Neeraj Mehta
percussion
Faculty Recital
Friday, January 24, 2014
7:30 pm
Recital Hall, Music Building
Program
Alarm (1983) Poul Ruders
(b. 1949)
Isternia (1979) Per Nørgård
(b. 1932)
Fantasía Afro-Cubana (2014) Neeraj Mehta (b. 1980)
Chad Eby (b. 1973)
Chad Eby, tenor saxophone
Intermission
I Ching (1982) Per Nørgård
I. Thunder Repeated: The Image of Shock (hexagram no. 51)
II. The Taming Power of the Small (hexagram no. 9)!
III. The Gentle, the Penetrating (hexagram no. 57)!
IV. Towards Completion: Fire over Water (hexagram no. 64)
PROGRAM NOTES
ALARM is provided with the subtitle: “a thriller for solo-percussion”. The piece is a
short “shocker”, a kind of film soundtrack without the pictures, and I employ a couple of
peculiar, exotic devices in order to force out the right mood of disturbance and
uneasiness: the Australian didgeridoo (a scooped out piece of trunk to blow into)
produces an unpleasant sinister snoring, together with the [Balinese] ceng-ceng, a kind of
cymbal-machine, the white-hot rattling of which is almost lethally infernal.
As “mood-appetizer” I have employed the following quotation from Victor Hugo’s THE
HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME: “---and, while descending the winding stairs he
heard a voice, laughing and repeating in his ear, “A spirit passed before my face; the hair
of my flesh stood up!” (Ruders)
Poul Ruders has created a large body of music ranging from opera and
orchestral works through chamber, vocal and solo music. In recent years,
performances of his work on both sides of the Atlantic and in such distant locals
as China, Japan and Russia have taken place with increasing regularity. With the
overwhelming success of his second opera, The Handmaid's Tale (1996-98),
produced in Copenhagen (2000), Ruders became even more in demand, with
commissions coming in rapid succession from The Berlin Philharmonic, The
New York Philharmonic, The BBC Symphony Orchestra, and from The Royal
Danish Opera. Recent performances include productions of The Handmaid's Tale
in Toronto and London, and orchestral premieres and performances in Berlin,
New York and London. (Ruders)
ISTERNIA is the name of a little town in the Greek island Tinos. During a stay there I
was inspired by the timeless peace that emitted from the shimmering white sculptured
steps. The work was originally composed (1979) for cimbalom solo but was later
rewritten for other instruments and the piece seems to possess a certain timeless or rather
'genre-less' character; this is effected through the use of archetypal melodies and meters.
(Nørgård)
Per Nørgård is one of the most original artists in the cultural life of Denmark. His
work and efforts as composer, teacher, and theorist through almost half a
century has had an enormous significance to the development of contemporary
Danish art music. Nørgård has written works in all categories, for amateurs as
well as for professionals: From large-scale operas to modest hymns, from simple
movements to imposing edifices. As a young man, Nørgård was a student of
Vagn Holmboe, and indeed his early works display that he was inspired by the
Nordic character of his teacher. From this period, the 1st Symphony and
Constellations for strings are key works. During the last half of the 1950s,
Nørgård expanded his compositional field of vision by exploring the new
possibilities in the Central European modernism. His occupation with new
structural approaches lead to his discovery of the so-called infinity row, a serial
system, or musical growth principle, which can be compared to the symmetrical
formations of nature. This way of composing has been compared with fractional
geometrical forms - edifying structures in an indefinite, hierarchical system.
Amongst the works that employ this technique, the significant 3rd Symphony
assumes a prominent position. But in Per Nørgård, the artistic universe is
connected from beginning to end as one big work in progress. This is a paradox,
because, as mentioned, in his music through the years, the composer has been
continuously breaking with his own traditions, in the name of self-transgression:
Ironic pastiches, infinity rows, Golden Section proportions, beauty-seeking
metaphysics in the 70s, via the wrestling of the 80s with great existential
questions, centred around a large group of works strongly inspired by the
schizophrenic artist Adolf Wölfli, to the experiments in the 90s with those
phenomena that Nørgård himself calls ‘tone lakes’ - all these are constituent
methods for generating new tone rows to support the superior will to express.
