Second Naiveté Booklet

SECOND NAIVETÉ KAREN BRUBAKER, FLUTE A Concert in Association with the Master of Arts in Specialized Music Performance / Artistic Musikvermittlung From Bern University of the Arts Under the instruction of Professor Christian Studler & Barbara Balba Weber Monday, June 11, 2018 16:00 in the Grosser Konzertsaal Papiermühlestrasse 13d, 3014 Bern

PROGRAM KAREN BRUBAKER

KAREN BRUBAKER

Discover, for Body Percussion, Drum-set, Double Bass, and Beatbox Flute (2018) (*1991)

下雨了(xià yu le / It’s Raining), for Mouth

Percussion, Flute, Voice, Loop Station, and Live Electronic (2018)

Francesca Grilleto, Body Percussion Karolina Roman, Body Percussion Dominyka Seibokaite, Body Percussion Flo Hufschmid, Percussion

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David Zürcher, Video Animation

(*1935)

In C (1964), for any number of any kind of instrument

Transition

Vermont Counterpoint, for Flute (doubling Piccolo and Alto Flute) and Tape (1982)

Flo Hufschmid, Drum-set Lino Mendoza, Double Bass TERRY RILEY

Merlin Züllig, Live Electronic

STEVE REICH

(*1991)

(*1936)

Flo Hufschmid, Marimba Dana Loftus, Marimba Corentin Barro, Percussion Romane Bouffioux, Percussion Kathrin Bratschi, Piano Elina Bächlin, Piano Tizia Zimmermann, Accordion Karen Brubaker, Flute Dominyka Seibokaite, Flute Karolina Roman, Flute Laura Müller, Clarinet Anna Roberta von Arx, Clarinet Maria Fernanda Rodríguez, Bass clarinet Clara Daly Donnellan, Trombone Alejandra Martin, Viola Lino Mendoza, Double bass Oscar Holliger, E-guitar

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FORWARD

As an artist, I’ve intentionally chosen a path that celebrates music’s ability to bridge the gap between people of different cultural, religious, & socio-economical statuses. This is what you might call a form of “artistic mediation.” During these past 2 years of pursuing a Master’s degree in Specialized Performance with an Emphasis in Artistic Musikvermittlung, I developed a project to bridge the gap between musicians & orphans in China through beatbox flute.

WHY CHINA? — Before my time in Switzerland,

I lived in China for 2 years, teaching music at a community arts center. Although I didn’t like standing out, I realized that as a foreigner with a different cultural and educational background, I have a different perspective to offer Chinese teachers 3

& students. In general, Chinese education is very rigid and hierarchical, with an extreme focus on test taking. It’s not a system that particularly fosters individual thought and creativity. When I return to China to teach workshops, my goal is to influence the future music teachers of China by modeling an interactive, creative teaching approach that values each individual’s uniqueness.

WHY BEATBOX FLUTE? — Because it’s cool, & I like

it! And because it’s totally different from what most Chinese flutists have learned. Their studies tend to be strictly confined to classical playing, so exposure to a new playing technique like beatbox flute (the combination of mouth percussion with flute playing) and experience of my interactive teaching style serve to broaden Chinese flutists’ musical & educational horizons.

WHY ORPHANS? — Children without families

who can care for them are often shoved to the edge of society and miss out on a lot of experiences and relationships, which you and I would consider normal. My desire is to help facilitate musical enrichment, creative expression, and the development of meaningful relationships with older mentors.

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In October 2017, I taught 4 days of beatbox flute workshops at China Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and on the 5th day, I brought 16 Chinese flutists with me to teach a music workshop for a group of children at Sun Village—a home specifically for children whose parents can’t care for them because one or both parents are either in prison or no longer living. Forty-five minutes of sound exploration, body percussion, flute introduction, and hearty laughter ensued.

