Uploaded November 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
This is Randall Woolf's setting of the rap song "Blues For Black Hoodies" by emcee and producer Wordisbon. The lyrics explore the plight of young urban African-Americans, set in a bed of strings, beats, and turntables.
Allan Kozinn of The New York Times wrote of this piece:
"The concert ended with Randall Woolf's "Blues for Black Hoodies". The basis of the work is a recording by MC Wordisbon, a rapper, on which Mr. Woolf has superimposed a beautifully detailed, slowly flowing string score. The combination of Mr. Woolf's strings, the scratches and the text created a movingly melancholy atmosphere, bluesy in spirit and rich in texture."
COMPOSER: Randall Woolf
LYRICIST: Wordisbon
ENSEMBLE: String Orchestra Of New York City
SOLOISTS:
Randall Woolf, turntables
Wordisbon, emcee rapper
Please be aware that all of the music (and images) featured in this video belong to their respective owners, and I or this channel does not claim any right over them. I upload these solely for archiving purposes, and for the sharing and enjoyment of great music. Monetization is not enabled. If you are the rightful owner of copyrighted material used and would like the video removed from YouTube, please, instead of reporting/striking my channel, leave a comment below with your statement and I will take the video down effective immediately.
This is Randall Woolf's setting of the rap song "Blues For Black Hoodies" by emcee and producer Wordisbon. The lyrics explore the plight of young urban African-Americans, set in a bed of strings, beats, and turntables.
Allan Kozinn of The New York Times wrote of this piece:
"The concert ended with Randall Woolf's "Blues for Black Hoodies". The basis of the work is a recording by MC Wordisbon, a rapper, on which Mr. Woolf has superimposed a beautifully detailed, slowly flowing string score. The combination of Mr. Woolf's strings, the scratches and the text created a movingly melancholy atmosphere, bluesy in spirit and rich in texture."
COMPOSER: Randall Woolf
LYRICIST: Wordisbon
ENSEMBLE: String Orchestra Of New York City
SOLOISTS:
Randall Woolf, turntables
Wordisbon, emcee rapper
Please be aware that all of the music (and images) featured in this video belong to their respective owners, and I or this channel does not claim any right over them. I upload these solely for archiving purposes, and for the sharing and enjoyment of great music. Monetization is not enabled. If you are the rightful owner of copyrighted material used and would like the video removed from YouTube, please, instead of reporting/striking my channel, leave a comment below with your statement and I will take the video down effective immediately.
![Caroline Shaw — Plan & Elevation (2015) [w/ score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eIEI80LfaMk/mqdefault.jpg "Caroline Shaw — Plan & Elevation (2015) [w/ score]
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, violinist, and singer Caroline Shaws Plan & Elevation for string quartet. Shaw writes in the program notes:
I have always loved drawing the architecture around me when traveling, and some of my favorite lessons in musical composition have occurred by chance in my drawing practice over the years. While writing a string quartet to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Dumbarton Oaks, I returned to these essential ideas of space and proportion — to the challenges of trying to represent them on paper. The title, Plan & Elevation, refers to two standard ways of representing architecture — essentially an orthographic, or “bird’s eye,” perspective (“plan”), and a side view which features more ornamental detail (“elevation”). This binary is also a gentle metaphor for one’s path in any endeavor — often the actual journey and results are quite different (and perhaps more elevated) than the original plan.
COMPOSER: Caroline Shaw
STRING QUARTET: Attacca Quartet
TRACKLIST:
0:00 - Introduction
0:08 - I. The Ellipse
4:09 - II. The Cutting Garden
7:07 - III. The Herbaceous Border
10:44 - IV. The Orangery
12:28 - V. The Beech Tree
Please be aware that all of the music (and images) featured in this video belong to their respective owners, and I or this channel does not claim any right over them. I upload these solely for archiving purposes, and for the sharing and enjoyment of great music. Monetization is not enabled. If you are the rightful owner of copyrighted material used and would like the video removed from YouTube, please, instead of reporting/striking my channel, leave a comment below with your statement and I will take the video down effective immediately.
#scorefollower #contemporaryclassical #classicalmusic")
![Paul Cantrell — The Broken Mirror of Memory (2011) [w/ score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fEXLrRnaYbU/mqdefault.jpg "Paul Cantrell — The Broken Mirror of Memory (2011) [w/ score]
This is Paul Cantrell’s 4-movement work for bass clarinet and piano, “The Broken Mirror of Memory.” Cantrell writes:
“Entanglement, soliloquy, tango, flight: each movement poses a problem from which the next unfolds. Themes continually resurface, transformed, as the music reinvents its own past – the endless process Gabriel García Márquez described as ‘piecing together the broken mirror of memory from so many scattered shards.’ The coda gathers everything together, grappling, burning down – and then, from the embers, a simple benediction emerges, present all along, now laid bare. We discover in retrospect that the music’s destination has always been its source. ‘The Broken Mirror of Memory’ was chosen as the winner of the International Clarinet Association’s Composition Competition in 2012.”
COMPOSER: Paul Cantrell
BASS CLARINET: Pat OKeefe
PIANO: Paul Cantrell
TRACKLIST:
0:00 - Introduction
I. Entanglement
II. Soliloquy
III. Tango
IV. Flight
Please be aware that all of the music (and images) featured in this video belong to their respective owners, and I or this channel does not claim any right over them. I upload these solely for archiving purposes, and for the sharing and enjoyment of great music. Monetization is not enabled. If you are the rightful owner of copyrighted material used and would like the video removed from YouTube, please, instead of reporting/striking my channel, leave a comment below with your statement and I will take the video down effective immediately.")
