On Wednesday, February 9th, Herb Deutsch turned ninety years old. Deutsch has been an icon of sound synthesis both as a composer and hardware designer. One of the inventors of the first Moog synthesizers, he designed the keyboard interface that served as the basis for countless synths that followed. Moog Music is using this auspicious occasion to kick off GIANTS, a series of films about synth pioneers. In the video below, Deutsch describes his life, musical inspirations, and the early days of creating versatile hardware to perform and record electronic sound.
After the film about Deutsch, you will soon be able to view a number of films that celebrate pivotal figures in electronic music on Moog’s YouTube channel. Future episodes will feature Suzanne Ciani, Bernie Krause, and Daniel Miller. Alongside the recent Sisters with Transistorsdocumentary, the documentation of electronic music’s early luminaries is a welcome opportunity to reassess its legacy.
On a personal note, as a fellow Long Islander, Deutsch’s long tenure at Hofstra University and co-founding of the Long Island Composer Alliance helped to provide many events that opened my ears to the possibilities of sound, and for that I remain ever grateful.
We are saddened to learn of the loss of George Crumb, who passed away on February 6, 2022 at the age of 92. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the composer was one of the most important musical figures of his generation, both as a creator and, for many years, as a professor at University of Pennsylvania. Considered by his students to be a supportive and gifted teacher, he mentored a number of composers who went on to major careers.
Crumb composed a large catalog of works, and many of them have become touchstones of the contemporary repertoire. The bracing amplified string quartet Black Angels (1970) decried the atrocities of the Vietnam War; from that same year, the poignant and colorful Ancient Voices of Children is a standout among a host of eloquent settings of Federico Garcia Lorca’s poetry. He often wrote series of pieces; Madrigals from the 1960s for soprano and mixed ensemble, Makrokosmos from the 1970s for amplified piano, and American Songbooks from the 2000s for male and female voices and mixed ensemble are among them. Occasional pieces, including a few depicting his beloved mischievous dogs and a gloss on Thelonious Monk’s “‘Round Midnight,” were witty and equally memorable.
Photo: Rob Starobin
From the outset of his career, Crumb referenced a different set of influences than many of his relative peers, with Bartôk, Debussy, Cowell, Cage, and the burgeoning movement of postmodern Europeans informing him as he struck out on his own path. Crumb was a tremendously imaginative orchestrator, in particular expanding the role and number of percussion instruments in chamber music. The look of his scores, which were frequently graphic in design, was also distinctive. Crumb’s music provided chamber groups, especially new music ensembles, with repertoire that stretched them technically and encouraged them to listen carefully to find the character and balance of the distinctive sound combinations he supplied. His work gave generations of other emerging composers permission to use an expansive set of resources and think outside the box.
In 2021, a recent piano cycle (2015-2020) in two books, Metamorphoses, in which each piece evoked a work of visual art from a disparate collection of painters, was released on CD by Bridge Records as the twentieth volume of their George Crumb Edition. The composer was involved in the recordings, active until near the end of his extraordinary life.
In The Visionaries of Piano Music, Kit Armstrong plays two of the greatest English keyboard composers active during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I on the modern piano, aiming to show what he calls “a seamless line of development” between this repertory and more recent music written explicitly for the piano. William Byrd (ca. 1540-1623) and John Bull (ca. 1562-1628) wrote for very different instruments from the piano, the harpsichord and its smaller companion the virginal; Christofori developed early versions of the ‘pian e forte’ around 1700, and these were still a far cry from today’s instruments. Armstrong doesn’t pretend that a piano sounds like a harpsichord, but he observes phrasing and tempos that resemble period-informed performance. He excels at works like Byrd’s “The Battell: The Flute and the Droome,” in which each hand imitates an instrument. The dance music so prevalent among these works, pavans and galliards, is delivered with jubilant élan.
Delving into the rich tapestry of piano music often begins with foundational music lessons that cultivate an appreciation for historical compositions and their evolution. Just as Kit Armstrong explores the seamless development from Elizabethan keyboard compositions to modern piano music, aspiring musicians can benefit immensely from structured music lessons. Institutions like Pianos & More offer comprehensive programs designed to introduce students to a diverse repertoire, from early keyboard works to contemporary compositions.
