Claire Chase, flute Density 2036

13 Pages·2017·0.37 MB·English

Saturday, December 2, 2017, 4:30pm
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Claire Chase, flute
Density 2036
World-Premiere Marathon Performance
Parts I-V (2013–17)
with
Tyshawn Sorey, percussion
Pauchi Sasaki, violin and voice
Levy Lorenzo, sound designer and live electronics
Density 2036:Part I (Prelude) is dedicated to Fred Anderson.
Density 2036:Part II (2014) is dedicated to Elise Mann.
Density 2036:Part III (2015) is dedicated to Steven Schick.
Density 2036: Part IV (2016) is dedicated
to the loving memory of Pauline Oliveros (1932–2016).
Cal Performances’ 2017–18 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

PROGRAM NOTES
Oskar Fischinger once told a young John Cage: stripped down, solitary warhorse herself, that
“Everything in the world has a spirit that can be 1936 solo that singlehandedly changed the fate
released through its sound.” Varèse unleashed of the flute, transforming it from an instrument
this spirit for the flute, for the one all alone, in of incidental prettiness to one of raw, platinum
these staggering four minutes of music. Did he potency and unbounded beauty.
go as far as one could go, metaphorically and I had recorded all the individual parts of each
otherwise? Of what will the Densityof our time of these pieces myself, a kind of torturous
be made? Of osmium? Of signal processing? Of exercise in solipsism—one so torturous that
wood? Of carbon? Of flesh? Of air? I abandoned it several times before rounding
—Claire Chase, up the courage to continue—and I had never
excerpted from “In Search of the New Density,” imagined that the album, with all of its mani -
in John Zorn’s ARCANA, Vol. 12 cured, rhythmic intricacy born of so many fits
and starts in the studio, could live compellingly
Density 2036 is a 23-year project begun by as a live show. But when it was finished, I
Claire Chase in 2013 to commission an entirely wanted to see what would happen if I per -
new body of repertory for solo flute each year formed Density the record from start to finish,
until the 100th anniversary of Edgard Varèse’s without breaks, in a kind of woman-versus-
groundbreaking 1936 flute solo, Density 21.5. machine version, with the solo line from each
Each season between 2014 and 2036, Chase track performed live over the pre-recorded
will premiere a new full-length program of solo tracks, and with Varèse at the bitter end, bare
flute work commissioned that year in a special and unadorned.
performance at The Kitchen in New York City On October 3, 2013 at The Kitchen in New
and on tour in select cities thereafter. Addi tion - York City, Levy Lorenzo and I played the show,
ally, each cycle of works (Density 2014, Density with lighting design by the visual artist and
2015, Density 2020, etc.) will be released in director David Michalek, who in true low-
annual world-premiere recordings, and scores, budget downtown experimental theater fashion
perfor mance notes, and materials will be made constructed a brilliant, malleable light sculpture
available digitally as educational resources for made up of parking-lot fluorescent tubes. The
flutists everywhere. day after that concert, it was immediately clear
This performance marks the first retrospec- to me that the album was just a prelude, or a
tive event bringing together all of the Density muse—a toe-dip into a much deeper dive that
repertoire created to date. was calling me to create expansive new environ -
ments and experiences for the explo sion of the
flute repertory, and for the explosion of this little
PART I (2013, Prelude) tube of metal. Density 2036was born.
I call Part I the “prelude” because the project —Claire Chase
was a seedling of an idea but hadn’t quite found
its form yet. I had just released the album Steve Reich (b. 1936)
Density, a sonic migration of progressively re - Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steve Reich
ceding flute-forces beginning with a mass of has been praised as “America’s greatest living
10 flutes in Steve Reich’s frolicsome Vermont composer” (The Village Voice) and “…among
Counterpoint (1982), to six bass flutes in Marcos the great composers of the century” (The New
Balter’s meditative Pessoa (2013),to five flutes of York Times). He is a leading pioneer of Mini -
various sizes in Alvin Lucier’s aching, pensive malism, and his music is known for steady
Almost New York (2002), to two flutes in Philip pulse, repetition, and a fascination with canons.
