Composer Highlight: Hunter Long

Here we are half-way through this VERY cold week, and we hope that everyone is keeping bundled with a bounty of knitted goods! We are looking forward to presenting a non-New York dweller (not that we don't love everyone that lives in the neighborhood) to you. Hunter lives in Kansas City and runs this super rad collective called Black House Collective (you should check it out if you haven't already) that Maya did a project with in St. Louis in November. Take a look at what he has to say, and don't forget to mark those calendars for this coming Saturday at 7 PM @ Spectrum where you will get to hear the premiere of Hunter's an animal kind of trick.

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Tell us a bit about your piece. 

I feel like this piece is a bit distracted. It kind of hops around from mood to mood without really staying with any one idea for very long. I really started from the point of creating a sense of dialogue between the instruments. So I suppose the intent would be the type of caffienated, rambling talk between friends that keeps getting interrupted as people you know walk by and said hi. Then the conversation gets sidetracked as you talk about that friend once they've left.

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

This piece has definitely been a learning experience for me. I'm relatively new to writing for strings so there's been a lot of study involved in the process. This is also the first piece I've written without percussion in over a year. So it was fun working on a piece that doesn't have someone literally keeping time.

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

If I'm honest the music I've been listening to most has been Drake and Tame Impala. I can't say that it inspires my music directly. But it's what I play when I'm drinking coffee and getting ready to get some shit done.

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

KIND bars I guess. Could they sustain life?

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

Some penguins are ticklish.

If you want to know more about Hunter take a look at his WEBSITE.

Composer Highlight: Drake Andersen

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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! 

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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

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!

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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

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.