This Saturday night, pianist Pedja Muzijevic will present a program wildly varied enough to be described as mavericky.

Along with Schumann’s “Carnaval” and some little sonatas by Scarlatti, there will be transcriptions of Wager and Strauss and sampling of mid-century Americans like Henry Cowell, Morton Feldman and John Cage.

“It’s a natural combination, wouldn’t you say?” deadpans the Bosnian-born pianist who’s lived in New York since the mid-80s.

A few years ago Muzijevic made a CD of Cage’s “Sonatas and Interludes” interspersed with material from the Baroque through modern eras.  Alexander Platt, director of The Maverick, invited Muzijevic to try something similar this summer.  But that Cage piece is written for the “prepared” piano – a grand piano with nuts, bolts, rubber bands and other hardware items attached onto the strings to create a rattling and ringing sound.

Muzijevic has recreated the CD in concert but having two pianos, one prepared and one standard, wasn’t feasible on the small Maverick stage.  Instead, he came up with a smorgasbord for the first half and will offer the Schumann after intermission.

While most pianists who plumb such depths of contemporary repertoire are specialists in it, Muzijevic sees it as all as part of a large continuum.

“I’m just as happy playing a Mozart concert as a Philip Glass piece,” says Muzijevic.  “I like to put things together because they’re so different. Hopefully it makes us hear each piece better and clearer.”

Among Muzijevic’s selections for Saturday, there are some historic connections to the Ulster County locale.  The program includes “Fabric” and “Floating” by the late Henry Cowell.  An enfant terrible during his youth, Cowell became famous in the 1920s for reaching inside the piano to strum and strike its strings in pieces like “The Banshee.”

Cowell did calm down as he aged and Muzijevic has chosen some relatively traditional selections from his large catalog. The composer died in 1965 after having spent his late years in the village of Shady, about four miles outside Woodstock. His wife Sidney resided there until her death in 1995.

Cowell’s daring at the piano set the stage for the work of his pupil, John Cage, whose influence as a musical visionary and artistic philosopher remains strong almost 20 years after his death.  Besides the sometimes-scorned prepared piano, Cage’s most notorious work is titled “four minutes and 33 seconds” or 4’33”.

Structured in three movements, the piece consists of silence.

It can be “performed” on any instrument, and the musician is instructed to sit still and allow the audience to listen.  Though Cage wrote a book called “Silence,” an encounter with 4’33” is anything but silent.  Instead, it reinforces his notion that all sound can be considered music.

4’33” premiered at The Maverick on August 29, 1952. The pianist was Anthony Tudor.  Rather than hearing air conditioning systems and distant traffic noises, as can happen in a “silent” concert hall, the audience heard the sounds of nature.  By bringing the piece back to The Maverick, Muzijevic is presenting an historical recreation of its premiere.

“To this day, the most avant garde figures in any category are John Cage and Merce Cunningham,” says the pianist. (Cage’s companion was the choreographer Merce Cunningham, who died July 26 last year.) “Has anyone ever come so close to that freedom of expression and wonderment and discomfort?  And is there anything more discomforting than silence.”

Maverick audiences will find out, again, on Saturday.

Originally appeared in the Times Union.

He’s the principal cellist in the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, but Jeffrey Krieger is widely known in new music circles as an electric cellist.

For some 20 years now he’s played the electrified instrument and collaborated extensively with a wide range of composers in the creation of multimedia performance works involving computer and videos.

A 1993 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts made possible extensive touring in the USA, and in 1996 he received the State of Connecticut Commission on the Arts Artist Fellowship for work in multi-media.

_______________________________________________________________

Where did you grow up and has that affected your sensibilities as a musician?
I grew up in Joliet, Illinois and came from a very middle class, somewhat Catholic, blue-collar background. Joliet is known for Stateville, the State Penitentiary. In fact, one of my uncles was an assistant warden. I remember as a kid going to family picnics on the grounds just outside the prison walls. Dad worked as a foreman at Reynolds Aluminum just outside of Chicago and my mother stayed home with five kids.

On my 9th birthday I was presented with a $9.99 ukulele from Mr. Zee’s Music Shop and I loved to learn how to play it on my own. Growing up I listened to a lot of radio, hearing music mostly out of speakers and never having the opportunity to attend live classical music concerts until much later.

