Wandelweiser + Bozzini in Victoria, day 2

 

The second day of the Wandelweiser + Bozzini concerts was once again at Open Space in Victoria B.C. My report on the first day of concerts can be read here: Wandelweiser + Bozzini in Victoria, day 1 and my introduction to these concerts here: Wandelweiser in Victoria. Day 2 was another beautiful sunny day in Victoria which made for very pleasant concert environment with the  sounds of the harbor – including some seriously baritone ship horns – and the pleasantly warm sunlight.

The afternoon concert featured two composers that I was completely unfamiliar with Thomas Stiegler from Germany and Daniel Brandes from right here in Victoria B.C.. Daniel, whom I talked to briefly before this concert (and also on Twitter) I would describe as a second generation Wandelweiser composer; a student of Antonie Beuger he definitely seems to be in that lineage. Of course this being the only piece of his I’ve heard can’t expound on his body of work, but from what I heard here I think that to be the case. Thomas Stieger, though his bio is rather brief on the Wandelweiser site,  would seem to be an early member of the collective. He’s trained and works as a physician but his CV lists him winning a composition prize in 1997, not too long after the founding of Wandeweiser.  It was nice to have an introduction to two new composers especially in a live context which seems to be the best way to experience this music.

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Wandelweiser + Bozzini at Open Space, Victoria B.C.

Quatuor Bozzini: Clemens Merkel, Stéphanie Bozzini, Isabelle Bozzini, Mira Benjamin
Wandelweiser Komponisten Ensemble: Jürg Frey, Thomas Stiegler, Antoine Beuger, Daniel Brandes

 

 Daniel Brandes, Jürg Frey (obscured) Thomas Stiegler, Stéphanie Bozzini, Clemens Merkel, Isabelle Bozzini & Mira Benjamin

Concert #3 Sunday, June 9, 2013, 2:30 p.m.

1) Daniel Brandes a tenuous “we” (2013)

performers: Jürg Frey (clarinet),  Antoine Beuger (flute), Thomas Stiegler (viola), Stefan Maier (guitar), Quatuor Bozzini (Clemens Merkel (violin), Stéphanie Bozzini (viola), Isabelle Bozzini (cello), Mira Benjamin (violin))

This piece was for the largest ensemble of the series and included the entire Bozzini Quartet along with Stiegler, Beuger and Frey and for his only performance of the weekend Stefan Maier playing electric guitar.  Maier played his guitar with eBow generating long, sustained low tones. Likewise for the other instruments, with long drawn out, barely affected tones. There was also a set of text fragments, which were included in the series program, that were read out by the performers. The vocal performances were akin to that of the Beuger piece from yesterday, all murmured and hummed and rather self-consciously performed. Considering that Brandes was a student of Beuger this seems a pretty direct influence here. It also makes me wonder how deliberate that vocal performance style is.  As I noted in my thoughts on the Beuger piece I’m not very taken by this type of vocal performances and this held for this piece.  Otherwise I found the long, shifting instrumental lines rather pleasant and I found the piece quite accommodating to the sounds of seagulls and several conversations from the mezzanine down below.  Especially at the times when the piece was purely instrumental – which as I assume the material of the piece was gone through at the performers desecration was arbitrary  – did it seem to almost provide a background “wash” for the compelling exterior sounds.

Here’s a selection of the text fragments used in the piece:

1. nobody else could hope, except for those who grieve
3. enter the silence again, in the midst of words
4. loss has made a tenuous “We” of us all
9. only a poem could bring the grief to notice. the poem, so urgent and so fragile

2) Thomas Stiegler

Gelbe Birne III (2008) (violin, clarinet, violoncello)
Treibgut 1/2 (2011) (violin, violoncello)
Gelbe Birne VI (2013) (string quartet, world premiere)
Und.Ging.Außen.Vorüber (I) – for 3 voices and 3 radios (2005) 

Performers: The first three pieces performed by Quatuor Bozzini and subsets
Und.Ging,Außen.Vorüber (I) – for 3 voices and 3 radios (2005) performed by Jürg Frey (voice),  Antoine Beuger (voice), Thomas Stiegler (voice)

The rest of the afternoon program was pieces by Thomas Stiegler. These were all very short except for the last two. I should note that the program lists these pieces in a different order (the string quartet first) but according to my recollection (and notes) the string quartet, which was the longest of all the pieces was final piece before the piece for 3 voices. My notes weren’t very good for this part of the concert, which I’ll replicate here:

• The first piece rather pointillistic and very short < 100 notes

• The second piece made me think of Lachenman with it’s scratchy extended techniques and rather staccato style. Again a short piece only a few minutes.

