The Other Mozart

2 months ago

The Other Mozart CD featured as Best of Bandcamp Contemporary Classical!

"Inspired by music composer Maria Anna “Nannerl” Mozart—the older sister to Wolfgang Amadeus, who never got the level of recognition of her brother—actress and playwright Sylvia Milo turned to her husband, percussionist Nathan Davis - composer | percussionist, and keyboardist Phyllis Chen to create music for Milo’s original monodrama about the overlooked composer, titled The Other Mozart. Wisely, Davis and Chen make no effort to evoke period music particular to a historical era, but instead generate a fantastical world of sound and melody using instruments and objects Maria Anna Mozart would have certainly dealt with: “clavichord, harpsichord, music boxes, clock chimes, and church bells, as well as hand fans and teacups.” The duo vibrantly transform those devices, often electronically, to produce a mixture of evocative vignettes. The delicate “Nannerl Theme” is a miniature of pure music box sweetness; the piece that follows it, “Every note I play, he hears” sounds utterly out of time, with a high-pitched bowed percussion tone that seems electric, ringing out ominously, while gently struck bells and other objects clang in sporadic, spread-out interjections, suggesting an internal dialogue that’s anything but peaceful. The music cycles through shifting moods effortlessly, using a limited palette of sound that can toggle between whimsical and portentous without a hiccup."

You can download it today on Bandcamp, in advance of the physical release:
nathandavis.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-mozart

And if you'd like a physical copy, please go to our donation page: www.theothermozart.com/donate and click the Fractured Atlas link. ... See MoreSee Less

The Other Mozart

2 months ago

A weekly tally of memorable things Steve Smith has stuck in his ears: "The Other Mozart" CD!!!!

This is the music that won the NY Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Original Music: eleven tracks by Phyllis Chen and Nathan Davis, written for instruments and objects that displayed Nannerl’s talent and captured her imagination: clavichords, music boxes, hand fans, bells, chimes - and Maestra Milo is featured in a teacup solo (with some giggles)!

You can download it today on Bandcamp, in advance of the physical release:
nathandavis.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-mozart
And if you'd like a physical copy, please go to our donation page: www.theothermozart.com/donate and click the Fractured Atlas link. ... See MoreSee Less

The Other Mozart

4 months ago

The Other Mozart is coming to Columbia Festival of the Arts, in Columbia, MD - this Friday! (performed by Sylvia Milo) ... See MoreSee Less