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Program of Sound Currents 2 (You may also read program notes from past concerts.) Tom Baker, Deconstructing Steve Greg Bartholomew, The Far North Land and Suite from Razumov Nathan Grigg, Init Ben Houge, Stranger Personals and Libera me Scott Selfon, Minor Divergence and Khatunah Kevin Siegfried, Arcs and Circles Donald Skirvin, Sonata for Violin and Piano and Habanera Variations Tom Baker, Deconstructing Steve Deconstructing Steve (2001) is in some ways an homage to the minimalist composer Steve Reich, whose work has been so influential to modern music that it would be difficult for any contemporary composer to ignore. Reich's piece Electric Counterpoint, written in 1987 for the jazz-guitarist Pat Metheny, has continued to have a profound effect on me as both a composer and as a guitarist. Performing Electric Counterpoint and studying Reich's music has led me to explore a kind of reconciliation of my composition with the influences of my own early musical experiences. In Deconstructing Steve I attempt to see Reich's work through the lens of my own musical experience, and to speak with my own compositional voice about the relevance of his work. Deconstructing Steve is a three movement work, each using a series of delays to create a complete and overarching texture. Each movement begins in a straight-forward harmonic world, and slowly devolves into a more dense world of microtonal harmonies and scales, only to crawl back up to the original. This piece was written for the fretless electric guitar, an instrument that I have performing with for the last few years, and is featured on a new solo fretless guitar CD, Sounding the Curve, available at www.presentsounds.com. Greg Bartholomew, The Far North Land and Suite from Razumov Suite from Razumov – Act One (2003) for clarinet and string quartet 1. Haldin assassinates the Minister (Grave - funereal but anxious) 2. Councilor Mikulin interviews Razumov (Allegretto simplice) 3. Razumov tells Haldin, "It is done." (Risoluto animato) This suite derives from three scenes of Act One of Razumov, a chamber opera based on the novel Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad. Themes for the first movement are taken from the opening scene, in which a university student (Haldin) assassinates a government minister. Haldin then seeks refuge in the room of a fellow student, Razumov. Haldin asks Razumov to find the driver who will help Haldin escape from the city. The second movement is based on the scene in which the head of secret police interviews Razumov to find out what he knows about the assassin. The concluding movement corresponds to the scene in which Razumov reports to Haldin that he has found the man who will meet him. The Far North Land: Passages for String Quartet (2002) It’s the Far North Land that’s a-calling me away, as take I with my pack sack to the road. It’s the call on me of the forest in the North, as step I with the sunlight for my load. By Lake Duncan and Clear Water to the Bear Skin I will go, where you see the loon and hear its plaintive wail. If you’re thinking in your inner heart I swagger in my step, you’ve never been along the Border Trail. My father enjoyed singing, particularly when the family went on road trips. One of our favorite songs that he sang was "The Far North Land." Several years ago, my sister recorded our father singing this song for use on the soundtrack of one of her movies. I recently transcribed the song from that recording and used it as the foundation for this piece. My aunts tell me they recall my father singing this song when he was a boy growing up in Minnesota, and that they referred to it as "Fletch’s song." It was only while working on this piece that I discovered that Duncan, Clear Water and Bear Skin are actual lakes in the border lakes region where Minnesota meets Canada. For information about composer Greg Bartholomew, visit http://members.aol.com/GBartWeb. Nathan Grigg, Init I. Initiation - larghetto > presto > andante > presto II. Rebellion - andante III. Integration - presto As a composer for multimedia I am often faced with the challenge of recreating an acoustic sound through electronic means. This piece is a study of the opposite process: how to adapt forms of music originating from electronic media to a purely acoustic setting. Init was written over the summer of this year. It is my first completely acoustic work in over a decade. While I have kept myself extremely busy compositionally over this time, there have been a few miraculous moments when I have snuck out of the studio while my computer wasn't looking to see some live music. During the past several years I have noticed a profound effect that electronic music-in particular, the evolution of electronica and hiphop--has had on live music. Jazz and rock drummers are playing rhythms that you could only hear on machines a few years ago. Traditional instrumentalists are playing alongside DJ's. New forms of harmonic tension that may not have been realized if it weren't for sampling and sequencing are being recreated on stage. Bringing electronic production techniques and aesthetics to the string quartet seemed like a fun way to get involved in the phenomenon. Abstract and concrete forms of development are explored simultaneously in Init. A melodic "signature" introduced in the