The ultimate goal of this project is to establish a longlasting relationship between Chinese music students and kids at the orphanage. This was a first trial-run to see if my idea of this kind of partnership—or, “musical mentorship,” as I like to think of it—would even be a possibility. Sun Village received us well and would welcome us back. So this musical mentorship vision, though still in baby-form, has the potential to grow. Time—and my next trip to China this autumn 2018—will tell how it progresses.

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SECOND NAIVETÉ Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is only how to remain an artist once he grows up.”1 I can relate very well to this statement.

Not that I was some creative genius as a child. But in the sense that children possess a playful freedom without social inhibitions—a carefree, experimental expression that doesn’t care what people think. As a socially aware adult, that’s something I envy. And it’s something I’ve been searching for and will perhaps continuing pursuing the rest of my life. But even though becoming like a child again is a life-long process, the milestones along the way are worth celebrating.

This concert, then, celebrates a personal & artistic milestone of mine—namely, discovering the freeing realization that, as a friend of mine once wrote in a song “I am only me.”2 A deepening realization 1 2

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https://simple.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso

A line from Kevin Marble’s song “Wide Open World.” kevinmarble.bandcamp.com.

that I—like everyone else—am uniquely made, with specific strengths and weaknesses. I am nothing more; I am nothing less. And freedom comes when I stop trying to be someone I’m not and, on the other hand, stop trying not to be who I am. Maybe it sounds a bit like self-help therapy, but it’s true. The best art I can contribute to the world is art that flows from a secure identity. This is art that has something so say, rather than something to prove.

Dostoyevsky mused, “the soul is healed by being with children.”3 Jesus taught his disciples, “Become like little children.”4 So as Picasso, Dostoyevsky, & Jesus all pointed out, there’s something so vital to life that children have, something that many of us adults have lost. And so, here I am, accepting & celebrating that “I am only me,” and searching for this “second naiveté.” 5 This is an autobiographical concert that reflects this search through the medium of minimalistic music.

3 4 5

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/80255-the-soul-is-healed-by-being-with-children.

Matthew 18:3. New International Version.

A term I gleaned from violin-maker Martin Schleske’s book Herztöne, pp. 189-192.

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MINIMALISM

When referring to music, minimalism has “a lot to do with repetition…tiny variations…hyper-clarity… encouraging more subtle perceptions…making music less dramatic…stems partly from certain Asian and African attitudes…”6 To American composer and music critic Tom Johnson, these descriptors are some of the key qualifiers of minimal music. Originally, it is “a term borrowed from the visual arts to describe a style of composition characterized by an intentionally simplified rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic vocabulary.”7 This genre emerged primarily in the United States in the 1960’s, spearheaded and developed by La 6

Johnson, Tom. “What is Minimalism Really About?” June 13, 1977.

Potter, Keith. “Minimalism (USA).” Grove Music Online. Published online: January 31, 2014. Accessed: February 21, 2018.

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Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, all born between 1935 and 1937. These American composers, though of course in some ways influenced by the musical modernism surrounding them, moved away from extreme indeterminacy and serialism, and opted for approaches that relied more on repetition, timbre, and the actual process of the composition itself.8 Aside from Young, whose works are typically more characterized by long, held out tones, Riley, Reich, and Glass are all known for their pulsing, rhythmic, and repetitive musical output. Today’s concert includes works of Reich and Riley, so we’ll focus our attention later on, on these 2 composers.

But let’s switch gears for a moment.

Nowadays, the term “minimalism” also brings to mind the idea of “simple living” and de-cluttering, of reducing excess and focusing on what essentially matters. It’s a reaction to consumer-driven societies’ superfluous waste and insatiable desire for more.

In this way of thinking, minimalism isn’t simply a rejection of things for the sake of being Spartan and Potter, Keith. Four Musical Minimalists. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge: 2000. “Introduction.”

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utilitarian. Rather, it’s a lifestyle that cherishes, uses, and makes time for what the individual treasures most by eliminating unnecessary things that distract and detract from said treasures.

This kind of lifestyle resonates with me, and it’s one I aim to live out. Maybe it’s partly out of necessity that I have relatively few possessions—relocating internationally every few years has forced me to fit most of my earthly possessions into a few suitcases.