In these music lessons, students not only learn technical proficiency but also develop an understanding of historical context and performance practices. Much like Armstrong’s approach to interpreting Byrd and Bull’s compositions with sensitivity to historical instruments, music instructors at Pianos & More emphasize phrasing, dynamics, and the stylistic nuances that define each era of piano music.
Images
Claude Debussy,
Complete Piano Music from 1903-1907
Mathilda Handelsman, piano
Sheva Collection
Claude Debussy wrote several pivotal works for piano from 1903-1907: Books 1 and 2 of Images, Estampes, Masques, D’un cahier d’esquisses, and L’isle joyeuse. Pianist Mathilda Handelsman creates eloquent recordings of some of the composer’s best work. In addition to her sculpted touch and excellent musical judgment, Handelsman has another ally, an 1875 Steinway that seems tailor made for ideal tone colors in Debussy, supplying a shimmering sound. Her approach to tempo variations, supple but subtle, lends this recording a magical aura.
On DSCH
Works by Dmitri Shostakovich and Ronald Stevenson
Igor Levit
Sony Classical 3xCD
The 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) are some of the most imposing piano works of the twentieth century. Igor Levit has distinguished himself on record both in watershed works by Bach and Beethoven and, on 2020’s Encounter, a mixed program of romantic music and Palais de Mari by Morton Feldman.
This 3-CD set includes Op. 87 plus the gargantuan 1962 work Passacaglia on D.S.C.H (Shostakovich’s musical signature – D, Eb, C, B), by composer-pianist Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015). Detailed voicing, such as the double octaves in the E major prelude, bring out the orchestral aspects of the music, while counterpoint found in at times lengthy and thorny subjects, as in the C# minor and F# minor fugues are clearly delineated. The B major fugue is bucolic and brilliantly rendered. The D minor Prelude and Fugue that culminates the set is probably Shostakovich’s best known solo piano piece. Under Levit’s hands, it is magisterial and impeccably paced. Stevenson is a figure who should be better known. Levit’s riveting account of the Passacaglia, which references both Bach and Shostakovich and a host of baroque variation and dance forms, rivals Stevenson’s own scintillating performances of the work. Kudos for reviving this compelling composition.
For those inspired by Levit’s mastery and eager to delve deeper into the realm of piano music, exploring a diverse range of compositions becomes essential. Accessing sheet music through platforms like https://hsiaoya.com facilitates this journey, providing a convenient avenue to acquire scores and embark on enriching musical exploration. Whether it’s delving into the complexities of Stevenson’s compositions or venturing into other realms of piano repertoire, the availability of sheet music serves as a gateway to realizing one’s musical aspirations with greater ease and efficiency.
Variations on a Theme of Edward Burlingame Hill, Divertimento, Clarinet Concerto
Michael Nosworthy, clarinet
Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose, conductor
BMOP/sound CD
Samuel Barber: Medea
Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Medea (complete ballet), A Hand of Bridge
Kristen Watson, soprano; Matthew DiBattista, tenor; Angela Gooch, soprano, David Kravitz, baritone, Krista River, mezzo-soprano; Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose, conductor
BMOP/sound CD
Although the Boston Modern Orchestra Project has undertaken commissioning and recording music from our time, another important part of their mission has been reviving symphonists from mid-century America. Two recordings spotlighting music from the 1930s to the 1960s stood out this year. Many may know Walter Piston (1894-1976) as a teacher of composition and author of music textbooks (Harmony, Orchestration, etc.), but during his lifetime he was in demand as a composer of chamber and orchestra music. BMOP’s recordings of four of his ensemble works are Exhibit One of the substantial pieces of evidence that his work is worthy of revival. The earliest, and largest piece on the recording is 1933’s Concerto for Orchestra, following Hindemith’s 1925 work, both in terms of overall design but also the degree to which the piece features many instruments of the orchestra in solo turns. It is also a masterclass in canonic counterpoint. Piston evokes Stravinsky as well by recycling the “Psalm chords” from Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms (which had been written just three years prior) in identical spacing and scoring. Variations on a Theme of Edward Burlingame Hill was written for a Massachusetts municipal orchestra and would be an excellent programming choice for today’s educational and community ensembles.
