Other Minds Festivals ➔ Other Minds Festival: OM 9: Concert 3, 3 of 4
Digital Moving Image
Event Type
MusicOrigin
Other MindsIdentifier
OMF.2003.03.07.CProgram Series
Other Minds FestivalProgram Length
121 minPart
3 of 4Dates
2003-03-07 | createdDescription
Third concert of the 9th Other Minds Festival. March 7, 2003. 8:00pm. Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, San Francisco, CA. Second half, Pt. 1 with Jack Body.Jack Body: Sarajevo for piano (1996) (U.S Premiere)
This work was written at the invitation of the New Zealand pianist Michael Houstoun, who premiered it at the 1996 International Festival of Arts in Wellington. Sarajevo is a reflection on the horrors and futility of the Bosnian war and was partly inspired by my seeing Emir Kausturica’s film ‘Underground’. The film exposes the war’s cruel manipulation of ethnic, religious and nationalistic sentiments.
The first movement, called “Remembering...imperfectly,” is based on the idea of “selective memory,” how the past is often recollected selectively to suit one’s present imperatives. I have created a quasi-folksong (played with the right hand thumb) with a kind of plucked instrument accompaniment. The melody re-cycles round and round, always in fragmentary form, each time with different sections “erased.” Flourishes and ppp staccato chords provide a background, sometimes beautiful, sometimes
ominous. The movement is static, time suspended before the storm. The second movement’s title,
“Totentanz,” is the dance of death, evoking a genre popular in medieval poetry, painting, and music that depicts Death dancing with its prospective victim. It also conjures up the grotesque and violent fury that inspires young men to kill and be killed in war. Liszt wrote a Totentanz for piano and orchestra, but I also had in mind the fourth of Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death as well as Durer’s vivid print of The Knight, Death, and the Devil. The last movement, “Lachrymae,” is a lament, but like much of the traditional music of the Balkans, without self-pity, as much in anger as sorrow.
Remembering…imperfectly
Totentanz
Lachrymae
Sarah Cahill, piano
Three Sentimental Songs for piano and percussion trio (2000-01) (Word Premiere)
This set for piano and percussion trio is among a number of arrangements of old songs I have made, chosen from an old “community song book” that was used in our home when I was a child, with my grandmother singing and myself playing the piano. (The other sets are scored for piano solo, voice and piano, and voice and ensemble). Perhaps there always comes a time in one’s life when one can no longer resist the power of nostalgia and sentimentality...but in submitting to it, we can discover a beauty and freshness that was not previously apparent....The songs are:
1. Daisy Bell
2. Little Brown Jug
3. All through the Night *
Sarah Cahill, piano; The Other Minds Ensemble- Joel Davel, Chris Froh and Ward Spangler,
percussion
[Notes taken from original printed program. * Body’s Sentimental Songs order was changed the day of. The program originally listed the order as: Daisy Bell, All through the Night, Little Brown Jug.]
Note: Due to original recording and/or condition when digitized: audio cuts in and out and other audio errors throughout.
Musical Selections
Sarajevo (1996) / Jack Body [U.S.premiere] ---- Three Sentimental Songs for piano and percussion trio (2000-01) / Jack Body {World premiere]Performers
Sarah Cahill, pianoThe Other Minds Ensemble:
Chris Froh, percussion
Ward Spangler, percussion
Joel Davel, percussion
Subjects
Piano musicAcknowledgment
Preserved and made available online by California Revealed. California Revealed is supported 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.Rights Summary
Copyrighted. Rights are owned by Other Minds. Copyright Holder has given Institution permission to provide access to the digitized work online. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the Copyright Holder. In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.Related Event
Other Minds Festival 9Related place
San Francisco (Calif.) (was recorded at)Related Entities
Other Minds FestivalBody, Jack, 1944-
Cahill, Sarah
Other Minds Ensemble
Froh, Christopher
Spangler, Ward
Davel, Joel