Simple Composition
Charles Wuorinen's book *Simple Composition* tells us what made him tick when he wrote it. He was brave to put his cards on the table. In his book he declared his conscious fascinations. He could not have told us his …
"....a quasi-orchestral pallete of coloristic effects...deftly realized by Anderson as he shaped each entry with epigrammatic concentration." – Thomas May, The Washington Post
"...William Anderson’s skills are both mesmerizing and inspiring..."
-- Take Effect
"...the alert guitarist..."
-- NY Times
Latest recording -- the punctum saliens:
Onshoring keeps the focus on American primal scenes.
"Whistle"is Kevin Young's peach -- his son.
"An Hymn to Morning" turns Phyllys Wheatley's Hynm to Evening upside down.
Bildung, individuation, spring from a poison oasis.
--Year 3 for Classical and New Music with The Village Trip--
We're now mopping up after The Village Trip '23
some highlights --
--Sept 14 at Loft393 In Memory of Scott Johnson
A Tale of Two Bourgeoisies
Mascha Kaléko, a poet from the last century, is shaping my counterpoint of Bourgeois musics. She sheds some light on what I've already been doing. I connect the transplanted European things to native US things. I call it "onshoring".
I made a comment during The Village Trip, something like, "Kaleko is a poet who came to the US and felt how very weird it is here. I can relate to that." The comment was recorded, and I will look for it to quote myself properly. And I was born and raised here." Kaleko is the poet for US misfits. My musical expression of this is seen in the combination of piano and electric guitar, which accompanies my Kaléko settings.
– William Kentner Anderson
BioRecent news
Lou Harrison & The Village Trip
One of Lou Harrison’s Strokes of Genius The Village Trip trip offered much Lou Harrison this year, kicked off with John Schnieder's show at Greenwich House. John Schneider recounted Harrison's time in Greenwich Village …
Owl and Bača/Griffiths' *when the time comes*
the sound of one hand clapping
Latest Discography
William Kentner Anderson Der Weg ins Freie
2019, Furious Artisans (facd6819)Works
- Afterlight (For Dottie)
- Apple Variations
- Djuna Barnes Settings
- Grüne Heinrich
- J'Entends le moulin a new song cycle for the Bowers/Fader Duo
- My Morphine
- Of Course
- Poema harmónico
- The Job of Journeywork
- Various Roses
From the New Focus Website
Guitarist/composer William Kentner Anderson releases a collection of works ... music is not like anything else, often engaging with simple musical materials-pop songs, folksongs and folk lyrics. He breaks barriers-asking his guitarists to sing backup vocals, incorporating Tibetan overtone singing in his setting of Djuna Barnes' "Paradise", integrating an uillean piper into the Cygnus Ensemble.
Camerata 21, Vol. 04
2018, Marsyas ProductionsWorks by Mario Davidovsky, Emil Awad, Jeffrey Nichols, Jose Saldaña, William Anderson, Robert Pollock
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lKSby8N9G-qaPqwSGh7Uz8G_GbAbQvDK0
Nameless: Works by Matthew Greenbaum
2015, Furious Artisans (FACD6812)Matthew Greenbaum is the only composer in New York to be a mentee of both Stefan Wolpe and Mario Davidovsky. Wolpe was one of the many great minds who were forced to our shores by historical circumstances, and arriving here, found that there was interest in what they had to offer. Stravinsky, Hindemith, Krenek, Schoenberg, as well as Stefan Wolpe all tried to put down roots in the Western Hemisphere, with varied success. Or, perhaps it’s more fair to say that their influence is paying off very slowly over a long period of time.
Music of Johann Kaspar Mertz
2013, Titanic RecordsThis is Anderson's first solo album.