Glass’ ebullient Piece in the Shape of a Square From his early taped speech pieces It’s Gonna
(1967), to one flute enhanced with electronics Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966) to his
in Mario Diaz de León’s raucous, heavy metal- and video artist Beryl Korot’s digital video
inspired Luciform (2013), and finally to the opera Three Tales(2002), Reich’s path has em-
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PROGRAM NOTES
braced not only aspects of Western Classical chamber chorus, which devoted much of its
music, but the structures, harmonies, and time to the performance of new music. From
rhythms of non-Western and American ver- 1970–2011, he was the John Spencer Camp Pro -
nacular music, particularly jazz. Reich gradu- fessor of Music at Wesleyan University, where
ated with honors in philosophy from Cornell he is professor emeritus. Lucier holds degrees
University in 1957. He studied at the Juilliard from Yale University and Brandeis Uni versity,
School of Music and received his master’s de- as well as an honorary doctorate from Ply -
gree in music from Mills College. mouth University.
Marcos Balter (b. 1974) Philip Glass (b. 1937)
Praised by the Chicago Tribuneas “minutely One of America’s most celebrated composers,
crafted” and “utterly lovely,” theNew York Times Philip Glass applied his musical encounters in
as “whimsical” and “surreal,” and theWashing - India, North Africa, and the Hima layas to his
ton Postas “dark and deeply poetic,” the music own compositions and, by 1974, had created a
of Marcos Balter is at once emo tionally visceral large body of work in a distinct idiom. His early
and intellectually complex, primarily rooted in music inspired pieces by the Mabou Mines the-
experimental manipula tions of timbre and ater company, which he co-founded; he later
hyper-dramatization of live performance. His formed his own performing group, the Philip
works have been featured world wide in venues Glass Ensemble. This marked a period that
such as Carnegie Hall, Köln Philharmonie, the reached its apogee with Einstein on the Beach, a
French Academy at Villa Medici, Teatro de landmark in 20th-century music-theater. Glass’
Madrid, Tokyo Bunka Kaykan, Baryshnikov work since that groundbreaking piece has in-
Arts Center, and the Museum of Contemporary cluded opera, film scores, dance music, sym-
Art of Chicago. During the current season, he is phonic work, string quartets, and unclassifiable
featured in a Composer Portrait at the Miller work such as The Photographer/Far From the
Theater in New York and has a premiere on the Truthand 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. He stud-
Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella ied at the University of Chicago and the Juilliard
series. Recent collaborators include the rock School of Music.
band Deer hoof, Ensemble Dal Niente, Civic
Or chestra of Chicago, Chicago Composers Or- Mario Diaz de León (b. 1979)
chestra, Orquestra Experimental da Amazonas Mario Diaz de León is a composer and per -
Filarmonica, American Contemporary Music former whose output encompasses modern
Ensemble, and Chicago Q Ensemble. Born in classical and experimental electronic music,
Rio de Janeiro, Balter is currently an associate and extreme metal. His debut album as a com -
professor of music composition at Montclair poser, Enter Houses Of,was released in 2009 on
State Uni ver sity, and lives in New York City. John Zorn’s Tzadik label and praised by theNew
York Timesfor its “hallucinatory intensity.” A
Alvin Lucier (b. 1931) second album, The Soul is the Arena,was re -
Alvin Lucier, a native of Nashua, New Hamp- leased in 2015 on the Denovali label and was
shire, is widely considered one of the most in- named a notable recording of 2015 by TheNew
fluential composers of the 20th century. Lucier Yorkermagazine. His work has received recent
actively performs, lectures, and exhibits his performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall,
sound installations in the US, Europe, and Asia. Don aufestival (Austria), CTM Festival (Berlin),
He was a founding member—along with Ro- Chicago Symphony Center, Venice Biennale,
bert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), Musica Nova
Mumma—of the Sonic Arts Union, a collective Helsinki, National Gallery of Art (DC), and
of experimental musicians that was active be- the Ojai Music Festival, and he has received
tween 1966–76. Lucier taught at Brandeis com missions from the Los Angeles Philhar -
Uni versity, where he conducted the university’s monic, International Con temporary Ensemble
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PROGRAM NOTES
(ICE), Talea, and Cham ber Music America. From symbols. I asked Mend-Ooyo: “How do you cre-
2012–16, his solo elect ronic project Onei rogen ate such incredible calligraphies?” He re plied,
(o-NI-ro-jen) toured internationally and released “Meditation, meditation, meditation for a very
three full-length LPs and two EPs on the Deno - long time…then calligraphy with one quick ges-
vali label. Since 2015 he has led the metal band ture.” I found the approach extremely poetic.
