Email: lentzmuse@aol.com
LINKS
Daniel Lentz - Composer - resumé and review
Daniel Lentz - Article from the Village Voice April 2001
Daniel Lentz Special Offer - Master CD's
In Los Angeles Lentz founded and directed the Daniel Lentz Group.
The DLG has made many tours of the U.S., Eastern and Western Europe,
and Asia.
The ensemble has played a principle role in many commercial CD
recordings
and several TV features. Its instrumentation has varied over the16
years
of its existence, from as few as 4 performers to as many as 18.
The DLG was especially prominent in its revolutionary use of "live
multi-track recording" in its performances in the 1980s and early
1990s.
In 1972 Lentz won the First Prize in the International Composers
Competition
(Stichting Gaudeamus) in Holland, the first American to do so in the
then
37-year history of that event.
In1979 Lentz received a D.A.A.D. residency grant to live and work in
West Berlin.
He has been the recipient of numerous other awards, grants, and
commissions.
Lentz was the first Los Angeles-based composer since Stravinsky to
sign
with a major record label (Angel-EMI)
His On The Leopard Altar (Icon Records) was named "most
favorite" classical record album in a LA Weekly poll and received
more readers' votes than all others combined. .... LA Style Magazine.
In MOJO Magazine Paul McCartney called On The Leopard Altar
"a crazy record..... that should have been a hit".
Lentz's music from his years in Los Angeles is generally fast-paced and upbeat -- like L.A. itself (as heard in Talk Radio, Wild Turkeys, the crack in the bell, et al). Since moving from Los Angeles to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona Lentz's music has undergone a major metamorphosis. Recent works, such as the Temple of Lament, Apologetica, A Tiger In The Garden, and The Insect & The Woman, reflect these changes. These works evoke the desert and inspire the listener in their sometimes mournful, musical intensity.
Sample List of Recent Works. First Performance.
A Tiger In The Garden
(1998)
Platt House
Phoenix, AZ April, 2000
Huit ou Neuf Pieces Dorees a Point
(1998)
Downtown Theater, Los Angeles
July, 1999
Apparitions of JB
(1997)
Musical Visual Festival VII
Lanzarote, Canary Islands
October, 1997
Zeitghosts
(1996)
Kiva Hall, Phoenix, AZ
February, 1997
Temple of Lament
(1996)
Xebec Hall. Kobe, Japan.
November, 1996
Apologetica
(1994-95)
Kromeriz Cathedral. Kromeriz,
Czech Republic. June, 1996
b.e.comings
(1992)
Bang On A Can Festival (The
Kitchen). NYC. May, 1993
orgasMass
(1991)
Casals Hall. Tokyo, Japan.
November, 1991
Talk Radio
(1990-91)
Chatham College. Pittsburgh, PA
November, 1991
NightBreaker
(1990)
Contemporary Art Museum
Nagoya, Japan. Nov., 1991
Abalone
(1990)
Japan America Theater . Los
Angeles, CA. 1992
California Family: A Portrait
(1989)
Guggenheim Museum Theater
New York, NY 1990
Apache Wine
(1989)
Festival In The Sun. Tucson, AZ
April, 1990
Hockney Highways (aka An American in L.A.,
1989)
Dorothy Chandler Pavillon. Los
Angeles, CA. March, 1989
wolfMASS
(1987-88)
Festival d'Ete. Rouen, France
September, 1988
the crack in the bell
(1986)
Japan America Theater. Los
Angeles, CA. 1986
Time's Trick
(1986)
Carnegie Hall. NYC 1986
Bacchus
(1986)
Koln Concert Hall/WDR Festival.
Cologne, Germany. 1986
La Tache 69
(1986)
WNYC Series. Merkin Hall .
New York, NY 1985
Daniel Lentz's music has been recorded on ABC Command Records,
Angel-EMI
Records, Aoede Records, Cold Blue Records, Fontec Records (Japan), Icon
Records, Materiali Sonori Records (Italy), New Albion Records, and
Virgin
Records (Caroline, All Saints).
