Composer Highlight: Drake Andersen / January 19, 2016 by and Play

Happy Tuesday to one and all! Drake Andersen is second up in our composer highlight series leading up to our show this Saturday, Jan. 23rd at Spectrum @ 7 PM! Drake has written a trio piece for cargoPlay (how is that one? does it make you think of cargo shorts?) called Fields/Poles for trio + electronics. The electronics are amazingly sparkly and we cannot wait to share it with you!

Tell us a bit about your piece.

I suppose a good starting point would be the title: Fields/Poles. The piece is a sort of improvisation, but with certain musical instructions that are notated. The way the notations are realized, however, is flexible, so there's a tension between symbols on the page, like magnetic "poles," and the sound produced when the performer plays them. In other words, the sounds on the page are multiplied by the sounds and techniques the performer chooses in the moment--responding to her own intuition--and what she hears from the ensemble and the electronics. I think of all of these possibilities as "fields" of potential sounds. The electronics, likewise, respond to the sounds of the instruments, extending the field further in range, timbre and density.

Did you have any particularly invigorating or difficult times when writing your piece for andPlay + Martha?

I think the most difficult thing with a piece like this is finding a balance between all of the information I have to express to the performer and what will be legible and "actionable" in a performance.

What music has most recently inspired you (to write, dance, sing, be a better person, etc.)?

Cecil Taylor--amazing improviser. Here's a clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EstPgi4eMe4

You are stranded on a desert island. What snack do you bring?

Is coffee a snack?

Lastly, do you have a fun fact that you have learned recently?

That the Bowie song "Wild is the Wind" (from Station to Station) is actually a Nina Simone cover:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiVDzTT4CbE

Check out more things by Drake!

www.drakeandersen.com

www.creativeinteraction.org

Composer Highlight: Ivonne Paredes / January 18, 2016 by and Play

Hello all! We are kicking off this busy week of composer highlights with Ivonne! Maya met Ivonne last year at a workshop in Kansas City, KA, and since then they have been friends and interested in working together. andPlay is looking forward to presenting Ivonne's duo, Copa Negra, at our upcoming show on January 23rd at 7 PM @ Spectrum. We are splitting the bill with the wonderful Martha Cargo, so come out if you can for all of the fun times, tunes, and treasures!

Tell us a bit about your piece.

Copa Negra was named after a poem by Peruvian poet Cesar Vallejo. Each movement of the piece has been named after the first word from each stanza. Vallejo is one of my favorite poets; his works definitely reflect his complex persona.

Did you have any particularly invigorating or difficult times when writing your piece for andPlay?

Definitely! I think it started well (I was making a lot of progress when I started working on it), but I found myself stuck by the second movement. Then the third and fourth were not that difficult to complete. The last movement - specially the ending - was hard. I just could not make up my mind about it!

What music has most recently inspired you (to write, dance, sing, be a better person, etc.)?

I'm not sure about lately, but since last year I started listening to some metal (Mastodon to be specific). I have been listening to them while working out, cleaning, doing work, etc. Metal music makes me do things faster and keeps me going through my day. Try it!

You are stranded on a desert island. What snack do you bring?

Chocolates. Lots of them.

Lastly, do you have a fun fact that you have learned recently?

Yes. Do you know that David Bowie got a constellation named after him? The Starman is now really among the stars.

You can check out more of Ivonne's work on any or all of these social media platforms!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ivonneparedes.composer

Twitter: @ivonnekparedes

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ivonne-paredes

Website: ivonneparedes.com

Mondays with Martha / January 11, 2016 by and Play

I’m (Martha) grateful to andPlay for this opportunity to write a little blog post ahead of our show at Spectrum.

Since I was a kid, I’ve liked the ritual of study: at the kitchen table, with good light and a smooth surface. Preparing scores was one of the first of many valuable lessons I learned from my teacher of several years, Tara O’Connor. A set of good highlighters, a red/blue bi-color pencil, a heavy-leaded mechanical pencil, and a small ruler: the tools of a trade to which I have committed much of my professional career (so far).

Composer of late have expanded their “extra” sounds for the flute to include those produced by the voice. For Nick Nelson, fragments of Walt Whitman’s poetry manifest themselves on a different staff; for Anne Goldberg, French syllables are interwoven into the flute line. Since there’s no reed, no interruption between air and sounding note, flute is closest to the human voice. These “junk” sounds, those you’re trained to not produce when practicing etudes and scales, are part and parcel of the vernacular of new music.

Working with composers to create a soundworld that is entirely their own, when they don’t actually play your instrument (Drake Andersen is a notable exception in this case), is a unique one. It means that the inconsistency, the spontaneity of interpretation, is organic to the work. There is only so much that practicing can add; it’s mainly about internalizing the expression of the lines, much like how actors inhabit a character.

For me, the colors I use to mark up my scores become a canvas all my own: a unique visual representation of my interpretation.

I hope you can join us for a little taste of what some fine composers and interpreters can cook up: 1/23 at Spectrum and 2/17 at Cloud City.

Collab with Concert Black! / January 7, 2016 by and Play

As much as Maya and I (Hannah) like rehearsing and playing together, this year we decided to branch out into more collaborations with other groups and musicians. After sharing a bill on the Contagious Sounds series last year, we thought that it would be great to make some music with the incredible Concert Black (Lisa Dowling, Domenica Fossati, Owen Weaver). Their super groovy bass, flute, percussion, and vocal jams are probably as hip as andPlay can ever strive to be, so this is a really fun opportunity for us.

Last night we got together to play for a while and the result was better than expected (not that our expectations were low!). Adding our two string instruments to their texture adds another level of lushness to their sound -- it's pretty amazing how well the 5 instruments (8 if you include their vocals) work together! If you are at the New Music Gathering this weekend, check out the andPlay + Concert Black set at 8 PM on Friday the 8th.

As andPlay is a snack-first ensemble, we were curious about how other groups approach travel. Concert Black's favorite road trip snacks: Chocolate covered espresso beans (so you don't have to stop to buy coffee), combos, blue doritos, and coconut water.

Special shout-out to Owen, who religiously reads our blog!  Here he is trying to knock the Michiko Studios' cat off its balance beam. — Special shout-out to Owen, who religiously reads our blog! Here he is trying to knock the Michiko Studios' cat off its balance beam.