Sharp, Elliott - Spring & Neap/Re:Iterations (Mega Blowout Sale)
SKU
Neos 40708
SPRING & NEAP (35:33)
Michigo Yagi, 17-string koto/Yumiko Tanaka, futozao shamisen; Yoshiko Fujio, hosozao shamisen/Zeena Parkins, troubador harp; Makoto Nomura, piano/Tamiki Sawa, violin/Mio Abe, violin; Hiromichi Sakamoto, cello/Masaaki Kikuchi, contrabass/Kenji Ito, percussion; Guam Kumada, percussion/ Elliott Sharp, conductor.
"A central event during Carbon's 1996 Japanese tour was the Music Merge Festival taking place over 3 days at Tokyo's Shinjuku Pit Inn and bringing together a diverse and international collection of wonderful musicians including Michiyo Yagi, Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, Jim O'Rourke, Yumiko Tanaka, David Grubbs and more. In addition to sets from Carbon and my solo Tectonics project, I was asked to create an algorithmic structure that I would conduct and composed for a small orchestra made up of players from the festival.
I chose a graph of tidal energies for Tokyo Bay for 24 hours and used this to define an instruction set for the players encompassing pitch contour, dynamics, and density. The graph would shape not only the individual gestures but also overall intensity of the actions over the arc of the entire piece as well as the shape of each of the improvised solos of the players, ordered in the timeline of the piece. I wanted the ensemble to be completely acoustic and to mix Japanese traditional instruments with Western, traditional playing techniques and current."
RE:ITERATIONS (13:11)
Soldier String Quartet:
Laura Seaton, violin/David Soldier, violin/Ron Lawrence, viola/Mary Wooten, cello; Ratzo B. Harris, contrabass
"It was a happy coincidence that Paul Dunkel (Associate Conductor of the American Composers Orchestra) contacted me in January 1986 about a commissioned piece for the orchestra at the same time that I had been thinking about applying my Fibonacci-series work to an ensemble of strings, essentially re-orchestrating ideas evolved on the guitar. As I was completing Re:Iterations, another useful coincidence: David Soldier had formed the Soldier String Quartet and asked me for a composition for their debut concert at the Miller Theater in NYC.
I decided to re-orchestrate Re:Iterations for quartet - Tessalation Row was the result. Both pieces use the Fibonacci series to generate tunings, rhythms, and forms. All pitches are played on open strings (tuned to 1/1, 3/2, 5/3, 8/5) or overtones of those open strings. The score uses graphic modules which contain information on the various operations to be performed and give exact rhythmic, timing, and pitch information. There are times when the players can vary the overtone melodies and timbres in a section but strictly within the parameters indicated in the score, not improvising. I was very concerned with identity - the ability of sonic flux and internal detail to vary greatly in each performance without destroying the essence and exact proportions of the piece."
- LabelNeos
- UPC4260063407086