(Beyer)
FANTASÍA AFRO-CUBANA is an improvisatory work that draws on Afro-
Cuban folkloric musical traditions as well as popular Latin music styles. The
work begins with Batá drums that come from the religious musical traditions of
the Lukumí people. The songs and rhythms praise Elegua, the Lukumí deity of
beginnings and crossroads. The work then moves to more contemporary
improvisations inspired by collaborations between clarinetist/saxophonist
Paquito D’Rivera and virtuoso conga player Miguel ‘Anga’ Díaz. (Mehta)
Saxophonist and composer Chad Eby teaches applied jazz saxophone, Jazz
Ensemble II, Jazz Improvisation, Jazz History, and Jazz Listening in the Miles
Davis Jazz Studies Program at UNCG. Chad is released his third studio album,
"New Business", in December 2012, and his 2010 album "Broken Shadows"
(Cellar Live) featured Steve Haines and Jason Marsalis, with guest appearances
by Doug Wamble and Branford Marsalis. A Newhall, Iowa native, he has earned
widespread critical acclaim as "a consummate improviser" (Jazz Times), "has
tremendous poise and natural melodic sense" (Ottawa Sun), and his "tone is
boundless, blues-inflected, and wholly satisfying" (AllAboutJazz.com). He is
active as a composer, and received the Ohio Arts Council and North Carolina
Arts Council awards for jazz composition in 2003 and 2009, respectively. Highly
in demand as an arranger, his commissioned works have been performed or
recorded by Bill Charlap with Kurt Elling, Wynton Marsalis with Willie Nelson
and Norah Jones, the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, the Dallas Jazz Orchestra, the
L.A. All-Star Big Band, and many collegiate jazz ensembles. Visit
chadeby.bandcamp.com to order or download his work. He is a Rico Reeds
Performing Artist.
I CHING is a text that contains the seasoned wisdom of a thousand years of
Chinese philosophy. This ancient and mystical text was the inspiration for Per
Nørgård percussion solo I Ching, written in 1982. Written for and premiered by
famed Danish percussionist Gert Mortensen, it is a virtuosic tour-de-force in four
movements. I Ching is particularly unique because it synthesizes the infinity
series with different compositional principles from a number of Nørgård’s other
stylistic periods. In particular, the work connects the more minimalist ideas from
his first solo percussion work Waves to his infinity series, while also including
his first experimentations with more polarizing, angular music inspired by the
visual art and writings of Adolf Wölfli, a Swiss artist who suffered from
schizophrenia.
Nørgård was introduced to Adolf Wölfli’s work through a visit to the 1979
exhibition titled Outsidere (or Outsiders) at Denmark’s famous Louisiana
Museum of Modern Art. Here, he encountered Wölfli’s paintings and
immediately became enthralled. It helped Nørgård to address a pressing
question in his own creative process: “how does one connect the two extremes of
harmony and chaos?” Wölfli’s answer was that life’s harmony is shattered by
sudden chaos, only to be restored to harmony with the uncertainty of the next
chaotic event. Soon after his discovery of Wölfli’s work, Nørgård began to
incorporate this idea into his music through the use of polar juxtapositions,
angularity and absurdity in his compositions.
The first movement of I Ching, “Thunder Repeated: The Image of Shock
(hexagram no. 51)”, begins with a Wölfli-influenced juxtaposition between the
abrupt and angular music of the opening percussion array and the calming
canonic melodies of nineteen tuned gongs. A similar juxtaposition occurs in the
second movement, “The Taming Power of the Small (hexagram no. 9),” between
the short obtrusive introduction and the rather absurd ascension of successive
glissandi and utterances of the words “number nine,” (a nod to the Beatles’
Revolution No. 9). The third movement, “The Gentle, the Penetrating (hexagram
no. 57)” is where Nørgård begins to use principles from the solo Waves as seeds,
from which melodies on the African kalimba grow. Finally in the fourth and last
movement, “Towards Completion: Fire over Water (hexagram no. 64)”,
Nørgård’s compositional principles from Waves and Sun and Moon Music of the
infinity series come together with shades of his Wölfi-inspired concepts of
musical harmony and chaos.
