July/August 2010
What you’re into if you’re into sound and music
Bill dixon Free jazz pioneer shocking opera A new manifesto Stockhausen’s klang Day in the life
The magazine of
Chris Watson WILD TRACKS
Welcome to the July/August issue of INTO INTO is taking a short summer break, returning in September. One thing we hope you’ll do before the next issue comes out is visit Chris Watson’s Whispering in the Leaves installation, produced by Sound and Music and Forma, which runs until the end of August in the Palm House at Kew Gardens, and which is the focus of this month’s cover feature.
enthusiasms of their own. Philip sets out a provocative appeal for a new opera based on examples from film, theatre and cabaret, while Christian documents an epic experience at May’s MusikTriennale Köln, where he attended the full twenty-one hours of Stockhausen’s Klang cycle – emerging, apparently, “refreshed, energised and inspired.”
Chris Watson’s role as a wildlife sound recordist for the BBC has made him well-known beyond the relatively small world of sonic art; Whispering in the Leaves brings together documentary work and contemporary art practice to make an installation that’s both aesthetically and scientifically fascinating. For Watson, though, an equal enthusiasm powers all his undertakings: as he tells Luke Turner, “You just need to keep your ears open.”
As this issue was coming together, we learned of the death, aged 84, of veteran jazz trumpeter and composer Bill Dixon, and commissioned a tribute to him from Marcus O’Dair, whose article on Dixon’s life celebrates not only his music but also his important work as an educator. The often unsung role of teacher is one that should command as much admiration as Dixon’s 1960s work with Cecil Taylor, and his return to prominence in the last decade.
Elsewhere, composers Philip Venables and Christian Mason follow some
Frances Morgan Editor
Published by Sound and Music www.soundandmusic.org Contact: into-magazine@soundandmusic.org
Managing Editor: Shoël Stadlen Editor: Frances Morgan Designed by: Martina Dahl Original Design: PostParis, www.postparis.com
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Cover Image: Chris Watson (courtesy of www.chriswatson.net) The opinions expressed in INTO are those of the authors and not necessarily those of INTO or Sound and Music. Copyright of all articles is held jointly by Sound and Music and the authors. Unauthorised reproduction of any item is forbidden.
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Contents
C ntents What we’re INto Pages 6–7
Chris Watson Pages 24-31
NEWS Pages 8–23
bill dixon Pages 32-37
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Contents
shocking Opera pages 38-43
Klang pages 44-51
opportunities pages 52-55
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What We’re into
Make magazine, paper and conducive ink piano
Luke Fowler and Lee Patterson, Courtisane Festival 2009
What we’re INT What we’re INTO is a small monthly round-up of some of the new music and sound that we’ve been enjoying at Sound and Music. Follow the links to see and hear our audio, video and interactive selections. If you would like to submit your work for consideration, see the open call on our website.
Luke Styles, Light Blinks with Torches Will Menter, installations and video work
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What We’re into
Claudia Molitor’s Voice Box project
Anthony Braxton’s 65th birthday concert, Le Poisson Rouge, New York City
Sounds from the Large Hadron Collider
Arthur magazine podcast
Toys and Techniques blog
Maja Ratkje and Gier Hjetland, Desibel installation
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News
NEW NEW MUSIC AND FILM PAY HOMAGE TO DURHAM’S MINING HISTORY Icelandic composer Jóhan Jóhannsson has drawn upon the brass band music of County Durham for a new work produced by Forma, to be premiered at BRASS: Durham Intenational Brass Festival on 15 and 16 July, in Durham Cathedral. Jóhannsson has written the score for The Miners’ Hymns, a film by Bill Morrison that uses footage from local and national archives to portray the coal industry that once dominated the North East of England, its sense of community and cultural legacy. This new work will be performed live alongside the film, played by a specially assembled ensemble of brass players from the NASWUT Riverside Band as well as classical brass musicians and organist Robert Houssart, and conducted by Gudni Franzson. Both composer and filmmaker have worked in a collaborative context before: Morrison has worked alongside composers such as John Adams
and Gavin Bryars, while Jóhannsson has composed for film, dance and theatre. This new commission connects the region’s brass heritage with contemporary art and film, while celebrating the role brass band music played within mining communities. www.brassfestival.co.uk
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News
15 YEARS OF THE MANCHESTER JAZZ FESTIVAL Photography: James Robertson
Phil Bancroft, Small as the world
New commissions, a film season, and the cartoon soundtracks of electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott are all highlights of this year’s Manchester Jazz Festival, which this year celebrates its fifth birthday with concerts and events taking place between 23 and 31 July at various venues around the city. Local composer and trumpeter Neil Yates has been commissioned to create a new piece that will be performed by 19 players in St Ann’s Church, while there’s a chance to see and hear Phil Bancroft’s Small As The World at RNCM. This multimedia performance combines interactive technology with live music and was first performed last year at Edinburgh Jazz Festival. More events are to be announced, including a number of free gigs. www.manchesterjazz.com
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News
NEW RINSE AWARDED FM LICENSE London radio station Rinse FM, which has operated as a pirate station since 1994 – with online broadcasting since 2006 – has been awarded an FM license. The station has been the first to play and support many of the UK’s key urban artists over the years, including stars like Dizzee Rascal, and had a significant part in putting grime and dubstep on the map, both in London and elsewhere, as well as running club nights and events. http://rinse.fm/
COMPOSERS’ LETTERS PROJECT CALLS FOR CORRESPONDENCE The Musicians’ Letters Research Project is looking to collect and document correspondence from musicians, from 1900 to the present day. This one-year project, which is funded by the Music Libraries Trust, is now open for submissions, and the organisers are keen to find out about the corresponding habits of composers and performers, including emails and blog comments. The project focuses on performers’ and composers’ letters from 1900 to the present, but also hopes to identify earlier collections too. Letters may be held in institutional archives, libraries and museums, music festivals, performance venues and individual private collections. Anyone interested in contributing to the project, or who wants to find out more, should email letters.study@gmail.com
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News
experimental folk group nalle on tour
Nalle