Dad used to call from the living room for me to come watch the cellist, Charlotte Harris on the TV each time she would appear (which was frequently) in her full length red gown and 50’s hairdo smiling lovingly into the camera while performing The Swan on the Lawrence Welk Show. This was also the era when electronic organs became popular and the housewives in the neighborhood bought them to occupy their leisure time. You could hear the sound of Leslie speakers from across the street wafting in the hot summer breeze.

At the same time as learning to play the cello I also played electric guitar with kids in neighborhood bands and acoustic guitar at Sunday church services. So traditional classical music did not play as influential a role in my formation as a musician until much later.

What are you working on these days?
I recently premiered “Portrait of Jeffrey” by Pauline Oliveros, a mandala piece realized for electric cello and computer. Pauline created the score after some specific questions were answered about my birth date, place, time, etc. I constructed an interactive computer program in MAX/MSP software which allows the performer to click on various parts of the mandala image ­– Nature, Birth, Who Am I?, Quotation, Dream, Memory, Theater, and Signature. This in turn performs tasks like setting up the software that processes the sound and supplies the score for each section of the piece. The capabilities of the instrument are extended through the software. For example, a string can be used as a kind of slide controller to modulate the speed of a sound file. My goal was to go beyond the traditional expectations of the cello using the capabilities of technology.

Currently, I am experimenting with a multi-channel playback system. I am contemplating rewiring the output of the instrument so there are 4 separate channels, one for each string. This will allow the performance to become more ‘sculptural’.

Do you like to collaborate or be the boss?
I am definitely hands-on when it comes to collaboration because of the importance in sharing what I have learned about the electric cello, as well as at the same time leaving plenty of room for experimentation. After 20 years with the electric cello there is a wealth of knowledge to share. It is also a necessity to be an equal partner because of the interactive computer programs I create specifically for each project. The computer plays an important role in my performances. The more I help the direction of a project the more interesting the result.

Have you ever experienced discrimination in the music business because of your sexuality?
Not that I am aware.

Are you single or coupled?
I am single.

Are most of your friends from the music world or not?
Most of my close friends are musicians, composers and artists.  I especially like the later two because they are creative people who are outside the classical musician circle I work in as principal cellist of the Hartford Symphony, and I just admire their art so much. Perhaps because of my work on the electric cello I have come to appreciate much more the people who are the creators. I collect contemporary art so there is nothing more exciting than visiting an artist’s studio to see and hear about their current work, even more than visiting a gallery or museum. But I cherish all artistic friendships for the creative energy and inspiration.

Is there a relationship between your sexuality and your creativity?
Yes, I am very creative in both areas…….

How much do you travel for your work? Do you find it stimulating or a hassle?
I travel just enough for performances that it has not become boring or tedious. What helps to keep it interesting are the challenges of adapting a performance to a particular venue and the wide range of acoustical characteristics one may encounter. The electric cello and computer are very adaptable when it comes to these challenges.

An example of an ideal performance scenario took place recently at Radford University’s new state-of-the-art, Covington Recital Hall where my acoustical needs were accommodated on the spot by a technician who expanded and contracted the walls and ceiling with a control module. It is normal to be prepared to make adjustments for the acoustics in the computer software, but the technician was able to adjust the hall to the ideal acoustics. One may know ahead of time what sound system will be available for playback but the actual acoustics from venue to venue can be much more unpredictable.

I also use an untraditional configuration for placement of the speakers. Instead of the speakers out front with a monitor for the performer and house levels controlled by a sound engineer, I prefer to monitor volume levels, flanked by the speakers, which are turned slightly inward. This allows me to hear closer to what the audience is experiencing and to make constant adjustments in my playing. Each work is unique when it comes to its sound requirements and there is never enough time to teach a sound engineer these subtleties.

Otherwise, I like meeting people and everything that goes along with new travel experiences like food, climate, etc., especially in far away places. Chaotic experiences like dodging animals and motorcyclists while being chauffeured through tiny villages on dirt roads from Mumbai, India to a venue several hours away, wondering if we will ever arrive in time for the start of the concert (we didn’t), which may also include spontaneous power outages, can be very entertaining. It makes the actual performing of the concert a piece of cake.

