Karen’s CCRMA rep at the Chapel
Karen Bentley Pollick, violin
Karen’s CCRMA rep at the Chapel
Thursday, September 6, 2018 at 8:00 pm
Chapel Performance Space at Good Shepherd Center
Seattle, Washington
David Aaron Jaffe: Impossible Animals for violin and synthetic voices (1989)
Constantin Basica: The Making of “The Making of the Violin” (2018)
concept, text, soundtrack and video by Constantin Basica
recorded and live music improvisations by Karen Bentley Pollick
Yitzhak Yedid: MAQA VIOLIN (2018) US Premiere
I a’ la maqam Saba
II a’ la maqam Hijaz
III a’ la Taqsim
IV a’ la maqam Sikah Baladi
V Ecstatic Debqa Dance
Nina C. Young: Sun Propeller for scordatura violin and electronics (2012)
Christopher Jette: SIMETRA for violin and electronics (2018)
Chris Lortie: Jouska for violin and electronics (2017)
Milica Paranosic: Al’Airi Lepo Sviri for violin, electronics and video (2005)
Melanie Mitrano: Remember Who You Are for violin and tape (2015)
Impossible Animals (1989) by David A. Jaffe was commissioned by the Hamilton College Choir. It is scored for live ensemble and a tape of computer-synthesized voices, created at the Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. There are seven versions of the piece as follows: for chorus (1986), for four voices (1989), for violin (1989), for oboe (1990), for five winds (1994), for five voices (1995) and tape, and for trombone and tape (2004).
The piece is a fanciful exploration of the boundary between human and animal expression and behavior, and between the realms of Nature and imagination. An antiphonal interplay is set up between the live ensemble and the synthesized voices, with the live instruments assuming the role of narrators of an abstract story, while the computer voices serve as actors, taking on improbable voices of unthinkable animals, and emote in an unknown language. The “story” is concerned with the lives of various imaginary animals seen when looking at the clouds, concluding with a description of a more familiar, though no less unlikely, beast (“…has an upright posture, has an opposable thumb…”) with its own special vocalization.
One of the more novel aspects of the tape part is a half-human/half-bird vocalise, a true hybrid between human and bird singing, as if the brain of a Winter Wren had been transplanted inside a wildly-gifted human singer. It was produced by beginning with a recording of a Winter Wren and analyzing it using the PARSHL program (Julius Smith). Frequency and amplitude trajectories were then extracted, segmented into individual “chirps” and tuned to the underlying harmonic background using software specially-written for the piece. The range was modified over time and the frequency axis was mapped onto an evolving set of vowels. Finally, the data was resynthesized, using human vocal synthesis (Xavier Rodet), into a new and greatly-transformed rendition of the original wren’s song.
The disconcerting combination of human and bird vocalizations is typical of the composer’s interest in combining diverse seemingly-irreconcilable elements into a single musical context, manipulating the material in such a way as to bring out and resolve (or not) its inherent contrasts and contradictions. The result is a music that is both radically challenging on the one hand, and strangely reminiscent of past experience on the other. As in a cubist painting, a nose may be sideways, sticking out from the wrong side of the head, but its identification as a nose gives it an expressive power that an abstract shape would not have, while simultaneously setting up a rich network of associations with everyday life.
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.
MAQA VIOLIN (2018) by Yitzhak Yedid, dedicated to Karen Bentley Pollick
MAQA VIOLIN, in 5 parts and c. 17 minutes’ duration solo piece, was conceived in 2018 by Israeli-Australian composer/pianist Yitzhak Yedid in Brisbane, Australia during his prolific two-year period of composition funded by the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship. Composed for a triumvirate of virtuoso violinists: Graeme Jennings, Karen Bentley Pollick and Hagai Shaham, MAQA Violin was workshopped and premiered by Jennings at Darmstadt Summer School and Festival in July 2018.
The work is a synthesis of musical traditions, colours, textures and energies. It explores maqamat (Arabic modal system) and avant-garde with traditional melodic and formal conventions. In Part 1 (a’ la maqam Saba) the tetrachord of Saba (D, E 1/4 flat, F, G flat) permeates a lively Arabic folk dance alternating between rhythmic riffs and chromatic melodies. In Part 2, a’ la maqam Hijaz, Hijaz mode (C, D flat, E, F, G, A, B flat) is being exploit in a wide range of pizzicato techniques in a 10/8 + 7/8 meter and Presto tempo. Rapid firing 1/16th notes, tremolos a la mandolin, right and left hands slapping the fingerboard, and strumming in guitar position constitute a tour de force musical image. A’ la Taqsim (Part 3) is an improvisatory movement emerging from the low A to establish the tonal center before embarking into sul tasto extreme alternating with sul ponticello extreme, playing in the highest register with the fingernail of the left hand, all framing the plaintive ascending melodies high on the G string. Part 4, a’ la maqam Sikah Baladi (G, A flat, B, C, D, E flat, G sharp) is a chromatic virtuoso Vivacissimo, staccatissimo dance for the bow with glissandi up, down and around the maqam tones. An Ecstatic Debqa Dance (Part 5) is the finale, replete with non pitched percussive effects, Arabic folk dance accompanied by foot stomping, aleatoric pizzicato, sul ponticello, and bow slapping and sliding.
Acknowledgment
The work has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
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 rays is 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.
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.”
Al’Airi Lepo Sviri for violin, electronics and video (2005) by Milica Paranosic
The initial grain of inspiration came from traditional Serbian folk-singing tradition; I composed my own tune that leans on that tradition. My goal was to offer a cross between seemingly unrelated traditions and have Airi Yoshioka, for whom the piece was composed, “sing” the tune in her own instrument, and in her own interpretation. Airi is from Japan, I myself am from Serbia, and I wanted to bring those two cultures closer together through music. The title could be translated: “Airi plays so beautifully”, said in a peasant, old, somewhat forgotten idiom of Serbian language, not commonly used in modern time, except jokingly or idiomatically. The video is created by Carmen Kordas.
Remember Who You Are for violin and tape (2015) by Melanie Mitrano
Remember Who You Are is a vocal trance EDM (electronic dance mix) in which the violin emulates the human voice. The message is self-empowerment; a reminder to value what makes us strong and unique. This was inspired by an animation by Nicole Antebi entitled “Gesture #1,” a string of moving pearls, precious gems in motion, my definition of humankind. “Remember Who You Are” was written for and dedicated to violinist Eva Ingolf for the Vox Novus Fifteen-Minutes-Of-Fame Series in conjunction with Circuit Bridges, New York City in 2015. The vocals are performed by the composer.
http://www.constantinbasica.com/
http://www.cj.lovelyweather.com/
https://soundcloud.com/chris-lortie
https://www.milicaparanosic.com/