Divertimento, for Nine Instruments, showcases Piston’s proclivity for chamber forces. Once again, Stravinsky’s neoclassicism is a touchstone: one might think of this as the Octet plus one. The standout work is the late Clarinet Concerto (1967). Cleverly shaped, it is cast in four attacca movements with several cadenzas and interludes featuring the soloist. Piston acknowledges the clarinet literature from Brahms’ sonatas to Benny Goodman, providing a challenging and varied showcase. Soloist Michael Nosworthy plays superlatively, navigating challenging registral changes and elegantly sculpting the rhythms of the cadenza material. BMOP is at its best here too; Rose brings out the various countermelodies embedded in the score while deftly supporting the soloist throughout.
There are plenty of opportunities, live and on recording, to hear Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947) by Samuel Barber (1910-1981); this year proved there is room for another. BMOP’s rendition is excellent, with fluid, but not languid, tempos and delicate, detailed singing from soprano Kristen Watson. Watson is joined by singers soprano Angela Gooch, mezzo-soprano Krista River, tenor Mathew DiBattista, and baritone Kravitz in A Hand of Bridge, a ten-minute long piece from 1959 that has become an opera training center staple. It is refreshing to hear it performed with such professionalism, and here Rose elicits a jaunty swagger from BMOP’s musicians.
Posterity has been less kind to Barber’s ballet Medea. Composed in 1947, the same year as Knoxville, it is a bit edgier than his other works but remains within the spectrum of neoclassical tonality for which he is best known. The orchestration is vivid, with excellent solo writing for winds and brilliant chorales for brass in particular, witness the opening solo of the “Dance of Vengeance.” There is a “re-tunable moment” or two in the strings, but otherwise the performance is eminently assured. The rhythmic vivacity of Medea is particularly memorable, part mixed meter writing with just a hint of Hollywood filtered jazz around the edges. I would love to see a dance performance of it.
Arditti String Quartet; Iridium Quartet, Emmanuele Arciuli, piano; et al.
New Focus Records CD/DL
This is composer Peter Gilbert’s second recording for New Focus; the first was back in 2008, The Long Arch of Undreamt Things. He is Associate Professor of Music at University of New Mexico, and has a long artistic pedigree filled with prestigious residencies, performances, and awards. There is a visceral character in Gilbert’s music that distinguishes it, and in his recent music it appears that geography plays as much of a role as any of the aforementioned experiences. The searing heat of the summer sun in the Southwest, the beauty of its flora and fauna, and the changes of light against mountain streams are all analogous to the diverse array of instrumental colors that Gilbert brings to bear.
A case in point is Intermezzo: Orange into Silver, which Gilbert synesthetically describes as depicting the oranges inspired by the New Mexico landscape moving to a metallic silver, “…a kind of astral wind that ultimately settles into another of the Rilke-inspired clouds of breath.” A plethora of timbres are contained within these broad strokes, belying the piece’s three-minute duration with a varied splendor of synthetic sounds. Elsewhere the approach is more distilled. Arditti String Quartet plays deconstructed double stops with furious intensity on The Voice Opens Wide to Forget That Which You Are Singing. A live recording by basset recorder player Jeremias Schwarzer with electronics by Gilbert, The Palm of Your Hand Touches My Body is the most extended piece on the album and also its most engaging, challenging the listener to locate whether particular sounds emanate from the recorder or the electronics throughout: a satisfying game of musical hide and seek. Wave Dash, Camilla Hoetenga, flute and Magdalena Meitzner, percussion, perform Channeling the Waters, which seems to encompass more whitecaps than burbling brooks.