Glasgow-based experimental folk group Nalle tour the UK this month with the support of promoters No-Fi. Hanna Tuulikki, Aby Vulliamy and Chris Hladowski, who recently released second album The Wilder Shores Of Love, have gathered praise for their electrifying take on traditional music, using a variety of instruments from around the world to support Hanna Tuulikki’s expressive vocals. The tour takes place between 16 and 22 July, and support in Glasgow comes from Daniel Padden’s influential One Ensemble. http://www.no-fi.org.uk/tours
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News
NEW BRITTEN SINFONIA ANNOUNCE JAMES MACMILLAN FOR 2010-11 PROGRAMME Britten Sinfonia introduce their new season of concerts with a focus on James Macmillan, which comprises a series of performances between 6 and 22 October including a world premiere of Macmillan’s new Oboe Concerto, commissioned by the Sinfonia and Birmingham Town Hall (where it will be performed on 15 October.) Other highlights of the season include performances by soprano Barbara Hannigan of Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre; jazz composer Brad Mehldau playing recent album Highway Rider live with the Sinfonia as part of the London Jazz festival in November; a programme of English song by tenor Mark Padmore and, in 2011, a collaboration between pianist Joanna MacGregor and Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen. James Macmillan
www.brittensinfonia.com
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News
BCMG AT CHELTENHAM AND THE PROMS Birmingham Contemporary Music Group will be appearing at Cheltenham Music Festival on 6 July and at the BBC Proms on 6 August. Australian composer Brett Dean is the focus of the Cheltenham performance, with the UK premiere of Recollections and Wolf-Lieder, which was commissioned by BCMG and first performed in 2007. The concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Discovering Music programme later in the year. On 6 August, George Benjamin conducts BCMG in a performance of his Three Inventions for Chamber Orchestra and the UK premiere of Hans Abrahamsen’s Wald, co-commissioned by Radio 3 and the Asko and Schoenberg Ensembles, as well as works by Luke Bedford and Oliver Knussen. www.bcmg.org.uk
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News
NEW NEW SOUND ART GALLERY OPENS IN LONDON
Yann Noval, Relocation, Dislocation (2009)
The UK’s first gallery devoted entirely to sound art opens in London on 31 July. Based in Tottenham, north London, Soundfjord will exhibit work by new and emerging artists and also provide a hub for events including lectures, workshops and live performance. Soundfjord’s inaugural exhibition opens on 4 August, featuring Los Angeles sound artist Yann Novak. It will be followed by exhibitions by Song-Ming Ang, Rie Nakajima and Matthew MacKisack. The gallery is also currently open to proposals for new work and tour opportunities. www.soundfjord.org
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News
CELEBRATING THE EXPLOSIVE ART AND MUSIC OF THE 1960S John Latham, Laws of England (1967)
The Wire’s monthly salon series at Cafe Oto, London, continues with Blow Up: The Legacy of Bomb Culture on 8 July, a special event to correspond with David Toop and Tony
Herrington’s exhibition Blow Up: Exploding Sound And Noise (London to Brighton 1959 to 1969) at artist John Latham’s former home Flat Time House in south London (running until 25 July), which looks at the links between artists from different disciplines active in London and Brighton in the 1960s, and charts the simultaneous emergence of a shared ‘Noise’ aesthetic. The salon panel discussion will be led by David Toop, who examines the auto-destructive art, free jazz, noise and sound poetry that emerged from British 1960s counterculture, and discusses the influence of figures such as John Latham, Gustav Metzger, Bob Cobbing, Joe Harriott and Syd Barrett, alongside screenings of period films by Jeff Keen. www.flattimeho.org.uk
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NEW ARNE NORDHEIM 1931-2010 a pioneer of electronic music, with noted works such as Epitaffio per orchestra e nastro magnetico (1963) for chorus and tape, and also created sound sculptures; however, he composed extensively for conventional instrumentation and voice too, and completed a number of important ballets, as well as concertos for violin, cello, accordion and trombone. In recent years his early electronic work was reissued by the Rune Grammofon label, bringing it to a new audience equally familiar with electronica and jazz. Ode to the Light, Skjesberg, Norway Acclaimed Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim has died aged 78. Born in Larvik, southern Norway, Nordheim became the country’s best known composer, and lived for the past 28 years in the Norwegian government’s official residence for its leading artistic figure. Nordheim was
‘Individualisierte Höhenmessung der lagen’ from Partita für Paul (1985). Directed and filmed by Sussie Ahlburg. Flashing Silver Key
Hear & Now Saturday nights at 10.30pm on BBC Radio 3
3 July: BBC Symphony Orchestra Studio Concert
André de Ridder conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a concert in association with Sound and Music of recent works by Lloyd Moore, Michael Langemann, Ian Vine and Gavin Higgins. Introduced by Tom Service. Lloyd Moore: Diabolus in Musica, Michael Langemann: Five Movements for Orchestra, Ian Vine: violet, alizarin sun, Gavin Higgins: Dancing at the Edge of Hell.
10 July: Fujikura, Goves and Clementi
Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents music by Dai Fujikura, Larry Goves and Aldo Clementi, played the London Sinfonietta. She also visits an exhibition of John Cage’s artworks in Newcastle and previews the Soundwaves Festival in Brighton. Dai Fujikura: Secret Forest (UK premiere), Larry Goves: Things that are blue, things that are white and things that are black (world premiere), Aldo Clementi: Triplum performed by London Sinfonietta with André de Ridder (conductor), Rinat Ibragimov (double bass) and Sarah Nicolls (piano).
17 July: Aldo Clementi
Ivan Hewett presents new music by composers who use canonic techniques: chamber works by Aldo Clementi played by Elision, and Schnee, by Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen, played by the London Sinfonietta.
24 July: NO PROGRAMME 31 July: Sligo, Bangor and Huddersfield revisited
Music from three new music festivals: Sligo in Eire, Bangor in North Wales and the 2009 Huddersfield festival. The focus is on improvisations, and works include Richard Barrett’s extended work for improvising ensemble, fORCH, and a creative collaboration between Dublin’s Bottlenote musicians’ collective, Morla, and the Smith Quartet. Plus, Pwll Ap Sion: Gwales (BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Grant Llewellyn).
7 August: Cityscapes
HK Gruber: Manhattan Broadcasts, Jennifer Higdon: City Scape, John Woolrich: Whittel’s Ey, Richard Rijnvos: NYConcerto performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Garry Walker with John Snijders (piano).
14 August: James MacMillan and HK Gruber
In a concert recorded last October, the BBC Philharmonic bids farewell to one composer/conductor and welcomes the arrival of another: James MacMillan: Exsultet, Tryst; HK Gruber: Hidden agenda, Zeitstimmung.
