Yale Percussion Group, Feb 14

yale percussion group

Robert van Sice, director February 14, 2016 • Morse Recital Hall

Robert Blocker, Dean

Yale School of Music

yale percussion group Sunday, February 14, 2016 • 7:30 pm • Morse Recital Hall robert van sice, director maria chlebus • yifei fu • matt keown kramer milan • jeff stern • se um

Ethan Braun b. 1987

Triptych (2015) Obscura

Iannis Xenakis 1922–2001

Pléïades (1979) Peaux Metaux Claviers intermission

György Ligeti 1923–2006

Sìppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel (2000) I. Fabula II. Táncdal III. Kínai templom IV. Kuli V. Alma álma VI. Keserédes (67. Magjar Etüd) VII. Szajkó Janna Baty, mezzo-soprano

James Wood b. 1953

Sea Dances (2012) World premiere Calm Fresh Light but with occasional squalls Rough Very calm

Braun

Triptych (2015) Lucida

As a courtesy to the performers and audience, silence electronic devices.

Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.

Texts and Translations

Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel

With pipe, drum, and reed fiddle

I. Fabula

I. Fable

Egy hegy megy.

Szembejön a másik hegy.

Ordítanak ordasok: össze ne morzsoljatok! Én is hegy, te is hegy, Nekünk ugyan egyremegy.

One mountain walks Face-to-face comes the other mountain.

How the wolves: do not crush me!

I am mountain, you too are mountain, It’s all the same to us.

II. Táncdal

II. Dance tune

Panyigai, panyigai panyigai ü, Kudora panyigai ü, Kudora from Panyiga, ooh, Kotta kudora panyigai kudora kotta ü, Ház panyigai kudora ü kudora kotta ü.

From Panyiga, from Panyiga, from Panyiga, ooh!

Kudora from Panyiga, ooh, Sheet music kudora from Panyiga sheet music ooh!

House from Panyiga kudora sheet music ooh!

III. Kínai templom (Chinese temple) Szent fönn négy majd Saint above four later Kert lenn fém mély Garden below metal deep Bő tág cseng: csönd Loose roomy rings: quiet Lomb: éj Foliage night

szép, leng, beautiful swings,

Tárt jő, jó, mint Open comes, good, like Zöld kék hír, hült Green blue news cooled Szárny, árny. Rang, hang.

Wing, shadow. Rank, sound

Texts and Translations

IV. Kuli

IV. Coolie

Kuli bot vág Kuli megy megy Csak guri-guri Riksa Autó Sárkányszekér Kuli húz riksa.

Kuli húz autó.

Kuli húz sárkányszekér.

Csak guri-guri Kuli gyalog megy Kuli szakáll fehér.

Kuli álmos, Kuli éhes.

Kuli öreg Kuli rízsszem, babszem, mákszem kis gyerek Ver kis kuli nagy rossz emberek.

Csak guri-guri Riksa Autó Sárkányszekér Ki húz riksa?

Ki húz autó?

Ki húz sárkányszekér?

Ha kuli meghal?

Kuli meghal.

Kuli n-e-e-e-e-e-e-m tud meghal!

Kuli örök Csak guri-guri.

Coolie stick cut.

Coolie walk walk Just rolling-rolling Rickshaw Car Dragon coach Coolie pull rickshaw.

Coolie pull car.

Coolie pull dragon coach.

Just rolling-rolling Coolie walks on foot Coolie beard white.

Coolie sleepy, Coolie hungry.

Coolie old Coolie rice grain, bean, poppyseed little child Beat little coolie big bad people.

Just rolling-rolling Rickshaw Car Dragon coach Who pull rickshaw?

Who pull car?

Who pull dragon coach?

If coolie die?

Coolie die.

Coolie can no-o-o-o-o-o-o-t die!

Coolie eternal Just rolling-rolling.

Texts and Translations

VI. Keserédes (67. magyar etűd)

VI. Bittersweet (67th Hungarian etude)

Szántottam, szántottam hét tüzes sárkánnyal, Hej, végig bevetettem csupa gyöngyvirággal.

