2011-09-26 New Music Festival [recital program]

              Eighth Annual
UNCG New Music Festival
Mark Engebretson, Director
Alejandro Rutty, Associate Director
Steve Landis and Jonathan Wall, Assistants
September 26-30, 2011
Greensboro, North Carolina
Festival Schedule
Monday, September 26, 2011
3:00-5:00 p.m. Open Rehearsal with Richard Power and
the UNCG Saxophone Ensemble
Location 3:00-4:00 Music Building, Room 154
4:00-5:00 Music Building, Recital Hall
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
12:00 p.m. Outdoor lunch concert, sponsored by the
UNCG Student Chapter of the Society of Composers
Stone Lawn, College Avenue, UNCG, free
1:00 p.m. Steven Bryant - lecture
Music Building, Room 226, free
3:30 p.m. Bruno Louchouarn - lecture
Music Building 129/131, free
Cognition and Multi-Media Narratives in Film,
Theater, Dance, and Immersive Installations.
5:30 p.m. Concert I - SCI Student Chapter concert with Swiss/American
saxophonist Laurent Estoppey
Organ Hall, free
Music by Olivier Messiaen, Luciano Berio, Caroline Charrière,
Nicholas Rich, Elizabeth Kowalski, Laszlo Sary, Laurent
Estoppey and Steve Reich
7:30 p.m. Concert II
Recital Hall, tickets $10/6/4/3
Music by Amy Williams, Alejandro Rutty, Hilary Tann, Lukas
Ligeti, Bruno Louchouarn, Eric Schwartz and Richard Power
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
10:00 a.m. Amy Williams - lecture
Music Building, Organ Hall
Bach's Influence on Selected Contemporary Composers
11:00 a.m. Hilary Tann - lecture
Music Building, Room 223
The Pivotal Role of Poetry in My Musical Life
1:00 p.m. Lukas Ligeti - lecture
Music Building, Room 116, free
Working with Electronic Music in Africa
4:00 p.m. Concert III
Recital Hall, free
Lukas Ligeti, original compositions,
performed on Marimba Lumina
Evening open. Recommended: Chinese Opera at Elliott University Center Auditorium
Thursday, September 29, 2011
10:00 a.m. Gerard Morris - lecture
Music Building, Room 233
Edgard Varèse: The Astronomer of Sound
11:00 a.m. David Claman - lecture
Music Building, Room 223
Rehearing and Responding: Music from Another Time and Place
1:00 p.m. Round Table discussion with Crystal Bright, Will Ridenour,
Shaun Sandor
Music Building, Room 224, free
3:30 p.m. Musicians of the Chinese Opera Orchestra – lecture demonstration
Music Building, Room 217, free
5:30 p.m. Reception, free
Weatherspoon Art Museum, Atrium
6:30 p.m. Concert IV
Weatherspoon Art Museum, free
Music by Steven Bryant, Shaun Sandor, David Claman, Mark
Engebretson, Will Ridenour, and Crystal Bright
Friday, September 30, 2011
2:00 p.m. Eric Schwarz - lecture
Music Building, Room 221
This Modern World: The Influence of Early Music on the
Composers of Today
3:00 p.m. Gerard Morris - lecture
Music Building, Room 111
Conducting the Works of Edgard Varèse
9:00 p.m. Concert V
Downtown at Mack and Mack, $10/6/4/3
Invisible presents The New Obsolete
220 South Elm Street, Greensboro
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
CONCERT I
Society of Composers, Inc, UNCG Student Chapter
Featuring guest artist Laurent Estoppey, saxophone
UNCG School of Music, Theatre and Dance.
Organ Hall, 5:30 p.m.
An Extraordinary Correspondence (2011) Nathan Daughtrey
(6 minutes)
Laura Stevens, flute, Nathan Daughtrey, marimba
Subtilité des corps glorieux (1939) Olivier Messiaen
(5 minutes)
Laurent Estoppey, saxophone
Sequenza VIIb (1995) Luciano Berio
(7 minutes)
Laurent Estoppey, saxophone
Inner Piece (2011) world premiere Caroline Charrière
(6 minutes)
Laurent Estoppey, saxophone, electronics
2 Pieces from Seven Haiku (2011) Nicholas Rich
(3 minutes)
Hanna Lomas, soprano, Dianna Yodzis, mezzo-soprano,
Anna Darnell, clarinet, Jonathan Stuart-Moore, cello, Evan Stevens, percussion,
Alejandro Rutty, conductor
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (2011) Elizabeth Kowalski
(12 minutes) Denise Murphy, choreography
Eric Perrault, cello
Intermission
Pebbles Playing in a Pot (1978) Laszlo Sary
(8 minutes)
Laurent Estoppey, saxophone and electronics
IXS_XIS_ISX_SIX_SXI_XSI (2011) world premiere Laurent Estoppey
(8 minutes)
Laurent Estoppey, saxophone, live electronics
New York Counterpoint (1985) Steve Reich
(9 minutes)
Laurent Estoppey, saxophone, electronics
CONCERT II
UNCG School of Music, Theatre and Dance
Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.
Univocity (2009) Amy Williams
(5 minutes)
Red Clay Saxophone Quartet
Susan Fancher, soprano saxophone
Robert Faub, alto saxophone
Steve Stusek, tenor saxophone
Mark Engebretson, baritone saxophone
Guitars (2011) Alejandro Rutty
(10 minutes)
Anthony Taylor and Kelly Burke, clarinets, with electronics
Song of the Cotton Grass Hilary Tann
(14 minutes)
I. A Girl’s Song to Her Mother (1999)
II. Wings of the Grasses (2003)
III. Vale of Feathers (2005)
Susan Fancher, soprano saxophone, Clara O’Brien, mezzo-soprano
Bacchanale (2011) Richard Power
(11 minutes)
UNCG Saxophone Ensemble, Steve Stusek, conductor
Xin Gao, sopranino saxophone; Jared Newlen, Alex Smith, soprano saxophones
Jason Wallace, Lee Burgess, Raychl Smith, Ryan Redd, Abbe Pass, alto saxophones
Ben Crouch, Danny Collins, Andrew Lovett, Nikki Trail, tenor saxophones
Alanna Hawley, Peter Salvucci, Brandon Noftle, baritone saxophones; Neil
Ostercamp, bass saxophone
Intermission
RetouR (2006) Bruno Louchouarn
(10 minutes)
Sally Renée Todd, piano, with electronics and video
The Incredible, Disappearing Vampire Music (2006) Eric Schwartz
(5 minutes)
James Douglass, piano
Frozen State of Song (1993) Lukas Ligeti
(16 minutes)
Red Clay Saxophone Quartet
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
CONCERT III
UNCG School of Music, Theatre and Dance.
Recital Hall, 4:00 p.m.
Compositions by Lukas Ligeti
Entering: Perceiving Masks
Great Circle's Tune II
Chimaeric Procession
Labyrinth of Clouds Redux
Triangulation
Exiting: Perceiving Faces
Lukas Ligeti, Marimba Lumina
Thursday, September 29, 2011
CONCERT IV
Weatherspoon Art Museum, 6:30 p.m.
Dancing Around the Cathode Campfire (1997) Steven Bryant
(10 minutes)
Michael Ptacin, marimba,
Cat Keen Hock, clarinet, with electronics
West African Kora Music Will Ridenour
Will Ridenour, kora and percussion
Radio Hydrophone, Strings and Things (2011) Shaun Sandor
(11 minutes)
Shaun Sandor, water tank, steel strings, planks of wood
Loose Canons (1995) David Claman
(9 minutes)
David Claman, Brian Koenig, and Gavin Douglas, electric guitars
Illuminating and Transcending Crystal Bright
Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands
Buddha Machine (2011) Mark Engebretson
(6 minutes)
Deborah Egeqvist, flute; Guy Capuzzo, electric guitar,
video by Gregory Grieve, with electronics.
Friday, September 30, 2011
CONCERT V
Mack and Mack, 9:00 p.m.
220 South Elm Street, Downtown Greensboro
The New Obsolete (2011) Invisible
Invisible, Mark Dixon and Bart Trotman
“A new performance featuring the Selectric Piano, self-produced video content,
and new unheard-of sound making inventions”.
The New Obsolete has been produced with support from the North Carolina Arts
Council and the partnering arts councils of the Central Piedmont Regional Artists
Hub Program
Concert I – Artists
Nathan Daughtrey
Whether performing nationally as a marimba/vibraphone soloist or a chamber
musician, conducting percussion clinics, composing for a range of soloists and
ensemble around the world or teaching at the university level, Nathan Daughtrey (b.
1975) is a musical chameleon who uses his wide-ranging talents to adapt comfortably
to a variety of environments.
As a performing artist and clinician for Yamaha and Vic Firth, Dr. Daughtrey has
performed and conducted master classes and clinics in concert halls and at
universities throughout the United States and across three continents. He has two solo
marimba CDs to his credit – Spiral Passages, which features premiere recordings of
David Gillingham’s “Gate to Heaven” and David J. Long’s “Concerto for Marimba;”
and The Yuletide Marimba, which showcases Daughtrey’s solo and marimba quartet
arrangements of 13 Christmas favorites. Also active as a collaborative artist, he has
performed and recorded in chamber settings with composers Michael Udow and
Daniel McCarthy, saxophonists Susan Fancher and Steven Stusek, bassoonist Michael
Burns, clarinetist Christina Giacona, and the Virginia Beach Percussion Quartet,
Trommel Percussion Group and Philidor Percussion Group.
With over fifty publications for concert band, percussion ensemble, orchestra,
chamber ensembles, and soloists as well as an ever-growing number of commissions,
his works have been performed at national and international conferences.
Performance venues include Percussive Arts Society International Convention,
Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, Bands of America National Percussion Festival,
Asian Symphonic Band Competition (Bangkok, Thailand), and the International
Music Conference (Beijing, China). He has received annual awards from ASCAP since
2007. Additionally, his new "Concerto for Vibraphone and Wind Ensemble" will
receive its premiere in Wisconsin in October.
Dr. Daughtrey currently teaches Percussion and Music Composition at High Point
University (NC), where he teaches applied lessons, directs the percussion ensemble
and works in collaboration with the School of Communication on film projects.
www.NathanDaughtrey.com
Caroline Charrière
Caroline Charrière is a Swiss composer. She has written approximately ten pieces
using various instrumentations for Laurent Estoppey over the past 16 years.
www.carolinecharriere.ch/
Laurent Estoppey
After studying saxophone at the Conservatory of Lausanne, where he received a «
License de Concert » degree in 1994, Laurent Estoppey devoted himself entirely to
contemporary music. Numerous collaborations with composers have led him to
create at least one hundred works. Now Estoppey’s musical activity is divided
between written music and improvisation. He performs throughout Switzerland,
many European countries, as well as Canada, USA, Argentina, Guatemala and South
Africa. Estoppey works with many orchestras, has founded several chamber
ensembles and has recorded a dozen CDs. He lives between Greensboro, NC and
Lausanne, Switzerland. www.laurentestoppey.blogspot.com
Elizabeth L. Kowalski (b. 1986)
Born in Stony Brook, Long Island, NY, Elizabeth is a composer of both electro-acoustic
and acoustic music. She started singing and soon after, began playing the
piano at the age of 6 and flute at the age of 11. Currently, she is pursuing a MM in
Composition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro under the instruction
of both Mark Engebretson and Alejandro Rutty. As a composer, her music reflects life
events, nature, and human rights topics, such as the "Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Fire". Elizabeth's music is very much visually-inspired and she frequently composes
for dance and film.
Nicholas Rich
Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, is a composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic
music which investigates the interaction of music and memory and the interaction of
humanity with the natural world. Raised by a family of Bluegrass and Country-
Western musicians, and taught guitar by his family members at an early age, his
music frequently carries strong associations with American pop and folk music.
Rich's primary interest in the field of electronic and electro-acoustic music is the
laptop ensemble. He composes and performs with the Greensboro Laptop Orchestra
(GLOrk), the first ensemble of its kind in North Carolina.
Rich was educated at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (B.M.,
Composition) where his principle teachers were Mark Engebretson and Alejandro
Rutty.
Concert I – Program Notes
An Extraordinary Correspondence
"An Extraordinary Correspondence" was commissioned by the Elliott Duo (Jennifer
Elliott, flute and Richard Elliott, marimba) as a means of expanding their repertoire.
Inspired by the Griffin & Sabine Trilogy of books by Nick Bantock (Chronicle Books),
the work takes its title from the subtitle of the first book. Bantock tells the mystical
story of these two people by inviting readers to examine handmade postcards and
letters that are sent back and forth. As the story unfolds, we discover that Sabine can
“see” what artist Griffin paints. Filled with skepticism and doubt, Griffin is resistant
to the idea and flees. When he finally starts to come around, Griffin and Sabine
attempt to meet but quickly discover that they are living in parallel universes. I will
not reveal any more plot points, as I think Bantock does a much better job of telling
the story.
The 6-1/2 minute piece unfolds in much the same way and is divided into six main
sections, each describing a mood or quoting a phrase from the book:
A postcard... Griffin receives the first postcard from Sabine
“I share your sight...” – Sabine shares her ability with Griffin
“I must believe you’re real” – Griffin trying to convince himself
“You’re a figment of my imagination...” – Doubt & uncertainty return for Griffin
“Are you my shadow?” – Trying to make sense, Griffin asks…
Parallel worlds… – Attempting to meet one another, the discovery they are living in
parallel worlds
"An Extraordinary Correspondence" received its premiere by the Elliott Duo on
August 7, 2011 in Hamilton, Ohio.
Sequenza VIIb
Sequenza VII, written in 1969, is one of the most important pieces of the repertory for
oboe. In 1995 Luciano Berio approved this version for soprano saxophone. This
composition is a discourse passing through the twelve semi-tones around the note B,
which is heard throughout the piece.
