Interval is MATA's bi-monthly concert series presented at ISSUE Project Room [gmap]
MATA 3.2 – poweRed Line
Wedneday, March 10th – 8PM
ISSUE Project Room
featuring five premiere performances by
Red Line Sax Quartet
Secret Corners – Baljinder Sekhon
Parallel Circuit – Matt Barber
dmhs – Andrew Colella
~INTERMISSION~
Red Bird – Robert Pierzak
Amalgamation – Andy Akiho
The past several months have been full of hard work and excitement as the final preparations and rehearsal for “poweRed Line” have provided many challenges and provoked many thoughts with regard to “electronic music.” The members of Red Line have worked around the clock preparing these pieces, amidst there already demanding schedule of solo recitals, concerts, conferences, and competitions. The composers have made final adjustments to their electronic elements and the pieces are ready to live in the wonderful space at the ISSUE Project Room. In my previous post, my thoughts were centered around the perception of electronic music as a genre of classical music vs. pieces that happen to use electronics while existing in different stylistic regions. Lately, I have been thinking more about how the process of composing a work with electronics relates to the acoustic compositional approach and would like to tell you a bit more about what to expect from each piece. Specifically, I am interested in how composers work while designing and conceiving of the technological elements of their pieces (i.e. programming, patch creation, spatialization tools, etc.) and how similar or different their thought process is from that of composing notation on a page. The five composers for poweRed Line each designed the electronics that are required to realize their musical vision and often times this process of programming and design follows the same basic method and thought process used for creating an acoustic work; for us, building programs and designing patches to execute specific tasks during our pieces is a unified part of the compositional process. The creative approach, be it an intuitive or systematic one, is no different while writing a Pure Data or MAX patch then it is for writing a string quartet or solo piano work, and each of us involved in this project are presenting works with electronic elements that originated from the creative interests of an individual composer.
My piece, Secret Corners, is largely concerned with the spatialization of sound as the sax quartet and speakers are placed in a “ring” around the audience and treated more like an octet consisting of two quartets of homogeneous instruments rather than a sax quartet which is hierarchically superior to the electronics. I imagine that each of the speakers in my piece are performers interacting with the quartet and offering a contrapuntal yet cohesive layer to the ensemble. I designed my electronics the same way I designed the sax quartet parts; well, I deigned them together as they are really part of a singular idea. There are patterns of spatialization and melodic fragmentation that take place throughout the piece and this occurs in an integrated way between the eight sound sources. The piece behaves in an imitative way, with characteristics similar to a canon or fugue, but the imitation of “subject” and melody is fragmented and the fragments are imitated in different orders and transposition levels by each sound source… often the imitation of a melodic fragment takes place up to 10 minutes after the initial statement. The electronics make much of this possible as delays and oscillator banks are performing fragments the computer initially tracked from an individual saxophone. In some sections of my piece, the four speakers can be thought of as performers who are improvising variations on the material first performed by the sax quartet.
Matt Barber’s piece, Parallel Circuit, uses the same programming environment as mine: Pure Data. However, his goals are quite different and the resulting electronic component has very little similarities. Matt’s piece is in 16 short, contrasting sections and requires a fifth performer to trigger a number of electronic events. From Matt’s design of quarter tone voice leading to the ritualistic activity of each section being separated by the saxophonists striking suspended cymbals, this piece is a like a grab bag full of wonderful toys. Each one is unique in its own way and you never know what you might get next… impossible to pick a favorite and you’ll want to take them all home with you! Matt writes of his piece: “The electronics in Parallel Circuit serve several functions. I use synthesized sounds – bells, bowed metal, harp and hammered-dulcimer, and a sampled wind sound – to complement the sound world of the saxophone quartet, and the cymbals which punctuate each movement. In some of the sections the sounds of the saxophones are processed in order to have them play in harmony or counterpoint with themselves, or to achieve timbres that are not possible with the saxophone alone.” One would probably never guess that our pieces are designed in the same programming environment as they both reflect different compositional interests and creative approaches. For me, this is part of the elusive beauty of electronic music; the medium provides composers with a limitless “ensemble” to compose for, with constraints completely created by the composer and his intuition and not by the physical possibilities of an acoustic instrument. The difference between the use of electronics between my piece and Matt’s is especially interesting to me since I learned everything I know about Pure Data from Matt and, using my own creative interests, designed something quite different than he did.
