MusicX Musings

Music11 Last Day!

2011-07-01T10:17:00.018-04:00

Our last day here at Music11 was a wonderful culmination of this festival's musical activities. In the afternoon over half of our participant performers played in masterclasses for eighth blackbird. Since we had so many performances, we divided forces, having piano, percussion, and voice in Bartok Hall, and strings and woodwinds in the Salon. We heard some fantastic performances and wonderful ideas for improvement. Because the members of eighth blackbird have experience with so many different kinds of music, they have insights into many aspects of the performing process. These masterclasses were so successful that many of us wished that we had held more of them, and earlier in the festival so that everyone could have seen one another perform towards the beginning of our time here. I think we'll be holding more events like this in next year's installment of MusicX, because it was so enriching for everyone involved.

The final concert was a rewarding summation of the various aspects of this festival. It showcased the participant composers and performers by their contributions to the concert: Toru Takemitsu's Rain Tree, Amy Kirsten's joujou, and Ruben Naeff's Fill the Present Day with Joy. What a beautiful culmination of all of the work and inspiration that went into the making of this festival - from the first acceptance letters our participants received, to the last notes of each piece they composed and performed for Music11. It showcased composer-in-residence David Lang with his pieces wed and these broken wings. He has been a wonderful presence at our festival for the last week. We greatly appreciate his first-rate musicianship, his creativity, his knack for challenging and guiding young musicians in their work, and his lovely personality. It showcased ensemble-in-residence eighth blackbird through their performances of the two Lang pieces, plus Philip Glass' Music in Similar Motion, and Stephen Hartke's new violin and piano piece Netsuke. In particular, it showcased eighth blackbird violinist Matt Albert who gave his last performance with the ensemble during this concert. As Joel Hoffman observed while speaking at the concert, Matt Albert's musicianship and personality is characterized by generosity and courage. Matt is generous in his expressive playing, his mentoring of younger musicians, and his friendships. He is courageous in his constant drive to discover new music, take risks, and embrace the unknown. This courage has lead him to explore new opportunities in his career, which is why he is now departing from eighth blackbird. We will certainly miss him; we wish him many blessings for this new step in his career; we know that his courage and generosity will ensure him spectacular success. As this festival draws to a close, we are also saying goodbye to our general manager Michael Ippolito, who has been an indispensable part of MusicX for years. He is a composer, administrator, and friend of the absolute first rate. As with Matt, we fully support Michael in his next step and look forward to hearing about what he accomplishes in his post-MusicX career.

One of my very favorite things about this festival is that it doesn't really end at the end of our two weeks here. It was amazing to see how many wonderful friendships and collaborations were forged during our time in Switzerland. I for one am already looking forward to embarking on upcoming projects that resulted from the friendships I just made in the last two weeks - and I know that I am not alone in this. It seems like everywhere I turned, I heard people plotting and scheming about exciting artistic endeavors for the near future. To have not only a fantastic group of people, but also an inspiring place, seems to be a key part of the recipe for inspiration. I believe that there is something about this gorgeous place that helped us all take a real break from our normal lives and open ourselves up to new dreams and aspirations. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for an outstanding time together - and let's keep in touch!

Music11 Composers III and Final Vote

2011-07-01T03:40:00.009-04:00

Thursday we had our third concert of new works composed for Music11, as well as our final composer masterclass. In the afternoon Ruben Naeff, Kerrith Livengood, David Trum, Elizabeth Ogonek, and Ben Wallace got to present their music for David Lang. Once again, many of our recurring topics came up in discussion. I think this may be because we have a very artistically diverse group of composers - since we are all so different, we tend to focus on the more universal issues of being a composer. The conversation quickly turned to the way we introduce our music to listeners. We also addressed the ever-present topic of self-consciousness as a composer. Lang is quite a natural teacher; he has a knack for figuring out what a composer is trying to achieve, and encouraging him or her to achieve that more fully. He spoke of the difference between what you want to do in your music, versus what you do because you think it will please the listener. He encouraged us to write music that suits our own taste, with the confidence that a curious listener will be interested in experiencing our music on its own terms. As he put it, "if I'm not interested, I'll go watch a baseball game. If I am interested, I want to hear what you have to say, not what you think I want you to say." Lang also addressed the topic of text setting in relation to David Trum's vocal piece. Often we fall into the habit of setting words in a speech-like fashion, writing notes that are more or less the same length, never going against the grain. Lang advocated for a more elastic treatment of text. He believes that the text must become subservient to the music - not the other way around - and that passages of text can be set in ways that condense or expand its delivery in relation to its emotional content.

Our evening concert opened with Lang's aria "I Had No Reason" from his opera The Difficulty of Crossing a Field. This hauntingly exposed passage featured soprano Lindsay Kesselman in the role of Mrs. Williamson, whose husband has mysteriously vanished while walking across a field. Midway through, she was joined unexpectedly by violinist Matt Albert, who emerged from the audience and began playing.

Amy Kirsten's joujou explored the relationship between two classic Commedia dell'arte characters Pierrot and Columbine. Deidre Huckabay (flute), Megan Ihnen (mezzo-soprano), Katrina Leshan (guitar), Matthew Duvall (percussion), and Katy LaFavre (percussion) gave a brilliant performance. Each musician was called upon to vocalize and play percussion at various points in the piece, and they did so very effectively. The lightning-quick flashes of sound were absolutely mesmerizing. Amy's music is like a magic pastry shop of surprising sonic flavors.

Hojin Lee's Piece for Flute, Viola, and Piano embarked on an introverted journey full of brooding turmoil. Tim Munro, Andrea Hemmenway, and Daniel Walden played with deep angst.

In his Piano Trio: Prelude, Michael Ippolito made three instruments sound like a full orchestra. Sarah Saviet (violin), Branson Yeast (cello), and Lisa Kaplan (piano) played with dynamic force and confident unity. From intricately weaving lines to massive, juicy harmonies, the work was satisfying at every turn.

In contrast, Hye Jung Yoon's Piano Trio exemplified a different type of emotional fervor. Matt Albert (violin), Branson Yeast (cello), and Bryan Kelly (piano) were expressive and precise as they interpreted the lonely, desolate fury of the work.

Ben Wallace's quirky title, Lil' Iannis is Too Shy to Get Up and Dance, requires a bit of explanation. Ben took the rhythms of Iannis Xenakis' unpitched percussion piece Rebonds B and set them to pitches, creating a much different effect than Xenakis' original. The Xenakis piece has become a sort of inside joke among conservatory percussion students, since it is played so constantly that you can sometimes hear multiple people practicing it at once when walking by percussion practice rooms. Hearing it set to Ben's cheerful notes and played by Laura Lentz (flute), Nicholas Photinos (cello), and Yen Lin Goh (piano) was a quirky and welcome surprise.

all streams reach the sea at last, by Elizabeth Ogonek, was full of rich contrasts; the piece was by turns electrifying, tender, fiendish, and aquatic. A lovely performance was given by Tim Munro (flute), Emily McPherson (flute), Daniel Walden (piano), Joey Van Hassel (percussion), and Clara Warnaar (percussion).

When introducing his piece Fill the Present Day with Joy, Ruben Naeff told us "I wanted to write an opera about you." This propulsively energetic work was a setting of comments, status updates, and various other pieces of information from Facebook. Many of our participants' names came up in the piece, making it a fun, personal, and entertaining conclusion for the concert. The work's title comes from a William Wordsworth quote that mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen had posted on her wall. Ruben's piece makes use of this text, as well as the numerous comments posted by Megan's friends. The piece was given a spirited and unabashedly wacky performance by Jessica Aszodi (soprano), Matthew Albert (viola), Thomas Kotsheff (piano, claves, bell) and Charlie Magnone (piano).

After the concert we held our Music11 composer competition, in which we all voted for our favorite pieces from the festival. The prize is another performance of the winning pieces on Friday's final concert. This was a fun way to express our admiration for one another and hear some of our favorite pieces again. Congratulations to our winners Amy Kirsten and Ruben Naeff!!! We look forward to hearing your pieces again! Congrats also to our three honorable mentions: Michael Ippolito, Dylan Sheridan, and Gabriella Smith. This was definitely the best MusicX festival ever - we look forward to savoring our last day here together!

Music11 Composers II

2011-06-30T04:40:00.006-04:00

Wednesday night we had our next installment of new pieces composed for Music11, along with three works by David Lang.

Flutist Emily McPherson opened the concert with David Lang's Thorn. She gave an energetic account of Lang's spiky piece, bringing out the contrast between sharp accents and fluttering activity.

Gabriele Vanoni's Prologo (Asparizione I) was an elegant understatement. The piece was so lovely and alluring I found myself wishing to hear it again instantly. This result was beautifully achieved by Laura Lentz (alto flute), Lindsay Kesselman (soprano), Keith Hendricks (percussion), and Lisa Kaplan (piano).

Island in a Sea of Light by David McDonnell took the listener through a labyrinth. Just when I felt completely lost, a tiny fragment of something familiar would come back - but the mystery was never completely dispelled. Thankfully, Emily McPherson (flute), Michael Maccaferri (clarinet), and Yen Lin Goh (piano) carried the mystery without actually getting lost themselves.

Dan Van Hassel's Chasm brought together contrasting smooth and angular sounds to create a thinly veiled, luminous environment. The piece was brought to life by the sensitive playing of Deidre Huckabay (flute), Kerrith Livengood (flute), Derek Tywoniuk (percussion), Katy LaFavre (percussion), and Lisa Kaplan (piano).

After a short break to reset the stage, we heard two of David Lang's pieces for piano four hands. Daniel Walden and Bryan Kelly played Gravity; Bryan Kelly and Yen Lin Goh played After Gravity. These pieces went absolutely nowhere, and did so beautifully. As Lang remarked, it was difficult to compose a sequel to a piece that went nowhere. Ultimately he solved the problem by going to a different nowhere the second time around.

Lindsey Jacob's Frica-what? was a much more serious piece than the title lead us to believe. This haunting piece explored the connections between vocal sounds and percussion sounds, with the flute as an intermediary. Although the work did involve some conventional singing, much of the music focused on unvoiced vocal timbres, allowing the singers - Lindsay Kesselman and Jessica Aszodi - to blend with the percussion and flute (Matthew Duvall, Derek Tywoniuk, and Emily McPherson).

Hidden Light by Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang gave the impression of radiance and iridescence. The performers Kerrith Livengood (flute), Matt Albert (violin), Andrea Hemmenway (viola), and Katrina Leshan (guitar) maintained an exquisite balance between their colorful lines.

We took a break for drinks and snacks, after which the final piece on the concert was performed. Dylan Sheridan chose to have his From the Garden of Sad Dreams performed later in order to use darkness as a part of the theatrical atmosphere of the work. Soprano Jessica Aszodi sang texts from Robert Louis Stevenson's Child's Garden of Verses. Dylan put excerpts of the text through Google Translator repeatedly in order to scramble the phrases and submerge the meaning. He also built a special lamp which produced sound and light. This lamp, suspended in the middle of the stage, became a subject of fascination and confrontation for the character. Tim Munro (flute), Joey Van Hassel (percussion), and Clara Warnaar (percussion) performed the instrumental parts with delicate precision, perfectly maintaining the enigmatic quality of the piece.

