A Hammered! Holiday Special

It's the time of year when candles are lit, presents are exchanged, thanks are given, and – here at Q2 Music – we indulge in two hours of hyper-modern, ravishingly beautiful keyboard ... Dec 23, 2013

Homegrown Hits

New Yorkers needn't travel far to hear music from a great composer, and this week on Hammered! we follow suit with a week's worth of borough-hopping playlists that survey New York City's young composers.

Dec 16, 2013

Concertos and Etudes, Chickens and Eggs

No ambiguity here. No broader historical context required. No chicken / egg complex. This week we listen to five piano concertos preluded by the smaller piano pieces from which they c... Dec 9, 2013

Pierre-Laurent Aimard's Contrapuntal World

Few pianists have impacted contemporary music more profoundly than the Frenchman Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Hear his insights and performances of Ives, Ligeti and Messiaen all week on Hammered!

Dec 2, 2013

Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants

Composers today inherit some pretty profound baggage. How is one able to write a single note! with all of music's most monolithic presences staring at your staff paper? One option is ... Nov 25, 2013

Strong Network Connection: Framing Modern Piano Music

To be a composer is to be aware of your musical family tree, and to some degree, exploit the strengths of your forefathers in order to create something novel. Stravinsky, after all, s... Nov 18, 2013

Anniversary and Birthday Tributes

There are many reasons to tip the musical hat this week: Charles Wuorinen's 75th birthday; Ned Rorem's 90th!; the one year anniversary of Elliott Carter's passing; and the centennial ... Nov 11, 2013

The Incredible Multiplying Piano

Five days of accretive piano mayhem this week on Hammered!, beginning with music for zero pianists (all "automatic" pieces for pianola and other pianistic mechanisms), and, after addi... Nov 4, 2013

Pledging To Play The Hits

We do our fair share of obscure music here at Q2 Music, but sometimes you want to flip on the radio and simply hear the hits. This week on Hammered! we offer exactly that in conjuncti... Oct 21, 2013

Musical Genetics 101: A Little Goes A Long Way

This week, musical genetics 101. We survey keyboard-centric pieces whose forms are born from the brief but compact strands of musical DNA that begin them.  Oct 14, 2013