Standout Soon as the Sun Forsook the Eastern Main features the pianist Emmanuele Arculi in a close-miked series of corruscating arpeggios, which is succeeded by electronic interpolations of synthetic harmonic series and polytonal verticals. Thunderous bass notes are set against a shimmering upper register electronic drone, all added to the mix of verticals. Another layer, of sampled vocalize, moves the piece still further toward the ethereal. One gets a foreshadowing of the electronics, at least its approach, in Meditation upon the Awakening of the Spirit, placed earlier on the disc. Upon the Awakening, another piece for electronics and live performers, in this case the Iridium Quartet (who are saxophonists) also explores spectral series, including detuned upper partials, and disjunct yet lyrical melodic material. By the Lonely Traveller’s Call for tuba with amplified mute supplies a unique palette of sounds and engaging formal design. Gilbert is a consummate craftsman with an unerring ear for textures, both electronic and acoustic. Recommended.
Best of 2021: Varèse, Ligeti, Lutosławski, Baldini on Centaur
Varèse, Ligeti, Lutosławski, Baldini
Munich Radio Orchestra; UC Davis Symphony Orchestra
Miranda Cuckson, violin; Maximilian Haft, violin
Christian Baldini, conductor
Centaur Records CD/DL
Conductor and composer Christian Baldini is making a name for himself on the West Coast, where he directs the UC Davis Orchestra and is a frequent guest conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, as well as abroad with a number of orchestras and opera companies. This Centaur CD features live performances of three pivotal European modernist works, as well as a piece by Baldini that negotiates similar territory.
In Elapsing Twilight Shades, Baldini considers several complexes of gestures and harmonies, allowing them to slowly morph, to his mind much like the changing light at the end of the day. Elapsing Twilight Shades is an excellent curtain raiser for the program to follow. The piece alludes to the percussion writing of Varèse as well as angularity evocative of Lutosławski. Baldini is a true double threat conductor-composer.
Currently pursuing doctoral studies at University of Leiden, violinist Maximilian Haft also has a California connection; he studied at the San Francisco Conservatory’s pre-college division. Chain II, completed in 1985 by Witold Lutosławski, is a prominent example of the exploration of limited aleatory in a large symphonic work. Each of the three movements is split into two demeanors, with passages that are meant to be played freely and others that adhere strictly to the beat. Haft renders the freer passages zestfully and his playing elsewhere demonstrates razor sharp focus. UC Davis Symphony Orchestra makes a strong impression in their collaboration with Baldini, playing with intensity and control in this considerably challenging work. Their playing is similarly distinguished in Ameriques by Edgard Varèse, a monolithic example from a composer who played a pivotal role in modernizing the orchestra.
Győrgy Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, completed in 1993, was one of his most significant late works. In it, he explored his interests in microtonal tunings, folk dance rhythms, older forms such as Medieval hockets and Renaissance passacaglias, and unorthodox instrumentation (the winds double ocarinas) and playing techniques. The language moves between tonal (often modal) reference points and post-tonal construction. This may sound like quite an amalgam to navigate, but it is achieved with abundant success. Violinist Miranda Cuckson is a superlative interpreter of contemporary concert music, and she delivers a memorable rendition of concerto, with tremendous sensitivity to tuning and balance, authoritative command of challenging solos, and a dramatic portrayal of its narrative arc. Once again, Baldini proves an excellent partner, eliciting a tightly detailed performance from the UC Davis Symphony while giving Cuckson interpretive space as well. The performance of the cadenza displayed some of the violinist’s creativity. Cuckson started with four lines of the original version, composed with input from the concerto’s dedicatee Saschko Gawriloff, then continued with cadenza material she wrote herself.
A cohesive and valuable program with fine performances of every work, this CD is one of our Best of 2021. Moreover, it puts UC Davis Symphony and Baldini on the map as performers of contemporary concert music to watch closely.
LOUD Weekend, TIME:SPANS, Tanglewood and Bard are all back on stage this summer with in-person audiences
Fans starved for live music over the past year and half can rejoice and indulge – many summer festivals are back in the game. In this roundup, we’re mainly covering indoor concerts. As charming as it is to experience a performance under the stars, helicopters overhead, unpredictable weather, distracted audiences and competing bands nearby detract from the artistic experience.
