Paula Robison on "Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte"

Lord Byron was a powerful swimmer. Whenever the whirlings of his eventful and tumultuous life got a bit too much for him he would dive into the nearest body of water and swim, sometimes for many miles, sometimes through the canals of Venice, often far out to sea. As I've prepared Schoenberg;s "Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte," wondering how in Heaven's name I, a woman, can declaim Byron's words, I have heard first the voice of Schoenberg snarling at me, insisting that it was written for a man's voice and should be done only with a male reciter...and then suddenly the voice of Lord Byron: laughing, shrugging his beautiful shoulders, and saying "Swim, woman, swim! Jump in and swim!" What could I do? I jumped in, and I'm swimming for my life, and I feel like George Gordon, Lord Byron is right there next to me. I hope that the spirit of Schoenberg will relent a bit and say that this was a good thing! Many a woman lost a son or brother to Napoleon; many a woman her husband, or lover, or both. Every day in our war-infested, tyrant-molested world a woman loses a loved one or is lost, herself, in battle. So Byron's powerful words speak very much from our women's hearts and minds, too.I look forward with all my heart and mind to this, my first "Ode to Napoleon", with the amazing players of counter)induction.

We will perform "Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte" this coming Sunday. More info here.

Why Schoenberg is (still) contemporary

On March 4, counter)induction will present "Where Words Leave Off...," a concert exploring the written word as inspiration for music. On this program we will perform Arnold Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, Op. 41, composed for string quartet, piano, and recitation.

George Gordon, Lord Byron, wrote his large-scale poetic work Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte in 1814, upon the ignominious abdication of that leader. His stanzas drip with sarcastic disappointment, castigating Napoleon's vanity and greed. Arnold Schoenberg took up Byron's work and composed his Ode during World War II, as a work of protest against that tyranny. In light of the Arab Spring and the continuing bloody struggles in Syria and Bahrain, the messages of Schoenberg's 1942 musical work, and of Byron's 1814 poem, seem distressingly contemporary.

I am so pleased that we are able to present this monumental work. If you don't know it, the poem can be found here.

We are especially fortunate to be joined by Paula Robison as reciter for this work. In addition to being a world-renowned flutist, she has given many critically acclaimed performances as reciter of of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. Meaning, hotter than hot. Join us for the free show - more info here.

Miranda Cuckson on Friday's show at Bargemusic.

Having a great time with the Wuorinen transcriptions, which he made recently for Tashi. Gorgeous, interesting music- the gently twisting lines of the Josquin and the wild intricacies of the Morley, with its quintuplets and septuplets. We play them over and over and hear new things each time.

Douglas's quartet: a cool mix of his frequent experiments with structured rhythms vs. non- , and some crunchy, head-banging stuff, Jessica wailing while the rest of us punch out rhythms in unison.

Looking forward to work with Lou Karchin and Kyle Bartlett, heading toward concert day... Having played a few pieces of Lou's, I find his Rhapsody very recognizably his... bright harmonies, ornate flourishes, gestures coming off the beat.

I'm really delighted we could put Kyle's new piece for violin and electronics on this program, after some technological issues impelled us to postpone the world premiere at last concert. The electronics are now sounding great- very intriguing and enjoyably strange, conjuring associations with her grandmother, lots of distorted vocal utterances and mechanical noises. Fun to combine pitched violin sounds with this!

Come and hear all this and more on Friday!

Felipe Lara on Livro dos Sonhos

I asked Felipe Lara to write a little bit on his work which will be performed tomorrow night on c)i's "Discourse: to hear and be heard" concert:

"I am really excited to hear my old piece (2004) Livro dos Sonhos (Book of Dreams) for clarinet and piano. I haven’t heard it live since the performances that took place that year, by duos formed by Jean Kopperud and Steve Gosling, as well as Michael Norsworthy and John McDonald.
I’m thrilled to be able to hear a performance of the work by two world-class musicians such as Ben Fingland and Steve Beck.

The idea behind my piece fits quite well with the title of the concert, "Discourse: to hear and be heard”, as it is about the negotiation of flow between two entities, in this case the clarinet and the piano. Both instruments are constantly interrupting, joining, amplifying, agreeing, disagreeing, and ultimately questioning the music presented by one another. This happens in the pitches, rhythms, timbres, and gestures. This very negotiation is at the core of the poetics of the work.

