George Crumb: Zeitgeist, tableaux vivants for two amplified pianos

Crumb - Zitgeist

George Crumb è uno dei compositori che ho sempre amato. È uno dei pochi contemporanei che trovo emozionanti. Uno dei pochi che non scrivono solo ‘esercizi’ o ‘studi’.

Di questo brano ho già parlato, proprio qui, più o meno 9 anni fa. Ma allora non c’era la diffusione offerta dal libro di facce e non c’erano i video del tubo (non come adesso, almeno). Così ne approfitto per rimettere qualcosa, questa volta con il video dell’esecuzione e note dell’autore.

George Crumb, Zeitgeist, Six Tableaux for Two Amplified Pianos (Book I) (1987, rev. 1989)

I. Portent – Molto moderato, il ritmo ben marcato
II. Two Harlequins – Vivace, molto capriccioso
III. Monochord – Lentamente, misterioso
IV. Day of the Comet – Prestissimo
V. The Realm of Morpheus (“. . . the inner eye of dreams”)
Piano I: Lentamente quasi lontano, sognante
Piano II: Adagio sospeso, misterioso
VI. Reverberations – Molto moderato, il ritmo ben marcato

Alexander Ghindin & Boris Berezovsky Amplified pianos

Notes from the author:

Zeitgeist (Six Tableaux for Two Amplified Pianos, Book I) was composed in 1987. The work was commissioned by the European piano-duo team of Peter Degenhardt and Fuat Kent, who subsequently gave the premiere performance at the Charles Ives Festival in Duisburg, Germany on January 17, 1988. Zeitgeist was extensively revised after this initial performance.

For a German-speaking person, the expression “Zeitgeist” has a certain portentous and almost mystical significance, which is somewhat diluted in our English equivalent: “spirit of the time.”

The title seemed to me especially appropriate since the work does, I feel, touch on various concerns which permeate our late-twentieth century musical sensibility. Among these, I would cite: the quest for a new kind of musical primitivism: (a “morning of the world” vision of the elemental forms and forces of nature once again finding resonance in our music); an obsession with more minimalistic (or at least, more simple and direct) modes of expression; the desire to reconcile and synthesize the rich heritage of our classical Western music with the wonderfully vibrant ethnic and classical musics of the non-Western world; and, finally, our intense involvement with acoustical phenomena and the bewitching appeal of timbre as a potentially structural element.

In many of its aspects—compositional technique, exploitation of “extended-piano” resources, and emphasis on poetic content—Zeitgeist draws heavily from my earlier piano compositions, especially the larger works of my Makrokosmos cycle (Music for a Summer Evening [1974] for two amplified pianos and percussion, and Celestial Mechanics [1979J for amplified piano, four-hands).

The opening movement of Zeitgeist, entitled Portent, is based primarily on six-tone chordal structures and a rhythmically incisive thematic element. The music offers extreme contrasts in register and dynamics. A very characteristic sound in the piece is a mysterious glissando effect achieved by sliding a glass tumbler along the strings of the piano while the keys are being struck.

The second movement—Two Harlequins—is extremely vivacious and whimsical. The music is full of mercurial changes of mood and comical non sequiturs. Although this piece is played entirely on the keyboard, an echoing ambiance resonates throughout.

Monochord (which in the score is notated in a symbolic circular manner) is based entirely on the first 15 overtones of a low B-flat. A continuous droning sound (produced alternately by the two pianists) underlies the whole piece. This uncanny effect, produced by a rapid oscillating movement of the fingertip in direct contact with the string, results in a veritable rainbow of partial tones. In addition, paper strips placed over the lower ten strings of each piano produce an almost sizzling effect.

The title of the fourth movement —Day of the Comet— was suggested by the recent advent of Halley’s comet (the previous visitation was commemorated by H. G. Wells in his science fiction novel of the same title). The piece, played at prestissimo tempo and consisting of polyrhythmic bands of chromatic clusters, is volatile, yet strangely immaterial.
Perhaps Debussy’s Feux d’artifice (Preludes, Book II) is the spiritual progenitor of this genre of composition.

