Please write to me if there are any questions, as I’m sure the charts aren’t 100% user-friendly, or free from errors, although I checked each key action twice once finishing them…

http://web.me.com/richardehaynes/richard_haynes/richard_haynes_-_links_files/selmer%20privilege%20bass%20clarinet%20keys.pdf

http://web.me.com/richardehaynes/richard_haynes/richard_haynes_-_links_files/buffet%20prestige%20bass%20clarinet%20keys.pdf

http://web.me.com/richardehaynes/richard_haynes/richard_haynes_-_links_files/leblanc%20paperclip%20contrabass%20clarinet%20keys.pdf

Ensemble PRAESENZ is a German/Swiss ensemble comprised of clarinet, piano, violin and cello and dedicated not only to the development and performance of new works, but the embedding of already performed works in the repertoire. Whilst the ensemble is based in the German/Swiss geographical area, the players are also active in France, Italy, England, Czech Republic and parts of Asia and Oceania.

Ensemble Nikel is an Israeli ensemble with a setup like that of a rock/jazz combo: saxophone, percussion, piano, electric guitar and double bass. Like PRAESENZ Nikel promotes a multinationalism through it’s membership from Israel, Belgium, Switzerland and France. Nikel has been instrumental in commissioning and supporting composers from Israel and worldwide, bringing new music to urban and regional audiences in Israel.

These groups have come together for the first time to present a programme of music reflecting upon the nature of living and working away from the place of birth or nationality, the scenario that many artists find themselves in today. Everyone of the performers and composers in Faraway So Close live and work primarily in countries where a notion of ‘home’ had to be created, so for the most part, they have chosen, rather than accepting the cards that fate dealt them.

Reviews of the concerts will be posted soon.

www.praesenz.org
www.ensemblenikel.com

You can read two very, very awesome reviews of this project here (by Tim Rutherford-Johnson) and here (by Rachel Lois Clapham).

Last Tuesday (28.07.09), ELISION Ensemble presented a programme of works to be broadcast on radio. The works will broadcast ‘as live’ later in 2009 on New Music Up Late ABC Classic FM. The majority of works on the programme were new, however two bands of work from the 80′s and 90′s gave these new works, and the work of the ensemble over 25 years, some perspective. For this performance the ensemble was conducted by Hamish McKeich.

While Roger Redgate‘s music is a relatively new addition to the scope of ELISION‘s involvement in British music, the work for solo oboe, Ausgangspunkte (1981-1982) was in existence before the founding of the ensemble in 1986. It took the skills of Peter Veale to bring this oldie but goodie of the contemporary oboe repertoire to the stage in Melbourne last week, following his own performances of this work in Shanghai and London. Peter remarked that it was strange that he hadn’t played the work until 2009, as he was living in Freiburg (DE) at the time when Redgate was studying with Brian Ferneyhough in that very city. Similarly, Michael Finnissy‘s work for solo clarinet in E-flat, Marrngu (1982) was written before ELISION‘s genesis. The composers and musicians associated with ELISION in the mid-80′s would have remembered Michael‘s influence on the Melbourne music scene at the time, being a guest lecturer at the Victorian College of Arts.

Music that has been driving ELISION‘s direction since the late 80′s are the contributions by composers Liza Lim (AU/UK) and Richard Barrett (UK/DE). Some of the most important contemporary works today were premiered by ELISION in the 90′s (Lim: The Heart’s Ear, INGUZ, Alchemical Wedding and Barrett: Negatives, Another Heavenly Day, Opening of the Mouth). Much of Liza Lim‘s music has been written for members of ELISION, and the work for solo Hardanger fiddle, Philtre (1997) has now been performed by two of ELISION‘s member-violinists as well as Mary Oliver, a collaborator with ELISION in the late 90′s. Liza writes:

A philtre is a ‘love potion’. This piece for the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle exploits the instrument’s resonance strings (rather like an Indian sitar) and low-voiced tuning to weave a texture of murmuring resonances…

Graeme Jennings performed Philtre on a Hardanger fiddle that was on loan from the Percy Grainger Museum in Melbourne. Paula Rae and Peter Neville premiered Richard Barrett‘s work for alto flute and percussion, inward (1994-1995) in 1995 in Melbourne. inward became part of the movement Schneebett from the large ensemble and installation work, Opening of the Mouth (1992-1997). Both Lim and Barrett were featured twice in the program, the more recent works Wild Winged One (Lim, 2007) and wound (Barrett, 2009) receiving finely electrified performances by Tristram Williams (trumpet and voice) and Graeme Jennings (violin, accompanied by ensemble).