• Quartet long, vibrato-less drones that went on for a long time and unraveled at the end with rapid dry bowing and then an abrupt simultaneous end.

• Frey, Stiegler, Beuger – each reading fragments of words and such in German. Frey seemed to be almost just reading syllables and Beuger repeated single words and in the middle Stiegler  The speakers were then joined by the titular 3 radios toward the end, which were playing randomly tuned Victoria stations – mostly pop music. The speakers kept it up in the same fashion they had been reading, though a bit haggard at this point.

 
I have to admit I wasn’t taken by the short pieces, or by the text piece. I did enjoy the longer string quartet quite a bit. It was rather drone-y with a single note played by the players in an unaffected style. This continued for a long time varied only by subtly beating tones until the last minute or so where they shifted to these rapid shorter attacks and it had the feeling of coming apart at the seems and then suddenly ending. Really interesting piece and one the fit into the space really well.

 

Clemens Merkel, Stéphanie Bozzini, Isabelle Bozzini & Mira Benjamin

Concert #4 Sunday, June 9, 2013, 8:00 p.m.

1) Antoine Beuger little more than a whisper (2010)

Performers: Jürg Frey (Clarinet) & Antoine Beuger (flute)

A primarily soft, gentle piece that structurally seemed rather call and response, that is they seemed to play in reaction to each other. In this it seemed like some Christian Wolff pieces I’m familiar with where the instructions are that your options are informed by what you are hearing from your partners in the performance. The sounds were mostly rather short tones with the occasional  scales and a  small amount of extended technique – tongue clicks and over-breathing and the like. There was one or two slightly loud bits, that is to say louder than the overall softness, that seemed to be in reaction to something the other had done. There’d be something from say Jürg and you’d see a slightly quizzical expression from Antoine which he’d respond with something that would slip into slightly louder territory. Really engaging and charming piece.

Antoine Beuger little more than a whisper score

After the concerts I took a peek at the score and it did seem to have the elements of interaction that I sensed there. I took a (bad) cameraphone picture of it which if you squint hard enough you might be able to make out some of. But the instructions are that the performers alternate sounds, they should be uniformly soft and the that alternated sounds should constitute a phrase. I like the instruction that between the phrases there should be “some silence to allowing the previous phrase to resonate in memory“.

2) Jürg Frey Streichquartett 3 (2010-12)

Performers: Quatuor Bozzini (Clemens Merkel (violin), Stéphanie Bozzini (viola), Isabelle Bozzini (cello), Mira Benjamin(violin))

The final piece of the concert series was a string quartet from Jürg Frey.  Now I should note that in my initial introduction to the Wandelweiser Ensemble one of the recordings I listened to was Frey’s String Quartet Disc on Edition Wandelweiser Records and I didn’t care for it at all. While I have gotten into the works of many other Wandelweiser composers (Pisaro and Beuger especially) I’d really not delved much further into Frey’s works. In this concert series it was his pieces that I enjoyed the most (along with the Pisaro) and was the most revelatory to me. So I was quite interested to hear this String Quartet – would it be how I recalled his earlier ones, or more in line with the piece of his I’d heard the day before? The piece was rather Feldman-like sharing his penchant for beginning and ending abruptly, utilizing lots of unison playing and was of course overall soft but not extremely so. I found this to be a nice piece and found it to be another highlight of the weekend. While not as long as a late Feldman piece – it was around 30 minutes perhaps – it did have several different sections to it. Along with the aforementioned unison play there was some solo violin from Clemens Merkel and some very dry rustling playing from the whole group. There were some sections that had a melancholy melodic feel, reminding me a bit of Mihaly Vig’s Werckmeister Harmonies score. I felt it was of a nice length, deliberately paced throughout with no real dramatic moments. I wouldn’t have complained if it had been a longer even.

And that was that. Another weekend of music done and as with all concert series it had pieces I enjoyed more than others.  But it is always welcome to get to hear new pieces from new composers especially in a live situation. Nothing I felt was horrible or hard to sit through or anything like that – some things were just more to my taste than others. With the nature of the entire series even for pieces that didn’t grab me it was was pleasant in context to the surroundings and environmental sounds. It was a lovely weekend in Victoria and it was great to be introduced to Open Space, which I am sure I will be attending concerts at again.

