MATA presented a fascinating event on Wednesday night, curated by David Kant and Cameron Hu. Several perspectives on how to raise audience awareness of physical space via sonic material were proffered by a great group of composers and performers. Included below is the list of the program and performers, and then some media documentation.
Interval 3.1: Architectures of Sound
Performers
Casey Thomas Anderson, soprano saxophone and electronics
Jacob Sudol, singing bowls and electronics
Anthony Ptak, electronics
Charles Stankievech, electronics
Aaron Meicht, trumpet
Quentin Tolimiere, piano
Phil Rodriguez, trumpet
David Kant, tenor saxophone
Program Casey Thomas Anderson - quarters
Anderson, electronics
Charles Stankievech - Radiance (soundtrack for a silent film)
Stankievech, electronics
Michael Winter - Perspectives I
David Kant, saxophone
Casey Thomas Anderson, saxophone
Aaron Meicht & Phil Rodriguez, trumpet
Jacob Sudol - until we remain suspended…
Sudol, singing bowls and electronics
Intermission
David Kant & Cameron Hu - Straight Line Between Terminals
Kant & Hu - video and electronics
Anthony Ptak - Elusive Architectonics
Ptak, electronics
G. Douglas Barrett - A Few Rooms
David Kant, saxophone
Casey Thomas Anderson, saxophone
Aaron Meicht, trumpet
Quentin Tolimiere, piano
Michael Winter performing A Few Rooms by Doug Barrett
Suzanne's memorial at St. Ann's was a truly extraordinary event. Despite being 3 1/2 hours long, there wasn't a single moment that felt unessential. Below is a short video I shot with my Flip UltraHD during sound check, several images taken with my iPhone, and scans of the program. I and 9 other trombonists started things off with Fredric Rzewski's 1969 piece Last Judgment (for solo trombone or several echoing trombones not quite in unison). There's a separate post with the players listed and an mp3 of the actual performance.
VIDEO:
IMAGES:
Musicians during sound check
(l to r: Zach Layton (gtr), Audrey Chen (vcl), Marc Ribot (gtr), Henry Grimes (violin), Aki Onda (tapes), Mary Halverson (gtr)
Anthony Coleman pre-show
7x7 Trombone Band playing Rzewski
Sarah Fiol (middle) receiving the "Suzanne Fiol Day in Brooklyn, USA" proclamation from a representative of Borough President Markowitz's office
A performance of Fredric Rzewski's 1969 work Last Judgment - for solo trombone or several echoing trombones not quite in unison by Chris McIntyre's 7X7 Trombone Band and Friends during In Memory of Suzanne Fiol at St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn, NY on Nov. 15, 2009.
Audience right (front to back):
Chris McIntyre
Brian Drye
Jen Baker
Stephen Swell
Peter Zummo
Live recording of Last Judgment on Archive.org DownTown Ensemble's Flexible Orchestra Concert
St. Peter's Church, Chelsea, NYC
April 28, 2006
CJM’s Program Note for the April '06 performance of Fredric Rzewski’s Last Judgment: For Trombone Solo or Several Echoing Trombones Not Quite In Unison [1969]
I met Fredric Rzewski several years ago during his monumental performance run of the solo piano work The Road at The Kitchen. We were sitting down for beer(s) afterward with his old friend Steve ben Israel, an early member of Living Theater, and the speaker's voice heard on the original 1971 Opus One recording of Coming Together. At any rate, we were (well, Fredric was) talking about how little New York had changed in 30 plus years. No elevators in the subway, this sort of thing.
Not wanting to go anywhere near a counter-argument with Mr. Rzewski, I switched the subject and mentioned that my group TILT Brass Band had just performed his 1969 process piece Les Mouton de Panurge. This was very intriguing to him, and he said, "well, you know, there's a trombone piece from around the same time. I shall put you in contact with my manager and you should play it." I admire the man's work a great deal, so this concert is my (initial) fulfillment of his suggestion.
Last Judgment does fall well within Rzewski's compositional interests at the time. Like Mouton, and the original concept behind Musica Elettronica Viva, his subtitle of "For Trombone Solo or Several Echoing Trombones Not Quite In Unison" intends an inclusive and non-hierarchical spirit. MEV was (as Fredric put it in an email) "trying, by introducing audience participation into our concerts, to break down the caste differences between 'musicians' and 'amateurs'. So we invited beginners... to play in our concerts and paid them like everybody else. This sometimes produced interesting, though also dreadful, results." He continued, "We used to have a guy in our group, Franco Cataldi, who wanted to play the trombone but couldn't (unlike a gentleman). His ambition was to do the 'Tuba Mirum' solo... so I thought of this piece which is really too difficult even for a very good soloist, but could be done if enough players, both good and mediocre, teamed up together. The idea of the title is that it doesn't matter who gets to Heaven first, because they just have to wait so that we all go in together."
We have no amateurs or mediocre players to speak of in this Orchestra, but the work's frequent meter changes, duration, and range make for a difficult blow to be sure. The decision was made in rehearsal to execute the piece as essentially 10 soloists. Again like Les Mouton, the sound of the group going in and out of unison becomes the aesthetic of the piece itself, creating a novel and quite beautiful sonority.
For the trombonophiles in the audience, the piece does indeed incorporate the opening intervals of Mozart's ubiquitous (at least for orchestral auditioners) Tuba Mirum solo from the Requiem. Using the classic Minimalist additive process, Last Judgment is truly a "fantasy" on both the musical material and apocalyptic meaning behind the Mozart work. It progresses through continually augmented phrases, mutating gradually from one to the next, with contrasted dynamics, and a tremendous finale hovering around the tenor trombone's ringing high B flat's and C's.
I saw Fredric again last Fall and mentioned the Flexible Orchestra's planned performance of Last Judgment. He thought it an excellent idea. Later, after discussion of trombones and trombonist's had continued, I mentioned the parenthetical phrase included above, (like a gentleman). A little Estonian vodka had taken hold of me, and I said "well, Fredric here regards trombonist's as gentlemen!". To which he replied, "Oh, I guess you don't know the old joke then: the man wanted to learn the trombone, but, like a gentleman, he didn't."
David First’s Gestural Improv Group – an evening of searching for perfect frozen moments through hyper-sensual tuning systems and black holed rhythms. Featuring Jane Rigler/flute, Chris McIntyre/trombone, Reuben Radding/bass, Michael Evans/drums & percussion and D.F. on guitar & laptop.
Michael Winter performing A Few Rooms by Doug Barrett
David Kant performing A Few Rooms by Doug Barrett