With these four pillars of a kind of historical performance practice in place, the scene was set to unveil works by four younger composers—certainly not of similar ages (birth-dates spanning about 15 years), but having written new works for the ensemble of which this performance was their first. Benjamin Marks has been trombonist of ELISION since 1996 and whilst having a composing career of which to be envious, had been taking a break from composing. Marks is a Brisbane-based musician, widely involved in performing notated and improvised music all over Australia. About Perdix (2009) for trumpet and percussion, Marks writes:

Perdix is a piece written around the time of my mother’s death in 2007. We had many great discussions about myths and their relevance to our lives as we lived them. I remember clearly we talked about the myths surrounding a contraption built by the mythic artist/inventor Daedalus. The cow shaped device allowed King Minos’ wife Pasiphae to fulfil her unnatural passion for the Kings white bull. Poseidon had gifted the white bull to the King, bestowing power to him, on the condition that he sacrifice the bull after a certain period of time. The King refused to sacrifice the bull and Poseidon punished the King by giving Pasiphae a mad passion for the animal. Pasiphae, upon realizing her “zoophilia”, then gave birth to the Minotaur, which was then placed/hidden at the centre of a labyrinth constructed, again, by Daedalus.

Looking for modern day relevance my mother and I decided that the underlying message of this myth was one of men usurping women. Before the masculine bull cult arose in Crete there existed a feminine partridge cult. The Latin name for partridge is perdix, from which this piece takes its title. The features of the feminine cult often turn up reinterpreted in the masculine. The Grecian labyrinth partly has its origins as a partridge trap, in which a decoy partridge is put in the centre of a brushwood maze luring in other partridges with its mating song. The labyrinth may also have served as a floor pattern guiding the steps of a partridge cult dance.

These ideas created a template for this piece in which a journey is taken into a labyrinth of musical ideas. Blind alleys are common, while other figurations assert themselves with either lyrical passion or in repetitive strain in an attempt to dominate the musical space. Insisting throughout are partridge calls, mostly fragmented and distorted. Half-heard. The trumpet itself embodies the intended intense, youthfully unstable, masculine energy of the piece, while the percussion quietly provides a glimpse of something other.

Robert Dahm is a Melbourne-based composer enjoying a spate of performances in the last few years by Jessica Aszodi, Freshwater Trio, Confluences Trio, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and yours truly. Dahm will be commencing studies toward a PhD in October 2009 at Huddersfield University and is working on music for Laura Vaughan, the Rosman/Ballon/Knoop Trio and a new bass clarinet concerto. About the flesh is the grammar (2009) for clarinet and bass clarinet, bassoon and contraforte, horn, trumpet and trombone, Dahm writes:

the flesh is the grammar was conceived as “nineteen fragmentary fanfares heralding the transfiguration of the Catastrophe by the gaze of the Angel of History” (a phrase which acted as an unofficial subtitle for the work during the period of its composition). The catastrophe in question is that implied by the collision of purely ‘musical’ elements (pitch, rhythm, etc) with purely ‘manual’ elements (typically arising from the physicality of instrumental performance). Indeed, the flesh is the grammar reconstitutes the instrumentarium and the performers themselves as a maximally resistant sieve through which the musical materials are hurled at great speed. From the very beginning, the meagre musical materials (consisting initially of only a single collection of five pitches) are subjected to a wide variety of superimposed, deformative, non-musical elements, against the onslaught of which the musical figures must struggle in order to retain their identity, validity and structural integrity. The musical materials are not permitted to grow or develop in any traditional sense—they are simply engaged in a struggle against their own annihilation.

The transfigurative element comes into play in the unavoidable synthesis (both in the act of performance and the act of listening) of these separate, combative elements into a single perceptual whole. As a result of this synthesis, these nominally separate, superimposed layers are permitted to increasingly inform one another as the piece progresses. But the piece also enacts a series of failures to communicate. From partway through the work, for instance, a barely intelligible text is gasped, blurted and whispered by the players. Barely intelligible partly because of the varying accuracy in which the score renders the text in phonetic script, and partly because of the manner in which the players’ embouchures and instruments impair their ability to form speech.