And living within a tight student budget limits my spending to groceries and essentials. But beyond physical things, this kind of lifestyle also relates to time and energy investment. In a day and age where devices are constantly buzzing and chirping, with information overload and social media platforms that offer endless networking possibilities, one has to intentionally safeguard what actually matters most.

and aptitude in beatbox flute. And as a teacher, it’s brought me to various countries—specifically China—to share my passion for beatbox flute and to encourage students to discover, accept, and celebrate their own uniqueness.

For me, this minimalistic mindset directly relates to my life as a musician and teacher, and it’s something I’ve grown into over these past years of study in Bern.

I’ve come to focus on one of the topics that I think matters most—discovering and celebrating individual uniqueness. As an artist, this has led me down a new path as I discovered—thanks to Andreas Schaerer and Christian Studler—personal joy, freedom, 11

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MUSIC WORKSHOP AT SUN VILLAGE 13

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BEATBOX FLUTE WORKSHOPS AT CHINA CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC

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“I’m considering, during these days of experiencing the foreigners’ way of teaching: Can I bring this into my teaching? Is it possible to give children another way of learning? Effective and fun? Is this possible?” ­ 雷全博 (BETTY), — 2ND YEAR GRADUATE STUDENT

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IN THE STUDIO RECORDING VERMONT COUNTERPOINT 23

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下雨了 (XIÀ YǓ LE / IT’S RAINING)

KAREN BRUBAKER

I begin my concert with a conceptual soundscape piece called (xià yu le / It’s Raining) which I composed as a way to represent childlike freedom, exploration, and playfulness. And, of course, rain.

For me, the very act of composing embodies a childlike approach since I’m not an extensively trained composer; the piece developed as I explored sounds I like, experimented with my loop station, and collaborated with Merlin from live electronic.

As implied in the Chinese title, (xià yu le / It’s Raining) was inspired during a recent trip to Beijing in October 2017. I was reading a brochure from the Sun Village children’s home when I came across a simple, memorable statement: “Our effort may be 25

humble, but we believe that little drops of water can make the mighty ocean.”9 Often times I’m overwhelmed by so much need in the world and my inability to make a big impact.

But while no one can fix the problems of the world, we can each, like a drop in the ocean, contribute our part. That resonated with the very thing that’s always on my heart when I teach in China: each person is unique and valuable. Every drop—every person—counts. In a country where the population amounts to 18.54% of the entire world population, it’s easy to feel lost in the crowd.10 Of course this feeling of insignificance can be a commonly shared human experience, whether you come from a bustling city of 21 million or a small Swiss mountain village. But I notice especially in China, for various reasons linked to history, education, and culture, that this sense of individual self-worth is often underdeveloped. (I remember a Chinese university student once told me she didn’t think it mattered if she lived or not, because there are already so many Chinese.) So when I read Sun Village’s volunteer guide, I was again reminded of the “water drop principle,” which is also 9

Sun Village Volunteer Guide, Pg 1.

www.worldometers.info/world-population/china-population/. Accessed February 17, 2018.

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a minimalistic concept. Many small parts add up to make a greater whole. And each drop counts. (xià yu le / It’s Raining) takes this principle and creates a rain soundscape by layering mouth percussion & flute effects with the aid of a loop station & integrated audio samples. The emphasis on sound & timbre, as well as repetition through looping, sets this piece within the genre of minimalistic music.

The listener will notice that not all the sounds from this piece are created live. Mixed in with the mouth percussion & flute loops are audio samples cut from a music workshop I led at Sun Village, the aforementioned orphanage in Beijing. One of our activities specifically engaged the children’s imaginations through a simple, improvised story to which they added corresponding sound effects. Rain made an appearance several times, and when I heard the recordings, I knew I had to somehow use those playful sounds in a piece.

fades out, and the audience catches a silent glimpse of the children at Sun Village enjoying the music workshop—a visual hint about where the sampled sounds came from. The short video clip also alludes to a final memory, so to speak, of childhood.

