Gestenstucke & Ruckus

Thanks Kevin Clark for posting and Zach Herchen for sharing this video from the inaugural Ruckus Amongstus show last winter at Exapno. In addition to a ton of other great pieces (check out the youtube channel), I joined forces with some other Peabody Alums—Zach Herchen, and Rhymes with Opera-ites George Lam and Robert Maril—to perform "Canon," a movement from Juan María Solare's Gestenstucke, for a quartet of gesturers. We talk so often about musical gestures that it's easy to forgot that the concept of a sonic gesture is essentially a metaphor.  Very few pieces (save Thierry de Mey's Musique de Tables and the emerging genre of "works for solo conductor") engage directly with the physical gesture as meaningful signifiers outside of their sonic result.  As a percussionist, I deal with the relationship between movement and sound fairly frequently.  Still, Solare's decision to map what is typically a sonic process (canon) directly onto gestures is particularly interesting.

Check out Kevin's videos of the other awesome performances from the show (I played Khan Variations and did some improvising) and get ready for the newly reorganized Ruckus CONVENTION in NY this september!