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Folding

Scott Wollschleger: Folding

Capriccia

Capriccio husle/violin solo 2020

18.09.06 | Gaudeamus Muziekweek | Utrecht, Netherlands
Quatuor Bozzini, Dudok Kwartet, and Quatuor Alcea

The Innocence of Trees

"Nebulae" is largely inspired by the instrumental notated musics for saxophone quartets led by multi instrumentalist-composers Roscoe Mitchell ("Nonaah" for four alto saxophones) and Anthony Braxton ("Composition 37" for saxophone quartet). Commissioned by the Philadelphia-based PRISM Quartet, "Nebulae" is an exactly notated work written for the said group along featuring optional improvising percussion (drum set) or mallet percussion. This extended version of "Nebulae" is a live performance in which I am performing on extended range glockenspiel. There is a yet-to-be commercially released recording of this composition.

PRISM @ Free Library of Philadelphia

Nebulae

Audio of World Premiere. Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, CA 7/27/18

Tyshawn Sorey: Everything Changes, Nothing Changes

Program Notes:

Over the past few months I have been working in a classroom at a local preschool. This position has given me the incredible opportunity to form close bonds with many different children from diverse backgrounds, and I have found this work to be meaningful and rewarding. However, like many teachers in this current political climate, I have inevitably thought about the worst-case scenario: what would I do to protect these children in the event of a school shooting? In the United States, teachers are increasingly being expected to sacrifice their lives to protect their students. But the truth is, in the event of a school shooting, I don’t know what I would do. I would like to say that I would take a bullet for any of my students, but it is impossible to know.

Ultimately, teachers should not have to grapple with these kinds of questions. It is not fair to ask teachers to be the first line of defense in the event of a shooting, and it is unacceptable that this aspect of our American culture has reached a point where many consider arming teachers in the classroom to be a more viable solution than enforcing reasonable gun control measures. Teachers already dedicate their lives to educate and provide an enriching and safe classroom environment for children—the prospect of dying should not be added to this already heavy undertaking.

"The Front Line" is a meditation on my experiences of being an educator in an age where school violence is increasingly normalized.

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Commissioned and performed by Else, If, Else
Ben Portzen - piano
Nolan Ehlers - percussion
Zoe Markle - bass

This recording was recorded, edited, and mixed by Hank Laritson.

The Front Line (for trio and electronics)

Else, if Else performs Molly Herron's 2018 work "Ebb Tide" in Lawrence University's Memorial Chapel.

Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Ben Portzen.

Ebb Tide - Molly Herron

Ancestors

free improvisation recorded live at Lawrence University's Studio 45

Structures_031

Else, if Else performs Amanda Feery's 2015 work Sun Stands Still at Lawrence University's Studio 45.

Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Ben Portzen

Sun Stands Still - Amanda Feery

In the summer of 2018 I travelled back to the homes I grew up in around Minnesota – each one in a different part of the state’s diverse landscape – to take field recordings of the sonic spaces I once inhabited. Months later while sorting through my recordings, a sonic geography created by dozens of common threads began to appear. The more I listened, the more commonalities illuminated my memories – sonic, personal, musical. These commonalities became the genesis for I am learning to: remember.

I am learning to: remember consists of two components: an electronic soundscape composition, and an instrumental (piano) part. The former was created using the field recordings I took at my childhood homes; separate sounds, memories, converging to create one, evocative of each home, their composite, and none at all. The piano, then, serves to extend this exploration of memory; gestures appear and disappear, transform and remain the same. Through constantly and inconsistently referencing itself, I am learning to: remember invokes the act of remembering on the part of all those involved. Even letting the name of this piece come from your own mouth makes you its subject.

In that way, this piece is as much about me as it is about you. I am learning to: remember captures, embodies, the timelessness of memory and the act of remembering, regardless of what is being remembered, and, as a result, is truly a collaboration between composer, performer, and listener. This is to say that although my memories and the way I remember are different from yours, I am learning to: remember embraces this, creating a sonic space in which different modes of remembering and listening can exist simultaneously, collaboratively, musically.

Performed by Benjamin Portzen
Recorded in Lawrence University's Harper Hall

I am learning to: remember - i. (for piano and fixed electronics)

Benjamin Portzen

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