21 August: BBC Philharmonic – A Portrait of Alexander Goehr
Three Pieces from ‘Arden must Die’; Adagio (Self-portrait); Fugue on Psalm IV; Tower Music (BBC Commission, world premiere). Performed by the BBC Philharmonic perform, with Nigel Robson, baritone, conducted by HK Gruber.
28 August: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Martin Suckling: Breathe, James Clapperton: Songs & Dances of Death, David Fennessy: This is how it feels (Another Bolero), David Horne: Submergence. Performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov.
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incoming
Incoming A news feed direct from Sound And Music’s composers from around the UK, with details of new projects, forthcoming concerts, academic appointments and much more. If you’re a composer or artist and would like to let us know what’s going on in your world in 45 words or less, get in touch at incoming@soundandmusic.org and we’ll publish a selection every month. Simon Cummings has a new releasewhich is out now – a new 30-minute electronic composition called The Ceiling stared at me but I beheld only the Stars. It is released as a free digital download, available from www. simoncummings.com Richard Glover’s piece D7 -> G13#11 was performed by the experimental group Edges at the Site Gallery in Sheffield in May. Edges are an experienced group of dedicated performers who specialise in performing experimental music from the UK and abroad. Ophir Ilzetzki’s monthly radio broadcast, An Hour, is broadcast on www. halas.am. For those who would like to download An Hour in MP3 format, all shows are available on www.freemusicarchive.org/music/ Ophir_Ilzetzki/ Nicholas Sutton is back in Berlin for projects with Marcela Donato (Dance) and Wintergarten (Techno) this month, and has confirmed a new 5.1 electronic performance at Shambala Festival, August 2010. www.soundcloud.com/mrsutton Nina Whiteman is putting the finishing touches to her piece for two accordions (TOEAC will play it at the Cheltenham Festival) and looking forward to getting stuck into my new work for Manchester Camerata. The Camerata piece is part of their Urban Symphonies series, and I’m writing in response to St. Petersburg. At the moment, I’m trying to read as much as I can about the city, and explore it on Google Earth!
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sound and music news
NEW SOUND AND MUSIC LAUNCHES HOW TO GUIDES
2010 SUMMER SCHOOL GETS UNDERWAY
The first of Sound and Music’s practical guides is now available to download from http://www.soundandmusic.org/resources/Field_Recording. It’s a simple guide to field recording, focusing on cheap, DIY methods and equipment, and is part of the new SAM digital toolkit.
Sound and Music and Purcell School have selected the 70 young composers who are to take part in the Sound and Music Summer School, which takes place at the Purcell School of Music in Hertfordshire from 15 to 21 August 2010.
The five-page guide, put together by Richard Thomas, introduces the topic of field recording, then outlines the various kinds of microphones and other input devices available, before moving onto recording devices, monitoring and a brief introduction to editing. There are plenty of links to more detailed information, and a case study of Bill Fontana’s recording kit.
The Summer School offers young people between 14 and 18 the chance to explore composition and develop their own ideas, with the guidance of tutors who work in fields ranging from jazz to film composition. This year, concerts of the final pieces take place on the evening of Friday 20 August (Jazz composition group) and throughout the day on Saturday 21 August. To find out more about the concerts, contact marketing@soundandmusic.org
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sound and music news
NEW SHORTLIST COMPOSERS PREPARE FOR CHELTENHAM This year’s Cheltenham Festival opens on 2 July, and taking part this year are three of Sound and Music’s Shortlist composers, who have been commissioned to produce new works for young artists (supported by the Clifford Taylor Young Artist Series). In June we spoke to the three composers – Edd Caine, Haris Kittos and Nina Whiteman – about their commissions for guitarist Milos Karadaglic and accordion duo TOEAC. With the concerts now imminent, all three composers have Yann Noval, Relocation, Dislocation (2009) announced the titles of their works. Haris Kittos’ Ermaïkó, taken from the name of the Greek god Hermes, reflects the composer’s fascination with what he calls “the theme of the coexistence and competition of opposites, so the piece is about change brought about by strength versus sensitivity, violent sounds or gestures versus delicate ones, intensity versus calmness, etc.” He cites the repetition and improvisation in Balkan folk music as an inspiration: “the musicians keep playing the same basic tune or dance, but every time they improvise on it differently and sometimes it gets crazier and crazier, like some sort of ritual.” Nina Whiteman’s Celestial Navigation is inspired by the way in which animals such as moths use celestial bodies to navigate their movements. “Celestial Navigation is concerned with transitions, asymmetry, shifting colours, and changing energy states,” she explains in the programme notes.
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“The striking visual impact of two accordion players, as well as the physical demands of the instrument led me to think in terms of winged creatures.” Edd Caine’s [squeezeBox]2, also commissioned for TOEAC, is likewise inspired by the unique qualities of the accordion, focussing on the mechanism of the bellows: “In the opening of the piece, there is a tangible link between the two accordions as one plays pitch while moving the bellows inwards, and the other creates ‘air’ sound, pulling the bellows outwards,” he explains. Edd’s diary of his and Nina’s stay in Copenhagen working with Renée Bekkers and Pieternel Berkers of TOEAC is below. Performances will take place on 6 July and 14 July, and further information can be found here. www.cheltenhamfestivals.com
Ed Caine in Copenhagen with TOEAC I was very excited to receive this commission as it is the first opportunity that has come out of being on the Sound and Music Composer Shortlist, and also excited to work with Nina Whiteman, of Trio Atem, whom I had just written for. The timing between working with the duo in Copenhagen and submitting was very tight, so I suggested we have an initial meeting over Skype. A 30-minute conversation revealed the duo’s interests and the interesting accordion vibrato sound. The duo also sent via email an “accordion technique for composers” manual and links to some amazing accordion music (e.g. Gubaidulina, Et Expecto)
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sound and music news
NEW
19 May Flight to Copenhagen, arrived 5pm at DKDM (Danish conservatoire), an amazing building with echoey corridors and roof garden! We took it easy the first night and chatted to Pieternel and Renée (aka TOEAC) over Thai food about how they grew up together in Holland and accordion technique. They are very engaging! 20 May, 11am First session (2 hours). TOEAC opened with a joyous rendition of Gavotte from Grieg’s Holberg Suite and Conversations with a shadow
by Zbigniev Bargielski. Then we had some Q&A and accordion technique demonstrations. Nina and I both brought 1-2 minutes to work on, which we workshopped. Then broke for lunch which we ate on the rooftop garden - met other students there and learned there were 13 student accordionists! 3pm Session with the duo’s ensemble-tutor Geir Draugsvoll - some piercing observations and interesting problems brought up! Then had 3 hours or so to write some more material.
