Heading into 2026

One of the reasons I began posting to this blog was to give purpose to my listening. That and maybe show off some of my accumulated knowledge (whoopdy-doo!).  For a time, and then on and off, I stayed at it regularly.

I am doing this casually which only a very limited audience, which sometimes makes it difficult for me to motivate myself.

So I thought maybe I'd take a different approach going into 2026. I want to make a more regular routine of sitting and listening to pieces from my collection, at least once a day with occasional days off. Then, rather than write an essay trying to make a point, I'd post the week's listenings with a shorter comment on each than I had before.

I am still leery of my own ego. "Hey I'm Ben Opie and check out what I've been listening to!". At times I feel a bit rudderless in my retirement and want to continue to foster positive routines.

01/01/2026 on vinyl

Luciano Berio: Différences, Sequenza III, Sequenza VII, Due Pezzi, Chamber Music (Philips)

I don't know that I count Berio as one of my favorite composers, but I don't ever regret listening to his music. He can have that thorny, disjointed Post-War sort of sound at times, but rarely is there a time when some seems removed from the idea of melody. The opening work on the LP, Différences, finds Berio at that thorniest. It's a chamber work for five instruments with tape, the taped content being manipulations of the the same instrumental group. Sometimes the sound blend, others you can hear the expansion past the purely acoustical sound palette.

I've just noticed that the flute part in this piece was played by retired CMU professor Jeanne Baxtresser, whose studio was once around the corner from my classroom. She must have been young at the time. They also misspelled her name.

If I had to guess, Berio's probably most famous for his series of Sequenzas. These are virtuoso solo works, though at times augmented by another sound element. #III is for solo voice, performed here by his then wife Cathy Berberian. A better interpreter you won't find, exploring a wide range of vocal effects. This is followed by #VII for oboe, played by the amazing Heinz Holliger (not his only recording of the work). It's a study in oboe timbres, set against a (quiet) tone generator drone. (There's a version for soprano saxophone I wish I could play. His Sequenza for trumpet is played into an open piano with the sustain pedal depressed.)

Due Pezzi for violin and piano sounds pre-War, almost like Bartók at times. The program ends with Chamber Music, again featuring the amazing Ms. Berberian with a text drawn from Joyce. It doesn't require the wide range of techniques as the Sequenza, but was undoubtably a very difficult work for voice.

Whew, that's a lot for just one record so far.

01/02/2026 on CD

Ronald Stein: Not of This Earth! The Film Music of Ronald Stein (Varese Sarabande)

Is it fair to call Ronald Stein the "Bernard Herrmann of the Drive In Movies"? Probably not, but it would put you in the neighborhood. Ronald had a reputation for writing some decent music for cheapo films, sometimes in excess of the movie's general quality. This tells me two things: 1. He took his assignments seriously; 2. He could work quickly and efficiently.

I have another collection of Ronald's music, five CDs in the set, and I don't think I've listened to all of it. Some time. He composed for a variety of genre films, with this single disc collecting cues from sci fi/horror films. There are selections from the incredible Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (recorded in stereo!), The Terror, Dementia 13, Not of This Earth! (great title for a movie recall being a bore),  Attack of the Crab Monsters, The Devil's Partner, and best of all, Jack Hill's amazing Spider Baby (AKA Cannibal Orgy). I've been a fan of Spider Baby for many years. Stein's music adds to the dark atmosphere of the film. Included here is the main title theme sans vocals, and the vocal version with (unrelated) lyrics spoken by Lon Chaney Jr. He was both a notorious ham and drunk, and his vocals rattle off the lyrics without any synchronization to the music. It's one of Lon's last roles, and I think he's actually a good choice for it. Just watch the movie and see.

I guess Rob Zombie has seen release of the full Spider Baby soundtrack on vinyl. I balk when I see the cost, more than double what this cost me. I'm fine with this collection.

01/03/2026 on vinyl

Harry Carney: Rare Dates Without the Duke (Raretone)

I've recently been playing a series of hour-long improvisations with tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE on designated dates, to coincide with other people in other countries in an attempt at psychic communication. Well, you know, it's a wonderful aspiration even if I'm skeptical. I'm happy to have the opportunity to gather with at least one other person and just play. 

