Other Minds Festivals ➔ Other Minds Festival: OM 12: Panel Discussion & Concert 1, 10 of 12
Digital Audio
Event Type
MusicOrigin
Other MindsIdentifier
OMF.2006.12.08.JProgram Series
Other Minds FestivalProgram Length
126 minPart
10 of 12Dates
| broadcast| 2006-12-08 | created
Description
The 12th Other Minds Festival kicked off with a panel discussion, moderated by Charles Amirkhanian and featuring composers Per Nørgård, Peter Sculthorpe, and Daniel David Feinsmith, (Maja Ratkje was sick with the flu and missed this pre-concert discussion). Nørgård talks about the origin of the name of his “Quartet No. 10, for strings, ‘Høsttidløs’ (Harvest-Timeless)”, which is named after a Danish flower that blooms in late autumn. Peter Sculthorpe describes how his piece “From Saibai”, was inspired by traditional music from an island just south of Papua New Guinea. While Daniel David Feinsmith comments on his interest in performing religious music and his new piece “Elohim”, which takes its title from one of the names of God found in the Torah. Also discussed are the benefits each composers found during their three day stay at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program immediately prior to the start of the Festival.Australia’s best known composer Peter Sculthorpe presents “From Saibai”, a work inspired by the traditional melody from the island of Saibai, which lies just south of Papua New Guinea, in the Torres Strait. This beautiful, lush piece consists of four parts: an introductory violin solo, a reworking of the traditional melody, a rhythmic section suggesting a Torres Strait Island dance-song, and a more impassioned statement of Saibai. In this performance Kate Stenberg, 1st violinist of the Del Sol String Quartet, is featured alongside Swiss pianist Eva-Maria Zimmermann. Dubbed “the voice of the nation” for his determination to document in sound the socio-environmental character of Australia, Sculthorpe, 77, has enjoyed national and international recognition for his original eclectic style.
Denmark’s senior composer, Per Nørgård, 74, has influenced an entire generation of students during his long and illustrious career. His restless tendency to develop has revealed him to be not only the foremost composer from Denmark, but also among the greatest voices of new music of our time. This venerated composer will present his most recent string quartet, “’Høsttidløs’ (Harvest-Timeless)”, performed by the Del Sol String Quartet. The Danish title refers to the pale-rosy autumn crocus, a poisonous, late-blooming perennial that emerges after autumn has claimed most other plants. The composer explains that the title reflects not only “the paradoxical union of a seasonal time (harvest) and no-time-at-all,” but also the structural contrast in the piece between “abundance and exuberance with sections of immobility and contemplation.”
Composer Maja Ratkje presents her “Gagaku Variations”, which grew out of transcriptions and analyses of traditional Japanese gagaku music. Ratkje’s transformations of this 1200 year old court music are based upon wabi sabi, or (according to the author L. Koren), “a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. It is a beauty of things unconventional.” Ratkje, 33, has burst onto the international new music scene since completing her studies at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo in 2000, and is an active performer, and engineer, as well as a composer.
Bay Area composer Daniel David Feinsmith presents the world premiere of “Elohim”, a work in eight movements, which draws inspiration from mystical Judaism and North Indian classical music as well as the Western classical tradition. This world premiere of this piece, which was commissioned by Other Minds, is performed by the Feinsmith Quartet, featuring virtuosic performers Christopher Taylor (piano), Jennifer Culp (cello), Michael Manring (electric bass), and Gyan Riley (guitar). Feinsmith, whom Terry Riley describes as “one of the most inspired and original musicians that I have ever had the pleasure to work with,” has composed for a variety of ensembles, including the Kronos quartet, Sonos Handbell Ensemble, Alexander String Quartet, and the Adler Fellows of the San Francisco Opera.
(from OM Festival program guide)
Genres
21st century classicalNew music
Musical Selections
Elohim: Form [6th movement] (2006) (3:29) / Daniel David FeinsmithPerformers
Feinsmith Quartet:Christopher Taylor, piano
Jennifer Culp, cello
Michael Manring, electric bass
Gyan Riley, guitar
Subjects
Quartets (Piano, cello, guitar, electric bass)Related Event
Other Minds Festival 12Related place
San Francisco (Calif.) (was recorded at)Related Entities
Feinsmith QuartetFeinsmith, Daniel David, 1966-
Taylor, Christopher, 1970-
Culp, Jennifer
Manring, Michael
Riley, Gyan, 1977-