Music and Art - "Transformations" PART ONE (May 2009)

My friends (Michael Schultz and Chad Hudson) and I started doing what we called "Music and Art" day where we pick a theme, listen to music (my mixes), have a few cocktails, and create something on our separate 12" x 12" white canvases...

This was our third session on the theme of "Transformation" and here are our three pieces of art created on May 30, 2009:









Here is a playlist (the first of four) of the music that I put together, edited, and re-mashed for us to listened to, discuss, and be insprired by that day, along with notes and comments about each section (in yellow):

Transformations Mix No. 1
“Minimal Color and Light”

(Note on the first section: This section, with its sparse textures, often one note at a time, conveys the beginning of an artistic process, where ideas and technique are slowly coming together...)

(1)

• Reflections on the Nature of Water — 1. Crystal (J. Druckman) — Daniel Druckman
• Variations for Piano, op. 27 (A. Webern) — Halle
• Variations for Orchestra (A. Webern) — Berlin, Boulez
  

(Note on the next section: Finally, the atonal series of notes in this section coalesce into an arrangement of a Bach Fugue made by the atonal of all atonal composers -- that’s all he did -- Alban Berg. Noted for its Klangfarbenmelodie style; i.e. melody lines are passed on from one instrument to another after every few notes, every note receiving the ‘tone color’ of the instrument it is played on).

(2)

• “Sunday” from Sunday in the Park With George (Sondheim) — Daniel Evans
• Variations for Orchestra (A. Webern) — Berlin, Boulez
• Transformation — Nona Hendryx, Pam Grier, Betty
• Fuga for Six Voices from Musical Offering (J.S. Bach, arr Webern) — Orchestre symphonique de Québec

(Note on the next section: We start fresh with the minimalist compositions of American Steve Reich, then introduce the American “minimalist” poet William Carlos Williams. I have two thoughts about his poem “The Red Wheel Barrow” -- neither very original: (1) The poet was a doctor and was attending to a dying young girl confined to her farm-house bedroom. As he gazed out her window, he realized the only “real” things (ie, not death-related) she saw day-in and day-out where the wheelbarrow and the chickens. To the little child, so much depended on those simple items… (2) he arranges each two-line stanza in the shape of a wheelbarrow.)

(3)

• New York Counterpoint for clarinet, bass clarinet & tape (S. Reich) — Roland Diry
• Transformation — Megadrums
• Electric Counterpoint (Reich) — Michael Nicolella
• Poet William Carlos Williams and the Red Wheel Barrow — Charles Osgoode
  

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

(Note on the next section: This segues into a discussion of another popular Williams’ poem and several “variations” on it. My favorite being the last that turns on the author’s mother, just as she turned on their family. I take the 1980’s anthem Cold As Ice, and add a loop of the Reichs Vermont Counterpoint -- coming up in two tracks -- and lead into a remix of Cold As Ice by Starsplash; this leads into two remixes of a song called Transformation (!) pointing out a link between what minimalist classical composers were doing in the 1980s and what was happening in popular music through remixes that take small cells and samples and loop them over and over -- of course pop remixes hardly ever change from a 4/4 structure, all the same…)

(4)

• This Is Just To Say (William Carlos Williams) — S. Cole, J. Goldstein, H. O'Neill (Chicago Public Radio)
• Cold as Ice — Foreigner
• Cold as Ice (Rubberboy Remix) — Starsplash
• Transformation (Inkfish/Club Remix) — Novy and Isma Ae
  

(Note on the next section: Two versions of Vermont Counterpoint, the first a computer-generated arrangement for “marimba” that morphs into the famous recording by flutist Ransom Wilson, for whom the piece was written in 1982. Reich wrote the work for one live solo flutist who plays along with a recording of 11 tracks of prerecorded flutes, alto flutes, and piccolo. You can rent Wilson’s pre-recorded tracks from the publisher. I studied at Manhattan School of Music with Mr. Wilson. Ransom shared a home in Vermont with his lover Walter, until they bought land in a small, up-state New York town called Denver. I helped plant bulbs along their driveway one spring in exchange for extra lessons. Here is link to a really cool “visual score” created in 2007 that shows the composition graphically as it is played: http://www.mattgilbert.net/article/41/visual-score-for-vermont-counterpoint)

