{"id":13935,"date":"2015-11-12T17:24:21","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T01:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=13935"},"modified":"2015-11-12T17:24:21","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T01:24:21","slug":"third-angle-mixes-words-and-music-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/11\/12\/third-angle-mixes-words-and-music-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"third angle mixes words and music this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s my third season with Third Angle New Music<\/a>, and it seems that every single concert I play involves me doing something entirely new and different to me than anything I’ve ever done before. And that also involves it being one of the most difficult<\/em> things I’ve done!\u00a0Playing a memorized hour-long piece in complete darkness, playing insanely complicated rhythms, playing\u00a0pieces comprised of only harmonics and played off tiny iPad screens \u2013 it’s always an adventure with Third Angle!<\/p>\n

Our first concert of the season, Frozen Music, examined Finnish music in the context of an acclaimed Alvar Aalto library. This weekend’s Hearing Voices 4.0<\/a> concert comes to grips with three distinct ways of setting spoken words to music.<\/p>\n

LJ White<\/a>‘s “Wilder Shores” (a Third Angle commission, which we premiered at the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York last June), which is set on a text of Portland poets Matthew<\/a> and Michael<\/a> Dickman, uses a time-based approach to synchronizing the music and text. Each section of the work takes a set duration – everyone is working off a stopwatch, ensuring that each line of text is lined up with its musical accompaniment. For example, an opening introduction might be given 30 seconds to unfold, which tells the instrumentalists the pacing of the section, and tells the reciter(s) that at the 30 second mark, they start their lines, etc.<\/p>\n

Jay Derderian<\/a>‘s “Frozen Smolder” (also a Third Angle commission, and a world premiere), is set on a poem by Sandra Stone<\/a>. It uses a cue-based system instead of a time-based one. There are sections in the score which give cues for where each line is begun, and the way they are spaced over the instrumental lines shows the pacing of the reading. If the reciter does not read music, this still enables one of the instrumentalists to give cues to the reader, and also to keep pace with their reading.<\/p>\n

Lee Hyla<\/a>‘s “Howl” is set on Allan Ginsberg’s eponymous epic beat poem. Hyla uses arguably the most challenging, but perhaps the most precise, way of matching text to music. He used a recording of Ginsberg reading his poem to establish the pace of the text. The beat patterns and tempos of the music then are based entirely upon the spoken rhythm of the poetry. This works relatively well if the ensemble (in this case a string quartet) plays with an audio recording of the original reading – if the ensemble follows the tempos closely, adjusting slightly to the audio cues, it is possible to achieve a close alignment. If a live reader is used, then it becomes a bit more complicated. If the reciter reads music fluently, then they can keep their pace adjusted to the music, and get a sense of the pacing of the text by following the score. If the reader does not read music, then it becomes a bit more of a puzzle to fit the parts together. In essence, the quartet must strive to stick very closely to the score, while at the same time establishing meeting points for the text and music to come together should things come out of sync during performance.<\/p>\n

With these three diverse pieces, there is also a bit of alignment, too. LJ White studied composition with Lee Hyla. The Dickman brothers spent time with Allan Ginsberg. Ginsberg’s first recorded reading of Howl<\/em> took place in Portland in 1956. Ginsberg’s poem is a lament for a lost artistic generation of the 1950’s, while Stone’s is about another lost generation, that lost to the insanity of the newly-mechanized warfare of World War I. It will be a fascinating concert, and I hope you can make it!<\/p>\n

Fri & Sat, Nov 13 & 14, 2015 @ 7:30pm
\nStudio 2@Zoomtopia
\n810 SE Belmont<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here for details and tickets<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s my third season with Third Angle New Music, and it seems that every single concert I play involves me doing something entirely new and different to me than anything I’ve ever done before. And that also involves it being one of the most difficult things I’ve done!\u00a0Playing a memorized hour-long piece in complete darkness, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":13936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,3484,183,269],"tags":[3723,3716,3714,3632,3636,3637,3715,3471],"class_list":["post-13935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appreciations","category-concert-preview","category-contemporary","category-new-music","tag-hearing-voices-4-0","tag-jay-derderian","tag-lee-hyla","tag-lj-white","tag-matthew-dickman","tag-michael-dickman","tag-sandra-stone","tag-third-angle-new-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/hearing-voices-4.0-e1447377712890.png?fit=700%2C322&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-3CL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13760,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/06\/16\/wilder-shores-2014-2015-season-blog-third-angle-ensemble\/","url_meta":{"origin":13935,"position":0},"title":"Wilder Shores |2014-2015 Season | Blog | Third Angle Ensemble","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend Third Angle New Music heads east to make our NYC debut at the prestigious Bang on a Can Marathon, and we\u2019re thrilled to be presenting the world premiere of LJ White\u2019s\u00a0Wilder Shores. \u2013 Ron Blessinger, 3A Artistic Director and violinist Source: Wilder Shores |2014-2015 Season | Blog |\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "concert preview"","block_context":{"text":"concert preview","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/concert-preview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13700,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/04\/30\/third-angle-hearing-voices\/","url_meta":{"origin":13935,"position":1},"title":"Third Angle: Hearing Voices","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night I got to participate in a truly remarkable gathering of arts patrons in Portland. It was a Salon soiree at the loft home of Thomas Lauderdale, and the guest of honor was the renowned music writer\/critic for The New Yorker\u00a0Alex Ross. After a period of meet and greet,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "concert preview"","block_context":{"text":"concert preview","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/concert-preview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13703,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/01\/hearing-voices-concert-tonight-qa-with-alex-ross\/","url_meta":{"origin":13935,"position":2},"title":"Hearing Voices concert tonight! Q&A with Alex Ross","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Today's online edition of the Portland Mercury features a Q&A with MacArthur Fellow, Pulitzer finalist author, and\u00a0The New Yorker\u00a0music critic Alex Ross - well worth a read, and please consider coming to our concert tonight - it's Ross' only appearance with a new music ensemble in North America this season!","rel":"","context":"In "arts journalism\/criticism"","block_context":{"text":"arts journalism\/criticism","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/arts-journalismcriticism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"6a00d83451cb2869e200e54fdf5e188833-640wi","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/6a00d83451cb2869e200e54fdf5e188833-640wi.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13769,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/06\/20\/no-fancy-title\/","url_meta":{"origin":13935,"position":3},"title":"no fancy title","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"It's about 2:20 in the afternoon here in New York, and I've sat here in the lobby with my laptop struggling to think of a title for this post. 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Seeing them as they shuffled into the hotel lobby after an all night flight, I now realized how thrashed I'd been yesterday morning. My morning as a last bit of quick sight seeing before rehearsals began. I started with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "new music"","block_context":{"text":"new music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/new-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Matisse's \"The Dance\" at MoMA. 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That means that the fall arts season must be right around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "concert preview"","block_context":{"text":"concert preview","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/concert-preview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_7800","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/IMG_7800-e1472325034680.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}