Update for the first week of 2012

January 10th, 2012

Things that got done:

  • Got the handout printed
  • Some good slow practicing (half tempo) this week
  • finalized the program order for January 15
  • finalized the program order for February 3
Some that still need to get done:
  • Will we be able to get a photo?
  • write up a description for ESS to send ’round, with bios and such
  • schedule our rehearsals for Autogenous Mining
  • write notes for my introductions to the pieces at First Presbyterian
We had our last rehearsal Monday morning.

Handout created by Anthony Ponchelle

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Update for the last week of 2011

January 1st, 2012

Well, we are coming down to the wire now: as I write this, there are just two short weeks–and not very many rehearsals–until our performance at First Presbyterian Church in Arlington Heights. Our program is now final, although I’m going to allow myself a day or two to make final tweaks to the order. Here it is, just at the moment:

  • de Victoria (Cameron) Three Spanish Motets
    • O quam gloriosum est est regnum
    • O magnum mysterium
  • Jan Alm Quartet #1
  • Hadyn (Hatwich) Adagio
  • Purcell (Stoll) Air and Dance

INTERMISSION

  • de Victoria (Cameron) O vos omnes
  • Russell Ultra-Rondo [U.S. Premiere]
  • Simón García A Night in Compostela [U.S. Premiere]
Other stuff I got done since my last update:
  • Exchanged some e-mails with the organizers of the Chicago Bass Festival, getting some details worked out.
  • Got my designer to create a printed piece I can hand out
  • (spent some of the holiday season with family in California)
In the coming week, in addition to just practicing as much as I can, I will:
  • Get the print piece printed
  • Get a photo taken…something! that I can use for the ESS announcement
  • Finalize the program order and get it to Ken at First Presbyterian
  • Schedule rehearsals for Autogenous Mining
  • attempt to write some program notes?!
  • start to work on organizing a music reading session in March or April
I hope to see you on the 15th!

Tags:
Posted in Getting It Done | No Comments »

Post-Rehearsal Thoughts, 22 December 2011

December 26th, 2011

This morning we had what I believe was a very productive rehearsal. It’s gratifying to hear things coming together. We did good work on the da Victoria Motets, Armand Russell’s Ultra-Rondo, Simón García’s A Night in Compostela, and Klaus Stoll’s arrangement of a Purcell Air and Dance.

One of the things which struck me, both during the rehearsal and after, was a sense of nervousness I have about giving musical direction. I don’t think this is entirely a bad thing. I mean, it is and it isn’t:

It’s a bad thing

It’s a bad thing to be the leader of a group (any group or team, pursuing any goal or work) and not know what the direction is, that the end goal is, what is the best way to get there.

It’s a bad thing to be weak, wimpy, a pushover and accept every suggestion you hear uncritically.

It isn’t a bad thing

I’ve said (and I added it to my bio blurb on this site) that I want this group to be collegial. Colleagues give and take suggestions and criticisms from each other with respect.

It’s a lot of work to lead a group, especially in a “start up” or “early career” state. There is a website to be maintained, performance details to be organized, contracts and equipment lists to approve, rehearsals to be scheduled, music to be bought and more. If mine was the only voice giving musical direction, well, there wouldn’t be much musical direction. (For those who don’t know me, I also work a full-time job. The bass ensemble, my passion and my joy, is my second career for now.)

Chamber ensembles have to work together. They’re not dictatorships, at least I don’t believe so.

There’s value to be had by combining the wisdom of all the participants in an endeavor.

Consensus, Collaboration, Collegial?

I agree that there are endeavors in the world that should not be run by consensus. But I’m not sure that intimate musical groups are among them. There’s no way a symphony orchestra could run by consensus, but what about a string quarter like the Tokyo? And how does a small group dedicated to a unique repertoire like Kronos manage? How does the collegial aspect of such a group fare when a member has to be replaced? Note to self: see if you can answer these questions before someone does so in the comments!

Posted in Getting It Done, The Leadership Struggle | No Comments »

Weekly Update — for 17 December 2011

December 20th, 2011

Let’s just admit that holiday-related events conspired to keep me from writing in a timely fashion this week.

Upcoming: rehearsals on Thursday and Friday mornings. Can’t wait!

Tags:
Posted in Getting It Done | No Comments »

Weekly Update — 13 December 2011

December 13th, 2011

A few good things done this week … a few left undone.