Both musicians start and end in perfect agreement (unison), but the journey through the piece becomes a game of differences and their negotiations. The piece gravitates strongly around Eb4 (middle of the piano) and in several instances unison on this pitch help punctuate and trigger each subsequent musical phrase. On the last section of the piece the musicians finally try to settle and play a Messiaen-inspired cantilena. This section of musical agreement doesn’t last very long, as the piano gradually perforates it with its somewhat violent and incisive attacks. This is perhaps a portrait of myself at the time trying to negotiate and subtly liberate myself from the enormous influence Olivier Messiaen had on me as young composer.

The title reflects on the seemingly disjunct, capricious, and perhaps unpredictable character of the events caused by these musical discussions. As on dreams, this piece attempts to create a vivid, but rapidly changing and non-linear sensory experience.

I’m honored, thankful, and extremely excited to take part on this concert presented by this great ensemble that is counter)induction."

On Discourses and Concert: c)i @ Transit Circle

Photo courtesy of
Frans de Waal.
[CC-BY-2.5]

c)i is thrilled to be performing at the Transit Circle concert series, curated by our own Miranda Cuckson. This concert,  "Discourse: to hear and be heard" the idea of conversation and its role in human relationships, and is sizing up to be an incredible concert, with works by Brice Pauset, Vinko Golbokar, George Rochberg, and Felipe Lara.For me the situating of my work 102nd & Amsterdam within an interrogation of musical conversation is particularly resonant for me;– my works in general and this work in particular has a strong dialogic element; 'conversations' amongst the performers en volant are foregrounded rather than hidden in the background of textures, or 'solved' in rehearsals.  There is a constant unfolding as the work is performed again and again.  The work, like all works, is not an object, but an exchange of roles, attention, instrumental color and motivic material;– these transaction that in themselves do not bear import, but by their being afford opportunities for music making.

I'm very excited to have the musicians performing the work again, c)i recorded the work in 2009, and it is avaolable for purchase as part of the SCI-Capstone Record series.   An (very full) note on the work can be read HERE , and a recording by the same performers can be found HERE.

Definitely a concert well worth making! This Sunday, 23 January 23, at 7:30p, at the Mannes Concert Hall

c)i @ ICAD in Washington, DC | 12 June, 2010

c)i has been invited to perform a concert at the 2010 conference of the International Community of Auditory Display,  at the Jack Morton Auditorium on the George Washington University campus on the 12th of June. The main portion of the conference will run from June 11-15.


ICAD is a forum for presenting research on the use of sound to display data, monitor systems, and provide enhanced user interfaces for computers and virtual reality systems. It is unique in its singular focus on auditory displays and the array of perception, technology, and application areas that this encompasses. In keeping with its theme Sonic Discourse—Expression through Sound, the conference will feature a relaxed day of demonstrations and poster presentations, and an evening concert of sonifications and compositions written expressly for the conference.

On my new piece "Present" for the 5/16 and 5/21 shows

Sometimes the starting point of a piece is a particular sound-texture or a melody; sometimes it’s a story. Sometimes it’s a poem or a picture. Sometimes it is a case of finding the right metaphor for something (a feeling? an idea?) that escapes direct analysis. For this piece I first felt a sense of movement, free movement, movement impeded by obstacles, movement that travels long distances, and movement that stands in place. I had the idea that the music from the piano behaved like a liquid. At the beginning of the piece it is sloshing around in there, from one end of the keyboard to the other, very turbulent. So turbulent that sometimes some of this music would splash out of the piano onto the violinist, whose music would be colored or diluted by the piano. The strings become soaked with this music, and the piano’s leftover liquid becomes more and more viscous, clotting up into funky rhythms and chords. The strings have two identities, they can be “stringy”-those piano notes are expressed as long, drippy glissandos- or they can be brittle, with very short, sharp digs into the string making more noise than tone. (Only later did I realize that these properties are shared exactly by Laffy Taffy. Sorry.) And the winds? The flute behaves like a flame, playful and agile, producing a lot of heat and light. The clarinet is earth. Most of the time it is just damply observing. But under the right circumstances it turns dry, abrasive, gets into everywhere it shouldn’t. Maybe this is all a bit too surreal: what I have are different chords, textures, melodic fragments. The instruments each have their own ways of expressing these materials, their own dialects, perhaps. Experimenting with different combinations of material, in different combinations of instruments, is my (and the piece’s) motivation.