Inner Peace for alto saxophone and electronics (2011 – première)
Some slaptongues diffused in a slow motion and a high little melody gliding above
everything are the points I started with. And finally: a fight between the violence of
the sounds produced by the computer and the unalterable softness, the joy, the peace
of the musician.
IXS_XIS_ISX_SIX_SXI_XSI for saxophone and live electronics (2011 – première).
Based on a text by French poet Christian Gabriel/le Guez Ricord, the piece is a dialog
between the saxophonist and the prints he left behind himself.
All sounds are generated by the saxophone in a real time, the computer reacting to
various parameters.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (for Cello, Electronics, and Dance)
March 25, 1911, at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. It was the deadliest industrial
disaster in New York City incurred the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial
accident in U.S. history. The fire claimed 146 lives of garment workers who were
mostly immigrants (129 women, 17 men) ages 14-48. The monotonous sewing and
working movements are portrayed in the electronics and cello, as well as the dance.
A fire breaks out and they cannot escape because the owners keep the doors locked
for fear of theft. Panic sets in and as a last resort, some tragically resort to jumping
out of the windows of the 8th through 10th stories of the building. The few survivors
that were able to escape try to maintain the images of those who lost their lives
through a memorial in the latter part of the piece. Industrial accidents unfortunately
still happen today all over the world, and could be easily prevented by utilizing
safety standards.
Two movements from 7 Haiku
I. Mirror pond of stars;
suddenly a summer shower
dimples the water
-Sora
V. Yellow evening sun;
long shadow of the scarecrow
reaches to the road
-Shoha
These short movements are settings of haiku by Basho, Shoha, Sora, Issa, Sokan, Soin,
and Buson. Haiku are, of course, extremely condensed, and my music reflects their
aphoristic nature. But more important to me than their small size is their dialectical
method. Haiku are distinguished by the technique of "cutting," which in many cases
means a juxtaposition of two ideas or images, which together create a meaning not
necessarily indicated by either image individually. The "cutting word" in these
instances would be a word that is in some way applicable to both images. In other
cases, the poem might not juxtapose, and the "cutting word" may be used at the end
of the poem to stop the flow of information in an unexpected but appropriate way.
The two movements contained on this program represent both methods.
A haiku's extremely small nature does have at least one important consequence:
words (or characters) from physically disparate locations in the poem can be
experienced simultaneously. Indeed, the entire poem could be taken in at a single
glance. I believe that the experience of haiku is not necessarily a linear one, and my
music respects that experience by not simply "setting" the poems. Rather, each
movement lives within the idea-space of the poem, suggesting or connecting thoughts
freely. Sometimes the text is sung; sometimes it is spoken; sometimes it is left out
entirely. Sometimes the words are half-sung, or sung so slowly that they lose
annunciation, becoming pure sounds and transferring the burden of semantic
meaning to the texts printed in the program.
More than anything I love the refinement of haiku, and I hope that I have managed to
capture something of the gem-like quality of these great works of art.
Concert II – Artists
Amy Williams
The compositions of Amy Williams (b. 1969, Buffalo, New York) have been presented
at renowned contemporary music venues in the United States, Australia, and Europe,
including Ars Musica (Belgium), Gaudeamus Music Week (Netherlands), Dresden
New Music Days (Germany), Musikhøst Festival (Denmark), Festival Aspekte
(Austria), Festival Musica Nova (Brazil), Subtropics Festival (Miami), Spring Festival
of New Music (UK), Sound Field Festival (Chicago), Music Gallery (Canada),
NUMUS (Canada), LA County Museum of Art, and Tanglewood Festival of
Contemporary Music. Her works have been performed by leading contemporary
music soloists and ensembles, including The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra,
Ensemble Aleph, Duo Diorama, Dal Niente, Brave New Works. Wet Ink Ensemble,
North/South Consonance, Monarch Brass, CUBE, Empyrean Ensemble, Maverick
Ensemble, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, California E.A.R. Unit, Dinosaur Annex,
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Due East, Maki-Mack Piano Duo, H2
Saxophone Quartet, Vancouver Miniaturist Ensemble, Bent Frequency, pianists Yvar
Mikhashoff and Amy Dissanayake, bassist Robert Black, and pianist Ursula Oppens
with the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. Her works appear on VDM Records (Italy),
Navona and New Ariel.
As a member of the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, Ms. Williams has performed
throughout Europe and the Americas, including the Ojai Festival (California),
NUMUS Festival (Denmark), Jordan Hall (Boston), Merkin Hall, Miller Theatre,
Americas Society, Symphony Space (New York City), Musica Contemporanea Ciclos
de Conciertos (Buenos Aires), Musik aus Solitude (Stuttgart), FORUM (Hamburg),
Cutting Edge (London), UNAM (Mexico City), Unerhörte Musik (Berlin), Köln
Triennale, and Wittener Täge für Neue Kammermusik. The Duo’s debut CD of
Conlon Nancarrow's complete music for solo piano and piano duet (Wergo, 2004) has
garnered much critical acclaim. Wergo released the Duo’s second CD of the music of
Stravinsky in 2007 and their third, with music of Morton Feldman and Edgard Varèse
in 2009. Ms. Williams has also recorded for Mode, Albany and Hat-Art. She has won
the Wayne Peterson Composition Prize ("Sextet"), Audio Inversions Composition
Prize ("Cineshape 1"), Thayer Award for the Arts, an ASCAP Award for Young
Composers ("verre-glaz"), and grants from the American-Scandinavian Foundation,
American Music Center, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, Pro Musica Viva (Germany)
and Meet the Composer. She was the recipient of a Howard Foundation Fellowship
for 2008-2009 and recently received a Fromm Music Foundation Commission to write
a new piece for the JACK Quartet.
Ms. Williams holds a Ph.D. in composition from the State University of New York at
Buffalo, where she also received her Master's degree in piano performance. She has
taught at Bennington College (1997-2000) and Northwestern University (2000-2005)
and is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Pittsburgh.
An avid proponent of contemporary music, she served as Assistant Director of June
In Buffalo, Director of New Music Northwestern, and is currently on the Artistic
Boards of the Pittsburgh-based concert series, Music on the Edge, and the Yvar
Mikhashoff Trust for New Music.
Alejandro Rutty
Born in Argentina, composer Alejandro Rutty’s output includes orchestral, chamber,
mixed-media music, and arrangements of Argentine traditional music. Rutty’s
compositions and arrangements have been played by the Minnesota Symphony
Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Argentina, National Symphony
Orchestra of Brazil, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Indianapolis Chamber
Orchestra, among other groups. Recordings of his music have been released by
Capstone Records, Arizona University Recordings, and ERM Media. An All-Rutty CD
(Navona Records) including A Future of Tango is scheduled to appear in March 2012.