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7.45pm Had amazing local takeaway pizza and then into long involved session. Duo had practiced and had questions. We had some more material to work on. Some lively discussion!
sound and music news
so quick session then some strong coffee! RenĂŠe took apart her accordion for us. An hour to write six more bars. A final 30-min session and then back to old Blighty for us! Edd Caine
21 May, 9.30am Early start (woke 6.30am to write more). All very tired
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WILD TRACKS Chris Watson talks to Luke Turner about the connections between his work as a documentary sound recordist, musician and artist, as his latest installation, Whispering In The Leaves, fills Kew Gardens’ Palm House with the sounds and biorhythms of life in the world’s endangered rainforests.
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‘Along with smell, sound is the most powerful stimulant to your imagination’
Courtesy of Ryszard Laskowski
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It was against the background of Sheffield’s post-industrial decline – the cold blast furnaces and silent steam hammers – that Chris Watson and Cabaret Voltaire made some of the most pioneering music of 1970s. Now, in a building that was constructed using the same methods and materials that gave his hometown its wealth and architecture, Chris Watson has created Whispering In The Leaves, a very different soundtrack to the small piece of tropical rainforest contained within the glass and iron of the Palm House at Kew Gardens. “I really like this moment,” says Watson as a grating buzz begins to drown out the school children running around the pathways between the coco-de-mer, peach palm, and humble coconut. “It reminds me of This Heat’s ‘Music Like Escaping Gas’.” Perhaps the sounds of nature, musicians such
chris watson
as This Heat who began to assemble the structures of industrial music, and Watson’s ongoing career as sound recordist best known for his work on David Attenborough’s BBC series are not so far apart? “You’re absolutely right,” Watson says. “’Music Like Escaping Gas’ is just like these insects at night, when you can literally see nothing. All the animals in the forest live in their own micro-habitats and live in a world of sound, not vision. You hear everything, and see nothing.” It has been a challenging task to replicate the rainforest in this bright and airy space, with the roar of jet engines from the Heathrow flightpath low overhead (“It would have been great if we could have had another ash cloud,” Watson laughs). The soundtrack, be it the white-faced monkeys, rattle of rain on leaves, low thunder, the clicking and croaks of the tree frogs, the “chord, the constant background tone” of the flies, was created from memory as Watson sifted through his field recordings. “It’s generic, so it’s recorded in several different rainforests. I make lots of recordings, and I log them in a notebook when I’ve made them. I spend hours listening to my material. “Along with smell, sound is the most powerful stimulant to your imagination. I play one of those tracks and I’m instantly back there, I know how I felt, what the heat and humidity were like, and how uncomfortable I was, getting bitten by ants. I gradually start to form a picture. I still think cinematically about my sound, even though there’s no image. I start to construct a score, a timeline from there, and start putting the pieces in.”
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This part of the installation design Watson describes as “a solitary process”, something he actually relishes about his work. “No-one else can hear the world like you can when you put those headphones on. I then like going through the process of selection, editing, composition, production, performance, whether it’s a radio broadcast or a sound installation, which you then disseminate or share it with as many people as you can, to engage with them. So I like the collaborative aspect to a work like this. But you can only do this with major league collaborators like Forma or Sound and Music.” Watson says that installing Whispering In The Leaves was “the hardest part. There were a lot of health and safety issues in putting a massive amount of electrical power and speakers into a tropical environment.” He adds that, though he created the score, “I wouldn’t know what to do” when it comes to making the playback convincing in such a unique space. “With installation work the absolute key is the playback,” he explains, “It’d be like having a badly framed or lit painting at the National Gallery: it’s pointless if you can’t experience it. If you had six loudspeakers in
chris watson
here turned up, it’d be a waste of time, or in fact be detrimental.” Despite the technical, logistical challenges involved with Whispering In The Leaves, Watson sees no difference between it and his many other projects. So numerous are these that culture and nature website Caught By The River (with whom he’ll be working at this year’s Port Eliot literary festival) has started a feature called Chris Watson Watch. He recently created a soundtrack for John Constable’s The Cornfield at the National Gallery (“the first thing I heard when I looked at this picture” was his apposite introduction to the piece), and continues
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‘I don’t see the work for television and radio as separate from the installations. You just need to keep your ears open’
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‘I still think cinematically about my sound, even If there is no image’
to work with the BBC Natural History Unit. What’s more, a forthcoming album for Touch is based around material he recorded in during the Great Railway Journeys TV series, which he describes as “the sound and very heavy duty rhythms of the Mexican railway system.” All of this, Watson says, is part of the same working process: “I see myself as a sound recordist. I don’t see the work for television and radio as separate from the installations. You just need to keep your ears open.” Watson enthuses that his practice gives him a freedom that many of his collaborators in the world of the visual arts and television simply don’t have. “The great thing with sound is that you can work across all these mediums,” he says. “All my camera colleagues are restricted to this two-dimensional thing. With sound you can transcend all of those, so I do stuff for Touch, I do installations like this, I do television documentaries, I do radio, and I do stuff for computer games.” Indeed, as with the sounds initially recorded for the Great Railway Journey
series eventually becoming an album, Watson clearly relishes the overlap between the different elements of his working life: “I really like weaving my way between them, and one thing often informs another. I made Cobra Mist, a film with Emily Richardson, a couple of years ago. It’s about Orford Ness [in Suffolk], the old weapons testing range. I thought it was such an amazing place that I talked to the producer I work with at the BBC and we made a radio documentary about it. “None of these things are in isolation. They’re all pieces of work, I wouldn’t want to do one or the other. That’s what I love about what I do. Bloody hell, I get to do this! It’s brilliant!” Whispering in the Leaves is co-produced by Sound and Music and Forma and was originally commissioned by AV Festival 08. It runs until 5 September, with guided tours, workshops for adults and students, and live sound mixes by Chris Watson. For dates and details visit www.whisperingintheleaves.org