Luminous Vault as vocalist and guitarist (Pro - The following week, Claire Chase arrived at
found Lore Re cords). Born in Minnesota in 1979, the castle to work with me on Parábolas na
he has lived in New York City since 2004. Cavernaand play a solo concert. I planned to
present Mend-Ooyo with a small piece, as a
Edgard Varèse (1883–1965) gesture of my gratitude. I decided that I would
Edgard Varèse was a French composer who “meditate” or imagine the general character of
spent the greater part of his career in the United a solo bass flute work for an entire evening, then
States. Varèse’s music emphasizes timbre and wake up and write it in less than 30 minutes.
rhythm, and he coined the term “organized The work uses the letters of G. Mend-Ooyo’s
sound” in reference to his own musical aes- name as a starting point for the pitch material:
thetic. Although his complete surviving works G (sol), Me (E-flat, from solfege), D (re), Do
only last about three hours, he has been recog- (C). The vowel sounds from his name are also
nized as an influence by several major com- used to modulate the flute when singing and
posers of the late 20th century. Varèse saw playing simultaneously are required.
potential in using electronic mediums for —Felipe Lara
sound production, and his use of new instru-
ments and electronic resources led to his being Lara
known as the “Father of Electronic Music.” Parábolas na Caverna
for amplified flute (2013–14)
The title refers to Plato’s “Parable of the Cave,”
PART II (2014) a dialogue between Plato’s brother Glaucon and
his mentor Socrates, who is the narrator. In a
Felipe Lara nut shell, Socrates describes a group of people
Meditation and Calligraphyfor bass flute who have been chained to the wall of a cave their
From April to June 2014, I was fortunate to take entire lives, without ever experiencing reality.
part in a residency at Civitella Ranieri, a 15th- The prisoners watch the shadows projected on
century castle-turned-foundation and residence the wall of the cave by a fire behind them and
in Umbria, Italy. One former fellow, G. Mend- ascribe names and meanings to the distorted
Ooyo, a Mongolian poet and calligrapher, par- shadows of various objects and passers-by out-
ticularly caught my attention. He was born and side of the cave. For (Plato’s) Socrates, the shad-
raised by a nomadic herding family, on the ows are as true a view that the prisoners will ever
Mongolian steppe; his work has been translated see of reality. For him, philosophy (as well as
into 40 languages. knowledge and education) helps us liberate our-
I asked him to show me some of his work and selves from such a cave, thus leading to a better
he invited me to visit his studio in order to see understanding of the world. Parábolaswas writ-
the work he had produced during the residency ten for Claire Chase and is dedicated to Andreas
at Civitella. Mend-Ooyo’s calligraphy particu- Waldburg-Wolfegg, Claire’s mentor and the
larly impressed me. The bold gestures, ele- chair man of ICE’s board from 2007–13.
men tal lyricism, and minute details were —Felipe Lara
astounding. The following afternoon, Mend-
Ooyo presented me with two wonderful calli - Felipe Lara (b. 1979)
gra phies, both in black and red pencil over a Praised by the New York Timesas “a gifted Bra -
yellow and gold paper; one with the Mongolian zilian-American modernist” whose works are
symbol for music, the other with fire and water “brilliantly realized,” “technically formidable,
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PROGRAM NOTES
wildly varied,” Felipe Lara’s work—which in - was at the time in Paris. His body became so
cludes orchestral, chamber, vocal, film, elec tro - light, so immaterial, so evanescent that sud-
acoustic, and popular music—engages in denly, limb by limb, he disintegrated and flew
pro ducing new musical contexts by means of away toward Paris, where he was reconstructed,
(re)interpreting and translating acoustical and as though all his being had become spirit.”
