Last night ended a quite successful run of the project FIVE POINTS with Pulse and Take Dance! Thanks to all that came to Merce Cunningham Studios to fill the house each night. Here's a good write-up with photos from Oberon's Grove, also here's a link to an interview I gave to Sequenza 21 about FIVE POINTS.

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 1:23 PM 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2011

We made it! We reached our Kickstarter goal, so thank you to all who are helping to make our Pulse-TAKE Dance collaboration happen. Now, if you haven't bought your tickets, they are selling fast so you might want to click this link so you don't miss out...

FIVE POINTS
TAKE Dance + Pulse: Part II  

FEATURING 
COMPOSERS: Jamie Begian, Melissa Dunphy, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider

MUSICIANS: Hannah Levinson, Jacob Garchik, Ana Milosavljevic, Chris Reza, Mariel Roberts

CHOREOGRAPHERS: Takehiro Ueyama, Jill Echo, Kile Hotchkiss, Kristen Arnold, Milan Misko

DANCERS:  Kristen Arnold, Brynt Beitman, John Eirich, Jillian Hervey, Kile Hotchkiss, Gina Ianni, Cliinton Edward Martin, Sarah Mettin, Milan Misko, Nana Tsuda Misko, Lynda Senisi, Kristi Tornga and Marie Zvosec.
Where: Merce Cunningham Dance Studios, 55 Bethune Street, NYC
When: DEC 15-16 @ 9:00PM
DEC 17th @ 8:00PM

Tickets: $20/$15 Students & Seniors         
Can purchase tickets in advance only, HERE

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 9:05 AM 

The past two years I have posted about my experience on September 11, 2001 and the subsequent composition, The Spell of a Vanishing Loveliness, that came from that experience. Recently there was that big (in the new music community at least) controversy of the cover of the new Steve Reich recording of his composition WTC 9/11 which showed a slightly darken image of one of the planes about to strike one of the towers; such was the uproar that Nonesuch Records decided to remove the image from the recording. Despite some beautiful and powerful moments (the sections with the singing of the Psalms and Exodus were especially riveting), overall I was not particularly moved by WTC 9/11 when I heard the NYC premiere at Carnegie Hall on April 30th. Some of the reasons for my ambivalence can be read in some of my tweets after the Reich cover photo went live:

C'mon @NonesuchRecords, yes we know the @stevereich piece is about Sept. 11 don't hit us over the head with "9/11!" sanctification #subtlety 20 Jul

I wasn't thrilled w/"WTC 9/11" when heard @carnegiehall, because, for me, it represented precisely what having that photo on the cover means 20 Jul

not against Sept. 11 pieces per se just when they draw too much attention as 9/11! pieces (ala Rudy "noun, verb, 9/11" Giuliani)#endofrant 20 Jul

As far as my response, The Spell of a Vanishing Loveliness is not about September 11 but rather a reflection of the reality that even in horrific experiences, there can be found beauty and knowing this is a part of being human. With all of the events and artistic responses set for the 10th anniversary,  I think it is good to remember that there is a difference between "9/11" and "September 11": one reflects simple binary thoughts ("good vs. bad", "right vs. wrong", etc.) and often jingoism and the other speaks of universal complexity and subtlety of emotion and feelings. This September 11th I'm wishing for more of the later in the artistic responses than the former. To paraphrase Dr. Ian Malcolm in the movie Jurassic Park, I hope artists thought not only of whether they could respond to September 11, but to think if they honestly should.

Here is my story:
It has been 8 years since the events of September 11, 2001 and recently I've been thinking about John Adams's, and subsequently my own, musical response to that day. John Adams in an interview originally posted on the New York Philharmonic website (and now on his site), talks about his trepidations when asked to write a work, On the Transmigration of Souls, to have been performed almost exactly one year after the attacks of 9/11:

"I didn’t require any time at all to decide whether or not to do it. I knew immediately that I very much wanted to do this piece–in fact I needed to do it. Even though I wasn’t exactly sure what kind of a shape the music would take, I knew that the labor and the immersion that would be required of me would help answer questions and uncertainties with my own feelings about the event. I was probably no different from most Americans in not knowing how to cope with the enormous complexities suddenly thrust upon us. Being given the opportunity to make a work of art that would speak directly to people’s emotions allowed me not only to come to grips personally with all that had happened, but also gave me a chance to give something to others."