Say What You Have to Say - guest post by composer Amy Kirsten

2011-06-29T13:19:00.001-04:00

Say What You Have to Say
- an essay celebrating last night's composers Kyle, Francisco, Gabriella, David, David, Ben, and Kerrith. Although what I have to say here has little to do with the concert, I'd like to express my gratitude for their clear musical ideas which included much personality, unexpected turns, sadness, and charisma. I warmly applaud them for saying what they have to say so much better than this essay will. Thank-you to the performers who gave last night their all. Bravissimo Every body!!

I've heard it said that it's really hard to be a composer - especially at the start. The 'beginner's mind' is prone to crippling self-doubt and torturous self-criticism, which, if not tamed (or fed a proper diet of small rodents) can turn into a little, but powerful, warty monster who rants negatively at parties and is just generally envious of successful colleagues. So in order to not become that thing, we try mightily to appreciate the efforts of other composers and, even if we don't respond particularly well to a new piece (even after a fair amount of repeated listening and score study), always have the option of remembering that composing, like being human, is sometimes difficult - and we are all trying our best.

But that isn't really what I want to say.

One of the responsibilities of a composer is to figure out how to communicate musical ideas on paper. If you think about it, the whole notion of this is quite asinine as there are so many subtleties that are impossible to write down - you can't capture musical grace, intensity, humor, or sensitivity and stick them behind the bars, sticks, and dots that we write with. It doesn't work. So we have to try our best to write it, and hope that when we talk about it we'll be able to find just the right words to augment and convey the meaning - but not too many words (because that can be just as ineffective as not talking at all). Composers have to learn how to simultaneously tame monsters and communicate with symbols that mean very little actually.

But that isn't really what I want to say.

One of the most satisfying things about being a composer is letting go. This is really not something that is taught in school (maybe it should be). After taming the monster, and communicating with strange and meaningless symbols, we have to let go of the manuscript and trust. Admittedly, this is not the default response when hearing the first rehearsal of a piece. Quite the contrary. More often, a first rehearsal will confirm that you are indeed a total failure, without imagination, unable to notate rhythms properly, and with only schlocky, hum-drum ideas. When you hear your music slowed down, in the wood shed, and under a microscope - well, its tough to come back from that. Even with the most experienced players in your corner, a first rehearsal might throw your entire belief system into a downward spiral, where, at the bottom of the deep ravine is the warty monster wearing a radical smile and sporting a t-shirt that reads "I knew you'd be back." But with any luck, you've got the Trust Gene. This is important. The Trust Gene sends a signal to your brain which tells you that the musicians who are currently playing your piece are fluent in Weird Meaningless Symbol and will actually make music out of it. With any luck they will even have fun solving the puzzles you've put in front of them. If your new piece is a princess, they will rescue it from the burning tower while simultaneously balancing the precious vase of enthusiasm on their heads - and they will accomplish all of this before noon.

But that isn't really what I want to say.

In the last few years, I've noticed that one of the most pervasive talking points in new music is pessimism. In the past I've heard composers and teachers say incredibly caustic things like: there is no point in doing what we do…or that no one cares what we do…or that there is no money for us to do what we do…or that all of this effort, all of this passion and beauty and free will is meaningless because it doesn't reach people. I'm not quite sure what accounts for these feelings, or the need to express them aloud to the impressionable and optimistic, but I can guess that perhaps somewhere along the way joy went out the window. I know you agree that there is nothing in this world that touches joy - and that if it's gone, there is only one way to get it back.

But let's look at our world for a moment. Here we are. We have endless possibilities before us. There are composition opportunities everywhere. The land is practically teeming with musicians who truly delight in making new music. We can communicate using whatever language we choose. Perhaps most striking of all is how supportive we are of each other and this place and time is a great example of that. I think I have a pretty good sense of general atmosphere here at Music11 - and it's not one of pessimism. We are interested in each other's lives, in each other's music, and are open to comments and suggestions; the festival embodies a truly generous spirit. (So much so that I don't think we really need a competition in order to activate it.) This kind of spirit is not indicative of the end of anything as has been suggested by misguided teachers of the past. It suggests an abundance that is accessible - now.

But that isn't really what I want to say.

All I really want to say is that last night's concert made me realize how accomplished we are. We are learning how to tame monsters, we're speaking weird languages effectively, and trusting that the princess (and the vase) will make it to safety before noon (and they did!). But perhaps most importantly, we are staring defiantly into the eyes of anyone who claims they know that our future is dim. If last night's concert is any indication - we have a lot to say…and we're good at it.

And that is a beautiful thing.

- Amy Kirsten, composer

Music11 Composers I

2011-06-29T09:05:00.005-04:00

Tuesday night was our first performance featuring the new works written for this festival, along with one preexisting work by David Lang. The concert was an enormous success; both the performances and the pieces themselves were some of the best I can remember in the four years of my involvement with this festival. We were especially impressed by the strong, unique voice of each composer's work.

The concert opened with my own Percussion Quartet. I do not feel comfortable reviewing my own piece, so if you were there and have something to say, please leave a comment! I can say that I was extremely happy with the performance. The musicians - Keith Hendricks, Clara Warnaar, Matthew Duvall, and Katy LaFavre - gave a solid, vivid rendition of what I wrote, and made substantial contributions of their own.

Francisco Cortés-Álvarez's Horas Hechizadas was haunting, refracted, and ethereal. Ashley Addington (flute), Michael Maccaferri (clarinet), and Bryan Kelly (piano) inhabited the mysteries of this work while lavishing careful attention on each detail.

Tumblebird Digdown by Gabriella Smith took a completely different emotional turn. Inspired by Jack Kerouac, the piece definitely captured an ecstatic, yet laid back, West-Coast quality. Or, as percussionist Derek Tywoniuk described it, a klezmer band on crystal meth(!) Michael Maccaferri (clarinet), Andrea Hemmenway (viola), Thomas Kotcheff (piano), and Joey Van Hassel (percussion) played with wonderful energy.

Evan Meier's piece To Think That All This Work Began in Columns was an excerpt of his upcoming chamber opera, Swine. Soprano Lindsay Kesselman was lividly passionate in the role of Ulrike Meinhof - a German left-wing militant. Nicholas Photinos (cello), Charles Magnone (piano), and Derek Tywoniuk (percussion) backed her up with sensitivity, and also came to the forefront when appropriate. The piece has a truly dramatic quality which seems destined for the opera stage.

After a brief intermission, the concert continued with a reprise of David Lang's lend/lease. Deidre Huckabay and Katy LaFavre had continued working on the piece after Lang's presentation the other night. It was fascinating to hear the piece again after the discussion of how it should be played. They seemed to have found a balance between the competing edgy and smooth aesthetics we discussed, but leaned in the direction of being smooth and flexible.

David Trum's Costumes, Disguises was another theatrical vocal work. Set to a fantastically awkward poem by Trum's friend Megan Scharff, the piece acts out the meeting of former lovers at a costume party. Megan Ihnen (mezzo-soprano) inhabited the drama very effectively, sensitively balancing sung and spoken passages. Ashley Addington (flute), Kerrith Livengood (flute), and Nicholas Photinos (cello) provided fluid surroundings and tango-like episodes.

Pegasus by Kerrith Livengood, concluded the concert. This was an exquisitely imaginative fusion of sounds. Subtle, emerging lines were contrasted by strings of tiny bells. Ashley Addington (flute), Laura Lentz (flute), Michael Maccaferri (clarinet), Sarah Saviet (violin) and Ben Wallace (percussion) played with the utmost delicateness.

Thank you everyone for a marvelous concert!!!

Accent11 concert

2011-06-29T07:09:00.003-04:00

On Tuesday afternoon we were visited by the Accent11 touring ensemble, who performed a short concert in Bartok Hall just after lunch. Accent11 is another University of Cincinnati music festival which takes place there at the College-Conservatory of Music. Designed for middle school through undergraduate students, this one-week intensive program is opened by a faculty concert, and showcases its participants with concerts during the week. Daily master classes provide further performance opportunities. A small group of qualified students were selected to perform after the festival on a concert tour in Italy and Switzerland, with Blonay as one of their stops. Tuesday's concert featured music by Bartok, Berio, Shostakovich, David Lang, and Miguel Roig-Francoli. The Accent11 musicians gave us a performance that was short and sweet. Several of them performed from memory, and all of them were well-prepared and enthusiastic. It was wonderful to hear from the next generation of young musicians performing 20th and 21st century music.

Music11: Day 8

2011-06-28T08:54:00.009-04:00

On Monday we got to experience a composer masterclass with Joel Hoffman, as well as a concert of his music. The masterclass in the afternoon included Francisco Alvarez, me, Lindsey Jacob, and Hojin Lee. One topic of discussion was the issue of what to tell your audience before they hear your piece. Francisco had given a very specific program note and title - Laundry Revolution. This raised the issue of whether or not the information he provided was helpful to the listener. Hoffman felt that the piece was very satisfying as purely abstract music. Several others agreed that they preferred to listened to the piece on an abstract level, rather than relating it to the title and story behind it. On the other hand, some of us pointed out that many performers and audience members are eager to know something about the music they are about to hear. Having a story or image in mind can help direct the imagination of some listeners. However, other listeners might feel boxed in by the same story or image, wishing for a chance to hear the music without being conditioned in any way. We didn't really come up with an answer to this whole question, but that's because there isn't just one. In the end, each composer needs to think about both types of listeners as they present their music, and understand that this issue will always be subjective and messy. And this is what makes the arts so fascinating!

Rehearsals have been continuing around the clock, as usual. The performers are really showing their dedication to the new works we composers have written for them. I have been quite amazed by my performers. They have put in an immense amount of energy and time on my Percussion Quartet. Although the piece is full of intricate layers and difficult coordination, they are able to keep track of every detail and bring the piece to life.

Meanwhile, as I'm sitting in my room writing this, David Lang is next door composing a new work for Trio Mediaeval and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. I have been hearing bits and pieces, and it sounds beautiful. It's not everyday I get to live next door to a Pulitzer-winning composer and hear him composing. Talk about inspiring...

The concert on Monday evening featured three pieces by Joel Hoffman. The first, Metasmo, is scored for three percussionists who are given almost full license over what instruments they choose to play. Hoffman's score gives general guidance at some points, but otherwise the percussionists get to play whatever instruments they what. Music11 percussionists Keith Hendricks, Derek Tywoniuk, and Ben Wallace chose a wide array of cowbells, gongs, woodblocks, crotaltes, glockenspiel, tin cans, bottles, finger cymbals, marimba bars, and bells. Metasmo captures the youthful energy of a child banging on pots and pans. The title of the piece is also the name of an imaginary friend invented by Hoffman's son at the age of two. Keith, Derek, and Ben certainly played the piece with youthful energy, but with decidedly more precision and competence than a two-year-old. Their intense performance and all-embracing choice of instruments made the piece shine.

Hoffman gave a striking performance of his recent 9 Pieces for Piano. These pieces exemplify his current musical language, which involves lucidly colorful material interspersed with carefully measured silences. He also turned on a metronome to measure the time between each movement, providing a theatrical, slightly unsettling sense of time elapsing.

The concert concluded with another recent piece, Three Paths. Branson Yeast (cello) and Thomas Kotcheff (piano) provided an immensely satisfying interpretation of the work. The three musical 'paths' were vivid in their contrast: one warm, spacious, and calm; another spiky and ferocious; the third plaintive and intensely lyrical. These three types of music were presented and recombined fluidly.