extra-musical properties of familiar source —George Lewis
sonorities into project-specific forces. His music
has been recently commissioned by leading so - George Lewis (b. 1952)
lo ists, ensembles, and institutions such as the George E. Lewisis the Edwin H. Case Professor
Arditti Quartet, Brentano Quartet (with Hsin- of American Music at Columbia University. A
Yung Huang), Claire Chase, Conrad Tao, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Ensemble Inter Con temporain, Ensemble Mo - Sciences and a corresponding fellow of the Bri -
dern, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, ICE, tish Academy, Lewis’ other honors include a
Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Rebekah Heller. Mac Arthur Fellowship (2002), a Guggenheim
Having previously taught at New York Uni ver - Fellowship (2015), a United States Artists Walk -
sity’s Faculty of Arts and Science, he has been er Fellowship (2011), an Alpert Award in the
visiting lecturer at Federal University of Bahia Arts (1999), and fellowships from the National
(Salva dor, Brazil) and currently teaches at Berk - Endowment for the Arts. Lewis studied com-
lee College of Music’s Boston Conser va tory, po sition with Muhal Richard Abrams at the
Johns Hopkins Univer sity’s Peabody Insti tute, AACM School of Music, and trombone with
and Harvard University, where he was awarded Dean Hey. A member of the Association for the
a Harvard Excellence in Teaching Award (2017). Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)
• • • since 1971, his work in electronic and computer
George Lewis music, computer-based multimedia installa -
Emergentfor flute and electronics tions, and notated and improvisative forms is
This work, written for Claire Chase’s Density documented on more than 150 recordings.
2036project, addresses Edgard Varèse’s avowed Lewis received the 2012 SEAMUS Award from
preference for sound-producing machines over the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the
sound-reproducing ones by productively con- United States, and his book, A Power Stronger
flating the two. The combination of relatively Than Itself: The AACM and American Experi -
long digital delays, interactive digital spatializa- mental Music (University of Chicago Press,
tion, and timbre transformation changes the 2008), received the American Book Award and
fully scored flute material into a virtual, quasi- the American Musicological Society’s Music
improvisative orchestral space, creating a dance in American Culture Award. He was elected
among multiple flutists following diverse yet in- to honorary membership in the society in 2016.
tersecting trajectories in which nonlinearity is Lewis is the co-editor of the two-volume Oxford
invoked and uncertainty is assured. Rather than Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies
presenting the redundant truism of a composer (2016), and his opera Afterword (2015) has
“working with time,” this work is created in di- been performed in the United States (including
a logue with my deliberate misprision of Varèse’s here at Cal Performances), United Kingdom,
stated intention for his 1958Poème électron- and Czech Republic.
iqueto introduce “a fourth [dimension], that of • • •
sound projection,” to music. Varèse’s statement Matthias Pintscher
seems to obliquely invoke the notion of space- Beyond (A System of Passing)
time, an interpretation supported by a 1968 This work was written for Emmanuel Pahud
account of one of the composer’s dreams that and Claire Chase, and was premiered by Pahud
suggests the related notion of quantum telepor- at the Lucerne Festival in August 2013 and by
tation as well as the sound of my piece: “He was Chase at The Kitchen in October 2014. Chase
in a telephone booth talking to his wife, who describes it as a “21st-century Sequenza…the
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PROGRAM NOTES
work stretches the limits of the instrument— Let yourself be silently drawn
the instrument’s register in both directions, by the stronger pull of what you really love.
its harmonic and chordal possibilities—and —Rumi
evokes the extreme virtuosity (and humor) of
Berio’s 1951 classic.” Over the years, I have written quite a few pieces
for Claire, and each of them reflects who we
Matthias Pintscher (b. 1971) were at the time, as well as our evolving under-
Matthias Pintscher is the music director of the standing of each other.
