Old Berkeley for piano Op. 116, No. 13 by Gary Lloyd Noland

Composer Gary Lloyd Noland performs his COVIDÉCADENSE for piano, Op. 116, No. 5 (August 12th, 2020).  For more information on Gary Lloyd Noland, go to his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

COVIDÉCADENSE for piano, Op. 116, No. 5 (Aug. 12, 2020)

GARY LLOYD NOLAND: "OLD BERKELEY" for piano, performed by the composer. OLD BERKELEY was composed in memory of my piano teacher Goodwin Sammel (1925-2020), whom I thought of as an immutable fixture in my hometown. Whenever visiting Berkeley from Portland I felt secure knowing of the spirit of Goodwin's formidable musical presence in his home on Francisco Street, just west of Shattuck Avenue. Berkeley will never feel quite the same without him. The global landscape has transformed significantly since Goodwin’s departure on January 16th, 2020. Due to the relentless propagation of the Tr*mp virus, it may no longer be possible to revisit the town of my formative years. This piece expresses my feeling of being exiled in conjunction with a wistful longing for a return to an era that has all but vanished in a heartbeat. Despite many historically negative connotations in reference to the emotional condition of nostalgia, I confess to it here without shame.

OLD BERKELEY for piano from 20 COVIDITTIES Op. 116, No. 13

Pianist Myrna Setiawan, who was originally scheduled to perform Noland's Etude Op. 1, No. 10 (from his TWENTY PIANO PIECES Op. 1) on the ill-fated April 11th, 2020 recital at Classic Pianos in Portland (which was cancelled in the eleventh hour due to the then unraveling COVID crisis) has just released this video of her stunning performance of the Etude. Noland feels blessed to have such a talented and dedicated pianist performing his Etude with such flair and panache. This etude was composed almost forty years ago (starting scribbling it down in 1980 and completed it in 1982-3). Noland wants to thank all the donors whose generous contributions made this performance (and others to come) possible. The donors are: Ronni Lacroute, Leonid Korelstein, Matt Weiss, Huii Hu, Johnoscar Villa, Gerald W. Braden, Leslie Sawyer, David Lasocki, Jean-David Coen, Rūta Kuzmickas, Tony Leonardo Cimino, Michel Bril, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, and Randi Botnen. An appreciative thank you to all of them! I shall keep everyone posted as more videos of works slated for the April recital become available. For more information on the composer, go to his website at: https://composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

ETUDE for piano Op. 1, No. 10

This rendition of PORNOMUSIK by GARY LLOYD NOLAND was completed on August 26th, 2018. The original recording at the piano dates back to ca. 2000-2002. The score consists of twelve pages of lavishly illustrated lurid comix with dialogue balloons containing carefully conceived albeit random texts (illustrated by the composer's  visual artist alter ego LON GAYLORD DYLAN and written by his novelist and playwright alter ego DOLLY GRAY LANDON) that is recited by the performer(s). Any number of musicians is permitted to perform this piece in the configurations of their choosing, which lends considerable flexibility to interpretations thereof. This recording consists of the composer at the piano extemporizing and reciting from the dialogue balloons provided in the score. The illustrations in the score date back to ca. 1971-72, when the artist (composer) was only fourteen years of age and residing in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (where Richard Strauss lived for much of his life until his death in 1949). Every performance of this piece yields completely different results. This performance is one of many possible interpretations.

PORNOMUSIK Op. 48 (2000)—Aug. 26, 2018

This rendition of PORNOMUSIK by GARY LLOYD NOLAND was completed on August 19th, 2018. The original recording at the piano dates back to ca. 2000-2002. The score consists of twelve pages of lavishly illustrated lurid comix with dialogue balloons containing carefully conceived albeit random texts (illustrated by the composer's visual artist alter ego LON GAYLORD DYLAN and written by his novelist and playwright alter ego DOLLY GRAY LANDON) that is recited by the performer(s). Any number of musicians is permitted to perform this piece in the configurations of their choosing, which lends considerable flexibility to interpretations thereof. This recording consists of the composer at the piano extemporizing and reciting from the dialogue balloons provided in the score. The illustrations in the score date back to ca. 1971-72, when the artist (composer) was only fourteen years of age and residing in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (where Richard Strauss lived for much of his life until his death in 1949). Every performance of this piece yields completely different results. This performance is one of many possible interpretations.

PORNOMUSIK Op. 48 (2000)—August 19, 2018

This rendition of PORNOMUSIK by GARY LLOYD NOLAND was completed on August 15th, 2018. The original recording at the piano dates back to ca. 2000-2002. The score consists of twelve pages of lavishly illustrated lurid comix with dialogue balloons containing carefully conceived albeit random texts (illustrated by the composer's visual artist alter ego LON GAYLORD DYLAN and written by his novelist and playwright alter ego DOLLY GRAY LANDON) that is recited by the performer(s). Any number of musicians is permitted to perform this piece in the configurations of their choosing, which lends considerable flexibility to interpretations thereof. This recording consists of the composer at the piano extemporizing and reciting from the dialogue balloons provided in the score. The illustrations in the score date back to ca. 1971-72, when the artist (composer) was only fourteen years of age and residing in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (where Richard Strauss lived for much of his life until his death in 1949). Every performance of this piece yields completely different results. This performance is one of many possible interpretations.