The fifth movement —The Realm of Morpheus— is like Monochord symbolically notated. The bent staves take on the perceptible configuration of the human eye (“…the inner eye of dreams”). Each of the two pianists plays independently, and the combined musics express something shadowy and ill-defined—like the mysterious subliminal images which appear in dreams.
Disembodied fragments of an Appalachian folk-song (“The Riddle”) emerge and recede.

The concluding movement of the work —Reverberations— recalls the principal thematic and harmonic elements of the first movement. This piece is constructed in its entirety on the “echoing phenomenon”—that most ancient of musical devices.

[George Crumb]

Bbbbeeeeeeeetttthhhhoooovvvveeeennnn

In 2002, the Scandinavian composer Leif Inge took Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and stretched it out to 24 hours without distortion or pitch variations. The 9th Symphony’s standard duration is around 67 minutes (but it depends on the director: it can also exceed 70′ and reach up to 77’16 “in the Kubelik version of ’74), it is an expansion of about 21.5 times.

The title of this expanded version is 9 Beet Stretch. It sounds like a slow-moving sound continuum, but not so slow that it does not allow you to perceive changes in a reasonable time (a few minutes, but generally shorter). Obviously, with these times, the melody is completely lost and everything turns into a sequence of chords, but the dramatic sense of harmony remains.

All note’s entries are very gradual because it is not  a simple metro slow-down but an audio signal stretched, so any attack that in the original file lasts 1/10 second, becomes 2.15 seconds in the expanded version. The audio file is a Naxos recording directed by Béla Drahos with Nicolaus Esterházy Symphony and Choir (Naxos 8.553478).

The stream can be listened on the internet from the 9 Beet Stretch site (click the player). It’s an ongoing 24/7 stream of 9 Beet Stretch, starting at the time of sunset, Wien, march 26th, the date Ludwig van Beethoven died, so the four movements start at:

  • CET 18:16 movement 1 – duration 5½ hours
  • CET 23:43 movement 2 – duration 5 hours
  • CET 04:48 movement 3 – duration 5 hours
  • CET 09:24 movement 4 – duration 8½ hours

Note: CET = central Europe time.

In daylight saving time, ie. summertime (at least in CET this is last weekend in march to last weekend in october), add one hour.

Suguru Goto in Tokyo 2016

An excerpt from the Suguru Goto’s Japanese tour of 2016. The video, from Tokyo concert, is a collage of three songs with music by Suguru Goto and graphics by three different artists Patrick Defasten, Lucio Arese and Antoine Schmitt .

The songs are:

Body Jack, Suguru Goto music, Patrick Defasten graphics
CsO, Suguru Goto music, Antoine Schmitt graphics
Continuum, Suguru Goto music, Lucio Arese graphics

There is no detailed info, but I guess that all the songs could be generated with one of the classic audio and video software, such as Max/Jitter or PD/GEM or, at least, Max/PD exchanging data with Processing.

In the first two tracks the graphic part is completely generated by the computer. The second one is based on the particles most likely by Jitter.

The former exhibits a considerable amount of objects assembled in a toroidal configuration, which then explode into other forms. Rotations are not a problem because they are not the objects to move, but the virtual camera (the “viewpoint”). But the amount of objects and their arrangement suggests some kind of specialized software.

In the third, however, there are almost organic shapes that resemble jellyfish, and it is more difficult to understand if we have to deal with a totally computerized graphic or with a few shots.

Show on Vimeo

Suguru Goto on wikipedia

Hello

Hello, by Alexander Schubert
(2014) For {any number of} instruments, live-electronics and video

Excerpts from composer’s notes:

The piece is audio-visual. It’s basically a video that is accompanied by the instruments. The video consists of video recordings of the composer performing certain actions / gestures. These gestures are notated in the score as well and need to be interpreted by the musicians (as musical events – not as theatrical actions / physical movement – the idea is to find corresponding or contrasting music events for the given gestures).

The piece is really based on the video and the electronics in the tape, meaning that in the rehearsal progress, rather use the video as an orientation and not the only the score. The score is a tool to make it easier to play along with the video, but eventually the video is the real score.

The piece can be played more or less by any combination of instruments. It is advised to have at least four players, one of which is a piano/guitar/accordion or similar to play chords. Also a percussionist should be included. For combinations that do not fall into this description please contact the composer to check.

