Tuesday Night New Music: Carroll, Li, Yu, Bettany, Wong, Chan, Lanning, Sang, Shimshoni, Ha, Clarke & Zhong

Marie Carroll | L’appel du vide (2022)

Nikita Manin, clarinet
Ben Eidson, saxophone
Lemuel Marc, Kimberly Sabio, trumpet
Caroline Jesalva, violin
Julian Seney, viola
Francesca Ter-Berg, cello
Hannah Dunton, Leo Weisskoff, double bass
Rihards Kolmanis, guitar
Yoona Kim, ajaeng
Marie Carroll, koto
Anwei Wang, guzheng
Nico Daglio Fine, Henry Wilson, percussion
Emmett Mathison, piano
Kaia Berman-Peters, accordion
Chihiro Asano, Kaia Berman-Peters, voice

Pengyi Li | Normalized (2021)

Honor Hickman, flute
Weiya He, erhu (live recording)                                               
Xiaoqing Yu, violin
Miruna Eynon, cello
Diego Martinez, double bass
Stratis Minakakis, conductor
 

Program note

How can several things with different ideologies coexist? In this work, I have given each instrument a specific "ideology".(each instrument has 3-4 independent sounds) They are independent and autonomous, yet they influence each other, creating a symbiotic relationship in a subtle way.(This shows the common sound that all instruments have, such as irregular glissando and distortion sound. Also, the commonality between each individual sounds.) At the beginning of the work, every part is divided into three camps according to its own "ideology", but then the three lineups sometimes have to work together in order to reach a certain goal, and finally they gradually unite and then move forward together, and finally each voice can "reunite”. In the end, the voices were "unified". During this process, the ideology itself was not affected in any way. The parties gradually found common interests (similarities between each other's materials) to develop together. I believe that this "Normalize" also is a necessity in this era .....                                                                   
– Pengyi Li

Qingyang Yu | Peace in the Clouds (2022)

Haowen Wang, guitar

Program note

This is the first time I have tried to write for solo guitar. The piece is inspired by the suffering of the victims in Ukraine in this catastrophic month, March of 2022. The tempo of this piece changes very dramatically so as to reflect the different aspects of the catastrophe. The music begins with very heavy, slow motions, indicating the painful lives of the victims. Shortly thereafter, the music transfers to very extreme, intense textures, which represent the weapons, guns, and bombs going off everywhere. The music still includes lyrical and melodic parts, which is telling the audience that those victims are eager to seek for the peace that is now only happening in the clouds of their hometown, which is the exact name of the piece.  
– Qingyang Yu

Stellan Connelly Bettany | Piano Prelude No. 2 (2022)

Mathew Lanning, piano

Aaron Wong | Armeria (2022)

Aaron Wong, piano, electronics

Program note

Armeria, for piano and electronics, is part of a larger collection of pieces each centered around a specific plant or flower. Also known as “thrift” or “lady’s cushion”, Armeria is a perennial that flowers in spring, producing small clusters of flowers in pink and white. The piece takes its form after this flowering process, from bulb to seed heads. Attention is given to the transitions from one state to the next, highlighted with changes in color, density, and harmony. The sound world is created entirely from piano and processed piano material.                                    
– Aaron Wong

Kei Wing Chan | 無聲— Silence (2022)

Li Shan Tan, prepared harp
Kei Wing Chan, live electronics     

Program note

Those people who died in the sound of gunfire.
Those animals that disappeared in the sound of bullets.
Those plants that were destroyed in the sound of fire. 

