Other Minds Festivals ➔ Other Minds Festival: OM 8: Panel Discussion & Concert 2 (video), 1 of 3
Digital Moving Image
Event Type
Lectures and Panel DiscussionsOrigin
Other MindsIdentifier
OMF.2002.03.08.c1.AProgram Series
Other Minds FestivalProgram Length
175 minPart
1 of 3Dates
| broadcast| 2002-03-08 | created
Description
This first part of this program begins with the concluding performance from the first concert of the OM 8 Festival held on March 7, 2002. The composition is “New Work,” an improvisation by The Circle Trio, Pauline Oliveros, accordion, India Cook, violin, and Karolyn van Putten, voice. The second concert of OM 8 Festival, held on March 8, 2002, then begins with a panel discussion moderated by Charles Amirkhanian and featuring Richard Teitelbaum, Tom Buckner, and composers Annea Lockwood, Lou Harrison. Teitelbaum talks about how his interest in shakuhachi music led him to collaborate with some of the great Japanese masters of the instrument and influenced many of his electro-acoustic compositions. Lou Harrison then demonstrates the tack piano, for which he thinks he has composed the only work for its solo performance. Harrison also offers a brief explanation and demonstration of various tuning systems on a harpsichord. Annea Lockwood and Tom Buckner then describe the intent and process that went into their joint creation “Duende,” which is for baritone and tape.In part two of this program the second concert of the OM 8 Festival continues with:
Sonata for Harpsichord
Was composed by Harrison for Linda Burman-Hall to play on the eve of 2000. It offers three contrasting moods based on modal scales: a bustling, energetic opening with inner-voice trills, a warmly lyrical central meditation, and a flamenco-tinged ‘Estampie' dance accented by exuberant cluster chords. Harrison planned the work for the Baroque well-temperament Kirnberger II, which he also used to compose his first “Concerto for Piano with Selected Orchestra” (1985). “Sonata for Harpsichord” is performed on a French double harpsichord tuned at A=415. —Linda Burman-Hall
Cinna
Consists of a suite of incidental music created with Guggenheim Fellowship support to accompany a rod-puppet production of the classic French play, which did not materialize once the music was composed. Corneille's play “Cinna” is a grand political intrigue in which loyalty conflicts with revenge. Harrison's special "fully just 7-limit tuning"—which produces a spectrum of finely-nuanced melodic semitone relationships and larger intervals of either ‘pure' or ‘poisonous' affect—is particularly appropriate to a theatre world obsessed with power inequities and strategic alliances, a world in which affinity is tempered by antipathy. Instead of the ‘totalitarian tonal regime' imposed by equal temperament (which often masquerades as democracy), just-intonation pitch relationships such as those of “Cinna” give rise to a complex and changeable tonal theatre, a stratified society of sound in which pitches become actors, creating interval relationships and motives of character. “Cinna” is pitched at A=415 at the request of the composer, bringing it closer to the world of Corneille while reducing the risk of broken strings. —Linda Burman-Hall
Trio
My only piano trio was commissioned in 1989 by the Mirecourt Trio. The third movement of the work is a little suite of solos for the three musicians. They are again united in the finale. With the exception of the one chromatic movement which is dedicated to the memory of Virgil Thomson, all of the remaining movements are modal in character, and the entire work is melodic. This is the first work that I composed after triple-bypass heart surgery, and it was interrupted by a major earthquake and the death of my good friend and mentor Virgil Thomson; thus it has a complex history. The premiere performance took place with the Mirecourt Trio at the Menil Museum in Houston in 1990. —Lou Harrison
In part three of this program the second concert of the OM 8 Festival continues with:
Duende
Within an improvisational framework, Thomas Buckner explores the possibility of change of state through such transformations, moving through three stages: preparation, a first flight, and a final flight in which he moves beyond the self he knows. Thus ‘”Duende” is not a prepared, performed work, but a vehicle for experience. He is partnered by a tape drawn from the sounds of the cuica (an African and South American instrument), a large glass gong and other glass sounds, wind, a Cameroonian rattle, a kea (New Zealand mountain parrot), and a bullroarer; our thanks to Tom Hamilton for his assistance in making the tape.—Annea Lockwood
Distance de Fée
Was inspired by a poem of the same title by Shuzo Takiguchi, and was originally composed for violin and piano. Tōru Takemitsu loved the Ondes Martenot from his younger days and promised to write me a concerto, but was unable to do so before his death in 1996. However, he gave me official permission to play this beautiful piece on the Ondes, and left some important modifications and suggestions. The work is a companion to “Uninterrupted Pause for Piano” (1952). —Takashi Harada
Voyage en Septembre
Is a transfiguring suite for me, a work that will never finish. Each time I play this, I change the instrumentation and other aspects. Sometimes I'll modify even the number of movements. I usually rehearse with three movements: Prelude, Fugue, and Echoes. It might become something altogether different at this concert! —Takashi Harada
Support for Linda Burman-Hall's appearance provided by New Albion Records
[Digitized by the California Audiovisual Preservation Project (CAVPP) supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.]
Genres
New musicMusical Selections
New Work, an improvisation for accordion, violin, and voice (2002) (15:36) / Pauline Oliveros & The Circle TrioPerformers
The Circle Trio:Pauline Oliveros, accordion
India Cooke, violin
Karolyn van Putten, voice
Subjects
New musicImprovisation (Music)
Vocalises (High voice) with accordion and violin