Community Building through Commissioning: Catharsis

Today opens David Crowell week for New Morse Code.  On the docket:

• Workshop his new cello/percussion duo
  Catharsis at Avaloch Farm. 
• Record Catharsis at Guilford Sound.

Empyrean Atlas Members of Empyrean Atlas have performed and/or recorded with the Philip Glass Ensemble, The National, Bear in Heaven, Steve Reich, Steve Coleman, Bing & Ruth, Briars of North America, Olga Bell, Happy Place, Little Women and many others. In July 2015, Wilco named Inner Circle as one of their 17 favorite records of the year.

I met David at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, where where Vicki Ray, Isabelle O’Connell, Brian Archinal and myself premiered his Mapfumo.  Since then, I’ve enjoyed following his work. He’s a fantastic performer and deft composer, touring with the Phillip Glass Ensemble on saxophone and playing guitar with Empyrean Atlas. I love the vitality of Empyrean Atlas’ music, the way in which the loops of West African-inspired riffs conspire to create deep harmonic textures.  Layers of rhythms become a sustained texture which drives the music inexorably forward.  No long tones in sight, but larger lines are inferred through the repetition gradual harmonic change. 

I followed with interest his album-length project with Brian Archinal, and when Ian Rosenbaum asked me to join an all-star consortium to commission a marimba+electronics solo from David, I jumped at the chance. I like the way in which the resulting work—Celestial Sphere—blended the two aspects of David’s music: long layers of slowly changing harmony, and fast-driving hocketing rhythms with asymmetrical verve. David expanded these ideas in his Music for Percussion Quartet, a really killer four-movement work.  In these percussion works, David takes interlocking patterns and slides them out of their grid, using clashing rhythms (quintuplets against sextuplets against 16th notes, for example) to create clouds of harmony. As it turns out, marimbas and vibraphones are well-suited to repeatable loops of fast, short notes.  I hear Sandbox Percussion’s recording of Music for Percussion Quartet is coming soon.  I can’t wait

After being in touch with David about performances of Celestial Sphere and Point Reyes in Kansas, Hannah and I asked him if he’d be interested in working on a piece for cello and percussion.  Since New Morse Code’s mission is to build community through music-making, we organized a consortium of 19 cellists and percussionists from across the country to commission David.  

We wanted a work that could be performed by the two of us, but could also be a platform for collaboration with our friends and colleagues.  Catharsis is written for 2 live performers and a number of pre-recorded cello, percussion, and vocal tracks.  The work can also be performed by 4 players, with reduced electronic forces. 

The demos David sent us sound amazing, with a great combination of vitality and sensitivity. After receiving a final draft a few weeks ago, Hannah and I have been busy preparing our parts.  I’m dusting off my 7:8 and knocking the rust off of my drum set chops. This week, David is coming up to Avaloch Farm Music Institute to workshop the piece.  After a few days, we’ll head to Guilford Sound for two days of recording.  I can’t wait to see how the whole thing sounds.

Time to practice!

Much of the work New Morse Code does is centered on building community through music.  In many instances, we think of relationships between performers and audiences, between composers and performers, and between communities and the common issues that unite them.  What’s exiting about Catharsis is that we’re working to build community among cellists and percussionists.  It’s been a joy getting to know other musicians through the commissioning process.  And, since the piece is performable by a quartet, I hope to play with everyone involved in the near future. Stay tuned for the results!

Part two... Working on my rhythm and stickings for @david_crowell ‘s new piece before laying it onto tom toms and kick. @newmorsecode records it this month! 〰️ #percussion #cello #rhythm #vicfirth #rudiments #contemporarypercussion #metronome #fun #homework

A post shared by Michael Compitello (@comp.y.tello) on Jul 13, 2018 at 2:36pm PDT

NMUSA Update

Thanks to support from New Music USA, Sarah Frisof, Hannah Collins, Ingrid Stölzel and I spent three days at the Lansing Correctional Facility this May. We worked with inmates on engaging their creativity, composing new music, and refining their own compositions.  Daniel Pesca contributed a brilliant piece remotely.  I continue to be humbled and inspired by this time, and struggle to encapsulate in words how this project changed me.  Luckily, Sarah and Hannah have provided some eloquent prose. 

I am happy that our project is featured on the NM USA website.

Find out more here:

Aphasia

Thanks to Second Inversion for premiering my video of Mark Applebaum's Aphasia.  Video, as always, by the amazing Four/Ten Media. We recorded this way back in February 2017, and I'm delighted with the final video.

Full Coverage

Including a short interview

I loved answering Maggie Molloy's request for 2 short paragraphs with a gigantic brain barf about how training as a percussionist actually does a fairly good job preparing one for learning a piece for solo singer with tape.