I started the composer group Pulse in May 2004 with an initial meeting of six other like-minded composers. From this initial fellowship gathering, all through that summer and fall, we worked on organizing our premiere performance to be that December. For that first performance, I knew I wanted my piece to be based on 9/11, but was unsure of what direction to take. Like John Adams stated, it felt too big and too raw an event to process my feelings enough in order to create something decent let alone meaningful. After a few sketches and false starts, which looking back now, tried to do and say too much, I decided that the best way for me to approach the composition was to reflect on my own experiences that day. To create something with simple and direct expression that did not tackle 9/11 directly, but tangentially; something not exactly programmatic but still able to convey the story of an unexpected pulchritudinous moment that day.

I was in Brooklyn at the time of the attacks, substitute teaching a high school math class at the Brooklyn International School, in a building next to and overlooking the Manhattan Bridge. I first noticed something was wrong when I casually looked out the window to see the usual bustling rush-hour car traffic flowing over the bridge was non-existent. Someone eventually came to the classroom I was in and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Many of the students became visibly upset. I looked out the window again and where just a few minutes before no one or thing was coming over the bridge, now the bridge was beginning to fill with people streaming from Manhattan eastward across the roadway. The first tower had fallen before I had a chance, during my prep period, to run out onto the bridge toward Manhattan (just before the police stopped anyone from traveling westward) to see what was happening for myself. I reached the center of the bridge and could see the top of the second tower in flames. Less than a minute later the second tower, hauntingly silent and seemly in slow motion, imploded upon itself with audible gasps and cries of horror from the crowd which turned to look.

After retuning to the school, you can imagine that it was difficult to focus for the remainder of the school day. With people passing in front of the school, it was a constant reminder of the enormity of that morning's events. The fear and confusion was particularly palatable in the students. As the news coverage slowly uncovered the terrorist plot, this being a high school of all recent immigrants (many of whom were Muslim and wore Islamic veils and scarfs), it was hard not to control my own fears of what would happened to the students when school let out and they would have to pass through the crowd on their way to the subway. Despite the police presence, would they be blamed and suffer verbal or physical abuse from the understandably bewildered and upset crowd coming over the bridge? At the end of the day, many of the teachers, myself included, decided to walk with some of the students to the subway to make sure they were ok leaving the school.

Later in the early evening with two other friends, I was on a townhouse roof in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn surveying the entire lower Manhattan cityscape. I watched as a distant flickering mass seemed to be coming closer toward us from the World Trade Center site. At first it looked like a swarm of white butterflies, glittering in the evening sun, but as it got closer we realized that it was paper rising with the heat from the site and floating toward us from lower Manhattan. An immensely beautiful and ethereal sight, none of us spoke as the swarm came directly over us with some of the many pages from law books and computer printouts fluttering above and some landing all around the roof. We watched as the swarm passed over us and quietly continued farther into Brooklyn. No more than five minutes, this small and ephemeral moment, still resonated with me all those years and when I was ready, found outlet in my composition. 

The Spell of a Vanishing Loveliness premiered at the inaugural concert of Pulse on December 1, 2004. The performance featured Amy Cervini (vocals), Sebastian Noelle (guitar), Jody Redhage (violoncello), Diana Herold (vibraphone), with me conducting. It was one of those moving performances where everyone in the audience and the musicians (including myself) were wrapped inside an all-encompassing bubble of the moment. After the piece ended and we were changing over to the next composer, Jody remarked "Did you feel that?" and indeed, the air seemed charged with something tangible and indescribable during and just after the performance (I realized had goosebumps during the end of the piece as the vibraphone and guitar drifted into their final nothingness). There was something magical, real, and true about the performance with the events of 9/11 only three years removed and still so close to people's emotions. It remains one of my most special musical memories so far in New York.

