Thanks to my friend,
Paul Taub, the flutist with the Seattle Chamber Players, I found
myself walking through a Seattle monsoon past closed sidewalks in
order to get to On The Boards in the Queen Anne neighborhood.
February 16, 2014 I witnessed the first night in their Icebreaker
VII: Open Source concert. The Icebreaker is a little festival
that the Seattle Chamber Players put together to support “emerging
music”. I must say I have to question that statement. Emerging
music implies a program of composers that aren't established, but
rather relatively new and unknown to the world of new music. At the
very least, I would expect the music itself to be emerging and new.
Of the two pieces on the first show one composer has been dead for
ten years and his piece is eleven years old; the other is a
well-established Portugese composer with a piece five years old.
My criticism of this is
mostly light-hearted. How the festival is labeled doesn't have
anything to do with the quality of the music or the performance.
However, I do have a personal mission to push the boundaries and not
accept the typical way we view art progression. If we were to look at
other areas of our daily life and accept ten year old versions, would
we be satisfied? How many people are happy with a ten year old car
(mine is almost twenty)? How about a ten year old cell phone? Or five
years for that matter? I really hate the cell phone I have that was
new circa 2012! Yet we can accept music that was written ten or
twenty years ago as avant-garde and cutting edge. People today still
view John Cage or Stravinsky as avant-garde experimental composers. I
think I can say that they are not avant-garde by today's standards
any more than Mozart should be considered. John Cage, Stravinsky, and
Mozart are all phenomenal composers (three of my favorite), and they
were all very avant-garde for the time they were alive and working. I
think we should certainly appreciate their music and stand upon their
shoulders as we move forward, but new and experimental music is not
within their realm anymore.
I do realize that art
and science are unrelated in certain capacities (while being very
much related in others). While scientific progress is quantifiable
(we can see that there are faster processors and higher density
screens in cell phones), art is certainly more challenging to
compare. If we were to compare the Rite of Spring by
Stravinsky premiered in 1913 and the soundtrack to the movie Iron Man
3 composed by Bryan Tyler released one hundred years later, we would
have a hard time seeing the progress. I believe most audiences would
still struggle with listening to Stravinsky's masterpiece and
question the harsh sounds and awkward progression, but they will find
the movie soundtrack more pleasing. Avant-gardeism and
experimentality when applied to art and music are simply harder to
qualify than when applied to science. I don’t believe we can even
use the term avant-garde when looking at science. The very nature of
scientific research is to focus on what is new and unknown.
That was a long rant,
but it is intended to reveal the nature of this blog and my continual
search for new and exciting music. Seeing the Icebreaker festival in
Seattle got me thinking this way. These two concerts really impressed
me. I'll be honest and say that for a long time, I have been
disappointed by the prospect of living in Seattle because I
inherently compare it to the time I lived in Amsterdam and London.
While living in these two cities, I was regularly exposed to
fantastic new music by great composers and performers. The Han
Bennink performance at the Royal Room (see second blog post) and this
festival completely turned me around and made me realize that Seattle
has the potential to be as great of a city for new music as
Amsterdam, London, New York, Berlin, or any other great international
city. The dedication to new music that the Seattle Chamber Players
have is essential to keeping Seattle on the map for great new music.
On to the first
concert!
The first concert in
the series featured two compositions: Spam! by Luis Tinoco and
An Index of Metals by Fausto Romitelli. Each piece featured a
vocal soloist and a larger ensemble than the typical Seattle Chamber
Players quartet. Both pieces also incorporated video and electronic
sound.
The
first piece, Spam!, featured Jared Michael Brown as narrator
and baritone singer. While the history of the word, “spam” is
interesting enough (it's a canned meat we are all familiar with that
got its fame after the Second World War), Tinoco has broadened the
definition applied to internet email to now mean garbage. The five
movements of this piece take the form of electronic garbage. Because
of Tinoco’s broader definition for spam, only two movements of the
five are derived directly from spam email. The first movement, A
Human Metaphor Flying Over, is an actual news story about a
family of human cannonballs. David Smith and his family are human
cannonballs who have performed many times, and had a famous
experience when being shot from cannon in the United States and
landing in Mexico. I found the story to be pretty fascinating
actually. The movement itself opens with The Star Spangled Banner
which was performed quite beautifully. I don't think I'm alone in my
general distaste for this musical work as it bombards us everywhere.
