Highlights Microthon '99, NYC

Great but a long festival...

Eric Nauman & Douglas Cohen's performance of
three of six/lander, waltz, cha-cha/two people
/break/six minutes/continue: Eric fading in guitar chords
with one hand, flipping index cards with the other while Douglas
provided an ambient soundscape from a laptop computer.
Cohen ended the piece by closing the screen to his computer
like closing a piano keyboard lid. My only complaint is that
the piece didn't last for an hour or so. Yep!

Michiyo Suziki performed Joji Yausa's Solitude - everything
this clarinetist performs turns to gold. Amazing.

John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
was performed by Joshua Pierce. After all the recordings I've heard
on large grand pianos, this sounded a bit different. But Pierce's
performance on the halls resident piano still impressed me,
the preparations still resonated true.

Violetta Dinescu's Intarsien performed by Thomas Rutishauser on cello
with wild glissando and percussive tapping on the instrument.
Why isn't this composer's work more widely performed??? Shouldn't there
be a festival devoted to Dinescu's work?

Sasha Bagdanowitch performed his An Ocean Walks Behind a Lake.
Wearing a headphone/microphone/wireless combination, he sang
and danced along with his pre-recorded singing Sashas on
pre-recorded tape for about 20 min. Oh, those pure intervals
sung by voices! An original vision influenced by the east,
Sasha deserves wider exposure.

Johnny Reinhard rolled out a version of his solo Zanzibar,
now for two bassoons. Yung-Ling Chang accompanied JR in
assembling the instruments while using extended techniques
to give life to the piece. NYC's downtown music crowd don't
know what they're missing - the multiphonics, the extended
techniques!

Meredith Borden of NYC's hardest working microtonal band
Birdhouse, performed her Icarus Dreams for voice and
autoharp in just intonation. As always, amazing range and
a sensitivity to pitch made this piece work beyond any expectations.
Knocked me out - she used some techniques that I don't
think I've heard her use before. Amen!

Four keyboards and three percussionists gave life to
composer Patrick Grant's Everything Distinct:
Everything the Same. Keyboards tuned to a gamalan tuning,
in fact the piece seems to be influenced by the
gamelan of Bali - I was blown away. It's so exciting to hear
this music live.

Eric Ross and David Simmons, theremin
Vito Ricci, wrench guitar
Johnny Reinhard, bassoon performed an improvisation, Spring,
where each performer represented a season. I had trouble separating
the seasons but no trouble enjoying the collected improvisations
of this seasoned quartet.

And those are only the highlights, I couldn't hear everything,
couldn't sit all the time, had to get up, stretch and get fresh
air.

Much credit goes to Johnny Reinhard - for making it all happen,
Ted Coons, President AFMM and Professor of Psychology at NYU
for getting us the hall,
Patrick Grant for provding a sound system and expert sound check advice.

And I really enjoyed performing my piece Sonic Bloom at the festival.
A privilege.

--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* xouoxno@virtulink.com
*
* J u x t a p o s i t i o n E z i n e
* M E L A v i r t u a l d r e a m house monitor
*
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm