JBRH 019

Ken Ueno, extended vocals; Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Gil Rose, conductor

On a Sufficient Condition for the Existence of Most Specific Hypothesis (2008)
Commissioned by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

This piece was made possible by a grant from the JebehiahFoundation: New Music Commissions. 
It is dedicated to Rob Amory

The composing of On a Sufficient Condition for the Existence of Most Specific Hypothesis represents my first attempt to reconcile the multiplicity of my being a "classical" composer and "experimental" improviser. It is one of the most personal pieces I have composed to date.

In a manner akin to the way some contemporary visual artists make site-specific works, many of my works derive their structural aspects from considerations of the special instrumental skills of the performers with whom I have collaborated, in a manner I term "person-specific.' First, I imagine the sounds and then worked them out with collaborating performers to realize these sounds on their instruments. Then, I analyze the sounds using software in order to derive parametric data that will inform the structure of the music. (I am also inspired by the way contemporary architects use modern materials and computer-aided strategies to create structures that are more organic than what was previously possible).

On a Sufficient Condition for the Existence of Most Specific Hypothesis is person-specific to myself. As a vocalist, I specialize in such techniques as: overtone singing (straight bi-tonal style), throat singing (a style with laryngeal straining), multiphonics, circular breathing, sub-tones and extreme high register. During the composition of this piece, I subjected my singing to the aforementioned process of analysis, deriving harmonies (e.g. acoustic resynthesis of my vocal multiphonics) and orchestrational strategies from the analysis of my singing.

To further engage with my personal history in this piece, I employed two other strategies. First, the title of this piece comes from an article on computer science written by another Ken Ueno (I found it doing a "vanity" search in Google). In usurping the title of a work by my doppelganger, I thought of Borges' story Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius in which an encyclopedic reference to a fictional universe begins to infiltrate reality. Second, the piece begins with a boombox playing a recording of my voice from when I was six. When I was six, my favorite object was a tape recorder. I used to walk around documenting my mom yelling at my brother, as well as sounds I made vocally (some evocative of sounds I still like to make today). By incorporating these recordings in the beginning of the piece makes it a kind of recapitulation of performances from my childhood over thirty years ago. My plan is to make another version of this piece thirty years from today by incorporating vocal sounds I can make today mixed with those from my childhood. My greatest hope would be able to make two more iterations of this process during my lifetime.

On A Sufficient Condition For The Existence Of Most Specific Hypothesis

Recorded by Clarinet Factory: Jindřich Pavliš, Luděk Boura, Vojtěch Nýdl, Petr Valášek. Composed for Spitfire Company's 2015 production Sniper's Lake. Premiered at Bærum Kulturhus, Norway.

Sivan Eldar: Sniper's Lake: Tides

The “Great Man” theory was a view of history popular in the 19th Century that posited that society was advanced by a succession of “great men,” who influenced history through the centuries. It may come as no surprise that the majority of these men (besides notable exceptions such as Jesus or Mohammed) were white. In recent decades such views of history have been criticized, and the contributions of women and people of color have been studied in greater detail.
However, even today, there is perhaps no better field of study to see the Great Man theory at work than in the Classical canon. The music of long-deceased white male Europeans reigns supreme in the concert and recital halls, and these men are credited with all of the stylistic progressions of Western art music. To put it bluntly, the performance and study of the canon is one of dead white man music, and that fact often feels like a barrier for female composers and those of color that must be overcome.

Dead White Man Music serves as a personal reflection on this issue, and my own place in Classical music as a young black composer. This concerto for harpsichord draws on inspiration and influences across the centuries: from Bach and Dowland to Julius Eastman and Nina Simone, and from the Baroque to Post-Minimalism and Rock. Through the work I ask: what music am I called to write and who should be my models?

Dead White Man Music was commissioned by Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, through the generous support of over sixty donors through a crowdfunding campaign. The concerto was written for harpsichordist Daniel Walden.

Dead White Man Music, I. Fantasia on "Es ist genug"

for solo percussion and electronics. Written for Ryan Pearson, September 2017

JBRH 019

Job Aur