He has also recorded with nearly every major European Radio company.
TV features include "Alive From Off Center (PBS, U.S.), B.B.C.
- TV, NOS-TV (Holland), Expo 86 Preview Pavillon in Vancouver, B.C.,
NHK-TV
(Japan), and Czech-TV
Grants & Prizes
6 National Endowment for the Arts grants.
D.A.A.D. residency grant to West Berlin (1979).
Peter Reed Memorial Fund Prize (NYC).
3 Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Fund Commissioning grants (with Meet
The Composer).
Samuel Wechsler Music Award (Brandeis University).
Creative Arts Institute Award from U.C. Berkeley.
Howard Foundation Award (Brown University).
California Arts Council Composer grant.
2 Arizona Commission on the Arts Composer grants.
2 grants from the Institute for Studies in the Arts (Tempe, AZ).
3 Seed Fund grants (NYC).
3 Sunflower Foundation grants (NYC).
6 grants from the Laucks Foundation (The Cooperators)
Commissions
Los Angeles Philharmonic, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Interlink Festival (Japan), Xebec Coprporation (Japan), Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Meet-The-Composer/Readers Digest/Lila Wallace Fund, Zeitgeist Ensemble, Present Music Ensemble, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, West German Radio (WDR), San Francisco Conservatory New Music Ensemble, Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, Martha's Vineyard Chamber Music Society, Mobius (Boston), Montagnana Trio, Institute for Studies in the Ars (Tempe, AZ), and many individuals and individual performers.
Discography
SPELL
ABC Command Records
Childs, Lentz (Song(s) of the Sirens), & Norgaard
Montagnana Trio
"To compare it (Songs of the Sirens) with Debussy's Sirens is to illuminate in a flash the change in sensibility that has occurred over the last seventy-five years. Debussy's sirens are a male fantasy -- delicious but, in the last analysis, as childish as Renoir's pictures. Lentz's sirens are a mature threat." Joseph Kerman, LISTEN (3rd edition)
"His work often examines the elusiveness of language and form.
Like his haunting SONGS OF THE SIRENS, where he spent seven
enchanting
minutes building a brief vocal refrain of fragments, delays, and
reverse
echoes... Eerie textures, resonating Tibetan bells, and earth-moving
shudders
resonate through this ethereal, time-stopping atmosphere... invokes a
galactic
mass of stars...." Downbeat Magazine. June, 1985
*Song(s) of the Sirens is also available on CD as part of the
b.e.comings recording on Fontec Records and Butterfly Blood on
Aoede
Records (see below).
AFTER
IMAGES
Cold Blue Records
Includes Dancing On The Sun (Arlene Dunlap, solo piano and voice)
"The world it created had a dreamy, affectionate aura -- warm,
sweet,
intoxicating with its consonances and open fifths. The amplified
piano's rich colors seemed heated to a shimmering haze, creating an
almost
cinematic sensation." New York Times. Nov. 2, 1981
POINT CONCEPTION Cold Blue Records
"In simpler terms, Lentz's work 'chortles' in ways both sensual and
intellectual. One of our most significant composers, Lentz
is suddenly in the forefront of musical locution.... Lentz has devised
a unique bit of piano literature. It simultaneously glorifies the
acoustical grandeur of the grand piano and regales its legacy with
technology
and sly insouciance. POINT CONCEPTION is Lentz's backhanded
answer
to the cool purr of ambient piano music. Such is the typical
Lentz
reply; tossing knuckleballs into extant musical traditions, but doing
so
with disarming grace." Los Angeles Reader. Jan. 18, 1985
You Can't See The Forest...Music by Lentz;
works by Bowen, Budd, Marshall, Tenney &
others)
Cold Blue Records
"And which composer best represents Los Angeles? Could it be, oh, I don't know.... Daniel Lentz? Los Angeles Reader. August 28, 1987
"Heir to the legacy of the likes of Ives and Cage... is composer
Daniel
Lentz... Don't expect anything ordinary from this man -- he's forging
his
own erratic and highly original path through the minefield of
contemporary
music, pioneering ideas that are certainly unusual, mostly beautiful
and
unfailingly controversial." Upbeat Magazine. March, 1989
MISSA
UMBRARUM
New Albion Records
"Lentz draws from his exotic force an overall sound at once
contemporary
and evocative of ancient voices under some imagined Gothic roof."
