a report by Kristine H. Burns
as published in the IAWM Journal, February 1994, pp. 28-29.
The Bowling Green 14th Annual Festival of New Music and Art began on Thursday, 7 October 1993, with visual and aural presentations by Ron Pellegrino, Richard Boulanger, Martin Sweidel and Donald Pasquella. Many of Pellegrino's video segments involved bilaterally-symmetric designs superimposed over a background of colorful filigree. Mother Musing's Flight Patterns by Pellegrino added the element of the Electric Arts Duo consisting of clarinetist Burton Beerman and dancer Celesta Haraszti. The interaction of the dancer with the video and the clarinetist was interesting not only musically, but visually as well. Boulanger's use of the Mathews Radio Baton and Conductor Program allowed for more human ebb and flow of the tempo in his From Temporal Silence; however, the new interface is still being perfected and did not realize its full potential. Sweidel and Pasquella's work, Fire Spirit, was a beautiful manipulation of an Hawaiian fire dancer.
The highlight of Thursday evening was Robert Aldridge's Concerto for Violin and Percussion. The gamelan-like treatment of the percussion was beautifully integrated with Sharan Leventhal's spectacular violin performance. Other works by John Downey, Bernard Hoffer and Joelle Wallach ranged from subtle to sublime, with fine performances from all involved.
Friday's schedule included three concerts, two lecture/discussions, and the opening of the featured art exhibit A(t) Tension to the Moment. The early-risers were treated to a 9:00 a.m. "Composer to Composer" dialogue with guest Pauline Oliveros. BGSU Professor of Composition and History Donald Wilson served as moderator for topics ranging from Oliveros' Deep Listening method to spirituality among contemporary arts and music. Oliveros explained that Deep Listening involves "going beneath the surface of what one hears."
The Friday morning concert featured works by Eleanor Cory, Steven Simpson, Robert Mueller, Peter Terry, and Joseph Koykkar. New York-based composer Cory's three movement Northwest Passages for solo clarinet ended with intricate rhythmic and melodic lines. Edward Marks, BGSU Professor of Music Performance in Clarinet, gave an excellent performance. Simpson's Free Flight for flute and piano, a winner of the 26th Annual BGSU Competitions in Music Performance (Composition Division), varied stylistically from shakuhachi-like representation to jaunting rhythmic sequences. The final work, Double Take by Koykkar, was wonderfully playful and is reminiscent of Steve Reich's Different Trains. The idiomatic jazz scales were perfectly executed by the chamber ensemble.
The Flute trio "Epama Epam (Nothing is Nothing), Aborigines of Western Australia" by Lou Coyner opened the Friday afternoon concert. James Mobberley's Spontaneous Combustion for alto/soprano saxophone was perfectly executed by BGSU Professor of Music Performance in Saxophone John Sampen. The virtuosic elements of the work were not only present in the solo saxophone, but also in both rhythmic/melodic and spatial elements of the electronic tape portion. The final work of the concert was Epigrams, Epitaphs, written by Carol Barnett for SATB chorus and piano four-hands on a text from Ben Jonson's On My First Son.
The art exhibit A(t)Tension to the Moment opened Friday night with a reception at the Dorothy Uber Bryan School of Art and Hiroko Nakamoto Galleries. Visual works by Jennie Booth, Stephanie Cooper, Vicki Grafentin, Scott Horn, Mark Soppeland, Gregory Spaid, and Mary Lou Zelazny were featured. Compositions for electronic tape by Robin Julian Heifetz, James Piekarski, Mark Sullivan, Mark Bunce, Kristine H. Burns, Ian D. Mellish, Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner and Glenn Palmer were to accompany the opening. However, the large number of people in attendance and poor audio reception interfered with the playback. The tape works were replayed Saturday evening at an additional concert.
The final Friday concert featured Pauline Oliveros and Joseph Petric performing solo and duo accordion works. The first work, Oliveros' Ohio Air, was a duo in which she and Petric traversed the audience listening to the environmental sounds and translating them to the accordion. This was followed by Deep Listening, also by Oliveros. The audience was taken by the "breathing" of the accordion bellows-often the only sounds in this contemplative piece. Other works on the concert were Melodia by Toshio Hosokawa, Sticherarion by Larry Lake, Stay the Same to Change...and Change to Stay the Same and Reeds Calling by Oliveros.
Saturday featured a series of panels and papers. The morning came early with a lecture/discussion by Sweidel and Pasquella on their collaborative efforts and further compositions and techniques. Associate Professor of Music in Composition and History William E. Lake chaired the paper session that followed. Timothy Iverson, BGSU graduate student, presented a lengthy paper that used Jonathan Kramer's The Time of Music as the basis of his temporal study of Bill Evans. Roberto Saltini discussed "Structural Levels and Choice of Beat-Class Sets in Steve Reich's Phase-Shifting Music," a concept similar to Allen Forte's pitch-class sets. Works by contemporary Japanese composers were offered by Gregory E. Shepherd. Finally, Illinois Wesleyan Professor David Vayo spoke about "Timbre in Nancarrow's Studies for Player Piano." The final panel discussion of the morning, entitled "Making Art, Making Music 1993: Renewing Spirituality" included Pauline Oliveros and Samuel Adler as panelists. The focus of the discussion was the fact that, according to Adler, "all art springs from the necessity to celebrate spirituality."
The last two concerts of the festival took place Saturday. The afternoon concert featured a percussion quartet by Lori Dobbins; a tape piece by James Aikman and David Dzubay, the only purely electronic work to be featured on a full-length concert; two four-hand piano works: Epicycles by Stella Sung and Divertimento by Frank La Rocca; Bruce Taub's intricate Jumbled Mirrors for saxophone quartet, which received an excellent performance by Sax 4th Avenue, a BGSU student quartet; and Pauline Oliveros' Traveling Companions for three or more percussionists and three or more dancers.
Saturday evening saw a full concert of orchestral works performed by the Bowling Green Philharmonia conducted by Emily Freeman Brown. The lighthearted (K)ein Sommernachtstraum by Russian composer Alfred Schnittke was performed as a part of the Tchaikovsky and the Russians Series at BGSU. The work poked fun at composers and styles ranging from Mozart to Schubert. David Lefkowitz's An Autumn Flowering utilized what the composer called a "naive tonality" in both harmonic and melodic aspects. The introspective composition, A Gift of Memories by Marilyn Shrude, was beautifully crafted. Taken from sections of poems by William Wordsworth, the music portrayed many different moods ranging from past remembrances to joy and tenderness. The second half of the concert began with Augusta Read Thomas' Sinfonia Concertante, featuring John Sampen on soprano saxophone. Both Sampen and the Philharmonia gave a flawless performance. Don Freund's fast and fiery Radical Light, inspired by a poem by A. R. Ammons, was a delightful ending to an evening of orchestral music. Emily Freeman Brown should be congratulated for such an ambitious concert of contemporary orchestral music.
Although many participants had gone home, the final event of the festival took place Sunday morning. A composition seminar led by Pauline Oliveros had the participants creating a ten-minute composition based on a hearing instruction and a listening instruction. Oliveros served as time-keeper and guide through the work. This act of creation was a fitting ending to the Festival.
Congratulations to Marilyn Shrude, Festival Chair and Suzanne Thierry, Assistant Director and Program Designer. All of the BGSU instrumentalists, vocalists, and conductors gave flawless performances, both musically and technically. The 14th Annual Festival of New Music and Art at Bowling Green State University was a perfectly-paced exhibition of visual and aural art and was a great treat for all in attendance.
Kristine Burns is currently teaching in the TIMARA Program (Technology in Music and Related Arts) at the Oberlin Conservatory. She is completing her doctorate in Music Composition at Ball State University; her dissertation covers the history and development of algorithmic composition, 1955-1993. Kristine has studied with David Foley, Donald Keats, Ernesto Pellegrini, and Cleve Scott. She has served as technical assistant for Morton Subotnick and Beverly Grigsby. Recent compositions include: Bound for dance, music, and video; Atanos I for Bb clarinet and Yamaha Disklavier; and The Enchanted Castle for amplified soprano and stereo soundtracks, written for Deborah Kavasch.