Heralding the end of carefree, explorative childhood and a new stage of self-consciousness and conformity, body percussionists repeat the first rhythmic pattern found in Steve Reich’s Vermont Counterpoint and a drummer enters with a 3-against-2 rhythm that serves as a tempo modulation directly into Reich’s piece.

After several minutes of looping & sampling, I ease airy flute tones and eventually short vocalizations into this rainforest atmosphere. A transformation then takes place as electronic effects mutate the soundscape into a low drone of sorts. The drone 27

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VERMONT COUNTERPOINT STEVEVE REICH Composed in 1982, Vermont Counterpoint embodies minimalistic compositional techniques that Reich discovered and developed in the previous decades.

Advancements in technology opened up the door for techniques such as looping and enabled the discovery of phasing (the process in which 2 identical patterns begin in unison and “slowly shift out of phase with each other”11), an effect that Reich particularly explored in pieces like It’s Gonna Rain and Piano Phase.

In Vermont Counterpoint—scored for 10 pre-recorded tracks of alto flute, flute, and piccolo (all of which I recorded in the studio), with a solo part that is played live with the recording—Reich takes short, repeated patterns and then overlays various flute voices with slight rhythmic variations, resulting in a pulsating, Reich, Steve. Writings on Music (1965-2000). Oxford University Press, Inc. New York: 2002. Pg. 20.

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energetic composite melody. It is divided into 4 sections, each in a different tonality, the third of which is in a slower tempo.

The piece demands exact, rhythmic precision and leaves no room for error. To me, in the context of this concert, the non-stop repetitive patterns represent copying, comparing, and conforming—the exhausting drive to be good enough, to measure up, to be perfect. In my artistic journey, I’ve personally experienced the nerve-wracking, suffocating effects of competitive comparison, unsatisfied perfectionism, and trying to be like someone else. And I also see that in the Chinese flutists I’ve taught and in their culture in general. “The nail that sticks up would be hammered down, the bird whose head sticks out easily shot, and the tallest tree easily destroyed by the wind.”12 The message of these Chinese proverbs: be like everyone else; don’t stand out; conform. Among other elements, the video animation displayed during the performance 不要显得 鹤立鸡群 of this piece uses Chinese characters from these proverbs to present an abstract rendering of this theme.

Chu, Lenora. Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve HaperCollins Publishers: 2017. Pg. 74.

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DISCOVER KAREN BRUBAKER

This next piece is a concept piece I developed in collaboration with Flo Hufschmid (drum-set) and Lino Mendoza (double bass). I begin it with a solo, choreographed body percussion loop that reexpresses the same rhythm found at the beginning of Vermont Counterpoint through a combination of visual and audible beats. Various percussive elements gradually join this loop and build intensity until I break free from the loop’s invisible confines.

As if marking a kind of new birth—the beginnings of discovering a second naiveté—the double bass enters with an almost hypnotizing combination of 31

plucked natural tones & harmonics as he brings to life an improvised etude from Stefano Scodanibbio.13 I was enthralled when Lino first showed me this technique. I’d never heard sounds like that produced on the double bass; it reminded me of the kalimba (an African thumb piano), and it was exactly the kind of playful, adventurous, minimalistic groove I was looking for.

The climax of Discover denotes my personal freedom in discovering and embracing a second naiveté through beatbox flute. I first heard of this special playing technique, which combines mouth percussion with flute playing, when I was a teenager.

My oldest brother showed me a youtube video of Greg Pattillo performing the theme song from Super Mario Brothers and told me, “It would be so cool if you could do that with your flute!” (Presumably he didn’t find the flute otherwise so interesting…) I was inspired and intrigued but likewise dismayed: I couldn’t beatbox. So trying to do beatbox flute was a moot point. Or so I thought until Andreas Schaerer proved me wrong.

A famous beatboxer and vocal teacher in the HKB 13

Sei Studi (1981-93) for double bass: Studi 6: Farewell.