Often sung with a great deal of soulful mellisma, or with a great
deal of pomp and delusions of grandeur, we've probably all heard this
song performed more times than we can count. When Jimi Hendrix did a
famously cool performance of the tune at Woodstock, guitarists
started performing their own renditions (for a laugh, go to youtube
and search for Zakk Wylde playing this one). As soon as we realized
what was being played, I felt the audience relax and chuckle. But
when this ensemble played the national anthem, I was floored by the
artistry of the performance. With a rather typical orchestration you
would probably hear from a concert band, I was really impressed with
the dynamic control and beautiful tone of the trumpet player, Tony
DiLorenzo. Most trumpet players I've heard play this will turn it up
to eleven, but DiLorenzo played with beautiful grace. I'm going on
about the use of this song, but I think it's important because it
highlights an important memory for me: I was sitting in a bar in
Amsterdam with Ned McGowan and Robert Dick. Robert talked about
working with the famous composer, Brian Fernyhough, and his music of
hypercomplexity. The story is that Robert asked why Fernyhough would
notate in a certain way while a simpler notation could have the same
effect. Fernyhough told Robert that this is to insure that the
performer will take the music seriously and work hard to play it
well. At this, Robert has an exasperated reaction and states that if
you give “Happy Birthday” to an artist to play, you will get a
beautiful rendition because an artist will take any performance
seriously and put their entire self into the act regardless of what
the music is. This ensemble did the same thing with the national
anthem. It set the stage up for a night of incredible musical
performance.
However, I feel that this composition as a whole fell a bit flat. The
age of the internet has proliferated a plethora of music based on
emails, Facebook posts, forum trolls, and other types of crazes. It
is probably the next evolution of Andy Warhol's term, “Pop Art.”
The music created from this internet influence is humorous, and
certainly the textual material that comes out is entertaining.
However, I just couldn't get into this composition. It was my least
favorite of the festival. The orchestration didn't utilize the
variety of sonic possibilities with the ensemble that was used. The
instruments that I felt were really used well were the trumpet,
flute, and piano. As I've already stated, Tony DiLorenzo blew me away
with his trumpet playing. Cristina Valdez is certainly my favorite
pianist in the city to hear play new music, and again I could hear
some of the typical idiosyncrasies of her playing in this piece.
Cristina is able to take a relatively simple and rhythmic line and
apply a shape that most pianists wouldn't think of doing. The way she
can phrase individual moments within a longer phrase is very cool.
The flute will always stand out in my ears (after 26 years of playing
the instrument, I just can't help it) and Paul Taub executed his part
perfectly. While switching to the various types of flute, Paul always
displays a great deal of professionalism and respect of the role of a
flutist realizing a composers vision. The ensemble as a whole
performed tremendously, but these instruments more than any other
seemed to be crucial to the composition itself. This piece had a lot
of rhythmic material and a strong metric pulse that was fun to listen
to. It called for very precise placement and the conductor, Alastair
Willis, was required to listen to a click track while conducting in
order to make sure that everything was precisely performed. Willis
did a phenomenal job of keeping the ensemble together. And of course,
Jared Michael Brown was the star of this performance as narrator and
singer. Using the text that he had, Brown drew the audience into this
world of junk and captivated our minds as he spoke of human
cannonballs, the destruction of public art in Frankfurt, an email
ensuring a sizable percentage of a multimillion dollar entitlement,
whether or not God commanded George W. Bush to invade Afghanistan and
Iraq, and of course the infamous email guaranteeing increased sexual
potency for men. Brown never shied away from of the material. His
background as an actor is very clear and his ability as a singer is
great. The composition ends at a climax while informing us of the
benefits of the penis pill. Jared Michael Brown expertly led us all
to this climax.
Spam! included
visual projection and electronics. I have to take this point to say
that I was a little disappointed in On The Boards audio/visual
equipment. The standard definition Panasonic projectors look
antiquated to my audio/visual technician eyes. While most venues are
upgrading to high definition projectors with greater color contrast,
the projectors in this venue left a lot to be desired. I also wasn't
blown away by the venue's powered QSC speakers. Sure, they were able
to put out a lot of sound, but it was without much character. I would
hope the venue would have something more in line with Genelec or even
KRK speakers (KRK make some of the best active speakers I've heard,
but I don't think there are any out there with as much sound output
as QSC). It struck me both evenings that the sound output was on the
bland side from the equipment. I imagine the sound system works much
better for theatre productions, and maybe a rock concert, but not
quite as splendid for experimental electronic music.
I found the visuals in
Spam! to be a bit cheesy and probably more of an afterthought.
During the first movement, there was video footage of the human
cannonball family, and that was nice, but after this the projection
should have been turned off as it didn't add, but rather retracted
from the overall experience.
I find that my review
of the composition may seem harsh, but it really was a piece that
just didn't hit any spots of passion within me. What did blow me away
is how the performers made this piece great. The dedication with
which they approached this, and indeed all the music of the two days,
is outstanding. We do need to be aware that there probably is more
uninteresting music than real gems. Finding performers who will treat
everything they play as if it is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is
essential to presenting new music. If we don't take this music as
seriously as we would a piece of such monumental caliber, how will we
ever continue to have great music? So what my thought comes down to
is that the piece itself was pretty unforgettable, but the
performance was quite stellar.
For a very different
reaction of the composition, Fausto Romitelli's piece An Index of
Metals, is one of my new favorite pieces. I can't believe I've
gone so long without hearing it. Anyone who was not at this
performance needs to find a recording and listen to it. I'm looking
for one myself!
Romitelli tragically
died in 2004 in his early 40's, and if his body of work is anything
like An Index of Metals (I'm working at absorbing his
collection), I've discovered a new favorite composer. He was a
student of Tristan Murail, Gérard Grisey, Michael Lévinas, and
Hugues Dufourt. But what is possibly the main catalyst to his unique
composition and approach to sound creation was an influence and
desire to break down barriers between art music and pop music.
The influence of
psychedelic rock and roll is very clear in this composition. The
title itself, An Index of Metals, is fitting because there are
many moments of heavy metal. I heard influences of Led Zepplin and
Black Sabbath throughout and the use of electric guitar (plugged into
the glorious Marshall amplifier) really made the piece seem like a
1960’s or 1970’s underground rock concert.
Throughout the
intermission before the piece, there was a recording playing over the
sound system. It was like an old organ sound track to a silent film.
There would be silence and then the organ sounds and a sudden stop as
if a needle was pulled off a record. This lasted the length of the
intermission and was present in the beginning of the performance
letting everyone become aware that it was actually part of the piece.
The electronic sounds
used throughout the piece were cool, but I again felt that a better
speaker system would have made them seem even more alive. I also wish
there had been more spatialized movement with the sound, because I
think the audio was primarily in two channels. If the piece were
realized with an octophonic system, we could have been much more
immersed in sound. With the entire ensemble also amplified through
the system, there could have been a great deal of possibilities
created with more sound movement.
An Index of Metals
also had video projection. All visual material was metal. Often the
image was so close up, I would wonder if I was looking at some porous
organic substance. The three projectors had different images, but
they were always with the same source material. Again, a higher lumen
count projector, and higher resolution could have really made this
sparkle. This piece had a much more necessary video portion. While
the previous piece felt unnecessary with its video choice, Romitelli
had a piece that was very much a gesamtkunstwerk (to bring
Wagner into this) that featured collaboration between a librettist
(Kenka Lèkovich) and two video artists (Paolo Pachini and Léonardo
Romoli). With the diligence brought by each of these artists, the
work stood on its own as a fantastic piece of art.
With a great deal of
interesting orchestration choices and dedicated performers, the
musical ensemble played this piece with as much great attention to
detail as Luis Tinoco’s earlier piece. The ensemble could reflect a
very dark ambience, a generic movie score, and an underground dance
club. While the electronic sounds played a great role in this
atmosphere, I felt that if they had been removed, the ensemble could
have reflected the same feel with all the classical instruments. Of
course, I must mention both Jon Green playing electric bass and
Michael Nicolella playing electric guitar. The way these two could
add a heavy metal rock element to the ensemble in a very controlled
and very strong way was one of the highlights of the composition.
The vocalist, Polish
soprano Agata Zubel, was phenomenal. The composer leaves no real
information about how the piece is supposed to be performed apart
from text and pitch material. Zubel made some wonderful choices with
her tone quality, use of vibrato, and dynamic control. Because of all
the loud music, she had a microphone, but unfortunately, her voice
was still lost at times. I’m not sure if this was intentional, but
I like vocals to be more present than I heard at times. Zubel has a
very passionate approach to new music because of her background as a
composer. Being a composer, in my opinion, helps a performer
appreciate and understand the performance of contemporary music.
The libretto used
seemed unrelated to the concept of metals, but it follows a three
part poem called, Metalsushi. This libretto has titles of
hallucinations, and it is rather experimental in its own right as
prose or poetry. What is probably most interesting to me about the
libretto is that it was originally written in a different language
(maybe Croatian?) but translated for this composition into English.
Composers usually want to work with text written in the original
language with the original intent and inflections that come with
working with a writer’s original words. The choice for English is
interesting, but the end result is undeniable.
I should also note that
Marcin Pączkowski was present through the night as a cue man
controlling the electronic sounds. I don’t know if I’ve been
criticizing his work as a sound engineer, but I don’t think he had
much to do with the actual sound mixing. The use of the electronic
sounds was very nice and integral to Romitelli’s piece in
particular, and they were executed very competently.
Alastair Willis was the
conductor for the entire night. I learned that he was placed well
outside his comfort zone. Willis is a conductor more accustomed to
traditional orchestral music, but he did a wonderful job keeping the
ensemble together for this music. As a conductor, one has to lead and
really take the credit (or blame) for the resultant music. In this
instance, Willis can be proud that the music presented was performed
extremely well and with a lot of clear passion and love.
I left this concert
completely blown away by An Index of Metals. This first
evening of the Icebreaker festival was wonderful. This was the sort
of performance one would easily find in the famous venues of New
York, London, Berlin, or any famous city for experimental new music.
I have very little critical words to say about the performance of the
music presented. While I could name the performers that I felt were
the strongest (Cristina Valdez on piano, Paul Taub on flute, Tony
DiLorenzo on trumpet, Michael Nicolella on guitar, Jon Green on bass,
and Jared Michael Brown as well as Agata Zubel as vocal soloists), I
would not say that any other musician was a weak link. The reason why
these performers stick out to me is more because of the way the
instruments were used during the compositions as opposed to “better”
playing by these performers.
Where I find the most
critical of my thoughts are beyond the control of typical musicians
performance. I did have an expectation that On The Boards would have
better equipment. I work professionally as an audio/visual
technician, so I am working daily with data projectors and audio
equipment. My time working in this field has probably made me a bit
of a snob, but if a musician is going to spend thousands of dollars
on a high quality instrument and thousands of hours perfecting their
skills on that instrument, I feel that a venue should also be willing
to invest in the highest quality instruments. I was probably alone in
my critique of the projectors, but if their image was compared with a
Barco or Christie projector, I think the difference would be
instantly clear. I would think my thoughts may not necessarily be my
own as far as the audio quality (I assume there were many musicians
in the audience). Location is vital when listening to electronic
music, and I may have been in a bad location. I was in the second row
from the stage, so I may have been non-ideally placed for the
speakers. Had I had more time, I would have liked to speak with the
sound engineer to hear his or her thoughts on mixing this
performance. On The Boards does almost entirely experimental art, but
I think the focus is more on theatre, and the venue could benefit
from an electronic musician acting as a consultant for an equipment
upgrade.
Overall, this was a
fantastic performance that I was delighted to attend. Did you see the
concert? What do you think?
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