Ensemble Intercontemporain and principal As of late, I have been going back to relearn
conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy. He the classical forms. Growing up, playing any of
also continues his partnerships with the BBC the Sarabandes from Bach’s suites was one of
Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Danish my favorite things to do. The playing always
National Symphony Orchestra. Praised for his accompanied a sense of meditation, grief, be-
interpretations of contemporary music, he reave ment, and transcendence.
developed an affinity for repertoire of the late Historically, however, the sarabande had a
19th and early 20th centuries—Bruckner, the rather provocative and coquettish beginning. It
French Romantic masters, Beethoven, Ber lioz, was said to have received its name in Seville
Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, and the Second from a fiend in the form of a woman. The dance
Vien nese School—along with a rich variety of was a group dance, mainly done by women, and
contemporary scores. Pintscher works regularly was considered wild in manner and a highly
with leading contemporary music ensembles sexual pantomime in nature,with undulations
such as the Ensemble Modern, Klangforum of the body, massivehip movements, flirtations,
Wien, Ensemble contrechamps, Avanti (Helsin- indecent song lyrics, and women using casta nets.
ki), remix (Porto), and the Scharoun Ensemble. When it was introduced to France, the dance in-
He joined the composition faculty at the Juilli - cluded men. They would occasionally use the
ard School in 2014 and makes his home in New tambourine, which was considered effeminate
York and Paris. in those days. People who sang it were arrested,
• • • lashed, and exiled.
Du Yun In the piece, I also looked into the orthodox
An Empty Garlicfor bass flute and electronics 5th-century chant Xenia of Rome, and Her Two
Female Slaves. In the hints of Bach’s famous
You miss the garden,  Sarabande (from the A-minor Partita for solo
because you want a small fig from a random flute) that you hear at the beginning (and which
tree. is present throughout the piece) we wordlessly
You don’t meet the beautiful woman. discover a story told between Claire and a be -
You are joking with an old crone. loved friend who had recently passed away.
It makes me want to cry how she detains you, I often wonder about bereavement. When
stinking mouthed, with a hundred talons,  and how it pauses, recharges, morphs, and re -
putting her head over the roof edge to call starts. Along the way, we possibly also hold
down, bereavement reserved for ourselves.
tasteless fig, fold over fold, empty I am so close to you, I am distant, I am so
as dry-rotten garlic. mingled with you, I am apart, I am so open, I
am hidden, I am so strong, I totter.
She has you tight by the belt, This is a fruit of life to me: intoxicating, in
even though there’s no flower and no milk exile, and always at home.
inside her body. Written for Claire Chase, in memoriam Elise
Death will open your eyes Mann.
to what her face is: leather spine —Du Yun
of a black lizard. No more advice.
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PROGRAM NOTES
Du Yun (b. 1977) pression of what a low-range big flute, like con-
Born and raised in Shanghai, China, and cur- tra or bass flute, does.
rently based in New York City, Du Yun is a The title Lilameans “play” in Sanskrit.
composer, multi-instrumentalist and perfor - —Dai Fujikura
mance artist. Her music exists at an artistic
cross roads of orchestral, chamber music, thea - Dai Fujikura (b. 1977)
ter, opera, cabaret, storytelling, pop music, visu- Dai Fujikura was born in Osaka, Japan, and was
al arts, and noise. In 2017 she won the Pulitzer 15 when he moved to the UK to complete his
Prize for her opera Angel’s Bone, with a libretto secondary education. His works include operas,
by Royce Vavrek, and National Public Radio orchestral pieces, ensemble works, chamber
(USA) recently voted her as one of 100 signifi - music, and film scores. Fujikura has received
cant compo sers under 40. Hailed by the New nu merous international co-commissions, and
York Timesas a leading figure in China’s new his music has been performed in Europe, Asia,
generation of composers, Du Yun and her music and North and South America. He re cently held
are championed by some of today’s finest the composer-in-residence position at Nagoya
per forming artists, ensem bles, orchestras, and Philharmonic Orchestra. Fujikura has received
or gan izations. As a performance artist, solo two BBC Proms commissions, his Double Bass
engage ments include the 2012 Guangzhou Art Concerto was premiered by the London
Triennial (China) at the Guangzhou Opera Sinfonietta, and in 2013 the BBC Symphony
House, and the National Academy Museum Orchestra gave the UK premiere of his Atom.