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 9:00 AM 

Well as I mentioned in an earlier post, 2010 has turned out to be quite the dance year for me. Not actually dancing myself (although THAT would be interesting) but rather a number of commissions for works for others to dance. In June a showing of one section (These are the Times that Try Men's Souls) from my collaboration with Edisa Weeks, To Begin the World Over Again, which is based on the writings of Thomas Paine. And last month on October 14 and 15th, another collaboration with TAKE Dance and my 'other' group Pulse, The Distance of the Moon.

Both collaborations you'll hear and see more of next year, with the full evening premiere of To Begin the World Over Again taking place the first two weeks of June 2011 at Irondale Theater in Brooklyn and another Pulse and TAKE Dance project tentatively schedule for Fall 2011. So check back for more details. For now you can see for yourself some of what I've been doing this year, so let's roll the tape...first up, "The Distance of the Moon". You can watch all of the dances of The Distance of the Moon from the other composers and choreographers at the Pulse blog or my Numinousmusic Youtube channel and can check out other great photos from the show here. 

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 10:38 AM 

Check out some of the great photos from last months Pulse dance project with Take Dance, The Distance of the Moon. The photos are by the wonderful photographer kokyat and you can see shots before, during, and after the October 2010 shows.

(the dance "The Distance of the Moon" choreography by Takehiro Ueyama and music by Joseph C. Phillips Jr. from October 2010 performance, photos by kokyat)

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 7:54 AM 

Yesterday was our first rehearsal combining the live musicians and the dancers for the Pulse project The Distance of the Moon. So, while I've heard all of the pieces from our musician's rehearsals and have seen video of the dancers rehearsing my piece "The Distance of the Moon", this was the first time seeing and hearing everything together. And I can say it is going to be quite a dynamic and exciting show; you really should make one of the evenings (details below).

BTW, next week on Wednesday October 13th from 6pm to 9pm some of us Pulse-sters will be hosting WKCR's Jazz Alternatives Musician's radio show where we'll be talking about our music, the upcoming project, and our influences.

TAKE Dance and PULSE present
the world premiere of
THE DISTANCE OF THE MOON
Featuring choreography by Takehiro Ueyama, Jill Echo, Kile Hotchkiss, Julie Tice 
Music by Darcy James Argue, Jamie Begian, Joseph C. Phillips, Jr., JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider, Yumiko Sunami

October 14 and 15 at 8:00 PM
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South at Thompson Street
Purchase tickets online now at: BROWN PAPER TICKETS
Help us meet our fund raising goal !!!
visit our project at: KICKSTARTER
WE HAVE UNTIL OCTOBER 10th to reach our goal!!!

DANCERS
Kristen Arnold, Elise Drew, John Eirich, Kile Hotchkiss, Gina Ianni, Mariko Kurihara,
Clinton Edward Martin, Nana Tsuda Misko,  Jake Warren, Marie Zvosec

MUSICIANS
Woodwinds: Ben Kono
Guitar: Pete McCann
Violin: Ana Milosavljevic
Cello: Will Martina
Bass: Eva Lawitts
Percussion: Max Jhin Jaffe

For more information contact TAKE Dance
info@takedance.org  |  917.591.1413

(Photo credit: all by Joseph C. Phillips Jr.) 

(also posted slightly differently as "Survey of the Distance of the Moon" at the Pulse blog: www.pulsecomposers.typepad.com) 

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 8:00 PM 

This is shaping up to be quite the year of dance for me. In June was the premiere of one part of To Begin the World Over Again, a collaboration with Edisa Weeks and Delirious Dances, based on the writings of Thomas Paine (I will post the video from that showing later this month) with the full evening length showing including symposium, premiering June 2011 as a co-production with the Irondale Theater in Brooklyn. And now later this month will be a long-awaited collaboration between Takehiro Ueyama's TAKE Dance and the composer federation I founded and lead, Pulse.