PORNOMUSIK Op. 48—August 15th, 2018

This rendition of PORNOMUSIK by GARY LLOYD NOLAND was completed on August 23rd, 2018. The original recording at the piano dates back to ca. 2000-2002. The score consists of twelve pages of lavishly illustrated lurid comix with dialogue balloons containing carefully conceived albeit random texts (illustrated by the composer's visual artist alter ego LON GAYLORD DYLAN and written by his novelist and playwright alter ego DOLLY GRAY LANDON) that is recited by the performer(s). Any number of musicians is permitted to perform this piece in the configurations of their choosing, which lends considerable flexibility to interpretations thereof. This recording consists of the composer at the piano extemporizing and reciting from the dialogue balloons provided in the score. The illustrations in the score date back to ca. 1971-72, when the artist (composer) was only fourteen years of age and residing in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (where Richard Strauss lived for much of his life until his death in 1949). Every performance of this piece yields completely different results. This performance is one of many possible interpretations.

PORNOMUSIK Op. 48 (2000)—August 23rd, 2018

Having attended a recital of musical portraits by Virgil Thomson in Boston back in the 1980s (with the composer present, whom I briefly met), I have decided to embark upon a similar pilgrimage. This is my first attempt at a musical portrait. This portrait is of the novelist, essayist, and poet Alexander Theroux (born 1939)—a delicately sculpted, multi-layered comprovisation for piano. I am hoping to do more musical portraits of artists, writers, and performers who emanate powerfully luminous auras in their work. I have four or five other people in mind for this project.

PORTRAIT OF NOVELIST, ESSAYIST & POET ALEXANDER THEROUX for piano

FLATULOTSAM belongs to a set of nine MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES Op. 102. This piece is dated June 25, 2017. To read more about composer GARY LLOYD NOLAND, please visit his website at: https://composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

FLATULOTSAM  From MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES Op. 102, No. 1 (25 June, 2017)

THE SWANK AND VILE is the second in a set of nine MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES Op. 102. To read more about composer GARY LLOYD NOLAND, please visit his website at: https://composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

THE SWANK AND VILE  from  MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES  Op. 102, No. 2.

KNOCK-DOWN-AND-DRAG-OUT FREE-FOR-ALL is the sixth in a set of nine MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES Op. 102. To read more about composer GARY LLOYD NOLAND, please visit his website at: https://composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

KNOCK-DOWN-AND-DRAG-OUT FREE-FOR-ALL  From  MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES  Op. 102, No. 6

LARCABOUNGER ZIZZ is the eighth in a set of NINE MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES Op. 102. To read more about composer GARY LLOYD NOLAND, please visit his website at: https://composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

LARCABOUNGER ZIZZ  From  MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES  OP. 102, No. 8

AVALANCHINE JINXES is the seventh in a set of NINE MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES Op. 102. To read more about composer GARY LLOYD NOLAND, please visit his website at: composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

AVALANCHINE JINXES  from  MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES  Op. 102, No. 7

TWIGGY LITTLE WEENY-BOPPER BENDERS is the sixth in a set of nine MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES Op. 102. To read more about composer GARY LLOYD NOLAND, please visit his website at: composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

TWIGGY LITTLE WEENY-BOPPER BENDERS from  MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES  Op. 102, No. 5

CREATURE DISCOMFORTS is the sixth in a set of nine MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES Op. 102. To read more about composer GARY LLOYD NOLAND, please visit his website at: composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

CREATURE DISCOMFORTS from  MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES  Op. 102, No. 3

BOTFEED is the fourth in a set of nine MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES Op. 102. To read more about composer GARY LLOYD NOLAND, please visit his website at: composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

BOTFEED   from  MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES  Op. 102, No. 4.

ZOMBO QUACKO is the ninth in a set of NINE MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES Op. 102. To read more about composer GARY LLOYD NOLAND, please visit his website at: composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

ZOMBO QUACKO from NINE MUSICAL JUNK SCULPTURES Op. 102, No. 9

Pianist Randall Hodgkinson performs RUSSELL STREET RAG Op. 5 by GARY LLOYD NOLAND. Composed when I was seventeen (1974), this piece is named after one of the streets I grew up on in Berkeley. At the time I wrote this piece the renowned historian Peter Robert Lamont Brown (who is regarded as the inventor of the field of Late Antiquity) was staying in the adjacent room of our house. He was out the door early every morning to the library and returned late at night after doing full days of research in his areas of expertise. I imagine that my banging this piece out on the piano (which was positioned against the wall adjacent to his room) must have driven him nuts whenever he happened to be in his room. During the year or so he stayed with us, I was impressed by the fact that he had a command of fourteen languages. I just read now that, over the years, he has picked up another twelve languages, bringing the total to 26 (!). I have rarely met such a dedicated scholar. Unbeknownst to Professor Brown, my having had the opportunity to witness, as an impressionable teenager, his daily routines taught me to adopt (or, at very least, to attempt to adopt) a similar work ethic in my composing, though, what with the MacArthur Fellowship and all the other accolades Brown has received over the years, I imagine his life is considerably less hindered by the kinds of distractions occasioned by a wholesale lack of interest in, and lack of support for, those dedicated to the art of music-making.

RUSSELL STREET RAG for piano Op. 5

CONVENTION DEFICIT is the twentieth in a set of 24 INTERLUDES for piano. Performed by the composer. For more information on GARY LLOYD NOLAND, please visit his website at: https://composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

CONVENTION DEFICIT for piano Op. 71, No. 20 from 24 INTERLUDES

This is a setting of Alexander Theroux's poem THE CABARET OF THERESIENSTADT for soprano & piano by composer GARY LLOYD NOLAND.

THE CABARET OF THERESIENSTADT (setting of poem by ALEXANDER THEROUX) for soprano & piano

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

Old Berkeley for piano Op. 116, No. 13 by Gary Lloyd Noland

Gary Lloyd Noland, composer