Kathleen Supove rocks

May 23, 2009 11:56 AM

Kathleen Supove, pianist extraordinaire. [via]

The first performance in the second link is live piano accompaniment to a bizarre slice-and-dice remix of gym/infomercial patter. Also, on MySpace, and an interview.

posted by fcummins (10 comments total)

Via
posted by Mblue at 12:38 PM on May 23 [1 favorite has favorites]

The bass drum in the "The Shaking of the Pumpkin" is a novel idea. Interesting artist.
posted by caraig at 1:31 PM on May 23

The second link is like a broadcast to the people of Earth from the Planet of Artsy Ladies. But Kathleen Supove is great, and plays some really fascinating piano. It goes to show you that all contemporary concert music isn't awful (although the slice-and-dice piece would have been better without the audio patter). Something good may come of all this.
posted by Faze at 2:47 PM on May 23 [1 favorite has favorites]

It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.
posted by MegoSteve at 3:39 PM on May 23

The woman who introduces her in the second link is a real gem. Wow.

I'm listening to the music now; the first piece is really good-sounding. Not innovative, but I guess not everything has to be innovative.
posted by nosila at 4:54 PM on May 23

The woman who introduces her in the second link is a real gem. Wow.

That would be Phoebe Legere.
posted by neroli at 7:40 PM on May 23 [1 favorite has favorites]

That would be Phoebe Legere.

Oh my.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:43 PM on May 23

Faze: I long to emigrate to that planet.

The clips of audio patter are essential to that first piece, as important as the piano. Without the piano the patter would just be cut up patter, the piano pulls out the melodies of the excitable sales pitch, plays between prose and song much like the cut up voices of the hosts of the infomercial. Without the infomercial hosts the piano would not have as much to be measured against: it is one thing to be able to play a fragmented rhythm precisely, it is another to play along with a cut up recording and have it line up so skillfully.

MegoSteve: what about this seemed stupid?

Mblue: What the cat playing the piano and Supove playing at times share is my inability to follow the pattern. With the cat, it is because the cat lacks the mind to create a pattern, with Supove, it is because I have not yet parsed what the composer was doing, and what Supove adds to that with the nuances of her performance. This distinction is extremely important. You are probably making a joke, but the statement the joke made is made seriously by others.
posted by idiopath at 10:41 PM on May 23

MegoSteve: "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever."

"Clever" would have resisted posting that.

Supové's stuff is fascinating from performance, compositional and mathematical standpoints. She's like MathClass (as opposed to MathRock) and blows my mind every time I hear her. Her peformance of Ligeti's "Delta Space (available on her MySpace, linked above), for instance, is the classical version of "Tonto" by Battles...
posted by benzo8 at 12:55 AM on May 24

Just wanna point out that the composer of the first piece in the second link is Jacob ter Veldhuis, and his other music is worth checking out too (I like "Grab It" and "Heartbreakers" which is based on clips from the Jerry Springer Show).
posted by speicus at 12:55 AM on May 25