Overall this concert gave a strong sense for Hoffman's distinctive, but extremely eclectic compositional voice. The performers seemed to relish this eclectic quality, using it as a chance to be dramatic.

Music11: Day 7

2011-06-27T04:44:00.016-04:00

Sunday we turned over a new page here at Music11, as we had our first full day with guest composer David Lang. He arrived yesterday, while most of us were off exploring, so today was our first day really getting to spend time with him. In the evening he gave a presentation on his music. As with Pintscher and Hoffman, Lang's presentation was absolutely fascinating. First he spoke about his musical background, including his first forays into composition by composing trombone parts to Beethoven Violin Sonatas, and playing them along with recordings by Oistrakh and Richter! His love of Bach and his experience performing in a Gregorian chant choir were also important influences. Lang shared about his struggle as a Jew dealing with his love for an enormously Christian music tradition. This challenge was an integral part of the first piece he shared with us: the Pulitzer-winning little match girl passion. In this work, Lang delved into his love for Bach's Passions while grappling with his position as a Jew relating to Christianity. He had initially intended to compose a completely different piece, setting a text by filmmaker/writer Peter Greenaway. However, Greenaway's text proved to be highly inappropriate in its final form, leading Lang to abandon the text and start over within a month of his commission deadline. Having previously considered writing a sort of passion, he searched for a way to make a passion about the suffering of someone besides Jesus Christ. Lang was primarily interested in the passion play's ability to ponder human suffering, rather than its status as a central element of Christian doctrine. At his wife's suggestion, he chose Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Little Match Girl" as his subject. This immensely powerful work exhibits enormous sensitivity and architectural craft. In my experience, Pintscher's music often uses painful materials to say something beautiful, Lang's piece uses beautiful materials to say something painful. (I realize this statement is somewhat unqualified, and is heavily dependent on one's definition of pain and beauty. I don't claim it as anything more than a subjective reaction. This blog does allow for the posting of comments, so please discuss!) Lang spoke about his belief that each work should have the same level of polish on both the large and small levels. Creating this balance was extremely difficult in the short time he had to finish this piece; therefore, he began sending the music in installments so that the musicians could rehearse while Lang continued working after the original deadline. He also told us about the near-disaster of having the finished scores trapped in his lost luggage on the way to the first rehearsals, forcing him to frantically recompose the last few movements in order to have them ready in time. On the whole, this mishap was a blessing in disguise. Lang said that the original version had been much more fancy and complicated. Rewriting these movements so quickly forced him to dig down to their roots and come up with something very simple and direct. The result is quite stunning - these movements exhibit strong connections to the great passions of Bach and Schütz, as well as ancient Greek tragedy. Lang managed to leverage the uncomfortable circumstances to compose music with a truly universal quality. (Again, my reaction - feel free to debate!)

We then heard a live performance of Lang's piece lend/lease. Deidre Huckabay (piccolo) and Katy LaFavre (woodblocks) gave a riveting account of this incredibly difficult piece. Lang's score provides only a piccolo part, requiring the woodblock player to find her own way of playing in unison with the piccolo. Katy chose to use five woodblocks and follow the contour of the pitches in Deidre's part. Lang's score includes detailed phrase markings, but is suspiciously devoid of dynamics. Deidre and Katy spend much of their rehearsal time developing and refining their own choices of tempo and dynamics. When they rehearsed with Lang earlier in the day, he implored them to play with much more aggression. He found their original interpretation to be too smooth - eighth blackbird flutist Tim Munro affectionately described it as "minimalist Schumann." Their rendition in performance was a synthesis of this original smoothness and the new edginess demanded by Lang. This brought up *once again* the controversial Matthias Pintscher question of how a composer should express musical intention on paper. Since Lang leaves so much up to the performer, the question is how demanding can he actually be when working with performers who have taken his invitation to play the piece their own way. Lindsay Kesselman, a singer, pointed out that there are different types of performers: some enjoy realizing a set of highly detailed instructions, while others enjoy the co-creative process of dealing with problems intentionally posed to them by the composer. This discussion helped us find some sense of synthesis to the various approaches to the whole issue of notation and expression. Obviously, this is an issue that has no final and concrete answers; therefore, continual fascinating discussions are vital to maintaining freshness in the way we approach our art.

Music11: Day 6

2011-06-26T03:34:00.015-04:00

Saturday was a free day for everyone at the festival, giving us a chance to take a break from our intense musical activities. Many of us explored the surrounding region, hiked up mountains, walked by the lake, rode bikes, tasted wines, took train trips to more remote destinations, and just relaxed in general. Here is a sampling of photos taken by some of our participants.

Thomas Kotcheff:

Ruben Naeff:

Dan VanHassel:

Jessica Aszodi:

Music11: Day 5

2011-06-25T10:29:00.008-04:00

Friday we had our final round of music sharing sessions, hearing from Hojin Lee, Gabriella Smith, David Trum, Francisco Alvarez, and Kerrith Livengood. Much of the discussion centered around the use or influence of electronics, and the way that can change one's voice as a composer. For instance, David's electronic music proved to be markedly different from his acoustic music, while Gabriella's orchestra piece used instrumental effects to create Radiohead-esque electronic-sounding textures. Kerrith has been recording various sounds she stumbles upon, which then turn into short pieces posted on her blog, where she has been posting a new piece everyday for almost a year!

Unfortunately, this morning Matthias Pintscher had to leave for his next festival commitment back in the US. We really enjoyed having him here at Music11, and will certainly miss him.

In the evening we heard artistic director/resident composer Joel Hoffman speak about his music. At the beginning he asked if there was anything in particular we would like to hear about him, his music, or life as a professional composer. Numerous topics were suggested; here are a few:

The difference between the new music scenes in the US and Italy (since Hoffman lived in Italy for several years)

The process of forging a working career as a composer

The artistic transition from being a student to being a professional

The way notation represents and influences the character of a piece (our favorite topic from the other night!)

Being a composer in academia

The use of graphic notation and colors

Hoffman somehow managed to at least touch on all of these topics, weaving them into his words about the pieces he played for us. With regard to notation, he pointed out that the main issue is: what do we insist upon in our scores, and what do we leave up to the performer(s)? He noted that, because of his traditional classical music upbringing, he feels happy to express all of his music in the language of traditional classical notation. However, even that notation is never an exact science. The composer must also forge a performance practice for his or her music, personally collaborating with performers to achieve the best result for each piece and each performance setting.

Hoffman played us several of his works: Millenium Dances for large orchestra; Blue and Yellow for flute and piano; The First Time and the Last originally for four cellos, but also scored in a version for ten cellos; and the second movement of his Cello Concerto. He used each of these pieces to continue touching on the topics we suggested. In particular, he mentioned that his position in academia allows him the freedom to write pieces that are not always practical, such as the enormous Millenium Dances. Although he composed this work and many others on paid commission, he is grateful than his livelihood is provided primarily by his teaching; therefore each piece need not be targeted to make the maximum amount of money, but can focus instead on expressing his current state as an artist and a human being. The four pieces Hoffman played did indeed represent some very different points in his creative journey. He mentioned that he is ultimately an eclectic composer. Although he sometimes envies more narrowly focused composers, he feels compelled to follow his wide-ranging musical tastes - he feels more comfortable looking up at distant stars than examining tiny objects through a microscope. However, he also believes that in each piece - regardless of style - a composer should choose carefully limited materials and make the most of them. These paradoxes are what keep us interested in the creative process; the dialogue of possibilities and limitations makes music both difficult and rewarding.

Music11: Day 4

2011-06-24T11:20:00.017-04:00

(clockwise from left: Michael Maccaferri, Dave McDonnell, Emily McPherson, Charlie Magnone, and Yen Lin Goh in rehearsal.)

Thursday was another full day here at Music11. The composers had our third music sharing session, this time hearing from Dave McDonnell, Lindsey Jacob, Ben Wallace, and me. One common theme in several pieces was a connection with travel and nature. Many of us draw on visual and environmental aspects as a starting point for our music. It is always interesting to hear feedback from other composers to see how the visual inspiration comes across in the piece. Composers have also taken different approaches to the presentations themselves. Some have played excerpts of several pieces in order to give an overview of their artistic evolution. Others (myself included) played less music and used more of the time for discussion. Both approaches have yielded intriguing conversations. Since we come from a variety of backgrounds and schools, we hear a variety of opinions from one another, which can be very helpful.

In the evening we had our first performance of this year's festival, featuring the music of Matthias Pintscher. The concert included two pieces: Study No. II for Treatise on the Veil for violin, viola, and cello, and Figura V/Assonanza for solo cello. The performers were Sarah Saviet, violin; Matt Albert, viola; and Branson Yeast, cello. Matthias gave some opening remarks about the trio, having them play some musical examples to give a sense of the work's material. The performers also played the trio twice, since we just had two pieces on the program and had plenty of time. Both pieces are exquisitely crafted, full of whispering, sparse textures. Since the instruments are prepared with paper clips, they create totally unique timbres that sound almost electronic. It was great to hear the trio twice, since it presents the ears with so much to take in. Since Pintscher passed around scores of the piece, some of us just listened the first time, then followed the score the second time. Since Bartok Hall (our performance space) is quite a small room, I think we were able to revel in the beautiful details of this piece much more so than if we had been in a larger hall - we experienced it in a true chamber music setting.

(left to right: Matthias Pintscher, Branson Yeast, Sarah Saviet, and Matt Albert)

Apparently this white cat also likes Pintscher's music, and our festival in general. She was meowing outside the window during the second run of the trio, and has been hanging out with us all the time - sometimes well into our late-night parties!

Music11: Day 3

2011-06-24T10:11:00.030-04:00

Wednesday morning we continued with our series of music sharing sessions. Presenters included Michael Ippolito, Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, Gabriele Vanoni, Dan VanHassel, and Dylan Sheridan. We enjoyed getting to know more of our colleagues' music. This session brought up some interesting topics of discussion, such as the process of transcribing our own music for a different instrumentation, as well as the challenges of fusing together our diverse, treasured influences in a way that is unique to us as individual artists.

Meanwhile, the performers continued rehearsing the new works. Now that the first few rehearsals are out of the way, the musicians are getting deeper into the music. many rehearsals have consisted of highly disciplined technical work, i.e., turning on the metronome and gradually working towards a faster tempo, while getting all the notes to fall in the right place; I can hear percussionists practicing my piece like this right now from across the yard as I'm writing this. The slow practice helps everyone internalize the music, while the gradual speeding up ensures that they will reach the proper performance tempo with confidence. In the many rehearsals I have visited, I have been thrilled to see the way everyone is so devoted to bringing each new work to life. Both performers and composers are showing a willingness to be flexible, experimenting until they find just the right rendering of a given passage of music. And the great thing is, we all live right here in these two buildings, so it's easy to run up to the room and take a nap between sessions, or go for a walk, or check emails on the back porch. This location gives us the ideal blend of convenience and flat-out gorgeous scenery!