They are not silent, they are just covered by sounds that hurt them.    
– Kei Wing Chan

Mathew Lanning | Dark City, setting for four cellos (2022)

Juneau
Anchorage

Asher Kalfus, Miruna Eynon, Jonah Kernis, Mathew Lanning, cello

Program note

I dreamt that I was traveling through the dark, vast wilderness of Alaska; deep in the dark pine forests of the panhandle was the city of Juneau, a dark, dimly-lit town surrounded by dark towering trees and starlight in the deep black sky. Something is off; the world is surreal around me. But then, the adventure continues to the riverside shoreline of Anchorage, where the thundering arctic waters roll down the valley next to the skyscrapers in the early morning.                                                
– Mathew Lanning

Frank Sang | The Great War of Archimedes (2019)

Graham Lovely, French horn
Matthew Mihalko, Justin Park, trumpet
Elias Canales, trombone
James Curto, tuba

Program note

This piece is based on a Japanese movie I watched. The movie is about a genius mathematician named Tadashi Kai who discovers discrepancies related to the estimated cost to build a battleship. He tries to uncover the conspiracy in the military. I found that my process in writing this piece was just like what Kai did in the movie. Like Archimedes, he figures out everything by calculations and formulas. Which is similar to what I did. I did a lot of calculations to figure out the harmony, intervals, polyphony, transpositions, and modulations. Also, the process of doing these calculations was exciting, intense, and intriguing. It feels just like a battle. There is, however, also a sense of peace in it.      
– Frank Sang

Tamir Shimshoni | “…and the walls came tumbling down.” (2022)

Kimberly Sabio, Justin Park, trumpet                                              
Hannah Messenger, French horn     
Jason Sato, Changwon Park, bass trombone

Program note

The book of Joshua of the Old Testament tells the story of the fall of Jericho. The Hebrew people sent two spies into the city to gather information, and they hide from the local soldiers at the house of Rahab, a prostitute. In return for helping them, Rahab and her family are spared when the city is taken by the Hebrew forces, who destroy the city walls with the power of horn fanfares. When I was thinking about writing a piece for Brass Quintet, I recalled the powerful imagery of a brass fanfare so powerful it could topple stone walls. But this story is significant to me for another reason. When we weretaught this story in school, they told us that Rahab wasn't a prostitute, but a "food seller" (in Hebrew it... sort of makes sense). This blatant falsehood was the first time I realized that people in positions of authority can and do lie to you. 
        In this piece a process is created of transformation between one tuning system and another. It starts with a classic, traditional brass texture - monorhythmic fanfare, using an open, full sound, wide spacing, and standard equal temperament. Over the course of the composition, more and more "grit" is introduced into the sound in terms of both intonation and timbre, until by the end of it, the opening material is restated, now using just intonation.                                                                                   – Tamir Shimshoni

Changjin Ha | Romance V (2022)

Doyeon Kim, percussion

Program note

The Romance series is an endeavor to explore the ugly side of love: Romance I and II explore jealousy; III and IV tackle the struggles of a taboo relationship. Romance V and VI discuss a scene of infatuation, slowly building to obsession and finally culminating in violence. Mirroring this chaos, the pattern of melody followed by coined tam-tam becomes irregular, with igniting emotion. However, as with all consuming passion, it eventually reduces itself back to ashes. 
       The vibraphone melody refers to George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children, from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, titled “Bist du bei mir.”            
– Changjin Ha

Brooks Clarke | Corinthians 3:15 (2022)

Natalie Boberg, violin
Aiden Garrison, viola
Mathew Lanning, cello
Isabel Atkinson, double bass
Zoe Cagan, flute
Erica Smith, clarinet
Kip Zimmerman, oboe
Lemuel Marc, trumpet
Weza Jamison-Neto, trombone
Steven Needham, tuba
Ross Hussong, percussion                
Brooks Clarke, conductor

Program note

But if someone’s work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved,* but only as through fire.                                                       
– Brooks Clarke

Shiwen Zhong | Peaceful Lake (2022)

Bo-Wen Chen, violin
Jonah Kernis, cello
Boyi Fa, piano

Program note

The peaceful lake at night is very nice and intriguing, which gives us a lot of imagination of different sceneries. When we observe different lakes at night, sometimes we can feel the color of watercolor painting, which will leave a lot of ethereal space; sometimes we can perceive some fierce scene, such as the unstable flowing lake and swinging trees. In general, this piece wants to show people the quiet scenery of the lake at night, giving us a lot of imagination of obscure colors...
_ Shiwen Zhong