Guy talks about…”silence and place”

useful notes for students in design/architecture at KABK The word silence encompasses a multitude of concepts, and varies widely across disciplines and cultures. Silence can be subject, verb, and object. It can be societal, religious, mindful, meditative, diplomatic, political, aggressive, or punitive. Silence is employed in conversation, rhetoric, music, art, religion, and politics. Since the Western words for silence are so overloaded, many works on sound refer as well to Japanese and Chinese terminology, which offer an alternative viewpoint. Fascinatingly, the terms most often used – ‘ma’ and ‘liú bái’ – are both inextricably linked

/read more.../

Aletta Becker & Guy Livingston

Location Lange Houtstraat 8, Den Haag centrum (around the corner from the Mauritshuis, see map below) Program: Lost for piano and spoken word (in English and Dutch). Script by Aletta Becker. Saturday June 19th at 7pm Het verhaal van de Rattenvanger van Hamelen speelt zich af in het schemergebied tussen mythe en geschiedenis. Bekend in tenminste 42 landen en 30 talen, zijn de personages terug te vinden in de beeldende kunst, literatuur, klassieke muziek, animaties en musicals. De Rattenvanger wordt afgeschilderd als de duivel en als de Dood; als dichter, zanger

/read more.../

Past and Future Silences

Guy Livingston, piano, Ned McGowan, flute; Nafiss Nia, poetry; met Madelief Lammers, vocals; Magdalena Spinka, vocals; Maya Willemse, piano Spoken Word, Music, Poetry, Electronics, at the Maarten Luther Kerk, Amsterdam Zuid with special guest artists from the HKU Date: Friday, June 18th @ 7pm Program: music of George Crumb, Anton Webern, Ned McGowan, Vanessa Lann, and Guy Livingston, plus “silence” music by performers and composers from the HKU Musician 3.0 program! Ik wil terug naar het verloren momentnaar de vergeten lachnaar de tuin en de vijgenboom. Nafiss Nia, uit esfahan

/read more.../

mini-festival: Almost Silence

Guy Livingston curated a mini-festival of music and silence in The Hague in June 2021. Featured artists were flutist Ned McGowan, poet Nafiss Nia, writer and radio-maker Aletta Becker, violinist Monica Germino, and pianist Saskia Lankhoorn. Concerts took place in The Hague and Amsterdam. See the menu above for details. Each event featured musical or poetic themes of loss, disappearance, absence, calm, and quiet. These performances are made possible by a grant from the Fonds for Performing Arts (FPK).

/read more.../

Lecture @ NYU February 20th, 2021

Silence revisited: framing and re-framing John Cage’s 4’33” on YouTube Just as John Cage was influenced by diverse and non-musical sources from Zen to Thoreau so did his creation of the silence piece (4’33”) have effects far beyond the world of classical music. Amateurs, pranksters, death-metal bands, architects, and students have embraced it, each finding their own meaning. Hundreds of these versions are available on YouTube, and have been a rich source in my recent research. As part of my artistic practice, I have been attempting to unpack the ‘black box’ of

/read more.../

The Speed of Silence

The Speed of Silence (english below) McGowan en Livingston doen – naast hun bestaan als kunstenaars – artistiek onderzoek (PhD) aan de Universiteit Leiden. Ned McGowan onderzoekt het fenomeen snelheid in muziek, vanuit een uitvoerende en compositorische invalshoek. Guy Livingston onderzoekt stilte en de vele aspecten ervan, vooral in hedendaagse muziek en architectuur, en maakt daarnaast een serie podcasts over dit onderwerp. performing at Studio “The Bug”, in the former US embassy of The Hague. photo by Matilda Arvidsson Een recent concert, februari jl., tijdens het Leidse festival, Peel Slowly

/read more.../

NEC Piano Department Lecture

NEC lecture notes from Guy Livingston, created for a lecture at the New England Conservatory. But these links are useful for all young pianists looking for new romantic repertoire…enjoy! LINKS: Gershwin Songbooks (arr for solo piano): Vanessa Lann – toy piano music: Lann – entranced by the beckoning light: Lann – Leaps of Faith: Bolcom – Serpent’s Kiss: Frederic Mompou: Prokofiev -Romeo and Juliet “Pern” by Yann Tiersen https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0108589&utm_source=Musicnotes%20Now&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=10-Breathtakingly-Beautiful-Piano-Pieces-mdash-Musicnotes-Now Cloud Atlas by Mark Fowler: https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0177739&utm_source=Musicnotes%20Now&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=10-Breathtakingly-Beautiful-Piano-Pieces-mdash-Musicnotes-Now “One Summer’s Day” by Joe Hisaishi Ole Miss Blues – James P. Johnson (piano roll)

/read more.../

Bombshell

Much to my astonishment, I have become briefly (and marginally) famous for my role (miniscule) in a film about Hollywood beauty Hedy Lamarr. Not only was she the sexiest woman on screen in the 1940s and 50s, but she also was an inventor, and worked with my favorite composer, George Antheil, on a patent for a “secret communications device”. Although nothing came of their brilliant invention, it turned out to be a stunning preview of frequency hopping, a technique which is used in wifi and cell phones, and makes our

/read more.../