Boring Like a Sunset

International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) performing the music of John Luther Adams, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Saturday, February 26, 2011

In the White Silence (1998)
Steven Schick: conductor

Members of ICE:
David Bowlin: violin
Erik Carlson: violin
Doyle Armbrust: viola
Michael Nicolas: cello
Nathan Davis: percussion
Doug Perkins: percussion
Cory Smythe: celesta
Nuiko Wadden: harp

Musicians from The Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University:
Austin Wulliman: violin
Rodolfo Vieira: violin
Peter Povey: violin
Elliot Cless: violin
Alisa Seavey: viola
Catherine Price: viola
Russell Rolen: cello
Mira Luxion: cello
Mark Buchner: bass
Samuel Suggs: bass

The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies (2002)

Steven Schick: percussion
Ryan Ingebritsen: sound engineer

In a pair of sequential concerts the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago exhibited the contrasting subversive inclinations of Alaska based and inspired composer John Luther Adams. In the White Silence uses a large ensemble of musicians to produce a mere ripple of delicately tranquil sound. While The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies uses a soloist to produce an enormous din of noise. Each work striving to convey the impossible, natural expansiveness of the remote environment of the Arctic North.

In Winter Music: Composing the North, John Luther Adams includes diary excerpts from the period of time he spent composing In the White Silence. Stating "the longer we stay in one place the more we notice change." The suspended counterpoint of this concert length work reveals the rich detail found within a desolate stasis. Limited to the "white" keys of a C-major diatonic scale this work gently expands time until it takes on the expanse of a horizon. The aesthetic sparsity that Morton Feldman used to make audible the abstract paintings of Mark Rothko or Philip Guston become the raw material of a shimmering landscape. It is a music that reveals a wind swept beauty without dramatic intent.

The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies is the spiritual offspring of James Tenney's Having Never Written A Note for Percussion as an expansion of the drawing out of enharmonic counterpoint and timbral study teased out by that work. Each movement focusing upon a singular class of percussion instrument using well engineered amplification to tease out the dancing tones that hover in the air within the mass of percussive tremolo. Again, John Luther Adams makes use of an expansive sense of time to compose a music with the expansive density and grandeur of a slowly melting glacier. Freed from the constraints of human drama, the ears are drawn to an aurora borealis of acoustic dimensions. Steven Schick's performance was perfectly tuned to the meditative discipline demanded from a work composed specifically for him. The use of lights and staging expanded upon an already transparent formal construction as Schick moved between formations of snares, triangles, cymbals, a gong, a bass drum and a crank driven siren.

Powered by Blackbirds

Eighth Blackbird: PowerFUL @ Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Saturday, January 22, 2011

Eighth Blackbird:
Tim Munro: flutes, voice
Michael J. Maccaferri: clarinets, voice
Matt Albert: violin, viola, voice
Nicholas Photinos: cello, voice
Matthew Duvall: percussion, voice
Lisa Kaplan: piano, voice

special guest:
Katherine Calcamuggio: mezzo-soprano

John Corigliano: Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2000/09) for soprano and sextet

John Luther Adams: The Light Within (2007) for sextet and electronics

Frederic Rzewski: Coming Together (1972), arranged by Matt Albert for sextet 2000/03

Coming Together is a "powerful," and adaptable piece of music. I've heard it performed many times over the years. Most performances focus on the pulsating churn that often overwhelms the text. Allowing fragments of Attica Prison inmate Sam Melville's words to poke through just enough to reveal the chilling intensity and foreboding of the repeated words to emerge (and subsequently submerge). Rzewski doesn't specify instrumentation. Simply rhythm and an indication of where the spoken words should line up within that churn. Eighth Blackbird takes liberties within the guidelines of Coming Together that allows the full text to come to the foreground with a strong sense of dramatic purpose. Each member of the ensemble contributes to the reading of the text. The rhythmic churn begins understated. Leaving plenty of room for it to grow and build upon the intensity of the poetry. Matt Albert practically transforms into the persona of Sam Melville as the primary speaker. Pushing his own performance toward the extremes fitting the man who would become the leader and casualty of the prison riots that would erupt six months after writing these words. Words that were never lost within the performance even as the ensemble progressed along a relentless crescendo of churn. Eighth Blackbird's interpretation was absolutely devastating.