What are you working on these days?
In music, I’m working on a live processing composition using Max/MSP, collaborating with composer Frances White on a new piece for trombone and tape funded by a MAP grant (scheduled to premiere next spring), and discussing with the theater director Valeria Vasilevski how to make an upcoming solo trombone program into “concert theater,” where every element in the concert space informs the audience and influences the performer.

Do you keep up with technology?  What tools work for you and which ones have you found to be overrated?
I’m rather geek-ish and friends have even described me as their “pusher” when I am excited about this or that new technology.  However, what people often forget is that any kind of tool (a pencil, say, or a spatula) is technology of a sort.  So was fire and the wheel!

It’s what we do with these tools that is important, not what the tools are in themselves.   I still have high hopes of eventually being able to use speech recognition software to do my typing for me, and with a smart phone in my pocket I do venture out on occasion without my laptop.

Though I’m a rather private person I often wonder why I even have a blog, much less various social networking accounts, I do.  I learned recently that during a concert a couple of weeks ago at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, where I was performing my composition “Subtle Winds,” there was a real-time tweet on whether or not I was playing in just intonation.

Have you ever experienced discrimination in music business because of your sexuality?
Yes, especially when I was younger, just starting out and working in the orchestral world and as a free-lance trombonist. The stereotype assumes that a woman brass player is lesbian but I’ll add the caveat that the difference between discrimination based on sexual orientation and discrimination based on gender can at times be difficult to discern.

Now that I work new music/live-processing and perform as a soloist or in small chamber music groups, this has not been an issue. Still, discrimination through tokenism (and ghettoization) in programming and hiring remains a reality for women along with other visually identifiable minorities.

Is there a relationship between your sexuality and your creativity?
How could there not be?

Where did you grow up and has that affected your sensibilities as a musician?
I grew up on the coast of southern California where I could stand at the edge of the ocean and see nothing in front of me until the curve of the earth, with nothing above but open sky.  I’m sure this relates to my preference for musical expansiveness, of distance in vertical harmonies and long horizontal lines.

Was coming out tough or a pleasure?  Sudden or gradual?
When I was in my early 20s I fell in love with another woman, who loved me back.  While I was probably always a lesbian (noun), until then I hadn’t given any thought to what that meant.  The expression “coming out” carries implications of knowledge of an “other” sexual orientation; the repression, or denial,  of that orientation;  and then feelings of release or relief when that knowledge is revealed to oneself and/or others.  For me, it was more simple:  I loved this person and she loved me – and if the word for our love was lesbian, okay, then I was lesbian (adjective).

Yet in retrospect I was probably the last person to realize that being a lesbian was a part of me.  I was a complete tomboy, and as a little girl I wanted to be the first woman professional baseball player when I grew up.

How do you perceive the relationship between different generations of gays and lesbians?
It seems as if there is gap between the experiences of older lesbians and that of the younger generations.   My elders support and value very strongly lesbian and women’s organizations, which do not seem to be of much interest to youth.

The first time I played in an all-woman orchestra was in the mid-1980’s, for the Bay Area Women’s Philharmonic (which later became simply the Women’s Philharmonic).  I felt a tremendous rush when I walked onto the stage – for about five minutes.  Then it was just like any other orchestral engagement.   I had a similar experience the first time I played in a GLBT orchestra, for the Gay Olympics in New York in the mid-1990s.    I don’t discount the importance of these events for others – both in the orchestras, and in the audiences – and the implications such ensembles have, both as role models (or for marketing purposes). Yet for me the bottom line is the musical experience – what my ears hear – not what community is represented.

What’s the last thing that made you cry?
Just today I saw a video online for the “Puppies Behind Bars” program (where prisoners are given puppies to raise for service programs) that brought tears to my eyes.  I’m a soft touch.  Playing in the orchestra pit for opera, I used to always tear up during the father-daughter recognition/reconciliation duets in Verdi operas.

At least that’s the impression given by the subtitle to a 2008 piece.

But the work’s name – “Kidnapping Water: Bottle Operas” – is actually deceptive. Rather than mass-produced take-home music, the piece is more about making audiences go the distance.

Like a musical Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the 39-year old Seattle-based composer created a series of 64 musical miniatures, each for a singer and a percussionist.  They’re mean to each be performed in a different body or pool of water.  It’s never actually been done in one continuous trek, but was debuted in eight installments, taking place in lakes, ponds and streams of the Pacific Northwest during the 2008 Bumbershoot Festival of the Arts. A concert version of excerpts is coming up on May 1 at Seattle’s Town Hall.

