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music uncharted
exploring and unlocking composing with video electronics and nostalgia previews by charlie usher
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features
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Exploring and unlocking The BBC’s Discovering Music programme usually aims to dissect and help audiences understand music from the classical repertoire. In 2009, for the first time, the project is exploring newly-created work, with a series of commissions and a programme on spnm’s Raga Mela project. So what’s it like composing for this context? We asked TANSY DAVIES and FUNG LAM, whose work Unlocking will be the first to be broadcast in January...
FUNG LAM
photo: BBC
Back in autumn 2007, I received a phonecall from BBC Radio 3, offering me an orchestral commission of around 20 minutes. I was delighted, obviously, as it was my first major professional commission as a composer. ‘Oh, but there is a little twist’, I was told. I was then briefed on the BBC’s fascinating Discovering Music project, led by Charles Hazelwood, with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Radio 3. As part of a collaboration with the V&A museum, the ‘twist’ was that ‘the work should take some impetus from an artefact (or artefacts)’ in the museum. And yes, that bit was actually written into the contract! My piece was to be the first of three new works. By commissioning three different composers (Tansy Davies,
TANSY DAVIES This was a really positive experience for me. I had all the time, support and resources I could possibly want: the programme is 90 minutes long and I had the BBC Concert Orchestra and Charles Hazlewood at my disposal.
photo: Maurice Foxall
I suggested excerpts of the two pieces that were featured in the programme, Tilting and Rift, which Charles and producer Chris Wines made into a shape for the programme. Charles had studied my pieces in great depth and it was fascinating and illuminating to hear his thoughts and ideas about the music.
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Graham Fitkin and me) for this project, they are interested in demonstrating to the general classical music audience how a contemporary composer might approach a new composition from scratch, how a new work might be put together, and how differently composers might respond to non-musical objects/subjects. At the premiere (which doubled as the recording session for the radio), they would dissect my new work in front of the live audience prior to the actual complete performance. While I was assured that I needed not to do anything differently during the composition process to accommodate the analysis bit of the show, it was still a slightly scary and unusual prospect. It’s one thing visiting a museum simply to take in and appreciate; it’s quite another wandering around the V&A knowing that you have to find
Sometimes the new music world can seem a bit claustrophobic. Discovering Music gives me an audience which is big and broad – both the audience in the hall in Watford and the radio audience. I hope the music and the talk can address this broad audience. The programme’s not a college seminar – the analysis was presented in a quick witted and accessible way, but dealt with some quite complex musical explanations. My new work Rift is a kind of collage, made up of refrains, dances and chorales, often built from small cells to create layers which are then superimposed. This method of composing, I think, lends itself well to deconstruction: the excerpts often
Fung Lam with composer and presenter Charles Hazelwood Photo: BBC
something specific to write music about. I looked at each object completely differently from previous visits, in search of something that might perhaps provide me with musical ideas. After several visits, I noticed that the section I was most drawn to was the Ironwork Gallery. They have a huge collection of locks and keys from the 15th to 18th centuries. I was fascinated by the way the designs of these locks and keys have developed since the beginning. On the one hand, huge efforts were made to make the locking mechanism more complicated and secure, and on the other, more and more attention has been focused on the non-functional, decorative designs of the locks. There was also one specific lock, a ‘puzzle padlock’,which stood out for me. It is a padlock with an exquisite and intriguing
sounded complete in themselves and I hope it will be interesting to hear how the layers are built up. In addition to performing Rift as a purely orchestral work, another version, involving a large community group, was also performed. This was played immediately after the premiere. Some wild interventions, devised by the community group, interrupted the orchestra at certain points. It was rather like a kind of carnival band crashing their way into the performance and bringing the orchestra to a halt. The orchestra resumed playing after each intervention, after each new rift had formed.
design both inside and outside. I found it even more interesting when I learnt that there are two layers of locking mechanisms, with one added on top of the existing one over time to make the lock more complex and secure. I started imagining my new piece as a giant imaginary lock that has had many layers of mechanisms added on top over time. And through these layers I would also like it to reflect the history of the development of locks. I was then at an important stage of the composing process, that is, transforming these initial non-musical ideas into musical ones.
In a strange and unexpected way, I felt that writing the online diary actually helped me articulate my own ideas more clearly to myself.
As I composed the piece, I also wrote an online diary as part of the Discovering Music process. I shared my basic, initial ideas, and it was like thinking out loud to myself, except that it was addressed to everyone. I talked about my first structural decision – that the work would consist of three main sections, representing Locked, Unlocking, and Unlocked. I then designed a simple way to represent musically the idea of unlocking a lock with a key, using two chords symmetrically constructed around a central axis:
I was not obliged to stick to the plans I had been outlining in my online diary, and there were things that changed, but the diary did encourage me to make compositional decisions earlier than usual. This meant I had much more time than usual to spend on the development, rather than the creation, of material. And for me, this is the crucial part of the composing process, so it was a great experience.
And from the ‘Unlocked’ chord, I decided that I would construct the majority of the work from combining seven other pentatonic scales of my design in pairs in various ways in certain order:
Perhaps having in mind the prospect of having my piece explained and analysed, I kept the orchestral texture of the whole work fairly simple to allow the key musical ideas to come through. Some of my musical ideas can easily be discerned: for example I used rhythms translated from Morse Code, combined with a hocketing effect, to represent secrets and the act of inserting a key into a lock.
Fung Lam’s Unlocking will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Discovering Music on Sunday 11 January at 5pm. Further programmes on music by Tansy Davies, Graham Fitkin and four composers writing works for spnm’s Raga Mela project, will follow. www.bbbc.co.uk/radio3/ discoveringmusic
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Composition and music technology
Article 11: Joseph Hyde on composing with video
As we continue to explore different composers’ experiences of working with technology, Joseph Hyde explains why technology allows composers to work with video as well as sound... In the course of my career as a composer, I’ve gradually broadened the scope of my work. From working with instruments I moved into an exploration of technology (with instruments and without), and from there I took the more unusual step of starting to work with video as well as sound. I’ve just been an opportunist really: like many composers, I simply make work with the means available. I started to work with audio technology as it became cheaper, and what previously required an expensive studio could be done on a domestic computer. Then I started to work with video when DV cameras (and more powerful home computers) helped a similar thing happen for video-makers. Just to be clear: I am not talking about working as a film or TV composer or sound designer, nor am I talking about attempting to become a film director. What I am talking about is an idea that still excites me – that a composer can work, as a composer, with video as well as sound. Over the last ten years I’ve made a series of what could be called ‘visual music’ works. During this time, I’ve come up with a number of rough-andready rules. These are quite personal, totally subjective, and fairly specific to the kind of work I’ve been doing; but for what it’s worth, here are a few:
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Multimedia is more than the sum of its parts The first thing I learnt working with video and audio is that it’s fun! There’s a kind of alchemy that takes place when image and sound are put together. If it’s right, it feels absolutely, self-evidently right, and this can be surprising, magical, extraordinary. Film-makers talk about ‘added value’ – the meaning or emotion that music can add to a scene. I think this principle can be taken quite broadly. What we hear can completely change our perception of what we see, and vice versa.
Audio and video are exactly the same The second thing that struck me was how easy working with video felt. I’d always found video editing facilities (of the older, expensive ‘hardware’ variety) to be quite daunting places, but once I encountered video editing software, I felt at home immediately. Video software like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere is really just like audio software such as ProTools or Cubase – there’s a familiar timeline and editing functions that are directly comparable, even if they go under different names. To the computer, it’s all just data.
Audio and video are completely different What are simply ones and zeroes to a
A video still from Joseph Hyde’s audio-visual installation, Periphery
computer certainly aren’t to a human being. The way we hear and the way we see are very different. I’m wary of any attempt to ‘translate’ sound literally into image or vice versa – for me, this is uninteresting. In fact, I’ve become more and more drawn to a model of sound/image interaction which has many of the qualities of counterpoint, where each element is given a high degree of autonomy.
Keep it abstract I generally use visual material which is not readily recognisable, and avoid straightforward representation or narrative; partly because I want to separate my work from the kind of TV or cinema we’re used to. This is not a value judgement, but is for two specific reasons. Firstly, in any comparison between my own work and commercial mainstream TV/film, I’m going to come off worse. Not all the paraphernalia of videomaking has got cheaper – cameras and editing equipment have, but actors, props, lighting and the like haven’t. Secondly, I believe that we’re used to assigning sound a supporting role while watching TV or a movie. Making sure my work doesn’t resemble such familiar material avoids my audience entering the couch-potato zone and turning their ears (and quite possibly brains) off.
No effects! A standard beginner’s mistake is to overuse filters (effects) and transitions.
The same thing happens with audio technology, but I think it’s much more dangerous with video. There’s a simple reason for this, which is the ubiquity of television. We are – all of us – extremely visually literate; arguably positively jaded after consumption of multi-million pound productions and slick advertising. Pretty much any processing you can do on affordable software will look horribly cheesy in comparison with big-budget TV or film, so I say avoid it (this rule is definitely made to be broken, but is not bad as a starting point).
