Present Music SEASON OPENING CONCERTS

Program Notes
October 2001

Igor Stravinsky’s Fanfare for a New Theatre was commissioned for the opening of the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center in April of 1964 and dedicated to the founder of the New York City Ballet, Lincoln Kirstein, and the choreographer George Balanchine. At its world premiere, Fanfare for a New Theater was performed with the trumpets placed on the balcony on each side of the foyer. Balanchine described the piece as sounding like two golden cockerels speaking the fables of La Fontaine to each other. The contrapuntal nature of the piece undoubtedly has a rhetorical quality in which the rhythmically intricate counter motion of the two parts takes the shape of verbal proclamation by the almost percussive sound of the trumpets.

With his many stylistic transformations and striving for public acknowledgment, Igor Stravinsky’s musical career could be compared to the 20^th Century scene of haute couture. The use of the 12-tone technique in Fanfare for a New Theater for two trumpets is profoundly inspired by the discovery of Anton Webern’s brief-pieced oeuvre during the late 50s: the Fanfare does not exceed 40 seconds.

"How one reacts to Cage’s ideas seems to me largely to depend on one’s own personal temperament. Those who envisage art as a bulwark against the irrationality of man’s nature, and as a monument to his constructive power, will have no part of the Cagean aesthetic. But those who enjoy teetering on the edge of chaos will clearly be attracted." (Aaron Copland on the music of John Cage)

The five works by John Cage (1912-1992) heard on the program this evening, show the diversity of his writing, and yet a commonality. Where are we going? And what are we doing? (1960) consists of four different lectures to be used in whole or part – horizontally or vertically. They discuss a variety of thoughts, heard randomly integrated. 4’ 33" has different renditions, and will be performed by large ensemble this evening. The silence of this piece allows a listener to notice sound. Bird Cage (1972) involves sounds taken from up to 12 different tapes, and (similar to 4’ 33") makes a listener aware of the concert space, while listening to the pre-recorded tracts. The tapes consist of bird sounds, John Cage himself reading literary texts, and ambient street noise, which are randomly woven into a texture. Both Prelude to a Meditation (1944) and A Room (1943) are short "prepared" piano pieces. They involve the use of bolts, screws, dampers, tacks, and various objects placed as part of the piano strings and hammers to alter the sound and pitch of any given note.

The work was composed between October 2000 and April 2001 in Memphis, USA and Istanbul, Turkey. The composer made several visits to Milwaukee during the various stages of the construction of the Calatrava building, and he was always left with two strong feelings: the freedom of flight and the stability, grandeur, presence and slow movement of a ship. The reality that Ince had traveled between US and Europe about seven times during the writing of this work contributed to his feeling of flight and the stability of a ship crossing grand masses of water. Although it is possible to travel very fast, in fact the distance traveled is not very much relative to the size of the world and universe. It therefore conjectures the feeling of being on a ship. The work is a diary of these travels and the primal feelings the composer had in experiencing the building.

The similarity of Flight Box to the device called black box, found on planes which record the last conversations before a flight crashes, unfortunately became obvious after the unspeakable terrorist attacks on the USA in September 2001. But there is no pun intended here. Flight Box is a diary of a flight that safely reaches its destination. (Kamran Ince)

The Fanfare from Flight Box received its World Premiere by Present Music on May 4, 2001 when the first section of the Calatrava addition was opened to the public. The Fanfare is an extraction of various parts that make up Flight Box.

Kamran Ince has been hailed by The Los Angeles Times as "that rare composer able to sound connected with modern music, end yet still seem exotic."  Major orchestras around the world have performed his works.  Concerts devoted to his music recently took place at the Holland Festival, CBC Encounter Series (Toronto), and the Istanbul International Festival.  His works include pieces for large symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, and ballet and film scores.

Among his recent works are Symphony No. 4 ("Sardis"), inspired by the ancient Anatolian civilization and commissioned by U.C. Berkeley archeologist Crawford Greenewalt; one for eight, a work commissioned by the Stichting Het Kersjes van de Groenekan Fonds for the Amsterdam-based Cello Octet Conjunto Iberico; FEST for orchestra and new music ensemble, written for the orchestras of Milwaukee, Dayton, Albany and Present Music, recently released on CD (Brutal Reality, TROY/Albany 354); Academica, commissioned by Istanbul Technical University in honor of their 225th Anniversary (recorded by the Albany Symphony and released as a CD single); and In White (to be performed by Present Music in January 2002), a concerto commissioned by violinist Susan Waterbury.  Remembering Lycia, a piano concerto for Alan Feinberg; Symphony No. 2 ("Fall of Constantinople"); and Arches have been released on Decca’s Argo label (Fall of Constantinople, Argo 455 151-2).  Two CDs of his chamber music are available: Kamran Ince (Northeastern NR 254) and Kamran Ince & Friends (TROY/Albany 310). 

