Steve Seel

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.

On this eve of Independence Day, contemporary American composers are the focus - with some nods to uniquely American subject matter, too. We'll hear selections including John Adams' opera "Doctor Atomic" about the scientists who worked at Los Alamos on the first atomic bomb, and Stanley Grill's "American Landscapes," which the composer describes as being about the "idealized" America we hold in our imaginations. Plus, works from Missy Mazzoli, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and many others. Valerie Kahler guest hosts.

It's been a staple of classical music for centuries: writing a set of variations on a theme by another composer. We'll hear some contemporary examples, including Thomas Canning's "Variations on a Hymn Tune by Justin Morgan," Noam Sivan's "Improvisations on Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring," and even a "Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno" by Timo Andres - a timely inclusion given this week's announcement that Eno has had an asteroid named in his honor.

There are multiple ways humankind finds its path to wisdom and enlightenment - be they physical, philosophical, scientific, or religious means - and Steve explores several of them this week. Michael Torke's "Four Proverbs" takes a trove of Old Testament wisdom and fractures it into an irresistibly bouncy, pulsating work for soprano, winds and strings, while Paul Gibson's "Ritual Dances of the Divine Trinity" echoes the liturgical music of the Benedictine monks he heard at an abbey while growing up in France. The spiritual is balanced by the physical in works such as Nico Muhly's "Fast Dances" and Henrik Schwarz's "Walk Music," and the program culminates with the suite from Johann Johannssen's score to "The Theory of Everything."

"Synesthesia" is name for experiencing one of the five senses as another sense. For example, if you "hear" the color red as sounding a particular way, or conversely, "see" certain sounds as "red." Steve Seel has a sampling of contemporary classical works that describe different colors as music - including Lou Harrison's "Rhymes With Silver," the percussion work "Red" by Marc Mellits, and selections from the "Synesthesia Suite" by Andy Akiho. In the second hour, Steve features works from the cold climate countries of Scandinavia and the Baltic states, including Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Estonia.

Sometimes, what we all need more than anything is to slow down. It seems to be vibe that a lot of contemporary classical composers have picked up on, since if there's one prevailing atmosphere to the classical music of the 21st century in particular, it's contemplation. It's not all that way of course, but on this edition of Extra Eclectic, Steve puts a focus on the more reflective and slower-paced modern classical works - many of which just so happen to be quite moving.

As part of our Call to Mind initiative, classical host Steve Seel shares how music is one of the greatest resources we have in sustaining -- or mending -- our personal mental health. In Part 3, he notes that even the 'angsty' bits of music can be a musical refuge for mental health.

It's the meaningful, the meaningless, and all points in between on this week's show. Steve brings us ruminations on philosophical and religious subjects, from Krzysztof Penderecki's "Polish Requiem" to a piece called "The Last Question" from composer Nicholas Britell. Plus, Normal Dello Joio's "Meditations on Ecclesiastes" explores the meaning of life itself.

As part of our Call to Mind initiative, classical host Steve Seel shares how music is one of the greatest resources we have in sustaining -- or mending -- our personal mental health. In Part 2, we need music more than ever, he says, to help us deal with today's news cycle.

The electric violin has come a long way since its days as a staple of progressive rock and jazz fusion, when it very much sounded electric. This week on Extra Eclectic, you'll hear an electric violin as the featured solo instrument in a new work by Nico Muhly, and you just might mistake it for a real acoustic instrument. Steve Seel also features music by Jennifer Higdon, Gabriel Yared, Steve Reich, and much more.

As part of our Call to Mind initiative, classical host Steve Seel shares how music is one of the greatest resources we have in sustaining -- or mending -- our personal mental health. Because he's surrounded by amazing and profound music on a daily basis, he's in a unique position to understand how classical music is a lifeline to mental health.

When you hear some of the selections on this week's show, you won't be surprised that their composers have received so much praise for their work. Jennifer Higdon has a devoted following and avid fanbase, and her work "blue cathedral" is always a gorgeous show stopper. We'll also hear a bouncy and infectious chamber music piece by Kenneth Fuchs, who's music has received four Grammy nominations and one Grammy award so far, as well as Jonny Greenwood's score to the film "There Will Be Blood," plus music by Sarah Kirkland Snider, Caleb Burhans, and more.

John Adams' early work "Shaker Loops" helped put him on the map - a piece referencing both the "shaking and trembling" of the worship practices of this American religious sect and the act of "looping" a musical phrase (usually by mechanical means, such as with a tape recorder) to create a repeating motif. Steve features Adams' seminal work as the centerpiece of an hour of works inspired by American folk traditions and musical idioms, such as Bryce Dessner's "Murder Ballads" and Carl Schimmel's "Roadshow for Otto." In the second hour, it's a roundup of contemplative pieces from Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Julia Kent, Michael Kurth and others.

This week Steve Seel features artists who whose careers are unique enough to make classification pretty tricky. Jazz pianists Keith Jarrett and Vijay Iyer show off some of their compositions for classical strings, Steve Tibbetts plays his impressionistic solo guitar music, and we'll also hear genre-hopping works by Claude Bolling, Terry Riley, and Caleb Burhans.

Composer Michael Kurth took up the bass in the fourth grade. One of his early inspirations was Donald "Duck" Dunn of Booker T. & The MGs, the Stax Records studio band that backed up Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Sam and Dave. Today, he's not only a double bassist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, but a composer as well -- and Steve plays one of his compositions whose title was inspired by a piece of graffiti art he spied on the way to work. In the second hour, it's a survey of composers from non-Western countries, such as Syria (Kinan Azmeh and Dia Succari) and Georgia (Giya Kancheli).

The language and instruments of rock increasingly play a part in new classical music, to the point where some classically-trained musicians are making music that wouldn't be out of place at all on a rock record. And yet, the experience of such music lends itself not to the rock club, but to more classically-oriented spaces like theaters or concert halls. This week Steve plays some examples - from Caleb Burhans' achingly gorgeous "A Moment for Jason Molina" to music by Aidan O'Rourke, Wim Mertens, Howard Skempton and more.

It might surprise you that more than a few composers working today have a strong affinity for early music, dating from the Renaissance, Baroque, or even earlier. Why is that? Steve features music by Arvo Part -- a composer whose inspirations sometimes reach back as far as the middle ages -- as well as a piece by Michael Nyman written for the early music group Fretwork and the music of Philip Glass performed by the baroque group The King's Violins and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo.

In pop music, "sampling" has become almost as commonplace as the rock n' roll backbeat itself. The practice of basing a piece of music on a short snippet of previously-recorded music or sound is everywhere these days in pop ... but does it ever occur in modern classical music? Steve Seel features a number of pieces that incorporate recorded sound-samples into their score as part of the musical texture, such as Mason Bates' work called "The B Sides" and Paula Mathusen's "On the Attraction for Felicitous Amplitude." Also, modern rock continues its influence on the music of Philip Glass, in his "Heroes" Symphony, inspired by the music of David Bowie and Brian Eno.

As recently as 20 years ago, the phrase "female composer" brought to mind a short-list of familiar names -- a handful of women who had managed to smash the gates of what had been a male-dominated fortress for centuries. While the contributions of the likes of Amy Beach, Joan Tower, and Libby Larsen have been immense toward putting cracks in the classical glass ceiling, the burgeoning number of women composers today have created an exponentially growing world of musical discovery - to the point when unfamiliar names are happily becoming the norm. Steve Seel samples a handful of them this week as our observation of Women's History Month continues.