Done:

  • Sent a reminder to the mailing list. Respecting my subscribers desire for lightweight inboxes, I’ll only have one more opportunity to send to the list before our January 15 performance.
  • Set up a Google AdWords account and campaign. Have you ever done this? Advice? It’s pretty fun to imagine that my ad is appearing on Google SERPs. Hey, if you see it, don’t click! It’ll cost me money and you already know about us.
  • Got our rehearsal schedule firmed up, and arranged my holiday travel around it. It worked out *phew*.
  • Had a good exchange of ideas with bassist and music thinker Steve Lawson on a subject similar to my “Opening the Kimono” post. Didn’t go far enough, and I hope it wasn’t because I was being pushy, but I got a lot from Steve’s response to my initial question.

Yet to do:

  • Work out details (schedule and amplification) with the organizers of the Chicago Bass Festival.
  • Work out further rehearsal time for Autogenous Mining, some time in January.
  • Create a printed piece to hand out (I can do this now that the Experimental Sound Studio performance is confirmed).
  • Follow up with the marketing guy at ESS.

And more than anything else right now, I need to practice, practice, practice! The notes are largely there now, but playing everything consistently and expressively comes only with a lot of repetition so that it’s all fluid.

Tags:
Posted in Getting It Done | No Comments »

Eighth Blackbird and Music in the Making

December 8th, 2011

Wow, just attended Eighth Blackbird’s performance “Music in the Making.” This was a joint effort with the American Composer’s Forum in which a three composers were selected (from an initial respondent group of 504) to write a piece for Eighth Blackbird, then workshop it with them. At tonight’s concert, all three pieces were performed. After that, the group scurried offstage to make a selection, returning about 10 minutes later to announce an additional cash prize and promise of a concert performance to Andy Akiho.

Along the way in tonight’s event, each of the composers spoke some about their work and approach, and a Q&A session with Eighth Blackbird and the composers invited questions from the audience.

It was a really terrific glimpse into the process of creating new music. The composers talked some about the pressure of writing under deadline (it helps–otherwise pieces never get finished), about writing for specific performers (it’s better–you have a stronger sense of what’s possible) and the ensemble talked about the idea of “owning” a performance and of the drama and interest of live performance.

My own review – I very much liked Akiho’s piece, titled thE stReAm of conScious machinEry. In fact I realize now that I’m very much looking forward to hearing it again, since I just realized that some of the structural elements Akiho discussed went right past me during the performance. I am very interested to see if I can hear the erasure of the melody that takes place as the piece progresses.

Kurt Rohde‘s this bag is not a toy: a very short concerto for mixed ensemble without orchestra was my second favorite piece of the evening. He described the ending of the piece (before the performance) as having the quality of the sound you play in your mind after leaving a concert, and I agree that he pulled this off effectively.

I hate to say “least favorite” in describing Eric Lindsay‘s Town’s Gonna Talk because the word least has a connotation that the piece doesn’t deserve. It was a good piece; there’s no question it was written by someone who was a finalist in the competition. Separate from the music, I found Lindsay to be the least appealing of the composers while he was speaking. He had a smugness to his character that I found off-putting. Maybe it has something to do with being in the process of finishing one’s dissertation.

In contrast, Rohde was very entertainingly self-effacing. I thought he really hit on something when he said that being the composer was the most terrifying position to be in. As he put it, there’s nothing he can do once the notes are on the page, and if it doesn’t work everyone will blame him.

For the evening, nods go to Make Music (publishers of Finale) as well, for sponsoring.

Eighth Blackbird was given a champions of new music award by the American Composers Forum, and their picture on a box of Wheaties (courtesy of a General Mills executive who is on the ACF board). Oh, and they’ve also got three Grammy nominations. I should be so lucky to have the Chicago Bass Ensemble in such an admirable position . . . but it’s a great goal to have!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Weekly Update — 4 December 2011

December 4th, 2011

A good week of progress on our performances, mostly by adding a performance!

Done:

  • solidified details for a February 3 set at Experimental Sound Studio
  • gathered detailed schedule information from Dan, Anton and Julian, hoping to find common time(s) for additional rehearsal
  • started an adwords campaign! Got a free $100 credit as a teaser, so I thought what the heck, I’ve got several things to promote now. The campaign has received one click!! (Which cost me $0.66)
  • talked with the mar/com director at my daughter’s school about publishing a piece in the school’s public announcements (I know it sounds small-potatoes-like, but personal communities are the best places to connect, and this is a good community)

Still got-to-do:

  • printed piece to hand out
  • e-mail to list
  • contact organizers of the bass festival to work out details there
  • schedule January rehearsal with composer of Autogenous Mining here in Chicago

 

Tags:
Posted in Getting It Done | No Comments »

Experimental Sound Studio, February 3, 2012

December 2nd, 2011

Chicago Bass Ensemble and friends Jeff Greene and Doug Johnson will play a set of music and Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio.