Silence is the new black As a composer, it took me many years to learn the supreme importance of silence. I believe a similar principle applies in visual ‘composition’, and that judicial use of black (arguably the visual equivalent) is to be recommended. Several of my pieces have quite long sections of pure blackness – I also like to explore the use of ‘partial blackness’, where most of the frame is black with just a small area (or areas) given to colour or image. This is an instance where variety can definitely be a good thing – breaking up the rectangle of the screen is very effective. It’s worth remembering that your audience has a limited amount of attention that effectively needs to be spread across media. I find if I really want people to listen, it’s best to keep things simple (or entirely absent) visually, and vice versa.
Why not give it a go yourself? Of course, since starting to work in this way I’ve found out I’m doing nothing new – there’s a long history of ‘visual music’ and composers dabbling with the visual. But I’ve had a lot of fun with video, and thoroughly recommend it. All you need is a cheap camera, a computer and some basic software – why not give it a go?
Joseph Hyde is a composer and runs the Composition MA at Bath Spa University. Next year the college is launching a new MA in Composition (Sound and Image), specifically exploring compositional ideas in a multimedia context. For information, contact Joe at j.hyde@bathspa.ac.uk. www.josephhyde.co.uk
And spnm’s series, The Sound Source, animates these ideas each month, exploring the fertile overlap between sound and video composition. Most of the events focus primarily on musicians who also work with video and also films curated by regular partners no.w.here. Meanwhile on 12 May, we explore this from the other side, looking at video artists who are also working with sound in interesting ways. www.myspace.com/thesoundsource
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Example 1: ‘Szene am Bahnhof’, from Gyorgy Kurtág Kafka Fragments.
Julian Anderson, Book
Reproduced by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes Publishers ofLtd. Hours, p.7, flute only
Electronics and Nostalgia: Julian Anderson’s Book of Hours Click here Nostalgia is not usually a feature of electronic to listen to extracts music – quite the online
opposite. Electronic music is about being up-to-date, cutting edge, not just hip but seen-tobe-hip. It is of today – or a futuristic vision of tomorrow. And yet one of the paradoxes of electronic music is that it can become dated quicker than other music, trapped in its own tarnished time capsule.
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Anderson was inspired by two famous ‘books of hours’ dating from the fifteenth century. A book of hours was a religious handbook, containing psalms and prayer-texts and often lavishly illuminated, carried around by gentry seeking a flavour of monastic life, with its day regulated by the Benedictine ‘hours’. The music is structured, like the books, as a series of colourful, contrasted panels. Its rapid switching from liturgical gravitas to whirling excitement mirrors how the psalms embrace both quiet contemplation and raucous celebration. The musical past Anderson evokes is medieval. The solemn intonation of the opening bars sets out the simplest of materials – a rising diatonic tetrachord – gradually elaborated through a parallel counterpoint rooted in organum. Hocket and heterophony abound in bell-like sonorities of vibraphone, gongs and glockenspiel, enhanced by various de-tuned instruments and technological treatment of the live sounds.
In Analysis is a space for brief, personal responses to the local detail of music and sound that you love.
In Analysis
Julian Anderson’s Book of Hours, for ensemble and electronics, is unusual in its preoccupation with the past, not through pastiche or parody
but nostalgia, an elusive yearning for another time.
The integration of the electronics into the music – described by the composer as ‘an extra colour beyond the ensemble sounds, rather as gold-leaf might be applied in a Medieval manuscript’ – is beautifully achieved. This acousmatic gilding manipulates ‘real’ instrumental sounds into a hyper-real version of the live ensemble. But further, Anderson treats his ensemble like a computer programme, crafting
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extraordinarily fresh combinations and timbres. In performance, it is hard to hear the joins. Part 2 opens with a brilliant gambit. The opening of the whole piece is played back as a sample, now shrouded in the ‘scratches and noises of a poorly pressed 331/3 record’, while the live instruments offer a brisk running commentary. In this way the piece historicises itself, becoming the subject of its own nostalgia, the earlier music recalled as if from the mists of time, rather than a mere 13 minutes earlier. The effect is magical. The entire first half is then ‘recomposed’, refracted through the lens of this imagined history, at a gathering pace. The climax, a massive electronic cadenza, is perhaps the only disappointment of the piece, where the familiar gestures – clichés even – of electronic music are allowed to emerge. But the ending finds surprising new territory, alternating chilly chords with an incongruous viola jig, the electronics offering only the most subtle colorations. All this self-reference could have slipped into navel-gazing; instead Book of Hours achieves a quality similar to Escher’s staircase, endlessly circling round itself, endlessly fascinating. The glistening orchestration, the sharp focus of the musical ideas and the unusually effective integration of electronics into the ensemble make Book of Hours a memorable and profound work.
Bernard Hughes
Sound and Music
Your hopes for Sound and Music Over the last year, as we’ve moved towards the creation of a brand new organisation, we’ve invited your suggestions for what you’d like to see from it. Sound and Music is now close to being launched in spring 2009, and over the next few issues we will be printing a selection of your hopes and suggestions... And if you would like to contribute your thoughts, email newnotes@spnm.org.uk. My wish is for the new organisation to use its greater muscle and powers of persuasion to get every professional UK music performance group, from the Royal Opera House to the local brass band, to hold one competition a year each for new music in its particular genre and then perform the winner(s), even if not in its mainstream programme.
It will be important to hang on as much as possible to the diversity of opportunities that spnm and Bmic have offered to composers. Christopher Fox
Tim Ambler Campaign for increase in commission funding available to composers. Campaign for arts editors to hire critics who are knowledgable about contemporary music. Currently contemporary music comes off as a poor second cousin of classical, and sometimes pop or jazz. Address the shortage of UK critics qualified to write about contemporary music. Campaign for a Tate Modern for contemporary music: a high profile building with performances all day in 12 auditoria with linking foyers with access to recorded music, documentary information etc. This would redefine the nature of 'a concert'. A world first. Tim Hodgkinson
An internet radio channel with decent bandwidth could provide the answer to the challenge of truly national coverage. Evenings only would be fine, and it could handle a mix of new music CDs supplemented by interviews with living composers and live recordings from events.
The absence of any serious commentary on contemporary music in 'culture shows' (e.g.Mark Lawson's Front Row, BBC Radio 4, and The Culture Show, BBC 2 TV) has been deplorable. There's no reason to expect that the chief presenter of such programmes should be expert in all artistic genres, so there must be a case for regularly employing expert advice on new music matters. Sound and Music could provide the BBC, and other media, with regular information, as well as a list of new music commentators. Margaret Lucy Wilkins
Norman Worrall
Campaign for better, more accessible funding for commissions, especially in the provinces (I'm organising one such campaign in the NW right now). Provide advice and support in the matter of securing commissions for new and enterprising work. Anthony Gilbert
It would be nice to have a humble performance or rehearsal space that we could call home. Students have facilities on site, but those not at university might like an experimental space to be hired for practice, experimentation or a concert. Perhaps university music departments in each region could help? Val Mainwood
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new music opportunities
We advise you to contact the organisers of advertised opportunities before applying. spnm is not responsible for external opportunities advertised.
MUSIC AND FILM PARTNERSHIPS AT KINGS PLACE: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
NATIONAL CENTRE FOR EARLY MUSIC COMPOSERS AWARD
Deadline: 9 January 2009
Deadline: 27 March 2009
spnm and no.w.here are looking for composers/sound artists and filmmaker partnerships to create new audio-visual works connected with or about London’s King’s Cross area. Anyone of any age can apply, while partnerships can be new or pre-existing. Proposals from individuals who want to create both sound and film together will also be considered. No particular style or form is preferred, but the rich history, soundworld or character of Kinig’s Cross should be explored. The works should be for standard projection with either pre-recorded sound synchronised for the screening or performed live by you. The works will be presented as part of spnm’s Sound Source series, with events held on the second Tuesday of every month at Kings Place (which is also home to The Guardian Media Group’s offices) near King’s Cross. Finished works are likely to be presented at events in April, May and June. Each selected project will receive £250 to cover expenses. For further information, contact Mark Willetts at mark@spnm.org.uk or on 020 7407 1640.