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 Christopher Reiche, Daniel Brandes & Thomas Stiegler

 

There was again a Q&A following the afternoon concert this time with Daniel Brandes and Thomas Stiegler again hosted by Christopher Reiche of Open Space. It was again mostly questions from the audience with a few from Reiche. I  had a harder time transcribing this one but I’ll again paste in what I was able to jot down again with a few corrections, clarifications and not much commentary.

Day 2 Q & A

? About the radio
Stiegler – Talked about the text, but I missed most of it. From artists with disabilities.

? about the durations
Stiegler – First couple pieces short and commissions, The quartet was written fast about a woman who died at 40. Put together with other short pieces.

Brandes – His piece not of fixed duration includes the instruction ‘duration: ends somehow’ he works with Beuger and he also had a piece with that direction. This Music is supposed to be immersive and a duration would impose he felt.

Clemens Merkel (Bozzini violinist) – mentioned they just recently replaced two short pieces with the long Stiegler quartet which begins with sustained Es.

? a subversive performer could refuse to let the peice end, would at not be in the spirit of the music?
Brandes – I find this peculiar notion of the subversive performer; would have to dislike me a lot to go to all the trouble. It’s about creating a sense of community of navigating this space together. Questions arise of how to begin, how to end how to play together. If players love the piece thy will find a way to end. (Long pause)

? why do you choose the specific material?
Stiegler – A piece without pitches (the long quartet IIRC) this was inspired by seeing a similar piece at a festival.

? community keeps coming up. How to foster that beyond the concert space
It’s music playing or listening teaches us something if you are sensitive to the situation, about gentleness, caring and such.

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All my photos from the concerts can be found here: Wandelweiser + Bozzini photoset on Flickr

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Wandelweiser + Bozzini in Victoria, day 1

 

Open Space is pretty much right in the thick of a prime tourist zone Victoria, British Columbia and is a rectangular, bright, acoustically sound space. Really perfect venue for this kind of music in that some sounds drifted in from outside, but it wasn’t all just traffic. A skylight above the performance area let in natural light and the occasional pop’s and groans as it expanded in the sun. Most striking was Wendy Hough‘s Wall Drawing, which stretched across the entire back wall forming a hypnotic backdrop. A semi-cicle of chairs in two long rows was setup for the afternoon concerts and a third row added dynamically as the evening shows filled up. A really good crowd I though and the Open Space music director told me that they averaged around 25 people for most of their new music events. Pretty impressive – when I saw fellow Wandelweiser  composer Micheal Pisaro in Seattle, at a venue that is basically the Seattle’s equivalent to Open Space there was only a handful of people in attendance.

The concert series was over two days with an afternoon concert, followed by a Q&A, then an evening concert. If you attended all four concerts, as I did, you were able to hear 12 pieces from 6 different composers. I’ve listened to various Wandelweiser composers for maybe 5-6 years now and just like everything certain things appeals to me more than others. There is also a lot of material from this collective which has been active for more than 15 years now and I’ve hardly heard it all. So for me when discussing composed pieces the historical context, both of the composers own compositional history as well as the lineage in which they are situated is really key. Since I feel that I can only provide limited insight in that vein here I am going to mostly try to sketch out the overall nature of the pieces. I should also add that I don’t feel that a blow-by-blow description of this kind of music is that useful. In the main without actually analyzing the piece I feel that is of limited utility and can actually be misleading. Likewise focusing too much on the environment I think can just be a laundry list and also push understanding of the piece to specifics that undermine the intention.  That is to say that these pieces in general are accepting of these sounds, but not reliant on the specifics that you heard.  This may seem like I’m leaving little to write about but really I’ll talk about all of these aspects, but just in passing without trying to claim any sort of notion of completeness.

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Wandelweiser + Bozzini at Open Space, Victoria B.C.

Quatuor Bozzini: Clemens Merkel, Stéphanie Bozzini, Isabelle Bozzini, Mira Benjamin
Wandelweiser Komponisten Ensemble: Jürg Frey, Thomas Stiegler, Antoine Beuger, Daniel Brandes

 

Antoine Beuger & Jürg Frey

 

Concert #1 Saturday, June 8, 2013, 2:30 p.m.

