Extra Eclectic

For centuries, and even for most of the 20th, classical music was very much a boy's club. Thankfully that's come to and end, and even though there's still much ground to be gained for women in classical music, female composers are growing in number all the time. Steve Seel features a full two hours of living women composers on this edition of the show, including Sarah Kirkland Snider, Paola Prestini, Laura Cannell, Caroline Mallonee, Shelley Washington, Carmen Braden, and more.

It can be a challenge to know exactly what to play on September 11. On this edition of the program, Steve chooses to go the broadly spiritual route, with selections including Richard Danielpour's "For Love is Strong as Death," David Lang's "again (after ecclesiastes)," and from John Tavener's "The Protecting Veil" - a work that encircles the listener with a sense of light and love.

Steve Seel marks the unofficial ending of summer and beginning of fall on this week's program. Libby Larsen's "Deep Summer Music" hands off the passing season to fall-themed works including Paul Moravec's "Autumn Song" .... and you'll hear music that celebrates the northern landscapes and vistas that will soon be flush with color, including Michael Fine's "Heading North," and Reinaldo Moya's "The Way North."

A new setting of Brian Eno's meditative song "By This River" featuring violinist Mari Samuelsen is the centerpiece of the first hour of this week's show - and Steve Seel also replays Eno's classic, experimental "deconstructions" of the Canon by Johann Pachelbel, featuring Gavin Bryars and the Cockpit Ensemble. The second hour showcases works on themes of air and water, from John Adams, Mary Lattimore, Lou Harrison, and more.

The spiritual energy of light, the earth and sun, and natural flora are explored in this week's program. Steve Seel features works ranging from Terry Riley's "Sun Rings: One Earth, One People, One Love," and Johann Johannson's magnificent "A Pile of Dust" to John Cage's "In a Landscape" and not one but two live recordings from the 2019 BBC Proms, including Alexia Stone's "Earthward," featuring the choral group Voces8.

We hear from a host of classical mavericks and innovators this time out, including Harry Partch, a firebrand free-thinker who devised and built his own instruments to play his microtonal music. Steve also features Meredith Monk, Terry Riley, and both Colin McPhee and Steve Reich, two composers who were influenced by the sound of Balinese Gamelan in developing their own unique styles.

We travel to the top, and the bottom, of the other side of the world on this week's show, with new classical music from a couple of exciting Australian composers in the first hour of the program, and then for hour two, we're off to Finland, with music by Lorri Porra -- the great grandson of Jean Sibelius -- and then Estonia, with sounds from Arvo Part and Erkki-Sven Tuur. Bill Morelock guest hosts.

The term "outsider art" usually refers to artists and performers who exist outside the mainstream of their chosen fields, sometimes self-taught, but always unapologetically independent. Steve Seel showcases composers who fit the term, but who also represent today's classical environment in general, where fewer rules apply than ever. You'll hear the vocal music of Meredith Monk, as well as the orchestral movie scoring of rocker and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and a "mini symphony" by the man who called himself Moondog.

Somber and meditative music makes for a contemplative edition of Extra Eclectic this week. Steve Seel features bracing music by Bryce Dessner, whose Aheym (a Yiddish word meaning "homeword") describes his memories of learning about his Jewish ancestry in his youth. Steve also features powerful works by New York classical innovator Michael Gordon, maverick composer/improviser Ingram Marshall, and much, much more.

A century ago, Debussy showed us that the sea was a subject with infinite possibilities for musical exploration. While in some ways La Mer is still the quintessential piece of music about water, it actually laid the groundwork for many composers to go exploring above and below the waves (and along its shores) in the years since. In conjunction with MPR's observation of Water Month, Steve features water-themed works by John Luther Adams, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Kate Moore, and many others.