Wednesday night five of our participant composers had a chance to present their music to Matthias Pintscher in order to gain his insight on their work. These composers included Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, Evan Meier, Dan VanHassel, Gabriella Smith, and Gabriele Vanoni. This session ended up lasting several hours, full of fascinating discussion. Pintscher showed a wonderful sensitivity to the musical language of each composer. He was very encouraging, affirming the most successful aspects of each piece while offering constructive criticism. He also insisted that each composer give a brief verbal introduction to their piece, as though they were addressing a large audience at a concert, or an orchestra at a rehearsal. When some displayed a lack of confidence in their presentation skills or artistic development, Pintscher would not let them off the hook. He implored them not to recoil, but to express themselves with passion, because each of them has a unique voice as a composer and as a human being. In relation to the music, he discussed both general issues and specific details. One of the more controversial - and lengthy - topics of discussion was the issue of how notation expresses the character of the music. Pintscher insisted that the notation should communicate every detail of the music, but do so in a way that does not provide obstructions and distractions. Throughout the discussion, he also invited comments from the rest of us, creating a symposium-like setting that made for an inspiring and memorable evening.

(left to right: Dan VanHassel, Gabriella Smith, Matthias Pintscher, Gabriele Vanoni, and Evan Meier following a score during the masterclass)

Music11: Days 1 & 2

2011-06-22T01:52:00.014-04:00

Another installment of the MusicX festival is underway! We had a spectacular time last year at Music10 (see posts below) and are happy to be off to a great start for Music11.

If you've just tuned in, Music11 is a festival of contemporary music from June 20 to July 1, located at the Hindemith Music Centre in Blonay, Switzerland. The festival is lead by artistic director Joel Hoffman, general manager Michael Ippolito, operations manager Kyle Werner (yours truly), and ensemble in residence eighth blackbird. This year's composers in residence are Joel Hoffman, David Lang, and Matthias Pintscher. We have a total of 42 participants: 19 composers and 23 performers (two of which are also composers). Upon acceptance, the composers were each assigned to write a piece for a specific ensemble, which consists of one member of eighth blackbird and 2-4 participant performers. During the two weeks here, we are rehearsing for these 19 world premieres, which will be presented next week in a series of concerts. We will also present performances of works by the resident composers - Hoffman, Lang, and Pintscher - as well as a series of masterclasses for composers and performers. In addition, we have four sessions dedicated to the participant composers, providing each a chance to give a presentation on his or her music. (And believe it or not, we still have a fair amount of time to relax and enjoy this beautiful place!)

Roughly half of us arrived early on Sunday the 19th, allowing us to get a head start on dealing with jet lag, and to get settled here at the Hindemith Centre. The remaining participants arrived on Monday, at which time the festival officially began. What a wonderful group of people! This year we set a new record in the number of applicants, so the festival was more competitive than ever before. Over the last couple of days, we have been delighted to find that our participants are as friendly as they are talented. They come from all over Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. It is a pleasure to get to know one another during meals and free time, in addition to our official festival activities.

Here are some pictures of where we spend our time here:

Chalet de Lacroix - the main building which contains our dining room, salon, several rehearsal/practice rooms, and housing on the upper floors.

The Pavilion - the adjacent building, which includes rehearsal space, the Bartok Hall (where performances and other large events are held), and housing on the upper floor.

Day 1 (Monday) opened with lunch and an orientation meeting, after which we launched right into rehearsals. We got a good start, despite jet lag and numerous travel glitches! Our party that night left us a little drowsy the next morning. It was worth it, though!

Tuesday we had our first composer presentation session in the morning. Presenters included Hye Jung Yoon, Elizabeth Ogonek, Ruben Naeff, Evan Meier, and Amy Kirsten. The variety of musical styles was striking. We always try to put together a festival with diverse musical personalities, and this year is no exception. I find it fascinating to see how each composer's personality is reflected in their music. Hearing this music also whets our appetites for next weeks concerts - hearing someone's previous works makes us curious to hear how their new piece will sound.

After dinner we all gathered in Bartok Hall, where composer in residence Matthias Pintscher spoke about his music. He has a knack for drawing connections between different artistic media in order to move beyond musical details and tap into deeper aesthetic questions. He opened and closed the session by reading quotations of visual artist Agnus Martin. In between, Pintscher played recordings of his Flute Concerto, written for Emmanual Pahud, his orchestral work Toward Osiris, composed for Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, and his Study #1 for violin and cello. He used these works as a starting point for talking about his ideas about music. In particular, he addressed the idea of each detail containing the spirit of the entire work; creating perspective by leaving space between the layers of a work; continually shaping your inner ear by listening to live performances; and letting the materials themselves generate the form of a work. Although all of these topics had obvious manifestations within Pintscher's works, he also noted the ways they are present in many other disciplines such as visual art, architecture, and cooking. He observed that, in both music and cooking, it usually works best to have just 3 or 4 main ingredients - everything else must play a supporting role in order to maintain the clarity of the whole. (By the way, we have amazing food here at the Hindemith Centre, so Pintscher's point definitely hit home!) Since he is both a composer and conductor, he has excellent insights to the total process of creating new music - from the first germinating idea to the last chord of the live performance. This was a truly inspiring presentation.

Performer Postlude from Alisa

2010-07-26T09:00:00.002-04:00

Here is a picture of the author. Photo credit: Liz R's Amazing Camera

[Editor's Note: Even though this festival has officially ended, we were never able to hear from the performers - they were busy practicing or they were in rehearsal! As a composer, I am eternally grateful for their hard work, and I hope they were able to occasionally surface and enjoy Blonay. Anyway, here is violist Alisa Seavey's take on the festival. Enjoy!]

Before Jennifer and Kyle close the door on the MusicX blog- I wanted to represent my story as being one of the twenty-some young performers who came to MusicX for this crazy adventure! Led and inspired by eighth blackbird as our loving yet firm coaches we “doubled” the instrumentation of their ensemble with an added on bass and a singer! We were one of each- violin, viola, cello, bass, then two flutes, clarinets and the crew of powerful women (plus Paul) of pianists; and guys plus Yu-Chun of percussionists! I also wanted to acknowledge an awesome array of the composer-performers: “walk the walk, talk the talk”. I was impressed with this for two of the composers I was paired to work with- (Sarah and Ben) who were as great performers, as they were composers. Therefore no matter how “difficult” I thought parts of their works were- I knew they were putting in the same kind of work for someone else’s work. That was a really cool thing for me to experience.

Performers had 1.5 hour chunks of rehearsals for their composers works. Personally I had four works- Sarah Gibson’s “Breathe out, Sleep in”; Jordan Kuspa’s “Metronome”; Ben Irwin’s “Nascence”; and Martin Bresnick’s “*** Trio”. I honestly didn’t know what I was getting into preparing for this festival. You email your composer exchanging pleasantries, tell them the type of music you like to play… and then eventually you get a priority mail, express mail or huge PDF attachment, or in some cases a 19 page fax and it’s up to you to figure out how to prepare. I admit I didn’t do a good job preparing. I think I freaked out about the wrong things: lots of double stops, and the abundance of triplets, quintuplets, sextuplets, and alternating between three of those. (viola joke? Anyone?). Arriving in Blonay and within 12 hours having the first jetlagged rehearsal where it’s just not what you prepared for- I’d say it was safe to say I was intimidated and knocked on my butt.

The positive is that- I learned more than I imagined possible at this festival and I was floored by the positive vibes, the loving, compassionate and enthusiastic composers, and just everyone’s willingness to help clear the hurdles! I learned that Lisa Kaplan is not only really fun to watch perform, in her brain she’s like grooving always to a “one-e-and-a-two-e-and-a” but can yell out the appropriate syllable while playing her part, wearing six inch heels and totally not getting a hair out of place. I kid, but I love that sure- there were days that I could not carry on a conversation because I was so busy subdividing at all times, (tri-pu-let, 1234, 12345); started subdividing while walking, while eating, while brushing my teeth at someone else’s suggestion. I also appreciate how many friends were willing to meet up with me- and just “check” my rhythm, or try to come up with the crazy inspiring ideas of how to figure out a crazy rhythm (sixteenth note back poundings, game show theme songs, dirty sayings or chopping and compartmentalizing… it was so helpful!) I had a lot of fun/love/respect performing with Matt Albert who always has that smile on his face , and with his impeccable technique would talk to me about sliding back and forth between killer double stops, and show downbeats with an arm, a shoulder, his hair, or an exhale. I also owe some vitamin tablets to Tim Munro, who is always the consummate professional, whose sound I love trying to emulate. I hope to jam with the rest of them someday too.

Anyway, the point is- MusicX was a lot of work, a lot of extra practice time to try to coordinate the Bartok pizzicatos, to bow, over and over again. Composers sat in on all our rehearsals, and it was great that they were always positive about what they heard. Sometimes we could get them to sing along- and it was neat to always be able to talk about sound, interpretation, “the gestures” and they were open to what musicality we brought to their pieces! Also beyond words- which others have already talked about is watching eighth blackbird perform- and perform works that were of the faculty composers who were there with us at the festival learn from their performances, their cueing- their groove, and also get to talk to them about life- and how they embody the excitement and thrill of new music.

I was honored to take a shot at Professor Bresnick’s work *** Trio, which was a particularly interesting challenge to have for MusicX. Our group was three of the performers (and thank you to all the eighth blackbird who would come and referee, or be another ear, or a metronome to bring us out of quintuplet hell!) What was neat about this work was that- I was completely drawn in and moved by this romantic and heartfelt music that had a quintuplet middle that was (to be polite) a monster to figure out. It became a daily and a lot of brain work (thank you Liz and Rebecca!)- to figure out how to handle the fives- then, just Dr.Beat™-ing it to death. There was a lot of two steps forward, two steps back- and I feel like in the 10 days or so that we battled it- I came to a real understanding of the piece, and honestly can’t wait for my next opportunity to perform it.

The food was amazing- the view was breath-taking- and my only wish is that I could have gone out a little more to breathe and take it all in. I liked that there was a full sense of accomplishment in this program. Each performer floored me--for obviously taking a new work and bringing such ease to the performance. The performances and the obvious heart that went into the interpretation captivated me. Honestly, I loved being able to sit and chat with composers and other performers on our breaks- and no, not always about music. People had great stories, talks about their decisions- and how they got where they are- and what they are hoping to achieve. It was also great to ask those compositional nerdy questions about the aspects of composition I will never understand ie: “what were you thinking!?!” It doesn’t get much better than this- for people who are united by their love of new music! I still sing little moments of each of my composer’s pieces… wondering what is that… then, “Ohhhh.” I look forward to running into each and every one of you again!

Fin

2010-07-06T15:31:00.002-04:00

Lisa Kaplan told me on a cold evening in January that I really should apply to Music10 because not only is the program fantastic, but also because Blonay is a beautiful quaint town. "You will not want to leave," she said, and then proceeded to tell me how the Hindemith Center had their own cherry trees and gardens, along with plentiful desserts and clean air.

Truthfully, I was a bit skeptical, especially since it was so hard to imagine such a wonderful place when experiencing an icy bleak winter in the Midwest. And now that I'm experiencing a unbearably sweltering summer in the Midwest (a week-long heat emergency has been declared in Cincinnati, fyi), I realize that I did not want to leave.

The morning after the last concert was a bit surreal. There were a few remaining participants, each of us painfully recovering from the night before, staying up as long as possible wishing those who left earlier a safe journey home. While we were eating breakfast, the staff at the Hindemith Center undertook some serious cleaning in the salon. As I watched one of the ladies fluff and arrange the pillows on that slanted uncomfortable sofa, it hit me: I miss you dearly. I miss you all.

I miss hanging out with you; I miss eating with you. I miss playing ping-pong; I also miss going to concerts and performing with you. Trips to Vevey were fun; maybe I saw an opera with you that included a midget. All in all, post-festival depression has settled in. All I can do to alleviate this void is to log onto Facebook and hopefully grasp some form of virtual communication via status update or comment on the many photo albums that have appeared since the ending of this festival. It's pathetic; I know, but it's the only solution I can think of at this moment.

