Sounds Modern: Framing Desire in Music

The series I direct has a concert coming up:

May 16, 2015 at 2:00pm
Auditorium: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St.
Admission to concert is free

Sounds Modern is a vibrant and exciting concert series featuring contemporary music that makes the works on display in the Modern galleries come alive in the concert hall.

In our next concert, Sounds Modern will present Framing Desire in Music, a concert of recent works in which composers express their longing, sentimental and magical, for an unattainable and distant reality. The program includes works that celebrate particular people and places – and especially beloved pieces of music that composers refer to (even incorporate), reframing them much as photographs and video reframe and reinforce elements of the visual world. These musical acts of sympathetic magic provide a sonic dimension to the Modern’s exhibition Framing Desire.

Works will include and then I knew ’twas wind by Toru Takemitsu, Garden of Joy and Sorrow by Sofia Gubaidulina, Tender Intervals by Andrew May, and Primavera Porteña and Verano Porteño by Astor Piazzolla. Performers will include Elizabeth McNutt, flute; Jaymee Haefner, harp; Daphne Gerling, viola; Steven Harlos, piano; Andrew May, violin; and Kourtney Newton, cello.

www.soundsmodern.org
www.themodern.org

got rhythm?

Over the years, I’ve heard recordings in which performers distorted rhythm or tempo in ways I found surprising and extreme. I wondered why–as in, “why did they get so slow here when the score suggests otherwise – do they know something I don’t? Did the composer change the piece?”

Lately, I was in conversation with a wonderful musician/performer, who answered these questions for me: the performers took extra time because they couldn’t play in time. Duh!

This isn’t always the fault of performers. Sometimes, composers write awkward or even downright unplayable things. What is the performer to do when this happens? A common approach is to distort the tempo or rhythm in order to “fit in” all the unplayable notes. Is this the only solution? Or the best solution?

Pianist Marc Couroux (among others) has published an article discussing his approach to Xenakis’ massive piano work Evryali – a piece literally unplayable as notated. Couroux argues that the tempo and energy are paramount, and that some pitches must be sacrificed (i.e. omitted).

Like Couroux, I believe these decisions depend on context. Sometimes the pitches are not the most important element: the gesture, energy, timbre, mood, character, trajectory, rhythm, and tempo might be more essential to the music than the precise pitches. But how does one decide what is the best way forward?

I suggest one let go of the notion of “should,” as in, “I should be able to play this as written.” Yes, indeed, and I should be a statuesque millionairess! Shoulds aside, diligent practice is crucial before resorting to score adaptions (transcriptions?). When you are considering revising a score, you owe it to the composer to fully consider his/her notational choices. Next, solve the problem. This may involve compromises to the score. The necessity of these compromises might change as you grow and change as a player. Therefore, be open to revising your compromise – revisit your solution periodically, to see if it it still the best solution for you and the work.