Raised on musical theatre and action flicks, I became interested in drama and martial arts. Classical music, avant-garde techniques and sacred ceremonies also inform my mix of lyrical melodies with surprising twists. Living in the Pacific Northwest, where the mountains, trees and water remain powerful, further inspires my approach to writing.

With his current theatrical work in process, Au Yong goes from the expansive outdoors to everyone’s worst nightmare of confinement. “Stuck Elevator” is based on the true story of a Chinese food delivery man in New York City who got trapped in an elevator – for three days!  The piece has been accepted for the Yale Institute for Music Theatre in June, which will culminate in two public performances, June 25-26.

As the son of Chinese immigrants in America, I search for ways music connects people with the places they call home. I listen to stories and sounds to find meaning in a world filled with beauty and terror…

Interested in the interplay between nature, architecture, sound, noise, chaos, and repetition, I find musical gestures in everyday actions. These gestures form the basis of ceremonial works created to honor the ritual of people who gather to listen.

ALBANY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
March 26, 2010

Music director David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony Orchestra have made a virtue out of performing lots of new little works by emerging composers. Eager for the opportunity, the youngsters gladly take the modest commissions and write under tight deadlines. The results are usually diverting and forgettable.

A substantial new three-year grant from the Mellon Foundation has allowed the ASO to start bringing in some heavier guns. Next year John Corigliano will be on hand twice and this past week John Harbison was in town for the first of two springtime visits.

In Friday night’s program at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, titled “John Harbison & Friends,” the 71-year old composer’s Symphony No. 4 stood tall alongside works of Copland and Haydn.  Cast in five moments and lasting about half an hour, it was substantial, rich and assured.

Though prone to thick and dark orchestral textures, Harbison also has a keen dramatic flair.  A heavy sound dominated the opening movement and yet its constant rhythmic pulse skipped around like a child in a meadow. A similar contrast came in the intermezzo, which alternated between gliding strings and light percussion.

The symphony elicited a fine performance especially from the expanded string choir, which was both supple and meaty.  The work is being recorded for release with Harbison’s “Great Gatsby” Suite, coming up in May.

Twenty-five year old composer Timothy Andres introduced his new piece “Look Around You” as a “double concerto but for only one player.”  Soloist Owen Dalby performed on both violin and viola, though somehow there didn’t seem to be that much difference in sound or character between the two instruments.  For long stretches Andres had the orchestra simply sustain chords. Except for a few exposed figures for violin that brought to mind a country fiddle, the solo writing was busy yet indistinct, something like treading water.

Let it not be said that young composers should be written off.  Copland was 25 when he wrote “Music for the Theatre,” the charming masterwork that opened the program.  The woodwinds and brass delivered with appropriate sass, though there were occasional smudges of the larger ensemble in the trickier rhythmic passages.

Haydn’s Symphony No. 82 “The Bear” arrived at the evening’s conclusion like a cool fresh breeze. During the gently shifting currents of the Allegretto, Harbison’s more forceful play with textures and accents came to mind.

MUSIC OF HELMUT LACHENMANN
Jack Quartet, Signal Ensemble
EMPAC, RPI, Troy
March 27, 2010

The avant garde is alive and well. Helmut Lachenmann came to town to prove it.

On Saturday night at EMPAC, a retrospective concert of music by the 74-year old German composer included a couple of solo works, a string quartet and a nearly half-hour long piece for 24 players. Yet what the evening mostly consisted of was delicate and explosive sounds produced by weird instrumental techniques.

It’s a language that most American composers retreated from about 25 years ago, something like timid Democratic politicians trying to be popular and conservative.  Yet in Europe, liberalism — with music, as well as policy — is no vice.  Interestingly, it was young American musicians who performed the entire concert, always with seriousness and passion.

Most everything the program had in store was revealed in the short opening work, “Pression” from 1969.  Cellist Lauren Radnofsky’s first sounds were of her fingers sliding up and down the strings.  Once her bow was utilized, she held it tight with two hands and dragged it upward toward the neck.