His film scores for Love Under Siege and Aphrodisiac are available on the Universal/RAKS label (Kamran Ince Music for Films, RAKS 9719514).  Mr. Ince recently conducted and recorded a new CD with the Prague Symphony Orchestra which will include his Symphony No. 3 ("Siege of Vienna"), Symphony No. 4 ("Sardis"), and Domes. It will be released by Universal (Turkey), with whom he has an exclusive recording contract.  Waves of Talya (on the Northeastern disc and soon to be reissued by Universal) was named one of the best chamber works of the 20th Century by a living American composer in the June 2000 issue of Chamber Music Magazine. Upcoming works includes a score for the Turkish Film Sarkici (The Singer) and a large orchestral work commissioned by the Turkish Ministry of Culture.

Kamran Ince was born in Montana in 1960 to American and Turkish parents and lived in Turkey between 1966 and 1980.  He holds a doctorate from Eastman School of Music and is currently Professor of Composition at the University of Memphis in addition to being co-director of MIAM (Center for Advanced Research in Music) and its Advanced Studies in Music program at the Istanbul Technical University.  His numerous prizes include the Prix de Rome, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Lili Boulanger Prize.

Joan Tower is one of this generation's most dynamic and colorful composers. Her bold and energetic music, with its striking imagery and novel structural forms, has won large, enthusiastic audiences.

Wings was written for my friend and colleague Laura Flax who premiered the piece at her recital in Merkin Hall (New York City) on December 14, 1981. The image behind the piece is one of a large bird – perhaps a falcon – at times flying very high gliding along the thermal currents, barely moving. At other moments, the bird goes into elaborate flight patterns that loop around, diving downwards, gaining tremendous speeds. The work is for solo clarinet or bass clarinet. (Joan Tower)

Tower currently serves as composer-in-residence for the Orchestra of St. Luke's, completing her last year of a three year term. She is also the recipient of the Delaware Symphony's 1998 Alfred I. DuPont Award for Distinguished American Composers and Conductors, and was inducted into the membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is currently Asher Edelman Professor of Music at Bard College, where she has taught since 1972. She is also co-artistic director of the Yale/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and composer-in-residence at the Summit Institute for the Arts and Humanities in Utah. She was also a featured composer at SummerFest La Jolla 2000. Her music is published exclusively by Associated Music Publishers.

Arches, composed in April 1994 by Kamran Ince, was commissioned by Present Music, with additional funding from the Tennessee Arts Council. Its premiere took place at the Istanbul Modern Music Festival in May 1994, during Present Music’s tour of Turkey. The work is for six players. Present Music has performed Arches on numberous occasions and has recorded this work (ARGO 289 455 151-2).

The title refers to the many arches I came across during my years in Istanbul and the year I spent in Rome. I was specifically thinking of the arches that rise up to the domes of the monumental mosques, basilicas and cathedrals. For me these arches are perpetually longing for something – rising and descending, again and again. It is these shapes and spiritual context that generated Arches. (Kamran Ince) 

"[I want,] metaphorically at least, to return the music to the streets." It takes only one hearing to realize that Steve Martland has achieved his goal with his work Re-mix; written in 1986 for the Dutch ensemble "Maarten Altena Octet." The listener hears gritty, thick, visceral sounds growing and swelling and then stopping with no apology. Listen beyond the jazzy melody and hear Martland’s superb construction. What sounds like repetition is the creation of tension. Phrases are repeated and then rhythmically displaced. Yes, we are hearing the same music but not where we last heard it. The displacement causes different aspects of the motive to be accented. Martland creates tension with silences which are utilized, irregularly, for varying lengths of time, to keep the listener on edge, listening and waiting and wondering. Also there is texture: an austere bass line is added onto until the full group is pulsing, and then a trumpet melody may soar over the top of this tutti, and then all the parts may drop away, exposing the persistent bass line. Steve Martland was born in Liverpool, England in 1959. He has a conservatory background, and his teachers include American composer Gunther Schuller and Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, whose music Martland’s resembles.