Founder and Artistic Director of the Hey, Mozart! Project, Alejandro Rutty is
currently Associate Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro. www.alejandrorutty.com
Hilary Tann
Welsh-born composer, Hilary Tann, lives in the foothills of the Adirondack
Mountains in Upstate New York where she is the John Howard Payne Professor of
Music at Union College, Schenectady. She holds degrees in composition from the
University of Wales at Cardiff and from Princeton University. From 1982 to 1995 she
held a number of Executive Committee positions with the International League of
Women Composers and she was recently Composer-in-Residence at the 2011 Eastman
School of Music Women in Music Festival. Praised for its lyricism and formal balance,
her music is influenced by her love of Wales and a strong identification with the
natural world. A deep interest in the traditional music of Japan has led to private
study of the shakuhachi and guest visits to Japan, Korea, and China. Many works are
available on CD and her compositions have been widely performed by ensembles
such as the European Women’s Orchestra, Tenebrae, Lontano, Meininger Trio, Thai
Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBCNOW, and KBS Philharmonic in
Seoul, Korea. www.hilarytann.com
Richard Power
Composer and saxophonist Richard Power’s musical interests include exploring the
dialogue between tradition and innovation, the continuum between composition and
improvisation, and new types of formal and temporal expression through sound. He
writes for both acoustic instruments and electronically generated sounds, and while
much of his music is precisely notated, other scores encourage interactive
collaboration through structured improvisations.
He received a Bachelor’s degree in composition and performance from Trinity
University (San Antonio, Texas), and Master’s and D.M.A. degrees in composition
and theory from the University of Illinois, Urbana.
As a performer Dr. Power enjoys placing the baritone saxophone within contexts
where it is not normally found. For several years he was a member of the Austin-based
Cornell Hurd Band, performing for dance and music lovers across Texas.
Other groups he has been a part of are the Walter Thompson Orchestra, Third Coast
Noise, Coherent, Blue Noise Saxophone Quartet and the Mad Dingo Trio. He has
been a promoter of new music by fellow composers as both a performer and concert
organizer.
Dr. Power has been the recipient of awards from the American Music Center, ASCAP,
the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Austin Peay State University. His scores are
published by Richard Power Music, Media Press, and HoneyRock Publications. Born
in Austin, Texas, he currently lives in Danville, Kentucky with his wife, author and
professor Stacey Peebles. http://richardpower.net
Bruno Louchouarn
French-Mexican composer and cognitive scientist. Bruno Louchouarn’s music has
been performed at venues internationally. He has extensive film, theater, dance, and
multimedia installations credits, including the futuristic cantina music in Total Recall.
His musical compositions are informed by his studies in cognitive musicology and
often focus on the narrative structure of myths, emotions and rhetoricas well as
temporality in the interaction ofmusic and the moving image. Louchouarn lectures
widely on this subject and teaches at Occidental College. Recent projects include: Tree
(2010 PEN Award winner) by Julie Hébert, directed by Jessica Kubzansky; Galileo’s
Daughters, written and directed by Giulio Cesare Perrone, Inferno Theatre, Berkeley
and San Jose; Alcances, commissioned by the Pasadena Biennial 09: ORIGINS,
premiered by pianist Vicki Ray and the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet at Art Center;
Surf Orpheus, musical with book writer, Corey Madden and choreographer, Jacques
Heim, UCSD & Getty Villa; Agamemnon, directed by Stephen Wadsworth, featuring
Tyne Daly, Getty Villa; Shekinah, La MaMa, NY; Little Sisters, choreographed by
Rosanna Gamson, REDCAT in Disney Hall. Day For Night a 12-hour film and music
installation, commissioned by GLOW 2010, Santa Monica beach, and featured at
Transatlantyk Film Festival 2011, Poland. A Weekend With Pablo Picasso, with Culture
Clash’s Herbert Siguenza, Alley Theatre, Houston, and Los Angeles Theater Center.
We Are Not Alone, A Musical Narrative, with book and lyrics by Carlos E. Cortés and
Juan Felipe Herrera, commissioned by and premiered at the 24th Annual Tomás
Rivera Conference, at University of California Riverside. His next projects include
Rain After Ash, a multimedia work opening at A X S Festival in Pasadena, California,
Night Falls, a dance-theater work at ODC in San Francisco, Drive-Through, a new work
for piano and video, commissioned by Piano Spheres for Mark Robson, as well as a
multimedia viola concerto for violist Brett Deubner.
Eric Schwartz
Eric Schwartz has studied composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music, New York
University, and both the Interlochen and Aspen Summer Music Festivals. Past
teachers have included Margaret Brouwer, Donald Erb, George Tsontakis, and Randy
Woolf. Primarily interested in a synthesis of musical archetypes, Schwartz is always
at work on a variety of genre bending projects. Formative influences include an
amalgamation of the glam metal of the late 80′s, and the baroque intellectualism of
Arnold Schoenberg.
His music has been performed on five continents, at venues ranging from Merkin
Concert Hall in NYC and the BMW Edge Theatre in Melbourne, Australia to
universities, coffee shops, gas stations, and bars of all shapes and sizes. He has
received awards and grants from Meet the Composer, ASCAP, The Society for New
Music, The Puffin Foundation, The Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and The Ohio
Federation of College Music Clubs.
Schwartz has served on the faculties of New York University, Hunter College, the
Lucy Moses Music School, and most recently the University of North Carolina School
of the Arts, and is the artistic director of the Winston-Salem, NC based experimental
music group Forecast Music. He was formerly a Resident Composer for the Los
Angeles based Tonoi contemporary music ensemble, the Minnesota based Renegade
Ensemble, and NYC’s Vox Novus. His debut CD 24 Ways of Looking at a Piano,
named one of the top classical CDs of 2005 by All Music Guide, is available from
Centaur Records. His second solo album, OYOU will be available from CD Baby in
2011. His music is also available on Signum Classics, Capstone Records, Trace Label,
and a host of others, and is published by Staunch Music (UK) and Lovebird Music
(US).
Following a wonderful, rewarding decade in NYC, Schwartz has recently taken a
position at the University of North Carolina School for the Arts, where he serves as
Music Director for the School of Dance. He and his wife, graphic designer Erin Raines,
are now living in lovely Winston-Salem, NC.
Lukas Ligeti
Transcending the boundaries of genre, composer-percussionist Lukas Ligeti has
developed a musical style of his own that draws upon downtown NY
experimentalism, contemporary classical music, jazz, electronica, and world music,
particularly from Africa. Lukas creates music ranging from the through-composed to
the free-improvised, often exploring non-Western elements, and has been
participating in cultural exchange projects for the past 15 years.
Lukas studied composition and jazz drums at the University for Music and
Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria, and spent two years working at CCRMA, the
computer music research center at Stanford University, before settling in New York
City in 1998.
Lukas has been commissioned by Bang on a Can, Kronos Quartet, Ensemble Modern,
and the American Composers Orchestra, the Vienna Festwochen, Austrian Radio, and
Radio France, to name a few; his music has also been performed by the Vienna Radio
Symphony Orchetra, Orchestre National de Lyon, the London Sinfonietta, San
Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Amadinda, Third Coast, and So
Percussion Groups. He frequently performs solo on the Marimba Lumina, a rare
electronic percussion instrument.
