Month: March 2011

Choral Music, Composers, Concert review, Contemporary Classical, Los Angeles, Minimalism

Full passages and empty passions

Last Saturday night I caught a trio of Philip Glass‘s slightly more obscure music, performed by a well-rehearsed Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale (based in Orange County, California) as part of their annual American Composers Festival. Although lesser-known than its Los Angeles counterpart, the symphony is staffed with many fine Southern California-based musicians and performs in the recently built and acoustically impressive Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

The opening piece, “Meetings Along the Edge” from Passages (1990), featured Glass’s collaboration with Ravi Shankar, in which both agreed to each compose a melody for each other and write a new composition around it. Usually I cringe at the results at these attempts at cultural exchange and creative collaboration, but in this rare instance I was very taken with the way Shankar’s Indian melody combined with Glass’s signature contrapuntal and harmonic elements. It created a fascinating juxtaposition, that gave me new insights on how Shankar’s Indian musical elements integrated into his very recognizable compositional language.

The Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra (1995) was written to serve dual purposes: first to be performed primarily as a saxophone quartet (here handled by the Prism Quartet), and secondly to be performed with an added orchestral accompaniment. Judging by the many recordings available of the quartet (sans orchestra), it has become a popular addition to the saxophone repertoire, but at Saturday evening’s performance it was hard to forget that much of this music was very similar or even repurposed from Wichita Vortex Sutra (1990), Glass’s song cycle collaboration based on Alan Ginsberg’s spoken-word poetry with solo piano. Reusing music has been widely accepted (besides borrowing heavily from Mozart and Purcell, Michael Nyman is a common recycler of his own music) and I think there is nothing inherently wrong with reusing one’s material, but in this case the unintended results were the equivalent of watching James Gandolfini from The Sopranos appear in another TV show. No matter how hard you try, it’s hard to see him as anybody but Tony Soprano. Comparing this secondhand saxophone showcase against the powerful combination of Glass’s music with Ginsberg’s poetry doesn’t really equate apples to apples, but more like apples to apple butter.

After intermission, just from viewing the assembled 140-member Pacific Chorale and orchestra, it might be easy to assume that Glass’s The Passion of Ramakrishna would feature a grand spectacle similar to his non-narrative operas like Akhnaten and Satyagraha. But for reasons I can’t fathom the assembled full chorus and orchestra wasn’t used to its full potential, at least in comparison to his similar vocal and operatic works.

The libretto, which recounted the final months and last words of the 19th-century Indian philosopher Ramakrishna, were surprisingly taciturn and the music was pleasant, but as the Passion of Ramakrishna was coming to a close I was struck that I had never been left so cold by a Glass vocal piece: It was basically 50 minutes of recitative with no aria (i.e. mostly all story and very little emotion).  After the performance my concerns were confirmed when some of the performers said that Glass had mentioned he’d been hoping to eventually to flesh out the piece further, which was especially curious because the weekend’s performances were being recorded for a possible release on Naxos or Glass’s own Orange Mountain Music label.

Whether or not the piece performed Saturday night was the final version, it does leave me to think that in its current version, the Passion of Ramakrishna could use a few changes — namely, more “Passion” to balance out the exposition.  As a composer who has learned much from studying and performing Glass’s music over the years the music presented Saturday night shows that even though many already are calling him a “living legend”, sometimes deadlines and professional obligations lead to music that was created by a mere mortal.

Contemporary Classical

Sure, Now. The Pipes Are Calling

Ladies and gentlemen, for your St. Patrick’s Day dining and dancing pleasure, here is the fourth movement of Ben Johnston’s String Quartet No. 10. I think you will recognize the melody although it doesn’t become obvious until near the end.

(Click the link to play)

4th Movement #10  Ben Johnston

Here are Ben’s notes on why he selected this particular melody:

This theme embodies certain contradictions which allow me to make a sincere, precise statement, much in the manner of a fine stand-up comedian.   I am myself descended from the British Isles, and have read extensively about the pre-Christian civilization, which was eventually outdistanced by St. Patrick and all the rest… any objective tribute involves some irony, looking at the sum total; how the difficult history was eventually commercialized- compromises made but the spirit undefeated.