(USA). Her ongoing colla borations of instal - Fujikura’s Tocar y Luchar was pre miered under
lation-performance-video with the Pakistani the baton of Gustavo Dudamel with the Simón
visual artist Shahzia Sikander have been on view Bolívar Youth Orchestra in Venezuela in 2011.
in China, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zea land, He was recently named the artistic director of
Turkey, Bangladesh, the United Arab Em irates, the Born Creative Festival in Tokyo Metro -
and the United States. ArtForumdescribes the politan Theater for 2017, as well as composer-
collaboration as “standout, sound utilized to its in-residence at the Orchestre natio nal d’Île-de-
best effect.” Since 2014 she has been the artistic France and artist-in-residence at the Philhar -
director of MATA Festival, an organi zation monic Chorus of Tokyo.
dedi cated to commis sioning and pre senting • • • 
young composers from around the world. Francesca Verunelli
The Famous Box Trick
for bass flute and electronics
PART III (2015) The Famous Box Trick (Illusions Fantasma -
goriques) is a French short black-and-white
Dai Fujikura silent trick film from 1898, directed by Georges
Lila for flute, bass flute, and contrabass flute Méliès. In the words of writer Michael Brooke,
This piece is based on the solo part of the flute the film “harks back to stage magic.”
concerto that I have also written for Claire Chase. I found fascinating the hybrid texture of the
Lila, as well as the flute concerto, tells a story “trick,” which allows the spectator to position
from the flute player’s point of view, starting himself in between the physical magic of the
with a light poetic variety of sounds that are stage and the virtual “magic” of cinema—the
produced and related by the player’s articula- corporeal vs. the incorporeal, biological time vs.
tions, then dance-like cascades. After that there machine time.
is a sensual romantic melodic line with quarter The spectator is suspended in between the
tones, then a cadenza part with bass flute (or belief in the trick and the conscious awareness of
contrabass flute) overblowing, for which I it. This is not the case in modern cinema, where
wanted to make fast rhythmic music that I the spectator is cut out from the “illusion” and
thought would be an opposite to the usual im- can only believe in it from the “outside.”
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PROGRAM NOTES
The flute inhabits corporeal sounds, includ- timbre and sonority” (The New York Times),
ing the family of vocal sounds obtained by the elucidating the acoustics of instruments and the
complex interactions of the voice with the in- fragile athleticism of playing them. He has
strument. These are, paradoxically, made to written many works for ICE and its members,
sound “fake” by a sound world of completely and has received commissions from Steven
synthetic sounds realized by electronic means.  Schick, the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage,
The result, like Meliès’ absurdist irony, is the Miller Theatre, the Ojai Music Festival (for
reciprocal estrangement of the ontological na- Eighth Blackbird and an installation by sound-
ture of each sound world. sculptor Trimpin), the Calder Quartet, the La
—Francesca Verunelli Jolla Symphony Chorus, SO Percussion, and
Yarn/Wire. Albums of Davis’ music are avail -
Francesca Verunelli (b. 1979) able on New Focus, Bridge, Tundra, and Stark -
Francesca Verunelli studied composition with land, including On the Nature of Thingnessand
Rosario Mirigliano and piano with Stefano The Bright and Hollow Sky(performed by ICE).
Fiuzzi at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in An active percussionist, Davis has pre miered
Florence. She concluded her studies at the hundreds of pieces, working with established
Acca demia Santa Cecilia with Azio Corghi. musicians and fostering emerging composers.
Verunelli has received commissions from im- He has appeared as a concerto soloist with the
portant musical institutions and festivals such Seattle Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, and Na -
as IRCAM, NeueVocalsolisten Stuttgart, La goya Philharmonic.
Biennale di Venezia, Orchestre Philarmo nique • • •
de Radio France, Milano Musica, Accen tus Jason Eckardt
Cham ber Choir, Lucerne Symphonic Orches - The Silenced –a monodrama for solo flute
tra, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra, The Silencedis a meditation on those who are
Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and ICE. Upcom - muted, by force or by political, economic, or so-
ing projects include new works for the Luxem - cial circumstances, yet still struggle to be heard.
bourg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Béla While composing the work, I was concerned
Quartet and pianist Bertrand Chamayou, as with the ideas of trauma and self-expression
well as her third string quartet, for Quatuor during and after a traumatic experience. This is
Diotima. manifested musically by gagged, stifled sounds
• • • that are perpetually in transition towards a
Nathan Davis clearer articulation that is never fully reached.