Newsweek. March 18, 1985
"But Lentz's 'Mass of Shadows" has never gotten enough credit as a
70's
classic (1973), and as the most beautiful and truly original mass of
the
late 20th century." Village Voice. Jan., 1992
PORTRAITS
New Albion Records
(An Anthology. O-Ke-Wa by Lentz; other works by Adams,
Dresher, Marshall, Satoh, and Scott)
"Lentz realizes the promise of new music in a particularly radical
way;
the very succession of sounds suggests a society more friendly and
constructive
than the mad machine in which we presently live." Village
Voice.
July 30, 1985
ON THE LEOPARD ALTAR Icon Records
"Should've been a hit... a strange record." Paul McCartney, in MOJO Magazine. August, 1998
"Simply one of the most beautiful records I've heard." Artitude. August. 1985
"On The Leopard Altar is a stunning record of clarified
timbres
and interlocking rhythms. Even more enlightening is the
incredible
sense of emotion that pervades the music...."
Recordings of Experimental Music. Winter, 1985
"One way to gauge the effect of On The Leopard Altar is to
literally
road test it. Take it out onto the fast lane of the nearest
Interstate
at a palpable volume and see if the overlapping synthesizer lines and
crisp
vocal syllables of "Is It Love" don't put you right there in the
essence
of traffic -- separate, driving energies darting and thrusting toward
unseen
destinations. This record is a study of sonic polish and forward
motion." MIX: The Recording Industry Magazine. August, 1984
the crack in the bell Angel-EMI Records
"Of Daniel Lentz, in particular, I sing, and of his new record on Angel, whose energy quotient could light a continent." California Magazine. 1986
"Lentz has outdone his compatriots, and may be too much of a good thing." Boston Phoenix. November 13, 1987
'The easiest access to what might be called the 'vintage Lentz
style'
is through the Angel-EMI disc of two years ago, named for its major
work,
the crack in the bell. The music clangs and chortles; if
you
could hear the light of skyrockets, it would sound like this...."
Los Angeles Examiner. March 31, 1989
wolfMASS Rhizome Sketch/Fontec Records
"...a truly astounding work.... It lasts an hour and is exhilarating all the way." Los Angeles Examiner. March 24, 1988
"...a wonderful mixture of technology and wild nature.....this
music,
although generally experimental, sounds gorgeous."
Japan
Times. November 17, 1991
b.e.comings Fontec Records (Japan)
"This album, available through Tower Records' Import Division, may
be
hard to find at your local records store but it is definitely worth the
effort. It's the best Daniel Lentz disc yet, and is accessible to
all listeners, much in the manner of the crack in the bell or
Missa
Umbrarum before it.,,,, But his music resembles nothing else.
Instead
of glittering, percussive ostinati, we hear a constant shimmer
propelled
by subtle splashes of color.... The only drawback here is
the
yen-to-dollar conversion factor. You'll groan when you find out
what
this CD costs, but if you buy it you can be certain that you've
acquired
some of the best, most subtle and original classical cross-over music
being
composed today." Flakk Magazine. Warmer, 1995
3 PIANOS (with Harold Budd & Ruben
Garcia)
All Saints Records/Virgin Records
WALK INTO MY VOICE (with H. Budd & Jessica
Karraker)
Materiali Sonori Records (Italy)
APOLOGETICA New Albion Records
"So I am unapologetic about giving "Pick Hit" to the prettiest major
work in many years, Lentz's APOLOGETICA.... For passion and invention
both,
Lentz towers above the better known Part.... you've got a sumptuous but
utterly original work, far stranger than it sounds. A PLUS"
Village Voice. August 26, 1998
"Now he's come out with a 50-minute choral magnum opus, Apologetica
(5 stars).