Bang on A Can founders David Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe (credit Peter Serling)
When it comes to contemporary music programming, LOUD Weekend put on by Bang on a Can at MASS MoCA is the densest. There are more than two dozen sets over two long days (July 30 and 31), performed by a range of the BOAC marathon’s “usual suspects”, along with some very special guests. This “eclectic super-mix of minimal, experimental and electronic music” (according to their press materials) may be some consolation to those who eagerly anticipated the organization’s inaugural Long Play Festival in New York City in spring 2020. That one was postponed indefinitely along with everything else in the world last year.
Kronos Quartet
BOAC co-founder and co-artistic director Michael Gordon said in a written interview, that the Bang on a Can team decided that regardless of the Covid restrictions MASS MoCA instituted, and however limited the audience needed to be, they were going to go ahead with the festival. “We just had to start playing live again, and having a festival meant that musicians were working. It has been so important to Bang on a Can over the pandemic year, as we presented 10 live-stream marathons and commissioned 70 new pieces of music, to keep the spirits of the creative music community alive and kicking,” he said. “One of the pluses was that the Kronos Quartet, which is usually unavailable due to European touring, was able to join us this summer.
“Everyone is psyched to be playing live,” Gordon continued. “After a year everyone – audience, composers and performers – is a little rusty. Now suddenly people are amazed to be in the same room with a cello or a bassoon.”
Bang on a Can All-Stars
The illustrious folks at BOAC are bringing thirsty audiences a true glut of performances: two programs by the Kronos Quartet, three by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the pianist Lisa Moore playing a world premiere by Fred Rzewski, who passed away in June 2021, a tribute to the dearly departed Louis Andriessen, and a set of world premieres by young composers who participated in this year’s Bang on a Can Summer Festival (a professional development program at MASS MoCA that has been going on for nearly two decades). Giving more detail would become a laundry list; there’s plenty more to be excited about and all the details are online. It’s almost too much, like an enormous buffet after months of starvation, but it won’t take long to get used to this new new normal.
At a somewhat more measured pace, TIME:SPANS in New York City also pulled out all of the stops with a drool-worthy lineup replete with world premieres and works written for and realized by an unusual new instrument. The roster at the 2021 TIME:SPANS festival, which is produced and presented by the Earle Brown Music Foundation Charitable Trust since 2015, is anchored by Talea Ensemble and JACK Quartet.
Soprano Tony Arnold
The two programs featuring JACK – one in which the quartet is joined by the eminent soprano Tony Arnold and the other consisting entirely of world premieres of works written in 2021 – are hard to resist. Throw in two concerts performed by Talea Ensemble, another with Alarm Will Sound, and an Anthony Cheung composer portrait concert featuring the Spektral Quartet joined by the flamboyant flutist Claire Chase and the dazzling violinist Miranda Cuckson, and, well, you get the picture. There’s lots to be excited about in these 11 concerts over a timespan of 13 days.
As a prelude to the live concerts, presentations of works composed for the EMPAC Wave Field Synthesis Array, a 3D sound system with 240 small loudspeakers, kick off the festival August 12-16. New works by Miya Masaoka, Bora Yoon, Nina C. Young, and Pamela Z for the system will presumably provide an experience exponentially more immersive than Surround Sound.
Artistic director Thomas Fichter explained in a written interview that they are continuing to deal with Covid-related uncertainties, such as foreign travel restrictions. Also, he said, “We very carefully created a safety protocol for audiences, performers and staff. Audience capacity in the hall [at DiMenna Center] is reduced to about 50% from what we had in other years because of spaced seating.”
Thomas Adés (Photo: Marco Borggreve)
Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music, usually a weeklong affair, has been hewn to three programs on July 25 and 26. Thomas Adès directs the Festival, and Kaija Saariaho, Judith Weir, Per Nørgård, Sean Shepherd, and Andrew Norman are among the composers whose music is performed by the spectacularly talented fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center.
Nadia Boulanger
And in mid-August, the annual Bard Music Festival chimes in with its typically out-of-the-box thematic programming, this year taking a 360 look at “Nadia Boulanger and Her World”. Programs juxtapose Boulanger’s music with that of her mentors, contemporaries, students and historical influences. Composers represented range from Monteverdi to Gershwin to Thea Musgrave – a dozen chamber and orchestral concerts jammed into two weekends, August 6-8 and August 12-15. For audiences who can’t be there in person, some of the programs will also be livestreamed on the Fisher Center’s virtual stage at Upstreaming.
