The Week(s) of Unconventional Quadrilateral Boundaries Part 2
Following the events of Randall Hall, I awoke wondering what performances Saturday would bring. After hearing the recital last night, I knew that anything could be on table at this juncture. I went through my normal Saturday routine which consist of what I call unchained practicing. This simply means that I have the luxury of practicing all day. I planned on timing my session in order to catch the improv ensemble. I had such a wonderful time listening to the improvisation unit last semester especially with the spoken piece they spontaneously created while reading through school newspapers. When I sat down I opened the program to find text normally where the compositions are listed and found “improvisations by the ensemble.” A smile washed and I knew that I was going to be in for a great treat.
There was no spoken work that was done for this concert, however, there was a composition that started with what appeared to be the sounds of feral animals barking at one another. I really enjoy listening to the improvisation unit because half of the battle seems to see how you can creatively make music on your instrument without playing it correctly. Personally, I would take my horn apart throw the mouth piece where the slide would normally sit and play a quasi-euphonium with an F attachment trigger. Moreover, I would throw a plunger into the mix to get some really wacky trombone sounds.
A trumpet was also present into the amalgam of performers. I thought this added a unique voice in an ensemble that consisted mostly of woodwind instruments and pianos. I thought the two note swells that were utilized with the cacophony of sound flowing through the room reminded me of a dissonant film score. Technology was also used in this performance the synth patches added a unique ingredient in the improvisational bisque heard throughout the room.
The concert concluded and with the added improvised musical experience circulating my brain I decided to finish round out my practicing for the day before the next exciting concert of the day began. The next performer of the festival was Ji Hye Jung, percussionist. When the BlueSHIFT concert concluded, Dr. Butler (m) mentioned to not miss this opportunity and championed Jung’s playing to the nth degree. “Praised as “spectacular” by the Los Angeles Times and “extraordinary” by the Ventura County Star, the Times describes percussionist Ji Hye Jung as “a centered player who can give the impression of being very still yet at all places at once (SIU Program Notes).”
This was one of those recitals where the performer had such a calm effortless command over her instrument and every movement seemed organic. What I found truly mesmerizing was how deftly she was able to recalibrate her mallets and adjust to hit certain notes without hesitation. Jung performed Violin Sonata No.1 in G Minor Fugue on marimba and while listening to said fugue my theory brain kicked on identifying most of the aspects of a fugue. Honestly, it was an excellent benchmark and test for myself because I had been reviewing forums of both fugues and inventions in theory tutoring.
My favorite work on Jung’s recital was “To the Earth” a percussive tale and homage to the Earth mother and the people inhabiting the pale blue dot. The composition is played on four different sized pots and spoken over. From my vantage point I could not believe how she sat down on the floor of OBF because of the way in which her legs bent if I were playing said composition my legs would have been long asleep and getting up afterwards would have turned the work into a comedic farce of disastrophy plus two. The message of this composition is simply take care of the earth and it will take care of you. “Be generous and give me a happy life…in return for my song, so that I can continue to praise you with my music.” The recital concluded and my colleges and I were amazed at the masterwork recital that we had just witnessed.
Sunday was peculiar because I had the opportunity to listen to The Altgeld Chamber Players and also perform for the student recital. The first piece “I Was Like, Wow” was a great experience because it was the first time I had heard my teacher perform live. However, the composition is very sobering and staggering. The composition and fixed media help tell a harrowing account of war-torn middle east, but on a micro level, the awful fate of a soldier who ended up triggering multiple mines and blowing himself up. Although the composition may be macabre, the trombone is used unconventionally utilizing flutter tonguing, glissandos, and vibrato. The fixed media and trombone is blended with the screams of the audio track and gives the trombone a quasi-reverberation effect. The composition concludes with the wounded warrior riding his ATV off into the distance.
The next composition on the recital told the story of a spider and his growth through three musical movements. I happened to really enjoy the “Shadow Warrior” movement and how the shadows casted on this building at night makes anything scurrying by colossal. “Shadow Warrior” utilizes a large range of the piano in order to emulate this growing spider’s confidence. The imagery that I conjure depicts a massive spider scurrying over its domain.
Next one of my favorite compositions was played. “The Rite of Spring” is one of my favorite compositions because of the primal rhythms that Stravinsky uses throughout. Anecdotally, this reminds me of the dinosaur extinction from Fantasia. Which was one of my first encounters with classical music and is most certainly my first encounter with Igor Stravinsky. The amazing aspect of this particular composition was that it was done all on piano with four hands. I cannot even imagine the coordination required to play the ballet, however, it was amazing nonetheless.
Finally, it was my turn to listen to many of the student performers and also get the opportunity to perform myself. I really enjoyed seeing my peers play compositions by Ives, Adler, Webern, and Jespersen. I had the pleasure of performing Concerto for 9 instruments by Webern. Coming from a film studies background I have a different perspective about the twelve-tone music than my performance peers. Many of the compositional techniques used in twelve-tone music would eventually permeate one of my favorite film genres, noir. Furthermore, the expressionist film movement also used low-key lighting another staple of the noir genre. My film background gives me a bit more context into musical expressionism too.
Overall, I thought the concerto went okay. I was a measure late with one cue and I seemed to have fumbled a bit of the trio in the III movement. Some of my notes spoke a bit late, but other than those mistakes I thought my performance was okay. I thought the coolest piece of the concert was “Boombox Serenade” by Ryan Jespersen. The concept of this piece shows the inner mind of a street musician. I had the pleasure of hearing this performed before the concert. Interestingly, I thought about noir once again, however, this seemed more like revisionist noir that would take place in modern or even future setting. Honestly, the audio track reminded me of Blade Runner. My minds eye pictured a hardboiled detective roaming the streets in search of a missing persons and on his journey that was probably a lead given to him by a femme fatale. It was interesting to see this underlying theme of film noir emerge out of atonal and contemporary music of Sunday. Much of noir film owes its skeleton to the expressionist movement, but that is a discussion for another time....
The Week(s) of Unconventional Quadrilateral Boundaries will continue in Part 3