Brief, well-chosen texts by himself and others commemorate the tragic
slaughter of indigenous American peoples by the Spanish, and the
unusual
orchestration of strings and MIDI keyboards seem to always surround the
singers of I Cantori with a halo." Pulse Magazine.
December,
1998
"The latest addition to the Lentz discography is the beautiful and
ethereal
Apologetica....
this music has a deceptive clarity and lightness... structures become
elastic and chords and lines overlap,, creating open-sounding,
mesmerizing
webs rather than fixed nusical constructs." The
Independent.
Santa Barbara, California
Recorded Works Soon To Be Released
HOCKNEY
HIGHWAYS
Los Angeles Philharmonic
APACHE
WINE
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra
CALIFORNIA
FAMILY
Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio
NIGHTBREAKER
Brad Ellis, Pianos
"Daniel Lentz's HOCKNEY HIGHWAYS, which the Philharmonic premiered Thursday night... soared like a patchwork flying machine.... The audience, like passengers, looked down as though through a kaleidoscope turned by the composer's imagination and the orchestra's virtuosity. This unexpected perspective on local experience was so exhilarating that the audience rustled in their seats, reading the program notes to find out what this wonderful music was.... For all its brilliant imagery and energy, American is also a subtle piece which must be heard again." L.A. Reader. March, 1989
"The strength in Lentz's exceptionally attractive piece is its power
to evoke images.... I like the work, most of all its success in being
extremely
congenial yet thoroughly original. I don't know of anything the
Philharmonic
has introduced that, merely as sound, worked so well on first
hearing...
the broad panorama of Lentz's marvelous invention seemed clear and
logical."
Los Angeles Herald Examiner. April 1, 1989
"The piece made one feel like a grateful hitchhiker, brought to a
part
of town where the laws are broken for good reason, and where one cannot
go home the same way one came."
Village View, Los Angeles. April 7-13, 1989
"Apache Wine was like an overactive child pushing car radio buttons on a neon freeway in heaven.... the piece was dazzling. My sole complaint is that it would have been great to have repeated the work and let that soundscape pour over the ears again." Tucson Citizen. Feb. 17, 1990
"The most distinctive of the scores was the first, Daniel Lentz's California Family: A Group Portrait. It epitomized another California concern, the creative engagement with technology. The music jumped about abruptly but coherently, forming what Mr. Lentz thinks of as a 'Cubist psychological portrait.' On the basis of that portrait, the Attiyeh family who commissioned it, is one happy if highly energetic group." New York Times. November 19, 1989
TALK RADIO
TEMPLE OF LAMENT (recorded in performance in Kobe, Japan)
ABALONE
EL TIGRE (aka A Tiger In The Garden)
"Lentz, once a textbook postminimalist, broke from the pack this year with a complex, amazing, and ultimately sleazy work called Talk Radio... the moods flowed like a steady run of inspirations and sobering thoughts. It was the most gratifying musical stream of consciousness since Berio's Sinfonia. Talk Radio was the (Bang On A Can) fest's most exciting piece." Village Voice. June 3-9, 1992
"This piece, like freeway life, is amazing, impossible, exhilarating, and a headlong rush of physical momentum." The Journal (Milwaukee). May 30, 1992
"I have heard the music for the new millenium, and it's Daniel
Lentz's
EL TIGRE." Harold Budd.
Budd Journal. July 22, 1999
"Lentz's works, in their spirited interaction between human
performers
and products of technology, reaffirm that today, as always in the past,
man and machine can make vital music together." H. Wiley
Hitchcock.
Music In the United States. 3rd edition
SERMON
A 1966 "electric string quartet," quite possibly the first. This is a live-performance recording (with all electronic modulations/alterations and designs of same in this performance by Don Buchla). The handmade full color score is with acid free India inks on a dozen clear acetate sheets.... only one score exists. The CD also exists only singly. A one-of-a-kind work.