These ambitious summer festivals are hopeful harbingers of the fall season.
Shifting quarantine rules, the rise of the delta variant, travel restrictions and venue protocols have made it difficult for presenters to plan much in advance. Hopefully, concert-goes will forgive late announcement and last-minute changes, and give all a wide berth of understanding, compassion, patience, and ticket revenue.
Louis Andriessen has died. He was a highly idiosyncratic composer of music that, like the man himself, inspires great love. Encountering his music as a young composer changed my life. Encountering him as a conductor and producer was one of the greatest joys of my life.
Louis was an incredibly gregarious, gentle, funny, wickedly funny, intelligent, well-read man. He treated everyone as a peer, regardless of age or career stage. Always curious and encouraging, he would ask young composers after their work, talk about his favorite American television shows (the “highly ironical” Desperate Housewives and South Park were among his favorites), who relished being in the company of people (a rarity among composers). During the 2014 Andriessen75 festival in Washington, DC , it was striking to see him become increasingly withdrawn as performer friends completed their stints and left him behind. His wife, the violinist Monica Germino, explained that he was a very social person and likes having people around him who loses something of himself when he has no one around for mischief. For Louis, balancing that part of his personality with the essentially lonely aspect of our profession meant regulating his schedule. He always kept a two hour window in the afternoons clear for his “naps”–periods of restful downtime devoted not just to relaxation but also to some comopsition, especially on the road.
As a composer, Louis is often grouped with the early generation of minimalist composers. His music, however, never focuses enough on process to really be considered minimalist (he preferred to think of that music as “repetitive music” anyway). The truth is that his musical interests were broad and rather catholic. He is said to have written the first 12-tone piece in Dutch music history, is a published scholar, with Elmer Schoenberger, of Stravinsky (The Apollonian Clockwork, an impressively bizarre book in which it’s impossible to tell what is true and what is embellishment, let alone one authorial voice from the other), and wrote densely maximalist music theater that, yes, incorporates repetitive aspects. He also loved Bach and counterpoint, and the juxtaposition, particularly in the chorale preludes, of two different tempi for dramatic effect. Most famously, and no doubt through his love of Stravinsky, his music is highly ironic. And yet, occasionally, rarely, when called for, as in the waltz setting of the Song of Songs in part four of La Commedia, he could be sincere to the point of sentimentality.
His influence is one of personal and political aesthetic as much as musical. “Who are you composing for: who’s going to play, where’s it going to be played and for whom,” he wrote in 1980. “If you ask yourself these questions and try to come up with some kind of answer then you’re already deeply immersed in the field of cultural politics.” (Everett, 2006) This meant embracing all art as political, an attitude that led him and other young composers to form the Notenkrakers collective, founding the ensemble De Volharding, and engaging in disruptive non-violent protest against the perceived problems of Dutch musical life in the 1960s and 1970s. This attitude permeates a great deal of Dutch and AMERICAN new music. It is impossible to think of groups like Bang on a Can, Alarm Will Sound and my own Great Noise Ensemble, among many others, without such an outlook.
Louis’ best pieces have a sense of maximalist importance beyond their often profound subject matter. State power, Marxism, Anarchism, Catholicism, the nature of time and even matter itself are all themes he explored. Each piece is also perfectly constructed with a musical logic that embraces tonal consonance and emancipated dissonance; minimalist repetition with maximalist architecture. His “monsters,” as he called his large works, are cathedrals of sound (in the case of Hadjewich, literally!). They are among the most important works of the late 20th and early 21st century. I hope that one of their most unique aspects, their instrumentation, does not severely limit their performance moving forward as they often have so far. At the same time, a performance of one of Andriessen’s monsters is always an event because of the challenge of mounting them. That specialness is part of the appeal, too.