February 3, 2012, 8 pm.
5925 North Ravenswood Ave.
Chicago, IL 60660

Admission $10/$8 ESS members and students.

Experimental Sound Studio (ESS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1986, dedicated to the promotion, production, presentation, and preservation of innovative and diverse approaches to the sonic arts, and to the integration of these art forms into the public. They host a great diversity of artists of all kinds, and we’re honored to be able to premiere Mike Wittgraf’s Autogenous Mining at ESS.

We’ll be joined by friends Jeff Greene and Doug Johnson. Doug is a former member of CBE (ha! once a member, always a member!), and a founder of Gunnelpumpers and Spiritflake Records. Jeff is a bassist, composer and winner of the 2010 composition contest of the International Society of Bassists.

Program:

  • Russell, Ultra-Rondo, Chicago Bass Ensemble
  • Greene, Jeff, The Range of Their Vision, Jeff Greene
  • Guy, Barry, Anaklasis, Jeff Greene and Dan Thatcher
  • Johnson, Clevenjourney N71, Douglas Johnson
  • Wittgraf, Autogenous Mining for double bass quartet and interactive electronics, Chicago Bass Ensemble [premiere]

Performers:

  • Jacque Harper
  • Anton Hatwich
  • Julian Pat Romane
  • Dan Thatcher
  • Jeff Greene
  • Doug Johnson

Ultra-Rondo

Ultra-Rondo for double bass quartet was composed in 2002 and revised in 2011. The first bass part is given more prominence than the other parts in a, in addition to being more active, it employs a higher range. Occasionally the other three parts are given prominence, however, and from time to time the participate in various duets and trios, and sub-groupings of the ensemble.

The pieces is in three broad sections (fast-slow-fast) in which a rondo pattern is embedded. The first part has three sections (ABA), the middle slow part has three sections (BCB) and the final part has four sections (CACA).

The Range of Their Vision

The Range of Their Vision, a composition for solo acoustic bass and electronics, received the 2010 ISB/David Walter Composition Competition and was premiered at San Francisco State University during the 2011 International Society of Bassists’ convention.

Anaklasis

Written by Barry Guy for himself and Stefano Scodanibbio, 2002. The score is a graphic representation of extended techniques for the double bass. Lines of demarcation separate different domains with distinct musical material. Of the instrumentation, Guy says “There could be a version for cellos, but it wouldn’t work for violins, for instance, because they’re not resonant enough. The point of the title is a reflection of sound re-echoing to resound and reverberate. In this early domain [a section of the graphical score] I indicate that paintbrushes are to be put through the strings and used as an oscillator. Because of the length of the bass strings, it gives a certain effect that would be lost on other instruments.”

The score and in interview with Barry Guy can be found at http://www.intaktrec.ch/images/rev123_guyinterview_bass.pdf

Clevinjourneys

Throughout human history, shamans have used rhythm and sound to help travel to nonordinary reality in altered states of consciousness. Such journeys enable the shaman to seek the guidance of spirit helpers, and are usually performed for the healing of others and to help their communities. While ancient, time-tested methods are still common practice, many modern-day shamans have adapted these concepts for more contemporary settings as well. “Clevinjourneys” are long-form, mostly improvised works for 6-string Clevinger bass and effects pedals. They first came about as a collaboration with the shamans in my life who expressed interest in using music of the spirit as a vehicle for shamanic journeys. As the performer, I, too, am on a journey, taking care to keep the music interesting while maintaining a seamless flow.

Autogenous Mining

Written by Michael Wittgraf for the Chicago Bass Ensemble, 2011. The piece calls for all four basses to have a separate microphone, which are processed (via an Apogee Ensemble and Pacarana sound processor) using KYMA software. The computer operator follows a score and interacts live with the performers, manipulating the sounds with a Wii remote and other hardware. Composer Mike Wittgraf will join the Chicago Bass Ensemble for the premiere of this work.

Tags: ,
Posted in Past Performances | 4 Comments »

Opening the Kimono

November 27th, 2011

Now here’s an interesting (maybe) debate. Or maybe you’ll find the answer completely obvious. I have made a very rough, raw, poorly played cut of about the first three minutes of the ensemble part for Autogenous Mining. The question is this: how public should I make this?