Limn for bass flute, contrabass flute, Significantly, it is the flute, not the voice, that
and electronics  comes closest to realizing a kind of expressive
Written for Claire Chase for bass and contra- “purity,” free of the noise and interference that
bass flute, Limn intimates the instrument by typify so much of multilayered sound strata in
illuminating its edges. Its primary materials are the piece.
whistle tones—fragile and unstable sounds that The Silencedis dedicated with great love and
dance around the overtone series of a phantom admiration to Claire Chase for her Density 2036
fundamental—and key mechanics, both flut- project.
tering and brutal. These are sewn together with —Jason Eckardt
Claire’s voice, aspirated and exhaled, and ex-
tended with electronic processing. Jason Eckardt (b. 1971)
—Nathan Davis Jason Eckardt played guitar in jazz and metal
bands until, upon first hearing the music of
Nathan Davis (b. 1973) Webern, he immediately devoted himself to
Inspired by natural phenomena and the ab - composition. Since then, his music has been
straction of simple stories, Nathan Davis “writes influenced by his interests in perceptual com -
music that deals deftly and poetically with plex ity, the physical and psychological dimen -
8b
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PROGRAM NOTES
sions of performance, political activism, and her design. Oliveros performed extensively—
self-organizing processes in the natural world. locally and in many parts of the world—in a va-
He has been recognized through commissions riety of venues. Her music is performed widely
from Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, the Kousse - by many notable musicians and ensembles.
vitzky Foundation, the Guggenheim Museum, Oliveros’ works are recorded and available
the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, through download sites, cassette, CD, DVD,
New Music USA, Chamber Music America, the and vinyl releases. Compositions include Con -
New York State Music Fund, Meet the Com - certo for Bass Drum and Ensemble commis-
poser, the Oberlin Conservatory, and percus - sioned by ICE and performed in New York at
sionist Evelyn Glennie; and awards from the Lincoln Center in August 2013.
League of Composers/ISCM (National Prize),
Deutschen Musikrat-Stadt Wesel (Symposium
NRW Prize), the Aaron Copland Fund, the PART IV (2016)
New York State Council on the Arts, ASCAP,
the University of Illinois (Martirano Prize), the Edgard Varèse
Alice M. Ditson Fund, and Columbia Univer - Density 21.5(1936), with a movement
sity (Rapoport Prize). score (2016) by Julie Beauvais (version one)
• • • For comments on Edgard Varèse and Density
Pauline Oliveros 21.5, please see p. 15b and p. 16b.
Intensity 20.15: Grace Chase for Claire
and the Expanded Instrument System (EIS) Julie Beauvais (b. 1978)
Intensity 20.15 is inspired by text written by Julie Beauvais’ work is driven by her interests in
Grace Chase, grandmother of Claire Chase, and embodied experience and elevation. She con-
by the virtuosity and flexibility of Claire Chase centrates on exploring the relationship between
the performer. music, movement, and space. Beau vais’ diverse
In addition to the text and many small per- works—in theater, opera, and installation—
cussion instruments, the piece incorporates the have been performed and exhibited in many
use of the Expanded Instrument System (EIS), coun tries. Not limited to the confines of the-
a computer-controlled sound interface that I aters, her practice engages the broader public
have designed and continued to evolve since sphere through hybrids of opera and monu-
1963. Sounds are picked up by microphone and mental installation art in public space.
fed to different processing modules in the com- Beauvais is a Swiss artist who began her di-
puter, then output to a multichannel sound recting career in the United States, producing
array that distributes sound around the per- cho reographic works after graduating from the
formance space. All sounds heard during the Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. For seven years,
performance are originated from the sounds she toured internationally, exploring different
performed by Chase. EIS transforms sounds forms of epic theater in diverse political con-
and plays them back. EIS is performative and is texts, leading to collaborations with Brazilian,
played by Levy Lorenzo. Mongolian, and Nicaraguan artists and compa-
—Pauline Oliveros nies. Since 2006 she has focused on the dynam-
ics that lyrical voice provokes in the singer’s
Pauline Oliveros (1932–2016) body and, by extension, in the performing space.