This new national competition is open to young composers aged up to 18 years and also 19-25 year olds. Entrants are invited to compose a new a cappella piece for Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. Only one composition may be submitted per entrance. This piece should be scored for SATB or SSATB and 3-4 minutes in length. In should not have been published or performed. The award is intended as an educational project and preference will be given to those who have not yet embarked on a professional career. The shortlisted finalists will work alongside the well-known composer Christopher Fox in a series of workshops at the NCEM next May. The compositions will then be performed by the Ebor Singers at a public performance on Thursday 14 May in the presence of the young composers. The pieces will be recorded by music technology students from the University of York and will be available to listen to on the NCEM website. To find out more, visit: www.ncem.co.uk/composersaward or call 01904 632220
NEW MUSIC NEW FACES 2009 INTERNATIONAL YOUNG COMPOSERS FESTIVAL: CALL FOR WORKS
RARESCALE ALTO FLUTE DUOS: CALL FOR WORKS
Deadline: 12 January 2009
This call is open to composers of any age and nationality. Entrants are invited to submit works for two alto flutes or two alto flutes and electronics for possible multiple performances by Lisa Bost-Sandberg and Carla Rees at a concert in London in June 2009. The organisers would prefer submissions via email. For more information, visit: www.rarescale.org.uk
This Krakow-based festival for young composers is looking for scores to be performed at this year’s event. Chamber music is preferred, written for 1-10 performers or string orchestra, electronic music, or entirely electronic/tape-based. These pieces should have been written no earlier than 2004 and should be 7-20 minutes long. Unperformed compositions are particularly welcome. Composers are free to enter multiple pieces for inclusion. The festival’s programming commission will be appointed by the board of Polish Artists' Society and will consist of composers, musicians, and conductors. A registration of 30 Euros is suggested, though this is optional. Fees will contribute towards the festival's budget. For more information, visit: www.artyscipolscy.pl
NOISY NIGHTS @ THE TRAVERSE: CALL FOR WORKS Deadline: 9 February 2009 Noisy Nights is a new series at the bar of Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre. Each event features a performance from the Red Note Ensemble. The group will play especially composed new music at each event. Pieces submitted for consideration should be no longer than 5 minutes. The first Noisy Night takes place on Monday 23 Feb: works for his event should be written for vn, cl/bcl, trb and vibraphone. Tape parts can be accommodated. For more information, email: john@seventhings.co.uk
SPNM’S SHORTLIST 2009: CALL FOR APPLICATIONS Deadline: 25 February 2009 This is your chance as an emerging composer or sonic artist to set yourself on the path towards a professional career. www.spnm.org.uk / 020 7407 1640
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Deadline: 15 April 2009
RARESCALE ALTO FLUTE, PIANO AND ELECTRONICS: CALL FOR WORKS Deadline: 15 April 2009 This call is open to composers of any age and nationality. The organisers are looking for works for quarter tone alto flute, piano and electronics for a performance in November 2009 and other potential opportunities. Submissions via email are preferred. For more information, visit: www.rarescale.org.uk
RARESCALE ALTO FLUTE AND GUITAR: CALL FOR WORKS Deadline: ongoing This call is open to composers of any age and nationality. Entrants are invited to submit works for alto flute and guitar, with or without electronics, for possible inclusion during concerts in Rarescale’s 2009 season. Submissions via email are preferred. For more information, visit: www.rarescale.org.uk
MUSIC ORBIT’S OPEN SOURCE Deadline: Ongoing Open Source takes place during spnm’s monthly Sound Source event at Kings Place. Its curators, Music Orbit, are looking for material to make up their set. It can be in any style, just so long as it is new and evocative. More information on Open Source and other Music Orbit projects can be found at: www.musicorbit.co.uk.
news 2008 BRITISH COMPOSER AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED The winners of the 2008 British Composer Awards were announced on 2 December. Perhaps the biggest story of the night was the triumph of music‘s most experienced composer, with Elliott Carter, now 100 years old, winning the award in the International category for Three Illusions for Orchestra. But awards did not always go to the most established composers, with Michael Zev Gordon winning the Choral award in a category that also included James MacMillan and Colin Matthews. The awards ceremony featured sonic art installations in the hall by Eugene Perera and Mick Grierson, in association with Sonic Arts Network. Janek Schaefer, perhaps the nominee most closely associated with the sonic art scene, won the Sonic Art award for his interactive creation, Extended Play. The awards results in full were: CHAMBER WINNER: Joe Cutler – Folk Music Jonathan Harvey – Sprechgesang Dave Price – Lee’s Game CHORAL James MacMillan – Tenebrae Responsories Colin Matthews – Alphabicycle Order WINNER: Michael Zev Gordon – This Night INSTRUMENTAL SOLO OR DUO WINNER: Judith Bingham – Fantasia (from The Lost Works of Paganini) Patrick Nunn – Transilient Fragments Jonathan Pitkin – Con Spirito
INTERNATIONAL AWARD WINNER: Elliott Carter – Three Illusions for Orchestra Hans Werner Henze – Sebastian im Traum Kaija Saariaho – Mirage LITURGICAL Judith Bingham – Missa Brevis ‘Awake My Soul’ with accompanying anthem The Shepherd WINNER: James MacMillan – 4 Motets from The Strathclyde Motets Howard Skempton – Three Motets MAKING MUSIC AWARD Alexander Campkin – Counting My Numberless Fingers WINNER: John Holland – Green Sky Cecilia McDowall – A Canterbury Mass ORCHESTRAL WINNER: Luke Bedford – Wreathe Rolf Hind – Maya-Sesha Mark-Anthony Turnage – Ceres SONIC ART Ed Hughes - Auditorium Terry Mann – The Bells of Paradise WINNER: Janek Schaefer – Extended Play STAGE WORKS WINNER: Jonathan Dove – The Adventures of Pinocchio James MacMillan – The Sacrifice Edward Rushton – The Shops VOCAL Joe Cutler – Akhmatova Fragments Simon Holt – Sueños WINNER: Howard Skempton – The Moon is Flashing WIND BAND OR BRASS BAND WINNER: Adam Gorb – Adrenaline City Gavin Higgins – A Forest Symphony Joseph Phibbs – The Spiralling Night
TARIK O’REGAN NOMINATED FOR GRAMMY AWARDS Tarik O’Regan, a former shortlisted composer, has been nominated for two GRAMMY’s – the musical equivalent of the Oscars. His album, Threshold of Night is nominated in the Best Choral Performance category, as well as the prestigious Best Classical Album Category. Tarik was born in London in 1978 and educated at Oxford and Cambridge. A two-time British Composer Award winner, he was on the spnm Shortlist from 2000-2002. Everyone at spnm would like to offer Tarik our congratulations for this outstanding achievement. The GRAMMY Awards take place in Los Angeles on 8 February.
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previews charlie usher
ANTON LUKOSZEVIEZE AT SPITALFIELDS Tuesday 6 January LONDON Anton Lukoszevieze
Charlie Usher: Composers whose work I admire and new repertoire created with the curved ‘Bach (Michael, not J.S.) bow’ in mind... what have they done with it?
Graphic artist: Cathy Berberian
Each month a guest artist selects events from the listings for preview. This month’s previews have been chosen by shortlisted composer, Charlie Usher.
Timber from the Ice Prince on the shore
THE SOUND OF TIMBER
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Charlie Usher: I’m delighted to see new and twentieth-century music programmed for children. What was the impulse behind the programming?
GEMDAYS 2: LAPTOPBASED ELECTRONICS
Saturday 24 January WORTHING
Patrick Harrex (composer and co-director of the workshop): We're not just creating music inspired by images of timber on the shore, but by the whole event around the sinking of the cargo ship, Ice Prince: the moment, one year ago, that it sunk; the 'liberation' of its cargo and its journey along the Channel; the stormy seas which drove the timber to shore; the sounds and smells of tons of pine on the beach; crowds taking pictures, emailing and using mobiles to send images around the world, news crews in helicopters, clearance teams at work. The angular, linear arrangement of thousands of planks may even be our graphic score _ from smooth swelling shapes to sharp, angular collisions. We have an open mind about the outcome, perhaps chaotic or maybe majestic, a delicate splinter or a truckload of debris!
BIRMINGHAM
Peter Wiegold (conductor): This is a concert for the family as much as children. I like the conceit of talking to adults through language children will understand and to children through adult language – to connect across generations. We keep things fairly short and create repetitions and refrains to build familarity with the material. I introduce it by pointing out clear things that are both musically crucial and key musical features to hold onto, while mixing the narrative/poetic with the technical. This programme is 'When words sing' – every aspect of turning words into vocal sound from shouts and shrieks to beautiful folk songs. We will have little improvised moments where words appear on screen and singers articulate them, to build up a perception that words and sound can go together in every possible way.
Anton Lukoszevieze (cello): The Bach-Boden bow is suited to chordal and polyphonic music, but each piece is still characteristic of each particular composer. Most of the works use different kinds of scordatura (re-tuning), which opens out the cello as a sonic object. Amnon's piece is for cello embedded in an electronic tape part, something he frequently does, while continuous sound is fundamental in Laurence's piece, though that has more of a monumental and static quality. Dr. Fox's piece Arc creates a weird kind of uber-hurdygurdy sounding cello. James's piece Tide takes the fundamental action of bowing as a method of mirroring tidal action. Bryn's piece relates to his interest in painterly forms. Finally, Jenny Walshe's piece is a text score that creates a mental map for the performer to make a skateboarding 'route' for musical extemporising.
Thursday 29 January HUDDERSFIELD
Helena Gough
Charlie Usher: I’m utterly baffled by this concert’s brief! Hefty aesthetic issues arise when comparing images of timber and a piece of music – what are they and how will you approach this piece?
BCMG FAMILY CONCERTS – WHEN WORDS SING Saturday 17 January
Charlie Usher: What is the relationship between your recorded and live work? And what factors do you consider before a live performance? Helena Gough (electronics): My live performances incorporate aspects of my recorded work into an improvised framework. In both my live performances and my fixed media works I aim to create shifting levels of density in order to offer listeners a variety of choices and listening strategies by which to move through the music. At all times I want the imprint of the technology I am using to be as transparent as is possible. Live performance brings with it considerations specific to the audience and the space in which the performance takes place. It is a balancing act between stability and risk, demanding tools that allow quick access to sound materials and an ability to shape them on the fly. The most essential factor is to have intimate knowledge of my sound materials and how they might fit together or apart.