dmhs, by Andrew Colella, was designed in an environment called MAX/MSP that is conceptually the same as Pure Data. However, once again, Andrew’s piece offers a fresh use of electronics which includes interactive audio and up to three videos! Using a variety of filtered videos, the sources of which are not decipherable, and four-channel sound processing, Andrew creates visual and aural environment that provokes the audience member to make internal connections and associations based on the “baggage” they bring into the concert hall…. much like putting together an abstract piece of art work in your mind as you experience it. It will be interesting to discuss this piece and how you experienced its meaning during intermission. This is the only work on the program that employs the use of video and I can’t wait to experience this in the IPR environment.
Robert Pierzak’s piece is among the most subtle, gentle and beautiful musical experiences I have had in a long time. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from him, since the last several pieces of his were all so different from each other yet part of a large cycle of works entitled “Endangered Banana”. These ranged from a work for any number of saxophones to a work for vocalist and timpani (please check out the YouTube video of Pierzak premiering this work, if you haven’t yet!). However, this new work Red Bird is certainly my favorite Pierzak yet! The piece is relatively long (in clock time) but the experiential time is very misleading… I knew this was in excess of 20 minutes the first time I sat to listen to it in rehearsal but during the performance I became captured by the beauty and whispering melodic qualities it offers and was surprised that it seemed to end so quickly… I could stand to listen to it over and over again. As you relax and think about the inspiration for this piece, a 1964 painting of the same name by Agnes Martin, savor what Pierzak is giving us because you may never want it to end.
The program is sure to end with an explosive event as Andy Akiho’s Amalgamation is on fire from the beginning to end. This piece uses electronics to magnify the percussive characteristics of the saxophone and truly features Red Line’s technical virtuosity. About nine months ago, I sat in a studio with Red Line and took sample after sample of saxophone sounds. I sent these unedited to Akiho and a few months later he sent along the electronic portion of his piece… a complex and driving blend of twisted and magnified saxophone sounds that sound closer to a drum set from another galaxy than a saxophone quartet. The acoustic sax quartet paired with the electronic drumming of saxophone sounds created a unique and excited texture that will blow the roof off of the IPR.
We are all greatly looking forward to presenting these new works to everyone and hope we will have a chance to spend some time talking with everyone after the concert. See you on Wednesday night!
-Baljinder Sekhon, Curator/Composer
Web Resources
MATA Interval 3.2 – poweRed Line
(scroll down to view bios and multimedia work samples)
The Red Line Sax Quartet is comprised of students from the Eastman School of Music, a school of the University of Rochester and America’s “Hottest School for Music” according to the 2008 Kaplan/Newsweek How to get into College guide. Since the group began playing together in the Spring of 2008, Red Line has made a splash at the nation’s top chamber music competitions, winning 1st prize in the 2009 Fischoff and MTNA National Chamber Music Competitions, as well as making their orchestral debut alongside heralded saxophonist Branford Marsalis and the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. In addition, RLSQ was recently given Eastman’s 2009 John Celantano Award for Excellence in Chamber Music. Today, the Red Line Sax Quartet is one of the world’s only chamber music groups to perform full programs from memory, making their live performances uniquely engaging and communicative. They have collaborated with numerous composers, included composer Frank Ticheli who describes their quartet as “among the very best.”
Andy Akiho is an award winning composer and performer with a broad range of interests that stretch from steel pan to western classical music. Akiho was recently featured as a composer on PBS’s “News Hour with Jim Lehrer” and as a percussionist at Carnegie Hall in New York City. His compositions have been recognized by numerous organizations including ASCAP, Meet the Composer, and Bang On a Can. Recent commissions include those for string quartet from ETHEL, a duet for violin and viola from Katherine Fong and Dov Scheindlin of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and a new chamber work entitled No one To kNOW one for The Playground to be premiered at The 2010 Mile High Voltage Festival. Akiho recently studied composition at MSM with Julia Wolfe, and percussion with Jeffrey Milarsky and John Ferrari. He currently studies composition at Yale University School of Music with Christopher Theofanidis and Ezra Laderman.
