Bøger af Gary Lloyd Noland

Landon's subversively hilarious six-hour play is a high black comedy in doggerel verse with music for six fiercely opinionated and outspoken characters with radically different perverspectives apropos of what constitutes "art," ranging from the commercially pragmatic to the philosophically effete. The opinions expressed are in no ways frivolous but evolve into transcendental matters verging on Life and Death. The setting is Pimpleton State Luniversity, which offers a post-doctoral degree called a "stool" for scholars specializing in absurdly arcane areas of research (e.g., Primaeval Linguistics, Feline Transgender Studies, and Astromusicology). Amongst the stool program's leading contenders is a bombastically pretentious charlatan named Phangbang Bonation, who is the prolific progenitor of a post-postmodernist aesthetic known as "Nadaism," which espouses the submicrominimalist credo that producing zilch (i.e., nothing at all) is a legitimate form of artistic expression. This deranged ideology draws a huge cult following amongst critics of all artistic genres and earns Phangbang untold wealth in the sales (thru auctions) of various non-opuses from his Nadaistic oeuvre. Two of his fellow stool candidates-Pelvin Penisovich and Purvel Schlignatz-are so violently repelled by Phangbang's grandiose pretensions (especially subsequent to his diverting the amorous attentions of their main squeezes exclusively to himself), that they spare no effort in forging an elaborate scheme to expose him for the cunning impostor they adamantly believe him to be in the hopes of not only irrevocably invalidating him and his cockamamie ideas about art but also of obliterating him and his Nadaistic movement from the face of the earth. Notwithstanding the foregoing, nothing turns out the way Pelvin and Purvel envisioned it ought to have subsequent to carrying out their nefarious enterprise, as they learn, to their utmost dismay, that they have unwittingly opened a whole new (and even more appalling) Pandora's box of depraved theoretical dogmas as to what constitutes an authentic form of creative expression. Thus, their foiled attempt to subvert what they perceive as the unholy aesthetic crusade of their rodomont adversary ends up backfiring upon them in the form of a new post-postmodernist school of thought that blindly enthused critics coin as "revisitationism," which engenders in its turn the unleashing of a plague of criticastically acclaimed, up-to-the-minute, pseudo-artistic horrorshows all across the land. The following caveat should not be construed as a spoiler alert but rather as a friendly heads-up to prospective explorers of this text. Readers and audients are duly advised of the very palpable likelihood that they will be rendered speechless-even dumb-when they find out what the aforementioned revolutionary artistic innovation embodies. Be forewarned: This play is not intended for weak-kneed invertebrates or the squeamish of heart.

This compilation of music by Gary Lloyd Noland (1957-) represents a sampling of his compositions for piano spanning the last three decades of the 20th century until the time of this writing (2021). This is a multi-faceted collection of piano pieces ranging in level from lower intermediate to upper advanced. Included in this volume are three piano rags: Russell Street Rag Op. 5 (named after the street in Berkeley on which the composer grew up), Nerdfox Rag Op. 23, and Ragbones Op. 11 (which has been described as the first piano rag in history containing a bona fide development section), along with a deconstructed and abbreviated version thereof excerpted from the composer''s multi-fascicle chamber novel Venge Art (Fascicle #5, Op. 54). Also included are two fugues: Deformed Fugue Op. 17 (which can also be played on the harpsichord) and Liebesschmerz Fuge Op. 95 (in memoriam Lukas Foss), the latter of which is an intricately complex, technically daunting contrapuntal study that took the composer upwards of 28 years to complete. Several of the works in this volume-notably the Prelude in E Minor Op. 34, the Allemande in F Major Op. 76, and both Two-Part Inventions (in D Major Op. 81 and D Minor Op. 70)-pay homage to J.S. Bach and are executable on both piano and harpsichord. The Andante in F Minor for piano four-hands Op. 46 was written in homage to Franz Schubert and is the only four-hand piece included in this collection. Several other works in this volume were composed in memory of various artists: Aeternum Vale Op. 93, in memory of author David Foster Wallace following his tragic and untimely death by suicide in September, 2008; Mortesque Op. 31, in memory of composer Stephen Albert following his death in an automobile accident in December, 1992; Funeral Waltz Op. 91, in memory of John Swackhamer, one of Noland''s composition teachers at U.C. Berkeley; Obsequy Op. 41, No. 5, in memory of Ivan Tcherepnin (son of Alexander Tcherepnin), one of Noland''s dissertation advisors at Harvard; not to mention the most recent work in this volume-the heretofore unpublished Adagietto Doloroso Op. 121-in memory of composer/pianist Frederic Rzewski (1938-2021), who passed away only a few short weeks prior to the time of this writing. Epicedium Op. 58 was written as a memorial to the thousands of innocent victims who died in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. Aside from these epitaphs, several other pieces included in this volume were written intentionally for young and/or beginning to intermediate level pianists: Broom Brigade Op. 25, Melancholic Moneymonger Op. 26, Three Little Bonbons Op. 59, Blues Flash Op. 42, in addition to most of the pieces that comprise the mini-sets Op. 40 and Op. 41. Suffice it to say that this initial volume of Noland''s collected piano works provides a bounteous abundance of new repertoire for both amateur and professional pianists alike, as well as for students. More affordable volumes of Noland''s piano, vocal, chamber, and orchestral music are planned for publication in the upcoming months and years.