[Voxnovus] NM421> February 27, 2015 - REVIEW: Beautiful Noise and Other Pleasant Paradoxes - Announcing Results Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame with Tzu-En Lee

Fri Feb 27 12:23:47 EST 2015

Can't view this email properly? Click here for the online version
<http://www.voxnovus.com/NM421/issue/15-02-27.htm>  	

 <http://www.voxnovus.com/NM421> New Music for the 21st Century	 

February 27, 2015 	

VOX NOVUS NEWSLETTER
New Music for the 21st Century	
ARTICLES, REVIEWS, AND POSTS	
> POSTCARD: Dinklaker Quality Instruments	
> REVIEW: Beautiful Noise and Other Pleasant Paradoxes 	
Vox Novus Calendar	
> Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame with Tzu-En Lee	
OPPORTUNITIES	
> Composer Opportunites on Music Avatar	
 New Music for the 21st Century
<http://www.voxnovus.com/NM421/img/14-12-29-NM421_breaker.jpg> 	
 Dinklaker Quality Instruments
<http://www.voxnovus.com/NM421/issue/postcard/15-02-27-Dinklaker_Quality_Ins
truments.jpg> 

Dinklaker Quality Instruments

Attention to detail - it's what sets Dinklaker Quality Instruments apart
from all other sousaphone manufacturers the world over. Here, Earl Pringler
welds a delicately filigreed brass ring to one of the bells, which not only
makes the instrument look nice but also improves its aerodynamics, a
definite boon to anyone who has to march around a football field with one of
these babies on his back for the better part of a cold and blustery
afternoon. 

 <http://www.davidgunn.org> David Gunn 

For 10? years,  <http://www.davidgunn.org> David Gunn co-hosted the
ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award-winning radio show, Kalvos & Damian's New Music
Bazaar. The show is archived at www.kalvos.org. Gunn's own website,
http://davidgunn.org, contains numerous recordings and scores of his
compositions. Gunn is also a writer and humorist, and examples of both can
also be found on his website. He lives simultaneously in Barre, Vermont. 

www.davidgunn.org 

 New Music for the 21st Century
<http://www.voxnovus.com/NM421/img/14-12-29-NM421_breaker.jpg> 	
 Robert Dick <http://www.voxnovus.com/member/pic/Robert_Dick_01.jpg> 

Beautiful Noise and Other Pleasant Paradoxes

January 25 Concert Review
By Jack Crager 

In a rather surly moment with the press, Elvis Costello once remarked that
"writing about music is like dancing to architecture." Such a sentiment
might be applied to the January 25 Composer's Voice Concert at Jan Hus
Church. These compositions merge aural abstraction with intellectual grist -
resulting in pieces that are as bafflingly fun as they are difficult to
describe. But we'll take a stab at it: 

The concert begins with "Fifteen Minutes of Infamy" (a twist on the CV
trademark series involving fame), performed by flutist Robert Dick.
Employing a variety of flutes, from piccolo to bass, this is a set of
experiments in sonic textures that segue into and build on each other,
showing the disparate sounds one can coax from these magic cylinders. It
begins with the dancing flutters and duotone blasts of David Wolfson's
"Ghost of an Old Flame," followed by Joseph Bohigian's "Flutterer," in which
a single sustained tone gradually morphs into the oscillation of the title,
builds into a Bronx-cheer sputter, then settles back to a pure tone. Maggie
Payne's "In the Air" progresses from airy whooshes to percussive taps and
whistles and squeals; Masatora Goya's "Pale Fire" unveils long, sloping
rises and falls across the instrument's range; David Drexler's "almost
winter" breaks into key-tapping staccato blips and paint-splatter tones; and
Elizabeth Adams's "Flute Song" adds spoken-voice interjections of poetry to
the mix. Later the searching wails of David Bohn's "Iwabue" (on piccolo)
gives way to the melancholic flute phrases of Rocco Di Petro's "Lilith
Challenging" and the plaintive melodies of Syrlanle Albuquerque's "Plea."
Closing the set, David Evan Jones's "Escape Velocity" picks up speed in
dancing ascents, descents, frills and whistles; and Robert Dick's own
"Bypass to Otherness" incorporates electronic noises with bass-flute blips
and burbles - capping a set of flute pieces like no other. 

