Explaining unexplainable… very special (rare) conversation with a Lithuanian composer.

For Anthony Davis, whose compositional aesthetics are an amalgamation of several different musical traditions (jazz, Western classical music, gamelan), different kinds of music recall different emotional states and experiences in terms of what the music implies. So it's inevitable that he has devoted so much of his compositional energies to opera, and in particular to using the operatic medium to tell stories that either deal with significant historic events or which focus on important social concerns. As he tells Frank J. Oteri in this latest episode of NewMusicBox's SoundLives podcast, "What we face now ... has made it more urgent for me, as an artist, to present things to challenge those forces." Read more on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/anthony-davis-any-means-necessary/ ‎

SoundLives -- Anthony Davis Any Means Necessary

Regina Irman: Schwarzes Glück 2, 1990/2001
Quatuor de percussion: Jochen Schorer, Lars Rapp, Thomas Fink, Philippe Ohl; Franz Lang, Leitung

Schwarzes Glueck 2

Growing up in Soviet-era Lithuania, where people were often afraid to express their real feelings, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė discovered early on that music was safer than language and that it could enable her to express her innermost feelings without self censoring. It ultimately led her on the path to becoming a composer whose music is performed all over the world.  Although Žibuoklė now divides her time between a democratic Lithuania and the United States, her formative experiences have led her to explore a sonic vocabulary, which though frequently inspired by nature and always deeply emotive, is completely abstract and open to multiple interpretations. This hour-long conversation with Frank J. Oteri also features excerpts from eight different pieces of Žibuoklė's music. Learn more about her and read a complete transcript of the conversation on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/zibuokle-martinaityte-unexplainable-places/

SoundLives24. Žibuoklė Martinaitytė: Unexplainable Places

The Source
music by TED HEARNE | text by MARK DOTEN
directed by DANIEL FISH | Production Design by JIM FINDLAY
video design by JIM FINDLAY & DANIEL FISH
world-premiere BAM NEXTWAVE, OCTOBER 22-25, 2014

The Source was commissioned by BETH MORRISON PROJECTS and JUDY & ALLEN FREEDMAN, with additional commissioning support from JUSTUS & HELEN SCHLICHTING

The Source - by Ted Hearne and Mark Doten

Extended Version. Check out the video here: http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/we-wont-be-in-love-much-longer-online-premiere/

We Won't Be In Love Much Longer (Extended Version)

(1) Ima by Meg Okura
(2) Birth of Shakyamuni by Meg Okura
(3) L'dor Vador by Meg Okura

Ima Ima; L'dor Vador Concert @ HSA May 30, 2015

Netivot, for string quartet and electronics, performed at June in Buffalo 2016, by the Arditti String Quartet. Video by Elliott Caplan.

Commissioned by New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Helen F. Whitaker Fund, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Netivot

Spektral Quartet:
Clara Lyon, Maeve Feinberg, Doyle Armbrust, Russell Rolen
Andrew McManus, electronics
Constellation Chicago
May 12, 2017

"Neurosonics" is a long-term, multi-work creative project that has grown out of a collaboration with Tahra Eissa, a neuroscience graduate student here at the University of Chicago. Tahra’s lab puts rat brains on tiny electrode arrays, stimulates them and studies their behavior, with the goal of better understanding epilepsy in humans. I took an interest in her research because I have epilepsy myself (thankfully it’s under control), and I’ve wanted to creatively engage with it for quite some time. All of the electronic sounds in pathways, bursting bear some relationship - straightforward or complex - to the neuron data. The pulses of white noise, for instance, come from directly translating the data into sound, while fluttering sine tones come from using it to manipulate pitch. I’ve assembled these diverse sounds into textures that often become harrowingly dense, even when the electronics are not particularly loud. This certainly is part of my intention: after all, this project is about overloads of electrical activity in the brain. Portions of the electronic track are uncomfortably loud, overwhelming, and even violent. But part of my motivation for this project has always been to communicate aspects of my own experience with the condition, as it has been quite harrowing at certain points in my life. I’m also motivated to communicate this on behalf of others with the condition. So instead of mediating the experience of the electronics, I’ve set up the quartet as a lyrical foil, particularly in the latter portion of the piece. 