**CD and Score: $10,000.00
**Includes a Certificate of Ownership
Huit ou Neuf Pieces Dorees a Point (Aoede Records -- www.aoederecords.com))
A Set of 8-9 pieces, each based on a memorable dish at a particular Parisian restaurant... can be purchased singly or as a complete set. Only 1 copy of each CD and each score (acid free ink on acid free archival-quality papers in a freehand script) exists. The purchaser will own all rights to the work(s). This is the first time that music is sold in the same manner as paintings are sold.
These 8-9 works are scored for table items (voices, glasses, bottles, dishes, flatware) and piano and strings.
CD, Score & Certificate of Ownership:
Sorbet de vin rouge a la
canelle
$7500.00
Boudin de Homard a la
Nage
$10,000.00
Creme de Potiron aux Petits Lardons et
Girolles
$15,000.00
Feuillete au
Roquefort
$17,500.00
Canard Apicius "Andre Parce" roti au miel et aux epices
("Plat de l'epoque romaine"2000 ans.)
$10,000.00
Salade Maraichere aux Truffes
Fraiches
$12,000.00
Turbot cuit a l'arete, soubise de chou-fleur, creme de celeri
branche
$15,000.00
Raviole aux morilles & fondue de poireaux, jus
emulsionne
$20,000.00
Mille-feuilles vanille et coulis de fruits
rouges
$10,000.00
(The entire set of CDs and Scores of Huit ou Neuf.... can be purchased for $110,000.00)
"No other 'postminimalist' seems so forthright and
unselfconscious."
Kyle Gann. AMERICAN MUSIC in the 20th CENTURY.
See www.aoederecords.com or lentz-music.com/daniellentz.com
FEMALE NUDE #1 (Available in December, 2000)
Approximately 1000 digital photographs with corresponding 1000 musical passages unfolding over time to result in a full body portrait of the model. The "score" exists in two manifestations: an 9 ft. by 6 ft. "canvas" handmade score (1000 photos overlaid with 1000 scored sounds) and a single Digital Video Disc. ca. 35 minutes. No copies.
Score, CD, DVD, & Certificate of Ownership $250,000.00
CDs to be released in 2000-2001 on Aoede Records:
*Wild Turkeys (includes: Is It Love, crack in the bell, Wild Turkeys, & wolf is dead...)
*Voices (includes: A Tiger In The Garden, Talk Radio, Abalone, & Temple of Lament)
An American in L.A. (includes: Hockney Highways, Apache Wine, NightBreaker, A California Family)
Bacchus (includes: Bacchus, La Tache 69, Kissing Song, & You Can't See The Forest...Music)
Self Portrait (includes solo piano improvizations, Jack's, and Erased Budd --- "Erasing:" Nove Alberi with the Ghosts of Lascaux, Arcadia at Jack's Place, Niki D in a Field of Lullabies, The Photo of Santiago McKinn in a Garden of Tigers, Boy about 10 with Apologies, & She Dances by the Light of the Silvery Moon under an Enchantment of Wild Birds)
*Butterfly Blood (includes remasterings of: Song(s) of the Sirens, MidNight White, Slow Motion Mirror, Butterfly Blood, & b.e.comings)
*wolfMASS (remastered; includes: Preludium, wolf-KYRIE, bear-GLORIA, eagle-CREDO, cougar-SANCTUS, & man-AGNUS DEI)
Cafe Desire (a concert-length work for voices and crystal)
* Point Conception (Remastered; for 9 pianos)
* huit ou neuf pieces dorees a point (see above; also available in regular limited edition)
A Lentz Sampler (Selections from the above recordings plus a few surprises)
Ellis Hall Sings Lentz (The great soulsinger in new performances of El Tigre, Abalone, and The Insect )
Out of print LPs, CDs, and cassettes of many of the above-mentioned recordings are available at reasonable rates.
Email: lentzmuse@aol.com
Daniel Lentz - Composer - resumé and review
Daniel Lentz - Article from the Village Voice April 2001
Daniel Lentz Special Offer - Master CD's