 6

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs UNFEIGNED GUILT by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

UNFEIGNED GUILT

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs JACK-IN-THE-BOX NESTING DOLLS by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandomposer.com

JACK-IN-THE-BOX NESTING DOLLS

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs BLARE RAID HELTER-SKELTER, Op. 155, No. 8 by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

BLARE RAID HELTER-SKELTER, Op. 155, No. 8

HEIWA TO CHOWA for piano: in memoriam Chizuko Katayama (1929-2024)—composed & performed by Gary Lloyd Noland in memory of his mother-in-law, who passed away peacefully on February 6th, 2024 in Hikone, Japan.

HEIWA TO CHOWA for piano: in memoriam Chizuko Katayama (1929 - 2024)

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs AND THE TENTH CIRCLE IS FOR INTERNET TROLLS by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his websie at: garynolandcomposer.com

AND THE TENTH CIRCLE IS FOR INTERNET TROLLS

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs A BRIEF HISTORY OF ORGANIZED RELIGION IN SOUND by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs THE BUBONIC BIMBOS OF BARBIELAND CHOP THE HEADS OFF THEIR ADVERSARY'S MAN CHICKENS, Op. 155, No. 7, by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

THE BUBONIC BIMBOS OF BARBIELAND CHOP THE HEADS OFF THEIR ADVERSARY'S MAN CHICKENS, Op. 155, No. 7

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs JE VOUS VEUX TOUS LES DEUX by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

JE VOUS VEUX TOUS LES DEUX

WINTRY DIVERSION for flute, clarinet, cello, double bass, percussion & electronics: in memoriam Tomas Svoboda (1939-2022) (February 28th, 2024). WINTRY DIVERSION for flute, clarinet, cello, double bass, piano, percussion & electronics: in memoriam TOMAS SVOBODA (1939-2022). I first met Tomas on February 29th, 2000, when my concert series Seventh Species featured him performing a selection of his piano works at St. Anne's Chapel, Marylhurst College, to promote the (then) new CD album release of his piano music on the North Pacific Music label. Kudos to Jack Gabel for organizing this historic event. Tomas continued, over the ensuing years, to participate on Seventh Species concerts after I moved to Portland in 2005. I was incredibly honored to have him present his compositions on my humble little concert series, as he was one of the most impressive musicians I have ever met: a master composer, a phenomenal pianist and percussionist, and, by all accounts, a virtuoso conductor. He was also an accomplished chess player and an amateur meteorologist. One thing I had in common with Tomas was a childish love of a good snowfall. One late January evening in 2012, after I had returned from a concert in Portland, it was snowing pretty hard (by Portland, Oregon standards). At around 11:00 pm there was a hard rap on my front door. This was not a normal occurrence at such an ungodly hour, so, quite naturally, my guard went up upon approaching the front door to see who it might be. Imagine my surprise, then, to find Tomas at my doorstep eagerly suggesting we take a walk in the snow (thus the title of this piece)! Of course, I couldn't resist such an invitation, so we walked for about an hour through the three or four inches of snow that had accumulated in the neighborhood (he lived only a few blocks away from me, just north of the Reed College campus). In the years I had known him he shared with me some of the seminal moments in his life. He had studied with Martinu, had been friends with Shostakovich and Copland, and had been invited to parties in L.A. attended by Stravinsky (whom, he told me, he was too shy to approach at the time). In his early life Tomas and his family  were on the run from the Nazis and, after the war, he defected to the West to meet his future wife, the artist Jana Demartini, after making a dangerous border crossing into Austria. For many years Tomas taught music courses at Portland State University and was, by far, the most celebrated composer in the Northwest. Tragically, in late 2012 Tomas suffered a massive stroke and was wheelchair-bound until his death ten years later. In his final years he was, sadly, unable to compose or play the piano. He did, however, enjoy attending concerts. Kaori (my wife) and I moved away from the neighborhood shortly after Tomas had had his stroke, so we rarely saw him in his final ten years. Tomas and six other composers (including myself) were the founding members of Cascadia Composers, so Tomas and I used to attend board meetings together, taking turns driving one another to and from the meetings once a month. I know this memorial piece is rather late in the making, seeing that Tomas passed away in November, 2022, but better late than never! Tomas, know that the warmth of your presence is deeply missed!