1) Jürg Frey Canones incerti (2010)

performers: Jürg Frey (clarinet) & Antoine Beuger (flute)

The piece was all held tones with occasional ascending and descending runs. There was beating tones at times between the flute and clarinet that reminded me a bit of The International Nothing. But with the different tonality of the flute and clarinet as opposed to two clarinets this was richer and more engaging in my opinion.  The piece was really nicely paced; not overly spacious but not hurried or at all busy. Overall it was very pretty and it’s softness welcomed the sound of seagulls, the occasional passing pedestrian and motor vehicle. A telephone rang twice in the Open Space office and at the end in the concert venue itself. I’m pretty sure these were unintentional (they occurred the next day) but I thought fitted in nicely with what could be thought of as an overly pretty piece. While that obviously wouldn’t happen at every performance, the equivalent certainly could.  This was maybe my favorite piece of the series.

2) Antoine Beuger méditations poétiques sur “quelque chose dàutre” (2012)

performers: Jürg Frey (clarinet), Antoine Beuger (flute), Thomas Stiegler (viola), Clemens Merkel (violin) & Mira Benhamin (violin)

The piece began with Beuger introducing the piece as being based on text fragments from five philosophers. He then read text fragments that the piece utilizes. One immediately makes note that the quintet includes a muscian as representative for each philosopher. Following the reading each performer then clearly worked though a set of material at their own discretion and with each ending at different times. They mumbled and chant/sang bits of the text which were all in French. This seemed very self conscious to me but I should note is not really generally too my taste. It is certainly in the lineage of all of John Cage’s text pieces which frankly I’m pretty mixed on, but can get into a times. So I don’t write off this entire area but I feel that you have to be completely committed: no one would deny that Cage threw himself wholeheartedly into his text performances.  Apart from the text readings the played pitches were nice, mixing a variety of traditional tonal playing along with faint, dusty scraping of strings at times. Each performer stopped after they worked through their material and the performance concluded with just Frey on the clarinet.

Concert #2 Saturday, June 8, 2013, 8:00 p.m.

1) Michael Pisaro – asleep, river, bells, chords (2009)

performers: Jürg Frey (clarinet),  Antoine Beuger (flute), Clemens Merkel (violin), Stéphanie Bozzini (viola) + Field Recordings

The field recordings seemed to be of a bus stop with cars, birds, various voices and the busses pulling in (un)loading and pulling out. The recording was rather loud and included within it various synthetic tones and sine waves. The strings mostly played very quiet long dry strokes. The flute and clarinet petty much blended right in with the field recording but also was long held soft ntes. the peice is interacting tones and incidental sounds. I really enjoyed this piece, especially the balance between the field recording, additional natural sounds from outside the venue, the pre-recorded sounds seamlessly blending in and then the nearly inaudible classical instrumentation. This is clearly in the same family as asleep, street, pipes, tones the recording of which was put out on the Gravity Wave label.  In the linked blog post he describes how he put together the recording used for that piece from snippets of pipe organ, vocal pieces, sine waves and field recordings. While we don’t have the specifics for this piece it clearly is in the same style but in my opinion the live performance aspect works better. I especially appreciated the bowed strings here but I also think that the higher tones of the clarinet and flute also worked really well. This piece was right up there among my favorites from this series and was happy this was part of the repertoire as Pisaro was the only Wandelweiser composer not present from whom a work was performed.

2) Martin Arnold – Waltz Organum (2012)

performers: Jürg Frey (clarinet), Quatuor Bozzini (Clemens Merkel (violin), Stéphanie Bozzini (viola), Isabelle Bozzini (cello), Mira Benjamin(violin))

This was a more standard new music peice for string quartet and clarinet from a Canadian composer not associated with the Wandelweiser collective. The art supporting agencies always require works from Canadians to get grants and this piece I presume was at least present for that reason. That being said it was okay if nothing very remarkable. It was mostly muted strings, playing mostly long tones rather dry, without vibrato. It was all very upper register in the strings and the clarinet also was rather high and quiet. The cello often played percussively by bouncing the bow on the strings. The piece was constructed from several rather disparate, movements giving it a rather episodic feel. They reorganized the performers and their setup for the different combinations: one movement was violin and cello only and IIRC at least one was the quintet and then various trios.

Antoine Beuger, Jürg Frey & Christopher Reiche

There was a Q&A with Jürg Frey and Antoine Beuger following the afternoon concert hosted Christopher Reiche of Open Space. It was mostly questions from the audience with a few from Reiche. I sort of transcribed this the best I could so I thought I’d just paste that here at the end of this post with a few corrections, clarifications but not much commentary.

Day 1 Q & A

? how did you all meet?
(This was how Bozzini met the Wandelweiser group and I didn’t record the answer)

? Political importance; music displays passivity yet is confident.
Frey – my music doesn’t work when it’s loud, doesn’t make sense. When I want it to be loud I composer explicitly for trumpets and trombones because they are naturally loud. When it’s quiet the sound is primary, the musician doesn’t have to push it. When I want a loud piece I use brass or a whole orchestra. It’s not pushing it to be loud; it just is loud.