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jazz department, Andreas taught a beatbox basics workshop for our flute class in spring 2015 in which he explained the process of learning beatboxing to be just like learning any other language.You make new, strange sounds with your mouth that you never made before, and at first it sounds bad, and you feel a bit stupid. But with determination and practice, it’s possible to learn beatboxing and develop a mouth percussion vocabulary just like any other language. I was inspired and up for the challenge.

Fast-forward 3 years, and I still can’t get enough of it! I’ve had the privilege of studying privately with Andreas, growing both in beatboxing and composing.

The beatbox flute solo found in Discover highlights a rhythmic tongue clicking technique that Andreas once showed me in a lesson and suggested could perhaps be combined with the flute. Starting with sporadic tongue clicking, the opening of this solo is reminiscent of the childlikeness and rain found in 下雨了(xià yu le / It’s Raining), but it quickly morphs into a groove that has traveled through childhood, overcome conformity, and discovered a second naiveté.

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IN C TERRY RILEY

Discovering one’s own specific “voice” is naturally a very important part of the artistic journey. But another step is also necessary—namely, the ability to maintain one’s own individuality while also collaborating and reacting in a communal society.

Terry Riley’s flagship work In C (1964), the final piece in the program, is one of the most important minimalist works to date, and it is a quintessential example of personal individualism functioning in a dynamic, corporate context.

Like a fish swimming upstream, In C went against the current of contemporary composition practice in the 1960’s. At a time when most composers (like Stockhausen, Boulez, Berio, and Crumb) were 35

writing intellectually complex, texturally dense works often with no recognizable tonal center, Riley produced a work that wittily defied such practices.14 Instead of some kind of coded, complex graphic notation, In C is simply comprised of 53 short, melodic/rhythmic cells displayed in standard western notation. Rather than ignoring pulse and rhythmic gravitation, it achieves an aesthetic that breaks the listener’s natural sense of time precisely through a repetitive, driving pulse. And in contrast to the dominant stream of thought that predetermined every minute detail of a performance, Riley’s minimalistic milestone is in large part founded upon the interpreters’ improvisational decisions during the performance. In this way, “the music is the result of a group decision, but each entity retains its separate character and autonomy.”15 Even the title In C makes the tonal center blazingly obvious.

This counter-cultural artistic output wasn’t so much a desire to “stick it to the man” and defy the compositional norms of the day simply for defiance’s sake; it instead reflects Riley’s nonconformist willingness to pursue aesthetics and ideas which fascinated him, regardless of how they 14 15

Carl, Robert. Terry Riley’s In C. Oxford University Press. New York: 2009. Pp. 4-6.

Ibid. Pg. 7.

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compared to others. What was important to him was experimenting with new sounds and enjoying what he did. He saw this genuine enjoyment in a concert from Indian musician Ravi Shankar: “I remember the thing I carried away from there was, ‘Boy these guys are enjoying what they’re doing so much. This is the way to play music.’ I had only experienced this in jazz before, I hadn’t realized there were other musics out there where people really enjoyed…they weren’t so much thinking, ‘I have to play this right,’ but they were just playing…the wonderful sensual qualities of sound, and just interacting with each other.”16

can’t be measured by passing an exam or winning a competition. Our worth mustn’t be earned through achievement; we simply are.Young children seem to get that, and it’s a freedom we adults often have to relearn. It’s a freedom found in discovering a second naiveté.

I agree with Riley. This is the way to play music…A musical expression and collaborative connection that is free from perfectionism and self-proving—one that is fun and enjoyable.Yet, that’s not to say that working hard to hone musical skill with the determined desire to improve is bad. Actually, that’s a very good thing.

But the point is that all too often, we musicians can let this desire to be better overshadow the enjoyment that initially drew us to music in the first place. We can become trapped in cages of comparison & selfdoubt, competition & self-proving. And a way out is through embracing the reality that human value 16

Ibid, Pg. 32.