The Guest Artist Q&A Charlie Usher
As part of spnm’s Raga Mela project, Charlie Usher is one of four composers creating new works inspired by raga for the BBC Concert Orchestra. What kind of ideas are you engaging with as part of the project? It’s all pleasantly elusive. A raga isn’t quite a scale, or a melody, or a piece of music, but all three at the same time. As far as I can tell, it’s some kind of formula for a possible realisation of a piece of music, most of which is improvised collectively, the voice or melody-instrumentwielding soloist taking the helm. Each raga has its own harmonic identity which is articulated by its in-built melody-building, voice-leading and ornamentation rules. Then there’s the rhythmic element... And what should we expect from your piece? My way into writing it was to look at common features of Hindustani Classical music and mine. The way I think about harmony is fairly similar to what I’ve just described, only with different notes!
How would you describe your music? I’ll let people work it out for themselves, it’s more fun then! But I guess it’s a bringing together of various disparate interests of mine and forming them into something I can do something with – ie. something I can listen to. I write music as a means of doing something constructive with my illdisciplined, tangential, messy and confusing mental activity! So it’s either writing music or doing a sudoku. How has the Raga Mela project gone so far? The most inspiring element of the project so far has been being guided by the players with expertise in Hindustani Classical music (Kuljit Bhamra, Jonathan Mayer and Kartik Raghunathan) and trying to work out what on earth the tradition is all about and how it all works. I’m on attempt number three to write my piece. I made a couple of fairly hefty errors and so have had to completely rethink the whole thing. And I have run out of my favourite pencils... So, a normal compositional process!
Are the other Raga Mela composers coming up with interesting ideas? In our October workshop we briefly voiced ideas we had for how to apply all of this new information we had just been taught by our project mentors. What was really encouraging was that we (Richard Glover, Graham Ross, Matthew Sergeant and I) had all found completely different aspects of raga to hone in on and explore. Our final pieces, I suspect, will all be very different. And beyond the Raga Mela project, your shortlisted work is inspired by the work of Mark Rothko. How do you translate Rothko into music? Again, I took a rather removed approach – I mirrored the structural and compositional elements of his work in various ways, though with a surprise ‘wild-card’ dramatic element in the piece to bridge the gap between a still painting and a piece of narrative music. I didn’t want to recreate my emotional response to his work – it’s a personal thing. I’d rather make this statement and let people respond in their own way – I think that is what Rothko was getting at.
And in general, what do you most like and dislike about your music? I know that I don’t take enough risks. I worry that my music might be a little ‘safe’ sometimes, a crime worse than anything! What’s the best concert you’ve ever been to? Sarah Nicolls at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in ‘07 was really exciting, a couple of pieces really standing out due to their idiosyncratic way of using electronics to add to the piano’s expressive potential. Following the concert, the audience were whisked away to another venue for a set by Alexander’s Annexe, Sarah Nicoll’s trio with Mira Calix and David Sheppard. A fun evening combined with top-quality new music. What else on the new music scene really excites you? There are a bunch of composers working in and around Manchester whose work I admire and have learnt a lot from. Larry Goves and his group, the House of Bedlam, are on to something great with a really musical approach to using electronics that has avoided the cliché and arbitrariness it can sometimes fall into, what with the vast number of possibilities that technology allows. And what are your interests outside of music? The big one is linguistics. Thinking about the mechanics of language is quite a useful tool to help me think about music away from the actual notes. Visual arts is another thing – the artist Tacita Dean, especially in her beautifully lyrical film-installation works and chalk-board drawings. I’m obsessed with Syria too. It’s stuffed full with the most absurdly important, ancient and yet crumbling archaeological sites and places. And lots of desert. Charlie Usher’s piece will be performed as part of Raga Mela at the Royal Festival Hall on 6 May. www.spnm.org.uk/events
january 2009
•
new notes 11
listings january 2009
Key: First names indicate living composers and composers of works written post–1960. *** World premiere ** UK premiere * London premiere
Monday 5 January
PARK LANE GROUP YOUNG ARTISTS NEW YEAR’S SERIES
6.15pm
Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX Sulki Yu violin Edwin Roxburgh Soliloquy 3 for solo violin Salvatore Sciarrino Caprices Bartók Sonata for solo violin £5–£9 0871 663 2500 www.southbankcentre.co.uk
OWEN MURRAY AND THE SMITH QUARTET
7.30pm
Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP Owen Murray classical accordion Smith Quartet Sofia Gubaidulina Silenzio Schnittke String Quartet no.3 Hans Abrahamsen Air Poul Ruders Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean (dedicated to Owen and Inger Murray)* £10–£18 020 7935 2141 www.wigmore-hall.org.uk
Tuesday 6 January
PARK LANE GROUP YOUNG ARTISTS NEW YEAR’S SERIES
6.15pm
Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX Nicholas Reed percussion Iannis Xenakis Rebonds A & B Piers Hellawell Let's dance Philippe Manoury No.4 from Le Livre des claviers James Wood Rogosanti £5–£9 0871 663 2500 www.southbankcentre.co.uk
ANTON LUKOSZEVIEZE AT SPITALFIELDS
7.30pm
Toynbee Hall, 28 Commercial Street, London E1 6LS James Weeks Tide*** Christopher Fox Arc Laurence Crane Raimondas Rumsas Bryn Harrison Present Form** Amnon Wolman Stop** Jennifer Walshe This is why people o.d. on Pills /And jump from the Golden Gate Bridge** £10 See 020 7377 1362 Previews www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk
12 new notes • january 2009
Friday 9 January
AZALEA PLAYS WOOLRICH
6pm
Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road NW1 Simon Bainbridge conductor Jessica Cottis conductor Azalea John Woolrich From The Shadows; Dartington Doubles; Caprichos Ivor Bonnici new work Samuel Quartermaine Smith new work Free admission 020 7873 7300 www.ram.ac.uk/events
Saturday 10 January
JUNCTIONS: ENGLISH 8.15pm MUSIC BREAKING FORMATION The Studio, The Hawth Theatre, Hawth Avenue, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 6YZ The Tacet Ensemble with John Spiers and Jon Boden This collaborative concert brings together traditional English folk music and contemporary composition. New works have been commissioned from Jon Boden, Ed Hughes, Alison Kay and John Spiers for the combined forces of the two groups. In addition the Tacet Ensemble will play pieces by Julian Anderson, Graham Fitkin, Michael Finnissy, Kenneth Hesketh, George Nicholson and Timothy Salter, and Spiers and Boden will play from their extensive repertoire of traditional music. £12.50 (£10.50) 01293 553 636 www.tickets.hawth.co.uk
Sunday 11 January
7.30pm PATRICIA ROZARIO, JULIUS DRAKE, JOAN ENRIC LLUNA Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP Patricia Rozario soprano Julius Drake piano Joan Enric Lluna clarinet Schubert The Shepherd on the Rock Poulenc Fiançailles pour rire Rodrigo 4 madrigales amatorios; Selected songs; Osvaldo Golijov Lua Descolorida £12–£25 020 7935 2141 www.wigmore-hall.org.uk
Thursday 15 January
BRIDGET CAREY – VIOLA 1.15pm St.Paul’s Hall, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH New compositions by undergraduate and postgraduate composers at the University of Huddersfield Free admission 01484 223200 www.hud.ac.uk/mh/music
INSIGHT: ERROLLYN WALLEN
6pm
CBSO Centre, Birmingham, Berkley Street, B1 2LF Peter Wiegold conductor Errollyn Wallen, Eileen Hulse, Lore Lixenberg singers Composer/performer Errollyn Wallen talks to BCMG Education Manager Nancy Evans about her new English Folk Songs for BCMG’s Family & Schools’ Concerts, in which the composer herself takes the solo vocal part.This FREE event is linked to BCMG Family Concerts on Sat 17th Jan 09 and will finish at approximately 7.15pm. Free admission 0121 616 2616 www.bcmg.org.uk
THE VOICE AND NOTHING MORE
6pm
Slade Research Centre, 10–11 Woburn Square, London WC1H 0NS Curated by Sam Belinfante and Neil Luck. Visual artists from a wide range of media engage in an exploration of a musical score, culminating in a series of performances at 7.30pm. Performers include leading contemporary and experimental vocalists such as Loré Lixenberg, Juice Vocal Ensemble, Mikhail Karikis. Free admission www.thevoiceandnothingmore.com
Friday 16 January
MARTIN ANNIVERSARY: 5.30pm THE SCHUBERT ENSEMBLE Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, Paradise Place, Fletchers Walk, Birmingham, B3 3HG The Schubert Ensemble George Caird oboe Commemorating 50 years since Bohuslav Martin’s death, the Conservatoire’s Ensemble-in-Residence, together with its Principal, George Caird, perform a varied programme by this prolific Czech composer, who spent much of his life in exile. The concert, which illustrates both his versatility and his fantastically colourful musical language, includes the Piano Trio no.3, Duo no.2 for violin and cello, the Quartet for oboe and piano trio and culminates in the exhilarating Piano Quartet. £5.50 (£3) 0121 331 5901 www.conservatoire.bcu.ac.uk