I plowed, I plowed my field with seven fiery dragons, Hey! I sowed it full with nothing but lilies of the valley.

Szántottam, szántottam szép gyémánt ekével, Hej, végig bevetettem hulló könnyeimmel.

I plowed it, I plowed it with a beautiful diamond plow.

Hey! I sowed it full of my falling tears.

Száz nyíló rózsáról az erdőn álmodtam, Hej, többet nem aludtam, félig ébren voltam.

I dreamed in the forest of a hundred blooming roses, Hey! I slept no more; half-awake was I.

Hajnalban fölkeltem, kakukkszót számoltam, Hej, visznek esküvőre kedves galambommal.

I got up at dawn to count cuckoo calls, Hey! They are taking me to be wed to my sweetheart.

VII. Szajkó

VII. The Mockingbird

Tanárikari karika, Papíripari paripa, Karika tanárikara, Paripa papíripara.

Taná rika rika rika, Papí ripa ripa ripa, Kari Kata nári kara, Pari papa piri para.

Tanárika rikarika, Papíripariparipa.

Karika tanárikara Paripa papíripara.

Tanárikari karika, Papíripari paripa.

Karika tanárikara Paripa papíripara.

Teaching faculty’s circle, Paper industry’s steed Circle’s teaching faculty, Steed’s paper industry.

Teaching faculty’s circle, Paper industry’s steed Circle’s teaching faculty, Steed’s paper industry.

Teaching faculty’scircle, Paper industry’s steed.

Circle’s teaching faculty, Steed’s paper industry.

Teaching faculty’s circle, Paper industry’s steed.

Circle’s teaching faculty, Steed’s paper industry.

Text by Sándor Weöres (1913–1989)

English translations by L.M. Racz

Program Notes

figures are simultaneously deformed or not, as the case may be. Some of the fields are made manifest by accents which superpose Triptych is a series of six tableaux that func- rhythms onto the normal beat. The timbres of the membranes are also functional, tion like miniature paintings and may be being subject to rhythmic fields. played in any order or configuration.

Ethan Braun Triptych

In this evening’s concert, the beaten music, “Obscura,” is played on Japanese fan drums as a precursor to Iannis Xenakis’ legendary “Peaux.”

To conclude the concert, the second set of three miniatures, entitled “Lucida,” is played on a set of bowed crotales. It inhabits the same musical space as the “Obscura” set, but this time in a slow moving chord progression that is never resolved in any sense.

What is perceived is a small window of possibly infinite progression. “Obscura” presents the negative image of “Lucida”: the intervals are presented in their numerical ratios as opposed to their pitch.

These pieces pay homage to the incomparable music given to us by György Ligeti and Iannis Xenakis.

— Ethan Braun Iannis Xenakis Pléïades Pléïades: [pluralities] [several], there are six percussionists and four sequences. The primordial element is rhythm, in other words the ordering in time of events, the combination of durations, intensities and timbres. It is constructed in several parallel fields but with transverse circulations, i.e.

The sole source of this polyrhythm is the idea of periodicity, repetition, duplication, recurrence, copy, faithfulness, pseudofaithfulness and unfaithfulness. For example: a beat incessantly repeated with the same pattern represents a faithful copy of a rhythmic atom (of course a metre in ancient music is already a repeating rhythmic molecule). In this way, small variations in the pattern produce internal rhythmic activity without damaging the fundamental period. Greater and more complex variations of initial period create a disfiguration which may lead to immediate non-recognition.

More diverse variations, of still greater complexity or (which often comes to the same thing) resulting from the chance distribution of a particular stochastic procedure leads to total rhythm, to a knowledge through mass of events, to notions of clouds, nebulae, dust galaxies of rhythmically organized beats. Moreover, the speeds of these transformations create new disfiguration superposed upon the preceding, ranging from little continuous accelerations to rapid, not to say exponential transformations (still continuous) which sweep the listener along like a whirlwind, dragging him as though to inevitable catastrophe or to a contorted universe. Again infinitely great speeds, corresponding to brutal breaking-up of transformations, move instantaneously from one kind of evolution to another of an essentially different type.