Even with a clear starting point, the final product can be surprising. I don’t like to plan everything out beforehand. When my intentions become too ossified, I tend to lose interest, like knowing the end of a suspenseful movie. Instead I compose outward, and let myself be drawn toward what is necessary. Last fall when I was asked what would be the title of this work, for the press materials, I replied, “How to disappear is how to appear completely.” It was the fall, and I was completely submerged in the emotional and compositional challenges of The Lost Child, the most complex and deep-driving work of my career. Perhaps I was subconsciously thinking of making a quick getaway. But as the spring arrived, with the success of The Lost Child, getting back with old friends, making new ones, deepening emotional connections and feeling more power and more purpose, this music had to be renamed. The piece is lively and rhythmic, with bright, astringent harmonies and showy demonstrations of virtuosity. Cheerful, even! I chose the title “Present,” which refers first to “being present,” a wonderful sense of being alive in the world, being alert and immersed in activity; and second, “present” as a gift, a gratitude for that feeling and for the musicians who so beautifully render my work.

(the foundation of this article comes from a blog entry generously commissioned by the Philadelphia Music Project e-zine: http://pmpmagazine.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/sound-diary-kyle-bartlett/ )

New Old thoughts on "The General Schemed"

At two upcoming c)i concerts, my work The General Schemed will be performed– it is always a happy thing to return to past works, especially with players like these. The work was premiered by counter)induction on 13 June, 2008 in New York NY; it is always interesting to return to a piece after some time, in that interval between performances provides perspective on the successes and failures of a work and on the technical compositional devices employed, but more interestingly for me at least the shift in context of presentation will reveal new aspects and implications of the work, opening new dialogues with other works and practices.

Rehearsals

Just finished a great rehearsal with Sumi and Ben; it's always a delight working with performers like c)i, but this concert has reminded me again not only how much is 'left of the page,' but how often that's the fun stuff.

This work is from a set of etudes that I'm working on that are etudes both in the sense of the systematic study of technical performative elements of music, but also studies in compositional technics. My program note is here, but better still to come and here it! Sunday night at 8p!

The Anticipation of Meaning

For reasons likely of interest to no one, I spent some time over the last week or so in Rome, rereading Gadamer's Truth and Method and the resonance between Sunday's concert and the following followed me around the city.

The anticipation of meaning that governs our understanding of a text is not a act of subjectivity, but proceeds from the commonality that binds us to the tradition. But this commonality is constantly being formed in our relation to tradition. Tradition is not simply a permanenet preconditions; rather, we produce it ourselves inasmuch as we understand, participate in the evolution of tradition, and hence further determine it ourselves.

Hans-Georg Gadamer

Truth and Method, p. 293

Second, Revised edition

Continuum

It is easy for listeners, composers and performers to simply imagine the relation to the past as static, as simply given. But what we think of as the clear and stable fact of history is in fact delineated and maintained by our attention. Each act we take reshapes and reformulates (in however small an amount and discrete a method) the tradition in which we operate.

Kyle's meditation on collapsing cultures and crumbling empires, Rogerson’s elegy on human and cultural extinction and Honett’s fragmentation of material speak to time as the leveler of mountains, while Gilbert’s lament imagines an alternate history where the lost world is found again, Halka's trio connects the cultural to the individual, and my own work figures the interplay of the sculptor and the stone as the play between the composer and history.

As Ryan Streber's introductory essay in the program book will highlight, composition is a matter of technics, and thus of adoption the project of adoption is always a project of self discover, or, better, of auto-explication. The automatic, ineluctable discovery of commonality with the past, the unpacking of the forgotten givenness of one's capacity is the result of engagement with the past— what begins in an exploration of alterity becomes an emergence of ipseity. Adoption doesn't build a bridge to the past, it makes that past part of the now. The question here is not so much eternal as it is perpetual– tradition is opportunity and responsibility, and it is always old and new as once.

~douglas

This is me talking about my piece on the show.