I've been bringing a different instrument each time: alto saxophone, tenor, soprano, clarinet, bass clarinet. Today at tENT's request, it was baritone saxophone. I don't play bari much, though at one time I earned more off that instrument than any other. As I was sitting with this heavy hunk of metal strapped on my neck, I was contemplating: do I have a favorite baritone saxophonist?

Harry Carney, possibly. Harry joined Duke Ellington's band as a teen (I believe he had to receive his parents' permission) and occupied the bari/bass clarinet seat for the majority of both men's lives. Harry is the earliest jazz musician I know to have taught himself how to circular breath. 

This collection is self-evident: dates sans Ellington. Duke's shadow hung over some sessions though. No more so than two sides with Harry and Billy Strayhorn. 

This is a collection of 78 sides, and I can't hear a sour note in the bunch. Do we still practice such craft?

01/04/2026 on vinyl

Flexure: Insert Title Here

If I can't dig my own stuff now and then who will? I'm very proud of this LP. Everything was recorded at the New Hazlett Theater during a brief residency, Side one is three separate performances edited together. It has perhaps my best solo recorded. Side two is a complete unedited performance except for some brief its of guitar at the front and back ends. I considered editing out a short bit of drums in the middle, but I guess I liked the idea of leaving things alone as much as possible on that one. 

01/06/2026 on vinyl

Various artists: Paura; A Collection of Italian Horror Sounds From the CAM Sugar Archive (CAM Sugar)

Glancing over this at Jerry's Records, I was familiar with a few tracks but few enough to make this worth a purchase. Il Maestro, Ennio Morricone, is represented only twice among the twenty-five tracks, at least literally. His shadow is broadly cast over much of the music here. There are other familiar names to me, specifically Bruno Nicolai and Riz Ortolani. The former worked with Morricone and I think might have hinted that Ennio copied some of his ideas, but I can't find a source to cite in that respect. It's easy to say (and I've posted about this before) that Nicolai sounds a lot like Morricone. Or is it the other way around? I wouldn't want to favor Morricone just because he's the more famous composer.

There are lesser known names, to me at least: Stelvio Cipriani (who shamelessly apes "Inna Gadda Da Vida" on one cue; on another, his loud use of a jaw's harp over a rock beat again recalls Morricone), Daniele Patucchi (out of tune piano makes this sound especially weird), Manuel De Sica, etc. etc. 

I've come to recognize many Italian horror movies just on sight without knowing their origin. There's more than one factor: the dubbing to be sure, the music, the general look of the films. There's a tendency to be long on atmosphere and short on plot.

Paura. Fear. Jan 6. I don't know.

01/07/2026 on vinyl

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Prozession (Candide)

In my 20s, I had an interest, maybe even passion, for the idea of compositions as open-ended systems. That is to say, elements of the work would be constructed by the composer and have a resulting character, but the exact outcome wouldn't be the same each time. Robert Ashley's Quartet is a good example; it has a particular sound world but is different from performance to performance.

I come back from time to time to Stockhausen's "plus-minus" pieces. Performers are given a series of symbols (+, -, = among others), and are to take something they've played or heard and develop its elements based on the symbols. That is, a plus means louder or more complex or with more sections, a minus the opposite.

Once again I have an excellent library to thank for being able to check out Stockhausen scores, this time Kurzwellen, Prozession, Spiral, Pole, Expo, all in the plus-minus mode of composition. I suppose I have dream of performing Kurzwellen, in which the players respond to shortwave sounds. I know it'll never happen. I don't have that particular record, but I do have this one. 

It does have an improvisational quality, despite Karlheinz' particular directions. Players are asked to draw from prior Stockhausen compositions. There's no way to follow the score and know what's going on. I find that both exciting and frustrating, unable to pin down how the players are synchronizing their sonic events (if at all). 

Group Stockhausen must surely be one of the more unusual ensembles of any sort: two players on tam tam and microphone, piano, viola, and elektronium (an older electronic keyboard instrument), plus KS on sound projection (quadrophonic panning) and filtering. I was reading in Robin Maconie's book Other Planets that if Karlheinz didn't like what someone was doing in the moment, he'd pull them out of the mix. This led to to some members angrily leaving the group, to his surprise. 

Stockhausen definitely pushes the edge of self-assuredness-hubris-egomania. I'm grateful for him and his music but I can imagine how difficult he must have been at times. And even with all of the documentation of his scores, they are at times very difficult to interpret without him there to directly coach the players.