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Listening post
Cobra Mist, film with Emily Richardson and Benedict Drew
Downloads and video from Chris Watson’s website
The sound of Islay: a report from the Hebrides
Whispering In The Leaves video and soundclips
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Photographer: Peter Gannushkin/DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET Bill Dixon at Angel Orensanz Foundation, New York, 2007
BILL DIXON
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BILL DIXON
Remembering
Bill Dixon Trumpeter and composer Bill Dixon, who died on 16 June, was there at the start of the 1960s’ free jazz revolution, helping to bring names like Cecil Taylor and Archie Shepp to prominence. Marcus O’Dair charts his achievements as musician and educator, and picks five key recordings from a long and diverse career. The first time Bill Dixon tried to play the trumpet, as a schoolboy in the 1930s, it didn’t work out: the teacher handed him a clarinet instead, explaining that the brass section was fully subscribed. Fortunately for fans of the sublime, revolutionary music known variously as free jazz, fire music and the new thing*, Dixon managed a second shot. Upon leaving high school he bought an instrument of his own and, following a brief detour to Europe as a soldier during World War Two, enrolled at the Hartnett Conservatory Of Music. It would be almost two decades, however, before Dixon really made his name, by organizing the now legendary October Revolution In Jazz at New York’s Cellar Café in 1964. As perhaps the world’s first free jazz festival, the concert series not only helped establish a collective identity for that scene, it also introduced the music to a new audience. If that doesn’t sound much of a revolu-
tion, it’s worth bearing in mind that this was the year ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ was reducing teenagers to hysterics; one shudders to imagine the effects of exposure to Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp or Sun Ra. Those three musicians, all of whom also took part in Dixon’s Jazz Composers Guild, a well-intentioned if short-lived attempt to improve the lot of less commercial musicians, would of course go on to become big names. The man who booked them to perform on the Lower East Side back in 1964 did not enjoy the same prominence, but he too would deserve his place in history even were that booking his sole contribution. As Valerie Wilmer puts it in As Serious As Your Life, her classic book on free * From here referred to simply as “free jazz”
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He campaigned passionately and successfully for black music as a subject worthy of academic study
jazz, Bill Dixon “was the man responsible for lighting the touch-paper”. Yet Dixon’s importance, in fact, went far beyond that of mere catalyst: as musician and composer, even as educator, he is just as deserving of tribute. Though in the 1950s he worked largely as an arranger, and performer, of other people’s compositions, his artistic voice was firmly in place by the time of his recording debut: a 1962 disc for Savoy with saxophonist Archie Shepp. Dixon expresses in the liner notes an intention to allow “absolute freedom for the improviser”, yet the album is a long way from all-out free blowing. As well as the regular pulse, the compositional process is evident everywhere from the whole-tone scale employed on the tune ‘Quartet’ to the familiar melody of Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Somewhere’ (rendered fresh once more in this explosively emotive rendition). In finding himself described as a free jazz musician despite his meticulously crafted compositional ideas, Dixon bears some similarity to Cecil Taylor. In fact, according to Ben Young’s exhaustive “bio-discography” Dixonia, Dixon had performed with the pianist and eccentric
epicurean as early as 1953. He also played on Taylor’s classic Conquistador! album, released by Blue Note in 1966; his reserved, tender playing makes for a superb foil to Taylor’s furious “88 tuned drums” approach to his own instrument. Apparently only a week after that studio date, Dixon was recording his own Intents And Purposes, a very different record: credited to the Bill Dixon Orchestra, it has an accordingly fuller sound. Released on RCA, it was to be Dixon’s only recoding for a major label, but its broader palette was one to which he would sporadically return throughout his career. His fondness for dark, moody textures, as witnessed here, would also lead him on several occasions to replicate the multiple bass approach of Conquistador!. Yet having played such a key part in establishing New York’s avant-garde scene, Dixon all but disappeared from it following Intents And Purposes. Instead, he moved into education alongside the dancer Judith Dunn, taking up a post at Bennington College in Vermont. (Dixon’s interest in ballet, and in the arts in general, is another clear parallel with Cecil Taylor.)
bill dixon july/august 2010
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Photographer: Peter Gannushkin/DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET
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Five key recordings: a Bill Dixon selection
Archie Shepp – Bill Dixon Quartet (Savoy, 1962)
Bill Dixon In Italy (Soul Note, 1980)
Son Of Sisyphus (Soul Note, 1988) 17 Musicians In Search Of A Sound: Darfur (AUM Fidelity, 2008) Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra (Thrill Jockey, 2008)
The same bold ideas and charismatic leadership that had helped him set up the October Revolution were also crucial in Dixon’s time in music eduction, where he campaigned passionately and successfully for black music as a subject worthy of academic study. Parallel to his teaching duties, he continued to record on occasion: in the 1970s, unusually, as a solo trumpeter; then with trio, quartet and sextet the following decade. Though he would retire from education in the mid-1990s, it was not until the new millennium that he would perform or record with any frequency. Recent years also saw him return to larger ensemble work, on stunning records such as Bill Dixon With Exploding Star Orchestra and 17 Musicians in Search Of A Sound: Darfur. This flurry of activity only makes Dixon’s death at the age of 84 all the more poignant. Despite reportedly recording even his own lectures and rehearsals, his official output is tantalizingly slight – particularly in a genre known for its hefty discographies. The upside, however, is the unusually high quality of what he has left behind. Immodest though it may be, few objec-
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bill dixon
‘Each one of my recordings, I have tried...to present a point of view that was different than previous things’
tive observers could disagree with Dixon’s statement to Fred Jung of Jazz Weekly, when the journalist asked him to justify his low output: “Each one of my recordings, I have tried as much as I could to present a point of view that was different than previous things. To a large degree I have been successful.”
Listening post
Going to the Center – documenting the recording sessions for Tapestries for Small Orchestra
Cecil Taylor, Conquistador!