I find myself these days thinking about the end of empires. What was it like as the Lusignan dynasty folded into itself, overcome by the ascendant Ottomans? Did the courtiers sense what was happening? What did a court composer think of his work at a time like that? Did he question his purpose in a dusty, fading outpost, forgotten by the mainland? Perhaps he slowly turned the pages of a book of music, dreaming jealously of his more fortunate predecessors, questioning the importance of music at a time like his. Or maybe he redoubled his efforts, seeing himself as a musical witness to history. My piece for this concert, "My sorrow of rare proportion," a tiny thing, is based on the medieval rondeau, more or less. "Rare proportion" is an old-fashioned way of talking about irrational rhythms (like 7 into 3, etc.) and thus refers not only to a depth of feeling but also the supple means of its portrayal. Its two kinds of material, textures as much as tunes, evolve the way empires do. Meaning, one kind of music grinds to a halt under under the weight of its own excesses, while the other slowly disappears without a trace.

photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/antmoose/17433068/

The Codex Torino J.II.9 - a digital edition

counter)induction's upcoming concert features composers reacting to, responding to and generally engaging with music from the Codex Torino J.II.9, a fascinating book of music from 15th century Cyprus. We'll be posting more about the new works and the codex itself in the next week and a half, but first I thought it would be great to post a link to this incredible digital edition of the codex.

This webpage is organized and hosted by the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle Biblioteche Italiane e per le Informazioni Bibliografiche in Rome, and contains images of the entire codex, as well as a great deal of information about the codex itself, if your Italian is up to it.

There are some great recordings of this repertoire out now but I thought it might be nice to start off highlighting the physicality of the codex. It is many things, a chant manuscript, a liber motetorum, and a chansonnier, but it is also quite beautiful. The time, fire and water have weathered it, certainly, but have also given its colors and clarity that much more power through contrast— in the long fight against entropy, we have at least one exquisite survivor.

More on the music within the covers and the new works counter)induction will be performing in the next few days.

LINK: http://www.internetculturale.it/upload/sfogliatori/franco-cip/francocip.jsp?s=6&l=en

Messiaen and Me

I am so pleased that c)i will be performing Quartet for the End of Time next Saturday.  This piece, and the work of Olivier Messiaen in general, are very dear to me, having been present at the very beginning of my life as a composer.  My first composition teacher was Herman Weiss, who as a Fulbright Scholar was a student of Messiaen. He told me a story that he and Messiaen were at a concert with the Quartet on the program.  Herman knew he was coming down with something, and by the intermission felt quite ill.  He attempted to make his apologies to his teacher, but Messiaen told him, “Weiss, if you leave I will never speak to you again.”  Of course, Herman stayed, and fell into bed at the end of the concert.  After a week of the most horrible flu, he staggered to the window of his apartment, to see about some commotion he heard.  And there, on the street below, was a motorcade, and Richard Nixon going by in a convertible, waving. He could not feel sure whether this was a hallucination from the illness, or if it really was Nixon.

Anyway, I heard lots of stories about Messiaen and his music.  The Quartet was the first work I seriously studied “as a composer,” trying to analyze how Messiaen practiced such an economy, or perhaps such a unity, of material and at the same time created such a fantastic breadth of colors, characters, and expression.  He taught me how rhythm bears a strong impact on the perception of pitch. He could take the exact same string of pitches, and in one movement express something harsh, even violent, and then in another movement show it as furtive, quiet, imminent. The Quartet is a work I can go to again and again, and every time I give myself to it I discover something new. 

 And the best way to hear Quartet for the End of Time yourself is definitely to hear the counter)induction version.  As Messiaen would say, “Elle rocke.” Read what Allan Kozinn had to say in The New York Times the last time we performed it…

 MUSIC REVIEW; Beauty Despite Terror and Melancholy

By ALLAN KOZINN

Published: Friday, October 3, 2003

 A facile connection is often made between the apocalyptic vision of Olivier Messiaen's ''Quartet for the End of Time'' and the circumstances of its composition, in a German prisoner-of-war camp in 1941. The work's odd scoring -- piano, violin, clarinet and cello -- reflects the instruments available in Stalag 8A.