THE VOICE AND NOTHING MORE
6pm
Slade Research Centre, 10–11 Woburn Square, London WC1H 0NS See January 15 listing for programme details. Free admission www.thevoiceandnothingmore.com
Saturday 17 January
TOTAL IMMERSION: STOCKHAUSEN
1pm
Jerwood Hall, LSO St Luke’s Richard Baker conductor Nicolas Hodges piano BBC SO BBC Singers Guildhall New Music Ensemble Karlheinz Stockhausen Klavierstücke; Choral; Chöre für Doris; Litanei 97; Kontra-Punkte; Adieu for wind quintet £10 020 7638 8891 www.barbican.org.uk
1.30pm BCMG FAMILY CONCERTS: WHEN WORDS SING CBSO Centre, Berkley Street, Birmingham, B1 2LF BCMG Peter Wiegold conductor Errollyn Wallen, Eileen Hulse, Loré Lixenberg singers Oliver Knussen Hums and Song of Winnie the Pooh Cathy Berberian Stripsody Errollyn Wallen new work*** Liz Johnson Elephant Woman Errollyn Wallen A new piece for young voices Luciano Berio Folk Songs Plus new solo pieces by Matthew Sergeant, Peter Wiegold and John Woolrich £6 (£3.50), group ticket £15 See 0121 767 4050 Previews www.bcmg.org.uk
7pm
TOTAL IMMERSION: STOCKHAUSEN Barbican Hall, Silk Street, London EC2 David Robertson conductor Kathinka Pasveer, Alain Louafi dancer-mime BBC Symphony Orchestra Karlheinz Stockhausen Inori £8–£24 020 7638 8891 www.barbican.org.uk
7.30pm
Recital Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, Paradise Place, Fletchers Walk, Birmingham, B3 3HG Birmingham Conservatoire Percussion Ensemble Conservatoire Composers’ Ensemble Alonso Mendoza, Howard Skempton directors American composer/pianist Frederic Rzewski has been at the forefront of contemporary music for nearly 50 years: breaking down boundaries by melding various musical influences, exploring the use of text and of flexible notation and maintaining a belief in the power of art to express the need for a fairer and more politically responsible society. Tonight’s programme includes Rzewski’s Coming Together alongside Christian Wolf’s Burdocks. £5.50 (£3) 0121 331 5901 www.conservatoire.bcu.ac.uk
7.30pm
Duke’s Hall An evening of jazz-infused music from North Africa, Eastern Europe and South Africa. 020 7873 7300 £6 (£4) www.ram.ac.uk/events
The Wilde Theatre, South Hill Park, Ringmead, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 7PA See January 10 listing for programme details. £15 (£11) 01344 484 123 www.southhillpark.org.uk
Tuesday 20 January
BRITTEN SINFONIA AT LUNCH 2
9pm
Barbican Hall, Silk Street, London EC2 Karlheinz Stockhausen Hymnen (Four-track tape only version) £10 020 7638 8891 www.barbican.org.uk
Sunday 18 January
THEODORE KERKEZOS; MEI YI FOO
FREDERIC RZEWSKI RESIDENCY CONCERT
ACADEMY JAZZ AND PERCUSSION
7.30pm JUNCTIONS: ENGLISH MUSIC BREAKING FORMATION
TOTAL IMMERSION: STOCKHAUSEN
Monday 19 January
7.30pm
Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP Theodore Kerkezos saxophone Mei Yi Foo piano Florent Schmitt Légende Paul Creston Sonata Pierre Sancan Lamento et Rondo Demersseman Fantaisie sur un thème original Milhaud Scaramouche (arr. for saxophone and piano) Mikis Theodorakis Cretan Concertino Pedro Iturralde Czardas And music by Debussy £10–£22 020 7935 2141 www.wigmore-hall.org.uk
1pm
Cambridge West Road Concert Hall Jacqueline Shave violin, director Miranda Dale violin Martin Outram viola Caroline Dearnley cello Emer McDonough flute Nicholas Daniel oboe, cor anglais Joy Farrall clarinet Stephen Bell horn John Lenehan piano Ryan Wigglesworth conductor Britten Phantasy Quartet Ryan Wigglesworth new work*** Oliver Knussen Songs without Voices J. Strauss arr. Schoenberg Emperor Waltz £7 (£4) 01223 357851 www.brittensinfonia.express.ts.com
INSIGHT: AN EVENING WITH GEORGE BENJAMIN
ENDELLION STRING QUARTET
7.30pm
Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP Endellion String Quartet Beethoven String Quartet in B-flat Thomas Adès Arcadiana Schubert String Quartet in G £12–£24 020 7935 2141 www.wigmore-hall.org.uk
LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
7.30pm
Barbican Hall, Silk Street, London EC2 Kristjan Järvi conductor Carel Kraayenhof bandoneon London Symphony Orchestra Ginastera Dances from 'Estancia' Piazzolla Aconcagua – Concerto for Bandoneon Revueltas La Noche de los Mayas £7-£32 020 7638 8891 www.lso.co.uk
8pm VOCAL CROSSINGS: CURATED BY MIKHAIL KARIKIS Kings Place, 90 Yprk Way, London, N1 9AG Part of the This Is Tuesday series. Celebrating King’s Cross as a neighbourhood of international musical exchanges, vocalist Mikhail Karikis invites artists from Belgian label Sub Rosa – celebrated avant-folk musician Martyn Bates and sound-poet Gabriel Séverin – alongside new music vocal legend Linda Hirst, avant-garde jazz singer E.LAINE and composer Conall Gleeson. From £9.50 oline, £11.50 offline 020 7520 1490 www.kingsplace.co.uk
Wednesday 21 January
1pm
BRITTEN SINFONIA AT LUNCH 2 London Wigmore Hall See 20 January for programme details. £10 (£9) 020 7935 2141 www.brittensinfonia.express.ts.com
NEW NOISE 6pm
CBSO Centre, Birmingham, Berkley Street, B1 2LF Following Paul Griffiths’ illuminating conversations with Pierre Boulez in May 2008, this insightful writer on music returns to interview composer/conductor George Benjamin, during the rehearsal period for his January 2009 concert with BCMG. £6 including a glass of wine/juice on arrival. 0121 616 2616 www.bcmg.org.uk
6.30pm
Windsor Auditorium, Royal Holloway University London Janey Miller oboe Joby Burgess percussion Harrison Birtwistle Pulse Sampler John Lely Desk Bells Dobrinka Tabakova Frozen River Flows Adrian Lee Peace for Vayu Simon Holt Sphinx £10 (£8) 01784 443853 www.rhul.ac.uk/Music
january 2009 • new notes
13
PHILIPPE GRAFFIN; LONDON SINFONIETTA
7.30pm
Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP Philippe Graffin conductor, violin Elizabeth Burley piano London Sinfonietta Mendelssohn Violin Sonata in F Michael Stimpson Age of Wonders: The Man Who Walked With Henslow***; Age of Wonders: An Entangled Bank*** Chausson Poème for violin and chamber ensemble £10–£20 020 7935 2141 www.wigmore-hall.org.uk
GHOSTS BEFORE BREAKFAST
UBS SOUNDSCAPES: ECLECTICA BURNS NIGHT
8pm
LSO St Luke's, UBS and LSO Music Education Centre, 161 Old Street, London EC1V 9NG Catriona McKay harp Chris Stout violin Salsa Celtica James MacMillan curator Bringing alive the atmospheric folk music of the Scottish Highlands and Islands with bagpipe, fiddle and sonic delights from the technological age, this is a contemporary Burns concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Scottish bard’s birth, curated by one of the UK’s leading composers. £–-£21 020 7638 8891 www.lso.co.uk
7.30pm
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, York YO10 5DD Counterpoise: Caroline Balding violin Deborah Calland trumpet Kyle Horch saxophone Helen Reid piano Eleanor Bron narrator R Strauss The Castle by the Sea Jean Hasse film score: Ghosts Before Breakfast Mauricio Kagel MM51; Old/New Heiner Goebbels In the Basement Edward Rushton On the Edge £14–£16 (£3–£15) 01904 432439 www.YorkConcerts.co.uk
7.30pm CHARLES DARWIN 200TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London, W1U 2BP London Sinfonietta Philippe Graffin conductor, violin Elizabeth Burley piano New works by Michael Stimpson celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth – The Man Who Walked With Henslow (for violin and piano) and An Entangled Bank (for string orchestra) – alongside works from the natural scientist’s lifetime. £10–£20 020 7935 2141 www.wigmore-hall.org.uk
RZEWSKI PLAYS RZEWSKI 7.45pm Recital Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, Paradise Place, Fletchers Walk, Birmingham, B3 3HG Frederic Rzewski piano Frederic Rzewski is a natural successor to the great composer/pianist virtuosi of the 19th century. Not only one of the great pianists of our time, Rzewski has also produced some of the most important piano works of the last fifty years. Tonight he performs some of this work in the second of Birmingham Conservatoire’s Frederic Rzewski Residency concerts. £5.50 (£3) 0121 331 5901 www.conservatoire.bcu.ac.uk
14 new notes • january 2009
LONDON SINFONIETTA: 7.30pm BANNERS – MUSIC, MELODY & TEXT Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG Mary Carewe soprano Daniel Evans tenor Jenny Galloway actor Dominic Muldowney piano London Sinfonietta Music with political undertones by Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler and Dominic Muldowney open the Art of News; three-days of events curated by Muldowney and the London Sinfonietta that examine the artistic potential of news stories. Followed by the first of three late evening Poetry Platforms at 9.30pm. £13.50–£22.50 (£2 less online) 020 7250 1490 www.kingsplace.co.uk
Thursday 22 January Friday 23 January
BRITTEN SINFONIA AT LUNCH 2
1pm MAX: WRITING FOR SOLO INSTRUMENTS
Birmingham Town Hall See 20 January for programme details. £7.50 (£5) 0121 780 3333 www.brittensinfonia.express.ts.com
QUATUOR DANEL LUNCHTIME CONCERT
1.10pm
Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall, Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, University of Manchester, M13 9PL Quatuor Danel: Marc Danel and Gilles Millet violins Vlad Bogdanas viola Guy Danel cello Schubert’s early Quartet in E-flat, followed by the first performance of the Duet for Two Violins by the Polish composer, Krzysztof Meyer, who befriended Shostakovich in the last years of his life and wrote one of the finest biographical studies of the Soviet master. Free admission 0161 275 8951 www.manchester.ac.uk/martinharriscentre
