Murray Schafer

Brett Scott is Associate Professor of Ensembles and Conducting at the University of Cincinnati’s famed College-Conservatory of Music, where he conducts the CCM Chorale, teaches conducting and literature at the graduate and undergraduate level, and is Music Director of Opera d’arte. Under his direction, the CCM Chorale released its first commercial recording, Lux Dei—New Works for Choir by Douglas Knehans, through Ablaze Records, and has begun production of its second recording, focusing on sacred music for choir and electronics.

Under the direction of Anne Kohler, the Bundesjugendchor (National Youth Choir) explores the forest and nature musically and presents its first album with this project. The album features works composed especially for the Bundesjugendchor, such as Jan Kopp's Ode an das Sägemehl (Ode to Sawdust). Compositions for mixed choir a cappella by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, Max Reger, Maurice Ravel and Raymond Murray Schafer, among others, can also be heard. The choir interprets the compositions at the highest musical level, describing the forest not only as a place of silence and longing, but also as a mysterious place of magic with wolves, singing stones and clear water or as a metaphor for the human conscience and its vulnerability.

Under the direction of Anne Kohler, the Bundesjugendchor (National Youth Choir) explores the forest and nature musically and presents its first album with this project. The album features works composed especially for the Bundesjugendchor, such as Jan Kopp's Ode an das Sägemehl (Ode to Sawdust). Compositions for mixed choir a cappella by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, Max Reger, Maurice Ravel and Raymond Murray Schafer, among others, can also be heard. The choir interprets the compositions at the highest musical level, describing the forest not only as a place of silence and longing, but also as a mysterious place of magic with wolves, singing stones and clear water or as a metaphor for the human conscience and its vulnerability.

Under the direction of Anne Kohler, the Bundesjugendchor (National Youth Choir) explores the forest and nature musically and presents its first album with this project. The album features works composed especially for the Bundesjugendchor, such as Jan Kopp's Ode an das Sägemehl (Ode to Sawdust). Compositions for mixed choir a cappella by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, Max Reger, Maurice Ravel and Raymond Murray Schafer, among others, can also be heard. The choir interprets the compositions at the highest musical level, describing the forest not only as a place of silence and longing, but also as a mysterious place of magic with wolves, singing stones and clear water or as a metaphor for the human conscience and its vulnerability.

The soundscape—a term coined by the author—is our sonic environment, the ever-present array of noises with which we all live. Beginning with the primordial sounds of nature, we have experienced an ever-increasing complexity of our sonic surroundings. As civilization develops, new noises rise up around us: from the creaking wheel, the clang of the blacksmith's hammer, and the distant chugging of steam trains to the "sound imperialism" of airports, city streets, and factories. The author contends that we now suffer from an overabundance of acoustic information and a proportionate diminishing of our ability to hear the nuances and subtleties of sound. Our task, he maintains, is to listen, analyze, and make distinctions.

On their latest recording, the acclaimed Molinari Quartet delves into the complete string quartet cycle of iconoclast Italian composer, Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988).