Nissimmusic - Second Spring

[Nissim Schaul]

There are some additions to the schedule from last time, and unfortunately, some postponements, too.

[Désolé, les français, mais je ne peux pas traduire cette fois.  Mais je vous invite à la création par Ensemble Sillages de Hell Study mardi prochain, le 21 mai, à 19h30 au Conservatoire de La Courneuve (41 avenue Gabriel Péri in La Courneuve, RER La Courneuve, http://www.conservatoireregional93.fr/wikid11/wikka.php?wakka=PlanAcces)  Venez nombreux !  Créations aussi de Misael Gauchat, Ariadna Alsina, Clovis Labarrière, Facundo Llompart, et Meike Daams, ainsi que des oeuvres de mon ancien maître, Allain Gaussin.]

[Aussi à noter : on a reporté les concerts de 6-8 juin à novembre ...]

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First, the good news: Tami Morse will reprise Retouchages for solo harpsichord not once, not twice, but *three* times this weekend at Studio Z, the home of the venerable new music ensemble Zeitgeist, in a collaborative program that includes both Flying Forms playing new music for old instruments (my piece, plus music by Kristen Broberg, Abbie Betinis, and Asako Hirabayashi), and Zeitgeist playing new music for new instruments.  There might even be one piece for everyone all at once!

That'll be at 7:30pm on Friday and Saturday, and at 2pm on Sunday.  Studio Z is 275 East Fourth Street, Suite 200.  Tickets cost $10, and can be found here - http://www.zeitgeistnewmusic.org/early-inspirations.php - along with lots more info.

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***Parisians***: A couple of days later, Ensemble Sillages will premiere my Hell Study: Nature morte with hurdy-gurdy in La Courneuve at 7:30pm (41 avenue Gabriel Péri in La Courneuve, RER La Courneuve, more at http://www.conservatoireregional93.fr/wikid11/wikka.php?wakka=PlanAcces).  We just had our first rehearsal yesterday - this is gonna be a blast.

Let me tell you a little bit about Hell Study.  It's a weird piece.  There's a lot going on.  It's sort of political in a really abstract way, but it's also a response to the Hell panel of Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, which happens to include a beautiful, upside-down hurdy-gurdy in the middle.  There's no hurdy-gurdy in the piece, though, it's just flute, bass clarinet, piano (including those sock mutes I love so much!), percussion, violin, and 'cello.

I went to a concert last night in which the literary references were to Edoardo Sanguineti, the Gnostic Gospels, Bruce Andrews, and Suzi Gablik, and the musical ones were to Ravel and Debussy.  Sure, I'll take Bosch against any of those guys, but I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that my musico-poetic inspirations for Hell Study are Joe Walsh and Billy Joe Armstrong (specifically, that shared melody between Life's Been Good and Kill the DJ).

To make matters worse, I've realized that the single best encapsulation I can think of for it is, in the immortal words of Humpty Hump, "No two people will do it the same / You've got it down, when you appear to be in pain."

The first half of the program is works by my former maître, Allain Gaussin.  The second half includes other premieres by my classmates: Misael Gauchat, Ariadna Alsina, Clovis Labarrière, Facundo Llompart, and Meike Daams.

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Speaking of Hell Study, I've been accepted at the Ostrava Days Institute this August, in Ostrava in the Czech Republic.  I'm extremely excited, as the place is a bit of a hang-out for the old American avant-garde, and I'm hoping to fit in well.  The plan is to have Hell Study performed there, sometime at the end of the month.

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Finally, that postponement: The wild multi-media string quartet concert scheduled for early June has been pushed back until November.  For me, this is actually good news: The result ought to be better everything.

I'll keep y'all posted!  In the mean time, I'm going to write my masters thesis, finally.  Harpsichords, open forms and indeterminacy, authorship, and computer-generated sounds, here we come!

-Nissim

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Nissim Schaul
www.nissimmusic.org