Program Notes

An axiomatization together with formaland manages to cover the total chromatic ization, as represented by theory of pitchspace in three consecutive copies (periods), series envelopes a certain number of such thus enabling it to create by itself, without problems of transformation in all domain, any transpositions — supplementary spaces or ordered ensembles. In Pléïades harmonic fields when polyphonic superthis basic idea of duplication (recurrence) positions are made. in time of event or of a state of being which our physical but human universe is sub- — Iannis Xenakis merged is also taken up in another musical [dimension], that of pitch. In this dimension European (Western) music has remained György Ligeti immobile since Greek antiquity. The system Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel of the diatonic scale still holds away, even indeed especially, in those kinds of music Born to Hungarian Jewish parents, Ligeti (such as serial music) in which total chro- studied composition in Cluj and then, after maticism is the basis for the choice of notes. the war, in Budapest, at the Academy of Moreover its extension to a scale in which Music, where he joined the teaching staff the unit would be the comma would not soon after graduating in 1949. These were change the [climate], the force-field of the difficult times. Much of the music a young melodic lines or the pitch-clouds.This is composer might be interested in was why I have undertaken this double enofficially banned, and Ligeti had to piece deavour. The first, as was already the case together his knowledge of new and recent in Jonchaies for orchestra, being to construct music from diverse sources, including an a frankly non-Western scale of sufficient uncle abroad and foreign radio broadcasts. firmness and character, but capable of being In December 1956, following the Soviet played on diatonic keyboard instruments invasion, he escaped with his wife to such as marimba, xylophone and vibraAustria. The premiere of his orchestral phone. The second essay was to have a work Atmosphères, in 1961, established him new metallic instrument built, called the as a master of color and stillness; the apSIXXEN, comprising nineteen irregularly pearance of Aventures the next year proved distributed pitches with steps of quarterhis equal command of quick-fire humor. tones or thirds of tones or their multiples. His subsequent career can be seen as one In addition the six copies of the instruments of continuing growth in range and differtaken as a whole should never produce entiation within the world of radiant beauty unisons. As far as the first question is con- and strangeness he had opened, where folk cerned, after a long trial I constructed a and modernist elements fuse effortlessly. series (scale) which with surprise, was similar to the ancient Greece, of the Near The song cycle Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel East or Indonesia. However, my scale, un- is one of Ligeti’s last completed works, like these traditional scales, is not based on composed in 2000 and premiered in Metz the octave; it possesses internal symmetries by Katalin Károlyi and the Amadinda

Program Notes

percussion ensemble, to whom it is dedicated. The texts (but not the title) are taken from short poems in Hungarian by Sándor Weöres, a frequent inspiration and source for Ligeti. The opening fable is a sort of ritual incantation, statements in granite.

The following “Dance Song” is just that, a rhythmic use of vocal sounds without textual meaning, shadowed and teased by the whoops of whistles and ocarinas.

Weöres’ text for the “Chinese Temple” is a series of monosyllabic words, which Ligeti places in a meditative setting, with the haunted chiming of gongs and other metallic percussion shimmering against them like water lapping against stones.

and the sea has provided sustenance and livelihoods for its people for centuries.

When asked by the Norwegian percussion trio SISU if I would write a work for them, I immediately saw the perfect opportunity to explore my own fascination with the sea. Several years earlier I had assembled a large number of recordings of the sea in a wide variety of states and conditions — gentle river waves lapping against a pontoon, gentle ocean waves on a pebble beach, rough sea waves against a rocky shoreline, and so on. My work on Sea Dances started with an extended analysis of these recordings from two specific points of view, firstly rhythm, and secondly movement. The data resulting from these analyses went on to According to the composer, the fifth song, form the basis of the rhythmic, dynamic, “Coolie,” “is a poetic portrayal of an Asian and spatial structure of the work. In the pariah’s monotonous hopelessness and pent- rhythmic domain I studied the preparation, up aggressiveness.” In “Dream,” the voice crest (and its amplitude) and decay of sways in the wheezing wind of four hareach wave, and in the movement domain monicas, as a floating, evocative reverie.