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opera
a new manifesto
shocking
opera
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Is contemporary opera too safe? Composer Philip Venables sets out his manifesto for a new opera that shocks and provokes, and salutes some inspiring practitioners of the form, alongside others from theatre, film and cabaret. New opera is too safe. Even Thomas Adès’ end-of-the-pier blowjob bored me. The piece had a great sense of humour and all, but the succès de scandale of his Powder Her Face (1995) was blown out of all proportion; it was nothing that umpteen filmmakers, artists, theatre directors and Andy Warhol had not done decades before. Even Strauss’ Salome, ninety years earlier, was a lot more provocative. Have you ever seen contemporary opera in Britain and been shocked, unnerved, outraged, or even just a little pissed off? Probably not; I haven’t. All the other contemporary arts have had anarchic movements and anti-establishment manifestos, from Futurism to Dadaism to the ‘Post Porn Modernist Manifesto’. But not opera. New opera still seems shackled to the corpse of the old: “dead, repetitive, predictable, pretty”, according to Robert Thicknesse in The Guardian. Most modern art rails against conservatism; is new opera its last bastion? British opera-makers – and their funders – ought to be fighting this
opera
stagnation tooth and nail. But, sadly, I don’t smell revolution in the air. Instead, I fear the younger generation may be a bunch of puritans, peddling conventional fare that is composer-centric and far too didactic. I can’t remember the last time I came away from a British performance feeling like it had actually opened up a dialogue with me. Instead all I got was predictably angular vocal lines and obstructive music. Let’s shake it up! We need a revolution. A manifesto for new opera; a re-think from first principles. Louise Bourgeois said, “What modern art means is that you have to keep finding new ways to express yourself…modern art is about this painful situation of having no absolutely definite way of expressing yourself.” She’s right; however painful, opera desperately needs a new way. So – a rallying call to composers: forget every grand opera we’ve ever seen and eliminate every grandiose vision of our work gracing the main stage of the Royal Opera House. Once we’ve got over that vanity, everything else is up for grabs, from what our message is, to how we say it, to how we present it. I want the content of new opera to be provocative, abstract, violent, challenging, political. I want to be shocked, affronted, disturbed, challenged, riled by opera’s extreme, brutal opinions. Why is politically outspoken opera so rare, compared with the other arts? Just like other art forms, opera can protest
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I want to be shocked, affronted, disturbed, challenged, riled by opera’s extreme, brutal opinions injustice, expose psychological problems and help us deal with human catastrophe – and it should. Of course I don’t want opera to become a vacuous freak show like R Kelly’s ‘hip hopera’, Trapped in the Closet, but new operas have to be relevant to today’s world, not always reeking of the spirit of Grand Opera. There are performers who use their work to shock, provoke and challenge. David Hoyle – who once described gay culture as “the biggest suicide cult in history” – delivers a molotov mix of political rant, dance, performance, live painting, song and nonchalant sexual voyeurism. His latest episodes of Licking Wounds, performed in May at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, are a vehicle for his anger, dissatisfaction and socio-political criticism, all viciously delivered. Similarly, Bruce Labruce’s films regularly spit in the face of polite society. But the aesthetic of his LA Zombie (2010) or Otto, or up with dead people (2008) wouldn’t be possible without the shocking, perverse, violent, sexual images. The twisted, psychological darkness in Lars von Trier’s film Antichrist (2009) is another example of shock-value beauty. But unlike any opera I’ve ever seen, Trier doesn’t project a moral judgement, but instead invites his audience into a discourse with the subject matter. The style of new opera must be bold, direct and self-assured, whatever the
creators’ chosen aesthetic. Opera has a natural propensity for the absurd and the fantastical, so let’s exploit it. Similarly, opera is the greatest ‘multimedia’ genre in history. But while classical concert promoters are going nuts for multimedia in an often-uninspired struggle for new audiences, opera usually lags behind. Every inch of new opera should be genuinely collaborative, engaging theatre, film, visual art, design, literature, performance art, dance, cabaret. It shouldn’t be about a megalomaniac composer. Beat Furrer’s Begehren (2001) has a fresh style, for example. Like other imaginative works by Enno Poppe and Heiner Goebbels, Begehren doesn’t even call itself opera. Indeed, the two nameless figures ‘He’ and ‘She’ rarely sing but instead utter consonants, clicks, wheezes and gasps. The text is entirely incidental: nothing happens – no broken heart, consumption, suicide, madness, love story or murder. Time passes slowly, gracefully, yet the musical landscape glimmers with detail. Furrer knows how to use – or not use – the voice; and these voices communicate the shards of text clearly and directly. Simultaneously dance, concert, installation, theatre and opera, Begehren’s style is a collusion of many; a mongrel with a crystal-clear identity. It and it alone defines the way it wants to be, as if Furrer had never stepped foot in La Scala.
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Clockwise from left: Copy & Waste, Begehren, David Hoyle
opera
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opera
Opera has a natural propensity for the absurd and the fantastical, so let’s exploit it Finally, the presentation of new opera should interact with other arts, with its audience and with its environment. Berlin company Gob Squad breaks down boundaries of theatre with absurdly adventurous interactions with video, design, improvisation, poetry, performance art, social action and even the audience. The action in Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve never had it so good) (2009), for example, was almost completely concealed from the audience and relayed only through live video. Another recent production involved coercing audience members to improvise, drink vodka shots and learn the electric guitar. Sounds fun? Yes, but it’s not just frivolity: the members of Gob Squad re-think theatre, and I always come away challenged, thoughtful and sometimes wasted. But for the really adventurous, why not make opera truly divorced from the Veuve Cliquot and red velvet, in public spaces, nightclubs, sports centres, shopping malls, warehouses, railway stations – or just in your own home. I recently saw a theatre, song, video art and music piece by theatre company Copy & Waste in Berlin, called Wasteler (2010). It took place in an enormous industrial hangar where a concrete
pre-fab house had been built as the stage from reclaimed communist housing from former East Berlin, surrounded by a few makeshift benches for the audience. Simple, coloured neon tubes lit the concrete for different scenes of incredibly fast and rhythmic dialogue, interspersed with hypnotizing, Tetris-esque projections and even a session of Chat Roulette. Like Gob Squad’s production, some of the action inside the house was only seen through live video. Everything in the piece fed off its industrial-domestic setting, in a way that would have been impossible in a conventional theatre. So, opera-makers: stop playing safe! Shock us! Take off your gloves, and let’s get dirty. Bigger risks desperately need to be taken if contemporary opera is to have any chance of electrifying audiences rather than boring them. Let’s simply indulge our wildest operatic fantasies and make them happen. Any number of starting points could
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opera
Listening post
help us: Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, Sylvia Plath’s Daddy, Lars von Trier’s Antichrist would all make great operas, by my taste. I want all of these ideas in opera, and more. Dangerous, direct, offensive, absurd, violent, political, sexual, provocative - yes! Dance, theatre, film, poetry, cabaret - yes please! Opera in a dungeon, warehouse, shopping mall - yes again! Predictable, angular, overcomposed, safe; inaudible words; megalomaniac composers - no thank you! Whatever you do, I hope you’ll all come up with your own ideas much more more shocking – and meaningful – than a flaccid blowjob.