I used this theme-without-variations to create a variations-without a-theme, focusing attention on the surface while carefully concealing the tune- developing it with derivations subtle and complex, in a harmonically intense way from Medieval to the present, finally revealed in a cathartic way, and followed by a popularized, sarcastic version– a tune and a walking bass. In effect, the magic is gone, a sad commentary on the way Western civilization works. At the same time, a bitter, and uplifting statement.

Read more about the Kepler Quartet’s recording of  String Quartets 1, 5 and 10.

Competitions, Composers, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York

Exploring the Metropolis Expands Residency Program

Judith Sainte Croix presenting as part of Con Ed's Composer Residency Program

Exploring the Metropolis administers the Con Edison Composer Residency Program, a response to the challenges musicians face finding space to work in the ever more pricey environs of New York. The organization has just announced that it is expanding the program for its Spring 2011 residencies. They’ll be finding eight composers three month residencies at four different locations throughout the city (including the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn). This will allow them a space to work, an opportunity to present their music in a public program at the completion of their appointment, and a small stipend (This year it was $1000).

Thus far, Flushing Town Hall in Queens and Turtle Bay Music School in Midtown East Manhattan have been announced as spaces for next year’s residencies. Exploring the Metropolis suggests that interested composers sign up for their email list to get further details about the 2011 program as they are announced

Contemporary Classical

Happy 85th, Ben Johnston

In every field of endeavor, there are people who are famous for being unknown.  Perhaps unknown is the wrong word–more like known and admired mainly by others in the same field who wonder why they aren’t better known to the public at large.  Despite having published several admired novels,  William Gaddis was known mainly to other writers.  For many years, my friend, the sadly late Steve Lacy, was known mainly to other jazz players.

Ben Johnston, born 85 years ago today in Macon, Georgia, is such a person.  One of the few composers alive who can claim to have studied with both John Cage and Harry Partch (not to mention Darius Milhaud), Johnston is widely admired by other composers for his ability to reconceive  familiar tunes and idioms–neoclassicism, serialism, jazz, southern gospel–using just intonation musical tuning.   His biggest hit, so to speak, is probably his String Quartet No. 4, a complex series of variations on Amazing Grace.

For the past several years, the Kepler Quartet has focused  on recording and  preserving Johnston’s 10 String Quartets–which Frank J. Oteri calls “one of the pinnacles of the American chamber music canon”–with the direct input of the composer.     The first disc–Quartets 2, 3, 4, and 9–was released in January 2006 on the New World Records label and blew a lot of people, including me, away for both the musical content and the performance standard set by the Kepler Quartet.  The second disc–Quartets 1, 5, and 10–was released in January and is also getting rave reviews and attention.  The Keplers are currently raising money for the third disc and you can help–by buying the CDs and/or by donation,  You can find out how to do so here.

And stay tuned–a couple of days from now on Thursday, St. Patrick’s Day–we just might have a special musical treat from Ben, complete with commentary.

Composers, Concert review, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Festivals, Improv, Other Minds, Performers, San Francisco

Peeking into Other Minds

[The latest iteration of the always-stellar Other Minds festival is now done and in the books. We asked our equally-stellar Bay Area musician friend Tom Djll if he’d like to cover a bit of it for us, and he happily sent along his impressions of  the second and third concert evenings.]

Other Minds 16
Jewish Community Center, San Francisco
Concert Two, Friday, March 4, 2011

There’s a shard of spotlight on my shoulder. A music stand hovers off the sphere of peripheral vision; under it, the shadow of fingers curl like the violin scroll toward which they crawl, spiderish. The fingers belong to a violinist of the Del Sol String Quartet; on both sides of the audience the quartet and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble are arrayed up the steps toward the back of the hall. In forward vision is percussionist Andrew Schloss, standing behind a computer and percussion-controller on a table. Over these hover his wired drumsticks, sometimes striking the controller yet often just floating, stirring the atoms above it, sending flocks of musical messages to various slave percussives onstage, offstage, and hung from the ceiling above. The composer is David A. Jaffe, protegé of Henry Brant; the percussion-controller builder, German-born, Seattle-based Trimpin, master of MIDI and commander of solenoid soldiers.