first movement is juxtaposed against a variety of "samples" which consist of looping rhythms, textures, short motifs, and accompanying harmonies. The signature melody is varied abstractly (inversions, retrograde, etc. can be applied here). The "samples" on the other hand are varied in a more concrete manner: they are looped, edited, played at different speeds, at different volume levels, and vary in tone quality via bow position, but are not varied otherwise. Despite the geeky analysis above, Init is made to groove. Each movement is influenced by a rhythmic style: the first movement mixes in hardcore techno, the second suggests hiphop, the third hints at drum'n'bass. These electronic influences are suggested on a timbral level as well. Bow position changes enable "filtering" of looping patterns, tight glissandi suggest monophonic synth lines, ricochets emulate rapid, retriggered breakbeats, etc. The melodic "signature" exists outside these stylistic constraints, however, so there's always something pulling the piece in a different direction. Other stylistic influences (anything from minimalism to jazz to grunge) are often spontaneously introduced as a result. The theme I used to guide the overall form of the piece was essentially a question: in a social environment that seems increasingly desperate to define who you are (whether it be for financial gain, security, or validation) how do you maintain and develop your unique "signature"--the part of yourself that cannot be defined by what you consume and absorb? Musically, this pointed to a harmonic integration of "signature" and "samples" in the final movement, while various phases of conflict between them could be explored in the earlier movements. It all sounds so serious when I try to explain it in writing. The music is actually much more fun. I'd like to dedicate this premiere performance to Marty Jennings (1971-2003). Without his passion and skill as a violinist, and his infinite enthusiasm for new music, I may not have found the inspiration to break away from my computer and write for musicians. I hope he's listening. Ben Houge, Stranger Personals and Libera me The text of Stranger Personals (1999, 2001-2002) is a collection of personal ads drawn from the "Girls Seeking Boys" section of The Stranger. The idea of setting personal ads to music first occurred to me in 1999. Personal ads are succinct, emotional expressions by ordinary people, and they strike me as a very direct form of vernacular poetry. I believe that too few people in our society engage in regular acts of artistic creation, so I consider these ads to be a notable expressive outlet. Each song in this cycle reflects a different psychological outlook, requiring substantial dramatic flexibility from the performers. While these settings are not without humor, I sought to treat the underlying emotion with seriousness and respect. The yearning quality of these texts suggested to me a kinship with the tentative harmonic groping of some early songs of the Second Viennese School, so I chose an extended chromatic language as the point of departure for these settings. Libera me (2003) was composed to be the end credits music for the Sierra Entertainment/Relic Entertainment computer game Homeworld 2. Although the piece was ultimately cut from the game, it was featured in some promotional materials and broadcast on the video game channel G4. The original Homeworld game used as its main theme Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei, his choral arrangement of his celebrated Adagio for Strings. To provide continuity, I chose to write a piece that was also based on a sacred Latin text, the "Libera me," or "Deliver me," from the traditional Requiem mass. The text is a prayer for deliverance from the day of wrath and destruction, which effectively supported the central conflict of the game. After completing the piece, I realized that one of my secondary themes contains an inversion of the principal motive from Barber's Adagio, a further, subconscious, connecting element. Sheet music for these pieces is available for free download from my web site. Scott Selfon, Minor Divergence and Khatunah Minor Divergence (2003) Minor Divergence investigates a rather narrow musical motif – the interval of a half step, or a minor second. More specifically, it investigates the resulting melodies and harmonies associated with two musical lines diverging from a common pitch, one up a half step and the other down. The viola and cello first present this motif as the primary theme, which uses the half step in alternating melodic and rhythmic contexts. From here, the exploration of this basic pattern flows through numerous iterations – from close harmonies to countermelodies and accompanying roles, with variations in articulation and dynamics typically replacing larger intervallic gestures. A secondary melody eventually develops into a comical counterpoint to the half step motif, which has by now morphed into ostinato. This, too, degrades back into a single melodic line, presented in the cello, with harmonies and counter-rhythms slowly rebuilt into a restatement of the original motif before the subsequent elements are briefly revisited en route to the convergence of the musical lines and the resolution of the piece. Khatunah (2003) Khatunah (Hebrew for "wedding") is an exploration and integration of