I studied the ‘ripple effect’ or ricochet of In “Bittersweet,” Ligeti put a pop-style each wave — that is to say, the way a wave tune in a pseudo-folk setting — he subtitled strikes different points along a shoreline the movement, tongue-in-cheek, “67th in succession. Once I had compiled the Hungarian Etude.” For his finale, Ligeti necessary data from a series of 30-second again turns to a poem without literal mean- ‘snapshots’ of the sea in a wide variety of ing, “but one which produces a rhythmic conditions, I chose eight of these snapshots swing,” as he notes. ranging from a very calm swell to a rough, choppy sea, in such a way that the rhythms — Paul Griffiths could develop imperceptibly from one into another, just as they do in reality.

James Wood Sea Dances Like the British Isles, Norway has always enjoyed a specially close relationship with the sea: its long and spectacular coast-line dominates the country’s natural history,

In Sea Dances, the resulting ‘wave cycles’ have a close resemblance to breathing — preparation (inhalation) — crest and decay (exhalation). Perhaps this is the reason why we can often sit and watch the sea for hours, experiencing its profoundly calming effect. The preparation of the

Program Notes • Artist Profiles

wave (or inhalation) is presented, naturally enough, as a crescendo, often from silence.

The crest (or exhalation) of each wave is presented as a short melodic fragment, from two to eleven notes, in one player, which is then ricocheted to the other players in turn. With each successive ricochet the melodic fragment is subject to subtle transformations in several domains: in the number of notes, the dynamic, the pitches, the tuning, the tone-colour, and of course the position in space. Each player takes turns in being the ‘leader’, or the one who presents the first crest of each chain of richochets, and the players are spaced out widely on the stage, so that the movement of the ricochets can be clearly felt. The speed, rhythm, and direction of the ricochets are also in a constant state of flux, so that a rich polyphony of overlapping, ricocheting wave-cycles is built up.

The work, which lasts about 22 minutes, falls broadly into five sections, or ‘sea-states’, although the way that these sections develop from one to the next should be so imperceptible as to be unnoticeable. The first is calm; the second is fresh; the third is light but with occasional squalls; the fourth is rough; and the fifth is very calm. The changing sea-states are also represented by a change of predominant register and instrumentation. The importance of the subtle changes in colour in the successive ricochets has resulted in an extremely rich, exotic and extensive instrumentarium which includes several specially-built instruments.

I am grateful to Tomas Nilsson from SISU, for his close collaboration specially on the development of the instrumentation, and for

his constant help during the composition of the work. Sea Dances was written between July and November 2012, and is dedicated to SISU. — James Wood about the performers Yale Percussion Group Founded in 1997 by Robert van Sice, the Yale Percussion Group has been called “something truly extraordinary” by composer Steve Reich. It is composed of talented and dedicated young artists who have come from around the world for graduate study at the Yale School of Music. Members of the YPG have gone on to perform as concerto soloists with the Berlin Philharmonic, to form the acclaimed quartet, Sō Percussion, and to perform with the Toronto Symphony and the Oslo and Auckland Philharmonics.

Former members are also percussionists in America’s great chamber music ensembles, including Chamber Music at Lincoln Center, Ensemble ACJW at Carnegie Hall, and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. Currently, alumni of YPG teach at the University of Miami, Michigan State University, Princeton University, Baylor University, Bard College, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Cornell, University of Alabama, Notre Dame, Dartmouth College, the University of Kansas, and the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University.

The Yale Percussion Group has twice won the Percussive Arts Society International

Artist Profiles

Percussion Ensemble Competition, and released its first CD on NMC Records (London) in 2016.

