Department of Music

Stanford University

PRESENTS

Karen@CCRMA

Karen Bentley Pollick, violin

CCRMA Stage

Saturday, May 26, 2018 at 7:30 pm

PROGRAM

Mark Kopytman: Cantus IV: Dedication for violin solo (1986) Recitando, ben marcato – Dolce, cantando – Con fuoco – Poco più sostenuto – Largo, dolcissimo – Giocoso – Mesto – Recitando, dolente – Lontano, netto

Jonathan Berger: Sink or Swim for solo violin (2006)

I Molto cantabile

II Risoluto
III Frenetic
IV Lontano, freely

Constantin Basica: The Making of “The Making of the Violin” (2018) World Premiere
concept, text, soundtrack and video by Constantin Basica

recorded and live music improvisations by Karen Bentley Pollick

Christopher Jette: SIMETRA for violin and electronics (2018) World Premiere

Chris Lortie: Jouska for violin and electronics (2017)

Nina C. Young: Sun Propeller for scordatura violin and electronics (2012)

PROGRAM NOTES

Cantus IV: Dedication for violin solo (1986) by Mark Kopytman (December 6, 1929 in Ukraine – December 16, 2011)
Cantus IV: Dedication was premiered at Alice Tully Hall on January 26, 1987 by violinist Nina Beilina in memory of her late husband, conductor Israel Chudnovsky. Kopytman’s music is inspired by Jewish folklore transformed through heterophony as a contemporary notational device, depicting the human voice in mourning with swaying and sliding Jewish laments. The Arioso from his 1966 opera Casa Mare is integrated into the piece, followed by a Perinitza (Romanian folk wedding dance).

Sink or Swim for violin solo (2006) by Jonathan Berger was composed for and is dedicated to violinist Livia Sohn. The four movement work is based upon the traditional Scottish-American folksong ’The Water is Wide’, whose closing stanza is:

There is a ship and she sails the seas.

She’s loaded down as deep can be,

But not so deep as the love I’m in

I know not if I sink or swim.

The work was recorded for Naxos Recordings for the CD Miracles and Mud, and has been performed throughout the world by Ms. Sohn on three continents, as well as numerous other violinists. Jonathan Berger’s music is deeply spiritual and hauntingly evocative. These works for string quartet and solo violin include Eli Eli, an adaptation of a beloved Hebrew melody written in memory of journalist Daniel Pearl; Miracles and Mud, a plea for coexistence; for amos, a reflection on the fragility of life; Sink or Swim, a set of variations on a Scottish love song; Doubles, described as “a quartet of profound depth and beauty”.

The Making of “The Making of the Violin” (2018) by Constantin Basica was conceived for Karen Bentley Pollick to premiere on this concert tonight. Audio and video material recorded in Lo de Perla Jungle Garden/ San Pancho and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and at Stanford University’s CCRMA. Special features include an appearance by José Moreno and an audio sample from “El Zopilote Mojado” by DeVotchKa, recorded involuntarily on the streets of San Pancho.

SIMETRA for violin and electronics (May 2018) by Christopher Jette There are questions that rolled around in my head while writing this piece. – Why do violinists move beyond the motion needed to produce sound?
– What roles does (can) the stage/space play in the performance?

– What are the timescales for sounds unfolding that I hear in this material?
– In 100 years, will it be evident that we were aware of the end the American empire?
A violinist moves to both perform with the instrument and to embody phrasing (among other reasons). SIMETRA emphasizes the standing/moving of the violinist by utilizing pressure data from the performers stance and mapping it to the control of playback parameters. These gestures gently adapt the electronic part in different ways. While this processing is present, it is not designed to be conspicuous. The piece is generated from sound recording of an improvisation by Karen’s canine friend Fella. The source material is extremely expressive. The translations of this vocal improvisation, both manually and with software mediation, retain different flavors of the source material. The material is arranged procedurally across different timescales. The articulation of space and of time support a particular way of hearing the solo violin component.

Jouska for violin and electronics (2017) by Chris Lortie
The word Jouska comes from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a compendium of invented words written by John Koenig that try to “give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for.” Koenig defines Jouska as “a hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head…which serves as a kind of psychological batting cage where you can connect more deeply with people than in the small ball of everyday life, which is a frustratingly cautious game of change-up pitches, sacrifice bunts, and intentional walks.”

Sun Propeller for scordatura violin and electronics (2012) by Nina C. Young
The term “sun propeller” refers to the propeller-like rays of light that occur when sunbeams pierce through openings in the clouds. Crepuscular ray is the scientific name for these columns of light that radiate from a single point in the sky. This phrase is the literal translation of the Tuvan word for these special sunbeams, Huun-Huur-Tu. This also happens to be the name of a famous Tuvan folk group that I was introduced to in college and have been obsessed with ever since. The Tuvan folk tradition is perhaps best known for the practice of throat singing – a vocal technique that produces multiple tones at the same time. A singer begins with a low drone-tone and then accentuates the different overtones of the harmonic series to create radically beautiful timbres. The changing emphasis of the harmonic series allows for some quasi-melodies to pierce through, but the music really values timbre (tone color) and vertical relationships rather than traditional western melody and harmony. As a fan of electronic music, I was intrigued by this sound world and immediately began to draw relationships to different studio filtering and synthesis techniques. My piece is not trying to emulate Tuvan music in any direct way, but it draws inspiration from the physical and poetic principles behind the Tuvan sound world. I call for the violin to be scordatura – the final tuning of the violin is D-D-A-D (rather than G-D-A-E) and this completely changes the way the instrument resonates. The lowest string now provides a textured, low, growling D drone upon which the rest of the music emerges.

For more information about the artists please see:

http://www.kopytman.com

http://jonathanberger.net http://www.constantinbasica.com/ http://www.cj.lovelyweather.com/ https://soundcloud.com/chris-lortie http://www.ninacyoung.com/ http://www.kbentley.com