# Nico Muhly



## Albert7

He is a young composer who collabed with Hilary Hahn on her encores album. Very awesome composer and his works straddle the worlds of pop music and classical music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nico_Muhly

He is an example of a guy who realizes that classical music is part of the pop scene as well... a complex arrangement here.


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## Nereffid

A surprise (and pleasant) discovery for me on Iestyn Davies' recent Wigmore Hall album: in amongst the Dowland, Campion, Johnson, Danyel and Hume, is Muhly's "Old Bones", a contemplative 11-minute piece for countertenor and lute that's about the recent discovery of the body of Richard III.


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## mmsbls

Several people here have recommended Muhly in some of the contemporary composer threads. I started listening several months ago and have very much enjoyed what I've heard. Some works that I like are Mothertongue, From Here on Out, Motion, and Balance Problems. I plan to explore Muhly more and expect to continue enjoying this young composer.


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## Bluecrab

He seems to be very popular on the NYC Downtown/Brooklyn scene. He frequently collaborates with a violist named Nadia Sirota. You can hear his work frequently on an online station called Q2, which is part of WNYC FM. You can stream it online for free.


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## Albert7

Nice... thanks Bluecrab and mmsbls for the heads up. I will be on the lookout for more of his compositions indeed.


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## Avey

FYI -- though I suspect those who are actually infatuated with this guy already know this -- if you dig *Sufjan Stevens*, and you are a member here, so you dig classical...

Quartet _Osso_ collaborated with several prominent contemporary composers, including *Nico Muhly*, to arrange Stevens' _Year of the Rabbit_ electronic album into quartet form. Absolutely remarkable album.

Muhly's arrangement of _Year of the Dragon_ is the highlight.


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## starthrower

I might go hear this Thursday night by Borromeo Quartet.


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## Blancrocher

Nico Muhly responds to 'The Wilton Diptych'

I was reading about the artwork and came across this interesting video with the composer.


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## Blancrocher

A recent piece by Muhly concerning his approach to composition:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n20/nico-muhly/diary

I especially enjoyed his comments about trying to summarize his own and other composers' works in the most concise possible way. An excerpt:



> The map of a piece of music can exist on a cocktail napkin, or as a text message, or on a proper piece of manuscript paper. Steve Reich once described Four Organs as 'short chord gets long'; I yearn to be able to describe my pieces so succinctly. One of the ways I've tried to get better at this is by describing other composers' music in the simplest possible terms: it's not much cleverer than opera plots as told by emojis, but it is nice to think about, for instance, John Adams's Harmonielehre as a long flight from a relentless rhythmic unison in E minor via a Wagnerian prism to an ecstatic combination of a grid and a wild and dangerous celebration of E flat major.


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## Larkenfield

starthrower said:


> I might go hear this Thursday night by Borromeo Quartet.


Loved the Muhly! I found it uplifting in spirit and utterly charming.


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## LezLee

Avey said:


> FYI -- though I suspect those who are actually infatuated with this guy already know this -- if you dig *Sufjan Stevens*, and you are a member here, so you dig classical...
> 
> Quartet _Osso_ collaborated with several prominent contemporary composers, including *Nico Muhly*, to arrange Stevens' _Year of the Rabbit_ electronic album into quartet form. Absolutely remarkable album.
> 
> Muhly's arrangement of _Year of the Dragon_ is the highlight.


The Sufjan Stevens album is called 'Run Rabbit Run'

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004H3065A/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp


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## LezLee

Not exactly classical but I love this album with Teitur


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