I hope I see you again. Chances are I might because the music world is so small, but I don't know when we'll meet. All I can say is, be well, do great creative things, and please stay in touch.

Final Concert

2010-07-06T14:31:00.000-04:00

[This post was written by Douglas Pew, one of the composers at the festival.]

To wrap up our experience at Music10, we had a wonderful final concert this evening. With a sense of family spirit after these two weeks together, we gathered to be treated one final time by Eighth Blackbird and several student performers.

Eighth Blackbird opened the concert with a charming work by Missy Mazzoli entitled Still Life with Avalanche. The piece has a very fresh mix of lyricism and rhythmic punctuation and I found it very youthful and enthusiastic. Particularly delightful were the thwacks of the kick drum and the hiccupping rhythms throughout the ensemble.

Second on the program was Martin Bresnick’s ***, otherwise known as the three star trio for clarinet (Rebecca Danard), viola (Alisa Seavey), and piano (Liz Remizowski). It was delightful to hear this work for a second time today. We learned in great detail about Professor Bresnick’s method and meaning in this piece during his presentation on his own music. There is a very subtle yet beautifully convincing connection in this piece, and several other pieces of his, with the music of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. The performers gave a very expressive and heart felt performance.

Paul Kerekes’ exciting piece Hail was then performed for what was the second time during the festival. Paul’s piece, along with Amy Kirsten’s L’ange pale, were voted a second performance by all of the participants of the Music10 festival as our two favorite pieces. Kelli Kathman (flute), Nicholas Photinos (cello), and Johanna Ballou (piano) performed Paul’s exciting work with great energy and exciting flair. The first half of the piece is a hard driving, fast flying bunch of hocketing riffs and whipping crescendos. This Shostakovich-ish scherzando movement suddenly halts into a calming atmosphere of wafting colors and relaxing harmonies that depicts the calming storm that relaxes all of the previous tension and flurry. Great job Paul!! (He’s my roommate ☺.)

The next piece was the winner of the Music10 composition competition, Ted Goldman’s Cellular Automata, performed by Eighth Blackbird. Ted shows a very sharp technical ability and a command of his musical ideas. Eighth Blackbird performed his energetic, rhythmical score with great energy and finesse. Congratulations Ted!

Following Ted’s piece was the before mentioned L’ange pale by Amy Kirsten. Lindsay Kesselman (soprano), Tim Munro (flutes), Jeremy Malvin (percussion), and Christian Smith (percussion) performed at a high level this wonderful and very convincing score. Amy has a special ear for color and created a highly vivid atmosphere of a smoke wafting ritual in her demanding score. All of the instrumentalists joined Lindsay in intoning pitches which gave the work a special color and added another layer to the ritual atmosphere. Lindsay gave a spell-binding performance and demonstrated her broad range of vocal techniques and strikingly beautiful tone. What a delight!

To finish the concert, the day, and the festival, we were treated to Steve Reich’s Double Sextet in the live version with twelve performers. Intermingled with the players of Eighth Blackbird were six of our Music10 instrumentalists who together filled the stage of the Bartok Hall to near capacity: Kelli Kathman (flute), Ben Irwin (clarinet), Brenda van der Merwe (violin), Agnieszka Kolodziej (cello), Stan Muncy (percussion), and Johanna Ballou (piano). There could hardly be a more exciting and perfect piece to end our festival than the Double Sextet, which was commissioned by the festival together with five other organizations, and it was played with increasing animation and contagious energy. By the end of the journey as the harmonies climb higher and higher and the unified tone becomes brighter and brighter, there surely was not a toe left un-tapping. Propelled forward by the hammering pianos and grooving vibes, the final attack released to bursting applause and a well-deserved standing ovation. Du-ga-da du-ga du-ga-da du-ga du-ga . . . . this will be in my head for weeks!!

Lisa Moore Masterclass

2010-07-03T16:08:00.000-04:00

[Editor's Note: This post contribution is from Sarah Gibson, one of the composer/performers (piano) at the festival. She is a also a fellow Trojan. Fight on, Sarah.]

I am sure it is very clear that we all have been absolutely spoiled the past two weeks going to fantastic rehearsals and concerts, and hearing great lectures and masterclasses by Joel Hoffman, Stephen Hartke, Martin Bresnick, and eighth blackbird…but just when you think we couldn’t possibly have anymore fantastic musical experiences, Lisa Moore, with her incredible piano playing abilities, blonde curly hair, and awesome accent to go along with a great since of humor, came over the Alps to see us. It was such a fantastic experience to squeeze one more masterclass in our schedules, and it definitely got us excited to hear Lisa give her piano recital today.

Five of the six pianists attending the festival gave awesome performances from a wide spectrum of styles. Johanna Ballou started us off performing Brett Dean’s Equality. This is a piece that is difficult to some up in words merely because the very words that make the piece are so shocking, funny, and any other word you want to use to explain a theatrical and political piece. Without spoiling the punch line, Lisa effectively helped Johanna deliver her lines more passionately, audibly, and comically. It was great to hear that piece for the first time having no idea what was going to pop out of Johanna’s mouth.

Next up was Naomi Perley giving a performance of Janacek’s Piano Sonata. How exciting for her to play this piece for Lisa, who knows the piece like the back of her awesome piano hands! It was inspiring to watch how quickly Naomi would respond to Lisa’s coaching about bringing certain melodic lines out (ones that represented Hungarian rhythms in speech), using different colors in certain passages, and paying attention to the smallest detail. It was a pleasure to witness Lisa’s knowledge of this piece and it’s composer.

Following this, Liz Remizowski brought up a piece she herself commissioned (yay! commissioning young composer friends!)! It was a very virtuosic piece that Liz impressively played from memory. Even though Lisa had never heard it, she was still able to help Liz with the large scope of the piece and dealing with dealing with small nuances that could help bring a new life into the piece.

Fourth was the composer/pianist, Paul Kerekes, who just continues to blow the pants off us! He started off playing Joan Tower’s “Holding a Daisy,” wonderfully exuding the dark sides of this piece. He then played (bravely) David Lang’s hauntingly beautiful piece, “wed,” which Lisa Moore was performing the next day on her recital! She didn’t say much to Paul about his interpretation, just that he took a more emotional and romantic approach and that hers, which we all heard today, was more still and without emotional peaks and valleys. Depicting one of Lang’s deceased friends who had become a victim of cancer, it was about the wedding that she and her husband had in the hospital room before she died. It was very touching and interesting to hear two different interpretations of this powerful piece so close together.

Finally, Erika Dohi closed out the masterclass…but, unfortunately I couldn’t hear it (and to use the ultimate musician excuse)…I had a rehearsal. But I can most certainly attest to Erika’s ability to play that piano in concert settings!

As a composer/pianist myself, it was great to round out our great composition masterclasses and presentations we’ve had with such an enthusiastic and fun piano masterclass. It certainly makes me want to seek out lessons or summer programs where Lisa will be in the future (MusicX again, please?) ☺

Okay…off to the final Music10 concert! Reich, Mazoli, Kerekes, Kirsten, and Goldman…a celebratory finish!

Lisa Moore solo concert

2010-07-02T13:04:00.004-04:00

This post was written by Maria Grenfell:

On the sweltering hot Friday at 3.00pm we all trooped up to the Aula Bahyse (town hall) in Blonay to hear a recital by Australia-American pianist Lisa Moore. Trained in Australia and the USA, Lisa resides in New York City where she collaborates with a wide range of musicians and artists.

(photo by Lisa Moore)

We were treated to a wide diversity on this recital, beginning with Robert Schumann (yes, the 19th-century composer) and ending with a work by Moore’s husband, composer Martin Bresnick.

The program opened with four movements from Schumann’s “Waldscenen”, a series of nine colourful pieces composed in 1848-49 about a visit to the forest. Moore performed “Entrance”, “A Haunted Place,” “The Bird as Prophet” and “Parting”, drawing out the melodic lines with extreme clarity and attention to detail. Following this, we heard three short pieces by Leos Janacek which are part of his collection “On An Overgrown Path” (Second Series - Paralipomena), written from 1901-1910. Most of these pieces have titles but there are some extra short pieces which do not and are thus given three asterisks, signifiying the mystery of who the pieces are for and what they are about. Earlier in the day we had heard Martin Bresnick talk about his trio entitled ***, which is also being performed here in Blonay, so it was interesting to think thematically about the concepts of titles and meaning in a piece. The first work had a sense of urgency yet occasionally a pastoral quality to it, the second piece was anxious and stormy, and the third piece featured grace notes and had a fast cheerful folk-like feeling. A striking use of dissonance and quirkiness in places reinforced an almost humorous abrupt ending.

Lurching forward approximately 100 years, Moore introduced the names of three composers who were unfamiliar to me: Don Byron, Sam Adams, and Timo Andres. It was very useful to hear some background to these composers who are all linked by either having a jazz background with an interest in composition, specifically for piano, or being pianists, or being a jazz pianist.

Don Byron is a New York City jazz clarinetist and saxophonist who has turned to composition. His work is described by Moore as having a post-Thelonius Monk sensibility; however, he wrote a set of Etudes for Piano as teaching pieces modelled on the Bartok Mikrokosmos as rhythmic studies for piano students. After a verbal introduction, Moore played Etudes 2, 4, 5 and 6, which did sound like rhythmic teaching pieces with two of them introducing vocalising into the mix. I’m not sure how I felt about the vocalisation aspect, but they were clever pieces and incorporated elements of jazz language via riffs and syncopated chords colouring often a one-note or single-beat ostinato pattern. The 6th Etude was a little like Chopin meeting Prokofiev.

Sam Adams is a jazz pianist and bassist, and Moore performed “Piano Step” whose title stems from the desire to create a new name for a dance step, along the lines of “foxtrot”. The piece featured big spacious chords and jazz-like figurations in the piano writing, accompanied by a chorale idea. It was a somewhat rambling piece that built up intensity in dynamics and range, but descended to a quiet simple ending. Following this work was “How Can I Live In Your World Of Ideas?” by emerging composer and pianist Timo Andres. Adapted from a two-piano piece, it is inspired by a cartoon of penguins pondering a painting in an art gallery, and is also somehow about the challenge of writing a piano piece in this day and age. I couldn’t quite understand the connection between the conceptual ideas behind the piece and the music itself, which I found rather derivative and stylistically inconstant, and I felt the ending was abrupt and unfortunate, but surely my fellow participants have other viewpoints! It was interesting to perceive similarities between these three piano pieces by emerging composers on this concert and some works that I have heard this week at Music X, in terms of problem-solving, structural issues and unification of material.

By contrast, the final two pieces on the concert showed significant maturity in ideas and coherence of musical structure. David Lang’s poignant piece “wed” is from a series called Memory Pieces, this movement being about a sculptor who passed away from cancer after she was married from her hospital bed. The work featured a single elegant and quiet harmonic idea that was a sharp contrast to the virtuosity displayed in the other works. Finally we heard “The Dream of the Lost Traveller” by Martin Bresnick, which takes its title from an engraving by Blake about life’s “mental and spiritual journey,” in the words of the composer. A tonal chordal section moved into a more flowing syncopated section and built up to a larger version of opening material, culminating in a bell-like chorale passage. The works were played beautifully and with striking commitment and assurance by Lisa Moore, and it was a privilege to hear an artist of her talent and experience at this Festival, which sadly draws to a close this evening.

