AFMM MicroMay '97 - May 21, NYC

American Festival of Microtonal Music
MicroMay '97
Day #2: "Jewel"
Columbia University's St. Paul's Chapel
New York, N.Y. May 21, 1997

Day 2 of AFMM's MicroMay began with a transcription
of Andrea Gabrieli's Vezzosa Filli, a piece for double
quartet of singers. The resonant St. Paul's Chapel
(at least a couple of seconds of reverb) was an additional
instrument, reinforcing the music with a glow. Vezzosa Filli
was perfect for this space.

sopranos - Meredith Borden,Piera F. Paine
altos - Adria Quinones, Elizabeth Lee
tenors - Brendan Glynn, Orlando Colon,
basses - Gabriel Mendlow, Andrew Clateman

Three pieces by John Dowland: Lachrimae, The Frog
Galliard, and Forlorn Hope Fancy were performed by Wim
Hoogewerf. Dowland's "personal tuning" uses
perfect ji thirds and fifths yet still contains some intervals
that enrich and color (IMHO) the tuning. Like the Gabrieli,
the ambient St. Paul's contributed to the
performance.

just intonation guitar - Wim Hoogewerf

Johnny Reinhard's Eye of Newt is another of his works
in polymicrotonality - where more then one tuning is used.
His technique of using more then one tuning
creates frequent unexpected changes in mood. Multiphonics
and singing through his alto recorder adds harmony to this potion.

alto recorder - Johnny Reinhard

Ei, Wie der Kaffee ist Suisse by J. S. Bach for
soprano, flute and harpsichord in Werkmeister III. A
wonderful piece that gives the soprano a chance to
sing about how wonderful coffee is. Unfortunately the
chapel drank this one up, obscuring the details.

soprano - Meredith Borden
baroque flute - Andrew Bolotowsky
harpsichord - Rebecca Pechefsky

One of the most anticipated events of the festival was
the NY premiere of the solo version of Harry Partch's
Barstow by John Schneider. The result of historical
research, Schneider had a custom guitar built based
on Partch's notes. Schneider released a version of
Barstow on Just West Coast - microtonal music for guitar and
harp (Bridge) a few years ago and he's refined his approach
since then. Now his Partchian sprechgesang is a bit more
approprate to the piece.

After the concert I asked Schneider about his future plans
for microtonal guitar recordings and was told that he's
planning to record or has unreleased recordings of
works by Partch (US Highball for guitar and voice), La Monte
Young (a newer composer supervised slower version of
Sarabande), more works by Lou Harrison and others including
his own compositions.

Partch monophonic-model guitar - John Schneider

Shruti is the 22 interval scale of India and also the title
of Ganesh Anandan's contribution to the festival. He
played his homemade percussion, metal bars resting
on foam and resonators and then sang in a gruff overtone
style. NY premiere.

extended voice, original instruments - Ganesh Anandan

Andrew Culver's Architectonic Space placed the musicians
spatially around the chapel. The trumpet in the balcony, the
violin in the pulpit, the viola to the side near the pews and
so on. Culver's purely minimalistic held tones disregard the
obsessive rhythmic cells favored by most minimalists, the
primary influences seem to be John Cage and La Monte Young.

A Tuning Digest buddy said that listening to Architectonic
Space was like watching paint dry. I happen to like this kind
of zen minimalism, but think that the composer
missed a great opportunity to explore the rich resources
of higher limit just intonation systems. NY premiere.

alto flute - Andrew Bolotowsky
bass clarinet - Ron Kozak
bassoon - Johnny Reinhard
violin - Dan Auerbach
viola - Anastasia Solberg
cello - Jodi Beder
trumpet - John Charles Thomas

The Quarter tone Preludio a Colon by Julian Carrillo
also used occasional eighth tones. It's pieces like this
that spark up a festival like this, the tuning is so far out
that there's no doubt that it's not in the much too common
12 tone equal temperament. Icing on the cake!

soprano - Meredith Borden
flute - Andrew Bolotowsky
violins - Dan Auerbach, Tina Cho
viola - Anastasia Solberg
cello - Jodi Beder
24 tone equal temperament guitar - Wim Hoogewerf
96 tone equal temperament harp - Skip LaPlante
conductor - Johnny Reinhard

My picks: Barstow, Preludio A Colon and Eye of Newt. Not that there was
anything wrong with the other works. Just my personal highlights.

Stay tuned for more...

db
5/26/97

Part one of this series of reviews is at url:
www.virtulink.com/immp/jux/j_index.htm

Information about the American Festival of Microtonal Music:
http://www.echonyc.com/~jhhl/AFMM/


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