The Distance of the Moon features the 6 composers of Pulse writing compositions for the 4 choreographers of TAKE Dance, performed live by the 6-musician Pulse chamber ensemble. From the official blurb:

Ueyama pairs his "forceful, fluid movement" (Bloomberg News) with Joseph C. Phillips Jr.'s "The Distance of the Moon", a pas de deux depicting the love story between the Moon and the Earth (inspired by the short story "The Distance of the Moon" in Italo Calvino's phantasmagorical 1965 book Cosmicomics).  Set to music creating a sense of wonder, mystery, and beauty, the work is a metaphor for two lovers, like the Moon and the Earth, slowly moving apart and never feeling closeness again.  Ueyama's second work, "And Dance By the Light of the Moon", is a men's quartet portraying quasi-human creatures who discover the Moon set to the music of composer/saxophonist Joshua Shneider. 

Jill Echo, a former Paul Taylor dancer and founding member of TAKE Dance, brings two works that illustrate the various effects that the Moon has on us.  In "Moonshine", theatrical choreography and funk-laced music by composer/guitarist Jamie Begian together portray the enigmatic influences the Moon has on a group of seven people.  Add a bar scene with the effects of alcohol and you get a comedy of mayhem and uninhibited behavior.  In contrast, Echo's second piece depicts the Moon's luminous beauty and its ability to ignite one's unconscious.  Set to music by Japanese composer Yumiko Sunami, the piece is a reflection of the Moon's ethereal power on a quintet of women through four phases – "New Moon", "Ascending Moon", "Full Moon", and "Descending Moon". 

Similarly, choreographer/dancer Julie Tice, a fellow Paul Taylor alumnus, is also captivated by the changing phases of the Moon in a new piece entitled "Lunar Cycles".  Set to music by composer/trombonist JC Sanford, it symbolizes the Moon's transformations and how they affect people's characters. 

Rounding out the program is the choreographic debut of TAKE Dance member Kile Hotchkiss.  His section, "Imperfect Syzygy", features a quintet of dancers outlining the alignment and dissolution of a lunar eclipse.  Moving with the principles of observation and obstruction, the dancers explore the measures of shadowed darkness from astral projections as well as from within.  Topping the "Composer Rising Star" and "Arranger Rising Star" categories in the 2010 DownBeat Critics Poll, composer Darcy James Argue sets the tone with his much talked about "wickedly intelligent dispatch from the fading border between orchestral jazz and post-rock and classical minimalism" (New York Times).

We hope you can come out and support us in this wonderful project. How often do you see and hear modern dance choreographed to LIVE music! You can order tickets at the link below or get them at the box office. And if you are able, we do have a Kickstarter page where you can donate; even a small amount can go a long way to make this possible! Spread the word: Take & Pulse Live is a big WIN!

TAKE Dance and PULSE present
the world premiere of
THE DISTANCE OF THE MOON
Featuring choreography by Takehiro Ueyama, Jill Echo, Kile Hotchkiss & Julie Tice 
Music by Darcy James Argue, Jamie Begian, Joseph C. Phillips, Jr., JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider & Yumiko Sunami

October 14 & 15 at 8:00 PM
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South at Thompson Street
Purchase tickets online now at: BROWN PAPER TICKETS

Help us meet our fund raising goal !!!
visit our project at: KICKSTARTER

DANCERS
Kristen Arnold, Elise Drew, John Eirich, Kile Hotchkiss, Gina Ianni, Mariko Kurihara,
Clinton Edward Martin, Nana Tsuda Misko,  Jake Warren, Marie Zvosec

MUSICIANS
Woodwinds: Ben Kono
Guitar: Pete McCann
Violin: Ana Milosavljevic
Cello: Will Martina
Bass: Eva Lawitts
Percussion: Max Jhin Jaffe

For more information contact TAKE Dance
info@takedance.org  |  917.591.1413

(Photo credit Take Dance by Quinn Batson; Pulse by Marcy Begian)

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 12:00 PM 

The next Composer Salon is on Monday February 1, 2010 from 7 pm to around 9 pm at the Brooklyn Lyceum (227 4th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn). And the price is right for our troubled economic times: FREE! The Lyceum is literally above the Union Street M, R Train stop in Brooklyn. The Lyceum does have various inexpensive libations including different beers, wine and other non-alcoholic beverages, as well as coffee and baked goods. If you are a composer/musician in New York City area, regardless of genre, style, or inclination, I hope you can come out, meet some new and old faces behind the blogs and comments and listen or join the discussion.

