If you were offered a choice between hearing a new piece entitled Adagio for Cello & Amp (a late work by the late Barbara Pentland) or something called Dreaded Sea Voyage, which one would you go for?
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
The second title suggests all sorts of dramatic possibilities. So does For My Therapists. Both pieces are on a programme of new works being presented at the Music Gallery on Sunday night by Contact Contemporary Music.
Even the concert’s title is intriguing: The Most Relaxing of All Instruments.
What instrument would that be? The guitar — as wielded by the supremely able Rob MacDonald. Joining him at the concert are Stephen Tam, who plays the flute (which can also be relaxing), and David Schotzko on percussion (with a less laid-back reputation).
The Dreaded Sea Voyage is by Andrew Staniland, a onetime Torontonian who now teaches at Memorial University in Saint John’s.
Did he survive a particularly perilous crossing to Newfoundland on the ferry from Cape Breton? Is that why each movement is identified with exclamation marks?
Not exactly.
Staniland referred me to his programme note for the work, which begins with a headline and what reads like the start to a long paragraph:
“Stephen Hawking says we must flee Earth. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking says the human race faces extinction unless people leave Earth” (The Toronto Star, July 30 2013)
“For several months, Mahler had been living in half-acknowledged dread of the impending sea voyage” (Gustav Mahler: Volume 3. Vienna: Triumph and Disillusion (1904-1907) by Henry-Louis de La Grange)
Staniland himself writes:
“Around the time that Daniel Cooper commissioned this work, Voyageur was, according to NASA, finally exiting our solar system after some 36 years. On Voyageur is a special golden record containing music from Earth. The selections are diverse, ranging from the 1st movement of Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto #2”, to the music of Javanese court gamelan. As point of departure, I picked a few of the Voyageur record excerpts and transcribed them into a computer scoring program. I then began modulating different pieces together using an extrapolated Frequency Modulation technique, sort of breeding one measure of a piece with a measure from another. Out of this process (incidentally, from Bach’s Brandenburg and Mozart’s Queen of the Night) came several fascinating chords that became points of harmonic gravity in the writing process.
“In addition to amplified classical guitar, this piece uses prepared digital sound files, also known as “tape” – a harkening back to the days of reel to reel tape recorders. The sound sources are diverse, however it is notable that there are samples from two of my previous electroacoustic works. From True North, I re-sample the “Big Band Hit” that appears at the end of the piece’s two movements, and use it several times at the climax of dreaded sea voyage. From Sudoku, I make subtle use of the crowd applause “Encore! Encore” sample at an appropriately virtuosic and bombastic spot.
Dreaded Sea Voyage unfolds in three main sections:
! Stephen Hawking Says we Must Flee Earth
!! Gravity Pulls us Down
!!! Dreaded Sea Voyage
Even the movement titles sound intriguing.
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If you want to find out a tiny bit more about Sunday’s concert, click here (Contact has never been good at communicating what it does).
For some background on Andrew Staniland, click here.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
