Contemporary Classics July 10, 2018 Celebrating the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival-Episode 2

Last week featured music by Julia Wolfe, David Lang and Michael Gordon from the 1980s and 1990s.  We will move to the 2000s and the 2010s this week

David Lang’s  How to Pray  2002 for small ensemble

David Lang wrote: “The reason why the psalms are so central to religious experience is that they are a comprehensive catalogue of examples of how to talk to the Almighty, not by a prophet or a priest but in the voice of a single person out in the world, with problems and concerns not unlike those faced by real people in all times. Of course, it’s like reading one side of a correspondence—we can read King David’s letters but the letters back are the ones we really want to see.

I am not a religious person. I don’t know how to pray. I do, however, know some of the times and places and formulas that are supposed to make prayer possible. Sometimes I find myself sending those messages out. And then I wait, secretly hoping that I will recognize the response.

My first thought for this piece was that I could somehow “borrow” my favorite running piano line from the beginning of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, bringing into the concert the piece that had introduced me to the idea of psalm setting, many years ago. More recently I have been setting the entire book of psalms, in an evening-length work for solo piano called psalms without words. I have been transcribing my own cantillation of the psalms—the rhythms, the accents and the pacing of the Hebrew. I used a similar strategy to convert the prayer before setting the psalms into the music for how to pray.”

Julia Wolfe “Fuel”  2007 for small ensemble

Fuel is a collaboration with filmmaker Bill Morrison which examines the impact of globalization. Commissioned by Ensemble Resonanz, a Hamburg-based group of 18 musicians, Fuel was premiered in 2007 at the Kaispeicher B Warehouse at the port of Hamburg, Germany as a multi-media performance. The ideas for the piece came about through conversations related to the necessity and controversy of fuel.

Julia Wolfe writes “The idea for Fuel began in conversation with filmmaker Bill Morrison. We talked about the mystery and economy of how things run — the controversy and necessity of fuel — the global implications, the human need. The music takes its inspiration from the fiery strings of Ensemble Resonanz. The members of the group challenged me to write something rip roaring and virtuosic, asking me to push the group to the limit. This request merged with the sounds of transport and harbors — New York and Hamburg — large ships, creaking docks, whistling sounds, and a relentless energy.”

Michael Gordon “For Madeline”   2009

Michael Gordon wrote: I spent most of 2009 going in and out of synagogues to say Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning, for Madeline. Of course she wouldn’t have approved. She was a communist. Madeline lived in a different world, a world of transplanted Yiddish secular culture. I realized all of this only much later. There’s plenty of time to think about these things in synagogue because there are numerous prayers and who can concentrate on so many of them? Madeline loved music and she would take me to concerts when I was little. I would fall asleep but that didn’t deter her. She wanted me to love music as much as she did but she certainly did not want me to be a composer. Madeline, are you listening? I dedicate this piece to your memory.”

Cloud River Mountain

Co-composed by Lao Luo and Bang on a Can founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, Cloud River Mountain is an edgy cross-cultural collaboration between the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the extraordinary Chinese vocalist Gong Linna, whose dynamic voice covers a vast canvas of sonic colors. Linna has drawn comparisons to Björk with her adventurous range, embracing Chinese folk, pop, and avant-garde art music with a sure-footed confidence that transcends borders.

On Cloud River Mountain, she sings in both Mandarin and English over the groove-driven melodies and lush soundscapes of the All-Stars, weaving ancient Chinese storytelling together with Western songwriting in a raucous musical mix. Inspired by the verses of classical Chinese poet Qu Yuan, these seven songs channel the mystical stories of the past and merge them with the churning, clanging sounds of the future.

Into the Clouds   music: Julia Wolfe     lyrics: adapted by Julia Wolfe after Qu Yuan’s Yun Zhong Jun   Text of poem:  We bathed and washed our hair   and dressed ourselves    Like flowers   Swaying   Sun and moon round the sky  In a whirl   Into the clouds   There is no place    Makes me sigh

River    music: Michael Gordon lyrics: adapted by Michael Gordon after Qu Yuan’s He Bo.  Text of Poem  By Nine Mouths of the river     I wander with you     Dragons draw my chariot    Climbing Kunlun mountain   I look back to distant shores    My heart leaps wildly    Riding a white turtle   Chasing spotted fish   Let me play with you    while river waters rush

 Girl with Mountain   music: David Lang    lyrics: adapted by David Lang after Qu Yuan’s Shan Gui  Text of poem:  Girl with mountain    I am hiding    On the mountain    All alone    I see    And I forget    That I must leave

Steve Reich “Eight Lines”

Eight Lines was originally written as “Octet” in 1979 scored for string quartet, two pianos, and two woodwind players each playing clarinet, bass clarinet and flute as well as piccolo.  It was then rescored for two string quartets.  This version returns to the original version with slight modification to meet the instrumentation of the Bang on a Can All-stars.

The structure but not the sound of Jewish chants influenced the composition.  It is in one movement with five sections. The first and third share a similar texture of rapid piano, cello, and bass clarinet figures, while the second and fourth sections are marked by sustained tones in the cello. The fifth and final section combines these materials. The divisions between sections, however, involve smooth transitions with some overlapping in the parts. As a result, it is often difficult to tell just when one section ends and the next begins.  At its core is a syncopated piano ostinato, superimposed over transposed and shifted versions of itself. The woodwinds and strings play fragmented versions of these figures in unison with the pianos, as well as melodies of their own and slow drones in the background. The piece makes extensive use of imitative polyphony and incremental building of melodies.

Evan Ziporyn            Partial Truths

Evan Ziporyn is a New York based clarinetist and composer.  This work was written in 1999.   About this work Evan Ziporyn wrote "Partial Truths is my longest work for solo bass clarinet to date (2011), part of my ongoing efforts to reflect on my own relationship to my instrument, and thus to music making in general. The title is deliberately ambiguous, but refers at least in part to acoustical 'partials' (overtones), in that the musical substance resides in the entire overtone spectrum rather than simply in the fundamentals. Melodies and harmonies rise out of the physical reality of the instrument, imply and insinuate, then merge back into the ether. It is dedicated to Arnold Dreyblatt."

David Lang         Evening Morning Day

Evening Morning Day was written in 2007 from a commissioned by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.  It has words and music by david lang  after genesis, chapter 1

David Lang wrote: “I wanted to make a piece about the creation story but I didn't want to highlight one religion's or culture's narrative over another.

It was important for me to try to find something universal, something present in all stories, or common to all cultures. I hit upon the idea of making a kind of checklist of everything that needed to be created to get the world to this point, without each individual culture's stories or myths or exoticisms. I went back to the first chapter of Genesis, to see what I could get out of my own culture's story, and I stripped away all the descriptions, adjectives, connectors and motivators. All that is left of Genesis in my text are the nouns, leaving a dispassionate list of everything created, in the order in which it is mentioned.”