As a drummer, he co-leads several bands including Burkina Electric, the first
electronica band from Burkina Faso in West Africa. He performs at jazz and world
music festivals internationally and has worked with John Zorn, Henry Kaiser, Raoul
Björkenheim, Elliott Sharp, Gary Lucas, Marilyn Crispell, John Tchicai, Jim O’Rourke,
Borah Bergman, Eugene Chadbourne, Tarek Atoui, and many others. He has led or
co-led experimental intercultural projects in Florida, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Uganda,
Zimbabwe, and Lesotho, among other places, has taught at the University of Ghana
and was composer-in-residence at the University of the Witwatersrand in
Johannesburg, South Africa.
Lukas’ music is has been released to high acclaim on two CDs on the Tzadik label as
well several more on the Intuition, TUM, Wallace, and Innova labels, among others.
In 2010, Lukas received the Alpert Award in the Arts in Music. For more information,
please see www.lukasligeti.com
Concert II – Program Notes
Univocity
Univocity is a philosophical term that means "one voice". I was particularly
interested in Gilles Deleuze's use of it as a way of describing Being. It is difference
that connects all. It seems appropriate for the saxophones, with subtle differences in
the instruments, but which are all one family (voice). The piece undergoes an always-differentiating
process, from a single voice to maximum difference and back again.
Guitars
In Guitars, music is understood as a cultural practice. There is the music that the
clarinets bring with them, and the music and music-making practice associated with
certain kind of guitar playing. At the heart of the piece, is the attempt of the clarinet
performers to incorporate the sound, the inflections, the way of thinking and music-making
of these “distant” instruments, as if they were immersed in an environment of
organological multiculturalism.
Songs of the Cotton Grass
The cycle, “Songs of the Cotton Grass,” evolved over six years with all texts by Welsh
poet Menna Elfyn. These “reverse lullabies” -- in which a daughter lulls her mother
to sleep -- recall the open, high moorland of South Wales, near the composer’s home.
The first song, "I. A Girl’s Song to Her Mother” was written for mezzo-soprano Mari
Morgan and premiered July 30, 1999 during a Celtic Weekend at the Pan-American
Games in Winnipeg. The second song, "II. Wings of the Grasses" was composed for "A
Garland for Presteigne” and received its first performance August 25, 2003 by
soprano Gillian Keith with Simon Lepper, piano. In 2004 the “Girl’s Song” was
slightly revised for soprano Janeanne Houston who recorded the two completed
songs (on So Much Beauty, Elmgrove productions) and subsequently commissioned
and recorded “III. Vale of Feathers” (on The Shining Place, Elmgrove Productions).
“Vale of Feathers” opens with a slow, tolling figure inspired in part by the then-recent
passing of Pope John Paul II in April 2005; the refrain “take me to the vale of feathers”
echoes back to the first song of the cycle. The cycle is completed by a fast, hushed
movement placed between the "Girl's Song" and "Wings of the Grasses". The "Slave's
Song" takes the cotton grass image to the plantations of the American South.
Bacchanale
In modern times the word is often associated with drunken orgies of the most sordid
type. Not so, here. This Bacchanale is a celebration of life and living; a validation of
simple sensorial pleasures, and a commemoration of times when friends gather and
share good times with one another. And what better instrument to celebrate life than
the saxophone! Memories of my own experience with the instrument, as well as the
enjoyment I’ve experienced from the innumerable great saxophone performances I’ve
heard have influenced this composition from beginning to end. Bacchanale was
commissioned by, and is dedicated to, Steve Stusek and the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro Saxophone Ensemble. Their encouragement and enthusiasm
has been a great source of inspiration throughout the journey.
ReTouR, for piano, video and electronics.
A return—but also a reversal (of fortune)—ReTouR stems from an inquiry into the
narrative shape of love gained and lost, mediated and articulated by music. The myth
of Orpheus is a archetype of such a narrative. In itself the myth has a symmetrical
structure: growing love interrupted by the death of Eurydice, followed by Orpheus’
descent to Hades, his stay there and intense negotiation with the powers that be; his
ascent back toward light with his love regained, only to loose her again forever. The
piece’s shape and structure—a quasi palindrome—explore the abstract narrative of
loss in the liminal and negotiated space between the metaphors of dream and reality.
The pianist states the struggle of the tangible world while the disembodied electronic
sound world challenges.
The Incredible, Disappearing Vampire Music was written, in part, as an homage to
two of my very favorite dead keyboard composers, J.S. Bach and Frederic Chopin. At
the same time, I also undertook the composition of this work while I was in
something of a " sinister children's music" phase. As such an abstract, utterly
nonsensical narrative arose from this homage, sort of like a demented bedside reading
woven into the texture and evolving along with the processes of the piece. Or
something... Anyhow, the long and short of it is that this piece is an utter beast to
perform, and finely woven cloths, jewels, and lots of gold should be gifted to the
fabulous Jim Douglass for taking it on. Enjoy!
Frozen State of Song
Frozen State of Song was written for the Vienna Saxophone Quartet between 1990 and
1993. It’s a fairly traditional piece in that it recognizes certain conventions of harmony
and voice-leading; it does so, however, in a way that is at times fairly surrealistic and
tongue-in-cheek.
The three movements all speak of similar concerns, although they do so in very
different manners. Cross-rhythms and polymeters, and area of exploration I’m very
interested in, play an important role throughout. In Frozen State of Song, they serve
mainly as a key to rhythmic illusion, be it through a complicated sequence of
temporal relationships (as in the first movement) or through an ambiguity of beat and
off-beat (as in the second, where metric uncertainty is created in spite of the fact that
the music is very simple and moves at a very slow pace). In the third movement,
interlocking rhythms create a springboard for propelling the music through several
contrasting sections, funky riffs developing out of and back into highly chromatic
areas.
Although Frozen State of Song is definitely intended for an ensemble of “classical”
coloration, jazz is a strong influence on the piece. Jazz is one of the few functional,
interactive musical languages created largely in the 20h century, and ultimately, I
believe that the development of such systems of communication – that is, languages –
is the major challenge for contemporary composers, because it is only through
communication that truly new paths can be embarked on which will help new music
win back its social significance without becoming retro or populist.
Concert III – Program Notes
Since computers first appeared on the music-making scene a few decades ago,
everything has changed. New paradigms have sprung up; open-ended, infinitely
flexible environments have been created; and yet so many new questions are still
unanswered. I'm enthusiastic about the musical possibilities of electronics, and, from
early on in my days as a musician, have felt the need to work in this field, using
electronics to create music that could not possibly be done any other way. While
many electronic music composers incorporate much randomness in their work and
emphasize timbral experiments, my main interest is in new rhythmic structures, a
new sense of melody, and in using electronics to reach across cultural boundaries.
As a drummer, I'm interested in the motional aspect of music. I love to play
instruments, and love to watch people playing, but I don't much enjoy watching
people play laptops, with movements so minuscule that I can no longer follow them.
