(b. 1931)
mode 178
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(b. 1931) mode 178 |
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Ever Present
Piper (2000) (13:05) Matt Welch, bagpipe Fan (2003) (12:05) Miki Maruta, Ryuko Mizutani, Kayoko Nakagawa, and Yoko Nishi, kotos 947 (2001) (7:40) Jacqueline Martelle, flute Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra (1988) (16:36) Brian Johnson, triangle Ever Present (2002) (15:27) Drescher-Okabe-Armbruster Trio: Erik Drescher, flute; Akiko Okabe, piano; Sascha Armbruster, alto saxophone Alvin Lucier's (b. 1931) works on this CD, for solos and trios, continue to explore his unique sound world, exploration of microtones, and use of unusual instrumentation. Piper is probably one of the few avant-garde pieces composed for the bagpipe. The piper is asked to walk slowly around the performance space, sounding his instrument as he does so. From time to time he detunes the chanters, creating beating patterns of slightly varying speeds and minor spatial disturbances (imaginary dopplers). In Fan, 4 koto players play a long series of plucked tones over a 12-minute time span, gradually stepping up to 4 semitones above the starting tone and slowing down to 1 beat every 2, 3, 4, and 5 seconds. As they do so, audible beating at various speeds occurs among the plucked sounds of the instruments. During the course of 947, 4 pure tones are sounded in all their combinations. As they do so a flutist sustains closely tuned long tones against them, creating audible beats at speeds determined by the distances between her tones and those of the pure waves. The farther apart the faster the beating. At unison no beating occurs. Occasionally the flutist bends her pitches a few cycles per second causing the beating patterns to slow down and speed up. In Silver Streetcar, the player dampens the triangle with the thumb and forefinger of one hand while tapping the instrument with the other. The performance consists of moving the geographical locations of these two activities and changing the pressure of the fingers on the triangles as well as the speed and loudness of the tapping. During the course of the performance, the acoustic characteristics of the folded metal bar are revealed. Ever Present is inspired by Robert Irwin's garden at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Tone waves in constant motion sweep up and down as the players sustain long tones across them, creating beating patterns at speeds determined by the closeness of the tunings. Liner notes by the composer. Four first recordings. Reviews: Alvin Lucier Ever Present Mode 178 Sonic Union Arts vet Alvin Lucier articulated an arch, insidious type of confrontation with his most acclaimed piece, "I am Sitting in a Room," which gradually turned a simple, tape-recorded text into jarring abstraction. But, he's also accomplished at straight-up confrontation, as well. Both approaches are well-represented by the five compositions for acoustic instruments collected on Ever Present, each of which examine Lucier's long-held interests in room acoustics and/or the relationships between rhythmic patterns, close tunings and spatial phenomena. Except for "Silver Street Car for the Orchestra" (1988), an in-your-face triangle solo that explores timbre and dynamics, the pieces were composed between 2000 and 2003, which suggest that Lucier's 70s won't be a genteel autumnal decade. "Piper" (2000) is performed by bagpiper Matt Welch, who exploits the acoustics of the performance space by slowly moving through it, building occasionally detuned long tones to create surreal, Doppler-like effects. The remaining pieces are more subtle, but no less radical. Scored for four kotos, "Fan" (2003) uses slowly ascending pitches and decreasing tempi to create mesmerizing shifting rhythmic patterns. "947" (2001), a solo written for flutist Jacqueline Martelle, achieves similar effects through the use of long and bent tones. "Ever Present" (2002) has a sly delicacy, as the long tones produced by saxophonist Armbruster, flutist Erik Drescher and pianist Akiko Okabe hover languorously, resulting in progressively powerful harmonics. It is a stunning, elegant piece of music. --- Bill Shoemaker, Point of Departure, 2007 Alvin Lucier Ever Present Mode 178  Now 76, Alvin Lucier is a survivor of the generation of American experimentalists who followed Cage's example in the 1960s, and in many ways prepared the way for the birth of minimalism a few years later. Lucier's early works explored the sound properties of natural environments, from the alpha rhythms of the human brain to the acoustic resonances of empty spaces, but for the past decade he has been writing for conventional instruments and investigating the possibilities of the "beats" created when two or more closely tuned pitches are sounded together. In Piper, a bagpipe player wanders around the performance area sounding his instrument and periodically detuning the chanters, creating different patterns of beats. Fan is written for four koto players, who play a long series of plucked notes that gradually rise by semitones and move in and out of phase. Silver Street for Orchestra is in fact a triangle solo in which the minutiae of the instrument's tintinnabulations are picked up by microphones and amplified. It's all rather curious, and not music that you would want to hear more than once. --- Andrew Clements, The Guardian, Friday June 29, 2007 Related Resources: Also by ALVIN LUCIER on Mode Records: Navigations for Strings; Small Waves (mode 124) Alvin Lucier profile |
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