 Beth Griffith <http://www.voxnovus.com/member/pic/Beth_Griffith.jpg> 

The sonic experimentation continues-using the human voice-in a series of
three short works performed by Beth Griffin. The first of these, Brandon J.
Rolle's "Beautiful Noise," has the singer alternating between sputtering
blips, breathy piercing high notes, and a long-vowel enunciation of the
title (as if she's speaking "whale" in Finding Nemo). In the second piece,
Menacho's "Poem," a poem by Emily Dickenson emerges amidstly abstracted
consonants and vowels as a gradually revealed lonely lament. And in Dennis
Barthory-Kitz's ".daar zaten wij," its title taken from a 1965 book by Meyer
Sluyser, unveils more demonstrative wails and facial expressions that
suggest an emotional outburst bordering on a nervous breakdown, before
winding down with a peaceful sense of resignation. 

Now it's time for some instrumental sound paintings. Masatora Goya's "Enrai
- distant thunder" is performed by Duo YUMENO, featuring Hkaru Tamaki on
cello and Yoko Reikano Kimura on shamisen, a three-stringed traditional
Japanese instrument. Opening with deep taps on the cello against the
shamisen's twangy occidental-sounding phrases, it progresses into a series
of swooshing noises created with bow and brush; then the two instruments
engage in a series of busy scales and counterpoints, their competition
creating a sense of tension before settling into a quiet, meditative
mid-section. The final segment is even more contemplative, like a resolution
to an eventful life cycle. 

For Cheryl Krugel-Lee's "Let Trip," Sabina Torosjan performs solo on violin.
The piece begins with low, sonorous phrases that build in emotional
intensity, occasionally punctuated by high-pitched sound effects, into an
adventurous section marked by quick arpeggios, brief pauses, lightly plucked
notes, deep tones, and mysterious chords. The mood-shifting piece builds
then to a frenetic climax before settling into a quiet, thoughtful ending. 

 Laurie Bennet Skip La Plante
<http://www.NM421.com/img/15-02-27-Laurie_Bennett-SkipLaPlante.jpg> 

Next up is a composition called "Thoreau" by Skip LaPlante, who performs on
the coba - a custom-made box with bells resembling a marimba - accompanied
by Laurie Bennett on vocals. Here the words, taken from Henry David
Thoreau's Walden, are played against the coba's meandering, asymmetrical
melodies, the two voices engaged in a back-and-forth exchange that gradually
builds in velocity and volume. The blend of transcendentalist musings with
amorphous tones (from an instrument made from scraps) is both strange and
exhilarating - probably enough so to have pleased Thoreau himself. 

How does such an experimental afternoon end? How about a wild piece by
Composer's Voice founder Robert Voisey called "Frigid Piggy." This is
performed by vocalists Hirona Amamiya (soprano) and Masatora Goya
(baritone), accompanied by Yumi Suehiro on piano and Douglas DaSilva on
clarinet. DaSiva (who is also the artistic director of CV) starts by showing
the score that the musicians worked from - which resembles an abstract
cubist painting. This represents a series of emotional and dynamic
guidelines for the quartet. To open, over spiky piano lines the other three
voices wail and roil like ghosts in a house of horrors, then gradually come
into resonance with each other in a glorious choral crescendo before
descending into a lower-register series of gurgles and murmurs. The players
shift into another emotive eruption before splintering into a round-robin,
with each voice rising and falling independently, while the pianist takes to
ice-pick percussive bursts using flailing elbows and wrists. The quartet
simmers awhile and then builds back up to a boiling final flourish that
fills the ceiling dome at Jan Hus Church. Thus from the abstract score we
get an ebullient display of spontaneity - and a fitting end to an afternoon
in which architecture is worth dancing about. 

 Frigid Piggy <http://www.nm421.com/img/15-01-23-Frigid_Piggy.jpg> 

 Jack_Crager <http://www.voxnovus.com/NM421/img/Jack_Crager.jpg> 

Jack Crager is a New York City-based journalist who writes about music,
visual arts, fitness, and other subjects (jackcrager.com
<http://www.jackcrager.com> ). He regularly contributes concert reviews to
NM421. 

 New Music for the 21st Century
<http://www.voxnovus.com/NM421/img/14-12-29-NM421_breaker.jpg> 	

Vox Novus Calendar 

 <http://www.voxnovus.com/calendar> Calendar of Vox Novus Events 	

 <http://www.Voxnovus.com/calendar> CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VOX NOVUS CALENDAR

 New Music for the 21st Century
<http://www.voxnovus.com/NM421/img/14-12-29-NM421_breaker.jpg> 	
 Fifteen Minutes of Fame
<http://www.voxnovus.com/img/Fifteen_Minutes_of_Fame_logo_new.jpg> 

Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame with Tzu-En Lee 

Fifteen composers selected for Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame with Tzu-En Lee. Vox
Novus called for one-minute pieces composed for Solo violin with a theme of
Taiwanese Folk Music. This Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame for Tzu-En Lee is to be
premiered on March 8, 2015 for the Composer's Voice concert Series at the
Jan Hus Church in New York City. The theme "Taiwanese Folk Music" serves as
an inspiration for the composers. Ms. Lee wishes to inspire the composers to
write original music to exemplify her love for Taiwanese music.

Works selected for this Fifteen Minutes of Fame include:
Sketched in Soft Hues by Daniel Arnold, 
Folk Shade by Rodrigo Baggio, 
The Dragon Bridge by Roger Blanc, 
In A Boat Upon A Sea As Smooth As Jade by Erik Branch, 
Cut-off by Ursula Erhart-Schwertmann, 
Moon Mistress-Mistress Water by Fermino Gomes, 
Desire to the Spring Breeze by Shigeru Kan-no, 
Bloom by Damon Lee, 
Rainy Night of Flowers by Feng-Hsu Lee, 
Parapharse of U-ia-hue by Daniel Mihai, 
You Light Up My Star by Yan Pang, 
Jasmin des montagnes by Louis Sauter, 
Contrasts by Richard G Smith, 
Begin The Beiguan by Nolan Stolz, and
April Is The Sweetest Month by Christopher M. Wicks
 Tzu-En Lee <http://www.voxnovus.com/member/pic/Tzu-En_Lee.jpg> 

Violinist Tzu-En Lee has began studying violin at the age of five. Since
then, she has performed extensively in her native Taiwan and has won
numerous competitions, including Taiwan National Violin Competition. Since
coming to the United States, Tzu-En Lee studied violin performance at Mannes
College of Music. She graduated with a diploma in the Spring of 2012 and is
currently pursuing further studies in the graduate program at Mannes under
the tutelage of violinist Yuri Vodovoz. In addition to her studies, Ms. Lee
has enjoyed taking part in the musical life of NYC as a free-lance musician.
Since 2009 she has performed with the Pocket Opera of NY. Tzu-En Lee has
also sought out opportunities to perform the music of contemporary
composers. She has participated in the Second and Third Annual Social
Networking Concerts, produced by composer Douglas Townsend at Saint Peter's
Church in Manhattan, where she has performed a world premiere of the work by
Australian composer Houston Dunleavy. Ms. Lee performed in New York as a
soloist, alongside violinists Muneyoshi Takahashi and Kinga Augustyn, with
the Broadway Bach Ensemble, conducted by Arkady Leytush, in the New York
premiere of Douglas Townsend's Concerto "in the old style" for Three Solo
Violins and String Orchestra (1994)." 

 New Music for the 21st Century
<http://www.voxnovus.com/NM421/img/14-12-29-NM421_breaker.jpg> 	

Opportunities 
on
Music Avatar 

 <http://www.MusicAvatar.org>  
Opportunities
Music Avatar is a great new way to upload works for composer opportunities
hassle free! You will be able to submit, update, and modify your submission
all the way up to the deadline date of the opportunity. www.MusicAvatar.org 

 New Music for the 21st Century
<http://www.voxnovus.com/NM421/img/14-12-29-NM421_breaker.jpg> 	

Click here to Unsubscribe
<http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/voxnovus> 	 
Vox Novus
c/o Robert Voisey
Radio City Station 
P.O. Box 1607 
New York, New York 10101 
USA 
Vox Novus
support at voxnovus.com	 
 <http://statcounter.com/> free web stats 
 <http://statcounter.com/free-web-stats/> site stats
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist7.pair.net/pipermail/voxnovus/attachments/20150227/9dab3331/attachment.html>