(5)

• Tokyo “Vermont” Counterpoint (Reich) — Mika Yoshida
• Vermont Counterpoint (Reich) — Ransom Wilson
• Opening Glass — Nathaniel Bartlett
  

(Note on the next section: I’ve loved Dawn Upshaw’s recording of This Is Prophetic since it came out in 1998. This aria -- which is sung by Pat Nixon in the opera, if you can believe it! -- is so filled with vivid images that suddenly shift with the next line and take on whole new meanings when heard in context. My favs: “Let the expression on the face of the Statue of Liberty change just a little, let her see what lies inland” and “Let the farmer switch on the light over the porch, let passersby look in at the large family around the table, let them pass” and “Let days grow imperceptibly longer.” I was thrilled to find a new recording by a saxophonist who has arranged it for himself -- he must love it as much as I do. This acts as a prelude.)

(6)

• This Is Prophetic — Simon Haram
• This Is Prophetic from Nixon in China — Dawn Upshaw (as Pat Nixon)
  Libretto by Alice Goodman:
  

This is prophetic! I foresee a time will come
when luxury dissolves into the atmosphere
Like a perfume, and everywhere the simple virtues
root and branch and leaf and flower.
On that bench there we'll relax and taste the fruit of all our actions.
Why regret life which is so much like a dream?
Let the eternal plan resume: In the bedroom communities
let us be taken by surprise;
Yes! Let the band play on and on;
let the stand-up comedian finish his act,
Let Gypsy Rose kick off her high-heeled party shoes;
Let interested businessmen speculate further,
let routine dull the edge of mortality.
Let days grow imperceptibly longer, let the sun set in cloud;
Let lonely drivers on the road pull over for a bite to eat,
Let the farmer switch on the light over the porch,
Let passersby look in at the large family around the table, let them pass.
Let the expression on the face of the Statue of Liberty
change just a little, let her see what lies inland:
Across the plain one man is marching —
the Unknown Soldier has risen from his tomb;
Let him be recognized at home.
The Prodigal. Give him his share: The eagle nailed to the barn door.
Let him be quick.
The sirens wail as bride and groom kiss through the veil.
Bless this union with all its might, let it remain inviolate.











































(Note on the next section: Just a really cool piece.)

(7)

• Short Ride in a Fast Machine (Adams) — Bournemouth, Alsop

(Note on the next section: Of course, I could not ignore Sunday in the Park with George -- which is all about creating art, changing relationships, and “moving on” -- now could I?! The performance by Bernadette Peters has been created by molding her studio recording, her live performance at Carnegie Hall “Sondheim, Etc.”, and her follow-up engagement of basically the same show in London, created for broadcast on PBS. I saw the original and was savvy enough to video-tape it in 1998 on, yes, a VCR! I was struck by the quality of her singing in this performance, possibly her best caught on tape: It was like she had found the perfect voice teacher, who was whispering in her ear during the performance, reminding her of how to sing with ease and beauty and light!)

(8)

• “Color and Light” from Sunday in the Park with George (Sondheim) — Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin
• “Finir le chapeau” from Sunday in the Park with George (Sondheim) — Robert Marien
• “Color and Light” — Troy Nilsson, Genie
• “Move On” from Sunday in the Park with George (Sondheim) — Bernadette Peters
• Tod und Verklärung “Death and Transfiguration” (R. Strauss) — Philharmonia, Kashif
• “Sunday” from Sunday in the Park With George (Sondheim) — Daniel Evans
• “Color and Light” from Sunday in the Park with George (Sondheim) — Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin