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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

The series of concerts presented by the 2^nd International Conference on Music and Minimalism, hosted by UMKC, offered up many juicy tidbits of predominantly American minimalism without including one note from either Steve Reich and Philip Glass. The series should be praised for presenting these important "other" composers - not to mention the stellar performances and mind-altering pieces.

Mikel Rouse's film, Funding was the first concert event of the conference.  A graduate of both KCAI and UMKC, Rouse credits KCAI with allowing him to be creative while studying with Stanley Brakhage and UMKC (and LeRoy Pogemiller) for providing him with technical skills and discipline.  The non-narrative Funding is a series of "musical meditations on New York City" and sounds like "very popular music but not for anyone who buys popular music."  The style of the cinematography was influenced by French New Wave auteurs with shots people on the street, in restaurants, in their apartments, or on Coney Island rides.  Musically, Rouse was correct in his description of this as "pop music" as some of the same layering effects are used by Imogen Heap, Björk, and Death Cab for Cutie.  Rouse wisely brought images, musical ideas, and dialogue back at certain points; this repetition grounded the work and drew new associations within each occurrence.  Heavily anti-Wall Street while exploring issues of loneliness in a big city, Rouse created a relevant feast for the ears and eyes.

newEar's justifiably over-programmed concert with featured guest Tom Johnson presented an evening consisting mostly of early American minimalist works.  The standout pieces and performances were Barbara Benary's Sun on Snow, Terry Riley's Autumn Leaves, and Tom Johnson's Narayana's Cows.  Twelve for solo piano by Tom Johnson began the concert.  Each of the twelve movements explored different permutations of four-note chords through mathematical processes.  Though pianist Robert Pherigo played with confidence and accuracy, the performance was cold and (pun intended) calculated because of the limited material and use of only one rhythmic motive per movement.  Phill Niblock's Tow by Tom for fixed media was 20-minutes of omnipresent drone accompanying a film of a Brazilian waterfront.  Only slight variations to the drone were created through electronic processes and shifting overtones.  Co-director of the conference, David McIntire, referred to the piece as "hard-core minimalism."  It was that: unyielding, unrelenting, and unfortunately, uninteresting. 

Thankfully Tow by Tom was followed by Barbara Benary's stunning Sun on Snow.  Sylvia Stoner's pure soprano and pristine diction was matched by the lush timbral blend of the instrumentalists.  Benary's piece allows for improvisation and because of the diatonic language, the newEar musicians were able to navigate those passages without hesitation.  The fourth and fifth movements were the most satisfying.  The fourth had newEar's resident flutist, Lyra Pherigo, sing soprano and create a hocket pattern with Stoner.  The balance was perfect and playfully light.  In the striking fifth movement, Stoner intoned a single pitch over a lovely clarinet/sax duet between Tom Aber and Jan Faidley. 

Serbian composer Vladimir Tosic's Arios was a pleasant cello/piano duet though highly predictable.  Larry Figg's excellent bow control yielded clear harmonics over top of Robert Pherigo's carpel tunnel-inducing tremolos.  As the piece progressed into dancing sixteenths both performers' technical prowess came to the fore. 

Terry Riley's Autumn Leaves was composed immediately after his iconic In C and then lost.  Fortunately it was rediscovered by Robert Carl, conference attendee and author of a new book on In C. This concert marked the piece's first professional performance.  It uses the same processes as In C through small cells of melodic material repeated ad libitum on top of a constant eighth-note pulse. The F-minor Autumn Leaves is like "In C After Dark"-all shadows and murky pools to In C's sunshine and rainbows.  It's a great companion piece to In C and will undoubtedly see more performances now that it has resurfaced. 

Jacob ter Veldhuis' The Body of Your Dreams for piano and boombox was a tour de force for pianist Robert Pherigo.  Matching the prosody of an infomercial for a revolutionary piece of exercise equipment with pianistic rock riffs and Journey-style power chords, Pherigo brought the humor and panache needed to sell the piece.  Redeeming himself compositionally, Tom Johnson narrated his fun, yet challenging, Narayana's Cow.  The piece is a musical answer to a 14^th-century Indian mathematician's word problem.  Though based on mathematics, unlike Twelve, this representation was engaging and newEar's performance was infused with vigor.  newEar will repeat this program, wisely minus a few pieces, for their September 12 performance at MidAmerica Nazarene University.

REVIEW:  
2^nd International Conference on Music and Minimalism Concerts 1 and 2
Mikel Rouse and newEar with Tom Johnson
Wednesday, September 2 and Thursday, September 3
Kansas City Public Library - Plaza Branch, White Recital Hall, All Souls Unitarian Church, Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
http://2ndminimalism.org

CONCERT:
newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble
Music and Minimalism
Saturday, September 12 at 8 p.m.
Bell Cultural Events Center (September 12)
MidAmerica Nazarene University, 2030 East College Way, Olathe, KS
For tickets call 816-235-6222.
For information visit www.newear.org (no tickets available online)

By Lee Hartman

Editor-in-Chief; Traditional and New Classical Contributor

Lee Hartman holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (D.M.A., M.M.) and the University of Delaware (B.M.). At the University of Delaware, he received a Dean's Scholar position enabling him to pursue an individually designed academic program combining music education and composition. At the University of Missouri-Kansas City he served for three years as the Assistant Director to Musica Nova, the conservatory's new music ensemble, while teaching a variety of composition classes.

In 2007 he was invited to both the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland and the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China to give lectures and master classes in composition. In the summer of 2009, Hartman served as an orchestra manager for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and Aspen Opera Theater Center for various performances. He serves on the National Executive Committee of the Society of Composers, Inc. as Submissions Coordinator. His primary composition instructors include James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Paul Rudy, John Beall, and Jennifer Margaret Barker. He currently teaches music theory at the University of Central Missouri and general music classes at Park University having previously taught at UD (2007–08) and UMKC (2006–07).

His compositions can be found at http://www.leehartmanmusic.com

Comments(1):

1. It was that: unyielding, unrelenting, and unfortunately, uninteresting.

   Ha ha! Just read this review. Excellent commentary!!

   Wednesday, May 12, 2010 Robert