Most of the works on last Thursday's Bang on a Can People's Commissioning Fund concert at Merkin Concert Hall were riffs on some found sound, or other pre-existing music. Which, in itself isn't bad - music has a long tradition of variation writing - but it does leave one wondering if today's composers have lost the ability to write music purely of their own invention. 

The concert, hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer and performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, was part of the ongoing Ecstatic Music Festival, now in its 5th year of presenting adventurous collaborations between the new music, experimental, and indie pop worlds. The BOAC All-Stars, now in their 2nd generation, feature Vicky Chow (piano), Ashley Bathgate (cello), Ken Thomson (clarinet/saxophone), David Cossin (drums), Robert Black (bass), and Derek Johnson (electric guitar).

For the new works on the program - all commissioned by $100 donations from more than 300 patrons - this is understandable, given that none of the commissionees are full-time composers. Glenn Kotche's loud, banging Time Spirals incorporated field recordings he's made from his tours around the globe as the drummer for Wilco. Jace Clayton (a.k.a. DJ/rupture) based his Lethe's Children, named after the mythical river of forgetfulness, on songs the All-Stars sang as children. And Ben Frost, best known as a producer of apocalyptic electronic music, used recordings of U.S. drone planes to create Negative Ghostrider II: a furious swirl of guttural noise that sounded like the roar of a jet engine just before takeoff.