Beuger – (specifically, addressing the political part of the question) Music always has an inherent political meaning, about how we deal with each other. In a piece of music you are dealing with each other in a specific way. I hope musical situations can include a promise, about how the world could be, if we would deal with each with a lot of care and attention as per the peice they played.

Frey – why should I shout through the notes when I can speak? I try to deal with them in similar way as I’d try to deal with my friends. Try to find out what the notes want to do. If they are in balance (with himself) no need to shout.

? Do you compose in real time?

Frey- These two pieces have no fixed duration. You have to have security with the situation. It can take a long time.

? w/r/t performer choice. Christopher Reiche relayed a bit of advice a teach had given him: Imagine the worst possible interpretation of a piece and if you are okay with that than your notation is okay.

Beuger – This is a bad piece of advice. As composers we have to understained that we are not making the music it is the musicians who do. At its best it is a collaboration. My job is to have a relation of trust with those who play my music. I try to create a situation in which the musicians can feel comfortable. It is an ethical problem. If the players can feel at ease and be attentive to what they are doing and pay attention to each other then I’ve done my job, that is the quality in the composition. There has been more and more mistrust of the last 200 years between musician and composer. That is not what notation is or should be about.

Frey – What is the worst? What is possible for a piece? (he then relayed a story about Andrew Lee playing his piano pieces which he didn’t like at first. The realized at Lee played it as it was written and didn’t insert himself into it, which Frey assumes and generally prefers).

? what constitutes a good or accurate performance? What has to be there?

Beuger – no such thing as an accurate performance with my scores. I just sit and listen and the music either pleases me or not. It’s hard to say if ere is a good or bad performance. That is what we are writing music for, for the performance.

? So you think of yourself as more of a catalyst?

Beuger – Music is a practice, part of a culture a way of doing things. Celebrating life. Think of it like going to a Blues Pub – you go for being in that experience. What we are doing is similar.

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All my photos from the concerts can be found here: Wandelweiser + Bozzini photoset on Flickr

Wandelweiser in Victoria

So I am heading up north to Victoria B.C. in Canada to catch a two day concert series of Wandelweiser compositions. The Wandelweiser Komponisten Ensemble (Jürg Frey, Thomas Stiegler, Antoine Beuger, Daniel Brandes) will be performing several pieces as will be Quatuor Bozzini (Clemens Merkel, Stéphanie Bozzini, Isabelle Bozzini, Mira Benjamin).  Should be a good time and I always love visiting Victoria. If any readers of the blog are going to likewise be in attendance (and I certainly encourage any in the region to make the attempt) do say “hi”. I’ll put in the full details on the concert, venue and the like from the event webpage below.

 

Concert Series Info

Event: Wandelweiser + Bozzini
Artists: Quatuor Bozzini (Clemens Merkel, Stéphanie Bozzini, Isabelle Bozzini, Mira Benjamin), Wandelweiser Komponisten Ensemble (Jürg Frey, Thomas Stiegler, Antoine Beuger, Daniel Brandes)

Place: Open Space, 510 Fort Street, 2nd Floor

Concert Programs

Concert #1 Saturday, June 8, 2013, 2:30 p.m.
Jürg Frey – Canones incerti (2010)
Antoine Beuger – méditations poétiques sur “quelque chose dàutre” (2012)

Concert #2 Saturday, June 8, 2013, 8:00 p.m.
Michael Pisaro – asleep, river, bells, chords (2009)
Martin Arnold – Waltz Organum (2012)

Concert #3 Sunday, June 9, 2013, 2:30 p.m.
Daniel Brandes – a tenuous “we” (2013)
Thomas Stiegler – Und.Ging,Außen.Vorüber (IV)- for string quartet (2007)
Thomas Stiegler – Gelbe Birne III (2008)
Thomas Stiegler – Treibgut 1/2 (2011)
Thomas Stiegler – Gelbe Birne I (2007)
Thomas Stiegler – Und.Ging,Außen.Vorüber (I)- for 3 voices and 3 radios (2005)

Concert #4 Sunday, June 9, 2013, 8:00 p.m.
Antoine Beuger – little more than a whisper (2010)
Jürg Frey – Streichquartett 3 (2010-12)

Ives Ensemble in Vancouver

Ives Ensemble

On Thursday March 5^th 2009 I took the day off from work and drove north to Canada to see the Ives Ensemble.  They’d been brought into Canada by  Contiuum Contemporary Music for their SHIFT Festival of Canadian and Dutch music.  Having a largish group flown in from the Netherlands for a festival seems a bit extravagant so working with various Canadian arts organizations they scheduled a few more dates across Canada.  Vancouver New Music was one of these organizations and they managed to bring them to Vancouver as part of their Sonic Tonic series for the final date of their tour.

VNM almost always has an “artist chat” an hour before their concerts and tonight was no exception.  I managed to make it to the ScotiaBank Dance Centre just a few minutes after 7pm and about 5 minutes before the chat began. The entire ensemble was in a semi-circle of chairs in the front of a dance studio complete with an entire mirrored wall. VNM director Giorgio Magnanensi, who is now sporting a great and wild beard, began by asking them the details of their tour.  Most of the questions were fielded by John Snijders, the founder of the ensemble, but at various times several of the members would chime in.  They spoke of the SHIFT Festival and how it commissioned new works from Canadian and Dutch composers and about the concerts and workshops they did in Toronto.  This sounded like a very interesting cultural exchange and I think a very positive type of event for new music, especially in the commissioning and performing of new works.  The Canadian composer they chose for the commission was Allison Cameron and Giorgio told us an anecdote about him getting flack from the CBC for programming her music in a festival back when she was a lot less well known. There was also a series of questions from the audience about female composers and their level of representation.   On the question of female representation John gave what I think is the most sensible answer: it all comes down to the quality of the composition, there is no issue w/r/t the sex of the composer. This led to several questions about compositions written especially for them and John told us that they rarely get unsolicited compositions mainly because they are very picky on what they choose to play. He then brought up that when playing festivals the programmers really want “World Premiers” and that this leads to an issue where a piece is often only played that one time, as after that performance they need the next world premier.  He said that for them they have found that many pieces benefit from repeat performance:

“Returning to a piece you find that it has become a part of you – comfortable.”

One of the other members then chimed in to say that playing a piece many times is “Honest to the piece” and that it matures and you discover more. This sparked a question from the audience about which pieces tonight were particularly “well played” pieces and they answered that the Viola in my Life was but not the other Feldman, the Xenakis was a newer piece for them and obviously the the Cameron was being a commission. But the rest of them they had played many times, greater then ten times each.  All in all a very interesting chat, very interesting to hear about the various experiences that working in an ensemble like this engenders.

About a half an hour after the chat ended the concert began just a little but after 7pm.  I had scored a seat front row center and the acoustics at this distance was pretty incredible, I could hear all the nuences of the instruments loud and clear.  The first set began with Straight Lines in Broken Times composed by Christopher Fox.  This piece is I believe what they call “post-minimalism”, in that it is made up of fragments of many different styles and was scored for piano, clarinet and violin.  While segments of it were made up of almost Glass-like short repeated phrases others evoked classicism and still others evoked various folk traditions with one bit having a distinctly Klezmer-ish sound. The most interesting part of this piece was a section where the clarinet dropped out, then a couple of minutes later the violin leaving just solo piano for a few measures before they came back in.  Not really my kind of thing, but it aptly demonstrated the skill and touch of the ensemble.  They left the stage and then these three, plus a cellist came back out to play the first of four Postcards by Allison Cameron.  This composition, Four Postcards, was designed to be played in as part of a program and each of them was stylistically diverse and only a couple of minutes long. I came to wonder if they were actually written for this specific program as they seemed stylistic informed by the other pieces.  Like the Fox the first Postcard was rapid little fragments from the quartet, each of them working little independent rhythmic structures.  There was very short violin solo in which it played longer tones in contrast to the rest of the piece. I wasn’t very taken by this piece either and I was becoming a bit depressed. Fortunately the Feldman piece that followed restored my spirits, though at around 8 minutes left me wanting.  Four Instruments (1975) is scored for the same quartet as Feldmans final piece, Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello and has much of the same feel as that piece. It was amazing to watch the ensemble settle down, almost visible changing gears as shifted into Feldman mode.  The vibrato was gone, the bow strokes flat and affectless, piano notes suspended. Really fantastic and when it ended so soon I felt a sense of loss. How I wish this set had been just a performance of Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello.  This was followed by the second Postcard, which was very similar to the first, made of short little energetic fragments from the same line up of instruments. This time though there was a short piano solo as opposed to the violin, but like that it was less frenetic then the rest of the piece.  The final piece of this set was Gerald Barry’s  Piano Quartet nr. 1 scored for piano, violin, viola and ‘cello. This piece was incredibly frenetic, the only piece that had to have a page turner for the violist (primarily, also turned a page or two for the ‘cellist) and also the longest of this set.  Frankly I didn’t enjoy it at all, it just seemed like an exercise in excess.  Fast repeated, short sounds broken up by various, equally fast solo sections.  There were a number of folk reference; an almost ragtime piano and the piece concluded with a very direct nod to Irish reels and jigs (though the ensemble didn’t really nail the trad ornamentation).  The musicians didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves much as they played the piece, but this is one of the pieces they often play.