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Akiho: Work Samples
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21 – Perc, Cello, Electronics (below)
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Vick(i/y) – solo piano (below)
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to wALk Or ruN in wEst harlem (below)
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Matt Barber (b. 1980 in Denver, Colorado) is a composer, performer, and teacher currently residing in Rochester, NY. His music has been performed by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Arapahoe Philharmonic, the Juilliard Orchestra, the Ossia New Music Ensemble, Musica Nova, and other ensembles around the U.S. He has successfully avoided adopting a particular style of composition, and every new piece represents a different and original compositional interest. Matt is an engaging performer specializing in bassoon and recorder, and is in demand as a conductor for music from Bach to Xenakis. He is pursuing a PhD in Composition at the Eastman School of Music, where he has taught composition and computer music courses. He completed his undergraduate work at the Juilliard School studying with Milton Babbitt, and is currently completing his dissertation in the PhD program at the Eastman School of Music.
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Barber: Work Samples
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Excerpt from Interface Chapel, “Body and Aether” (below)
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Barber’s Dozen for Metallophones and Electronic Bells (below)
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Mu for Violin + Piano (below)
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Andrew Colella is a master’s student in the Music Technology program at Georgia Tech, where he is focused on integrating the creative applications of music with the current revolutions in technology. He seeks to expand the methods in which computers interact with music and in turn, how humans interact with computers. Andrew completed his undergraduate composition degree at the Eastman School of Music and his music has been performed around the world with performances in Italy and Japan. His most recent artistic interests have led him to the exploration of the line drawn between surrealism and art that mimics reality, primarily dealing with the computer and its artistic applications.
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Colella: Work Samples
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Work Sample #1 (below)
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Work Sample #2 (below)
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Robert Pierzak is a composer and has written music for small instrumental chamber combinations, electronics, voice, and large numbers of homogeneous instruments. He studied composition at Ithaca College and the Eastman School of Music and is currently in the PhD program in composition at UC San Diego. Recently, Mr. Pierzak has been interested in integrating phonetic art, abstract literature, and archetypal musical elements into his works, creating a type of musical theater. He has spent the better part of the last couple of years finishing a cycle of five primarily vocal-based works entitled Endangered Banana, whose themes explore processes of how ideas can come to have meaning within a community. Pierzak’s numerous awards include the BMI Student Composer Award (including the Carlos Surinach Prize for being the youngest recipient that year), the Howard Hanson Large Ensemble Prize, the Smadbeck Composition Award, and the Yale College Composer’s Group High School Composition Award.
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Pierzak: Work Samples
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Endangered Banana #5: banana boy’s sudden/eventual demise/revenge (below)
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…remaining only mouths (below)
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Smith-Beams: Part III (below)
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Baljinder Sekhon, II is an active composer, percussionist and teacher whose works range from ensemble to solo pieces to electronic music. His recent awards include the Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize (2007 and 2009), Audio Inversions Composition Contest, Brian M. Israel Prize, Percussive Arts Society Composition Competition, Belle Gitelman Award, and a Morton Gould Young Composers Award from ASCAP. Baljinder has received fellowships to the Bang on a Can Summer Institute, the Composers Conference at Wellesley College and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition at the Eastman School of Music where he has taught in the Eastman Computer Music Center, private Composition Lessons, Orchestration, Electronic Music Engraving, and served as President of the OSSIA New Music Ensemble. His works have received nearly 200 performances around the world and are distributed internationally by Steve Weiss Music (USA), Southern Percussion (UK), and Keyboard Percussion Publications.
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Sekhon: Work Samples
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Red Line’s Doug O’Connor performing Sekhon’s “Gradient” (below)
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Colored Windows, Tempered Rooms for percussion ensemble (below)
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Ancient Dust for Chamber Orchestra (below)
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In a society riddled with the sounds of technology, from ring tones to car alarms, the sonorities of our environment have become increasingly diverse. Over the past 50 years, this growing collection of assorted sounds has slowly permeated the classical music scene; it is perhaps one of the most obvious areas in which to adapt new and unfamiliar sounds and, with such an established tradition and defined identity, also one of the least expected. Throughout history, composers have been quick to utilize new means of sound production as it has become available. Mozart’s employment of woodwind instruments was new and adventurous in his day, as was Varèse’s masterwork Ionisation which is scored solely for percussion instruments and siren. The redefinition (or expansion) continued when Lou Harrison employed found objects, such as flower pots and washtubs, as instruments that were equivalent to violins and french horns, and John Cage conceived of any sound that occurs as being a sound with musical potential (or one that is already music ). Composers continue to change the identity of classical music and expand the listener’s expectations through the application of modern technology and new sounds that would not otherwise exist.