Music10 Composers 3 and Final Vote

2010-07-02T06:55:00.007-04:00

Last night was our third and final concert of new works by Music10 participant composers. I found it to be a tremendously varied, adventurous evening of music. For logistical reasons, many of the most difficult works of the festival ended up on this program, making it a tour-de-force for many of the performers.

Louis Chiapetta's ...and again... created an ethereally drifting musical environment, with soft bell-like sounds occasionally interrupted by more intense outbursts. The piece, scored for the same instrumentation as Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, managed to incorporate the influence of Messiaen without being overshadowed by it.

(photo by Lisa Moore)

L'ange pale by Amy Kirsten was an explosively radiant work. Set to her own French poem, Amy's piece crystallized the words through singing, humming, and chanting among all of the musicians. Lindsay Kesselman's wildly ecstatic vocal lines were complemented by Tim Munro's flute playing, and contrasted by a wide array of percussion sounds from Jeremy Malvin and Christian Smith.

Clarinetist Rebecca Danard lead our ears into a totally different sonic territory during the delicate opening of Jay Lin's IN THE SILENCE OF TIME. As her sound grew from nothing, the other instruments reiterated the same pitch in different colors. The delicate opening texture lead to expansively tremulous passages and sweeping angular lines.

The performance of Nissim Schaul's Trio was achieved with particularly close collaboration with the performers - violinist Matt Albert, cellist Agnieszka Kolodziej, and percussionist Yu-Chun Kuo. Incorporating a significant amount of improvisation, this intensely mellow work created a slowly ruminating texture, with changes occurring very gradually.

Tim Munro and Yu-Chun Kuo teamed up to perform the only work on the concert which was written by a non-Music10 composer. The work, Female Nude, was by Australian composer Andrew Ford. Originally programmed on the flute concert, it was moved to last night for practical reasons. Sensual, ritualistic, and pointillistic, the music exploited many of the coloristic capabilities of the alto flute - including a significant amount of singing, sighing, and gasping. The percussion part explored the earthy sounds of temple blocks, log drums, and marimba.

Introducing his work, Urulumunu, composer Ted Goldman quipped, "I say it 'uRUlumunu'; my roommate says 'urulumuNUuuu'; but my performers say it best!" Ted's made-up title was simply a label for what proved to be an energetically tuneful piece. After a leisurely opening, the music became more fast and rhythmic. The triumphant ending was punctuated by the piano and marimba whimsically bouncing to a stop.

Ben Irwin's Nascence was full of pleasing contrasts. The iridescent first movement lead to an insistent, dance-like second movement. The final movement was initially aggressive, but dissolved into an eerily hushed closing. In a recent masterclass with Joel Hoffman, there was much discussion about whether Ben's music is narrative or non-narrative. I felt that Nascence was an effective combination of both concepts, with its well-delineated form leaning it slightly toward the narrative side.

The performance closed with Chris Stark's Stars in Dead Reflection. This spacious, charming work took advantage of the colorful possibilities of its jazz-like instrumentation - clarinet, double bass, percussion, and piano - without sounding overtly jazzy in any way. Chris himself described the piece remarkably well, saying "it's like Copland played on a player piano and sped up, until it rips apart."

After the concert, we took part in a new venture for the MusicX festival: every participant voted for their five favorite pieces. After the results were tallied, two winning composers were chosen to have their pieces performed again on the final concert of the festival, which will be held tonight. Having tallied the votes, Martin Bresnick and Joel Hoffman mentioned that they were delighted to find that every piece received at least one vote, exemplifying the diverse taste and supportive attitude of our festival participants. However, there was certainly a strong consensus leading to the choice of our two winners. Congratulations to Paul Kerekes and Amy Kirsten!!!! We are eagerly looking forward to hearing your new works again tonight!

Music10 Composers 2

2010-07-02T02:58:00.006-04:00

This post was written by composer Ted Goldman:

There are many places to play music over the summer, but not quite so many where one can take a trip to Mont Blanc with new found friends after the festival ends. That trip at the end of Music09 was just one of the (extra) musical experiences that led me to return this year. Spending two weeks and three meals a day with musical colleagues in little Blonay is like listening to a piece composed with a limited amount of material: it creates a highly focused and memorable impression and allows for rapid development in a short span of time. The materials of my last two summers

(photo by Lisa Moore)

at MusicX consisted of day hikes with my performers, conversational ping pong, and of course intense music making.

The latter activity was well represented in Wednesday night's Music10 composers' concert. Douglas Pew's En Los Muros De Arlés contained a beautiful variety of marimba timbres: quiet tremolos created by rubbing the mallets between two keys, and unfocused woody sounds made from bamboo-sheave mallets, among others. These colors were arrived at in cooperation with percussionist Yu-Chun Kuo - one of the many sorts of collaborative experiences that make the MusicX environment rewarding.

I happily disagreed with the title of Maria Grenfell's piece These Dark Notes Drifting for two flutes, vibraphone, and piano. To the contrary, I found the piece very immediate, and the harmonic washes created by the piano and vibes made the dual flute lines glow.

Carrie Magin and Jordan Kuspa's pieces proved to be interesting, if unplanned, counterparts to one another. In Carrie's Shear Meridian, there was a constant implied pulse that was rarely articulated explicitly, yet jazzy syncopations against the pulse were quite audible and effective. In Jordan's Metronome, the pulse was an explicit agent, fighting against gestures that on their own would exist outside clear metric boundaries.

Much less pulsed was Michael Ippolito's Nocturne, which seemed to exist in a pre-dream state where quiet sounds and faint images were magnified into vividness. This dichotomy was made explicit at the climax of the piece, where vague, squiggly lines from the opening were combined with a big tune that had long been waiting to burst out.

Another piece combining disparate materials was Jennifer Jolley's Flight 710 to Cabo San Lucas, which presented dissociated funk motives alongside repeating cluster chords. The expectation that the two domains would coalesce created a tension that was never resolved, as the grooves and clusters cohabited without obvious interaction - perhaps like the passengers on a plane.

Jesse Jones' Four Bagatelles were like glimpses into the mind of a composer deciding which piece to write next. Each contained vivid ideas that dissolved just before the point at which they would need to evolve. I would love to hear more of the pointillistic quasi-ragtime of the first piece.

In a concert of strong pieces, the highlight for me was Paul Kerekes' Hail, which existed within a restricted palette of harmonic materials, textures, and gestures. Though the shortest piece on the program, it nevertheless presented and developed its ideas clearly and fully. In that regard, the music was like the festival itself: brief in duration, but long in memory.

Pictures from Music10 Composers I

2010-07-01T04:31:00.000-04:00

I feel a picture post is appropriate here, considering my arms are exhausted and I am wincing in pain. Last night another nerd/composer/percussionist/new music-phile game commenced (the first game is vaguely mentioned here), and the game-du-jour was playing Louis Andriessen's Workers Union.

We had a ton of fun blasting that piece, but all is fun and games until you wake up the next morning with an aversion to bright light and your head throbbing in pain; or, in my case, I have an aversion to lifting heavy objects and my forearms are throbbing. Blowdrying my hair this morning was a little tricky.

Anyway, while I drag my arms on the floor like an orangutan, please enjoy the photos from the concert.

the vielle à roue

2010-06-30T18:03:00.000-04:00

[Editor's Note: On Monday we had Nissim Schaul give a demonstration of a hurdy-gurdy. I asked him to write about the instrment. (Fortunately he didn't have to travel with this instrument on a plane.)]

I brought my hurdy-gurdy with me to Music10 entirely in order to proselytize for the instrument. I’m not the best spokesman, since I’m still a bit of a beginner, but a few days ago, I got to give a half-hour to talk about the instrument in front of lots of other composers. I was excited!

So, to start with, I’m not talking about an organ-grinder. It’s unfortunate that in English, two instruments have one name on account of the crank. But a monkey could never play the vielle à roue (I’ll use the French word from here on out, since I’ve been learning the French version of the instrument.) It’s actually a pretty complicated instrument – lots of moving parts. First, most famously, are the drones (the bourdons – the bumblebees). My student instrument has four drone strings, though many vielles have 6-8, not to mention the ringing sympathetic strings. One of my four drones is special, called the chien (the dog). Most of the strings are on a stable bridge, but the chien’s bridge moves, meaning that it buzzes when hit hard. That allows a vielleur to add a rhythmic aspect to an instrument that otherwise is quite static.

This is a good moment to explain that the vielle is a bowed instrument, like a violin or a cello, but the “bow” is actually a wheel. You turn the crank and the rosined wheel rubs against the cottoned strings, which produces vibrations, which are amplified by the instrument’s body.

The other strings on the vielle are called the chanterelles. I feel like chanterelle is the name of a French insect, which would nicely complete the animal theme, but it doesn’t. Alas. The chanterelles play the melody by means of a keyboard that requires gravity.

The best part of the day, though, was after the nightly concert when we all played Philip Glass’s Music in Parallel Motion on whichever instrument we thought we could play, so I brought out my vielle. My colleague, Wenhui Xie, turned the crank while I vain attempted to finger the right notes with two hands on the keyboard. That is, no doubt, the highlight of my young vielle-playing career. I’m looking forward to new opportunities to do crazy things with my instrument – yes, I am planning on writing lots of music for the vielle once I get a little better at it!

Music 10 Composers 1

2010-06-30T10:33:00.000-04:00

Another post by Maria Grenfell. :)
***
The title of the concert held on Tuesday 29 June really sounds like an imaginary World Cup score. Fortunately, in this case, the composers won and there wasn’t a vuvuzela within coo-ee. Sorry, that’s my fake Australianness coming out, while surrounded by Americans here in the beautiful Swiss alps...

The first concert of works by participant composers featured a wide variety of pieces that we have come to expect during this week of multi-faceted music-making. Opening the program was “Quartet (after...)” by Wenhui Xie. This is a re-working of material from her Symphony no. 1, and commemorates the tragic loss of many children during the 2008 Chinese earthquake. Long static lines were punctuated by sharp gestures, breath tones and key clicks from clarinet, circular motions on violin strings, speech from the percussionist, and playing inside the piano with fishing line. Absolute control was required by the players, and it was a dramatic way to begin the evening.

Sarah Gibson’s piece “Breathe out, Sleep in” touched a familiar chord with all the composers in the room, about the stress of not being able to sleep while trying to reach a composition deadline. Dreamy sections alternated with faster sections characterised by scurrying lines and rhythmic piano writing, then the piece gradually died away as the composer falls asleep. This was a motivic piece with a strong musical arc.

Following the dreamy ending of Sarah’s piece was “a trois” by Pittsburgh-based Colombian composer, Federico Garcia, who has impressed us with staunch support of his soccer team throughout the week – not to mention his fine compositions and perceptive comments in master classes. “A trois” for violin, percussion and piano is a vivace motivic and virtuosic piece that is an experiment with a new style. The striking rhythmic opening gave way to a chromatic motive in all registers, and sustained a sense of foreboding throughout.

“now is the blue” by Jenny Olivia Johnson was a beautifully poetic piece inspired by a 3 a.m. drive through small-town Massachusetts while listening to Samuel Barber on a rainy April night. Repetitive motives triggered electronic clicks and processed vocalisations from the composer on her laptop, while the bass clarinet and cello played long plaintive melodies creating a soundscape that emerged into a dramatic climax and then faded out.