The first half of the program featured a setting of the words of Bob Dylan by John Corigliano. Songs that exist along a completely different continuum from Bob Dylan the bard. The familiar words settled into an art song treatment with a deceptive sense of simplicity. Hearing Corigliano's music performed live (and performed well) is a powerful reminder that his music is even better than the high regard it has earned. Mr. Tambourine Man is a powerful work that easily belongs on a program focused upon powerful, politically charged music. Eighth Blackbird brought an amazing precision to this piece. The unison entrances between Lisa Kaplan on piano and Matthew Duvall on percussion were particularly impressive. Highlighting the incredible attention to detail throughout the performance.

Sandwiched between these political works with words was the expansively instrumental The Light Within by John Luther Adams. This was my first chance to experience this work as a non-performer. A remarkably different experience when the click track in the headphones is absent. Without that click, the passage of time takes on a different focus as the harmonic landscape shifts with an ecological sense of time. The changing qualities of light of a sunset translated into the frequency domain. A reminder that "powerful" isn't limited to human endeavors in a changing and fragile world. The electronic component of this performance was understated and only barely audible within the haze of sound.

This was a remarkably thoughtful, and well rehearsed program that builds enormous anticipation for the "powerLESS" program scheduled for February 5.

HurdAudio Rotation: Resonant Bodies, Resonant Souls

John Luther Adams: The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies. 2006. Cantaloupe Music: CA21034.

The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies
-burst
-rumble
-shimmer
-roar
-thunder
-wail
-crash
-stutter

Steven Schick: percussion

A work of incredibly austere purity. Each movement focusing on the layering of a single percussive instrument to reveal the complex beauty and interplay of enharmonic partials piled up over time. A complexity made aural through a simplicity of execution. This is music that builds upon James Tenney's Having Never Written A Note For Percussion and Steve Reich's Drumming to add an impressive strain of thought into the percussion repertoire. It also builds upon a sensibility of ritual and meditative trance as the textures are presented over a long period of time. Sonically and conceptually impressive.

Tom Ze: Fabrication Defect: Com Defeito De Fabricacao. 1998. Luaka Bop/Warner Brothers: 946953-2.

Tom Ze: lead vocals, acoustic guitar, bochexaxado (cheek xaxado), rubber balloon on tooth
Dino Barioni: guitar
Marcos Di Santis: trombone
Gilberto Assis: bass, acoustic guitar, mandolin, vocals, rabe ca (Hill Billy violin), baixolao
Jarbas Mariz: percussion, 12-string guitar, mandolin, bottles, vocals
Marco Prado: bongo, 10-string guitar
Lauro Lellis: drums
Cristina Carneiro: vocal, keyboards, bottles
Luanda: vocals
Nilza Maria: vocals
+ many guest musicians

A message from the people outside the circle of wealthy and "developed" nations that they have rich lives not bound by the service and identities of the powerful. A concept album expressing the determination to dance and dream in defiance of serving external interests along with a healthy disrespect for the ownership class of copyrights and property. World music without the nauseating packaging associated with that label. A concept album that continues to stand up and deliver.

Giacinto Scelsi: Natura Renovatur. 2006. ECM Records: ECM New Series 1963 476 3106.

Frances-Marie Uitti: cello
Munchener Kammerorchester
Christoph Poppen: conductor

Ohoi (1966) for 16 strings
Ave Maria (1970) for violoncello solo
Anagamin (1965) for 11 strings
Ygghur (1961) for violoncello solo
Natura renovatur (1967) for 11 strings
Alleluja (1970) for violoncello solo

Francis-Marie Uitti's solo cello performances of the Three Latin Prayers for solo voice is one of the more sensual attractions of this collection of Scelsi works. It is a curious programming choice to split the three prayers between works for larger string ensembles. A sequencing choice that reveals two parallel tracks to Scelsi's aesthetic voice that are incredibly attractive at an aural level. This particular recording of Natura renovatur is exquisite. It is clearly an important work in the Scelsi catalogue worthy of multiple interpretations. At the same time, the three prayers remain separated from each other as a voice of spiritual (and at times achingly lyrical) expression that deserves to be performed and programmed into a cohesive whole. Leaving the ears hungry for a full disc of solo cello works performed by the incomparable Uitti as a way of immersing in that one, singular dimension of Scelsi's music with an artist and collaborator most qualified to present it.