 Yet Messiaen's fascination with Catholic mysticism would probably have led him to write this work even if he were free and at peace. His inspiration was not the war but the imagery in Chapter 10 of the Revelation of St. John. And although parts of the score evoke both terrifying power and sublime melancholy, the work mainly strives to offer a glimpse of otherworldly beauty and eternal salvation.

 Given the vividness and variety of Messiaen's writing, it is easy for even an ad hoc chamber group to create an effect with this work. But conveying its full emotional weight and spiritual grandeur, as the new-music ensemble Counter)induction did on Tuesday evening at Christ and St. Stephen's Church in Manhattan, requires an uncommon combination of precision, suppleness and an almost choreographed interpretive approach.

Everything was right: the second, sixth and seventh movements, meant to convey the rainbow coloration and mysterious presence of the angel who announces the end of time, was played with a fiery ensemble virtuosity. Benjamin Fingland's clarinet playing gave substance to Messiaen's depiction of the celestial birds in ''Abîme des Oiseaux.'' And with the steady, perfectly measured support of Blair McMillen's piano, the group's cellist, Sumire Kudo, and its violinist, Asmira Woodward-Page, played the two meditative slow movements with a transforming intensity and beauty of tone.

 The performance was almost shattering enough to make a listener forget all that had gone before it. But the first half of the program was equally worthy. Kyle Bartlett, one of the ensemble's two resident composers (the other is Douglas Boyce), contributed ''Sown Under the Skin of Her Hands,'' a brief, tactile string trio that begins as a study in pianissimo textures but quickly gains thematic coherence and heft. Jukka Tiensuu's ''Beat'' entertainingly explores the tensions between sliding microtonal clarinet and violin lines and the fixed pitch of the piano. And Jessica Meyer, the ensemble's violist, gave a focused, beautifully centered account of Krzysztof Penderecki's unaccompanied Cadenza.

counter)induction: it goes up to eleven.

We’re psyched to announce our 09-10 season—our eleventh! c)i is presenting an exciting and  wide-reaching year of music both brand-new and timeless.   We’re also happy to be playing three out-of-town gigs—two in Philadelphia and one in Syracuse.   

finis terrae

SAT SEP 19 2009, 08:00PM

TENRI CULTURAL INSTITUTE 

FINIS TERRAE presents renderings of the perimeters of being, its beginning and end, and the space between the real and the notional. Gorecki’s string trio Genesis I imagines the energy and tumult of the foundation of the world, while Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time muses upon its apotheosis and what comes after. Mohammed Fairouz’s new work Kālas, for clarinet and viola, considers the famous line: kālo ‘smi lokakşayakŗt pravŗddho’ (I am time, the mighty destroyer of worlds) from the eleventh chapter of the Bagavad Gita, exploring the connection between enlightenment and mortality.  

c)i @ upenn

SUN NOV 22 2009, 08:00PM 

counter)induction returns to its spawning grounds of the University of Pennsylvania, featuring performances of works from our decade of concert making.  Douglas Boyce’s monumental Deixo | Sonata for viola and piano keeps company with Salvatore Sciarrino’s arresting Centauro Marino, while Eric Moe’s sardonic Dead Cat Bounce, written just for c)i, counterpoints Kyle Bartlett’s transfixing adagio sostenuto.  

codex

SUN MAR 28 2010, 08:00PM

TENRI CULTURAL INSTITUTE 

THU APR 1 2010, 08:00PM

RED HOUSE ARTS CENTER

CODEX will present an evening of music engaging with the mechanisms and mythologies of musical traditions and their creation, and the possibility of inspirations from sources real and imagined. Starting with a singular, enigmatic, and historically / culturally isolated source, a collection of late-medieval polyphony contained in the codex Torino J.II.9, five composers imagine what a centuries-long tradition flowing from the works and practices of the codex might sound like, producing real works in a fictional tradition.  New works by Peter Gilbert, Christopher Jon Honett, Douglas Boyce, Kyle Bartlett and Ryan Streber will be featured.  

the child is father to the man

SUN MAY 16 2010, 02:00PM

PHILADELPHIA CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY 

FRI MAY 21 2010, 08:00PM

TENRI CULTURAL INSTITUTE 

THE CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN examines two seminal 20th century composers by presenting their works with those of their students, metaphorically searching for hidden traits expressed in the musical genetics of the next generation. Iannis Xenakis and George Crumb are presented here not as remote figures of genius, but as mentors and master craftsman, shaping the future through their connections with younger composers. Xenakis’s indomitable Ikhoor is balanced by Trio Rombach of Pascal Dusapin, his only recognized student.  Kyle Bartlett, one of Crumb’s last pupils, will present a world premiere companion to Crumb’s timeless Eleven Echoes of Autumn. 