The String Quartet No. 2 (1989), played with delicacy and poise by the Jack Quartet, goes further with all manner of effects, including bowing on the edge of the instruments, tapping the strings with the butt of the bow, and strumming with guitar picks.  In this piece, Lachenmann wasn’t so hyperactive with form. Instead of rapidly jumping from one sound world to the next, he lingered long enough to allow the novelty of an effect to wear off and its acoustic properties to settle in the ear and the mind.  The few times a full-bodied chord arrived, it made one realize what a luxurious bath of sound typical concerts really are.

The composer himself performed “Ein Kinderspiel,” a set of seven character pieces for piano. Like the children’s pieces of Bartok, these were intimate distillations of a mature style, sprinkled with syncopated rhythms and playful tone painting.

After intermission Bradley Lubman led the Signal Ensemble in “…Zwei Gefuhle,” which had the composer reciting a bit of da Vinci’s journal over the rumblings and bursting sounds of a large ensemble.  By this point, things felt pretty over wrought, especially when the musicians started having verbal outbursts.

One couldn’t help but keep an eye on the grand piano. Shortly into the piece, there was one player toiling at the keyboard but another with a firm grip on the lid – suggesting it wound be slammed down at any moment.  Instead, it was rapidly swung opened and closed, causing huge waves of sound.

BROOKLYN RIDER
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Union College, Schenectady

The statistics aren’t available, but it’s probably a fair estimate that the Debussy String Quartet has been performed at least a dozen times in the 38-year history of the Union College Concert Series.  It’s also no exaggeration to say that it never sounded the way it did Sunday afternoon when it was performed by the ensemble known as Brooklyn Rider.

The young male players, who are regulars with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, attacked the music with an urgency and gusto, not the reverent embrace that French impressionism usually gets.  Yet it wasn’t really the performance that made Debussy’s 1893 piece seem so new and fresh. The context within the concert is what did the trick.

Instead of highlighting the novelty of a familiar work by playing it at the end of a historical progression, the Brooklyn Rider went backward in time.  Everything else on the program was written in the last decade, except a John Cage piece from 1948.

First up was “Achille’s Heel” by 31-year old Colin Jacobsen, one of the Brooklyn Rider’s violinists.  It was a young musician’s stream of consciousness, an amalgam of country, blue grass, rock and jazz with lots of flashy string licks.

“…al niente” (to nothing) by Uzbekistan composer Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky had a bit more going on than its title implies.  Like cracks in a picture window, a pervasive haze of sound was splintered over and again by harsh jagged lines from the solo strings.

The program note for Italian composer Giovanni Sollima’s “Federico II” suggested it would evoke the medieval court of the Italian ruler.  But the music actually occupied similar ground to Jacobsen’s piece.  There was the same steady pulse, though with a bit more melody from folk-like tunes.

After intermission came Cage’s piano work “In a Landscape,” in a beautiful arrangement by Justin Messina. The players passed back and forth short melodic runs for a lush and tuneful meditation.

Each piece in this odd batch settled comfortably into its own groove. Call it “solid state” music, if you like. It would be easy to say that rock and minimalism fostered the Brooklyn Rider’s taste for such fare. But then, along came the Debussy, which worked the same way.  And Debussy got the idea from Indonesian gamelan music.

The faithful and discerning Union College audience acknowledged the music and fine players with enthusiasm. There was even a holler or two for the encore, Jacobsen’s lively arrangement of a Persian folk song called “Ascending Birds.”

Reviews originally appeared in the Times Union.

“A guerrilla is someone who is sacrificing his life…
Without blood there is no cause…
I use (the term) Gay Guerrilla in the hopes
that I might be one if called upon.”

– Julius Eastman

After Julius Eastman’s never-fully explained death in 1990, his legacy was thought to be lost.   Four years ago he was rescued from obscurity by the release “Unjust Malaise” (New World Records). The result of years of dogged research and recovery by composer Mary Jane Leach, the collection consisted of 3 CDs worth of archival concert recordings.

This past fall, one of Eastman’s most infamous works, “Gay Guerrilla” (1979), received a new and pristine performance.  The event came together as a result of conversations between three faculty members at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.  Michael Century was searching for something with multiple keyboards and Pauline Oliveros remembered the piece, which requires four pianos and lasts about 30 minutes.  Leach was on hand to provide the score.