And after spending much time practicing percussion technique, wouldn't it be a
shame to abandon it all for a computer keyboard? I started out with a DrumKat, an
electronic instrument intended to imitate a drum set, though imitation was not my
goal. Influenced by traditional music of Uganda, I had developed a motion-based,
polyrhythmic drumming technique, a choreography for drums, allowing me to play
extremely long cyclic patterns; with my DrumKat and its triggering and layering
options, I was able to expand my patterns to almost any length I could, or couldn't,
imagine, creating patterns that would run for thousands of years before repeating.
But I was yearning for more sophisticated software and a greater facility for melodic
improvisation. The answer was the Marimba Lumina, an electronic marimba
ingeniously designed by the synthesizer pioneer Donald Buchla, which I have played
since 2005. The sounds I use are mainly the results of sampling - short snippets of
recorded sound I made during my travels, often in Africa, recording street noise,
traditional instruments, etc., and then detuning and altering them in my search for
new means of expression. While I do use some sound processing - filters, delay, etc. -
much of what you might think is processing really is not. Rather, I use
unconventional approaches to looping, and delay effects are often built into the
sounds themselves by the time I'm ready to manipulate them through my live
playing.
The music allows for a certain freedom of improvisation and expresses my joy and
my sadness; my imagination not only in sounds but also in shapes and colors; and my
longing for places far away, especially for the continent of Africa, to which this music
is a loving tribute. This music is not in any known genre. There is no downbeat, no
offbeat, but there are beats. It is music you can listen to from multiple acoustical or
rhythmic vantage points, each listener in his or her own way, always in a new way.
(See Concert II for biographical information on Lukas Ligeti)
Concert IV – Artists
Steven Bryant
(b. 1972, Little Rock, AR) is an active composer and conductor with a varied catalog,
including works for wind ensemble, orchestra, electronic and electro-acoustic
creations, chamber music, and music for the web.
Steven's music has been performed by numerous ensembles across North America,
Europe, and East Asia. He is a three-time winner of the National Band Association's
William D. Revelli Composition Award: in 2010 for Ecstatic Waters, in 2008 for
Suite Dreams, and in 2007 for his work Radiant Joy. His first orchestral work,
Loose Id for Orchestra, hailed by celebrated composer Samuel Adler as
"orchestrated like a virtuoso," was premiered by The Juilliard Symphony and is
featured on a CD release by the Bowling Green Philharmonia on Albany Records.
Alchemy in Silent Spaces, a new large-scale work commissioned by James
DePreistand The Juilliard School was premiered by the Juilliard Orchestra in May
2006.
Other notable commissions have come from the Amherst Saxophone Quartet
(funded by the American Composers Jerome Composers Commissioning Program),
the University of Texas - Austin Wind Ensemble, the US Air Force Band of Mid-
America, the Japanese Wind Ensemble Conductors Conference, and the Calgary
Stampede Band, as well as many others. Recordings include multiple releases by
Eugene Corporon and the University of North Texas Wind Symphony, the Ron
Hufstader and the El Paso Wind Symphony, William Berz and the Rutgers
University Wind Ensemble, and Thomas Leslie and the University of Nevada, Las
Vegas Wind Orchestra. Steven has also created a recomposition of the Iggy Pop and
the Stooges song, "Real Cool Time," for the independent Italian record label,
Snowdonia, as well as music for portions of the Virtual Space Tour at space.com.
Steven is a founding member of the composer-consortium BCM International: four
stylistically-diverse composers from across the country. BCM's music has generated
a following of thousands around the world and two recordings: "BCM Saves the
World" (2002, Mark Custom Records) and "BCM Men of Industry" (2004, BCM
Records).
Steven studied composition with John Corigliano at The Juilliard School, Cindy
McTee at the University of North Texas, and Francis McBeth at Ouachita
University. He resides in Durham, NC. www.stevenbryant.com, Twitter:
@SBryantComposer, Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/stevenbryant
Will Ridenour
Will Ridenour is a musician from Greensboro NC, specializing in world percussion
and the kora, a 21-stringed harp-lute from West Africa. The strings of the kora are
made of fishing line and they resonate through a large, halved calabash gourd
stretched with a cowhide. Will has performed in 40 US states and 25 countries
worldwide, and studied with master teachers in the US, Sweden, Mali and Senegal.
Today Will performs with a variety of groups including Diali Cissokho & Kairaba!,
Paperhand Puppet Intervention, Gmish Klezmer Band, and various other projects in
central North Carolina.
www.facebook.com/pages/will-ridenour-kora, www.myspace.com/zumana,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-iJRSPe_7w
Shaun Sandor (Promute / Bicameral Mind)
I have been earnestly recording and experimenting with unconventional sound since
1997. After playing in guitar in a variety of bands in the late 80's and early 90's, I was
living in Europe and got exposed to some of the innovators of experimental music. I
came back to the states and got involved in the Cleveland experimental art scene
where I was a part of the Pieta and Speak in Tongues phenomenon for a brief time. I
left there to attend Columbia College Chicago, and graduated from the Radio and
Sound program with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2002. During that time I attended a
workshop by Sound Artist Eric Leonardson that strengthened my drive to experiment
with new instruments and stimulating sounds.
As Promute, I have utilized broken circuits, a synthesizer, and home-made electronic
boxes, and fused them with home-made acoustic counter parts in creating electro-acoustic
music. I have assembled 5 releases to date and performed at Sonic Circuits
and Signal Festival, as well as a tour in the US and in Europe. As one half of
Bicameral Mind (with Bryce Eiman), I have thoroughly enjoyed performing at various
festivals in the US and have 7 releases with a variety of collaborators.
www.blondenamusic.com/promute.html
Releases: Rast Figment (CD, Blondena Music, 2006), Dark Moving (CDr, Blondena
Music, 2007), Evoka (mini-CDr, Blondena Music, 2007), Portocal Sessions (CDr,
Zeromoon, 2011), Sam Uho (CDr, Full Spectrum, 2011)
Promute (Shaun Sandor) - Artist Statement
My work is an examination of contrasting ideas and elements in music. It is a space
where complex circuits fuse with hardware store parts or scrap metal. I take aim at
using restraint as a powerful tool by taking away more than I'm giving, and
accomplish this by removing a single conventional element of music making.
Imagine a song of choruses but no verse, or a crash cymbal and a bass, but no guitar.
I often use a plank of wood with steel strings and a synthesizer to create minimalist,
dynamic pieces. My music embraces the electro-acoustic and ambient genres, with
hints of musique concrete.
David Claman
I was raised in Denver, Colorado where I attended public and private schools. I took
piano lessons briefly, sang in choirs and played horn. I attended Wesleyan University
as an undergraduate, studying electronic music with Ron Kuivila, and the classical
music of South India (Carnatic music) with T. Viswanathan, T. Ranganathan, and K.S.