Mob Infiltration

Mobtown Modern: Sound Ecology @ Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD
October 1, 2008
The Light Within by John Luther Adams
Katayoon Hodjati: alto flute
Brian Sacawa: baritone saxophone
Ruby Fulton: violin
Nathan Bontrager: cello
Devin Hurd: piano
Wojciech Herzyk: percussion

Abime de oiseaux by Olivier Messiaen
Jennifer Everhart: clarinet

Night Chatter by Stephen Vitiellomulti-channel electronic media

Tourmaline by Alexandra Gardner
Brian Sacawa: soprano saxophone

Sea Tropes by Ingram Marshall
Katayoon Hodjati: flute
Jennifer Everhart: bass clarinet
Ruby Fulton: violin
Nathan Bontrager: cello
Wojciech Herzyk: percussion

Playing from within the "Abyss of the Birds" - the solo clarinet movement from Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time - the hushed spaces between Jennifer Everhart's phrases pulled the ears deeper within the unhurried melancholy of that work.  Composed during Messiaen's time as a prisoner of war during the second world war using bird song heard just ou

tside his confined quarters the profound introspection and solitude continues to resonate with contemporary performances.  In this case bringing a stillness into the midst of the well attended space at Baltimore's Contemporary Museum for a concert of works inspired by nature.  Abime de oiseaux was the solitary work from the twentieth century on the program - and the only piece that did not incorporate electronics into the sonic texture as early voices of the twenty-first century offered their aural ecology.

Alexandra Gardner's Tourmaline offered a dialogue between live and electronically manipulated soprano saxophone.  Named after a crystal known for it's layering of colors this piece carefully crafted an interaction between the two parts.  Gestures performed by Brian Sacawa would seamlessly blur into a timbral variant in the electronic part while sounds emanating from the speakers would transfer to the soprano saxophone as a singular phrase between two 

parts.  This allowed the electronic part to feel less like an accompaniment and more of an expressive component of the overall sound.  It also contributed to the geological sense of layering and vivid colors of its namesake.

Mobtown Modern concerts present music with a sense of single, tight sets presented without intermission.  This allows the palindromic logic of the set list to unfold.  At the center of this concert was Stephen Vitiello's Night Chatter - an electronic work for 5.1 surround speakers.  Without performers on stage, this was the contrast point within a program that moved from ensemble to soloist to empty stage to soloist and back to ensemble.  A cyclical sequence that reinforced an expansive sensibility of environment that may or may not include human presence.  But always offers sonic presence.  With Night Music the focus was on orchestration of environmental materials that imposed a beginning and an end upon excerpts from the larger world.

Ingram Marshall's Sea Tropes is a delicate, lush piece made up of lyrical threads that chart a course with a sea faring sense of rolling waves.  Having heard this piece come together from rehearsal to concert performance the sense of fragility was a wonder to behold.  The mix of modal materials, improvised sections and an electronic part of startling dynamic extremes comes together to form an attractive and unified piece.  

The Light Within by John Luther Adams forms a stasis of slowly moving harmonies made up of sustained parts.  Harmonies that transcend cadence and resolution by giving equal weight to severe consonance and rich dissonance.  Harmonies that sat under my own fingers as a performer on the piano part.  From the stage the click track from the headphones allows for the illusion of timelessness from the perspective of the audience.  As a performer, time takes on an interesting quality as one tracks it while playing outside of it.  Needing only to coordinate harmonic changes with the larger ensemble while sustaining a sense of stasis within the immediate texture.  The long durations of slowly evolving parts conveys a sense of vast, expansive landscapes of desolate extremes.  A beautiful work that finds a balance between human and geological scale.