The November 18, 2009 performance took place in the resplendent concert hall of RPI’s lavish arts center known as EMPAC.  The performers are Century, Max Canaday, Catherine Chou, and André Watson.

Here’s the video:

About two thirds of the way through the piece, Eastman quotes the Lutheran hymn “Ein feste Burg ist unser Got” (A mighty fortress is our God), re-interpreting that affirmation of faith as a sonic manifesto, then concludes with the majestic rising modal scale that helps make this work an anthem to liberation unique in contemporary classical music.

Century’s new performing edition of “Gay Guerrilla” will soon be available through Leach, who maintains an archive of known Eastman scores and recordings.

Previously on My Big Gay Ears:

Julius Eastman’s Lost Legacy

Along with the as-yet-untitled piece, the program will feature Monk’s 3-minute hit “Panda Chant” (1984) and another work for orchestra and chorus, “Night” (1996/2005).  Monk and members of her vocal ensemble – including Allison Sniffin, Katie Geissinger, Thomas Bogdan and Theo Bleckmann — will be part of the performances. The program opens with Stravinsky’s Momenutum pro Gesualdo and ends with Bartok’s Music for Strings Percussion & Celesta.

Monk’s first orchestra work was “Possible Sky” commissioned in 2003 by Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony.  According to Paul Schiavo’s program notes the new piece presents Monk working in a new long-form, in contrast to larger works in the past that were made up of discreet sections. The new piece will be, says the composer, in a “continuous woven form.” Monk is also aiming for an integration of voices and orchestra. “Monk has no interest in the traditional paradigm of vocal melody with instrumental accompaniment,” writes Schiavo.  The orchestrations for both the new piece and “Night” are credited to Allison Sniffin with Monk.  The full program notes can be viewed here.

Monk’s new work was co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, which perform it on April 11 in Walt Disney Hall. That program also includes “Night” and excerpts from Monk’s “Songs of Ascension,” along with Arvo Part’s “Miserere.”

The prize “honors the lifetime achievement and lasting significance of a contemporary American composer” and comes with a $50,000 purse. A celebratory concert and tribute will be given in Miller Theater on Saturday March 27.

The retrospective marathon program starts at 8 p.m. and runs approximately 3.5 hours with two intermissions.  Program notes can be viewed here.

Program:
Deep Listening: Lear (1988) (CD recording)
Fed Back II (1966)  (audio playback)
Sounds from Childhood: Sonic Meditation (1992) (for audience participation)
The Gender of Now: There but not There (2005)
Variations for Sextet (1960)
Who’s Playing What (2010)
Bye Bye Butterfly (1965) (audio playback)
The Inner / Outer Matrix (2007)
IO and Her and the Trouble with Him: A dance opera in primeval time (2001) (video excerpt)
Oracle Bones: Mirror Dreams (2009)
Lunar Opera: Deep Listening For_Tunes (2000) (video excerpt)
Ghostdance (1995) (video excerpt)
Njinga the Queen King: Return of a Warrior (1993) (video excerpts)
DroniPhonia (2009)

Performers:
International Contemporary Ensemble
Deep Listening Band
Timeless Pulse
Tom Buckner, baritone; Monique Buzzarté, trombone; Jonas Braasch, soprano saxophone; Sarah Cahill, piano; Stuart Dempster, trombone and didjeridu; Margot Farrington, visual performer; David Gampner, piano and electronics; Heloise Gold, dancer; Ione, spoken word/sonic vocals; Tony Martin, visual composer and performer; George Marsh, percussion; Miya Masaoka, koto/electronics; Doug Van Nort, laptop; Jennifer Wilsey, percussion; and David Wessel, electronics

Speakers:
Carol Becker, Dean, Columbia School of the Arts
David Bernstein
Michael Century
David Felton
Linda Mary Montano
Renée Levine Packer
Frances Richard
Jenneth Webster

]]> http://mybiggayears.com/archives/oliveros-schuman/feed/ 1 http://mybiggayears.com/archives/bleckmann-review/ http://mybiggayears.com/archives/bleckmann-review/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:00:48 +0000 jody http://mybiggayears.com/?p=931 Twelve Songs by Charles Ives
Theo Bleckmann and Kneebody

Theo Bleckmann could sing me to sleep anytime he likes, even if he doesn’t want to snuggle.  The German-born, New York-based singer and composer has got a warm and engaging voice and oodles of good taste and insight.  He’s given an imaginative yet intimate treatment to songs of Charles Ives in a new disc with the experimental quintet Kneebody. The CD on Winter & Winter is up for a Grammy Award this weekend in the classical category Best Crossover Album.