There was followed by intermission, in which I had a cup of red wine and took a look at the CDs the ensemble had brought with them. Alas they didn’t have any of the hat[Now]ART CDs that are OOP, all the ones they had were readily available and were quite expensive.  Shortly thereafter I was back in my seat for the second half of the concert which opened with the third Postcard. This was my favorite of the Postcards and the one were I began to suspect that these were tied to this specific program (or perhaps for the Ives Ensembles typical repertoire).  It was for the same instruments with bass clarinet replacing the standard clarinet. It began with long mournful ‘cello lines that was then joined with longer tones from the bass clarinet.  This piece had a much more Feldman-esque feel then the frantic insect-like nature of her earlier postcards.  It wasn’t all long slow lines though, the piano added a nice bit of spiky counterpoint to these as did the ‘cellist at one point by plucking his strings.  The Viola in My Life 2 followed and was by far the highlight of the evening. Once again the ensemble shifted into slow gear and once again displayed their incredible touch for this music.  The violist was of course front and center, standing up for this piece, and was joined by the violin, clarinet, flute, percussionist and the pianist on celesta. It was fascinating to watch this piece, which I’m quite familiar with, unfold, the percussionist gentle shaking stuff in his hands at first then later gentle tapping a snare with his hands and occasionally bring out a few notes on the vibraphone.  The celesta was rarely used, almost like another percussion instrument, adding a single ringing chord every so often to sublime effect.  The viola of course was front and center with its mournful melodic phrase brought in again and again in various permutations.  Really wonderful, again I longed for a whole evening of Feldman from this ensemble.  This piece brought the greatest audience reaction including a spontaneous “Bravo!” from one of the members.  The violist got an extra, well deserved, round of applause.  The group returned for the final Postcard with the same lineup as the last but this time there were two additional performers carrying books and candles. They lit their candles and sat on the floor on either side of the musicians.  After initial longer tones (the solo as it were) from the bass clarinet the group played short little fragments, but they were soft and sedate sort of in-between the styles of the first and third. These little segments were clearly to be played and repeated as long as the readers kept reading. They blew out their candles, first the reader on the right and then a minute or two later the reader on the left, as they finished whatever prescribed bit of reading they had to do and then the piece ended. This was my second favorite of the Postcards a really nice sounding piece with a clever bit of indeterminacy. The final piece was Plektó composed by Iannis Xenakis for flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin and ‘cello.  I’ve heard a decent amount of Xenakis’s chamber works but this piece was new to me. Like a lot of his pieces it was pretty aggressive and bombastic. The percussion was a big floor tom, a huge bass drum and little tom-toms and these were heavily worked. The piano was also literally pounded and at one point there was a near call and response between the piano and drums. The other instruments created this swirling miasma of long tones often creating dissonance and almost beating tones between them.  The piece was right on the edge I felt, a lot of the drum work was almost cheesy but the dissonances and the contrasts between the various elements kept my attention. It was definitely an exciting specticle to see live.  This concluded the set and they ensemble left to much applause.

Eventually waving away the appluse, John Snijders introduced the encore, Langzame Verjaardag (slow birthday) which was a piece written by Louis Andriessen for the groups 20th Anniversery.  This piece featured all of the ensemble but Snijders who stood off to one side. He descibred the piece as a “canon in unison where each member can enter at will”.  This piece was really nice, slow long tones, unfolding and overlapping and eventually fading away as each member finished their part. Eventually it was just the flautist who played three or four phrases before he to was done. A really nice ending to a great evening of music.

Cosmos at VNM

Cosmos at the Vancouver New Music Festival

Yesterday I left work early and made the 3 hour trek up to Vancouver to see Cosmos. OK drive, traffic was tolerable at this hour and the border wait was 15 minutes or so. My MapQuest directions got me easily to the location and I found parking just 2 blocks away. I actually got there 45min early, so I had time to exchange some cash and have a beer. The venue is the ScotiaBank Dance Centre which is a great space. Several floors with dance studios, all of a good size and well lit. In the bottom floor was a performance room which had great lighting a big projection system and great surround sound. The seating was little tables on the same level as the performers.