David Hoyle
Gob Squad archive
Beat Furrer, Begehren Philip Venables is a composer who is thinking about writing his first opera. www.philipvenables.com
Copy & Waste videos
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klang Klang
Photography Š Klaus Rudolph
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klang
Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Klang – Die 24 Stunden des Tages, a cycle of compositions based on the hours of the day, was recently performed for the first time in its entirety at MusikTriennale Köln by the musikFabrik Ensemble. Christian Mason attended the two days of performances, and kept a diary of an unforgettable and intense experience.
musikFabrik performing Klang at Musik Triennale Köln
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Throughout his composing life Stockhausen sought musical renewal. Initially, this meant expanding the gamut of compositional possibilities, yet as time passed it became clear that this was also an attitude rooted in a desire to discover the place of the human in relation to a vast, expanding cosmos. If we humans are a microcosm, then we should indeed reflect the growth that we observe in the macrocosm – renewing our selves through our creations. This idea of an inherent relationship existing between small and large scales became increasingly prominent in Stockhausen’s work during the 1970s, culminating in his grand ‘cosmic drama’ Licht (1977– 2003). When I attended the Stockhausen Courses in 2004, Sonntag, the final day of Licht, had only just been completed, but the question “what next?” already seemed to hang heavy in the air. When the world premiere of the entire Klang cycle (2004–2007) was announced this May, to be performed by musikFabrik Ensemble at MusikTriennale Köln, I found myself on a journey to Cologne in search of the answer. Rather than being presented with a succession of pieces in a single place, we could choose our own pathway through Klang’s Hours – paradoxically removing them from the sense
klang Klang
of large-scale temporal progression associated with a ‘normal day’. Moving between the nine venues, each with its own micro-cycle of recurring pieces, enhanced the sense of occasion and discovery. It also allowed the rare chance of attending repeat performances if desired. To absorb 21 new works in two days was not really the point, but rather to find a way into the intricate network of relationships that Stockhausen had established between the hours of his ‘day’, and how that might relate to his ‘week’ (Licht) and other works. In Stockhausen’s best works sound, idea and technique combine to create a unified impact. Spending two days with Klang, there were moments when my ears and mind grew tired, but many more of total absorption in the sound. By the end, concentrating on the final flickers of Cosmic Pulses, I felt a sense of exuberance at having immersed myself in these works, at having perceived even just a few of the many relationships that course through their veins. It was appropriate that the weekend concluded with a party at which audience and players alike were welcomed. It felt as though we had been travelling together, and were returning from our journey refreshed, energised and inspired.
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klang
8 May, 15.00, St Andreas Freude/Joy, 2nd Hour (2005), for two harps as one instrument, played by singing harpists, Esther Kooi and Marianne Smit, dressed in ethereal white. A work of beauty and intricacy, characterised by melodic fluidity and textural variety combined with a deeply resonant harmonic language. The archetypes of ascent and descent loom large, but never sound generic in the dreamily ecstatic atmosphere that dominates. At times contemplative, at others almost erotic, the form has a ‘subconscious’ quality of transforming unexpectedly, yet seeming to make complete sense.
8 May, 16.00-17.00-18.00-19.00, WDR Funkhaus Wallrafplatz Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal Naturliche Dauern/Natural Durations 1-24, 3rd Hour (2005–2006), for piano solo (with finger bells and rin). The music seems to be ‘about’ attack and decay – the two basic elements of the piano sound. We are requested to sit as close to the piano as possible, so as to listen ‘inside’ the sound, and can hear the harmonics of decaying lower strings mingling with new attacks in the upper register. A sense of intimacy grows from this ‘natural amplification’ – there’s nothing quite like close proximity to a resonant body. I wonder, what makes a duration ‘natural’? There’s definitely more to this piece than successions of long decays, and they don’t always fade to silence. The score reveals Fibonacci numbers used as a structural device. What strikes me after the 24th movement is the realisation that it is either the seed from which the entire work grew, or a compressed recapitulation of it – like viewing a map after walking through a landscape, it reveals on a more comprehensible timescale the extent of our experience.
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Klang klang
8 May, 20.00, St. Andreas Erwachen/Awakening, 12th Hour, for soprano saxophone, trumpet, cello. Players wearing bright yellow. Limited material, focused on a variety of arpeggio figures – yet myriad shades and colours revealed within this. Little ‘formal direction’; more about ‘being’ than ‘becoming’ – a kind of ‘moment form’. Each player has a cadenza, performed (except by the cello) standing and turning in a circle while playing an arpeggio: if you haven’t already grasped the fact, you now understand that this is music about cycles and recurrence.
8 May, 21.00, WDR Funkhaus Wallrafplatz Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal Glanz/Brilliance, 10th Hour, for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, tuba, viola. Players wearing sulphur green. With a trio of clarinet, bassoon and viola on stage, and more arpeggios and circular motions, the general air of abstraction was unexpectedly dramatised when three off-stage interruptions from a capricious oboe, a blaring trumpet and trombone duo and a surprisingly agile tuba brought a welcome sense of humour!
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8 May, 22.00, WDR Funkhaus Wallrafplatz Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal Shönheit/Beauty, 6th Hour, for flute, bass clarinet, trumpet. Players wearing turquoise blue. It’s dawning on me that a large amount of Klang must consist of re-compositions/ permutations of this trio material.
klang
8 May 8, 23.00, Domforum Balance, 7th Hour, for flute, cor anglais, bass clarinet. Players wearing deep green. Yet another permutation of the trio! My appreciation waning, possibly through over-exposure...
9 May, 12.15, KOMED-Saal Himmels-Tur/Heaven’s Door, 4th Hour, for percussionist (Stuart Gerber, wearing bright blue) and little girl (wearing a red dress). It is not the sound itself (though this is interesting and unique), but the seemingly futile drama of a man trying to enter heaven, which absorbs us. When the door opens, after a bout of simultaneous foot stamping and rapid pummelling, followed by a desperate double-stroke on the upper two panels, he enters to discover a heavenly world of metallic percussion. So begins a conclusion of joyfully clashing resonances, during which a little girl mysteriously leaves her place in the audience and enters the door. The sound subsides and I wonder – in the best possible way – “why?” The answer remains elusive.