Needless to say, works which utilize technology during the composition or performance process are relatively young in comparison to the 1,500+ year old classical music tradition. As a result, all electronic music that takes place in the “classical” music realm tends to be lumped together into its own genre. Often referred to as “electronic music,” “computer music,” or “electro-acoustic music,” this categorization only describes one aspect that all pieces in this “genre” have in common; that is, some kind of electronic device is employed during the composition and/or performance. Of course, these labels tell us nothing about what this music might sound like and there are no unifying characteristics which exist among all pieces of “electronic music” that might aid in their experiential identity. This is the case with any new art form in which a single factor is responsible for it being deemed “new” by its spectators. In the discourse of many contemporary musicians, the term “serial music” is still used as though it were a genre of music. As with “electronic music,” the title merely refers to some kind of technique or the composer’s use of a particular system/device. This is dissimilar to many other categorizations of classical music types; when one refers to “minimalism” or “march” there are some musical characteristics that a listener might expect and receive, even in a somewhat twisted way. Well, in the age of Facebook and Twitter, it is no longer a surprise when a composer uses some kind of electronics for a piece of concert music and the focus is gradually drifting away from the fact that electronics are used and back to the actual musical experience.
Labels aside, poweRED Line consists of five stylistically different pieces by composers who have their own reasons and goals for their use of electronics and this concert will demonstrate five of the countless ways in which electronics are utilized in today’s concert music scene. Throughout the night, each composer will speak briefly about what his piece consists of, how it is made, and how the electronics function during the process of performance and composition. Andy Akiho’s work Amalgamation, is a work for CD playback and saxophone quartet and the electronic sounds are all derived from from recorded samples of the actual Red Line performers. Amalgamation presents a super-human saxophone quartet alongside the acoustic quartet in a way that blurs the boundary between live and prerecorded sounds while featuring the virtuosic ability of the Red Line Sax Quartet. Matt Barber’s work Parallel Circuit employs electronics in order to magnify the sound world of the saxophone quartet, for instance by amplifying and altering the saxophone sounds, allowing a saxophonist to play in dialogue with himself, and even using the saxophone to create sounds usually associated with other instruments. Andrew Colella’s dmhs is inspired by the idea of Stan Brakhage’s film Delicacy of Molten Horror Synapse that is based on the recent version of “Molten Horror” – video games. The moving shapes and colors one sees when his/her eyes are closed remain the stylistic constant between Colella’s interactive video component and Brakhage’s film. As the saxophonists perform the work, a video including a variety of film fragments responds accordingly to their sounds. In addition, thin and brittle processed sounds radiate into the room and further mimic Brakhage’s idea with one that includes distant “molten” sounds that may be internal to any individual. Red Bird, by Robert Pierzak, was inspired by an Agnes Martin painting of the same name. Martin’s work consists of a subtle off-white polymer paint that covers a six by six foot canvas. Over this base is a grid of incredibly faint red horizontal lead lines spaced about a quarter inch apart. If looked at from a distance, only a subtle red tint appears on an empty canvas. If viewed up close, the lines become visible and gain their own personalities, as Martin retained small “flaws” and unmistakable traces of her hand drawing them. Pierzak’s piece lends itself to exploring the border of presentation, and representation. The electronics simply draw from Martin’s taste for the indiscernible (presentation), while the sax quartet’s music was written as an abstract melody first, then arranged into sound with all its imperfections (representation). During my own work, Secret Corners, the saxophone quartet is placed at four points around the audience which are complementary to the four points created by a quadraphonic speaker array. The electronics serve multiple purposes throughout my piece; to create an encapsulating and meditative environment of sounds, to process and extend the sound of the acoustic saxophone and to provide an interactive and responsive “fifth performer.” Each of these works are brand new and were composed specifically for Interval 3.2 and the Red Line Sax Quartet. As the premiere will demonstrate, no two works on this concert belong in the same stylistic category; yet, they are all examples of “electronic music.”
Baljinder Sekhon, Curator