Panel (L to R): Sachiko M, Ami Yoshida, translator, Giorgio Magnanensi

The first act was Vivian Houle and Stefan Smulovitz. The was a laptop and vocal duo. This was so awful I began to regret leaving work early and dashing up to Vancouver. Thankfully there was an artist talk with Cosmos directly following this. The artist talk was in a dance studio with everyone seated in a circle with Sachiko, Ami and a translator all together at one edge. There were several knowledgeable proponents of their “style” of music that asked most of the questions and even answered some of them. There were two older guys who were clearly “experimental” music fans but were questioning this trend toward ultra minimalism. One guy mentioned seeing a performer play one chord in 30 min. He pointed out that to do this often becomes predictable. Interesting I thought, though not really the case with Cosmos in specific. When asked about “Onkyo” Sachiko replied that they don’t like be lumped together with that term, but they find it convenient to use. Finally as the time was up and some people were walking out Sachiko informed us that there is no philosophy or meaning behind their music they just want you to have fun. I found this interesting, in that I get a lot of satisfaction out of their music but I’m not sure if “fun” is the best descriptor for that. More intellectual to me, but maybe that’s just me. Sachiko had also made the point that they put the music out there and it is up to the individual to find in it what they may (this was in reaction to a guy comparing this to older traditional minimal Japanese forms) I wish I caught the name of the guy moderating the session (It’s Giorgio Magnanensi of course -ed.). He had a great story of going to see a Butoh performance in Japan with Otomo and Sachiko that had no music. Just silent dancing. He said that at first he was questioning this lack of music but then began to create associations with the ambient sounds. They ended up watching this for hours and he claimed that it was one of the most intense musical experiences he ever had.

Next up was Pierre-Andre Arcand who played laptop music with manipulated vocals along with projected video accompaniment. This was much better then the first act but was not super interesting. The video helped keep me entertained for the duration. Inoffensive but nothing new to see here. I skipped the next artist chat as it was with Vivian Houle and Stefan Smulovitz whom I pretty much had no interest in hearing what they had to say (not to mention any potential fawning since they were clearly the audience favorites!)

Finally around 10:30 Sachiko M and Ami Yoshida came out and the Cosmos show began. Sachiko’s initial playing was very similar to her work on disc 1 of Good Morning, Good Night with a very low volume low frequency sine wave that was more felt then heard. This is combined with short clips and cuts and busts of humming or static. Ami began with sparse squeaks and snaps. Sachiko used the contact mic frequently and later in the set much more audible (and more familiar from recorded Cosmos) continuous sine tones. Ami usually led the way with more activity, often rapidly moving between different aspects of her auditory catalog. A catalog which she has expanded BTW from the inventory on Tiger Thrush. Several points that stand out: About half way through the set Ami, slowly and musically removed the mic from it’s stand which she held for the rest of the set. At one point she held it close and drummed her fingers on her thigh which created this very muted texture. She often turned away from the mic or held it far from her body to create different dynamics. Really expert use of the mic. She also had an iPod at the base of the mic stand that she seemed to be using solely as a time piece. Occasionally she would slip a foot out of her trendy shoe and wake the iPod up from sleep. Sachiko was austere almost meditative over her equipment. Head slightly bowed and only minimal movement with her hands. At one point allowing a lone tone to run interrupted for a good five minutes she sat in the pose motionless the entire duration. The dynamics of the set were pretty extreme, often so quiet that a previously unnoticed background hum dominated the field. At other times shrieks from Ami or busts of static from Sachiko would erupt at a volume to make you take notice. The set ended with Sachiko fading out while Ami made muted, rather guttural sounds. Then Sachiko turned of her gear and Ami fell silent. Then a few seconds later a few more sounds from Ami. Then they stood, bowed and walked off.

Great show, about 45min long which is the longest I have heard continuous Cosmos. While I enjoy listening to them a lot, the visual components just add so much. The merch table was well stocked with most of the recent Sachiko and Ami releases (Good Morning, Good Night was there, but not Tears) Also the Filament BOX set which I was quite tempted by. At CN$85 cash only, I managed to resist the temptation. In fact I resisted all temptation and bought nothing and left. I sure did wish though that I didn’t have a 3 hour drive home afterwards.

See all the photos I took in my Cosmos at VNM Flickr set.