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Mar 112015
 
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Photo by John Russell.

 

Michael Holland, director of the VORTEX Percussion Ensemble at Blair School of Music, organized the concert-of-the-year for two years running: 2012’s John Cage Centennial and 2013’s Ballet Mecanique (featuring 8 robotic pianos!). 2014 came and went without a VORTEX performance on that scale, but Holland and company still managed to pack a hell of a wallop with a show featuring a live soundtrack to a Fleischer Brothers’ Koko the Clown cartoon and an expertly-choreographed rendition of Mary Ellen Childs’ Click. On Sunday, March 15th, VORTEX returns with what is sure to be 2015’s show of the year: VORTEX and the American Gamelan.

The American Gamelan is a percussion instrument loosely based on the Indonesian Gamelan. The instrument was invented and constructed by composer, maker, and radical visionary Lou Harrison and his partner William Colvig out of aluminum tubes, bars, and found materials like cans and oxygen tanks. The one at Blair School is one of only four in existence. So yeah, it’s kind of a big deal.

The daylong event begins with a documentary on Lou Harrison (watch the trailer below) and ends with performances featuring the American Gamelan. Don’t miss the MusiCircus invading the plaza at 6:45pm. The John Cage Centennial MusiCircus was one of the highlights of that event. (See the video I recorded below.) For this one, Holland says, “We’ll have musicians playing traditional Chinese guzheng, pipa, Indian tabla, a harp choir, the fabulous Bocalize bassoon septet, singers, dancers, Brazilian capoeiristas and much, much more!”

While researching this post, I wondered how early 20th century composer Henry Cowell fit into the picture. He’s mentioned in the Blair School concert announcement, yet I couldn’t find how he was associated with the American Gamelan. I reached out to Michael Holland about it, and his answer was so beautiful that I can’t help but quote it in full here:

Henry Cowell was certainly a teacher of Harrison (and Cage, Gershwin, Burt Bacharach, and scads more composers) but more important, he is the spark behind the explosion of so many things we take for granted in the 20th and even the 21st centuries in music.

Cowell is one of the inventors of the percussion orchestra. Growing up immersed in the multi-cultural world of the San Francisco Bay Area, Cowell was the first composer to reach inside the piano to create sounds beyond those produced by the keyboard, pioneering the use of tone clusters, chance operations, and complex polyrhythms.

He was the first strong advocate for what we commonly refer to as “world music.” Cowell was the instigator behind Harrison’s and Cage’s forays into non-Western music.

But it gets better still! Cowell urged his students to forgo the dicey world of writing for orchestras and to, instead, forage through junk yards for found sounds. Here’s where it gets interesting and directly connected to the gamelan. In these “found sounds” we hear the first strains of what would become–under Lou Harrisons direction–the creation of the American Gamelan.

Cowell’s pursuit of metallophones included spun steel brake drums, steel pipe, bell plates (flat plates of steel) –ringing things, all of them–and in these sounds you will hear something that reminds you of the Balinese Gamelan. You’ll hear this in two pieces: Cowell’s Pulse, written in 1939 and Lou Harrison’s The Song of Quetzalcoatl (1942). We’ll demonstrate this on Sunday night. The audience is in for a special treat because spun steel brake drums are extraordinarily difficult to find. I have one of the few sets in the country. NOTE: Lou Harrison remarked shortly before his death in 2003 just how frustrated he was that no one seemed to care enough to bother collecting the authentic sounds for which he had written–much less go to the trouble of actually suspending them so they ring.

What audiences will note is that spun steel brake drums ring like Buddhist Temple bells….25-30 seconds of reverberation. They are gorgeous–from cars in the 1930s. (The automotive standard became cast iron in the 1950s.)

So, there you go. Cowell leads us to Harrison who builds the American Gamelan.

It’s this kind of attention to detail that makes Michael Holland one of the Nashville art scene’s greatest assets. Blair School should count themselves extremely fortunate to have him.

More from the Blair School:

Celebrating the world music legacy of Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison. East meets West in an orchestra built entirely of shimmering, ethereal metal. “The most beautiful instrument on the planet,” according to Lou Harrison.

Experience the beauty of the American Gamelan after its 900-mile journey to Nashville. See and hear this unforgettable orchestra of metal — one of only four in the world — and explore the cultural frontiers opened by Cowell and Harrison. Rare archival photographs, audio clips and historic film footage let Cowell and Harrison speak to you as VORTEX presents the Southeastern U.S. debut of the American Gamelan.