Keep your browsers pointed to counter)induction on Facebook, the counter)induction YouTube channel, on our blog, and the website, for updates, concert footage, podcasts, and more!  See you on September 19th!

New Podcast!

Scoot on over to alonetone.com to listen to c)i's newest podcast.  It features a recording of my "love letter" to rock music, "Teratography," plus some info about how the piece went from inspiration to performance.  Hope you like!

http://alonetone.com/counterinduction/tracks/teratography-podcast

Or just go to alonetone.com and look for "counterinduction".

Brand New Anniversary Podcast!

In celebration of c)i’s 10^th birthday, we’re reaching into the archives to revisit some great performances of concerts past.

Our first retrospective podcast takes us back to this seasons’ opener, a show called ROOT, BRANCH, CRYSTAL, from last October at the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York City. On that program we performed Caroline Mallonee’sThrowing Mountains This piece tied for first place in c)i’s first composition competition back in 2006. The band was especially attracted to the piece’s vivacious extraversion, strong lines, and general all-out rockingness.

Caroline Mallonée says about her work: “Throwing pots” is the terminology for the process of creating a ceramic piece using natural forces and natural materials. The momentum of the wheel allows the potter to create symmetrical objects out of earth and water. Throwing pots is also a fun and loud way to dispose of thrown pots. In Throwing Mountains, ranges and peaks arise from the momentum of the music. Throwing mountains in the end might also be said to be a fun and loud way to dispose of thrown mountains.”

Don’t forget to join us on Monday, June 15 for our concert “Rewind>>Fastforward: 10 years of counterinduction”. This Merkin Hall program will celebrate our decade of great new music and great performances with world premieres by Eric Moe, Douglas Boyce, and Kyle Bartlett, as well as the winner of our 2^nd Composition competition. To find out more visit us at counterinduction.com and on Facebook, and don’t forget that there are more great c)i podcasts to be had on iTunes.

c)i podcast: Mallonée's Throwing Mountains

To subscribe, click here Or visit www.itunes.com and search for counterinduction.

The granularity of work

I’m currently working on two pieces.  One is The Lost Child, a kind of “opera” for flute with electronics, percussion, recorded sounds, and actor. It’s by far the biggest project I’ve ever done, both aesthetically and in terms of logistics.  At the same time I am working on Adagio sostenuto for our June 15^th anniversary concert.  It’s my sixth work involving the whole c)i instrumentation, which I find surprising. I had no idea! What’s impressive is that I still feel like I’m just getting started with this sonority, I’m just digging into the possibilities not only of the instruments but also of the expressive characters of the c)i performers.  Like Doug, when I write for these musicians I feel I’m not just writing for the instrument, I’m writing for the player.  It is a privileged position to have a long-term relationship with a group of such virtuosic, dedicated, creatively astonishing and generous people.  With these musicians I never feel worried about the piece not being understood, or not being prepared.  

 But how did we get to this place?  I’ve been thinking a lot about continuity; that’s what Adagio sostenuto is about, I think.  I get confused when I’m making a piece. I often forget what came first: some nameless creative impulse, a certain “taste in the mouth” of what the piece should be, or my fine philosophical justifications for those impulses and vague notions. The program notes! Anyway, I had already been working with these mass textures made up of tiny events, like clouds or swarms.  The surface sensation is of a solid substance, but when you look closer it is really many tiny grains of sound.  Then I started to think that being in counter)induction is like that.  When you say “10 years” it feels like some big object, some Monumental Achievement. But what it really is, is countless individual rehearsals, meetings, hours at the desk composing, mountains of press releases, postcards, emails (God, the emails!), writing grants, setting up chairs before a concert, playing the concerts…  Countless individual acts that add up to ten years of effort, ten years of music.