The Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos (OEIN), founded in 1980 in La Paz, Bolivia, the same year as the Basel Sinfonietta, plays traditional Bolivian instruments but exclusively contemporary music. As part of CULTURESCAPES 2021 Amazonas, Basel Sinfonietta has developped  a joint concert project with the chamber ensemble of the OEIN, which consists of seven soloists. The program includes the world premieres of specially commissioned works by Swiss composer Martin Jaggi (*1978) and Bolivian composer Carlos Gutiérrez (*1982), as well as Swiss premieres by Gabriela Ortiz and James Diaz (*1990, Colombia). An intercontinental concert project of Basel Sinfonietta at the interface between tradition and innovation with sound researchers from the Andes and composers from South America and Switzerland.

Program:
— James Diaz «Behind a wall of illusions» (2019, Swiss premiere)
— Cergio Prudencio «Sawuta saltanakani» (2003)
— Gabriela Ortiz: Téenek (Invenciones de Territorio) (2017, Swiss premiere)
— Julián Quintero «For Morton Feldman» (2017)
— Alejandro Cardona «Rítmicas Paceñas» (2012)
— Martin Jaggi «Tarr» (2021, world premiere)
— Carlos Gutiérrez Quiroga «Yllu» (2021, world premiere)

Acoustic Research from the Andes

Ezequiel Viñao - Sirocco Dust (live performance)

En surco de dolores

SQ No.2 - 3rd Movement

Intro Santafe Demo

*Recorded live at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts on the campus of University of Chicago on October 12, 2019.

Iguazú superior, antes de descender por la Garganta del Diablo
(“Upper Iguazú, before descending through the Devil’s Throat”)

Iguazú Falls, on the border of Brazil and Argentina, is (by some measures) the largest waterfall system in the world. The falls divide the Iguazú River into its upper (“superior”) and lower (“inferior”) segments, with about half of the river’s water flow dropping through a narrow chasm known as “The Devil’s Throat,” about 75 feet taller than Niagara Falls.

Haas’s percussion quartet stands out among his decades of tonally innovative music as a work focused on rhythm and texture, with no defined pitch. The 30-minute piece maintains a relentless momentum that persists even as textures thicken and thin, the music becomes louder and quieter, and new sounds are introduced. As the quartet emerges into sections that bubble gently, dart frenetically, or lock into angular, asymmetrical rhythms, it is always being pulled forward. Beneath it all is a rhythmic concept Haas first explored in his Three Pieces for Mollena — a constant tempo acceleration, which is sustained by occasionally introducing slower, related rhythms. Sometimes known as a “Risset Rhythm,” this is the rhythmic equivalent to the “Shepard Tone” used in many of Haas’s other works—an aural illusion of eternally rising pitch. 

The endless accelerando of Iguazu Superior provides a stretching foundation upon which a rich palette of percussive timbres interact. Haas provides an open-ended guideline for the four players to build matching set ups: 6 semi-resonant metals, 3 very resonant metals, 4 wood sounds, and 5 drums for each player. In addition, the players have a few specified unique instruments: a whip crack and bells for player 1, bass drums for player 2, particular cymbals and gongs for players 3 and 4. These specific instrumental sounds anchor the sound of the ensemble and provide dramatic punctuations at intense moments, while the freedom granted in choosing the other instruments create opportunities for each ensemble who performs this grandiose work to construct its own sound world.

Iguazú superior, antes de descender por la Garganta del Diablo was commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, with additional support from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University and the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. It was written for Third Coast Percussion.

Third Coast Percussion would like to an extend an additional thanks to the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation, whose support of TCP’s Creative Workshop allowed for the development, workshopping, and preparation of this new work.

TCP 20191012

Iguazu superior, antes de descender por la Garganta del Diablo (2018) by Georg Friedrich Haas

This week’s podcast features music department chair and composition and theory professor Mathew Rosenblum discussing the inspiration for his composition Lament/Witches’ Sabbath. It’s actually an excerpt from a longer recording we made on behalf of the Euphonie Festival in Warsaw where the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra will perform the work on November 15th. Lament/Witches’ Sabbath is dedicated to Rosenblum’s grandparents who escaped the 1919 pogrom in Proskurov Ukraine.

Mathew Rosenblum on Lament/Witches' Sabbath

Performed by TAK Ensemble
Text by Nicolás Aguía

La tierra trémula palpita. Escucha, escucha
El crepitar del fuego. Hermano, hermana,
Ya se fue la música sacra,
Escucha, Escucha
El llanto huérfano.
Los heraldos anuncian: “han castrado al sol Y secado la luna.
Los colibrís consumieron el néctar Y la partera arrojó los bebés al rio.” Madre, padre,
Tengo sed.

The quaking earth throbs. Listen, listen to
The fire crackling. Brother, sister,
The sacred music is gone,
Listen, listen to
The solitary moan.
The heralds announce: “They have castrated The sun and dried up the moon.
The hummingbirds drank the nectar, and the Midwife threw the infants in the river.” Mother, father,
I thirst.

Codex

Peça performada no Alba Music Festival 2019, dedicada ao duo Sonic Apricity.
Piece performed at Alba Music Festival 2019, wroted for the Sonic Apricity duo.

Violino: Erik Rohde
Viola: Jacob Tews

Recorded and edited by Elliot Miles Mckinley 2019
Image / Collage: João John

Per Se (2019)

Brin, escrita para o contrabaixista Leonardo Lopes

Contrabaixo: Leonardo Lopes

Gravação e mixagem: Antônio Spoladore
Imagem/Colagem : João John

Codex

Nicolás Aguía

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