Violinist Carolyn Huebl performs Harrison’s Suite for Violin and American Gamelan, and composer John Pennington leads the Tennessee premiere of his new work Gitanjali, with soloist Cyprian Consiglio.

  • Noon: Documentary film: LOU HARRISON: A World of Music, Portrait of a great composer who followed his own dreams. Trading a fast-paced New York career for a cabin in the woods, Harrison embraced “world music” before the term was invented, Choral Hall
  • 1:30 p.m.: Break: Coffee and fresh-from-the-oven cookies!
  • 2 p.m.: Not sure what a gamelan is? See and hear the American Gamelan in a rare and up close setting with John Pennington, Choral Hall
  • 2:45 p.m.: Informal concert with Cyprian Consiglio and John Pennington, featuring hand percussion, guitar and vocal music from the traditions of the Camaldolese monks, Choral Hall
  • 6:45 p.m.: MusiCircus for Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison. Enter the imaginative world of Cowell and Harrison in an interactive exploration of sound and movement. This MusiCircus is a menagerie of sounds from West Africa, Brazil, China, Japan, India, America, and much more. Created in the festive spirit of John Cage, “You won’t hear a thing. You’ll hear everything!” Fun for the whole family! Ingram Lobby and Plaza.
  • 8 p.m.: VORTEX concert (recommended minimum age: 5), Ingram HallCelebrating the world music legacy of Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison. East meets West in an orchestra built entirely of shimmering, ethereal metal. “The most beautiful instrument on the planet,” according to Lou Harrison.

 

Photo by Michael Weintrob.

Michael Holland armed with a Balinese gong. Photo by Michael Weintrob.

 

VORTEX and the American Gamelan
Sunday, March 15th, 2015, noon to 10pm.
Blair School of Music, Nashville, TN

Nov 082014
 

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Whether you realize it or not, you’ve probably seen the Fleischer brothers’ Out of the Inkwell cartoons. Most feature the live-action Max Fleischer interacting with Koko the Clown and other hand-drawn creations on the easel. The cartoons were the first to achieve lifelike animation by use of the Rotoscope, a device Max invented. Rotoscoping is still used today in works such as Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly.

This Sunday, VORTEX Percussion will perform a live score to the 1921 Fleischer Studios Out of the Inkwell film Modeling. And that’s not all. From the press release:

It’s mayhem and madness when VORTEX tries to keep up with the ever mischievous Koko the Clown! VORTEX provides musical accompaniment as Koko leaps from the artist’s page and into the three-dimensional human world. Insanity reigns supreme with live action and stop-action animation from 93 years ago! Plus: works for marimba quintet, South American “scrapers”, and two of the world-renowned visual percussion pieces of Mary Ellen Childs.

VORTEX director Michael Holland is the mastermind behind Blair School’s last two major events: the John Cage Celebration and Ballet mécanique performance. If he’s involved, you can rest assured it’s a must see.

John Pitcher writes about the show on ArtsNash.com, and you can also learn more at the Facebook event page . Don’t miss this!

VORTEX percussion & Guests: Joe Donley, Ryan Middagh, Robert Thompson
Sunday, November 9th, 2014, 8 p.m.
Vanderbilt Blair School of Music – Turner Hall

 

Mar 232013
 

Blair Vortex VORTEX and the Bad Boy! George Antheil's restored Ballet mécanique

I’m going to call it. The April 7th Blair School of Music event VORTEX and the Bad Boy! will be the most ambitious, satisfying, and important Nashville event of 2013. People will talk about it for years. Those who miss it will regret it for years.

How can I be so sure about that?

Well, for starters:

