It’s been a long two weeks. I was busy with NOVUS and a week-long residency at Dickinson College, a concert for the opening of a new hall at Messiah College, Alarm Will Sound and two intense days at the Eastman School of Music, another day in Rochester to do a masterclass for students at the Eastman School, back to Messiah College for a recording session with their brass ensemble, two more days of teaching and another recording session at Messiah. I hope to write about most of these things but I’m going to start with the one that’s easiest to compile my materials on: 1969.
1969 is Alarm Will Sound’s multimedia concert event that focuses on that year. Particularly, it centers on a meeting that could have happened (but did not) between John Lennon (“left field pop music writer”) and Karlheinz Stockhausen (“left field avant garde composer”). We’ve performed the show more than a handful of times now including at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall but returning to it is still exciting. The powerful images and music from that one year give me goosebumps every time. I took some pictures from this production:
Miles BrownMike Harley playing the bassoon.The top of the show. Alan Pierson playing “A Day in the Life.”Conversation between Lennon, Berio and StockhausenRobert Stanton rehearsing as StockhausenJohn Patrick Walker as John Lennon and David Chandler as Luciano BerioStockhausen discussing Sri AuribindoLennon in front of image from civil rights riotsPerforming Stockhausen’s StimmungCourtney Orlando accompanied by Erin Lesser in Luciano Berio’s “Michelle II,” his setting of The Beatles’s song.More MichelleImages from “O King”Jason Price as Father David BarriganChrista Robinson as Jackie OMike Harley rehearses his role as Leonard BernsteinConducting Courtney Orlando’s arrangement of the third movement of Berio’s SinfoniaRecreating Yoko Ono’s attempt to remove prejudice by wearing a bagThe ladies swooning over LennonRobert Stanton as Stockhausen
I’m a little behind on this. Canzonas Americanas with music by Derek Bermel, was released last November, and since then it’s received decent reviews. The Guardian says Alarm Will Sound plays with “panache,“and Anne Midgette of the Washington Post placed the album in her best of 2012. (And the consumers on Amazon and iTunes seem to like it as well.)
The recording contains all music of Derek Bermel, including the title work Cazonas Americanas which was written for the LA Phil in 2010, Three Rivers (2001), Continental Divide (1996) and Hot Zone (1995). In addition to AWS, the album features vocal performances by Luciana Souza (Grammy award winner) on Canzonas, Kiera Duffy on At the End of the World (2000) and Timothy Jones on Natural Selection (2000).
I like that the trombone actually gets some work in Derek’s music. In ThreeRivers the trombone is part of the funky, lugubrious, dissonant line that occurs throughout the piece.
The part is entirely playable on tenor trombone with the exception of one low B that happens towards the beginning but has a feel that is very well suited to the bass trombone.
The trombone also participates in the smoother, quicker cascading passages (one example is at 1:30, the trombone has a more prominent role in the subsequent entrances) that recur.
There are also good times to be had for the trombone in Canzonas Americanas. Check the first movement for things like this:
This passage is part of a pretty densely scored section. I found I had to play fairly loudly to be heard (c. 1:40):
And the third movement has a nice passage where the brass joins the fantastic electric guitar/bass part:
The rest of the disc is just as interesting. Natural Selection is written in a way that makes the ensemble sound bigger than it is. The trombone range is wide: in the third song “Got My Bag of Brown Shoes” it goes down to pedal F and as high as E at the top of the treble clef (with some other “as high as possible” pitches). The first song, “One Fly,” reminded me of the fly episode of Breaking Bad, so I give you the Bermel/Breaking Bad mashup.
Bonus: Derek also arranged some Conlon Nancarrow for Alarm Will Sound that we recorded for our album a/rhythmia. Lots of trombone work to be done in this one too. The opening looks like a no brainer for the bass trombone. The trombone should hocket with the bassoon to form the boogie woogie piano part. If you have short arms like me you can end up doing damage to yourself trying to play all those low C’s on a tenor trombone.
But just a short while later in the transcription the trombone part has a duet with the trumpet that takes it up to E flat at the top of the treble clef, a decidedly un-bass trombone lick.
The challenges make it fun. Do your best to enjoy it if you ever have the chance to work it up.
Rehearsing music of David Lang at the beautiful Dimenna Center.
Miles Brown plays the Dremel on a can in Evan Haus's arrangement of "Omgyjya Switch 7."Fire alarms at the Dimenna Center drove us outside for some stoop sittin'.Killing time in Frankfurt with "Roadhouse."So many great things about Krakow but possibly the greatest was shopping at the alkohole.Monks strolling down the Planty.Setting up for Sacrum+Profanum at the Muzeum Inżynierii Miejskiej w Krakowie (Tron was also present).Sleep was achieved whenever possible.See what I mean?Driving through the Alps.The green room in Bolzano, Italy.We managed to find a place that would stay open late (maybe not so legally) for us.Preparing to record music of John Adams.Trombone with E attachment (the easiest way to play Adams on a tenor trombone).
For more photos from this and other trips check out Google+.