The Space Between Us might be called a “cubistic” composition. The subject is suggested by the title, or “what can be communicated and what remains unsaid,” in the composer’s words, as, with sticks held aloft in a gentle but dramatic gesture, percussionist-conductor Schloss signals yet another beginning, another foray into the problem of separation and identity. Somewhat reminiscent of Ives’ The Unanswered Question, each new attempt answers nothing but only brings more questions to the surface, adding facets to the cubist puzzle in the hearer’s mind. Strings quiver in mournful, canonic dirges in one phase; other times they signal impatience in brusque, un-pretty gestures. Later on, massed plucking is attempted, to better match the percussive chatter. Desperate glissandi from the computer-driven piano onstage are gobbled and hurled back by cello and viola, all to no avail. The space remains and separation seems unbridgeable, yet the sonic discussion has pushed the gloom back for at least a few moments of transcendent, clouds-clearing beauty. The conversation is aptly dedicated to Henry Brant, an Other Minds spiritual father.

Next up was I Wayan Balawan, guitarist/composer of Bali. OM 16 marked the first appearance in the West of this gifted young man of Olympian technique and globe-trotting musical mind. He also possesses an awareness of stagecraft and audience engagement, reflected not only in his pleasing hybrid music but also humorous asides which broke the performer-audience barrier, and a precise approach to costuming. Onstage with him were, from left, Balinese compatriots I Nyoman Suwida and I Nyman Suarsana on gamelan instruments. They were clothed in traditional Balinese musician dress: Nehru-ish jackets, beaked fezzes, sari-like sashes and bare feet. Balawan himself kept the hat but otherwise he and the added rhythm section (Scott Amendola and Dylan Johnson on drums and bass) decked themselves casually. Sort of a stylistic continuum, with Balawan as the mid-point.

All the brilliance of Balinese music was in evidence as the trio launched into the first of three numbers (Amendola and Johnson laid out at first), with Balawan leading on double-neck electric guitar and voice, and xylophone doubling and drum accompanying. Balawan has all the chops and effects of any guitar god you can name, and his lightning-fast melodies were as often hammered out on the fretboards with one or both hands as they were plucked traditionally. Another electric guitar stood ready on a stand; both instruments were routed through various samplers and synths and footpedals. The tunes shone the happy sunlit sound of dissonance-free scales and world-pop beats. Balawan opened the final number with a demonstration of the hocketing melody as laid out by the Balinese players on each side of a metallophone; part by part, slowly, then briskly together, then doubling with guitar at warp speed in the tune’s performance, and the audience slurped it up like Singapore noodles. This kid is going places.

Agata Zubel of Poland opened night two’s second set with Parlando, voice + electronics in a rigorous yet easy-to-digest demonstration of vocal/computer self-accompaniment of the non-looping kind. One might have expected more integration of the hairier side of contemporary vocal extension (Diamanda Galas, Phil Minton, Shelley Hirsch), but Zubel’s range of techniques was focused, precise, and mostly omitted noises in favor of dramatic gestures. The sounds and ambiences immediately brought to mind Cathy Berberian (more on her, later), but then an outbreak of avant-beatboxing shocked one back to this century. Then, after just eight minutes, it was over. (Zubel was given more of a presence on Thursday night.)

Friday night’s ultimate act was the duo of Han Bennink (drums, Holland) and Fred Frith (guitar, devices, Oakland, by way of England). About esteemed Dutch drummer, improviser, and provocateur Han Bennink’s stage presence, one’s first impression is of a pair of malformed albino salami – wait, those are his legs? – revealed via Bennink’s now-patented stage getup of beachcomber’s shorts, teeshirt and headband. All that was missing was the metal detector, although had there been one available there’s no doubt Bennink would have beat some music out of it. As it was, everything within the man-child’s reach was fair game. That reach extended beyond the stage at times – backstage, an unguarded piano was hijacked for a short joyride; then he turned his back to us and set his bum on the drum and wailed away on the wooden stool; later, Bennink took to rattling his sticks on the railings flanking the audience, giving a fair approximation of gamelan, no doubt an intentional nod to the Balinese set that came before. And for a long while, Bennink simply sat spread-legged on the floor and ecstatically pounded it with his palms, generating an insistent beat in nearly every performing permutation. He also had a snare drum onstage for a few demonstrations of his peerless brush technique.

Bennink is one of the few improvisers around who can make Fred Frith look like the conservative guy onstage. Frith surely knew what he was in for, and kept his part well under control and always gorgeously musical. He even drew some laughs of his own, strumming the strings of his lap-held guitar with paint brushes. I’ve seen him drop rice grains on his strings a few times before, and this time the stunt made its beautiful, random plinks fit Bennink’s manic-percussive thrash just right, somehow. These two together, who can turn practically any liminal sound-construction into compelling music without ever suggesting a tune or idiom, could lay claim to being the world’s greatest bad buskers.