  • Blair Percussion VORTEX director Michael Holland organized last year’s John Cage Centennial, the most important event of 2012.  This lobby musicircus featured over 75 performers, and that was just the pre-show!
  • The April 7th event centers around the groundbreaking 1924 experimental film and musical composition Ballet Mécanique, directed by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy and scored by George Antheil.
  • The film will be projected with LIVE orchestration, featuring 8 PLAYER PIANOS, 13 live musicians, xylophones, bass drums, electric bells, airplane propellers, and more!
  • This is the original restored orchestration and film in its southeaster US premiere, only the 6th US production featuring the original orchestration with the film.
  • The daylong symposium features a myriad of events, including a Q&A with Paul Lehrman who used robotics and MIDI processing to make the original Ballet mécanique playable again; an Antheil documentary; a presentation by MuTant project director Arshia Cont on how computers have learned to play along with human musicians; and a lecture by Rice University Art History professor Gordon Hughes, author of “The Painter’s Revenge: Fernand Léger For and Against Cinema.”
  • A invading army of robots will take over the Blair campus, presented by the Middle Tennessee Robotic Art Society.
  • The lobby features an interactive movie installation by Greg Pond and Benton C. Bainbridge, featuring custom-designed 3D printed parts.
  • The lobby also features interactive audio compositions by Liz Clayton Scofield.
  • The concert program features 6 additional compositions including works by Brian Blume, Henry Cowell, Nigel Westlake, John Cage and Lou Harrison, and Felix Mendelssohn.
  • Mendelssohn’s Saltarello-Presto will be played by 8 robotically controlled pianos, arranged by Paul Lehrman.
  • Brian Blume’s Strands of Time [video] and Nigel Westlake’s Moving Air [video] combine live percussionists with prerecorded soundscapes.
  • The entire event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

I STRONGLY suggest you come early to secure your seat. With the success of last year’s John Cage Centennial and the enormous buzz around VORTEX and the Bad Boy, Ingram Hall may reach capacity well before showtime.

You can find out more on the Vanderbilt Blair School of Music website.

Blair Percussion VORTEX presents the Southeastern U.S. premiere of George Antheil’s restored Ballet mécanique
Sunday, April 7
Blair School of Music (across from the intersection of 25th and Blakemore/Wedgewood, Nashville, TN)
1:30-5 p.m., Ballet mécanique mini-symposium, Choral Hall
6:45 p.m., Robotics, Music, New Media Art, Ingram Lobby
8 p.m., VORTEX concert, Ingram Hall

Nov 012012
 

Michael Gordon and Mantra Percussion

Blair School of Music‘s VORTEX percussion ensemble is one of the most vital group of artists working in Nashville today. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Holland, VORTEX put on the brilliant John Cage Centennial Celebration earlier this year. Next year’s equivalent celebration, the Southeastern United States Premiere of George Antheil’s restored original Ballet Mecanique, promises to be the most ambitious daylong event Blair School has ever presented. Three words: 16 player pianos!

But it’s the Sunday evening VORTEX performance that has me presently excited: the Nashville premiere of Michael Gordon‘s “Timber.”

The 2011 composition is written for six percussionists, each playing a different length of simantra, a Greek instrument used in liturgical services. Avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis used simantras in his 1969 work Persephassa. A simantra is essentially a wood block struck with a mallet, and in fact, Timber employs six different lengths of 2X4 wood.

Yes. VORTEX will be banging 2X4s.

But don’t let the novelty of the composition fool you into believing it lacks substance. On the contrary, the use of the specific lengths of 2X4 yield a complex tonal habitat. Michael McCurdy, percussionist for Mantra Percussion, the group that premiered “Timber” in the U.S., had this to say:

One of the most intriguing things about these instruments is the vast harmonic spectrum that exists in each one of these 2X4s. It’s not like a marimba or a xylophone bar where the fundamental pitch is something that is the prime feature of the sound. And these 2X4s . . . what we find is that the harmonic spectrum and all of the interaction that the frequencies have with one another actually contributes to the music itself. It’s almost as the sound is moving around the ensemble and it’s projected out into the performance space, it’s almost like an angelic chorus that’s behind the sound that comes from the harmonics in each one of these 2X4s. And really that’s one of the most amazing features of this piece.

I pulled that quote from the following video. It’s a great introduction to the piece, and I recommend you check it out.

Matthew Guerrieri from the Boston Globe wrote,

…one of the things that makes “Timber’’ so compulsively listenable is the way Gordon structures each player’s crescendos and decrescendos, creating waves of sound in the performance space. Contact microphones are attached to each simantra, to bring out the overtones in each instrument. The changes in timbre and rhythmic pattern are so subtle that they seem more like natural occurrences than conscious decisions on the part of composer and performers.

It is to Michael Holland and VORTEX’s great credit that they sought out a new composition that’s innovative, challenging, and rich in texture. I can’t wait to hear how the harmonics interact with Blair’s intimate Turner Hall. The Sunday event is a must-see. Don’t miss it!

Blair Percussion VORTEX perform Michael Gordon’s “Timber”
Sunday, November 4th, 8pm, free show
Blair School of Music – Turner Hall
2400 Blakemore Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212