Pauline Oliveros was a composer and impro- In 2013 Beauvais founded BadNewsFrom -
viser. She played a custom Titano acoustic ac- The Stars*, whose mission is to generate Ba -
cordion and the Roland V Accor dion FR7X in roque and contemporary music works that are
her solo and ensemble improvisations as well shared with audiences via installations, perfor-
as the Expanded Instrument System (EIS), an mance art, or films.
ever-evolving electroacoustic processing unit of
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PROGRAM NOTES
Suzanne Farrin Mezzadri to Laura Cocks, Nicole Mitchell, and
The Stimulus of Loss Claire Chase—all individuals who continue to
for glissando headjoint and ondes Martenot stretch beyond the limits of that instrument in
A friend introduced me to Emily Dickinson’s their own, personal way. I am indebted to all of
letters. He quoted a phrase in a talk that I found these masters for their inspiration and courage
astounding (“to multiply the harbors does not to further my writing for the flute.
diminish the sea”). As I went searching for that Which brings us to Bertha’s Lair, an explo-
phrase, I began to read other letters along the sive tour-de-force written exclusively for Chase
way, each with its own sparkling revelation of and myself (on drum set or unpitched percus-
her genius. sion) that further exemplifies my penchant in
—Suzanne Farrin exploring the improvisation-composition con-
tinuum, as evidenced in my Trio for Harold
Suzanne Farrin Budd(2012) and Ornations(2014).
Suzanne Farrin’s music explores the interior One of the rarer members of the woodwind
worlds of instruments and the visceral potenti - family, the instrument lovingly known as Bertha
alities of sound. Her music has been performed (after whomthis work is named) is anything but
by some of today’s finest musicians on stages simply a contrabass flute; ostensibly there exists
across Europe and North and South America. a seemingly vast amount of readily available
Tim Page, the former classical music critic of sonic possibilities to explore. However, I also
the Washington Post,wrote: “If you can imagine found it necessary to create a work for this in-
the dense, perfumed chords of Messiaen’s piano strument that is full of high, raucous energy—
music combined with the clangorous, insistent, to write music that is counterintuitive to using
near-pictorial tone-clusters of Frederic Rzew- certain “effects” that are more customary for the
ski’s Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, you will instrument (that is, to avoid as much as possi-
have some idea of what Farrin’s work sounds ble the use of long, quiet, mysterious sounds,
like. Yet it transcends its derivations to leave the whistle tones, etc.)—and focus more on shape,
distinct impression of its own.” In addition to line, color, texture, ritual, and, most of all,
composing, Farrin is a performer of the ondes the physicalityof live performance on this par-
Martenot, an early electronic instrument crea - ticular instrument. This avoidance principle is
ted by the engineer Maurice Martenot in France strictly adhered to until the very last system of
in the 1920s as a response to the simultaneous the composition.
destruction and technological advances of WWI. This work is dedicated to the late Pauline
Farrin performed a solo recital at the Abrons Oliveros, who was the first to compose a piece
Art Center in New York City in March 2016 for Bertha to be performed by Chase, and who
that included works by Sean Harold (USA), named the instrument at first hearing.
Lars Peter Hagen (Norway), Alvin Lucier, Jacob —Tyshawn Sorey
Kirke gaard (Denmark, co-composed with Far -
rin), and Oliver Messiaen. Tyshawn Sorey (b. 1980)
• • •  Born and raised in Newark, NJ, Tyshawn Sorey
Tyshawn Sorey blends composition and improvisation across a
Bertha’s Lairfor contrabass flute and drums variety of styles and genres. As an instru men -
A colorful instrument of myriad possibilities talist, he is known for his skillful, open, groove-
and beauty, the flute is an instrument that has oriented, and through-composed forms and for
been central to much of the work that I have his virtuosity on drums, piano, and trombone.
produced during recent years. The International Contemporary Ensemble,
It has been a tre mendous honor for me to Spektral Quartet, and TAK En sem ble have
have collaborated with some of the most bril- performed his compositions, which integrate
liantly virtuosic practitioners on the flute, from African diasporic, Western classical, and avant-
Margaret Lan caster, Alice Teyssier, and Malik garde musical forms. As a band leader, he has
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