Tho Theo can do all kinds of wild and experimental things with his voice (why else would he be a regular collaborator with Meredith Monk?), he delivers the Ives tunes with straight ahead clarity.  It’s in the far-flung accompaniments that the disc really diverges into realms that Ives might never have imagined and yet might also appreciate.  Kneebody improvises around the original accompaniments and there are extended preludes and codas to some of the songs. In addition to Kneebody’s core instrumentation of saxophone, trumpet, piano and percussion, they throw in all kinds of unexpected sounds, electronic and otherwise.  Theo also contributes electronics into the mix.

The collection focuses on some of Ives’ lesser known songs. It opens with the tender “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” and gets gently rambunctious in “The Cage” and reaches its jazzy peak in “The New River.” Two Ives lieder are included, perhaps in homage to Theo’s roots as well as something for the Munich label’s home audience.  “Feldeinsamkeit” (In Summer Fields) is given a nightclub feel by brushes on a snare drum and in “Weil’ Auf Mir” (Eyes So Dark) the instrumental backdrop features restrained feedback from an electric guitar.

I’m always a sucker for a good hymn tune and “Serenity” (“Oh Sabbath rest of Galilee…) and “At The River” (“Shall we gather…”) are both set in a radiant haze of electronics.  During a recent cruise, my partner Richard and I enjoyed listening to “At The River” as we sat on the deck of the ship. Yes, it was the Caribbean we were looking at, not a river. But it’s still water that we were zoning out to and the song fit in nicely.  Another water-treatment comes in “The Housatonic at Stockbridge,” which includes undulating crescendos from Ben Wendel’s saxophone.

The disc concludes with “Waltz” (an excerpt of Ives’ original text: Little Annie Rooney,/ (now Mrs. Mooney,) / Was as gay as birds in May, / s’her Wedding Day). As with most of the disc, the band jams with spirit but the spotlight remains on Theo.

]]> http://mybiggayears.com/archives/bleckmann-review/feed/ 0 http://mybiggayears.com/archives/deep-listening-2010-retreat-schedule/ http://mybiggayears.com/archives/deep-listening-2010-retreat-schedule/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:45:22 +0000 jody http://mybiggayears.com/?p=876 Composer Pauline Oliveros’ trainings in Deep Listening are conducted in immersive retreat settings each summer and the locations are usually pretty spectacular, if remote. Participants bond over meals and recreation and begin morning and afternoon sessions in meditation.  In addition to Oliveros’ informal instruction, the new age-y atmosphere includes discussion and sharing, an introduction to Tai Chi, and sometimes personal and group healings through sound.  Though the work is not strictly for composers, everyone is encouraged to come up with a new composition to be performed toward the end of the week.

I had a memorable time attending a retreat at Rose Mountain, New Mexico, summer 1995. It was an emotionally turbulent but transformative period in my life and I was glad that I made the trek, committed the funds and showed up with an open mind (and ears). By the time I went home, I’d experienced music from a relaxed, intimate and free perspective (a dramatic change from my hectic life as a record producer), also made some new friends and earned a nifty certificate to boot.

The 2010 retreat schedule has just been announced:

July 6- 11, 2010 Nau Côclea Art Center, Camallera, Alt Empordà, Girona, Spain

August 2-6 2010 IONS Retreat Center, Petaluma, Sonoma County, California, USA

Once again the faculty also includes Pauline’s partner Ione, who’s a priestess and author and dream-weaving expert, and the Tai Chi instructor Heloise Gold.  More information available at www.DeepListening.org.

My past profiles of Pauline and further attempts to explain Deep Listening are available here:

“Making Conscious Connections”

“A Musical Adventurer Begins by Listening”

Our 1995 retreat coincided with the Summer Solstice, which inspired a grand ritual on the mountain top and lots of cross-dressing.  Yes, I had brought along a wig, just in case:

With Pauline Oliveros on a Deep Listening retreat, New Mexico, 1995.

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