You are invited to use other small instruments or props other than those found in your ensemble. For example toy instruments, everyday household tools or found objects. Chose these instruments in order to fit a given video gesture you want to accompany.

More info here and here.

 

Venus & Jupiter

Either/Or: Elliott Sharp – Venus & Jupiter (premiere)

(perché in questo periodo mi alzo all’alba e vedo sempre Venere e Giove vicini nel cielo)

Richard Carrick – piano, Stephanie Griffin – viola, Margaret Lancaster – alto flute, Chris McIntyre – trombone, Josh Rubin – bass clarinet, David Shively – percussion, Alex Waterman – cello with Elliott Sharp – electro-acoustic guitar

Dispacci dal fronte interno

Dispacci dal fronte interno [Dispatches from the homefront] is a work by Andrea Valle for feedback system including ad libitum strings, printer and live electronics.

Audio from strings, printers and environment is not only manipulated live, but some features are extracted and used to control not only the same sound processing but also the real-time generation and print on the fly of musical notation to be performed by the player.

In short, the performer receives “dispatches” which content depends on what s/he is playing.

From SONIC SCREENS, an event by U.S.O. Project (Matteo Milani, Federico Placidi) in collaboration with O’ and Die Schachtel
Milan, 01/12/2012

An excerpt from the premiere by:
Èdua Amarilla Zádory – Violin
Ana Topalovic – Violoncello

Video courtesy Gianmarco Del Re

Dispacci dal fronte interno from Andrea Valle on Vimeo.

Petites esquisses d’oiseaux

messiaen01

Since I have just updated some posts on bird songs and Messiaen’s interpretation of them, I thought I’d post his Little Bird Sketches in the 1985 version for a piano (there is also a version for two pianos).

Messiaen had already found the convergence between his two passions, ornithology and music. Already in 1951 he had composed a virtuoso piece for flute and piano used as an admission test for flute at the Paris conservatory (remember that the Paris conservatory is at a higher level and is equivalent to our own specialization academy). The piece was called Le merle noir and is his first work entirely inspired by the song of a bird (some fragments were included in previous works).

In 1953 he composed Réveil des oiseaux (The awakening of the birds) for orchestra, composed almost exclusively of transcriptions of the songs of the birds that the author could hear between midnight and noon in the mountains of the Jura Massif.

From this time he got into the habit of incorporating these transcriptions in all his works, as well as writing collections entirely dedicated to this subject (Oiseaux exotiques (Exotic birds) for piano and chamber orchestra, 1955-1956, La Chouette hulotte for piano, 1956, the monumental Catalog d’oiseaux (Catalog of birds) for piano, 1956-1958, La Fauvette des Jardins for piano, 1970-1972, Un Vitrail et des oiseaux (A stained glass and birds) for piano and orchestra, 1986, up to these Petites esquisses d’oiseaux (Little sketches of birds) for one or two pianos, 1985-1987). As works they are not simply collections of transcriptions, but real symphonic poems. Paul Griffiths observed that Messiaen was a more conscientious ornithologist than any of the composers who had preceded him, and a more attentive musical observer of birdsong than all previous ornithologists.

Indeed, Messiaen’s transcription work is accurate and takes into account musical problems that often escape scientific ornithology. He himself explains:

The bird, being much smaller than we are, with a heart that beats faster and nervous reactions much faster, sings at extremely fast tempos which are absolutely impossible for our instruments; therefore I am obliged to transcribe it at a slower tempo. Moreover, this speed is associated with extreme acuity, being a bird able to sing in such high registers as to be inaccessible to our instruments; therefore I transcribe the song one, two or even three octaves below. And that’s not all: for the same reason I am obliged to suppress those too small intervals that our instruments could not play. So I replace these intervals of the order of one or two paragraphs with semitones, but respecting the scale of values ​​between the different intervals, that is, if any paragraph corresponds to a semitone, then a true semitone will correspond to a whole tone or an interval of third; everything is enlarged, but the ratios remain unchanged, nevertheless what I give is correct.

