Ready to dig deeper? For listeners looking to learn more about the music presented on Counterstream Radio, we present a series of Crash Courses available for on-demand streaming. The programs present a mix of talk and music designed to give the interested person an understanding of the key people and developments that have shaped the various streams of music played on the station.
As World War II decisively elevated America to superpower status, the cutting edge of European music—atonality—crossed the Atlantic, where it was transformed into a quintessentially American combination of ingenuity, technology, and brash confidence. In this program, we'll delve into American serialism, exploring the work of a host of composers—Babbitt, Wuorinen, Powell, and more—who set out, by the numbers, to make music modern.
In the world of electronic and computer music, composers often record unmusical sound and turn it into powerful sonic metaphor. This crash course in acousmatic music will explore examples of sound objects and processing and mixing techniques. We'll travel through underground New York and the jungles of Costa Rica to gather materials that we will turn into full pieces of acousmatic music. No computer or technical experience is needed; bring your open ears and your desire to learn about new musical worlds.
Minimalism began as a movement of the 1960s and ‘70s, but it didn’t die--it evolved. And it’s apparent now that it was the beginning of a new musical sensibility whose worldwide ramifications we’ve only begun to figure out. Join us as we sample from a rich catalog of work beginning with the groundbreaking music of composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass up through recent compositions from Michael Gordon and John Luther Adams.
Jazz finds a great deal of its past in the present, but contemporary jazz takes us much further than viewers of Ken Burns famed documentary on the genre would suggest. Jazz is a music that’s played by men and women; instrumentalists and singers; leaders and sidemen; soloists, small groups, and big bands. In this session, explore the sounds of a music that has continued to evolve and, in the process, become a global phenomena.