1.15pm SIMON H FELL, CHRIS BURN & PHILIP THOMAS St.Paul’s Hall, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH Simon H Fell double bass Chris Burn piano Philip Thomas piano A programme of improvisations bass, piano and prepared piano livemusic@hud.ac.uk Free admission 01484 223200 www.hud.ac.uk/mh/music
PETR EBEN: IN TRIBUTE 6.30pm St Marylebone Parish Church, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LT An evening dedicated to the organ music of Petr Eben (1929–2007), who would have celebrated his 80th birthday on this day. Illustrated lecture on the life and music of Petr Eben given by Graham Melville Mason followed by the United Music Publisher’s Organ Prize: Royal Academy of Music students perform a wide range of Eben’s ensemble music. Free admission 020 7873 7300 www.ram.ac.uk/events
10am
Concert Room Visiting Professor of Composition Sir Peter Maxwell Davies discusses the challenges of writing for solo instruments, illustrated by live performances of his works Sea Eagle for horn, The Kestrel Paced Round the Sun for flute and The Door of the Sun for viola. Free admission 020 7873 7300 www.ram.ac.uk/events
BRITTEN SINFONIA AT LUNCH 2
1pm
Norwich The Assembly House See 20 January for programme details. £7 (£4) 01603 630000 www.brittensinfonia.express.ts.com
MAX: WRITING FOR YOUNGER PERFORMERS
2pm
Concert Room Sir Peter Maxwell Davies talks with Academy composers about writing music for young musicians. Free admission 020 7873 7300 www.ram.ac.uk/events
7.30pm BBC SO: MATTHEW TAYLOR + GWYN PRITCHARD WORLD PREMIERES Maida Vale Studios, 1-129 Delaware Road, London W9 2LG Garry Walker conductor BBC Symphony Orchestra David Fennessy Dead End Gwyn Pritchard The Firmament of Time*** Matthew Taylor Symphony No. 2*** Free admission, ticket required 0370 901 1227 www.bbc.co.uk/tickets
LONDON SINFONIETTA: 7.30pm CARBON COPY CABARET Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG Mary Carewe soprano Daniel Evans tenor London Sinfonietta Hanns Eisler’s Newspaper Cutting Stories continues the London Sinfonietta’s The Art of News. It prefaces new songs using texts from contemporary daily news by composers from ROH2’s OperaGenesis scheme and Dominic Muldowney’s Five Theatre Songs. Followed by Poetry Platform featuring Scroobius Pip at 9.30pm. From £9.50 online, £11.50 offline 020 7250 1490 www.kingsplace.co.uk
STRIP JACK NAKED
8pm
Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3NR Kokoro Loré Lixenberg mezzo-soprano Mark Forkgen conductor Michael Torke Yellow Pages/Blue Pages (The Telephone Book) Eleanor Alberga Dancing with the Shadow (Finale) Graham Fitkin Totti Stephen McNeff Strip Jack Naked £6 (£3) 01308 424204 www.bridport-arts.com
Sunday 25 January
BCMG 2008/09 SEASON 7.30pm
Saturday 24 January
THE SOUND OF TIMBER
10am
St Matthew’s Church, Tarring Road, Worthing, West Sussex A CoMA/ Revolutionary Music workshop marking the first anniversary of the Ice Prince sinking. For instrumentalists and vocalists of any standard, devised by artist Dan Thompson, directed by Adam Swayne, Music Director, CoMA Sussex, and composer Patrick Harrex, led by members of CoMA. Images of timber along the Sussex coast will be the inspiration for a new work to be created and performed by participants. Admission free to workshop (pre-registration required) and concert. See 01903 526 268 Previews www.coma.org
RNCM BIG BAND WITH BIRGER SULSBRÜCK
7.30pm
RNCM Theatre, 124 Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9RD Mike Hall director Birger Sulsbrück percussion The RNCM Big Band takes to the stage with Danishborn band leader and percussionist Birger Sulsbrück. £12–£16 0161 907 5200
LONDON SINFONIETTA: 7.30pm IN THE NEWS AND ON THE STAGE Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG Mary Carewe soprano Daniel Evans tenor Dominic Muldowney conductor London Sinfonietta A major new commission from Dominic Muldowney is the climax of the London Sinfonietta’s The Art of News mini festival. The programme also includes Frederic Rzewski’s Coming Together and O King by Berio. John Hegley and friends round off the event with the final Poetry Platform, with music from Gwyneth Herbert, at 9.30pm. £13.50–£22.50 (£2 less online) 020 7250 1490 www.kingsplace.co.uk
CBSO Centre, Berkley Street, Birmingham, B1 2LF BCMG George Benjamin conductor Claire Booth soprano Oliver Knussen Two Organa Luigi Dallapiccola Piccola Musica Notturna; Cinque Frammenti di Saffo; Tre Laudi Francesco Antonioni Ballata*** George Benjamin Three Inventions for Chamber Orchestra £14-£15 (£5–£9) 0121 767 4050 www.bcmg.org.uk
Monday 26 January
MUSIC ON MONDAYS
6.30pm
The Chapel, University of Chichester, Bishop Otter Campus, College Lane,Chichester, PO19 6PE Ensemble na Mara Tom Hankey violin Jessica Beeston viola Eilidh Martin cello Alasdair Beatson piano Philip Cashian Music for the night sky Martinu String Trio no.2 Timothy Salter Piano Quartet Fauré Piano Quartet no1 in C minor Free concert with wine and discussion 01243 816185 music@chi.ac.uk
ELLIOTT CARTER CELEBRATION
1.05pm
Inner Parry Room, Royal College of Music, London SW7 Elliott Carter 90+; 4 Lauds for solo violin; Sonata for flute, oboe, cello & harpsichord; Changes for guitar; Caténaires for piano A 100th birthday celebration for one of the most significant figures of the 20th century, devised by Julian Jacobson. The RCM's Elliott Carter Celebration includes works from across his output - from the early neoclassical Canonic Suite (1939) to Caténaires (2006) for solo piano - ending up with his seminal Triple Duo (1983). Free admission, no ticket required www.rcm.ac.uk
7pm SHADOWS OF LIGHT: MUSIC FROM THE SEAGRAM MURALS Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG The premiere of British composer Jim Aitchison's response in music to Rothko's Seagram Murals is performed in front of Rothko's great paintings in the Tate exhibition by the Kreutzer Quartet with Michael Thompson (horn) and Nicholas Clapton (countertenor). Aitchison's composition is intimately derived from Rothko's paintings. £25 (£20) 020 7887 8888 www.tate.org.uk/modern
ELLIOTT CARTER CELEBRATION
7.30pm
Recital Hall, Royal College of Music, London SW7 Elliott Carter Canonic Suite; Quartet for piano and strings; Piano Sonata; 8 pieces for 4 timpani; Cello Sonata; Brass Quintet; Triple Duo The second part of this free event. See 1.05pm listing for first part. Free admission, no ticket required
FRONTIERS: FLOTILLA
7.30pm
Recital Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, Paradise Place, Fletchers Walk, Birmingham, B3 3HG Kyle Horch, Naomi Sullivan, Andrew Tweed, Alistair Parnell saxophones Jonathan Dove Tuning In Jan Morthenson Chorale Paul Evernden Three Songs for Sajmi te Jan Dismas Zelenka Trio Sonata Liz Johnson O Vos Edward McGuire Remembrance William Sweeney Cha b’ann grad… Elliott Carter Canonic Suite £5.50 (£3) Tickets on the door from 6.30pm 0121 331 5901 www.conservatoire.bcu.ac.uk
Tuesday 27 January
HAYDN, MENDELSSOHN 7.30pm AND BEYOND Inner Parry Room, Royal College of Music, London SW7 Alison Kay Flux Mendelssohn String Quartet no.4 in E minor Mark-Anthony Turnage A Fast Stomp Timothy Salter Serenade Haydn Piano Trio no.35 in C major £8 (£5) 020 7591 4314 www.boxoffice.rcm.ac.uk
CHRISTIAN FORSHAW AND 8pm THE SANCTUARY ENSEMBLE Kings Place, 90 Yprk Way, London, N1 9AG John Metcalfe curates an events as part of the This Is Tuesday series. ‘Music with a heart-rending simplicity…very beautiful, very different’, is how Radio 3's Sean Rafferty describes saxophonist Christian Forshaw's haunting music. Featuring Forshaw, soprano, keyboards and percussion this concert includes works from Forshaw’s hugely successful albums Sanctuary and Renouncement. From £9.50 oline, £11.50 offline 020 7520 1490 www.christianforshaw.com www.kingsplace.co.uk
january 2009 • new notes
15
Wednesday 28 January
THE CONTEMPORARY PIANO
2pm
Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music, London SW7 An open masterclass at 2pm with internationally renowned new music specialist Rolf Hind (who has not only worked with many of today’s leading composers but is an accomplished composer himself), is followed at 6pm by RCM pianists, who give their own performances of contemporary classic works. Free admission, no ticket required 020 7589 3643 www.rcm.ac.uk
7pm BBC SO: VIC HOYLAND WORLD PREMIERE Barbican Hall, Silk Street, London EC2 Andrew Litton conductor Soile Isokoski soprano BBC Symphony Orchestra Vic Hoyland Phoenix (BBC commission)*** R. Strauss Hymne an die Liebe; Das Rosenband; Die heiligen drei Könige; Morgen; Cäcilie; Ein Heldenleben £8–£24 020 7638 8891 www.barbican.org.uk
JÖRG WIDMANN, ARTEMIS QUARTET
7.30pm
Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP Jörg Widmann clarinet Artemis Quartet Widmann String Quartet no.1 Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A Schubert String Quartet in D minor, ‘Death and the Maiden’ £12–£24 020 7935 2141 www.wigmore-hall.org.uk
LONDON SINFONIETTA
7.30pm
Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX London Sinfonietta Oliver Knussen conductor Rosemary Hardy soprano Elliott Carter Asko Concerto; In the distances of sleep; Au Quai; Réflexions John Woolrich Between the Hammer and the Anvil*** £9 - £22 0871 663 2500 www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk www.southbankcentre.co.uk
THE MAGIC OF THE HARP 7.45pm Recital Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, Paradise Place, Fletchers Walk, Birmingham, B3 3HG Catherine White harp Suzanna Purkis mezzo-soprano Diane Clark flute Robin Ireland viola John Todd cello An evening of chamber and solo works, including works by Grandjany (Fantasie on a Theme of Haydn), Flothius (Pour le Tombeau d’Orphée), Hasselmans (Chanson de Mai), Fauré (Impromptu) and Debussy (Sonata for flute, viola and harp) and featuring the British professional premiere of American composer Michael Cohen’s emotionally-powerful setting of extracts from ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’: I Remember. £6 (£4) Tickets on the door from 6.45pm 0121 331 5901 www.conservatoire.bcu.ac.uk