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Klang klang
9 May, 14.15, KOMED-Saal Orvonton, 15th Hour, for baritone (wearing ‘yellow-orange’ quasi-sci-fi/priestly robes) and electronic music (layers 21-20-19 from Cosmic Pulses). At moments the quasi-ritualistic invocation of the text (combining words based on the Urantia Book with technical self-analysis!) verges on absurdity: “Orvonton, ich bin ein Bariton” certainly gets a few laughs! Also, something dark and incomprehensible about the music.
9 May, 15.00, Studio der musikFabrik Paradise, 21st Hour, for flute (wearing pink) and electronic music (layers 3-2-1 from Cosmic Pulses). Beautiful, joyful, inspiring – unusually ‘bright’ music. Occupying upper regions of pitch space, the electronic part brings to mind a vast flock of virtual birds, chirping incessantly. The flute seems to dance and float below these glistening layers.
9 May, 17.00, WDR Funkhaus Wallrafplatz Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal Himmelfahrt, 1st Hour, for soprano, tenor and synthesizer. Strangely reminiscent of over-the-top late 19th-century organ music, but with unbearable synthesizer timbres. Tiring to listen to the multipletempo counterpoint, despite the pure simplicity of the vocal parts.
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klang
9 May, 22.00, Studio der musikFabrik Hoffnung, 9th Hour, for violin, viola, cello. Players wearing yellowish-green. Never has Stockhausen sounded so close to Brahms! Not formally, harmonically or melodically – in these respects it is largely the same as the other Klang trios – but the sound, this being the only traditional string ensemble piece in his entire output, utterly transforms the nature of the idea. The music also demands a captivating virtuosity of the players.
9 May, 23.00, KĂśln Philharmonie Cosmic Pulses, 13th Hour, electronic music in 24 layers. Like floating through an immense storm cloud: below, an abyss of darkness; above, glimmering rays of bright light just shining through. The richness is born of incomprehensible density: one is dazzled by possibility and rendered helpless... Full of awe, yet frightening, it combines raw sound energy with a grand sense of contemplative speculation.
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OPPORTUNITIES
Opportunitie Orchestra of Our Time – call for scores
City of Torrevieja – symphony composition contest
Composers are invited to submit a work for chamber ensemble (any combination of instruments from a solo piece up to a maximum of 5 instruments consisting of string quartet, contra bass, trumpet, clarinet, oboe, two percussionists, piano, flute, bassoon, trombone and electronics).
The eighth annual City of Torrevieja symphony composition contest, organized by municipal cultural institute Joaquin Chapaprieta, is open for submissions. A prize of €15,000 will be offered to the winner and the winning composition will receive its premiere in early 2011.
Submitted pieces may be up to 5 minutes. The scores will be adjudicated by a professional composer/ performer panel. This call for scores is open to composers of any age or nationality and all musical genres, with preference for scores that have not been premiered.
Contact pedro@gesadem.com for further information
Deadline: 31/12/2010
Five to ten scores from the readings in March will be selected for a performance in May 2011. Orchestra of Our Time is a sponsored organisation of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). For submission details visit http:// orchestraofourtime.org/wordpress/ call-for-scores
Deadline: 31/10/2010
I-Park Foundation – call for music/sound sculpture Deadline: 05/07/2010
The I-Park Foundation, a not-forprofit international arts community in East Haddam, Connecticut, is seeking three separate music compositions for the Thanatopolis Project, an alternative memorial park/space in the advanced conceptual phase of its development. I-Park is looking for works that harmonize with the longterm goal of Thanatopolis, which is to re-imagine our cultural and personal relationship to death, memory and memorialization - and
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OPPORTUNITIES
to engage the fields of music composition/sound sculpture and other artistic and creative disciplines.
Sounds Like Leigh-on-Sea – call for recordings
A $2,000 cash award will be granted in each of the following three categories: Memorial Composition, Tone Sequence/Annunciation, Processional
An exciting new site collecting recordings of Leigh-on-Sea and its surrounding areas. Please see www. soundslikeleigh.wordpress.com and click on ‘get involved’ for more info.
Works will be performed/presented at the Thanatopolis Exhibition on October 2, 2010. See links below for details on the submission process and elaboration on the inter-disciplinary and collaborative nature of the Thanatopolis Project. http://www.i-park.org/Thanatopolis2010_FAQ.pdf Thanatopolis Overview: http://www.ipark.org/Thanos.html
Deadline: 31/10/2010
Orchestra of St Paul’s – call for scores Deadline: 14/01/2011
The Orchestra of St Paul’s invites composers to submit new works for chamber orchestra. The winning composition will be performed by the orchestra in St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden on Sunday 19 June 2011. The winning composer will be awarded a prize of £500.
I-Park Website: www.i-park.org Questions: contact Claire Jeffreys at Thanatopolis@gmail.com
The work should be 6-9 minutes in duration and scored exactly for: two oboes, one bassoon, two horns and strings. Pieces submitted must not have been previously performed or awarded a prize. For further information please contact info@orchestraofstpauls.co.uk
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OPPORTUNITIES
Opportunitie EMFEB – vacancy for administrator
Seven Sisters Group - site specific workshop
EMFEB has built a steady reputation in classical music combined with poetry and art. EMFEB are looking to appoint a part-time arts administrator to promote the organisation’s work to festivals and assist in raising funds for projects in the UK and abroad.
As part of their new show, Atalanta, commissioned by Creative Campus Initiative, seven sisters group is offering two one-day professional development workshops, one at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, and one at Embassy Court, Brighton, led by artistic directors Susanne Thomas and Sophie Jump and suitable for up to 14 participants with an interest in site-specific work.
Deadline: 01/01/2011
You will join a team of outstanding practitioners in performance, composition and conducting. You decide the hours you work although availability to work during regular hours would sometimes be needed. You should share a passion for music, possess organisational and interpersonal skills, be an efficient team player and have a good knowledge of the classical industry, preferably with some experience of arts admin with a leading arts organisation. Salary is commission-based with a percentage profit for each paid event. Contact Creative Director Owen Bourne on owen.bourne@btinternet. com or 07929182270.
Deadline: 03/07/2010
It is open to participants from dance, theatre, design, architecture, sound, light, or art backgrounds and aims to be a professional lab opportunity for students, young graduates and professional artists of all ages. Participants will be encouraged to create site-specific performance in various locations within the sites in response to spatial, social and cultural issues. Although the workshop is free places are limited, so interested applicants are asked to send a resume and a statement of interest to admin@sevensistersgroup.com, asap. www.atalantashow.co.uk www.sevensistersgroup.com
The magazine of