Petites esquisses d’oiseaux (1985) – Håkan Austbø, piano

  1. Le Rouge-gorge (erithacus rubecula – pettirosso)
  2. Le Merle noir (turdus merula – merlo)
  3. Le Rouge-gorge
  4. La Grive musicienne (turdus ericetorum sinonimo di turdus philomelos – tordo bottaccio)
  5. Le Rouge-gorge
  6. L’Alouette des champs (alauda arvensis – allodola)

 

Anthèmes

Anthèmes refers to two related compositions for violin by French composer Pierre Boulez: Anthèmes I and Anthèmes II.

Anthèmes I is a short piece (c. 9 minutes) for solo violin, commissioned by the 1991 Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition, and dedicated to Universal Edition’s director Alfred Schlee for his 90th birthday. In 1994, Boulez revised and expanded Anthèmes I into a version for violin and live electronics at IRCAM, resulting in Anthèmes II (c. 18 minutes duration), produced in 1997. (Expansion and revision of earlier works is common in Boulez’s compositional process; see also Structures.)

The title is a hybrid of the French “thèmes” (themes) and the English “anthem”. It is also a play on words with ‘anti-thematicism ‘: “Anthèmes” reunites the “anti” with the “thematic”, and demonstrates Boulez’s re-acceptance of (loose) thematicism following a long period of staunch opposition to it (Goldman 2001, 116–17).

Anthèmes I owes its structure to inspiration Boulez drew from childhood memories of Lent-time Catholic church services, in which the (acrostic) verses of the Jeremiah Lamentations were intoned: Hebrew letters enumerating the verses, and the verses themselves in Latin. Boulez creates two similarly distinct sonic worlds in the work: the Hebrew enumerations become long static or gliding harmonic tones, and the Latin verses become sections that are contrastingly action-packed and articulated (though Boulez says that the piece bears no reference to the content of the verses, and takes as its basis solely the idea of two contrasting sonic language-worlds) (Goldman 2001, 119). The piece begins with a seven-tone motive, and trill on the note D: these are the fundamental motives used in its composition. It is also in seven sections: a short introduction, followed by six “verses”, each “verse” preceded by a harmonic-tone “enumeration”. The last section is the longest, culminating in a dialogue between four distinct “characters”, and the piece closes with the two “languages” gradually melding into one as the intervals finally center around the note D and close into a trill, and then a single harmonic. A final “col legno battuto” ends the piece in Boulez’s characteristic witty humour, a gesture of “That’s enough for now! See you later!” (Goldman 2001, 83, 118). [from wikipedia]

See also: Goldman, Jonathan. “Analyzing Pierre Boulez’s Anthèmes: ‘Creating a Labyrinth out of Another Labyrinth’“. Unpublished essay. [Montréal]: Université de Montréal, 2001. OCLC: 48831192.

Andrew Gerzso has for many years been the composer’s chief collaborator on works involving live electronics and the two men regularly discuss their work together. He describes the way in which all the nuances in this nucleus of works were examined in the studio in order to find out which elements could be electronically processed and differentiated. As a result, the process of expanding these works is based not only on abstract structural considerations (such as the questions as to how it may be possible to use electronic procedures to spatialize and to merge or separate specific complexes of sound),but also on concrete considerations bound up with performing practice: in a word, on the way in which the instrument’s technical possibilities may be developed along figurative lines.

IMHO, it is quite clear that the electroacoustic is limited to “dress” the instrumental part, albeit with effects well made. Anthème II is not a real electroacoustic composition and even a revision of the original. But it’s really helpful to students. See also this good page  from IRCAM: Anthème & Anthème II and this one with Max patches.

From You Tube, Anthèmes before and after

Organ2/ASLSP (2015 check)

Sometimes I check if the German site where John Cage’s Organ2 / ASLSP is being performed, expanded to an incredible 639 (six hundred and thirty-nine) years, still exists and the answer so far is yes.

To find out more about this epic execution that began in 2001 and destined to end in 2640, I refer

Finally, here you can hear the epic 2006 note change at 8:36 in this audio clip. The last was in 2013 and the next is expected on September 5, 2020.

This is the organ used for execution.

 

HalberstadtBurchardiChurchOrganForOrgan2ASLSP