Subramanian. After graduating, I played electric bass in typically unsuccessful rock
bands in Boston. But I learned a great deal along the way and first started thinking
about composing. John McDonald was my first composition teacher. My lessons with
him at the Longy School in Cambridge were like revelations. I then attended the
University of Colorado at Boulder where I studied with Richard Toensing, Luis
Gonzalez, and Steven Bruns, receiving an M.M. in 1993. I received a Ph.D. in
composition from Princeton in 2002. My principal teachers there were Steve Mackey
and Paul Lansky. I also wrote a dissertation entitled "Western Composers and India's
Music: Concepts, History, and Recent Music" under the guidance of Scott Burnham.
Now I try to balance composing, scholarly work, and teaching. I am Assistant
Professor at Lehman College-CUNY in The Bronx. Recordings of my music are
available on the Innova, Capstone, Bridge, and Vox Novus labels. In 1998 I received a
fellowship from The American Institute of Indian Studies for research in India. I have
held residencies at The MacDowell Colony and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio
Center in Italy. I've received commissions from The American Composers Forum, The
Cygnus Ensemble, Noa Even, Christopher Creviston and Oren Fader, Dither Electric
Guitar Quartet, The Da Capo Chamber Players, The Zephyrus Duo, and The Cadillac
Moon Ensemble. I have presented scholarly papers on topics related to my
dissertation at regional and national theory and ethnomusicology conferences. Along
with Matt Malsky, I co-direct the Extensible Toy Piano Project (XTP). I may be
contacted at: davidclaman@yahoo.com
Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands
The formation of Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands began when Crystal met Diego
Diaz (formerly of Citified), who had been a fan of Bright's previous group, Albina
Savoy, and quickly signed on to play nylon, electric and lapsteel guitars. Since then,
Crystal can be found playing with one or more amazing musicians depending on the
occasion.
Crystal's songs heavily incorporate her educational background in Anthropology and
Ethnomusicology and her experiences playing in groups that have varied from
Mariachi, Chinese, Balinese Gamelan, Samba, to Ugandan ensembles. She learned to
play a wide range of instruments, from the accordion, to the musical saw (which she
taught herself by watching YouTube videos), to an adungu (a Ugandan harp), to the
concertina, all of which she added to her piano background in order to create the 2010
self-titled debut album. She is currently working on a new full length album to be
released in the Fall of this year.
The lyrics and melodies on the albums portray the world as a dark and strange (and
often funny) place deeply connected to fables and imagination. Stories, such as "Little
Match Girl" and "Skeleton Woman" convey lessons from folklore that address phases
in women's lives where they need to be conscious of staying true to their intuition.
For Crystal, songwriting can be begin in many different ways, including refrigerator
magnets or going to the movie theater at midnight by herself. It can be collaborative,
but is mostly accomplished during the darkest hours of the night by herself
surrounded by all of her instruments and computer.
During 2010, Bright began a creative partnership with photographer, Rusty
McDonald, and wrote a script for a multi-media performance art production, inspired
by her desire to have a visual outlet to express the stories in her songs. The
production, entitled "Illuminating and Transcending the Shadow," was inspired by
many folk tales and myths, and its central theme is about overcoming self-imposed
oppression, themes that also run through many of her songs to date. It premiered at
Greensboro, NC's Broach Theatre on October 8th and 9th, 2010, and will be shown
again in November of this year. She has desires to collaborate with other artists in all
areas of media, and believes strongly that music and the arts have the power to create
community and heal. She is also a Holistic Health Counselor and teaches piano,
accordion, and voice lessons out of her home studio.
Mark Engebretson (b. 1964) is Associate Professor of Composition and Electronic
Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the recipient of the
2011 North Carolina Artist Fellowship in Composition, and has received major
commissions from Harvard University’s Fromm Music Foundation and the Thomas S.
Kenan Center for the Arts.
He is the founder of the UNCG New Music Festival, with performances at SEAMUS,
ICMC, Wien Modern, Third Practice, Festival of New American Music, ISCM, BGSU
Festival of New Music and Art, Carnegie Hall, Argentina, Albania, Azerbaijan,
Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, China, Terre Haute and many more. Recordings of his
work are available on the Albany, Innova, Lotus, and Capstone labels.
Dr. Engebretson taught composition at the University of Florida, music theory at the
SUNY Fredonia and 20th-century music history at the Eastman School of Music. He
studied at the University of Minnesota (graduating Summa cum Laude), the
Conservatoire de Bordeaux (as a Fulbright Scholar), and Northwestern University,
where he received the Doctor of Music degree. At Northwestern he studied
composition with M. William Karlins, Pauline Oliveros, Marta Ptaszynska, Michael
Pisaro, Stephen Syverud and Jay Alan Yim and saxophone with Frederick Hemke.
His teachers in France were Michel Fuste-Lambezat and Jean-Marie Londeix.
Artistic Statement: Melody, timbre, virtuosity, clear and balanced formal structure,
the integration of new media, multiple levels of associations, and a desire for fresh,
engaging expression all drive my creative work. Of course, the concept of melody can
be interpreted quite broadly: a melody could be a singing, arcing line, a single tone
with constant microtonal or timbre changes, a jumping, jagged, asymmetrical riff, or a
lick played on a snare drum. A fascination with both performance and compositional
virtuosity joins melody to form the basis of my ongoing interest in writing works that
push my boundaries as a composer and that engage superstar performers in technical
and musical challenges. Such works teach us something about music, endless
possibilities, and ourselves.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mark.engebretson/index.html
Gregory Price Grieve (b. 1964) is a filmmaker, performance artist and a leading
scholar in the emerging field of Digital Religion, where he concentrates on Asian
contemplative practice, digital media, and theories and methods for the study of
popular religion. He is an associate professor in Religious Studies at the University of
North Carolina, Greensboro, director of MERGE: a Network for Collaborative
Interdisciplinary Scholarship, and co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s
section on Religion and Popular Culture. Grieve’s undergraduate degree is in Film
Studies, where, under the mentorship of the experimental feminist filmmaker Trin T.
Min-ha, he studied the production and criticism of experimental documentaries. After
college, Grieve melded his interest in religion, media, and the constructed nature of
lived reality through performance art; and he presented regularly at the San Francisco
based Artists' Television Access (an experimental media arts gallery). Grieve
graduated from the University of Chicago with a PH. D. in 2002, where he
concentrated on the visual performance of religion in Nepal, and studied with the
Historians of Religion Wendy Doniger, J.Z Smith, and Bruce Lincoln, as well as the
with Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai and the media theorist W. J. T. Mitchell.
Grieve’s films have been shown at numerous festivals, he has published over twenty
articles, and has written or is working on two monographs, and three edited volumes
on visual culture and digital media.
Concert IV – Program Notes
Dancing Around the Cathode Campfire (1997)
This was my very first foray into combining acoustic and electronic sounds in my
music. Quoting and sampling TV themes from the past several decades, I've woven a
motivically coherent tapestry of sound ranging from ethereal to silly. The primary
motivic material is from the opening of a popular childhood cartoon of my youth,
revealed several minutes into the piece. Created on a Macintosh Quadra 950, using Studio
Vision Pro, Roland JV-2080, Korg Wavestation, and E-mu Procussion.