When the electronics reach their loudest, most explosive point, the quartet reenters following over 5 minutes of silence, struggling against the overwhelming electronics. The quartet continues to push back, in fits and starts, as the electronics subside. Their jagged, erratic polyrhythms slowly become more regular, and they eventually achieve a much more peaceful space, one that I think realistically counterbalances the violence of the electronics. But in this final passage, there’s a slightly brightened consonance that bolsters the quartet’s role as a relieving counterweight to the harrowing electronics, one that may even provide an affirmative message in the end - even as it resolves to the justly tuned odd partials of B flat (5/7/9/11/13).

Special thanks to New Music USA and the Logan Center’s Art | Science Collaboration Initiative for their support of this project.

pathways, bursting [neurosonics 2]

Dendrites are receptors that branch outward from each neuron in extraordinarily complex, ever-changing three-dimensional networks. This piece brings to life the data from my Neurosonics project in new ways that reflect these visually stunning networks. 

The intricate spatial effects are best enjoyed with good headphones, or on a nice stereo system!

dendrites (binaural/stereo)

for tenor saxophone and spatial sound

Justin Massey, saxophone
recorded at the 2019 SPLICE Institute
Kalamazoo, MI

impulse response [neurosonics 4] (2019) - tenor sax + electronics

Composed by Brian Baumbusch and performed by the UCSC Wind Ensemble. Conceived, composed, and recorded between March and June of 2020 during the coronavirus shelter-in-place lockdown using thousands of individualized click tracks corresponding to fragments of music from the score. The performers are:

UCSC Wind Ensemble Members:

Hunter Bauman - Flute, Piccolo
Mia Balsley - Flute, Oboe
Betsy Brady - Flute
Aya Kitajima - Flute
Bennett Imai - Oboe
Neil Fairbairn - Bassoon
Lam Do - Clarinet
Olivia Irons - Clarinet
David Leon - Clarinet
Megan  Spitzer - Clarinet
Damien Stoffel - Clarinet
Jacob Riberal - Alto Saxophone
Nick Hidy - French Horn
Nick Uhlig - French Horn
Brina Bodnar - Trumpet
Genevieve Kromm - Trumpets (Bb, C)
Ryan Odou - Trumpet
Daniel Smith - Trumpet
Elad Zohar - Trumpet
David Gatwood - Trombone, Flute, Mbira, misc. woodwinds and brass
Charlie MacDowell - Trombone
Kristopher Curry - Euphonium
Shannon King - Tuba
Nathan Cardenas - Double Bass
Greg Kauffman - Piano
Hari Kuttivelil - Marimba
Andrew Morgan - Glockenspiel, Piano
Michel Nguyen - Glockenspiel, Piano


Additional UCSC Faculty and Free-Lance Performers:

Jeffery Anderle - Clarinets (Bb and Bb Bass)
Kyle Bruckmann - Oboe, English Horn
Juliet Hamak - Bassoon, Contrabassoon
Paul Contos - Saxophones (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone)
Richard Roper - Trumpet
Vanessa Ruotolo - Cello
Brian Baumbusch - Muted Piano, Vibraphone
Mckenzie Camp - Vibraphone
Henry Wilson - Vibraphone
William Winant - Glockenspiel, Marimba, Vibraphone

Isotropes (2020 - performed by the UCSC Wind Ensemble)

A 501(c)3 that aims to increase opportunities for composers, performers, and audiences by fostering the creation, dissemination, and enjoyment of new American music, both nationally and internationally.

SoundLives24. Žibuoklė Martinaitytė: Unexplainable Places

New Music USA

Recent comments

Darius

Related tracks