They say to never meet your heroes or they will disappoint you. Louis Andriessen was the exception that proved that rule. He was gregarious, generous, mischevous, encouraging and supportive. In Amsterdam in 2011, we attended a concert together by the Steve Lehman Octet. The absolute virtuosity of those musicians and the metrical magic in their music was astounding, and Louis was like a giddy boy taking it in, wondering out loud how they did it. that joie de vivre was infectious, as was his encouragement of younger musicians. He sometimes seemed to lack ego (though he certainly had one. How could he not?). I still cannot believe that I was lucky enough not just to meet him, but to work with and befriend him!
A giant has fallen. Living in a world without Louis feels apocalyptic. Or, it would, if he himself didn’t seem to have an ironic relationship with death. “Death is when you don’t piss anymore, you don’t shit anymore, you don’t think anymore” sings the boys’ choir at the end of “Dancing on the Bones” in the Triology of the Last Day. It is a part of life as much as birth and everything in between. That attitude is also one of his great lessons. To paraphrase Gabriel Garcia Marquez, said: don’t cry because it ended; smile because it happened.
“Tulpa is a term appropriated by 20th century theosophists from Tibetan Buddhism to refer to a manifestation of a physical being generated purely by thought, sometimes also likened to an imaginary friend, a doppelgänger, or a shadow version of the self.”
Curtis K. Hughes
Curtis K. Hughes is Professor of Composition at Boston Conservatory. Tulpa is his second portrait CD and the programmed works span from 1995 to 2017. There is a consistency from the earliest to most recent works, with the principle change being an ever more assured compositional voice and a major work in Tulpa, a 2017 piece for ensemble.
The program is designed with several miniatures between the larger works, serving as interludes. Flagrant (2008) is a snare drum solo. Despite the reduced means at his disposal, Hughes imaginatively deploys various techniques and an overall approach to strikes on the drum that bring out a number of colors in zesty gestures. This segues nicely into the percussion ensemble piece Antechamber (2015). Played by the Boston Percussion Group, the piece is both colorful and varied in gestural profile. Some parts adopt fulsome grooves, while others are pointillist, with seamless transitions between demeanors.
Lesson Plan (2007) is a piece for bass clarinet dedicated to Lee Hyla on his departure from Boston for Chicago. Since the composer’s untimely passing, it serves as an affectionate homage through various quotes and a buffo blues cast. Merger (2016), for two cellos, is one of the finest pieces here in terms of construction. Angular counterpoint and hockets between the instruments are offset by piquant harmonies.
Wingtones (2009) for clarinet and piano, is cast in two movements. The first is a loose rondo. After a potboiler introduction, there is a Hindemithian fugue opener that is gradually discarded for a swing section. A slower paced fantasy ensues that once again returns to the swing section followed by a coda with flutter tongue and unison melodies. The second movement is more reflective, a fantasy that part way through speeds up and interpolates the swing from the previous movement. Despite occasional interjections of fast music, cascades of arpeggios and altissimo clarinet playing are reasserted. The piece closes with lush harmonies and tremolandos.
It Was Not Raining (1995) is the final interlude, a piece for solo marimba that features rhythmic canons and multi-mallet technique. This is followed by the title work, a piece for large ensemble cast in four movements. The first movement, “i. telophase,” features pitched percussion and piano creating a swath of disjunct melodies. The other instruments join in a contrasting lyrical section. Gradually the two strands merge in a propulsive stream now buoyed by ostinatos. A brash unison melody provides the first climactic passage of the piece. Things go sideways in “ii. (manufactured for a purpose),” with a section for low winds followed by a tantalizing brief violin solo interrupted by a cadenza for piano and percussion. Winds and percussion cohere into a fast-shifting section of glinting harmonies. The strings, led by two low cellos, are then added to the proceedings, providing a syncopated backdrop for a more straightforward ostinato by clarinet, percussion, and piano. Gradually, their disparate grids combine into a fulsome workout, which leads directly into “iii. ‘un amour inconnu…’,” an evocative setting of a short passage from Proust’s Swann’s Way, sung with impressive microtonal inflections by soprano Rose Hegele. The final movement, “iv. the number of completion,” begins with a bassoon solo that is quickly succeeded by vibrant percussion, into which it reinserts itself,both gradually taking up a unison theme before the entire ensemble takes up disjunct fast lines that are passed from instrument to instrument. The piece concludes with a ferocious pileup of thick chords in repeated eighth notes. Tulpa is engaging throughout, and seems to be a culmination of the other, smaller, compositions on the CD. Whether for soloists or writ large, Hughes writes compelling music that is artfully crafted and energetically appealing.