Salon Topic #4:
“You need a certain dose of inspiration, a ray from on high, that is not in ourselves, in order to do beautiful things….”—Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to his brother Theo

“Basically, music is not about technique, it’s about spirit.”—Terry Riley

As some of you know in June 2010, I'll be premiering one section of a new collaborative project based upon the writings of Thomas Paine, To Begin the World Over Again with Numinous, dance choreographer Edisa Weeks, and her company Delirious Dances. The full project will take place in the spring of 2011. In my research and reading for the project, I read David McCollough's wonderful book 1776, a riveting account of that pivotal year in American's revolution against England. And while the book only talks about or mentions Thomas Paine briefly, both occasions were stirring. One was an account of the retreat of the American troops from New York City to New Jersey and the famous crossing of the Delaware River. Thomas Paine, who as an aide to General Greene, was among the retreating troops. Inspired by the American's incredible resolve and determination against frigid weather and a seemly invincible opponent, Thomas Paine began writing the words which eventually became his American Crisis. Whose famous words, "these are the times that try men's soul's" echo the graveness of the times then and have been appropriated by many since then. The other account in 1776 was an aside about how Common Sense, which was published on January 9th, 1776 (not the 10th as is commonly thought), was read to the soldiers of the fledgling colonial army and how the moving words of Common Sense changed the conflict in the minds of those soldiers (as well as in the mind of General Washington) from a struggle against the meddlesome but generally welcomed rule of a benevolent crown to a war for freedom and independence against a foreign invader. I thought about how the words of Thomas Paine inspired the Revolution and recently it got me think more generally about inspiration itself.  

Last week, I, along with my Pulse colleagues Darcy James Argue and JC Sanford, were a part of the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT) where we were commissioned by founder Dave Douglas to write 'arrangements' of Ornette Coleman tunes. Before our concert was a performance of composer Charles Wuorinen's brass music. At the conclusion of the Wuorinen concert, I was talking with a fellow composer who remarked, something to the effect of how they were "amazed at what different music is in people's heads." This was not meant as a direct criticism of the Wuorinen music we just heard, but rather a general wonderment at how different people hear different things and how that manifests itself in sound and music. Certainly Charles Wuorinen's soon to be completed opera Brokeback Mountain will sound completely different than Gustavo Santaolalla's score to the movie? And what a different creation is the movie when compared to the Annie Proulx's short story? How does the same short story inspire such different outcomes? What inspires someone to compose the way they do? I also thought about the great music Darcy, JC and myself came up with in reimagining Ornette Coleman's music into something new. What inspired us to hear Coleman's music in such a way that, while certainly referencing Coleman, sounded less like Coleman and more like Darcy, JC, and me? It is really fascinating to contemplate (well, at least to me anyway) and I thought the idea of inspiration might be an interesting discussion for others in the Composer Salon as well. 

I. German poet Rainer Maria Rilke said,
“always at the commencement of work that first innocence must be reachieved, you must return to that unsophisticated spot where the angel discovered you when he brought you the first binding message.”

How do you approach the start of a new composition? What inspires you to begin a composition? Is it purely the working out of musical material, an extra-musical association, or a combination that inspires the beginning of a work? 

II. Composer George Crumb states that in composing
“there’s always a balance between the technical and the intuitive aspects. With all the early composers, all the composers we love, there was always this balance between the two things…that’s what all music reflects.”

How do you reconcile and balance the two forces? Do you really need to?