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COLLABORATORS After getting a bachelor’s degree from the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music (Illinois, USA), KAREN BRUBAKER taught music at a community arts school in Kunming, China for 2 years. She then moved to Switzerland in 2014 to study with Christian Studler at Bern University of the Arts and is now finishing a second MA in Specialized Flute Performance / Artistic Musikvermittlung. When she’s not making music, Karen loves traveling to new places and relishes connecting with friends over a good cup of coffee.

Born in Mexico City, EZEQUIEL LINO MENDOZA MALDONADO began studying the double bass at the age of 16 in the National School of Music (now Faculty of Music) in the Autonomous National University of Mexico under the instruction of Professor Luis Antonio Rojas Roldán. Since September 2015, Lino has been pursuing a Master’s degree at Bern University of the Arts with David Sinclair, minoring in Viennese Violone. During his time living in Europe, he has had the opportunity to perform in a wide variety of music styles, from contemporary (with the HKB Vertigo Ensemble, together with Helmut Lachenmann) to Period Specialized Orchestras in Switzerland, France, and Italy.

MERLIN ZÜLLIG started experimenting in electronic

DAVID ZÜRCHER was born in Bern, Switzerland and

music in 2011. He since has worked with various producers and vocalists on several albums and projects.

After one year of pre-college at the Musikakademie Basel, Merlin began studying in the Sound-Arts department at the Hochschule der Künste Bern in 2016.

He lives and works in Zurich.

received his first classical voice lessons form Ulrich S. Eggimann. After a year of preliminary studies in design, he studied filmmaking at the University of Applied Arts and Sciences Lucerne, Art + Design Dept, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree 2012. After two years of working as a self-employed videographer and motion designer, he began his bachelor studies at Bern University of the Arts in the class of Prof. Christian Hilz, where he graduated 2017 with honors. He is now continuing his studies in the Masters in Music Pedagogy, while working as a freelance graphic designer and videographer.

FLO HUFSCHMID is a 22-year-old jazz drummer,

studying in the jazz department of Bern University of the Arts under the instruction of Dejan Terzic. His openness and ability to adapt to his fellow band-mates make him a sensible drummer, who, on the other hand, also likes to make some serious noise from time to time.

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SPECIAL THANKS CHRISTIAN STUDLER - Studying with you has been a dream

come true! You’ve supported, challenged, and encouraged me as a person, not just a flute student, with father-like love & care. Words can’t express how deep my gratitude runs.

BARBARA BALBA WEBER - You are full of ideas, energy, and

experienced advice! Thank you for broadening my horizons & holding me to a high standard.

ANDREAS SCHAERER - I’m inspired by your authentic,

approachable way of being--both on stage and off. Thank you for sharing some of your incredible artistry with me; for patiently explaining how to make new sounds; for giving honest feedback; for igniting & fueling this beatbox flute passion.

BENOIT PICCAND - Thank you for your many hours of

recording, editing, mixing, and mastering. Your happy, chill presence made recording a really relaxed & enjoyable experience.

BEAT MÜLLER - Thank you for all your technical support and

MERLIN ZÜLLIG, FLO HUFSCHMID, LINO MENDOZA, DAVID ZÜRCHER, DOMINYKA SEIBOKAITE, FRANCESCA GRILLETO, KAROLINA ROMAN - Thank you all for contributing your time,

energy, and talents to this concert. It’s such a pleasure to work with artists who both catch my vision and add their own ideas to it!

ELI SHOWALTER - It’s a real joy to be able to collaborate

with such a dear friend of 10 years! Thank you for all your intentionality & creativity in designing this booklet.

LARS FETZNER - You were stable & faithful to support me

through all my various ups & downs during the development of this project. Thank you for loving me no matter what!

MOM & DAD - You rank as some of my favorite people in the

world. And it goes without saying that I wouldn’t be here (on this earth or stage) without you. Thank you for always loving and believing in me, for pointing me to the truth and encouraging me to press on when I feel like giving up. And thank you for coming to Switzerland a second time to see a second MA concert!

consultation! Even when I kept coming back with question and request upon question and request, you didn’t turn me away!

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