ZACK BROWNING

VENUS NOTORIOUS

Innova 769

 

1. Profit Beater (2007)                                              11:49

 

Kim McCormick, flute

McCormick Percussion Ensemble

Robert McCormick, conductor

 

 

2. Execution 88 (2007)                                              11:29

 

Jee-Ean Kim, piano

 

 

3. Blockhouse (2006)                          11:59                                                     

Sunjin Kim, violin; Ann Zettervall, cello

Ling-Ti Huang, piano

 

 

4. Venus Notorious (2006)                                 14:59

    

Julie Gunn & Edward Rath, pianos

William Moersch, xylophone

Ricardo Flores, drum set

 

 

5.    Flute Soldier (2006)                                         8:16

                                         

Chih-Hsien Chien, flute

Jee-Ean Kim, piano

 

 

6. Thunder Roll (1975) - Night Attack                      4:27

7.  Thunder Roll (1975) - Day Attack                        6:09

(Brixton Publications)

 

Jee-Ean Kim, piano

Mark Eichenberger, percussion

James Price, percussion

Samuel Carroll, timpani

Mei-Fang Lin, conductor

                                                                               Total: 69:11

 

www.zackbrowning.com

 

The Compositions

 

Since 1995, I have written several works that belong to an original series of experimental music compositions that incorporate planetary magic squares, ancient Chinese magic squares and feng shui as compositional models.  My approach to composition combines the use of magic squares with elements of classical art, popular culture and Chinese history. A magic square consists of a series of numbers arranged so that the sum of each row, column, and diagonal is the same amount.  Routes through the square are mapped onto a musical structure that uses the properties of the square as a compositional model.  The unique position of each number within the square is paralled in the musical score by a particular style, rhythm, density, timbre and orchestration.  Of the enormous number of magic squares it is possible to form, seven have been associated with the seven

planets of the Ptolemaic universe (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon).

 

On this CD, planetary squares are used for all of the compositions except for Thunder Roll. These Òplanetary magic squaresÓ appear in De Occulta Philosophia, a book on magic by the renaissance polymath Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim published in 1531.

 

The Composer

 

The music of Zack Browning is described as Òway-cool in attitudeÓ and Òspeed-demon musicÓ (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and Òpropulsive, giddy, rockingÉ, a rush of cyclic riffs and fractured metersÓ (The New York Times). The Irish Times has proclaimed he is Òbringing together the procedures of high musical art with the taste of popular cultureÓ.

 

Browning's composition awards have included an Illinois Arts Council Composer Fellowship and a Chamber Music America Commission. Performances include Bang On A Can (New York), Bonk Festival of New Music (Tampa), Composers, Inc. (San Francisco), International Society for Contemporary Music Festival (Miami), International Computer Music Conference (New Orleans), Spark Festival (Minneapolis), Gaudeamus Music Week (Amsterdam), Composers Choice Festival (Dublin), Sonorities Festival (Belfast), Skinneskatteberg Festival (Sweden) Asian Contemporary Music Festival (Seoul), National Chiang Kai Shek Cultural Center (Taipei) and Jilin University and Northeast Normal University (Changchun, China). 

 

Browning is an Associate Professor of Music Composition and Theory at the University of Illinois.

 

The Performers

 

Chih-Hsien Chien has won the National Flute Competition and the National Concerto Competition in Taiwan and has performed with the Los Angeles Flute Orchestra, Beach Cities Symphony Orchestra (Los Angeles), the National Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra.

 

Jee-Ean Kim is a Professor of Music at Bae Hwa WomenÕs University in Seoul, Korea. Her awards include the Artists International Piano Competition (New York), the Washington International Piano Artists Competition (Washington,D.C.), the Glinka Conservatory Summer Music Festival Piano Competition (Russia), Simonoseky Debut Award (Japan), and the Pusan Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Competition (Korea).

 

Kim McCormick is an Associate Professor of Music at the University of South Florida where she performs with Opera Tampa and the Florida Flute Orchestra.  She has taught flute at Iowa State University, and the College of Charleston.  She also served as principal flutist with the Symphony and was a frequent performer at Spoleto Festival USA. She has toured extensively, performing in Ecuador, China, South Korea and France.

 

Mei-Fang Lin is an Assistant Professor of Music at Texas Tech University and a composer, conductor and pianist.  Awards for her music include those from the Seoul International Competition for Composers (Korea), Bourges Competition (France), Look & Listen Festival Prize (USA), Pierre Schaeffer Competition (Italy), SCI/ASCAP Student Commission Competition (USA), Luigi Russolo Competition (Italy), Prix SCRIME (France), National Association of Composers (USA), and the Music Taipei Composition Competition (Taiwan).

 

Robert McCormick is a Professor of Music at the University of South Florida and timpanist with Opera Tampa. He has worked with the Harry Partch Ensemble, San Francisco Symphony, and the Philharmonica de las Americas. He was principal percussionist/assistant timpanist with the Florida Orchestra from 1975 to 1996. McCormick has recorded on the Arista, Bourges Prix Magisterium, Sony, GM, Continuum, Centaur, Nuema, Capstone, HoneyRock and C. Alan labels.

 

Julie Gunn, Ricardo Flores, William Moersch, and Edward Rath are faculty members at the School of Music at the University of Illinois.  Samuel Carroll, Mark Eichenberger, Ling-Ti Huang, Sunjin Kim, James Price, and Ann Zettervall have either recently completed their DMA Degree or are working on their DMA in Performance at the University of Illinois.

 

Credits

 

Engineered and recorded by Rex Anderson and Graham Duncan at the University of Illinois (2,3,4,5,6,7);

Recording for 2 by Frank Horger at the University of Illinois; 

Recording for 1 by John Stephan at Springs Theatre, Tampa.

Recorded December 2006-July 2008; Mastering 2008-2009.

 

Graphics by Vincent Calianno

Score preparation by David Bohn

 

Produced in part by a grant from the University of Illinois Research Board.

 

Innova Director: Philip Blackburn

Operations Manager: Chris Campbell

Innova is supported by an endowment from the McKnight Foundation.

www.innova.mu