Robert van Sice, director Robert van Sice, percussion, has premiered more than one hundred works including concertos, chamber music, and solos. He has made solo appearances with symphony orchestras and given recitals in Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia. In 1989 he gave the first full-length marimba recital at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and has since played in most of Europe’s major concert halls, many of which have been broadcast by the BBC, Swedish Radio, Norwegian Radio, WDR, and Radio France.

He is frequently invited as a soloist with Europe’s leading contemporary music ensembles and festivals, including the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contrechamps, the Archipel, L’Itinéraire, Darmstadt, and North American new music festivals. From 1988 to 1997 he headed Europe’s very first diploma program for solo marimbists at the Rotterdam Conservatorium. Mr. van Sice has given master classes in more than twenty countries and frequently visits the major conservatories in Europe and Asia as a guest lecturer. He joined the Yale faculty in the fall of 1997.

Janna Baty, mezzo-soprano Praised by the Boston Globe for “a rich, viola-like tone and a rapturous, luminous lyricism,” Janna Baty enjoys an exceptionally versatile career. She has sung with

the Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, Hamburgische Staatsoper, L’Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Tallahassee Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Eugene Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera. She has sung under the batons of James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Michel Plasson, Carl Davis, Robert Spano, Steuart Bedford, Stephen Lord, Stefan Asbury, and Gil Rose, among numerous others. As a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist, she has performed at festivals including the Aldeburgh and Britten Festivals in England, the Varna Festival in Bulgaria, the Semanas Musicales de Frutillar Festival in Chile, and the Norfolk, Tanglewood, Monadnock, and Coastal Carolina festivals in the United States.

A specialist in contemporary music, Ms. Baty has worked alongside composers including John Harbison, Bernard Rands, Yehudi Wyner, Sydney Hodkinson, Peter Child, Reza Vali, Paul Salerni, and Paul Moravec on performances of their music.

Ms. Baty has enjoyed a long collaboration with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and with them has recorded the critically lauded Vali: Folk Songs (sung in Persian); Lukas Foss’ opera Griffelkin; the worldpremiere recording of Eric Sawyer’s Civil War-era opera Our American Cousin; and John Harbison’s Mirabai Songs. An alumna of Oberlin College and the Yale School of Music, she joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 2008.

Upcoming Events

Mark Kroll, harpsichord

Guitar Extravaganza

february 17 Collection of Musical Instruments 15 Hillhouse Ave | Wednesday | 5:30 pm Music of François Couperin Tickets $25 • Seniors & Yale staff $20 Students $10

february 20 Special Events Sprague Hall | Saturday | All Day Concerts, talks, master classes, and more Benjamin Verdery, director Featuring performances by Marc Teicholz, Duo Ditirambo, Z.o.o. guitar duo, and others » music.yale.edu/guitar-extravaganza

Dénes Várjon, piano february 17 Horowitz Piano Series Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 7:30 pm Haydn: Sonata in E minor, Hob. XVI:34; Janácek: On an Overgrown Path; and music by Schumann and Chopin Tickets start at $18, Students $11

Tetzlaff Trio february 23 Oneppo Chamber Music Series Morse Recital Hall | Tuesday | 7:30 pm Piano trios by Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák Tickets start at $26 • Students $13

A Midsummer Night’s Dream february 19, 20 & 21 Yale Opera Shubert Theatre | Fri & Sat, 8 pm | Sun, 2 pm Mischief, magic, and melodies intertwine in this atmospheric new production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, conducted by Rune Bergmann and directed by Claudia Solti Tickets $19–$50, available at www.shubert.com or 203 562-5666

Philharmonia in Sprague february 26 Yale Philharmonia Morse Recital Hall | Friday | 7:30 pm Heejung Park, conducting fellow Music by Haydn, Beethoven, and Lieberson With Artist Diploma students Wai Yin Wong, piano, and Evanna Chiew, mezzo-soprano Tickets start at $10 • Students $5

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Robert Blocker, Dean