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8pm GEMDAYS 1: CIRCUIT-BENDING ELECTRONICA Phipps Concert Hall, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH John Richards electronics Free admission 01484 223200 www.hud.ac.uk/mh/music
Thursday 29 January
8pm GEMDAYS 2: LAPTOP-BASED ELECTRONICS Phipps Concert Hall, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH Helena Gough electronics Free admission See 01484 223200 Previews www.hud.ac.uk/mh/music
Friday 30 January
KREUTZER QUARTET
7.30pm
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, York YO10 5DD Kreutzer Quartet JS Bach arr. David Matthews Prelude & Fugue in B minor Cherubini Souvenir de Pierre Baillot David Matthews Quartet no.5 Beethoven Quartet in F-flat (with Grosse Fugue) £12–£14 (£3–£13) 01904 432439 www.YorkConcerts.co.uk
THE ORCHESTRAL CANVAS
7.30pm
Duke’s Hall Christopher Austin conductor This annual composition showcase features the fullest range of media and concert orchestral compositions written by undergraduate student composers. £6 (£4) 020 7873 7300 www.ram.ac.uk/events
BLACK DYKE BAND
Saturday 31 January
10.30am COMPOSERS’ WORKSHOP WITH OLIVER KNUSSEN Cambridge West Road Concert Hall Oliver Knussen composer, mentor Ryan Wigglesworth conductor Britten Sinfonia musicians 10.30am Workshop 3.30pm Concert performance New works by students from the University of Cambridge Free admission 01223 300 795 www.brittensinfonia.express.ts.com
6pm PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA: MUSIC OF TODAY Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX Players from the Philharmonia Orchestra Shiva Nova musicians Priti Paintal presenter A new Commission from Priti Paintal Free admission www.southbankcentre.co.uk
Sunday 1 February
SUNDAY COFFEE CONCERT
12pm
Kettle’s Yard, Castle Street, Cambridge CB3 0AQ Ensemble Klang: Heiko Geerts, Erik-Jan de With saxophones Joey Marijs percussion Anton Van Houten trombone Pete Harden bass Saskia Lankhoorn piano Tom Gelissen sound engineer. Tom Johnson Vermont Rhythms Pete Harden Dorset Turns and Dies a Sorrowful Death Andrew Hamilton Music For People Who Lose People £6 (£4) 01223 300 085/ 01223 748100 www.kettlesyard.co.uk/newmusic
7.45pm
RNCM Concert Hall, RNCM Theatre, 124 Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9RD Nicholas Childs conductor Richard Marshall cornet David Thornton euphonium Philip Gault baritone Philip Wilby A Breathless Alleluia*** Peter Graham In League with Extraordinary Gentlemen (Concerto for Euphonium)*** Gilbert Vinter Spectrum Paul Lovatt-Cooper Antarctica*** James Curnow Concert Piece for cornet and band Philip Wilby Two songs: Memory; Sonnet Edward Gregson Rococo Variations £12–£14 0161 907 5200 www.rncm.ac.uk
GEMDAYS 3: ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND VIDEO PERFORMANCES Phipps Concert Hall, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH Jo Hyde electronics and video Free admission 01484 223 200 www.hud.ac.uk/mh/music
8pm
MARIINSKY THEATRE/ GERGIEV
7.30pm
Barbican Hall, Silk Street, London EC2 Soloists, Orchestra and Chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre Valery Gergiev conductor Alexander Smelkov The Brothers Karamazov** £11-£35 020 7638 8891 www.barbican.org.uk
Tuesday 3 February
HAYDN, MENDELSSOHN 7.30pm AND BEYOND Inner Parry Room, Royal College of Music, London SW7 William Mival Quartet - RBG Mendelssohn Piano Trio no 1 in D minor Haydn String Quartet in D major Michael Oliva Night Crossing £8 (£5) complimentary drink included. Buy tickets for 3 concerts, get a ticket for the 4th concert for free. 020 7591 4314 www.boxoffice.rcm.ac.uk
Music & Chance
Tuesday 17 February, 7.30pm Queen Elizabeth Hall, London Tickets £20/£16/£12 (Transaction fees apply. No booking fees for Southbank Centre Members.) Charles Hazlewood conductor Mozart Schnittke Colin Matthews Ives Stravinsky
A Musical Dice Game Moz-Art à la Haydn To Compose Without the Least Knowledge of Music The Unanswered Question Jeu de cartes
Plus new work by 12 leading composers including Anne Dudley, Will Gregory, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Bill Bailey, Tansy Davies, Paul Patterson, Fung Lam, Barnaby Taylor and Gwilym Simcock. To find out, join the players of the BBC Concert Orchestra for an evening of musical magic and chance.
Take a chance on the BBC Concert Orchestra in an evening of music inspired by the roll of the dice, the turn of the cards – in short, a night of complete chance!
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TABLATURE! spnm’s BARBARA PALCZYNSKI reports from a special residency at Dartington designed to bring musicians from different cultures together and create a universal system of notating music for tabla... Four composers. Four percussionists. Four tabla players. One goal: to find a method of notating for tabla that can be used widely by composers, western musicians and Indian musicians equally. The aims of this project are close to the heart of spnm artistic director, Kuljit Bhamra. A composer and tabla player himself, he is determined to demystify the tabla and the world of tabla music in order to make this an instrument which is accessible to composers. He hopes that this, in turn, will create repertoire which can be performed by tabla players. Traditionally, the tabla player learns with a teacher (guru) who hands down his own method of tabla playing orally, using language to describe the sounds. The tabla player is his own composer, improvising his own ideas, communicating all the time with other musicians through a series of visual cues. He is the beginning and end of his own circle. With the support of two partners, Darbar South Asian Music Festival and Dartington Arts, spnm and Kuljit have created a unique environment bringing East and West together under one umbrella, with music the catalyst for a very special experiment. Nestled in the peace of the Devonshire countryside and with the beautiful backdrop of Dartington Hall, the setting for this musical retreat could not have been better. The group has been carefully put together to create a balance that is essential to the success of the project. The tabla players were so generous in the way they patiently allowed us to pull apart their music, look at the ambiguities of their strokes, the discrepancies in their rhythmical cycles. As a strictly
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classical musician myself, it’s hard to imagine how I would feel if someone came along and took my cello and started pointing out the pitfalls of my instrument, the way music is notated for my instrument and the way I communicate that sound to other people. For their grace and understanding, we were very grateful, because it was a necessary part of this process. We looked carefully at previous ways that composers have notated for this instrument, and the extent to which we felt these were successful. Most tabla players cannot read from Western notation, so inherently, this presents a stumbling block. Kuljit told stories of how in recordings, some composers just hold up the number of fingers to represent beats in the cycles, or write numbers in the score to indicate to him which rhythmical cycle is required. But does that fully translate a composer’s thoughts if it leaves much of the interpretation of that rhythmic cycle to the player? Over a period of 24 hours, through splitting the group into four, each containing a composer, a tabla player and a percussionist, we enabled systems of notation to develop naturally. Somehow, and this was the intriguing part, all four groups created something very similar. In fact, by the end of the first day, two of the groups had consolidated their methods into one system. The result of the residency was a system that all the participants are excited about
and are convinced works. Essentially the notation the group decided on is a type of tablature (the coincidence of ‘tabla’ and ‘tablature’ has now given us the project’s title!), with a two-line stave, one for each drum, and different symbols to represent different places on the drums to hit. The reality of what we were achieving was summed up by composer Jatanil Banerjee: ‘We are developing concepts that really do work, and using the geography of the tabla, we are creating something that the players understand as well.’ We tested out the system and found that it allowed Indian players who do not read western notation to play patterns from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, while it also allowed western musicians who have never played the tabla before to perform traditional Indian figures that would normally require personal contact with a guru to learn. So this was the first part of our journey. Now, for a concert in April, the four composers – Jatanil Banerjee, Evangelia Rigaki, Roberto Rusconi and Luke Styles – will start working on new works using the new notation, as will worldrenowned tabla player Subhankar Banerjee and Kuljit himself. And beyond the concert, there has to be a further phase which involves holding workshops, symposia all over the country to disseminate this message widely amongst the tabla community. The Tablature! event takes place at the QEH, London on 6 April as part of the Darbar Festival. We will publish further information on the notation online.