Chicago composer Carolyn O’Brien gave a warm and endearing introduction to her piece “Impromptu”, in which small musical gestures triggered other gestures. Unexpected colours such as high cello harmonics combining with piccolo in the same range were part of this impressive piece. Repeated motives followed by long sustained phrases utilising vibraphone motor, giving an other-worldly ‘wah-wah’ sound. I particularly enjoyed the sense of space and use of silence.

“Trajectories” by Kyle Werner is a short piece based on the migratory flight patterns of birds in New York City. Singular entries from flute, cello and piano wove an interesting continuous line and built up a contrapuntal texture that was characterised by its clarity.

Finally on the concert was a piece by young Cincinnati composer Ben Wallace called “The Punctuality of Arriving on Time”, for six percussionists. It has been too long since I played in the toy box that is the contemporary percussion ensemble, so I was curious about this piece having heard a rehearsal of it earlier in the week. Ben has experimented with minimalism and this was an energising piece that was rhythmically grounded in an ostinato of sorts played by two players on shakers, while four other players used an array of gongs, cymbals and almglocken either laid flat on a table or suspended from racks. Rhythmic patterns morphed from one to another against the constancy of the shakers, in the overall shape of a very gradual ritardando in which lower-pitched sounds began to emerge from the relentless texture. The result was a hypnotic gamelan effect but without the cyclic patterns, and eventually led to a complete stop, like a train. I was interested to see the “score”, which consisted of small rhythmic motives and cues to start moving to different instruments once other players were playing specific instruments and motives. It worked. A great night for all!

Ecstatic Dances

2010-06-29T07:42:00.000-04:00

Here's a post by composer Maria Grenfell. The photo is also hers.
***
An abundance of exciting contemporary flute music gave eighth blackbird flutist Tim Munro the grand idea of staging a concert at the Music 10 Festival featuring music written for flutes of many sizes and in various combinations. The opening concert of the Festival on Monday 28 June, Ecstatic Dances, treated the audience to music by composers from Estonia, Australia and the USA. With contrasting approaches to timbre and musical materials, the performance showcased the superb talents of the musicians at Music 10, whose dedicated approach to learning and performing new music is at the heart of this unique two-week collaboration between composers and performers.

Opening the program was UNCLOSE, by New York composer Hannah Lash, a participant at the Festival. Written for soprano, two percussionists and piano, the piece featured a range of extended techniques for voice and piano, punctuated by scraping and sighing unpitched percussion sounds, silences, as well as the extraordinary voice of Lindsay Kesselman, who seemed to pluck high notes effortlessly out of nowhere and wove the syllabic text and vocalisations on the composer’s poetry in a performance that held the audience captive.

Helena Tulve is an Estonian composer from whose work “Soaring” for two flutists emerged a range of timbres such as humming while playing, co-ordinated breathing in and out, multi-phonics, harmonics, and changes of instruments. Performed by Tim Munro and Kelli Kathman, the work seamlessly utilised the bass, alto, C flute and piccolo, making the most of extreme ranges and dynamics. Ever with a sense of the dramatic, Tim Munro moved to the side of the room and without pause his colleague Pethrus Gärdborn began “Ecstatic Dances” by Australian composer Ross Edwards. Written in his ‘maninyas’ style, it is a chirpy rhythmical piece which was effective in this spatial performance where the two flutists began on opposite sides of the room and gradually moved to the centre stage while continuing to play.

The final work on the program was “Music in Fifths” by Philip Glass. Composed in 1969, this performance was an arrangement for three players, and its hypnotic minimalist style almost seemed old-fashioned, yet still keeping the audience enthralled at the stamina and cohesion of both the performance and the music’s subtle harmonic changes. A flute concert was an out-of-left-field idea with which to begin a Festival. Given the quality of music and performances, we look forward to the feast of music to come.

Château de Chillon Pictures

2010-06-29T07:27:00.000-04:00

Joel Hoffman Presentation

2010-06-29T07:12:00.000-04:00

So...this should have been up earlier, but with everything else going on (rehearsals, napping, eating, composer/performer nerd games in the evening), I'm a little behind. Here's my thought's on Joel Hoffman's presentation.

Joel Hoffman gave a presentation on his music a few days ago, not exactly knowing what he was going to play for us. He admitted that he had sort of a dilemma as to what to share; he didn't want to play music that some of us had already heard (there are a few of us CCMers here), nor did could he share his most recent music. (By the way, a few of us young composers had the SAME problem; I personally had troubles deciding what to bring for composer show-and-tell.) He did want to share his music, but he didn't want to play anything that some of us have heard before, plus he didn't have any recordings of his new style.

I have been curious about this new style for some time ever since he mentioned his use of silences during my lessons. He has been talking about it for weeks now, and here I was curious to hear any recordings of his music to demonstrate this compositional turn. Alas, there were no recordings, so Joel turned to improvisation instead (for the most part).

This wasn't exactly a cop-out; rather, he shared an improvisation program that he had performed in Taiwan and Poland (and Cincinnati): He would perform other pieces, like Brahms, Schoenberg, and his own piece Hands Down, for example, and improvise music in between the pieces.

Personally, I love it when Joel improvises, and I was thrilled when he chose to perform this short improvisational program again. The Swiss were also excited, but I have a feeling it was because they were watching the World Cup instead. I digress.

Joel also shared the second movement from his cello concerto Self Portrait with Gebertig and Piano Trio 3 on C#. These were also two pieces I haven't heard before, and the slow, beautiful, pensive quality of the music juxtaposed nicely with the view of the mountains outside.

The next day we were able to hear a taste of Joel's new compositional style: there was a flute concert that played music of composers, and Joel's piece for 3 flutes. The piece was derived from an Orlando motet and involved more silences than usual; this is the new compositional style that Joel was talking about, and all of us were very much anticipating this piece. I felt the silences were affective, but I wanted even more silences. Of course, Joel admitted that this was his first compositional step into this new style.

The next few days we will be having a concert a day, and today starts the young composers concerts. In the meantime, I will be posting multiple pictures.

Day 8

2010-06-29T03:39:00.004-04:00

Today's post was written by participant composer Amy Beth Kirsten:

If last night's concert was the only musical event that I got to experience at this festival it would have been worth the trip. I don't know about you, but those transcendent, life-altering musical experiences don't come along that often and when they do, well, it's powerful.

From the accidental prologue of church bells, to Matthew's final winding down of the woodblock in Hartke's Meanwhile, I had completely lost myself...and found music all over again - isn't it great to fall in love with sound? Oh yes, it was one of those concerts.

The whole concert was so terrifically paced; I don't think it could have been programmed better. With Hartke's Percolative Processes it was impossible not to be drawn in - quiet waves of intense and ever-shifting color that, to me, evoke earth elements - it was the perfect door to walk through. Once fully inside the metaphoric "room," we had the pleasure of experiencing Bresnick's My Twentieth Century. Like many of the fellows here, I'd only ever heard this piece as a recording. As effective as it is as a recorded piece, it profoundly aches with heartbreak when experienced live. The obsessive and unrelenting rhythm married with a joyous harmonic language creates an emotional conflict that feels so honestly born from the text - as I said last night, "you had me at 'fireflies.'" And I just have to say that the delivery of lines of text was so much more than mere delivery - each one of you felt truly plugged into the energy and sound of words in such a visceral way...all I have left to say is WOW.

I was so open-hearted after My Twentieth Century that it was the perfect way to be to receive Hoffman's Hands Down. It was difficult not to make a spiritual connection between the two. What I mean is that My Twentieth was many beautiful things, but mostly it was about the awareness of being human, of being temporary, of being totally f@#$%-up, of loving, of losing, and most poignantly for Hands Down, of the human relationship to time. Thinking about time, I remembered Hoffman's presentation of his music during which he spoke of a kind of a personal rebirth, one that may manifest in his music as a new approach to silence...perhaps composing longer and longer periods silence as he goes on. Hands Down seemed plucked out of space somehow, fleeting, as if it didn't belong to him, to us, or anyone - and truly beautiful.

Can I just say that Meanwhile is my new favorite piece of the twenty-first century? Hey, does anyone have a copy of the score? I've got to hear that again. Bravo to Mr. Hartke and eighth blackbird for the kind of composition and performance that makes us want to play, dance, compose, invent, and create all day. I know I've said this before, but...my ears/heart/mind are so happy.

Day 7

2010-06-28T08:11:00.007-04:00

Sunday began a new chapter in our time here at Music10. After our final round of composer presentations, guest composer Martin Bresnick and guest pianist Lisa Moore arrived around lunch time. It's really great to have them here! Several participants already knew them, so they have been catching up over meals and hanging out on the porch. Those of us who did not know them are enjoying getting to know them. As we have mentioned before, one of the big advantages of this festival is the continual interaction between everyone here. We get to know each other personally, as well as artistically.

(Music10 flutists Pethrus Gärdborn, Tim Munro, and Kelli Kathman)

That night we had our first concert, held in the Bartok Hall here at the Hindemith Centre. The performance mostly featured contemporary flute chamber music, but also included UNCLOSE by participant composer Hannah Lash. (Hannah's work was programmed on this concert because she needed to leave on Monday.) Scored for soprano, piano, and two percussion, UNCLOSE juxtaposed sung poetry with humming and percussive vocal effects, which were mirrored by brushing and murmuring in the instrumental parts. Soprano Lindsay Kesselman, pianist Erika Dohi, and percussionists Matthew Duvall and Christian Smith gave a wonderfully sensitive performance of this haunting, ethereal work.

The remainder of the program showcased our outstanding Music10 flutists: Pethrus Gärdborn, Kelli Kathman, and Tim Munro (the flutist of eighth blackbird). Tim and Kelli opened with Soaring by Helena Tulve, an Estonian composer. Tim described the work as being more like a tone poem than a flute duet, and I would agree. This piece began with the alto and bass flutes, and gradually ascended as the performers changed instruments. In addition to incorporating the colorful sounds of the different instruments, the work also made frequent use of sharp inhaling and exhaling, creating striking contrasts. The performers moved without pause into Australian composer Ross Edwards' Ecstatic Dances. Pethrus and Tim began playing on opposite sides of the room, emphasizing the antiphonal, bird-like dialogue of the music. They moved to the center as the music became more dance-like.

All three flutists played together for Self Portrait with Orlando by Joel Hoffman. A prototype of Hoffman's new style, the piece interpolates two of Hoffman's previous works with a deconstructed motet by Orlando di Lasso. The flutists played with a smoothly blended, vocal quality during the motet passages, and bright incisiveness during the faster sections. They closed the concert with Philip Glass' Music in Fifths. Written in 1969, this is one of Glass' truly relentless, uncompromising early works. Tim created a realization for three flutes, beginning on the low instruments and gradually ascending, as in the Tulve work. They performed this nerve-wrackingly difficult work with hypnotic fluidity. After page after page of relentless parallel fifths, the sudden ending felt like an explosion of silence.

Days 5 & 6

2010-06-27T12:25:00.002-04:00

On Friday we began our day with more composer presentations, which stimulated lots of interesting discussion as usual (see previous post by Carolyn O'Brien). After an afternoon full of rehearsals, we gathered together after dinner for artistic director/guest composer Joel Hoffman's presentation on his own music. He began by letting us in on the latest developments in his compositional style, since sweeping changes have occurred in the past year. In particular, he said that his most recent works are full of silences - often quite long ones - and that he sees the music as being carved out of the silences. He also spoke about his experience and views on improvisation and its relationship to composition. Dr. Hoffman performed a set of music for solo piano, which included a Brahms intermezzo and his own piece Hands Down, interpolated with improvisations. He also played recordings of several other works, including 6-8-2-4-5-8, which he wrote for MusicX's ensemble-in-residence, eighth blackbird.