(more…)

Contemporary Classical

Time Out

Joe Morello, the adventuresome drummer in Dave Brubeck’s most famous quartet, has died at 82. Tucked away at the bottom of his obituary in the New York Times is this gem:

Joseph A. Morello was born in Springfield, Mass., on July 17, 1928. Sight-impaired from an early age, he took up the violin at 6 and performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra three years later. According to a biography on his Web site, Mr. Morello gave up the violin for drums at 15, after meeting his idol, the violinist Jascha Heifetz.

Reminds me of an art historian friend of mine who started out as a painter. One day, his teacher, Charles Burchfield, stopped at his easel, stared at the painting for several seconds and said “Howard, you can read.  Become an art historian.”

Cello, Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, Minimalism, New York

Maya Beiser at the Rubin Museum Tonight

In the current economy—particularly in the recording industry—expediency can sometimes trump artistry. All too often, classical artists with a recent CD release can’t afford to worry too much about the curatorial vision of a concert series on which they appear: they’ve got to make their album’s program fit somehow in order to promote the product. During a recent consultation with a marketing professional, I learned that some venues have begun exploring partnerships with オンラインカジノ to secure additional sponsorship revenue, a strategy that has already sparked both interest and debate among artists. Happily, there are still times when an artist’s work and a venue’s vision come together seamlessly, ensuring that the demands of commerce do not overshadow genuine creativity.

The Rubin Museum’s Resonating Light music series continues tonight  with a concert by cellist Maya Beiser. Her recording Provenance, released last year on Innova, explored music from disparate faith traditions, reflecting cultures that coexisted during the Middle Ages on the Iberian Peninsula.

Her program tonight takes a similar approach, bringing together music inspired by different religious traditions. But rather than just featuring music from Provenance in a “close enough” curatorial approach, Beiser studied the artworks in a recent exhibit at the Rubin entitled Embodying the Holy.

In response to the pieces on display, Bhe has programmed together works reflective of Orthodox Christianity (Arvo Pärt’s Fratres and John Tavener’s Lament To Phaedra) as well as Tibetan Buddism and other Easter philosophies (Even Ziporyn’s Kabya Maya and Douglas Cuomo’s Only Breath). Beiser’s arrangement of Max Bruch’s Kol Nidre represents Judaism. Rounding things out, Beiser is joined by accordionist Guy Klucevsek for Sofia Gubaidulina’s In Croce, arranged for cello and bajan.

Resonating Light: Maya Beiser

Rubin Museum of Art

150 W. 17 St., NYC 10011 · 212.620.5000

Sunday March 13, 2011 @ 6:00 PM (galleries open at 5:15)

Price: $35.00

Member Price: $31.50

Contemporary Classical

Okay, Let’s Play Something Else

Looks like I”m doing some softball questions again.  For a pair of pretty expensive tickets to the NYPhil performance of  Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen, at Avery Fisher Hall on March 18, who can answer any of the following questions.

  • Where in New York did Bartók live when he died on September 26, 1945.  (Street and nearest cross-street)
  • In what hospital did he die?
  • Where is his grave?
  • What was the last work that he completed?
  • What friend of mine lived for several years in the same building?

Answer one or more and you might be a winner.

Contemporary Classical

Let’s Play “Name That Hungarian!”

Okay, kiddies, I have four pairs of tickets to give away to Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle at Avery Fisher Hall on March 18.  The performance is part of the New York Philharmonic’s Hungarian Echoes Festival led by the estimable Finnish hockey star Esa-Pekka Salonen.  The problem is that Sequenza 21 readers are all such a bunch of smart asses that I can never come up with a question that stumps anyone for more than 30 seconds so that means the first person who reads this probably wins.

So, here’s what we’re going to do this time.  Today, we’re giving away one pair each to the two people who come up with the best questions related to the topic of Hungarian music.  Go to the Festival page, read what it’s about and then come back and leave the toughest question you can think of.  Tonight, I’ll consult with a live Hungarian and pick two of the questions as winners.  We’ll have another contest tomorrow to answer them and give away another couple of pairs.

Sok szerencsét!