Hide

Part of me says: don’t reveal anything. Part of the fun of the creative process is displaying something “brand new” only when it is ready. I’ll be taking away from the excitement of “the premiere” of the piece in February. AND you don’t do yourself any favors by showing yourself to the public when you’re not at your finest.

Show Off

But there is definitely another part of me that is excited by the prospect of sharing what I’ve begun, no matter how incomplete*. This is in the spirit of the creative hive that I wrote about a few weeks ago. What will the hive think of this? Will the feedback say “good, go on” or “bad, maybe you should reconsider” or perhaps offer more subtly creative input than simply good|bad? And there’s a somewhat pragmatic benefit to publishing “as you go” in that it could get people more interested in attending the premiere.

There are potentially other (small) worries… this is of course a piece written by someone else. And even though that someone else is a close friend, he might feel differently about revealing something which is very much incomplete.

But there’s a lot of good to doing the work of previewing the piece in this way. Most notably, I have firmly decided that I will NOT assign myself voice 4. My bass has an unfriendly wolf on the first octave harmonic on the A string. If I were to play the opening note of the piece, it would set an immediately unsophisticated tone for the piece. And I really am interested in the initial comments that might come from the two or three of you who have read this far and bother to comment.

Decision

So in case you didn’t guess already, I’m not debating here, I’m rationalizing. I really really want to put the raw recording out into the world and see what people think. So have a listen. Let me know what you think. I hope it intrigues you and that you enjoy it. But I also hope that if you feel differently about my decision, or if you don’t like what you hear, that you’ll say so.

I really do look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Raw tracks of Autogenous Mining on Soundcloud

And of course, if the feedback says so, or the composer requests it, this will come down (and an explanation will be given).

As always, thanks for any comments you care to make! And please +1 or share this post with anyone in your network who might be interested!

Postscript: At the moment, and for the foreseeable future, there is no way that I would post such raw stuff if it included unwilling colleagues. Only my own noodlings would be exposed this way.

Footnote

* Just how incomplete is this? Some answers:

  • The piece is about 7 minutes long; what I’ve recorded so far is just about 3 minutes.
  • The piece is scored for 4 basses and interactive electronics; this is basses only. There will be some great atmospheric (or something!) electronic sounds running along with this.
  • The piece should be executed by four players, interacting with each other and the “computer operator” (what a sad description–Mike, who is the composer and will be “operating” the computer, is a very talented musician. But perhaps he’s describing the role ironically!); the raw 4-track version is a single player (me) playing to a click track.

Tags: ,
Posted in Marketing | 2 Comments »

Weekly Update — 27 November 2011

November 27th, 2011

This week has of course been interrupted by the Thanksgiving holiday. This has a mixed effect on my ability to prepare for Chicago Bass Ensemble activities. There’s more time that I can dedicate to CBE by virtue of two days of holiday from Cars.com. But there is added distraction: family visiting, lots of cooking and eating (thankfully, I managed to rein in my inner glutton and did NOT overdo at the Thanksgiving meal) and just the general feeling of exhaling and taking it easy for a bit.

So, I did NOT

  • get much done in the way of organizing any supplemental rehearsals
  • do anything more than have a five-minute conversation with my designer about printed handouts.

But I DID

  • receive the latest score from Mike Wittgraf for the piece we’ll be premiering in February
  • get close to solid commitments for a February 3 performance at Experimental Sound Studio
  • begin a rough 4-track cut of Autogenous Mining to use as a rehearsal aid
  • spend some time listening to rehearsal recordings
  • draft an outline of a series of podcasts on the subject, loosely, of “starting a band” with my friend Wilson Hogan (hahaha, he totally needs to update his Google profile!).

And this week I will:

  • Solidify the February 3 performance, by talking with Adam at ESS and also inviting Doug Johnson to join us
  • continue to work on some supplemental rehearsals
  • get farther along on printing up handouts
  • send out an e-mail to my mailing list (the goal here is to be regular for a while, to build up some top-of-mind attention)
  • continue to reach into my network of places to promote this, specifically the parents at my daughter’s school, who tend to be pretty appreciative of this kind of thing.

Finally, I’m about to write and publish some thoughts on the subject of publicly displaying the raw and partial recording of Autogenous Mining. I hope you’ll read and comment!

 

Tags:
Posted in Getting It Done | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »