Since I couldn’t decide if Vienna, Paris or Berlin deserved the last slot of our mini series, I turned to Portland.

We have our very own resident composer of note, David Schiff. You can find out all about him in a wonderfully comprehensive essay written some years back by Brett Campbell here. This quote is a good introduction:

“The Bronx native, who turned 70 last month, credits his move away from the center of America’s musical universe to Oregon for enabling him to find national renown. Oregon’s best known living composer, and probably the American composer most accomplished at creating viable hybrids of classical music and jazz, Schiff is also one of the country’s major composers of Jewish music (including klezmer) for classical forces. His music has been performed and recorded by major orchestras and ensembles around the country.”

More recently we can go to an informative, if weirdly titled, interview with the now retired Reed professor, describing how he got to where he is today. Worth a read, if only for the sentence “I gave myself permission to be eclectic.”

As someone whose middle name is eclectic I had to stop and think for a moment. I never saw that attitude as a choice, something to be allowed or suppressed by some cognitive super-ego. Happens, sort of, more like a force of nature. But I digress.

What Kind of Music Do You Listen to for Pleasure?

Schiff’s music is an amalgam of many styles, but carried by an overarching theme: expressiveness. His writing, on the other hand, is incisive. In addition to his books about Elliot Carter, George Gershwin and most recently Duke Ellington, he has published articles on a wide variety of topics that have always enriched my understanding of music.

This year saw a three-concert retrospective to celebrate David’s retirement from Reed. The program was proof positive for the diverse nature of his compositions, as well as of the many friendships and working relationships he has forged along the way – Kaul Auditorium practically vibrated with adoration. Let’s listen to some samples – it is actually hard to find public videos of the work, music seems tightly guarded. I wish I could offer a full concert just to share the variety.

Early opera Gimple the Fool:

And here is an excerpt from Stomp

I could not find one of my favorite pieces played by Regina Carter, 4 sisters: concerto for Jazz violin – but here is a sample of her work as a musician.

Another genre-defying composer from PDX is Kenji Bunch. When he performs his own work on the viola you find yourself forgetting to breathe. The emotional impact is more than matched by the intellectual challenge of his music, though, which makes me a fan, of course.

Kenji Bunch

Photographs were taken yesterday early morning on the waterfront. The river was still and reflective, until a jumping fish or a speedboat broke waves. It’s own kind of music.

And Halloween was celebrated in true PDX fashion.