WINTRY DIVERSION: in memoriam Tomas Svoboda (1939-2022)

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs DISCOMMUNICATION INTERCEPTIONS FROM THE BIMONTHLY MEETINGS OF THE CACADEMIC SNUBCOMMITTEE PRESIDING OVER THE PIMPLETON STATE LOONIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

DISCOMMUNICATION INTERCEPTIONS FROM THE BIMONTHLY MEETINGS OF THE CACADEMIC SNUBCOMMITTEE…

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs THE WANTON MICROAGGRESSIONS OF KNOW-IT-ALL KNOW-NOTHINGS by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

THE WANTON MICROAGGRESSIONS OF KNOW-IT-ALL KNOW-NOTHINGS

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs I HAVE NO IDEA HOW WE EVER GOT HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE, Op. 155, No. 5, by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

I HAVE NO IDEA HOW WE EVER GOT HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE, Op. 155, No. 5

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs ANGST BUFFET, Op. 155, No. 4, by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

ANGST BUFFET, Op. 155, No. 4

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs BWA HA HA! DWEEBALDO VAN BOOFUS, THE HIGH SCHOOL WHIPPING BOY, TAKES REVENGE ON HIS TORMENTORS BY WRITING ATONAL MUSIC! by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at garynolandcomposer.com

BWA HA HA! DWEEBALDO VAN BOOFUS, THE HIGH SCHOOL WHIPPING BOY, TAKES REVENGE ON HIS TORMENTORS BY…

The Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble performs GENERICANA, Op. 155, No. 9, by Gary Lloyd Noland. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

GENERICANA, Op. 155, No. 9

Resides in Portland, Oregon. Grew up in Berkeley, CA. Born in Seattle.  PhD, Harvard. “Gary Noland is one of the great composers of the 21st century.”—JACK RUMMEL, KGNU 88.5 FM, Boulder CO, “...iconoclastic, stylistic potpourri standards of giddy humor, no holds barred soup to nuts and high spirits.”—ROBERT LEVIN, pianist, musicologist, composer, "...a fleet-fingered, ebullient performer ... bright, witty and engaging.”—CHRISTIAN CAREY, SPLENDID MAGAZINE, “...distinctive, inventive ... subversive ... You can hardly be indifferent to Noland’s music and so I would urge you to try it.” —ROGER BLACKBURN, MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL, “...set in a dizzying harmonic language that loops uncontrollably through a wide-ranging gamut of possible and impossible tonalities ... The general effect is like watching wet paintings of 19th Century musical memorabilia drip into frazzled 21st Century oblivion...” —ALLEN GIMBEL, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, “Mr. Noland writes as a ‘time traveler’ in styles long abandoned by most composers as well as styles so new as to not have been imagined but by him. This he accomplishes naturally, convincingly, with originality and true passion. His command of all musical languages and his ability to traverse musical time is nothing less than remarkable. Listen!”—DONALD MARTINO, Pulitzer Prize winning composer, “...mind-bending spiraling of focus which is truly breathtaking ... spectacular...”—CHARLES AMIRKHANIAN, composer, sound poet & radio producer, “I'm amazed at your harmonic skill. Haven't seen or heard anything like it from any one else—except yours truly—certainly not from your generation. It falls somewhere between Strauss and Mahler. Especially like how you are able to slip in and out from the tonal to the atonal—or near atonal...”—GEORGE ROCHBERG, American composer, Pulitzer Prize finalist, “...court jester to the classical establishment...”—PAYTON MACDONALD, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, “...florid and juicy...” —RICHARD BUELL, THE BOSTON GLOBE, “...an incredible aural web ... a great ostinato of American kitsch. Sul pont never sounded so good.”—RUSSELL STEINBERG, composer, conductor of the LOS ANGELES YOUTH ORCHESTRA, “...I am bowled over by the expertise of your music: you use certain elements from the 19th century and from jazz, etc., and just at the moment when I am about to say, OK, what else is new?, you do a number of things, such as speeding up, becoming wildly dissonant, modulating to a distant continent, stopping completely and throwing some kind of total surprise ... you seem to know exactly when to do what and how much. I don’t know anybody else who can do it!” —ANDREW IMBRIE, American composer, Pulitzer Prize finalist, “... remarkable stuff...”
—MAX MORATH, American ragtime pianist, composer, actor & author, “...a loony composer from Oregon...” —MAX SHEA, WMUA 91.1FM, Amherst, MA, “Gary Noland is one of those 21st Century composers seeking to forge a new aesthetic based on older models that do not traffic in serialism or minimalism ... Zany waltzes, ragtime riffs, chorales, toccatas, and much else romp and tear through these depictions of superheroes and villains from his ‘chamber novels’; other pieces spoof serial music ... to grand operas ... and Jewish guilt.” —JACK SULLIVAN, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, “...Paranoid Ravel...”—ALEX DUNN, KZSU FM90.3, Stanford, CA, “...It’s a romantic romp, rhythmically robust yet melodically flirting with the nostalgia of cabaret, minus the sleazy diminution of spilled drinks and smelly ashtrays. Its elegance recalls Elgar, and the serious sides, a synthesis of those strange bedfellows Schubert and Ives. Composers hate it when their music reminds you of someone else’s, but writing within a tradition, Noland has incorporated divergent styles that, woven together, work. Cosmopolitan without snobbery, it’s intelligent, pleasurable and convincing.” —ROCKY LEPLIN, THE BERKELEY VOICE

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ORGANIZED RELIGION IN SOUND

Gary Lloyd Noland, composer