spnm this month SOUND AND MUSIC UPDATE We are moving rapidly towards our launch which is planned for spring 2009, working on aspects including confirming a new, single premises in Central London. A reminder that we will still be at our usual offices and still working as spnm until the launch. A beta version of the Sound and Music website will be live during January, we hope, and we would encourage everyone to look out for this and begin using it as your community and information hub. And as we’re launching it as a beta site, we’d really appreciate your feedback, which will help us focus things around the needs of the people who are using it.
CELEBRATING SPNM’S PAST AND LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE For three weeks in November and December, we stopped focusing solely on the future and began thinking about spnm’s 65-year history as well. We began contacting people who had been involved in spnm over the years and where possible, recorded them on video. We collected some fantastic memories from 30 people – composers, artistic directors, previous staff and chairs. Amongst the memories we collected were stories of why Francis Chagrin, who founded spnm in 1943, changed his name to Chagrin; how the first concert, the ‘First Experimental Rehearsal’, was held at the Albert Hall, which was hired for £5; and how spnm’s Composer Weekends in the 1960s-70s formed the melting pot in which ideologies were fiercely argued – for example between the radical politics and experimentalism of Cornelius Cardew and the religious minimalism of John Tavener – and where lifelong friendships were made.
The culmination of this collective remembering was a day at Kings Place on 8 December. During the morning and afternoon, spnm staff met the composers of the future – those joining the 2008 Shortlist – to talk about their music and the next three years. Then, in the evening, we held a reception where people could watch the collected video memories and gather to celebrate the remarkable work that the organisation has done since 1943. A symbolic handover was made from outgoing spnm chair, Jenny Goodwin, to the first chair of Sound and Music, Sonita Alleyne, who talked about her passion for excellence in music and for getting more people interested in new music and sound. It was a great event, attended by many of our friends and colleagues, and it has helped underline the heritage the organisation will carry forward into Sound and Music. We will be putting materials from the event online, and you will be able to watch the videos on the spnm and Sound and Music websites shortly.
THE SOUND SOURCE: THE MEANING BETWEEN US 10 FEBRUARY, LONDON Nicholas Brown is co-curating a night that is more a mysterious journey than a concert. Encouraging the audience to drift through different spaces, it will feel unpredictable, enigmatic and full of different possible pathways. See the advertisement, back page, for more information, and take a look at www.mimomaniac.co.uk, where you can already get involved.
TABLATURE! Our new Tablature! project is the culmination of Kuljit Bhamra’s ideas as artistic director. To read about the project, see the article opposite.
An evening of live music/cinema curated by London based project space no.w.here. Lam projector performances, curates avant-garde archivist. His performances teeter on the brin expectations we might have of film/art/perfor new improvisatory notes info: and playful approach unfixed, artist, performer and audience. The evening ISSN: 1350-8989 including a collaboration betwe performance, Published by: spnm, 4th Floor 18–20 Southwark St, London SE1 cellist/improviso 1TJ maverick musicians; Korean www.spnm.org.uk instrumentalist/free improvisor Steve Beresfo Editor: Shoël Stadlen trumpeter/composer/improvisor Peter Evans Deputy Editor: Tim Scudder Assistant Editor: Sarah Crocker spnm tel: 020 7407 1640 fax: 020 7403 7652 email: newnotes@spnm.org.uk Editorial advisors: Christopher Fox, Julia Winterson, Andrew Kurowski The opinions expressed in new notes are those of the authors and not necessarily those of new notes or spnm. Copyright of all articles is held by spnm and the contributors. Unauthorised reproduction of any item is forbidden.
Advertising Copy deadline: 5th of the preceding month (e.g. 5 January for the February issue) Concert listings: by annual subscription, form downloadable from www.spnm.org.uk/newnotesmagazine Display Ads eighth page – £95 quarter page – £165 half page – £295 full page – £520 Typesetting ads – 5% extra Leaflet insertion: London only (1,000) – £340 Full list (2,700) – £450 All prices subject to VAT at 15% spnm is a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee no. 3159258. Charity no 1055754.
members’ offers Kreutzer Quartet: Northern Lights MSV28507
John Casken String Quartet No.2 Judith Weir String Quartet Robert Saxton Songs, Dances and Ellipses The Kreutzer Quartet are well known for their collaborations with the art galleries, not least for their annual residency at the Tate, St. Ives. Their playing has been described as a mixture of ‘Passion, Grace and Steel’ by the Independent. Here, they perfrom works by John Casken, Judith Weir and Robert Sexton. The recordings were made over the past decade, but this is their first appearance on CD. spnm £10, inc. p+p • rrp £15
news from the shortlist Amongst the many things our shortlisted composers are up to: Roberto Rusconi has been selected to create a percussion ensemble work for Sculpted Sound Ensemble’s performance at the ‘Futurism Updated’ event in London on 21 April. Nicholas Peters’ work for solo tenor recorder, Going Missing, was premiered by Charlotte Pugh at Bath Spa University on 21 November. Christian Mason’s In Time Entwined, In Space Enlaced, for and ensemble of 9 players with 36 audience harmonicas, was broadcast on Radio 3’s Hear and Now on 13 December.
How to order To order, please send a cheque for the correct amount, payable to ‘spnm, Sound and Music’ and include your spnm membership number and the discs you wish to order. Send to: Sarah Crocker, spnm, Sound and Music, 4th Floor, 18–20 Southwark Street, London SE1 1TJ Allow six weeks for delivery. Deadline: 1 Feb
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Hear and Now
Saturday nights at 10.30pm on BBC Radio 3
THESOUNDSOURCE THE MEANING BETWEEN US Presented by MIMOMANIAC Tuesday 10 February, 8pm Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG Immerse yourself in a haunting new world in The Meaning Between Us. Drift through the basement of Kings Place where live installations, films and micro-performances fracture the traditional sit-watch-clap dynamics of an ordinary ‘show'. These satellite occurrences frame As I Have Now Memoyre. This new transdisciplinary work by Nicholas Brown explores the psychology of singing and features guest vocalist, Linda Hirst. Tickets are £2 cheaper online: www.kingsplace.co.uk Telephone: 0844 261 0321 The Meaning Between Us has already started: visit www.mimomaniac.com to download fragments of media to illuminate a variety of pathways through this imaginative, unique journey.
Sound and Music
Saturday 3 January: HCMF 2008
Recorded at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival: Arne Deforce (cello), Yutaka Oya (piano) and Richard Barrett (electronics) perform Richard Barrett new work. Ensemble plus-minus, with guests Anders Førisdal (electric guitar) and Tanja Orning (cello), perform Markus Trunk raw rows, and Apartment House, with Philip Thomas (director / pianist), Loré Lixenberg (voice), University of Huddersfield Percussion Ensemble and Mathew Adkins (electronics), perform John Cage Concert for piano and orchestra.
Saturday 10 January: HCMF 2008
Recorded at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival: Eve Egoyan (piano) and Miriam Shalinsky (double bass) perform James Tenney Diaphonic Study**. Meanwhile Klangforum Wien, conducted by Enno Poppe, perform Enno Poppe Salz**. And Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart perform Salvatore Sciarrino 12 Madrigali.
Saturday 17 January: HCMF 2008
Recorded at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival: Klangforum Wien, conducted by Enno Poppe, perform En no P o p p e Knochen**. musikfabrik, with Frank Gratkowski (saxophone), perform Sun Ra outer nothingness**; John Cage First Construction (in metal); Stockhausen KLANG 9th Hour: HOPE**.
Saturday 24 January: BBC SO Stockhausen Day, 1 of 2
The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Robertson, with Kathinka Pasveer (singer-mime) and Alain Louafi (singer-mime), perform Stockhausen Inori. Recorded 17 January 2009, Barbican Hall, London.
Saturday 31 January: BBC SO Stockhausen Day, 2 of 2
Stockhausen Hymnen With its collage techniques, synthesis of 'found' national anthems and use of electronic sound modification, Stockhausen's two-hour tape composition remains a seminal work more than four decades after its completion.