Radio Hydrophone, Strings and Things
My first impression of Weatherspoon was that it reminded me of a large ship, and I
could not escape the feeling that I would hear sound underwater, or metal creaks as I
walked along the gallery space. I will put to use a hydrophone and a tank of water to
make this impression real. The metallic sounds will materialize by way of steel
strings and springs strung across planks of wood. You will be hearing these as raw
sound sources mostly. Some small toys and plastic objects will be utilized through a
signal processing device and pumped into the underwater tank. My piece is 11
minutes, and represents my sonic interpretation of the Weatherspoon space, as well
as my playful nature in instrumentation.
Loose Canons
"Canon est regula voluntatem compositoris sub obscuritate quadam ostendens." (A
canon is a rule which shows the intention of the composer in an obscure way). -
Tinctorus, Diffinitorium (ca. 1500)
"What does it mean to engage in canon formation at this historical moment? In what
ways does the prevailing crisis in the humanities impede or enable new canon
formations?" -Cornel West, Keeping Faith (1994)
Loose Canons was written in response to the music of Johannes Ockeghem (ca. 1410-
1497) in particular to his Missa Prolationum, which consists of a series of canons in
different time signatures and at different intervals of imitation. Ockeghem's music has
been described as idiosyncratic, without system, even as 'sounding improvised.' On
the other hand, he has been characterized as a, "pure cerebralist, almost exclusively
preoccupied with intellectual problems." Like other composers of the time, Ockeghem
was trained as a singer and his music was vocally conceived. In our time composers
are often trained, or self-taught, as electric guitarists and the electric guitar could even
be described as the voice of our era. Loose Canons downplays the usual rock-star
affect and pyrotechnics and focuses instead on sound. Loose Canons utilizes a device
known as an 'ebow' (electric bow) which the guitarist holds above the strings, causing
them to vibrate indefinitely without being plucked. Thus traditional contapuntal
activities like passing tones and suspensions can be greatly prolonged, which both
exaggerates and disarms their power and function. In addition, as the distorted guitar
sounds interact with one another, rich patterns of overtones and dissonances are
produced, beyond the 'written notes' of the piece.
The Buddha Machine was created by sampling found images form the Internet
Archive, a San Francisco based non-profit whose library includes texts, audio, moving
images and archived WebPages. The video generates trsna (the Buddhist notion of
desire) by visually embodying Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s notion of the
desiring machine. By desire, Buddhists refer to craving pleasure, material goods, and
immortality, all of which are wants that can never be satisfied, and lies at the root of
suffering. Suffering, or duḥkha, literally means to be “stuck” or stopped. Similarly, for
Deleuze and Guattari, desire is not to be identified with lack, with the law, or with the
signifier, but rather with production, or really with the stoppage of production. As
they write in Anti-Oedipus "a machine may be defined as a system of interruptions or
breaks." The Buddha Machine is connected visually to the viewer, and creates desire by
breaking visual flow. However, simultaneously, it is at the same time also a flow
itself, or the production of a flow.
Concert V – Artists/Program Notes
Invisible
Invisible is an experimental multimedia performance amalgamation combining
unheard-of sound making inventions, multi-channel video and a vast archive of
collected sounds and outmoded consumer devices. The group is comprised of Mark
Dixon, Bart Trotman, Jodi Staley and Jonathan Henderson and Fred Snider.
The New Obsolete
Invisible’s current production, "The New Obsolete," is acupuncture for your vestigial
organs and purgatory for your VHS deck. The show unfolds in 10 movements
centered on the idea of obsolescence – both in technology and the human body. The
New Obsolete features fresh video content and two of Invisible’s one-of-a-kind
inventions: the “Selectric Piano” and “Elsewhere’s Roof.” The Selectric Piano is an
IBM Selectric typewriter that has been electromechanically rigged up to a piano so
that every letter typed results in a note played. Elsewhere's Roof is a contraption that
uses dripping water and human hearts to trigger acoustic percussion devices. It
produces rhythms that humans can’t and machines don’t. For more about Invisible
tune in to www.soundsinvisible.com
Lectures: Abstracts
Bruno Louchouarn
Cognition and Multi-Media Narratives in Film, Theater, Dance, and Immersive
Installations.
Because of my work in film, theater, dance, and in cognitive science, I am particularly
interested the relationship between various cognitive streams in the construction of
meaning in a multimedia experience. We will look at cognitive synergy between
modalities and explore the notions of metaphor and “cross-domain mapping” in
multimedia artworks. I will also share examples of my music for multimedia works,
and discuss the collaborative process as well as the conceptual and technical
underpinnings in the design and realization of the experience.
Amy Williams
Bach's Influence on Selected Contemporary Composers
Works of György Kurtág and Amy Williams will be discussed in relation to the music
of J.S. Bach. Bach's music influenced the compositional process of these contemporary
composers in different ways: as a stylistic reference, quotation, homage and
transcription. Musical examples will be for solo piano and piano duet (one piano,
four hands).
Hilary Tann
The Pivotal Role of Poetry in My Musical Life
Hilary Tann’s music is influenced by poetry in many ways, from the titles of her
works to the character of different movements and to word-setting itself. In this short
talk the composer will pay special attention to influences from three Welsh poets:
Dylan Thomas (“Fernhill”); R. S. Thomas (“The Moor”); and Menna Elfyn (“Songs of
the Cotton Grass” – performed 9/27 at the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro New Music Festival).
Lukas Ligeti
Working with Electronic Music in Africa: My Experiences in Intercultural
Collaboration and How Africa Has Influenced Me in Creating Electronic Music
I will talk about how I actually made my beginnings in electronic music while in
Africa, and how the culture of the African continent continues to be a central
influence in the way I work with electronics. I will explain how my approach to live
electronics, especially, is rooted in African performance practice, and why I think
Africa is a particularly worthwhile place to work in electronic music. I will also give a
summary of my experiences in cultural exchange projects in countries such as Cote
D'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Egypt, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho and explain
why I think such collaborations bear much potential for musical innovation and
mutual understanding in all cultures involved.
Gerard Morris
Edgard Varèse: The Astronomer of Sound
This lecture will explore the life, philosophies, and oeuvre of Edgard Varèse, as well
as his compositional process. Through the score to "Intégrales", I will discuss Varèse's
concept of rhythm, melody, form, sound mass, and space.
Round Table Discussion with Crystal Bright, Will Ridenour, Shaun Sandor
The Non-Conformist Artist in the Age of E-Commerce
Eric Schwarz
This Modern World: The Influence of Early Music on the Composers of Today
This lecture will present a friendly discussion of the works of composers of today and
also of the recent past, and demonstrate specific influences, textures, and techniques
pulled from the music of Antiquity through the Baroque.
Gerard Morris
Conducting the works of Edgard Varèse
This lecture will discuss approach and preparation when conducting the works of
Varèse. Focus will placed on analysis and interpretation of the sores to "Octandre"
and "Intègrales."