Last Wednesday Erik and I presented our arrangement of Stockhausen’s Tierkreis. The performance went extremely well and I think we were both very pleased with the outcome. In many ways it was a new experience for me when I place it in the continuum of my musical career and trajectory thus far. For one, it was definitely the most collaborative project we’d undertaken as Hybrid Groove Project. Erik composed the beats and I composed the saxophone parts that were extra-curricular to Stockhausen’s melodies. The actual arrangement process was a completely collaborative effort. We even kept a massive Google Doc so we could share ideas and update existing structures instantly.
This was also the first time that I performed with an involved electronics setup. I used Ableton Live 8, which I controlled with an Akai APC40, Behringer FCB1010 foot controller, and M-Audio Axiom 25. What’s funny is that I thought I’d hold off on getting the APC40 until after this show, since I thought it might be a little overkill and that I could just control everything with the FCB1010, but I’m glad that I decided to take the plunge before the show (Guitar Center giving me the Xmas sale price after Xmas also helped). Having multiple ways to control, manipulate, and perform the software was absolutely invaluable for this performance.
I have to say that working with Ableton and the various controllers named above was and is an awesome experience. I was prepared for it to be a nightmare, having worked peripherally with electronics over the last 10 years. However, nothing about it was hard. Everything worked right out of the box, which was shocking (to me), but extremely welcome! What I was not prepared for was the extra dimension this added to the act of performing.
Suddenly, not only did I have to play the saxophone, but I also had to learn new coordinations, whether it was playing an involved line on the sax while simultaneously launching clips and/or activating effects via the foot controller or simply having to ingrain the order of events and what sequence to launch various things with via various devices. A majority of this came from the fact that this was an hour long project, making the scope of everything just a bit larger. But it certainly engaged me in a new kind of problem solving that directly impacted the performance and execution of the music. I had to actually spend equal, if not more, time practicing the sequence of events and execution of the electronics than I spent on practicing the instrumental parts (did I mention that I also played synth, toy piano, and a variety of percussion instruments for the project as well?).
Our performance of Zodiacrobatic on Mobtown Modern won’t be the last time we play the work. It was conceived as a concept that we could tote around to different places. It is also a living thing that will continue to evolve over time. Though we spent a great deal of time planning the dramatic arc of the piece and structuring each melody, we also left ourselves latitude and flexibility within certain movements to allow for improvisation and recomposition as the mood strikes us. I imagine that as we continue to perform Zodiacrobatic we’ll become more comfortable and free in performance. That’s what I’m looking forward to.
As a coda to these reflections, we received wonderful coverage of the event, thanks in no small measure to the extreme professionalism of Mike Fila and the team at Himmelrich PR. A day prior to the performance Erik and I appeared on WYPR’s Maryland Morning, where we got to talk with Tom Hall about the project. And we also garnered some very nice reviews from Charles T. Downey of the Washington Post and Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun.
Now that the Zodiacrobatic performance is over, I find myself somewhat in withdrawl since I suddenly don’t have to fill up all of my free time with urgent creativity. Though perhaps I should just enjoy the small bit of down time since I’ve got plenty of performances to keep me busy in the next four weeks.
I get a lot of requests for this, so I thought it was about time I made it available. For my non-saxophonista readers, Klonos by Piet Swerts burst into the American saxophone consciousness in the late 1990s after being a compulsory work at the Adolphe Sax International Saxophone Competition in Dinant, Belgium. It endures today as a test piece for aspiring saxophonists wishing to display their technical prowess.
During my time as a graduate student at the University of Michigan (2002-2005) I played the piece. A lot. It was pretty much my go-to technical piece for any kind of audition situation. The track below was recorded live in concert in Britton Recital Hall at the University of Michigan on October 10, 2003. Wenli Zhou is the pianist.
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With modern music, there’s often (ahem) sometimes a discrepancy between what the music looks like notated on the page and what it sounds like to the audience. In some of these cases you think that the composer is either 1) involved in some cerebral game that makes them completely oblivious to what they’ve just vomited on the page, or 2) really trying to mess with you, the performer. But in other cases, you don’t equate a composers’ seemingly illogical way of notating music with a diabolical need to undermine you. That’s how I feel about Giacinto Scelsi.
For me, getting “off the page” with Scelsi’s music (more so than with music by some other composers, in my opinion (again, not a slight)) is the key to a really convincing performance. But Scelsi sounds so improvisatory I find it much more difficult to get to that point even though his notation rarely approaches some of the more exceptionally perplexing scores I’ve tackled in the past.
At any rate, I took on his short work for low instrument, Maknongan, last month on Mobtown Modern’s Low Art show. Below is the live audio from the show (thanks to Jeff Mewbourn for recording), including the live remix of the piece that Erik created immediately following the work’s conclusion. Enjoy.
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Like Lee Hyla’s We Speak Etruscan, David Lang’s Press Release has also been on my Really Gotta Play That Someday list for a long time. It’s one of the rare pieces I’ve learned that I feel requires absolutely little to no extraneous music-making to pull it off—just playing the notes on the page works just fine. (That’s a compliment, not a slight, by the way.) Here’s a few minutes of the opening of the piece recorded live during a performance a couple weeks ago at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC:
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Lee Hyla’s We Speak Etruscan for baritone sax and bass clarinet has been on my Gotta Play That Someday list for a long time now. And last month I finally had a chance to check it off that list on Mobtown Modern’s Low Art show. My accomplice was Jennifer Everhart, who sounded (and always sounds) amazing. Here’s the recording:
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All the info:
We Speak Etruscan by Lee Hyla. Yours Truly, baritone saxophone; Jennifer Everhart, bass clarinet. Recorded live at the Metro Gallery on October 7, 2009. Many thanks to Jeff Mewbourn (a.k.a. The Baltimore Taper) for recording the show.
Mobtown Modern’s first season came to a close last Friday night with an exciting concert performed for a packed house. Once again, we were overwhelmed with the coverage of the show, which included the following wonderful reviews:
Many thanks go to all of our musicians for giving so much of their time and talents to help make each concert such a success. We’re also grateful to Mack MacLaughlin for making us sound good and especially to Guy Werner for his visual and lighting wizardry, which made the space really inviting. And of course, we love Mike Fila from Himmelrich and Irene Hofmann, executive director of the Contemporary Museum for embracing the series with such passion and enthusiam.
We’re already looking forward to an exciting second season, which will include 6, count ‘em, 6 concerts beginning on September 9th. And we’re also putting the finishing touches on a spiffy new website that will launch in conjunction with our 2008-2009 season announcement. As always, stay tuned for details!
Here are the top 6 reasons you shouldn’t miss Mobtown Modern’s concert this Friday:
Forget that wine reception following the performance business, we serve alcohol before the concert. Seriously, how many new music shows have you found yourself at wishing you had something to drink?
