As AC Douglas and others have noted, the San Francisco Symphony has launched a major extension of its Keeping Score series, which I extolled in an early post on this blog. There's now a website devoted to Beethoven's Eroica, with parallel sites forthcoming for the Rite of Spring and Appalachian Spring. You can follow along in the score, trace transformations of the thematic material, read historical guides, and, in general, receive as good a class in music appreciation as is out there. All this serves as background for Michael Tilson Thomas's imminent PBS documentaries on Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Copland (check listings here).... Also impressive to behold is the internet home of the School of Music at UT Austin, which is now offering webcasts for almost all its concerts. On Sunday night you can hear an all-Debussy theater evening — the American premiere of Robert Orledge's new realization of the unfinished Fall of the House of Usher, the world premiere of Orledge's orchestration of Chansons de Bilitis, and L'Enfant prodigue. The event takes place in conjunction with the Claude Debussy International Congress. On Tuesday there's a webcast of Donald Crockett's music as performed by the UT New Music Ensemble. But why nothing for the UT Tuba/Euphonium Ensemble? Topic for Tuba News.... The revitalized Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is blogging. Ronen Givony, a CMS staffer, has also launched his own Wordless Music series, a fascinating attempt to bridge the gap between composition and progressive pop. The next event is on Nov. 15, with performances by A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Steven Beck, and Andrew Bird. Darcy James Argue had a report on the first show, of which I saw only the first part.