I Ching is a monumental percussion solo both in its pivotal nature within
Nørgård’s own compositional evolution, as well as its virtuosity. It also has a
quality of other-worldliness through its use of a unique and elaborate collection
of percussion instruments. For the performer, it is a mentally and physically
demanding test of endurance, artistry and emotive expression. One might look
to the R.L Wing translation of commentaries on the 64th Hexagram from the I
Ching text for guidance, which states: “Before the end comes progress. But if the
young fox, having nearly crossed the stream, gets his tail wet, there will be no
advantage.” (Mehta)
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Neeraj Mehta is an active performer and educator, having presented concerts,
clinics and master classes in North America and Europe. With interests in a wide
variety of percussive styles, Dr. Mehta has performed and recorded with
numerous artists and ensembles including: Michael Udow, the Michigan
Chamber Players, Alan Abel and Anthony Orlando of the Philadelphia
Orchestra, New Music Detroit, Linda Maxey, Michael Spiro, John Santos, and
Clyde Stubblefield of the James Brown Band.
In 2008 Dr. Mehta was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Copenhagen,
Denmark with solo-percussionist Gert Mortensen at Det Kongelige Dansk
Musikkonservatorium (DKDM). While in Copenhagen, he premiered and
recorded En Lys Timer (A Light Hour) by Danish composer Per Nørgård with
Percurama. He also collaborated with composer Ole Buck on his percussion solo
Rejang, and performed with the New Jungle Orchestra. At DKDM, Dr. Mehta
also studied with timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic Weiland Welzel and
Swedish marimbist Johan Bridger. In addition to his contemporary percussion
work in Denmark, he studied and performed with retired percussionist of
Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba, Ignacio Guerra Acosta, and performed
clinics in Afro-Cuban percussion with conguero of the Carlos Santana Band, Raul
Rekow. As Guest Artist, Dr. Mehta performed and presented lectures on Danish
percussion music at numerous American institutions including: Ohio University,
Eastern Michigan University, University of Wisconsin, Lawrence University and
Northern Illinois University.
Formerly the principal percussionist of the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, Dr.
Mehta's orchestral work has included performances with the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra, the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra
and other regional orchestras. He is also deeply committed to the performance of
new works for solo and contemporary chamber ensembles, and has worked with
many internationally recognized composers including: Bright Sheng, Michael
Daugherty, Virgil Moorefield, Steven Dembski, Michael Udow, Russel
Hartenberger, Bob Becker and Dave Hollinden. He most recently commissioned
Frantic, Gnarly, Still by Opera Company of Philadelphia Composer in Residence
Lembit Beecher for violin and multiple-percussion.
In addition to his work in western art music, Dr. Mehta is an active jazz and
Latin percussionist, having led the Mehta Jazz Group from the drum kit and
performed regularly with Latin bands in the areas where he has lived. He has
appeared at numerous venues and festivals including the University of Toledo
Jazz Faculty Concert Series, the Isthmus Jazz Festival, and the Jazz at Five
Summer Music Series. As conguero and percussionist with the Afro-Cuban jazz
quartet Nuevo Rumbon, he has been featured at Jazzloop 2007 and the Art
Tatum Heritage Jazz Festival. At the University of Michigan, Dr. Mehta served as
director of the University of Michigan World Percussion Ensemble, as well as the
UM Vencedores Samba Band. He was also a 2007-2008 graduate fellow of the
University of Michigan Center for World Performance Studies, receiving a grant
of $10,000 to conduct fieldwork in Afro-Cuban folkloric drumming.
Neeraj Mehta is currently Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro School of Music, Theatre and Dance. He received his
Doctor of Musical Arts and master's degrees at the University of Michigan and
holds a bachelor of music degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr.
Mehta is an artist/endorser of Innovative Percussion, Inc. sticks and mallets and
Remo Drumheads.