the three prominent melodic lines that accompanied my wife and me at our wedding this past summer. I composed the first, "Ufros Aleynu Sukat Shlomekha" ("spread over us a canopy of peace") for the wedding procession. My second melody, "V’ehrastich Li" ("and I will betroth thee unto me"), is a setting of the text Meredith would later recite as her wedding vows. It was played as she walked down the aisle, where she heard it for the first time. Then the seven traditional Jewish marriage blessings, "Shevah Brakhot," were sung by a close friend of ours to a traditional tune, a beautiful, lilting melody that neither bride nor groom had previously heard. My two original melodies and the preexisting one melded together so well that it was only natural to unify them in a single larger composition. For their presentation in Khatunah, the order of the melodies is adjusted slightly. First, "V’ehrastich Li" is presented by the flute and then deconstructed by the strings. Gradually, elements of "Ufros Aleynu Sukat Shlomekha" are introduced, until the first phrase of the theme is presented intact by the viola. The melody then winds through the other instruments, with echoing antecedents and answering phrases leading to the end of the more introspective, "processional" portion of the piece. The second section of the piece accelerates the tempo as the flute presents the "Shevah Brakhot" melody in a joyous, celebratory 12/8 meter. The two earlier melodies join in the fun as well, alternating and interweaving in a light, playful culmination. Kevin Siegfried, Arcs and Circles Arcs and Circles (2003) I II III Arcs and Circles was written in response to a commission from Sarah Bob, a pianist living in Boston. Sarah, a devoted performer of contemporary music, is the founder of a concert series in Boston, the New Gallery Series, which presents new works of composers and visual artists side by side. These concert/gallery presentations are refreshing and uniquely exciting events because they force both musical and visual artists to step out of their comfort zones, put aside their usual jargon, and look for analogies in the ways that we create and perceive aural and visual objects. Arcs and Circles is a piece that explores such analogies. Each piece is an attempt to realize a kind of “visual” clarity that can be achieved through the permutation of pared-down means, the means in this case being patterns of a circular shape. Among many possible interpretations, the three pieces of Arcs and Circles could be heard as three-dimensional structures, models, or mobiles that, while rotating slowly in space, mirror themselves and refract light in various ways. Donald Skirvin, Sonata for Violin and Piano and Habanera Variations Sonata for Violin and Piano (revised 2003) This work is in three movements. The first movement is not written in sonata allegro form, but rather an expanded song form, AA BB A. The second movement also is written in song form. The middle movement is AAA BB' CC' BB' A. I. Ardito Tempo is essentially allegro ma non troppo. This movement’s harmonic structures are largely based on jazz intervals, and there is a persistant use of 9/5 chords in the piano. The opening key center is approximately G minor with forays into related keys as the piece develops. The piano opens with an large expansion of the second theme, segueing into the first theme as the violin enters the musical fray. The movement is compositionally the most complex in terms of thematic material and the technical demands it makes on the players, especially in the piano part. II. Elegiaco Tempo is slow to moderate, and the piece has the character of an elegy particularly in the violin writing. Harmonically it's approximately Bb minor, but there is very little use of chords, and the piano part is highly chromatic. There are moments of serenity interspersed with sudden shifts in dynamics. Various minor scales, chromatic, harmonic, and idiosyncratic, are used in the violin part. III. Scherzando This scherzo explores a dialog between the violin and piano where sometimes the piano dominates the conversation, other times the violin takes the lead role. The piece has the feel of a “perpetuum mobile” since there are continuously spinning patterns of sixteenth notes from beginning to end. And, as befiting a concluding movement, it ends loud and fast. Habañera Variations (1999), from the Suite for Clarinet and Piano, #3 As promised by the title, this is a set of variations structured rhythmically after the habañera, a dance form very popular in Puerto Rico, Cuba and elsewhere. Familiar to many opera goers would be the Habañera Bizet wrote for Carmen to sing in his opera of that name that used the basic rhythm of dotted eighth / sixteenth / eighth / eighth. This rhythm is omnipresent throughout this piece in the piano’s left hand. Melodically the first eight bars represent the main theme, and various secondary themes are derived from it. As the piece progresses towards the final variation we encounter more distant key relationships, and the rhythmic ostinato appears to break apart. In the final variation, leading to the coda, the piano and clarinet move into 5/8, and sudden shifts in dynamics are heard. The coda is a gradual crescendo in both piano and clarinet which takes the clarinet into its upper ranges before a final fortissimo plunge down the scale.