Catalog Miniatures

The world’s first mash-up of a record label’s catalog

Notes from the composer:

I made these miniatures for the non-profit record company New World Records in 2009/2010, when the label was experimenting with internet radio. They generously opened their extensive archive of classical, jazz, folk, and field recordings, and I collected samples (usually 1-3 seconds long) and mashed them up.

Each miniature is a collage; short bits from multiple albums, often of different genres, reordered and layered into new textures and new moods. I find the miniature form to be a versatile way to communicate strong, simple statements; with no time for development, miniatures typically feature a destination rather than a journey.

While many of the catalog miniatures were built to create new textures, some were inspired by existing textures; Miniature 24, for example, began with samples from the live recording of Anthony Davis’s opera Amistad — but only the brief moments where the shuffling of feet can be heard as cast members cross the stage. The result is an unusual “opera” where the singers run to and fro for a few minutes but never actually sing. Similarly, Miniature 13 distills two folk songs down to their basic ingredient of sorrow, stripping their stories and leaving only the raw emotion.

In popular music, where mash-ups and remixes are common (indeed where they were invented), the resulting new piece usually involves the addition of a beat — a drum part. Often this beat is the aural signal that you are hearing a new creation. These catalog miniatures, however, break from this tradition; no beat is added. (The few moments of drumming, as with all the other sounds, are sampled from the source material.) But this means that the signal is missing, the aural announcement “this is a new version.” As a result, the listener may not always be able to distinguish where one sample begins and another ends — are the trombone and the violin from the same source recording, or two different ones?

Perhaps this confusion is inevitable. But in the end it is simply a collateral effect of the project’s goal: to celebrate and explore New World Records’ deep, rich catalog, and to encourage others to do the same. — Matthew Schickele

The recordings each collage is constructed from:

CM2
80687 James Drew: Animating Degree Zero
80678 Johanna Beyer: Sticky Melodies
80681 Ralph Shapey: Radical Traditionalism
80267 The Hand That Holds The Bread: Songs of Progress and Protest in the Gilded Age 1865-1893
 
CM3
80666 Lou Harrison: In Retrospect
80674 Hyo-shin Na: All the Noises
80673 Eric Richards: the bells themselves
 
CM4
80447 Daniel Asia
80670 Earl Howard: Clepton
80674 Hyo-shin Na: All the Noises
80676 Malcolm Goldstein: a sounding of sources
80681 Ralph Shapey: Radical Traditionalism
 
CM6
80659 Philip Corner: Extreme Positions
80690 Stuart Saunders Smith: The Links Series of Vibraphone Essays
80692 James Tenney: Spectrum Pieces
 
CM7
80664 John Cage / Morton Feldman
80677 Vincent Persichetti: Complete Piano Sonatas
 
CM8
80656 Zummo with an X
80689 David Rosenboom: How Much Better if Plymouth Rock had Landed on the Pilgrims
80545 Joan LaBarbara: Shamansong
80653 New Music For Electronic And Recorded Media: Women In Electronic Music 1977
 
CM9
80262 John Knowles Paine: Mass in D
80255 Make A Joyful Noise: American Psalmody 1770-1840
80447 Daniel Asia
 
CM11
80655 Leo Ornstein: Complete Works for Cello and Piano
80658 Christian Wolff: Ten Exercises
80662 Arthur Levering: Still Raining, Still Dreaming
80696 Andrew Byrne: White Bone Country
80698 Jody Diamond: In That Bright World
 
CM12
80694 Lejaren Hiller: A Total Matrix of Possibilities
80671 The League of Automatic Music Composers 1978-1983
 
CM13
80239 Brave Boys: New England Traditions in Folk Music
80227 The Mighty Wurlitzer: Music For Movie-Palace Organs
80245 Oh My Little Darling: Folk Song Types
 
CM14
80658 Christian Wolff: Ten Exercises
80694 Lejaren Hiller: A Total Matrix of Possibilities
80698 Jody Diamond: In That Bright World
 
CM15
80267 The Hand That Holds The Bread: Songs of Progress and Protest in the Gilded Age 1865-1893
 
CM16
80257 The Wind Demon And Other 19th-Century Piano Works
80649 From Barrelhouse to Broadway:The Musical Odyssey of Joe Jordan
80660 David Dunn: Autonomous and Dynamical Systems
 
CM18
80310 Charles Tomlinson Griffes: Collected Works for Piano
80669 John Luther Adams: for Lou Harrison
80688 Tony Malaby: Paloma Recio
80691 Chen Yi: Sound of the Five
 
CM19
80294 The Gospel Ship
80654 Vladimir Ussachevsky: Electronic and Acoustic Works 1957- 1972
80411 Paul Dresher & Ned Rothenberg: Opposites Attract
 
CM20
80244 Caliente = Hot: Puerto Rican and Cuban musical expression in New York City
80255 Make A Joyful Noise: American Psalmody 1770-1840
80310 Charles Tomlinson Griffes: Collected Works for Piano
80691 Chen Yi: Sound of the Five
 
CM21
80665 io: modern flute music
80667 Nick Didkovsky: Ice Cream Time
80676 Malcolm Goldstein: a sounding of sources
80689 David Rosenboom: How Much Better if Plymouth Rock had Landed on the Pilgrims
80690 Stuart Saunders Smith: The Links Series of Vibraphone Essays
80701 Charles Dodge: A Retrospective
 
CM22
80243 But Yesterday is Not Today: The American Art Song 1927—1972
80647 George Antheil: Piano Concerto No. 2
80650 Earle Brown: Selected Works 1952-1965
80659 Philip Corner: Extreme Positions
80663 Anne LeBaron: Pope Joan, Transfiguration
 
CM23
80251 Where Home Is: Life in 19th-Century Cincinnati
80463 An Old Song Resung: Works by Cadman, Farwell, Griffes, and Ives
80654 Vladimir Ussachevsky: Electronic and Acoustic Works 1957- 1972
80664 John Cage / Morton Feldman
80678 Johanna Beyer: Sticky Melodies
 
CM24
80579 James Newton: As the Sound of Many Waters
80604 Alvin Lucier: Vespers and Other Early Works
80627 Anthony Davis: Amistad
 
CM25
80578 Charlemagne Palestine
80595 Barney Childs: A music; that it might be..
80596 Eric Stokes: Susquehannas/ The Pickpocket is Lyrical Two/ Tintinnabulary (Phonic Paradigm IV)/ Whittlings
80625 Alvin Curran: Maritime Rites
80673 Eric Richards: the bells themselves
 
CM26
80310 Charles Tomlinson Griffes: Collected Works for Piano
80576 Just-Spring: Art Songs of John Duke
80584 David Kraehenbuehl: Random Walks
80590 Childhood Memories: Music for Younger Pianists
80664 John Cage/Morton Feldman
80681 Ralph Shapey: Radical Traditionalism
80699 Christian Wolff: Long Piano (Peace March 11)