Saturday was a free day, allowing us to take a break from our intense musical activities. Several of us went on excursions to Montreux, Vevey, the Chateau de Chillon (a medieval castle near Montreux) or Les Pleiades (a mountain near Blonay), and some people just took it easy and stayed at the Hindemith Centre. It felt great to get some fresh air and a fresh perspective on our musical work. Stay tuned for more pictures!

When can a composer put a stay at a spa on their résumé?

2010-06-27T10:55:00.000-04:00

Today's post is written by Carolyn O'Brien, one of our participant composers:

After attending the Music10 Festival in Blonay, Switzerland and subsequently displaying that fact on my résumé, it almost feels as if I'm claiming a stay at a spa as a professional accomplishment! The food, wine, view of the alps and Lake Geneva, not to mention the stimulating conversations with the company I keep is so lovely, it's impossible to see my stay as anything other than luxurious. Instead of seeing a masseuse for what ails me, I get my ego stroked by gifted performers at every rehearsal. During each morning presentation with my fellow composers or master class with our esteemed professors, I get multiple solutions to questions I never thought would be answered in my own music.

For example, during my own presentation a few days ago, I announced to the group that I was thinking of removing ostinato from all my music because I felt it was both an easy way to push music forward, it was equally difficult to get out of the groove without cutting it off in a violent way. Today, I was proven wrong by my new colleague Federico Garcia in his piece for guitar, marimba and piano entitled "Bajo el hechizo." Federico's ostinato showed so much nuance with registral and timbral shifts the likes of which I'd never even considered until today.

This kind of discovery happens every day here in Blonay, where threads of conversations start at 9 am on one day, are discussed through lunch, dinner, hikes in the alps, day trips to Vevey, and resolve a few days later within the music of a new friend. The fact that music can both present and solve a problem is truly moving. Sometimes we simply go beyond the problems and simply enjoy a transcendent passage of music that is so achingly plaintive and poignant it must be heard once more, such as the day Joel Hoffman asked Jesse Jones if we could please hear the opening of his elegy for Piano Quintet (vln, vla, vc, bass, pf.) The especially moving moment when the bass lays this sublime layer of depth as the soaring melody cries its lament above made eyes both water and squint as we all probably secretly plotted to steal that instrumentation and orchestration. Either that, or perhaps we'll just have to pool our leftover Swiss francs and pay Jesse to ghostwrite for us. Seriously, I probably made my point, but just know it was gorgeous. You don't have to take my word for it though. Try listening here!

http://www.jessejonescomposer.com/works.html

Another thread that keeps coming up for us is the elusive art of choosing a title for a piece and writing program notes. It turns out this tends to be a nightmare for most of us and we've discussed this more times than I can count since the first admission of this fearful preoccupation. I've looked at a blog entry by Jeremy Denk, a pianist based in NYC, and his witty take on how to deal with program notes is very interesting. http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2010/05/25/jetlagged-manifesto/ However, it still doesn't address that "how to name your baby" issue of composing, and how and when to tell the audience about your secret little inspirations, stories, visual ideas, et al that helped you to conceive of the piece. So, as we try to discern between what's bad taste vs. good taste, we ease our quandaries by eating pasta, or buttery sauces over local fish, or vanilla panna cotta with our coffee, or share a bottle of local wine, or take a little sample of local cheese from that nice lady at la laiterie followed by a hunk of dark chocolate and take comfort in excellent company. Well . . . sometimes bad taste does enter into it. . . but I'll keep the details (and the web site links) out of that, shall I?

Behind on Food Posts

2010-06-26T13:25:00.000-04:00

We all had a day off today (mostly), so I'm a little behind in updating everything that's going on. Here are some more food photos taken by Yu-Chun Kuo.

Pictures from Days 3 & 4

2010-06-25T09:57:00.015-04:00

1. Hindemith Music Centre, Chalet de Lacroix
This building contains the Salon Hindemith (where we have many of our presentations and masterclasses), the dining room, a living room, rehearsal rooms, and bedrooms.

2. Hindemith Music Centre, Pavilion

This building contains rehearsal rooms, Bartok Hall (where most of our concerts are held), and bedrooms.

3. Chateau de Blonay
A medieval castle just up the hill from the Hindemith Music Centre.

4-5. Performers in rehearsal

6. Participants on their way to Vevey

7. The Fork sculpture in Vevey

8. Practicing in the yard.

Days 3 & 4

2010-06-25T08:47:00.009-04:00

Wednesday and Thursday held many rewarding activities here at Music10. On Wednesday morning we had another round of composer presentations, giving us a change to hear recordings of more of the fascinating music that our participant composers have written. We're listening to everything from orchestral and wind ensemble works, to vocal and choral works, to chamber and solo music. It's nice to hear a variety of works by each composer, giving us a chance to experience the different sides of their personalities.

Later that evening, several of us took a nice walk down to the nearby town of Vevey. We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset over the lake, with the mountains in the background. Plus we got to visit the famous giant fork statue which appeared on our promotional posters. (See next post for pictures.)

Thursday afternoon we had a masterclass in which guest composer Stephen Hartke commented on music of some participant composers (including me and my fellow blogger Jennifer Jolley). Dr. Hartke is an insightful, inquisitive listener, and we have all been learning a great deal from him. One of the main topics of discussion was the issue of titles and program notes for our compositions. It's always difficult to attach words to music, so it was nice to wrestle with the topic in the company of experienced colleagues. Dr. Hartke succinctly noted that when speaking or writing about your piece, pretend as though it is a piece by someone else. This can help us detach ourselves from the convoluted, personal associations we sometimes have with the process of composing. He suggested that we try to speak in a concise, nontechnical way as much as possible. Although this might seem obvious, it is advice that is easy to forget - it's always nice to be reminded about the importance of presenting our music well.

We also discussed the issue of harmonic variety in modern music. Dr. Hartke noted that nowadays he sees many student works that are tonal, but do not modulate to different keys. He urged us to think about creative ways to achieve a sense of harmonic contrast, which can help strengthen and delineate the form of the music. The challenge is to use harmony in a way that is fresh and personal, while taking into account the many good examples from music of the past.

Meanwhile, the performers continue to rehearse the new works. We have been very impressed by their enthusiasm, artistry, and hard work. This allows us to treat the rehearsals as workshop sessions, in which composers are actually making adjustments to their music as it is being rehearsed. In particular, having a member of eighth blackbird in each chamber group means that composers get helpful feedback from full-time, world-class performers of new music. Since eighth blackbird regularly performs challenging new works, they have an incredible ability to realize the ideas of composers.

The next post includes several pictures from days 3 and 4. Enjoy!

Some Pictures from Day 2

2010-06-25T07:59:00.000-04:00

Getting settled in

2010-06-23T11:20:00.007-04:00

We are really spoiled here: great people, great place, great music, great food.

The last few days have been full of our scheduled musical activities. Performers have been putting in many hours rehearsing the new pieces by the participant composers. Each work is prepared in a series of five rehearsals, each of which lasts an hour and a half. Composers have been holding music sharing sessions each morning, giving each composer thirty minutes to play recordings and talk about their music. This allows us to get to know each other’s work, and it generates lots of conversation. Some of us have even been sharing our scores with each other. These presentations often bring up issues that many of us face in composing our music; for instance, the integration of classical and nonclassical styles, the notation of rhythmically complex music, the meanings of dynamic markings, and the creation of effective musical structures. It’s nice to spend time with lots of other composers and know that we’re not alone! And the level of musicianship is astronomical at the festival this year. At each session, and at the rehearsals I have visited (including the ones for my own piece), I have been continually blown away!

On Tuesday night, guest composer Stephen Hartke gave a presentation on his music, playing a wide variety of his works and discussing each of them. He spoke about the idea of informed intuition, meaning that you gather knowledge about music that allows your intuitive decisions to be shaped by good examples. It was inspiring to see how this concept appears in his works, which draw on a wide variety of influences, yet sound unique and spontaneous. His works manage to evoke everything from ancient ruins to creaking bedsprings, plus the music is beautiful and fascinating on a purely sonic level. It’s a tremendous privilege to have Dr. Hartke in our company this week.

The food has been continually delicious. We’re also enjoying our gorgeous surroundings, with views of the lake, mountains, and hillsides. The gardens in the back yard are full of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers. This incredibly luxurious, relaxing environment is very conducive to good conversations and exchanges of ideas. We’re learning so much about music just through getting to know each other. Our participants come from many of the world’s outstanding musical institutions and communities, so we each have unique experience to share. I’m continually impressed with the wisdom, knowledge, talent, and humor of the people we have here.

What We're Eating

2010-06-23T08:03:00.000-04:00

Yu-Chun Kuo is one of the percussionists at Music10, and she has been faithfully taking pictures of the food and providing descriptions. So, if you're jealous that we're eating ridiculously yummy food, get mad at her, not me.

6/21 Lunch Dessert: Cherry Tart, Apricot Tart, Apple Tart

(Note from the author: Yes, you read that right. LUNCH DESSERT.)

More after the jump.

6/21 Dinner Salad

6/21 Dinner - Awesome Baked Tortellini

6/21 Ridiculously Yummy Dinner Dessert

And So It Begins

2010-06-22T08:34:00.000-04:00

And so it begins, this torture of being fed dessert twice a day. It must not be healthy, you know, desserts twice, cheese three times a day, lots of wine.

But, yes, the Music10 Festival has begun. We arrived yesterday and may have been a bit tired, but we're looking forward to meeting new people and having new music performed.

We could get used to this.

Photos of Day 1 after the jump.

Booking Flights

2010-04-28T19:44:00.000-04:00

I finally booked my flight from CVG to GVA for Music10. I thought about flying into FRA, but prices ended up being the same. Fortunately we spent a little under $1300. We will spend an extra day in Geneva, but there are youth hostels available.

This wasn't without hassle. My friend Rebecca and I thought we found our perfect itinerary on expedia.com only to find out that the returning flight we wanted was no longer available. (We discovered this after talking to an expedia.com agent. Grrr...)

Anyway, the flights are booked. My only worry is that we have to catch a 7:30 AM flight out of GVA on Monday morning (July 5).

Also, this will be the first time I am celebrating Independence Day outside of the States. Sad.

Me vs. the Icelandic Volcano

2010-04-22T09:23:00.000-04:00

Yikes. I still haven't purchased my tickets yet. I'm a little scared about figuring out the travel logistics, especially because online sites like Travelocity don't refund your money if you mess up your plans.

I also heard the volcano mess might cause travelers to reconsider their vacation plans to Europe, so therefore ticket prices might drop. Is this true?

76 Days until Music10

2010-04-07T22:41:00.000-04:00

In February I was accepted into the Music10 festival in Blonay, Switzerland. I'm pretty excited about this, although I've only traveled abroad one other time in my life (to Croatia, no less). I hope to write my experiences (and my joys and stresses) over the next few weeks to (1) let others know of this amazing festival and (2) encourage students like myself to take advantage of short study-abroad programs. In the meantime, I must work on a piece for the festival!