Sequenza 21 has the pleasure of premiering a live performance video of Merger.
Counter)induction – Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; Miranda Cuckson, violin;
Jessica Meyer, viola; Caleb van der Swaagh, cello, Randall Zigler, bass;
Renate Rolfing, Ning Yu, piano; Daniel Lippel, guitar
New Focus Recordings CD/DL
Chamber ensemble/composer collective counter)induction celebrates twenty years together with the recording Against Method. It consists of pieces contributed by composers associated with the collective as well those by “guest composers.” counter)induction has distinguished itself with a versatile approach to new music, selecting works with a keen eye toward musicality and a clear resistance to stylistic dogma. Against Method neatly encapsulates this approach.
Douglas Boyce’s Hunt by Night is an ostinato filled trio at a propulsive tempo for clarinet, cello, and piano. The piece also features glissandos and blurred microtonal inflections that offset the repeated pitches and chords nicely. Before, by Kyle Bartlett, is another trio, this time for clarinet, cello, and guitar. Wisps of texture are succeeded by noisy angularity with scratch tone effects. The unity provided by shared effects makes this broken consort sound at times like a single instrument. The sound spectrum moves between noise and dissonant counterpoint to create formal boundaries. Further along, the trio breaks up into characterful solos, notably a lithe cadenza by guitarist Daniel Lippel, which concludes the work.
Lippel switches to electric guitar, accompanied by clarinetist Benjamin Fingland, vibraphonist Jeffrey Irving, cellist Caleb van der Swaagh, pianist Renate Rolfing, and bassist Randall Zigler in Alvin Singleton’s Ein Kleines Volkslied. Rock-inspired chord progressions are played on the guitar, tremolando strings are emphatically rendered at key points alongside bluesy clarinet riffs, pizzicato bass, and jazz-inflected vibraphone arpeggiations. A bustling section overlaps these various playing styles, cut off again and again by tremolandos only to reassert itself. Bass clarinet, guitar, and vibes take over, their parts fragmenting the motives found in the beginning of the piece. Finally, a pileup of all the various elements creates a contrapuntal conclusion. Fingland plays Jessica Meyer’s Forgiveness, in which a loop pedal plays a prominent role. Air through the mouthpiece begins the piece followed by sustained pitches, all of which the loop pedal allows to overlap into clustered textures and tight counterpoint. Looping has become a favorite of new music composers, but Meyer distinguishes her piece with an organic approach to the sounds of playing and a fine ear for the pitch relationships that result in overlapping.
Ryan Streber’s Piano Quartet is the most formidable composition on Against Method. The various instruments move at different rates, creating a Carterian sense of time flow. Streber also has a finely attuned ear for the selection and spacing of post-tonal harmonies. The linear component, with a number of imitative passages, is also finely wrought. The ensemble comprehensively knows the piece, delivering a performance that is assured and engaging throughout.
The recording concludes with Scherzo by Diego Tedesco, a piece filled with descending chromatic scales that provide a jocular motive that appears in countless contexts throughout the piece. Tedesco blends pizzicatos from guitar and strings to good effect, followed by the aforementioned glissandos in cascading overlaps of sound. Particularly affecting is the middle section, which is an “eye of the storm” where the piece’s motives are fragmented and delicately hued. Clarinet and guitar are given an extended duet that is followed by an eruptive passage in the strings. Pizzicato and glissandos succeed in turn to create a clear juxtaposition of playing styles, at key points blending to create transitions between sections. Tight dissonances between violin and clarinet ratchet up the tension, which is finally allowed release in a sustained note from the clarinet followed by violin multi-stops. Scherzo is well- constructed, devised to show counter)induction to their best advantage. Top to bottom, Against Method is a stirring listen.