Jeroen Speak is a London-based composer and has been featured at the Huddersfield Festival (UK), ISCM World Music Days, the Gaudeamus, and the Asian Composers League Festivals, the Alias Festival (Stockholm), and many other European music festivals. I commissioned this work in 2007 with support from Creative New Zealand. Jeroen‘s music was also performed in 2009 by the UK group, Lontano, at the Purcell Room. About Silk Dialogue VI (2007) for solo clarinet in E-flat, flute and string quartet, Jeroen writes:

Silk Dialogue VI is the sixth of a series of works that I have been working on in the last few years related to the work I have been doing in Taiwan and China. The title is a literal translation of the old poetic Chinese word for ‘secret’. Each work is like a little personal postcard to myself which conveys a new level of my understanding of Sino-cultural phenomena. The Silk Dialogues take as their starting point the ancient Chinese musical notation (wen zi pu) particular to the guqin (a type of zither dating from the nan bei qou dynasty, around 1500 years ago). What interests me about the guqin’s idiosyncratic notation system is its focus on the physical coordinates of the musical elements, seemingly unrelated to our western notions of ‘pitch’, it seems heavily weighted in favour of gesture, rather that pitch. A little like Chinese calligraphy. The 20th century was characterised by the German-led obsession with pitch and pitch organisation, which posed more problems than answers. My interest is in dissolving this legacy of analyst-friendly note-finding safaris in favour of what to me is a much more interesting area, that is: what is musical about music is the sound production itself, Its pure emotive content, and its very physicality.

Apostrophe 2 (pressing down on my sternum) (2009) by Evan Johnson is the composer’s second work written for ELISION Ensemble. Johnson is a young American Providence-based composer whose music focuses on the physical and bodily underpinnings of instrumental performance, the ontology of time and proportion, and the dramatic limitation of instrumental means and musical material. His music has been performed throughout North America, Europe and beyond by musicians such as ELISION, Ensemble SurPlus, the Nouvel Ensemble Modern, EXAUDI, 175 East, Speak Percussion, the New London Chamber Choir, the Art Ensemble NRW, the Cantus Ensemble, the Society for New Music, pianists Ian Pace, Sebastian Berweck and Geoffrey Burleson, clarinettist Gareth Davis, violinist Mark Menzies, the Quatuor Bozzini, the New York Miniaturist Ensemble, and soloists from the National Symphony Orchestra. About Apostrophe 2 (pressing down on my sternum) for quarter-tone flügelhorn and alto trombone, Johnson writes:

This is an abbreviated, stunted, stifled, altogether more effortful sequel to the sixteen-minute Apostrophe 1 (All communication is a form of complaint) for two bass clarinets (2008). Apostrophe 2 scavenges most of its pitch, durational, and structural material from its predecessor, but the three smoothly connected sections of Apostrophe 1 are recast as floating islands of forced-out ornament, its prevailing air of lyricism and gentleness replaced by feebleness and strain. This is an athletic piece, a physical piece, whose discomfort and urgency are evoked by the subtitle; but there is still a kernel of lyricism, of a recognizable relation between ornament and melody, and of a welter of hinted-at canons, near-canons,  and repetitions that attempts to manage the unmanageable whole.

See you at ELISION’s next performance. Details of this concert below. Details of the next ELISION performance at www.elision.org.au

Wild Winged One (2007) | Liza Lim (*1966)

Marrngu (1982) | Michael Finnissy (*1946)

inward (1994-1995) | Richard Barrett (*1959)

Silk Dialogue VI (2007) | Jeroen Speak (*1969)

Ausgangspunkte (1981-1982) | Roger Redgate (*1958)

Perdix (2009) | Benjamin Marks (*1973)

Philtre (1997) | Liza Lim (*1966)

the flesh is the grammar (2009) | Robert Dahm (*1982)

wound (2009) | Richard Barrett (*1959)

Apostrophe 2 (pressing down on my sternum) (2009) | Evan Johnson (*1980)

Posted in ELISION Tagged: avant-garde, benjamin marks, contemporary music, ELISION, ELISION Ensemble, evan johnson, Graeme Jennings, hamish mckeich, jeroen speak, Liza Lim, paula rae, peter neville, peter veale, richard barrett, Richard Haynes, robert dahm, Tristram Williams ]]> http://richardehaynes.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/elision-in-session/feed/ 1 richardehaynes http://richardehaynes.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/the-navigator/ http://richardehaynes.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/the-navigator/#comments Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:10:57 +0000 Richard Haynes http://richardehaynes.wordpress.com/?p=21 ]]> There’s a certain vibe of excitement in Moscow about the upcoming Russian premiere of Liza Lim‘s The Navigator, for which ELISION Ensemble under the direction of Manuel Nawri are present in the Russian capital this week. Here are some links covering the premiere seasons of the opera in Australia:

The Navigator in Melbourne
The Navigator in Brisbane

This was part of an ELISION Ensemble concert where one could hear soloistic pyrotechnics from oboist Peter Veale, cellist Séverine Ballon and violinist Graeme Jennings, as well as myself. We recorded two of the performed works from that evening on the very next day at City University, thanks to Denis Smalley and Newton Armstrong (thanks to you both). Here’s the link to my YouTube channel to view this stuff courtesy of Aaron Cassidy and his AV equipment: http://www.youtube.com/user/dante4018