If you're STILL interested…

here's a little program note I wrote about the piece:

Mark Applebaum (b. 1967) is a musical inventor and consummate original thinker whose music combines the unrelenting rigor of post-war European Modernism with a strong sense of the ridiculous and whimsical. He zooms obsessively and exactingly close to the mundane, finding theatrical and dramatic elements in his own focus. Aphasia, a language impairment condition, typically results from brain trauma, resulting in the inability to comprehend and produce language.

Applebaum calls his Aphasia (2010) a depiction of “expressive paralysis” inherent in confronting the act of composition anew. At the same time, the piece also enacts aphasia. A single performer gestures with what Applebaum calls “a kind of alien, pre-verbal, and rhythmic sign language.” Their motions are synced precisely with pre-recorded vocal fragments, alternately frenetic and calm, sharp and dulcet—gestural neologisms that appear deeply ingrained but meaningless. All the while, the performer is frozen; “automatic, robotic, performed, steady, practical, habitual and silent.” We watch and listen but cannot comprehend. Finally, we escape. Gestures and words align semiotically, counting in ascending numerals in multiple languages, creating a direction that seemed so unthinkable earlier.

Lastly, a reminder of what kept me motivated through the recording and editing process:

important PSA in advance of a new video coming TOMORROW! #aphasia #betterthantruesdell #theatricalpercussion #noinstruments #motivation #aimhigh #mikedrop @fourtenmedia

A post shared by Michael Compitello (@comp.y.tello) on Jun 7, 2018 at 5:02pm PDT

Avaloch 2018

Getting excited to head back up to Avaloch Farm for another season of inspiring chamber music and innovative collaborations. 

Here's the full list of ensembles and composers joining us this season

In addition to learning from all the fantastic groups through osmosis, Avaloch is a key time for developing my own projects.  This year I'm excited for:

• A week workshopping a brand new piece for cello/percussion, and pre-recorded cello/percussion with David Crowell, and then recording the whole kit and kaboodle at Guilford Sound. This piece was commissioned by a consortium of cellists and percussionists coordinated by New Morse Code, and we're super excited to share the final project.
• Returning to Thomas Kotcheff's 8D$ (composed entirely at Avaloch in 2017!) for a premiere at X2's season finale June 30.
• Workshopping new material for NMC and video with composer/performer crush Florent Ghys
• The return of Mike Truesdell+Mike Compitello (aka Mike Drop). This time: Georges Aperghis' Retrouvailles.  
• Workshopping new snare drum music with Amy Kirsten, as part of our Unsnared Drum project. 
• Digging into Robert Honstein's new piece for prepared marimba.  

Stay up to date by following Avaloch Farm on Instagram and FB

Janky Marimba

Super excited for a new piece from frequent collaborator Robert Honstein.  We’ve assembled a consortium of 34 percussionists from around the world, and Robert should finish a brand new prepared marimba solo by June 1.   

Robert and I have been collaborating since 2011, when New Morse Code's first-ever concert featured Patter:

Since then, NMC has commissioned two pieces from Robert, recorded three of his works (one of which we did in three different instrumentations), and spent many hours together at Avaloch Farm.  Robert played at our album release show, and in April, KU's Percussion Group presented what Robert claimed was the first concert dedicated solely to his music!

Our next collaboration is a long time coming.  In preparation for what would eventually become Down Down Baby, Robert and I met up in Boston, took over Maria Finkelmeier's marimba, and recorded a variety of crazy sounds on the instrument.  We hit every part of it, put stuff on top of it, and generally went to town. Robert ended up going in a different way with Down Down Baby—instead of two people on one marimba, we got a piece for two people on one cello—but he kept the samples.

NB: KU Band stand is required for successful performance 

The idea was to expand the sonic possibilities of the marimba without having to add a bunch of additional instruments.  We decided to “prepare” the instrument by laying various items on the accidental keyboard.  Originally, we thought about removing all the black notes from the keyboard, but found that a little bit too restrictive.  In its current configuration, the Janky Marimba (as we’re calling it) allows for access to all the accidentals and naturals on the keyboard.  Some are buzzy, some are clear, and some are muted and dull.  In addition, we’ve assembled. Quite the arsenal of other sounds, including:

• Metal bowl inside tambourine
• 2 roto-tom frames
• small food service container
• 2 jamblocks (higher one not pictured) 
• 3 bottles
• teeny tiny woodblock
• guiro
• small metal shaker

And my personal favorite, the kick pedal-actived IKEA Filur tub, first seen in Robert’s Down Down Baby:

I’m excited for the next chapter in collaboration between Robert and myself.  Stay tuned for information about the premiere and eventual recording!