III. Composer Alvin Lucier, in his essay The Tools of My Trade, speaks of a temptation, when first conceiving a piece, “towards greater complexity” in his principal musical idea, but eventually reducing the idea to its’ minimum. This idea of reducing ideas to only their barest essence (and the difficulties inherent in that) is also spoken about by Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Mark Rothko and many other artists, writers, musicians (as well as philosophers and theologians). Do you fight the temptation of “greater complexity” in your own music? How do you do it? What ways/techniques help you achieve the 'right' way to convey your musical idea(s) in your composition? When do you know if it is 'right'?

If you are a composer or musician or music lover in the New York City area, consider coming down to the Lyceum and joining the discussion, or if you don't live in New York or can't make it, adding your thoughts in the comments. Hope to see you on February 1st! 

Previous Composer Salons
Composer Salon #1: The Audience
Composer Salon #2: Future Past Present
Composer Salon #3: Mixed Music-Stylistic Freedom in the 'aughts

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 12:02 AM

Next week on January 14th at 9pm, three composers from Pulse (myself, Darcy James Argue, and JC Sanford) will be featured on a concert at the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT) at the Abrons Art Center 466 Grand Street in New York City. Tickets can be purchased at the FONT website or at the door.

The Festival of New Trumpet Music, which was co-founded by the great trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas, actually begins the night before on January 13th with a tribute and benefit celebrating the life and career of famed trumpeter Wilmer Wise. Wilmer has lead a diverse and interesting career, straddling the worlds of jazz, contemporary classical, and Broadway. Working with such musical illuminati as Steve Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, and Leopold Stokowski among many others, he was often one of the few (if most of the time, the only) African-American musician in many of the ensembles and symphony orchestras he performed in during the 1960s and 1970s. 

The January 14th concert is really in three parts: At 6:30pm Anti-Social Music, Inc. presents a series of world premieres; at 7:30pm is a performance of the brass music by the incredible composer Charles Wuorinen performed by the New York Trumpet Ensemble and the Urban Brass Quintet, which will be conducted by the composer himself; then at 9pm Wilmer Wise reprises his role as trumpet soloist in Ornette Coleman's rarely performed chamber work, The Sacred Mind of Johnny Dolphin. Wilmer performed on the premiere in 1984 and trumpeter Lew Soloff played on the last known performance at Carnegie Hall in 1987. Both Wilmer and Lew will be tag-teaming the solo trumpet part in The Sacred Mind of Johnny Dolphin for the January 14th concert. Also featured will be Gerald Cleaver (drums), Warren Smith (percussion), Meg Okura and Scott Tixier (violins), Judith Insell (viola), and Will Martina (cello). To round out the 9pm part of the concert, Dave Douglas commissioned three composers from Pulse (myself, Darcy James Argue, and JC Sanford) to arrange some of Ornette Coleman's music for the ensemble with soloists Lew Soloff and Taylor Ho Bynum.

The composition I wrote, featuring both Lew and Taylor, is called "Memory of Red Orange Laid out in Still Waves" and is a transmutation and refraction of the beautiful "Kathelin Gray" from the Ornette Coleman/Pat Metheny 1986 album Song X. My title comes from a line in Edward P. Jones's sobering book, The Known World which, while a work of fiction, was based upon the true incidents of African-Americans owning slaves during the 19th century. Darcy's arrangement, featuring Taylor as soloist, is the opening theme from Ornette's Skies of America from the 1972 orchestral album of the same name, while JC with Lew, will tackle "Peace" from the vestigial 1959 album The Shape of Jazz to Come in his composition, the eponymously titled "Lew's Peace". 

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 7:51 AM

This Saturday night, May 30, my other group, Pulse, will be performing our Songs from the Hudson River project at the historic Hudson Opera House in Hudson, New York (2 hours north of NYC). This is a fun project because it is a collaboration with the incredible singer-songwriterJoy Askew and features a small Pulse ensemble of 6 players: Dan Willis (woodwinds), Lis Rubard (horn), Ana Milosavljevic (violin), Will Martina (cello), Diana Herold (percussion), Greg Chudzik (bass). Each composition is inspired by communities and life along the Hudson River as this year marks the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage up the "River of Mountains".

ORIGINALLY POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 6:45 AM